Updates

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. One whole week to be exact, but don't worry because I have been up to lots of wonderful stuff! So, here it is, an entire week of updates in one handy post for your viewing pleasure:

Thursday: Thursday started with another job interview that brought me to a new part of the city. Luckily for me, it was just along the blue line so I didn't have to navigate any transfers and there wasn't any drama getting there. The interview lasted longer than I had anticipated but it wasn't really a big deal and I just went there and back without any other adventuring to report. I made lunch for me and Janell. It was a black bean/sweet potato dish that was served over rice that Janell really enjoyed but I did not. I still have leftovers that I'm trying to figure out how to use. After that, it was a busy night at the theatre as it was our true opening night. Last Wednesday, we did a performance for a tour group but treated it as a final dress rehearsal with an audience since it had been added at the last minute. The show wasn't perfect but the cast is learning the ropes right along with me. After the show, I went out with the stage manager, whose name is Ryan. I think the two of us were destined to be friends, which is good, because we are basically going to be on top of each other as long as I'm the house manager and he's the stage manager.

Friday: I slept in on Friday. The show is pretty exhausting and I had been out late, so I had a lazy day until I had to go back to the theatre. This show was truly, truly, truly exhausting. I know that we'll have more like it but I don't look forward to it because we had lots and lots of people who didn't just get drunk during the performance but came to the show absolutely wasted. There was a large party bus that just parked itself outside of the church and they started banging on the doors until we let them in. When we did let them in, they brought their alcohol with them. Yup, they brought booze into the church. The church also doesn't have AC and I didn't realize until way later in the night that they took the little hand fans that the church had in the lobby with them and broke them. So not only did these people bring alcohol into a church (and leave their empty cans in the pews) but they also stole from the church. NEWS FLASH: This is an actual church. We did not build it for our show. It isn't a set. It is an actual place of worship! So, after the show, Ryan and I went out for another drink because we needed it!

Saturday: We actually had "an away show," if you could call it that. A group in the suburbs had booked us to come out and perform. I went with, even though there wasn't much house managing for me to do since it wasn't our house but I was ok with it because I was getting paid and got to spend time with my new friends in the cast.

Sunday: Woo! Sunday was my day off! I had planned on going to writer's group on Sunday but ended up skipping it in favor of baking muffins to freeze so that I could pull them out for a fast snack on busy days (of which there will be many in the near future). Sunday night, however, I was out and about again for a rather unusual family reunion. My Grandma's cousin, Renate, was coming to Chicago to meet a literal long-lost cousin who she'd grown up a block away from. (For my personal history, Renate brought me to The Nutcracker when I was little which was my first ever professional performance of any kind and something that I still remember today). They had absolutely no idea that they were related all this time and this was their first time meeting as family. The story was pretty crazy -- so crazy, in fact, that CBS came to film them. I got to meet Renate's adult children for the first time along with these new distant cousins, who yes, I am also related to. I was under-dressed for dinner, unfortunately, but no one seemed to mind (I didn't realize that this was going to be a fancy dinner party, sorry!). It was a truly special night and I can't believe that I was included in it. I will share the piece that CBS put together when it airs. Knowing that I now have family in the city is a comfort as well and I hope to see them again soon.

Monday: Woo! A new week! It was my first day at my new internship with Lookingglass Theatre Company. They've won a regional Tony award so it's kind of a big deal that I'm working with them. I mean, I'm not getting paid, but it's still cool! My first day went well, I'm working with their youth ensemble and I got to meet some cool kids so I'm excited for what comes next!

Today: Today, I've been hanging out, skyping my best friend, Mr. Ryan Lind and watching Glee. This evening, I will be starting my second internship along with going to a production meeting at CTW.

So, that's me. Peace and love, everyone.

My Time in the Sex Dungeon

After publishing my last post, my mindless walking around Lakeview continued. I ended up back at Osmium Coffee and since I still don't like coffee, I ordered a cinnamon bun (for $3.75). As I was doing this, I realized that this was kind of a stupid move on my part because Ann Sather's -- a Chicago restaurant famous for their cinnamon buns -- is a few blocks away. It seems highly likely to me that Osmium just gets their cinnamon buns from Ann Sather's so I should have just gone directly to the source, or even if they don't, it means I can get better and cheaper buns down the road. Basically, it just reminded me that I need to go back to Ann Sather's. It was a good cinnamon bun but I'm obviously going to get something different the next time I go. I did notice that one of their blends of coffee that they sell is called Unicorn Tears and I liked that because I knew that that is 100% the coffee I would drink if I drank coffee.

Rehearsal went well. I'm starting to get to know the cast -- most of whom thought I'd given them a fake name during my audience participation bits last night (why they thought I would repeatedly go with Thomson if that wasn't my actual name is beyond me). I stayed late to help vacuum the house and let me tell you, this vacuum that we have is like the first vacuum ever made. It is an antique. I got a full body workout in. It has an actual bag! Even though I left later, public transportation was in my favor and it didn't take me nearly as long to get home last night so that was a win.

There was an even bigger win waiting for me at home though -- if you read my last post, you know that I found a WiFi network at the library called Sex Dungeon and the title of this post is an ode to that because MY APARTMENT NOW HAS WIFI. Win. So, I went for shock value with the title but it really means MY TIME IN THE WIFI!!! (I also completely buried the lead several paragraphs deep so you would have to keep reading to find out what I was talking about). When I got home last night, Janell informed me that our WiFi had been properly installed. She'd given the network a far more appropriate name (MonticelloHouse) and a good proper password.

Excited but mainly hungry, I ended up making myself a late night dinner and sort of acted out the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie if it were If I Make Myself a Quesadilla at Midnight. Post dinner, I passed out.

This morning, I woke up to a thunderstorm, which was nice to watch from my kitchen since I didn't have to go out. It has cleared up now so I think I'm going to head to the library (Logan Square, not sex dungeon Lakeview) because Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has finally arrived! Happy day!

Another Day, Another Interview, Another Library

Wow, it's been a whole day since I blogged, but it feels like forever. Or maybe you're reading weeks worth of my blog in one sitting and have no real sense of how long I go between posting. Either way, a lot of stuff has happened since I last wrote about my life-changing trip to the laundromat.

Post laundry, I basically sat around for the majority of yesterday morning/afternoon. I had extreme cabin fever. I had to be to the church (more on that in a minute) for work at 6:30 but I had absolutely nothing until then. It was pretty awful and not even a scam phone call offering me $9000 in grant money made me feel better.

I eventually left my apartment -- with more than enough time to get to work -- and my bus was late! Thank you, traffic or CTA or whoever caused my anxiety to go through the roof. I literally did nothing ALL DAY! I could have gotten to work six hours early and I was going to be late. I then missed my connecting train by approximately four seconds after the girl ahead of me on the bus insisted on continuing to read while she disembarked instead of closing her book for nine seconds. By the way, she's a "girl" like I'm a girl. We're both adults but not like adult-adults yet. I'm not talking about a 10 year old whose reading Harry Potter for the first time, because that I would understand. This was someone who knows better.

I ended up being only five minutes late but that is like a century in my book. So, why was I going to a church instead of the theatre? The show we're rehearsing is called Tony N Tina's Wedding and the whole premise is that you're the guest at these stereotypical Italian wedding -- you first attend the ceremony at the church and then the reception at the theatre. So, rehearsal was starting at the church. I quickly learned that being the only person in a room full of people who've been rehearsing audience participation without an actual audience makes you the automatic guinea pig. It was a little more than I'd signed up for, but it was cool. My main problem at the moment isn't related to being the house manager but more that everyone stays in character all night so I haven't learned anyone's real name yet.

