The Ramblings of a Married Woman

Well, I suppose I have been married for more than 11 days now. Time to update.
Actually, like before, I forgot that I had a blog. I'm not so sure why this concept has been so entirely difficult for me! But alas, I was reminded by a dear friend, and now here is an update for anyone out there who, well, still remembers that I have a blog. Unlike myself. Ha.

Going on 7 months of being married to and living with my best friend! So wonderful! We have decided that even after we've been married for 20 years we are still going to consider ourselves "newlyweds." Why does the spark have to extinguish just because time goes by? So long as we stay best friends and stay plugged in to the One to fills us with the love we share, we'll be able to keep the "newlywed" status. I still light up like a school girl with a first crush when he smiles at me. :-) I'm in love!

Enough mushy stuff. What else is happening....

I'm fairly settled in to my new place. We still don't have all the pictures on the wall that we had hoped to have up, but maybe someday? We don't plan on moving out any time soon (we're in no place to be considering houses when we are still in over our heads in school loans - one debt at a time, please!), so I still have time. Life just gets busy sometimes and that is just not much of a priority right now. I don't know if I'll ever be settled into small town life. Having to make a special trip to go to Meijer and Target and the movies is still really hard for me. It is a half-day event to just go to those places, considering the amount of time and gas it takes to get there. At least I have WalMart, though I hardly even frequent there much....

I have, however, fallen in love with walking to work. Even in the winter, despite my co-workers think I am crazy for braving the weather for my 5 minute walk (in the winter I don't cut across the lawn, stretching my walk from about 2 minutes to 5 minutes). Nevermind the fact that while in Chicago I had to walk 15 min no matter the weather to get to my car, which I then had to brush off and wait for it to warm up before my hour drive to work. Haha. A little different story here. Plus, most days, Matthew drops me off on his way to work, leaving me only to walk home. :-) And believe me, I need that walk home and the time I am home before he arrives to wind down.
Though, I must admit, sometimes I hate living so close simply because it feels like I can never really escape it when I can see it out my front window. Or maybe that is just because I am on call 24/7....

Work has, overall, been good. I certainly did not learn the proper way to hire and fire people in my social work classes, but I suppose that is part of my 'real life experience.' The job is not very social-worky, though it has it's tendencies and I definitely could not have done it without the degree and teachings of wonderful professors behind me. I won't go into all the details now.... but it has definitely been a.... well... an experience. A learning experience, that's for sure.

Well, my wonderful husband is home from playing is heart out at indoor soccer, so I'm going to have to bid farewell for now.
Here's a little shout out to my Katelyn! :-)

Married!

Well, I'm married now! And so far, 11 days later, I still love it!

Hungry

Sometimes I get to listening to worship music, or praying, or reading Scripture, or listening to a good sermon, and I just don't ever want it to end. For example, I'm currently listening to K-LOVE radio online... and while I don't want to just sit and bask in the music, I can't bring myself to turn it off. I'm soaking it in and don't want it to end.

It is then that I know I am hungry. It is then that I know that I have been forgetting to feed myself. I long to be filled.

Fill me, Father.


Does anyone else have this?

It's Coming!!

I can't believe I get married in less than 2 weeks! I'm so pumped!

Spent the weekend moving into the new apartment. I took another load of stuff down there and Matthew and I took a couple days putting everything away and rearranging the furniture and such. I think we got it looking pretty good! And then we spent our spare time playing Candy Land (thanks, Anika!), the card game of Life, and a very close game of Uno.

When we weren't playing games or organizing the apartment, we went to the Bucyrus fair. We went specifically for the elephant ear, and we got one! Mmmm.... I love fair food. Dinner was a fresh dipped corn dog to go with the elephant ear. And we played Skee-ball.... and I whomped Matthew. I won the small prize twice! It was a tiny little stuffed football on a string. Nothing too special, but for a game that only cost a quarter, totally worth it! Being able to say that I beat Matthew was great, too. All of the other games cost $5. I couldn't believe how expensive they are now! It has been years since I have been to a fair... but I don't remember game prices being so high. So instead we sunk $2 into skee-ball, getting us each 4 games.

