Frozen Flatlands

Halloween '08

2008-11-05T21:49:00.000-08:00

Every year, since I have been living in Chicago it has been a shit day on Halloween.. in my whole life. Usually a cold, rainy day... but not this year. This year was quite perfect. It was about 65F, sunny and no wind. I couldn't ask for a better day considering I was wearing a silver, spandex leotard!! Yep, I was a mexican wrestler again this year.. but only because I have had so much going on besides this silly (amazing) holiday, that I busted out the uniform again. Plus, I only got to wear it trick or treating last year... I never really got to live it up! AND I made a costume for Matt to wear as well, and we were quite a duo. Definitely turned heads! Matt had a party at his new place.. the first party they had there and it was a great turnout!! Probably about 40 or 50 people throughout the night.. I think it helped that there were 2 kegs available! Everyone came to drink as much as they wanted for only $5. What a steal!! It was good and all, but when we cracked open the keg at 7pm.. well, lets just say by 10pm I was drunk and goofy. That pretty early!! So from 10-2 I only remember bits and pieces of the night.. But I have photos to remember it by. It was an awesome time, and I can't wait til next year already.

Halloween '08

I never want to move again!!

2008-11-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

So I had to break the streak of no days off in order to get things ready to move! It was impossible otherwise, because even though I had an hour here, an hour there to do it.. I had little to no energy to get things done. So I insisted on a few days off to get it ready. And it worked.. I took a straight 5 days off for this move, but man, every day was necessary! Well, minus the 2 days that I spent preparing for and recovering from Halloween! Work hard/Play hard. Its a great balance! I had Wednesday through Monday off. I got home from work on tuesday night, and finished packing the rickity old place up, and impulsively rented a U-Haul for the next day just to get it over with! So Wednesday, October 29th was the actual move in date. We woke up at 9 and got the truck by 10. Came back home, and began the move! We packed the 10 foot truck full to the brim and we were on our way by noon. The unloading process didn't begin right away, because we had to stop to get fuel in our bodies for the two massive flights of stairs we were about to take on. Neighborhood pizza was the best option. So we began unloading after we were on FULL in our energy tanks. Luckily we had a friend, Donnie, help tremendously with the move. (Without him I'm convinced it would have taken us twice as long!) And Tomell stopped by just in time to help get the last of the stuff out of the truck. Right when we needed him most. I think it took about 3 hours to unload the truck.. so it was about 4pm.. But wait, theres more! We had to go back to the old place to fill up the truck yet again. A FULL load. yep. But first, we had to finish packing... GRR. It seemed like a good idea at the time of loading the van.. "yeah, we'll just get all the 'ready' stuff out of here, and then come back to see what we have left.." But by that time, we were exhausted already... I kept on telling myself, "It's only one day of your life. Just keep going.. it will all be over soon, and you wont have to worry any more." That is really the only thing that kept me going. A little self-motivation.... The end was in sight and that definitely helped me hustle. I had a goal, and a deadline. I made it happen. We did it all over again, loading and unloading, and hiking up mountains, and it was all over! We created small walkways in the living space, and the rest of the floor was covered with our old apartment.

And it only took 12 hours.

Move in day!!

What a month this has been.

2008-11-05T21:19:00.000-08:00

I have some experience when it comes to moving.. the whole process is a very tedious, daunting task!! But a little perseverance goes a long way! I was planning on moving at the beginning of October but had way too many speed bumps along the path to reach this deadline! It didn't end up happening until November. A huge speed bump to get over was the fact that I was involved with a few other moves.. ie, my sister Chriss, friend Beth, and also my grandma! It was almost impossible to pack! As they cleared their spaces out to almost nothing, my space seemed to get more and more full. It was great to have all of this new stuff around, but it definitely set back my plans a bit.. It seemed to play out right in the end though, the timing was quite perfect. We searched and searched for THE PLACE, and thought we found it twice before we actually did, but things just weren't moving smoothly, and fell through at the last minute. It was emotional when all I wanted was to be in a new space.. but everything works out in the end. Just a little patience. When we did actually find THE place, it just felt right. We found it in early October, which gave us enough time to plan for the move and to actually pack up the stuff in the box of an apartment in order to relocate. The planning was very time consuming, although it might have just felt that way because the only time I had to progress at all was the minutes I had to myself in between working! I literally had an hour or two a day to myself for a straight month. 30 days of work. No days off. That was intense. But man, was it worth it.

Last Days in the Elston Apartment

Dolce Gusto Brand Ambassador

2008-11-05T21:11:00.000-08:00

So I have been working almost 7 days a week lately!! One, the doggie day care, and the other a marketing job in this fancy kitchen store called Sur La Table. That job is quite interesting.. in a strange way. I am situated in the mecca of yuppie-ville shopping and it's quite central off of both highways leading into the city from the metro area.. which calls for a ton of rich folk who want to go shopping for silly kitchen items!! Sounds like the perfect place to be planted to sell this cute new coffee machine. I suppose it is! But for some reason, I have yet to sell more than my first machine.. I just can't quite come to terms with what I am actually supposed to be doing.. like brainwashing these people into thinking they NEED my machine. RIGHT NOW! or else they are really missing out. It is a good product and all, but it just seems a bit impulsive.. There are key reasons why they actually should buy it from me, one being that it is much, much cheaper to make a drink with this than going into Starbucks, and they wont have to sacrifice the quality! Its actually a great product. Its cute, small, delicious, fast and easy. And I get paid a ton just to make them a drink right there in the store and make them imagine how great of an addition it would be in their kitchen. I'll just have to come to terms with it, and dive in! I'm gonna sell more. I'm good at selling. I just need to be a little more into this project. This is a statement of commitment. I'm in!

Dolce Gusto Brand Ambassador

No Mobile Contact

2008-10-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

The first thing I think of when I hear the word "bluegrass" is ho-down. Well, that's exactly what I was doing at the Yonder Mountain String Band show I went to on Saturday night. The Congress Theater was full of city-hillbilly, hippie kids, jumpin' up and down with no shoes on. Well, the no shoes part only pertained to the true hillbillies, but it sure felt fitting in such an atmosphere. The point of the story is, I was hopping up and down entirely way too much, to the point that my phone fell out of my pocket without me even being aware that it happened!! Thanks Bluegrass. During the set break, the lights came on, and kids scattered, creating the perfect situation to look on the floors for my mobie. Also, the kids there were so friendly, and helped me look as well.. however, we had no such luck! Bummer. Now I walk the streets as I used to, with no cellular, only this time around, I feel a lot more lost than before. Before I wanted to drift away, and now I need to stay connected.