The News!
As most of my loyal blog readers know by now, Todd and I got engaged last Wednesday night! We are excited of course, and I'm doing a good job of reeling myself in now and reminding myself that planning a wedding shouldn't take over my life (it took me a couple of days to get through the initial panic of "what do I do?!" to get to this point, admittedly). It's all about getting married rather than the wedding day, which, while it should be fun, isn't the main event.

So how did it happen? Well, Tuesday was our three year anniversary since our first date (the blog entry can be found for it dated November 7, 2004--I would have linked to the specific entry, but it was proving to be challenging). We ended up going out for our fancy dinner on Wednesday since I had already had book club scheduled on Tuesday (I do love my book club). Todd made reservations at Marche on Randolph Street, and (lucky us!), Wednesday is their night of their Prix Fixe deal. Marche was fun and yummy and looked like it bought decorations off the set of Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge." (see more about Marche at the end of this entry)

We had a great relaxing dinner and then headed back to Todd's place where we were going to relax and watch a DVRed episode of "30 Rock." As we were about to walk into his door, I was yammering away in the hallway, and Todd paused and stated "I got you a present." Next thing I know, he was on one knee with a box in his outstretched hand. People, I was flabbergasted. Flabbergasted, but thrilled. While I knew that we would eventually get engaged, I figured that it would be early next year or something. It was then that I found out that Todd's been planning this for months now, researched and found the ring on his own, and even called my parents last week for permission. He did an excellent job of picking a ring and keeping it a secret, although he did confess that in the elevator from the garage up to his place he had to concentrate on "acting like [him]self."

So: yay! I'm constantly distracted by the awesomeness of my ring; I've never been a jewelry kind of girl, but I'm lerving the shininess. And of course, I'm so happy to make it official with the best dude ever.

Note: Y'all, RUN to Marche for their Prix Fixe deals! It's 28 bucks total and you get any appetizer, main course, and dessert you want off of the menu. I chose the steak as my main dish and that, alongside my french onion soup and my bittersweet chocolate cake flanked with mint chip (with fresh mint leave tastiness) would have normally set me back $51. My steak dinner alone normally costs more than the price of the prix fixe meal! I'm overcome by value and it was all super delicious. Go, go, go!

Struck
So I recently sent Robin a bunch of my favorite "This American Life" episodes, because I know that he's going to be putting in long hours when he's opening another branch of Kuai, and he'll want something to entertain him either at the restaurant or driving back and forth to the restaurant. He called tonight to give me feedback on some of the episodes that he's listened to so far, and one of them includes one of my absolute favorite acts: an oral reading of the short story "Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story" by Russell Banks. I remember when I first heard that story when it aired I was dumbstruck. It is such amazing writing and reverberates with sadness.

Robin told me that he found the full short story online (the reading is slightly abridged on the show), so I googled it immediately and found it here. I suspect that it's even more powerful when you hear the most excellent reading of it on the show, so you can find that here. Get ready to pay attention for awhile, though, because the entire reading is 42 minutes.

Annie in the city
Annie came to town this weekend! Her family comes from Chicago originally, so she didn't need to do any sightseeing. This meant it was a very relaxed weekend, and lots of popping off at our leisure to do whatever suited us. The best kind of vacation, methinks.

The weekend revolved around prioritizing the kinds of cuisine that Annie can't obtain in her current city of Gainesville, so we had: Thai, Chicago hot dogs, Mexican, Mediterranean, dim sum, and heavy metal burgers at Kuma's Korner (which, incidentally, was just featured on "Check Please" this past weekend, so even though we got there before 5 pm on Sunday, there was still a wait). We did quite well for ourselves.

Now we're launching into a busy week: lots of assessments, meetings to schedule, and report cards to be done and distributed. This is the last five day week for a while, though, since next week is Veteran's Day, and then the week after that is Thanksgiving. Sweeeet!

I also love this
This website is Overheard in New York.

Some of my favorites:

Old man to two-year old: Man, talking to you is like fucking talking to a brick wall.

--F train

Overheard by: trieze

Subway performer: Can you guys help me out? I take pennies, I take hundreds, I take business cards... Hell, I take white people's shoes and socks! [To random passenger] Awww, shit, girl -- I take phone numbers, too! ... You like White Castle? Daaamn.

--Downtown 4/5 Train

Overheard by: Bemused Spectator

Nurse to hobo next to her: Aw, hell no! You fucking stink! [She pulls out a can of air freshener and hoses him down.]

