The Windblown Week

I've been slacking, I know. I've been super busy at work and home this week, and I think that I was really just overwhelmed with the amount of posts I made last week so I needed to take a little break.

So we all made it to Friday, thank goodness. It really was touch and go there for awhile due to the weather that I've been experiencing here. I've been through sheets of rain and a swaying building. Seeing plates and wine glasses move back and forth on a table in the restaurant is always a little unsettling, but hey, we're in the windy city... on the 95th floor of a building. I should start getting at least a little used to this. Yesterday was the coldest day here in six months, and I don't think there is any turning back now. I'm bracing myself for my first Chicago winter... and by bracing myself I mean starting to layer my clothing and really get out the scarves and hats. I thought for sure I would be able to hold off onto November 1 until I brought out the winter coat... but it made it's debut today, I decided I would need something warm for the game tonight.

In bigger and more exciting news this blustery week...
I officially made hair appointments for the wedding. An extensive search of salons in the area took place and I made the final decision and booked yesterday. I gave a huge sigh of relief as I faxed over the confirmation letter. Now hopefully the nightmares will go away.

I'm officially half way to my savings goal that I made for myself about a month ago. A small feeling of accomplishment hit me when I made the transfer to my savings account this morning. I've never really saved money before in my life (I usually like to blow money on silly things...or shoes), so this is all new for me and very exciting. But, I could use a new pair of tall boots. I've really been window shopping these past couple days. I see a treat for myself in the near future!

And lastly... I'll start how this post started... It's Friday! I'm excited for the weekend. Rick and Donna will be visiting and we have a lot planned for the weekend. Round 2 of Sectionals is tonight at Munster. Go Bulldogs! And tomorrow I will be going to my first Notre Dame game! I hope I'm not disappointed, it better live up to everything I've ever seen on Rudy.

Enjoy the day!

The Hail Mary....

... that wasn't so full of Grace.

Friday Night took 5 years off of my life. I've never been more wrapped up into a football game, and watching the Bulldogs on Friday was probably my Favorite experience at a sporting event ever.

The whole week Dan's been telling me that they can win this game, Portage is good, but we've beat them already this year, and it's a home game... no need to worry. The Bulldogs were not going to lose in the first round of Sectionals this year. The entire first half was back and forth. Portage looked good, and they have a super star on their team. After a down pour of rain right before halftime the score was tied 14-14.

The second half starts, both teams not looking too hot. With four minutes left in the game the Bulldogs are down 17-21. The defense blocks a Portage field goal attempt, which gives us great field advantage to "march down the field" (that's one of Dan's favorite expressions) and score the winning touchdown. Our quarterback had different intentions and decided to make the game more exciting...well really just nerve racking for everybody in the stands. We have the ball, he throws an interception, we all thought for sure the game was over. Next play, Portage fumbles the ball and we recover. Bulldog ball with three minutes left. Quarterback once again throws an interception. The defense could have give up, but 4 plays and only a couple yards gained by Portae later, we have the ball back. ~Disclaimer - I'm not making this part up at all...~ The quarterback throws another interception. There are about two minutes left on the clock, the stands are clearing out... and the Bulldog defense takes the field.

These kids play with more heart than I've ever seen in high school sports. Portage offense runs four more plays, and the defense stopped every single one. With seven seconds left Crown Point gets the ball back. Unbelieveable, people are walking back into the game, everyone is on their feet. It's up to the quarterback... the same kid who has thrown a total of 4 interceptions the entire game. I can still see this play in slow motion. The ball is snapped, he's dancing around looking for an opening. He throws the ball... into the endzone... into two Crown Point players, and two Portage players. The ball is tipped by a Portage player, the time on the clock has run out, and the ball just falls right into the Crown Point players arms... in the corner of the endzone. Final Score Bulldogs 23, Portage 21.

Unbelieveable really, I've never witnessed a game that has actually ended in a hail mary. I've never seen a team celebrate the way they did. It was awesome. We were all hugging and crying in the stands, thankful that we wouldn't have to go home to coaches that had just given up the best sectional draw they've had in years. It was such a great game, one I will always remember... now hopefully we'll have a few more weeks to celebrate this way.