We did a little grocery shopping to stock up a little for when we get back from our honeymoon. That was pretty fun but it was strange only getting non-perishables. I'm excited to have someone to grocery shop with. :-)

Well.... I should probably stop telling the internet about my life and get back to real life.

Wedding and Moving

Funny how I always seem to just forget that I have a blog. So I confess, I forgot again. Maybe this blogging thing is not going to be as steady or as frequent as I had hoped.

I can't believe June is already almost over! Time is just FLYING! Our wedding is in exactly 7 weeks from today. I feel like we have most things pretty well under control.... just down to the details now. I have to say that I stressed out about it a few times, but mostly I'm just rolling with it. My mom and my aunts might be more stressed out than I am. :-) It helps that I'm not working right now.... gives me plenty of time to work on the wedding and the moving stuff.

As for moving, Matthew and I found an apartment in Bucyrus, OH - his hometown. About 4.5 hours from G-Rap with Ann Arbor being the happy medium meeting point, but since he has a job there working with his dad, we figured we might as well find a place around there. We get to move in on July 1st.... Or rather, he is moving in on July 1st. I just get to start moving my stuff down there. I think the packing/organizing has been far more stressful than the wedding stuff. I didn't think it would be so bad but once I start going through things, I realize that I have 22 years worth of junk piled up in my room!! It seems neverending. And then I only have a couple chances to drive down there to move my stuff down there. Not sure how all that is going to work out yet either. But it will. It always does.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Cool Things in the City

So, I've made it home from Chicago. And, while there, I made a list, because nothing is complete without a list.