--A train

This blog knows what amuses me
I love the use of flagrant and unnecessary quotation marks on public signs, and this blog does as well:

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

Things that have brought tears to my eyes in the last 24 hours, no joke.
1. I was watching a stupid Lifetime show about this medium, Lisa something, who communicates with the dead (I know). I even watched two episodes. Yep, I did. And I totally wept like 90% of the time.

2. I just watched a PBS "Nova" about people who trained for the Boston marathon. They were from all walks of life, all ages, but were all pretty much sedentary before training. Something like four of the people crossed the finish line when the race was wrapping up and it totally made me weep! They were so proud of themselves and had worked so hard and many had family members running the final stretch with them to cheer them on, and it was all very heartening.

Lazy days
So my plan this weekend was to sleep off this cold! Mission almost accomplished since I've pretty much taken it easy all weekend and while the cough is still present, it's less...mucous-y than before (yum!). Yesterday we went shopping for much needed items like socks and underwear and then cooked dinner in. We also watched several episodes of "Freaks and Geeks" again. There are few things that I can watch over and over again, but that DVD set definitely qualifies. Maybe also "Strictly Ballroom," but since I don't own that, I haven't really put it to the test yet.

Today it was a pleasure to see that "The Darjeeling Limited" was showing at the Davis Theater, around the block from me. I love me some Wes Anderson, but I wasn't expecting something amazing since I had read such mixed reviews of the movie. I really liked it though: it was touching, and interesting, and Wes Anderson always picks such sad-faced, clever, perfect-line-delivering cuties to star in his films.

And the week looms ahead: lots of meetings, therapy, and paperwork to look forward to. Yahoo!

My Day Kind of Blew
It started out with finding a flat tire on my car in the morning. I walked past the Mustang parked in front of me and its windows were all smashed out and I was all like: "whew! I escaped it!"

Until I started driving and heard the crunching of the tire rim. Not a good sound. So I pulled over and attempted to change the tire myself. I've never unearthed the donut before or examined my tire changing equipment, so it took me a little while to figure out where everything was. And then it took me a long ass time to try to jack up the car (the civic equipment sucks). I was lucky since this nice old Asian dude stumbled upon me and helped me out, especially by loosening the lug nuts because my weak-ass was unable to budge them. So instead of taking me like five hours to change the goddamn tire, it only took about 45 minutes.

Got to work about half an hour late and came upon a whole bevy of emails talking about paperwork issues. Lots of paperwork fixing followed. Annoying.

Left work to go to this tire repair place by Todd's place. It's very small, is always hopping when I've gone by, and it seriously looks like a shack. It is a shack. I walked in expecting to be greeted with some order of how things went down, but it's not like that. You basically wait, and wait, and wait until it's your turn since there are only two guys working and they're in demand to say the least. I finally got someone's attention and he looked at my tire and discovered that some jerk stuck something sharp in the side and now my year-old tire has to be replaced. What jerks who slashed it! I'll remind you that this is almost exactly one year since my car got bashed in by some drunken asshole back in Lakeview, so maybe my car is just cursed in late October.

Anyway, the good news is that they had a replacement tire on hand and once we got going it took like 10 minutes to get the tire replaced. And everything in total cost $30, including the new (used) tire and labor. These guys charge $5 to repair a tire so you can imagine how busy they are and what a wide spectrum of clients they see. I also got to watch them repair tires, which was a learning experience for me.

I'm still pissed about the whole thing, though. The good news is that there's supper club tonight and we're visiting a Vietnamese place in Argyle that features seven courses of beef. It's the little things that keep me going.

Mucus
I got it! I attended a regional SLP meeting this past Friday and everyone was coughing the exact same: rumbling with lots of phlegm. Yum!

Can I tell you about the past weekend, though? It had a lot of fun things attached. They included going out on Friday night and seeing Mirhiya along with NU girls Megan, Lauren, and Katie. Mirhiya moved to San Francisco with her husband and baby girl mid-program, so it was really cool to be able to catch up with her.

The next morning I woke up at 7 a.m. even though I didn't want to and was all turbo productive which included a trip to the grocery store, the post office, and a work out all before I met Jenny for brunch at 11 am. I know! After that, Todd and I met up and we wandered around Ravenswood and enjoyed the fricking phenomenal weather (it was in the 70s all weekend and sunny!). That evening we met up with Steve and Kiley for Thai food before heading over to a Halloween party. And my time at the party lead to me having to spend all of Sunday on the couch. And that was my Sunday.

Hope that your worlds are mucus-free!

