It's Been Awhile

So I havn't written anything since I started working again, but in my defense there wasn't much to write. Work isn't too bad I work in the men's clothing section of a department store at the mall, nothing to complain about beside the sillys that play on the escalator. I was thinking about a trip to the city this week since I have two days in a row off, but I am feeling a bit sick so perhaps soup, tea and some rest is better for me. My Christmas decorating is still underway...I will post pictures when it is all up and finished. Under normal circumstances I would attack my house with Christmas spirit the day after Thanksgiving, but this year I was instead battling masses of people at work for 12 hours (not as unpleasant as it probably sounds, but less fun than decorating). Well until I do something exciting, or actually get done decorating I think that is all for now. Hope the holiday season is going great!

Christmas in the Air!

   SNOW! This is the first snow of the year so I thought I would do a little post about the upcoming holidays. This snow will probably not stick much, but as the weather gets colder and the days shorter I start plotting my Christmas decorations. I know some of you will scream at me, but it's not even Thanksgiving yet! I never said I was going to put up decorations yet, just plan them. Thanksgiving planning takes little effort for me so I never spend much time thinking about it (popping the china in the dishwasher on the appropriate setting and polishing the silver is about all that I need to do, Mom ALWAYS does the cooking). Christmas is the holiday that I have always been in charge of.
    The day after Thanksgiving has been a day of chaos the last few years in my house; it is the day I pack up numerous photos and nicknacks and bring out the boxes full of Christmas stuff. The tradition in my parents household use to be to wait until after my brothers birthday, but since he was grown and had a family of his own I slowly changed that tradition as I took over the task of decorating. Many years we had a real tree; meaning we waited to actually get and put up the tree until well into December, but everything else would be put up (icicle lights, poinsettias, etc.). Last year Mom moved into an apartment so it was the first year I set up a fake tree for her in quite awhile (we picked up a pre-lit one, it made things so much easier).
     Getting completely done with decorating usually takes me about a week, but it all depends on how much I have decided to decorate. Considering we still live in an apartment outside lighting is no longer something to concern myself with, so I will naturally step up the rest of my decorating (I have gone so far as to coordinate gift wrapping with the tree before). 
     So what are your decorating plans this year? Have you already started thinking about it, or do you decorate at all? If you don't celebrate Christmas do you still put some winter inspired items into your decor during the season? Well enjoy this season perfect for hot coco and warm apple cider!

New Employment, Artsy Videos and Friend Time

    So this weekend I went to the city yet again, but as I said in the post before this one I had an interview at a department store at 9am Saturday. The interview must of gone well because I was hired! I was terrified of this specific interview because I had never had a group interview before, but it really just seemed like a conversation occasionally given a direction by the three interviewers. I ended up missing the train I had planned on taking to the city, but that really wasn't a problem.
    Once I was in the city my friend Gabbi; of Mieu Makeup, met me at the train station so she could make a quick stop at LUSH and the MAC counter in the Macy's on State Street. Saturday was a pretty relaxed day Gabbi made some delicious pasta, we ate ice cream, then picked up our friend Zach from where he works near Water Tower Place. A little bit of visiting at his dorm then sleep so that we would actually make the Eyeworks festival we had originally planned to see on Saturday, but missed due to my interview.
     The eyeworks festival of experimental animation was a very interesting collection of short films that lasted about 70 mins. We were very glad that it started slightly behind schedule because we ended up in the wrong building and had to ask a security guard for directions (>.<). After that was over; and Gabbi and I split ways for a bit, I met up with my friend Stephanie for a late lunch at Chipotle (so delicious). I enjoyed the city a bit and walked Stephanie to work and met back up with Gabbi for a bit of shopping. We grabbed some Starbucks (the holiday flavors are here we HAD to indulge) and headed to Marshall's for a sweater she had been eying and then the MAC counter at the Water Tower Place Macy's for a paint pot she had also been eying. Gabbi also discovered that they now have an Inglot  counter (she was VERY happy). That short shopping adventure was then concluded and I waved at the H&M my friend works at as I ran to catch the red line to make it too my train.
     My weekend was great and I look forward to soon starting up work in the 'burbs! How was your weekend?

Chicago Plans...Possibly Changed, but not dead

So this weekend I will be visiting my good friend Gabbi! It has been awhile since I stayed at UIC so this will be fun. I got a call earlier this evening about a job interview at a department store, so the artsy video showing thingy (so descriptive huh?) that were were planning on going to might have to be postponed until Sunday, but I will still be going to the city this weekend! Wish me luck on the interview! And I shall have fun window shopping, eating up all my friends food (oops did I say that out loud?) and having fun. Have a great weekend all!

