Blech.
I think that I've decided that the red line is the g-damn drrrtiest el line. I can't speak for all of them (I have yet to ride the green or the pink), but the red line travels the length of Chicago, and it is always crowded and is smelly about 85% of the time. I'm usually not a germophobe, but I was feeling it today. I traveled via el back home after a work training which was in the Loop, and the train was full at like 3pm. What's up with that, first of all? Then I pincer grasped the super greezy hand rails. I guess that the extra grease does make them more shiny (silver lining!).

But, the best was when I watched a loud teenager sneeze into his hand, inspect what came out onto him palm, and then proceed to *smear it on the hand rail beside him*. Let me repeat, he smeared his snot on the hand rail beside him. The grody teenager was with a gaggle of his friends and when they exited the train, they were hooting and hollering. One of them approached the doors as they were closing and cursed out a hapless and impassive woman who was standing on the other side (e.g., "You bitch!" with motions to punch). It was ultimately harmless but really obnoxious. Some old dude who was most likely chemically imbalanced was sitting behind me, and very loudly announced "Thank GOD, those fucking morons are off the train." I was cranky from sitting in a training all day, so I seconded that thought in my head. You go on, chemically imbalanced man!

Happy Chinese New Year, Happy President's Day
I had today off for President's Day, so I was seriously productive. Cleaned out my bills, vacuumed, worked out, shoveled out my car (with a dustpan...must make do), cooked lunch for the rest of the week, and traveled to Northwestern for a three minute meeting. Now it's getting close to bed time, though, so hooray for that.

Yesterday, Chinese New Year, Todd and I met up with Clarence and Jonathan. We had Chicago style pizza for lunch and hopped on the el to Chinatown in hopes of catching the New Year parade. When we got off the train, we were wading through crowds heading back to the el so that was our first clue that we missed it. It was still good, though, since we got to watch the dragons and drummers visiting the stores along Archer and wandered in and out of shops. We ended up spending about an hour and a half relaxing over milk teas and fried tako balls at St. Alps tea shop. The evening ended with hanging out at Holiday Inn with Jonathan and Claro and watching lots of tv shows about autism.

Tomorrow, it's back to work. Gah.

Okay, now I see why people don't move to Chicago.
Or at least rent parking spaces.
This snow blows. Actually, it really blew a few days ago, and now it's melting a little and you can see the streets and the sidewalks again, but there's talk of more snow tonight. And boo to that! My car is still buried and I think it might stay like that for a while since even if I managed to dig it out, there is no spot to come back to because everyone else is leaving their cars nestled in their snow igloos as well. Ain't no way I'm digging it out again if it's going to snow again tonight!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day! The good news on Valentine's Day is that I think I found my new apartment/non-living Valentine. I am totally, wholly, absurdly smitten. It's a sweet, sunny, corner apartment in a lovely quiet building in Logan Square. The building is owned by a meditation group/new-agey place and they occupy the bottom floor (the woman who was showing me around told me, "Don't worry, we don't proselytize"). And besides being a nice size, it includes utilities plus recycling and has a shower with good water pressure (a must). It's about three or four blocks from the el, the same from Logan Square and its assorted restaurants, and has a grocery store and pharmacy within walking distance. All of the tenants have access to an expansive roof top deck complete with tables with umbrellas. It was $50 more than I was budgeting for, but on the bus ride home I scribbled out my monthly budget and calculated that I can work it, and after all of my monthly payments, I'll still have a little to put in savings. I called and accepted right away. Cross your fingers for me that I get it, otherwise it's back to the drawing board. I can't wait to have you over for a little home-cooked meal eaten on the deck when spring and summer roll around.

Unfortunately, though, since I chose to be carless this week, my Valentine's day commute included seven busses in total to get back and forth to everything and finally to Todd's place to cook up a Valentine's meal. Since the first bus took 40 minutes to arrive and the second bus took over 20 minutes to arrive, and my boots and socks were still cold and wet from all of my walking around, I was in an outrageously horrid mood by the time I arrived at his place. Sorry, Todd, because I know that I behaved horribly. He was a good boyfriend and provided the requisite sympathy and foot rubs for my suffering.

As Sarah reported on her blog, the school day was rife with Valentine's Day celebrations. I happened to have treatment time with two of my favorite second graders when they had their Valentine's Day party, so I opted to spend part of the session in their class so they wouldn't miss out. I totally made out like a bandit too, because all of their classmates gathered round, each presenting a single chocolate to me. That adds up to like 30 chocolate kisses and hearts. I even got my own personal bag to pack all of my goodies in. It's a bilingual classroom, and it fortified my intent to learn some Spanish because these kids...I want to put them all in my pocket.

The good news about this weekend is that Clarence and Jonathan are coming to town (I'm sure they're thrilled about the weather). And that Monday is another day off! I love working in schools.

Mmmm.

Dave and Sabrina, enjoying their flatbread.

Jenny and me.

Deep snow and chicken tibi
The snow has officially come down on Chicago. It's been snowing about about a day now and my little street is caked in snow. My car ain't going to be dug up anytime soon, so I'm bussing it every where. I'm lucky with my new commute, though, since it's hopping on and off one bus. However, the last few days I've been apartment hunting, and to keep up these appointments I have to transfer busses often. That is no fun. It would be much easier to have driven when the streets were still drivable. However, I've been watching countless cars spin their wheels, especially on the side streets.

I see on the news that there is a winter storm warning in effect. Hooray!

It's exhausting to even walk around. I walked over the gym today and as the wind buffeted my hood off my head I stopped several times to wonder what I was thinking.

But a bright spot in the snow is the start of the monthly supper club Jenny and I have started in order to explore new-to-us restaurants. Tonight we had our first gathering at the Ethiopian Diamond in Granville. It was my first time eating Ethiopian and I can say that I see what all of the fuss about. Yum. Four of us gathered there tonight. I took the bus up there with Dave and it ended up being a kind of crappy snow wonderland adventure.

About the aforementioned apartment hunting: it's been okay. I've seen a couple of places...one a total shithole in a good location and one a beautiful cozy and sunny nest in a safe, residential, but very unhappening neighborhood. I've got a couple more viewings scheduled for this week and I'm feeling hopeful. I may just go for the sweet, cozy nest in the unhappening neighborhood because let's be honest, I never go out to the bars in my neighborhoods. I do, however, love the ample selection of cafes and shops (and two grocery stores) within two blocks. Too many decisions.

Down Memory Lane
Anne lent me Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. I had read and heard a lot about it as a coming of age story of a bright girl feeling slightly out of place in a ritzy New England boarding school. It's swimming in accolades. I spent the last two nights huddled under the covers (brrr) gobbling it up and I'm about halfway through it. I like the writing and it's a good, laid back read. It also throws me into a major memory time warp of my own experience at a ritzy boarding school in New England. I flipped to the author's bio and check to see if she attended one, but there's no mention of it. She hits the target a lot of the time: discussing the fancy-dancy campus, the tiny classes, the assortment of the students, the casual privilege...even the names she gets right. I am impressed.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I attended such a school. My parents asked me afterward if it was a good experience, and I think that it was. The education was pretty incomparable. I also was plopped there in the Fall of 1990 when I was 13.5 years old and pretty stoopid. I didn't know what had hit me until the first evening there when I realized that my mom had pulled away and that was *it*. What the hell had happened. But I adjusted. I quickly realized that while I was well-traveled, I was not worldly in comparison to my classmates. Cigarettes, booze and boys: what are those? By the time I graduated, I was still pretty green compared to everyone else, but in my four years there I managed to make some good friends. I kind of wish that I had the opportunity to attend the school with the wherewithal that I have *now* because then I would really suck the marrow out of the chance to work with cool professors, attend every speaker that came to campus, and genuinely take advantage of the whole experience. Hindsight is 20/20, though.

