The solitary life, Scientology and Sesame Street

It's always nice to have visitors. It makes living alone a little bit more thrilling. However, it also makes you realize just how happy you are to be living alone. For the first time in about a month I didn't have anyone staying with me for the weekend. Although I enjoyed all of my visitors, it was so nice and relaxing to just be here alone. Yesterday after coming off from the Marquette basketball game and lunch I had the chance for the first time in a while to just sit and relax. The previous weekends were relaxing to an extent, but really just weren't the same. I turned on some Bob Dylan and sat down on my couch with some popcorn and the latest issue of Rolling Stone. It was really quite nice.

In the issue, there is an article about Scientology. Knowing really very little, other than I think it's crazy, I decided to read the article and learn a little bit about the religion. Although I didn't finish it because it was just getting too long and I was getting restless (I am part of the MTV generation after all), I did gain a better understanding of the religion. However, I do still think they are a bunch of nut jobs. Children that are raised in Scientology are some what excused, as they were born into it and don't know any better. The same could be said about me as a Catholic I suppose. However, these people who are choosing this path as adults are just plain crazy. Only the highest levels Scientologist, from what I understand, know the full "story" and belief structure of the religion. Plus, it costs like an arm and a leg to be a fully practicing member. It's going to take a lot more to convince me on this one.

Sidenote: It's not so much the MTV generation that has this short attention span and needs the flashy colors and scene changes. Really, it is the Sesame Street generation. The thought behind Sesame Street was that kids need these short snipits to keep their attention. If a segment goes to long, they get bored and disinterested. I don't doubt this is true, in fact I think Sesame Street has done wonders. After all, I can count to 10 in Spanish. The problem is that so many things now have this same format. And people wonder why there are so many kids with ADD, but that's a whole different rant.

Moving on up to a deluxe apartment in the sky!

Well folks, come April 1 I will no longer living in the "garden." Not only will I be moving to apartment that gets light and is warmer, I will have a balcony. Even better, I will be saving $5 on my rent. I know, that's huge! I'm very excited about the move and only hope the next 6 weeks move quickly.

In other news, Gov. Doyle(that would be the governor of Wisconsin all you prairie state inhabitants out there) recently signed a law that requires all children to sit in a carseat or booster seat until the age of 8. Yes folks you read that right, 8 years old. The law goes into affect in June I think. I have no idea how they are expecting to enforce this one. There is only one way to describe this law: RIDICULOUS.

In other Wisconsin news, Gov. Doyle vetoed the conceal and carry bill. At first thought I agreed with Doyle vetoing it because seriously, why does anyone need to have a concealed gun. However after being talked at by a friend who was of quite the opposite opinion on the matter I did start to see the validity of the bill. After all, it's not like criminals are going to not carry guns because it is illegal. They all have them now anyways. Our discussion on the topic was like two weeks ago so I don't remember the details. I wasn't totally convinced, but I am more open to the idea now. What was the most shocking thing I learned during this whole gun debate that has been going on that something like 36 states (might have been more actually) have conceal and carry laws. Who knew? Certainly not me. I say I was talked at about the issue because I think friends should not discuss politics or religion for that matter. Really, I don't like discussing politics with anyone. So to have shared these thoughts today about these laws for all the world to read is quite out of character for me. I feel like talking politics/religion with friends just leads to sour feelings. Unless of course you are both of the same opinion, and then what's the point really?

Oh, and I discovered Rosemary & Olive Oil Triscuits this week. They are absolutely fabulous. I recommend everyone go out and try them.

Life without Internet access is sort of like being a hermit

For about 3 weeks now the Internet connection I was conveniently stealing from someone in my building has been lost. I never realized how dependent I was on the Internet for communication and information. Luckily, Marquette isn't too far away and I can come here to take advantage of all the wonderful computers in the library. It is a little weird, it is a Saturday afternoon and this place is almost completely empty. Why was it never like this when I came to study? I won't complain though because if all the kids were here I wouldn't have a computer to use.

Work is no longer boring. Instead it is insanely busy. I would take busy over boring any day though. I really like it a lot more. I actually feel like I am a necessary asset now. On Thursday night I stayed about 3 hours late. It is amazing how much more you can get done once everyone else leaves. It's just so much easy to work when everyone around you isn't talking. It's amazing anything ever gets done at that place. The lights in the office turn off automatically at 6 p.m. Since we didn't know how to turn them back on, we had to just sit in the dark with only our desk lights and the glow of our computer screens. It was really kind of creepy.