My reaction. Thanks, Snapchat.

Here's where things get truly crazy if you ask me (and I know that you did), at the end of the night, they gave ME the keys to the church! Part of my responsibilities are going to be locking and unlocking the thing and by thing, I mean house of God! This is an actual church where people actually pray on Sunday and I now have the actual keys. This is a new level of crazy.

Believing that it had been a successful night, I headed for the train, what I didn't know was that my 30-40 minute commute was going to take longer at 10 o'clock at night than it had during rush hour at 5. My bus just wasn't coming. The timer they had up when I got off the train said that the bus was going to be about 20 minutes -- which is a pretty long wait for this bus -- and that was at 10:15. The bus didn't come until 10:55. Everyone was miserable, because of course, during that time, the group of one or two people I was waiting with had grown into a HUGE crowd. The bonus was that no matter how long anyone had been waiting there, they all believed that they had been waiting the longest. People who had been waiting no more than three minutes were probably the most impatient and I was one of the last people on the bus despite having been one of the ones who was waiting there the longest. I made it home and basically collapsed in bed.

Today, I also experienced some cabin fever but not as much of it. I had a job interview at 3 that said it would take about an hour to get to so -- not wanting a repeat of last night -- I gave myself two hours to get there. It took the singular hour... Kind of skeeved out by the area I was in, I went to the "interview" early. Turns out that it wasn't an interview. I'd applied to work for a staffing company and I was just there to sign my paperwork so they could start giving me assignments. I'm not sure when I'll actually be available but it was kind of cool. The guy who "interviewed" me spoke freakishly quietly but told me that his sister is from Scituate when he saw that the address on my driver's license said Cohasset. Small world.

Let me preface this next paragraph with a blazing ROOKIE MISTAKE spoiler. When the interview was over, I was headed to the theatre. I had an awkward amount of time in between but it wasn't enough time to go home, so I was just going straight there. Going to this interview was my first time EVER on a green line train here. The line I needed to take was called Ashland/63rd and I got off at Ashland. Brilliant, I thought to myself as I was heading back to the train platform, I'm at the end of the line, I just need to go the opposite direction to get to work. WRONG! There are two Ashlands -- Ashland/63rd, the actual final stop and the Ashland I'd gotten off at. I rode the train for a half hour in the wrong direction. It wasn't until I got to the last stop that I realized my mistake. Luckily, I had hours to kill, so I just turned around and was fine, but like I said ROOKIE MISTAKE.

When I arrived in Lakeview (the neighborhood where the theatre is), I walked to Michael's. I need some craft supplies but I didn't end up buying anything, partly because I didn't want to carry it and partly because I didn't actually need anything.

With hours left to kill, I decided to write you all this wondrous post. I am writing to you from the Lakeview branch of the CPL. I don't know if anyone abbreviates Chicago Public Library to CPL but I just did. I came here because it was somewhere I didn't need to pay to be. I also knew there would be free WiFi. I went to log on when I noticed something strange and needed to screen shot it. Let's see if you can spot it (I know it's going to be difficult looking past my beautiful face on my desktop wallpaper but try your hardest, please).

I'm gorgeous, I know.

Did you see it? I connected to CPLWIFI (so they do abbreviate it!) but did you notice another interesting network on that list. Perhaps the one called SEX DUNGEON! What kind of library is this? Are these my tax payer dollars at work?! There was also a network called Puppies that you can't see there; I'm cool with that, my tax payer dollars like puppies. (Technically, my tax payer dollars haven't paid for any of this because I've never paid taxes to the state of Illinois -- yet).

I was planning on hanging at the library for a little while just to kill time, but I think I'm going to hit the publish button and peace out because the lights are not only humming over me but there is also a strange, unidentifiable, obnoxious, shrill noise that is going to bother me more than spending $5 on a muffin at Starbucks (or another coffee shop) will.

Expect the Unexpected

So, I wanted to use the wifi at the laundromat had to do laundry today and went back to the Friendly Wash. It's a great laundromat and I would know! (I've been to nearly 100 of them all over the country). As I was walking up today, I read their sign for the first time and it said, Expect this [insert thing that the sign actually said], Expect that [insert another thing that the sign actually said] and Expect the unexpected. Clearly all I remember was Expect the unexpected. This one jumped out at me because I don't want my laundry experience to be anything other than what I expect! I've had laundromat disasters. I want my laundry to go exactly as I expect!

I didn't dwell too long on this because I saw that they'd replaced their double washers with new double washers that were 50 cents more expensive (UNEXPECTED!) and then I went on the internet because I hadn't been able to close the deal on the toaster last night. I let my wash sit in the machine for a few extra minutes because I'm a loiterer and then went over to the dryers, where I saw that one of the machines had 24 minutes left on it! That's like 50 cents worth of dry time! So I guess today, the unexpected turned out to be good!

Red Eyes Coffee

As promised, here is the breakdown of Red Eyes Coffee.

Look at that spinach sandwich. That isn't lettuce, people!

Spoiler alert: I didn't really like it. I can't fully explain why but we didn't jive. I ordered the veggie melt on a bagel and a tiny woman in a voice so soft that it barely qualified as a whisper since it was softer than your average exhale told me that it was lettuce, a few cheeses, onions and tomatoes. I got it on an everything bagel and asked for no tomatoes and sat down. It arrived shortly thereafter. Apparently, Chicagoans can't tell the difference between lettuce and spinach because there was definitely spinach on my sandwich. There was also mustard. Mustard is not cheese for those of you who don't know. The "lettuce" and onions had been coated in some type of vinaigrette that was alright and it came with kettle chips on the side (roughly three of them, the rest of the "chips" on my plate were the broken scraps that they got by dumping the bag upside down and shaking it vigorously). The sandwich also looked pretty unappealing when it arrived.

Perhaps I didn't give it the usual attention that I have given my other coffee shops because I put on Netflix while I was eating. (I was exhausted and needed to unwind after all of the theatre I'd absorbed in less than 24 hours). I whipped out an extremely scattered brained post during that time (for which I apologize because it is lacking in detail and my usual wit).

Part of the reason I went here was because they had ice cream. Even though they had other delicious looking dessert treats, I thought I should go with ice cream since it was the main draw for me. I went with Cookies and Cream which is a departure from the norm for me. They didn't have a lot of flavors and the chocolate looked questionable, as if they'd let it melt and refrozen it which everyone knows just tampers with the ice cream's DNA and will never be as good as it was originally.

I took my dairy product to go and walked to my meeting. I'm going to be working as a teaching assistant at a Hebrew school for the Jewish high holidays in a few weeks. It should be painless but little did I know that I would be partially responsible for the day's curriculum so while all of the fellow teachers and assistants had come with brilliant ideas for their classrooms, I ate the free snacks.

After that, it was the train/bus home, where I made myself a veggie burger and used the neighbor's WiFi to buy a toaster from Target.

Hitting the Ground Running

My job as a house manager has begun and I have hit the ground running! I don't even run and yet, it's time to lace up my sneakers.

Yesterday I had a temp gig stuffing duffel bags for a conference in the afternoon before I went to the theatre. Bag stuffing was easy. It was a bit annoying because the temp agency had us dress up which turned out to be overkill. The people who actually worked there were in sweats and I was sweating in my black dress pants and blouse.

