Although I had an amazing time at the 5K yesterday, I still think running is dumb and looks so uncomfortable.

The Hot Chocolate 5K provided me evidence of this by sending me my very own commemorative race photo. Don't I look like I'm having fun?! No. I don't, because no one looks like they're having fun when they're running...

Will Run for Chocolate

I did my third ever 5K today and I killed it! Clearly I only do themed 5Ks because the previous ones were a color run and the Mermaid 5K earlier this month but I legitimately ran this one hardcore and the reason was, this was a Hot Chocolate 5K. I got chocolate at the end! (And it case anyone doubts my hardcore running efforts today, I finished 13,945 out of 19,928 runners). I also proved that I really am THAT motivated by chocolate (and also that my assertions that I run like a fat toddler chasing an ice cream truck are pretty true since I was literally running for dessert).

My crazy schedule barely leaves time for sleep these days and this 5K meant I couldn't sleep in today either. I was out the door at 6:45 BUT my landlady actually drove me since her daughters were doing it as well, so that was an unexpected perk.

Fly the W for Wrigley

It was dark and chilly when we arrived, but 40,000 people lining up to do a 5k /15k will warm you up pretty quickly. Cub pride was also on display (it's on display everywhere... my subway car was so full yesterday that I almost couldn't get off the train and they were all singing the "Go Cubs Go" song and some guy was playing it on a TUBA. Side note: I'd never heard this song until yesterday, but apparently it's a thing... Sorry, Cubbies, but the Red Sox have the greatest song... You all know Sweet Caroline, right?).

I was not the happiest of campers in the wee hours of the mourn, BUT the race had a geotag and I was super happy when I'd finally finished. Mandy and her friend, Paige put it really well -- it was surreal running through the streets of Chicago like that. They'd closed Michigan Avenue! For this 5K! (FYI: 9:34 was when I finished but I did not start at 8:15 -- that's just when I was cold and grumpy).

I'm extremely proud of myself for the way I ran today, because I did actually run! Last night, I was debating if I could just sneak over the finish line to get my mug because I've been so stressed and haven't been working out but today I proved that I am tough as nails and can do anything!

Even if I hadn't gotten that good feeling at the end of the race, the swag alone was worth it. I got an amazing, heavy duty sweatshirt just for registering! You got a medal for completing the 15K version of the race but ain't nobody got time for that (It's a cool medal but I'm not stupid). But everyone who completed either race got their finisher's mug with hot chocolate AND fondue. It was heaven. I met up with Amanda and Paige after the race to enjoy the spoils of victory (they both had earlier start times and are faster than me anyways). Strangely, the fondue was better than the hot chocolate , which you'd think would be amazing because "Hot Chocolate 5K" but I still drank it cuz I am a champion.

Victory is sweet.

Although chocolate is delicious, we decided we needed some brunch food, so we got on the train and went towards Fullerton, since it put all three of us in a good place to get home. We had zero ideas of anywhere to eat nearby and Mandy even suggested McDonald's but we stumbled on a diner place. It was crowded and our server forgot about us, but the food was good (I got a breakfast skillet) and we need to go back because they claimed to have the best milkshakes in Chicago.

After that, I almost fell asleep on the bus and nearly missed my stop, but I managed to get home, where I collapsed on my bed and slept well into the afternoon. Wide awake now, I've made myself some dinner and am catching up on Hulu on my phone. I don't know when my next 5K will be (Hot Chocolate 2017, anyone) but I'm excited to frame my bib and give it a place of honor on my wall!

The Power of Mimosas

I was doing really well on that consistent blogging thing until I stopped doing well on it... anyways, here are some updates since the last time I posted.

First off, this blog has served an actual purpose besides letting me share all of my mind-numbingly dull thoughts. I wrote about how my wallet was stolen the other day, but then someone commented on my blog that they'd found my ID! Yes, they found my ID and then went to the trouble of finding a way to contact me and they were able to do it through this very blog that you are reading right now. I'd already spent $25 to order a new license but at least my personal information is no longer floating around the universe. I got it back on Tuesday (and now I need to get around to writing them a thank you card).

