Thursday, June 26, 2008

4 Things

1. I got fired.
Except that is an exaggeration and completely not true. My temp job ends next week so it might be back to the couch for me.

2. Maybe we're just on vacation.
Or maybe we should act like it. I think we should go to the beach and if lastminute.com can make it happen, we just might. Nothing quite gets your mind off the finances and joblessness like an all-inclusive getaway.

3. Kenny is buying Jack's affection with copius amounts of food and treats while I'm at work.
I think the tide is turning and Jack might love Kenny more than he loves me now. I can't compete with the daily bits of lox, spontaneous peanut butter kongs, and hamburger grease Kenny's been feeding him.

4. I just asked Kenny for a glass of water and some brownies.
He's in the kitchen baking now. He's the best. Maybe he buys everybody's affection with food?

Friday, June 20, 2008

Bubble Wands

Ah, Friday night. I have my Aldi brand "Mexican" beer and we're watching Yentl. Jack has knocked all pillows off of the luv seats and beds. Booger is squarely in the middle of the bedroom floor once again.

I've spent a lot of the day contemplating an Oprah I watched last night. It was a show about the Law of Attraction and the Power of Positive Thinking and how the universe will give you what you want if you think about it and want it in the right way. There was a lot of discussion of this one time when Oprah was thinking about how she'd like to blow bubbles and then she went to her dressing room and there was a bag of bubbles and a Tiffany's bubble blowing wand sitting there. That's not the part I was contemplating.

I was thinking about how it makes sense that I find little job/career gettage/satisfaction. It's because I have no idea how to really answer the question I get asked all the time: What's your ideal job? How am I gonna get it if I don't know what it is? So. I'm gonna figure that out real quick, and I think everything should work itself out nicely. If you have any thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear them. As previously indicated, I'm kind of lost on this matter.

That Oprah, she's always making me think.




Monday, June 16, 2008

The good stuff

I was at my last job for over a year--in some ways, I was there for two years. About a year and a half into the job I got my name put on a mailbox. The end.

After being at my new temp-to-perm job for two days, I was given a real-life-printed name plaque on my cubicle. Today I was handed a new directory with my name on it. I've met at least 90% of the staff and have had lunch with many of them. Many people stop working during lunch and go into a room that is completely separate from their desks. It's awesome. Also, we have free coffee, tea, soda, and the occasional goldfish snack.

In other news, we've lived here for about six weeks and have been visited on various weekends (plus) by my mother, my brother and his partner, a friend, and my father. The in-laws arrive in a few days. So this is what it's like to have a guest room...interesting.

All of these visits have forced us to get out of our house and do a little Chicago exploring. I'm starting to feel like maybe I live here, and maybe I'm not just a visitor. I still gotta figure out the good places to take people, but that takes time--it did in DC too.

For now, here is my top of list reasons why all of my friends should move here:

1) Better prices (groceries, restaurants, housing, airline tickets...I could go on)
2) Friendly people (cliche, but true)
3) BYOB restaurants
4) The flatness--it's incredibly easy to bike here
5) The spring/summer weather--I know a lot of people think the weather is a good reason to not move here (and yes, I know it's not winter and I will probably be singing a different tune then), but it's been so nice and 60s and 70s ish for most of the time we've been here. There's also been plenty of rain and thunderstorms. I'll probably eat my words, but man I love snow and I am looking forward to that too.
6) Pizza. It's everywhere--and not just deep dish. Oh pizza, I love you so much.
7) Water--we got a lake AND a river.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Gratuitous puppy photos, just because







Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Helping the rich and other lifelong dreams fulfilled

I've begun working for an association that helps ultra high net worth people out. It's like working for a nonprofit and it's like social work except different. When I got my degree in sociology, I must say--I was not focusing on this particular segment of society.

It's a temp-to-perm job, thus continuing my lifelong streak of never having a job with any sort of permanence. I understand people often submit their resumes, get interviewed, and get offered jobs outright. Not sure I believe it. But I hear it happens, and maybe that will happen to me one day.

There are very nice people at the job and free pop and coffee and snacks. Also, it pays real, live money. I managed to wait an entire day before reorganizing the desk and redoing the filing system.


Thursday, June 05, 2008

And the results are in...

Kenny wins the contest for fewest pairs of underwear in a round of laundry. In the approximately 2.5 weeks since we last did laundry, Kenny generated 6 pairs of underwear. I lapped him coming in with 12.

As you can tell, we've been up to all kinds of fun things around here. We experienced the magic and wonder that is Bubbleland. Actually, magic and wonder might be overstating. With a name like Bubbleland, I was ready for a room filled with soapy foam and furniture made out of bubbles and bubble themed food. This was not the case, but we did get our laundry done a million times faster than when we use the crappy machines in our building. Oh my, am I writing a post about laundry?

In other news, we encountered the Illinois DMV this week. We're all official now with Illinois plates and drivers licenses. The process was less painful than we expected and each DMV employee we encountered was...chipper. Each except one guy who saw that I was from DC and said eww. That guy was kind of a jerk, except not really (he was still friendly), but he was wrong. Kenny had an extraordinarily great time.







Monday, June 02, 2008

Entertainment for when the TV fails us

You know how you're tired when you get home from work and don't want to exert energy cooking so you just make something out of a box or go out to eat? We didn't bathe today. We didn't leave the house for any non-dog-walking purpose. We didn't put on any clothes that weren't also worn yesterday. But, we did roast a pepper and grill marinated flank steak.



































Well, really Kenny made it. I watched and also ate it, but I made citrus-braised chicken yesterday.

















Kenny made the guacamole.























All of this chicken cost 3 dollars. We found the cheap place to buy meat. I'd say we go to grocery stores at least 4 days out of 7. It's kind of a hobby.

















Kenny has also taken up baking.