Recent Days

After experiencing the most awful event of moving there is just one thing worse, un-packing. Ugh! Slowly Matt and I have been organizing things and getting rid of a ridiculous amount of boxes, it feels like home here.

After getting the apartment all set, I've been looking up fun things to do in Chicago (just wrote Madison and had to replace it with Chicago...) and met up with Emily for Tuesdays at the Terrace for some Jazz. It was pretty fun and then we got some secret exercise by walking to this bar/grill called I dubbed "Shipwrecked" because that sounds so much better than its real name. We then met up with Neha, went and saw Skerch, and finally I got home and looked up how much we walked which was 5 miles! My feet hurt so much today because I was wearing $1 Old Navy flip flops for that, and continued to wear flip flops. Oh well.

For today, Matt and I went to the Shedd Acquarium's 'Jazzing at the Shed' (two Jazz events in two days!) and was surprised that the cost of all access to the Shedd AND the Fantasea show was just $20! I'm learning cool Chicago things :)

Ended the night with fireworks-hope to see them again from Navy Pier. Now to bed

Back to Chicago: Part II

Well, I finally moved back to Chi-town! It was super sad to leave Madison, but after living here I've been so busy I feel like I have no time to think.

To re-start my life in Chicago I decided to start it right by going to the once place in town that I visit way too much- Finn McCools! But before going there we had a neighborhood block party "North Center Summerfest" that we went to and had a great time! We might have snuck in some beers, but we donated money to the event so I guess it evens out. There was this crazy band there "Wedding Banned" that was really fun. Even more fun= watching cover bands have groupies!

But after that we went to Neha's to chill before going out and got stuck in the elevator! Luckily Neha and I had our cell phones and other fun things (post it notes for Hangman); however, there was this SUPER-bitch in the elevator with us who blamed us for the elevator stopping, and then freaked out over the phone with the doorman. I think without her we would have had a great time, but she just made everyone feel awkward and awful!

Finally went to Finn McCool's and danced the night away-and danced AWAY from the creepers that facilitate the place. But always have a great time there!

Final Days

So this is my final week in Chicago, and all I want to do is sleep all the hours that I missed sleeping! I should be trying to fit in everything Chicago, but I've learned the train system down pat, tried many deep dish pizza places, and greatly appreciated Lake Michigan and the lakefront. I think that's pretty good for 3 months...but there are somethings that I haven't learned...

1) I don't know why, but every cab driver knows I"m not from Chicago. They always ask, how long have you been here? or where are you from? and they just know! I have no idea how...

2) I still wait in line for the train....everyone still pushes, but I try to be not rude

3) I say sorry when I bump into people.

Besides that I've become a more intense driver!

But big plans for upcoming week-Friday I"m trying to plan a big madison going away party, Saturday I plan to move out, Sunday-Monday visit parents, and then show up in Madison either Monday or Tuesday. Then I will play trivial pursuit.

That's the big plan-hopefully I will stick to it!

Very confusing

So I just realized in the past 2 weeks I've called 3 places home-

1. When I was flying into Chicago from Kansas I thought "it's great to be back home"
2. When I drove to Madison this weekend and saw the Capital "it's great to be back home"
3. When I talked to my mom at home and thought "I should visit home"

Luckily though I'm only paying rent at two homes!

But last week was pretty rough-I was picked up on this client that was near the end of their engagment so one day I spent 12 hours adding numbers up. My hand felt like a claw that day. I think last week I put in 2 14 hour days and 2 12 hour days.

Also really horrible last week-I had to run and grab coffee every day for the other teammates, which was OK, but one day I'm like "Wow I"m super tired, I should get a mocha-it's basically chocolate milk and a shot of espresso right?"

A few things wrong with this line of thought

1. I've only TASTED coffee-never drank it
2. I don't drink soda much anymore-and usually have caffeine free
3. I don't drink coffee.

So I drank this mocha and thought it tasted OK, and then an hour later the caffeine HIT ME! It was horrible, I was shaking and jittery and felt like I was drunk or something but worse-I was at work while this was occuring. And I kept trying to look up online how to fix it, but couldn't find anything so for 3 hours I felt horrible. I don't think I'm touching coffee ever again.
Yuck.

Kansas

Wow-long time since posting...So I was in Holland and then came back for Saturday and had Valentine's Day with Matt <3

i know cute.

So Sunday I flew the Kansas City! But we went to Missouri Kansas City, not Kansas City Kansas...i guess they are just separated by a river.

When we got in we went out to this rib place. I must say, i beats Famous Dave's ten-fold! But we went to the workplace the next day and got a tour of the place and saw organs! But you couldn't tell they were organs-they were all frozen and stuff...but we did see cut up mice?

But the week there was long-we worked pretty late and the hotel didn't really have an internet connection to connect to, so when I got back today there was like, a week's worth of stuff to do.

It was so classic one night though-I got sushi for everyone's dinner and I've never really ordered or ate sushi so i got some california roll with avocado and when i picked it and started to eat the sushi i'm like oh this green stuff is the avacado and i took a huge chunk of it because i love avacado, and ate it with the sushi....it was wasabi! And I totally screamed at the client's site and spit it out in the garbage and people made fun of the the next day...really embarrassing.

but now i'm back in chicago! yay sleep now

Chicagoland

So survived the week in Holland Michigan-and every time we ordered dinner at some restaurant they always messed up our order! Once they forgot our salads, another time they gave us shrimp instead of salads, and they kept putting mayo on everything. And I only saw one windmill.

But everyone was really nice so that's a plus. I was working at this plastic manufacturer though and everytime I walked into the warehouse I felt plastic burn my nostrils...

NEXT week I'm in Kansas City, and we're going to work on this other manufacturer of chemicals and drugs or something and they have HUMAN KIDNEYS as inventory! I'm very excited/scared.

That's all for tonight-going to do laundry and rest up for the upcoming days!

Holland!...Michigan

So for this week I'm in Holland Michigan and I just pulled in about 10 minutes ago...So far there's a mall...and I think I saw a windmill that looked like a Holland-ish one...So if anyone wants to look up stuff to do here-let me know!

PS: yes driving through Gary Indiana did smell really bad!