Next off, mimosas can cure just about anything because Sunday brunch with Amanda Lauren Belscamper soothed my soul like you would not believe. We went to the Chicago Diner which is a vegetarian restaurant  that I'd visited last February. They have two locations, the one that is close to where I work (which is where we went) and one that is walking distance from my apartment. Mandy picked the restaurant, but she loves me so she picked the vegetarian place! I got their breakfast platter, which was scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, fruit, vegetarian sausage AND bacon plus the whole thing came with a pancake on top. We also, of course, got mimosas.
Since then, it's basically been all work and no play, which makes Thom some money, so I'm not complaining. I finally put away the laundry I did a week and a half ago though so there's some progress for you! Today, I will be heading to my internship and then calling the laptop people to find out why they STILL haven't fixed my computer. I also need to work on a Halloween costume before my friend's party tomorrow but since I have the whole day off tomorrow, I can plan then (or I can lie in bed until it's time to leave, which might be a better use of my time...).

P.S. Here's a picture from brunch. I wanted to put it next to my description of brunch but this is one of the downfalls of blogging from my phone.

The Baby Bears

Good news and bad news:

Bad news: My laptop still isn't fixed.
Bad news II: The allergy test I had revealed NOTHING (except that I might be slightly lactose intolerant)
Bad news III: My wallet was stolen!

Good news: The Cubs are going to the World Series!

Yup, the Baby Bears threw the puck and scored a touchdown to go to the Academy Awards of Baseball.

This sports news doesn't actually outweigh all of the crap that has come up in the past few days but it does explain why I was at the bar until 3:30 last night. (It was a theatre bar though, so the collective sports knowledge was in the negative numbers).

Knock on wood, but it would be very cool to see the Cubs win. I was in middle school when the Red Sox reversed the curse and it would be nice to think that I'm a) Chicago's good luck charm and b) now old enough to get really wasted with the rest of the city instead of falling asleep before the end when I attempted to watch the game. Although, let's be honest, either way, I'll sleep through the actual game.

Temping Was Amazing Today*

I am clearly crushing the less-than-minimum-wage game the same way I manage to kill the mood whenever I enter a room.

Today was the third day of my thrilling time with FIA. The perks of which included a surprise appearance by Claire Noone today, hanging out with Victoria (a college friend of Amanda Belscamper's) and taking a few covert snap chats because the event had their own geofilter. Please feast upon me as I restock bags and magazines -- a job I was clearly born/went to college for.

*That title is 100% sarcastic by the way. The only things that were amazing about today was the variety of skin tones that clashed with that slime green shirt and the truly hideous bottle of wine I purchased when Claire and I went to Trader Joe's at the end of the day.

**The bottle itself is amazing. I have not had the wine yet. But the bottle was really ugly and I needed it.

***Because I'm collecting empty, ugly wine bottles now.

I've Got Answers

This week, I'm working another temp job. It isn't a one-day gig like last week at Pensions and Whatever but three whole days at an FIA Expo. They told us what FIA stood for yesterday at orientation/training but I was so busy stuffing bags and folding table cards that I can't remember. (I'm clearly working towards that big temp promotion! My nom-work ethic is rivaled only by my pension for ill-timed sarcastic comments within earshot of my boss).

One thing I like about this job is that yesterday,  we were able to dress casually. This meant blue jeans and anything else you wanted really. (I wore my Little Mermaid shirt because it was sitting on top of the pile of clean laundry that I dumped on my floor and haven't put away yet...) We'd been told that the dress code for the rest of the week would be black dress pants, a white button down and a black jacket but yesterday they told us that they had t-shirts for us and that we should even think about wearing dress shoes* because we would be walking wayyy too much. I liked this change in plans because I still hadn't found a white button down.

