Monthly Archives: February 2005
The plan
Last weekend, Tom and I went to Chicago to check out places to live and the town in general. We braved the horrible weather, cars off the road, and crazy traffic to get there, but I was able to land a cute little one bedroom near lincoln square, which is an awesome little neighborhood. My newly sublet apartment has all wood floors, lots of closet space, a new bathroom, new kitchen with gas stove and diswhasher, small back porch, built in bookshelves and former fireplace, lots of sunlight, lots of free onstreet parking, near to the brown damen stop,and it's pet friendly. My sublease is until June 30, so if Tom is able to find a job by then, we can move into someplace bigger. If we decide to stay, we can always renew for another year.Tom and I did much of our exploring in the freezing rain, so not only were we soaked, but we both got sick last week. I ended up taking off two days of work, and sleeping all weekend, but I'm much better now (Tom says he's better too although cycling through fevers raised some concern). I can almost smell again! Most of the weekend was spent sleeping, but we did manage to get some of the house cleaned up. Boy do we have a lot of crap! It'll be nice to get rid of much of it, including the walk in closet full of macs. The deal is Tom gets a mac mini if he gets rid of all those computers. Thankfully, mac mini's take up much less space. We also saw Hotel Rwanda with Schutze and Briana and had dinner with them on Sunday. Talk about a buzz kill. Very good movie though. The kristyland oscar for best actor goes to Don Cheadle, but that's only contingent upon his lack of acting in any more ocean's 11 remakes. The first one was bad enough.
I don't make a very good sick person, so in between naps last week, I kept my mind occupied with setting up the arrangements for the move and going through what Tom affectionately calls "Mt. Purse" for donations to goodwill. I managed to setup the move and get rid of half my purses. Here's the plan for the move: March 11, I'll take a vacation day, pickup the uhaul, and finish packing. During the evening, Tom and I will load up the uhaul. March 12 I'll drive the uhaul to my new apartment where the surly movers will unload it all for me. March 13 Tom and I will come back home (or as Tom says "rock the amtrak") where I will work for another week. March 18 is my last day at ABLE. I'll head back to chicago March 19th and start work March 21. That reminds me, I still have to buy amtrak tickets. Good news is that amtrak is only 36 bucks each way, 29 bucks for the redeye, and 10% AAA discount between Toledo and Chicago. That's cheaper than driving, which is fortunate, because I'd hate to see Tom in the traffic close to Chicago.
I've made a few purchases for my new place already. Target was having a sale so I got a 100% cotton, 220 thread count duvet cover with matching shams, sheet set, one of those fireplace candlabras, and a rain check for a 1100 watt 1.0 cubic foot microwave for 50 bucks (that I can pick up at any target before mid-april). I'm trying to make a check list of all the things that I need to bring with me. One of the few nice things about Tom remaining in BG is that I don't have to worry about clearing out the apartment and taking all of my worldly possessions with me right away. This makes the move so much less stressful, words cannot describe. Although it is kind of sad that we're splitting up our stuff. The object of biggest contention at the moment is the DVD collection. He says I can take all of the movies that aren't depressing... That would leave me with about 5 dvd's to take with me. However, with all the exciting stuff to do in an around lincoln square and the rest of Chicago, I may not take any movies with me. I've reconnected with my friend Jaime (wattjam) who is a librarian at northwestern. She's really cool, so I'm glad to be in touch again. There's also tons of extra curricular possibilities like...Guitar lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music, throwing clay on the wheel at the Lincoln Square Pottery Studio, working on my choppin skills with a knife work class at The chopping block, joining a knitter's guild, maybe a book club, or taking yoga lessons, getting back into martial arts.... I imagine that I'll be keeping myself fairly busy...
Yes, it's all very exciting....
02.28.05 5:28pm(7 comments)
Baby got book? wtf?
Okay. As you all know, I'm a big fan of the song "baby got back" and have been since it was released to the public back in the day. So naturally, I would be interested in any sort of parodies... Well... I gotta say that this abomination has got to be the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Poor Tom walked into the computer room when I was watching it, shortly after he woke up saying, "what the fuck was that?"At least "southpaw" has some street cred in my hood by wearing a mudhens t-shirt....
NLB with a big red bookmark....
02.23.05 7:28am(3 comments)
WTF mate?
I *keep* getting .mil hits on kristyland. WTF. I don't know hardly anyone in the military. This one happened to be from Wright Patt AFB even. Okay, so I went shopping with my mom there once and revelled in the tax free - cheap liquor - hot n stylin gub'ment digs. Now they're all up in mah shizzy? Down with THE MAN!02.18.05 8:57pm(0 comments)
Swept away by the windy city
I've really made some headway on finding living arrangements for Chicago. I found this really awesome 1 bedroom place that is really nice, and doggie friendly!!! Perhaps I'll be able to get a little mini schnauzer or a mini dachsund in Chi-town :) Call it Max or Sophie. I could knit it little sweaters and stuff too... I digress.Tom and I will be heading to Chicago on sunday, staying over night and coming back on Monday. I plan to do some touring of neighborhoods, check out the apartment and co-op, and try to figure out where some cool stuff is. Fortunately for Tom and I, I went on priceline and was able to land a room at the Palmer House for 60 bucks! Yessssssss! So we get to stay in the awesome hotel again.
I'm starting to get really excited about the move as I get closer to landing an apartment. Once I get that all settled, I think It'll be pretty easy from there, other than the whole packing / moving bit. I get some assistance from my new employer, so it will go a lot more smoothly this time.... especially since I don't have to move all my crap at once, just the big stuff and essential stuff. It'll be a good time to go through all my crap in the apartment and get rid of the stuff I don't need or use.
