Just Throw a Brick

Well friends, here we are, over two weeks later again. I'm really losing steam with this blogging thing. Chicago's been in a heat wave recently, so I spent all of yesterday sitting in front of our window AC and cursing the heat/humidity. It's awful. I am counting the days until Christmas. But then again, that's nothing new. Happy -Remember how in the last post we went to a Sox game? Well, C filled out the survey they sent after, and they gave us some free tickets! Sadly, they're the same night of the Opening Ceremonies in Rio. We'll have to watch them afterwards, I guess. But our game will have fireworks, so that will be fun. -C is an official intern for City of Chicago! Well, he will be as soon as his fingerprint and background check come back clean. We spent a few hours at the outlet mall last week getting him some more nice collared shirts and ties for him to wear. He'll be working on some really cool projects, with real-world data! This will be a gre...

This was a busy week! And yet, I still feel like I have nothing to say. Happy - I started my job! This job should freaking get its own edition of HC&M. Maybe next week. Suffice it to say I have income now, which means... - We can FINALLY get an apartment! Yay!!! The day we have been waiting for!!! Unfortunately, we didn't find any we liked when we went looking last week. We're giving it another go with Ash, our real estate agent. Turns out Chicago is nothing like Provo. And for all of you who responded to that comment with an overwhelming "DUH", in this instance I'm talking about when finding an apartment. At home, you jump on KSL or you ask around and somebody always knows somebody. Here? A real estate agent is your best bet. He get access to properties that aren't on popular sites like Zillow or HotPads, and best of all, he's payed by the complexes, not by you. So if you know which ones he represents, it's easy to know which ones he'll pu...

Well friends, another week has come and gone... let's get right to it. Happy - I got the job! I guess my references were good enough, or that they least remembered who I was! We're going to have income again! I mean, we've had some lately due to C's temp job which has been amazing, but to have a steady, dependable income? Words cannot describe. That means we can FINALLY GET OUT OF THIS PLACE!!! Yessssss!!! I am now the administrative assistant for two deans in the Health and Science department at a local community college. Hopefully I'm good at it and people like me. I generally can find at least one person at a job that I like, even if the work sucks, so I'm hoping that stays true here. - I tried some pumpkin-flavored Greek yogurt and it was awesome. - CBMR update: Guess who's getting PUBLISHED! Well, not really. My review about someone else's publication will be published! Online! For the world to see and love! Or see and hate. Whatever. Deal with...

Well here we are, the most exciting time of the week! That's right - It's Happy, Crappy, and Meh time!!! *audience applauds* Happy - Guess who found pumpkin-flavored oatmeal AND pumpkin-flavored bagels at Target? Hehehehe this girl. Plus I had a pumpkin cupcake yesterday and it was beautiful. Autumn forever! - Figured out a crochet project that was giving me difficulty. It's starting to look pretty good now! - Remember that interview for that job last week? Well, since I hadn't heard anything I was pretty sure I didn't get it, but they called today telling me they're going to contact all my references and keep the process going! So that's a plus, I guess. I have never had a job actually call references before. And since this is just a community college I figured they wouldn't be so fancy about it but hey. I might still have a shot at this! (But calling references for a community college administrative assistant job... really?) - I am now an officia...

It's been a week and a day, now! Crazy how time flies when your life is boring. Wait what? Happy - C's temp job got extended again! This new project keeps him hired until Halloween. Yay! - Our landlady was out of town this week so guess who took advantage of that and used her kitchen! Us! We got some disposable foil 9x13's and made some actual food! I forgot how awesome it is to cook for yourself. I cannot wait until we can move out. We made our favorite baked ziti, and then our oven-baked fajitas. Angels sang as we removed our food from the oven and we took the first bite. It was beautiful. - I had a job interview yesterday! I mean, the whole time I was sitting in it I was like "Do I actually want this job? Not really..." but an interview is good progress. It would basically be a version of what I did at UVU, except full-time and being personal assistants to two deans. Whoopee. Free tuition at the local community college though so... there's that. - C...

It's been ANOTHER week! Guess what? Nothing has really changed over here at JTAB headquarters :( But we did do some cool stuff this weekend, so I guess I can talk about that. C drinking his fancy lemon water at "The Noodle", a cute little Italian restaurant where they make the pasta from scratch. So good! Happy -We earned some money! C's been working a temp job for about a week and good news, they gave him another two weeks and a pay raise! It's not much but it's so helpful to at least be earning a little money. We also babysat for a family in the ward last weekend and they pay extremely well out here! Granted, we had to keep our eyes on four extremely energetic children, but C took three of them and played with them and I played a game with the quietest one. All about splitting responsibilities over here. I think the best part was when they performed Frozen as a play for us. It's one of those moments where you can't laugh because it'll make...

How has it been more than a week since I've blogged last? I don't know. It's a hot mess over here at JTAB. I have no explanations. Crappy It's been a hard week, friends. I have felt so down. It's hard to send out application after application, and trying to talk to people and make connections, and at the end of the day you're right back where you started - jobless and a little bit poorer. You can only eat so many microwavable cups of Rice-a-Roni without going crazy. I just want to cook, dangit! Even a simple spaghetti would be better than what we're dealing with over here. I was raised on fruits and vegetables at every meal, and when you only get one tiny drawer in a massive fridge you have to prioritize. So we get bagged salads and as much fruit as we can stuff in there without displacing my skim milk. So sick of living here. Let me just say that one more time so you all understand. I HATE IT HERE. Hate it. It was fine for the first couple weeks, but it...

So I'm debating on whether or not I should make a weekly post entitled "Happy, Crappy, or Meh", where I discuss something happy, something crappy, and something meh. Yes/no? C thinks it'd be better as a Twitter post so we'll see. I've just had so many people ask me how Chicago is I was thinking of more fun ways to present information. So without further ado, "Happy, Crappy, and Meh: Chicago Edition." Happy: -Lou Malnati's pizza. Every list starts with this pizza. The end. The fact that we've only had it once and have been out here a week is impressive. -There is a Target about 10 minutes away from where we are right now. AND I got a couple v-necks from there on clearance! Awwwww yeah. I love a good v-neck. -Our car survived the trip! So now our little Utah-plated Nissan is booking around Chicago! -My friend just sent me a pic of a cute embroidered pillow pattern she found on clearance and she's going to send it to me. I'm so exc...