After forcing myself to put down the book last night, I tossed around for a while thinking back on some of the sweeter memories. A few that I would like to share:

- My senior year I lucked out and managed to use the rooming lottery to score a seven-person house on campus with close friends. Rather than a rambling dorm, we had a little living room and a little kitchen and it was homey as hell. I somehow managed to secure the position of "house counselor" which meant basically nothing when you're in a tiny house with your friends, but I did get to put that on the old college applications.

-I loved, loved, loved our senior prom. See, since it was all high class, we didn't call it a prom, though. It was called the Last Hurrah (the winter formal was the First Hurrah). Seniors were the only ones allowed to attend and we were all required to take four weeks of ballroom dance lessons. My date was a tall, sweetly dorky crew dude named Dan who was my dancing partner during one of those lessons. We struggled through awkward reinditions of the foxtrot and the cha cha. I was not the grace monkey that I'm sure you all thought I would be. I didn't see the point of the dance lessons until the day of the dance. We walked into the candle lit, regally wooden dining hall and discovered that a big brass band that had driven in from New York had set up. They proceeded to rock our socks off. Dan and I danced the entire three hours. I only knew two basic steps, but it is hands down the best time I've ever had a dance.

-The campus was gorgeous. Des can attest to this since as it happens she spent her summers at the same school since her dad taught physics there to science scholars. Two buildings designed by I.M. Pei. The arts building was one of his, and it was walled with glass. Senior year I took a life drawing class there complete with a nude model. That was pretty great and I wish that I still had some of those charcoal drawings because, let's face it, the female body is pretty awesome to draw.

-One particular tradition I enjoyed was something called Garden Party that was held in the last week of school. During this, each senior girl invited one favored teacher and one favored junior girl to attend a tea party kind of thing that was held on one of the lawns. You exchanged bouquets with your invitees and dressed in your summer dress best. I took my favorite teacher (Mrs. Temple from calculus) and a sweet junior named Maeve who I did a community arts program with. It was lovely. (Maeve is a great name, now that I think about it, by the way).

-The spring of my senior year several of my friends in my house went off for a two-month long exchange to a Navajo reservation (See? If I were smart, I would have done that too). I was able to form some friendships with the Navajo students who came over, lived in the house I was in, and were in class with me. They invited me and a couple of others over to a feast of traditional Navajo food in our dorm advisor's house and then we all watched "The X-Files. " Navajo flat bread: you had me at hello. During that time, someone from the New York Times did an article about the exchange. Through one of my extracurriculars, they hooked the reporter up to me to represent the boarding school voice since my peers were off on their exchange. My dad was overseas when one of his colleagues showed the article to him with a "Isn't this your kid?" I sounded like an asshole and the article was on the front page (slow news day, I guess). But another lesson learned.

-My all time favorite adviser was a young English teacher named Ms. P from my junior year. She lived in a absurdly small apartment on my dorm floor and allowed some of us to watch SNL on her mini TV on her kitchen counter on Saturday nights. One night she drove four of us to New Haven to eat delicious veggie food at Claire's and then go and see the Nutcracker. Ms. P probably was younger than I am now, and I still have a warm place in my heart for her. Since she was new she didn't develop the crustiness that more seasoned boarding school teachers held. At one point she was going running with two other youngish teachers on campus and left a couple of us in her apartment to watch skating on her TV. I still remember the looks those other teachers had ("what the hell are you having these students in your place for?"). But I still love her for trusting us and letting us share a little piece of *someone's* home on a Sunday morning. I think she might have been a little lonesome being young and far away from her family, but that lonesomeness allowed her some openness to connect. I believe that if we were the same age we would have had a grand friendship.

Okay, that is a lot of pontificating for one post. But it's all to say that despite the struggles of high school, I emerged with an overall positive experience. And that Prep is good.

DIZZAMN!
It's cold here. It's supposed to drop into the single digits this weekend, which means that I am totally going to be inside and cozy constantly.

Superbowl fever is officially here! Not that I really know anything about it. But, Chicago Public Schools is officially asking students and staff to wear Bears gear tomorrow in support of the team. This slays me. Did you all picture me rushing to the corner store to buy a jersey? I know that you did. I'm just going to have to dig up something blue and orange and call it a day. I ran across a bulletin board of little poems that some of the younger students wrote for the Bears and they were priceless. I was tempted to copy some of them down for your enjoyment, but better to respect their art and leave them be.

Sneezy
I'm sneezing like crazy tonight. Let's hope that it's not a cold coming to settle in. It's freezing in Chicago, and it snowed on and off during the weekend. My car is completely covered in salt; it's kind of gross. I'm leery of getting a car wash, though, since it seems like every two days the salt trucks go to town on the roads. Eff it.

In other news, Todd and I went to the Empty Bottle on Saturday night for a benefit show for a musician whose baby has a rare genetic disease. For a good cause and all of that. In addition to the five bands playing, they also had a raffle. A lot of the prizes were pretty good (for instance, VIP passes to next year's Pitchfork Festival). The grand prize, though, was a home visit from SNL's Fred Armisen who would "come to your house to entertain you." Apparently, Armisen used to play in Chicago bands and is friends with the musician in question. The person who won? Armisen's ex-wife. Needless to say, she didn't want it. So she suggested that they auction the prize off in the interest of earning more money. At first, the audience was kind of weirded out by the aspect of the prize, so noone was bidding and it hung at $20 for a little while. Eventually, people got warmed up, and it eventually went for $300 to the owner of the Empty Bottle.

Todd and I were chuckling over how awkward that prize might be. So he would come to your house and then do what exactly? But then we figured that it would be worth it to spend $40 to have him come over and help you move or clean or something. How awesome would that be to have Fred Armisen help you move your crap? And it would be cheaper than hiring movers!

Bears Fever!
Chicago is nutty with the Bears right now. One of the first grade teachers had her kids color pictures of football players (in Bears colors, of course) and posted them outside the classroom. The local morning news is about 76% Bears coverage. I want to see if it would keep up for these next two weeks leading up to the Super bowl.

I hung out yesterday and watched the Bears game with Todd and Rich. It wasn't an unpleasant experience since I napped a little here and there and read my book most of the time.

Beyond that, it's cold as hell here! It snowed a little this weekend and left gray slushiness. The weather makes me want to curl up and go to sleep early. I think that's exactly what I will do tonight.

Before I forget:

This silkscreen print (framed and matted) is the perfectly awesome Christmas gift Todd got for me from my favorite poster/print makers, The Bird Machine. I love the art by the artist, Jay Ryan. They do a lot of concert posters, but I recently noticed that the cover of the new Michael Chabon book is done by them as wel;. Todd had picked it out from the web site, but he was first told that they were out. Luckily, someone dug a hidden one up when Todd re-mentioned it when he went over to the Bird Machine's silkscreening place (whatever you call it).

