Stray Cats and Blue Rabbits

It's a new year - I've made some goals for myself

2011-01-12T10:10:00.006-06:00

I'm not the type to typically make unattainable goals every time we turn the calendar from December to January, but this year I've decided to make a list of goals. I'm doing this in hopes of improving on my overall outlook on life with the ultimate goal of living a more fulfilling life. Sounds like a bunch of hullabaloo, I know, so bear with me.

As I began brainstorming for this, I ended up with a huge list of short, small ideas. I'm including everything I've come up with, hopefully organizing them in a way helpful to fulfillment. I'll likely split this entry up into seperate posts - as I have personal, professional, and health-related goals I've come up with.

Stay tuned.

I didn't actually get a B

2010-07-12T20:38:00.001-05:00

Long story short, my prof made a couple of mistakes. I earned an A in the class, proved it to her (as well as her boss, as she was being non-cooperative in a bullying type of way). She changed my grade and I am back to having a 4.0. *breathes sigh of relief*

I got a B.

2010-06-27T21:19:00.002-05:00

I just checked my final grades for my spring quarter and saw that I received a B in one of my classes. I feel like I've been punched in the stomach. I understand that a B is still a great grade to receive, but it's my first one in grad school. My first one in 13 classes. I have a total of 15 classes to take and I received a B in class number 13. I'm hoping with time I'll calm down and realize getting a B isn't all that bad, but to ruin a 4.0, especially this late in the game, is a bit sad to me. I'll take my 3.93 into my final 2 classes and hope for the best.

My job has been interesting

2010-04-19T20:27:00.003-05:00

In an effort to keep this blog entry short (yeah, right), I'll try and give a cliff notes version of my recent experiences at work.

End of February:
Lead teacher in the infant room I worked in left on maternity leave. No real discussion on who would take over took place, but it was assumed that I would share the responsibility with the other gal who has been there since we opened.

March 10th-ish:
It was announced that the other gal would become lead teacher and was explained to me a couple of ways:
"You'd be our choice if it weren't for your student teaching in the fall" was the main one. What a bunch of crock. I was ready to quit for a couple of weeks, even working on my resume and looking at jobs on craigslist.

end of March-ish:
I was moved out of the room and became an assistant teacher in the Twos room (where I'd been working in the afternoons from 1-4). I couldnt have been more ecstatic.

Since then, I have totally enjoyed what I've been doing. I simply love my job. It's odd, annoying, unheard of, etc for me to say that, but I really do. What makes it better is my co-teachers in the room. Everyone in the room is really great with the kids and really takes a project approach when it comes to planning lessons and activities. What I mean by that, is that we look at what the kids are interested in and plan around that. This is what's so great about the younger age, as I don't know if it'll be possible with the older kids, where standardized tests take over our lives. But I digress.

In any case, there have been a couple of occasions, because the other teachers are so strong in this room, where I was worried I wouldn't be up to par in the room... but much to my happiness (not surprise, really) - I've not only felt welcome, but have had the other teachers proclaim their confidence in me. We are probably the strongest room in the center (4 infant rooms, 1 toddler room, 1 twos room, and 1 preschool room) when it comes to the teachers' abilities.

It's really great to be a part of this room and a part of a close-knit group of teachers. I'm glad the directors decided to make the decision to move me out of the old room, because I'd likely not last past summer in there if I weren't the lead teacher. Funny enough, I'm totally ok being an assistant in the room I'm in now because I have full respect for the lead teacher and his abilities.

To name change or not to name change....

2010-03-20T20:43:00.002-05:00

Most women likely don't think twice about it. Many do it based on tradition. Many do it out of convenience - I mean, who wants to explain that Erica Smith is in fact Stephen Jackson's wife even though they don't share the same last name? Especially when children are involved?

This is something I never really struggled with as I was getting older. I find name changing to be an antiquated, sex-discriminatory practice that is all too easily accepted (and expected) by many in society. It simply doesn't make sense to me for me. In my opinion, at least with regard to how I feel about it personally, I don't understand why I'm expected to give up the past 32 years of my life, simply because I decided to marry the person I love.

That said, I assume many who do decide to change their name just don't take it as seriously as I do. Most likely they don't look at it as giving up their previous life, but rather committing to a future life. I think this is easily accomplished by saying your vows and getting married. That seems official enough to me, but can understand why it's not an opinion shared by everyone.

Finally, when the time comes, we'll have to figure out what happens with the kids. Is Daugherty that weird of a middle name?

I yelled back at the bus driver

2010-02-17T19:28:00.002-06:00

So, I'm peacefully taking the 49 Western bus back toward home this evening. When the time came, I pressed the little button for my stop. Below is what happened immediately after:

Just before the stop, the driver pulls over and picks up a fellow CTA bus driver. They begin chatting.

Bus rolls past the bus stop.

I press the button again, at the same time saying, "Foster, please"

Bus driver: "Y'all gotta press the button before I get past the stop!"
Me: "I did"
Bus driver: "No you didn't, you just pressed it."
Me: "No, I pressed it before you stopped at the light back there."
Bus driver: "No you didn't"
Me: "Yes, I certainly did, maybe you should pay more attention to your customers than your buddies"

I then got off the bus at the back (where I was yelling from), stomped off the bus, and tried to shut the automatic doors.

I feel like I won.

I am bad at making decisions

2010-01-20T22:31:00.002-06:00

Ok, so during one of my ECE classes this week, I was thinking about a blog entry I'd like to write. I thought about the fact that I apparently retired from this blog for now. I decided to still create this new entry.

So, I'm either incredibly over-confident or my classmates just made the wrong career choice. This semester, one of my classes is a practicum class, which requires us to observe and interact in a primary classroom for 3 hours each week. Now, I can't wait to get started. An environment entirely new, a group of students I've yet to meet, a teacher I am looking forward to learning from.

From the questions in class last week, it appears besides the two classmates who have actually been teachers for at least a year (and me) that everyone is terrified of going into the classroom. This got me thinking, "what in the world compelled you to go to grad school to seek an early childhood education degree?"

Maybe it's just me, but it's my opinion that we should be confident in our abilities with children. Sure, there will be some butterflies, and it can be intimidating to go into a new classroom, but if something as simple as writing and presenting a lesson plan is worrying some folks, I just don't get it. Maybe my decision to change careers to one where I work with children has boosted my confidence? A lot of my classmates are career changers who either work in the corporate world or nanny.

I know there will be struggles, but I also know that I'll be awesome at it. Perhaps it is a bit of overconfidence.

(You're welcome for this post, Mike)

This blog is dead. for now.

2010-01-16T11:12:00.003-06:00

I'm clearly bad at updating... so, I've decided most updates will be posted on the new blog I created for our wedding planning. Here's the link

I'm sorry the shoes were up there for so long.

I bought some new shoes

2009-09-21T23:13:00.002-05:00

OMG where have I been?

2009-09-09T20:24:00.002-05:00

My life has consisted of mostly babies and two year olds the past few months (which I love)

I'm currently getting over a cold I've had for about 4 days (which I don't love)

Megan & Beth were in town recently to visit. We had breakfast at the Heartland Cafe (totally love).

School starts back up for me next Tuesday (sort of love)

Matt is going to Dusseldorf and Amsterdam in a month. I am trying to figure out a way to join him (which may result in me loving my friend Kevin who works for United. "Love" in a "hey, thanks for working out some sort of deal where I can get a standby ticket for under $400!)

The end.

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3Day - Day 3

2009-08-24T10:54:00.002-05:00

Apologies to my 2 loyal readers for the lapse between updates. A broken laptop and no internet will do that...

On to day 3 of the walk ...

Day 3, we were bussed to Lincolnwood, so we'd be walking mostly in the city. This meant that Matt & Claudia's husband Keith would be meeting us along the walk at one of the cheering stations. I cannot tell you how encouraging that was for me.

Sunday morning Claudia, Jen and I all bussed together (Dawn and Angie took the bus directly to lunch to ensure they'd be able to walk at some point during the day). Knowing that Jen and Claudia walked much faster than me, I anticipated spending a lot of the walk on my own. Because we were in the city, I really had little problem with that.

Turns out, I was able to keep up with them. I'm attributing that to being excited to see Matt at the cheering station along the lake and Addison. Interestingly enough though, it was mid to upper 90s, which meant hydration was key. Previous days I had set rules for myself for drinking (everytime I crossed a street, went under/over a bridge, crossed railroad tracks, made a turn, etc), this day, I made sure to enforce them.

8.5 miles were finally over and I could hear the people at the cheering station. My eyes were darting all over the crowd looking for Matt and Keith. I was a lot more excited than I anticipated, knowing they were there really helped my morning walk on sore and tired feet. I eventually spotted them and headed over to them. Matt offered me a beer (ha!), but I eventually took water. We hung out with them for a while, but not too long, as I didn't want to lose my pace.

We had a mile until lunch, and the walk was directly along the lake, so it was great. We made it to lunch, where we met Dawn and Angie and sat down to eat. This is where I realized I had hit a wall. I wasn't hungry, I started to get the chills, followed by the sweats, and eventually had to lay down with an ice filled bandanna on my face. I was exhausted and a bit nauseous. I tried to hydrate some more, assuming that was the problem, but it wasn't helping.

There was a sweep bus taking people to the next pit stop, which was about 2.5 miles away. I decided to get on it, if anything, to cool off. It wasn't leaving for another 20 minutes, so I figured I could change my mind if I wanted. I ended up staying on the bus and taking it to Navy Pier.

I was now on my own and making my way toward Soldier Field. I made it to the last pit stop before Jen and Claudia, so I texted them and let them know I'd be waiting there for them. This also helped me to cool off and not push myself too much.

We only had 2.5 miles to go, and we made our way. It seemed like it was more like 5 miles, probably due to the long walk and the heat combination, but we eventually made it toward Soldier Field. The last 1/4 of the walk was inside of Soldier Field, so that was sort of cool. I was a bit choked up when crossing the finish line, as on Friday during the rain, I figured there would never be a way that I'd be able to walk across the finish line.

Matt and Keith again met us at the finish line for closing ceremonies. This time Jen and I both happily took beers from Matt. I never really understood people drinking beer after races, but it looked and tasted delicious to me.

Closing ceremonies were quick & less emotional than I expected (opening ceremonies ended up being more emotional, but neither were as emotional as I was expecting). We eventually got into the car and headed home.

I was asleep in my own bed within an hour of being home.

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3Day - Day 2

2009-08-13T18:08:00.002-05:00

After the awful day I had on Friday, I was looking forward to a better day on Saturday; and then Jen and I turned on the weather channel. Rain until midday expected. It wasn't raining as we left to head toward camp/breakfast, but as soon as we were under the tent with our breakfast, down came the rain. What a downer. If anything, I needed sunshine, or no rain, to be encouraged and energized to get out and walking on my tired, sore feet. I had brought along two of my larger ziplock bags I used to pack my clothing with, and put them over my shoes. I headed to the medical tent and asked for tape (to put around my ankles) - they kept asking me if I wanted sports medics to do the wrapping, and I had to keep explaining I simply needed two small pieces to go around my ankles.

As usual, Jen and Claudia took off in front of the team (they have a faster pace). I stuck back with Dawn and Angie for most of the morning. As I was walking, my right shoe bag wasn't staying as well as I had hoped. Luckily, I brought some extra twine in my fanny pack in case something like this happened. I was able to secure the bag to continue covering the top of my foot. My feet stayed dry.

The rain let up earlier than anticipated (yay!) and the humidity set in. Can't have it both ways, I suppose... and if the previous day is any indication, I'd much rather it be humid and hot than raining.

Saturday was spent walking through Mount Prospect. I don't know if it was due to it being a Saturday or that residents of Mount Prospect are great people (or a combo of both), but we had a LOT of support during our walk. There were many families, boy/girl scouts, cheerleading teams, etc out on the route handing out water, food, candy, and my favorite - popsicles! There were people set up with tents with music, there were people with misters offering to mist people off as they walked by. I never really knew how important having people to cheer you on was. It doesn't even matter that I didn't know them. The fact that they were there was so encouraging and made me want to keep going. The police and fire department were all wearing pink shirts as they helped direct traffic as we crossed busy streets - it was pretty neat!

Around lunchtime, we stopped at a pitstop for an extended period of time to tend to our blistered feet. Mine were worse than I wanted to admit... but throughout the morning, I refused to take off my bags on my feet, out of fear that they wouldn't go back on and continue to keep my feet dry. I was NOT going to go through what I did the previous day of walking through wet shoes all day. I'd rather be in pain and build blisters, apparently.

We ate lunch and started walking the 3 miles toward the next pitstop. About 2 miles into it, I decided I needed to stop walking. I was in just too much pain. I didn't rewrap my blisters as well as I should have and I couldn't take a step without feeling the pain.

I noticed one of the crew members on the side of the road standing with another walker. I immediately walked toward them and asked if they were waiting for a sweep van (these vans took you to the next pit stop). The van was on it's way, and I had no doubts that I wanted to get on it. My first goal of walking the entire day on Friday had already been realized, I was ok taking a van a couple of miles to tend to my feet. As mentioned in my previous post, this was the best decision I made all walk. Dawn and Angie continued to walk and mentioned that we'd meet up at the pit stop.

I arrived to the medic very quickly. I head over and ask them to take a look at my left foot. I remove my sock and the bandages I had on them and asked what they could do. The medic tending to me was shocked and mentioned that I had the worst blistered foot he'd seen all day. I had one large blister on the inside part of my heel and about 4-5 of them all on top of themselves near the ball of my foot under my big toe. I also had a couple of small blisters forming on the back of my 2 smallest toes.

The medic decided the blister on my heel was too big and needed to be lanced. An audience formed. Someone offered to take a picture of it. He stuck it with something pin-like and fluid came shooting out. It took a couple of gauze pads over the course of about 5 minutes to completely drain the blister. HOW GROSS.

He rewrapped the lanced blister area, decided to leave the 4-5 as is (as he'd have to poke me multiple times and couldn't be sure that he'd get them all, which would end up being more painful). I got up, walked around a bit, and felt immediately better. I was ready to go and walk the remaining 10 miles for the day.

Dawn and Angie returned before I was finished being bandaged up and wanted to take a break. This ended being good for me, because I needed to stretch after being on the medic bed for so long.

Dawn and Angie's families were at the last cheering station that day, so we made our way toward them. By the time we reached them (about 15 miles into the day), Jen and Claudia texted to let us know they were finished (the second day was 19 miles). We ended up hanging out at the cheering station for much longer than I was prepared for (45 minutes!!), so, once again, I got tight.

We took another sweep van to the final pit stop, which was only about 1/2 mile away. Once there, I was ready to walk the final 3.5 miles back to camp. Dawn and Angie were not. I wouldn't have minded walking myself at that point, but I was afraid I'd be the last walker to camp. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but they do this big cheering line and flag raising for the last walker when they walk into camp. I would have been way too embarrassed and didn't want to risk it... so, against my wishes, I boarded the final sweep van back to camp.

(Turns out the last walker arrived well after we had finished dinner, almost 3 hours after I would have gotten back had I walked it on my own).

I rationalized it to myself that I wanted to ensure that I'd be able to walk as much as possible on Sunday, since it'd be the best day of the walk, as we'd be walking along the lake down to Soldier Field. I had also talked to Angie (breast cancer survivor and walk veteran) and she told me there was no shame in taking a sweep van and more people should take advantage of the option.

We (Dawn, Angie and I) ended up hanging out at camp for a while on Saturday night after dinner, while Claudia and Jen went back to the hotel. I sort of wanted to get the feeling for the camaraderie of camp and it was a fun time sticking around...but was happy to get into the cab and head back to the hotel for a hot shower (without lines) and a bed all to myself.

Day 3 was coming, which meant seeing Matt at the first cheering station (8.5 miles in on Sunday) and the finish line looming in the distance...

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk

2009-08-10T22:23:00.001-05:00

This is going to be a long entry, so grab a soda and something to munch on, because I’m not sure I’ll be able to consolidate this very well.

This past weekend, I completed the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk. Thanks to many generous donors, I was able to raise almost $3200, while our team raised just under $18,000.

Anyway, I’m going to try and best describe my experience. I’m hoping my writing this just over 24 hours after returning home will mean the memories are still fresh in my mind. As it turns out, I will likely focus on one day per entry. Today, you get Day 1.

Day 1

So, the night before was my last class of the quarter at National Louis, and I didn’t pack prior to class. So this meant I’d be packing once I returned home from class around 9 or 9:30PM. I packed up and forced myself to bed around 11PM, setting my alarm for 3:45AM. I had to be to Claudia’s house by 4:30. Being new to my apartment and neighborhood, I wasn’t sure how long it’d take, so I reserved a cab for 4:20 (no, I did not smoke any pot while waiting).

The cab arrived early, but I didn’t head down until I was ready. 12 minutes later, I arrived at Claudia’s house, 15 minutes early. I waited outside, thinking about the weekend I was about to face.

We made our way up north to Northbrook Court Mall. Claudia’s husband Keith was kind enough to get up early and drive 4 of the 5 of us up there. Luckily, he had a vacation day on Friday, so he was able to drive back home and go immediately back to bed.

Driving into the mall, I was expecting chaos. I am happy to report that everything seemed quite organized, which gave me a good impression that most of the event would follow suit (it did, for the most part).

We filed in for opening ceremonies, making sure to stand near the circular satellite stage because our friend and teammate Angie was participating in the Inner Circle of Survivors. She, along with 7 other women, carried in flags to opening ceremonies reading different things (love, joy, commitment, etc). I lost it when the speaker started reading reasons why people were walking, as people walked out carrying flags for who they were walking for (mother, aunt, daughter, partner, best friend, husband, etc). Additionally, while I knew men were a part of this walk, I was still amazed and emotional when I’d see them. Walking with girlfriends, wives, friends, whoever, it was a pretty moving experience for me.

We got started walking around 7AM, everyone energized and enthused. Cars, vans, and trucks saw us walking and would give out an encouraging honk. “This won’t be so hard,” I thought. Having the encouragement of people driving by, or walking by, or living nearby seemed pretty nice.

We walked throughout many of the north suburbs on Friday, seeing many beautiful houses along Sheridan Rd (which butts up against Lake Michigan).

Around 11AM, it began to rain. It didn’t stop raining before we were finished. It continued to rain well into dinner and throughout the night. This led to less people being out, some dreary conditions, and some wet shoes. Sure, we had rain ponchos, but walking in wet shoes was simply awful. Knowing at 11AM that we had probably 15 more miles to go for the day was simply unbearable. I gave myself two goals for the walk – the first was to finish, the second was to make it through day one without being swept. (Sweeping involved walkers stopping and having a van pick them up and take them to the next pit stop or to the end of the day’s route. Pit stops were usually 3 miles apart from one another).

We had a surprise cheerer at the first cheering station, our friend Jill. I hadn’t expected to see anyone we knew until after lunch, so this was a nice surprise. We stopped and chatted for a bit, but kept going, as the rain was on the verge of showing up.

We skipped past the lunch stop to walk to the next cheering station about a mile away. There, Dawn’s family waited for us with lunch made by Dawn’s mom. Dawn’s nieces had made us all signs. It was great to see them, but at this point, it was raining and we were miserable. I was crabby and just wanted to continue moving. We ate quickly and made our way to the second half of our walk for the day.

The afternoon for me was just brutal. I wasn’t looking forward to the 12ish miles, I was sick of walking down Glenview Road, and the last thing I wanted to do that night was camp and worry about my wet shoes drying. As Dawn, Angie and I were walking (Jen and Claudia were simply too fast for me to keep up with), we talked about our alternative to camping – a hotel. I initially was against the idea, mostly because camping with the other walkers was a part of the experience, and a part I didn’t want to miss. But as I was walking in my wet shoes, hearing the water sop out of them with every step, I decided if anything, I could use the hotel hair dryer to dry them. At that point, I was in.

