Friday, February 17

Work was awesome today! At 11:15 Kristen and I met her friends Veronica and Mike and we took a little field trip over the the Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago building. The Center we visited was the School for Autistic Children. I don't know the official name for it, but it was really neat to see those kids learning together, and having that modified learning that they need to basically survive on their own someday. The center has huge plans to change locations, double in size, double in enrollment, and offer more services for the students--such as continuous research by a university about Autism. The ages of the kids at the school ranges from 3-21, and then they are also able to offer jobs for over 21 students in a different area of the building. Along with residences, this school is the only School for Autism in the country, and is looking for donations for the new place.
I was originally planning to have lunch with Ang, but got back around 1, so I just found another place to eat. Quiznos is expensive. Then for the rest of the afternoon I worked on the Friendly's articles.
It was really nice weather, a bit cold, but way better than Thursday! I can't believe how much it brightened people's spirits..on the streets and on the train.
After supper Ang and Kate went to target again while Pam and I stayed in, cleaned, updated blogs, watched a movie, layed low. It was a relaxing night. When Jimmy Kimmel Live was on with Hawthorn Heights as the musical guest from the Chicago Auto Show, I looked in the audience for me, but I couldn't find me. Kate says that at last 95% of footage taken is not used. Oh well. I'll still try to get into Oprah!

Car Show Pictures

Thursday, February 16

Today it rained. It was depressing because it was so dark and cold. I didn't go for a walk over lunch because of the rain, and I heard there was even thunder and lightening! I got one excel project finished today, so that feels good. I do have to get more going on the project for Kristen though...the one about Friendly's/Easter Seals campaign. I should be able to finish that maybe tomorrow but for sure by next week. The promotion was over on the 14th, so the media will finish up with some articles of how the event went and how much $$ Easter Seals will get from Friendly's. I had a headache coming on in the afternoon (probably because I didn't drink any coffee all day. I'm trying to get myself to stop drinking so much...and wow, coffee really works to "perk" me up when I need it. Yes, I used that pun on purpose. I'm still getting over my excitement of the auto show we just came back from.
One thing I really enjoy about having a job over classes is that I don't have to think about homework all the time every single night. Tonight after work I took a short nap, ate a bit, and then we went to the car show. Now, if I didn't have over a hundred pictures and the desire to update my blog, I could have been in bed before 11. I enjoy not HAVING to do homework. I enjoy that personal time at night, and I enjoy the bonding time with the roommates and with different people at night during the week and not just weekends. It seems like we're always busy, but it's nice to be busy and take it all in.
So the Auto Show was awesome! I was so excited to walk into a place with SO MANY CARs. and I'm not even a car person at all. I just love the lok of some of the cars..beautiful. I was overwhelmed with how much money was in there...cars worth so much, and trucks with the latest hybrid technology. Like a trade fair for big people. The pontiac area was sponsoring a concert of some punk band...kind of like Fall Out Boy. I don't remember who they are, but I took some pictures. The cool part about it is that it will be featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight! I made my way near the front/the moshers/the hardcore fans and did a bit of jumping with them, took pictures and made sure that I could be on camera if in fact it will be on tonight. Exciting!
There were six of us that went: Matt, Jeff, Clint, Pam, Kate, and I. New guys to hang out with. We got in half price because we brought canned goods! We did our research!
I'll try to attach a few pictures to this message, so I hope it works!

February 15--Happy Birthday Mom!

I had classes at the CS Headquarters from 8am until around 1:15 or so, then I looked at a few stores to find some boots. I really want some nice ones that I can wear to work with a skirt. I've never had luck finding cheap ones that I like though, it was no different this day. I had a $3.30 sub for lunch! Now, that's probably even cheaper than going to the grocery store and buying all the ingredients only to have them go bad in our fridge. I do take my lunch to work most days though. Speaking of lunch, Ang and I are thinking of meeting for lunch on Friday, since we work so close to each other!

