all these places feel like home

So, I'm back in Chicago, have been for exactly 24 hours now. It felt weird leaving iowa, it felt weird coming back, and it still feels a bit weird being back.

It was good to be home and see everyone again. I realized how much I miss people, and coming back to Chicago wasn't easy. I think the hardest part of leaving was not knowing when I'll be back. Every other time that I've left, I've known specifically when I'd be visiting again, but not this time. That made this trip seem more final.

I was in a grouchy mood when my flight took off from Omaha at 7:20pm Wednesday night. I spent most of the flight reading and day dreaming about things I don't remember, reading some more, reminiscing in my mind about the weekend, feeling homesick and daydreaming some more.

Then we got in-range of Chicago.

The street lights lined the earth in a grid-like pattern, with the occasional diagonal street slicing through the squares. As we got closer to the ground, I began noticing Christmas lights on the houses in suburbia. This made me smile. I love the patterns and shapes streets, houses, trees, lawns, and railroad tracks make that you can only see from a plane. I feel privileged, like I have a single use ticket to an ever-changing art gallery, the earth the canvas. So I plaster my face to the window (if I'm lucky enough to get a window seat) so as not to miss a second of the show or a square inch of the view. Especially at night. Night shows are the best. And then the plane turned and out on the horizon i could see downtown, the tall structures amongst the glowing grid like monolithic boulders. It was a spectacular sight, and I was again excited to be back in the city.

have you ever woken up in the morning, and before you can fully wake up, everything starts running through your mind? Events from the day or week before, big decisions you've made or big purchases you've made come flooding into your mind and you're not quite awake enough to logically think about such things? I have this frequently. This morning it happened again. I think because of the whole 'leaving home again' situation. I woke up this morning and felt overwhelmingly trapped. It was a strange feeling. I don't have a car here and I don't know when I'll be flying home again. I felt helpless, and suffocated. And now I'm mad at myself for thinking that because I really do love it here. But if that's true and I really DO love it here why would I have those thoughts? Is my subconsciousness trying to tell me something? Is God trying to tell me something? Why do I feel trapped and suffocated here when I have more opportunity than I could imagine??

the airplane was a good place to be. I was up away from everything, but could still see everything. The biggest decision I had to make was choosing a soda and did I want peanuts or pretzels? For that hour and twenty minutes I hung between the two worlds that is my life. Behind me, home and my past. Ahead of me, my future.

a few things

I'm going home tomorrow night! yea! I should be packing right now since I haven't yet started. ah well, it'll get done.

Tara W, my college roomate is engaged!! She's getting married in July in Washington, and I'm a bridesmaid :) I'm excited for it, plus cuz I'll get to visit my other friend, Rachel who lives in Seattle at the same time. very good news.

Threadless is opening a brick and mortar store right down the street. I'm excited about this as well.

I saw Massive Change at the MCA tonight. It was very interesting, but very information-heavy. I think I'll go back to absorb some more knowledge after i get back from my christmas break. It was very interesting though, so if you're in the area before the 31st, I'd recommend you check it out.

I rode Santa's Christmas train on the way home tonight. haha. the whole thing was decked out with christmas lights and tinsel, and santa's sleigh even took the place of one of the train cars, AND he was in it! that means he was riding the train, OUTSIDE of the train....in the tunnel. Crazy. The elves on the train gave me a candy cane.

So much excitement...I can barely contain myself.

whoop whoop, who needs an update?

So, a couple updates about the past week. Ahem.

Wednesday: Field Museum Christmas party following an announcement to beat all announcements: Christmas bonuses for all full time employees (myself included) to the amount almost equivelent to my monthly rent. That's something to celebrate considering extra cash is always welcome as far as I'm concerned and the last time FM employees got a cash bonus was over 10 years ago.

Friday: Exhibit designers christmas party at a tapas restaurant. Plenty of laughs and sangria, not to mention some memorable gag-gift exchanges. I actually ended up with a fantastic book that I've been meaning to buy.


That's Thomas on the left, david in the middle and my boss on the right. They're arguing about the rules of our gift exchange game. Hot item: movie tickets and a $20 bill.

Saturday: Volunteering at a children's holiday party for members of the Chicago Athletic Association. I was supposed to be the face painter, but the face paints and the face paint director never arrived. So instead I helped kids make ornaments. It was a fun but very interesting way to spend a Saturday morning and afternoon. It was completely different than I was expecting because it was completely up-scale. Even though it was a carnival with messy crafts and arcade games (including a money booth with real money!) the kids were dressed in their sunday-best, their parents were in suits and dresses and sipping bloody marys and mimosas. There was a huge buffet lunch with salmon and crab cakes, eggs benedict and spinach and cheese stuffed tortellini, not to mention the array of desserts. Gave me a brief glimpse of the way the other half lives and I'm sure glad I didn't grow up with all that.

things i want to do before I die

I decided to make a list of things I want to do before I die...not that I'm chronically ill or anything, it's just a way to give myself some concrete, written goals, things to aim for. So, here it goes, in no particular order:

• Travel...to many places: stonehenge, Chichen Itza (again), New Zealand, the Andes Mountains, St. Peter's Basilica, Taj Mahal, London, the colesseum, caves of lascaux, Venice, palace of versailles....the list goes on! (i better get moving)
• Sky Dive or bungee jump (or both)
• snorkel
• run a marathon or half marathon
• get married
• start my own business
• have kids
• go to grad school
• teach (in some fashion...design, art history, sunday school even!)
• pay off school loans
• buy a house
• be the sole designer of an exhibit at the field
• get my christmas shopping done on time
• inspire kids (and adults) to love art
• buy a boat
• learn how to tango, salsa, swing dance, ballroom dance...anything

list to be continued as I dream up more dreams...

i heard a man preaching on the bus

How should one respond to this? Yesterday on my way to church of all places, the man sitting behind me on the bus started preaching. Well, I don't know if it can be called preaching, though he did quote Revelations and Ezekiel several times. But mostly he kept saying, "my name is Wesley Curry, George Bush saw the vision." He never explained this statement and I was too afraid to question it.

In other news, my supervisor turned down my request for an extended Christmas vacation. I had asked to take off work through New Years Day, but aparently it's not going to happen. I'm kinda bummed about it, but I still get to be home for almost a week!

In even OTHER news, I got a brand new computer at work! It's pretty flashy and suped up with so much ram and memory it could quite possibly fly to the moon. A much needed improvement from the little Mac mini I was working on. Anything you can put in your pocket should not be used for the kind of designing I was doing.

Happiness is yelling BINGO

the words on a keychain owned by a 95 year old woman

baking successes

I really like baking. The only bad thing about it is that I live by myself and the temptation to polish off 4 freshly baked cookies is far to great, and makes me feel far to guilty to bake on a regular basis. Thankfully I have a band of co-workers who absolutely love home-baked goods and can help me justify my baking fetish.

Praise for these baked goods:

"Sarah, these are the best cookies I've ever tasted"
"A taste of heaven"
"Dude, those bars are like seriously the best thing I've ever eaten, well, other than vanilla bean cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, but man that doesn't count cuz it's like The Cheesecake Factory"
"This is my perfect cookie consistency"
"We love that you love to bake, Sarah"

I don't mean to brag, but it feels really good to bake for people.

this feeling I'm feeling?...It's thankfulness.

Even though I'm miles from home, miles from my family and friends, and miles from everything I'm used to about Thanksgiving, I haven't forgotten what today, this holiday, is all about. I'm probably more aware of everything I'm thankful for this year than I have ever been. This year was definitely a first for me. Pretty sure it's the first of my 22 years that I haven't spent thanksgiving gathering with family over a massive buffet dinner. Instead, I spent the morning at the Thanksgiving Day parade on State Street which was really exciting for me. It's good to know people, because they can get you VIP seats in the bleachers right across the street from the ABC news camera :)
Then Becca's family was kind enough to invite me to join them for thanksgiving dinner. I have much to be thankful for this thanksgiving, but I can't help but look forward to Christmas, when I get to go home! I have A LOT of shopping to do before then :S

good weekend and good night

I'm tired. I should go to bed. I got up at 4:30 this morning to accompany Dani and Sheila to the airport. That's the second monday in a row that I did that and it's not getting easier. Besides being very early, I have to say goodbye to good friends and family, and on top of that, I have to go straight to work and try to stay awake. yawn...