Most people hate when their lives become stressful. I'm different that way I guess though. Now that there is some stress back in my life I feel more like myself. It's like like my life was off balance the last few months because there was no energy behind what I was doing. Now that there is so much going on at work and will be for at least another month, there is something motivating me. I never really saw stress as motivation before, but I really think it can be. That pressure of a deadline that I had been missing so much is back, and I love it! For the first time in almost 5 months I can honestly say that I really like my job.

Hitting the open road

Everyday when I drive to work it is sort of like I am hitting the open road. Today, though, it really was the open road. As the rest of the world enjoyed the Federal holiday, I enjoyed a stress free drive to work. I never saw more than 4 cars around me at any point during the long drive. It was crazy. The traffic going into the city was a little heavier but still pretty light.

I spent all of Sunday night dreading having to go back to work. I decided going back to work after a week off is worse than going back to school after a month off. When you go back to school you are going back to new classes and new adventures and experiences. All that going back to work offers is the pile of stuff to do you left before vacation. It's not nearly as exciting. Luckily I didn't need to try and get ahold of anyone. I felt bad for all the sales people since they basically got nothing done other than leaving a million messages. I really should have tried to call the guy who blew off our interview two weeks ago, but I figured he wasn't there. I'll return to my daily phone messages tomorrow. I'm still annoyed that he blew the interview off. Seriously, who does that?

The Packer's fired Mike Sherman today. A little part of me got a cheap thrill out of hearing the news. At the same time though i felt bad. I know the Shermans and from my experience they are a really nice family. It's really a shame for them. However, I do enjoy watching all the fans suffer.

And that's all she wrote.

"I'll be home for Christmas, you can plan on that"

It's hard to believe that Christmas is in a few weeks. This was probably the fastest three months of my life, but then again maybe I say that every year. I'm not sure if I'm more excited for Christmas and my birthday or for the week off of work that I'll spend in LaGrange. It's snowed enough up here to make it seem like Christmas is actually coming. Now that it's been a few days since the snow first came it's not quite as treacherous to drive in. This is Wisconsin, you would think "they" would know how to handle snow. Yet, year after year the streets of Milwaukee barely get plowed. I don't understand it in the slightest.

I put up my own Christmas tree and, although a little pathetic, it looks pretty good.

Every time I think of something really good to write about, my Internet never works when I get home. That has happened many times in the last week or so. I wish I remembered what all those ideas where now that I can finally update. Oh well, guess this is all you get for now.

This is what being the assistant is all about...

Favorite Christmas song of the moment: Christmas Canon

Today at work my boss was standing outside my cubicle for a little while, looking as if he was thinking real hard. I must have turned and gave him a "what are you doing?" kind of look because then he came in and asked me what was the most unique thing I've seen. I continued to just kind of look at him funny I think. We talked briefly about the Scion and Prius and how they are ugly cars. Then he moved on to ask some other people. He had explained how he's got this idea he's working on and he needs some ideas. He didn't elaborate what this "idea" is. So I spent the last hour of work just kind of staring at various things at my desk thinking of things that might be "really unique," but not having any real direction of what kind of things to be things to be thinking of. After awhile I thought of the Segways, and after spending 10 minutes trying to remember what they were called I walked over to his office to tell him my idea. After trying to describe what I was thinking of, he figured out what Segways were (which I must say because my description was horrible). His response: "That's a good idea. That's a really good ideal. Wow, thanks. Let me know if you come up with anything else." I must say, for such a stupid thing, I really did appreciate the compliment. About half an hour later he came by to ask someone else because he still needed one more idea. I still don't know what he's doing, but he needs to be able to show pictures of these "unique things."

He really thinks I should work on writing a book. In fact he suggested why not start now. I had told him eventually some day I wanted to. He said some day could be now. I've been putting much more thought into it lately and have come up with a few ideas. Then again, all of this could become a book if you think about it. I might need to elaborate on some stuff, but hey you never know.

Today's entry is brought to from my cubicle

Working the day before Thanksgiving is useless. I have no work to actually do and half the office is gone. I've successful done about an hour of work so far today and now I am out of work to do. It's super that I still have three and a half more hours of sitting here doing nothing.

