More recaps about Chicago! Quite frankly, I had an amazing time. I love that city. I love the food. I love all the walking I have to do. I love the trains. I love my friends who live there. Did I mention that I love the food? Seriously, there is no match for Pie-Eyed Pizza.
But these people who made my trip there so cool, some of them briefly but great anyway: Jeff and his really cool girlfriend, Mike, Willie, Hector, Jen, and Adam of course, really endeared Chicago to me. That and the fact that I can find my way around pretty well by now. I’m learning that grid system. Slowly but surely. 🙂
Thursday, after running around all day and doing lots of sight-seeing…
…I spent the evening relaxing, and watching Big Brother. Eating loads of cookie dough. Friday consisted of napping a lot, then tagging along on more ghost tours. Woo. Saturday consisted of bumming around, then meeting up with Jen for the Weird Chicago tour!
Jen & Me!
Firstly, the tour was sweet because it took place in this swanky limo-bus with mood lighting and leather seats. Secondly, this tour consisted of the House of Crosses (a couple of houses totally decorated with loads of crosses) and the Virgin Mary salt stain:
People take these sorts of things seriously, obviously. Look at all the candles and flowers.
I came back home Sunday night. This is how I felt about that:
I was exhausted yesterday. I came home, talked on the phone to my debt counselor and someone dear to me, and then CRASHED. I was so tired!
So, I’m back from Chicago but not quite settled into my “normal” life, as I started a new job yesterday, and getting used to new routines and surrounds is always a bit unsettling. I’m doing okay, though. Zaner-Bloser seems like a cool place to work. Any place that gives you an hour for lunch but only makes you clock out for 30 of those minutes cannot be bad. They also gave me one of those trendy backpacks that everyone’s carrying these days, a water bottle (I make good use of that), a t-shirt, a free issue of Highlights, a free Highlights calendar (with stickers!), and hello, the break room has a George Foreman grill in it. I just need to figure out how to handle that horrid commute, and I’ll be okay, I think. It’s still sort of surreal, being at a new job. I have to share a cube with someone (de ja vu anyone?) and since the hub hasn’t come in yet, she and I cannot be on the network at the same time! She works from home a lot, though, so she just went home today. I have plenty of room, and on October 20, we’re moving to a new building which means I get my own space there. Whee.
E. Mae is as fun as ever to pick on. Tee-hee.
I’m starting to get a backlog on my email again. It’s been a while since things piled up. I have so much to do, so much paperwork to gather and fax, and I have things to upload and man. Blah. So, here is the list of things I need to do during the month of September:
– Schedule appointment with Dr. Passias (ASAP)
– Burn some pictures to a CD to take to work
– Finish putting a bunch of Dylan albums onto my computer
– Grocery shopping (Thursday)
– Balance checkbook (Friday or Saturday)
– Fax a BUTTLOAD of paperwork (this week!)
– Make 9,000 phone calls and close all my credit card accounts (yee-haw!)
– Write-up about Cleveland Public Schools for Jen (due Friday)
– Find and return a library book (eek!)
– Read
– Memory Stick Dump
– Aidan’s SSN to HR
– Snail mail letter to someone special ♥
– Answer loads of emails
– Poke The Agent
– Buy birthday cards and actually mail the things
Wow, that’s a bit overwhelming, isn’t it? I know there’s more. Sigh.
Fall is coming!!! Fall!! As soon as the air turns crisp, my mind turns to the upcoming holidays. Halloween (free candy!), Thanksgiving (food like WHOA), and Christmas (YAY!). Plus, my birthday and little Aidan’s birthday. Busy, busy, busy. No trips to Chicago planned anytime soon (sniffle), but Dylan concert in Philly in November is looking like a huge possibility. I want to see him play some of his new songs, dang it!
Soon the leaves will be a-changing and I’ll be carrying my camera everywhere. I plan to take Aidan to Dawes Arboretum and photograph him in the leaves, then he and I will eat somewhere. YAY a Mommy-Aidan date! 🙂 And it’ll be time for Christmas shopping soon, but I will NOT go overboard this year, since I’m trying to save, save, save. $$$ is muchly needed by me. I won’t ask for much either. I probably won’t ask for anything–unless people insist I tell them SOMETHING. That’s always a great possiblity.
In the meantime, I’m trying to hang in there. Lots of other stuff going on here that I don’t really want to go into now, but no worries. Well, there are tons of worries, but well, yeah. You know.
Okay then. ‘Til next time!