The picture on the front page of the paper Saturday morning. The ball is tipped by the Portage player, right into the arms of Mouse, in the corner of the endzone, just waiting for the ball.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, that's our Bulldog battle cry, Gooooooooooo Bulldogs!

YABBA-DABBA-DOO

Happy Halloween!

As I've mentioned before, Halloween is my Least Favorite Holiday. But, people around here, including my soon to be husband... Love It! So, now that I'm 100% living up here now, I had to play along. Which meant, standing in lines that were 45 minutes long to get our costumes, sitting in traffic jams 30 minutes long to get into the Halloween store, and encountering rude nasty people, pushing and shoving in the store. All of this comes out to equally me being in the worst mood ever.

Thank goodness Jesika called me on my way home to lighten the mood, or else I would have told Dan to go to the party himself. Jesika reminded me of the time we were getting ready to go to a New Year's Eve party. She wasn't happy about attending at all and walks into my house saying... "I'm gonna walk into this party and say 'Somebody Shoot Me'..." With her best dinosaur claws out of course. I decided that I couldn't be this lady and we laughed and laughed about her day she'd already had.

Dan was like a little kid yesterday as we got ready. He just couldn't understand how I could hate such a fun holiday. He loved his costume, his feet being his favorite part. And besides my dress being 80% see through, I loved mine too. We had a really great time at the party, after we had to stop for gas. Dan made me get out and pump the gas... I just didn't understand, I told him with those feet he should be peddling us there himself! All night we were surrounded by Big Bird & Super Grover, a German Beer Couple, Sugar Daddy, Alice & The Mad Hatter, lot of witches and cats, and some characters I didn't recognize (everyone told Dan and I once we had kids we would know who they were... further indication as to why we should hold off for quite some time... these characters were too much for me to handle!)

So our first Halloween that we've really spent together was a success. I usually let Dan go out by himself but this year, I just couldn't get out of the situation. We may even put our costumes back on next week to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters, that's how much I loved being Wilma... and Fred is pretty cute too!

The Wedding Nightmare

Due to the fact that I’m getting married on a Sunday… of a Holiday weekend, I’ve been having the hardest time finding someone to do our hair. And honestly, I’ve never, ever had a good experience getting my hair done for events. Mom had to almost call two of my prom dates and tell them I wasn’t coming because I was having a meltdown about my awful hair. So of course I’m starting to really worry about it, and this lead to the most horrible wedding nightmare to date.

Now I’ve been having these nightmares every so often, but not to this extreme. I mean I could have been on the season finale of Bridezillas, that’s how bad this dream was. Up to this point my wedding nightmares have been kind of silly, Dan has had one too. In his he was getting ready for the wedding at the country club and he brought the wrong shirt, it was way too small, but the ceremony was going to start in 5 minutes so that’s what he had to wear. My first nightmare was that my sister spilled grape juice on my dress, this isn’t that unlikely since she’s known to spill almost everything. My second was that I couldn’t dance at my wedding because my hair was falling out, not just out of it’s style, but literally all of my hair was falling out of my scalp. And the inevitable wedding nightmare of someone that’s having an outdoor ceremony… it pours down rain on the day of my wedding. Most of them, no big deal, I woke up, laughed about it, and went along with my day…

Well this Bridezilla dream really took the cake, and I can’t stop thinking about it and how awful I was. I hope to the wedding gods that I never act like this in my life.

So, somehow I just seemed to skip making hair appointments for myself or any of the girls. At noon on the day of the wedding we realize that we have nobody to do our hair. We are scouring phone books looking for places, I’m getting pissed, Theresa is trying to make the best out of the situation like she always does, telling me I can wear my hair in a ponytail and nobody will know… It was awful. I’m throwing things, Jesika’s crying, Amanda and Holly are laughing at me, and Kaitlin is starting to curl her own hair with her battery powered curling iron (I’m not kidding, she actually has one… it always came in handy on the cheerleading bus!). At the pinnacle of my meltdown, when I’m screaming at Jill because she’s being a really bad maid of honor because she doesn’t know how to do hair… my alarm clock saves me from my awful nightmare. Thank goodness, because I don’t know if I could have taken any more of that.