From there, I went straight to the theatre via train and bus (I could take the same route I did last night of Blue Line Train/55 Bus or my usual 74 Bus/Red Line Train interchangeably and they'd take roughly the same amount of time but the Blue Line version of requires me to walk 20 minutes and that seems stupid). I thought I was going to be hanging out and watching the show but no, I was doing stuff right away! They gave me a plaid shirt and let me lose. I can't really tell you much of what my job includes because I'm still confused.

Last night's show was called We Gotta Bingo! And it's dinner theatre and BINGO. There were a lot of things happening. Our other show that opens on Thursday is called Tony N Tina's Wedding and it involves an actual church. Church that I'm going to be getting the keys to apparently. Yeah, I'm getting the keys to the metaphorical castle. The castle that's a church...

I went back today because I thought I was going to sign my contract but once again, running! It turned into a full blown training session where I learned about a lot of my pre-show duties. I'm not overwhelmed by it, but it is a lot of information to take in so it's going to take some practice.

After that, got on the train because I had to go to orientation for another gig I have coming up but I had a few hours to kill so I stopped at Red Eyes Coffee. I'm going to do a more thorough review when my brain isn't quite as full with show/theatre stuff but I picked this place over other coffee shops in the area because they have ice cream so it would be wrong to come here without getting myself some. So for now, I'm going to unwind, use the wifi, eat some ice cream and get ready for my next meeting.

WHERE ARE MY BUTT PAINTINGS???!!!?!

The last time I wrote was a busy day for me with not one, but two job interviews. The first interview was to be a costume assistant at a dinner theatre and even though I was early, I was still late! Well, they called me yesterday and I didn't get that job but I am going to be their new house manager!

So, yeah, I'm going to have a paying theatre job here in Chicago, which is what I came out here to do and I got it within a month of moving to the city! (I will have been here for a month tomorrow! Where did the time go?!).

I still haven't heard back from the second interview but it was kind of a weird experience for me because the theatre I was auditioning/interviewing with shared an office with another theatre that I have come very close to getting an internship not once, but twice! The first time they wanted to hire me but also wanted me to start before I'd moved to the city and since that wasn't possible, they had to go with someone else. They just emailed me a week ago because an intern had to leave unexpectedly and they wanted to know if I was still interested but it wasn’t going to fit my schedule, so I had to say no. It was weird for me being in their office. I was like, what if they hear my name and judge me? I just turned them down! Who does that? (People who need to make money temping and can’t give up three days a week, that’s who).

We’ll see how that all turns out. They did laugh at my monologue which was about dying from a poisonous crab bite. I wrote it myself! Don’t ask why (it’s going to be in my memoir someday so you can buy it and find out then).

I basically went home and passed out after that because I was exhausted.

I had another interview yesterday afternoon and most of the day was spent preparing for that. I did get the call from Chicago Theater Works, aka my new employer, offering me the job and then spent some time freaking out about that, but it was mainly hanging out until I had to head downtown.

Once again, I arrived very early. I went to H&M because I had a gift card, but nothing fit. It was downtown so there weren’t any interesting coffee shops to stop in and I’m not going to spend my money sampling every Starbucks I pass (and I passed like nine). If I’d been thinking, I would have brought my little Capitol One Café free drink card because I passed three of those cafes but I was too hot for hot chocolate anyways.

The interview was in the Hancock Building so the whole time I was walking around, I was like, this is some Divergent stuff happening here! (They zip line from the building in the books. It doesn’t seem like that should really be possible, but I guess it is in the dystopian future). I only went to the 14^th floor but I was still like, oh snap, acting out a book here (the first one though because they got really bad after that).

No comment on the interview really except that I sometimes wonder if I’m TOO honest at these things. People keep asking me why I’m in Chicago and I just keep saying that it’s cleaner than New York City. It’s the truth but not the answer they’re looking for (sorry guys, I don’t really know what I’m trying to accomplish here yet! I’m still waiting on the WiFi in my apartment, you shouldn’t expect me to have fully formed answers or a five year plan yet).

My sweaty self got back on the subway and returned to my apartment where I almost passed out again except that I decided to try the Mexican bakery down the street (I don’t know why but I was actually shaking and I clearly needed some sugar). I had debated getting ice cream or candy at the grocery store but this seemed like a good excuse to try the bakery because I hadn’t yet. I got a piece of cake that had M&Ms on top so basically the best of both worlds. It tasted good but was kind of dry. I’d like to a) try something else and b) go earlier in the day because everything there kind of sits out for who knows how long and it might not be as dry if you pick it up in the morning. (Picking something up there is actually cool, if not unsanitary, because you get a lunch tray and some tongs and just pick whatever you want from the glass cases. As I said, it probably isn’t the most sanitary but where else have I ever done that?). The neighbor’s WiFi was strong enough last night that I was actually able to watch Netflix! It was Christmas in September and I rewatched the first few episodes of Glee because I just read Naya Rivera’s book and was feeling nostalgic.

I was supposed to have another job interview this afternoon but I got an email last night saying that it was cancelled because the theatre company had CANCELLED THE SHOW! Someone out there was having a very bad day… But that meant that I was free to go to Writers’ Group in Logan Square today.

I actually started my day with the longgg walk to CVS because I had coupons (not really worth walking all that way but oh well) and then I went to the library to print some stuff. While I was there, a guy at the computer next to me asked if I could help him print something. No big deal, it took me roughly a minute to walk him through it. We chatted for about another minute before he went up to pay and I thought that was it. A few minutes later, he came back up behind me, dropped a $5 bill and said “thanks for the help” before running off so I couldn’t even protest that that was WAY too generous of him. I won’t complain, I was just shocked, but that small kindness I showed him and the big one he showed me paid for my lunch today.

I headed from the library to my group at New Wave Coffee. The Friday group always meets here (no exploring). They still don’t have anything I want to drink there (only coffee and tea, unfortunately) so I ordered a grilled cheese again. This time, I went a little crazy and got it on a baguette instead of multigrain bread like I had the last time! Insane, I know. The baguette was definitely better. My biggest shock, however came when I sat down at the large yellow table that my group inhabits and the butt paintings that I so loved the last time I was here have been taken down! When I look up from my laptop, I know longer see butts, I just see a blueish-grey wall with a lot of nail holes in it. WHERE ARE MY BUTT PAINTINGS???!!!?!

10 points from New Wave Coffee for lack of butt paintings (sticking with that HP theme from my last post – I was able to order it from the library, actually, and am now just waiting for it to arrive at Logan Square so I can pick it up!).

This weekend will have me busy with two temp gigs and trips to the theatre to get started on work

And now, I still have two more hours of group and no more blogging to do! Time to work on the memoir, I guess… Start saving your money now or at least get your library card ready!

Job Interviews, Cheesie's and Skinny Jeans

Hello from the free wifi courtesy of the Chicago Public Library -- West Town. Today has already been a busy day and it isn't even over yet!

Instead of spending another day on hold with IKEA, I had/have two job interviews today! The only thing more exciting than that is the fact that I got my first measly paycheck from my first measly temp gig this morning. The check barely covers the cost of anything, but it's a start.

My first interview was about 35-40 minutes away, with the bus/red line train combo that I'm becoming quite familiar with. I have also started noticing that the bus has been hitting traffic in the exact same place every time I have taken it since I got here and that it has caused me to be late on more than one occasion. Not wanting to miss out on something as important as a job interview and knowing that I could easily run into rush hour problems, I decided that I would leave at 8:30 for my 10 o'clock interview. Lo and behold, no traffic today, so I arrived roughly 45 minutes early with nothing to do!

