Updates galore!

Many things have happened since I last updated this blog. Some of the major things include:

1. moving to a new apartment;
2. attending my first Chicago Bears football game vs. the Carolina Panthers;
3. landing an AWESOME job as an editorial assistant at a wonderful church;
4. attending a benefit at the field museum;
5. and watching Mickey and Minnie Mouse in the Chicago lighting ceremony.

I am in a wonderful place right now in my life and so happy to be here. I absolutely love my new job and I hope that I will continue to love it as we push through the busy season surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas. While I enjoyed having lots of free time during the day on my mini-vacation from work, I am very happy to have something to do. So far I have walked to work every day and walked home all but one day (it was pouring rain so I took the bus instead). I just took over one of the major parts of my job (typesetting the Sunday bulletins) so I have a feeling I will be a little stressed this week, but thankfully it is a short week! I am super excited to go home for Thanksgiving and can't wait to spend some time with my family.

Here are some pictures from the last few months:

 The view from our seats at the Bears/Panthers game.

 Wearing our Panthers jerseys surrounded by Bears fans.

 The view from our new apartment balcony, overlooking a park.

 Flowers from my boss on my first day of work.

 The view from my desk at work, with some people dressed up as Mario to support a new video game.

 Walking to work on a really foggy morning.

 View of the Hancock Tower from my office.

 David standing in front of a bison at the Field Museum.

 The front of the Field Museum at night.

 Flowers from David for my birthday!

 The huge crowd waiting to see the parade at the lighting ceremony.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse!

I already had to pull out my big winter coat due to the sudden drop in temperature this past week. I haven't had to wear my boots yet, but I know that day is coming soon...

Weekend of Fun!

Since David is in the office all week, we decided to go out and have fun this weekend. On Saturday morning, we decided to see what all was happening over the weekend, including festivals and touristy attractions. We decided to pick a festival at a local 50's-type diner but with a few back-ups, because we weren't sure how great the festival would be.

It was a very nice day as we set out to check out the festival. It is only a few blocks away, which was nice. As we passed the restaurant, there was a band setting up, and a few people milling around, but nothing special. Since it was already an hour in, we decided to skip that festival and head to our next destination: CHICK FIL-A!!! It is the only one in Chicago, and it just opened up a few months ago. It is rare that I have fast food (and David eats it less than I do) so it was a nice treat after a failed festival. While in line to order our food, we saw one of David's friends, John. It was really nice to see him and we decided to all have lunch together.

After lunch, we decided to head to Navy Pier! I haven't been there yet, and it is a pretty big Chicago place. Also, it is free!!! So we walked down the boardwalk and finally settled at the Beer Garden, where we each had a beer and listened to some great cover music by Tanglewood, with a few original songs thrown in. We also checked out a great exhibit on Nikola Tesla, which was very exciting for David and actually quite interesting to me. Once we left Navy Pier, we walked over to our new apartment to check out the surrounding area for grocery stores, bars, and cool places. We found a grocery store very similar to Whole Foods, which may come in handy! Also, we found a little quiet bar that could also be a nice place to hang out by the river.

On Sunday, we decided to take another walk (lots of walking this weekend) and join in on a GUINNESS WORLD RECORD!!! How exciting! The record was to have at least 250 people simultaneously tie a bow-tie. It was a free event and if you were one of the first 500 people, you received a free bow-tie! It was sponsored by The Tie Bar, which seemed like a pretty cool place. We had an awesome time! I got a little stressed out at one point because I had finally learned how to tie it, and then it wasn't working any longer! But once I calmed down, we were ready to break the world record! It was a great experience.

Here are some pictures I took with my phone this weekend:The smaller building in the middle is our new place.
This is a picture of Windy, the pirate ship on Navy Pier.This is the Beer Garden, where we listened to some great music.Here is the view of the Chicago skyline from Navy Pier.David at the entrance to the Navy Pier boardwalk.After we tied our bow-ties for the world record!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and that everyone is safe after Hurricane Irene.

The First of Many Posts

Since the last time I posted, I made a few MAJOR life changes.

First of all, I decided not to renew my lease in Chapel Hill. Then I quit my job at the library. Finally, I moved to CHICAGO!

I hope to post over the next few days my first few weeks here in Chicago. I am currently unemployed, but constantly looking for new jobs! I am applying a lot and hoping to hear back soon. I have been taking pictures when possible (which certainly helps with an iPhone!) and I will post them here when I can.