So that’s my goal this weekend, to make hair appointments. I don’t care what I have to do; I will walk into every salon in the area if I have to. So that has been my morning. I hope the girls don’t read this and start filling out an application for me to be on Bridezillas… because I promise I will not be like that.

Happy Friday, Go Bulldogs!

Sometimes Life Makes Me Nervous

So let me just set the scene for you...

I am sitting in bed, in my monogrammed flannel pajamas, drinking wine (as my dinner), catching up on my TV shows from tonight, with Dan snoring so loudly next to me. I feel a little bit like a just worked a shift at Harry's because my feet are killing me and my head hurts. I really just want to go to sleep but I just got home about 20 minutes ago and I'm just not settled in yet... and I started to think about how at this time last night I was so nervous.

Today was the first day that I drove to work. I've never even driven into the city, I always let Dan do that. So of course for me, this was a very nerve racking thought. I know I'm one of the worst drivers in America, and when you put me into merging traffic I get so anxious. But today turned out pretty good. I made it to work on time and I only was honked at once, pretty good for the streets of Chicago.

I was very proud of myself as I walked into the office this morning, but after I checked my voice mails I once again got very nervous. To give you a little background story... Today was "buy-out" day. A client booked the entire restaurant for a private party, so it's a pretty big deal for us girls in Private Dining. The last week has been total preparation for this event throughout the whole staff and everything was going very smoothly. After I listened to my voice mails I found out that some miscommunication happened last night and things weren't going to go as planned. So what made me nervous? I was the only person in Private Dining for the next 2 1/2 hours! I think I handled the situation pretty well, but I was still very nervous about everything, especially telling the sales manager in charge of the event about the mishap. But the party was a great success. I was so glad that I stayed to see it, today was a very good learning experience for me. I definitely added to my notebook of important things about my job!

Being nervous for me is just an every day occurence... and it's over the silliest things sometimes. I'm nervous that my pants are going to need to be ironed in the morning, that I won't have someone to do my hair on the day of my wedding, and that my current savings plan is going to throw off my normal spending habits. I'm nervous about my school loan payments that are about to start and I'm nervous that my favorite person on Survivor is about to be kicked off. I'm nervous that Dan is going to pick out a silly Halloween costume for me and I'm nervous that when we are at the Halloween party this weekend I'm going to have an allergy attack because these people have a dog in the house.

SEE, I WORRY ABOUT THE SILLIEST THINGS!

But you know what, I'd much rather be worried about these silly things than big things. I'm 100% certain about my career, I'm 100% certain and so excited about Dan and I's upcoming marriage. I'm not nervous about my family or my friends and I'm not nervous about any big life decisions. So I'll take being nervous and being worried about driving to the city, going to new places, and encountering obstacles at work, becuase that's what my life is about. And sometimes it makes me nervous... but always so happy!

"I Need My Muse!"

So I have a muse. Not only has she been one of the best friends to me for the last 5 years ~holy smokes, it's been 5 years (that'll be a later story)~ but she has honestly been my muse. I think it's because she herself is one of the most creative people I know. I think it's because when I'm around her I can just talk without a filter... which leads to great ideas. I think it's because secretly we really think so much alike it's scary. I think it's because when I would sit next to her during senior year, I had my greatest ideas.

We pretty much did everything together the first year of our friendship. We were student council executives together and came up with so many new ideas for the school. With her as our muse the four of us came up with great fundraisers, murals for the first day of school, new traditions, and put on some awesome dances. And, every day we sat in room 181 and published a fantastic yearbook. It was so different than any other yearbook of the past and actually told a story. Somehow we came up with page after page of this book telling a story through a common theme. (As soon as I'm done with this post I'm going to go search for my yearbook, I can't wait to revisit it!)