So after no luck with finding boots, I went to the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation for some volunteer work there. I really love that casual atmosphere. It's a nice getaway from Easter Seals once a week because of the difference in organizations as well. It would be so nice to bike to work one day. Maybe I can rent a bike from them for a month. That was one of the places I turned down for an internship but I liked them so much that I still wanted to do some kind of work there. Network myself out there, you know? Plus, I love meeting people anyway so now I have a few more contacts if I ever want a job in Chicago.

I came back to the apartment for a quick nap before supper and the Ballet at 7. I needed that nap SO bad. I should really get more sleep. I don't like going to bed early at night though, that's the time when I can buckle down and really focus on stuff I want to get done! I'm just like that. I think I should find a job that I can start at 10 or later after I graduate. Hah, we'll see.

Supper was a blur because I had just woken up, so I don't remember much until we changed clothes for the Ballet at the Joffrey Theatre. We all decided to dress up in skirts and nice shoes. It was great weather when we left the apartment, but we got caught in the rain on the way back at 10:30. Cold feet. The Ballet and the Theatre were AMAZING though. Here are some notes I took about the theatre and the ballet:

We were at the Joffrey Ballet, all dressed up, excited for something only a few of us had ever seen before. A Ballet, Romeo and Juliet. Walking into the building was overwhelming because there were so many people milling around--mostly Chicago Semester students blocking the doors...I hate being in a large group and calling attention to ourselves like that. Grr. But once we stepped into the actual theatre someone said, "It's like stepping into Heaven." Totally true. I was brought to tears at its beauty, the detail, the color, the precision. SUCH CLASS! There were three large murals on the front and both sides with quote on the bottom.
Front: "The utterance of life is a song, the symphony of nature"
Left: "A great life has passed into the tomb and there awaits the requiem of winters snows"
Right: "O Soft Melodious spring time! First born of life and love"

How did they get the ceiling so decorated with it being so high? And there's so much detail? When was the theatre built? It seems like the 20s or 30s. Amazing. I've never been in such a huge theatre. We're in the third balcony. The musicians pit is a flutter of sounds. The renaussance paintings/mural above the stage adds to the whole setting of the theatre and the setting of the ballet as well.
How will they potray Romeo and Juliet without words?
The MUSIC. It blends really well and TELLS THE STORY. Certain instruments (flute-Juliet, Oboe-Romeo) tell the story of the feelings of the characters. Granted, I do need the act description of the play as I watch it, but because I studied the play in high school I can tell generally what is going on. For most, I'm sure that if they don't already know the story it would be hard to understand. You really have to pay attention to small details.
As the lights dim for the Ballet, the small lights are like stars on the ceiling. So calming and sets the stage for a beautiful Ballet.

I got back to the apartment to find out that Mark and Karla Bouma had another baby! A healthy baby boy named Dallas Allen Bouma. over 6 pounds. Big compared to tiny little premie Jaden when he was born last January. Congratulations to them!

Valentines Day

I never realized how big a deal Valentines Day is. It's crazy how many people give gifts on valentines day and hype it up. I had only one cup of coffee at work today. Random comment, but I'm proud of myself. I managed to get about 7.5 hours of sleep so I felt awake all day. Good stuff.
I dropped a bag of clothing off at a La Salle bank on the way home. I have all these clothes that I can get money for back in Iowa that Plato's closet doesn't take here because they're "over a year old" or something. With a few items it's true, but all the clothes are in good condition! Well, I gave up trying to get money for some of it, and just got rid of it. I kept some pants and stuff because I refuse to give up good money for those right now.
Since the 14th was Angela's 22nd birthday, we decided beforehand to go out to dinner. We left the kind of food up to Ang, and she decided on Greek. I've only ever had greek salad before, so I was up to it. Plus it gave us all a chance to dress up a bit more. We ended up at a place called Rodity's, located in Greektown just off the blue line. It was a really nice place, not too busy, but enough people inside to show us that the food was liked.
We grabbed a menu and ordered...Pam, Ang, and I ordered wine as well :) The others had a really sweet syrupy wine and I had a Merlot...only good when I mixed the sweet wine with it. I'm not really a fan of wine just yet...I've only had maybe 2 really good wines ever, and how am I supposed to remember the names?!?
After our meals of Gyros, chicken, greek salad, lamb ribs (blech!) and wine we started on our trek down to Michigan Ave to visit some chocolate shops. Mmmmmm. We tried the Hershey Corner store, but that had just closed. We ran across the street to another chocolate store and even got a sample!
That was about all for our evening together. I ran upstairs to get my shared books over to Chris so that he could read before class and I ended up watching a bible study-type movie with them about grieving. It's a series by Robbie Bell--Nooma? I've watched a couple of his videos before and he's super easy to listen to and watch. He's Dave's Pastor at Mars Hill church, so he has the whole series and knows the guy.
I came back to the room to get distracted once again and not start on homework until after midnight. Aah well, I can get a nap in tomorrow sometime. I'm also volunteering at the Bicycle Federation again :)
'nuf said.