Here are two pictures that I took before I left NC. The first was taken in a bar when Liz came to visit me the weekend before I moved out! We had a blast and I was so happy that I was able to spend a weekend with her before I moved. Even though we had a few problems with transportation to the bar, we eventually figured everything out and had a wonderful night. The second picture is of David, finally reunited with his precious Star Wars light saber.



I will post my Chicago pictures later and start telling all about my adventures!

Happy New Year!

So I may be a few days late (or over a week late) but Mom was pushing me to blog again, so I figured that I would make her happy and send out a few little updates.

My last blog was in October, so I guess I will give a short run down of the last few months.

October: Halloween! I spent it in Chicago, and that was lots of fun! David and I dressed up as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, but unfortunately didn't have any trick-or-treaters! I guess he is a little too close to the city for families! We still had a blast and that meant that we had TONS of candy left over!

November: Work was pretty slow, since we couldn't do much until the end of the semester, but we were gearing up to take a few courses off reserve and put lots more on! It is really easy to do all the e-reserve classes, but a little more difficult when we are dealing with the actual hard copy of book and such. Also, I turned 23 (and now feel super old)!!! David made me a delicious dinner and then we went out to Top-O with Whitney, Clay, Graham, and Caroline! It was a perfect way to spend my birthday, although I certainly missed having all my friends around! It felt a little incomplete, but I was still glad that I was able to share my special night with close friends and David! Thanksgiving was also a wonderful time with family and David made a special trip down to enjoy the meal with my family! We had a pretty large crowd and it was certainly nice to see everyone again.

December: Carey had her "sprinkle" at the Olive Garden and we had a really good time! It was nice to spend time with my mom and sisters, as well as her mother-in-law and a few good friends. I really think she enjoyed the food, company, and the gifts! I also went back up to Chicago and got to test out my new snow boots! There was snow all on the ground and your footprints went away in less than 5 minutes! I couldn't believe it. It has certainly been a long time since I have seen that much snow. Normally we can still see the grass when it snows in North Carolina! We also had the family Christmas party, which was exciting! David made the trip down from Chicago for that too, which was a really nice addition. I have never had a boy to bring to family Christmas!

Christmas this year was definitely a new experience. Due to work, I wasn't able to come home until Christmas Eve, and only stayed until the day after Christmas. I really missed having a Christmas vacation! This was the first year in about 17 years that I haven't had that pleasure! I was envious of all my friends who are still in school or teachers that got that long break! I guess I am glad that I have a job in this economy and probably shouldn't be complaining, but oh well! On Christmas Eve, I went to TWO church services! First my Dad and I went to our old church, Plaza, to spend Christmas with some old friends and family. It wasn't the same without Granddaddy there, and I could tell that he was missed. Katie was also missed this year, but I am glad that her parents and sister were able to make it out to the service, despite the grief. After that service, I had a few hours before I left to go to Sardis for the 11:00pm service with my mom. It felt weird that I wasn't able to go to one Christmas Eve service with both of my parents, but I enjoyed the time I was able to spend with each of them. I was woken up REALLY EARLY on Christmas (7:30!!!!) to open a few presents before the Campbells and Dalys arrived around 10 or so. I got an amazing picture of Dad and me riding on the motorcycle on the way to Sturgis, South Dakota. I really love the picture and I was super excited that my parents got it blown up, and now it hangs over my TV! My parents opened lots of presents from each other, and we were forced to get dressed really early (I wasn't too happy I had to change out of my pjs before noon) and prepare for company! I had a great time opening presents with all of my family and I got a lot of really cool presents! The Campbells made candles that smelled lovely and the Dalys made really cool coasters! I can't wait to try both of those out!

I spent New Years Eve in Chicago, which was a new and exciting adventure! Kendall and Cam came over for about an hour or two before they went out to a club to celebrate the new year. It was weird not watching the ball drop, but I guess it wouldn't have dropped on time there anyway! We had some champagne and I enjoyed a quiet night in this year.

To sum it all up, I had a great 2010. I graduated from college, got a job, got my own apartment, and started dating a wonderful guy. I flew on an airplane by myself for the first time and with all my traveling, I have gotten pretty good at flying! I went to Mexico for the first time and enjoyed an amazing week with friends. I hope that 2011 is just as great as 2010!

If I can actually come up with good new years resolutions, I will post those soon. The students start classes tomorrow, so I am guessing work will be pretty busy with angry, confused instructors, meaning I better head to bed.

Goodnight!