Snowed in on Christmas

So we decided to leave for Omaha a day early to beat the bad weather that was headed for the Midwestern states. We left Tuesday at 2:00pm and arrived at my sisters in Omaha around midnight. We left behind a couple inches of snow in Chicago, drove through some near freezing drizzle in Iowa and Illinois (which wasn't really that bad) and arrived in Omaha to find some rain and then ice the next day and now almost a foot of snow! Our usual Christmas day in Flandreau, South Dakota was cancelled for those of us who were driving from out of state. Our "Zimmer Christmas" is also up in the air for tomorrow due to the weather,... and if it happens will be a very small group of people! What a strange Christmas it is turning out to be!

The "Christmas blizzard of 2009" started here in Omaha on Christmas Eve during the day and is still going strong as I type this. There was only a couple inches of snow on the ground when we headed out on Christmas Eve, but the wind was so strong it was blowing the snow everywhere and pelting us in the face.... no fun...not to mention Omaha already had huge piles of snow on the ground from the last big snow storm they had a couple weeks ago.

So, we managed to get out to church on Christmas Eve with Joe's parents and Andy. Was nice to be back in the church where we were married, even though it was super crowded and standing room only at this mass. I love that church at Christmas and all the time. Its such a nice place to be. Feels like home when I'm there.

After that we went out with my mom and sister for our usual Christmas Eve ritual. We had a nice dinner at Biaggi's and then to my moms and back to Cathy's for presents and treats. It was a nice night and Cathy even managed to get my mom out of her snowy parking lot when she left for the night. There was a lot more snow at that point and my moms car was not made for deep snow at all!!

So we woke up on Christmas day with the hopes of going over to Joe's parents but we were snowed in for sure. There was at least 8-9 inches of snow on the ground and the drifts were super big all around the cars. Boo. So we are stuck at my sisters for today, hoping it will be better tomorrow and we can get out and get over there. But, we tried to make the best of it, Cathy and I played UNO and ate some snacks and a few of the cookies I made. Joe watched basketball and movies. The dogs are getting a little stir crazy because they haven't been on a walk, but they probably wouldn't enjoy a walk in the snow that's taller than them. :-)

Anyway, so this blog is being written to pass some time, as you can tell. We are a little bored, but we are hanging out. Not often we just sit around with our family, even if its just Joe and my sister and our dogs.

So I better get back to doing nothing.... Merry Christmas to all of you and hope wherever you are you aren't having as much "white Christmas" as we are.

My favorite time of year!

I am just entirely too excited for Christmas!!
Maybe I just have way too much time on my hands this year and its getting to me? I just love this time of year!! Like they say, I wish every day could be Christmas...or whatever the saying is....I just love this time of year, love buying gifts for people, shopping, wrapping, planning our visit home, listening to Christmas music, etc. I get WAY too into it!!

Today I was extra super excited because I got our present for my Dad in the mail and it turned out AWESOME! I will be sending it off to him this week and I wish we could be there to see him open it. My sister and I went in on something this year and after lots of hard work we finally got it done! Maybe its not as big of a deal as I am making it out to be, but I think its pretty COOL and I know he will love it! This is pretty good considering he is always hard to buy for! I can't say what it is, but I am super excited to give it to him. :-)

Yesterday we went downtown with my friend Sarah, who has a nice manual/professional camera (which I totally want!) and she took some nice photos of Joe and I at some cool spots in Chicago for our Christmas card. I am really happy with the way they turned out! I will post some of my faves later... but you will all have to wait and see which one we picked for the card. Thanks, Sarah!!

Anyway, off to wrap some gifts now! I'm almost done....almost!

Here is one of my favorite songs...totally reminds me of being a kid at Christmas.... ahhh, memories.... Check it out if you have time.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U7MZkSlsOU

Thanksgiving

My Mom came to visit us in Chicago for Thanksgiving this year. I made a semi-small Thanksgiving for just the three of us. We still got stuffed as usual and still have lots of leftovers!