Having checked Google Maps the night before, I knew that there was a coffee shop -- Osmium Coffee Bar -- right next door. At this point, I didn't want anything except a restroom but since I knew I was going to be sitting at this place for at least a half hour, I ordered a blueberry muffin. For some reason, I was more nervous for this interview than usual so this was dangerous because I came very close to vomiting it back up.

One thing I already knew about Osmium is that my writer's group is planning on meeting there in a few weeks, so now, if I can't make it to group for some reason, I will have already been there, or if I get to go back, I will be able to try something new. A quick Google search also taught me that they are a part of the "Dark Matter Coffee" family. Dark Matter Coffee is another coffee roaster here and according to their website they want to deliver "the most intellectually honest coffee you will experience." I'm not sure I had an intellectual experience there -- the blueberry muffin tasted strangely like cookie dough, which doesn't mean it tasted bad but also doesn't mean that it tasted like a real muffin, which is what I wanted when I paid for a muffin. From looking at pictures on their website, it looks like Osmium really takes the "dark" in "dark matter" more seriously than their other locations. The whole place was done in shades of blue and purple with graffiti/airbrush art on the walls. The bathroom was also covered in graffiti, but not the type that they paid an artist to do -- the type you're likely to see if you send an eighth grader into a restroom with a couple of Sharpie markers. I might be mistaken about Osmium being darker than its sisters; I guess I'll just have to investigate and if I'm proven wrong, I shall apologize profusely to the insulted coffee parties.

To make me just a smidge more nervous, I could see a flyer for the job I was about to interview for directly under the blaring neon Dark Matter logo on the wall...

With 15 minutes to go before the interview, I went for a walk around the block. I wanted to be a respectable 10 minutes early and not creepily hanging by the door like some theatre stalker. Except when I came back, the door was locked, so I stood there in my button down with my trademark pink backpack (no blue shoes this time), looking like a creepy theatre stalker. Time kept ticking by. I hoped that every person who passed me would be the one I was looking for, but as far as I could tell, no one was ever coming to unlock those theatre doors. At 10:15, I checked my email and found the cell phone number of the guy I was supposed to be talking with and gave him a call -- there was another entrance to the building and he'd been waiting for me.

Actually, he and about half of the people in the theatre had walked right past me on their way in and thought that I worked at the hair salon next door since apparently people typically smoke in the exact spot I was standing in. I don't know why none of them questioned my lack of cigarette, but I was there for an interview and needed to turn up the charm and turn down the snark (which is clearly not an easy thing for me to do, I mean, have you read these parentheticals? It basically takes all of my brain power to say something genuine). Despite the late start, I'd say it went as well as I could have hoped. But that's all I'm going to say because I don't want to jinx myself!

After that, I walked around the neighborhood a bit. This job interview happened to be two blocks from Cheesie's, a grilled cheese restaurant I visited last weekend, so I obviously had to reward myself with some of that amazingness! (I also found $20 in my pocket this morning, so I took that as a sign). But Cheesie's didn't open until 11 and my interview had finished at 10:45, so I walked. Which was nice except that it was starting to get hot. The black skinny jeans that had provided me with money fairy money in the early morning were also causing me to overheat before I'd even made it to the afternoon. I was the first person in Cheesie's when they opened their doors and I hung my button down top over the back of my chair so that we could both air out.

I enjoyed the Frenchie the last time I visited Cheesie's, but I obviously needed to try something new! I went with The Popper (I feel like I'm saving their grilled mac and cheese for a special occasion but who really knows).The Popper is essentially the jalapeno popper mac and cheese I make, sans mac and cheese. It has cheddar cheese, cream cheese, cheddar sauce and jalapeno slices in between two thick slices of sour dough bread. It comes with a chipotle mayo sauce. It also comes with bacon on it, but I ordered the vegetarian version for obvious I'm-a-vegetarian reasons.

First off, the chipotle mayo was fine BUT it should have been ranch. I don't know if they have ranch dipping sauce at Cheesie's but they should. The chipotle and the jalapenos were two different levels of spicy that kind of meshed, I guess, but it felt wrong. Also, they were not skimpy with the jalapenos. They weren't too insanely spicy for me (after the lava shots of ghost peppers and rum, I don't think anything will truly be too spicy for me) but it was still a lot of jalapeno. I ended up picking most of them off the second half of my sandwich, but Cheesie's is still going to be a favorite restaurant of mine.

I'm not sure I can accept this job if I get it because being that close to Cheesie's on a regular basis would put my waistline in considerable danger.

I texted Mandy that I was going to Cheesie's and she told me to bring her one, but I couldn't, because I needed to head to my next interview! (To be honest, I probably could have squeezed in the time to bring her one but it would have been extremely complicated and probably soggy by the time I made it to her -- both me and the sandwich).

Not going to lie, I dragged out my time at Cheesie's because my other interview wasn't for a few hours, but at noon, I decided it was time to go. Again, I had another 35-40 minutes of expected travel time and three hours until my scheduled interview. I got on the red line again and then took a new bus that I'd never taken before. I got off at the correct stop but since I had zero plans of what I was going to do, I went looking for a library. Luckily for me, it was less than a mile away. Unluckily for me, the bus would have taken me straight there if I hadn't already gotten off.

So, I walked. You'll be as delighted as I was that my jeans hadn't become any more breathable since the morning and I was a hideous sweat monster by the time I had walked past the library and had to turn around to walk back.

I went on the library with more than just a mission of killing an hour or two; I brought Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with me when I moved here. It has always been my favorite book in the HP series and that decision proved to be both a great triumph and utter agony. I LOVED rereading the book again. It was a brilliant decision, except now, I have completed it and despite my handy library card, the Logan Square branch of the library doesn't have any of the other HP books! I thought maybe the West Town branch would have it so after going to the bathroom to rid myself of any signs of my recent physical exertion as best as I could, I went looking through the shelves, but nope. I had to settle for blogging instead of getting to relive my 10-year-old amazement at Harry's performance fighting a dragon and the sheer terror of Voldemort's return that haunted my nightmares until college.

I guess you, lucky reader, have benefited from this suffering -- the same way we all benefited from JK Rowling using her crippling depression as inspiration for dementors. Yup, I'm the Rowling of snarky Chicago bloggers and I'm out for now because I have another .7 miles to walk back to my interview.

P.S. I have two more interviews in the next two days, so I'm killing the game over here!

MY BED

Well, I spent another hour and then some on the phone with IKEA today and didn't have any luck. They're sending me new tracks for the drawers -- whatever that means. I'm not particularly pleased and don't think I'll have any luck with anything they send me BUT the 72 hour waiting period on my new mattress has officially ended. I did not waste a second on climbing into it once the clock had struck 6:20.

Words cannot describe how happy I am, but this picture can!

Remember That Bed...?

Remember when I wrote all about that bed that I've been waiting for for weeks? Of course you do, because you remember every single word I put on this blog because they are all literary gold!

Well, I also wrote about the assembly process in one of my last posts and unfortunately due to the time constraints of MY DAD LEAVING THE STATE, we couldn't figure out how to get the drawers to fit. Mind you, my initial delivery date was scheduled to be September 10th, but the IKEA people sent me an email on September 3rd, an entire week early telling me that it was ready to be delivered... Were they planning on delivering it any earlier? No. Did they even give me any way of calling to see if I could schedule an earlier delivery? No. I don't know what the point of this email was except to taunt me, but I do know that if I could have gotten it a day or two sooner, it would have made a world of difference...

Also, they delivered it about 6:15 pm on Saturday, the 10th, which was basically the last possible minute they could have delivered it.

