Ho Boy

Got a new phone today. I don't want to go into the details of how Verizon raped my checking account, because it was too gruesome. By the way, I need everyone's phone numbers. Because my contact list is gone with the wind. I did manage to find a decent place to get a haircut afterward, though, so my morning wasn't shot.

I also went to St Peter's church FINALLY!!! It was very relaxing to sit and get mah prayer on in a quiet Catholic church. I even tried to buy a votive candle for Grandpa. Unfortunately, this wasn't the type of church where you could buy the candle and light it yourself. No no. You have to buy the candle and trust that the friars will light the candle for you and pray for your loved one.

So of course I screwed that up completely. I filled out the form incorrectly and now there will be 8 days' worth of prayers for ME and not grandpa. Embarassing!

Other than that, I've been cleaning all afternoon. Cleaned our bathroom, swept the floor, vacuumed my floor, doing multiple loads of laundry (plus blankets for the couch), and I even baked chocolate chip cookies. Because if you're going to start channeling Martha Stewart, you may as well go off the deep end.

Still to do: clean my room and the kitchen, do the business meeting at the library and then AIRPORT TIME! I just can't wait to take the Orange line all the way to Midway for a midnight flight arrival. I may actually get a chance to use my mace. Hah...hah...

On Your Mark, Get Set...

My phone died this morning! Correction: it started shutting itself off and turning itself on repeatedly in a neverending cycle until I unplugged it and let its battery run out.

I like how it chooses the day before Chris's flight comes in to completely die on me. I have no idea what airport or flight he's coming in on. Hah...hah...NEVER AGAIN WILL I BUY A BLACKBERRY STORM! NEVER!!!!!

I did do a lot of accounting-type work today at Eamonn's office. And Keith let me print out checks for some of the utilities. I have a feeling that years from now, after I'm well established in a real job, I'll look back on today and laugh at how easily I was entertained. Keith is probably laughing about it right now.

Now I'm waiting on some white rice and a few episodes of 30 Rock! Gotta unwind properly before my day of frenzied cleaning, business meetings, and phone repair tomorrow. Whoot! Let the weekend of madness begin yo!

Yawn

Majorly uneventful day. Went to work for 8 hours and did practically nothing (they're running out of tasks and Eamonn is in Montana so I was all alone).

Came home, did the elliptical and ran a couple of miles and now I'm veggin'. Meh, hopefully there'll be a lot of running around and siteseeing and whatnot this weekend, so I can totally put up with 2 boring days in the meantime!!

The Quiet After A Storm

Other than getting molested by a 5 year old girl on the El, today was pretty decent.

Ok, well, Kat came home at 2 AM and turned on the TV to watch the bloody E! channel while she shouted at her boyfriend. I finally went into the living room at 2:45 and asked her to turn it off, and she seemed pretty apologetic ... in a drunken sort of way. But I'm done venting about that girl!

We got some grocery shopping down this afternoon and I got a couple of summery dresses from Urban Outfitters so YAY! I'm fuelling the economy, that's all!

Angela made Haley and I some sweet nachos for dinner, and we watched Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.

...I'm actually too tired to make this any more interesting. Sorry. Maybe all my energy got sucked out last night while I was plotting Kat's destruction.

A Good Old Fashioned Vent

Ok, I need to blow off some steam right now. I'm taking a 5 minute break from my "No swearing" New Year's Resolution. Blame the 3 hours of sleep I got last night for this:

The more time I spend in Kat's presence, the more I want to rip her head off and feed it to a pond of koi fish. Um...carnivorous koi.

She has a ridiculously good-looking, nice-enough boyfriend in New York (see: Captain Underpants). We hated having him in the apartment, but the guy was a nice enough person and obviously really cares about her.

But what does she do every damn night? Puts on the sluttiest "RAPE ME NOW" dresses she can find, and parties with random guys that she picks up around the city.

Meanwhile she says her boyfriend is being too protective and too suspicious of her. Well Fuck, maybe it has something to do with you being drunk off your ass all the time and having already cheated on him before! Stupid slut!

So he calls her and she screams at him. He calls her again, she screams at him. Then she cries at him. You're 21. Start fighting like a fucking adult, not a dramatic little teenager.

