Shoegasm!

These Lucchese and Justin boots are really cute...I love brown and teals/torquoises together...this would go with a lof of different outfits and are perfect from fall to spring...the tan pair will go with almost anything...I really need to buy myself some cowboy boots soon!

Eggshell Cafe

Eggshell Cafe is another cute breakfast/brunch place in the Deerfield, IL area. This is one of the 3 places that my family goes when we want to have our big family breakfasty meals.

They are only open for breakfast and lunch and their food is very good and very fresh. We ate there on Passover which led to me doing my best not to eat bread products there. I ordered an omelet which was delicious and just gave my bread to my sister who decided not to keep Passover that year. I enjoyed the restaurant; however the waitstaff did not seem so keen on having such a large and loud party there. I understand that we aren't always the party you want at your restaurant, but patience and kindness is key to building a pleasant experience for your customers.

I would definitely go back to Eggshell Cafe. The food was good, and who knows, maybe the waitress was having a bad day.

Check out Eggshell's website here.

Music Monday

Grab a free download of the Low Anthem's new record, Snake Album here

You can buy The Downtown Fiction's Pineapple EP here

You can download Don Trip's new single, Lawyer in the dirty or clean version

On Noisetrade, grab free music from The Undeserving, Rachel Platten,

Grab a free download of Jack and White's new song, Voices here

Grab two free downloads from I Love Monsters here

Here are the top 10 tracks for free download on Tweet for a Track

1. Kiss of a Bullet-Diane Vickers
2. My Friend Jane-NeverShoutNever
3. Uralltalk-NeverShoutNever
4. Damn Straight-Eatmewhileimhot
5. Smellyalata-NeverShoutNever
6. Dare4Distance-NeverShoutNever
7. All I Want for Christmas is You-States
8. Winter Girls-Romance on a Rocketship
9. This Christmas [I'll be thinking of you]-Nick Howard
10. Airplanes and Candycanes-Artist VS Poet

I let my haters be my motivators

It's actually crazy how this quote (from that new movie, The Sitter...which I still need to see) just completely relates to my life in the past week...There's been a lot of drama at work which I'm not going to get into on here, but it left itself with people being super competitive in rude ways. I've kind of become the hated one there because of the situation...I guess that's what I get for doing the right thing...but whatever. Now, my coworkers who are on the same level as I am are looking for any way to see me failing or doing badly. It pisses me off beyond belief and honestly, it's really frustrating to go to work and have people pretend like you don't exist. Unfortunately, this is my reality right now, so I really have to use this to motivate me to make my calls, get my work done, and keep doing well. It's a really frustrating situation, but this is really the only way that I can make it into a positive one.

Shoegasm!

You really can't go wrong with a fun pair of sneakers..my closet is full of them, and I would love to add this pair of Converse to my collection

Sorry I'm not sorry, but Christmas is not the only winter holiday that people celebrate

I’ve been on the hunt for Hanukkah candles…I live in a fairly Jewish part of Dallas, so I assumed (clearly making an ass out of u and me) that the Albertsons near my apartment would have some Hanukkah candles since they had a decent kosher section for Passover…Well, the kosher section has been reduced to one column shelf at the end of an aisle and is pretty much full of Passover food-Passover is in April by the way…oh and they have latke mix (that’s hanukkah) and matzo ball mix…slightly acceptable…so anyway, no Hanukkah candles…I go down the seasonal aisle thinking they may be over there..tis the season for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa you know…there is NOTHING in this aisle except Christmas bags, bears, wrapping, hats, candy…nothing at all…period…

and I am slightly offended…I can take (barely) the Christmas music, but having nothing for any other holiday in a store where all different kinds of people shop…that’s plain offensive and ignorant

Music Monday

At Spin, check out the top 20 songs of 2011,

Check out Caitlin Canty's upcoming shows here

You can buy Nathan Angelo's acoustic review on iTunes or on his website

Buy tickets for Hot Chelle Rae's Beautiful Freaks tour here

Grab a free download of Outasight's new song, Let's Go here

On Noisetrade, grab free downloads from Ten out of Tenn, Jessie Baylin,

The top 10 free downloads from Tweet for a Track

1. Damn Straight-Eatmewhileimhot
2. Airplanes and Candy Canes-Artist vs Poet
3. Smelyalata-Nevershoutnever
4. All I Want for Christmas is You-States
5. Dare4Distance-Nevershoutnever
6. DVB [demo]-Jarinus
7. Walk Away-The Scene Aesthetic
8. The Glory of Gd-Matt Papa
9. Temporal-Faiver
10. Revolves Around Love-Plug In Stereo

Check out Tyrone Wells' upcoming tour dates here

You can buy Tis the Season to be Fearless on iTunes

Download Lori McKenna's new song, Wishlist here

You can buy Wes Kirkpatrick's Naps and Nightmares here

You can buy the Hawk in Paris' EP His+Hers EP on iTunes

Music Monday

Grab a free download of Elenowen's Christmas EP here and check out their upcoming shows here

Check out the all the dates on Hot Chelle Rae's Beautiful Freaks tour here

Check out Adam Sullivan's Kickstarter campaign here

At Spin! grab a free download of 8 tracks from their December issue here,

On Noisetrade, get free downloads from Attwater, A Merry Mixtape, Zach Williams and the Bellows,

Check out Neon Indian's upcoming tour dates here

You can buy The Maine's new album, Pioneer on iTunes

Check out Brooke Annibale's upcoming shows here

You can buy Tim Halperin's Christmas single on iTunes and get some free downloads here; check out his upcoming shows here

Grab some free downloads from Plumb here

You can download The Heyday's new single here

Check out Apache's Daytrotter session here

Max's Delicatessen and Restaurant

Every time I go to visit my family in Highland Park, without fail, we have at least one meal at Max's. No joke, when I was there over Thanksgiving, I ate there two days in a row...it was almost 3 in a row until we decided to break out of our Max's box.

