So Confused but Loving It!

With Halloween in the past and Thanksgiving on the way I would expect the 40 degree weather that we had earlier this week. However, I love the 65/Easter-like weather of today! Oh my gosh... I just checked the weather for tomorrow: 75 and sunny! :) This warm weather in November may be attributed to global warming, which is never good. Yet, I can't help but embrace the warmer temperatures. I think this is my ideal climate. I would be happy if every day oscillated between 60 and 80.



Now for my highlights of the week: My friend had her baby boy (Parker) on the 28th at 11:11PM. I went to the hospital for a visit on Wednesday night. It was the first time that I can remember holding a baby that small. He is 8.5 lbs, 21" long and so precious!

Thursday night I ended up watching "Anna" again. We rode the bus home together after work, picked up some spaghetti ingredients, made dinner, watched Hocus Pocus and then read some stories until her Mom came after school. She is such a smart little girl, and I enjoy spending time with her. She told me that she wanted to stay overnight at my house and was sad to leave. I do my fair share of babysitting, but I cannot imagine having her with me every night.

Friday was Halloween! After three days of being in at 8AM, it felt fantastic to sleep in. I got on my low-budget, school friendly Twister costume and headed to work. I am very bummed; somehow I lost all of my pictures from the actual day of Halloween. :( The kids in my class were very cute. I had a boxer, a fireman,Batman, Superman, Little Red Riding Hood, two Princesses and a Transformer. My favorite costume was in the preschool class: a rat from Ratatouille. It was a very laid back day with trick-or-treating, a lot of time outside and an enormous witch pinata, which the kids went crazy over. The witch was taller than the girls in my class. At the end of the day I had a more serious discussion with my director about becoming a head (preschool) teacher at the beginning of the year. I am highly considering it now, even more than I was before.

Later that night I went to my friend Ashley's for a Halloween gathering. She was dressed as Sarah Palin, and her blonde roommate was Hillary Clinton. There was also a Bill Clinton and a Bristol Palin. They were very cute! 3/4 of my way to the gathering I realized that I left my id at home, so I ended up coming back fairly early. I loved being on Belmont and seeing everyone in their costumes. Halloween really is an amazing holiday! There's so much possibility for creativity and fun festivities.

Yesterday, Saturday, was a jam packed day. I woke up around 10:30 to get ready for my journey to the South side (75th St.) for my first vegan meetup at Soul Vegetarian East. I was one of the firsts in line at the buffet, and I also went up for a round of seconds. The menu consisted of Carrot Salad, BBQ Twists, Mac & Cheese, Greens, CornBread and a Lemon Cake for dessert. One of the fellow attendees did a good job of explaining the dishes (www.snarkyvegan.com). I wasn't a huge fan of the cornbread or carrot salad, but I think I will crave that mac & cheese and the BBQ twists often. They had such rich, delicious flavor. The woman who took care of us was so sweet. She also told us about their Sunday brunch, which sounds amazing! I think I'll be heading to the South side again soon. Let me warn you that it is not cheap, and I learned that they don't always have the macaroni & cheese, so make sure to call ahead.

I was a little disappointed that most of the group was an older crowd, but I did meet a really interesting girl at the end of the meetup named Jessi. She lives near Belmont & Clark, so we road the train back together. I learned that she went from being a freshman in high school to a freshman in college out in Colorado. She's working with her Aunt right now as a website designer and will soon be leaving for Thailand to teach English and become a certified scuba instructor. I woke up to a text from her this morning. She invited me over for dinner on Friday with a few of her friends. I thought that was so thoughtful.

While she got off at Belmont, I headed into Evanston for a babysitting job. I had about an hour in between, which was the perfect amount of time for me to meet up with Syd. It had been so long since we talked, and it was great to see her (and Ozzie). Babysitting was easy. The girls are so great! After that I headed home and got ready for a Halloween party! I ran into a lot of people who I had not seen in a long time. I was also very surprised to find myself one of the last people at the party. Then, I got home, and still wasn't tired.

I had a few tentative plans today, but they fell through, so it ended up being a day of relaxation. That seems to be a theme for my Sundays. Okay, long post. I'm done.

Not ready for this weather...