We eventually made it back to camp, where it took some convincing to Jen and Claudia to join us in the hotel. Technically, they didn’t have to, but we wanted to know everyone was invited. Eventually, they both relented, when we realized we had no idea when the rain would let up (as it had been raining for 7 hours already).

Angie’s husband made the reservations and drove us all to the closest hotel. This is probably the second best decision I made the whole trip. The first one will come in the next entry…

Long time, no posts

2009-08-05T22:28:00.004-05:00

Work is busier, Matt and I moved to Rogers Park (perhaps pics once we're unpacked and set up), my last in-class (as opposed to online) class before a month-long break is tomorrow night, and this weekend is the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk (60 miles! WTF?)

This is all for now, despite wanting to write more...

...perhaps, when I have time.

Toddlers sure do toddle a lot

2009-07-29T18:36:00.002-05:00

So, today I filled in for a vacationing teacher in the toddlers classroom. I was slated to work from 12:30-5:30, and made sure to down a couple of caffeinated beverages at lunch. I arrive to a room full of toddlers laying on their cots (room full = 7). Most were almost asleep. I was then told they sleep until 2:30PM. Um, wtf am I supposed to do for 2 hours? We were told cell phone usage wasn't really acceptable during off/naptime. All of the rooms have cameras in them, and I hadn't had a chance to figure out where the hiding spot in this room was, so I sat quietly while the kids slept.

One little bugger woke up at 1:30 and was all yelling and stuff. He didn't recognize me, so my attempt at soothing and calming him down was F- level performance. Luckily, the assistant director was covering for the adjacent room, and came over to help out. She had a tough time, but eventually got him to calm down.

By 2:30, they were all up and slowly warming up to me. One, in particular, assumed I was her best friend as soon as she opened her eyes. This was a nice reassurance, as I'm never sure how kids will take to me. Eventually, almost all of them decided I was their friend and someone worthy of their attention (err, someone worthy of getting the attention of) :)

The room was a disaster within minutes. I thought it was tough to keep the infant room neat and cleaned up. That said, you can order little tots around to pick things up and put them into their bins and shelves, unlike with the babies.

We eventually went outside, had bubble time, and the kids played on the awesome playground the center installed when they built the center (the playground itself cost about $60,000). I caught the director keeping an eye on me a couple of times throughout the playtime (the same one who was in the infant room with me last Friday). I don't mean to brag, but I find myself to be comfortable around kids, and therefore, I relate to and play with them really well... and, it all seems to come naturally, which is awesome. I feel like I have really great instincts when it comes to kids, which gives me the confidence I need to succeed in this field.

Anyway, as I was leaving, the assistant director pulled me aside and asked how my day went. She then went on to tell me that she, Sarah (director), and Linda (director) all loved me and loved how I am around the kids, and want to get me more hours. Duh, of course I'll take it. It'd be similar to today, but likely (hopefully), with a longer lunch break (or break between switching classes).

It's a really great confidence boost for me, and working with different ages is exactly the experience (and fun) I need. :)

Oh, we're moving in 3 days. I can't think about it because I'll start crying. The sacrifices I'm making for these kids is amazing.

Happy hump day, all.

Things I love about my apartment

2009-07-25T13:18:00.003-05:00

It's close enough to Wrigley to hear the crowd cheering (this will always be near the top of my list)

The following are easily walkable from my front door:
grocery store
CVS
Justins, Messners, Guthries, Schoolyard, Toons, Langes, Newport
FedEx
Dry cleaners
Tango Sur (my favorite restaurant in the city)
D'Agostinos (the place where I decided thin crust pizza was good)
Flattop Grill (my favorite break-up place)
Two different train stops
multiple Zipcars
Music Box Theatre
Julius Meinl Coffee
The post office
Multiple fast food options

A sense of security (there are like 12 doors to get through before getting to our front door)
The woman who cares for the landscaping, whom I look forward to greeting in the morning
The huge storage closet (which currently houses a huge dresser, full sized bed, and about 35 boxes)
The hallway from the living room to the bedroom (makes the place seem bigger)
Gas stove
Back outdoor area
The window in the bathroom
The linen closet
Our huge bedroom (which admittedly, we do not need the amount of space we have)
The main living area (living/dining combined for a bigger space)
Being within a 2 miles from work, which allows me to walk to/from

It's where Matt and I started our lives together. And then we found Steve. This has been Steve's only indoor home.

It seems so silly, it's not like we own the place or anything, or that we've lived here all that long (3 years) - but these walls hold a lot of memories for me. I'm in a place in my life where I've never been happier, and most of those decisions toward a better life happened in this place, with the help of and encouragement from Matt.

I am looking forward to having more memories in our new home, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy leaving this place.

I had a great day at work today

2009-07-24T21:29:00.002-05:00

The kids in our classroom are great. There is one who is a little high-maintenance and requires a lot of holding, cuddling, etc to be put to sleep, but for the most part, all of our kids are great sleepers, eaters and players. They interact with one another in a healthy and fun way.

Now onto the other classroom I help out on an as needed basis. The kids in there are not adjusting well at all. One mother insists on staying the entire day with her 11 month-old. We have an open door policy at the center, where parents are welcome to come and go as they please, but when transitioning a child to a center, particularly an older child, is a tough thing to do. Having the parents around really impedes on this transition.

Well, today, the mother decided to leave while her daughter was sleeping! Talk about the worst time to leave. What a frightening thing for her daughter to wake up and wonder where her mother was. She was in an unfamiliar place, all alone, and frightened beyond belief. I'm a strong proponent of parents not doing the "sneak out" when leaving their children. Why in the world would you want to trick your child into not paying attention when you leave? What a horrible fear to put into a child. It's important for children to know that if and when their parents leave, they will eventually return. It's important for children to see their parents leave, deal with it, and move on. Sure, this leads to a lot of upset, crying children initially, but then it becomes my job to comfort them and ensure they feel safe and secure with me, to the point of them waving to their parents, or having no reaction when they leave. This may seem cold toward the parents, but it's healthy for the children.

The teacher in the other classroom seems to struggle a bit with organization and confidence. I have no doubt she can do the job, but it seems she gets flustered quite a bit. I happily came into the room prior to leaving today to do what she needed me to do to help get her room in order. I rocked one child to sleep and played with the other two (as she tended to the child whose mother snuck out on her).

The two kids I played with are quite mobile and love climbing. They both have taken well to me and smile when I play with them. I play simple games (peek-a-boo and "Where's Maggie?" etc) that may seem boring, but they love it. They were having a great time climbing on me, the climbing toys in the room, and hiding from me. I didn't want to leave when my shift was up. This is probably the first time I've felt that way (normally, I'm beat, and normally I don't really like going into that classroom in the afternoons).

The director was also in the room, there in case a hand was needed. She sat back and let us run the room. I felt really good about my time spent in the room, and felt she was impressed with how I was able to interact with all of the children. It was a pretty cool feeling.

Moving day looms....(some language may not be SFW)

2009-07-20T17:58:00.002-05:00

I hesitated in writing this entry because I know it'll only cause me to become incredibly sad. Matt and I are moving in 2 weeks. We're moving from the apartment where everything began. We're moving from the first place Steve called home. We're moving from a really great neighborhood that has everything we need within walking distance. We're moving from a place full of so many memories. I can't even begin to think about how it'll feel when we walk out of here for the last time. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle seeing this place empty, completely devoid of our ever living here. Because I'll still work close by here, it'll be pretty surreal to walk or take the bus by this place.

Our new place (*fingers crossed*) is in Roger's Park. We're still waiting to hear back from the landlord whether our application has been approved, but I'm optimistically hoping it will be. For those outside of Chicago, Roger's Park is pretty far north. It's actually the northernmost neighborhood before reaching the suburbs. Downtown Evanston is going to be closer to me than downtown Chicago.

It's going to be a big change, and please forgive me for any upcoming sad posts on my part.

I'm in an incredibly happy and exciting part of my life, so I need to keep my mind and heart focused on that.

I will miss Westview: A Gated Community.

First/Housewarming Party at Lunt's Cunt/Wooly Cunt - Mizzou/IL game in September. (The new apartment name is still under consideration)

Babies are hard work, water is wet and cats meow

2009-07-15T21:19:00.002-05:00

I know saying that working with babies is hard work isn't ground-breaking or anything, but the fact that I'm beat tired at 9:20 on a Wednesday night speaks to something. Babies are hard work. I've never worked so hard at a job than I do at this one.

Unrelated, Matt and I are moving at the end of the month and have yet to secure an apartment. Starting to get a little stressed.

The 3-Day walk is also in 3 weeks and my training has been about as good as someone training to walk around the block. I can't wait until August 10th.

Going to my first Chicago Fire game this weekend. There's a pub in Chicago that has a round-trip shuttle service with booze. The tickets for the soccer game are free, in the Chicago Sun Times luxury box, and includes free booze and food. That should help with the stress.

I have a baby voice

2009-07-13T19:23:00.002-05:00

I tried to fight it, I really did, but kids love the weird baby voice. Now, I don't use it all of the time (most), but it can be quite effective in evoking emotions out of the little tots.

I started working at Kids Work Chicago last Wednesday. I'm currently working part-time, so my day begins at 7:30 and ends around 1:00 (depending on where the kids are and what they need). I have to say, it's pretty great to have afternoons off in the summer. I've been working a bit on training for the 3-Day wak, but most of my time has been spent looking for an apartment and homework... but this post is about the babies...

So, I am currently working in a classroom with 4 infants, ranging in ages from 5ish months to 12 months. I am working with a really great lead teacher, who being only 26 years old, has a heck of a lot of experience, and someone I look to for guidance and help when working with the kids. She's great with knowing who needs what when, and I think we work well together. I'm also helping out in the classroom next door as needed - that room has an older lead teacher, and includes 3 infants.

I went into this new career with mixed expectations. I am quite excited about the change & love children; but I didn't want to get my hopes up for some magical reactions and feelings I'd experience.

Each day has been difficult. Each day has been great. Each day has had at least one small moment where I sit back and think, "this is exactly why I want to do this." And each of these moments are small and likely insignificant to many. For example, the first day, there was a moment where two of the boys were on one of the play mats, looking at each other, and suddenly one of them made the other one laugh. That's it. Kids are such interesting creatures. I love watching them interact with one another without talking. Well, without talking in a language anyone understands, at least. :)

The second day, the moment was when I was able to successfully put little Lauren to sleep. She's a tough one to deal with, and likely has been treated differently at home or with a nanny (in that, someone will hold her for the entirety of her nap, or pick her up as soon as she fusses in her crib). Unrelated, I've been trying to call her LP or Lo, simply as a tribute to Laguna Beach. I don't think she gets it.

Friday (the third day), Erika (my lead teacher) started to implement a schedule with the kids, in an attempt to get them at least eating at the same time each day. Kids are allowed to eat, sleep, play, poop, etc on their own schedule, nothing is forced. I think this is great. I also find some ease in getting the kids to eat breakfast or lunch at the same time. Friday, everyone ate together, slept together, and played together (for the most part). It was a really great day. It was a tough day leaving, because the new guy Max (12 months) seems to have a negative reaction anytime I leave the room. He reached out to hug me before I left. I almost lost it.

Today (Monday) was tough. Little Lo projectile vomited all over me, herself, the carpet and the tile. To boot, she giggled the entire time I changed her. That little punk!

The job is rewarding and tiring, and I am learning a heck of a lot on a daily basis. It's awesome.

1000 miles to see Wilco

2009-07-08T15:06:00.003-05:00

I've recently returned from my trip out west. Matt, Jen, Jen's brother Kevin, Dan and I drove out to Boulder, Colorado to see Wilco perform at Red Rocks on July 3rd. We ended up heading out at the beginning of the week, and made a little vacation out of it.

Matt and I wanted to camp, the other three sissies wanted to sleep inside. Jen was able to find a campground/mountain lodge combo where we ended up staying.

We left Chicago around 5PM on Monday night, headed to Granville, IL to pick up Kevin. We went for taco night at the local cheap bar before departing for Boulder. We made the trip over night, in one shot. Luckily, with 5 drivers and a minivan, it wasn't too tough, and was quite a bit more comfortable than I anticipated.

We arrived around noon to beautiful weather in Boulder. As soon as Matt and I finished setting up the tent, Jen and I put our suits on, grabbed a couple of cold beers, and headed to the pool. Our first night, we met a couple of Kevin and Jen's local pals out on Pearl Street in downtown Boulder for drinks and dinner.

The first night, there was a bit of a storm. At this point, we also realized the zipper to our tent door no longer worked. Matt fashioned a new type of closure, which seemed to work for the entirety of the day.

Day 2 was spent in Fort Collins, CO touring breweries. We ended up stopping at: Coopersmith, New Belgium, ODells, Ft Collins, & Left Hand Brewery. This was fun, but also seemed like quite a bit of different beers that I didn't necessarily care for. Thankfully, the tour at New Belgium was free and the beer tastings were no more than $4/person at each place.

The evening of day 2, we spent our time around the campsite drinking and playing cards. Until the storm hit. Then, Matt and I cleared out the tent & ended up sleeping in the van for the night.

Day 3 - Jen, Dan and Kevin drove to Rocky Mountain National Park while Matt and I walked the 2.5 miles into Boulder to find some tarps for the tent. Luckily, Boulder is beautiful and they have some great walking paths, so the walk wasn't too bad. We ended up finding an Army-Navy Surplus Store and found everything we needed. We headed back to the campsite to fix our campsite. Thank goodness for Matt, I wouldn't have had any idea what I was doing otherwise. Tent fixed and the evening of day 3 was spent at Matt & Nikki's house in Longmont. It was a nice, low-key night, with delicious burgers and brats on the grill.

Day 4 was the day of the Wilco show. We all did our own things during the day, most of which I spent doing homework for school. My online class had begun, and luckily (and surprisingly) the campsite had free WI-FI (and free breakfast!). Matt and Nikki met us around 2, so we could head down toward Red Rocks early.

We stopped at a sweet bar on the side of the 2-lane highway - Rocky Flats Lounge - where the bartender was both tending bar and cooked. You could also buy du-rags at this particular bar for $12. It was a Packers bar, and we only stopped there with hopes of seeing the Cubs/Brewers game (we didn't).

We made our way to Red Rocks, were able to park just as a hail/rain storm broke out, leaving everyone in their cars (drinking). Apparently, in Colorado, rain comes and goes in the matter of minutes.... so, luckily, we only were stuck inside the car for about 15 minutes. We drank, we lined up, we ended up in the 10th row for the show. It was an absolutely stunning setting and a rocking concert. I know everyone doesn't get Wilco (in the sense of why they're popular), but if any of those people had attended this show, I would be willing to bet they'd change their tune.

Day 5 - Matt and I went to Chautauqua Park to "hike." I use quotes because I don't hike. Unless it's flat or close to flat terrain. We lasted there about 30 minutes before deciding we'd head up to Nederland. Jen and Kevin joined us for this trip - we stopped at a brewery in Nederland for some drinks and headed back to camp. We had planned on staying until Sunday (Day 6) - but everyone was tired & ready to head home. So, we decided to leave sometime later that evening.

Breaking down camp was sad :(

We ended up back in Chicago by noon the following Sunday, which gave everyone some time to relax before heading back to work the following day.

Overall, a very enjoyable time. The drive wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting - if anything, I suggest anyone who plans on driving that far in one shot, do it over night, and have multiple drivers.

All pics will slowly be added to Facebook...

A following post will focus on my first day at Kid's Work Chicago (which was today!)

2 week between jobs - First weekend

2009-06-22T19:34:00.002-05:00

So, my last day at CSG was Thursday, June 18th. I had a happy hour with some coworkers, which ended up sort of weird, in that, much fewer people showed than I expected. Not that I expected everyone in the office to show up, but if someone I expected to show didn't stop by and tell me they couldn't make it, I assumed they'd be there. Either way, I should focus on those who did come, and be thankful for having their friendships... so, here's to them!

Friday, I went to the Cubs/Indians game. This was Kerry Wood and Mark DeRosa's first game back at Wrigley. DeRosa batted second in the game and received a resounding standing ovation. It was pretty neat. Wood came into the game in the 9th, and unfortunately (well, fortunately for us Cub fans, I guess) gave up a game-tying homerun to D Lee in the bottom of the 9th. Wood did receive a similar standing ovation when he was announced as he was coming into the ballgame.

Saturday, I again had Cubs tickets, this time in the bleachers. My friend Jen joined me, as I treated her for her birthday (which was back in March, but whatever). It was the first nice day of the season, of which I received a slight sunburn despite wearing sunblock. She and I had a couple of frozen drinks, but ended up chugging water for the majority of the game. We were a little affected by the heat & even had to take breaks to be in the shade.

Saturday night, my friend Sean flew in from Phoenix, for a few days of vacation in Chicago prior to heading to Detroit for our friend Chris's's's's wedding. We ended up at a street fest around Southport and Fullerton. Luckily, we are liars and cheaters, and we snuck in our own beers (beers were somewhat reasonable at $5, but still). After having to pay $10 (suggested donation, which was being collected by people at the gate.... and didn't seem so suggested, as they asked everyone for it). We only stuck around for a few hours, as the band (Mike & Joe) wasn't really our style.

Sunday was spent in the beer garden at Justin's. One of my favorite places in the city during the summer. Cheap $12 pitchers of 312, surrounded by friends, sitting outside = good times.

Today, Sean and I went to Hot Doug's for lunch. I had never been, and apparently this place is the best hotdog/encased meats place in Chicago. The line is typically out the door and can take anywhere from 2o minutes (non-high traffic time middle of the week) to 3 hours (weekend, lunchtime). We ended up waiting about 40 minutes in line (which was out the door). I tried and enjoyed the bacon cheeseburger pork sausage.

I've got the rest of the week to start going through things in the apartment, to get laundry done, to find a sweater top for my dress for Chris's's's's wedding, and just do a general cleanup of our apartment (as they're likely going to start showing it to potential clients).

Sean is currently out on a mandate and Matt is at Moody Bible to watch some Illinois recruits play basketball. I will celebrate this small time alone by making a drink.

Cheers.

I don't care if Chicagoans are considered mean

2009-06-17T20:13:00.003-05:00

Last night, I was a mean Chicagoan.

NeoCon was at the Merchandise Mart. NeoCon is a huge office furniture/technology convention that brings folks in by the droves. It's a really cool show, but crowds the city of Chicago with know-nothings.

The Merchandise Mart has a spot on their second floor where you can board a train across the river and into the Loop.

The entrance area directly in front of all of the turnstiles was mobbed with people, seemingly those who had never ridden public transportation before.

There were people crowded around, making little to no attempt to form a line in front of the two ticket machines.

Those who tried to board via the turnstiles were either trying to use money, tapping their card incorrectly, or fiddling with their card, not knowing which direction it goes into the slot (despite a very descriptive picture directly next to the slot).

Once I was able to push my way through one of the turnstiles, after many passive aggressive sighs, I was once again confronted by the idiots.

There are 2 revolving doors leading to the train platform.

I could hear a train coming as I was going through the turnstile, and was in a bit of a rush to board because I was on my way to class.

People stopped directly in front of both revolving doors.

I'm talking stopped.

One person actually stepped into one of the doors and stopped there.

Are you effing kidding me?!

I ended up pushing past more idiots, racing toward the quickly-closing doors on the train. I almost missed the train.

I can understand being new to the city and not understanding how the public transportation works. I don't expect people from out of town to be expert transit riders. I do expect them to at least take a bit of time to educate themselves on the trains prior to arriving at the train. Would people just start driving toward an unfamiliar destination without at least looking at a map? I'd find that hard to believe. The other thing that annoyed me was everyone's complete lack of understanding that they were creating an issue for other people. It was complete obliviousness. This maddens me any time it happens.

I have since calmed down.