This past weekend was the start of deer gun hunting in the fine state of Wisconsin. This is something that I will never understand. It is not limited to gun hunting, just hunting in general. Why anyone would want to go sit out in the woods, in the cold, for hours on end and not making any noise is so far beyond me. I have no moral qualms with hunting, especially deer hunting. There is after all a mass overpopulation of deer — might as well shoot them. My problem with hunting is that I simply can not begin to fathom how it is fun. I doubt I ever will understand it either, unless of course someone kidnaps me and forces me to hunt and I miraculously have the best time of my life. That of course is doubtful, very doubtful. Besides not understanding the “fun” involved in hunting, I don’t like it because I absolutely hate having to drive behind the car that has a deer strapped to the top of it or hanging out of the bed of a pickup. Kill all the deer you want, but don’t force me to have to look at it for 20 miles while I drive behind you. I saw at least 2 cars on Monday driving home from work that had deer attached to the back.

This past weekend was also the start of Christmas season in Milwaukee. When I got into my car on Thursday after work and turned on the radio my ears were greeted by the sounds of Christmas music. I enjoy Christmas music as much of the next guy, but pre-Thanksgiving just seems too early. However, that has not stopped me from listening to it since then. Mostly I think I’ve been listening to it because the station that plays it is the one that I find the least annoying in the morning. After all, beggars can’t be choosers. Thursday night was also when they lit the county Christmas tree in Milwaukee and had a big Christmas light spectacular kind of thing in Pere Marquette Park. Saturday was the Holiday parade. I guess this way it doesn’t take away from Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving weekend, but if you really think about it doesn’t starting all this Christmas hoopla before Thanksgiving take away from turkey day anyway?

Since I’ve been listening to Christmas music for almost a week I’ve heard that Christmas Shoes song a handful of times. The song is nice enough and I guess tells a good story, but in my book it is the worst Christmas song out there. It is the most depressing song I’ve ever heard in my life. Christmas should not about being depressed, though that’s what it is for so many people; it should be about happiness and celebration. The hippopotamus song is another horrible song out there. However, this song is bad simply because it is annoying. The singer’s voice is annoying, the lyrics are annoying and its ability to get stuck in your head for the entire day is super annoying. Just thinking about it has it stuck in my head now.

Merry Christmas! Oh wait, it’s only Thanksgiving … I forgot. Happy Thanksgiving!

Deadline driven

In my line of work you would expect deadlines to be a very present detail. I am the kind of person who needs deadlines to work efficiently. I need structure to what I do. I need to know how long I should be writing something and when I need to be done with it. Surprisingly, this is not how it seems to work at the magazine. I'm told my stories should be between 1,200 and 1,500 words, but if i need more or less space I should just say so. When I don't have enough information to keep a story going for 1,200 words that is a useful guideline. However, many times I could keep going with a story for pages and pages. I need more structure than that. I also only know when the whole magazine needs to be done by, but am never told when the deadline for my stories are. I've managed to create deadlines for myself, but that still makes it hard because I know that it's not really a true deadline. I need the stress of a looming deadline to work. I always have. In sense, it's why I got into this and stuck with this. I thrived off the stress and pressure of getting something done and to the printer.

Sidenote: I was watching Gilmore Girls this week and one of the characters wrote a book and had it published. I think one day that is something I'd like to attempt. We'll see.

Traveling girl

Wednesday morning I left for my very first business trip. Four of us drove to Grand Rapids, Mich., for the Industrial Woodworking Midwest Expo. To describe the trip in one word, it was interesting. I was really worried about the drive up there and wanting to kill one of the people that went with. However, the 5 hour drive went surprisingly quickly and for the most part he didn't get on my nerves. The show began on Thursday at 9. So from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I was pretty much on my feet. I was warned that my feet were going to kill no matter what shoes I wore and I would have blisters in places I never had blisters before. I didn't believe the blister part as I've had blisters in every possible area on my feet. Running will do that to your feet. I opted not to argue though and just took the advice for what it was. I expected my feet to hurt by the end of the day, and I even figured my knees would probably be bothering me. What I didn't expect was the intense soreness I had in my hips by the end of the day. It was like nothing I've ever experienced before in my life. Luckily, I spent the 3 hours we were at the show on Friday sitting at our booth. My legs are still hurting today. Hopefully tomorrow I am fully recovered. Over all the show was a good experience. It was a little hard for me to get into the swing of thing because my job consisted of walking up to random people, introducing myself and handing out my business card. It was a lot of shmoozing, which is not my strong point in any way shape or form. It is simply not something I am comfortable with doing. I imagine it will get easier in time when I am going to these things more, but at the same time it just is not appealing to me.

Sidenote: The number of overweight children disgusts me. There is really no reason for little kids to be so fat. A few random chubby kids is normal, but the majority of kids I see are fat and that's not normal.