And last night, completely trashed, she cried at him for 3 hours on the phone in our living room. My room shares a wall with the living room, so I had to be privvy to every single fucking word of that conversation. From 2 AM (when she came in drunk and dropping things everywhere) to 5 AM (when she passed out in a puddle of her own drama queen tears).

I HAD WORK THIS MORNING DAMMIT. How many fucking times do I have to say "YEAH I HAVE TO WORK ON SATURDAY" for her to get the idea that I NEED TO SLEEP ON FRIDAY NIGHTS??? TAKE YOUR BAGGAGE SOMEWHERE ELSE OTHER THAN THE FUCKING LIVING ROOM!

And this evening she keeps going on about this cute "sweet" boy she met last night. YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND WHO LOVES YOU, WHORE. And not 12 hours ago you were sobbing to him on the phone about how he needed to trust you! BITCH!!!!!!

Okay I'm done.

No, I'm not done: "THE HILLS" IS A RETARDED, UNREALISTIC SHOW AND I CANNOT BELIEVE WE HAVE TO WATCH IT AND EVERY FUCKING VERSION OF "REAL HOUSEWIVES" WHEN YOU ARE IN THE APARTMENT. DON'T FUCKING TELL ME THAT 30 ROCK IS A STUPID SHOW WHEN YOU SPEND ALL YOUR DAYS MEMORIZING WHO'S DATING WHO IN HOLLYWOOD.

Other than this, today was splendid.

Now I Need To Buy A Blind-fold?

Angela and I went to the Adler Planetarium today. Another landmark crossed off the list! This is where the oldest planetarium in the western hemisphere is located. I've grown up with an astronomy professor for a dad, so of course I hate astronomy with a passion. But I still wanted to see this place. And we had a bit of fun.

Then tonight I walked to Grant Park to meet Molly (from WeFarm) at the Chicago SummerDance festival. This event occurs every weekend night throughout the summer. Free dance lessons are offered in Grant Park and live bands perform into the night. Tonight it was swing dancing (so of course I was desperate to go!)

Unfortunately Molly got there late so it took us a long time to catch up with everyone else. And I always feel awkward dancing with another chick but everyone had paired up by that point! :( BUT we had some fun and afterward we walked a block over to the Taste of Chicago festival.

Remember Taste of OC? Well this is Chicago's version. Two solid weeks of 9AM-11PM FOOOOOOD from all corners of the city. Every tent represents a different restaurant. It's super crowded!

I went to the Cubby Bear tent. The Cubby Bear is a cool club right by Wrigley Field (get it? The Cubs...the Cubby Bear...haha). THEY HAD AMAZING BBQ BEEF SANDWICHES. Haley and I are going back for dinner tomorrow. Yummers.

Does This Train Seem To Be Going Too Fast?

Just to catch up on my blogging, since I'm a day behind:

Today Aleks (not Alex) and I met up by the City Hall to do some Outreach. It was supposed to be a full on business team meeting but the other 2 couldn't make it. So we sat down at Corner Bakery and brainstormed without them. Got some decent marketing ideas!

Angela, Haley and I got some authentic Chicago hot dogs from America's Dog (voted best in the city apparently?). YUMMY STUFF and super cheap! Then we went to Target to get some essentials. We're all kind of gearing up for our string of visitors. Angela's boyfriend and his little brother are visiting on the 2nd, so...uh...that's gonna be interesting. 7 people in one apartment. Hokay!

Okay, back to obsessively watching 30 Rock. DANGIT ARDEN!!!! Hahahaha I can't believe I never watched this show until now...

Demolition Done

Yesterday was entirely unproductive. Well, I guess I cleaned the kitchen, did laundry and cooked simmered chicken with rice for dinner so it wasn't *that* bad. But still.

In the evening we had a tornado watch. I think that's the first time I've ever heard civil defense sirens (is that even what they're called?) before. CREEEEEPY.

Then we found out that tornadoes apparently never make it to downtown because the tall buildings just break up the cyclone somehow. So that's a relief. The weather channel was saying the hail was going to be 2" accross and that winds would be 77mph. But in the end, we just got some gnarly thunder and lightning. The sky did turn greenish though. Not nice.