Halloween Weekend!

     So I went to the city again this weekend. I organized a Halloween get-together for my friends (I know I don't live up there anymore...but I am ALWAYS the organizer...lol). I went up on Saturday morning to visit Zach and Dylan my twin friends that go to school downtown.
     Soon after I arrived I dragged Zach to where I get my hair cut in the city (I had planned some crazy hair for my costume, but in the end decided I might as well get it done since I was in the city) and after that we went in search of ingredients for butterbeer. If you don't know what butterbeer is you really need to read the Harry Potter series. Butterbeer takes some very simple ingredients; sweetened condensed milk, cream soda, butterscotch syrup and whipped butter based on the recipe we went off of, but it took several stores to find cream soda for some reason.
     After our adventure to find ingredients  and some Subway since we were starving we went back to the loop to watch some movies and relax until the evening. After several hours of relaxing we began the preparation for the get-together; baking cookies, getting dressed up, etc. Me and Dylan were zombies, Zach was a cop (sort of). Our friends were a sailor (Stephanie), an Umbreon (Gabbi from Mieu Makeup), and the dormouse from Alice in Wonderland (Miku). Overall it was a fun night of movies pizza and too many sweets, but the first batch of butterbeer following the recipe was disgusting; after a few tweaks it was delicious in the following batches though.
     Now it is Halloween as I write this and I am home in the suburbs. I didn't get one trick-or-treater this year! Living in an apartment building must be the reason behind this, but my neighborhood was FILLED with kids in costume. All the lovely big old houses in this neighborhood give away the best candy, I remember from back when I was still young enough to go trick-or-treating. I now have a giant bowl of candy all to myself...this should be interesting.
     Well my Halloween weekend was great; how was yours?
OH! I almost forgot...sorry I didn't take any pictures this weekend...I remembered my camera, but in the fun of things when everyone was in costume I forgot to take any pictures...by the time I thought about my camera it was 6am and makeup was wiped off and people were half asleep...so ooops!

My Current Room

The Bed/Posters that were a birthday present

Sideways closet shot the shoes/button-downs/pants side

Attempting to get the whole room in one shot

Another sideways shot of the closet the tee-shirt side

My dresser (ignore the bag of clothes to be donated near the guitar)

So here is my room as promised. My room had remained unfinished basically since my mom had moved into her current apartment. We had moved here shortly before I started a school year, then I permanently moved to campus for my job. Now that I am back home full time I decided to make my room look the way I wanted it too. I LOVE the posters my friend bought me for my birthday and the artwork that Gabbi, of mieumakeup, made for me! Gabbi's artwork has a little pop of color against all the black and white posters and brown bedding. I still feel my bedroom has room for improvement, but I am content with it for the moment. Well that's my room! I will try to continue my promise of posting more often. Farewell for now.

Plotting, Planning and Purgatory!

      As I have mentioned many times before, the suburbs are rather boring. I have yet to find employment out here, so as my bank account slowly goes into danger zone my trips to Chicago are becoming less frequent. That being said next weekend will probably involve a costume and festive drinks (Halloween festivities). So I am plotting another escape to the city and I will try to take some nice and touristy photos...but I might just end up with random photos of zombies and Mad Hatters.
     On a more suburban note...I have FINALLY finished setting up my room/decorating it. It only took me a few months to figure out how to combine my wardrobe from home and school together in the closet. When it comes to closet organization I am a neat freak and the fact that I have 12 pairs of shoes and two sets of suitcases in there does not help my insanity. Anyhow since I finally cleaned up my room I will probably post a few pictures of my prison soon! (You know before I tear it apart to rearrange the furniture or something insane)
      Well I think that is all for today's post. I will try to keep more up to date, but believe me my life is irritatingly mundane. The next time I am chased by a crazy man or almost mugged I will definitely inform y'all though! Have a great day!

I still love the city

This weekend I went up to the city again. I was visiting my friends from Roosevelt University again and my friend Steph from UIC. This weekend was more laid back than previous ones because we were a bunch of sleepy heads, but watching movies with friends is still much better than sitting at home in the suburbs. I was able to get some GOOD Chinese food...I won't even try to say it was authentic since we ordered orange chicken and sesame chicken, but it was much better than what is available outside of the city. Something about the rats and urban decay in some of the areas I walked through between the two dorms I was shuffling between was comforting (I know I am crazy). Anyhow, I had a fun relaxed weekend in the city. How was your weekend?