We went and to see the Christmas Carol movie in 3D, it was pretty cool with the new "Real 3D" that they have. It was a little scary though and I wouldn't recommend it for little kids at all. Amazing what they can do with animation these days, it looked SO real!

We went out to eat one night at Hopleaf for yummy mussels and Belgian beer and another night to Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder for Pizza Pot Pies. Mmmm, so yummy!

(www.hopleaf.com & www.chicagopizzaandovengrinder.com)
Here are some photos from the weekend. We didn't take too many and a lot of them were taken on my cell phone so they aren't that great. Enjoy!

3D Glasses

Jury Duty Adventure

I thought I needed to post something since its been a while. It's been an eventful couple of weeks.

I had jury duty a couple of weeks ago, was selected for a trial (of course), so I'll start with that. This is old news to some of you, but oh well. Here goes my story. So, in Chicago it's apparently a pretty big deal, being a big city and all, I guess that makes sense. I reported to the big criminal court building on for my "day of service" assuming that I was going to be bored out of my mind sitting there all day. It really wasn't anything like that! Not only was it like a major event with bajillions of people there (yes, I said bajillions), it was pretty interesting as well! (or at least I thought it was)

The room we sat in was HUGE. Probably half of an entire floor of this building pretty much filled to the brim with theater type seats. People just plopped down and waited for their "panel" number to be called. Honestly, it was like bingo. Every time the man in the suit would walk up to the mic everyone would listen intently for their "lucky number" to be called. I waited all morning as he called several numbers close to mine, but he didn't call mine until almost noon. When he finally called it I wanted to jump up and yell, "I won, I won!!"....but I had to pretend I was as unexcited as the rest of the people there.

The worst part about it was all the waiting, even once my panel was called. We had to line up, 2 by 2, like we were in prison and wait there forever for the sheriff to escort us over to the courthouse.

I sat in a courtroom briefly for one trial and then we were dismissed right away for lunch. We came back and they let us go because some things about the case had changed. I went back to the bingo room and right away my panel was called again! Woo-hoo! I won again! But, this time it was for real.

We were taken into the courtroom and names were called to go sit in the jury box area. Mine was one of them. We were then "briefed" on the general type of trial, length, etc. It was a murder trial, first degree murder and also another weapons charge, something about firing a weapon with the intent to kill or do some physical harm, I cant remember exactly now. I was nervous yet intrigued! I wanted to see how this whole justice system worked! Plus, this was way cooler than being on some lame civil trial. So after we were picked the entire group of potential jurors was questioned out in the open by the judge, in front of the attorneys, the defendant, and the other people who were in the courtroom. It was not like I had pictured at all. After all the questions and discussion among the attorneys, several people were let go, people with criminal records and people who had family with criminal records and tons of other things. I of course was picked and was a juror for that trial.

The trial didn't start until the following day. This time we had to report directly to the jury room for that courtroom. These rooms were so old and nasty. The bathrooms looked like they were from the 50's or older. The whole place was in serious need of an update! Whew!

Anyway...back to the trial. I found out that I was an "alternate juror" along with one other guy, which meant we would sit and listen to the trial but would not be allowed to deliberate at the end and decide the case. BOO! I was so mad....excited that I got to stay and watch, but mad I didn't get to talk to these people about the case and help make a decision. :-(

The trial went all day one day and part of the next. It was eye opening to see attorneys, witnesses, the judge, all in action. It really opened my eyes to how it all works and how good some lawyers are! The way they got right in our face and the defendants face was rather intimidating, and very convincing. I knew then that I could have never been a lawyer,... I'm not a good liar nor sales person, but it sure was interesting to watch. Interesting enough that for one second I thought, "I could definitely be a professional juror!" Too bad the salary of $17.20 per day isn't quite enough to live on. Ha! ;-)

So the trial ended the second day and I was let go. They sheriff for the case called me at home to let me know the verdict was reached so that I knew I could talk about the case at that point. It was tough not talking about it with Joe or Cathy or anyone I talk to on a regular basis! I did it though! I followed the "order" of the judge and didn't tell.