Also I found out yesterday that I am for sure getting a visitor next week, so YAY I have an excuse to get out of work! Haha. Chris is coming from the 1st to the 6th. I made a huge point of asking everyone if it was OK, considering what happened with Captain Underpants a few weeks ago.

I think Chris will be amused by the dramarama that's going on between Kat and Haley and their boyfriends. Kat was screaming at her boyfriend over the phone last night during dinner. And Haley...well Haley is always upset about her non-boyfriend Adam. I don't think they've figured out yet that screaming at men isn't exactly a good way to keep relationships going. But it's pretty good dinner entertainment.

*update* Wow, apparently the point didn't get accross because a chick just waltzed out of Kat's room and announced herself as "Kat's friend from New York". Wtf Kat.

What Would We Wear Were We Werewolves?

Whooooo last night was fun!

One of Angela's internship duties is to be a judge at the Elbo Room's Battle of the Bands. So I hopped over on the Brown Line to Diversey to see the 2nd show last night.

The Elbo Room is awesome. It's a small underground bar with live music 7 days a week. It reminds me of a pub I LOVE in Edinburgh called Whistle Binkies. So right away I got very nostalgic when I came into the Elbo Room.

The bands were, for the most part, great. Angela's boss let me sit in the judging area with them when the bar started getting crowded. It was like VIP treatment!

At around 12:30 the votes were tallied. I waited outside by the street since Angela was one of the counters. One of the lead singers, a complete dopehead, made several vague attempts to talk to me. I was nice to him but I didn't pursue the conversation either. No groupie am I.

After wandering back inside, I did at least get approached by one hot guy who wasn't on drugs. "So are you one of the band member's girlfriends?" "HAHAHAH NO." "Ahh I saw you sitting over by the judges table the whole night, so I figured..." and then, in a dazzling display of piss-poor timing, Angela showed up and we had to leave. Dangit Angela!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Wow. I thought I lost my mace can a few minutes ago and I had a complete Gollum-style meltdown looking for it. THE PRECIOUSSSSSSS! It's now safe in my pocket once again.

The office was pretty sweet today. I was alone for 95% of the time and actually had enough work to keep me busy. I was on Quickbooks for the most part, updating lists. I also had to draw up a lease and pay some bills for Eamonn. I am loving the way this is gradually exposing me to real business activities. :-D

After work, I zipped home from Hyde Park and grabbed a Sub before walking over to Millennium Park. It was my first time in the park, and can I just say WOW. I mean...WOW. Amazing. I'm talking about the outdoor concert arena. Tonight (and most nights throughout the summer, so I see by the pamphlet I jacked) there was live music! New bands performing! And hundreds of people lounging about on blankets in groups, playing frisbee or just chilling. Love it!

It was humid of course but warm and cozy. And when dusk fell it was just like those nice midwestern evenings I remember from all our previous vacations in Illinois. Peaceful, sleepy (minus the crowds and the music), and just plain pleasant.

Of course I was there for work, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. We had a business team meeting for the 4 business interns at WeFarm. Just so we could get on the same page and schedule future meetings. It was actually pretty great. I guess our focus will be on marketing from now on, which doesn't bother me at all (hey, as long as I am using my business skills to keep Pepperdine happy).

Oh, man. I really want to come back to the park some night with the roomies and have a picnic and listen to more bands.

Which reminds me- tomorrow night: battle of the bands at the Elbow Room (where Angela does promotions)! Hopefully I have the energy to make it there after work.

Whole Foods, You Complete Me

Is it possible to have an orgasm from seeing fresh produce for the first time in weeks? I'm not exactly a health nut, but when I walked into Whole Foods this morning, I almost wanted to grope the scallions. Feel free to judge me, I don't care. You try living in a city with no decent grocery stores. Then we'll see how well you survive off of ramen and peanut butter. Plus I love cooking. And our pots/pans SUCK, so...I'm having serious withdrawals. Like a sex addict would, I imagine.

So I stocked up on apples, bananas, peaches, scallions, garlic, onion, potatoes, salmon, orange juice, hummus, rosemary crackers, red pepper, chicken thighs, cooking sherry - oh snap I'm drooling right now.

