You don't have to know me well to know that my name is not Stephanie!

I usually don't write about dating but today I am unable to resist. A little back ground. I recently broke it off with the guy I've been dating for the past month and half because he called me Stephanie. Of course, being called the wrong name was not the sole reason I broke it off but this was in fact the ultimate super heavy straw that broke the camel's back (me, I'm the camel).

I know in the realm of dating both men and women can make big mistakes. I'm not going to pretend for a second that I'm perfect in this department (if I was, I'd totally be writing a column called "Sex in the Windy City" and I'd have people refer to me as Marrie) but I do believe that you should never, ever, ever, ever call the women or man you've been newly, but consistently, dating by a different name.

In loo of my recent break off , I did some research on why names are so important. Here goes...

1. Names are a part of every culture and they are of enormous importance both to the people who receive names (me) and to the societies that have given them (my parents).
2. Names have been known to be determined according to very definite and specific rules (My dad had family members with the first name Sarah and much to my mother's liking it's a biblical name).
3. In the Catholic baptismal ceremony the priest ask of the parents "What name do you give your child?" (He wouldn't ask if it wasn't truly important).
4. It is a law that parents must register a child's birth and record the child's name (happened on March 21, 1980 at approximately 4:07pm).
5. There is a link between name and identity in everyday speech, particularly in the words we use in making introductions and in identifying ourselves. ("I'm Sarah with an H" is what I have to tell people every time I introduce myself).
6. Sense of personal identity and uniqueness that a name gives us is at the heart of why names are important to us as individuals and to our society as a whole. (Best statement yet!)

So women and men, make the effort, show respect and don't call the person you are dating Stephanie. If it happens Stephanie may be their real name, for goodness sakes, do not call them Sarah.

I got my information from http://www.behindthename.com/articles/3.php.

If my life were a musical, it'd begin in Gruyeres, Switzerland.

If you've seen the movie White Christmas you may remember Betty and Judy the pair of charming sisters who take their entertaining song and dance act on the road in hopes for success. No, my sister B and I are not professionally trained dancers, singers or do we have an act but nonetheless our sister travels take us on the road quite frequently and believe you me, there is always a song and there is always a dance even if we are the only ones who know about it!

In August, my sister and her boyfriend moved to Europe. He lives in Frankfurt, Germany and she lives in Geneva, Switzerland. Though, not horribly close, with the convenience of the rail service and cheap flights they have been committed to seeing each other almost every weekend. Just two weeks ago my sister's incredibly kind boyfriend gave up his weekend with her so she could hang out with her little sister! On October 28th I jumped on a plane to Switzerland. Three days later cold and wet from the non-stop Geneva rains, I was on a tiny two car train with my sister to the Swiss mountains. This is where my musical would begin....
I have truly never been so happy with nature as I was when we arrived in Gruyeres, Switzerland a tiny little cheese obsessed community in the mountains. The air was crisp and fresh, the people were cute and friendly and the views...oh the views were lovely!

At the gates of Gruyeres. I was so overwhelmed with mountain beauty at this point. I had NEVER seen anything so beautiful.

Gruyeres...isn't it cute? We sang Beauty and the Beast songs all day while we walked around. "Little town....blah, blah, blah..."
My sister in the Mountains! Say Cheese...literally! Later this day we ate lots of fondue. It rocked my world, not so much my stomach. Jaw dropping!

These pictures definitely do not do this place justice. It was peaceful, especially on our two hour hike up the mountains. We kept breaking out in songs relevant to the adventure, typical for the Foresman sisters. Could have been embarrassing but of course, two hours up the side of a mountain, no one can hear ya! I had more fun than I could imagine.
Unfortunately , there was one thing missing........my sister's boyfriend. It was so nice of him to give up this weekend for sisters! He clearly would have really enjoyed this adventure too and I was happily assured by B that she would visit Gruyeres with him soon enough! I'll leave you with the famous few lyrics sang by Betty and Judy, "Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister. Lord help the sister that comes between me and my man" :)

Summer II: The Three Greats

Wrigley and Tulip, my adorable fur-balls hate human travel. I can see the anxiety in their hairy little faces and green eyes as I pull my faded gray, extra large, wheelie suitcase out of my shoe filled closet into the living room (no I'm not giving my cats human attributes, no matter what my father says, they really do have real feelings and facial expressions). To create packing obstacles for me, Wrigley's and his 20 lbs of pure cat muscle become an almost un-budagable fixture on top of the suitcase, fending off even my most affectionate ear rub. Tulip, much sweeter in nature likes to follow me around the house meowing until I either one, pick her her up or two, follow her somewhere, anywhere away from that horrible suitcase. As you can see, the night before a trip can be quite stressful for both human and feline members of the Foresman Family. Fortunately (unfortunately for my kitties) this scenero played out precisely three times in August. I took three great trips to three great places with three great people!