He told me that a conversation occurred with one of the people there that went as follows:

Todd: My girlfriend loves fat, furry animals.
Guy at Bird Machine: You came to the right place.







I bought another poster from them, another sleeping animal, a bear this time (to the right).

I think I need to start collecting a series of Jay Ryan's fat, sleeping animals.

How it Began
To briefly catch up, I completed my first two days of my job. I got extremely lucky and have the exiting SLP around for about three weeks so I can ease my transition. It helps to take my time meeting the kids, meeting the staff, and learning about the paperwork. Otherwise it would be a lot more frenzied, and a lot more stressful. I was a bit worried to try a new school since my school placement was so ideal, mostly because the kids were perfect angels. I'm happy to report that the kids who I've met so far at my new school are equally angelic. Plus, the SLP is leaving behind tons of materials, a beautiful therapy room (with an enormous picture window), and lots of organization. So far, so good. Plus, I got paid for today, a school holiday! It's a nice contrast to my other placements where I sometimes SLAVED, and paid a lot (both monetarily and spiritually) for the experience.

Plus, my commute is awesome. It takes me about 15 minutes door to door to get home, so I've been getting home by around 3-3:15. I know once the SLP is gone I'll probably stick around longer to get work done, but I'll still be home before 5, most likely.

In other news, I ended my week last week by taking my geology midterm. Brutal. It took me 2.5 hours and by the end I was ready to chuck it since my hands were hurting from writing. 15 definitions and 10 non-negotiable essays. But, that marks my half-way point of the course, and I bled along the way.

But this weekend was a good time. Todd and I went to see Mission of Burma and Pinebender perform at the Double Door. It was a great show, partly because the crowd was so varied (there were a lot of people who were in their 50s). Mission of Burma played two high-energy sets, and the show was still over by midnight. My kind of show. Unfortunately, the cigarette smoke at the show kicked Todd's burgeoning cold into high gear. He was out of commission all weekend, poor dude. He was mildly cheered by the Bears win on Sunday, but had to miss Indian buffet last night.

Laura, Megan, Katie and I went to Devon (Indian-town of Chicago, complete with grocery stores specializing in dried spices and gleaming department stores chock full of glamourous saris and fabric) and partook in a sumptuous buffet. It was such a deal! Besides the buffet, they brought hot buttered naan to the table and sizzling platters of chicken tandoori. All for $9.95. One of my new favorite places in Chicago.

So the week begins again tomorrow. I'm plowing through the last week of my intensive education course for teacher's certifcation, but I can put geology aside for a little bit. I've been running around today running errands: getting a much needed haircut, hassling NU's registrar to fill out paperwork for liscensure, grocery shopping, and working out. Now I'm pooped and am contemplating changing my sheets and changing in my pajamas. Chicago got some snow today and it's starting to stick, so I may take the bus to work tomorrow.

The New Year.

I decided to start out the series of New Years picture with the New Years bread pig that Grace got for my family.

How awesome is it?

Anyway, we rang in the New Year at Matt's beautiful condo. Robin stayed for New Years, and it was a super fun time. It's kind of ridiculous that I have no pictures of our host, but I'll just get them next time. The party was fun, not too crazy, full of delicious food and drinks and full of people who I love.

And it didn't cost over $50 at the door. ;)

Todd's friends, Matt and Sharon, were in DC for the New Years.

Christie and Stefan.

Christie, Anne, and myself.

Anne was such a rock start since she *worked* that day. Had woken up at like 4:30 to work.
Unbelievable.

New Years fun.

30th Birthdays.
This is wildly overdue, but I wanted to document the wee get-t0gether that Jonathan, Clarence, and I had for our 30ths. Clarence turned 30 in November, I did in December, and Jonathan will turn next month. Super good, laid back time! I also got a chance to see folks like James and Nathalie who I might not have otherwise seen.

Des, Bryan, and myself. I am sandwiched by love.

Here is one of my favorite pictures.

Grace was shocked that I liked the last Rocky movie enough to cry at the end. She didn't believe it at first. Then we decided to act out the moment of scorn/disbelief at me sobbing like a baby at a hokey movie.

Gracie and me. When we're not showing our awesome acting skills.

Finally reunited.
I think it was about two years since I had seen Christie!
(We should have gotten Madeline in this one as well).

The birthday kids. part II.

Birthday kids I.

The beautiful cake that Jonathan acquired for the birthday festivities.

The Perfect Storm.
I'm not dead! I assure you, I am alive!
This week has been crazy because of a combination of three things:
1. ) I started my job. About that, my first day was today and I liked it very much. I feel heartened with the assurance that I made the right decision. Plus: money!
2.) I'm in the midst of an intensive three-week course to complete my teachers certification. Much online participation is required along with regular papers. It sucks. But I'm almost half way through at this point.
3.) I'm taking my geology midterm on Friday (my other dreaded online course). It's so much information, I feel totally and seriously screwed.

Once things settle down (this is a long weekend) I'll write more, and try to get down to downloading all of those photos from the break. So you have that to look forward to. Don't lose heart.

Worst Post Ever.
Due to the increased and intensive amount of family time this week, 17-year old brother has been in tow for most events and gatherings. We've (and by 'we,' I mean, his older brother and me) been teasing him when he texts his friends (and by 'when,' I mean approximately every hour or so) during said events. Here are the texts we surmised he was sending:

1. Worst Christmas EVER. No Wii.
(He did get some kind of digital camera/mp3 player/camcorder deal, though).

2. Worst Boxing Day EVER.*
(My parents took us out to a proper lunch and movie on the 26th. Erik totally slept through the first half of the movie)

3. Worst Afghan dinner EVER.
(That's what we did tonight).

* Robin thought that Erik might not know what Boxing Day was, so I don't think he got that joke.

One Moment of the Night
We watched "Blood Diamond" tonight which was engrossing and good, but stressful. Afterward, I found Robin doing an impromptu jig (think Irish step dance) in the kitchen. I don't think it was related to the movie, but if I didn't know better, it was like he was dancing because: "Yay! Child soldiers!"

Vacation is the best.
I really, really like vacation. It is very awesome not to work, to stay up late, to glut on sleep, and to generally goof around. It also makes me lazy, hence the non-blogging.

So, what has happened in the past week or so?

--I turned 30, officially. I feel no amount of trauma.

--Lots of family time. Robin's home for the holidays, which is great.

--I rolled about 200 spring rolls for my parents' open house last week. It was worth it for the spring rolls, though.

What will happen in the next week?

--Lots of shopping. Friends and family were so kind as to give me many gift certificates so I can get some grown-up clothes for work and I need to use them.

--Todd arrives tomorrow. Yay for that!

--More birthday and new years festivities.

--We drive back to Chicago. It will be good to be back, but it will also mean being a grown up, starting a new job, and just generally dealing with life again. Boo to that!

Time to Vote

Amie just sent an email about this awesome news about Jenny. I'm paraphrasing since Blogger won't let me cut and paste the email.

