Pretty Sure I Broke My Toe In Chicago

It was dark and someone put a chair with metal legs in front of the bathroom. It hurt when I ran into it and it still hurts. Oh well, the weekend was fun otherwise. Can't let one little thing get you down you know. What's a toe in the grand scheme of things anyway?

I am pretty pleased with the amount of Ferraris on television lately. Royal Pains has one every few episodes and Covert Affairs had one yesterday. I would say that USA must have one lying around, but one was a coupe and one was a spyder. They are such hot cars. I am a little confused why they all use the 360, when the 430 has been around for several years now and is quite easy to come by for someone of means. Oh well.

Currently listening to: A gentle thunderstorm, courtesy of Jenn and Matt Smola.

Top 5 Things Other People Said

Chicago was great! I'll post more extensively in the next few days and maybe some photos too, but for now, I just want to chronicle the top 5 things that other people said this weekend (other people = people I never met before in my life).

5. "..." -Alberta the Albino Pigeon and/or Dove

4. "[Chris swearing and having to put his head on the table]" -Chris

3. "I just want you to know that I don't plan on going home with anyone tonight." -Matt's Co-Worker

2. "Yeah well I brought an extra shirt for the ride home--it's gonna get cold tonight! High tomorrow is going to be 82. Did you know the train starts at Howard? I park my bike there." -CTA passenger

1. "Ok, great pictures. One more: SHOW ME YOUR TIGER FACE! WHERE ARE YOUR CLAWS?! SHOW ME YOUR CLAWS!!!!" -Guy we asked to take our picture at the bar

There were other funny things mentioned this weekend by everyone I know, and they're probably a tad funnier. I particularly enjoyed Eric's response to #3: "Whaddya think Matt, should we tell her?" Maybe you had to be there. Either way, great times. I'd go back.

Currently Listening to: the hum of my ceiling fan.

We're all in Chicago...

...it's kind of hot. It might rain, I guess we'll see.
Matt and Eric are sitting in the same room as me. HOORAY! We don't know where Mike is.
That's all I got.

Peace out!

I'm Busy

and so are you, I get it. I've been reading and even thinking of writing. The time has come.

1. Whale Wars--I don't care what Eric thinks, I saw the episode where they rammed the Ady Gil and it was intense. I was actually on the phone with Matt Forrest when it happened. Eric is just jealous that the whale-huggers could afford to build Millennium Force II in their backyard but instead spent the cash on...boats. I understand his frustration but what's better than mammalian drama on the antarctic high seas?

2. So I haven't blogged in a week and a half. My bad. What I've done instead: napped, bought new sunglasses (I'm convinced TKD somehow swallowed the old pair), worked, took more photos (duh), saw mdull (yay), watched my dad get rained on (currently underway). I've also been trying to find furniture for my apartment in Chapel Hill. That's going swimmingly.

3. The other day I was ridiculed for the size of my salad at the cafeteria at work (which rivals Farmer Fran in terms of produce quality). I'm in line and someone (who I don't even know) sees me put my salad on the scale and freaks out when he sees the rather dodgy scale sink lower than usual: "Woah! That's gotta be a record-setting salad!" This followed a comment by another salad bar patron who told me that I could put my dressing in a to-go cup and not have the weight counted against my total. Thanks for pointing that out after you watched me drizzle dressing (alliteration ftw) all over my salad. Then when the cashier (who wears pink-tinted sunglasses everyday but occasionally swaps them for chromed safety glasses) is trying to read the weight/price (she's also 85), some joker pipes up and says "$93!" Asshole. The salad was $5 and was an entire lunch, including my favorite vegetables and a good hunk of burning love chicken.

4. Fireflies plays every day on the single radio station that we can receive in our windowless lab. I pause for a minute and harken back to the days of apt212 when our only real concerns were if the losers would swim at 3am and where we could find a bachelorette party from which to borrow a corkscrew.

That's all for now. Chicago this weekend! YEAH! Photos! Phun! Phriends!

Currently listening to: the printer print.

Trivia

Going to trivia nights makes me want to drink Kool-Aid. Lucky for me I have five younger siblings.

Things you don't want to order at McDonalds...

So I recently found out I work in the McJunkin Building, which to me just painted a really bad image in my mind of a bad McDonalds menu item. "Ummm hi, I'd like to order the McJunkin meal." I don't know it kept me amused for a few.