Don't stop believing

It's been two days now since the greatest day of my life (going to the World Series, duh), and I still don't know if I have the words to describe the excitement and thrill of being there. It was an insane day, but well worth the gas and sleep that I lost and the cold I have now. I'm still trying to recover from not getting any sleep Sunday night, but I'm still trying to calm down from the excitement too. It would have been even better to be sitting with the whole family, but Mike and I had a ball sitting together. There were high fives all over the place, jumping up and down. Sitting in the cold and rain strangers became friends Sunday night on the South Side. It was even more exciting than being at the Marquette game when they won the game that sent them to the Final Four. That was more nerve wracking, but the World Series was by far a bigger moment in my life. There are so many more things I have to say, but I just can't come up with the words to describe it. Unbelievable. Go Sox!

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Changing colors

Fall is an amazing time of year. I have never realized just how much I enjoy the season. Perhaps it is because now that I'm not in school I have time to "stop and smell the roses." Or maybe it is because the changes in the season are coinciding with the changes in my life. Either way, I'm really enjoying watching the trees change. The colors of the trees are beautiful all day, but they are the most beautiful in the morning when the sun is just coming up. This morning the sun was this amazingly warm pink color and the way it reflected off the reds and oranges of the trees was perfectly calming. Everyday, lately, on my way to work I've been thinking about how I'd love to take pictures of the scenes I drive past, but I'm not sure that I want to do all that driving on a Saturday morning that early. I know it won't be the same later in the day. It's still beautiful in the afternoon, but it is nothing like it is in the morning.

So many people have made comments in passing to me about the fall being different from now on because I wouldn't be starting school. I admit that the season has been far from anyone prior to it, but I am really quite enjoying it. I'm not crazy about waking about at 5:45 a.m., -- really who is -- but I am loving that on Saturday I can do whatever I want and not feel guilty that I wasn't doing work. This past weekend was the perfect fall weekend, and I was actually able to enjoy it. There was no homework, work, cross country or anything like that to keep me from spending the day I wanted. It was great! I could get used to this.

Baby don't you want to go, sweet home Chicago

Since it is Friday and I did a lot of writing at work this week, I don't have the creativity inside of me to write something fancy. So take this for what it's worth.

Things I miss about Chicago:
1. My family and the comfort of home
2. Being there for this amazing run the White Sox are on
3. My Nazareth/St. Francis friends
4. The Monkey Lounge
5. Living above ground
6. Driving into the city and seeing a skyline, not just the U.S. Bank Building (it's the tallest building in Milwaukee you know.)
7. Good pizza
8. People who know how to drive.
9. Chicago news, for various reasons but mostly because it's not centered around the Packers
10. The Chicago Tribune

Things I like about being in Milwaukee/Wisconsin
1. The smell of the breweries
2. Traffic is never too insane at "rush hour"
3. Driving downtown isn't a death wish
4. Spotted Cow beer...I think it's my new favorite
5. Living on my own
6. Marquette friends are easy to find
7. Cheese is one of my favorite foods
8. The area along the lake
9. The trees/water/fog/fields on my drive to work (come December I will hate this)
10. Fishfries...don't knock it til ya tried it.

Things I don't miss about Chicago:
1. Rush hour traffic
2. Obnoxious Cubs fans (though there are plenty up here)
3. Wisconsin drivers (they are even worse when they are out of their element)
4. Feeling like a tourist in my "own" city
5. Madcow on Q101 (I was struggling to come up with a 5th point)

Things I don't like about Milwaukee/Wisconsin:
1. The various smells in the Fort Atkinson area
2. Packer fans
3. You can't turn left anywhere along Wisconsin Ave. downtown
4. The highway system....and more specifically the Marquette Interchange construction
5. It's not Chicago

Thank you and good night!

Run run as fast as you can...

This weekend Mike and I ventured back to Illinois to go watch Megan and Steve run the Chicago Marathon. The whole marathon experience is really quite amazing. Steve qualified for Boston, which amazes me beyond belief. It doesn't amaze me that he was able to accomplish it, just amazes me that someone I know will be running the Boston Marathon this spring. Megan amazes me even more though. I have no idea how she does these things. We both ended up with the more or less similar knee problems. I know I could never do what she did today. People always say you can do whatever you put you mind to, but I truly believe that Meg can do whatever she puts her mind to .