I eat alone

2009-06-12T14:17:00.003-05:00

Now, I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing, but I eat lunch alone. I can count on my hand the number of times I've been invited to eat lunch with someone at my office (well, this isn't true. Teri and I used to go to lunch. Additionally, the IT guy and I usually go out and grab lunch, but usually bring it back and eat it at our respective desks).

In any case, I usually eat lunch at my desk, or outside during the summer. I actually prefer to be alone at times like lunch and riding the train to and from work. It's my time to relax and be away from the folks at work. Not that I mind them, I just like being alone I guess.

That said, it still bothers me that people didn't invite me to lunch more often. Even though my likely answer would have been "no," I would have liked to have been asked. Being that it's my last week at my current company, I'd assume it *might* happen now. So far, it hasn't.

I don't even know why I felt the need to write this post, other than running into people from my office at Millennium Park. I put forth effort to avoid them at all costs, even though I find them to be generally nice people. I just didn't want to see them, or for them to see me, and then think, "how sad, Amber's eating alone."

Today is also my last Friday in this office. Odd.

9 Days

2009-06-07T17:46:00.002-05:00

I have 9 days left at CSG Systems. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't freaking out a little bit. My focus over the course of my decision-making was mostly on how beneficial the change will be for me. I haven't forgotten about that, but I'm starting to face reality. My new job does not provide health insurance. I'm meeting with our HR department sometime this week to discuss my options. I'm hoping COBRA will be financially feasible, as I can't afford to not have insurance. I may also look into getting individual coverage from a place like Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

I will be starting off working part-time, which will be excellent in the summer. It'll also help me better balance school with work. I'm going to give it a couple weeks before I make a decision on picking up a second part-time job. I think it'd be fun to work in a beer garden or restaurant, but I don't know how well that'll fit in with my school schedule.

Back to the topic of this post though, I'm almost finished at CSG. A place I've been going every day (for the most part) for the past 5 years. We moved buildings in February of 2008, but this new building lends as much memories as the old one. I'm going to miss the people I like. I'm going to miss the flexibility of the job. I'm going to miss the outings. I'm not going to miss being treated the way I was. I never felt like many of the people gave me the opportunity to show them who I was, and that I'm not some dumb girl who answers the phone. My job was so much more than that, and my skill set is so much more than I was ever able to use.

After listing the things above, I'm most going to miss being downtown. The ability to grab some food and eat outside shouldn't be taken for granted. I'll miss eating with Matt by the river. I'll miss eating at many places within Millennium Park. I'll miss being able to quickly head out and shop (and I'm not even much of a shopper). I know once I'm in the new position, I'll have other things that I didn't even know I'd miss.

Nine days.

Well, that was weird

2009-06-02T10:33:00.002-05:00

After a forgotten resignation letter, a rewritten resignation letter & some nerves, I resigned from CSG yesterday, effective June 18th.

When I finally worked up the nerve to call my manager (she's in our Denver office), I was shaking and a little bit sweaty. It was really odd. When I called, she didn't answer, so I had to figure out how to leave a casual voice mail without sounding like I was resigning. She immediately called back, which was probably good for my nerves.

I explained why I was making the decision (school/career change), and it seemed to be ok from there. My manager told me that she thought I was overqualified for the position and that I was definitely under utilizing my skill set.

I've only told 2 people here so far - one who will be greatly affected by my departure, and one who I consider my closest friend here. If it were up to me, I wouldn't tell anyone until 4PM the day I left. I dislike enough people here (as a result of their treatment of me) that I'd like to see them run this place without me. That said, I lack the actual ability to leave people SOL. So, over the course of the next few weeks, I will work with my manager to create a transition plan, in hopes of making my departure as seamless as possible. (But it will be nice to hear if the slightest thing goes wrong, it'll at least show me that I meant something here).

Anyway, I've got about 12 1/2 days left here. Wow.

Friday night in Chicago

2009-05-29T22:23:00.004-05:00

I spent the night in tonight. Matt is in Wisconsin with his dad, and I had homework to do. I decided I would also do a load of laundry while doing homework (mostly as a part of my procrastination - after fixing and rehanging a mirror and trying on different dresses for an upcoming wedding), but I digress.

As I walked through the alley to get to the laundry room door of my building (yes, I have to go outside) I noticed someone laying behind a couple of garbage cans. He moved a little and woke up when I walked by, looking a bit startled.

I decided to walk back into the apartment using the front door. Not because I was afraid of the guy, but because I wanted him to not feel threatened by someone walking by.

As I returned to homework, I sit at a desk in front of a window. The window faces the alley. I stood up and tried to see if I could see him from where I was sitting. I couldn't. But I also couldn't stop thinking about him. I decided when I walked back down to change my laundry over to the dryer I'd bring him something to eat and drink.

I found a Lean Cuisine chicken sandwich in the freezer, so I decided that'd be quick to make, even if it didn't taste the best. I made it, wrapped it in aluminum foil, grabbed a can of Old Style, and headed down through the alley.

The man was no longer there. I left the sandwich and the beer where he was, though, in case he came back. Or in case anyone came by needing a meal or a beer.

It really sucks that people have to sleep in alleys. It sucks that they don't feel safe, even if others are more afraid of them. I need to do something to help, more than just leaving a sandwich or buying a stranger with a sign a meal.

Well, I guess I should stop trying

2009-05-27T12:12:00.002-05:00

So, I had been thinking about home and how my mom was doing, since I never heard back about the Mother's Day card that I sent. I went to AOL and wrote her an email, putting in both email addresses that I have for her. When I clicked send, this happened:

So, that was like a punch to the gut. But I didn't give up, I just went to my gmail account, copy and pasted the email, and sent it from there. No more than 30 seconds later, I received 2 bounce-back emails, stating the same error message about not accepting email from that account.

Well, I hope she's doing ok. I'm probably kidding myself in thinking that someone else put the blocks up, but you never know. Sort of sad, really.

In laws

2009-05-25T01:04:00.003-05:00

Tonight, Matt's mom introduced me as "my future daughter-in-law, I hope"

I'm up north with Matt's family. After dinner, Matt and his dad wanted to go fishing for walleyes, but Matt's mom, sister and I were more interested in just hanging out. So, the 2 of them went back to the cabin to fish while Fran, Megs and I went out in town, in Minocqua.

We went to a place called Otto's - it's a local joint, with a really neat interior. Judging by the beers on tap and the size of the tables, we were in a German bar - well, at least Minocqua's version of one. Once we realized having 3 people sit at an 8-person table seemed odd, we were more than happy to welcome a family of 4 to sit at one end of our booth. Did I mention it was a booth?

As they sat down, they introduced themselves, as did we. Fran introduced me as her future daughter-in-law (she hoped) & it was a pretty cool feeling.

Tonight was probably the first night I was with Matt's family, but went out without him. Normally, I may have some qualms about it, but tonight, there was no hesitation. I knew he and his dad wanted to get some fishing in, and I knew I didn't & neither did his mom or sister. I had no problem going with them to have drinks while the boys went fishing.

Tonight was really cool & made me feel more a part of this family than I ever have before. (Even if that's scary and forward to say).

July 6th

2009-05-21T10:32:00.001-05:00

So, that's my start date. Just found that out. I'm officially going to be changing careers.

Wow.

Further info to add to the confusion

2009-05-21T09:21:00.002-05:00

So, I stopped by the center yesterday to pick up my New Hire/Company Handbook packet. All of the communication inside seems to indicate that it's expected that I will be working at the center when it opens. Yet, still no official offer. And by "official offer" I'm mainly speaking toward compensation. Perhaps its best for me to assume the worst, and expect to be offered the lowest possible salary. I can only be pleasantly surprised, right?

I reached out to the director again last night, just for final confirmation on start dates & compensation. I want to have that figured out, so I know when to write and deliver my letter of resignation to my manager. In addition, I want to have some time off between ending this job and starting the new one.

Looking around at my desk, it seems weird that I'll soon be leaving. No one at the office even knows I'm back in school. Not even those I consider good friends who I hang out with outside of work. It's amazing that it hasn't slipped out whilst enjoying some adult beverages. I can't wait for the day that I can tell my employer that I'm leaving. But I'm also expecting it to be bittersweet, after all, I've been here for five years.

Where the eff have I been?

2009-05-19T08:29:00.002-05:00

First, I apologize for the lack of posts recently. To be honest, I've been holding my breath, hoping the next blog would be about accepting a new job. A job that I turned down another offer for. A job that I feel could be an awesome opportunity.

Well, I received an email on April 29th about this job that I'd gone through three rounds of interviews for.The email, in not so many words, mentioned that hours/salary/start date would be determined soon. So, essentially, a very cryptic offer letter.

Let me back track and fill you in on the job - I would be working as an assistant teacher in the infant room at a brand new early childhood center on the northside of Chicago. "Infant room teacher?" you're probably wondering - what do babies need a teacher for, right? My thoughts exactly before I did observations in an infant classroom last quarter. There is SO much an adult caretaker/teacher can do to foster the development of an infant. And babies don't just sit around and do nothing - they explore, they crawl, the look around, they are constantly adjusting to their environment, and constantly dealing with new & exciting things. In any case, this position would be a great starting point for me, in hopes of having my own classroom with them eventually. Overall, the center serves children from 6weeks - 3 years old.

Ok, so back to the email... After not hearing as quickly as I'd preferred, I got in contact with the center's director, expressing my interest and asking for further clarification of the offer. Back and forth the emails went. One thing I also forgot to note - because the center is brand new, it's currently being built... so, construction of the center has also been a reason for the delay.

So, over the weekend, I was told more about the position - I'd essentially be working part-time from 7:30 - 1:30. Now, I was preparing for a drastic pay cut - but this was also with the assumption that I'd be working full time. I suppose 6 hours is better than nothing, but it's still a bit of a downer for me. I'd likely have to get another part time gig, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. My start date would be sometime in July, hopefully.

Matt and I are moving in August to a more affordable/cheaper place. Where we live now is great, but it's just not feasible on a new, much lower salary. I have some savings too, so I don't think I'd be in *bad* shape, it's just not ideal.

I was really excited about this opportunity, and still am to a degree, it's just now reaching the point of being quite real & facing that is a little scary.

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T11:53:00.002-05:00

I haven't seen or talked my mom since Christmas of 2007. My mom and I were never that close, never really had a real mother/daughter relationship. I think it took a turn for the worse when my sister passed away in February of 1993. In addition, neither of my brothers made life very easy for her. After many irresponsible and unforgivable offenses, she continued to take them in, after no one else would. She has put an incredible amount of herself into them, neglecting any needs I may have had. It always seemed that because I always received good grades, participated in sports and extra-curricular activities, didn't drink, kept myself out of trouble, that I wasn't in need of parenting. It would make more sense for me to be angry with my brothers for that, but I refuse to continue to give them any of my feelings.

I didn't receive anything from her for Christmas or for my birthday. Gifts aren't important, but a simple "Happy Birthday" or "Merry Christmas" would have sufficed. "It's the thought that counts" has never been more applicable, at least for me. I think I may have received a picture of a birthday cake via text message this year, however, I didn't recognize the number, just that it came from an 815 area code.

It's both tough and embarrassing for me to write and post this. There are far more reasons why I have trouble with my relationship with my mother, many of which only 2 or 3 people know of. This isn't the platform for it, and I don't think it'd be fair to my mom, but there are reasons to validate my feelings.

I started writing this post because I was on my way to send my mom a mother's day card via email and was struggling with it. I know if she ever received it, she would appreciate it. I'm just not sure she deserves it, from me.

weather is odd

2009-04-24T09:40:00.003-05:00

So, today is probably the first truly nice day of the year in Chicago. It was roughly 68 degrees and sunny when I left for work today. As I was walking down State St toward work, I was thinking, "Man, it's really hard to go into work on such a nice day" which lead to me realizing I say the same thing on rainy days, only then, I just don't want to get out of bed.

We have happy hour planned at Justin's beer garden tonight. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to that. Sitting outside with friends and drinking is one of my favorite things to do in the summer... whether in a beer garden, on someone's back deck, at a ballgame, wherever. I love it.

I walked home from work yesterday too, as yesterday, the warm weather was making an attempt to show up and cooperate with everyone. It was so much easier to walk home in nice weather. Not only because I didn't have the feeling of being cold, but because I was surrounded by others doing the exact same thing - but either on bikes, rollerblades, by running, etc. It was very encouraging, even if they were a bunch of strangers. On my walk home, I was walking west on Fullerton (I came off the lake shore drive path, to start heading home)...anyway, I see a coworker who had just gotten off the bus, heading toward his house. He looked surprised that I wasn't wearing the dress I had on earlier. When I explained I was walking home, he responded with, "all the way from work?" :) (At that point, I was probably about 4 miles into the walk).

This weekend we're heading out to the suburbs to see Matt's football-playing cousin perform in his high school's production of Les Mis. I have explained to him that I've never seen Les Mis, so he better not disappoint us.

Looking forward to that & getting some walks in this weekend. My friend Teri recently had a baby, but was also recently cleared to start working out again, so she will hopefully join me on one of my walks this weekend.

I'm skipping a baby shower this weekend as well. Not because I dislike baby showers (or any showers for that matter), but because I was invited to a shower for a friend of a friend. She's not someone I call or email with, nor is she someone I invite to things. I certainly wouldn't invite her to my wedding, at least not at this point in my life. She's a part of the group of friends that I hang out with, but not someone I ever talk to outside of those times. I didn't want to confront the hosts, so I politely declined, but will still send a couple of books for the kids.

Is it time for happy hour yet?

My name is Amber and I am a shopaholic

2009-04-22T15:09:00.003-05:00

No, I'm really not, actually.

However, on my way back from lunch, if I pass Old Navy, NY&Co, Nordstrom Rack, Sears, H&M, and Forever 21, it's hard for me not to stop in. It's really weird. I don't shop. I shop when I know I need something specific. So, in my little head, I decide, "weather is getting warmer, I need some summer clothes!"

I initially stopped at Old Navy. Tried on a couple of tops and some shorts - none looked good. That was all the discouragement I needed there. I handed the discarded items to the fitting room lady and made my way back to the office.

"But, NY&Co is right there... they usually have sales upstairs..."

And so I go in.

I make a quick go walk around all parts of the store and saw nothing. As I was heading back downstairs, a long summer dress caught my eye. It had a cute half-sweater type of something over it, so, I was all, "hmmm, I could wear that." I look at the price tag and realize it's $52. $52 for a summer dress is tough for me to swallow. Not to mention, this half sweater thing-a-ma-bob was $35. $35 for half a sweater! I convince myself I should try them on and see how it looks (hoping it looked bad, so I wouldn't have to buy it).

The dress size I brought back was too big at weird parts. So, I assumed I'd have to tailor it, as there's no way to fit into a smaller size (especially since I've been doing awful at keeping up my workout schedule). I still went back and grabbed the next size down...you know, just to make sure it too looked awful.

It looked good. I felt comfortable in it. I decide I am allowed to buy it & the sweater (since I could figure out a couple other outfits to wear this half-sweater with). I needed a tank top to wear under it during the day, so I also grabbed one on my way to the cash register. $22? for a tank top? I went to put it back and realized the signage above the rack said "60% off!" - so, $12? Ok, still pricey, but not too bad.

I make it up to the register. The check out dude was all, "Do you have a coupon today?"

"Holy eff, don't make me think about how much I could save if I had one!" is what I wanted to say, instead, just as sighful "No"

His response made my day - "well, you're lucky I have an extra one!"

I didn't ask him what sort of coupon, or what I'd get off, I just let him ring it in. My dress ended up being $30, the half sweater was $24 and the tank top was $6! I spent $67 total, instead of the $110+ that I was anticipating.

I am currently experiencing the opposite of buyer's remorse. :)

and for those interested - here's the dress/sweater thing

Only in Navy Blue, not brown:

My hair is a bit shorter, less curly, and I'm not black.

Walking, Easter and Decisions

2009-04-13T11:10:00.002-05:00

On Friday, I was offered a job at an early learning center where I'd been interviewing over the course of the past 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to take it & I'm not sure how to feel about it. I've made the decision to change careers, however, if and when I do, I want it to feel as right as possible. This place just didn't feel right. I am still in the interview process for another center, on the north side of Chicago, about 2 miles from my current apartment. I'm holding out hope that I'll be offered the job there, even though it doesn't currently offer insurance. It's a new center, starting from the ground up. They're currently working out of a basement of a 3-flat, soon to be moving into a new center being built. I think I'm excited to be a part of something starting from the beginning (if that makes any sense). All of that said, because of the drastic pay cut I will be taking, Matt and I have to move once our lease is up (July 31st). We're currently looking at Roscoe Village (a little further west from where we are) and even contemplating buying a place. That's just a pipe dream of mine though, I'm afraid.

I went on my first 7 mile walk on Saturday as a part of my training program. I've found that I need to map out a walk that includes walking by/to places I want to see. For example, this past Saturday, I mapped it out to walk by the new center to see the progress being made, to walk through Roscoe Village, to then walk to the lake, and back by Wrigley. It certainly helped, and the walk wasn't quite as tough as I was anticipating (outside of the cold wind, which got worse as I walked back toward the lake).

We spent Easter with Matt's mom's side of the family in Glendale Heights (a western burb). He's really lucky, in that he has many cousins that are around his age. We spent time catching up, playing bags, and sitting around the fire outside. His oldest cousin has 2 sons (including the one who accosted me at Thanksgiving) who I spent a lot of my time with. I just tend to gravitate toward kids if they're around. I always assumed this was normal and that everyone did this. Kids are awesome, afterall.

Today is opening day at Wrigley, however, the rainy weather will likely cause the game to be postponed. There were people at the bars on my way to the train this morning. I was jealous.

Walking sort of sucks

2009-04-09T20:28:00.002-05:00

I decided to walk home from work today since I had to do a 5 miler today.

About a mile and a half in, I wanted to give up. I was tired, annoyed, my feet hurt, and my knee felt sore. Excuses, excuses.

I knew I needed to make it to the Lake Shore path (it's harder to walk to a bus/train from there). I almost hopped on a bus at least twice.

WTF is wrong with me? It's just walking. I think knowing that it'd take me 2 hours to get home was a huge obstacle I had to get past. Once on the path, I was much better. Next to the lake, seeing other people walking, running and biking certainly helped. I told myself I had to make it to at least Fullerton (roughly the 3.5 mile mark) before I could give up. I "exited" at Fullerton, but kept walking. As I kept walking, I realized I only had a little further to go, so it'd be silly of me to quit so late.

The walk door-to-door from work is about 6 miles, so I walked an extra mile. I feel ok about it.

I will now make myself a celebratory drink.

Detroit isn't so bad

2009-04-07T20:29:00.005-05:00

I had low expectations going in, but they were exceeded by quite a bit. I've just returned from my trip to Detroit for my annual trip the Final Four. Here's a short recap:

Friday, 4.3.09
My flight left at 7:50, so I was able to celebrate my favorite part of any trip in the proper fashion. What's my favorite part, you ask? Sitting at the airport bar, enjoying an ice-cold beer prior to takeoff. There were some delays due to wind in Detroit so I had more than one ice-cold Stella. Regardless, they were delicious.

Jamie and I landed around the same time, so we met up to pick up the car. Because we didn't get in until about 10:30 Detroit time, we headed straight out to a bar. We met up with Jamie's co-worker Nick and his wife at a bar in Royal Oak (a burb of Detroit, since everyone lives in burbs, no one goes out in the city). We had a few beers there and made our way to my friend Chris's's's's place for the night.

Saturday, 4.4.09
Semi-finals game day. Jamie, Chris, Laurel and I made our way downtown around 12:30 PM to hang out with the college basketball riff raff. After wandering from crowded bar to crowded bar, we found a place (Coaches Corner) that had some space in their outside beer garden. We spent our afternoon here, meeting up with Teri & her mom/sister, as well as Nate and Nadine - our Minnesota fans whom we met at the Atlanta Final Four in 2007, who have since become friends.

