Tuesday, August 28, 2007

"waiting to die"~ the drama has begun

So tomorrow the BF and I are heading out to the big apple for my brother's wedding.

I have been lucky to be over 700 miles away so I have been spared witnessing most of the drama but I have heard my fair share. So this week it has really ramped up. My mother is a ball of nerves and stress, my dad is stress by default and tomorrow morning I get to be in the midst of the craziness. Here are some highlights:

-My elderly aunt and uncle are on again-off again coming to the rehearsal dinner/the wedding. As of today he told my aunt he is not going because he is waiting to die. My aunt is looking forward to meeting my BF so we HAVE to go to their house for dinner tomorrow. How should I introduce the BF to the uncle..."Here is my uncle but don't bother him, he is waiting to die"? Talk about drama! During the dinner, she will criticize me in a thick accent, "What you no eat, you no like my food, I cook all day for you and you no eat, you and you're too skinny. I cook all
day and you don't eat!" then mutter to herself in Spanish basically criticizing me.

-said uncle and aunt were going to tailor my bridesmaid dress (they were both professional tailors in their heyday) but they have a doctor appt tomorrow and it is a huge deal as it takes them forever to get there and back. So fine, my mom found another tailor near the house but we have to go there as soon as I get to my moms house! I mean as soon as possible.

-I am getting my hair done for the wedding but since I am not sure what I want, my mom insists that I get a trial run before the rehearsal dinner. So God forbid if I don't go, all hell will break loose.

-I have two aunts in from South America and they have been doing some shopping. According to my dad "I've nerve seen so many bags from the Christmas tree shop in my life! And the shoes, they have bought so many shoes! Gawd almighty!" One of my aunts has to get a dress for the wedding and according to my mom, has no concept of a time crunch. So poor mom has been all over the place to find a dress that has to be fuchsia or deep purple, my aunt has the concept of "we'll do it tomorrow" down much to my mom's last nerve

-The bride's mother has decided not to attend, the bride is coping but I suspect not well

-I told my mom to seat me near the bar....

Welcome to the loony bin!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Three day weekends are never long enough!

Yessireee bob I had a hee day weekend by default due to the fact that the electricity was not working at the job.

Do you think I was productive...go on make a guess....

Well if you said yes, you are partly right:
-I weeded out one closet
-I worked on the list of things for NY
-I cleaned and scrubbed the hardwood floors and the tile floor in the bathroom
-I swept and dusted

If you said no, you are partly right:
-I went to Sephora, Lush and Bare Essecentuals and purchased items in each
In fact I went to Lush twice one yesterday for moi and one today for a friend of the BF
-I did not clean my part of the office
-I have not got my pedi yet
-I have not packed

So, hopefully the lights will be out tomorrow too!

Friday, August 24, 2007

Rain rain go away...on second though

In case you didn't hear the news, there was a major rain storm in the Chicago region yesterday. I mean it came out of no where and it poured. I was at work where it hit like you wouldn't believe, the wind was clocked at 74 mph. Our lights started to flicker then they went out at around 3:30.

I had to head to class so I left at 3:40 and made my way home it took a little long than normal but there was no traffic on the highway! But there were tornado warnings in the loop and all over parts of Chicago. There was a lot of wind damager, windows broken, and tree limbs all over the street.

So I went to work as normal today and the electricity was still out with the power coming on within 72 hours! So about 20 minutes later we were all sent home by our managers and i was home by 9 am. So let the fun things that I have to do this weekend get started....

If you are in the Midwest be safe and careful....there is more rain coming!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Dear Chicago Public works...

Dear CPW,

Thanks so much for finally deciding to pave the street in which we live in. It will be a pleasure driving down it without hitting pot holes, weird bumps and asphalt irregularities.

However, if you are going to close the street from 6-3:30 for almost a week, it would be kind if you give us more than a 12 hour notice. I understand the cost of paper can be quite expensive but considering that you put a huge bright orange posted on every other tree, lamppost, and tall stationary object, would it kill you to put a sign a few days ago on the apartment/house doors. I know that the budget cuts are killing you guys so I hope that the street will be done quickly without much overtime that you are famous for. Well a girl can dream anyway.

While we are at it, why the hell do you have to start at 6 am? Is it because it is cool or because you say you will start at 6 am so that you can tow the stragglers, sit around and watch and then really start at 9 or 10 but claim an 8 hour work day?

Glad to see my tax dollars at work...will the workers who sit around lazy have to pay for the bottle water tax too or is that a perk?

Toodles,
Christina

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

GF may I

The BF has a new video game toy. I was not too keen on it actually because I see them as wastes of time and they just don't make any sense to me. But it was his money and his time so he did get it. After much debate, my fears were that he would spend hours trying to defend the Lego warlock pinata against the evil dragon goddess superball (or whatever) that the house chores would end up being my responsibility. Now to be fair, he does do a fair share of chores around the house but there was a few occasions when I came home late from school after a hellishly long commute and there was a bunch of chores to be done so it made for a long night for me (and added to my crankiness).

But we talked about it and he knows where I stand in regards to his gaming and I know how it fits into his life (as a stress relief, get your mind off of work scenario). So he got the game and its components over the weekend.

He has been very good with the chores especially yesterday! He did so much that was a huge help.
Now that school is winding down, I can also contribute a bit more each day so that they can be split a bit more evenly and he can go defend the alternate universe galaxy space war craft or whatever....

My chore for tonight, go through the clothes that made the closet bar fall down oh and study for my final....fun

Monday, August 20, 2007

Two days my ass!

Who decided that when there are weekend that it should be just 2 days. I mean seriously, just as you get your groove on and your stress level has decreased, i tis Sunday and you have to go back to work so the stress starts to rise.