Monday...skirt day

Yep, I broke down on Monday and wore a skirt. It was a long black one..that I've had since grade 10 or 11 in high school. I remember when I bought it. It was from Winners in Prince George. Anyway, the skirt was loud and swishy when I walked, and I found it distracting. And since it is from high school, I think I've graduated from wearing it again...
When I go to work in the morning, no matter what the temperature is outside, I'm always sweating, okay dripping with beads of sweat coming down in front of my ears, when I walk into work. It's not that the walk is hard or that my heart is pounding, I just get so hot. First of all on the train at first with all those bodies squished into a small space, and then walking at a fast pace. Maybe I won't wear such warm clothes on Thursday..or maybe I'll leave the apartment earlier so that I don't have to walk so fast.
We talked about how Christians are perceived at work in our room the other day. Ang mentioned that in her dutch reformed circles, this was the first time she had ever been looked down upon because of her faith. She said the ladies at work were bugging her because she didn't want to go out and drink for her birthday and that she'd probably go to church instead. Something along those lines. I've never been in that situation before either. She must have felt strange to be chastised for going to church.
I would say that according to what I've heard around work, there are many church-goers. There are three ladies at lunch that I'm always in the room with while I'm eating and they've gone on and on about their pastors and the different churches they've been to. They're all either non-denom or baptist, I'm going to assume, because they're black and evidently not dutch. Maybe they don't even know Dutch people. Another guy, Chris, goes to an Alliance church. He's the one that's just been awarded a national award at work. We're honoring him with an office party on either Friday or Monday, I can't remember. What makes me sad is that we're not very open about it. There are definitely people there who don't go to church or who aren't Christians, and I can tell by the way they talk. I'm sure it's VERY hard to incorporate sharing our faith at work...or even just proclaiming Christianity at a workplace, as Ang did. It's gotta be different than what I'm used to. Usually people have a high regard for church-goers or Christians, but it would take that one odd hard time for it to make us think twice about sharing our faith, I'm sure.
I find it really hard to focus at work. Maybe it's the lighting of the place. It feels darker in the office as the afternoon goes on and I get sidetracked very easily. That's when I need that little walk around the office or coffee to get me focused again.
Supper on Monday was made my me :) Spagetti whole wheat noodles with a Cheesy sauce and salad with cucumbers. It satisfied all of our hunger needs that night. We wanted to go to a car show that night, so it was a quick meal. We decided after about 40 minutes of deliberating and talking with Jeff upstairs that we'd go on Thursday with a few more people (so that we don't get mugged on the way to the show.) It sounds like we have to pass a rough section of the city to get there. hmm. Yep, we hafta bring the boys.
Anyway, instead of the car show, I went and worked out with Dave. This time I was so pumped to run and run, I did, as well as lift a few weights and work on balance. I could spend hours and hours in that place if I had time. I've only been in the hot tub once!
I came back all sweaty from working out only to find a wonderful looking cake on the table! It's Angela's birthday on the 14th so we celebrated it with some double layer cake with a few friends. Pam and Kate also had a photo shoot with the cake, I found out later. Crazy girls.
I managed once again to put off homework and do other stuff instead. I put some of the fabric that I got from the Bouma's on the wall in our bedroom to give it a bit of color. It's kinda messy-looking, but we all like the color in there.
We all went to bed around the same time in our red room.