The Denver Post nominated Second City's "How I Lost my Devirginity" for Best Comedy and Jenny Hagel for "Best Comedy Actress" in their annual Ovation Awards which will be awarded on 12/31.

People can vote for Readers Choice through 12/27. So vote for Jenny!

Go to the Denver Post web site www.denverpost.com/theater and click the light blue box along the top that says Ovation Awards.

Answer questions 7 & 11, and then clock "Done" at the bottom of the page.

Truckin'
I drove back to DC straight from Chicago yesterday. It was wise to get on the road at 6 because I forewent all of the Chicago commuter traffic in the morning, which made the start of my trip MUCH easier. I also managed to elude DC commuter traffic getting in, by skipping the beltway (which Google maps urged me to try) and going alternate country routes that my dad gave me. I was home in time for dinner after an 11.5 hour drive, but I was pooped.

Luckily, I had the book on cd called Don't Know Much About History. It's 24 hours of American History. I've listened up the begininning of the civil war. I was embarassed recently when I realized that one of the questions given to one of the "beauties" in the show "Beauty in the Geek" (I know that you watch it too) gave me pause. The woman was asked to name the first three American presidents, and I had to really, really think about it. And then guess. This was not a good thing and exposed me for the ignoramus that I am. So I'm trying to edify myself, and now I feel much better about my knowledge of US history. Also, I didn't know that Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel! Man, it's like an olden version of "The Wire." I never knew what I was missing out on.

I'm sitting at the kitchen table today intent on getting the last geology assignment before the midterm done. It's a paper and I want to do nothing else less. Plus, it looks nice and sunny and fresh outside. Feel sorry for me?

General party crowds. I know that this is a shitty picture, but I wanted to capture what it looked like when you were wading through. Maybe I'll frame it.

Todd and me. Note that gold necklace on me. Lindsay had gotten it for 50 cents out of a vending machine; it came in one of those plastic eggs. I totally got compliments on it.

Northwestern girls Part I.

Some of the NU classmates. I don't know what I'm doing with my neck here since it kind of disappeared.

Also Mirhiyah flew back from San Francisco to celebrate with us this weekend. That was another big treat.

Lee, Pam, Jenny and myself.

Mo' La Tengo playing their brief but stupendous set.

Party time!
It's been the weekend of celebrations. Friday night, Todd and Kiley threw a joint birthday/graduation bash for Steve and me (it was Steve's 30th birthday a few weeks ago). Kiley and Todd arranged to have the fete at this bar called Phyllis' Musical Inn in Wicker Park. Phyllis is this old bar with a tiny stage, high ceilings, and lots of character. It comes complete with a gaggle of regulars hanging out at the end of the bar. While they weren't able to rent out the bar, they arranged the musical line up, so the owner allowed them to do what they wanted in terms of the party. First up, Josh Kalmus. Josh is Steve's friend from high school and plays really impressive blues guitar. Also playing were Vamplifier (a band Steve used to play in at one time) and Bear Claw (a three-piece band that includes Todd's roommate/bandmate, Rich).

There were some changes. Todd, Steve, and Kiley made it up there to play a number under the name Mo' La Tengo (influenced by YLT). . Although three minutes long, it was my favorite performance of the night. Also, Bear Claw wasn't able to play despite their best intentions since their van broke down right as they were getting ready to load their stuff.

I told Todd and Kiley afterwards that it was my perfect idea of a party. Lots of different friends were there, so it was full but it never got so crowded that you couldn't manage the crowds. Kiley ordered insane amounts of pizza for everyone and made cupcakes to share. The venue was dimly lit and warm and the party lasted until the bar closed down. Rich even made a poster for the party/show that is so awesome, I'm waiting for him to get an electronic copy of it to me so I can post it on ye olde blog.

So again, lots of fun. Thanks to everyone for coming out on Friday night to celebrate the early birthday.

The Space Needle, Office Dinners, Hot Dogs, Country and Western Bars, and St. Lucia's Day: A post that is officially all over the place.
I've had a pretty nice past few days. This week has been awesomely great mostly because I don't have a whole lot going on besides a few appointments and trying to wade my way through more Geology assignments (this is proving to be the longest class in the history of time, solely by my own doing).

Every day this week, Lauren, Hillary, Megan, Laura and I have been getting together; each time doing a little celebration of our *graduation.* Today, Megan and Laura had us over to their place to celebrate St. Lucia's Day, which I understand to be the Swedish version of Christmas. Correct? Megan told us that St. Lucia was killed and had her eyes gouged out. I'm pretty sure that there was more the story, but that's the part that stuck with me. Yesterday we met for lunch at Hot Dougs, which was surprisingly crowded for a Tuesday afternoon. No reindeer hot dogs on the menu that day.

This past week I finished up with my exam, papers, last client sessions, and also went out for Hillary's birthday last Wednesday. That was great since it ended up being an extremely flavorful tour of the Northside. We started with dinner at Pho 777 in Argyle and then ended the night at Carol's Pub, which is this dimly lit country and western bar on the fringes of Andersonville. There were about three people in the place besides us and the live band. Two of the people were a newly minted married couple who informed us that they had met in the bar a year ago, and proposed in the bar as well (we were the only people who didn't know since everyone else attended the wedding that past weekend). The groom looked like a character out of Bloom County with the cigarettes rolled up in his t-shirt sleeve and aviators that didn't come off of his face. The bride was extremely warm and she sent Hillary a birthday drink across the bar. The country and western band also organized a birthday singalong and accepted a birthday request from Hillary. Friendliest bar ever.

Thursday night I went with Todd to his company's holiday dinner. Fancy affair! Steak! Fancy dessert! Open bar! I love company holiday parties.

This past weekend, we took a whirlwind trip to Seattle. Kiley had done us the favor of bringing us back maps, magazines, and bus schedules from her recent trip, as well as a list of places to visit. This had stupendous worth since we visited every place she recommended. Our hotel was in the downtown area (2 blocks from the space needle; believe it.) so we walked much, more, and a lot all weekend. Todd was excited to see the reunion of Juno on Saturday and Sunday nights, we got to see Don, and we got to try lots and lots of coffee places. Kiley named one place (Vivace) as the best place in Seattle, so we found it and I will wholeheartedly agree that it is mah-velous. Some things that struck me about Seattle:
- It smells so fresh! Definitely compared to Chicago, which can often smell like exhaust and urine.
-The buses operate on hybrid-electric! Very impressive and progressive.
-Seattle is a lot more hilly than I recollected. Good to get the exercise, but I couldn't park a car on some of those inclines. Or ride a bike up them.

Again, I have pictures. I just have to figure out how to download them onto my computer.

Also, Happy 30th to Madeline!

I'm done with graduate school.

I accepted a job offer to start a month away.

This is what I will be doing for the next month.

More soon with further, but I had to post this now.

(thanks to Todd for sending me this, as this clearly shows that he knows me too well.)
(Fat baby + Fat Cat )(In Repose) = Truly Fantastic

Another comment.
Oprah is on in the background, and Il Divo is singing. Has anyone seen them? They crack me up because they're like walking caricatures. And the people in the audience are seriously losing their shite. I love the guy with a deep voice because his eyebrows are forever cocked as if he has an inside joke with every mom in that audience. I think that he's the attention hog. And they have a goddamn orchestra playing behind them.