This evening I thought to myself "You know what? I'm gonna go to Mass! Gotta hear something inspiring for once!" So I looked up St Peter's church on Google, found a 5 PM mass, and skipped off on my merry way.

Not only was there NO mass at 5 PM, but the church was CLOSED. What the HELL kind of church is locked up on a Sunday? The trip home was also depressing. A drug addict started to yell at me on the train platform. I don't know what he was yelling (Ipod) but when I casually pulled the mace can out of my purse he backed off pretty quickly.

On the way home, all trains were being diverted due to "an emergency on the Red Line". I heard ambulances blaring through the streets. Dunno what all that was about. I'll look it up as soon as I post this...

*update* - Yeah. Pretty gnarly fire in the Red Line.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/2413148,fire-red-line-north-side-062010.article

Boys Are Always Trying To Kill Themselves. Get Over It.

Angela and Haley were on Wabash this evening and saw one of the many homeless panhandlers doin' his thing on the street. Then they saw a girl walk past the panhandler, stop, and start rummaging through her purse. The girl then turned around and asked the panhandler (in all seriousness): "Do you take pennies?"

In my own less hilarious encounter with a vagrant, a guy on the platform at the Metra started screaming like Titi from Reno 911. Yeah, not as exciting. But that's all I have for today.

Oh, PS I'm still alive. The "wind storms" were not as bad by our apartment as everyone seems to think. Apparently Chicago was on national news because the Sears Tower got some windows blown out. Honestly, besides the 10 minutes where the sky looked apocalyptic and the rain was blowing perfectly sideways past our windows and the thunder was shaking the walls...it was fine.

You're Such a Cripple

Today...I accomplished almost nothing. Well, I read some of Thomas More's Utopia and made a good outline of my IMBA proposal for Pepperdine. Other than that...yeah.

I ran 2.5 miles at the gym before a freak thunderstorm hit the city. Within 10 minutes, the sky had gone from bright and sunny to apocalyptic. When the lightning first started striking, the thunder shook the walls. Then with each loud boom, the vents made LOUD banging sounds and vibrated. The four of us who were in the gym were like "uh....yeah it's time to go."

Tonight I'll just read more of Utopia and rest up for another day at the office tomorrow. This is the first day I feel I've wasted since I got to Chicago. Not pleasant! Mustn't let it happen again.

Procrastination Is A Skank

So yesterday, Angela was on her way out to a club to work (she does promotion work for a music company). As she was walking through the metal revolving bars to step off the Brown Line, tragedy struck.

A guy behind her started pushing on the revolving bars faster than Angela could walk. He pushed so hard that her ankle was jammed between the bars and she got stuck. The guy kept pushing the bars, and she started screaming (as people typically do when their ankle gets severely sprained). At this point, the guy realized he had done something bad. So what did he do? He RAN AWAY. Leaving Angela curled up on the ground, stuck, screaming and crying.

Luckily for her, 3 men ran over and helped her out. They called the ambulance, told her not to sign anything from CTA (the train company) and stayed with her until the paramedics came.

So she's stuck on crutches for at least a week, which sucks, and the moral of the story is: DO NOT WALK THROUGH THOSE METAL REVOLVING DOORS ON THE EL.

Will All The Happy Couples Please Drop Dead?

The Field Museum is slightly overrated. I guess it was worth the $18 to see the famous frozen baby mammoth and the world's most intact T-rex skeleton. And the totem pole exhibit was pretty sweet. But everything else...*yawn*

The Shedd Aquarium, on the other hand...they had a line outside for that museum that rivaled the line at Space Mountain, I kid you not. What do they have in that place??? Must find out...

Tomorrow morning we go back to the Cambodian association to finish filling in their last garden bed. Joy! Which reminds me, I have actual work to do tonight for WeFarm. Extra joy! (no really, I'm happy about this.)

Late Night Munchies

As I waited by the doors of my train this evening, the conductor stared at me and said "Reminds me of a joke my cat told me this morning!"
I didn't say anything but immediately tried to gauge how many seconds we had left before the train would stop and the doors would open.
Other lady: What did your cat say?
Him: *still staring at me* MEEOWWWWWWW!