My neck hurts, I think I slept on it weird. It's Wednesday which means Matt and Eric get here soon (as in two days). Though apparently I didn't invite Eric so I guess that might mean he's not coming...oh well he'll make whatever choice he wants. It also seems that no one other than Brad, Eric and I read this anymore :-( We even seem to have lost long time blog follower Molly Dull...that is a sad day indeed.

Now playing: Mike Posner - Cooler than Me

Peace out!

I am not a traitor

This is more or less direct at Eric, but I am sure I can fight with him over this when I see him this weekend. That is if he is still invited. I am still here. I am still blogging (unlike other two rather absent members of Apt 212.) The other blog will have rather long and wordy posts. I know you do not want that Eric, I am trying to spare you the pain or annoyance you may feel. If anything I am your greatest ally, you're just jealous I saw Transformers 3 being filmed. I was going to take you this weekend, I am reconsidering my offer.

It is less hot today. I like that. I ordered Mexican for dinner because we were all too lazy to make anything.

Currently listening to: Fans blowing, Dynamite by Taio Cruz

Peace out!

Whale Wars

Is a sad excuse for entertainment. No, I have never actually watched it, but I am perfectly capable of assuming the worst. I mean what is this? Who can be a bigger asshole? For those not familiar with the concept, the show is the story of a struggle between a group of Japanese researchers and people who obviously have too much time and money on their hands and have nothing better to do than dick around in the southern oceans bothering aforementioned researchers.

I am highly suspect of the show for a few reasons. First, we have no idea what the story of the researchers is. They are portrayed as evil whale poachers who must be stopped at all costs. I felt sorry for them, but then they smashed into the coolest boat I have ever seen and sank it. The Addy Gil (stupid anti-whalers name, it used to be called Earthrace) holds the record for going around the world in a powerboat. Now it holds that record at the bottom of the sea. That's the main reason I am suspect.

From what I have seen from ads, the two sides spend all their time being the biggest pain in the ass for the other party they are able. The researchers fire water canons at the whale huggers and the whale huggers have spent who-knows-how-much to tool around in their two crappy ships and their one really cool speed boat shining laser pointers at the researchers. Its very middle school drama.

Look up information on Earthrace though. Its a really cool boat. It is designed to slice through the water rather than ride on it. Good stuff, damn researchers.

Wedding + Open Bar = Good Weekend

Take note friends. My title says it all. Traveled to Cincinnati this weekend (which was such a tease cause I didn't get to go to Oxford) for my friend Abby's wedding. Drove down on Saturday morning and was able to catch lunch with Adams who was in Cincy for the day! Hooray!

Then went to the ceremony. (My friend Shannon almost passed out.) They are secular humanist and I learned without all the religious stuff wedding ceremonies only last about 30 min. WIN! After that there was a cocktail hour. Open bar, wine and cheese tasting stuff. Yum! Alex was at the wedding too, so I got to catch up with her.

Reception was awesome and the food was amazing. It was the type of place where the servers refolded your napkin every time you got up. It was a well done to the point where they served mimosa's in between courses...double win! Then rest of the reception went on..dancing...more free drinks...hamburgers were served as a late night snack. Overall it was my type of wedding. After the reception we hit up the hotel bar and then passed out in the most amazing bed ever. (we were awaken by a ragging party/orgy in the room next door.)

Drove back to Chicago on Sunday...hit two hours of dumb traffic outside the city. That whole traffic experience made me hate people just a little bit. Which is perfect because I work with people all day.But, thankfully I made it back in time for Next Food Network Star and such.

Work as good today. It wasn't too hot for once in a long time. Matt and Eric are coming to Chicago this weekend. Hooray!

Maybe Matt and Mike will blog again sometime soon. JERKS!

Peace out!

PS. I'm blogging about my AmeriCorp/LIFT experience here: "It's what you do and not what you say." Don't worry I'm not abandoning Apt 212, but I needed a new place to take a different perspective on things.

Titles Are Officially My Least Favorite Part of Writing a Post

Crap, the title was pretty much my whole point. Now I don't have anything to write about. But seriously, titles have always been my least favorite part of writing. They are so important and yet so tricky. If I ever write a book, its going to be call "The Book" unless something remarkably better presents itself.

Sup

Several times recently, I have opened this blog with the intention of writing something profound, only to close the tab seconds later. I have lost interest in a lot of things lately. Or maybe it is that I have lost the opportunity to do things, not a loss of interest. I think that is most likely it. After two and a half months of sitting at home, going out and doing anything can seem like a big deal. For example, this past week, Court had a few days off and wanted me to come down. I was honestly dreading it. It meant making the same drive I have done dozens of times up and down 75. I was going to go Wednesday, but then she told me she got sent home from work early Tuesday and I made a snap decision to leave. The drive down was painful, but only because I drank a bottle of water and a travel mug full of coffee during the first half of it. After a stop at a rest area I was fine. I had a great time, and it turned out to be a really fun visit. The point of the story was that I need to get out of my house more and start doing things if you didn't catch it.