So ever since our first year, even though we've lived apart, she's always been my muse... and today she posted an entire list of things for me to blog about. Of course, just from reading this list I was inspired to write about so many different things but i decided I needed my first one to be about her... my muse, Jesika.

I love you lady, and all of your creativity. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for letting me bounce every silly idea I've ever had off of you, and thank you for giving me that awful look for about 80% of my ideas because they are so ridiculous. Thank you for letting me read almost everything I've ever written out loud to you, because you know it makes me feel better. Thank you for being a sane person when I'm not. Thank you, for being my muse!

The Shop

In honor of Purdue's homecoming I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures of my home at Purdue... the Chocolate Shop. I miss this place more than you can even imagine because it truly was more of a part of my college experience than anything else. I started working there at the beginning of my Junior year, and worked up until the week before my job in Chicago started. The hardest part of graduating from Purdue was leaving Harry's and my family that I had made there.

Everybody thought for sure that I would be down for Homecoming. Dan and I had talked about it, but decided that I would much rather go visit during Christmas break, on a Sunday, because those were my most favorite days to spend at the Shop.


Joe definitely took care of me while I was in college. We had a lot of fun at Harry's. I just never really had good experiences when he was serving me through the window in the back room. Yikes!


I love this man. Laine is one of the funniest people I know and working a shift with him was always pretty intimidating, but always so much fun.


My favorite Pal, Neilo. I really miss serving him Bud Lights on ice early in the afternoons. And, I always appreciated that he had a wind down Monday... 3 beer limit on those nights.

My absolute favorite shifts were Sunday afternoons. We usually weren't slammed so I got to visit with all the regulars and my friends would come in to keep us company. Then when the shift ended I usually stayed, had a couple "shifties" and watched Sunday night football or baseball. The regulars became my family and The Shop became my home. I found myself going there when good things happened, when bad things happened, and always before I left town for a couple days or just got back into Lafayette. When Dan and I got engaged it was the first place I stopped after leaving the airport. When I got offered a job I had my celebratory drink at Harry's with my favorites. It was a part of my college experience that I could never replace.


Harry's has my FAVORITE juke box in the world. It honestly is the best collection of music anywhere. Everybody always knew when I had put money into the juke box because I always played the same songs, and they were fantastic! K9's juke box picks were always the same too, and always something fun to dance to.


Dillon has even made it into Harry's. He was more interested in all the Tv's, but we had to take them there the day after Graduation so he could check the place out.


I always took the family to Harry's when they visited. This day we cheered on the Bengals big time.


I asked a guy dressed as a horse during Grand Prix Breakfast Club if I could borrow his head for a little bit. I put it on and the guy says to me, "I'm sorry if it smells a little like puke." Oh my goodness, only at Purdue.


I was a bar slide champion. This was a fantastic Tuesday night last Spring. All I remember is Aaron and I made a lot of money that night!


Same Tuesday Night... Up on the bar dancing to YMCA with the rest of the staff. And yes, I made it to class the next day!


Happy New Year! After working the day shift for the basketball game on New Year's Day, I started drinking the left over champagne even before all the money was counted. This ended up being such a fun night, going through about 4 bottles of champagne, eating shrimp, and taking a trip downtown to see Frankenstein with Neilo. Those bottles of champagne were my Favorite shifty ever.


Here we are, celebrating my graduation... with champage of course!

Hail Purdue, And Go Ugly Early!

To Veil, Or Not To Veil

That is the question.

I've been going back and forth about wearing a veil for my outdoor, casual, far from churchy, wedding and I just can't make up my mind. When I found my dress I was very against the idea. I didn't even try a veil on with my dress... weird, I know. I just never thought that I would want one. It just seemed to formal for me and I thought that it would take away from my dress. But I really started thinking that I need one when I remembered something my dad said to me... oh, 14 years ago.