Second Official Distraction of the Night
Campus Ladies, season 2, on Oxygen. I swear, this show slays me.

I studied finally today!
I went to my favorite coffee shop to study and secretly spy on first dates. The Caribou by me is always full of boys meeting in person for the first time. Seriously, I estimate that 60% of the time I am there, there is a first date occurring within 10 feet of me. I love it. Most, I'm sad to report, are kind of losers of first dates. You can tell that the people are definitely not into eachother. Tonight may have been one of those, since when the second dude walked up, the first dude clippily announced: "You're late." I'm pretty sure that it was a first date too, since the other guy was kind of nervous and their small talk was about their living situations. So yeah, I studied for about 30 minutes and then I was distracted by the date happening directly across from me, and I ended up spending 20 minutes listening/eavesdropping.

May I also discuss my new favorite method of procrastination? There is a website where the blogger details the happenings of his two cats (I know, but hear me out). One of the cats, Winston, definitely gets more of the exposure and man does he deserve it. For the love of all that is good, round, and roly-poly, check it out.

98% There
Man, I'm so close to being done that I can taste it! I confess, it's all very surreal. I finished with my school placement on Friday, where my supervisor was very kind and brought two enormous sheet cakes as well as a few gifts for me. The school experience was an extremely positive one. Now I've got one exam left and one more client session and need to round up signatures. Again, so close.

Oh, yes, and there was a snow storm in Chicago on Friday! The news was talking it up all week, warning of 12 inches on the ground before noon on Friday. That morning started off scarily with blustery snow everywhere and no traffic on the road. I woke up early, deciding that I would take public transportation to school if it wasn't canceled. It wasn't. Apparently, Skokie school districts haven't canceled for snow in something like 8-9 years. The snow wore off by noon, though, and the roads were pretty clear by quitting time on Friday. I have to give it to Chicago city services because they are very efficient about salting their roads.

Todd treated me to dinner out on Friday at one of my new favorite restaurants, Darwins, in celebration of the occasion. Two words: baked brie (although, Lauren's baked brie with apricot still rules the roost in my opinion). I decided to swear off work for the rest of the weekend, which I did quite effectively, thank you very much.

Saturday we headed over to Roscoe Village. Todd got a haircut, and I decided to hit up the local thrift store there for toys and books for therapy (can't remember the name right now, but it starts with "Village"). Roscoe Village is a cozy little neighborhood full of young professionals and starter families. Needless to say, their toy and book collection was *awesome*. I got some great wooden puzzles and really nice books and large plastic blocks and bundles and bundles of assorted toys and figures. I left with a huge bag of stuff. What was the cost you ask? Well, my friends, you better be sitting down since the grand total was $6.50. I am definitely hitting that place up as my main source of materials. Sarah was telling me about how she hit up all of the yard sales in the rich suburbs this summer for her materials and made out like a bandit with super quality toys and games. I am totally following her lead this coming summer.

The best way to celebrate a shopping coup such as that was to try out a restaurant, so we went to Kitsch'n for lunch. YUM. Another new favorite. I had their famous green eggs and ham (scrambled eggs with basil pesto and honey ham) and I think I was about to die for belly happiness.

The rest of the weekend was spent inside, hiding from the cold. We also glutted ourselves on Netflix. It was quite awesome.

Happy Belated Birthday, Robin!

The big day was yesterday, and I hope that he lived it up in Texas.

Turkey Hangover, still.
How was everyone's Thanksgivings? Mine was lovely. Todd and I cooked up a huge feast with Kiley and Steve (pictures impending), but the entire holiday was over way too quickly for my liking. Here I am, it's Monday night, and I have a bunch of work that needs to get done. I'm totally unmotivated and feel kind of out of it, but that's probably from being computer-bound for so long. I spent the last half hour perusing emails from two years ago, that's how desperate things have gotten. It made me realize what a horribly putrid correspondent I have become.

But, may I say: this is my last official week in grad school. Praise Allah.

What else happened? Well, besides the lovely mild weather and some long, leisurely walks, I didn't do much. We did go and see "Borat" the other night. I went in with hugely high, astronomical hopes since seeing his bits on the Ali G show slays me to tears. I found the movie to be funny, but it was more gross-out, scatalogical humor which I'm not crazy about. I realized afterward that what I loved about the Borat character in the show ws that while he was incredibly clueless, and often offensive, he maintained a certain sweetness about him (the episode where he was on the treadmill--it killed me). In the movie, those subtle sweetness were sort of sloughed off, and the jokes were more aggressive and in-your-face. So, while it was still funny, I definitely prefer the show-Borat.

Odd.
I was paying bills this morning. For a bill of $37.37, I ended up using check number 37. What are the odds of that? I need to go and get a lottery ticket stat.

And so begins the festivity season
It's been a fun weekend besides the SLP certification test on Saturday morning and writing of papers in between. Last night I accompanied Todd to his friend, Emily's, wedding. Whoa. Very nice and swanky. The reception was at this restaurant in downtown called Nacional 27, which has chichi Latin food. Apparently, it's the hot place to go for salsa dancing on the weekends. They rented the restaurant out for the night, and it was great. The drinks were flowing and they were all fancy-dancy (my favorite: mojito martini). The appetizers were amazing (crap and guacamole dip, lobster salad, cerviche, etc) and the main course food was varied and delicious. I woke up this morning with a bit of a dashy stomach from all of the rich and delicious food. But it was worth it.

Today we went to Todd's family's Thanksgiving feast in Wilmington. Mmmm.

So, very fun weekend. The next couple of days will be a little work-filled, but I can handle two days

Yays and Boos
Boo to writing this paper due next Tuesday. It's an interesting topic, but I'm having difficulty organizing my research and it makes me tired. I am on page 4 of 10, and it's sucking a whole lot right now.

Yay to Robin, who is an amazing brother, and sent me his digital camera to use when he had read on ye olde blog that mine was kaput.

Boo to certification exams in fields of study. Mine is next Saturday, although I confess that it is a whole lot better than comprehensive exams such as James recently took. You are a strong man, James.

Yay to broccoli and delicious lemon yogurt being on sale at the grocery store. The broccoli was only 49 cents a pound! Awesome!. I had the lemon yogurt for dessert tonight and I thought that I would die from the pure joy of the experience.

One more thing knocked off the to-do list.
The above title is not referring to my current, ever-growing to-do list for school and general getting my life together stuff, but to my List of Things-That-I-Must-Do-in Chicago-at-Some-Point. Saturday evening (after finally getting some work done at the library...the coffee did the trick, if you care) Todd and I joined Steve and Kiley to celebrate Steve's immediate birthday for an evening at the Green Mill, because according to them "that's something that 30-year olds do." True that. The Green Mill is an old acclaimed jazz joint in Uptown. It's renowned for late hours, good jazz, and a rich and juicy history (Al Capone and his henchmen had a regular booth there, apparently). I had always wanted to go, so was excited for the opportunity.

So, it was good.