Jamie and I were able to scalp tickets to the weekend games (2 on Saturday/1 on Monday) for $200 each. Face value for these tickets is $150 - and we've paid around $250-300 for the same tickets in the past (and friends were paying $400+ for tickets) so we were pretty pleased with ourselves. Michigan State beat UConn in a good game, UNC beat Villanova in a blowout from the beginning. On our way into the game, someone came up to us and said hello (because we were wearing some Illinois stuff. It was none other than Jerrance Howard. Love the guy. See him at the final four quite a bit - always the networker. We took a picture with him and thanked him for what he's brought to the program in the short period of time he's been here.

After the game, we decided to drive Nate and Nadine back to Windsor, ON and stay with them for the night. We finally made it back and were out at the Caesar's Hotel by 1:30AM. Not good for drinking or seeing coaches, but we managed. The hotel bar bartender had to cut us off since we ordered more than the allowed 3 drinks per person/per hour limit (that I think he made up). We ended up stopping at a burrito joint on the way back to the hotel. I only mention this because it had techno music playing, served our orders separately (one burrito came out, one quesadilla came out, another quesadilla came out, and the final quesadilla came out - all within about 5 minutes of one another. It was so odd). I forgot to mention - we had our first head coach siting of the weekend at the casino at Caesars. I know this will surprise most everyone, but we saw Billy Gillespie at 2:30AM stumbling around the casino. Apparently the night before, he had been playing craps with at least $5,000 worth of chips.

Sunday, 4.5.09
Sunday is usually the day spent relaxing and at the bar in the coaches hotel. We did not stray from tradition this year, and despite there not being an official coaches hotel (Detroit hotels don't have the capacity), we decided Caesar's would be the best place to spot coaches.

Jamie and I were up earlier than Nate and Nadine, so we headed over to the hotel around 11. As soon as we walk in, we see Bruce Weber stumbling across the lobby, getting ready to check out. He sees us, stops and asks, "What are you guys doing here?" - Um, watching college basketball? Oy vey, not a charismatic man at all. We chatted a little more, but let him get on his way.

Over the course of the day, we ended up seeing many coaches:
Wisconsin's Bo Ryan, Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt, KU’s Danny Manning, St. John’s Norm Roberts and Fred Quartlebaum, Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel, UCLA’s Matt Howland, Cregiton’s Dana Altman, and Minnesota's Tubby Smith, but none were as awesome as seeing Bill Self.

Now, because of the games we used to go to for Illinois, and always being at Final Four's, Bill has come to recognize us and always takes time to talk with us. This year was no exception. When we first saw him, he said his usual, "You girls are the only Illinois fans who still talk to me." Even though he was on his way to dinner, he continued the conversation with us, asking how Chicago was and how we were in general. He took his picture with us, gave us hugs, and asked if we'd still be around later. We congratulated him on his championship, he congratulated us on our season and complimented Bruce's coaching (sort of a slam at the talent level, but whatever, he's right).

I swear to goodness that I understand he has to be cordial and charismatic, but he's always been accessible and welcoming to us, and I think that's awesome. We ended up seeing him later at the sports bar in the casino, where he took time to talk with us again. He also mentioned that even though he was only at Illinois for 3 years, he thoroughly enjoyed himself while there. I wish he were still our coach, but I'm also happy for him and where he's gone in his career.

Ok, enough with the Bill slobberfest.

We ended up exploring more of Windsor on Sunday night - checking out other bars - my favorite stop was at the Pour House - food/drinks were good and cheap.

Monday, 4.6.09
Championship Monday. We drove back from Windsor to Chris's's's's place in Novi (another burb of Detroit). I was sick with a headache, so when we got back, I laid down in hopes of it going away. As I did, Jamie met her cousin and his wife out for drinks & catching up. I chilled out at Chris's's's's's for most of the day, before we headed downtown around 6PM.

We partied in a "bar" - which ended up being the ground floor of a parking garage. It was right across the street from Ford Field, free, had cheap beer, TVs and live music. Sold.

The game ended up being pretty yawn-worthy, which sort of stunk - but not without some cool guests - Larry Bird and Magic Johnson carried out the game ball, Michael Jordan, Jim Sloan, David Robinson & John Stockton were all honored at halftime for being nominated for the NBA Hall of Fame. That was pretty cool.

Since the game let out so late on Monday, and because we stay all the way until the playing of One Shining Moment, we didn't end up getting back to Chris's's's's until about 1:30AM. Headed to bed to get up at 7 for our flights home.

Overall, Detroit was pretty fun. It's not an ideal place for a Final Four (too spread out and sort of yucky), but we found fun. The weather was pretty crappy & I have to say, MSU being in the final game really saved this Final Four. Had they not been there, I can't say it'd be as successful.

One final observation: people in Detroit/Windsor are about the slowest human beings I've ever seen. I don't know how to explain it, but no one cared about timely service when it came to ordering food or drinks. It was very odd.

Nice people are encouraging

2009-04-01T20:16:00.002-05:00

So I forced myself to go to Curves today after work, since I knew I wouldn't be able to go again this week. I was dreading it the entire train ride there. Mostly because I had to get my card re-calibrated.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about - Curves is a circuit of strength training machines, separated by cardio boards. These strength training machines have a program associated with them, which can customize your workout to get the best out of you on each machine. Anyway, since I had to switch clubs, thanks to mine closing, I had to get my card re-calibrated - which basically meant that I had to go around all of the machines and do a few reps to get my speed and range of motion. This shouldn't be a big deal, but it was a little uncomfortable to do in front of a bunch of strangers (including the hardcore workout girl ((who I think works out incorrectly based on how fast and jerky she does some machines )).

The woman working tonight was really cool, laid back and encouraging without being annoying. She explained what each machine did (even though I already knew) and constantly asked if I was comfortable and without pain. After about 15 minutes of re-calibrating, I did my workout and felt great after.

This club seems to be full of a bunch of women who all know each other, and all talk during workouts. That's definitely not my thing, so, while I appreciate the camaraderie associated with the place, I don't want to feel pressured to become BFFs with everyone.

Finally, I get home and check my email & there's a monthly newsletter from the club. This place is so much different than my previous club, where I felt like a stranger most of the time. I'm a little more optimistic about this place, despite initial hesitation and pessimism.

Matt and I walked up to Cullen's for dinner tonight. I was good and had a chicken sandwich and steamed veggies, no beer. Pretty good for being at an Irish bar!

I'm leaving for Detroit on Friday night - still do not have tickets (Thanks MSU) - but I'm not concerned about it. If we get them, cool - if not, I know we'll be able to get some for Monday's championship game. Part of the fun of the Final Four is being in the atmosphere and hanging out with other college basketball fans.

School starts up again for me next Tuesday. I have one in-class class and one online class again. It'll be interesting to see how I do with a Tuesday class. I have to say, I liked having Thursday night classes, because once Sunday PM came, I knew I was finished with homework until Wednesday night. It'll be an interesting transition.

F.M.L.

2009-03-31T09:37:00.001-05:00

I had an interview at 7:30AM this morning at an early learning center just south of the Loop.

I went to bed early because I was afraid of sleeping through my alarm. I had nightmares about sleeping through it, and missing the interview.

I woke up at 5:45, looked at the clock and knew I had 15 more minutes to sleep, so I did. I next wake up and the clock says 6:20, my alarm never went off, since i set it for 6:00PM.

So, I rush to shower and get ready and am still able to leave by 6:45.

I didn't really pay attention to what redline stop I needed to get off at, just that I needed to get to 800 S Wabash. I get off at Harrison (the stop I assumed was closest), and low and behold, it's 800S.

I walk a block over to Wabash, I'm a little early, so I grab a water at the Caribu on the corner.

I walk up and down Wabash looking for the center, it's not within 2 blocks on either side of 800 S Wabash.

I go back to the Caribu to ask if they know where it is. They hadn't heard of the name, but said there was a center about 3 blocks down. I hustle to get down there.

It's not the place. By this point, it's 7:35 and I'm 5 minutes late.

In my haste this morning, I didn't write down the woman's number, so I had no idea what to do.

I just got on the bus and went into work.

I open the email to get a hold of the woman I was supposed to meet with.

I notice the address is 800 S Wells, not 800 S Wabash. (Wells is on the other side of the Loop downtown).

FML

Ok, seriously

2009-03-30T20:15:00.002-05:00

I went to the new Curves tonight. Part of starting at a new Curves involves getting measured, weighed, body fat taken, etc. Good lord. I didn't look closely enough at all of the measurements, but the body fat/scale dealiebob was quite an experience.

It involved standing barefoot on a couple of metal footprints, while you waited for something to spit out with your weight and body fat percentage. While I'm not at my heaviest, I'm certainly close. It's downright disgusting and something needs to be done about it.

The new Curves location isn't really all that convenient, but it's what I have and I need to suck it up.

And I need the weather to warm up al-freakin-ready!

/end rant.

Birthdays, Basketball and Soup

2009-03-30T09:46:00.001-05:00

Knee-deep into college basketball, I celebrated my 31st birthday on Friday night. This year, I kept it pretty low-key (in the past I've done AYCD parties and Vegas) - so a bunch of friends showed up at the bar around the corner from our place, that we've sort of adopted for most non-Illini sporting events. My old friends from grade school, Becky and Amy drove in from the suburbs to celebrate with me, so that was pretty cool. I ended up making it out until about 1:30AM, which is a feat in itself, even more awesome that I was at the bar at 6PM. My tolerance and pacing were awesome.

The final four is coming up this weekend. After a blip in the tradition last year, I'm heading to Detroit for the final four, making it my 6th trip in 7 years. I started going to the final four with some girlfriends back in 2003. I enjoyed myself so much that I made it a priority to go every year, no matter who is playing. Now, I'm not particularly looking forward to Detroit itself, but I am looking forward to seeing my friend Chris (we're likely staying with him for at least one night), and I'm looking forward to the atmosphere. Detroit certainly isn't a place I'd go to on my own, and not what I'd call a big sports town - so it'll be interesting to see how the final four goes.

Finally, I woke up early on Sunday (well, early for me on a weekend), so I decided to look up a crock pot soup recipe and make it. I decided on a really easy beef/vegetable soup, wrote down the ingredients and made my way to the store. It cooked in the crock pot over the course of about 7 hours, and I have to say, it was pretty good. We really need to use our crock pot more often - it's an easy way to make a meal that'll last for a while.

I'm also heading to the new Curves location today after work, after finding out mine was closing for good. The location isn't quite as convenient (heck, it's not really convenient at all), but I'm hoping I'm able to stick it out there. I really need to get back into the swing of things. March is an awful month for me, work-out wise.

Trying something new

2009-03-25T15:12:00.002-05:00

I dont know what to think of this change, but I've made it.

I apologize for those who are used to the old format. I may eventually go back. "Eventually" could mean anytime after I hit "PUBLISH POST"

Forever 21 isnt just for 21 year olds

2009-03-25T12:42:00.002-05:00

At least that's what I kept telling myself in order to gather enough courage to walk into the store.

Every day when I get off the train, I walk by Forever 21 & see some cute stuff in the windows. I've always thought I was way too old to go inside, but always secretly wanted to go in. So, after liking a shirt our waitress wore this weekend, and finding out she bought it at Forever 21, I decided to check the place out this afternoon during lunch.

It wasn't so bad.

I didn't really allow myself to have eye-contact with anyone else, but still, not so bad.

I ended up with 3 tops (1 that I'm iffy on, but decided since it was only $17 that I'd give it a shot). - The first one is the iffy one.

SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!

2009-03-22T23:12:00.002-05:00

I'm totally on spring break until April 7th or 9th!!!! Whatever happens in Cabo stays in Cabo!!!

Ok, just kidding. Well, sort of. I'm finished with my first quarter of classes at NLU. I'm pretty relieved about it, and sort of wish I would have finished everything prior to my 4-day weekend, but all-in-all, I'm happy.

I am heading to a second interview at an early childhood education center called Kids Work on Tuesday early evening. I hadn't heard back after my phone interview, so I reached out to the woman I spoke with and she asked me to come in for a second interview. I'm looking forward to it, and hoping things go well. As sad it may be to leave my current job, I need the change for my professional and personal happiness. The difference in pay isn't really prudent in this economy, and that's certainly something I need to take into account, but I'm also anxious to start making more steps toward my future.

I've spent the past 4 days at the bar watching college basketball. The first Thursday and Friday of the tournament are probably my two favorite days of the year. Friday I held a fund raiser for my 3 Day Walk where people sponsored me by the drink, and overall I ended up raising close to $500. This was an awesome relief for me, considering our minimum fundraising amount is $2300. I'm almost there and still have 5 months to raise the remainder.

I've recently located my passport. I will be using it again at the beginning of April for the second year in a row. Unfortunately, this time it's not for Paris or London - but instead for Windsor, ON. I'm getting back to my annual Final Four trip, only this year it's just Jamie and I. Fortunately, friends we've met at a previous Final Four (Atlanta) - Nadine and Nate will also be there, so we'll likely hang out with or stay with them in Windsor, since Jamie and I don't really have a hotel (we're planning on staying with friends and family like the hobos we are). I'm doing well so far in my brackets, so hopefully my luck continues.

This is my last Sunday as a 30 year old. My 31st birthday is on Friday. I may be old, but I sure act like I'm still in college some days (see: this weekend extended). That said, I think I'm going for a low-key happy hour birthday celebration this Friday.

Have a good week, everyone! (and by everyone, I mean all 4 of you)

Awesome parking spot fight I witnessed this evening

2009-03-17T20:06:00.001-05:00

Girl standing in open, metered parking spot on a busier than usual Southport Avenue, directly across the street from Mystic Celt (which is packed full of drunks celebrating St Pats Day)

Car pulls up, puts car in reverse to pull in. Assuming girl standing is waiting to cross the street, she looks out the window and waves her on. Standing girl doesn't move.

Passenger gets out of the car to ask the girl to move. Standing girl refuses.

Passenger girl continues to talk to the standing girl, asking her to move.

Meanwhile, driver is semi-blocking traffic along Southport.

Passenger girl tries to talk more to the standing girl, explaining that they are blocking traffic, they are on a public street, etc etc. Standing girl's friend now comes from outside of the bar across the street, slowly walks over and stands in the spot with her friend.

The driver now puts her hazzards on, puts the car in park and gets out to ask the standers to move. Meanwhile, passenger girl now gets into the drivers side. As her friend is asking the girls to move, passenger girl (now driving) starts slowly backing up, into the spot.

Eventually, the car taps the standing girl, who still refuses to move. Her friend is behind her, but starts getting out of the spot. The car makes its way into the spot, after lightly tapping the standing girl a couple of times.

Along comes a drunk spinner, running out of the bar, across the busy street over to the situation. She gets into the face of the owner of the car (original driver) and starts shoving her, "You ####ing ran my friend over, b###h!"

People at the bar are clapping and encouraging.

The car people do nothing. The girl who parked put money into the meter and waved her friend over.

Spinner is still angry and continues to yell and flail about.

Standing girl takes multiple pictures of the car, and says, "Don't worry, when I fall down tonight and hurt myself, it's going to be because I was run over by your car. I'm just getting proof now"

End of story.

That car is going to get effed up.

The weather outside is not frightful

2009-03-17T09:32:00.003-05:00

What a gorgeous morning. I walked outside to weather in the 50s. This probably sounds cold to those of you in warmer weather, but it's awesome for those of us who've been wearing winter coats, scarves and hats for 4 1/2 months. Temps are supposed to reach 70 today, which is downright perfect. Unfortunately for me, I have homework to finish up by tomorrow evening, and that means I'm doing it tonight and tomorrow evening.

I may sneak out with Matt for some corned beef (hold the cabbage) for dinner. It'd be a travesty to skip out on one, right?

Last night, we had a team meeting for our 3 Day Walk to talk about different fundraising ideas. I don't think much was accomplished at the meeting (besides eating delicious salsa from Trader Joes) and we could have easily used email or facebook to discuss ideas as we did last night. I'm appreciative that Jen had people over for the meeting, I just didn't have the time to set aside for it, and should have declined. On the bright side, I walked to and from her place and got in a 3-mile walk (since I'll be missing at least one this week).

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Good Will Hunting sort of helped

2009-03-11T10:28:00.002-05:00

I went to the FFC Union Station last night to get my walk in. I was a bit anxious, because I assumed there'd be some sort of fight for open treadmills. While most of them were in use when I arrived, I was able to walk right up and get on one (where I proceeded to break the 30-minute rule).

Each treadmill has their own TV, so that sort of helps with the boring walking. I have a little trouble focusing on the picture, without it getting blurry and bumpy from walking, so I sometimes watch the bigger TVs above. As I was looking around, I noticed someone else watching Good Will Hunting, so I flipped through the 50 or so channels on my personal TV to find it on mine. I can't remember the last time I've seen that (college, probably) so I wasn't as familiar with the plot, etc. Watching a movie, TV show, or sporting event certainly helps the time pass, but still, walking on a treadmill is BORING.

As I was heading home from downtown, I received a call from the lady at Curves. They are definitely closing. I went to pick up my shoes and get whatever passes they had for the nearby Curves locations. We'll see how that works out. I think I'll stop by and check out the location closest to me on my way home from work today. Seeing that I couldn't always get myself to a place that was 148 steps away from my door, I have no idea how well I'd do at a new location. That said, I don't want to give up the workout Curves provides - so, we'll see.

"CLOSED"

2009-03-10T15:25:00.003-05:00

"This location is considering closing. We are hopeful to find a buyer, but in the meantime, please visit these other nearby locations..."

This is the sign I was greeted with yesterday, and I was finally excited to work out. My shoes are in there! Only the ones I use to work out there, but still. Additionally, I wonder if I'll receive a discount for every day the place is closed. If not, I'm certainly going to seek one.

I'm going to the FFC gym downtown today after work to get my 3-mile training walk in. Walking on a treadmill is so boring, I need the weather to turn into Spring soon, so I can walk outside more. Walks go by so much faster when you have changing scenery.

I've got a few more things to finish up for my two classes. I'm hoping to get them finished before next week (end of the quarter) - as next week will be solely focused on basketball. It's bad enough that I will have to leave the bar to give a presentation in class on Thursday. Let's hope Illinois gets Fri/Sun games.

Week 2 - ALL FORMS OF FAIL

2009-03-04T09:57:00.002-06:00

So, I called in sick to work on Monday so I could head to the childcare center I'm observing, and get a good chunk of observation hours in. I grab some breakfast & head to the center. There's a sign on the door, "Reminder, the center is closed on Monday, March 3rd for in-house faculty training" I wanted to bang my head against the wall. At this point, I had to decide what to do. I couldn't very well show up to work, so I went home & told myself I'd work out, clean the apartment and do homework. I ended up falling asleep on the couch for an hour, picked up a little bit & then forced myself to get out and do homework. Mostly a fail day.

Tuesday I woke up around 2AM with a bad headache. I took some advil and went back to bed. I woke up again around 6AM, still in pain. I took some more advil and laid back down. I went into work at 9, immediately tossed my cookies in the bathroom. I took care of time sensitive things, but left by 11 to head back home. I got home, closed all the blinds and went to sleep. For 3 hours. I finally felt better. That said, I didn't do my 3 mile training walk yesterday. FAIL. I figure, I have 24 weeks (well, 22 1/2 now) to train for this. Is missing a walk this early into training really that bad? (rhetorical, of course it's fine. Even if you tell me it's not).