It was a guilty verdict and I was glad to hear it because that's what I would've said as well. It was a sad case, but pretty easy to decide based on the witnesses testimonies.

All in all, what I took away from this experience was more than getting to see the inner workings of a trial and courthouse, but really seeing,...seeing up close and personal the people who are affected by and who involve themselves in this kind of crime. You know, probably almost every night on the news here in Chicago, we hear about this type of gun violence mainly on the far South side of the city and some other areas. However, it doesn't really register when you live so separated from it and you only see a two line story in the paper or hear a 1 minute story on the news. It is real when you are forced to see it on the jury for the trial of a kid who was probably 18 at the time that he pulled out a gun and shot multiple times at 2 other kids who were in front of their own home. He killed one of them, left him dead on the street, like it was no big deal. It was sad to see photos of the dead boy and hear his family members testify. I felt bad for them as well as the defendant. What a sad life to live, thinking that at 18 years old its OK to kill someone, or to think you are not going to get caught doing it. How sad. I will probably never forget the story that I heard and those faces that I saw that day. How truly sad that this goes on everyday, probably SO much more than we will ever know.

Um, what?

The whole job thing is a mess now. The residential firm that originally offered me the job has now "reopened" the position,...whatever that means?!? All of this AFTER I sent them some questions and AFTER I accepted their offer. After all of that they email me to tell me that they have re-opened it,...Um, what? At this point they are acting so unprofessional and rude that I can't even imagine working there, so who cares I guess. We'll see what happens, but if they contact me again to talk about me working there, I am definitely going to raise my eyebrow.

I think they just didn't want someone working for them who was not a push-over, a person who would sign on the dotted line without even thinking it over. Well, that is not me. Everyone deserves a day or two to think about a job offer! Moving on.....

Our Howl-O-Ween

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

Joe and I are not really that into Halloween, or at least I never think I am until a couple days before, then I always wish I had a costume and was going out to do something fun. We have only dressed up once since we've been together! Crazy, I know....I guess I figure that when we have a kids it will be more reason to get into the Halloween spirit.

But we did do something fun this year that didn't involve us dressing up. We took Chloe and Louie to this Howl-O-Ween Dog Parade and Costume Contest over in a little park in a neighborhood a few blocks from ours. We didn't get them costumes, they just sported their Halloween t-shirts instead. It turned out to be pretty fun! We knew Chloe would love it, because she loves people and all other dogs, but we were a little worried about Louie. If any of you have seen him on a walk and how he reacts to other dogs, just picture the Tasmanian Devil (if he barked) on a leash. Yep, its fun. For some reason, probably fear, he barks and then snaps and tries to bite other dogs a lot. He is good sometimes, but most of the time he can't handle it. So I brought some treats in my pocket thinking I could distract him a little bit. It worked,... sort of. We meant to bring his favorite ball, because a ball in the mouth means no biting and almost no barking (trust me, he still attempts to bark with a ball in his mouth...ha ha), but we forgot it when we left. Oops.

Anyway, when we got there I think Louie was so overwhelmed by all the people and dogs (must have known he was out numbered) that he was pretty quiet. He did pretty well until he got comfortable. He only snapped at a couple dogs, so that was pretty good, right?! Joe and I ended up holding him for a lot of the time. Chloe had a blast though. The "parade" part was fun too, we pretty much went up one block and over one block and it was really slow because they were judging at the end, so it was more of a line than a parade, but it was still fun. It was a chilly fall day, but at least we did something! The dogs were pooped and we got some good ideas for costumes for next year! ha-ha.
Some pics are below or you can view the whole album if you click the link below...
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0IbtHLNo3ZMnRQ

Louie trying to behave

Me and the dogs Happy Chloe
On the way there...excited! (These are out of order)

More job talk...