I don't know my jazz, but it sounded good to me, and I was impressed by the management's iron-clad will to keep the place quiet when the music is playing (no loud conversations are allowed, nor are cell phones allowed to be turned on). We got there late enough that we didn't snag one of the booths or tables, but managed to find a length of the bar to belly up to. The drink prices weren't outrageous, which I kind of expected them to be, because the truth is that enough locals and tourists go that they could charge out the nose. And the people watching was spectacular. The bouncer/doorman had a waxed, curlique moustache that would make historical re-enactors quiver in their boots, and there was the most hilarious couple engaging in a massive display of public affection in the booth beside us.

Stoopider
I swear to God, I'm getting dumber every day.

In one of my classes, we were discussing "gifted students." We spent most of the time talking not about your run-of-the-mill honors class kids (and most of you reading this were just those kids) but the super-duper geniuses. Anyway, one of the signs of a super-crazy smart kid is one who is able to focus for long periods of time on the topic of interest. That flagged my interest since I've been noticing lately that my own focus has been shot (and this is really all about me). I seriously can't sit down for more than an half an hour working on something before my mind wanders. Bottom line: I am the opposite of a super-genius.

Even today is a good example. I came over to the library which has nice uncluttered space and is relatively free of distractions (besides the free wi-fi, that is). I've been here for a little over an hour and I've done maybe 20 solid minutes of work. And now I'm completely obsessed with the idea of taking a break and getting some coffee from across the street. I saw a guy sitting at another table drinking a cup and I began to slaver immediately.

I think this calls for self-bribing. The deal of the moment is one in which I must sit here for another hour and do at least half an hour more of work before allowing myself that coffee break.
Hmm, there's a guy who's been sitting across from me working on some sort of very complicated table. I figured that he was a business student or some such crap, but it looks like he's doing some sort of fantasy football deal. Now *that* guy has some focus that I admire.

Veterans Day!
It's been a good week. Firstly because of the awesome midterm elections. I can't believe that the Dems have majority in both the House and the Senate, now, but it's a long time in coming. Tuesday night was pretty exciting; I kept on checking the polls online and so many states were neck and neck. I'm thrilled that Webb got Virginia.

Secondly, my car is back with me as of this morning. She is shiny and new with her replaced bumper, light, and hood. The place even cleaned her for me, so that was a nice positive.

Thirdly, I have the day off from school. Yahoo! I have lots of work to do, but it's nice that there's an extra day of it.

On Wednesday, my supervisor was out at my school placement so when I didn't see kids I got to hang out in the classrooms of my choice. I spent my free time in my favorite preschool classroom with my favorite preschool teacher (I love the way that she interacts with the kids, and she is always cracking up at their absurdity, which I appreciate). Pre-schoolers are hands down my favorite age to work with, I realized. They're interested, interesting, blunt, kind of bizarre, sweet, and crack me the hell up. They are not capable of any kind of machinations, but if they do happen to try, it's so transparent that it's more hilarious than anything else. I love that.

But on Wednesday it hit me more than ever that pre-schoolers act like drunkards.

• They lumber and clumsily wheel into shelves or any standing object nearby.
  
• They hold loud conversations that follow no rules of topic maintenance.
  
• They are full of non-sequitors.
• One little one walked up to me and calmly stated "My shoes are purple." They were not.

• They are free and sloppy with their effusiveness and affections.
• Another of my favorite little ones, who I don't see as a client, approached me when I was in the room, threw his arms around me, and sweetly stated "I love you."
  

• They howl and laugh over un-funny things. So much that they can be convinced that something is hilarious when it may not be.
  
• I was reading a picture book with one of my kids, and when commenting on a picture, did a fake laugh and suggested "Isn't that silly?!" He immediately burst into laughter and said "SO silly!" Best audience ever.
  

The Bane of My Existence: Hard Work Has Paid Off
So I'm taking an online geology course to help fulfill my requirements for certification (I needed an undergrad physical science course and I opted to take this one). It is kicking the ass in a major way. (Christie, my beloved friend who majored in Geology, would probably be tickled mightily because yours truly *struggles*). I bombed my first three assignments and was managing an awesome C- average. It was dire. So I really, really tried on my fourth assignment and was holding my breath to find out the grade. I just checked it online and I got an A+! I am seriously proud.

Two Years!
Todd and I have been dating for two years now (my, how time flies) and we went out last night to a fancy dinner to celebrate. We went to Fixture for their "Beer and Bacon" pre-fixe meal. It was tres chi chi, and definitely special-occasion pricing, but well worth it. Each of the three courses was paired with a delicious brew, and each of the courses had some sort of bacon or pork addition. It was super fun, and very appropriate, and we both enjoyed it immensely.

I made Todd take pictures of at least two of the courses with his camera phone, but he drew the line at bringing his digital camera with its flash into the dimly lit restaurant for the purpose of taking pictures of the meal. I definitely need a digital camera that works because I gots NO shame in that way. And I know how much my loyal audience appreciates looking at food porn, like me.

On an unrelated note, I did my second hearing screening at one of the private schools around here this morning in order to fulfill requirements. We screened middle and high schoolers and they were all surprisingly polite and sweet. One of the teenagers cracked me up: he barely passed his screening so the supervising audiologist was questioning him about to what he's been exposing his young ears. She asked him about whether he has used fireworks recently and he paused for a second and then very blase-ly informed her that he routinely participates in "roman candle wars." She was like "I don't even know what those are, but stop doing them." Then he told her he went to a "death metal grind core" concert on Saturday night and stood up front. That kid was the best. He also said that his mom uses garlic cloves as ear plugs. The audiologist had never heard of that before; have any of you?

Testing
I spent the whole of yesterday taking tests that are a mandatory part of my path to the obtainment of teacher's certification. What a pain in the ass. I got up at 5:20 in the morning and then hustled on down to the huge, cavernous convention center down by Chinatown. I left there at about 5:20 feeling completely burnt.

So today is nice and lazy. I was intending to do some work, but I haven't been able to motivate myself just yet. Urg.

Wow
You want to see some awesome costumery?
Check out Kevin's blog post about the costumes he made for he and Dop.

UNbelievable. They better have won some kind of prize.

Bastards.
Someone plowed into my car in the past day or so. They left the headlight dangling and almost ripped the grill off of the front after closer inspection. I suspect this happened at some point late last night when some drunk a-hole wanted to do a 3-point turn on the street. The car was fine yesterday. I was walking over to the Halsted Halloween parade to find Kevin and Dop (Kevin, sorry to have missed you) when I discovered this very sad sight. I'm going to haul it into the closest collision place tomorrow a.m. and then hoof it to my school placement in the suburbs via CTA. Should be fun.

I know, I know. Things could definitely have been worse. I could have been IN the car, or they could have caved in the entire side of the car. But still, it's a pain in the ass, and I'm not looking forward to paying the deductible.

Bastard ass faces! May their cowardly, drunken lives be forever cursed. So there.

Also, there were dumplings. In Texas.
Major Congratulations to Robin who opened up his dumpling shop, Kuai, this past Friday in Dallas, Texas. He is my hero, he put so much hard work, blood and grit into this thing with very little complaint.

West Point loveliness.

More West Point foliage.

Anne and Suzi, the lovely bride.

Check out the chapel. How lovely and Gothic is that??

Anne and I got to pose with the groom.

