So Busy!

While I'm in Chicago, it isn't all vacation time fun and games. I have *lots* to do for one of my internships, and research to do for the other. I'm scheduling a week of speaking events for the director's East Coast tour. So, I spend about 3 hours in the morning in the business center e-mailing, researching, note taking, and to-do listing, then I spend a while reading journal articles for the other internship. In the evening, when I get home from an afternoon of checking out the city, I do another hour or two of replying to all the e-mail I peppered my contacts with that morning.

Today I have been *slammed* with the speaking event project, and I'm ending my 4th hour in the business center. I'm about to wrap it up though, and make a quick lunch. Then I'm setting off with my backpack 'o snacks to spend the rest of the afternoon at the Art Institute of Chicago. I thought I would do Millenium Park + the Institute yesterday, but there was so much to see and wander through at the park, and then I went down to the harbor, so I realized I wouldn't have enough time to devote to the Institute and bumped it to today. I'm nerdily excited to see the museum!

For now I'm starving, but I discovered an internet cable under the table that allows me to use my laptop, so here's a picture of the famous "bean" in Millennium Park. More to come later!

I.Love.Chicago.

Jo and I booked it and arrived in Chicago a full day before we originally planned. Saturday afternoon was spent grocery shopping, taking much needed showers, driving around and seeing the various neighborhoods of interest, and then walking about a mile to get some delicious Thai food and bubble tea shakes.

I have tons of pics already just from Sunday and today- Jo lives right in the middle of downtown, you can see Millenium Park from the sidewalk in front of her high rise- but unfortunately she doesn't have internet in her apartment, so I'm composing this from the business center. I have all week here and then Bobby is here all Labor Day weekend, so I'm sure there will be tons of posts loaded with pictures once we arrive safely home in Colorado.

Until then, know that Chicago is way cooler than I expected. It is also cleaner, more laid back, the downtown area is much more dense than I thought it would be, and it really reminds me a lot of the little town where I lived in Japan. I can't *quite* put my finger on why, but I'm sure the high rises, generous sidewalks, and copious foot traffic are all parts of it.

For now I'm off to shower away my 4 hours of solo city wandering. This post started with a shower reference, so may as well bookend it with one.

Chi-Town

I'm leaving in about half an hour on a road trip from Colorado to Chicago with Jo! We're planning on getting there late Sunday, lots of miles between here and there.

I'll be there all next week, and then Bobby flies out to join us over Labor Day Weekend. His b'day is on the 6th, so much celebrating will be done! Then Bobby and I are taking the train back from Chicago (we're both kind of obsessed with train travel).

This is both of our first times booking one of the sleeper cars- usually we just sleep in our seats- so just cross your fingers we don't get bedbugs. Not because Amtrak is particularly bedbuggy, just because bedbugs are all over the news everywhere so it seemed like a good thing to cross fingers against...

Anyway.

Ok, time to pack up the laptop and stop rambling.

Blogger Keeps Me From Blogging

Ok, this might not be very tactful, talking crap about Blogger ON Blogger (I mean, I could at least complain about it on Facebook or something) but I'll just have to hurt its feelings-

Blogger blows.

There, I said it. Don't get me wrong, when I first started keeping a blog, I appreciated the easy format. It's made blogging accessible to millions of people, and I'm sure grandparents and far flung relatives the world over are grateful for the posts and the pictures of family, and many an angsty teen is pounding out an emo post, reveling in being able to express the unbearable burdens of being 13, and hurrah, that's fabulous.

But right about now, as I've been doing more picture heavy posts, Blogger makes me want to tear my hair out, fashion it into a rope, and strangle myself with it. Ok, maybe not that bad. But it definitely keeps me from blogging more often. I've been pondering moving to a new site, namely wordpress, but I've been here for a while now, and I'm feeling nostalgic, and plus it's a hassle to move. But, it's the creepy nostalgia, like when you know you should break up with a boyfriend, but you think about how awesome it was when you first met, and it's a hassle to break up, so then you drag it out waaaaaaay to long. Yeah, that's how it is with Blogger.

I just want something more customizable, and mostly I want something that doesn't make me upload 5 photos at a time, in REVERSE. EFFING. ORDER. and then uploads them in html so I have no idea what I'm captioning and therefore must make a little list in a Word document to keep track of everything. Maybe there are some Blogger tricks I don't know about. But right now, I know for sure I'd have already posted the pics from Kate and Anna's trip if Blogger weren't hell bent on making photo uploading less fun than going to the dentist.

And if you've read my previous posts on my recent experiences in dentistry, you'll know that was a low, dirty blow to Blogger. Sorry dude, I had to go there.

Blast from the Past

Wow. Dear ones, I have another "four generations" shot to show you. This is sometime in the late 80's, although I trust you would have guessed as much simply by looking at the picture. This was scanned in to my computer a while back for safekeeping. And now here it is, for your viewing pleasure in the context of the second to last post. We are some foxy lay-dees...

Fun with CSA Produce

Remember "Whose Line is it Anyway?" when they would use the props? Yeah, this was like that except it was just Bobby and I laughing like fools and neither of us get paid to be this nerdy. I'm ok with that. Like somebody smart always said, you make your own fun.

Great Granny Lives up to Her Adjective

The girls left Friday night at 10 p.m., and Bobby and I were on the road the next morning at around 9 a.m. It was a 9 hour drive, 100 degree highs, we had no air conditioning. This is why Bobby is wearing shorts. Because he is smart.