The meeting with the commercial firm didn't go so well. I mean, the guy seemed nice and he seemed to like me and all, but he told me he was not going to be making any sort of decision on hiring for another 3-4 weeks. So I pretty much decided that can't make the residential firm wait that long just to see if I even get the commercial one. I have a feeling I wouldn't have gotten it anyway because the position seemed like it required a little more experience than I have. So oh well.... Not the end of the world except for I then had to think about actually accepting the offer from the residential firm and actually working there. Again, I know I sound so ungrateful, but I really can't say enough how residential and commercial design are two totally separate worlds. I immediately started freaking out about never being able to get a job in commercial again if I take the residential one.....I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. Lots of people are telling me not to take it because I will hate it and they can't see me working there, but I feel like I can't wait anymore and be unemployed, or partially unemployed. Its just been too hard for Joe and I. I need to make money again!

So anyway, I had the meeting with the residential firm and reviewed their offer right before the commercial interview. Their offer was less than I had hoped, but I told them I would get back to them regarding my decision next week. I will probably counter their offer and try to get more money out of them. Especially since I have a feeling, due to many of my friends observations and my own, that this place is not going to be fun to work at at all! I am going to see what I can get and then look at it as a temporary thing...something to get me by to my next commercial job. I just hope it comes fast because I just might lose my passion for design working at this place. :-(

So that's the job update for now. I'm in a weird place. I know what I should do, but I don't know if its what I want to do. I might just have to grin and bear it and that sucks.

Let's talk about jobs...

I have a couple potential job leads lined up...finally some things that are looking promising.

OK, the truth is that I was offered a job with a super high-end residential firm yesterday. While I am grateful and glad to have FINALLY received a job offer, I am sort of not excited because, #1: It's residential and #2: I also have an interview at a decent commercial firm tomorrow!! (Right after I meet with the residential one to review their offer)

I was working in commercial before and I'm pretty darn sure that's what I want to stick with. If there was no hope of getting into commercial at all in this economy I would do residential, but I don't see it being the type of design I ultimately want to do. However, I do realize all experience can be good experience and in this economy, a job in any sort of design firm is hard to come by. So in that respect, I am grateful. But, you must understand what the interview was like with this residential firm. Lets just say they pretty much bragged about themselves the whole time and bitched about their current and past employees! They didn't ask too much about me which was weird. This was the kind of interview that in a normal economy, in non-desperate mode, I would totally run screaming from. These are the kind of people I really do not want to work for. Even though the firm designs 10 million dollar homes with maids quarters and gyms and theaters in them, for some reason that is revolting to me and I would much rather design a simple office space! Call me crazy I guess.

So, I have this interview tomorrow with a commercial firm. Even though the people who recommended me for this job said it is probably not the end-all-be-all firm for me, I would much rather work at any commercial firm than a residential one. So the hope is that I will do well in the commercial interview and get offered that one as well. (Here's hoping, right?!) If it doesn't work out, then yes, I will probably end up slapping a smile on my face and working for the "lovely" people that interviewed me at the residential firm. Goodie.

So, looks like the end of my unemployment time is drawing near either way....cross my fingers... hope it works out for the best....

Sushi and Surgery

So I figured I should do a quick post since I haven't posted in a while. I seem to be drawing a blank on things to write about. Plus I feel like no one is probably reading anyway, so maybe its just a "digital journal" for me. ha-ha. ;-)

We had a good and busy past week and weekend. I had lots of tutoring/working at Harrington, an IIDA meeting, and I also went to the annual IIDA Leaders Breakfast on Wednesday morning at the Drake Hotel.
The Leaders Breakfast is IIDA's biggest event of the year. I was invited by Harrington to sit at their table since I am on the alumni board. It was really cool and I'm glad I was able to attend...the table costs a lot so I wouldn't be able to attend unless it was with a company or I was invited by someone else. Anyway, each year they honor someone in the interior design community with an award and they also have an interesting speaker. This year they honored Chris Kennedy who is the President of MMPI (Merchandise Mart Properties) which owns the huge Merchandise Mart near downtown Chicago. Yes, he's a Kennedy. "The Mart" as we call it in here in Chicago is a designers main resource for all things interior design and then some. Its a HUGE building filled with showrooms and offices, most are "to the trade only" and not open to the public. So...back to the breakfast, the speaker was a woman named Alison Levine who was a part of the first American Women’s Everest Expedition...among other things! She was very inspirational and a great speaker. Don't worry though, I am going to get into mountain climbing anytime soon... Her presentation was very translatable to every part of life and was especially good for the very "damaged" Chicago design industry to hear. Maybe it gave us the little pick-me-up we all needed! Hopefully! The Drake hotel is also very cool. It's right on Michigan Ave, near the curve in Lakeshore Drive. The ballroom we were in had a pretty view of the orange and yellow leaves just outside the window.