So, we put the bed together, working into the wee hours of the mourn, knowing that the ticking crocodile of American Airlines is looming over us since my dad needed to be at the airport at 5 am. We can't get these dumb drawers to fit, so we wedge them in as best as possible and I say goodbye to my pops and enjoy another night on the air mattress.

For reference, these are the way the bed/drawers are supposed to look:

Nice and flush with the bed frame!

And these are what mine currently look like:

NOT FLUSH! (My room isn't big enough for me to get a proper shot of the entire bed)

Well, I just got off the phone with IKEA to see if someone can come fix these stupid drawers that don't fit through no fault of mine of my dad's since we followed the directions meticulously and the rest of the bed looks exactly the way it is supposed to and no one can come fix these drawers. In fact, my only option is for them to pick up the bed and have them deliver a new one. Another bed that I would have to assemble myself! They won't even put it together for me! And what happens if the drawers don't fit on that one either? Maybe I'll never have a bed. Once I'm done angry blogging and have made some lunch, I'm going to regroup and call again. I paid $600 for this stupid thing and they're going to make it work.

Guys, I bought the stupid little chocolate thing for $4... It tasted good, but not $4 good and I'm still hungry. I regret this decision and I'm sorry.

I Have a Bed Now, But...

Wow, so a lot has happened since I last wrote (roughly 48 hours ago) and even since I last posted (roughly 24 hours ago). It’s kind of a blur, actually, but I shall do my writer-ly duty and recount the events of the past 48 hours as best as I possibly can. (Dad, since I know you’ll be reading this and you were there for the majority of events, you can let me know if I left anything out).

First off, I did not jinx myself when I said that my temping job was easy. The only problem was when the stupid IKEA delivery people called three minutes after my lunch break ended so I had to have my dad call to find out what time they would be delivering my bed on Saturday (sometime between 3-7pm… thanks, IKEA) but the work day ended major incident free and I was on my merry way. I headed home to get changed and my dad was going to come meet me to see my place before dinner, but this turned into me being picked up by the Uber he had taken and us going straight to Pequod’s because the timing got so messed up. (In hindsight, there were about 50 better ways we could have handled all of the above, but we got to Pequod’s and that was the important thing).

Waiting for us at Pequod’s (mainly because she got out of work early and not because we had so royally screwed up our own arrival time) was Amanda Lauren Belscamper. Two of my favorite people were finally going to meet! It’s weird because they both already felt like they knew each other, but I think that just opened the door to having even more fun. I’ve been to Pequod’s before – many believe they have the best pizza in Chicago, I need to do more taste testing before I agree with them, but it is some damn good pizza. They have a caramelized crust that it pretty incredible… Even though my dad has been to Chicago loads of times and had heard of Pequod’s, this was his first time there. Mandy and I, however, had both been here before and knew that their pizza takes a long time to come out, so we ordered some fried veggies to keep us full until the main course was ready.

I’m not even sure how long we stayed at the restaurant, but it was a really wonderful night (and it went late!). We said goodbye and my dad and I got on the bus while Mandy went to the train. Even though it was late, I still wanted my dad to see my apartment. The grand tour is about a minute – two if you include walking up the stairs. We made plans for Saturday and Chuck grabbed another Uber to head back downtown.

And now we’re on to Saturday. I packed a bag and got on the train to see my dad. His hotel had a fitness center that we wanted to take advantage of and it was a great way to start the day.  It should be noted, however, that the view from Chuck's room included the Trump Tower and a very large church -- as you'll see in the picture, it's the one place where Trump is higher than Christ although he does think he's the second coming!When we were done with that and had checked out of the hotel, we took an Uber back to Logan Square, but not directly to my apartment because we were very hungry. I suggested we go to Dunlay’s On the Square because I’d been there before, but we decided that we should try somewhere new and went next door to Johnny’s Grill, which sort of looks like your average 1950s diner but is attached to a place called Mezcaleria Las Flores, which is anything but. It’s more of a hipster, tequila bar. We sat on the Mezcaleria side because they had tables and not just bar dining. I was in a breakfast mood and not even seeing the table next to use get delivered a monstrous plate of fish and chips could dissuade me (I did make a mental note about it, however). I ordered the 2 by 2 breakfast which was two eggs (cooked in the style of your choice) and two sides. I got scrambled eggs, pancakes and breakfast potatoes.

These were hands down the most interesting breakfast potatoes I’ve ever had and probably the most delicious. They were very crispy and flavorful. I just really enjoyed them, My dad had some too and was considering ordering them as a side after we'd started eating. We decided against that, but I'm sure there will be a lot of breakfast potatoes in my future. They also gave us a postcard with the bill, which I always think is fun (the postcard, not the bill because money...).

I took my dad on a little tour of Logan Square, which really means that I made him walk to the library with me before we went home. (I was looking for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire since I just reread HP3 but they didn't have it. I didn't know that there were any libraries that didn't carry the Harry Potter series, but I couldn't find it anywhere).

And then... we waited. My bed could be delivered anywhere between 3 and 7 and we had to be there to sign for it, which meant that we were sitting in my apartment without any WiFi, just waiting... It was pretty brutal. We used some time to hang up a few of my pictures but mainly we stared at the ceiling (or the inside of our eyelids -- my dad napped). 

The bed arrived at 6:15pm. I was not impressed. I was pretty pissed off, actually. We only had a few hours to work on this thing before my dad went back to Massachusetts. I was also unhappy because after unrolling the mattress, I discovered that I had to wait 72 HOURS before I could actually sleep on them. I thought I was done with the air mattress but NOOOoooOOO. For the record, the mattress is currently three inches thick. I measure and will keep you updated on it's expansion. 

9/10/2016 -- 6:20pm -- 3 inches

Anyway, we got to work. The way the bed works is that it is actually a day bed where you can pull out a second bed from underneath, so it was quite the building process. (We also realized that when that second bed is fully extended, there will be absolutely no space for anything else! Like, not even opening/closing the door. Me and whatever lucky guest I have spend the night will have to close ourselves in and then pull out the bed). We also didn't have an electric drill, so we were doing this thing by hand! A few minutes in, I texted my landlord to see if she had an electric screwdriver... she wasn't home... But we persevered. My main job was finding the correct pieces and eating when it looked like something might have gone wrong! Good old Dad did most of the building! 

Marge, my landlord, showed up with an electric screwdriver just after we'd finished the longest and most complicated section of building and were getting ready for a pizza break.  Oh yeah, and just after my dad had ripped his pants. Like his pants were destroyed and there is my landlord! We don't think she noticed.

He got changed and we went to the pizza place across the street, Vito and Angelo's. I'd never been there before but considering it is roughly 10 feet from my front door, I was bound to try it eventually and grabbed a take away menu because now that I've had it, I will be back. We got a veggie pizza and it was a round pizza cut into squares, which always confuses me, but it was exactly what we needed to get back in the building mood. 

With Marge's screwdriver, the rest of the building process went much, much, much faster. We ran into problems with the very last bit! The drawers! It was one in the morning and we couldn't get the stupid things to fit properly. We kind of got them in but they're supposed to be flush with the front of the bed and they are clearly not. I'm going to call IKEA but at that point, we needed to call it a night because my dad's flight left at 7:30am. The one plus here is that by the time we'd finished building it, seven of my 72 hour waiting period was already up. I pulled the air mattress back into my room (I'd moved it for the building process for obvious, tiny bedroom reasons) and went to sleep. I could have put the air mattress on top of my new bed but decided against it on the off chance that it hit a rough edge somewhere and popped. 