I'll shout my love from the rooftops again
for "The Wire." There is a spectacular article about the show and David Simon in this week's New Yorker. I also watched about six episodes this weekend from the first season on Todd's on Demand. I didn't remember most of the details and I found it less stressful viewing it this time around with the knowledge of what happens to the characters you see. Season four, though, stressed me out completely (but stress that I respect!) mainly because there were characters who I loved a lot (Randy, anyone?) and I wouldn't be able to bear if if the story screwed them over (which it did, as it turned out, and I was forced to bear it).

Season five is the last one and it's supposed to come out next year, and I can't effing wait.

Our Little Corner of the World
Wow. We just got back from the Yo La Tengo show and it was beyond great. The Lakeshore Theater is so comfortable and intimate, first of all, and because it's a real theater, there's zero bar back-talk and no smoke.

Also, run, don't walk, to see this particular Yo La Tengo tour because it was so laid back and more acoustic and organic. They wanted questions from the audience and asked for requests and had no apparent set lists and chatted it up, basically, and saw where the night went. We saw the 7pm show and there was another one at 10:30, and I wished that I could have stayed for that show as well because it would have been a completely different show.

So, the YLT show at the Vic in Chicago was great, but I think that this wins out as the best YLT show I've ever seen (and this one makes five, if you count Pitchfork 2006, which I really shouldn't because I totally wasn't paying attention since they were one of the last bands playing at the tail end of the festival).

The Booty Don't Stop
We went and saw the FOUND Magazine tour again last night (the title of this post from one of the best, most hilarious finds mentioned). This time it was at this place called the Heart of Gold. I had never heard of the place, but then found out that my grad school/book club friend, Jennifer, knew the dudes who opened it up (it's their apartment and they wanted to have an art space). Heart of Gold ended up being very impressive for an apartment: it was enormous enough to have both walls for art to hang and a huge open room with a stage. They had even fashioned a fancy bar but since there was no liquor license, they accepted suggested donations. FOUND was great, of course, and a super fun thing to do on a Tuesday night. They're still touring, btw. To my dear brothers (who I know would love it), go and see these FOUND shows:

ERIK:

December 09, 2007
Austin, TX » Alamo Drafthouse, Time TBA, 320 E. 6th St.

ROBIN:

December 10, 2007
Dallas, TX » The Public Trust, 8 pm, 2919-C Commerce St., 214-760-7170

Beyond that, this past one was a long weekend. We had a visitor in town, so did it up. The weekend included:

1. Performing karaoke for the first time ever with Dave at Spynners. This was a major first for me, because while I love seeing karaoke, I have never performed. This experience ended up being lubricated by a warm, accepting crowd, and lots of 80s songs to choose from. I did sing along with Dave both times, though, if that makes a difference.
2. Walking all through downtown on Saturday afternoon. It was hot, but we did get to walk by and see all of the hullabaloo being set up for the marathon the next day (which ended up having to close down early because of the ungodly heat).
3. Watching the Cubs lose in the playoffs.
4. Brunching.
5. Walking along Montrose Street Beach and sitting by the lake and enjoying the view. I'd never been to this beach before and it's HUGE and has large expanses of grass as well as beach, so I'm officially impressed and am going back.
6. Going to see some blues at Blue Chicago which was downtown. The place is nestled within a busy block with a bunch of clubs populated with some soooooper obnoxious, frosted-tipped denizens. But Blue Chicago itself was deserted and, with a $10 door charge, a steal when you consider how fun the band was. The lead singer was a voluptuous, suggestive lady who was a true party catalyst and managed to persuade the paltry crowd to get up and dance.

Work continues to be busy, but I had my second official session with my very first, personal Early Intervention client today. He's two and tow-headed and such a football-loving boy. He's also like 25% intelligible. It's fun, though, and the hour goes by quickly. I'm still at the point were I'm marveling that I get paid for this. It'll probably take me a few more years before I become all callous and cynical.

Ask me why I'm excited about tomorrow, though. We're going to go and see Yo La Tengo play at the Lakeshore Theater!

Also, I'm currently watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares right now, and that shit stresses me out.

The Last Days of Summer
Okay, so it's not officially summer anymore but this weekend sure felt like it was. It was in the 70s both days, sunny, and priceless weather.

Saturday, we went and lunched at this place in Ravenswood called the Over Easy Cafe which was recommended by Jenny and Amie. It was love at first taste and it is in my top 10 brunch places. Maybe not quite at the level of Bongo Room for me, but pretty close. I had eggs and avocado and chorizo (MMMMMMM) and Todd had this apple bake pancake thing with cinnamon butter which was--let's be honest here--like eating fresh baked apple cake. It was the size of apple cake too. So: vote yes to the Over Easy Cafe!