The weekend was fabulous though. Friday night we just hung out and caught up. It was raining really hard outside so it was a perfect night to take it easy. Saturday was the art institute and shopping. No matter how many times i've been to the art institute, I find something new to love everytime i'm there. But my favorite painting in their collection is The Song of the Lark by Jules Adolphe Breton. I have yet to find a painting more capitaviting to me.

Saturday night we went out and things got a little crazy. Nothing like hitting up CVS for some dramamine and potato chips at 3:30am :P

Sunday we spent 5 hours at the Field Museum, saw the King Tut exhibit (which unfortunately wasn't all it's hyped up to be...) and had deep dish pizza for dinner. A fantastic weekend...but I'm ready for bed!

my toil...

Here are just a few of the things I've been working on at the Field Museum. The exhibit is called The Ancient Americas and it is all about the ancient indigenous peoples and cultures in North, Central, and South America. The exhibit is divided into 7 main galleries based on the time period in which different cultures were in power and based on their way of life. I'm working on 2 of those galleries: Empires, which covers roughly 2400 sq feet and has 15 artifact cases; and Leadership, which covers roughly 2300 sp feet and has 8 cases. Anything that gets read in those artifact cases, I designed. The graphics I designed in the cases aren't too special, but it does get tricky working around the artifacts, making sure the fit in they correct spots, are printed on the correct substrate with the correct color matches for the specific printer and gallery colors....

But the more design intense graphics are outside of the cases and they're huge. Here are a few snapshots of those graphics (click on the image to see a larger version.)

This is what we call a "cultural intro." each culture has one to introduce their section of the exhibit, so far I've designed 8, each with their own color combinations. Oh, and they're 8 feet tall!


This is a reproduction of an ancient mural. It's going to be 8 feet off the ground and the art itself is 7 feet high and 30 feet long. This painting came to me in pieces, so I had to put them together, make them the right size and retouch it for color and background texture in photoshop. I also had to make sure they get cropped and printed correctly so they can easily be installed by the production team at the Field Museum


This is what we're calling a "Monumental Map." It shows the Inca empire and how 'monumental' it was. The different colors represent the different ethnic groups in the empire and the smaller maps on the bottom represent how the empire grew over time. It's 9 feet tall and 3 feet wide.


This is at the end of the exhibit. It's 8 feet wide.


This exhibit is going to be huge! As you can see by this very small sample of graphics, everything is really big. I can't wait to see it all come together and be finished....4 months from today!! eek!!

a great weekend means a hard goodbye

Hope and becky flew home today. It was a sad occasion for me because we had such an awesome weekend! It was the perfect blend of having stuff to do and having no particular plans. We got to relax, catch up, watch TV and some movies, but most importantly, we got to see Wicked! It was the best broadway show I've ever seen, which actually doesn't mean much since I've only seen 4 total, but it was amazing. The colors, the singing, the costumes, it was so cool. We had really good seats too, even though the tickets I got on ebay said 'limited view' they were in the dress circle (not the balcony), so we were closer to the stage. So that was definitely the highlight of the weekend.

I'm so tired now. Hope and becky's flight left at 8:20 this morning so we were up by 4:30 in order to make it to the airport on time...yawn. no amount of caffeine seems to be helping the situation

maybe it was the wine talking...but maybe it wasn't?

My boss has told me twice now that I'm going to become a full-time permanent employee after the Ancient America's opens. Twice. Right now I'm full-time term, which means my contract is terminated at the end of May. But both times she said something about it, she had a glass of wine in her hand and we were at a dinner or a cocktail party. At work she's never said anything or even acknowledged that she's said it. Hmmm....I don't know what to think about this.

I'm very excited if it's true...

it's go-time

I have 15 minutes before my auction on ebay ends. I'm bidding on 3 Wicked tickets for this weekend. Let's hope I get 'em otherwise I'll be spending upwards of $120 per ticket....not that this ebay thing will be any cheaper. Who knows. Ebay is tricky...you really gotta be on your toes in order to be the one with the highest bid at the last possible second. I'm not much of an ebayer normally, so this is sorta new to me. as you can tell, I'm trying to waste time here.

total freak out...what have I become??

I finally buckled down tonight and committed to doing my laundry. I really hate doing laundry at my apartment because there are only 3 washers and 3 dryers. It's pretty cut-throat competition to get there after work and actually get a machine.

So, tonight after work, I rushed home hoping that I'd beat the post-work laundry night rush. (It was raining really bad and the bottoms of my jeans were drenched up to my knees...ugh!) When I got to my apartment, I quickly gathered and sorted all my clothes and set out. Just as I walked out my door, I heard the elevator door close. I got the slightly paniced feeling that someone was just ahead of me and heading for the laundry room. I ran down the steps as fast as possible with a laundry bag full of towels and jeans, but it wasn't fast enough. She beat me. She beat me! The worst part was, the laundry room was completely empty. Not a single machine was being used and you know what she said? "You're gunna have to get in line, cuz I'm going to use all three of these washers."

I don't know how I would've reacted if she had been a little more polite, but I did not take this very well. I said in a very sarcastic voice, "yeah, right. You couldn't even let me use one of those washers?"

She went into all this baloney about how she hasn't done laundry in a really long time and she NEEDS all three machines. I was like...whatever. I scoffed, packed up my stuff and took it all the way back up to the 4th floor (I rigged the elevator so she couldn't used it too).

It took me a while, but of course, my conscious got the best of me and I felt very stupid about the way I acted...like a child! A half hour later, I figured she'd be done with the washers so I tried it again. She was in there when I got there so I apologized for the way I acted. She said it was not big deal, but she never apologized for not sharing the washers. She just complained about how much she hates this building, the tenants, and the landlord (I'm not a big fan of the landlord either). But this lady was still very rude-spirited. I don't know how else to put it. Some people I can deal with, but if they're still rude even after I apologize, it makes me wonder why I should have to put up with that....

running chicago

Today was the 29th annual Chicago Marathon. My plan was to wake up around 6:30 so I could meet Becky H and her sister downtown by 8am so we could watch the start of it. Yeah, that didn't happen. Becky called me at 7:59am and i was still in bed. Whoops. It worked out ok though, cuz the runners were scheduled to run right by my apartment around 8:30. So even though I didn't get to see the HUGE mob of runners at the starting line, I was able to cheer the leading runners on around their 8th mile.


The picture is blurry, not because I couldn't hold the camera steady....they were just running that fast. It was pretty incredible. They're from Kenya, where 'who knows what' is in the water.


Here's the lead runner coming into the finish line. We were standing about 50 yards from the actual finish line, but right before he was about to cross it and break through the ribbon, he slipped on the wet street, hit his head and got a mild concussion. They kept replaying it on the big screen right by us, and I'll tell ya what, when you know something like that is coming, it get harder to watch the more times they play it. He's ok now, though he didn't get to stand on the podium during the awards ceremony.

The whole day was pretty inspirational. Even though these guys are obviously professionals, there were a lot of 'normal humans' running (as Becky called them). A surprising number of old people, dads and moms (their kids cheering and holding signs) and women not much older than me. I think I'll be cheering Becky on next year as she's running it, she sounds like she really wants to do it. Go Becky! I'm behind you all the way!

I, however, better just start with the Shamrock Shuffle 8K in March :)

fall

I wish this time of the year would last ALL year. I love fall. I love the brisk air in the morning and hunting out the crunchiest leaves on the sidewalk. I love not having to wear a parka with scarves and mittens and I love not sweating buckets walking to the bus stop. I love fall.