Truth be told, I am not a huge fan of breakfast or brunch food, but being that I am Jewish, and apparently Jews are obsessed with brunch, I have to deal with it more than I'd like. I like Max's ( and places like Max's) because their variety of breakfast and brunch foods fit into what I will eat for those meals. I love Mediterranean omelettes (or basically a tomato, spinach, olive, mushroom, feta omelette). I don't eat the traditional pancakes, waffles, etc-I just don't have a taste for those at all, so finding places that actually make what I want is awesome. They also have ways to make your meal a little healthier; you can order your omelettes with just egg whites, you can have them make it with PAM spray instead of oil, and you can also order fruit and whole wheat toast as sides to your meal.

I do have to be honest though, in true New York style, Max's is a little overpriced. The food isn't the best food that I've ever had, but it is still great food. Max's is a great place to go for breakfast/brunch/lunch with your family and not worry about being too loud. It does get busy between 10:30 AM and 1PM, so be prepared to wait a little bit. Try to get your whole party there so that you can be seated as soon as possible-because they get so busy, they really don't seat incomplete parties. Check them out here and definitely go visit if you want some good New York style deli in the Chicago area.

Jury Duty Scam-Pass On

Pass this on to your grown children and anyone else you can think of. This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book.
It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced.
The caller claims to be a JURY DUTY coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the Scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo: your identity was just stolen.
The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado, AZ and more. This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system.
The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.
Check it out here:
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm
And here:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

Live for yourself, Love those around you but realize they’ve got their own agendas

~Alex Gaskarth [All Time Low]

I posted this in Becoming the You the other day, but I wanted to put it up here as well. This is something that has taken me a while to realize and I am just now really putting this into gear. I'm a whole lot happier now that I've realized this. I'm really beginning to work and develop my passions instead of just doing things because I'm expected too, or because I know that they're sure fire ways to get approval.

If there is one thing that we all need to remember in life, it's this. We need to live for ourselves and please ourselves. Yes, it feels great to know that we made someone else proud of us, but we deserve to feel pride in ourselves too. Do things that make you happy and find your own path to success. Your sense of success, happiness, and pride is probably different than your parents', best friend's, or sibling's idea of those ideas. There's no shame in that! The only shame is doing things and working towards things that aren't really what you are passionate about and what you want to do. Those who care about you and love you the most will be proud of you no matter what you do as long as you are happy and proud of yourself.

Music Monday

Check out Kelly McRae's upcoming shows here

You can buy Sugar and the Hi-Lows' first sing, See It For Yourself, on iTunes

At Noisetrade, download free music from Tyrone Wells, The American Songwriter Session,

You can buy Joe Pug's Live at Lincoln Hall on his website or iTunes

At Spin! check out and download some of the 50 Mixtapes You Need to Hear,

Check out Steven Kellog and the Sixers' upcoming shows here

Grab a free download of Josh Ritter's Lantern here

The top 10 free downloads on Tweet for a Track

1. No Such Thing As Time-Elenowen
2. Silent Night-Generation Unleashed
3. Lookin' At You-Michael Martinez
4. Superbass (cover)-Artist V. Poet
   
5. Revolves Around Love-Plug In Stereo
6. Paratrooper-The Ready Set
7. It Never Snows in Charlotte-Philmont
8. The Bandit-The Ready Set
9. Jet Lag-Call the Shots ft Kate Chandler
10. Mean-Artist v Poet

Grab some free downloads from Matthew Mayfield here

You can buy Ben Rector's Christmas EP, Jingle and Bells on iTunes

Get a free download of an awesome Remix of Breanne Duren's Catapult here

You can buy The Endless Summer's new single, Satellite on iTunes

Check out Caitlin Canty's upcoming shows here

Grab a free download of The Captain Cuts remix of Outasight's Tonight is the Night here

Get some free downloads from Ocean is Theory here and here

Israel: Mountain High

Though the mountain borders of Israel are filled with ghosts of past and present of bloodshed and war, they are also just another piece of the beauty and mystique that the state is made of. We went up north to visit the Golan Heights, which had been a Syrian Outpost (complete with active landmines just steps away from our paths). From the top of this outpost, we had a gorgeous view of the Syrian countryside, as well as a view over Israel.

Even though, I know that this land is constantly being fought over, it is still hard for me to imagine how something so beautiful can hold such agressions. When I think of war torn areas, I don't think of beauty, I think of destruction. Israel, and especially the Golan Heights completely contradict my naivety.

We also took a walk through an ancient synagogue. Obviously it was just the ruins, but I am still amazed at the intricacies of the stonework that was used so long ago. I think I said this before, but I really do feel like we, present day, are so naive to the abilities that people had so long ago. True, they did not have anything close to the technology that we have today, but that just makes everything that they did accomplish in terms or architecture and medicine even more impressive. Just looking at these ruins and realizing that they are just a glimpse into what these structures really looked like is kind of mindblowing.

Shoegasm!

I love the detail on the back of these shoes; it jazzes up a black pump without being too risque