Cool Things I Did in Chicago

1. Shedd Aquarium (I LOVE aquariums!)
2. Old Town School with a traditional-African-meets-urban-hip-hop band (Dance Party!!)
3. Latin Jazz concert (Our group of 12 or so were the only people there for most of the concert... I'd hardly call it a concert...)
4. Chicago History Museum with the Lincoln special exhibit (Very cool - learned all about the Chicago Fire and all about everything Chicago)
5. Bubba Gump's restaurant on Navy Pier (13 people got in on a Friday night with only like a 20 minute wait)
6. Listened to the waves on an icy lake (I found God there.)
7. Japan Dance Now contemporary dance (Umm.... interesting to say the least. I don't think this kind of dance is my favorite...)
8. iO Theater Shakespeare improv (FUNNY!)
9. Rode every color of the El trains (Blue, Brown, Green, Pink, Purple, Red, Orange) (minus the yellow because it is wayyyyyyy up North)
10. Uno's Pizzaria on Valentine's Day (BUSY! But had a great date! - Katie Fahey)
11. Frozen Fun Fest and Millenium Park (Everything was supposed to be frozen.... and cold... but it ended up being like a 50 degree day and all the ice melted.)
12. Loop CRC Church (Gotta check out the one and only CRC in Chicago....)
13. Moody Bible Church
14. LaSalle Street Church
15. Harold Washington Down town Public Library (9 floors high! A beautiful library)
16. Dinner in Chinatown (It was dark and I didn't really see much of Chinatown, but at least I can say I've been there.)
17. Amarit Thai Restaurant (Very good Thai food - I think this was the first time I had Thai.)
18. Cafe Too (A restaurant that is run by our Threshold's members - they train there and then serve and cook for this restaurant - it was sooooooooooooooooo good!)
19. Chicago Bulls game (We sat in the highest nosebleed section ever. Literally only 3 rows behind me. I could barely see the court let alone the basketball.)
20. Ed Debevics (a restaurant where the waiters are mean/rude to you. Ours wasn't too bad. Maybe that is because we were 4 pretty girls in his section.)
21. Park Community Church (this is the one that I started attending more regularly)
22. "Goldbrick" at a small community theater (it was downpouring on our way there so we all ended up sitting soaking wet...kind of miserable.)
23. "Our Town" at Looking Glass Theater (Featuring Ross from Friends and a TON of other famous people. It is a very small theater. We were within a few feet from these famous people. That makes me almost famous, too.)
24. Culture of Honor Conference at Vineyard Oak Park Church (Featuring a speaker from Bethel Church out in California - really boosted my faith again)
25. Jane Addams Hull House (a staple of Social Work.)
26. Dinner in Little Italy (one of the few meals on Chicago Semester! Soooooooooo tasty!)
27. "Jersey Boys" on Broadway (I think I am now in love with Franki Valli. We were all saying "I didn't know this song was by them!" throughout the whole show.)
28. Museum of Contemporary Art (I liked what I saw but ended up sick and having to leave early)
29. Earth Hour (The city was supposed to cut it's power for an hour. It ended up being pretty crappy, except that we cut our power for an hour and had great converstation by candlelight.)
30. Tried sushi for the first time (I'm not sold.)
31. Blue Man Group - TWICE! (If you usher you give an hour and a half of your time and get to see the show for FREE!)
32. Alvin Ailey Dance Company (absolutely beautiful. I loved this performance)
33. RENT on Broadway (It was okay. We sat so far back that we couldn't see who was talking so it was pretty much impossible to develop a plot or any character development without having seen the movie)
34. Howl at the Moom Dueling Piano Bar (far too packed and the music wasn't all that great.)
35. "The Tempest" at Steppenwolf Theater (I thought I wouldn't like this because of the old-English language... but I did end up appreciating it)
36. Italian dinner outside at Quartino (Apparently I like Zuchinni Pizza)
37. Walk with Katie through Graceland Cemetrary (A lot of famous people and founders of Chicago are buried there. It is really cool.)
38. Visit to Pilsen to see the murals
39. Walk through Little Italy (and Katie and I couldn't find anything reasonable to eat. Is that normal?"
40. Ate at The Parthenon in Greek Town (This was our final goodbye party complete with awards - I won "best city driving skills," a slideshow, and lots of food I had no idea what it was.)
41. Visit to Growing Power in Grant Park (Think huge vegetable garden in the middle of the city. A really neat project.)
42. Buckingham Fountain (saw it in the daylight. We went back once to try to see it at night, but we were too late, it was turned off.)
43. Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Again with the nosebleed section, but very good music despite the fact I felt trapped in)
44. Lincoln Park Zoo (happy!)
45. Putt Putt at Navy Pier (Matthew and I TIED!!! Maybe next time I'll beat him...)
46. Visited Faith at Mooseheart and got to meet some really great girls.
47. Ate at Cousin's Raw Vegan Restaurant (Ummm, it was okay. Not my fav, but I filled up really fast, maybe because it was all so healthy?)
48. Haagen-Dazs mint chip dazzler (well worth the price. A great dinner, haha)
49. Mirror Maze at Navy Pier (More challenging than I thought it would be.)
50. Walked to the end of Navy Pier (with Matthew - and had some ladies ask us if we wanted them to take a picture of us "lookin' all in love and stuff." We said sure and got a great pic out of it.)
51. Chicago Cultural Center and Project Onward (an exhibit completely put on by people with mental illnesses of developmental disabilities. Very cool to see another perspective of the world.)
52. Attended a Mental Health Rally in front of local government offices to advocate for more funding for mental health in Illinois, since such a significant amount has been cut.
53. Dick's Last Resort Restaurant (another restaurant where the waiter was supposed to be rude, but other than completely neglecting us, he wasn't too rude. And the negelct was not intentional, I don't think. But it was rude.)
54. Oz Park (with statues of Dorothy and Toto, the lion, the tinman, and the scarecrow...and a very fun playground.)
55. Watched the sunrise over Lake Michigan (a fulfillment of one of my life-long dreams. It was beautiful and perfect.)
56. Went to Lake Michigan beach at night (still quite the hoppin' place on a nice night! Though it was the only place in the city where you could even pretend to see stars. I saw the big dipper and that was about it, but at least they were stars.)

Let's be cultured!

Blog time? Sure!