While I was down there, The Kool Aid Man trivia team took 2nd place twice. We still got it.

I am going to Chicago this weekend I think.

Maybe if you're good, I'll tell you a rambling, disjointed story about that trip when I get back.

It's so hot

There is no AC...thankfully I found a job where I can escape into the AC for a few hours each day.
That is all for now.

Not Homeless

Today concludes my apartment-hunting in Chapel Hill. I had an apartment reserved before we came down here, and in true Smola family fashion, we looked at about nine more apartments before we settled on the one I had reserved in the first place. So that's good. If anyone has suggestions for where to find cheap apartment furniture/decorations/stuff, let me know!

Went to a planetarium tonight. I'd never been to one but UNC has one on their campus and my dad and I wanted to check it out. Mom came too. This was after we had dinner and went to a place for gelato (I had a mix of raspberry and dark chocolate--phenomenal.). It is clear from walking around UNC's campus that I have no clue about most of the history of the place. Top things I know: First state university, Jordan went here, basketball is huge.

So tomorrow I head home and get ready for a whirlwind set of weekends coming up. Next weekend we're celebrating my mom's 50th birthday, Molly comes to town. After that, I'm off to Chicago (Eric is invited but never really said yes or no, just that he doesn't want to go to a Cubs game, which wasn't helpful for me at all) to visit Matt (and I guess Mike too)! Massive photo-taking better be tolerated and encouraged. After that, I'm off to Michigan, then after that perhaps Cincinnati (although that's not for sure) and then it's moving time!

That's all I got. Congrats to Matt on getting a job, and to Eric for hiring a employment hitman.

Currently listening to: My dad falling asleep to NASCAR. Goodnight y'all.

LeBraby

Today I applied for jobs.

So all this coverage of Lebron is making me sick. He is a dick, now can't we drop it? I feel like the people who have had multiple status updates starting the second they found out about his decision is a little much. I also find the ones about how/what to destroy to be annoying. Seriously, stop it. People from Cleveland are almost as annoying as people from Chicago when it comes to bitching about sports. No, they are tied. Take a page from Lions fan's book and suffer through your misery quietly and don't subject the rest of the nation to it.

I called a head hunter today who is supposed to help me find a job. He didn't pick up. So now I am waiting. Fingers crossed.

I finally have something to do!

First of all, I would like to apologize for my long absence. I promise it will not happen again. To be honest I began to feel like I was treating this blog with the same lack of respect as Mike does and I couldn’t have that. (Just kidding Mike, kind of) However, my absence was not without good reason.

I spent 10 days, June 25 – July 4^th working at a booth for a Chinese restaurant the Taste of Chicago. While the money was good I would never do it again. I woke up at 6:45AM everyday and did not arrive home until after 10PM each night. The heat was unbearable and I have no desire to eat orange chicken for at least the next 5 years. I also mildly lost all faith in humanity as I watched hordes of unforgiving people savagely attack for food. Thinking about it makes me hurt, so that is all I have to offer on that.

However, in more exciting news, during the mess of the Taste I interviewed with and was offered a position to be a Site Coordinator/AmeriCorps*National Direct at a non-profit called LIFT located in Uptown Chicago. (see below for what I do) So for exciting news: I HAVE A JOB! (for the next two years anyways) I started training on Tuesday and absolutely love it! My co-workers are awesome, the organization is great and everyday is different. I’ve mainly just been learning the ropes and transitioning into the position as the outgoing site coordinator gets ready to leave. I’m also gearing about for the national training in DC in two weeks – everyone says it is going to be awesome. So hopefully this big change in my life will give me a lot more to blog about than the typical “Today I applied for jobs” that I had been doing.

My job: LIFT is a national organization based in DC and working to combat poverty in neighborhoods in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New York and DC. As a Site Coordinator, I am serving LIFT by managing the Uptown site with one other Site Coordinator, one of our 3 sites in Chicago. The organization utilizes college students as volunteers to provide a variety of services to clients such a housing, employment and public benefits. I work to coordinate the volunteers, the client services, community outreach and mange the office. I am really freaking pumped.

There’s a quick update! Which I’m sure was way too long for Eric. Sorry for the hiatus, I’m back in the blog and ready to keep you engaged in the mundane and extraordinary! Peace out!