http://www.iida.org/content.cfm/chicago-leaders-breakfast

So this weekend Joe had his second and final (hopefully forever) gum graft. He had the first one done about a month ago and the second one was this weekend. He has been a trooper about this, but I'm glad its done now. I am sure I would be milking it much more than he is! ha-ha. Luckily the doctor is really good and he hasn't had any problems and the pain is manageable. I got him a giant frosty from Wendy's and that always helps! ;-) Hopefully he will heal up as fast as the last one did!

So while Joe was at home watching the Nebraska game (which amazingly was on TV here in Chicago), I went out to a late lunch with my good friend Sarah for some delicious sushi in Lincoln Square. After several days of rain this week Saturday turned out to be a nice Fall day. We had some sun and it wasn't too chilly. The sushi was great and I think I found my new favorite beer... Kirin! Its a Japanese beer (obviously) and was really smooth and delicious! I always have fun with Sarah, we have a good time chatting and laughing about whatever. We strolled through Lincoln Square and did some browsing in the many shops up and down that part of Lincoln Ave. It was a fun day.

Goat Dog

I feel like crap today because I was up all night with my baby....I mean dog. Louie is the biggest handful of a dog that has ever lived, I swear. He's a lovable little guy, but some days (and nights) I curse the day we ever brought him home! Joe and I like to equate him to Marley from "Marley and Me", except in miniature form. Just like the book and movie, our "Marley" aka Louie, is the biggest pain in the butt sometimes, but we still love him to death.

Last night was one of those nights where I thought to myself, "WHY?!
You see, Louie likes to pretend he is a goat and eat blankets on our bed. Yes, he EATS them. Luckily we have an arsenal of 'dog' blankets that cover our comforter to protect it from doggie dirt. Last night I awoke to a lovely chewing and licking noise which usually alerts me that the "goat" is up and is eating away. Usually after he chews he starts gagging on the blanket that is half chewed and hanging in his throat. So last night I kept telling him "NO!" and I took the small blanket off of the bed that he was chewing. Then the licking started, I don't know if he had something caught in his throat or he was thirsty or what, but he just kept on licking everything. Licking and gagging and being annoying! I couldn't sleep because it was so loud and I was trying to get him to quit and he just wouldn't. Eventually I picked him up and put him down on the floor and told him to go get a drink of water....thinking maybe he was thirsty?? Once he was on the floor, probably a little confused, he decided to wander and pace around the apartment. I could hear his little nails tap, tap, tapping as he walked around wondering what he was supposed to do now. I eventually had to get up, get him to drink some water and then I put him back in bed.

To make a long story short he was gagging and licking all night until the morning. Joe was sound asleep and I was awake all night. What a crazy boy. He's our little goat.

Laid Off but Keeping Busy

I don't have much to write about today. Of course once I start a blog I cant think of anything cool or interesting to write about!! Before I actually committed to this thing I had TONS of ideas! Arg...writers block I guess. ;-)
SO, I can write about some general stuff that I've been up to.... so here comes long boring stories....watch out people, I'm reeeally good at typing looong stories. ;-)

As many of you know I was laid off from my job back in February. I can't believe its been this long already...it really is too bad. I have gotten to the point where I am OK with it and I don't feel sorry for myself because it has become all to common around here. Unfortunately, people are STILL getting laid off in my industry. Anything related to building and construction and architecture is pretty much in the crapper right now.