Matthew came to Chicago last weekend!!!!! It was so great. I think I walked the entire city. Twice. But it was excellent. I love him.

Mushy stuff aside....

I can't believe I'm out of here in mere days. Wednesday - Last class and Policy paper time, Thursday - work (maybe a half day), Friday - work (close-ups, clean-ups, and lunch with my supervisor). Saturday. Move out. Crazy!!!

So, needless to say, this week is full of trying to get ready to pack up and ship out. And fit in the things on my Chicago to-do list that I haven't done yet. Fun, cultural things, of course. Today I went to the Chicago Cultural Center. SO COOL!! There were 3 really cool exhibits (probably more, but these 3 really hit me):
1) Photographs of churches all around Chicago. They were mostly pictures of the insides of churches.... a lot of them unkempt and obviously facing poverty. And yet, verses and sayings of hope graced the walls. God is good. In all circumstances. God is good.
2) Photographs of faces of people. I believe that they were all blind people, but I am not positive about that. But they were all so beautiful. They were all big poster-size pictures and all close-ups of faces. And all black and white. I stood in the center of the room and spun around and I saw so many beautiful faces making so many different expressions. It was so excellent. And so moving.
3) An exhibit consisting entirely of works created by those with mental or developmental disabilities. Also, entirely beautiful in a different sort of way. It is really cool to see the world through another perspective. To view life through the eyes of the people that I have gotten to know and love and serve. Such a blessing.

Also, as a side note, during exhibit #3, I got asked on a date. I think. Strange circumstance. But we had a good conversation, talked about how I was finishing school and getting married.... he talked about how he is unemployed and dating a wonderful woman, and then the conversation ended with him asking if he could treat me to something to eat, right after I told him I had to get back to work. A nice gesture or a date? And, he was like my parent's age. Take it or leave it. I left it.

I have some more great pictures to post sometime..... Again, hopefully soon, though we will have to see for sure. I don't have finals to deal with, but I do have a Policy Paper to nail out tomorrow. And I have a sweet list I'll upload of all the great things I did in the Windy City.

Also, I have been saying a lot of goodbyes lately. I have wrapped up with all 4 members (aka, clients) on my case-load and also said goodbye to my Supported Employment Specialist team, which is an absolutely phenominal team to have worked with. Props to you all and I think you are all great. I have finished up at the Mental Illness and Substance Abuse group that I've been working with for an hour every Tuesday and said goodbye to them today. I've also been starting goodbyes with friends, since Hope students left last weekend. The rest of the goodbyes will come in the next couple days..... but it is time to move on. Thanks for a great time!

Until the next post, peace out, girl scout (thanks, Lydia!)

If you have slow internet.... Good luck.

Here are the promised pictures! About a million of them. I hope they all load for you. And they are in no particular order because I can't figure that much out. Haha, but at least you get pretty images and a sneak peak into what I've been up to!!

A glance into my neighborhood - the Gold Coast - at sunrise. If you are looking to settle in, the median home price in this area was $3,69,000 in October 2007 according to chicagohomeestates.com.

Katie at 6:30 in the morning enjoying the sunrise.

God's beauty and the fulfilling of one of my life dreams - to watch the sun rise over Lake Michigan. I've been able to see it set over the lake a hundred times, but I have always wanted to see it rise over the Lake. On Saturday April 4 I fulfilled that dream.

The blue tree. 8,223 children were abused in Cook County in 2008. 29,940 children were abused in the state of Illinois in 2008. Each year more than 3,000,000 children are abused or neglected throughout the United States. The trees were blue in rememberance of this.

My kitchen and dining area of the Chicago apartment (one of the few times the dishes are not overloading the sink and counter).

The living room and office and sometimes bedroom of the Chicago apartment. The apartment came fully furnished (minus the really sweet floor lamp), so we did not get to pick out the really sweet furniture. Actually, it is all pretty uncomfortable. But it works.

This is back in Jackson. By the mall there was a wonderful cart graveyard going on. I thought it was pretty sweet. I hope I'm not cursed for taking pictures at the cemetary....