Protesters, New Cafes and Insane People...yup Another City Trip!

        Hello all! Well it has been awhile hasn't it? (Sorry about that again!) So I went to the City this weekend (October 7-9) and it was a much needed escape from reality as usual. This time around I stayed in the loop; instead of University Village, with my friends that go to Roosevelt University and being in the Loop has its advantages. After grabbing my fall usual from Starbucks (pumpkin spice latte) I meet up with friends from UIC and we walked the couple blocks to my friends dorm. We all headed to Chipotle (oh how I love them!) for dinner and after a walk back to their dorm to pick up another friend and a CTA pass we all went to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert. I had been looking forward to October for the pumpkin cheesecake...I ended up getting the pumpkin pecan cheesecake, but it definitely didn't let me down. We popped into a H&M on the way back, but the rest of the night was pretty relaxed and involved watching an entire half season of The Walking Dead.
         Saturday morning we could hear the Occupy movement chanting 'we are the 99%' from our 11th floor window...it was interesting. After getting ready (and dragging in our friends from UIC) we all headed out to the Lincoln Park Zoo...in time for when it says it is closed...but it WAS still open. After some animal watching and people watching (we saw a wedding party) I googled some places to eat...and after failing to decide, but noticing everything seemed to be on Clark (that sounded good), we just walked in that direction. We happened upon a Cosi Cafe that turned out to be delicious and reasonably priced (well sort of...it is the city...) place to eat. It had a great ambiance...until what appeared to be a normal man ordering coffee started making strange noises at us...touched the one female with us, prompting us to leave and then following us until we crossed the street. After walking briskly towards our bus stop...and ending up feeling like we were in a horror movie since it was dark we had to walk through a park setting and there was a squeaking swing we all headed back to the twins' dorm (my friends from Roosevelt). After watching the Titanic and part of Coyote Ugly (I know SUPER random, but we roll like that) and some delicious pizza from the twins' friend IHOP was mentioned and we decided a late night trip was necessary (I know I know we are some fat asses, but...breakfast is yummmy okayyy).
          IHOP, in boystown, at 1230am is a very interesting experience that is needed at some point in your life. After massive amounts of coffee and some crepes and the waiter making several hilarious mistakes we headed back to the Red Line. On the Red Line a guy sitting across from me talked to me...those from the city know that is odd and unwelcomed. Anyhow I forgot to mention earlier the horrifying moment on the way TO IHOP where the EL changed to an express suddenly (after an announcement NOONE could possibly understand) and we all freaked out as it skipped 5 or 7 stops...thankfully slowing down a few stops before ours.
        The rest of the night involved a nice sleep over and the next day really only consisted of breakfast and me rushing to a train...that ended up being delayed anyhow. Well that was my weekend, how was your weekend? I will try to keep more to the point, but I figured since I hadn't said anything in awhile I would just detail my weekend (I will try to post more often!) Well enjoy and have a great week!

Update (Since I have been neglecting you!)

     So I know it has been awhile since I have done a new post. Nothing super exciting has happened in awhile, but I did have another quick trip up to the city for the birthday of my friend Gabbi, of mieumakeup. She had several friends come with her to The Cheesecake Factory, she had her first legal drink; since it was her 21st birthday, and we all died laughing when the waiter found out it was her birthday from her ID and called over the other staff to sing to her! That trip up to the city was fun, but very quick out of necessity since it was mid week and all my friends had classes. Believe it or not...I actually made a trip to the city without being tempted to go shopping! The indulgence of The Cheesecake Factory was enough to suffice; well that and my pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks as I headed back to the 'burbs on the train.
     Unsurprisingly the suburbs have been fairly uneventful. I did go to the open house of a beautiful historic home (I am a horrible lookie loo, but I LOVE historic homes) and I finally got a call for an interview. I won't say where I had an interview, but it was today and I think it went great. So hopefully soon I will be working again and my plan to fix my school situation will be set in motion. Well since nothing super exciting happened...and I have neglected to take any good photos (insert sadface?) I think I will end here.
  OHOHOH...I will probably go back to the city fairly soon...pumpkin cheesecake comes out sometime in October....oh and I miss my friends...that too...anyhow ice skating in Millennium Park begins in November too so that will soon enough be a nice thing to do...well now I will leave for real. Enjoy!