Night in the Museum

I just have to post the link to this movie trailer. My co-worker showed it to me and I couldn't believe it. First off, it looks ridiculous. Secondly, it SO reminds me of the Field Museum it's creepy. All the artifacts and different rooms, and SUE! the big T-Rex. That's ours!

right now, the stones are rolling

This evening, right next door to the Field Museum, was a Rolling Stones concert. It took place at Solider Field, home of the Bears, and traffic was CRAZY. That's really the only insight on the concert that I have because, oh yeah, I didn't have $185 lying around to get an actual ticket for the concert. At least that's what I heard they were. When i was leaving work around 6:30, there were MOBS of people coming to the concert. I felt like a tiny fish trying to swim against the current.

font problems...solved

If you have corrupted fonts on your computer, download Linotype FontExplorer X. I had a bunch of corrupted fonts on my computer and they were causing it to run slowly. This free download software allows you to restore your computer to it's original system fonts by pulling out all fonts that didn't come with the computer and putting them in a folder on the desktop. Then you can either back-up the fonts you want to keep or delete the entire thing...which is what I had to do. After restarting my computer, it's back all back to normal. phew.

a TRUE underdog...er, bird...story

So this morning I was patiently waiting at the bus stop, minding my own business, and sort of dazing off listening to Imogen heap on my ipod, when out of no where a pigeon swoops down and lands on the sidewalk right in front of me. Apparently there was a piece of bread there, and he began pecking at it. It didn't take long for the rest of the pigeon population at the corner of State and Lake to want their share of the feast. Soon there was a flock of about 14 pigeons battling each other for the rights to the slice of bread. It was quite entertaining for me. Seeing all these clumsy looking birds pecking away at the bread, capturing it in their beak, just to have another pigeon steal it away. What I found even more entertaining was when a tiny little bird, no bigger than my fist joined the flock. At first he just stood outside the circle, hopping in and out, awaiting his chance for some bread. And then, just like that, he got his chance. He got the bread in his tiny little beak and he took off. I saw him fly away while all the pigeons scrambled around trying to find the missing bread.

What a little stinker. He was less than half the size of the pigeons and even though the 'physical' odds were stacked against him, he wasn't afraid to jump in. He had brains, and in the end, that's all he needed. I like that.

kindergarten wasn't that long ago

I enjoy reminiscing. Not sure if that's how you spell reminiscing, but whatever. I still enjoy it.

Recently I got into a discussion with Dani about kindergarten and whether or not one could remember anything from that long ago. I wasn't sure if I could at first, but it didn't take long for my mind to be flooded with memories from that critical year in one's education. So, I thought I'd share a few of my kindergarten memories with you

• The magic carpet. Everyone has had a magic carpet at one point in their life. That year it was olive green.

• The class mouse (or gerbal). I remember this very vividly because I accidentally pulled it's tail off when I tried to pick it up. I swear someone told me I could do that, but apparently he/she was just a kindergartener and didn't know any better.

• The letter people parade. I was "O" and I remember having an orange taped to my paper bag. O is not a very exciting letter.

• Learning to spell our names, and memorizing our addresses and phone numbers. I remember this because the boy right before me in the alphabet could never remember how to spell his last name. I'm not going to name names, but I felt sorry for him. I'm sure he's ok now.

• Sitting in a circle on the magic carpet, right next to my best friend that year, and switching shoes to see whose feet were bigger. Really random memory, but I even remember the shoes...hers were those slip on canvas shoes and mine were pink jellies. Remember jellies??? You just dated yourself if you do.

• Bundling up for recess during the winter. We weren't allowed outside if we didn't have snow pants, scarves, mittens, earmuffs, coats, and snow boots. It was slightly embarrassing if you were stuck inside because you forgot your mittens.

what do you remember about kindergarten? anything?

absolute whirlwind

Things have been happening. A lot of things.

Since going home to Iowa this past weekend, I've somehow managed to catch up on sleep. I'm not sure how, considering everything that's been happening lately, but I feel somewhat rested. I flew back to chicago on Monday evening. Went to work on Tuesday to a full 'to-do' list and tried to catch up on my tasks. I went to bed early on Tuesday night cuz I was so tired. Wednesday proved to be an equally busy day at work, though my a few co-workers and I went to a paper show in the evening. I had never been to a paper show before....ever. And even though my co-workers lovingly warned me what to expect, I was still incredibly overwhelmed by the paper industry. It was an a great experience plus I got a TON of cool paper samples.

Thursday was yet another busy day at work. I can't begin to explain the process of designing an exhibit. I've only been on this project for the last four months, but it's incredible the amount of work it takes to put an exhibit this large together. I'm trying to meet deadlines, which is a first for me. Not that I never meet my deadlines, but I've just never had deadlines like these before.

Thursday night, Rachel stayed over. She was in the process of packing up all her earthly belongings so the lovely movers could come pick it all up Friday afternoon. It was great to spend a little more time with her. Jen, Becky and Chris joined Rachel and I for dinner at Caesar's Friday night (home of the "Killer Margaritas").

Today however, was by far the craziest day of the week for me. I 'accompanied' Rachel to the airport this morning and we left at 5:30am. Saying goodbye was tough. I honestly didn't expect myself to get so emotional, but saying goodbye was really hard. She's been my best friend in the city and I really hate to see her go....but nonetheless, I still wish her the best in Seattle.

After the airport, I took an hour and a half long nap. It was great. I then went to work...on a Saturday, I know. Crazy. Deadlines I tell ya, they'll getcha. Then this evening I went to my co-worker's condo to help her get ready for a spaghetti party she was throwing. It was great fun. A lot of work making sure there was a constant supply of pasta ready, but fun nonetheless.

I'm tired now. I wasn't tired when I started writing this blog, but now I am. i guess that's a sign that this post is far to long. I apologize.

back from the country

I'm still absorbing and processing everything that's happened this past weekend. It was busy, fun and exhausting all at the same time and today at work I was struggling to stay awake.

I had mixed feelings about coming back to Chicago. On one hand I was excited and ready to get back to work. (I REALLY love my job) and I really love Chicago. But on the other hand, it was really hard to leave home. There are so many people that I miss back home and especially after the intense 'family- and friend- bonding' weekend, saying goodbye was tough. What was really cool about going home and meeting up with all my friends and family was how easy it was to pick up right where we left off. It wasn't akward in any way which was so great. I hadn't been home in 2.5 months and I won't again until Christmas....a mere 3 months away. It all seems very managable.

I got a haircut when I was home. Chopped the back off. I hated it at first, but today I like it. Funny how that is. Today I tried to get a new cell phone at a verizon wireless store, walked in and a guy greeted me. He asked me what he could help me with so I told him I'm considering switching to verizon and that I need a new phone. He told me someone would be with me shortly, and if I wanted to I could start looking at the phones they have. So I did. For 15 minutes. No one came to help me. It made me mad so I just left. I don't think I'll switch to Verizon anymore. The greeter-man was still just hanging out by the door when I left.

I really gotta stop wearing my 'invisible' lotion.

9.18.06

Here we are at the start of yet another september week, over halfway through the month, three fourths through the year and, as always, looking to the future (I saw christmas decorations for sale today). Crazy!....It's not even October.

Anyway, a little recap on the weekend: Jill and Joe were here to visit. They just left, and again, I'm alone in my apartment left to replay the weekend's events. We had a great time. We did a lot of catching up on each other's lives, hanging out, being tourists, and checking out different restaurants and bars. Of course, having a great time means that the 'goodbyes' were difficult. But I can honestly say that this was a very enjoyable weekend. The weekend's funniest moment: Jill dumping her corona on her chip at the mexican restaurant because she thought it was the salt shaker, and the look on her face when Joe and I saw what she had done... :) My second favorite part was when Joe (MacGuiver) broke open the gate so that we could go sit on my roof and drink beer with the chicago night skyline before us. It was so peaceful being up there, with the tops of the trees and the glow of the city lights, and being above the noise and motion of the city.

I feel rested up, ready for a week of work, and can't WAIT for next weekend when I get to go home! (here I go again....looking to the future!)

what good are the good 'ol days when there's no one around to hear you talk about 'em?

Today was my first meeting with my senior citizen friend from church, Mamie.

When I originally signed up to be a volunteer visitor, I had this picture in my head about how it would go. We would sit in her apartment with tea and cookies and I would listen to her tell me stories about her childhood, where she grew up, what she did for a job, and ALL about her kids and grandkids. I had an idealized, stereo-typical vision about how it all would go, what she would look like, etc. I was pretty proud of myself, thinking I could really make a difference in this lady's life, that my next visit would be the one thing she could look forward to. Pretty selfish of me.