The front of my office building. And the typical Chicago vehicle (the mini-cooper) that happened to be parked next to the biggest van in the world. Kind of similar to the fights that the tiny little cars have with the big public transit busses every day. This made me chuckle a little inside.

Katie "sitting" on some pretty sweet "rocks."

Near my office the cobblestone is showing through the pavement. I think it is sweet. I would almost be okay with going back to cobblestone roads. But not really. I just think they look cool.

This was on the Red Line (an El Train). For some reason that man had a kitten with him. I think the kitten was terrfied but it was so super cute!! I have no idea why the kitten was riding the El. Must be the newest form of pet transportation.

The black and white house that apparently couldn't make up its mind.

The snow at the very end of March, on my walk back from church.

And there you have it, folks! A picture post. Not highly exciting captions, but this is a small glimpse into my life over the past month or so. Sorry I have been negligent with my posting, but life is keeping me super busy. And I would really like to pass my classes this semester, even if it is not with flying colors.

I have been keeping a list of cool things I've done in Chicago. Remind me at the end of the semester to post it so you can all really see what I've been up to.

However, despite the lack of posting, I love you all and think of you all often.

Miss you much.

And I finish with this:

"Live simply so that others may simply live."

Picture Post Coming Soon

This is me promising a picture post soon. I have some ones I think are worthy of sharing. Maybe this weekend. Now that I wrote it, I'm committed.

You Know You're A Social Worker If...

1. You think $40,000 a year is 'really making it'.
2. You don't know what it is like to work with men.
3. You know all the latest lingo for drugs, where to get them, and how much they cost.
4. You've started a sentence with 'So what I hear you saying is....'
5. You've had 2 or more jobs at one time just to pay the bills.
6. You tell people what you do and they say 'That's so noble'.
7. You have had to explain to people that not all social workers take away kids.
8. You use the words 'validate,' 'appropriate' and 'intervention' daily.
9. You spend more than half your day documenting and doing paperwork.
10. You think nothing of discussing child abuse over dinner.
11. People have said to you 'I don't know how you do what you do'.
12. You've never been on a business trip or had an expense account.
13. You know a lot of other social workers who have left the profession for another.
14. You're very familiar with the concept of entitlement.
15. Staying at a job for 2 years is a 'long time'.
16. Your phone number is unlisted for good reason.
17. Your professional newsletters always have articles about raising salaries...but you still haven't seen it.
18. You're very familiar with the term 'budget cut'.
19. You can't imagine working at a bank or crunching numbers all day.
20. You've had clients who liked you just a little too much.
21. Having lunch is a luxury many days.
22. You've been cursed at or threatened...and it doesn't bother you.
23. Your job orientation has included self defense.
24. You have the best stories at any cocktail party.
25. Your parents don't know half the stuff that you've dealt with at your job.
26. You know all the excuses clients used for a failed drug test by heart.


This list is from somewhere.... but I don't know where. Sorry. It was slipped under our door in our Social Work Professional Seminar group on Monday, and I liked it just so much that I had to share it - particularly with you other Social Workers out there. :-) Or with those of you who want to know what my life looks like! Most of these are a very accurate description.... and I'm sure that I'll learn more as I get more experience out in the real world!!

St. Patty's Day, World SWK Day, and the stories of my life

Apparently Chicagoians are in no lack of Irish or wanna-be Irish people. St. Patty's Day festivites were enough to make me now what to puke when I see the color green.
My apartment is situated in such a way that there are about 5 Irish Pubs just next door and around the corner. So I bet you can bet what that brought!
Loud, drunk, green-wearing Irish wanna-bes, and lots of them. Festivities began last Thursday and have finally hit a lull today. Morning and night those bars were packed with people. At one point in time I could very clearly sing along to the music on one of the pubs while sitting in the comfort of my apartment. Not that I minded. I always like some good music. It is the cigarette air and the smell of alcohol that makes me turn my head a little. Guess I'm just not the clubbin' type. Who knew?
I was able to avoid all the chaos (don't worry, you Spring Arbor-ites, no smoking or green beer for me!), but it sure was loud around here. I already get the blessing of falling asleep to breaking beer bottles outside my window on a weekend-nightly basis, but these past few days it has been even more musical. :-)
Let's just say that I'm thankful that the festivites are over.