It was a warm spring day, and I was making my First Communion. I was definitely in my tom-boy stage of my life and I thought I was going to die having to wear that dress with a big white sash... and yes, a veil. And on top of that, my shoes had buckles on them! I was mortified. I remember having to get dressed and I was one unhappy camper.

I was finally ready to go and I climbed into the back seat of the Lumina just pissed. I think we were running early because Dad took the long way to church, going around back by the legion. Anyway, long story short Dad could tell that I was not happy and tells me, "Tracy, there only two days that you have to wear a white dress and a veil. Today, and when you get married."

Thinking about Dad saying that to me is making me second guess my choice of not getting a veil. It's funny how some things change. I get so excited just thinking about putting on my white dress with it's big white sash, and buckling my shoes with the dramatic side buckles. And it just goes to show that some things don't change, I've always taken what Paul says to heart... and I don't think I can stop here.

So I guess I just answered my own question... To Veil!

Dillon Turns 2!

Well not really until next weekend, but we sure did celebrate when we were all home last week. The family came over to celebrate Dillon's big day. We had Grandma's most wonderful cake with carmel icing... some couldn't even wait until Dillon blew out his candle before they had a piece (as you can see here)



He was pretty scared of the candle's flame. I think Jill has tried to teach him the concept of Hot and Cold a little too much. He gets anxious around any light, coffee maker, flame, red button, the list goes on... but it's pretty cute.

Dillon really enjoyed Grandma's pumpkins. It was quite the adventure trying to get the little guy to sit still for a picture with us on the porch. We took a lot of shots










Dillon loved all of his birthday presents. He received all kinds of new toys, trucks, a pillow pet, new crocs, an a little computer. Now he can really work!



I love the little guy and I'm so happy that we got to spend this second birthday together.

I just have to share a few more photos from this summer of Dillon that I totally forgot about on my camera, and they are precious!






Happy Birthday, Dillon. I Love You!

I Wanna Put On... My, My, My, My, My Boogie Shoes

I wasn't going to go. I had no intention of ever stepping foot into the place. But when I found out that it was the only chance of seeing the girls, I bit the bullet and went to Boogie Nights.

It's honestly not my cup of tea, and of course, like in a lot of situations I was nervous. I feared the worst, and of course after being in there for 30 seconds, a creep grabbed my butt, after being there for an hour a disgusting man was saying disgusting things to me... But all of these things were forgotten when I think back about how much fun I had seeing the girls. Overall it is a pretty cool place. I loved the seventies music, the Jimmy Hendricks and Brett Michaels impersonators, and the light up dance floor was awesome. Half of my wedding party ended up being there, it was so good to see everybody and Jill and I were definitely tearing up the dance floor, until Jill got elbowed in the head... repeatedly, by some old drunk lady. We were missing Mom, Dad, Bert and Dave anyway and wanted to go hang out with them... so we did.

To our surprise a Rod Stewart impersonator took the stage in the casino at 1:00 am. He was fantastic, in his leopard leggings, pink visor, and bright yellow top. I've never sang so hard or danced so much in my life. Jill and I grew up with Mom listening to these songs and we love them probably as much as she does. So. Much. Fun. I wish I had a picture of Jill and I pretending to be Rockettes while "Rod" was singing Hot Legs. We were pretty impressive, I think.

At 4:00 am, after Rod Stewart, taking Mom, Dad, Bert, and Dave back to Boogie Nights so they could see if for themselves, skipping through the parking garage with Amanda, and ordering seven double cheeseburgers at McDonald's, we finally made it home. It was such a fun night. I loved that I got to spend it with the girls and with my family. It was definitely one of my favorite nights in awhile... and my real favorite was re-playing the whole night for Dan, he was really in disbelief of our crazy night out on the town.

5:00, Please

I'm ready for 5:00, well really, I've been ready for Friday at 5:00 since I decided to go home on Monday. I can hardly contain myself. I've been spending my day at work just trying to keep very busy and not looking at the clock, but it's really hard not to.

