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.