Tourists...

Neither Pam nor I wanted to get out of bed this morning...but we did, knowing right when we woke up that we'd be late for church. We woke up at 10am, church started at 11:15 (so we thought), and we didn't leave the house until about quarter to 11. Oh well, we figured the train wouldn't take too long...
We figured wrong.
We didn't get to the Uptown Baptist church until 11:30 or so...not bad IF it actually started at 11:15...Church started at 10:30 so we walked in during the sermon...missed all the songs altogether. The train tracks were under construction and the trains had to slow down to less than 10mph so that made us late. Aah well, another time then.
We ate lunch quickly and changed and Ang, Pam and I went to the Library with our proof of residency and got library cards! Such an adventurous and exciting experience! Yay!
That library is 9 floors of pure joy for someone longing for symmetry, order, quiet, clean lines, open space, and of course, more books than you've ever seen in your life. It is the second largest library, after the Library of Congress in D.C. in the US. Awesome. We spend hours in there looking at books, magazines, pictures, open space, and listening to silence. Such a nice relaxing Sunday thing to do for lots of people, I'm sure. From the Library we walked over to Michigan Ave, the Magnificent Mile. I had my eyes open for "The All suite Omni Hotel, located in the heart of Chicago's Magnificent Mile," as Oprah used to say after her show. Didn't see it though...it must have been more south than we started. or north. We didn't cover much ground because of the cold!
We stopped in some shops--a music/symphony store with really really neat music stuff and sculptures inside. Mom, you would have loved it in there....so many ideas for decorating a studio and teaching music. I thought of you the whole time and if I had a million dollars I would spend a lot of it in that store for you! We walked to a tourist shop--and a high quality one at that--a few doors down. I saw sweet things like glow in the dark cards (that would have been awesome for those poker nights on family vacations hey Daryl and Dad?) and tons of post cards, trinkets, tourist stuff, and artsy stuff--notebooks, funky designed stuff. I felt moved to buy some flash cards called "Slang Flashcards" that can teach me all I want to know about Chicago slang. (okay, ebonics but it's a good conversation starter!)
After the shops we saw the millennium park and the shiny coffee-bean looking thing. We took many pictures (especially of me jumping off of a cement planter yelling "Chicago!") and many pictures of us in the city. I like building pictures too so I took lots of those. Ended up with 43 in all, so not bad for only a few hours! We were getting very cold by now, so we warmed up in Payless across the street and then headed back for the train. I'm trying to remember what we talk about during all of our walking..stuff like how we can remember the first time we got in trouble in school and what we were like in elementary school and stuff.
I can think back to a time when I had to go out in the hall in kindergarten because Tara M. lied to Miss Vanderwekken and said that I was the one who put a huge glob of glue on the ice cream container lid, when really SHE was the one who put way too much on the lid. That was the first, and only time I ever was sent out in the hall...and I didn't even do anything bad!
So we got to the train and finally warmed up, went home, dropped off our library books, and Pam and I took a trek out to find a cheap Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. Another adventure! We took the train south and ended up right in Chinatown...or a main street of it. There was a sign and everything! We were surprised that some places were still open at 7:15 Sunday night. So we decided to walk down the street until we saw something that looked cheap, but not too cheap, but still good food. We decided on a place with Cantonese food and it had a lot of people inside so we knew the food had to be good.
The service was quick and cute (a little chinese high-school-looking guy) and the food was plentiful and full of grease and chinese/cantonese sauce. We scarfed it down, to describe it graphically :) We both ordered different main items (chow mein/chicken) and then split them between us so that we both got both. Worked well. We left there with another two meals in the take-out container for only 14 bucks! Nice work, Pam!
We came back and immediately had to get started on homework. Nope, we didn't get much done because we had an ice cream social with the folks upstairs and we shared our pictures and slang flashcards with them. Good times--many laughs.
So now it is time for bed...and I've spent all my time writing this blog instead of reading. I should go to starbucks and just read sometime so that I'm not so distracted. Maybe it's just that I write so much in these blogs and it takes longer than it's supposed to. Or maybe I just do too much in the day!
Enough! Buenos Noches!