Starbucks...and other coffee I can't get here

     One thing I really enjoy in life is coffee, good deliciously strong and sweet coffee. The nearest Starbucks; I'm not counting the one in the casino, in this suburban hell is a three mile walk away. Three miles! I am use to not having to walk further than 4 blocks in any direction to find a Starbucks. The lack of variety of coffee places also bothers me...where is my Caribou with their amazing white,milk or dark chocolate options?! Okay now that I have ranted about the inconvenience of actually going to a Starbucks and lack of variety this far out in the suburbs, the lack of close ANYTHING starts to get annoying really quick. Okay where I live IS a short drive to anything I could possibly NEED some things I want are further, but NOTHING is within convenient walking distance.
    The problem with suburban environments (we will forget for a second that much of Joliet is VERY urban and has been used to film movie scenes depicting the southside of Chicago) is that nothing is close. Everything you could imagine is within a car ride, yes, but is it really convenient to drive for EVERYTHING...not really. The new subdivisions with their maze like never ending picture perfect streets and quite cul de sac's are really scary, because it takes forever and a day just to escape from them to go buy a gallon of milk from the store. I live in a much older well established part of the city far from the cookie cutter beige things, but distances to things are still are great.
    Well that's it for today! I am probably rambling again, but sometimes my rants make sense. Well have a great day!
   

A Look at the Places I have lived in the city

I thought for today I might give a look at my history of dwelling in the city. All the photos included today were taken by me!

Freshmen Year

This is the dorm room that I lived in the first semester of my freshman year. It had an amazing view of the skyline, but the roommate it came along with and I didn't get along so I moved to a different dorm for the spring semester. There are no pictures of the second dorm room...it had a lovely view of a bench. The benefit of living in the dorm with the unpleasant roommate was its proximity to the Arts and Architecture Building, something that was no longer important by second semester.

 The View from my desk

Sophomore Year

After my roommate issues freshmen year I decided to upgrade sophomore year and get a single occupancy dorm room. The building I was in was much newer, and had a modern feel in a building consisting of four towers. The tower I was in consisted of 13 floors and I was located on the 7th. I know in this photo it appears I had a view of a wall, but if you creaked your next to the left you could see the skyline and if you looked right you could see the expressway...

 This summer...and what should of been this school year


This was my kitchen this summer

 The living room

 My stash of bath/face stuff so I didn't take up the whole bathroom

My bed and the only view I could find of my bedroom w/o people in it.



I will add a post about my apartment in the suburbs as soon as I have everything in my room in its correct position. It has taken me much longer than I expected to get my room into order.

Yesterdays Travels

     So yesterday was my last day in the city for my little visit. I posted early in the day the plans for the day, but as usual they changed a little bit as the day progressed. My friend Gabbi's mom was running a little behind for lunch so Gabbi decided we should run up to the MAC on Armitage before lunch instead of after. Getting there involved an interesting walk, a transfer from the Red L line to the Brown, a walk in the wrong direction, some freaking out and than finally finding the place. Due to the location of my former school, and apartment I am very use to taking the Red and Blue lines of the L in Chicago, the Brown line is one that I have ridden on only a very seldom occasion. I had forgotten how LONG it seems to take to get from place to place due to the snakelike formation of its track layout. After Gabbi and I made it off of the never ending L line we managed to walk three blocks in the wrong direction before thinking to check google maps on our phones -.- FAIL...but hey good exercise? Once we headed in the correct direction we found the store with no problem. Gabbi pretty much knew exactly what she wanted, she was after a pro-palette. I knew she wanted Tilt and Cranberry, she got 6 more besides that, but I can't remember their names; they were pretty though. It took a couple minutes to get some service; for some reason every customer in there seemed to want to be worked on including a very demanding looking old lady and this MAC store for some reason seemed to have less staff than a typical counter in Macy's does. Once Gabbi caught the attention of someone to help her, she was almost to the point of jumping up and down to catch their attention, she was able to ramble off the colors she wanted and the sales guy let her look in the drawer to pick out her last few shadows.
      After everything was rung up we jumped back on the L transferred again and met her mom at Target to grab a few things Gabbi needed to stock up on. After that was all taken care of we headed off to lunch, we ate at Joy Yee's Noodles. Joy Yee's has some of the best Chinese food I have ever eaten. Gabbi and her mom had a black mushroom chow fuun dish and I had my usual orange chicken (both delicious). To drink, Gabbi and her mom both had a green tea bubble tea ice cream concoction and I had a coconut freeze bubble tea (YUMMY).
     After lunch and saying goodbye to Gabbi's mom we both headed towards The Loop so Gabbi could film a particular creepy escalator for one of her classes. I am fairly certain that the footage from that escalator will end up looking like a horror film scene due to the lighting in the subway system and the fact that Gabbi was forced by her instructor to borrow an ancient camcorder for the project instead of being able to use her amazing camera. After the creepy footage was all done being captured, I headed to the train station and headed back to the 'burbs. Thanks Gabbi for the fun break in the city! Oh my train was delayed and late! (Shakes fist at Metra), but thank you conductor for never thinking to ask for a ticket...and the ticket window being closed. Free ride? the best way to end an amazing weekend!