This is also the same reason why I strangled my jacket in my window, wrapped the sleeve around the seatbelt, and then stuffed the visor into the sleeve for shade. I was wearing two items of clothes- underwear, and a sundress. I was still, as you can see, pretty much melting. Please feel sympathy for me with this additional detail- I use Retin-A, which basically makes one's face feel nice and flaming with too much sun exposure. All in all, the trip was great, minus the face melting.

We got in around 7:30, stopped by to visit for about an hour with Great Granny, and then hit up one of the only two restaurants Hillsboro, KS has. This Mexican restaurant is not only good considering the fact that it is in a small Kansas town, pop 3,000 or so, it's actually just plain good. I was more than grateful for a good meal and an early, early bedtime (pretty sure Great Granny stayed up later than me that night)

We stayed at the only hotel in town, which is right next to a Sonic. Here is the view from said Sonic as we ate whatever we could scrounge up. This is how Kansas rolls. I love how open it is, personally, but I have to admit I love it in a visit kind of way, not in a let's buy a house and live here forever kind of way.

We hung out all day with Great Granny. She is, in a word, awesome. She's 96 and is completely, 100% still with it and in great shape. She bustles around the room, laughing, making jokes, talking about all the details of local politics and the people she voted for and why, local happenings, international news, her hobbies, family life, etc. She has a dry, droll, almost sarcastic sense of humor. She often says something and then smirks a bit, gives a wink, and then throws her head back and laughs. She's on the left, my Granny is on the right, Mom and Bobby are out of the frame taking copious amounts of pictures.

Great Granny, action shot.

I love. this. picture of her. I took it with Bobby's (much nicer than mine) camera, and I'm still getting used to it. That twinkle in her eye makes me happy.

I love her little hands!

Mom photo bombing and making Great Granny laugh.

This is me, mom, and Great Granny getting set up for our four generations shot, we're waiting for Granny.

Me 27, Mom 46, Granny 76, Great Granny 96. I adore this picture. We're all genuinely laughing at an inside joke. We always tell Great Granny not to use her forced "church smile". As we were joking with her about it, she said matter of factly "I don't know why we say that, "church smile", I don't remember having much to smile about when I was in church!" She then went on to talk about how my Granny dyed her hair orange on accident before church one day, haha.

So, an explanation- after exhausting our food resources Bobby and I decided to drive to the town 30 minutes away for dinner. I used to commute to that town for work the summer I lived with my Uncle Hush in Hillsboro, and Granny stayed down the street with Great Granny. Anyway, please remember my Retin-A boiling face problem. Problem solved!

We hit up the "Golden Dragon", a classy Chinese joint in a strip mall. The parking lot dead ends into a creepy cornfield. Bobby was demonstrating the typical American confusion when confronted with chopsticks...

I taught him everything I learned while living in Japan. I'm kind of a pro.

The next day was a quick breakfast and an hour or so morning visit with Great Granny before we hit the road. The weather started off gorgeous...

Then the skies turned completely gray, and the rain started coming down in torrents, with terrible sideways wind. We pulled over at a gas station so a) I could pee, but mostly b) so we wouldn't die. Great Granny gets 96 years, I'm not settling for less!

It cleared up right as we hit Denver, about an hour from home. So, so glad we got to go on this trip.

Housekeeping

I have lots of pictures coming- Kate and Anna visited for a week and we were super busy, and then the very day after they left Bobby and I headed down to Kansas to meet up with my Mom and Granny driving up from Texas so we could all visit my Great Granny. We got in late last night, scarfed down some nice, light veggie sushi, and crashed out. I spent all day today unpacking, organizing, cleaning, doing dishes, and doing laundry- all the way down to our sheets, guest sheets, and every single napkin/dishcloth/towel in the house. In between that I read and wrote for class, read and took notes for one internship, and acquainted myself with the responsibilities of my second internship. Oh, and went through the photos of aforementioned visiting and weeded them out a bit.

Looking forward to getting back in a routine, and first on the list is hitting the gym tomorrow. More photos/less words coming soon...

I Love Beets

Just a normal Wednesday night, wringing out beets... it reminded me of Dexter.

Bike Rides and Puppies

I've mentioned before that Bobby and I volunteer at the local no-kill shelter. It's about 26 miles roundtrip to go on bikes, and we get to enjoy all three of the awesome trails our city has to offer. Plus, I never turn down a chance to wear my sweet helmet.



And we're off! A gorgeous day and a fabulous trail. All 3 trails are well maintained, with wide paved trails. They are almost completely secluded from roads, so it's like a little bike highway network you can use to get all over town without have to deal with traffic.





Right before we dump out onto the street where the shelter is, everything opens up and the view of the mountains is great.



The shelter is located right next to a big natural area, with walking trails that lead down to a lake. The dogs enjoy the lake :)






We walked sprinted with two dogs for about a mile of outdoor fun- the two little guys were Rudy and Darius- and then we went back for another round of walk/sprinting, this time with Brogan, the big white dog. Some dogs don't play well with others, so Brogan was a solo jaunt. After 13 miles, and sprinting/walking 2 miles, we got back on our bikes for the 13 miles home. By this time it was quite hot, and I was quite hungry. I've never been so happy for a shower and a smoothie, followed very quickly by a nap.

I can't say it enough, if you're going to adopt *please* check out your local shelters and puppy mill rescues. So many sweet dogs need homes! And speaking of not being able to say enough about something, I love our bike trails, bike lanes, and bike friendly culture here in town. I really enjoy cycling around town and am glad I can do it in relative safety. Except in parking lots. Gotta watch those parking lots.