*They did suggest not wearing your brightest pair of athletic shoes but I have only one pair of sneakers and they're electric blue with fuschia laces so that's what I've got on today. I guess it's better than going barefoot?

My official job title is "Bag Runner" which they say means that I'm supposed to make sure that bag stands are replenished but I think it means I take people's bags and run with them. Basically they gave me a job with very little to do which is just the way I like it.

So I'm working in a hotel that costs more than what I'll be making in these three days from a single night AND I'm doing it in a neon green shirt that has "I'VE GOT ANSWERS" written on it. It goes well with my shoes... if you can't actually see me.

Two Months

I realized that today marks two whole months in Chicago. I realized this over a cup of hot chocolate so let the Koffee Shop Kwest continue.

I'm writing from Intelligentsia in Noble Square because I'm early to my first day at my THIRD internship. Intelligentsia is another mini Chicago chain and like Bow Truss, I can see why people would cry gentrification. It's very sterile, lots of gray, black and geometric shapes. It's about the craft here. They have only one long table and chairs, so if you want personal space you need to sit on the long benches around the perimeter of the room of one of the large orange blocks that function as both chair and Table depending on your needs. The most unique art came in the bathroom, where they had a small mural of wild animals, but im not sure that's a selling point. The hot chocolate was $4.46 and they get points for the intricate latte art but I didn't like the drink. Their hot chocolate was too dark and bitter. Give me the sweet stuff! Hot chocolate should be a warm cup of candy and this stuff seemed more like chocolate coffee. Since I don't like my beverage options here, I'm not sure how eager I'll be to test one of their other locations but it served it's purpose of giving me somewhere to sit this afternoon.

TINY SPOON!

185 Broken Laptops

So, my boss sat on my laptop on Saturday in a freak accident and somehow I've ended up blogging more since I don't have a computer than when I did...

Saturday night, post-show but pre-lyft ride/blog post home, I went out to Cheesie's with Claire and Parker and met their friend, Suz. My friend, Jessica, who pulls double duty as Darla Blue, the Bingo call girl in Bingo and Maddie Monroe, the father-of-the-groom's stripper wedding date in TnT, had an improv show at The Annoyance at midnight called Skinprov (there might be a theme here...). Skinprov is basically naked improv, except they don't actually get naked. I learned two things very valuable things here:
1. Don't tell Claire Noone about a free improv show, because you WILL be going.
2. If your friend says their improv show is 50 minutes, they're lying; an hour and a half minimum.

So, why is this post called 185 Broken Laptops? During the show, they did a bit where they told jokes based on audience suggestions. The game was called 185 and the goal was to say 185 [blank] walked in a bar and the bar tender wouldn't serve them because of [blank]. They asked for a suggestion -- "something you have in your bag" -- and I shouted out "A BROKEN LAPTOP." They were pretty surprised about this and even stopped to ask why I was carrying around a BROKEN laptop and then used it in the bit, so at least someone got a laugh out of my misfortune.

And why am I writing about all of this now? Because I have laptop brain. I just dropped my laptop off with some laptop people. I went to TWO different Best Buys yesterday and they told me that it was going to be two weeks minimum -- more likely five -- and a nice chunk of change. (I didn't expect a different answer at the second, they'd just been so rude to me at the first one that I wanted another opinion). My broken laptop should be better by the end of the week now! The one perk of this whole fiasco is that yesterday, after enjoying my first glass of cider of the fall and making cider muffins, I got 14 hours of sleep. So enjoy my phone blogging while you can because odds are that one my laptop is fixed, it will be back to my usual one post a week!

Cheesie's Cheese Bites

I didn't post a picture last night when I was grumpy in the back of my Lyft (which, even though it was awful, only ended up costing me $1.30), but I think everyone should know the glory and bow their heads in awe of Cheesie's mac and cheese bites.

They'really so beautiful; it's like staring into a mirror.

Dear Lyft Driver...

I know I'm new to Chicago but perhaps deciding to pick up another rider in Wrigleyville after the Cubs win a playoff game isn't the best decision. Particularly when it is already the opposite direction of where we're going.