Work Space While Visiting

This lovely photo was taken by me. I like to take over my friends beautiful MacBook Pro when I visit, but look I have a cute audience for while I blog! Well enjoy the day! I am going to be heading off to lunch with Gabbi and her mom shortly and then off to the MAC pro store so Gabbi can go *.* pretty, and get a little shopping done.

Adventures Completed...for today anyhow...

Today involved running out to Watertower Place for entertainment and a few essentials. Gabbi and I actually took the time to explore Watertower Place a little more than we had previously...and found ugly jackets on sale. Exploring to discover more things fail! Although after another friend met up with us at Watertower Place we did wander into the Body Shop were the nice sales guy asked us if we were college students and than gave us a discount card for a whole bunch of store...shhh he didn't need to know I'm not enrolled this semester. Our friend Zach decided he wanted to check out H&M across the street and Gabbi wanted to head to the MAC pro store on Armitage after. After H&M she was thankfully smart enough to call MAC to see when they close...they were closing -.- but hey after a quick stop at Zach's dorm we were back at Gabbi's apartment. The three of us had a delicious pasta covered in a butter and mushroom sauce...thanks for the delicious dinner Gabbi! Gabbi also took some amazing photos!!! Well I feel like I am rambling and probably making very little sense since it is 3am and the day is just slowing down. Well Enjoy! More adventures soon.

I'm in Chicago!

Hello all! I am currently visiting my friend Gabbi. Yesterday after I arrived we ate at Chipotle; oh how I have missed Chipotle, Joliet unfortunately does not have one. Today we plan on hitting up Watertower Place; Gabbi is slightly obsessed with makeup and beauty products so we will be stalking around Sephora, MAC, and LUSH as well as picking up a few essentials. Gabbi is also amazing <3 and will bring along her camera to take a few photos around town! Somehow I feel like we will end up at Target, we always do, have I mentioned how amusing the cart escalators are at urban Targets? Anyhow today I will be out and about in the city and will have some amazing things to write about later tonight or tomorrow along with some beautiful Gabbi captured photos. Enjoy the day, I know I will!

Shopping in Suburbia

So my friends birthday is coming up and I am plotting a trip back to the city to celebrate with her. She is going to have a nice little celebration at The Cheescake Factory. I am currently freaking out about what to get her for a present; due to my recent move I am currently jobless and the thing they call a mall here is, well, very depressing. The anchor stores include a Macy's that is completely indecipherable from the Carson Pierre Scott and lacks any decent counters as far as makeup goes, and a JcPenny's and Sears which are also fairly similar. In short the mall here fails. I know what I want to get my friend, and luckily I might be able to find it here, but I miss city shopping. In the suburbs shopping involves a long drive to stores surrounded by a sea of asphalt and concrete. I miss the freedom of walking or hopping on mass transit to shop for anything from luxury bath items on down to organic groceries. What does everyone else think of suburban shopping compared to urban shopping; am I the only one that finds it annoyingly lacking in selection and variety, or am I just picky? Well that's all for today give me any ideas you'd like to see!    

Boredom in the Suburbs

I moved from my apartment in Chicago to the Southwest suburb of Joliet last Thursday. My first day back in Joliet was fairly uneventful considering I barely took the time to unload my stuff before I hoped onto a train back into the city to help my friend set up her apartment. I escaped the boring reality of my new dwelling by staying with her until Sunday. The freedom of being able to go shopping and out for sushi was greatly enjoyed. I plan to visit my friends up in the city often. Since I have returned to my new home I have begun the long and exhausting process of figuring out how to set up my bedroom and what to put in storage for when I move out again. I have also spent as much time as possible visiting with a few friends before their return to the city to start up classes. I will visit the city as often as I can and I will blog about my adventures in the city. To a lesser extent I shall blog about any adventures I have in the suburbs my first quest will be to find a job and I will let you all know how that goes. Well this is my first post so hope I didn't ramble! Enjoy.