I chuckled to avoid an awkward silence, but that really only encouraged him. "Not the best joke, I know! But it's better than a stab in the eye!" What? What the Hell? Another confused chuckle. Why is the train taking so long to stop??? "And it's better than Vietnam! Way better than Vietnam!" The doors snapped open. I said "Too soon, man. Too soon," and jumped off. I don't know if he responded, I was too busy running for the exit.

How To Interface With Your Tenants

I saw Keith talk jive with one of our tenants today. It was astounding. I had no idea he could talk like that, even though he's African American. I'm impressed, especially with the difference in how this tenant treated Keith as opposed to Eamonn (who she basically ignored in spite of the fact that HE's the landlord). I wonder if Keith did it intentionally to manipulate her, or if he just naturally starts talking like that to some people? I would never ask him because that's just way too awkward. But it's still kinda fascinating.

And another thought...is that part of why Eamonn has Keith working for him? To interface with the African American tenants who frankly do not trust Eamonn? So...how does that factor in with all the race-in-the-workplace papers I had to read as an undergrad? Because here it seems like Keith has quite a bit of de facto power in the company because of his race. So would this be a step forward or a step backward in the whole equality in the workplace goal?

Wait. NO. I swore I would not let Sociology haunt me ever again after graduation. BEGONE, DEEP THOUGHTS! BEGONE! I will go bake chocolate chip cookies and watch The Tudors. Jonathan Rhys Meyers will drive all intelligent thought out of this brain.

Cubs Fans Are Hot

Starting with last night...

All the roomies and I hopped on the Red Line to Wrigley Field, which turns out to be in a COOL downtown club/bar area. I definitely want to spend more nights there. The place was packed with Cubs and Sox fans last night (it was game day). Also heard a couple of new pick-up lines. "I REMEMBER YOU! DO YOU REMEMBER ME???" "Nope." Another guy was yelling at his friend saying "Don't be a douchebag, Jason! Look at all these hot women walking around us *stares pointedly at our group* and you're just standing there???" That was totally acted out like a play, but I gotta say that one almost worked on me.

We got to the Metro, saw one good band and 3 crappy bands. Much fun was had by all except for Haley, who isn't 21 and probably felt very uncool without a wristband. Not that the rest of us were getting wasted- she just didn't even have the option.

This morning Haley, Angela and I visited the Hershey's store near the river. Epic chocolates. I didn't actually buy any chocolate but I did get a pretty sweet reusable bag for groceries. Wow that sounded nerdy.

We also looked around a mall and found the Chicago Blues Festival up the street from our apartment.

I made myself some curry and rice for dinner and now I will rest for a while before hitting the gym. Hopefully I won't get into a run-off again...

Note To Self: Do Not Eat the Lip Scrub

Today I worked at Eamonn's office in Hyde Park.

Eamonn called me from a worksite and said "GET THE FILE FOR 92523-B AND FIND THE LEASE FOR AMENAFLYTER JONES AND COPY HER E-MAIL ADDRESS AND THEN WRITE AN E-MAIL THAT SAYS I WILL HAVE HER LEASE PROCESSED BY MONDAY AND THEN ATTACH THE FILE FROM MY DOCUMENTS THAT SAYS LEASE.APP OKAY THANKS BYE"
I think he was having a "Miranda Priestly" moment there.

And then I hung up, sat there staring at the screen, and then looked at Keith and said "Wait, he has an e-mail account?"

Typed up a TON of leases today. Becoming a typewriter MASTER. Yay for useless skills!

And then I got my first paycheck from Keith. And what does a 22 year old girl who hasn't bought her own clothes for the last 2 years do when she gets a $242 paycheck? She goes completely nuts at Macy's, that's what she does. But from now on, I save the rest of my paychecks for Switzerland...

In a short while all of the roomies and I are going out by Wrigley Stadium to some venue. Haley's coworker has a band and they are performing tonight...so we all got free tickets. Awesome! It may be raining and cold out but I am totally rocking this new dress and jeans jacket. Gotta take my girly moments when I can get them. Because tomorrow it's back to garden work!