This is what it looks like, FYI

Not expecting to be working on my bed until the wee hours of the mourn, I'd made plans for an early morning phone call with Mr. Ryan Lind (early morning my time, slightly less early morning on his stupid east coast time). I dreamed that I had texted him telling him that I was too tired to talk and we needed to postpone, but like I said, it was a dream, so I was still on the hook. Or I would have been if phones still had hooks. I would like to mention that he was very impatient that I was running a smidge late! He's literally overslept through half of our morning Skype dates (we can't Skype yet because I'm still without the interweb) but I do it once and it's the end of the world. We're planning his visit -- he's not going to be able to come for my birthday because a) it's a holiday weekend and more expensive and b) he just got promoted to server at the bar he works at and that means more training, more hours and a lot more money, which is obviously incredibly exciting but he's pretty overwhelmed at the moment and needs a little longer to get into the swing of things than the three-ish weeks until I become a quarter of a century old. 

After that, I was on my way to writers' group -- the Koffe Shop Kwest continues! Today we were going to Bow Truss Coffee Roasters in Roscoe Village. Now, Bow Truss has several locations in Chicago (including one in my hood) so I was on the fence about going, but I decided that I needed to see people and do things so off I went. 

I took two buses to get here. It's the first time I've ever transferred from bus to bus as it's always been train to bus or bus to train. It was pretty straight forward except that I had to wait about 20 minutes thanks to crappy traffic. 

I had read up on Bow Truss and another part of the reason I was on the fence was that everything I could find said that they were strictly coffee. They also sold some pastries but no hot chocolate or tea or anything. Let me say it again in case you haven't been paying attention, I don't drink coffee! I figured I could get a pastries and be good. To my surprise when I arrived, they had hot chocolate on the menu, but no pastries, which was not good because I was hungry! I got a hot chocolate and for the first time in my life, I got "latte art" where they pour the milk or whatever to make a pretty design! It looked like a heart! That we a nice little surprise. 

 Now, I read a lot more on Bow Truss than the other coffee shops I've gone to so far because I was desperately searching for SOMETHING that would give me their full menu and hope that there was something I would like. I never did that, but I did find some articles about people complaining that Bow Truss's expansion from the Loop is causing the gentrification of neighborhoods. I can see why people would think that. The interior (of this Bow Truss, anyway) is shades of beige and gray. I'm sitting at a rather wiggly picnic bench and from my artisan hot chocolate, it's clear that they take coffee very seriously and was to bring approach coffee in a meticulous way that could suggest an uppity attitude.  As you can see from their name Bow Trust Coffee Roaster, they're the ones making this stuff. (When I first went to Metropolis Coffee, I thought that they were THE Chicago coffee company based on how many of their cups I'd seen around the city but now I've been here longer and it's clear that they have lots of competition for what brew is sold in hipster coffee shops; I've seen a lot of Bow Truss cups now around town now). They're playing Adele on vinyl. Despite the fact that this is the closest to a Starbucks in terms of aesthetic, that I've been since I've started this Kwest, it feels like these guys are trying the hardest. 

Also, so everyone following the Koffee Shop Kwest knows, any visits to other Bow Truss locations will be separate entries because each shop will have it's own vibe (or more comfortable chairs, perhaps). Also, starting today, price is going to become criterion for the Kwest) 

Also, I'm still really hungry and am debating if I should go to the gas station across the street for a snack, or pay four freaking dollars for some little chocolate bar thing that looks very good but is more expensive than my hot chocolate was. You'll be the first to know when I decide!

I'M AN ADULT... In Bright Blue Sneakers, Carrying the Same Backpack I Used in the 8th Grade

Hello again, internet, it’s been a few days! Mainly because I still don’t have internet in my apartment and the internet I have been using has become even less reliable – if that were even possible; perhaps the neighbors are onto me…

This is being written straight from my new, temporary job, but more on that in a moment.

Last time I wrote, I was preparing to make guacamole! Almost immediately after hitting send, I grabbed my keys and walked to the supermarket. I had just planned on getting the ingredients but then I saw something that blew my mind. They had strawberries on sale… for 99 cents a box! I love strawberries. It took all of my willpower to not just dump the entire display into my cart, but I did buy a few boxes.

I walked back over to the apartment and began my guacamole experiment. I’ve never made guacamole before so this was, quite literally, an experiment. I found a fairly simple recipe on Pinterest and got to work. This was also an experiment in kitchen supplies because I was not only doing this without a mashing tool but I didn’t have a mixing bowl; I used a fork and a pot. I expected it to be easier to use a fork to mash up these very ripe avocadoes but no, it was a full blown arms workout. The guac ended up looking very nice but tasting pretty bland. I haven’t eaten enough guacamole sans burrito – where you just get a whole lot of flavors jammed together in the equivalent of a taste rainbow, making it hard to distinguish exactly what you’re eating – to know how to make it less bland but I’m sure there will be future experiments.

With guacamole completed, I relaxed for a bit before getting ready to see MY DAD! I was very excited and got “dressed up.” This meant skinny jeans, a tank top, and a cool little jacket he bought me. I also did my hair and threw on some red lipstick for good measure (I’m a city girl now, I wear lipstick on a Wednesday).

The problem was that I didn’t realize how hot it was outside. I was leaving my apartment at 6pm and it was 80something and humid. I was a human sweat monster by the time I got to him. A very cute human sweat monster, but still completely drenched.

We weren’t really sure what we were hungry for so we walked around a bit (despite the heat, humidity and the fact that it was now RAINING! Yeah, the trifecta). We ended up going somewhere my dad had never been but was right by his hotel (I’d never been there either but my dad has spent more time in Chicago than I have). It was called Miss Ricky’s. My dad was inspired by my makeup choice since their logo is a big pair of red lips. It was an interesting place with “food just like your mom made if your mom was a drag queen with a full sleeve tattoo.” That tagline alone had me sold. We started with some spinach jalapeno dip and then I got French toast. It wasn’t the most conventional combination but since when have I cared about convention. The highlight of the meal, however, was the Death by Chocolate Cake. My dad and I split it and there were still leftovers for me to bring home.

We went back to my dad’s hotel so I could pick up my suitcase. My dad brought me a suitcase from home filled with more stuff that I wasn’t able to bring when I first came out. At that moment, the most important thing in that suitcase was bedding! I’ve been sleeping on the air mattress without any real bedding and the only thing that is worse than sleeping on an air mattress is sleeping on an air mattress without any sheets on a hot night where any inch of exposed skin will immediately fuse with the plastic-y surface and moving even a single muscle will cause more discomfort than one can imagine. Having real sheets on that stupid thing has been a life saver these past two nights. He also brought lots of my picture frames and other things to make it feel homier, which is a big bonus when added to the pillowcases and quilt.

I went to bed pretty early (and got a better night’s sleep than I have in a while) because I had to be up at the butt crack of dawn yesterday. I have managed to connect with not one, but two temp agencies, and my first assignment began yesterday!

Now when I woke up, it was raining. This was not ok with me because I’d planned my outfit the night before and white blouses and rain don’t mix (at least not when you’re trying to look professional and I was!). I ditched the top and went with something that didn’t have any chance of becoming sheer and a pencil skirt. Now, I have a very cute pair of black ballet flats that match any business outfit you can imagine but I also have a twenty minute walk to the train station and I was not going to risk getting my feet and stockings soaked and then having to sit in them all day, so I threw the shoes in my bag and put on my bright blue sneakers. These sneakers obviously didn’t match, but I’ve seen a lot of women do the same thing, their sneakers just haven’t been as neon as mine are.