Pictures :)

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Saturday, February 11, 2006

The cable guy came to pick our digital box up this morning. Here's the story: Robert Lea, our first cable guy, scammed us into a bigger cable package than we wanted/needed so we saved ourselves 20-30 bucks/month by calling Comcast back and getting the basic cable. The lady said we didn't need the box thing that stupid Robert put here so comcast came to pick it up--at 9 in the morning! Aaaahh! So I went to the door with crazy hair, eyes half-opened eyes, and PJs still on, grumbling.
I opened the door to an amazingly cheerful big black man, big smile on his face. "Grumble grumble here's the box grumble" says Janelley. "blah blah smile, bright eyes, happy day" says the cable guy." Good, cable taken care of. Back to bed for Janelle.
Pam and I slept until about 1, when Chris called my phone to let us know he was watching women playing hockey, and that the Russian women probably don't shave their legs. That's great. But at least he woke us up on time to work out. Pam and I went to work out and then came back, did laundry, supper and then off to Navy Pier!
We heard that there was tango dancing and fire works by the pier on Saturday nights, so we HAD to check that out! I was SO close to dancing out there, but I didn't have a male partner...so decided not to.
The fireworks were AMAZING! And they gave us 3D glasses so that each firework dot looked like a snowflake! Oh, awesome. And they do it every Saturday! We figured that they tried to make the fireworks in the shape of a heart because of Valentines day coming up. After nearly freezing our limbs off at the fireworks, we headed off to Target for some Saturday night shopping. yay! We decided to have a girls night in our room...which turned out to be a watch tv and do homework night instead of painting our nails and doing facials. Sad. Oh well, maybe Sunday night.
It's really time for me to go to bed now. I'll write more tomorrow, after we go to the 2006 Chicago Auto Show!!

Friday, February 10, 2006

At work, I started making a folder of media information for one of Easter Seals' major contributors. I'm still working on it, and it'll take a while to complete. It deals with lots of research and gathering news articles on their fundraising campaign and putting the info all into a folder and spreadsheet. I like it, but I was sure ready for the weekend! After work I got home earlier than usual, watched some TV, and ate taco bowl thingies for supper that Ang made. They were very good. Ang and Kate wanted to go to the Moody Bible Institude just down the street for a speaker they had, so they left right after supper. Pam was going out to a club with our friends, but because I'm not 21 I couldn't get in. I hung out wth the group that was going to the club: the people upstairs and their friends from Calvin, Craig, Dave, and Bryan. So when they left I stayed behind and went to the gym. That's where I found all the other super cool people who work out on a Friday night. hmm yes I felt very cool. That was the first time in my life that I've ever felt left out. It's so stupid, because I wouldn't even go to the clubs for the drinking. I don't care about that...I'm Canadian...I've been able to be in bars and drink for basically two years now. I'd go for the dancing and socializing! Arg. So after working out, I came back and found Matt, who is another 20 year old on the program. We just sat there watching tv for a bit and then Dave, his girlfriend Emily, Abby, and Pam (who came back from the bar early) and I watched Madagascar. Such a funny movie! I want to buy it because there are so many small things in the movie that we miss because it goes by so quickly! only an hour and 20 minutes long.
After the movie we chatted a bit, Chris came back from filming his trek down the orange line (?) for his final art project, and then the diaspora,everyone back to their rooms. The other two were already asleep when we got back.

Thursday, February 9, 2006

I decided not to work out on Thursday morning so that I could get some sleep. Work went well..nothing out of the ordinary just yet. I learned a bit about media lists and did more with some Excel spreadsheets. I took a lunch and didn't really take a lunch break that day to do some internet research on flights to get home. Thursday night for supper we ate Baked Chicken, apples, and chocolate for supper and I ended up falling asleep on the couch while the other girls went to work out. I woke up to "The OC" on TV, a show I've never watched before and hung out with the girls on Thursday night. It's kind of a blur to me right now so I'll keep this post short.