Take me out to the ball game

As I sit here eating some left over pizza from Edwardo's (Chicago style of course), drinking a frosty brew (I live in Milwaukee after all) and listening to the Sox game on the radio (my heart is still in the city by the lake, Chicago not Milwaukee) all I can think is how great it would be to be in Chicago right now, and -- since that is not entirely possible -- how much I wish my cable was installed already. I guess this is what it was like in the old days, well you know except that I'm sitting on my couch typing on my laptop and using the Internet...and I used a microwave, another modern convenience, to cook my dinner. Otherwise, just like the old days.

I'm so glad my dad raised me right. What do I mean you ask? He raised me a Sox fan. He taught us early on the Cubs were losers, something that I will always remember about Dad forever. Those years we had season tickets were the best. Going to the games are some of my most vivid memories of my "childhood." I can remember the guys who sat behind us who bet with quarters. One time the dropped the cup or something that they were collecting the quarters in and I picked a few up that had rolled down to our row to give back to them. They let me keep them, which is a pretty nice deal for a kid who is in fourth grade or so. We would get so much food at the games. It's amazing we weren't all obese kids. I guess if we were going everyday we would have been. I could still go to the exact spot our seats were. Even Mom even got into it back then. I can only hope that she will be digging out her Lance Johnson jersey for old time sakes.

I wonder if we were all living at home right now if this run the Sox are going on would be as exciting as the Bulls run during the glory years. We sure ate a lot of pizza in those days. Again amazing that we are not the fattest family ever. It's really a shame I'm not at home because should it go as I'd like and the Sox win the World Series, I can't really go looting like we did for the Bulls. I don't think my neighbors, who I have yet to even see, would appreciate it like the Borkowskis did.

Oh well. You've got to roll with the changes I guess.

Just a little something to think about...

"The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be. " ~ Robert Fulghum

Gas stations and library cards

Something that really bugs me is when you are driving on the highway and it says that exit such and such is a gas exit. So you're driving along driving along and your gas light goes on, you see the gas exit and you think "excellent! Now I won't get stranded in the middle of no where!" Oh, but how wrong you are. After getting off the exit you discover that the gas station is no where to be found. Apparently the highway people meant exit here and drive 5 miles to get to the BP. In 5 miles I would have been in the next town and could have exited where I knew where the gas station actually was, which conviently is right off of highway. Annoying.

Since some days at work I spend a lot of time reading the paper, my paper reading habits have expanded to include the business section and the book section among other things. This new discovery has resulted in wanting to buy a bunch of books. As we all know, books cost too much. When you factor that into not having much of a disposable income it gets tricky. Until of course that is you remember that place you used to go to when you were little that brought so much joy. Ironically, this same place brought a feeling of dread and stress when you were in college. The library. Over the weekend I figured out where in fact the library in this fine town was and made a plan to go after work. On my drive home from work, after the gas fiasco, I realized I wasn't entirely sure what I needed to get a library card. The last time I got a library card was when I was five. When I got home I rummaged around for something that had my new address on it, as I remembered that being something I needed back in the day in LaGrange. My credit card bill didn't have my address on it anymore because I sent it in already. Luckily, the folks at Merill Lynch keep sending me stuff about planning my 401(k). So, I grabbed my mail, my keys and I was off for a new adventure. While browsing through the books after I had my card I realized I hadn't taken a book out from the library to read for fun since whenever I stopped doing the summer reading thing at the LaGrange library. That's a shame.

I better get reading though because I only get these books for a week!

Turkey trot

Every morning I rise around 6 a.m. I shower, get dressed, make some coffee and I'm on my way by 7 a.m. I hop onto 94 and watch the city fade away in my rear view mirror. After about 20 minutes or so of driving, the city is a distant memory and I am surround be forest, farms and the occasional body of water. The fog is amazing that comes off the lake and some of the corn fields. I've never really seen anything like it. Around 7:45 I am almost to work and am usually getting off Rout 26 and getting onto Business 26. Today the drive was going as usual, except that the morning routine was a little rushed due to a malfunctioning alarm clock which resulted in me leaving about 5 minutes late. As I pulled onto the off ramp I began to slow down, but immediately had to slam on the breaks and avoid a wild turkey that had found its way to the road. As I starred in disbelief, a thought struck me. I had never seen a turkey -- a real life turkey -- in person. I've seen pictures of turkeys and I've seen turkeys on T.V. Never, though, have I seen a real life, living turkey. Apparently, I am more of a city girl than I ever knew.

When I arrived in the office I immediately shared my story about the turkey, still in disbelief. Apparently, the turkey hangs out over there everyday, and I have just not noticed it and it hasn't ventured to the road. Sadly, the turkey sighting was close to the most exciting thing that happened today.