Speaking of the bag I dropped my work shoes into, this would be a bag that I had packed the night before. It had things like deodorant, a binder/paper for taking notes, my lunch, a book to read on the train… all very sensible things. It also happens to be the same backpack I used in middle school. It is so old that it still has “Thommie” embroidered on the front pocket. I didn’t even have the benefit of it matching my sneakers because it is bright pink!

So, there I was, walking to my first ever office job, looking like a high schooler on a field trip.

I was, however, very thankful that my recent acquisitions from my parental unit included a new umbrella, because I got the umbrella that I brought with me to Chicago in the 5^th grade and it is sized accordingly.

This was my first time dealing with morning rush on the train. I expected it to be crowded but what I did expect was the guy standing next to me. He wasn’t just standing next to me – he was actually asleep. It was weird, but I got to work without incident.

I actually got there very early. I got a visitor pass from the front desk and headed to the sixth floor. I am filling in as the receptionist at GATX (pronounce gee-ay-tee-ex, not gahtix) which a railcar leasing company. Yesterday, I was training with the actual receptionist and today I’m going solo. When I arrived, there was a picture of a railcar on my right and a wall on my left. Naturally, I went to the right and stood by the door, which meant that I was sort of hidden from view of anyone who was coming up the elevator. Since I was early, I had expected to wait, but what I didn’t know was that I was actually standing by the executive offices and that “wall” opened up into the reception area and normal people offices. The person who pointed me in the right direction was the CEO… Oops.

As I said, yesterday I was just training. The girl I’m filling in for is actually going to Boston for the weekend! I gave her tips on what to do and see and she told me about lots of bakeries in Chicago because she used to work at one. The job isn’t very challenging (totally just jinxed myself by writing that while I’m at work on my own…). My biggest problem was getting the company name right because when you’re nervous about answering your first few calls, GATX can end up sounding like JETX, GETX, TAGX, or gahtix, which I’ve already told you isn’t the name of the company.

The schedule is kind of nice because the day is broken up. Work starts at 8:15 and then I get a break from 10:30-11 (paid), lunch from 1-2 (not paid) and then the day ends at 4:45. It’s mainly phone calls and connecting people to whoever they want to talk to. I’d really like it if people spoke into the phone more clearly but I have to imagine that this is the bane of every receptionist’s existence.

After work, I went to Target because I was very close. I didn’t need a lot, but like I said, I was right there. Even though I was going home at what I would still consider to be rush hour, the train ride back to Logan Square was a lot more pleasant – far less crowded and no one was sleeping to my knowledge.

Despite just sitting at a desk for 7 hours, it had been a long day and I was exhausted, so I polished off the chocolate cake from Miss Ricky’s and went to bed (on my air mattress with sheets!).

And this morning it was back to the grind. No rain, but I still rocked my sneakers and backpack! I left a little earlier this morning to use the WiFi at Starbucks so the train wasn’t as crowded. One cool thing that happened was because I would be opening the office today, I didn’t have a visitor pass, but instead a temporary plastic card. It just says temporary card, but it clips onto my shirt, so it feels very official and fancy.

As I was turning on the lights, I ran into the mail lady, Cynthia, who might have had the best reaction to my name ever. She was having coffee with another woman and they asked for my name and when I said “Thomson,” they both responded with the usual “No, that can’t actually be your real name” deal. I assured them that it was and Cynthia burst out “Who your mama name you after?” Why yes, Cynthia, it is a family name, thanks for the laugh.

Even though I might have jinxed myself by saying the job was pretty easy, there haven’t been any disasters as I’m writing this (it’s 9:45am), just average phone calls and a leaking refrigerator on the 8^th floor.

I’m able to write all of this today because they told me that I don’t need to just sit around twiddling my thumbs when there aren’t any phone calls to answer or things to be printed, so I opened up Microsoft Word and got to it. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post it since I’m not going to do that from the office, but writing it is a start.

P.S. I managed to post this pretty much exactly 24 hours after writing it from my dad's hotel room.

Avocado Fries

Hello all, so much for me being a bad influence! On Monday, my compulsive Pinteresting paid off. (I Pinterest a lot of recipes and crafts and follow through on very few of them). Mandy came over and we made avocado fries.

To make avocado fries, one must start with avocados. We had a hard time finding good ones at the grocery store but we eventually succeeded. To prepare them, it's a pretty standard flour-egg-panko situation and then you drizzle them with some olive oil and put them in the oven for fifteen minutes. Simple enough!

The recipe we had suggested making a chipotle dipping sauce but we went with chipotle mayo instead because the recipe called for mayonnaise anyways and we couldn't find some of the other ingredients. We paired it with white bean veggie burgers which we topped with cheese, onion and more chipotle mayo. It turned out really well. Mandy thinks the avocado fries would be a perfect appetizer. I just think they were delicious.

She went home and I went to bed. It was my first Chicago “holiday” and I’d say that it was successful.

Yesterday started with laundry. Having been on tour with MCT for a year and a half, I have visited a lot of laundromats. My superpowers include the ability to find a laundromat anywhere (and I mean anywhere, have you ever tried to find a laundromat in eastern Montana? Because I have and it isn’t easy) and being able to break down how people spent their money at a laundromat if they give me their total (i.e. you used two double-load washers and went through four dry cycles).

Now, it is every 20-something’s dream to have an apartment with a washer/dryer (actually, we all dream of winning 10 million dollars, but apart from that, the washer/dryer combo would be nice), but dreams don’t always come true, so I have to walk four or five blocks to the closest laundromat. I tried to count but I forgot, so I’m guestimating. My laundromat is called Friendly Wash and it is very friendly. It would actually be a great place to do MCT laundry! They had lots of big machines and space for sorting, but mainly, they had free WiFi. WiFi is still an issue at the apartment, so the free WiFi was a godsend. (That’s another 20-something dream – for the entire world to have free WiFi).

I need to find a psychiatrist in the city, so I figured that I could use the free WiFi and the time I was going to spend sitting on my butt waiting for my laundry looking up numbers and making calls. I didn’t have much luck, I got a lot of voice mails (of therapists… I couldn’t even find a real MD) and when I finally did reach a human, it was a disaster.

I was look for doctors through my insurance’s website so that I could find a doctor in network for obvious reasons. This doctor was listed on that site so I called him. The call lasted 23 seconds. He picked up the phone and said “Hello.” No, hello, I’m Dr. Blah blah blah, just hello. I could already tell I wasn’t interested in having him as my doctor but I started to explain that I was new to the city and was looking for a doctor and was wondering if he was accepting new patients. He cut me off and asked what insurance I had. I told him and he just said “I don’t accept that insurance” and HUNG UP ON ME! What an asshole. I know that I don’t know what was happening on his end of the phone etc. etc. etc. but this guy is a doctor! He’s a psychiatrist! He knows that it is highly likely that the people on the other end of the phone are depressed and suicidal (I am neither thankfully, but imagine if I was) and he treated me like garbage. I was so pissed. I wrote a lot of negative reviews for him on any site I could find because people should know he’s a jerk before they even pick up the phone to call him.

When my laundry was done, I went back to the apartment. I was still really upset so I decided that the best thing to do was going to be to get myself gussied up even though I have nowhere to go, so I went and put on a face of makeup and did my hair (well, I washed my hair, it sort of styles itself by just being attached to my head). I did some proofreading work for my mom and “cleaned the apartment”, which meant washing the dishes and lighting a candle. I’m still the only one living here fulltime right now, but Janell will be coming back this afternoon.