As I write this post, it is 45F in the windy city of Chicago. I actually wore my winter coat and ski hat on my walk to work today. Fortunately it's supposed to warm up by the end of the week, which means Halloween should be mild! :) Speaking of... I had a few friends, and one of the little girls from my class, over yesterday to help me get in the spirit. Before their arrival I baked some goodies: apple pecan muffins and pumpkin spice bread. The bread has great flavor, but a very spongy texture. The muffins, however, were a huge hit! I actually heard Anique tell Eliz, "I didn't think vegan stuff was good." C'mon Anique! I've become quite the food critic. You mean to tell me that you think I eat bland, disgusting food? haha Quite the contrary! I now absolutely love cooking and baking. I spend a lot of my free time reading recipes, shopping for the ingredients and trying new things. Some things don't always turn out as good as I hope, but that happens with any cuisine. For dinner last night I made a "cashew coconut stir fry," which had flavors like coconut milk that I hadn't eaten in awhile.

So back to yesterday: You're probably never going to believe this, but "Anna" is the little girl from my class that I watched yesterday. She came over a little after 2, followed by Lauren and then Anique and E Liz. I thought Anna would be into carving pumpkins and digging out the pumpkin seeds with her hands, but I learned that she did that Saturday night with her "Bubby" (aka Grandma). So instead I was in charge of pumpkin seed baking/ approving Anna's drawings. I made a batch of garlic salt pumpkin seeds and another bath of sugar & spice pumpkin seeds. Every one's pumpkins turned out well (pics to come soon), and the seeds were also very tasty! :) Then, Anna and I started watching Hocus Pocus, one of my all-time favorite Halloween movies. I had to go to a few different Blockbusters to get it. I spent the rest of the night getting organized for my week.

Tonight I am going into Evanston to help the DDD seniors with slating. Then, it's 8-6 Tues-Thurs at school this week. I have a feeling I am going to be TiReD on Halloween. I had a short meeting with my director today just to check in and see how she thought I was doing. I was happy to hear that she thinks I would be a great teacher. She wants me to consider teaching the junior preschool program. As most of you know, I am always up for a challenge. However, I hesitate for a few reasons. First, I love Miss Doss (my head teacher). I think we really have a great dynamic. Second, it took me awhile to get used to the attention span/attitudes, etc. of four and five year-olds. I can't imagine how I would do working with two year-olds. I definitely want to talk to her about it more though. I'm actually going to be in the preschool room 8-10 these next few days.

So here's a funny story. To teach our students about the election process and to encourage good behavior, our students vote on a class president. The class president has special priviledges like being the line leader, getting extra icecream on Fridays, etc. Well Anna was doing the wrong thing this morning, and I made mention that "if [she] didn't change her behavior, [she] wouldn't be in the running to be president." I didn't even think about what I had said until she replied, "but I'm a really fast runner!" haha so cute! :) Speaking of kids saying whatever comes to mind, did I ever write about the time she asked me if I "had a baby in my tummy" post-lunch. That was pretty embarassing; I don't think I ate the rest of the day. (jk) While my lunch break was nice, I guess I better get back to it. Happy Monday everyone!

Warm Fuzzies

It's amazing to me that I'm posting back-to-back days, but the plans that I made for tonight have completely fallen through, so I figured I might as well talk about my night with the girls.

With the nasty weather, Jess and Emily picked me up and we got over to Grace and Charlie's. (Thank goodness!) Charlie got out her marathon/rain jacket and umbrella and cooked on the grill for all of us. We had originally planned to leave the apartment for a bar around 10, but we ended up sharing memroies and catching up until after midnight. The night wouldn't have been complete without Grace's idea to share "warm fuzzies" with one another. There were a lot of laughs and even some tears. We have so many similarities, in addition to numerous differences, but after 5 years we are still best friends! I can't wait for Em and Karen to join us in the city. :)

Did I really just do that?

This is kind of embarrassing but way too funny not to write about. On Thursday morning our school went on a field trip to Bengston's Pumpkin Fest in Homer Glen, IL. Since the buses were leaving at 8:30, I was supposed to be there at 8. (I usually work at 10.) I thought I woke up in plenty of time to get there by 8, but I was running about ten minutes behind. Since the weather's been nice, I usually walk the 40 minutes each way to work. For those of you that know Chicago and its el system, I live approximately a 15 min walk away from the Belmont el stop. I decided that hopping on the el there and heading up two stops to Sheridan would save me some time. (Plus, I still needed to finish putting on my makeup). Well, everyone else seemed to be running late that morning also. I had to run with the crowd to prevent myself from being knocked over. As I ran up the stairs to the Northbound side of the tracks a woman was yelling, "Hurry, hurry! The doors are going to close." So I ran in with the couple of others surrounding me. I was happy to get a seat as I heard the announcement: ding, dong... Doors closing. This is an express train to Howard." Shit!