Afterward we walked off our lunches at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I had never been there before since it's situated not-very-conveniently in the Northern Suburbs. It really was lovely, though. Pretty and easy to get around and not too crowded and really, really peaceful. I liked how many little benches and nooks there are that one can sit down in and just contemplate. If it were easier to get to, I would consider getting an annual membership because they have bike trails and running trails and just over all very serenity-inducing. Plus, the weather was perfect with just the slightest tinge of a breeze fluttering the leaves.

Sunday we had a lazy morning and then joined Sarah at the lake-front park in Evanston to celebrate her 30th (happy belated, Sarah!). She and Mike organized a picnic and it there was a pinata and home-made lasagna and birthday cake, and birthday celebratory leis. Super fun and more picnics need to be had before the weather turns officially unwelcoming.

That's my weekend roundup. I am feeling blah and have the slightest cold and am always blowing my nose. So, be glad that I didn't get you sick like I have Todd!

Cuteness Level: Extreme.

Here's a story about baby orangutans and baby tigers who have befriended eachother in an Indonesian zoo.

Apparently it won't last too long once the tigers start leaning toward chawing on some meat. But it's unbearably cute in the meantime, right?

(via neatorama)

So Proud Indeed
The night was winding down, the last guests were sipping at the dregs of their drinks, and the last dance was impending. We were at Todd's friend, Kip's, wedding this past Saturday, and it was 10:55 with the wedding reception coming to a full-stop at 11. Kip was dapper in a white vest and his bride, Meredith, was lovely and serene as ever in her gown. It was at this time that the dj demanded that everyone in the room (everyone!) come out to the dance floor and to please form a circle around the bride and the groom. People obliged but with some hesitation, since the dj had lost the crowd's faith throughout the night. He was kind of bossy: at one point he commanded Kip and Meredith to come out the dance floor to slow dance to...and he played the "Barney" song. He played the whole thing and the gracious bride and groom danced to it, grinning and bearing it.

Anyway, back to the evening's last moment. So we all gathered on the dance floor in wait and dutifully formed a large circle around the couple. It was at this point that the dj breathed into the microphone something to the tune of: "We're all enjoying ourselves right now, but we need to remember that the troops are out there fighting for us and our freedoms." Downer. Then what came over on the speakers but "Proud to be an American" (because at least I know I'm free), and we all swayed along with it as the bride and groom yet again danced to indulge the dj and his whims. The most absurd moment at a wedding yet, and all I can think of it Kip and Meredith who now remember their last dance as a dedication to their country. Isn't the last dance supposed to be all about leerrrrvvvvv?

Beyond that, the wedding was fun though! That previous Friday I caught up with Bonnie and Laura and it reminded me of grad school--the good parts of the grad school experience. Sunday, we were lazy and did some cooking, went for a walk, and that's basically it,

Oh! But I can't forget to tell you about our last supper club, which was last night. This time we went to Lula Cafe in Logan Square, the cutest, hippest little place in the neighborhood. We had specifically picked Monday night to avoid the crowds, but--alas--in the previous week's Reader they had named Lula Cafe's Monday Night Pre-Fixe dinner as one of their 40 Most Favoritest Things About Chicago. And the crowds descended. So we waited for an hour for a table, but the weather was nice outside where we waited so it was okay. And I had the Pre-Fixe meal which is their "Farm Dinner" and it was...mindblowing. My love, it comes forth. So Lula Cafe has got to be on my regular rotation, but I need to go at like Tuesday at 3 p.m. or something.

This makes me laugh till I cry.

What is it about it this time? I think it's the fat baby looking seriously pissed off in addition to having an enormous gourd.

(Thanks to Todd who sent it to me. Also his commentary:
That kid is all "You take this thing off my head, then you check that blood sugar, and you check it fuckin' GOOD, if you have diabeetus."
in reference to that commercial with that old dude with the walrus moustache who used to be in "Our House")

Watch this (if you haven't already, of course)
This past weekend, we watched "Junebug" and it was great. Moving without being in your face, but funny at the same time. Amy Adams was something to behold. I really, really liked this movie.


Beyond that...
It was a lazy weekend. The weather was beautiful, which was nice. I managed to catch up with the erstwhile Megan, Laura, and Katie for a fun dinner party, and Todd and I hit the mall on Saturday. Don't be jealous of my mall experience, you guys.

Todd's wisdom tooth is coming in and is causing him intensive pain, so let's send him our best until he can get it all sorted out.

Fall's Here!
The cooler, crisper has arrived and I am grateful. I am done with summer. It's nice to crack open the sweaters again and pull out the light jackets and smell autumn.