Yesterday was also Matt's 30th birthday. He and I went to Tango Sur for dinner. Love that place. Love that it's within 3 blocks of our house. Both of us stuck to our typical orders, and we both had leftovers to take home. We arrived at home & realized we didn't have them with us (mostly because I had to usher Matt out of the place because the dude at the table next to us was going on some diatribe about how fearful he is that the US is turning socialist). Anyway, any other restaurant, I'd probably just say, "forget about it" - but, not Tango Sur. Matt called and asked if they still had the leftovers.... and they did! I don't want to think about whether they were tossed in the garbage and then fished out (even if they were, they were in a covered bowl, inside of a sealed plastic bag). So, Matt wandered back to collect our deliciousness.

Friday we're celebrating Matt's birthday, along with Jen and Janice, at happy hour extended at Messners (which is conveniently right around the corner from our place).

Saturday, Matt and I are going to the Chopping Block to take a cooking class (one of the gifts I got him for his birthday). I'm really looking forward to it... the class info is:

From Beer to Eternity
Saturday 03-07-2009, 7PM - 9:30PM

Be amazed as you experience the layers and nuances that beer can add to your cooking! Cheddar, Bacon and Beer Soup with Beer Thyme Biscuits; Sauteed Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Beer, Cherry and Mustard Glaze; Chocolate Stout Cake.

Work happy hour tonight, class tomorrow, and happy hour on Friday. I'm going to have to figure out how to get my butt to the gym.

Working for the weekend

2009-02-27T14:40:00.002-06:00

As I sit here at 2:42 PM on Friday, I am yearning for the weekend.

More specifically, I'm anxious for happy hour tonight and then going home to rest. I'm hoping to get up early tomorrow morning, as I have schoolwork and a 3-mile walk to get in.

I had McDonald's for lunch today, due to too much bacardi and diet coke last night (after class, I met Brad and Matt at Langes). Because of my new eating habits, I did restrict myself. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich without mayo and a small fry (is it small fries?). Anyway, after entering it into my daily consumption log, the lunch was only 600 calories/15.5 grams of fat (which is within my 600/19g lunch allotment). Granted, it had tons of sodium and virtually no other nutritional value beyond protein. I'm still happy I didn't go and order my usual 3-piece chicken selects meal. I didn't bother to calculate the nutritional value of that entire meal after seeing the values for the 3-piece alone. Yikes.

Matt is going to Kenosha for the weekend tomorrow. He's helping his dad paint. I'm spending tomorrow morning training/studying, and then hopping in a zipcar and heading to the RAM Brewery in Schaumburg. That should be a fun time, despite the location. At least I talked them out of Bahama Breeze.

Sunday is another 3-mile walk, followed by Michigan State coming into Champaign for a huge game. It's a stretch, but if the chips fall where they need to, Illinois could end up tied for the top of the Big Ten at the end of next week. More than likely, they'll end up in 2nd or 3rd place (which still far exceeds my pre-season expectations. Heck, most anyone's expectations).

I'm enjoying posting on my blog more regularly. Being so busy has been a good motivator, as odd as that sounds.

Bing Bang Bong

2009-02-26T15:14:00.002-06:00

4 days in a row.

This is probably a new record for me.

When I was only working out at Curves, their plan only requires 3 workouts a week, so I usually went a total of 3 days in any given week.

I went to Curves last night. I'm enrolled in their personal training program called "Curves Smart" - basically, it's just a little tag that you put in each of the machines as you work out - to monitor progress & change how you're working out (intensity-wise) as you're going through the circuit of machines. It's been very helpful for me. When I didn't have it, if I was having a bad day, or didn't feel like working out, I'd dog it throughout the workout. With this, there's a little light that flashes & you want it to stay green. When it turns yellow, I hear "YOU'RE DOING BAD! DO BETTER!" in my head. After the workout, you can then look at what you did, how many calories burned, what areas need to be addressed in future workouts, etc. It's pretty cool.

I went to FFC at lunch today, to see how I'd like it. To be honest,I'm not sure which I prefer (morning or lunchtime). In the morning, I don't feel rushed - it just stinks getting up so early. When I went at lunch, I felt rushed enough into taking a hobo shower (wipe down, spray self with body spray, re-apply deodorant). So, we'll see what I decide for future training... most likely a combo of both.

All of that said, I am SO happy to take tomorrow off. :) Back to the grindstone on Saturday, but once I head home from class tonight, I'm probably going to be pretty darn relaxed.

I got my hairs cut

2009-02-25T09:55:00.002-06:00

I have no idea how I'm going to put my hair in a pony tail for workouts.

It's long enough to barely fit into a little bastard of a pony tail, but the sides are short enough that they fall out.

I did bring two rubberbands, so maybe I'll have to be all pippy longstocking tonight.

I guess we'll see.

I put up a half asleep pic of the new do/due? on Facebook.

That aside, I am looking forward to happy hour this Friday with friends I only see at these scheduled happy hours. Should be a good time. Thanks to my pal Tom for organizing these.

Saturday I'm headed out to Schaumburg to meet up with former coworkers from TMP. TMP was my first job out of college, out in Des Plaines - worked there from May 2000 - November 2002. I'm really looking forward to seeing Angie and Robyn. Both have kids now, live in the burbs, and *might* both be stay-at-home moms. Besides Jen & Teri, who I still keep in touch with and am very close to, Angie and Robyn were my two favorite people at TMP. Stinks that I have to drive all the way to the burbs, but I'm still excited about it. (Also excited about trying out zipcar for the first time) (( Matt and I recently signed up for zipcar - a car sharing program in larger cities).

That's all for now.

You're all welcome for 3 new blog posts 3 consecutive days. (and by "all" I mean Megan & David - and possibly Brooke and Mike).

Training - Day 2

2009-02-24T09:25:00.003-06:00

I made it to Curves last night after work. Begrudgingly. I was all pumped for it all day, but as I was off the train, walking toward Curves, I wasn't looking forward to it. Once I was finished and stretching (my favorite part), I felt much better. I worked out harder than I planned to, and had my heart rate up most of the workout. When I walked home, I counted how many steps away Curves is from my front door. 148 steps. Yes, that's right. It's 148 steps away & I hadn't been since October. Awesome.

Now, onto today. Because I have observation hours I need to do at lunch, and a haircut planned for after work, I needed to get my first 3-mile training walk in somehow. That meant I had to work out before work. What the eff? I woke up just fine at 5:55 this morning. Got changed, brushed my teeth & washed my face, grabbed by bag and left. (I packed my bag the night before, so I couldn't use that as my excuse). I hopped on the train and went to the gym downtown, about .7 miles from my office.

Thank goodness for treadmills with personal televisions mounted on them. In the 55 minutes I walked (yes, it took me 55 minutes to walk 3 miles), I watched the end of Saved By The Bell: Miss Bliss Years, Devon Harris hit the game winning-half court shot on Sportscenter, Mike and Mike talking about Golic's 11.5 sacks in his career, and 35 minutes of Law & Order: SVU.

After my 3 miles, I didn't stretch like I should have. The stretching area is in the middle of all the machines, with all machines pointing toward it. I'm not interested in stretching while everyone watches. I'll likely regret that later. In the locker room, I picked up a towel the size of a hand towel and realized this was what I had to use for a shower. What I didn't realize, is that people usually just walk to the bathroom naked, or with this towel wrapped around them. I went fully clothed and had to throw my clothes over the shower stall door as I showered. Oops.

I was able to get ready rather quickly and ended up walking into work around 8:30 (so, only about 15-30 minutes later than normal). I'd like to say I'll do this on a regular basis - but the train ride into the city took forever & made me sleepy. The hoofing of the gym bag and work bag a total of about a mile sort of sucked. I do have another option, a gym is near my house, but the same sort of schlepping would be required.

I am proud of myself for sticking to the training schedule & getting started on time. Let's hope this keeps up.

Training - Day 1

2009-02-23T10:31:00.004-06:00

To be fair, I haven't really started training, beyond packing my clothes for Curves. But, I will say that I woke up somewhat excited to get it started again. This is definitely an oddity for me. Typically, even the idea of packing a gym bag puts me in a bad mood.

I think I'm also looking forward to going to Curves tonight because the woman who runs it has called me twice over the past month, asking where I've been and encouraging me to come. She sympathized, "I know, it's tough when it's so cold. No one wants to walk to workout" - if only she knew, I live virtually across the street from Curves.

I've also started keeping a log of what I consume. I'm currently limiting myself to 1800 calories a a day. I've used this metric in the past and I've had success with it, so I'm hoping I'll have similar outcomes this time.

I think having an attainable and tangible goal (finishing the 3 Day/60-mile walk) is a definite motivator this time around. It's been tough for me to work out for the sake of working out. Seems really silly as I'm writing it, but working out and eating right is a lifestyle change. It's one that needs to be kept up, and is difficult.

Here's to hoping I feel as good as I do this morning at the end of week 1 of training.

Four million miles by foot

2009-02-19T13:13:00.002-06:00

Ok, so my blog post title is a little bit of an exaggeration, I'll admit it.

I've decided to walk the 3 Day Breast Cancer walk to benefit the Susan G Komen foundation (I wonder if I posted that correctly, there are rules, apparently). Anyway, the walk is in August, which seems like a ways away, but for someone who hasn't worked out in a couple months (:eek), it's sooner than it appears.

Based on training tips given by the walk organizers, I'm going to put myself through the 24-week training regimen. Counting back the weeks means I begin said training next week (February 22nd). As if I weren't busy enough with work and school, now I have to fit walking AND working out into my schedule? Sionara free time.

The training seems pretty well thought out, and fairly easy to follow - but that's also easier said than done. The first six weeks only require 20 miles or less per week, seems doable. The majority of the training calls for the bulk of the walking to happen back-to-back on Saturdays and Sundays. Additionally, the training calls for taking Monday off, walking Tuesdays and Thursdays, and doing light to medium cross-training on Wednesdays and Fridays. I'm hoping my 30-minute work outs at Curves will suffice for that. I'm also lucky, I organize and run the gym membership program at work - with that, comes a free membership to Fitness Formula Clubs... which will be heavily beneficial for walking in these cold months at the beginning.

I'm also faking myself out into thinking I'll be willing to wake up earlier and get the walks (or part of the walks) completed before work. In about a month, I'm sure I'll be laughing at myself for even considering it.

Another benefit I have - I work downtown - so some of the walks required over the summer will be the perfect length for me to walk home. I live about 6 miles away from my office, and there's an awesome lakefront path, so, at least I have that to look forward to. Too often over the past few summers, I've told myself I'd walk home more, but ended up being lazy/wanted to get home for a baseball game/going to happy hour instead... so, now with a training program in place, as well as Matt & at least one teammate also working downtown, I'm hoping I'll do a better job at walking home from work.

Speaking of my team, four of us went to Fleet Feet this past weekend to buy shoes. Fleet Feet has an awesome practice of fitting people with the proper shoes. They ask what your shoe needs are, watch how you walk, and then fit you into 3 or 4 pairs of shoes, based on their assessment. I'm pretty thrifty/cheap when it comes to buying most things, especially shoes... so this sort of freaked me out. I told myself prior to going, that I would not base my selection on purchase price, but rather, how well they felt and fit. (Seems normal to most people, I'm sure, but not me. If I find something cheaper & slightly less comfortable, I will ALWAYS buy the cheaper item). Anyway, I ended up buying the most expensive pair (go figure) - and they were most expensive by a long shot (I tried on shoes priced at $105, $115 & $140). I didn't look at the prices until after my purchase. A lot of money to spend, but it's all toward a greater good, so there's nothing I should really complain about.

Anyway, I've put a link to the walk to the left. The picture is all cut off and stuff, but you can still click on it to get to my page, in case you want further info on it, or wish to support me...

happy day.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-22T14:29:00.003-06:00

Oh dear. I'm not even going to explain my awful blogging, but rather apologize to all 3 of my loyal readers for my absence.

Let's see - what's been going on...

Matt and I went on vacation with his parents & aunt/uncle/cousins December 27th - January 3rd. We traveled out to South Lake Tahoe, California to go skiing at Kirkwood Mountain. Matt's younger sister Megan is a children's snowboard instructor out there. We ended up staying in a cute little cabin about 1/4 mile away from the mountain.

Matt's entire family are skiers or snowboarders. I, on the other hand, have never been clipped into skis in my life (well, save for a 1 hour cross country lesson when I was 8 and in girl scouts). I took a lesson the first day, did awful & hated it. I gave up after my lesson & just went back to the house to read. Because we were there for a week, and because the entire family skis, I figured I should give it another shot the next day. Matt took me up the bunny lift & took the time to teach me how to ski. He wasn't mean, he didn't ask me to do anything I wasn't capable or comfortable with, and I ended up learning & actually enjoying myself! I stayed on the bunny hills for most of the trip & had a blast. I was able to ski as I wanted and take breaks as I wanted (is it bad the bartender knew my beer choice whenever I sat down at the bar?) One unfortunate mishap of the trip - Matt's mom ended up tearing her ACL & MCL on New Years Eve during a fall. She seemed a bit bummed, but was grateful to have gotten a few days of skiing in & to be spending time with everyone.

In other news, during the week of January 12th, I began grad school. For those who don't know by now, I'm going back to receive my certification & masters in early childhood education. I hate to sound naive, but this is a LOT more work than I anticipated. I mean, I knew it'd be tough to juggle things, but I began feeling as if every free hour I have should be spent studying, reading or doing something for class, rather than enjoying myself. Only about 2 weeks in, I've been able to get myself into a routine & also allow myself time off to watch Illinois basketball games (who have been a very pleasant surprise so far this year! To think, I figured I picked a good 2 year span to go to school, assuming I wouldn't miss much good Illinois basketball!). I'm currently in class on Thursday evenings from 6-9PM & also attending an online class. Taking an online class is certainly something I need to get used to. At the moment, I have no working laptop, so it makes for difficulty in "attending" that class. I am getting a new laptop tomorrow though, so I'm hoping I'll fall into a better routine with that class as well.

Part of the certification process requires in-class observation hours. I went to my first observation yesterday & it was a really interesting experience. As an observer, I'm not supposed to interact with the children. I have a really tough time not making any sort of contact with them, especially non-verbal communication like smiling. I'm hoping I get more comfortable in that role, because yesterday I felt like a big elephant standing and judging a room full of toddlers.

Matt & I are heading down to Champaign this weekend for our first (and likely only) basketball game in Champaign. We're taking the Amtrak down (love taking the train) and meeting some friends for lunch before the game. I'm really looking forward to it.

One final note, I freaking love Facebook. It's been a pretty cool tool for reconnecting with past friends. It's fun to catch up on their lives, to see many with babies, etc.

I would promise to be better at keeping this updated, but we all know that's not true. Thanks for reading & enjoy your day!

R.O.C.K on the C.T.A

2008-12-04T14:55:00.001-06:00

As someone who has taken pictures of visible boners on the el, I find this website awesome.

http://rockonthecta.blogspot.com/

Holy taters, it's December?!

2008-12-01T11:57:00.002-06:00

It's Monday afternoon after returning from Thanksgiving break. Ugh.

It's been "snowing" for the past 24 hours or so, nothing is really sticking, so it's extra slushy and ugly outside.

I spent the Friday after Thanksgiving at the hospital, getting my eye checked out by an eye doctor. I was physically assaulted by a 2 year-old at Matt's family's Thanksgiving celebration. Ok, not really - but I did throw the kid over my head one too many times, to the point of his little finger using my eye socket as a landing pad. Ended up having scratches on my cornea, was given some antibiotics and eye drops and sent on my way. It's been 3 days & I'm doing much better.... now if I could get the tape marks off my face...

Work is work. It's hopefully going to be fairly quiet this month. Hopefully.

Matt and I haven't gotten a Christmas tree up yet. Perhaps this weekend or next week.

Speaking of Christmas, on the 27th, Matt and I are flying out to Tahoe for a Reynolds family vacation. Matt's sister Megan is a ski instructor out there, so we're all headed out there for the week. Matt's parents are renting out a condo, so that'll be nice. Being the klutz that I am, I'm wondering how well I'll do with skiing. There's always the lodge, I suppose there's a bar there. That reminds me, I need to buy a fancy new ski coat. If I don't ski well, at least I should look the part.

Other than that, nothing new is really going on. Illinois basketball is somewhat surprisingly 6-0 going into the ACC/Big 10 Challenge on Tuesday. Looking forward to going to the game on Saturday at the United Center against Georgia. I'm also looking forward to spending my last month of school-less time doing fun things that I probably won't be able to afford once I'm in school.

Flu shots

2008-10-23T15:31:00.002-05:00

So our office had free flu shots today.

I've been contemplating whether or not to get one for about 3 weeks. I figure it's free, so I may as well. Then I think back to the previous 2 times I've gotten one and remember the icky feeling I got as a result. Nothing too major, but general fatigue and stomach-y issues.

I know there's very little scientific proof that one can get sick as a result of the flu shot, but I've heard too many people talk about how sick they became as a result of the prickly little needle. Did I really want to risk that, even if it was nothing major?

So, about 20 minutes before the nurses were set to leave our office, I walked into the conference room and got a shot (mainly due to boredom). I figure now I won't feel bad when I call in sick tomorrow. :)

Welp, see ya later!

2008-10-20T13:37:00.002-05:00

I'm not actually really going anywhere, I just like that line from Dumb & Dumber and felt like using it.

I've just returned from meeting with the fine folks at National Louis University and I'm officially registered for Winter 2009 classes, to begin the week of January 12th. I'm still sorting through financial aid, but I'm hoping to hear back from them sometime in the next few days.

For those who don't know, I'm entering the graduate program at National Louis, going for my Master of Arts in Teaching (where I will also receive certification) for early childhood education. I am taking classes part-time (to begin, 1 class online and 1 3-hour class during the week, in the evening), and will be finished in the fall of 2010.

Needless to say, I am really freaking excited. I'm going to have to do my best to take advantage of the free time I currently have, because the next 2 years will likely be a lot different for me. Doing homework again? Going to the library to study? It's odd, but I'm actually looking forward to it.

Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me in the past (seeing that I've been contemplating making this move for roughly 4-5 years). The next 26 months are going to be awesome.

Just because this picture makes me laugh

2008-10-17T15:21:00.003-05:00

Don't be Jack, move to the back

2008-10-06T14:19:00.003-05:00

For the life of me, I will never understand people, who otherwise appear to be coherent, completely incapable of riding public transportation in the most effective manner.

You board a train or bus and all seats are full. There are likely more stops remaining until you reach your destination.

How hard is it to move toward the middle of a train car or toward the back of a bus? Why in the world would someone think it makes sense to board and then just stand near the door? These seem like really dumb questions, yet it happens all the time.

"But I'm getting off in a few stops!" is not a good excuse. Actually, unless you're unable to walk, or have huge boxes with you (which you shouldn't be on the train at rush hour to begin with, but I digress), I don't see a good reason to not move to a spot that would create the most amount of room for other passengers.

Many times, if I'm boarding & see this happening, I'll push past people (politely asking) and mumble something about moving to the back (sort of passive-aggressive). You'd think the push past wouldn't occur once I excuse myself, because the passenger(s) has to then realize their public transportation etiquette misstep.

It makes me a lot angrier than it should, that's for sure. I wish it didn't bother me as much as it does. I've been stuck on the platform way too many times to not get angry about it, and if I can help prevent someone else being angry, I'm all for it.

"Thank you for your interest....

2008-09-26T09:10:00.001-05:00

blah blah blah, you suck, we'll keep your resume in some imaginary file, blah, learn to sing, blah, you shouldn't be around children"

Ah well.

Back to the drawing board.

or the job board. Whatever.

Time for a change?

2008-09-23T20:25:00.005-05:00

So, I had an interview at Gymboree tonight. For those who don't know what Gymboree is, in short, Gymboree is an atmosphere for adults and children to take part in interactive classes that build children's cognitive, social and physical skills. It's geared toward children 5 and under (which happens to be what I'm planning on going back to school to teach).

Anyway, I was invited to take part in the group interview tonight at the location in Lincoln Park. The invite included the following points:

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR THE INTERVIEW!