After I was approved to be a visitor I began to get nervous. Reality sunk in a bit, and I realized that maybe, just maybe, this lady would be hard-skinned, rough around the edges, and expect me to save the world since I apparently thought my life was valuable enough to share with an old, dying lady. Yeah, I'm serious. I tell ya what, my thought process goes from one extreeme to the next.

Anyway, I decided to bake some cookies with the intention of sharing them with Mamie. Maybe she wouldn't provide the cookies that we were supposed to munch on with our tea. I thought I should come prepared.

So this morning, at 10am, I went to her apartment on the 9th floor of a skyscraper in downtown Chicago, a smile on my face, cookies in hand and said, "Good morning Mamie, how are you?"

Her response, "I'm grumpy. But I saw Keith yesterday."

Fabulous start. She was grumpy, wasn't afraid to tell me, and apparently I was supposed to know who Keith was. There's nothing more akward than having no idea what someone is talking about and them expecting you to know EXACTLY what they're talking about. Especially an old lady.

Thankfully it didn't take long to sort out the Keith confusion. Aparently he goes to my church and is the director of the senior center. I just haven't met him yet :P Mamie didn't offer me anything to drink, and she turned down my cookies because she's diabetic (I'm such an idiot).

Regardless of the rough start, Mamie is an amazing woman and we had a great visit. She will be 95 at the end of October and she still lives by herself. She had the most coherent, clear mind I've ever encountered in a woman of her age, or even the age of a few of my co-workers :P We sat in her 'sitting room' and talked about the good 'ol days. I swear she knew every street in Chicago, what restaurants and theatres were in each neighborhood, and where you could go to get a $.35 cent meal, with 'good food.'

We talked about Frank Sinatra, President Clinton, the "doofus that's in office now," WWII, Marshall Field, BINGO, her travels, and the Dorsey Brothers (even listened to their album). A big topic of conversation though, was food. She asked me what resturants were in my neighborhood, if this-one-or-that-one was still around, what nationality I was which therefore determined what food I ate. She told me that she didn't care what kind of food she ate, as long as it was good.

She was definitely not the hard-skinned, rough around the edges Chicagoan that I was afraid she'd be. It was a great visit. She talked my ear off, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I can honestly say that we BOTH look forward to our next visit.

I can't remember who I was myself then. where does time go?

I just had a fabulous conversation-laden evening with Jen at a little coffee house called the Fixx. Conversation topics included roller coasters, hornets, first jobs, friends, long lunch breaks, college reminiscing and transvestites. Take from that whatever you wish. I had a great time. I don't get to see you enough, Jen. It's a shame.

I might be visiting sioux center at the end of this month! It's my cousin's wedding and my grandma's 94th birthday on the same weekend, a perfect opportunity to head home for a long weekend. I REALLY hope i can work it out with my work schedule, I miss seeing my family and friends back home.

I had such a good day at work today. I think it's because the long, somewhat boring weekend left me ready for some social interaction and some serious work to do. I brought along a couple dozen of my homemade cookies to share with my co-workers, and I think they were a big hit.

Another thing that made my day so good today was that I got to do some serious designing. A lot of my job is normally considered 'production.' I have a standard, set design that I have to re-create or implement over and over. But today was different. I'm working on five, 17 foot tall graphic banner type things. They're pretty massive and they're turning out great. Ya'll better take a trip to Chicago in March when the exhibit opens so you can see them. But if you don't make it in March, that's ok, the exhibit is permanent so in 15 years you will still be able to see it...you can even take your kids, (or grandkids for some of you) by that time!

Jen and I were talking tonight about how much we both love love LOVE our first jobs right outta college. I know that's definitely not the case for a lot of people, so I consider myself very fortunate.

I'm off to bed....hopefully i can sleep tonight after that GIANT coffee I had tonight :S

Then labor day came and went...and we shed what was left of our summer skin—Death Cab

Labor Day weekend. I time to gather with friends and family to celebrate the final "hoo-ha" of summer. This is it, the summer is unofficially over. When I was younger, the Franken family Labor Day tradition was to go to the Sioux Falls Zoo. I can still remember the entire extended family gathering for a picnic in the nearby park, and then heading into the zoo. Some of my favorite memories of the zoo include the time I rode a camel with Dana (I VIVIDLY remember that because I had to sit on the hump!), the time when a goat got loose from the petting zoo and Dana and I were the ones to catch it, the little stuffed elephant I bought from the gift shop (I named her Asia), and for some reason I remember what t-shirt I was wearing on one particular visit. It said: I'm a KIX kid. Pretty sure that one came from one of those 'send in 4 UPC labels and $2.95 to receive your very own KIX kid T-shirt!' Anyway, I think the reason I remember wearing that shirt is because a picture was taken of me in front of the lions. It's amazing how much of my childhood is remembered only because there was a photo taken of the moment. Kind of makes me wonder how much of my childhood is floating around somewhere, undiscoverd and unremembered just because there wasn't a camera present....

One more reason to encourage everyone to enjoy all the little moments in your life. Every one is precious and it'd be a shame for all of them to disappear in the abyss of time without even acknowledging that they exist.

Think about it....what are your childhood memories? Is that just because there was a camera present?

In His Feathers

Fabulous news. The book is finished. The book that I spent many, many hours designing, researching, reading, typsetting and redesigning, and redesigning....long story. But it's done! And it's been printed! Here are some pics....my name is even inside.
The cover was designed by Rob Haan. Looks good, Rob.





I would recommend the book. It's about Sharon Bomgaars, a woman diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It's a collection of a few of her journal entries, telling her story as she lives through treatment options, her children growing up, and her dedication to her faith even as she comes face to face with death. It's pretty inspirational, the kind of story that will make you step back from your life and appreciate all the little things a little more.

Forever young

I had an interview today...to be a babysitter! I'm kind of excited about the possibility. I met the baby tonight and she's such a sweetie, just 13 months old, and so adorbable! Hopefully the parents think I'm a good candidate cause it'd be a good way to earn some spending money. Plus the family has digital cable and nice house...nice little perk. Never had a babysitting interview before.

On the other end of the age spectrum, I've also been paired with an elderly lady from my church to visit and call once a month or so. I just found out today, so I haven't had a chance to talk with her yet, but the senior center coordinator said she is super excited for me to come visit her. I'm pretty excited too.

Even though I love my neighborhood with so many young adults around, I kinda miss the 'family environment' I had at home. I think that's why I'm trying to get involved with a variety of things. Diversity is good.

post-concert 'can't get enough of the music' phase.

Most concerts I've been to have been pretty good. But now that I've seen third eye blind in concert, I know what a great concert is. I guess it helped that third eye blind has been one of my favorite bands ever since 7th grade when the infamous 'semi-charmed life' took over the radio. But as the lead singer Stephan Jenkins said last night, "we were kidnapped by the radio." 3EB's music is mesmerizing to me and deserves the devoted crowd that they have, despite the mere 3 albums released in almost 10 years. The vocals gave me goosebumps and I felt like I was in a dream. Ok, I know that sounds pretty extreeme, but i loved it. They played a solid 2 hours to a sold-out House of Blues and it was fantastic. ah. Unfortunately, the security guards confiscated my camera before I even got in the venue, so I don't have any pictures to share. That was pretty disappointing. Plus they charged me $2 to confiscate my camera til the end of the concert!

But pretty much this was a great weekend. Sar came to visit and we went out friday night with a few other girls, had a good time of course...right sar ;) Relaxed a lot on Saturday did some shopping, went church and an art fest, took a nap on Sunday. Beautiful.

insert catchy title here.

It's been a while since I last spoke on this blog. Maybe you don't care and if that's the case, I don't owe you an apology. However, I do know that some of you are devoted readers of my blog, so I'm sorry for the lapse of time.

A lot has been going on, so I guess I'll use that as my excuse.

This past weekend Dana came for a visit. It was great to see her again, catch up, and have some quality sister-bonding time like the good 'ol days of sharing a room with her. Ok, so when we shared a room there was no such thing as quality sister-bonding time and I'm not afraid to admit it. Most of our conversation back then was spent arguing over whose side of the room was whose and who was hogging all the blankets. Thankfully our relationship has progressed immensely and we can talk about much more important stuff :)

Today, Sar is coming in to visit. She's on her way to Grand Rapids for grad school, and Chicago just happens to be on her way! Tonight I think we're going out with some other girls and then tomorrow we're hopefully just gunna hang out and catch up on eachother's lives. i'm excited to see her again. I'm a little jealous of her as she is going back to school very soon. I haven't even been out of school for 4 months and already i miss it.