On an unrelated note, yesterday was WORLD SOCIAL WORK DAY!! So happy belated World Social Work Day to all my social work buddies out there. Hope it was a great one.
And it was for me!! Yesterday I hit my 200 hour mark! This means that I am officially half way done with my internship hours. We need 400 to graduate and I am now on the down slope. As much as I love my internship, this is still a good feeling. I'm ready to be done.
The homework, on the other hand, is still very steeply climbing up-hill. I'm not even close to the down slope on that one. Unless you count the fact that I think I'm slipping backwards with the weight of it. I just hope I get it all done. For the first time in my educational career (okay, that isn't totally true), I'm not 100% confident it will get accomplished. (Don't worry, mom, my education is not going to waste.... I will still graduate..... though I may not pull off the 4.0 this semester. Then again.....)

On top of all that is going on, my future has been taking some unexpected (?) changes (don't worry! I'm still getting married in August!!!!!!!) and, low and behold, a bug of some sort has seemed to find me in my weakness.
The combination of stress on top of stress, added in a little more stress isn't a very good combination. Perfect opportunity for those pesky little viruses to attack. I hope I feel better soon....

Nonetheless, things are starting to look up. I'm finding priorties again and hopefully this will help everything else fall into place. And, since I didn't get a Spring Break this year, I'm going home for the weekend. Hardly a Spring Break, but a breath of fresh air will be greatly appreciated.

Off to free Chinese food and Kung Fu Panda night! (A much needed homework break)!!

And the rain came down

It downpoured today. Hard, drenching downpour.



I liked it.

Observations

Today 1.5 miles on the expressway = 4 minutes. I think I'm going to start timing that very short stretch that I am on 90/94 (or, the Kennedy, as it is known around here - they rarely go by their numbers) and find out what my average was.

I was a little later today than usual (had a slow start out of bed, then, got almost to my car to realize that because it was such a beautiful day I had switched coats and everything I needed was in the other coat pocket so I had to walk all the way back). However, no worries, I was still at my internship with plenty of time to not do much for 7 hours (I ditched a little early today - Happy Friday!!!).

So far I have seen an equestrian policeman on the sidewalk in the middle of the city and a policeman zoom into the middle of traffic on a 4 wheeler. Umm, buddy, I don't think you're going to catch too many speeders that way.

I love watching romances. As in, 2 people in love, not romance movies. Though those can be okay, too, depending on the movie. Cute, budding romances make me happy.... not the trashy or obnoxious PDA romances. Although, they do indeed make me miss my 'other' more than anything.

I prefer to watch sports on TV, when the people I am watching it with are into it. We went to a Chicago Bulls game at the United Center tonight but sat so far up in the nosebleed section (literally, only about 4 rows higher than ours) that there wasn't a lot of sports spirit. Especially not in our group. But it was fun to hang out with people none the less. The man selling ice-cream made me happy though, even though I wasn't about to shell out the cash to buy a tiny ice-cream bar. I just wasn't expecting ice-cream at a basketball game.

I have no shame in coming home early on a Friday night. I think I'm getting old. And I am totally okay with it. Maybe a movie tonight? Maybe to bed early? Either would be fine by me.....

I decided like 2 weeks ago that it was my mission to get the homeless man's name. He was always in front of the walgreens that I walk past at least twice a day. He likes to call all the ladies "angel" or "sunshine" and, quite frankly, it makes me happy. He is in a wheelchair and is not begging, though I'm sure he would be more than willing to accept friendly donations. Anyways, I decided that I needed to get his name. I decided this about 2 weeks ago. And I haven't seen him since. It makes me sad. Maybe he moved on without me.... I'm feeling slightly left behind. And I never got his name.