Knowing that I was going to be outside all day I really bundled up. So now I am sitting on an express train headed to Evanston as I sweat in my tanktop, longsleeve, sweater and coat. There are so many people around me that I can't really remove any layers. Then, I get out my phone to call the school and notify them that I am going to be late. At this point I realize that for some reason I have their fax number in my phone. Wow! So instead of being 5-10 minutes late, I was 25 minutes late. (Too bad the bus didn't leave until 9 anyway.)

We only stayed for an hourish, but the Pumpkin Fest was so cute. We started at the pig races where we all sat in a little grandstand and watched three little pigs race around the track. Then, we made our way over to the petting zoo. I usually think of petting zoos as one and the same, but this one had a zebra, a kangaroo and alpacas! I do have a small fear of petting zoos after having have of my fingernail bit off by a hungry sheep during my childhood. The kangaroo and zebra were off limits, but I pet some baby alpacas. I almost had to leave this area because the girl I was with, who we call "Princess" in the class, wanted to leave because it smelled in there. Haha! She is so funny. One day she started crying during class. When I asked her what was wrong she told me that the cut on her arm was "ugly." I went to get a bandaid to cover up the ugliness. :)

I'm currently waiting for Jess and EmTemp to pick me up. Then we are going over to Grace and Charlie's, where we will be joined by Karen and Cat, to celebrate Grace's birthday! I cannot remember the last time all 7 of us (the Super 7) were together, and I am very much looking forward to it. I stayed up later than normal last night making Gracie a non-traditional Birthday (Carrot) Cake with homemade icing. (I really have become quite the Susie Homemaker! I love it though.) If the rain slows up this weekend, I have plans to go to a haunted house tomorrow night, and I invited some people over on Sunday to carve pumpkins and watch a Halloween movie-just trying to get in the spirit.

I don't think I have much else that's exciting to report this week. I do want to send my blessings to the friends and family of Kristen Roth who recently passed away due to an enlarged heart. :( My Dad called me to tell me Sunday night, and I couldn't believe it. Kristen graduated with me from Hononegah in 2004. We were in Track, RUDE and Student Council together.

My Catchup Day

Sunday's are always my day to try and get on top of stuff: going through my e-mails, cleaning my room, buying groceries for the week, etc. I'm watching Stepbrother right now with my roommate and her bf; it's incredibly foul!

Highlights from the Week:

On Tuesday night I went to my first DDD alum meeting after work. :) There was a safety presentation and dinner, followed by a chance for me to meet some of the other recent grads. There were a couple of teachers there, so that was easy conversation.

After work on Wednesday I went over to Cristy's. She made a Thai dinner for me, Gina and Chiara. Al, Nick and Dave also enjoyed it with us after they got back from the bar. Cristy's doing really well: she is full-term and could have her baby any day. His stuff is all set up, and the overnight hospital bag is packed. I am getting excited! We had the presidential debate on the tv, but I chose to watch baby move in Cristy's stomach. It's truly an amazing phenomenon.

On Friday night I met up with Charlie, Grace, Jess, Ryan and Brian at a place called Louie's Pub on North Avenue. It was karaoke night and soo entertaining! All of the flatscreens had the lyrics up, so everyone could sing along. We were belting those songs out! By the time the girls and I decided to put a request in for Livin' on a Prayer, it was too late in the night. They never played our song. :( Regardless, it was a fantastic night, and I am so excited to celebrate Grace's birthday with the girls this upcoming Friday.

On Saturday morning I woke up around 8 to head into Evanston for Northwestern's Homecoming. It took me awhile to get mobilized. I met up with Ashley, her roommate Karen, Katie and Caroline. Katie drove us all into Evanston. they went up North to the stadium, and I flew solo to 82o Hamlin. There were so many people there! I felt like a broken record telling everyone about my roommates, my job, my apt, etc., but I enjoyed hearing from everyone else. Plus, the tailgat was catered complete with flavored coffee, fruit & veggie trays, chili, corndogs and delicious sweet potato fries! In my attempts to be economical, I didn't buy a ticket for the game. Instead, I went to Nevin's to watch Northwestern beat Purdue. It was a Happy Homecoming. :) Later that night (post-Pita Pete's lunch), I babysat and made some $$! No idea what's in store for me this week...

