Happy Valentine's Day!

It's a warm (in the 40's) and melty Valentine's Day here in Chicago. We still have lots of snow on the ground, but at least it's melting! I can see grass in some spots, although it's muddy, it's grass nonetheless. However, we still have several spots with a good foot or two of snow.

Walking the dogs this morning was interesting. We had to traverse several small lakes (ok, some really big puddles) to get our walk in. Louie wades right on through them. Chloe, on the other hand, usually tries to avoid walking in them if possible, but if she has to walk through them, she goes.... really....slooow....I think to avoid splashing water on herself. She's such a girl.

We are staying home for dinner tonight. I am making homemade lasagna, with homemade sauce. Yum! I got a bottle of wine and we should be good to go.

In other, less exciting news...our stupid car is acting up again. We are taking it in today to see what the damage is and I am scared to find out. We have been putting a lot of money (that we don't have) into our car over the past year or so. It has 167,000+ miles on it, so it's had a good run, but I think it's getting to the end of it's life. Even though it's a 2002, it still runs well and had been a good car. It's just the basic maintenance stuff and things going wrong now that are making it a pain because it has so many miles on it. We will see what they say. As much as I'd love a new car, we really want to wait until I get a new job and we get back on our feet before we buy a new one. Cars always have the worst timing. Hmph.

Everyone enjoy your day!

February

We made it through the snow and then the awful arctic blast of the past couple weeks. Starting today the temp is supposed to get better and better through next week, 30's and even 40 sometime next week. It's sad that even 20 degrees feels warm at this point! I am excited for 32+ temps because I want some of this stupid snow to melt! The snow really makes parking hard because there are SO many huge piles taking up precious parking spots on the street. Walking is a nightmare because there are so many piles to navigate. It will sure be a mess when it all melts, but I don't care...Bring on the "heat wave"!

On the job front, it seems like things have been picking up more and more. I had about a week between my last bunch of interviews and then I have 2 interviews this week. Both are actually at architecture and design firms! Woo! I have one today and I had the other one on Wednesday.

The interview I had Wednesday was...pretty much my dream job. I didn't know that going in, but when they described the work that they do, the kind of business they run, the way they work, I was amazed and instantly wanted to work there. Here are a few highlights:
They do primarily corporate interiors and architecture. (Which is what I want to continue to do)
They pride themselves on not working overtime. (In this industry, that is unheard of!)
They work 8-6 Monday-Thursday and 8-Noon on Friday, year round. (Sweet!)
They have a small, close-knit team that works well together. (Good)
They want someone who is willing to learn and be involved in every part of the design process. (That's TOTALLY me!)
They want someone to stay there long term. (Sounds good to me!)
They don't have titles. (cool)
They are super nice. (yay)

During the interview I was thinking, is this too good to be true? I don't think it is. I am really trying hard not to get my hopes up, but it's hard when you feel like it's the perfect job. I just hope they liked me as much as I liked them. I never know in interviews...it's so hard to know what they are thinking. I know there are lots of people looking and they will probably find someone with more experience than me, so I have to hope that they see something in me and are willing to give me a chance. We'll see. If I don't get it, I will be very upset because it seems so ideal. They are going to call one or two people back to come in and chat with their whole team before they make a decision. I hope I get called back. Please. Please. Please!!!! 

The job I am interviewing for today is also with a A+D firm. I heard they are looking to bring someone on part-time and "on the cheap", so we'll see what that's all about. I am OK with it (as long as it's not $10/hr) because it could lead to full-time work eventually. Any way I can get my foot in the door is fine with me.

All I hope is that I get something soon or keep getting lots of interviews as things pick up. It is still pretty slow, but I have heard about more jobs in the past month then I have over the past 6 months. Let's keep this up, Chicago.

Blizzard - Good Video

Well, our phone/Internet/cable finally came back on this evening after about 24 hours of being off. Yay! So, I didn't have much time to update my blog due to our Internet outage. Joe and I were both home again today. The side street we were parked on finally got plowed (sorta) so we went and dug our car out, well, Joe did, because we only have one shovel. :-)
On Wednesday after the snow stopped we got out and I took a lot of photos of our neighborhood and all the snow. I will post them soon, I got lots of good ones.
As for now, I have to get to bed because I work tomorrow all day and also have another interview in the middle of the day, but I wanted to share this video. Lots of good videos have been taken by random Chicagoans and are being posted on You Tube and shared. I think this one is good and shows how horrible Lakeshore Drive was the morning after the blizzard. It looks other-worldly when you see all the cars abandoned there. It's so strange to see that scene where drive on many times per week. Craziness.

Blizzard 2011 - Part 4

Here's a little video I took this morning. It was still snowing at this point and it was before they came to shovel our building. We didn't go far.

SnOMG! Blizzard! Part 3

We woke up this morning to about 19.5 inches on the ground with HUGE drifts and its STILL coming down. It took Joe 3 hours to get home yesterday from the suburb where he works. I got home quickly on the train, but for my friends who take the bus, one of them was stuck on Lakeshore Drive for 6 hours in the bus! There was an accident and then that backed up traffic, everyone left downtown early trying to get home. She ended up taking 4 different buses and then walking a mile in the snow only to get home at midnight! They closed Lakeshore Dr. last night but tons of cars were stuck. Here's a short video we found on You Tube that someone took this morning of the drive (below). Note all the cars still stuck! People were stuck in their cars for 12 hours! They got everyone out at 5:30 this morning! Nuts!
We are staying home today, school and work is closed. Pretty much the whole city is shut down. I'm going to take the dogs out since Louie wants to go play. We'll see how this goes!