Other things that have been happening:
• The massive thunderstorm yesterday and the leaky bus on the way to work. I felt like I was in a sinking ship :P
• I saw The Exonerated on wednesday night (a play about innocent death-row inmates)
• In His Feathers has been printed (the book by James Schaap that I designed last semester) Be sure to check it out and look for my name inside :)
• My 3 month work review went really well.

Upcoming event: I'm going to a Third Eye Blind concert this weekend!!

sox-35th

I ditched work this afternoon and went to a white sox game with a co-worker. Don't worry, I had permission.




Me and my co-worker, Rachel.


These were the super ambitious kids in front of us. yes, they had 6 signs. It was difficult to see much of the game. But on the bright side, they were featured on the big screen twice. One time I could see my arm between their signs. It was special.


I obviously met Shoeless Joe Jackson

semi-charmed life

I've painted an extreemly rosey picture of my life here in Chicago thus far, but I must admit, I've had my share of home-sickness. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE the city. I still LOVE my job (99% of the time) and I LOVE being on my own. But the past couple days have been pretty rough on me, as some of you have experienced first hand...I miss my family a lot. i miss my friends back home a lot. and I often struggle with my decision to move so far from my mom and my dad....both of whom I miss and wish I could be around more to support.

Thankfully I have a couple of amazing friends who've lended me their ears so that I could verbally dump out a lot of what I've been holding in the past few months.

I feel a little better today. Still not the greatest, but I'll survive.

If any of you have some favorite bible passages that may help me cope with my homesickness, or with my struggle to understand God's plan for why I am where I am....let me know.

hello planet earth

My co-worker showed me this really neat website where this guy developed a system to visually graph the structure of websites. He uses colored dots to represent different types of links found on a website and the whole thing creates this really beautiful artwork. He's also included an applet where you can type in your own website or the website of your choosing and see how it's structured. Check it out at: www.aharef.info/2006/05/websites_as_graphs.htm

Friday night I went to what you could call an art gallery opening. It was a group of high school students involved in an afterschool program that teaches them creative writing, illustration, painting, and dance. It really wasn't about the art, but more importantly, about the students. All of them were hispanic and based on some of their poems and short stories, most of them have experienced some pretty awful stuff as far as gang violence and death. Walking around to each of their tables was really interesting because every time I did I could feel a pair of eyes watching me. A couple times the artist/student came up to me and asked me what I thought about his/her work. Much more up-front and bold than I thought they'd be. But it was very obvious that they were proud of themselves, like this was their shining moment and they were drinking in ever little detail about it. It was actually one of the more stimulating art show openings that I've been to. The art was high school level or below, so it wasn't that, but the interaction with the artists was really good.

I found out about the opening at church last sunday. One of the creative writing instructors made an announcement at the end of the service and I ended up talking to her afterwards. She's about my age and her dad is the director of the program called AuthorStrate. We got to talking about why I was so interested in the program and she found out that I'm a graphic designer. Turns out, their non-profit just received a bunch of funding to buy a bunch of mac minis and software and start up a graphic design course, and they're currently looking for someone to help teach it! So she took down my contact information, and we'll see what happens from there. She said it would be about 3 days/week after school, or around 5pm. Hopefully we can work something out so that, even if I can't teach the class, at least I can be involved in some way. I'll keep ya'll posted if I hear anything more about this.

Hope you enjoyed the novel. Don't forget to check out that website!!

wanted: advice!

This is a free for all...make you're opinion count and give me some advice on my dilema!

I live in this apartment, this very nice studio in a great location, semi-close to downtown. I live by myself, therefore rent is not cheap, neither is the utilities (I have electric heat....come winter this will be spendy). Ok, so I have this apartment which I love, but it is expensive. Right now i'm doing fine financially, definitely watching my spending, but I'm still making more than I'm spending. However, come winter I have to start paying that heating bill and I have to start paying back my school loans. Neither one will be cheap, and this makes me a little worried about my future finances.

So, I've been praying about it...for quite a while, and I think God has presented me with an option.

I met three girls at church. All three went to Northwestern in Orange City, and they live together in a four bedroom apartment quite a ways north of where I live. Well, they've offered/suggested that I move into the 4th bedroom in their apartment. So yeah, that would save me for sure $400 a month on rent alone. Pretty insane.

So now I have to decide if I want to move again....making that my 3rd move in 4 months. The room I'd be moving into is pretty small and doesn't have a closet. Plus there is only 1 bathroom for 4 girls. I don't think it'd be such a huge deal, cuz the girls seem pretty laid back. But it's been a while since I've had roomates. I've always liked having my own space, especially if I don't know the other girls so well. So the idea of having roomates again doesn't excite me too much. Plus, it's pretty far from my job, so the commute would be even longer than it is now. Another factor is that their lease is up at the end of April. I don't know if they're planning on staying longer than that, but I for sure have to stay in the city til the end of May for my job. I don't know what I'm going to do after that...

But yeah, I'd be saving a lot of money.

So things are up in the air right now. If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. Give me some wisdom.

the inner tourist

today was a sad, sad day. I had to say goodbye to Dani and Mike, who have been in Chicago since Wednesday evening. I think saying goodbye was so hard because we had so much fun these past few days! That and the fact that I don't know when I'll see them again. But we did have a blast, despite a few minor set backs like the airport baggage claim, the pouring rain and the broken elevator in my apartment. Four flights of stairs aren't the most fun. Other than that, I sure had a blast. Shopped a lot, walked a lot, shopped some more, walked some more. We went to the top of the Sears Tower this evening...it was pretty sweet, I have to admit. I wasn't too big on the idea at first, but I found my inner tourist and had a great time. The best was just getting to see them again and having Posty ridicule me constantly about being an artist. I think he wants to be just like me. :) I miss you guys already!
I'll post pictures of the weekend later.

what are the odds

I saw the double decker bicycle again today.

manna of my life

So I don't literally have manna. I don't wake up every morning to find the floor of my apartment covered with food for the day. But every morning I do wake up to abundance, blessing and generosity from the Lord in many other forms. They may not be as visible as manna, they may not even be as necessary to my daily life as food. But the things the Lord has blessed me with is the manna of my life. I am alive. I am healthy. I have a loving family. I have three amazing sisters. I have many close friends. I have a job. I have a place to live. I have an air conditioner. I have food in my fridge and clothes in my closet (an abundance of clothes indeed :P) I have eyes to see the world, the differences between people, and a mind to think about the things I see. I have a passion for art and creating. I have hope and I have forgiveness.

I have a lot. An abundance of manna.

Michigan City was amazing.

I truly did feel like I was on vacation, just as I had hoped I would. Except in Michigan City we had our own beach house, and our own private beach, and there were co-workers there. Minor details. I didn't even get burnt despite the 95+ degree weather. It was a beautiful day away. I could definitely get used to that every weekend.

But today I'm back in Chicago, close to Lake Michigan, but so far away from having a beach house.

This morning after church I went out for lunch with Sarah Grace. it was her birthday. We also stopped at a garage sale and i bought a barely used papasan chair for a mere $10. If you don't know what a papasan chair is, you don't know what you're missing. My suggestion to you would be to look it up on the internet. You've proabably seen one before, you just didn't know it had a name. Anyway, it's great. My aunt and uncle used to have one when I was little, and I've wanted one of my own since then. I could've bought a brand new one from the store for at least $100, but I think $10 is much more in line with my budget. Ok, I'm going to post a pic of it so you can share in the joy of how cute it is.

Cute, huh. and it matches my comforter. For only $10 it wouldn't even have to match my comforter, but it does. so there's bonus points.