Wireless

I have become a member of the wireless revolution. I am now fully capable of surfing the 'net in my bedroom, or, as is the case right now, in front of the TV, or anywhere in between I would imagine. Its pretty nice. Maybe sometime later I will see how far my bargain router will throw a signal. I doubt I will blog about it though. You'll get over it.

Can I just point out how awesome Matt's cars have been? I mean, I was wondering how he was going to top the Acclaim. Aren't Sonatas the ones that they were having a buy-one-get-one-free sale a few years back? Hahaha. Just kidding, not everyone can have a sweet car like me. (confusion and disbelief just overwhelmed most of the people reading this)

Tigers are winning and in first place. Life is good. Johnny Damon just hit his 2500th hit.

I apologize for not bragging earlier about our volleyball dominance. I credit our win to the dysfunctionality of the opposition. There was a lot of yelling.

Went to the lake again yesterday. The boat was not cooperating, so we just swam in the shallow. It was kinda gross. I'm not a big fan of touching the bottom of the lake. Its muddy and full of weeds.

Ode to The Green Lady

It's been a while. I've been busy. And I've taken enough crap from my friends at home, so I'll have none of that here.

Had my sister's grad party last weekend (this was the cause of most of my absence); a handful of devoted friends came into town to celebrate. Eric of course beat everyone else here (even mdull who only needed to drive from her nearby home). There was cornhole with my wonderfully crazy aunt, volleyball in which we (Eric, Ben, Molly and me) defeated the punks who were on a team with my sister. It was great, and I'm surprised Eric didn't blog about it. Oh well, I got to.

The whole run-up to the party and the party itself left me pretty tired but finally this weekend I picked myself up and went out car shopping with dad. On Saturday I became the proud owner of a Hyundai Sonata, although this also marked the end of an era, which I'd like to detail a little further.

My junior and senior years of high school were laced with trips to and from school in a '93 Plymouth Acclaim. The third driver of this car after two great-grandmothers before me, I began to grace it's bench seat in 2005 when the odometer read a mere 50,000 or so miles. "The Green Lady," as she was so dubbed, was present for many of my fondest memories: doughnuts in the snow, trips to Cedar Point, commuting to my first science-y job (sans A/C), and a hopeful restoration of A/C by my grandfather with freon from Mexico (which failed). Needless to say, the 'Lady had been called on in my times of need, and she delivered with all four cylinders.

The only thing left of The Green Lady are her license plates, and a small pile of rust that accumulated when we shut doors, the trunk, or--most recently--freed her immobile back wheels. I followed her to her final resting place (as I choose to believe) in the back of the car dealership who gave us $250 for her. After a somber goodbye, I turned my attention to more pressing matters--the trunk release button in the new car. The Sonata currently has no nickname, and I'm not sure that it will. Maybe it will come, but I doubt that if it does, it'll ever be as perfect as "The Green Lady."

The Lake!

I went to the lake yesterday. It was not a perfect day, but we have come to expect that from our trips to the Irish Hills. For as long as we can remember (a year or two at least) every time we want to go to the lake, the weather is either cold, windy, overcast, raining, or some diabolical combination of these. This time it was just over 70 after two weeks of non-stop 90 degree weather, and was a little windy. On the bright side, it was quite sunny and the water was warm, so it was bearable.

We took the boat out just about as soon as we got there. No time to waste and all that you know? Well we made Joe unhook the boat, then it wouldn't start at first so he almost got pinned against the dock. Not really, he's a beast and just shoved it away. The ride over was uneventful. When we got to our usual swimming spot, we dropped anchor and jumped in. We soon realized that the boat was drifting away rather rapidly. We got back in, struggled with the ignition again, and moved back to where we wanted to be. This happened several times. Finally we just said screw it, and let it drift. We were drifting almost directly down the longest portion of the lake, so there was not much danger of hitting anything, especially since there were only 3 other boats out on the entire lake.

At one point, we were in 35' of water and the one anchor was obviously not even touching anymore, so I pulled that one in. The other seemed to still be on the bottom though. That has to be the most exercise we have gotten at the lake. Most of us were in the water the majority of the time, and that means we were swimming along with the boat for almost half a mile. It was drifting for almost two hours and was at the other end of the lake when we decided to head in. When Joe pulled up the anchor, it was covered in seaweed and had dragged up a rather large tree branch. In the end we all had a great time, got lots of sun, and you should just generally be jealous of us.

The goldfish is giving me dirty looks, I have put it in its place.