Something Old Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

The title of this blog was inspired from a wedding I attended this weekend. On Saturday, my friend Kathy, who I have known since she was born, got married in Rockton. I'm not entirely sure why, but I found myself tearing up a lot throughout the night, especially when her younger sister Abby read her speech and when Kathy danced with her Dad. I might have been a little sad because I don't see her as much as I'd like to. When I think about it, our families have so much history. Then, here she is all grown up and married! It's events like this that make me realize I am an adult.

Now let me go back a little. On Friday I received a nice surprise at work: one of my students' mother brought all of the teachers flowers. I can't remember the last time I got flowers! Then, on Friday night I took the train into Evanston to meet up with Carryn for dinner. She grabbed some Pita Pete's, and I got Noodles & Company, and we just took it back to Garnett. It was so nice to see her and to be in Evanston again. (I definitely felt nostalgic!) I didn't stay too long because I had to pack for home/was pretty tired from the week. I caught an 8:30 train from Chicago to Harvard. My Grandma Dar was there to pick me up. We made a quick stop by Target and then to the wonderful, well-known Edward's Apple Orchard. Oh how I love fall foods! I got a warm apple cider donut, had a glass of apple cider and bought a taffy apple, a bag of honeycrisp apples and some apple butter.

My Grandma dropped me off at home. My Mom made me a delicious vegan pizza for lunch, and I sadly watched Northwestern lose to Michigan State. On a positive note, Justin brought over his family new puppy Indy. Indy is a white lab/Golden Retriever mix and so cute (of course)! He was playing in the huge holes that my sister's Huskie (Chiefton) has dug in our backyard over time. After the reception my sister and I were both exhausted, so we called it an early night. Yesterday morning I went to breakfast with my Dad at my Grandma Elaine's house before catching a train back to Chicago. The rest of my afternoon is really nothing exciting to report.

Yea, a babysitting job!

This post would have been a little more negative, but I just got a babysitting job about 30 mins ago. This weekend I totaled up all of my spending from the month of September. I realized that I need to make about $ more a month. I will also have loan repayments coming soon. I wish it was something I didn't have to stress/think about a lot, but I do. After work I went to a bar in Wrigleyville that posted an ad in need of female servers and bartenders. They listen an open interview for tomorrow afternoon 12-5, but I will be at work. I'm pretty sure there was this really pretty, well-dressed girl being interviewed when I went in. The guy at the bar took my resume and told me that he would be in touch. Let's just say that the experience was a blow to my self-esteem. I can't stop thinking about it. :( Anna also had a meltdown today (after a really good past couple of days). She's actually developed a very interesting relationship with me: she always wants to sit on my lap, hug me and just be near me. It's much better than being pinched, hit, etc., but she gets really upset sometimes when I can't give her all of my attention.



Sunday was another day that ended up being completely different than I thought it would be. I ended up going to sleep, with a headache, Saturday night. I planned to go to the Farmers' market and workout in the morning before I met up with Lauren to vegan bake. My phone rang/woke me up at 12:45!! It was Lori, who is now my babysitting job. I called Lauren right away and headed over to her place (after waiting in the rain for the bus for about 30 mins). Together we made fall-inspired Gingerbread Scones with a maple glaze. At first I wasn't crazy about them, but I really liked the flavor after they cooled down and the glaze set in. Later that night I met up with Lori, and her husband Rich, who I really like(d)! They seem like a really young, fun couple.



Monday was nothing significant, and last night, with it pouring rain outside, I went crazy in the kitchen... I made a large batch of butternut squash, sweet potato and apple soup. It is so delicious and "fally"! I think I might make it for my family Thanksgiving. Then, I made "roasted tofu and vegetable napoleon" for dinner. It wasn't too difficult; it was a stacker of portobello mushroom, tofu, sweet potato, zucchini, tomato, roasted red pepper and carrot with an basil/olive oil dressing. That's all for now. I'm watching Project Runway with my roomies. :)