While I'm at it, here are a couple pictures from yesterday, at the beach in Michigan City.

meh

Yesterday after work I went to the Art Institute to hear a lecture about Harry Callahan. There is also currently an exhibit of his work there. An Archive of his work actually. Meaning not just photos, but his negatives, contact sheets, and notes. Seeing the inner workings of an artist makes their work a little easier to grasp. especially being able to see how they worked. Pretty inspirational. The lecture was good too. Harry Callahan was just a normal guy who loved to take pictures, and he is now considered one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. He was heavily based in the Chicago area, so many of his photographs are set in familiar locations.

I'm going to try to go to more of those lecture at the art institute. They're free and I enjoy them, so I really have no reason not to go.

Well, tomorrow I'm off to Michigan City. I've never been there and have no idea what to expect. But it's a work party at the beach, so I'm hoping it's fun. I like all the people I work with so it should be entertaining to say the least. I'm considering it my summer vacation. I know, it's pretty pathetic to consider a work party a vacation, but it's decently far away so it qualifies in my book. My co worker is picking me up at noon tomorrow and we should have an entertaining drive down there. She's a crazy lady and really funny. Hopefully we make it there ok. She told me that her horoscope predicted that she would have problems with driving directions. Let's hope that's not the case. I certainly don't know how to get to Michigan City.

parking and buses

So I watched a lady parallel park her mini cooper the other day. Ok, I watched her ATTEMPT to park her mini cooper. If you have a mini cooper, parallel parking should not be an issue, and it should definitely NOT be something that people, such as myself, watch. You should be able to drive right into the spot. Ok, well. This lady was struggling. The whole production took about 5 minutes and about 10 or more manuevers to get her settled in. And it's not like the spot was small either. Seriously. No wonder women drivers have bad reps.

Oh, and in case you're wondering why I was watching someone parallel park, I was waiting for the bus.

Then I saw a bus, and on the side of it was an advertisement for Mitchum deodorant. It said, " If you could totally parallel park this baby (referring to the bus), you're a Mitchum Man."

There. My story just came full circle. Parking and buses. Have a good night.

wake up slow

For the first time in almost 2 months, I won't have to sleep on an air mattress tonight. That's right, I finally bought a futon and it was delivered today! cheers to that! though I had to pay an extra $40 for delivery and it didn't even come assembled. But that doesn't matter now, because Rachel, bless her heart, helped me assemble the thing. It wasn't easy either. First of all they forgot to include the instructions in the box, so I had to go back to the store to get an extra copy. The instructions consisted of 3 steps in small black type with a small, cluttered illustration. Oh, and the parts they listed didn't match up to the labels on the illustrations. It was a bit ridiculous.

Speaking of Rachel, it was her birthday on Saturday. And we had a great time celebrating it on Friday night, it was a late night, but super fun. Went to the lake front on Saturday afternoon and Sunday...got a bit too much sun, which I'm still regretting. But it was such beautiful weather and I couldn't not be outside. Sunday morning I met a bunch of people at church. Some had been in the Chicago Semester program recently, some were even from Northwestern in Orange City! It was nice to finally be able to talk to someone who knew what a Dordt College was, or even what a Sioux Center is. Tomorrow night they're hanging out and they invited me as a "20-somethings" group through church. All-in-all this was a really busy, really fun weekend. Rebecca Slagter (Groenendyk) came downtown on Sunday night, so I got to see her again too. I miss her, and she's going to be moving to Florida in January! I know it's a ways away, but still...Florida! Might be a good time of the year to visit her....:)

Not sure what else is new. I made myself banana pancakes for dinner tonight. It was a new experience for me, and truthfully I have Jack Johnson to thank for the inspiration. Thanks, Jack. They were delicious.

umbrella reflections

This morning I shared my umbrella with an elderly lady on my way into the museum. I couldn't refuse her the assistance, even though she never asked to be sheltered from the drenching downpour. She claimed to own 3 umbrellas, all of which were, of course, at home. Her husband quietly followed behind us in the rain, not saying a single word until we got into the museum. Then he politely thanked me for helping his wife. It was a feel good moment for me, and I was surprised later in the day when a couple co-workers told me how nice it was of me to share my umbrella with her. I thought, why wouldn't I? Is an umbrella such a prized possession that it is rarely shared with others in the same need? Or is more of the stranger attitude: I don't know you and I'll most likely never see you again, therefore I have no obligation to help you? I admit I've had the stranger attitude before...when I see people running to catch the bus that I'm on, yet I don't tell the bus driver to wait a few more seconds. Or when I shove in front of someone in line at the train station in order to catch the awaiting train, causing them to miss it.

It's no surprise to me that most of these "stranger experiences" happen to me on the CTA, yet that's where I feel the most connected to others...relying on the same thing to get us home or to work or to the store, swaying in the same direction on the turns, losing our balance when it lurches forward or stops suddenly. All of us having the same alert and cautious looks on our faces, appearing to be confident and on guard of everyone other person around us. How easy it is for us to ignore each others needs when we are all concerned with the appearance of others around us.

can anyone relate? or share a similar experience?

i have a roof!

Ok, of course I have a roof. But tonight I discovered I have a roof top....with a view of the John Hancock building and the Sears Tower, and I can sit up there or lay out up there and it's quiet and peaceful, and I can see the sunset or the sunrise (but probably not the sunrise unless I'm super ambitious, but it could happen) I love it!

movies and such

This weekend was weak....in terms of entertainment and doing stuff. Can't really blame anyone but myself though, i didn't really feel like doing much yesterday or today. Friday night was fun though. Went to dinner and a movie with a co-worker, his finance and his brother. We ate at Big Bowl and saw the movie You, Me & Dupree. Funny movie, borderline dumb funny, but funny nonetheless. Sucks that it costs $10 to see a movie in the city though. Ok, it was only $9.50, I tend to exagerrate things sometimes. It was fun evening though so it was worth it. Plus I got paid last week, so it feels like I have boatloads of money, even though most of it will go towards rent, utilities, and I really need to buy some furniture one of these days. Thinking a futon would be my best bet since I don't have a bed and i don't really have room for a bed and a sofa. Anyone got any suggestions on buying a futon? Any experienced futon shoppers out there??

I feel like venting some more about the heat, but it really won't do any good. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been sweating all day, so I'll spare ya'll the complaining and just say that it sucks.

I watched the movie October Sky today, Rachel let me borrow it from her collection. I think she felt sorry for me when she saw my pathetic collection of 3 DVDs. Anyways, the movie was ok, one of those 'feel-good' type of movies. Lately I've been really critical of the movies that I've been watching. I don't know what has caused it, but i notice things about films that are trivial, and it annoys me. For example. In the movie October Sky, there were times when the camera would focus in on the props or things that the actors/actresses were doing with their hands. I don't know why but it really bothered me. It made me feel uncomfortable, like something bad was about to happen. Maybe it was the whole mood of the scene which encouraged the foreboding feeling, but it was disturbing, unneccessary, and distracting. Similarly, in You, Me & Dupree, there were several scenes that I thought were completely irrelevant to the movie. I hate it when movies have all sorts of tangents and random aspects that do nothing for the film except make it longer than it needs to be. For example, in You, Me & Dupree, there was one random character that was talked about a lot in the film and was apparently a pretty important role (though I think the film would have been fine without her), and we never actually saw the characters face! We would see the back of her head or her leg but never her face. Annoying. This wasn't the only thing about the movie that was distracting for me. There were several details about other characters that were not developed enough to be important. All they did was distract me from the main flow of the plot. I definitely like things to be streamlined, no frills no fuss type of stuff. Maybe that's why I never liked Super Troopers. Anyway, I don't want to talk to much about You, Me & Dupree because if you haven't seen it, you probably wouldn't know what I was talking about, and maybe you want to see it yourself and don't want some chump movie critic like myself ruining it for you. Either way, watch it sometime, and tell me if you know what I'm talking about.

Maybe it's because I took part in a test screening of the movie The Departed (comes out in October) a few weeks ago, my main purpose to analyze the film and let the movie experts know what I thought about the plot, characters, scenes, etc. Though I think I analyzed the movie Over the Hedge the same way....and i saw that before my test audience experience.

six foot man on a double decker bicycle

I saw it first hand as I was walking down the sidewalk today. he went whizzing by and it was quite a sight. Tall as a bus. I have no idea how he got on the thing, but it looked like 2 bikes stacked on top of each other. bizarre. One of the many moments in the city when I wish I had my camera ready.