I was going to take myself out to dinner (mainly for WiFi) but I realized that I still had three avocadoes and they would go bad if I didn’t use them, so I got out a knife and got to work. I only used one avocado but I just made myself the exact same dinner from the night before.

And then I was sort of at a loss for what to do. I wanted to watch a movie, but I am so bored with my DVD collection (it needs work – it has a lot of DVDs that I’m not longer interested in and I haven’t bought a new DVD in nearly two years!) so I ended up going to the grocery store and picking up Sisters at Redbox and a pint of brownie batter core ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s (well, technically from Tony’s because that’s the grocery store but B&J get the credit).

I wasn’t ready to just dig into the ice cream and start the movie, so I thought I would take advantage of the lack of furniture in our front room and do a little yoga. I thought I was going to do a 10-minute little stretch routine but it turned into a 40-minute power flow and I was drenched in sweat by the time I was done. I’d earned that ice cream! The movie was cute, but it made my miss my sister, so I texted her and then went to bed!

And now, I’m going to use my leftover avocados to make some guacamole and wait for my first ever out-of-town visitor! My dad is coming to Chicago today!! He has a business conference the next few days and it was the perfect excuse to come see me. We haven’t decided exactly what we’re doing tonight and he’s on the plane right now so I can’t really text him but I’m so excited for him to get here! I can’t wait for him to see my place (which needs to be cleaned because my clean laundry is currently doing a wonderful job as a makeshift carpet… Guess it isn’t so clean now…) and just see him in general.

P.S. I'm supposed to start calling Mandy "Amanda" now. I'm not doing a very good job.

Bad Influences

To pick up from my last post yesterday, Mandy met me at Two Hearted Queen as my writers’ group was just about to finish up. She said we looked very serious and she thought I was taking a college class outside. I told her that it was legitimately the chilliest thing in the world. She ordered a latte while we finished up (I knew she wouldn’t mind having to go to a coffee shop). A few members of my group have a coffee blog and highly approved of my Koffee Shop Kwest.

We got back on the red line and went to her new apartment in Edgewater! I had told Mandy that I got an internship with a theatre company in Edgewater but when I was looking at directions for how to get to her apartment, I saw that she’d have to walk past their performance space every day to get to and from the train! When I told her this, she asked me if it was the Jackalope Theatre and I said yes (great name, by the way, I can’t get over it). She told me that half of the people who started Jackalope are her new neighbors. They share a porch! So that is a pretty crazy coincidence that I think will work out well for everyone involved (it gives me an excuse to email them anyways, which I need to do again). Aside from sharing a porch with my future employers, Mandy’s apartment is nice. Unlike Mandy’s last two apartments that I visited (her basement apartment on the South Side and her apartment in Berkeley, CA that we’re pretty sure had been used by college kids to make meth), I mean it when I say she has a nice place. Also, these apartments are so much bigger than NYC apartments. That should be obvious, but I feel the need to say it because I keep thinking it.

Mandy gave me the tour and then got ready to head back out for dinner and drinks. Mandy has declared that I’m going to be a bad influence on her now. She says that she’s been doing a great job eating well, dieting and being generally healthy but now that I’m here, all of that is going to go out the window because I love food and trying new restaurants. I’d like to point out that she’s the one who took me to Cheesie’s and is therefore a bed influence on me because I would like to go back there every day for as long as I live.

The second she said “grilled cheese restaurant,” I was in. Like, anyone who knows me knows that that shouldn’t even be a question someone needs to ask me at this point.

I knew this place was for me before I’d even gone in. Just getting off the train, you could see that the entire outside of the restaurant was the welcoming color of cheddar. Pink is my favorite color, but any color related to cheese probably makes the list as well. On the way there, Mandy had asked me if I wanted to look up the menu or if I wanted to be surprised – I decided to go in blind and boy, was I shocked! There were so many options. They had a grilled mac and cheese that I considered for a few moments before deciding to try something else (I’m embarrassed by the number of grilled mac and cheese sandwiches I’ve had. Actually, not embarrassed, people with weaker stomachs would be embarrassed, I just wanted to try something new). They had one called The Popper, which was a jalapeno popper sandwich that I also thought about trying, but at this point, my brain is so hardwired to my beloved jalapeno popper mac and cheese that it felt like I’d be betraying mac and cheese to order that one. (Like, at this point, I can’t think of jalapeno popper without mac and cheese attached. I do mac and cheese without jalapenos, but I still think about them when I get it). I went with the same sandwich Mandy picked -- The Frenchie, which is American cheese, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese sauce, thick cut French fries, bacon and chives on sour dough bread (with a sour cream dip). I went sans-bacon, of course. I was actually in heaven. I realized after ordering that Mandy and I probably should have done what Ryan and I did when we went out for grilled cheese in NYC, where each one of us ordered a different sandwich and then we split them so we both got to have a half of each, but a lot of Cheesie’s sandwiches had meat on them and I would not want to deprive Mandy of her newfound carnivorous ways. I mentioned this to her and she said we could do it next time… maybe we could order a sandwich with the meat on just one half?

Speaking of Ryan, we’re definitely going here when he visits. I’ve basically sworn off of cupcakes for the near future so we can continue our tradition of “Cupcake Crawls.” We did one for his birthday in December in Boston and then another for his birthday in May in New York (long story, his birthday is in December but we celebrated twice in our different cities). I don’t want to try all of Chicago’s cupcakes without him – I want us to experience them together! But, I can definitely continue sampling Chicago’s other eateries when I have the chance… like Cheesie’s.

After dinner, we went to the bar her roommate, Reagan, works at, which is definitely a nicer spot than it was made to seem, so I was feeling particularly underdressed in my tank top, MCT hoodie and shorts. Mandy had invited a friend from work, Paige and a friend she met when she was living in San Francisco, Derek, and we all planted ourselves at a table outside for a nice night of getting to know each other. Before they arrived, Mandy was paranoid that we wouldn’t like each other but I had faith and things turned out wonderfully. The most difficult part of the night was a debate over whether or not I should start calling her Amanda or if her new, adult, Chicago friends were allowed to call her Mandy (they’re not, and I guess I’m supposed to start calling her Amanda, but that probably won’t happen very soon).

After the restaurant closed (at 10, although we hung out until about 10:30 or 11… sorry!), Mandy and Paige were headed further uptown to another bar and Derek and I headed home. I would have gone with them, except I had my large, pink backpack with me from writers’ group (we spent the evening calling it my “Kimmy Schmidt backpack” because in the pilot episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, naïve, innocent Kimmy takes her backpack filled with thousands of dollars in cash out into an NYC night club, where it is promptly stolen. I’m not naïve or innocent and had a happier ending last night, of course, but we were all thinking about it). Derek and I don’t like in the same neighborhood but we live in the same direction so we got off the train at the same stop and then I was going to take the bus (Derek lives in walking distance from the stop but I do not), except, oh wait, ROOKIE MISTAKE, my bus wasn’t running. I guess it doesn’t run late on Sunday nights, so I called an Uber. (Note to self: Look up bus schedule. The public transit here has a very helpful app but I should know the exact hours that my bus runs so I can hopefully save some money on Uber).

I crashed hard when I got home, but so far, Labor Day has been good to me. I don’t have work (get it? Because I never have work because I don’t have a job right now) so it’s another lazy day. Mandy also doesn’t have work so she’s coming over for dinner tonight. We’re actually going to cook for ourselves! We’re going to try making “baked avocado fries,” because Mandy has loved avocado since I met her and I developed a fondness for it in Central America over the summer. So, how’s that for being a bad influence, huh?