02.18.05 8:31pm(0 comments)
My kind of town… Chicago is
I accepted the new job as MIS Director of Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago starting March 21, 2005. I'm working on my resignation stuff for ABLE, writing letters, making sure the right people know first. When I told one of my assistants, Teresa, she started crying, which I totally didn't expect. Fortunately, I'll be spared from the biggest guilt trip from the executive director since he's in India for a month immunizing kids against polio. I didn't quite make that 3 year moral commitment to ABLE, but I crammed much more than 3 years of work into the last 2. I think that firm grip on my soul for about a year counts for something.This will be a really big step for me, but I'll have finally realized my dream of getting out of Ohio. There for awhile, I'd never thought I'd make it, but I've found my break. It'll be tough living away from Tom again, but we made it through last time, we can do it again. Hopefully he'll be able to join me sooner than later. In the meantime, I'm looking into getting into a housing cooperative to save a little money on rent, meet some people, eat healthier, and get the inside track on Chicago. I've got a few leads on some really cute sublets too, in case the co-op doesn't work out. Although living by myself isn't going to be as much fun, I'll be able to manage.
WOOoooohhhhooooooo!
02.16.05 11:26am(10 comments)
Interesting times…
Sorry if I haven't updated in awhile... Things have been really crazy lately. Here's a short rundown of what I've been up to:Last weekend: Disneyworld. Had a great time. Did 4 parks and pleasure island in 2 1/2 days. Met Mickey, Minnie, and other characters. Hang out with family. Meet up with James, cool step-cousin. Watch Uncle Jackie have the time of his life. So Awesome. Caught a bad cold, not so awesome.
Tuesday: stayed home from work, slept in, ran out of tissues, went to doctor, got drugs.
Wednesday / Thursday: Back to work
Thursday night: Flew to Chicago but having to get on 3 different plans in DTW before one would actually take me there. Get to Palmer house hotel (beautiful) to find someone had already checked in as me. Get my room, finally. Call Tom. Take Nyquil. Watch Cartoons. Go to sleep.
Friday: Interview with Legal Aid Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. They call my supervisor shortly after I leave (I found out later). Flew home Friday evening. Get a standby spot on an earlier flight.
Saturday: Listen to Davinci code audiobook. Hanging out with Schutze and Briana, Shopping, Hanging out with Jay and Kerrie
Sunday: Listening to audiobook of Davinci code, talking to Gramma, Grampa, and Mom for sunday chats, dinner at tandoor, evening at stranahan watching 42nd street, desert and coffee afterwards, cuddling at home. (Thank you Tom! I love you!)
Monday: Back to work. Reports of my other references getting called. Send gushy appreciative emails to former supervisor / mentor. Brandon makes crack about human sacrifice to LAFMC while giving me a job reference. Skip out at lunch to get Tom's vday present. Get sprayed at the store with parfum I now adore. Come back to work to find flowers from Tom to mark the first time I ever got flowers at work (Thank you Tom! I love you!) Get a call from the executive director of LAFMC to tell me they're sending me a job offer overnight express. Open a letter from BGSU career center regarding nominating my intern for some award from Brittan Jenkins. Fuckin' Jenkins. Check out craigslist to see if there's anywhere I can afford to live in Chicago. Now it's time to go home.
02.14.05 4:54pm(5 comments)
I’m going to DisneyWorld!!!
Yes, It's true! My Mom, Step-Dad, step-sister, Uncle Jackie and I are all heading down to Orlando for an extended weekend to visit the parks, and cousing Jimmy who is working in the college program. It should be tremendous fun, especially with Jackie since he brings so much joy to everything he does and everyone around him. We've already got reservations for breakfast with Mickey at the polynesian and a spot in the teppanyaki dining room at japan in epcot. Also, and this is so awesome, I discovered that they re-opened my all time favorite ride at disneyworld, Journey into your imagination. They've redone it since I had been there last, but it still has figment (although no dreamfinder), and "just one spark", the theme song for the ride. Most importantly, they still have the imaginarium, renamed to the What if labs where you can play with all kinds of nifty creative stuff. Last time I was at WDW, the ride was closed and I had feared that Disney would demolish it for something else. Thankfully, it's still there and I can enjoy it just as much as I did when I was little. I'll definitely be hitting the gift shop for figment gear (see figment hat on dancing kristy). If you want me to pick up any merchandise for you let me know, although I think mouse ears embroidered with obscene words like "cocksucker" are only obtainable if you know the right people. Sorry, folks.Poor Tommy will be stayin' home from the magical journey (he hates Disneyworld, big surprise there) but since his family hasn't called since Christmas, he probably won't be heading home like he usually does when I go out of town for the weekend. If you know of any super bowl festivities, please get in touch with Tom, aka Superfan #1. If you're into football, which I'm certainly not, Tom is the guy to have at your superbowl party. Seriously, he's a font of all football related knowledge, and he get's really excited about the game. It's adorable :)
I leave tonight and will be getting back lat monday night.... then I leave for chicago thursday night getting back late friday night. Busy week. wooo!
02.04.05 6:34am(0 comments)
NO ACLU FOR YOU!
I got the denial from ACLU via email today, so I'm kind of bummed out. What an awesome job / cause / place to work that would've been. I still have apps in at LAFMC, Juliard, Columbia, and will be submitting new ones to Prospect Park and Northwestern. I know that the threat of relocation expenses and my lack of experience is a real detriment to achieving any success in my job hunt. As they say, where one door of opportunity closes, another opens. That, and I've got a phone interview with the LAFMC (Chicago) folks today :)02.01.05 12:17pm(7 comments)