1. Please come prepared to sing a children's song (a capella). Any song - you do not have to have a great voice.
2. Wear comfortable clothes - this is a very hands on interview.
3. Bring a schedule of availability - days and times that you would be able to work.
4. Bring any requests for time off from work in the next 6 months.
5. Bring socks. We are a shoeless environment.

Singing? I'm not sure anyone should be subjected to my voice, let alone, my singing voice. The "you do not have to have a great voice" was encouraging though, so I didn't think much of it.

I arrive to a room of about 20 people. As I'm filling out the application and other paperwork, roughly 10 more people filter into the room. We're asked to sit in a circle on the mats in the middle of the room. Easy enough. We're asked to state our name and our favorite television show. The key here is to distinguish yourself from others, so the interviewers are able to remember you. Luckily, I have many different favorite shows, so when it was my turn, I didn't have a problem (my favorite "show" ended up being "anything on HGTV" and/or "whatever reality show happened to be on at the time").

After this, we learn that we will sing our song later. We will also learn a song & have to sing it back to the interviewers in another room. Cool. I might be able to do that.

Before songtime, we had to give a quick presentation, mirrored after the one given by one of the instructors. We went to one of the play stations, learned what concept development the children would learn, and then present it back to the group. There was a tambourine involved. In our presentation, we had to pretend as if the group in the room was children and grown-ups. Now, I'm normally pretty outgoing, but in an attempt to do a good job, but not look like a total dufus in front of my peers, I think I did ok. Most going up were nervous, a little repetitive, not that enthusiastic, so that helped. I made sure to use different wording and energy than the ones before me, so I think I did an ok job there.

Now it's time for songs. It started off with 6 people in a row singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider and The Wheels on the Bus. This calmed me down quite a bit, since I planned on singing a song I hadn't heard before doing Teacher for a Day. The song I chose is loosely called "The alligator and monkey song" - here's one version of it on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M2rmDe8ASY (she uses crocodile, but essentially, it's the same thing). As I said, I'm a fairly bad singer, so this song afforded me the opportunity to use a fun, interactive song while talking the lyrics. The interviewers seemed a bit refreshed to have a new song.

Finally, one of the interviewers taught the group a song, that we would eventually have to sing to the other interviewer. We sang it 3 times & then had to go sing it to the other interviewer, I assumed in another room. Nope - just right across the room, where everyone could hear you. Now, this song required a little more ability. Yikes.

I decided to be one of the first to go, mostly to get it over with. As I walked up, the owner said, "Amber, right?" That gave me a little bit of confidence, as there were 30 people they needed to remember, obviously I did something memorable prior to the atrocity that was about to happen. The song ended up coming out a little better than planned, so I was able to walk out with some sense of confidence.

Now comes reality. This job will definitely be a significant paycut (assuming I'm offered or asked back for a second interview). I will likely struggle with the decision, and I'm certainly not looking forward to that step in the process. That said, I want more than anything to get out of where I am, and doing something with children would be a good transition & one that I might be willing to take a cut for.

All I can do now is sit and wait.

Caribou Coffee

2008-09-15T13:02:00.002-05:00

I don't know what it is, but for some reason I find it to be my civic duty to help people navigate Chicago. The latest adventure isn't all that exciting or really blog-worthy (but really, what is?). As I walked back from my lunch at Barnes and Noble (bought a book so I could sit inside the cafe portion and eat my Jimmy Johns), I hear a thick-accented fellow asking a Traffic Management Authority figure (you know, the ones in the bright yellow vests who stand at intersections "directing" cars) where the nearest Caribou Coffee is located. This particular TFA figure didn't seem to knowledgeable about the coffee in the area, so as she sent him off to River North (like 10 blocks away), I stop him to ask if he's looking for a Caribou Coffee (knowing there was one within 2 blocks). He explained that he was, and that he googled it before coming downtown and knew there were 2 in the area. He kept pointing that out to me. I only knew of one, and if he'd stop pointing out that he knew there were 2, I could get on with giving him directions.

We had walked almost half a block at this point, so I figured I'd just walk him to the Caribou Coffee, rather than explain where it is. By "walk him to the Caribou Coffee," I mean that we walked back to my office and I pointed down to the Italian Village sign and explained it was right before that, on the left.

Why I didn't just quickly explain that it was one block west and one block north is beyond me. It's just what I do. I think the more details I can give about the walk ("oh, you'll pass a Walgreens and then it's a quick left. If you pass another Walgreens, you've gone too far" - are details people probably don't need). Granted, Mr. I know there are 2 Caribou Coffees nearby didn't give me a chance to give the quick directions, but still.

There was no reason for me to feel bad that he was about to wander 10 blocks north to River North, but I did and I wanted to help.

McCain: Mayors and Governers can't handle national security

2008-09-12T12:37:00.002-05:00

I don't know how to embed this into my post, so I'm linking it below.

McCain: Mayors and Governers can't handle national security

Transcript:
"I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I've been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism," the Senator declared. "I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."

This is just sad

2008-09-04T11:27:00.003-05:00

I don't have the time to get into my thoughts on the GOP ticket at this time, but I will say that Palin was a great choice for McCain. That said, it's pretty hard to believe that McCain would select a woman for his running mate, in hopes of wooing former Hillary supporters. I can only hope that those undecided women voters take the time to learn about Palin & understand that her politics are nothing like Hillary's, and are not those that support women's rights.

Working in downtown Chicago has plenty of perks

2008-08-13T13:33:00.003-05:00

One of the top one being the ability to eat lunch at Millennium Park.

My office is about 2 blocks west of Millennium Park, so it's a quick walk to and from for lunch. Typically, I find the same shaded spot, over near the huge block fountains at Monroe and Michigan. I grab a seat, eat my lunch & then read or just people watch. It's really neat to watch how excited the kids get while playing in the fountain (picture removed)

Today I decided to head to the Pritzker Pavilion (also pictured below). As I was walking into Millennium Park I noticed there was symphony practice going on at the Pritzker, so I decided to head over there to listen. I ended up sitting right near where people coming from the north turned to see the Bean/Cloudgate. It's sort of cool to hear the reactions of people as they make the turn. Anything from, "What the heck is that?" to "Here it is Mom! I knew we were close!" was uttered from the mouths of the assumed tourists. Normally, I'd get annoyed with tourists, but for some reason, today I didn't mind. It probably has to do with the reaffirmation that I live in a pretty cool city, enhanced by the fact that it's a beautiful day.

This was sort of a boring update.

I rode my bike for the first time in about a year yesterday

2008-08-12T09:57:00.002-05:00

Ouch.

Also, I forgot I shouldn't ride at night without a light. I realized this once I had already biked over to Jen's for 90210 night. Oops.

These are the only updates you people will get, seeing that no comments were even made about the update that took me all morning to comprise.

My last update was June 2nd?

2008-08-08T08:51:00.003-05:00

First, I'm awful at keeping this thing up-to-date, and for that I apologize.

Second, where the heck has the summer gone?! I'll see if I can recap the summer, thus far.

Near the middle of May, my old roommate Sean came to Chicago for a visit. It was good to have him back. I took Friday afternoon off to head to the bleachers at Wrigley, I always enjoy starting a weekend off early by going to a Cubs game. I've also been to my fair share of Cubs games this season - I believe my record at Wrigley (yes, I have a say in the outcome of the games) is 10-2 so far. Come to think of it, the Friday afternoon game I went to with Sean was one of the losses.

Memorial Day weekend, Matt and I headed up to Minocqua/Lake Tomahawk to join Matt's parents and grandpa at their place up there. It was the first time really spending time with his grandpa, so it was a bit intimidating (mostly because this guy has a vet med degree, PhD, and one other post-graduate degree that's slipped my mind at the moment). He also wasn't aware that Matt and I live together, so we had to feign staying in different rooms. Luckily, he was staying in the basement, and Matt and I were upstairs so it wasn't too bad. I ended up having a really great time up there. I've usually been a bit uncomfortable being myself around his family (well, the parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents, at least), but I found myself completely comfortable, even while playing Trivial Pursuit with a bunch of smarty-pants. Turns out grandpa said some nice things about me to Matt's parents. That made me feel good.

June flew by in the blink of an eye. The end of June brought the wedding of Claudia and Keith. Claudia is also another former roommate in Chicago. The wedding took us to Sterling, IL the weekend of the first Cubs/Sox series. The day of the wedding was when the Cubs ended up winning 11-7. Jen and I paid the DJ $5 to play Go Cubs Go at the reception. (Did I mention that Keith, and many of his groomsmen, are Sox fans?) At least it's good to know that a cross-town rivalry relationship worked out! :)

The end of June brought about the Pride Parade in Chicago. Jen's friends Tyler and Judd host a pre-parade brunch every year in their awesome place on Lake Shore Drive. The parade this year was a ton of fun. I do sometimes forget how great it is that we have such an open and large GLBT community in Chicago. It's a pretty cool parade to attend, IMO.

Mid-July, Matt and I headed back up north to the lake house. His family spends roughly 10-14 days up there every summer, during usually the same time each year. This time, we were joined by cousins, aunts & uncles, babies, grandpa, parents, etc. It was fun to experience the weekend there with Matt, where he got to show me the old cabins they stayed at prior to the purchase of their current place on Lake Hasbrook. I really love it up there, and am glad we've been able to spend time up there this summer.

The summer has also been filled with a Chicago staple - outdoor festivals. In July, we went to the Folk and Roots Outdoor Music Festival, presented by the Old Town School of Folk Music, up in Lincoln Square. Matt, Jen and I enjoyed listening to ensemble bands cover the Kinks, the Beattles & Wilco. Sitting in the lawn, drinking a cold beer or soda, snacking on bread/oil & parmesan made for a wonderful afternoon. Recently, a larger group of us headed to Retro on Roscoe, held in Roscoe Village. This fest is a group of cover bands who play older songs, usually from the 80s or 90s. We started out at The Addison Inn/Packaged Goods/Roscoe Village tap for the Cubs/Pirates game, and then slowly made our way down Leavitt to the festival. Beautiful day, great friends, fun music made for an exceptional afternoon. Even though I've just mentioned two of the festivals, they are what make summers in Chicago so enjoyable. There's a different festival every weekend.

Other than that, I've continued to play softball every Sunday... our team isn't the best in the league, but we usually compete, so it's pretty enjoyable for me. I'm clearly the worst girl on the team, but will probably never get kicked off, since I started the team the summer of 2001. :)

Oh, one last thing - I applied for and was accepted to the early childhood education masters program at National Louis University. After getting my finances straightened out, I hope to begin classes in the Spring of 2009. For those who are all, "WTF?" - this is something I've been wanting to do for probably 5 or 6 years. I applied to Roosevelt a few years ago, was accepted, but wasn't at the point where I was ready to head back. I still plan on working full-time, while taking classes in the evening. RIP any of my free time.

The Olympics start tonight. I'm not really all that jazzed up for much more than seeing Deron play. Gymnastics are fun to watch too, I suppose.

My friend Chris is moving to Michigan soon. Next Friday we're having a going-away party for him at Schoolyard. I still remember when he and I weren't friends, he hated Chicago, and refused to think otherwise. Then, I helped him find a place up here, even signed the lease for him sight unseen - he ended up being our extra-key holder for the apartment, oftentimes being the caretaker of Steve while Matt and I were away. It's going to be sad to see him go.

The following week, Matt & I, and a handful of our friends are heading up north to the lakehouse. I'm eagerly anticipating the trip, as I can't wait for friends to experience life up there. It's really a nice place to be able to retreat to, and I'm very grateful Matt's family lets us use it so much.

Ok, there's my update. Hopefully the four people who actually check this place for updates are happy.

Paris - Chapter 7?

2008-06-02T09:24:00.003-05:00

Holy crap, I've been bad at keeping this updated...

Wednesday, 4.2.08

So, Matt's final day at the show was this morning. I had initially planned on going with him to watch the awards ceremony, but my pounding headache thought otherwise.

I got ready very leisurely as I waited for Matt to return home around noon. We decided to head to the Eiffel Tower that day. We hopped on the Metro/RER and made our way over almost immediately upon Matt's return to the hotel.

Being that it was overcast and early April, we were lucky in that there were little to no lines to go up in the Eiffel Tower. While waiting in line, we were trying to determine which level to go up to (before getting in line, I hadn't realized there were options). Depending on the level, it was a different price. We settled on heading up to the 2nd level, since it was fairly close to the 1st & we'd be able to walk between the two. (In hindsight, I have no idea why I even considered going all the way to the top).

I'm very afraid of heights. Matt is somewhat afraid. Feeding off each other, it appeared that we were both very, very afraid once we started going up. Rewind - as we boarded the elevator that took us up one of the legs of the Tower, I immediately went toward the windowed side. Big mistake. As soon as we started going up, my stomach leapt into my chest.

We exited the elevator at the second level. Everyone else on the elevator seemed really excited to head directly to the edges. Not so much for me. I found myself holding onto the inner portions of the Tower, anything that helped me to feel as if I wouldn't be blown off.

Once I saw stairs to the first level, I immediately started walking down them. What an awful idea. Little did I know that we'd be walking down roughly 12-13 stories of stairs, all contained within the leg of the Tower. I couldn't let go of the railing and wouldn't look anywhere but down at my feet & the stairs as I walked down. Once we got to the first level, it was still a bit much for my fear of heights to take, so we didn't spend much time there.

Overall, I'm glad we went up in the Eiffel Tower, but getting back on solid ground was probably the best part of that visit. Sad, but true.

That evening, we had dinner with the American team than competed in the show. The back area of a restaurant was rented out for roughly 50-60 of us. The food was ok, and it was nice to meet some of the people Matt has been working with.

Whoa - REWIND -- before dinner, on our way back to the hotel, we figured we should look into purchasing our chunnel tickets (the chunnel is a 2-3 hour train that went from Paris to London under the English Channel). We probably should have looked into it further, but we didn't think we needed to purchase tickets prior to the trip. Boy, were we ever wrong. Chunnel tickets before we left for our trip were 90 euro (roughly $150-180) - we were ok paying that for the train ride. Checking ticket prices the night before, they were up to over 200 euro a piece. Matt called to ask if there were lower prices available. Good news! There were some for around 100 euro available, but not online. We headed to the train station, rushing to get there before it closed (and to get back in time to get ready for fast-approaching dinner plans). We arrive at the station, the agent cant find these lower prices. Awesome. Change in plans. We ended up heading back to the internet cafe and booking an early flight on EasyJet for around 130 euro. Not the best solution, but better than the cost of the chunnel.

After dinner, Matt and I decided to take one last trip to the store around the corner for some beers to drink as we packed up our stuff. Once we were packed, he and I sat on the bed, legs stretched out in front of us - thankful for the time we had just spent in Paris and eagerly looking forward to a few days in London.

Goofing around

(I was not really near the edge for this picture. Also, my right hand is tightly gripping the railing)
These are the stairs we took down from the second level to the first

Paris - Chapter 6

2008-04-30T13:37:00.006-05:00

Tuesday, 4.1.08

So, today I decided to head back to some museums, and made my way to Musée d'Orsay. This museum is on the left bank of the Seine River, and is in a former railway station, Gare d'Orsay. It houses mostly French art, but is best known for the amount of impressionist works housed there.

I was able to purchase a ticket at an automated machine, as I did at The Louvre, so I was pleased about that. But once I was inside & saw the extensive collection of pieces, I decided to get a set of headphones to have the different pieces of works further explained to me as I wandered around. At this point, I felt somewhat comfortable with my broken-French, enough so to ask for a headset to be played in English. I put my headphones on and started my journey through the old train station (which was pretty cool in and of itself).

Two and a half hours into my tour, and only partially through the museum, I realized I probably wouldn't have much time for any place else, so I took my time wandering through the rest of the museum. My preference toward smaller, more genre/artist specific museums was confirmed as I walked through this museum. It was also really neat to see pieces that I had studied in college, right there in front of my face, even looking back at the pictures, it's sort of surreal that I had the opportunity to do this. Pictures of some of my favorite pieces are included at the end.

After about 4 hours at the museum, I figured I should head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. I had taken the Metro/RER there, but as was the case other days, I liked to do some exploring while walking, so I looked at a map and figured out a general direction I needed to head.

After walking for about 20 minutes, I decided to take a break on a bench, to take off the scarf I was wearing, and to give my legs a rest. A gentleman quickly sat down next to me, eventually asking me if I spoke French. I simply shook my head (as I was told not to tell any shady-looking character what language I spoke). He followed that up with Spanish and eventually English, both of which I shook my head at. Feeling a bit like I was in a bad situation, I decided to get up and start walking again.

As I'm crossing the street, two guys in street clothes point at me & one approaches me. He starts speaking to me in French, showing me this folder he had in his hand. I assumed he wanted me to buy something, or that he was in on something with the guy from the bench, so I sternly told him I wasn't interested and that I didn't speak French. He then took a wallet out of his pocket and flashed a badge, and in broken-English confirmed that he was with the French police. He then followed up with more broken-English, asking me what the gentleman who sat next to me said. I tried to explain that all he asked was whether I spoke French. His response was something along the lines of, "Well, that's good. He's not a nice fellow." The rest of my walk was spent on well-populated streets with no stops.

This night, we decided to head to a restaurant the hotel recommended. Based on the business card they gave us, it looked to be a relatively close walk. It wasn't. This ended up being fine with me, because I was able to point out things as Matt, Heather and I walked to dinner (as if I knew the city or something). :) The walk ended up being well worth it, as the food and wine were delicious. Matt and I ordered a random bottle of red wine from the menu, and it ended up probably being the best wine from the trip, and that I've ever had (as far as I can remember). I ended up ordering veal, and it too, was probably the best meal of the trip.

With stuffed bellies, we made our way back to the hotel/Pantheon area. This night, we had planned on meeting up with a friend of ours that lives in Paris (well, I guess he lived there, as he's since moved back to the States)... being that it was late, we weren't sure if we'd be able to, but we headed toward a bar anyway.

We wandered down the narrow streets near the Pantheon and stumbled upon Le Piano Vache, which was a pretty neat little dive bar. As I was on the phone outside explaining where we were, someone from inside popped their head out and said, "Are you going to stand outside all night or come in for a drink?" I knew this would be a nice place.

With directions given to our friend, we headed inside and found a table. We ordered our drinks and settled in for the night, anticipating their arrival as we listened to the eclectic mix of music coming from the jukebox. After about an hour, they eventually arrived, citing getting lost as their reason for being late (in my mind, that made this bar a little cooler than I already thought it was). We spent the rest of the night talking, explaining where I'd been, as well as hearing what it's like to live in Paris as an English-speaking American. It was a really nice way to end our night.

Musee d'Orsay:

Paris - Chapter 5

2008-04-25T16:38:00.004-05:00

Monday, 3.31.08

So, this day began much like the others - awaking as Matt was getting ready to head off for work commitments, sitting down and taking a look at places I wanted to visit & deciding on a game plan. Today, I planned on heading north and a little bit east/central, as I wanted to check out Notre Dame and the Picasso Museum, which was a bit away from where I had been walking previously.

I headed over to Notre Dame on foot, and it's really just an amazing-looking building. To think that people were able to build this some 800 years ago is something I'm not even able to comprehend. I walked into the cathedral and simply took my own tour. There was a mass going on, but people are allowed to walk throughout the church, so long as you didn't want into the individual chapels on the sides. While pictures were also allowed, some that I took of the inside didn't turn out so well (what can I say, I'm an amateur!). I probably spent about an hour inside Notre Dame on my own & then decided to head out, toward Musee Picasso (the fancy way to say "Picasso Museum).

Now, I didn't have the same luck here as I did at the Louvre the previous day, in that, I had to purchase my ticket from a person, and not from an easy, little machine. So, I used the little French that I knew and muttered, "Je Voudrais un" as I held up one finger. The woman said some amount, I wasn't sure what it was, so I handed her €10, hoping it was enough. Thankfully, it was - and I even received change! With ticket in hand, I headed toward the entrance of the museum.