Early August started off perfectly with a business trip to San Diego with Kat. I have never been to this beautiful city and I unexpectedly fell in love. I'm not much of a beach girl (hence the pale freckled skin and red hair. I'm also horribly afraid of waves, shh!). Not a moment of cloudiness in this city, or rain for that matter. Kat and I had a blast representing SAMA at the ASAE Conference!!!! A few unforgettable highlights....

This was my very first view of San Diego from my hotel room. I thought I was special because I had such a great water view. Turns out, everyone has a water view in San Diego.

First pic is me pointing at the flag on the ferry over to Coronado Beach then I'm on Coronado Beach and then I'm closer to the water. Ok, so I spent a considerable amount of time alone on this trip!

This is the Wang Gang! No need to explain, you wouldn't understand.

After San Diego I went to visit my very good friend Alison who is currently living and working in Springfield, IL. Conveniently, the same weekend I was visiting her city so was Obama. Thanks to Alison's networking within the democratic party we were able to get our hands on a bracelet into the rally. It was a crazy weekend in Springfield. People were lined up for miles to see Obama and Biden. Take a look....

Obama is there, I swear!

You can see his tie!

So yeah, I was at the rally but my 5'2 stature didn't get me any exceptional pictures. Alison, being taller than I got some great shots of Obama BUT I thought it'd be more fun to see him from my perspective. :)

We also took some time to visit the Lincoln's at the white house. I think we both look like we could be a part of the family.

Thanks Alison for a wonderful weekend. We learned about and first handily took part in history!!
Last but not least, I visited Maria in Boston. The most fun I had that weekend was the four mile running tour she gave me of the city. I of course didn't have my camera while running so you guys will have to settle for these exciting moments I captured while standing still....

Public Gardens, reminded me of the garden's B and I saw in Dublin. Aww!

This is the Boston crew. My good friend Maria is in black on the right. We at lots of seafood while I was in town. I was in heaven.

Riding a donkey on the Freedom Trail.

This was my breakfast at Mike's Pastry in the Italian part of Boston. Holy cannoli!

Summer is now over and the memories were priceless to all...but my cats!

Summer I: Randal Kleiser influences my life!

The song "Summer Nights" from Grease really speaks to me! Summer always despairingly ends with an instant change in the temperature, (Danny and Sandy leaving the beach, parting ways) my professional focus returns to annual conference preparations (going back to school) BUT FIRST before it's too late (the morning bell), it is totally necessary to blog about how much fun I've had in the last three months (the song "Summer Nights"). Pretend that I'm singing this post....I've always wanted my life to be a musical!

Part One of my summer begins with the Foresman Sister's European Adventure 2008, BudaDub! This year, B and I didn't have a fellow sister with us, the result, lots of scenic pictures.

Taken from the Funicular. Definition from Wikipedia: The Budapest Castle Hill Funicular or Budavári Sikló is a funicular railway in the city of Budapest, in Hungary. It links the Adam Clark Square and the Chain Bridge at river level to the Buda Castle above.

Personally, I think it sounds like a great name for a vibrator. Was that inappropriate?

No, we didn't ride this around Budapest for four days but we did spend an hour peddling around Margaret's Island. B only let me drive for a few minutes as it took me that short of time to become known as a reckless bicycle built-for-two driver.

BUDA-CAT

My absolute favorite picture of B and I at the Guinness Storeroom. In Ireland, people spoke English and we were able to explain to them how our camera worked with little or no confusion.

Dublin is wonderful! I fell in love with the city the moment I got off the plane. Maybe it was the rainbow I saw on the first day.

Awww....isn't that grand (typed in an Irish accent).

Part one must end here but not without Danny and Sandy's last words before the first bell of the day.....

"Summer dreams ripped at the seams,bu-ut oh, those su-ummer nights".