It seems that I sleep so well on Friday nights but when Sunday nights come around, I just sleep so poorly. either I have weird dreams, or I toss and turn or I wake up every hour to see what time it is. It is annoying.

This weekend it poured and I mean poured. There was no sun and just grey skies all over the place. On top of that it was the Air and Water show, which is a nice summer even in Chicago. Basically, they have speedboats, water skiers, jet ski stunts on the lake in the morning. In the afternoon they have an air show which fighter planes, and biplanes. The fighter planes basically fly at maximum speed in some areas so that means that it is loud, the sound barrier is broken and no matter where you are you can hear them. So the weather apparently put a damper on the events. Not that we went but we were privy to the noise and an occasional plane sighting. We heard them more than we saw them

I was so lazy this weekend. I have a final on Thursday and did not prepare. So now I have to hussle...just two more classes!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Blurrrrr

This week has been somewhat of a blur with so much things going on for the two of us. I am already pooped and we have not gotten to our weekend plans yet!

I have a group presentation for class tonight and the prof is a stickler for time so we had to review what we prepared on Tuesday after calss. After watching the first group it was imperative that we make sure we are on the top of our game. so I did not leave DU until 10:30. then the Red line was not running north bound so I had to take the Brown line which took forever. But the BF was sweet and met me at the EL stop so we can walk home together.

The BF has been attending an off site meeting so he has been schlepping up further north and then the meetings run overtime. So yesterday he got home much later than he wanted. But, his friend was dowm from WI visiting so I entertained him and plied him with booze until the BF came home. We then went out to eat and hit a bar for their friend's birthday. I bowed out early because I had to get my ass here at 7.

Tomorrow is another b'day party as is Saturday (pending confirmation).

This girl needs her sleep and to study and to clean the apt and to go shopping and to get a pedi and to get the eyebrows waxed.

I need a clone

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Cake

We went out to West bumblefuck in the burbs to my bf's niece's birthday party. So pretty much it was a bunch of kids and their suburban parents. Here are just some snippets of conversations:

Mom-So my kids teacher called me in to tel me that she suspects that my child is dyslexic. I told her that it is because she can't teach!
Other Parent-God I hate when they blame their own failures on our kids

G-So the neighbor died, had a heart attack at his grandson's birthday party. I saw his daughter today and offered to give her the obituary that was in the paper, she did not want it for some reason.

Parent-If you don't eat your pizza you can only have the cake no ice cream!

All the parents at one point-Hey did anyone see my kid? (then the mad search begins)

When the birthday girl was blowing out her candles:
Her father-Wish for a baby brother!
(side note he does this all the time! He has 3 girls but wants a son)

Let's just say...I am glad to be back in civilization!

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Auntie Em, Auntie Em....

Yep, there was yet another tornado spotted today but it was dangerously close to the office. So apparently the siren rang and we were all herded into the interior lunch room. We all sat there mumbling about how stupid this is because there are no windows in the area where we work, it was an hour and half before quitting time, we had stuff to do and the obligatory because we can.

We were out of there 5 minutes later.

I am not used to tornadoes, they were extremely rare when I was a wee lass. Yet, we did have one a few years ago, it knocked a big branch from a teen in the back yard to the middle of the front yard. but other than knocking out a few traffic lines it was relatively minor.

Here it is not taken so lightly, it is a real source of fear and panic.

I am not used to that....

Plus if it hits, and I see a house on a pair of ruby red shoes...they are probably not in my size anyway

UPDATE: the tornado that hit NYC in Brooklyn was just blocks away from my old apartment!

Monday, August 06, 2007

just tired

I was so tired this past weekend. I took two naps on Saturday and I still was exhausted. I could not fall asleep at night because I was too tired and when I did I was out cold. I am not sure why I was so tired. Frankly, it does have me worried because in the fall I will be taking classes on Saturdays all day and I am not sure how I will physically be able to manage it.

Yesterday, I was feeling better but some damage was done. I tried to salvage what I could but I am not sure if it was enough. Sometimes it is never enough.

On Friday, I hung out with my blog buddy. It was so much fun, we went to a local haunt called Andies and we just had such a blast. She is hysterical and we just laughed our way throughout dinner. We will get together in a few weeks to catch up and hang out with the drag queens!


Just a seemly long week ahead...



Friday, August 03, 2007

taking back the night

I meant to write about this last week but did not get the time....

Last week NPR had a two part series about Native American women. Native American women have a greater percentage of being raped than any other type of women in the U.S. want to know why, because if the rape happens outside of Indian territory, the Native American police can't arrest the perpetrator. So men rape women when they know that they are out of the territory. As such many women don't even report the rape because they know that the "white" police hesitate to get involved with the Indian Nations partly because of skepticism and partly due to the federal laws with regards to Indian territory.

They interviewed the police chief in a native community and he was saying how hard it is for them because they want to help their community but they feel so helpless. In one case the woman called the police telling them that she was raped and the guy was hiding in her closet. The Indian police department and the "White" police were outside her home arguing over where the territory line was and was the man who raped her on the "white" side or native side. They had to let the motherfucker go!

I was so enraged! Every time I hear about how women get sexually assaulted it just breaks my heart. I lost count of how many women I know who were sexually assaulted. I believe that the count is 1 in 3.

I just don't know what to think! Females in this country and world are living their lives and are assaulted as a means of violence. Those are women who had a part of them taken away from them in so many ways. It just upsets me...my heart goes out to all women (and men out there) who have had to go through a horrible crime.

Tonight when you look at the stars, the sun and the moon~part of the religion for many native American societies~please send them a message of hope and sisterhood.