I know at this moment Jill probably has Dillon in his car seat and he's watching movies as they make their big trip home. Dad will probably be cutting his work day short here in about an hour to catch the reds game, and if not he'll be blaring it on 700 WLW. Mom is probably sweeping the carpet for the 20th time since Monday just getting ready for Dillon to be home, and John is putting on his shoulder pads and helmet for his game tonight.

Me on the other hand, I'm sitting here at work, I just got off the service elevator in which I road down 80 stories with a whole pig and a fish that was almost as big as me... And I'm itching to be done with my day, ride the train back to Indiana and hop in my car. 5:00 can't get here soon enough, well really, 11:00 pm would be nice... I'll be pulling into Paul and Theresa's drive way!

10 for 10

Yep, just like '30 for 30' on ESPN, one of my favorite shows. But instead of recapturing 30 great sporting events from the last 30 years, I'm going to list the ten things that I want to do in 2010. Yes, I realize that there are only 2 1/2 months left in the year... and it's been a HUGE year already, but there are some things that I just feel like I need to do.

1. Save X amount of dollars
~Dan and I received our "First Time Home Buyer's Loan" money, I started a saving account with my money, and I want to add to this. It's going to be a hard time to do this with Christmas coming and the amount of things we have planned for the rest of the year, but with careful planning I feel confident in doing it!~

2. Finish decorating two rooms in our house
~When we moved in we worked hard to paint and get all the furniture where we wanted it, we fused our belongings together to become "ours" but we haven't done much else. I just want some pictures on the wall or some nice home accessories... and definitely an entertainment center for upstairs. (My number 2 goal may hinder my number 1 goal, but we'll see)~

3. Loose at least five pounds
~It needs to be done, enough said.~

4. Join a book club
~I've always wanted to do this, and now since I have the time to read (on the train) it's the perfect time to do it, now I just need to find the time to go to the club get togethers. The only ones that I've found around home all take place in the middle of the day... come on people, working ladies read too!~

5. See my girlfriends twice
~I miss them like crazy and I just need to see them, I'm hoping we have a chance with Christmas and Thanksgiving approaching and I'd die to see them, even for a breakfast date.~

6. Learn ten new important things at work
~I learn new things every single day, but I keep a notepad of things that I think are pivotal to my career. I want to add ten new things to this list by the end of the year. With the busy season approaching, I'm sure that these new, important tidbits will unfold right in front of me.~

7. Don't ruin Thanksgiving or Christmas by being hungover
~Mom will be so happy to see this goal for the rest of the year. It's happened probably the last three years, I feel awful about it, but it's been hard to contain myself considering the day before Thanksgiving is the biggest bar day of the year... and last year the Eve of Christmas Eve was the biggest class reunion ever at The Horseshoe Inn. These aren't excuses I know, but I've spent a few too many of these holidays hungover. Not this year. I can't make any promises about the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas though...~

8. Learn how to make the moon cookies, which I believe are actually called kipfulls, and the rolls
~My great-aunt Janet makes these every single year for Christmas. It's tradition, and I have got to learn how to make them this year. I keep telling Janet that I want to learn, but I never make it a point to. So Janet, get ready, I'm coming over and we are cooking!~

9. Have the most beautiful Christmas tree ever
~I've been buying ornaments for a year now, my collection is really growing, ad I'm so excited for our first Christmas tree. I've always wanted to have a themed tree so of course I've been scouring the stores for peacock ornaments. Everybody thought I was crazy when I started buying them, saying that I was never going to find enough, but you should see my box full of feathers!~

10. Take more pictures
~I've been without my camera since I was home last in August and I feel like I've missed out on so much. I love taking pictures and I haven't been able to capture anything these past couple weeks. I'm going home this weekend and I'll be sure to take my charger so I can start right away, at Dillon's 2nd Birthday Party.~

So here's my 10 for 10. On January 1st, 2011 I'll be sure to let you know how the list went... It'll be here before we know it!

90 Days in the Real World

The begining of this month marks my 90th day of work. On my first day I marked in my calendar when the day would be... and it happened today. It seemed like it wasn't that long ago, and marking it in my calendar made me feel like it was never going to get here...