And in other news, my friends came to my show tonight, I got fried mac and cheese bites at Cheesie's and have to go to Best Buy because the director of Tony N Tina's sat on my laptop and cracked the screen!

First Chicago Medical Crisis

Guess who knows where urgent care is now?

Quite frankly, I'm surprised it took this long for me to injure myself/get sick to the point of needing medical assistance but yup, this week broke my streak.

I'm proud to announce that a mysterious allergic reaction blew up my face and sent me to urgent care (because when your eye is swollen shut, it's time to admit that there is a problem). I have no idea what caused this but it was the most unpleasant thing to have happened to me since I moved here. It was not, however, my most unpleasant trip to urgent care -- that would be the time that I went to the CLOSED urgent care in Center Valley, PA during a hurricane.

So yup, 10 points to me for not waiting a whole week to write another post but 20 points to the universe for replacing my face with something that more closely resembles a poisonous fungi. If you need me, I'll be searching for bell towers to call home and pining after gypsy women.

(And by the way, urgent care here was very nice although they lose points for choosing to give me a shot of steroids in my butt cheek instead of my arms).

(Also my face looks pretty face-like again so maybe that bell tower thing can wait until after I go back to urgent care for an allergy test next week).

I promise I will find a happy medium between random, one-sentence posts and describing an entire month in a singular post but that time has not come yet!

So, the last time I wrote/you read, I had stopped at Leonidas Chocolate Cafe, opening myself up to about 10-million extra calories a day, but that's alright. I don't remember anything else I did last Tuesday so I'm going to guess that it wasn't important and isn't worth writing about.

After that, Wednesday was a big day. I got a text that morning from Amanda Belscamper asking me about the abnormally large crowd outside of Osmium Coffee, which is right next to CTW  (and part of her daily bus route, apparently). I hadn't been to the theatre so I didn't know but I'd find out when I went to work later.

Before work, however, I had to go to the AT&T store. My phone was two and a half years old and had stopped connecting to WiFi so it was time for an upgrade. I walked in with a smile on my face and left a short while later with a new cellphone and no drama (which should have been my first clue that something was wrong but more on that later). I went to work (blissfully unaware that I'd purchased a garbage phone) and Osmium Coffee.

Upon arrival, I discovered that Osmium was crowded with Gilmore Girls fans because Netflix had converted the store into Luke's Diner for the day in honor of the 16th anniversary of the show's premiere (and as promotion for the new series, obviously). The transformation really only included a sign, cardboard cut out of Luke Danes and coffee cups and I'm actually pretty sure that Luke Danes would hate hipsters and Osmium Coffee and probably be confused by Chicago in general but it was be cool.

We did a show and then I went out with about six members of the cast. They made me take a shot of Malört because apparently you aren't really from Chicago until you have. Apparently it's supposed to be bad and make you gag and everyone was shocked that I took it like a champ but I was just trying to figure out what I'd actually been given to drink.

I took an Uber home from the bar and somehow, I ended up talking the Uber driver into giving me his phone charger. So, my first 25th birthday presents were a bad shot of alcohol and some electrical cords.

The first birthday present I gave myself was another stop at Leonidas on my way to my internship! I got the salted caramel hot chocolate with the whole milk because if I cared about calories and skimping on quality, I'd go to Starbucks.

At the end of the work day, I returned to the apartment for my party! We were having an ugly wine-indoor picnic birthday/housewarming party. Basically, the theme was that everyone had to bring the ugliest bottle of wine they could find and we were going to drink it on the floor because we have no furniture. Before the party, however, I got a "flower" delivery. My mom sent me a plant but it was basically a small tree... Either way, it was a good birthday (and my bottle of wine, Kinky Pink Moscato, was the ugliest).