Plus, I'm finally hitting my stride again at work and have my schedule just about worked out and have pretty much seen all of the kids that I need to have by now. I ripped an idea off of another SLP and posted a big tree trunk in my room with branches that reach out. Each of my kids decorates a leaf that sports his/her speech and language goal. which we then stick up on the tree. It's a great opportunity to practice using some spatial concepts (e.g., "Do you want the leaf on the top/bottom, middle/sides, left/right?"). Also, as the seasons change so do their goals, so in the winter we can do new ones (snowflakes this time) as well as budding new green leaves in the spring. Neat idea, huh? Definitely worth ripping off. We've been using glitter and glue and let me tell you: it doesn't take much to entertain second graders. They effing love some glitter and glue.

I've got a kid on my caseload now (he transferred in) who's a selective mute, which basically means what it sounds like. He's a stubborn little bugger too. I met him today and he answered every one of my questions with gestures and facial expressions. Then, when we were playing a copy-me kind of game I tried to slip in some vocalization and he stopped abruptly and gave me a look like "Ah, you have waaaay underestimated me." He's going to be a tough nut to crack, that one. In my opinion selective mutism isn't really an SLP's bailiwick and it seems more of anxiety issue if the kid can talk in other circumstances, but the kid's got goals and I need to work with them.

Jackie's wedding weekend
Congratulations, Jackie and Brian!

We flew out to Denver on Friday afternoon so we could attend Jackie and Brian's wedding that Saturday. We got to the airport in plenty of time so decided to bide our time in the Chilis in the airport, which is seriously the most happenin' of happenin' places in O'Hare. Who knew? We should go and hang out there all the time. When people get off the plane to visit, I'll be all: "Naw, we aren't leaving the airport...we're hanging at CHILIS HERE!" (Too bad if you land at Midway: we're still training it to O'Hare.)

Our flight to Denver ended up being delayed for two hours due to weather reasons. This would have been only mildly annoying if we weren't trying to rush to Jackie and Brian's rehearsal dinner that night in Boulder. If our plane had landed on time, we would have been kind of late as it was. With the additional two hours tacked on, we missed dinner entirely, so we ended up just tumbling into the (very fancy) hotel and crashing like clazy. It was midnight my time, after all, and Grandma likes to be in bed early. We realized afterward that our entire trip took nine hours door to door, and driving would have only taken a few more hours maybe. How did that work?

Jackie and Brian's wedding was lovely. Cozy and perfect and filled with friends and family who love them. They had a bagpiper at their ceremony! And they know the way to my heart, because the food was yummy too. Their ceremony was in the early afternoon and the reception was in the early evening, so in between, Todd and I hung out with his old bandmate, Ryan, and Ryan's date and his parents, who were also attending the wedding. I must mention how great the dj was as well, because he took *every* request! Maybe I was the only one asking for them, but he earned my devotion forever since he played "Bizarre Love Triangle" with no questions asked. I was a dancing fool all night. I even danced to "Achy Breaky Heart." The wedding lasted from 6pm till midnight and I enjoyed every second of it. I hate going to clubs, but I love dancing at weddings. I need to go to more weddings (get married, people!).

Although we didn't get to Denver proper, we did spend a morning in Boulder and were struck by how fresh everything was. This opposed to Chicago, where the streets smell like pee and exhaust. Plus, every place we went to in Colorado, from the airport to the hotel to every restaurant to every place of commerce we passed: it all seemed brand spanking new. Also very different from Chicago. Granted, our scope of exploration was limited to say the least, but still. I had last been to CO to visit my dearest Suzi and her family back in 2000 and was struck by how pretty the mountain line was on the horizon. I was still struck this past weekend: you can't beat those mountains. In Boulder we ate a delicious breakfast place called Foolish Craigs and strolled through Pearl St where we stumbled upon the very tiny Pride festival there. Also, we stopped in a candy store where Todd bought some Necco wafers and inhaled them in about five minutes. I only am reporting this because after looking at the nutritional facts, we discovered that one package contains 55 grams of sugar. That cracks me up a lot.

48 Hours is Too Short.
We got back from Lake of the Ozarks yesterday, and it was...perfect. Purr-fect. We got in late on Friday night after wrassling with some horrendous Chicago-Labor-Day traffic. The weather was sunny, warm, and flawless. We boated both days and ate delicious home-cooked meals each night. Afterwards we gathered around Todd's parents' formidably awesome fire pit. It caused me almost physical pain to leave yesterday morning, but what had to be done had to be done. Two days is better than no days, I suppose.

Now it's back in Chicago, which is steaming haawwwwt.

School officially started today, but my day was slow since kids are getting back into their routine and I've got to get the schedule worked out with the teachers.