That Was the Sweatiest Milk I've Ever Seen

It really was. It got everywhere.

Gardening Clothes = Man Repellant?

Another exhausting day of shoveling at Orozco! After about 5 workdays the cuteness of the children is starting to wear off. Except for one cute little boy in his PE class who stood at the top of the little hill while I was raking and said "Hello Miss!" and smiled the most adorable smile ever at me. That was definitely an "AWWWWWwwww cute kid alert!" moment.

On the other end of the spectrum, there was a little boy who almost got my shovel up his a$$ for being a little twerp and jumping on the recycling bins. There was a brief moment where I channeled my mother and bellowed "GET OFF OF THE RECYCLING BIN RIGHT NOW!!!" Did I mention he had a pitchfork in his hand? That might help to explain my panic. It was disturbing to hear Mom's voice like that when I was so sure she was a couple thousand miles away...so I turned on my IPod and prayed that The Monkees would help calm me down. Glad to say that "Pleasant Valley Sunday" *eventually* did the trick.

Okay, Gonna Vom Now

Main victory of the day: outrunning a little skank on the treadmill. And mind you, before entering this run-off, I had just done .5 miles on the elliptical and walked about 2 miles through the city with Alex. Not to mention I had gorged myself on a 2 entree Panda Express an hour beforehand. The orange chicken definitely haunted me during that run.

But the important thing is that I beat the little slut. Took 42 minutes of solid running, but she lllooooossstt. It was kind of funny...we were both continually pressing the "increase cool down time" buttons on the treadmills in our determination to win.

PS I get ridiculously competitive when it comes to running. I do not think it is acceptable for a girl who is already cuter than me to be a better runner as well, so I will typically bring myself to the brink of self destruction rather than let her beat me.

Seneca gave me a boatload of organic arugula, spinach and carrots today when Alex and I went to his little experimental farm in Englewood. And can I just say, I usually don't eat whole strawberries because I dislike the taste. But those organic strawberries...out of this world. Really.

Gimme Gimme Gimme a Man With Some Clothes On!

Kat's douchebag boyfriend apparently lacks the ability to go out and *do things* on his own, so while his girlfriend is at work he stays in our apartment in his boxers. Today he cooked eggs while scratching his crotch as poor Angela wheezed on the sofa (she has the flu). And then he left pans and scraps of egg all over the counter.
Oh Haha, aren't you such a cute boy, you're just so delightfully messy and laid-back right? SCRUB THAT COUNTER AND GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR APARTMENT, DOUCHEBAG.

Work was challenging today. I spent about an hour updating the Quickbooks files to match the new leases. I wrote up a lease and signed it for a new tenant. Pretty sure that lease is not legally binding because I'm not legally an employee. But whatever. I just follow mein Fuhrer's orders. Then I had to check Eamonn's calculations for his personal financial statement. It took me forever to reformat that, because it was all in "text" form and not "numbers". So editing the numbers was impossible without going through EVERYTHING and converting it, and then the rows and columns were all different sizes and omg it was such a mess. I felt better afterward when Keith looked over my shoulder and went "Oh Lord is that his personal financial statement? Lord, do I hate that file."

I also had to check the Escrow analyses for some of his new properties. I found a lot of errors. I almost think he planted them for me in order to test my ability.

The Escrow analyses were really difficult because I, well, had no idea how Escrow worked until today. Thankfully I was alone in the office long enough to Google-BS my way to a basic understanding. In an attempt to cover up my incompetency, I made his presentation SUPER cool looking on Excel. I also put in a bunch of formulas to make it more professional.

My plan backfired. Eamonn came back and was so impressed with my knowledge of Escrow that he decided I would be the person to present this spreadsheet to the bankers. FUTURE FAIL.

And oh, the irony of running to CVS to pick up some chicken noodle soup for your sick flatmate, only to get the sick cashier who is barely able to stand up. And then have that cashier cough, blow her nose, and then rub her dirty paws all over the soup cans. I wiped them with bleach wipes as soon as I got home.