I slept in on Friday but then it was time for the phone drama because the phone I'd had for less than 48 hours was already out of memory space. Turns out they'd sold me a GoPhone which is basically a burner phone. I was PISSED. AT&T handled it pretty well, considering they'd messed it up in the first place and I have a NEW new phone (and no, it isnt a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 so it isnt going to explode). With that problem solved, it was onto a weekend full of shows! Really full but still fun, including a real life wedding proposal at Tony N Tina's Wedding on Sunday.

Yesterday was Columbus Day  (Chicago still calls it that) and there was a large Italian pride parade so a group of TnT people went to pass out flyers in exchange for comp tickets  (yup... shameless). Our main selling point was that our tickets are cheaper and easier to get than Hamilton tickets AND we give you dinner.

After that, I had about appointment to run off to so I couldn't get lunch with the cast but ended up at The Bread Cafe. One of my best friends, Ellen, is a sweet baby angel who is obsessed with bread so I decided to try this place in her honor. I'm happy to report that it lives up to the name of bread.

Now, today. Oh boy, today. Well, you're currently benefitting from my boredom. I have a temp gig that required me to leave my apartment at 4:30am (where I watched the bus pull up while I was still too far to get there and had to wait for 15 minutes) and is for Pensions and Investments. My job is mainly to try not to look bored, which is almost impossible because even the experts who are getting paid more than $10/hr to be here look bored...

Leonidas Chocolate Cafe

I have done a very, very bad thing here.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day watching 3-5 year olds as their parents attended Rosh Hashanah services (shanah tovah, btw) but after that, it was time to go over to my internship at Lookingglass. I knew that they wouldn't have much for me, but I also knew that I didn't have time to go home in between the two so I figured I would find something to do to kill a few minutes and this is when a very, very, very bad thing happened, because I stopped at Leonidas Chocolate Cafe.

You know that if something has "Chocolate Cafe" in the name that it is going to be some damn good chocolate and I was intrigued so I crossed the street and went in. (Yes, thankfully this place isn't directly along my commute and going would require at least an extra 20 steps which is obviously too far out of the way for me to go every single day).

I didn't know if this would qualify as a coffee shop when I went in but they do, in fact, serve coffee along with a lot of other things that aren't chocolate. But mainly, they sell chocolate. Lots of pretty chocolate! And this includes a variety of hot chocolates. It wasn't a cold day (and definitely not cold by Chicago standards) but I was chilly so hot chocolate was exactly what I needed! They had a lot of good looking options but I decided that I'd start with the "basic" Triple Chocolate Hot Chocolate.

So, this place has the potential to be the best "coffee shop" on the list and also make me gain a dress size.

Am I a bad person, not to my knowledge, but as I've said, yesterday was the start of a very bad thing.

The 5-Mile 5K and Other News

I have had roughly no free time since I last wrote and the free time I did have has been going to things like sleeping and eating and if I wrote a blog about every microwaved quesadilla I've been eating, I'd lose the three readers that I have. (Ok, technically, the last time I wrote was tonight but that was a two sentence apology for being a bad blogger so I hardly think that counts).

Monday afternoon took me downtown for the first day of my internship where I helped out with the Youth Ensemble. The kids were a far cry from the ones I'd worked with during my time with MCT. These kids know their theatre. They undoubtedly know more than me and they're 10 years old!

I probably could have blogged on Tuesday since I had a bit of downtime but I didn't. Quite frankly, I can't remember what I did on Tuesday apart from returning to Metropolis Coffee and Jackalope Theatre. I went back to Metropolis because I was early to meet with Jackalope. I got a hot cocoa (still pretentious way of saying hot chocolate) but I got it in a to go cup, which was stupid because I sat there and drank it anyways. Unfortunately, I burnt my lip, really, really badly! It still hurts today!

Wednesday was a long, crazy day. The Tony N Tina cast are a bunch of troopers because they were at the theatre at 7 am to do promos for local television. I got there at 9 but it turned out to be a 12 hour work day for me because we did a show of Tony N Tina and immediately turned the space around to do a performance of We Gotta Bingo.