I went shopping today, not so much because I needed stuff, but because it was too hot to stay in my apartment. Normally on super hot days people don't go out, they stay in where it's air conditioned. But for me it's the opposite. If it's super hot, I go out. My air conditioner doesn't seem to cool my apartment down no matter how long I run the thing. So I try to avoid running it. I just went out for dinner with Rachel, left the air on while I was gone and when I came back nearly 2 hours later, it doesn't feel like I had anything but a fan on. So I tend to go "shopping" or pretend to shop while I'll I'm doing is using other people's air conditioners.

Tomorrow's supposed to be hotter.

apartment pics....here they are!

ok all you blognivores

Not quite where to start on this one. It's been almost 2 weeks since my last decent post and so much has happened since then. I guess I'll start with the thing that's freshest on my memory, and that is my flight back to Chicago from Omaha. As many of you know, I was home this past weekend for heather Kroeze's wedding (more on that later) and I flew in and out of Omaha. Well, Monday night, my flight was supposed to leave promtly at 7pm, giving me an ETA of 8:20ish to Midway. Jill lovingly drove me to Omaha and dropped me off around 5:30, plenty of time before the flight. I went to the gate, not having to check any luggage saves a lot of time, so I was there around 5:45. Sat down and waited. Around 6:45 we started boarding. Pretty sure everyone was on the plane, settled down and buckled it when they announced that we all had to de-plane because of maintenance issues. Didn't find out til about 7:50 that the plane was not fixable and that we would have to wait til 10 until there would be another plane available to take our broken plane's spot. humpgh. so, we waited. I finished a book and a whole magazine before 10:10 when our flight finally departed. We arrived at Midway at 11:15, and I finally got back to my apartment at 1am. It was ridiculous. If you figure in the time it took to drive to Omaha, that trip took me 9.5 hours :P

I was only a half hour late to work this morning.

Despite the crappy end, I had a great little visit to SC. There really is far to much to talk about so I'll list a few of the highlights:
1. seeing Heather get married, and being a part of the big day as the candid photographer and personal attendant. I took 6 rolls of film!
2. Spending some incredible quality time with Jill....ok, and Joe....ok, AND Elizabeth!! A few things come to mind: Burger King, the car behind us at burger king, the guy in the car behind us at burger king, Room 231, 57 Chevy with Blue Hawaiian Plates, the claw, Wal-Mart, Hillbilly Teeth, no teeth at all, highschool basketball tournament, the alligator, Hokey Pokey, Chicken Dance, and every other wedding dance that should be banned!
3. The amazing clouds on the flight home
4. Eating Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream in LeMars with Dani instead of going for a walk. haha....it was far too hot outside!
5. Randomly running into Lauralee Stel at the Bakery...it was so good to see you again!
6. The beautiful Marc Chagall prints at the Campus Center gallery.
7. Driving my car again!
8. Getting to see a ton of people that I miss dearly....even you Posty!

It really was a great weekend. But it is also really good to be back. Coming back to Chicago felt really good, even though it sucks leaving everyone again, and not knowing when I'll be back in SC again. I feel like right now I belong in Chicago. As much as my mom doesn't want to hear it, it's true.

the craziness that is

well, the move went fabulously. thanks to a huge group effort and a lot of sweat. 4 flights of stairs is no small feat, and I'm very grateful to all who helped. so....thanks Becky and Jess, Rachel and Becky H, and the Carpenter family. words can't even express how thankful I am to you!

Becky and Jess left sunday afternoon, after a great weekend. Even though we spent friday night moving all my stuff, we had a great time hanging out, being tourists on saturday at the craziness called Navy Pier, shopping on Michigan Ave and State St., and laying out at the beach on Sunday (even though it was sprinkling off-and-on and there was a total of about 5 minutes of actual sunshine, we made the most of it!) I had my first experience at the American Girl store this weekend (thanks Jess!) :P What craziness! I don't know how many of you are familiar with The American Girl Store.....but what I saw this weekend was nauseating. Some little girls are incredibly spoiled, and they have no idea. I don't know what was worse, the level of spoiled-ness of the girls, or the adults who work in the store's doll beauty salon and hospital. It's sort of ridiculous to see adults brushing doll's hair and getting paid for it. That's just my opinion....not worth much in the minds of the American Girl Store business executives. They're making millions!!

Work today was like a ghost town, being the day between the weekend and a holiday. I, however, cannot afford to take time off, so I was there with 2 other co-workers (out of about 30!) It was a very good day for museum business though. So many tourists! I'm thankful I was up on the 4th floor away from all the commotion.

Oh....my apartment is so nice!! I've fallen in love with it! I'll post some pics when i get everything hung up on the walls. It's a beauty, with a much better view than the previous apartment. ok, i'm gunna grab some dinner. cereal sounds nice and easy!

312 will pay for this...

So i get home from work today, hang out for a while, dink around on the internet, make some dinner and then decide to go for a run. As I reach for some socks, I notice a puddle of water in the middle of my closet floor. Hmmm....wonder where that came from. I pick up the flip flops that were near the puddle thinking for some reason that the flip flops were causing the problem. But, no, the flip flops are not leaking any water, but they are definitely soaked. I begin noticing other things in my closet that are wet as well....my hamper, my bag of underwear (i don't have a dresser yet), boxes of books, miscellaneous shoes on the floor, my new ironing board (which I haven't even used yet!), more boxes, and you get the point. everything in my closet was wet. the ceiling isn't wet, so i don't know where all this water came from...then I checked my bathroom, which is adjacent to my closet. My bathroom rug was absolutely drenched, and there is a puddle of water on the TOP of my toilet seat. the floor tiles were were even dyed blue from the rug being so wet and bleeding the color. It was a disaster. I looked to the ceiling and notice a few drops of water hanging from my heat lamp...and I think to my self.....312 is going to pay for this. They're the apartment directly above me, and it's the only logical explanation to why i'm standing in pudddles in my closet and bathroom. So I called maintenance. Since there are no drops currently falling from the ceiling, he decided that 312 must have 'experienced a flood' and didn't think there was anything wrong with the pipes. But just to be sure, he's going to send the engineer to take a look TOMORROW morning. ugh. it's so nasty.

So right now, I'm washing every piece of clothing that was in the general vicinity, and waiting for all my boxes to dry out. It smells like wet cardboard in here. Normally I would just throw the boxes away, but I'm moving in 2 days and need something to carry all my stuff in.

Needless to say, I missed my run...

But i have something to add to my "why this apartment sucks" list (see previous post). i didn't use the term 'sucks' before, but after today's incident, I think it's more than appropriate.

#6 reason why this apartment sucks:
312 lives above me (I live on the top floor in my next apartment)
#7: this apartment smells like wet cardboard.
did I mention there are no screens on my windows??

Oh, and I'm begining to think that not a single person is reading my blog, so if you are reading this, could you leave some sort of comment just to acknowledge that you read this? Even if you have no clue who I am....please, show me some love!

yo yo ma pics

talk about lots of people!

yo yo ma

Last night I saw the famous Yo Yo Ma in concert. For some of you who don't know who Yo Yo Ma is, don't worry, I didn't either until last week. He's a world famous cello player and the concert was free! right up my alley. I can't say I really pay much attention to cellos normally. Yeah, the word is fun to say and even more interesting to spell, but I've never really listened to them. Well, the concert was really cool. The Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millenium park was PACKED, and that's saying something if you've ever seen how large the pavilion is. Anyway, the concert was fabulous, the music was interesting, and I met a bunch of new people through Becka and Morgan Attema. After the concert was over and most people cleared out, we were the group of 10 people playing a game called Apples to Apples on a large tarp.