Suzi and Tom even had their big day emblazoned on the water bottles they provided on the bus.

Very nice touch.

Major thanks to Anne for providing all of these pictures! My camera is long dead and I rely on the kindness of my friends to share.

West Point Nuptuals
I flew over to the east coast this past weekend to attend the aforementioned wedding of Suzi and Tom. I got in late on Friday night to lovely Newark International Airport. My flight was an hour delayed, but it worked out well because I arrived in time for Anne to swoop in and get me on the way to upstate New York. (Thank you, Anne!).

We checked into the hotel at around 11, and then caught up for awhile before conking out around midnight.
Saturday was the day of the wedding so after supping at a local diner, we threw on our clothes and got on the bus to go 20 miles to the West Point campus. Upstate New York was awash in leaves turning, and it was downright stunning. Our bus wound around the impressive West Point campus before stopping at one of the chapels there (the highest point on campus, I'll have you know).
Suzi and Tom's ceremony was moving and lovely. Suzi looked graceful and beautiful and I teared up as she walked down the aisle with her parents.
After the ceremony, we loaded onto the busses for a tour of the West Point campus before heading to one of the alumni houses for the Chinese tea ceremony and the reception.
We also managed to catch up with Clarence and Jonathan and a few other people that I haven't seen for a varying amount of time. Some old faces from China too, which was cool. One couple that I knew in Beijing has since moved to the States and had a baby who I wanted to eat up, he was so luscious.
The reception was a blast. Dinner was amazing (there are no words to describe the salad: brown sugared pecans and pears and apples on greens = heaven.) and the DJ pumped out the 80s tunes. So fun. Definitely one of the more super fun weddings I've been to. Suzi and Tom put together an amazing weekend for everyone.
So after brunching on Sunday, Anne drove me over to Newark where I discovered my flight was delayed two hours. I got into Chicago at around 8:45 and next thing I know it was time to head to school in the morning. Back into the grind, but well worth it after an amazing weekend.

Congratulations again to Suzi and Tom.

Success
Last night we had another book club meeting (I can't believe a month has passed already) and the book was one that Lauren suggested. It was called Nice Big American Baby, a collection of short stories by Judy Budnick. Run, don't walk, to find and read this book now, because it was excellent. I suspect that I had read her novel once before a couple of years ago and was sad when I saw that she didn't have anything else out there. I'm going to try to find that novel again. Anyway, it was cool because we sat and discussed the book for at least 40 minutes last night before devolving into speech language-pathology talk (there was an actual heated discussion as to whether DPS--Deep Pharyngeal Stimulation, I believe--is an effective treatment for swallowing).

Actually, I need to stop by the library today because I need some fun plane reading because...it's Suzi and Tom's wedding this weekend! I am very, very excited for them and for me because it'll be a wee vacation.

Sleep monster
At the end of this past week I felt another cold creep up on me. I think that it was due to a combination of not getting adequate sleep during the week and being surrounded by sniffling kids all the time.

This weekend I made up for it, though. Friday night I fell asleep at midnight and didn't get up till around 9. Last night I fell asleep before midnight and didn't get up till 9:30. It truly was awesome. AND I feel like my cold is going away.

Super Daaaawwwwg

Yesterday I coaxed Todd into driving out to the way north of Chicago so we could try Superdawg, a hot dog drive-in place. We had heard its praises being sung on "Check Please," and I had to try it.
The verdict? The food was yummy. I had a cheeseburger was very tasty. The fries were nice and crisp like I like them too. We split a chocolate milkshake, and sure enough it was super thick so the straw stood up straight, as promised.

The downside? It was pricey. The burger and fries were almost $5, which was okay I guess, but a hot dog and fries, which is what Todd had, cost the same thing. You can get it for waaay cheaper at any other Chicago hot dog joint in town.
It was also kind of confusing. You didn't know whether spaces were for parking for inside dining or for car hop service. We opted for car hop service. It was a first-time experience, but as Todd commented, "it kind of sucks to eat in your car." True thing.

But, still yummy overall. I'm glad that we got to try it.

October Weekend

Friday night I went with Todd to see The Evens play (Ian Mackaye and a woman who may or may not be his wife) at the Pulaski Park Field House. A few cool things about the show:

1. It was early, so it started at 8 and ended at 9. Short and sweet.
2. It only cost $5 to get in.
3. The Pulaski Park Field House if awesome: it was his huge cavernous room with a large stage with a massive painting adorning it--the perfect room for a party.
4. The show was fun. I don't know much about Fugazi, but I liked the music by the Evens which was in turns slow and quiet and then raucous and louder.
5. There was audience participation involved. There was a singalong and at one point the band urged the audience to whistle in unison at the start of one song...with the echo from the room the effect was weird and haunting.
6. Todd told me that they had a song on some children's compilation called "Vowel Movement," which made me love them a lot.
7. Out of curiosity, I looked up Ian MacKaye on google, and it spit up this interview with him from Salon back in 2001. There's a great story about why he now responds to high schoolers contacting him when they're writing reports.

Beyond that, we met up with the Northwestern ladies later that night which was a good time. The rest of the weekend has been spent pretending to do work, going out to dinner. Todd treated me to Wishbone last night, which was yummy. We tried to go to Hopleaf which is supposed to have an awesome selection of beer and a good menu, but they offered us an 1.5-2 hour wait when we got there around 9, so that was a no-go.

I'm also trying to study for my quarter's first midterm which is on Tuesday. It's hard to get motivated.

One more thing: I started watching episodes of "The Wire" for this season, and I am completely hooked. I've caught up fully, and zoomed over to netflix to put season 2 and 3 high in my queue.

When I should be doing work...

I got caught up on the weemee website. Go there and make a wee you! I want to see what it looks like.

"But You Can Call Me Il"

This is awesome. From Harper's Magazine, a collection of titles "allegedly used by prominent leaders from 160 nations around the world" to refer to Kim Jong-Il announced on North Korean television.

Some of the list is as follows:

Greatest Saint Who Rules with Extensive Magnanimity
Lode Star of the Twenty-First Century
Best Leader Who Realized Human Wisdom
Leader with Extraordinary Personality
Perfect Picture of Wisdom and Boldness

and last, but not least....

Eternal Bosom of Hot Love

(via themorningnews)

Tuesdays
I like it when Mondays are off so Tuesdays are the beginning of the week. I keep on looking ahead and Thursday is day after tomorrow! It's practically the end of the week already!

I'm trying to be good and get organized in terms of school work. I'm also trying to get back on the workout train and eating healthier. I am brimming with good intentions for virtue!

And that's all that's been going on with me. Except that Saturday was Mom's birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!). I celebrated by going to Greektown with Todd and having some moussaka (yummy). It was my first time in Greektown, although I guess it's not so much a 'town' as a 'block.' The place we ate was really charming, though, with garden seating which was perfect since the weather this weekend was flawless (sunny, clear, in the 70s).

That night we went to Todd's cousin's wedding. It was a very nice, classy affair. Huge with 10 bridesmaids (!) and an ice sculpture and stuff. The wedding reception was held in a hotel type place that was also housing another reception. We walked into the other reception by mistake and realized our error when we couldn't find the seating cards and didn't recognize the bridesmaid dresses. We ran into Todd's Uncle Pat at the doorway; he realized that he was at the wrong place as well but not before he got a drink at the open bar, so he just took his drink with him to the right wedding.