I knew a little bit about the museum from Art History classes in college, but it was really neat to see in person. The museum is actually inside the building known as Hôtel Salé, which was built back in the 17th century for Pierre Aubert, a tax farmer who became rich collecting the salt tax ("Salé" means "salted"). The mansion had changed hands, as well as uses (I believe it was a school at one point), but eventually became the Musee Picasso in the 1970s.

The museum houses a lot of Picasso works, through many of his different artistic periods (Blue, Rose, African, and Cubism). The floor plan was a little confusing, but for the most part, the pieces were displayed in chronological order. I really enjoyed my time here & probably spent around 2-3 hours inside.

After finishing up there, I decided to head outside, but take a somewhat different route back to the hotel. Along the way, I'm fairly certain I walked through Paris' version of Boystown, which was sort of cool. I also ended up passing a pretty cool fountain, Stravinsky Fountain, which seemed to be in the middle of a commonly-seen area in Paris - some sort of square/outdoor-gathering place.

I eventually made it back to the hotel, worked up the courage to attempt to pronounce "43" to the front desk to retrieve our key, only to be told Matt was already upstairs with it. Argh!

Tonight, we had a fairly fancy dinner with the group of people he was there with for work, at Hôtel des Invalides. The Hôtel des Invalides was built in the 17th century by Louis XIV to provide accommodation for disabled and impoverished war veterans. The complex features 15 courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur (court of honor). This courtyard was used for military parades. Matt and I attempted to take a picture with this in the background, located below.

Dinner was very good, and held in a lavishly decorated room. It was served over 4 courses - scallops being first, followed by veal, followed by a salad, which was then followed by a dessert sampling. When the salad was brought out third, one of the more annoying Americans at our table blurted out, "This is weird, we have our salads first in America" in a louder & slower tone, as if that'd help those who didn't speak English understand.

After dinner, a French magician/comedian came out to perform. This was our cue to leave. We hopped in a cab & headed back to the hotel, where we decided to stay, as we were pretty tired & bars were likely closed.

Notre Dame:

Stravinsky Fountain:

Matt and I at dinner at Hôtel des Invalides:

Paris - Chapter 4

2008-04-21T13:43:00.008-05:00

Sunday, 3.30.08
So Sunday was my first day exploring on my own. I had a loose schedule of things I wanted to see. As I'd get ready in the morning, I'd take a look at the list and check to see what was closed when.

At dinner the previous night, one of Matt's coworkers had suggested taking a bus tour, to see most of the sights and then make the decision on what you wanted to go back to. Being that it was overcast/rainy, I figured I'd try that on Sunday.

I used the borrow copy of The Eyewitness Travel Guide to Paris to find the better bus tour options. Once I located the one I wanted to use, I started my walk toward its location. After walking up and down the street it was located (according to the book) in the rain, I was about to give up, when I looked to my left and saw one of the buses coming toward me. I followed the street from where the bus came & eventually found the office.

It was approximately 11:35AM at this time - I went in and asked when the next tour would be.
"That was the 11:30 bus you just missed. The next tour is at 2:15." A little bit let down, I still purchased my ticket. I decided to head back out and explore for a few hours. Luckily, this bus tour company was a short jaunt from the Louvre, so I decided to spend some time in there.

Much to my surprise, there weren't long lines to enter. Once inside, there were longer lines for the ticket windows, but thank goodness for automatic ticket machines. I made my way to that, much shorter line. I had the ability to read the instructions in English & pay with my debit card, what an easy transaction.

It was roughly 12:15 at this point, so I decided I should get to all of the bigger things that everyone goes to see during their visit to the Louvre. I booked it to where the Mona Lisa was displayed (and even though I knew it was small, I was still a bit surprised at just how small it was) - and then walked around looking for the Venus de Milo & then the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It was probably around 1:00PM at this point (*note* I did not have a watch & my cellphone didn't work over there, so the only way for me to immediately know what time it was was to take a picture with my camera and then add the 7 hours to the timestamp).

I leisurely walked through the museum, eventually making my way to the exit, as I needed to pick up lunch at some point before the hour-long tour. I figured I could come back after the tour to see the rest of the museum.

I made my way outside & found another one of the street vendors selling baguettes. I did my best French impression & placed my order for a tomato/mozzarella baguette & bottle of Evian water (mainly because it was the easiest to order).

Because it was raining/wet, I couldn't plop down on the grass like I had hoped. I found a covered bench area though & started to eat there. I finished up around 1:45 and started to walk back to the bus tour company. A line had already begun to gather, so I hopped in it.

As I stated above, this tour was roughly an hour & went to such places as: the Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Palace de Invalides, Place de la Concorde, Notre Dame, The Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower (I know there were others, I just don't recall them - sort of says something for the tour). We were relegated to the bus for each site, no getting off to explore as I anticipated. While it was nice to have a quick-ish tour of these sites, I would have preferred a more interactive tour.

We returned to the bus tour company around 3:15, once I deboarded the bus, I decided to head back into the Louvre for a less-rushed tour. I spent probably another 2 hours inside, and then decided I should head back to meet Matt, as that was our plan on the days he worked (meet at the hotel between 5-6 to decide what to do about dinner).

That night, we were invited to dinner with some Chicago-area colleagues at a place on the Champs-Elysees called L'Alsace. Not knowing what to expect, but excited to go to Champs-Elysees, I figured I'd find something I could eat. Now, having no idea what Alsatian food was, I was a bit surprised by the menu. Apparently, Alsace is right near the border of France and Germany (read: sauerkraut and sausage). Most plates included a big ol' pile of sauerkraut, some sausages, a carrot, and more sauerkraut. Needless to say, Matt, Heather and I weren't all that impressed.

After dinner, Heather headed back to the hotel, while Matt and I decided to explore the area, where we ultimately ended up in a pub with live music. It was a little bit of a goosebump moment when the musician played "Sweet Home, Chicago" (he didn't know we were from Chicago).

After a few drinks there, we decided to head back to the hotel area, and either head to the pub we had went the previous night or to the "cremeria" for more beer. The pub appeared to be closing, but still had a couple of gals inside working on their laptops. The bartender offered us a couple of drinks, saying, "Well, you're in here now, it'd be a shame if you didn't have at least one pint" - SOLD! 3 beers later, but before the girls had packed up their laptops, we decided to call it a night.

I'm really enjoying Paris to this point.

Pictures from the Louvre (I did a lot of this weird picture-taking throughout my trip)

Palace de Invalides

Matt and I on Champs-Elysees

Paris - Chapter 3

2008-04-10T14:45:00.007-05:00

Saturday, 3.29.08 - PM

So, after spending some time at Montmartre/Sacré Coeur, Matt and I headed back to the Metro/RER (I never knew which subway I was on) to make our way back to the hotel. By the time we made it back to the area of our hotel, we still had about an hour before we could check in, so we stopped at a local deli. Once again, I left it to Matt to place my order for me, but the guys behind the counter seemed pretty friendly & not at all angry that we spoke English to one another (I guess I had this idea that all French-speaking people we'd deal with would be offended & rude to us when they heard English. Turns out, if you put forth an effort to speak French, they're a little more forgiving).

This was my first taste of a mozzarella/tomato baguette sammich, and let me tell you, it was delicious. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised. By the time we were finishing up, our eyelids began getting heavier, our bodies feeling worn down.

We headed over to the hotel about 30 minutes early, just hoping we'd be able to check in. Luckily, our room was ready! *sidenote* They put your hotel key on this huge, heavy key chain. Sometime similar to this:

I didn't really get it, and neither did Matt really, but we took it. Even took it with us when we'd go out for the night (well, the first night, at least). I had noticed someone earlier dropping off their key before leaving the hotel. I guess the hotel holds onto it & when you return, you just asked them for the key. This did pose a little bit of a problem for me, as silly as it is, I had trouble saying "43" in French, so I'd usually just say "4-3" (as in the word "four" followed by the word "three"). By the end though, after one of the friendly desk staff explained how to pronounce it, I was able to say "43" in recognizable French (I kept trying to pronounce the 'forty' portion of it how one would pronounce it in Spanish - so that was my main problem).

So, back to the story. We were able to check in to our room, so that made us both happy. We had planned on crashing for a couple hours, to refresh ourselves before dinner.

Now, I had always heard the worst about European hotel rooms (mainly that they are really small), so I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised at the size of our room. Below are some pictures:

Now, here's the bathroom. Looks pretty normal, I know - however, the tub/shower only had one small window as the barrier between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. I had to be extra careful when showering not to splash water all over the freaking place.

Once we awoke from our naps, we started to get ready to head to Au Petit Riche for dinner. The place came recommended from Matt's parents, who ate there when they visited Paris a few years ago. Again, I was really happy to have Matt with me. With most meals, I'd ask him to look over the menu & suggest what he thought I'd like. Most of the time, it wasn't anything I'd ever try, but I've been trying to do better about eating new foods. I ordered the sole, which is a type of fish. Matt and I split a carafe of wine as well (which actually was a part of most every, if not all, meals we had. Not that having wine with dinner is odd, it just is for us non-wine drinkers).

After dinner, we cabbed it back to our hotel where we dropped off Matt's coworker who had joined us for dinner. She headed to bed, but Matt and I were still somewhat awake, due to our earlier nap. We walked around the area and found a pub around the corner. We enjoyed a few beers there, before retiring home for the night. . . but not before stopping at the local grocer to take beers/booze back to our room with us!

I've included pictures from dinner, beers post dinner & our beer/booze run below:

This is where we bought our beer/booze

This is the beer/booze we bought

Paris - Chapter 2

2008-04-10T09:59:00.006-05:00

Why am I writing these in chapters?

Saturday, 3.29.08 - AM
By the time we arrived in Paris, it was 7AM local time. As we got off the plane, we were corralled through customs, another new experience for me. I did have a twinge of excitement, as the little person in the booth was going to stamp the first stamp in my passport!

"Bonjour!" she says, as she takes my passport. She thumbs through it & hands it back to me. No stamp. WTF? I even paged through it in case I somehow missed the process of her stamping it. No stamp.

Anyway, we're now following the other passengers from our flight, but I'm also paying attention to the signs in an effort to teach myself some French. I look up and see "Baggage Claim" with an arrow, next to "Sortie" with the same arrow. Aha! I learned my first French term while in France! Sortie = baggage claim. It makes sense, sortie is close to sorting.

I'm shuffled to the side, while Matt waits for the bags. This part of traveling always makes me nervous. What if my bag doesn't pop out onto the conveyor belt? Would I have to spend money otherwise designated for fun in Paris on stupid clothes? Out comes my bag. Woohoo! More money for fun and not stupid clothes!

As we're headed to the currency exchange/ATM, I notice more "sortie" signs. We're nowhere near any baggage claims, so I'm wondering why they'd have sortie signs upstairs. Meanwhile, I send Matt to the currency exchange line, as he's at least able to speak some French. I stand in line at the ATM, but then begin to freak out a little, thinking, "what if all of the directions on the machine are in French? What the heck will I do?" Again, my non-international traveling self should have realized the machine likely offers multiple languages. It did. Hooray.

With cash in hand, Matt and I head to the taxi line, again, passing under a sign that read "sortie." Once I saw the sign hanging over a door to the outside, I realized "sortie" must not mean baggage claim, but rather "exit." At least I kept that to myself, no one knew how dumb I was.

We get into a cab, and once again, Matt is able to communicate with the driver, using the French he remembered. The ride took quite sometime, and ended up being about €40 (which translates to roughly $63). When we're almost to our hotel, we pass by a pretty old & large building, with well-dressed kids standing outside smoking. We're told this is one of the richest high schools in Paris. First, it was Saturday, what were kids doing in school? Secondly, everyone seemed to be dressed really well, like professional-business well - they weren't in uniforms, rather, their own clothes. I know this shouldn't be surprising to me, but it was.

We pull around the circular drive, see the Pantheon on our left & our hotel straight ahead. What a cool place to be staying!

Entering the hotel, it's Matt duty again to do the talking. I sit in the quaint lounge area of the hotel lobby while Matt speaks with the two guys at the desk. There seems to be some confusion. There isn't a room for us at the hotel. It's not under Reynolds, or under his coworkers last name either. The men behind the desk seem a bit frazzled, and ask numerous times for the last name & if we're sure we're at the correct hotel. Eventually, one of the men calls the hotel located directly next door. They have our reservation! Thank goodness.

We lug our what seem to be well over 100lb bags out the door and into the oddly similar hotel next door. I take my seat, Matt once again does the talking. Because it was around 8:30AM at this point, we weren't able to check-in. This ended up being a good thing, as while I know it's probably best to stay awake once arriving in a foreign country, the odds of me getting into the room, seeing the bed, and wanting to crash for a few hours was pretty high. The hotel was gracious enough to hold our bags while we ventured out into the city, not able to check in for 5 1/2 hours.

We decide to head to the subway and head to Montmartre/Sacré Coeur. (More can be read about it here ). Here are a couple of pictures:

Paris - Chapter 1

2008-04-09T09:55:00.003-05:00

So, I'm not too sure how I'm going to organize my thoughts on my trip, so bear with me.

Friday, 3.28.08

I get to the airport around 3:15PM for our 5:30PM flight. I assume the place will be a zoo, and expect the worst for check-in (as I've never travelled internationally, I was ignorant to the process). Turns out I was able to walk right up to a self-check in & check myself in. *Rewind* As I'm leaving my apartment to take the Addison bus to the Blue Line to O'Hare, I'm struggling with the weight of my suitcase. In my mind, it's at least 75, if not 100 pounds. This worries me, as I know there's some sort of fee associated with that.

Ok, so I finish checking in & head to the agent to plop my 100 pound suitcase onto the scale to be checked in. beep.beep.beep, the number keeps going up. It stops at 49.8. 49.8!! I almost wanted to high-five the gate agent in celebration. She smiled, but that's all the emotion I received.

So, I'm all checked in & I head to security. Now, I don't know why I was concerned, but for some reason, I was a little worried about my expired drivers license (it expired the day before). I obviously had my passport, which I knew would work, but stupidly, I was expecting them to ask for a secondary ID. They didn't.

I make it through check-in and security in less than 15 minutes. This is faster than any other experience at an airport, even without checking bags. I was pleased. I immediately see a Chili's and I belly up to the bar and order a drink. I figured I'd wait there for Matt, once he arrived from work. Three or four Stellas in, it's time to head to our gate.

We make it there as they're boarding. I was pleased to find out that he and I would be in a 2-seater on one of the sides, rather than squeezed into the five-seat middle section. Granted, we were in economy class, so we would be a little tight, but it still made me more comfortable for the 8-hour flight.

As soon as drinks started being served, Matt and I ordered drinks.

After a few more drinks, and thanks to Jerry Seinfeld and the awful Bee Movie, I was able to drift off to sleep. I probably only slept for an hour or so, but it was enough to keep my body tired enough to drift in and out of short stints of sleep for the next couple of hours.

I was woken up a short time later with breakfast (served around 11PM Chicago time) and the end of Apollo 13 (hooray for the astronauts who survived! I know it's a true story, but I didn't know it. For those who also didn't, SPOILER!).

At this point, we began our decent into Paris. My excitement level was through the roof. I felt like a kid on my first trip on an airplane. I held Matt's hand and enjoyed the smooth landing. We were in Paris.

Eurotrip

2008-04-07T17:26:00.003-05:00

I'm really trying to put together a well-thought out recap of my trip to Paris/London. I'm still in the process of organizing my thoughts, so to my one or two loyal reader(s), please be patient.

Is it time for vacation yet?

2008-03-11T14:04:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I came home to finding my passport in the mailbox. I can't explain how awesome that was for me. I applied for it on February 27th & expected it to take the entire 3 weeks I was told. Had it taken 3 weeks, it would have arrived as I was on vacation in Vegas for the first weekend of the tournament. That would have made for a stressful trip.

So, now that I have that, the only thing left to worry about before leaving for Vegas is ensuring everything is in order at work. I'm sure things will be fine when I'm out, especially due to the amount of work I'm doing before leaving to ensure of it.

I also need to figure out a more solid itinerary for our trip to Paris. I have a good skeleton plan of what I want to do, I just need to figure out which days for which thing(s)... or just show up and wing it, which would also be fun.

In other news, yesterday was my first trip to the gym in about 3 weeks. Dreading the worst, I almost convinced myself to not weigh myself, as I didnt want to be disappointed sliding the weight-bobber to the right. Turns out I've lost 3 lbs since my last trip & am officially over 20 lbs lost since I began back in October. I'd initially planned on losing 30 by 30 (my 30th birthday), but with only 16-ish days left, I think I'll come up short. That said, I'm still pretty happy with my results so far & will reach the 30lb mark before too long.

HOORAY FOR MARCH!!!

2008-03-03T10:53:00.002-06:00

March is quite possibly my favorite month of the year.

Today is Matt's 29th birthday. We went out to Tango Sur on Saturday night to celebrate. What a dumb idea. I mean, we knew it'd be a long wait for a table (they don't take reservations for parties less than 6), but we expected it to be closer to an hour or hour and a half. When the guy taking names told us it'd be 2 hours, we decided to head to a local bar we rarely have the chance to visit anymore, because it's "too far" (it's probably 8 blocks away, but there are probably 12 bars closer). So we headed to Gingers, asked the bartender if they minded keeping our 6-pack cold in the cooler, and had a couple of drinks. We finally ended up being seated, a mere 2 hours and 20 minutes later, and the wait was well worth it. I freaking love that place. Plus, it provided leftovers for lunch on Sunday. (After all of it though, it would have made more sense to go tonight, when the wait would likely be less than 30 minutes, if any at all). Dummies.

Our plans for Europe are shaping up quite nicely. We will be spending 5 nights in Paris and then taking the Chunnel up to London & spending 2 nights there. Matt's work is footing the bill for the hotel in Paris for the 5 nights, so it made paying the cost of my flight a little more reasonable (much thanks to my dad for giving me my 30th birthday gift early!). Matt lived and worked in London for roughly 8 months, so we'll be visiting his old pub & he'll be my tour guide for our time there.

Before heading to Europe though, I had already planned on going to Vegas for my 30th birthday - so, we're headed there a few weeks before my 30th - on March 19th - for the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. As sad as it sounds, I'm a little relieved that I wont have to be glued to every game, thanks to Illinois being completely awful this year, I wont need to worry about them even being in any sort of post-season tournament.

In other news, our office moved to a new location, so that had taken up a lot of my time recently (hello, overtime!)... I'm trying to convince myself that Steve wont hate us after we board him for roughly 3 weeks due to our traveling... :(

That's about it for now.

Gem appell Amber?

2008-02-11T22:08:00.000-06:00

I'm inching closer to being able to join Matt in Paris at the end of March.

*developing*

Air Travel

2008-02-04T12:16:00.000-06:00

I don't travel all that often, usually 4-5 trips a year, but each time, I'm always amazed at the stupidity and selfishness of my fellow travelers.

Last week, I went to Denver for a one-day trip to our office out there. I shouldnt be surprised, but of all the annoyances related to air travel, I ran into every one of them.

1. Security
Yes, you need to take your shoes off. Probably your belt and jacket as well. We all do. There's no reason for you to assume you are immune to this part of security.

2. Boarding
In this day and age, most airlines print a "seating area" on your boarding pass. Please pay attention to this & only board when your area is called. The corral everyone must go through isn't large enough to allow your family of four to turn around and retreat comfortably when you realize you're in seating area 3 when seating area 1 is being called. Speaking of corrals, I've got a bone to pick about United's Red Carpet Club, but that will be addressed below.

3. Carry-on luggage
I realize you may have had an issue with missing luggage in the past, or you're not interested in taking the extra time to check your bigger-than-carry-on-luggage, but there has to be limits. The airlines should probably do more to prevent passengers from lugging on huge carry-on pieces, but the passenger shouldnt be absolved from blame either.