Thursday was a really crazy day for me. I started my first real day of office work with Lookingglass Theatre Company and it was press night for Tony N Tina's Wedding at CTW. This meant that my email inbox basically exploded while I was trying to be very professional at another new job (is it a job if they aren't paying me? I'm going to call it a job, it's work, after all). Press night was our largest audience by far and it's my job to make sure that everyone is happy which is a tall order since it's only been my job for about a week. Everyone in the cast/crew was freaking about one person in particular -- Chris Jones from the Chicago Tribune. Being the literal new kid on the block, I had no clue who he was but all of the Chicago theatre vets in the room (read everyone except me) were focused on impressing him. I was mainly focused on not royally messing up in general because it had been a really stressful day! The show was awesome. The large crowd meant that I had even more trash to pick up then usual but everyone had a great time.

P.S. The reviews are in and it's a hit! Read about it here.

I'm a little disappointed that my wonderful house management skills were not mentioned but maybe next time.

After all that, I got roughly four hours of sleep as Thursday became Friday but I lied at the start of this post, I used just a smidge of my free time on Friday to do some crafting. I've been decorating and my room is full of picture frames that are mainly pictures of me and Whitney on our various adventures but I decided that it was time to balance out all of the pictures of Whitney with pictures of people I actually like so I got resourceful and went to Pinterest. I wanted to do a project that my friend had sent me using an old picture frame and some twine but I didn't have those things, I did (and still do) have tons of cardboard though, I took advantage of that and Janell gave me some clothes pins and voila! It turned out better than I had hoped -- it really doesn't look like cardboard! And now I get to display all of my favorite people... and Whitney.

After doing my little craft, I hit the streets because I had to pick up my 5K RACE PACKET! The Mermaid 5K was on Saturday, October 1st. It was like one of the first things I put on my calendar after I moved here. I think I'd been here roughly four days when I found out about it and decided that I was doing it with Ms. Amanda Belscamper because once a mermaid, always a mermaid. The craziest part of picking up my 5K packet was not that they seemed to have absolutely no system for distributing the packets but that the packet included a flyer for my own show! Yup, right there behind my race badge and a temporary mermaid tattoo was a flyer for Tony N Tina's Wedding. Hopefully the good reviews combined with the non-stop promotion will mean that we have lots of sold out performances. We didn't have a sold out performance Friday night, but we'll see how things go.

Absolutely soaked.

And now, the Mermaid 5K update! I was so excited. Mandy was so excited. Mother Nature was so excited that she decided to give us weather that only mermaids could enjoy. Meaning rain. Lots of rain. It rained all freaking morning. I was an idiot and brought my backpack full of work stuff because I wasn't sure how much time I would have between the race and the show and it got soaked. My sweatshirt got soaked (and is still hanging out to dry). I'm saying that it was a 5-mile 5K because we basically walked half of the track to get to the starting point!

Mandy ran the race while I walked with her roommate Reagan and Reagan's friend from work, Kelly, but we all had time to take a selfie! (And get photobombed).

After the race, Mandy and I took a photo with some real mermaids! Just kidding, they were absolutely miserable looking actresses wearing mermaid tails and holding umbrellas so we cropped them out of the photo and captured our own mermaid amazingness.

Mermaids Take Chicago!

Perfect post race meal

We went out after the race for brunch to regain our strength (and warm up). We went to Elly's Diner which was delicious. I got the veggie benedict because it seemed like a great blend of protein, carbs and vegetables! And it came with hashbrowns and who doesn't love that.

Being soaked to the bone, I took an Uber back to my apartment where I warmed up just in time to go back out to work (and by the way, the sun was now shining!). After another successful show, I went home and got a good night's rest.

Today, I had a seriously lazy day off where I overate and took a nap. My third roommate, Mary, just finished bringing all of her stuff in (Don't worry, I helped) so now we can start getting ready for the housewarming/birthday party that we're having this Thursday!! So that's it for now! Thanks for reading.

I've been a bad blogger. I'll try to write again soon.