The Chicago architecture and design industry is HUGE, there is a great network of professionals here and SO many people are out of work, its crazy. The architecture firm that I worked for is down to a pretty small group of people now. The interiors group that I was in within the firm is pretty much non-existent. Its crazy to have so many of my friends unemployed. People keep saying that this happens a lot in my industry and it always bounces back...but it sure it taking a while!! I guess its good that it happened early in my career because I will be "more prepared" when it happens again (right?!)... ha-ha....I don't know if one is ever prepared for getting laid off. Even though I knew it was coming eventually I was still shocked. I must say now that the experience I got there was good and I am glad I got the chance to work in a firm and get my foot in the door! Even though I wasn't the happiest there and it sort of was a blessing in disguise to be laid off, I sure wish I had another firm to go to! Too bad no one is hiring. :-(

All I have to say is thank god for unemployment and thank god that Joe still has a job that doesn't seem to be in jeopardy at this point! Whew! Not that things have been easy for us though...living on one income, especially here in a pretty expensive city, is not easy to say the least.

I have been able to earn some extra cash by doing private tutoring at my Alma-mater, Harrington College of Design. I pretty much started tutoring on the side soon after I graduated in 2007. I am hired privately by students to tutor them in Auto CAD, Photoshop, and other courses that they take for interior design degree. Its a good gig because it keeps my skills up to date and its pretty good money.

So, I was doing the tutoring privately, but recently I was hired on part-time at school as a Teaching Assistant in the classrooms and a tutor/learning assistant in the computer labs where students go to work on their projects. Luckily that is giving us some extra income for now that's a little more steady. Its pretty fun, the only thing is that I am gone for long hours on Wed and Thurs nights.... until like 10pm....darn those long night classes! Sure makes me miss regular work days! Poor Joe has to fend for himself with dinner those nights. You don't even want to know what he has called "dinner" for the past few weeks! Someday he will learn to cook something other than mac 'n' cheese! ha-ha.

Along with TA-ing and tutoring, I am also keeping busy serving as the board Secretary/Treasurer for my school's Alumni Association. Seems like I always have a meeting of some sort to attend. I go to the regular board meetings, plus two different committee meetings, PLUS the executive committee meetings since I am part of that as well. It keeps me very busy and the experience and contacts I get are great! Our board is really gearing back up again after some time of having no active alumni board. We are going to get some neat things done for the alumni and the school. Looking forward to what we have coming up.
Below is a link to the last newsletter that we created. Alumni newsletters are a semi-new thing for our school, so please ignore the awkward formatting, we have students working on it! ;-) It still looks pretty nice.
I wrote the article about Kickball and organized that event, it was fun! http://www.fathompbm.com/CEC/Harrington_College_of_Design/200908-HCD-Alumni-Newsletter.pdf

I also serve on the Membership Committee for the Chicago Chapter of IIDA (International Interior Design Association). Those meetings are only once a month, but with all of my other meetings, it sure seems like they are all the time! http://www.iida.org/

So needless to say, I am definitely keeping myself busy...more busy now than I was when I was first laid off which is good because at times I was getting stir-crazy just being home all the time! Luckily, during the summer I was able to get out and walk the dogs a lot and try to enjoy it. Now that Fall has arrived I am definitely going to be more of a homebody when I am not working at school or at meetings! Brrr!

So that's my life right now, or most of it anyway...more to come....
Time to relax now and watch the news, I had a long day of tutoring and meetings (shocker!).
Good night for now!

Number 1

So, after much contemplation and thought I've decided to start a new blog...(I think I've been writing them in my head for several months now and now I can finally put them down on "paper").

I had another blog going a while ago when we first moved to Chicago, but it quit working well and I sort of forgot about it. It has been like 3 years since I last "blogged" I think and a lot has happened in those 3 years!! So I took a look at the old one and decided I wanted a different format for my new blog. This style seems simple enough and easy... AND lots of my friends and family have these, so why not?!

I'm sure this blog will simply be a random posting of some of my thoughts (and hopes and dreams) and our adventures (the good, the bad, the ugly) here in Chicago.... probably not many people will read it (I hope)....I want to keep it to just family and good friends. So hopefully this will keep some people up to date, entertain others and maybe even bore some people to sleep....so here it goes...