"Hello," my pop-up message said today, "You've made it to day 9-0."

I had a small feeling of accomplishment as I started my day... and a small urge to make a doctor's appointment because my benefits have started. (Strange, I know, because I absolutely hate doctors.)

So thinking back on my first four months in the real world, these are the things I've come to realize.

1. I made the right career choice. During my four years of school there were times I had doubts about going into the hospitality industry, but I honestly cannot see myself doing anything else. I love being in a restaurant everyday and seeing the day to day operations. I love being part of a team that works together towards one goal... it doesn't hurt that the girls on my team are wonderful, experienced people who make me laugh so hard and are willing to help and answer any of my questions. I love seeing the events unfold from start to end, and even though I know it can be stressful for everybody at some point during the process, it somehow always comes together.

2. The television show 'The Office' is the most perfect depiction of any office in America... I'm sure of it. I appreciate the show 100% more and laugh out loud anytime I catch an episode. I still haven't figured out who my character would be... nobody in that office, I hope.

3. Elevators are way less scary for me now then they were 90 days ago. Sometimes when I come home Dan will ask me, "What did you do at work today, ride the elevator up and down?" And truthfully sometimes that's what I felt like I did all day. Our office is on the 15th floor, and of course the restaurant is on the 95th. I think I average about 480 floors a day and havig to pop my ears at least 6 times. It's gotten a lot easier for me... I don't even have to be chewing gum anymore for them to pop! Impressive, I know.

4. Ironing clothes and buying things with "dry clean only" tags is very overrated. I used to spent quite a lot of time pressing my clothes, even jeans, before I would go to work. I've pretty much given up on this practice and only iron if it's visibly a wreck... It just wrinkles again while I'm sitting. And last weekend I found myself wanting to buy this sweater, I had it half way to the register and everything, and then I noticed the dreaded "dry clean only" tag. I have become my mom and instantly put it back. Oh, and tennis shoes have become my favorite accessory, wearing them with suits and dresses until about 9:30 am when the majority of the staff get into the office. Who would of thought that of me?

5. The Real World really isn't as bad as a lot of people have made it out to be. Sure, getting into the routine of paying bills, being on time every day, and being responsible was a little hard to get used to, but, I've embraced it. I'm a real human being now, paying taxes, a mortgage, and the dreaded student loans... but I love what I'm doing. I enjoy my work. I wake up every day excited about what lies ahead of me, and look forward to new oportunities.

Check out this link to Facebook. This album is one of the little projects I worked on this week and it shows a lot of great pictures of some of the events that have taken place at the 95th!

Happy October!

So we've made it to October... and the two things have happened that I have been dreading since I moved to Chicago.

1. Leaving the house when it's dark and getting home when it's dark.

I knew this was going to happen, it was inevitable. But yesterday when I woke up on the train, I had a minor panic attack thinking that I had missed my stop because it was so dark outside. I was wrong, I was still two stops away from mine, but it was almost black outside. Holy Smokes! I will now be making a point to enjoy my walks in the sunlight and try to go outside to the garden plaza during lunch to get some sun... I'm starting to worry about my vitamin D intake!

2. I actually sang the song "Bear Down Chicago Bears" out loud on Monday night.

Don't get me wrong, on Sunday I was screaming Who-Dey at the top of my lungs and wearing my Bengals jersey around the house, but watching the Bears on Monday Night Football, I really got caught up in all of it. It didn't help that I was surrounded by people in Bears jerseys all day... and every story in the newspaper was somehow tied to the game taking place that night... and of course "Bear Down Chicago Bears" is a very very catchy tune. I about died though when I caught myself dancing and singing around the living room with Dan just shaking his head at me. I just can't help it, I'm a sucker for catchy tunes.

So I admit it, Chicago is rubbing off on me a little bit, a few of my friends told me that it would happen. I was sure to call them on Tuesday morning and tell them what I was singing the night before. The only response I got was "Bear Down." I promptly responding Who-Dey, reminding them who my #1 team would always be. But... I do love this town!