Laoye Adedoye Gets His 5-Day Notice

I could cry from happiness that Angela saved me a plate of meatloaf, potatoes and corn for my dinner. I got off of work at 8 tonight. >_<

Today I learned that typewriters are evil, twisted, sick machines that ought to have no place in my life. Unfortunately they do, though, because that's how Eamonn types up the leases. Correction: How I will type them up, once we get new lease forms to replace the ones I destroyed with all the errors I made in typing them. Let's just say I was so embarassed by a couple of those leases that I crinkled them up and hid them in my purse.

The office was mine alone until Eamonn came to work (3ish) and gave me a present: a can of mace. The package says it will incapacitate an attacker for up to 45 minutes. MWHAHAHA I can't wait to use it.

I had to stay late tonight because Keith brought in the janitor from Eamonn's newly-acquired apartment building. The janitor was effectively managing the place up till now and knows all the tenants personally. It was strange to see Keith and Eamonn asking this guy for information on who the reliable tenants were, and how able they were to pay increased rent. We went down the whole list of tenants, making notes of how much to increase each person's rent on the new lease.

For my part, I definitely did not like having to go through Quickbooks and rattle off the names of the people who had fallen behind on payments, or circling the names of the people whose eviction notices I'll have to write up. This is the south side, after all. It's sad to see this happening. It totally doesn't help, either, that about 4 different tenants stopped by today while Eamonn was out and tried to ask for clemency.

Not that Eamonn is a bad guy. He's awesome and very humanistic. But you can only give so much leeway before your business comes tumbling down. My other internship is focused on helping these people improve their livelihoods...this internship is more concerned with getting more money out of them. It's a weird juxtaposition. Save the world 4 days a week, destroy it during the other 3 days. But...gain experience with Quickbooks! So overall, a success!

Oops, I haven't had time to update. Bullet list!

Friday:
~Office hours with WeFarm down in the German district. Went over the new workplans, got a list of some suppliers from Aleks, and got to FINALLY see some of the business side of this operation.
~Claudine and I went to Medieval Times. Totally corny but sooo funny and we had front row seats. Royalty upgrade, yayah!!

Saturday:
~My first day of work with Mid Continental Building Corporation. LOVED IT. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. I work on the top floor of the Hyde Park Bank building on the south side. The building is circa 1926, and our office is converted from an old ballroom. Neato!

Keith, the accountant I work with, is a very flamboyant man who is tons of fun and laughs a lot. So I think we'll get along well. There's also a cute cafe across the street that attracts students from nearby Chicago University.

My first tasks involved synchronizing the Quickbooks records with the actual paper leases that my boss holds- checking that the dates are the same, that the leases aren't missing, etc. Then I updated new lease info in Quickbooks and made a list of the leases that are expiring within the month. Tomorrow (I will be working with them Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays) I am going to start writing new leases for tenants. I also had to sort out the boss's vendors and organize invoices according to date. Boss says this is the easier part of my job, and the hard stuff will come as soon as we're done organizing all these documents.

~Last night Claudine came into the Loop again and we went to Russian Tea Time, supposedly a very famous restaurant right around the corner from my apartment. Very expensive!! We also saw the Buckingham Fountain.

~New roommate came home with her boyfriend at 2 AM and they had very loud dirty sex in her room. Angela, Haley and I were not pleased. Especially me- I had to get up early this morning. Her boyfriend seriously needs to get out of our apartment. We are sick of seeing him walk around in his underwear. Yes, douchebag, you are attractive. We know. Now go put some fucking clothes on.

Sunday (today):
~Got up early and took the blue line out to Logan Square. Was supposed to meet Alex there for the Farmer's Market (Outreach task) by 10 but I got there a little early. A homeless guy on a bike rode past me and went "HEEEEEYYYYY SWEETIE". Not two minutes later, a really scary looking thug walked past and said "HI THERE. HOW YOU DOIN?"


We strolled through the market and found a way to sign up WeFarm for a demo booth. So that was productive. Then we went back to Alex's new apartment and got these wicked cool blueberry bars that he made for the corny Garden Party. 2 bus rides and 1 hour later, we arrived at the party.