Congratulations to Zack, Jenny, and Baby Josh!

Zack and Jenny became parents a couple of days ago, which is exciting and great. Josh is a looker, isn't he?

Just Try to Choke Me Now.
I attended a Crisis Prevention Training at my school placement today, which means I learned how to defuse escalating crisis/behavior situations, both verbal and physical. It was helpful information, and I wish that I knew some of this before since it probably would have helped me in terms of behavior management in clients past. What's nice is that it was proof to me that working with the TBI kids this summer definitely educated me in terms of some of this (at least the verbal). I rocked during some of the role plays today.

But what's cool is that we learned defensive reactions of what to do if struck or grabbed, including hair pulling, choking, hitting, kicking, etc. If someone tries to choke me, I will so be able to slip out of their grip. And if some buster on the street tries to grab me, at least I'm theoretically aware of what I need to do.

In other news, I popped in Season 2 of "Lost" tonight and that equals trouble. I'm captured.

I have a new favorite.
Seriously, my new favorite restaurant of the week in Chicago is called Darwin's. Todd and I had walked by the place dozens of times, but I finally read about it in Chicagoist, and found the photos and the descriptions of the food irresistable. Last night we finally went, and thank goodness for that.

I had the bacon and brie burger.

I know.

It had bacon enmeshed in the burger with slabs of melted brie on top. And parmesan and herb encrusted fries.

I am in love.

Next time we're going to get the starter of fried macaroni and cheese bites.

A list of things that are good.

1. My book club
A few of my classmates (some graduated now) from school came together for a book club, and I like it very much. It's once a month, and it's a good excuse to see people who I normally wouldn't, and there is always plenty of food and wine.

This past month we read "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" which is on everyone's book club list, and which I didn't like. Noone else in the club liked it either, so while it didn't spark a whole lot of discussion, there was a lot of self-affirment. Then we sat down and watched "project runway." My kind of party.

2. The weather in Chicago right now
It's cool and crisp and sunny. Walking around campus was so lervly this morning, and I started to feel stabs of nostalgia already (!). I couldn't believe it.

3. My Thursday schedule
2-4 in class. That's all. Enough said.

Phlegmy
Everyone warned me that once I walked into the schools I would contract a cold of some kind. They were totally not lying, because yours truly is coughing up all kinds of stuff. Not bad enough to interfere with my life, but still kind of annoying.

I know it's been a while since I've blogged. Not much to report except that things are still going well. I'm starting to accrue things that need to get done this quarter, but it still feels like a tropical vacation compared to last quarter. I've been able to see friends in the evenings! I've been able to not spend 12 hours a day at a placement! It's been great. I am starting to feel the pressure of all of the final things that need to get checked off the check list and am worried that I'll forget something, but nothing is life-threatening, so that's okay.

Last weekend was a relaxing one. Todd and I joined Steve and Kiley for dinner and a movie on Friday night. We went to see "The Last Kiss" which annoyed the hell out of me. I think Zach Braff is overrated anyway, and this movie he played someone disbelievably irresistable. Plus his character was stupid and selfish. Let me know if any of you came away from that movie with a different opinion. Anyway, on Saturday we went to see The Life and Times play at Subterranean, which was fun, but beer and a late night made me seriously fall asleep standing up. I am so, so lame.

And that's all that I've got. I've got stuff to do tonight, but tomorrow I don't have class till 2 (lovely!) so can stay up late tonight getting stuff done.

Huggy Bear
Thanks to Todd who sent me this awesome news story today about a dude in China who after downing four beers, decided to climb into a panda pen at a zoo "to 'hug' the bear."

The panda promptly bit the guy who then bit the panda back.

No one ever said they would bite people. I just wanted to touch it

Zhang Xinyan

So awesome.

First day of school
I had my first day at my school placement today, and let me just say: it is pretty awesome. I'm at two schools: one is school age (K-8) and the other is Pre-K and Kindergarten. The latter school holds mixed classrooms of special ed and mainstream kids. I really, really liked what I saw. My supervisor seems extremely nice and I was done by 3:30 and home by 4.

I have a good feeling about this quarter.

I'm using this picture to tell our Columbus story. Basically we got into Columbus in the early evening, but spent a good 40 minutes driving through its suburbs which had character in an industrial kinda way. Cheap real estate too.

We got turned around and traveled the same patch of the highway a few times, which I found hilarious, but I wasn't driving and didn't have to deal.

When we finally found a hotel, we promptly found out that there was an OSU game the next day, so every place in the surrounding area was all booked up. Columbus plans busted. But we had to drive through the city on the way out, so we got to see OSU's campus and many seemingly cool neighborhoods. Columbus, I hardly knew ye.

We ended up driving further on and landing in Marion, OH for the night. Marion, OH: a bastion of hotels and restaurants and a good place to stop for the night.

Morgantown, WV.
We decided to stop in Morgantown for lunch. I thought that it might be fun to see the University of West Virginia (above you can see one of the cable cars that run across town for the students). At first, I was charmed by the town since I was feeling all things good will toward the state at that point. But let it be said that for some reason, the traffic in Morgantown is ALL messed up. Wtf? It's *Morgantown*. We ended up driving into campus looking for a restuarant that we never found, and then ended up stuck in traffic. We were in Morgantown for an hour before we found a place to eat.

My good will toward Morgantown basically disappeared after that. I think that the chain link in the picture is apropos.

Todd had to borrow my sunglasses for the road.
He looks sweeeeet.

This doesn't do justice to the fog that lay over Ohio on Saturday morning. Spooky stuff.

Trust me on this one

In the bottom left hand corner it reads:

Be Proud.
Show your HOOTERS
Please!

From Virginia we hit West Virginia of the rolling hills and verdant loveliness. Seriously, West Virginia is beautiful, and it's sad that it's so nationally derided.

Road Tripping
Back in Chicago now (where fall has officially crept in, and it's unbelievably crisp, cool, and awesome outside). Todd got into DC last Thursday, and then we took off on Friday morning. The plan was to drive to Columbus, spend the night there, and then make the rest of the trip on Saturday.

Our route consisted of Virginia, and then Maryland.

Todd got a kick out of these signs in Maryland that dotted the highway every few miles.

Take me there now.

Bastard Mouse

So my check engine light came on in my barely driven car. After doing the requisite gas cap checkage, I finally caved and brought my little black civic to the dealership. Since I'm driving back to Chicago on Friday, I need to make sure that everything is in tippy-toppy condition.

So after waiting in the rather chichi waiting room at Tysons Corner Honda (they have a deli shop and Internet access for the patrons!), the mechanic came and found me and showed me what was up. Mice had chewed open one of the emissions tubes, and according to the mechanic, "probably crawled in there and died somewhere."

Awesome!

So I need to get all of those mouse-chewed tubes replaced and pray that my car doesn't smell like mouse remains for eternity. My car has been smelling kind of musty, but I attributed it to not having been driven that much. The lucky/sad thing is that I'm totally used to the smell now. Ah, how quickly one acclimates to the odor of rodent death.