And, to end off this post, a Psalm that has gotten me through the past couple rough days:

Psalm 121
I look up to the mountains - does my help come from there?
My help comes from the LORD, who made the heaves and the earth.
He will not let you stumble and fall; the one who watches over you will not sleep.
Indeed, he who watches over Israel never tires and never sleeps.
The LORD himself watches over you!
The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade.
The sun will not hurt you by day, nor the moon at night.
The LORD keeps you from all evil and preserves your life.
The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go,
both now and forever.

The Labyrinth

Sorry to you faithful followers.... I actually forgot that I had a blog to post on. Whoops.

I suppose a lot has happened since my last post.... but I don't think anyone wants to hear a play by play of my life. If you do, you can call and I would love to fill you in.

This morning for my class we went to a Catholic Church that has an outdoor labyrinth. Think maze on the ground but with no dead ends - just a path to the center that you take both in and out. The purpose of the labyrinth is to give one a chance to mediate on God. One way of approaching it is to "release" on the way in, giving God all of your stresses and worries and concerns, ask to receive something while in the center, and focus on reviewing and implementing it in your life while walking out of the labyrinth.
It was a great concept.... though kind of a tough situation - the middle of the city, near a construction zone, cold, and our whole class of like 25 people was there, doing it all at the same time so we were kind of tripping over each other and you could only go as fast as the person in front of you, causing some back-ups. And, unfortunatly, I got dizzy. But I think it was because of so many people moving so many different directions while I was trying to focus only on myself and the small path in front of me. Maybe I should do it by myself sometime.

However, I love the idea of doing something meditative to bring myself back into God's presence. That is for sure lacking for me while I'm here.... it is rough staying plugged in.

Well, on that note, today is a rather overwhelming day.... I feel like I have so much work to do and I can only feel the hours and the days slipping away. Will everything get done?? I know, one thing at a time..... but sometimes it is tough figuring out what one thing to start with.

Guess I should go start somewhere....

Missing you.

I'm sorry world, but for some reason I have not felt inclined to post. Not that things aren't happening, maybe it is just that they aren't things I think the world would love to hear.

And I have to write two pages after every internship day, so that kind of sucks my writing spirit right out. I haven't even been writing in my real, paper and pen journal. So don't feel left out.

I am missing all of my Michigan friends terribly....
I think it might be a day for another one of Anika's packages. She sent me this wonderful box with seperatly wrapped "survival kits" for different types of days. It is wonderful! One of them is for when I'm about to leave the city. Can you believe it? I have to let that package stare me in the face for the next 3 months. Haha, but don't worry, I can do it. I love you, Anika! Thanks for being great.

Internship summary: Still shadowing. Supposed to meet my own case-load clients soon, but I'm not sure I'm ready. Might even do it today, ready or not. Learning how to help people obtain jobs - resume updating, cover letters, interview skills, job search websites and the newspaper classifeds, etc. Thank you, John Beck! Glad I spent a little time with him on campus!

Classes summary: Homework. Reading. Lots of reading for my classes. I had to make a Learning Contract for use throughout my internship, and it ended up being pretty cool. A 4 page list of goals for the next 3 months. Some of them are things I have to do anyways for the job, others are things on top of that that I can log more hours for. Anyways, it should be pretty good.

Living summary: I suppose I still haven't put up pictures. I am living with 2 girls from Calvin... both from the west Michigan area. Guess I haven't left my bubble as much as I had hoped to.... Though they don't fit the West Michigan mold.

Weather summary: Cold. So cold. We had a warm couple days last week, but it is sure chilly. Although, the sun shines almost daily, so that is a blessing. It just doesn't reach between the buildings to warm the earth. But it sure is pretty when you look up into the sky! Oh, and windy. Maybe that is the worst. I hate the wind.

God summary: God is showing me a lot. Teaching me a lot. Teaching me how to love his children no matter their circumstances. It isn't always easy and I'm still not sure how to handle the homeless beggers (or even the ones who are not begging and simply sitting on the streets), but I can see a little piece of God's beauty in them. I turn my head far too often, but I think I am learning how to love them. I'll let you know if I ever come up with a solution. I'm up for suggestions.