When storing your carry-on, how hard is it to put the wheel-y suitcases in, wheels first? You leave more space for others & look less like a first-time traveler if you store correctly. Also, take a minute to look around & some time to listen to any announcements by the airline staff. If the flight is full, your laptop bag, coats, scarves, purses do not belong anywhere but under the seat in front of you. Less footroom kind of stinks, but guess what, it beats being selfish.

4. Children
Yes, kids need to travel too, but please be prepared to keep your children occupied throughout the flight & if they're doing something controllable (like kicking the back of a seat), have them stop.

5. Talking
If you're on a flight at an hour many people would rather be sleeping (6AM), don't take it upon yourself to tell your life story to the passenger sitting next to you. If you do, please use your inside voices, and for goodness sake, take a breath every once in a while.

6. Exiting the plane
I'm not sure what happens, but somehow at least 5 people forget where they put their items. Knowing where your items are, and getting them as quickly as you can, is key for everyone on the plane. Everyone wants to get off the plane, the last thing passengers want to do is wait for Susie Packsalot to find her oversized carry-on and laptop bag.

7. First Class
Now, I think my dislike for this portion of air travel is strictly rooted in jealousy, so take that for what it's worth. In any case, here are my issues with first class, specifically with United Airlines:

United Airlines has what's called the "Red Carpet Club" - this involves access to secret areas inside the terminal with what I can only imagine is free-flowing booze, HD televisions, food & free internets. I've been in one before, and to be honest, I had no idea they even existed prior to that. At O'Hare atleast, the doors aren't that noticable to anyone not looking for them. In Denver, however, the doors are at the end of a moving walkway, and when they open, you wish you could go inside to hang out with all of the important people who are obviously too good to sit out at the airport bar with the rest of us.
The Red Carpet Club also involves an actual piece of red carpet. There's a doormat-sized red carpet at the gate, in a separate corral area (which is located directly next to the "rest-of-us" corral). It was funny when the gate agent hooked the red carpet corral belt thing, and unhooked the rest-of-us corral belt thing to signify that it was now our turn to board. As if some sort of statement was being made to those of us not privy enough to walk over the red carpet.
Once we board the airplane, it always gets my grits (I dont really know what that means) to see that as I'm struggling to make it down the aisle, we have the pleasure of walking through first class. The big seats are nice, but these people already have drinks in their hands? Meanwhile, I'm waiting for Susie Packsalot to shove her bigger-than-carry-on-luggage sideways into the overhead compartment. :(

So, we went up north for New Years...

2008-01-14T15:43:00.000-06:00

This update will likely be short, but sweet. Hopefully.

So, on Friday evening after Jen was finished with work, we picked her up, filled up on gas (we luckily* were borrowing Matt's parents car) and headed out to a clear I-90. It stayed clear for about 12 minutes.** Once we were in Wisconsin, the roads were getting slick and snow was falling on a somewhat regular basis. Needless to say, it was a bit nerve-wracking. Once we were fairly close, and on a 2 lane highway, I was happy - after a little over 5 hours, we were almost there. And then we see brake lights ahead of us. A whole long line of them. Did I mention we were on a 2-lane highway? We saw no one coming from the other direction. We probably sat stationary for 15-20 minutes. Doesn't really seem like a lot, but it sure does when you're sitting on a road, waiting to move. I guess there was at least a 2-car crash, as we saw the tow truck towing 2 wrecked cars in front of us. Anyway, eventually we made it - Matt's parents waited up (of course) and even had some sort of chili cheese dip warmed and waiting for us. (Keep in mind this was sometime after 1AM, if I recall correctly).

The next morning, Matt's parents made us breakfast & after Jen and I learned to snowmobile. I'm pretty conservative with it, as I was afraid I'd fall off if I went too fast. *** As Jen and I were "learning" we decided to take them into town and have a beer. Beers were $1.75. Awesome. Anyway, it was an odd experience just pulling up into a parking lot and parking a snowmobile. **** Inside the bar, we found many others dressed in the same snow pants, huge winter coat as us. There was even temporary shelving set up for helmets. We had a beer & then headed back.

Most of our time was spent either in the cabin hanging out (90210-watching), out on snowmobiles, or somewhere in one of the towns at a bar. I had my first Wisconsin cheese curds (both the deep-fried and non-breaded varieties), we went antique shopping (I'm sure Matt loved that), and we watched Illinois lose in both basketball (Tennessee St at home) and football (USC in the Rose Bowl).

Back up - did I mention we brought Steve up with us? It was an interesting experiment, to say the least. After some confirmation from Dr. Bob (Matt's Dad) as well as other family members that have taken cats up there, we decided to pack him up and take him. He doesn't like being in his crate very much, so for the first 5 minutes or so, he was whining pretty bad. :( Once up there, we kept him in the bedroom we were sleeping in, as there were 2 dogs up there. We knew he'd likely stay in there anyway, under the bed, but we didn't want to take chances that they wouldn't get along. After 2 days, the dogs were gone & Steve started to show his face. He'd do his own exploring, making sure to walk into every room - for what, I don't know. As silly as it seems, I was pretty happy seeing him out and walking around. Even at home, he usually stays secluded when we have people over, so it was nice to see him out with Jen being there. By the last day, he came out quite a bit. Yay for Steve!

Ok, so back to the rest of the trip... New Years Eve, we went to the local butcher and bought steaks for grilling. Matt's parents had leftover lobster, so Jen and Matt had that in addition to steak (too weird texture-y for me). Matt grilled up the steaks & spargus - it ended up being really great (despite a grill covered in snow). We finished eating, cleaned up & had a few drinks before heading out to the Shamrock Bar for NYE festivities. Once at the bar, we quickly snagged a couple of seats right at the bar and drank cheap drinks most of the night. I think we collectively spent no more than $50 or $60. Awesome.

It was a really fun time spent up north & I hope to plan a trip with our friends this summer. It's a 6-hour drive & summer weekends are usually pretty busy for most, so it might be tough. Would definitely be fun, though.

*I say "luckily" but the car didn't handle very well in the snow. It did a great job at ensuring we make it up there, but once there, it was tough to get around.

**It was probably more than 12 minutes.

***I did fall off one night. I wasn't driving, Matt was. I was on the back, he took a turn pretty quickly, I was catapulted from the vehicle. I didn't get hurt.

**** Even more odd, being first -time riders, Jen and I didn't know snowmobiles do not go in reverse. So, when we first saw the lot, we drove right up to the pile of snow that had been removed from the lot. Everyone else was nicely lined up in the lot. I didn't want to drive in there, out of fear of doing something wrong or crashing into something. Whoops.

Oh, and just kidding about this update being short.

Here are some pictures from the time up there:

ninja smoke

2008-01-07T15:27:00.000-06:00

More to come...

... and we're now in 2008

2008-01-04T09:53:00.000-06:00

So, let's see if I can give an update on what's been going on the past few weeks.

The weekend of the 22nd-ish I spent the night in St Louis, for our annual trip to the Braggin' Right's game. Illinois won yet again, 8 years in a row. The hilarious thing about this year's game - we're awful. Even in a year when our team is awful, we still end up beating Mizzou.

Christmas and the days around it were a whirlwind yet again. Christmas Eve Eve was spent in the western burbs, once we were actually able to find it. There's just something about the western burbs - I always end up getting lost on my way. It doesn't matter if I've been to the specific location before, I get lost. It sucks. Well, the western burbs do. Anyway, that was Matt's dad's side of the family. It was a small gathering, but good to see that side of the family. Matt's grandma even commented to him, "I like your lady-friend" :D

Christmas Eve was spent at Matt's mom's side of the family in Oak Park. The main attraction to this gathering is the music played and songs sung after all of the hullabaloo that comes with Christmas is finished. That side of the family is pretty musically gifted, everyone usually sits around in the main room while Matt's uncles & aunts play instruments and sing. I'll be honest, last year, I was a bit taken back by the entire thing, I thought it was a little bit weird. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Should I sing? If I don't, will everyone think I'm the weird one? In any case, my finding it weird was mostly because I've never been a part of a family that does much more than sit around and watch television or play cards during the holidays. This year, it was probably the part of the holidays that I was most looking forward to.

Christmas Day was spent in the Rock with my dad's family for most of the day. After that, we headed to my mom's to see her, my brothers and my nieces and nephews. And finally, after that, Matt's immediate family (mom and dad) wanted to have our own Christmas celebration, so we headed to Kenosha from Rockford. We had a nice dinner and opened gifts. Among sweaters & a picture frame collage, they gave us a huge Illinois metal bucket, filled with a ton of Illinois stuff - really cool gift that I look forward to putting to use.

A few days after Christmas, Matt, Jen and I headed up to northern Wisconsin to spend a few days at Matt's family "cabin." Cabin is in quotes because it's pretty much a house. There are 3 BRs, 2 bathrooms, a fully functioning kitchen with every appliance imaginable, a laundry room, etc. I'll hold off on posting the recap from the cabin though. I'm hoping to have pictures soon, once I have those, I will post that in a different post.

Finally, today is my first day back at work since 11 AM on Christmas Eve. Wow, it sucks. Not quite as busy as I was anticipating, so I guess that's good (I mean, I even have time for this big ol' update)... but, I really enjoyed my time off.

My new hat!

2007-12-20T11:13:00.000-06:00

I purchased a new hat this winter. This inspired me to find pictures of me in different hats. I should wear hats more often.

Here are some pictures!

Technically, this isn't a hat, but whatever:

Also, not a hat:

Christmas decorations!

2007-12-18T12:08:00.000-06:00

We finally picked up a tree on Saturday. Here are a couple of pictures of decorations at Westview. (We actually made the basket & wreaths ourselves! Hooray us!)

Yes, Steve has a stocking. Let's not forget, I'm a creepy cat lady.

and finally, our tree:

ROSE BOWL!!!!

2007-12-03T13:56:00.000-06:00

So, it was announced yesterday that Illinois will be facing USC in the Rose Bowl on January 1st. What awesome news for a program that was so dismally bad just two years ago. While I don't expect to come out of Pasadena with a win, I certainly hope Illinois is able to be competitive and keep it close.

Sadly, because of the high costs of flights ($500+), I will not be making the trip out west for the game. It's just not something I'm able to rationalize as worthy of such a large amount of money, for one game. Besides, I also have 2 trips in March to plan for - My 30th birthday in Vegas (March 19th - 23rd, mark your calendars now!) as well as the annual trip to the Final Four (this year in San Antonio). Why this can't be the year the Final Four is in Detroit is a bit frustrating. I'd easily skip that trip to take this one out west.

Anyway, that's the update for now... currently planning our trip to St Louis for the Braggin' Rights game on the 22nd!

holler.

I am a creepy cat lady

2007-11-27T11:31:00.000-06:00

I really like this picture

2007-11-20T11:13:00.001-06:00

Biggest Loser Challenge - Halfway point...

2007-11-12T20:07:00.001-06:00

So, it's the halfway point of the diet I posted about at the end of September- the diet where 7 of us all tossed in $50 to see who could lose the highest percentage of body weight by the end of the year.

Well - my progress so far - I've lost 11.5 pounds! It's been tough, and I probably could be down more than that if I were more dedicated to the working out portion of the plan. I've generally kept on track with my new diet, only having a couple of bad days over the course of the past 7 weeks.

Anyway, my goal is to lose 20 by the end of the year, and the ultimate goal is 30 by 30 (30 lbs by my 30th birthday - which is 3.27). I know I'll hit a plateau at about the 18-20lb mark (I always do)... so it could be tough. If I can keep up with losing 1.5 - 2lbs/week, I'll be in great shape.

Thanks to all who have encouraged me, even if it was a simple, "you look like you've lost weight" (and for the record, it's ALWAYS good to hear that, and not something anyone should feel bad saying).

Oh, Illinois beat #1 Ohio State on Saturday 28-21, in case anyone missed it!

Nylons

2007-11-09T09:28:00.000-06:00

I wore nylons to work for the first time this fall season yesterday.

There are pros & cons to nylons.

Pro: Keeps your legs a little bit warmer than going without
Con: Putting them on can be dangerous for the stability challenged

Pro: You don't necessarily have to shave that day
Con: The squat and yank maneuver necessary in order to pull them back up after using the facility can also be dangerous for those of us who stumble a lot.

I'm still not sure where I fall when it comes to wearing dresses/skirts in the winter. I'm going to need to invest in some boots if I plan on wearing dresses or skirts.

Random entry.

Catching up...

2007-10-30T10:06:00.000-05:00

So, what's been going on in my life recently?

Not a whole lot really, but I figured I'd update my blog.

Illinois football made itself bowl eligible with its win over Ball State last weekend, during Homecoming weekend. I stayed in Chicago for the weekend, as I hosted Teri's bachelorette party.

Speaking of, after the date was already picked, we realized that it would be Halloween weekend in Chicago, so the girls attending were asked to wear an old bridesmaid dress, while Teri wore something that resembled a wedding dress. We went on a barcrawl down Southport and then over to Sheffield, where we ended up singing kareoke at Trader Todd's. (Correction: Teri and her mom ended up singing kareoke). Trader Todd's was the site of Teri and Kieffer's first date, so we figured it'd be a fun way to end the evening. At one of the bars, employees of the bar took our picture & plan on uploading it to their website. Awesome. As soon as it becomes available, I won't let anyone know. :)

Back to Illinois football - so, we're bowl eligible - and the following bowls are where we might end up:

Champs Sports Bowl - Orlando - 12/28/07 - Big Ten #4/5
Alamo Bowl - San Antonio - 12/31/07 - Big Ten #4/5
Insight Bowl - Tempe - 12/31/07 - Big Ten #6
Outback Bowl - Tampa - 1/1/08 - Big Ten #3
Capitol One Bowl - Orlando - 1/1/08 - Big Ten #2

Right now, it's looking as if we'll be somewhere in Florida or in San Antonio. Not that I wish the Illini to finish 6th in the Big Ten, but I certainly wouldnt complain if we ended up in Tempe. We'd have a free place to stay in Sean's place, plus it's doubtful that I'd go to San Antonio, should we end up there (which I think is most likely) - I'll be in San Antonio for the Final Four in April 08, there's no reason to go to Texas twice within a 6-month span if I can help it.

So, that's Illini football.

Illini basketball kicks off it's season with an exhibition game against Quincy this Wednesday in Champaign. It'd be awesome if we'd be able to see it on TV without having to leave our house - Thanks Big Ten Network & Comcast. Effers. We're having our IBDA draft at Teri's & Kieffer's wedding...

This weekend is Teri & Kieffer's wedding. I'm pretty excited for it. Hopefully I'll have my dress sooner rather than later. I know it'll end up looking great, I'm just a wee bit anxious to get it, to make sure it fits, looks good with my shoes, etc.

That's all for now.

Yesterday was Steve's 3rd birthday

2007-10-18T15:45:00.001-05:00

His birthday is the day we brought him home. We decided he turned 3 yesterday too. Here's a picture of his celebration:

The marathon was brutal

2007-10-08T15:59:00.001-05:00

So, yesterday was the 30th running of the Chicago Marathon.

The weather was absolutely brutal. So much so, that the city decided to cancel the marathon 3.5 hours into it, mainly due to the ill-preparedness of the marathon organizers (they ran out of water & Gatorade). Of the approximately 36,000 people who started the race, approximately 25,000 of those runners completed the race. Those that were running at a slower pace were instructed to walk & also forced to board a bus to make their way to the finish line.

My friend Jen and I were out cheering our friends on, around the 8-mile marker. I had a huge Cookie Monster balloon, to make it easier for the runners to spot us, at a very crowded part of the race. All of our friends running were able to locate us, with the last being Teri & Tyler. It was Teri's first marathon (a mere 2 years after proclaiming, "you have to be clinically insane to think running 26.2 miles would be enjoyable) - they stopped at our location, Teri needed to the phone to contact her mom to alert her to the fact that they were about 30 minutes behind her scheduled pace. Luckily, Jen brought bottled water & we were able to give each one of them a bottle (as the last water/aid station was nearly out of water, they weren't sure what to expect going forward). Teri and Tyler weren't allowed to finish, so I feel awful for Teri - she'll never have a "first marathon experience" again, and this was a crappy way for her to start.

Another friend of mine was interviewed by CBS 2 in Chicago - the video is in the link provided. Don't feel bad laughing that they interviewed him as he was laying on the ground, as he's ok now. At the time, notsomuch. He's one of the first interviews - http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=36205@wbbm.dayport.com

Hooray for football season!

2007-10-08T10:15:00.001-05:00

And kudos to my teams beating up on the state of Wisconsin this weekend!

Hey Chicago, whaddya say?

2007-10-03T15:45:00.001-05:00

Playoffs start tonight.

Giddy up.

I went to McDonalds and didn't order fries!

2007-09-27T12:44:00.001-05:00

So, as I've started paying close attention to what I'm consuming this week, and while searching for alternatives in the area around my office, I decided to check McDonalds, just to see how bad their salads are for you. I was pleasantly surprised at the choices and the nutritional value of them.

So, I ordered a Bacon Ranch Salad with Grilled Chicken. I opted against the ranch dressing, instead, I ordered the low-fat Italian dressing. I pay and patiently wait to the side for my salad, thinking this could be great or it could be a disaster. As I'm handed my salad, I notice it's in a different bag than the normal red & white bag the regular, bad-for-you McDonald's food is served in. I take this as a sign that I should show it off as I'm making my way outside to find a seat. Sort like, "Hey guys, I did go to McDonalds, but look! I bought a salad!"

As I'm toting my salad bag around, I find my seat at a table outside. I look around to make sure everyone knows that while I did get McDonald's, I ordered a salad (I probably should have made a sign). I opened it up, it didnt look half bad. I drizzled a bit of my dressing on the salad and had my first bite of the chicken. "Ooh, it's warm!" I surprisingly thought to myself. I fiddle my way through the contents of the salad to notice that there are bacon bits AND cheese included. "This is the best not-bad-for you salad I've ever had!" I almost exclaimed out loud (which would also help to alert those around me that I ordered a salad from McDonald's. I really don't know what it is, or why I feel the need to make sure others know what I'm eating. I think it's probably partially due to trying everything to hold myself accountable. As if strangers seeing what I eat will help, but whatever).

I finish up my salad, chug down the rest of my water & get up to take a walk. I figure I should get walks in at lunch while the weather still permits. I don't plan out my walks prior to lunch, I just head a direction & walk. I eventually reach a point to turn around or start heading back to the office. This week, I've ended up taking 1.2 and 1.3 mile walks. Pretty cool.

Anyway, the moral of the story, err, of this post: McDonald's offers other items that aren't so bad for you! Give them a try someday, you might be surprised.

Ok, so I guess the diet starts today?

2007-09-24T09:46:00.000-05:00

So, Teri's boyfriend Kieffer started an online Illini Biggest Loser competition Located here - a bunch of my interets friends and I are competing to win $350 by losing the highest percentage of body weight. The end date for the contest will be December 31st, 2007 - making it especially challenging at the end (being that it's during the holidays and all).

In any case, we're all taking pictures & weighing ourselves today & sending them to one non-participant who has been picked to be the judge (Thanks, Philo!). He'll track our progress on a weekly basis & keep the website udated in terms of who's ahead etc.

Kieffer has already done a great job at providing infomation for contestants as well. Others have provided websites to track your weightloss, to monitor what you eat, etc.

Last time I did the whole weight loss thing, I ended up losing 22 pounds in 4 months. I'm hoping to lose 20 pounds by the end of the year, but will continue to try and lose 30 by my 30th birthday (March 27th).

Wish me luck, because I've never been very good at sticking to a weight loss program. I'll stick to it for 3-6 months and as soon as I plateau, I usually give up. Hopefully this won't happen again.