Oh! work yesterday was interesting. The whole day was spent re-arranging cubicle walls so that our team of designers on the Americas project could be together. When I say the whole day, I mean the WHOLE day. It took quite a bit of manuvering to get the walls taken apart and figure out where they should go. I got a battle wound out of the whole day too. I was trying to help Thomas take one of the wall partitions apart but we couldn't figure out how to get the piece of plastic holding it all together to come off. So, me being the brains of the operation, I decided to take my new scissors and cut the plastic the way one would normally use a utility knife. At the time I thought it was a brilliant idea, and it was working perfectly fine until I got to the end of the plastic and the walls thudded to the floor, smashing my hand. I didn't think anything of it, until I set the scissors down and my hand was full of blood. Sliced my thumb open and shaved a layer off my pointer finger. kind of a mess, so Gloria (my co-worker) took me down to the first-aid office to see if i needed stiches. (wow, this story is becoming a lot longer than I had planned). Continuing....The first aid guy barely looked up from his crossword puzzle when we knocked on the door, despite the fact that the paper towel I was holding was red with blood. After determining that I would not need stiches, he slapped on a band-aid (which didn't even cover the wound), some gauze (also which didn't cover the wound), and enough tape to completely cover my entire thumb, except for the wound (which was located at the tip). It was a little ridiculous. When I went back to work people asked me if I had lost my entire thumb. Needless to say, I later re-wrapped it myself. I hope that guy finished his crossword puzzle ok.

In other news, my neighbors back home had their first baby. They named her Sarah Elizabeth. I'd like to say that they named her after me....but aparently they just liked the name when they saw it in the baby-names book.

In other, OTHER news, Sunday night there was a furiuos thunderstorm. Which, as I mentioned earlier, I had been waiting days for. But this one wasn't as pleasant as I had hoped. It kept me up til about 2am with all the thunder and lightening! Well, the storm kept me up and the fact that I had taken a 3 hour nap in the afternoon didn't help either. It was either take a nap or go outside where just down the block people were enjoying the annual Gay and Lesbian parade. Yeah, you would've opted for the nap too.

Anyway, I'm planning on going to bed early tonight even though I should start packing for the move. I'm trying to justify leaving my lovely little apartment and so far here is my list of bad things about this apartment:
1. no screens on the windows. bugs come and go freely, much to my disgust.
2. small. Though I've determined that, yes it IS a little bigger than my freshman year dorm room.
3. laundry is $1.50/load (only $1 at my next place. hey...it all adds up!)
4. location. creates an hour long commute in the am, and around 1.5 hour commute in the pm
5. rent: $760/month

I could give you a nice long list of good things about this apartment too, but I'd rather leave you thinking that I made the right choice by moving out....I like supportive people :D

Ok, hope you enjoyed the novel. I'll try post some pics of last night as soon as Becka emails them to me.....hint hint Becka! :)

tomato

I got sunburned today at the volleyball tournament, even though I was only there for an hour. I like the fact that I was in the sun today, but not the fact that I am a tomato now. Wait, let me re-phrase that. I'm only a tomato on my left side...the right side is anything but tomato. That makes it worse. I'm going to find some aloe.

And this is a picture I took leaving work. It's what I see everyday from the steps of the Field Museum.

These are a few pics I took Thursday evening on my walk. The sky was beautiful, even if you can't see much of it in these pics....trust me, it was.

Happy Saturday everyone. I went for a run this morning and it is absolutely beautiful outside. Later this afternoon I think I'm going to a beach volleyball tournament with Rachel, Becky, and Becky's little sister, Cathy. Should be a perfect day for it. Hmm... what else is new. I opened a new checking account last weekend and just deposited my first full paycheck from the Field Museum into it. Feels pretty dang good to have a paycheck, especially after spending so much money on finding an apartment a few weeks ago. Of course, the paycheck could always be a bit bigger, I definitely wouldn't mind. I'm not used to living paycheck to paycheck, so these first few months could take some getting used to. Things cost so much here, and the paycheck will get spent so quickly! I think ya'll back home would be pretty impressed with my ability to be a tight-ass. It sucks most of the time especially since there are so many fun looking restuarants and bars in my neighborhood, and it's natural for people to socialize over a meal out or some coffee from starbucks. Oh well, hopefully in the future when my finances level off a little more normally, I'll be able to treat myself to a new pair of shoes or jeans once in a while.

Big news though! My sister Becky and friend jess K from home are coming to visit next weekend. They're going to have to help me move to my new apartment, but hopefully that won't take too long....and we can enjoy the rest of the weekend like normal. I'm SOO excited to see them and catch up. Then the following weekend I'll be flying home for heather Kroeze's wedding, so I'll get to see more familiar faces. can't wait. I have the opportunity to be Heather's candid photographer at her wedding, which I'm also excited about.

Well, I'm gunna hit the shower, then set out to find becky and Rachel for the volleyball entertainment.

Today the weather people predicted storms. Horrible thunderstorms capable of producing large hail and damaging winds. I have yet to see the product of such storms, though I'm incredibly anxious for it to happen. So far all I've experienced today is humidity. Humidity at such a high percentage that even thinking of turning off the air conditioner makes me sweat. And because I'm on a budget and feel guilty running the air conditioner non-stop, that's what I'm doing. Sitting in my apartment, in the heat, air conditioner off, writing on this blog.

Other than the crappy weather predictions and the heat, I had a good day. Work is moving along at a steady pace, and I'm beginning to understand the way things need to be done in order to get this exhibit finished on time. The exhibit is set to open March 9, 2007 (my birthday), though the original schedule/plan was for it to open in May of '07. Then the president of the Field Museum decided we needed it to be be open sooner. Therefore, the schedule and work load was compressed, and we lost two incredibly critical months of production. Combine that with the fact that the head graphic designer on the project left for a 2 week vacation just 3 days after I started, and you end up with a whole ton of work to do, in a short period of time. March of '07 may seem like a long ways away, but in exhibit production terms, it's not much.

Last week a group of Field Museum designers, myself included, took a 'Field trip' to visit our friends at the Musem of Science and Industry. We got to see their U-505 sub from WWII, the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit, and other miscellaneous exhibits. It was an interesting experience. At one point when the design director of the Museum of Science and Industry was talking to us, I had a hard time believing where I was. I felt very honored to be with the group of people I was with, most of them quite a bit older than me, and very, very intellegent. My co-workers refer to me as the girl who just graduated from college. I'm not sure if that's a good thing in their mind, but for me, I'm pretty thankful to be where I am, so they can call me whatever they want.

Well, it's still not storming outside so I think I'll go for a walk.

what a beautiful day. hope you all had a chance to enjoy it. It's officially summer tomorrow!

Well now, that was a nice little vaca from posting! Actually I don't think that could be considered a vacation since I barely started and it's been over 6 months :S

A ton, ton, TON has been going on in my life lately, predominately the fact that I've left 'lil old Sioux Center and moved to Chicago. I've been here just over three weeks, and am still adjusting to the city life. Things were pretty rough the first couple weeks trying to find an apartment, and getting TOTALLY freaked out about how much things cost. Thankfully, I have some really great friends here who have been really super supportive, not to mention my family and friends back home. I miss everyone so much, but I can't wait for people to come visit. Right now I'm sub-leasing an apartment for the month of June. Come July 1 I'll be moving to a different place, which I'll call home for a year. So needless to say, it's been a hard adjustment moving here, and then I have to move again! Oh well. Thankfully my sisters will be coming to visit that weekend to help me move. It's also Taste of Chicago that weekend, so there will be PLENTY of things to do....mostly eat I guess, but there's always something going on.

My job at the Field Museum has been going really well. As most of you know, I interned there a year ago when I was on the Chicago Semester program, and they offered me a real job for after graduation! I really liked interning there and living in the city, so I thought I'd give it a chance. Things have been much different from when I interned though. Being in the city has been harder, but the job has been better. Right now I'm working on an exhibit called the Ancient Americas, doing graphic design. The exhibit opens next spring, and when it's all finished, I'll have to find a new job, My contract is good only for a year, since they hired me solely to work on this project. So in a year, I'll have to decide if I want to continue living in the city or move elsewhere. It really depends on where I can find a job.

Well, that's all for now, I promise I'll do a better job of updating the posts in the future.

Yeah, so this is apartment #1...the one I'm subleasing for June. It looks really clean here....not typical unless I'm bored.

So I decided to try out a blog. Several of my friends have blogs and I was feeling left out in the virtual world. This is an attempt to make my thoughts worthwhile enough for others to read.
wish me luck.
Oh, and the name of my blog (this is a lesson in procrastination) originates from a song by Brand New, and the fact that I have about 50 pages of reading due tomorrow.