Actually it was a lot of fun. Good turnout, good demonstrations, etc. Except there was one strange hippie girl who kept doing yoga and not caring that her skirt was up to her crotch while she writhed around on the grass. When Seneca was explaining how dried blood (from livestock- you can buy it at stores) is good for soil, she raised her hand and said "I use my own blood!" Ladies, you know what that means. *shudder* Groooossssss. It was so awkward. Later, as she was talking to me, she saw a pregnant woman walk by. She went "Pregnant women are soooo beautiful." My response: "Heh......hehhh..."

Girl Talk

Today totally ruled in every way.

Showed up at Orozco for our LAST day of work (until the wood chips arrive). Got to do planting with the kids. The weather was almost chilly, which was beautiful after all this humidity. We finished planting early and then Alex, Seneca and I got a free Chinese lunch from the Orozco staff.

Kathleen just flew in from New York with her boyfriend ... um. ... Daniel? I think that's his name. She seems nice. She's our latest roommate. I'm afraid we may have scared her a little with our wild cackling and lewd jokes though. Oh well, she'll assimilate in time! *evil laugh*

Then Claudine drove in from Schaumburg to get dinner with me! Yay! My first visitor!! Somehow it took her 2 hours in traffic though...RIDICULOUS. So from now on we will be doing public transit to see each other. She did get to see a little bit of West Chicago though while we were trying to coordinate which roads she should take to get to my address. Word to the wise: GPS systems are useless in downtown Chicago.

Got home from dinner and we all watched Crybaby. Never heard of it until tonight. Hatchetface is hilarious. Now to watch Invader Zim on Netflix streaming until I fall asleep. :) :) :)

I Need New Sandals

Today I made a crackhead cry, heard a homeless woman singing "I Wish You A Merry Christmas" in the library, got free pizza from a pervy bartender, and had a meeting with my new boss.

Mr McCauley "officially" hired me this morning. I say "officially" because he doesn't want to go through the hassle of, you know, mentioning me on the books. He's just going to give me $11/hr tax free to work with them 20 hrs per week. Hah...hah...whatever. Just give me work. And money.

On the way home, I tried the Metra for the first time. The tickets confused me a little, so I asked a benign-looking African American woman how they worked. Bad move. 20 minutes later she was practically sobbing whilst telling me about her 2 crack-addicted daughters, her crackhead ex-husband, her cat (and how she smacked it upside the head for waking her up last night), her fat grandchildren, and her life as an unwed teenage mother. OH and how itchy her wig was.

Seeing as she had trapped me in the window seat of the train, I tried to steer the conversation toward happier topics- "Why, I have a cat as well. They do provide good company don't they?" but it always seemed to come back to drugs and unwanted pregnancies. So I gave up and just started saying the things she wanted to hear. "How could he sleep with your cousin? The bastard!" What a depressing train ride.

Once home, I walked around the North side for a while, venturing as far as the Chicago River area. I stopped in at Pizzeria Uno, one of the top 10 pizzerias here. The bartender was a nice guy. He made recommendations, offered me free pizza, aaaannnd then wrote "pretty lady" on my receipt. How random and inappropriate.

No Daniel, Shoveling Turf Is NOT Like Cutting Lasagna

My legs and arms hurt.

Terracing a field in this humidity is NO FREAKING FUN.

This morning I was finally entrusted with making a business call to order more compost. Delivery was set for 1 hour and my boss seemed very pleased. One hour later, a truckload of mulch arrived.

Where the Hell are my Quickbooks projects?

Disheartened, I called the president of MidContinental Building Corporation at my lunch. This is the guy who offered me a finance internship last week. He seemed very happy that I was following up on his offer, and we set up a meeting for tomorrow at 10 AM. He mentioned that I would be building Excel spreadsheets to present to the banks arguing for 3 year amortization instead of 1 year on some of his stuff (at least that's how he worded it).

After a week of farm labor and no finance opportunities, the word amortization sends little thrills of joy down my spine. Here's hoping everything turns out.

Note that I will be doing 2 internships- I'm not giving up on WeFarm. I like WeFarm a lot. I just need some educational white collar work to justify my summer out here.

PS Haley made an amazing shepherd's pie for dinner. So happy, because I nearly collapsed from fatigue in the elevator coming home.