Well, I need to figure out what I'm doing today.
Miss you Michiganders terribly.
Love you all.

Overwhelmed.

That's how I'm feeling right now. I think I am forming a new appreciation for people who lead very busy lives. I'm hoping that it is just taking me time to get into a rhythm. Once I find my rhythm, I should be fine. But for now, I feel like I'm sinking. But I promise I won't drown.

Internship has been great! I am learning a lot and am loving getting to know people. The worst part about it? The commute. It takes about an hour each way.... and, unfortunatly, I need my car so I cannot just read while I'm on the train or the bus. I have to pay close attention to traffic. Which, I believe, is partly why I am so exhausted when I get home. Up early, get ready to go, internship, home, make dinner, want to go to bed. Like I said, I need to find a rhythm to get everything else done - like the loads of homework that I'm going to have here very soon.

For my internship I am meeting with members (aka, clients) to help them with the whole job process. Updating resumes, teaching and helping to fill out applications and perform job searches, preparing for interviews, etc. I think I'll eventually also be doing job developing, which means going to businesses and trying to build relationships with them so that one day they are comfortable accepting members from Thresholds onto their staff. I don't quite feel qualified as, well, I've really only had one real job interview in my life. But, alas, I am doing my best. So far, I'm still shadowing other people. Soon I'll be getting my own case load. Scary. But kind of cool at the same time. I've also been attending a lot of meetings. About everything. Been good.

As for the driving in the city part.... well, I think I was born to drive in the city. Haha, I can cut them off with the best of them. ;-) Nah, not too intimidating so far. I just have to allow PLENTY of time to get anywhere. As fast as life moves in Chicago, traffic does not keep up. It is exceptionally slow. Can anyone else figure this out??

Yesterday a group of us walked around the city. Started out at Millenium Park (pictures to come eventually, maybe), walked to Navy Pier, dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co., back to the apartment, and then back out to walk along the beach a little. The cold, frozen beach, but still, it was grand. The beach is about a 3 minute walk from my apartment. Can't beat that!
So, as I was standing on the lakeshore, everyone else meandered on a bit while I hung back and I listened to the soft, gentle waves lapping up on the shoreline. It was so peaceful. Amist the noise of the city (and there is always noise!), how do you find the quiet to hear the voice of God?

"Be still and know that I am God."

Busy busy busy....

I know I need up update. I will. I promise. So busy. But things are going well. Internship is good.... I'll tell you more about it later. Life is crazy. And classes haven't already started yet. Ahhh!!! I think I'm still trying to get used to it, though, because I have been exhausted. I hope that I get used to it and am able to stay up after 10:30 at night again. Haha. Anywho, gotta jet off to a fine arts event... some type of dance thing! More to come (hopefully)!

I've arrived

Well, I made it. I am in Chicago. To stay. For 3.5 months. Don't miss me too much. Or do. That'd be okay, too.

Not the best picture in the world... cloudy day.... kind of snowing.... but the el and the city none-the-less.

We are in a really nice hotel for the week, although we picked out our roommates and apartments today. Tomorrow morning we are going there to sign the lease, so hopefully it all works smoothly. We don't move in until Saturday, but facebook message me if you want my new address and I'll send it your way. The roommate process was interesting.... Essentially, we just started talking to people that we had never met and asked them if they had a roommate yet. I'm praying that it all works out well - roomming with people that I don't know anything about. Not that I've ever had to do that before. Haha.

Katie and I went on an adventure today. This morning we got our U-Passes (aka, train/bus passes that work unlimited for the whole semester) and we got a 1.5 hour lesson on how to navigate the city's public transportation system. So this afternoon, Katie and I had a 2 hour gap and decided to test out our developing skills. So we took the el. We started on the blue line (they go by colors) and by the end of our time we had ridden every el train (except the purple express because that one is different than the others). There are like 6 or 7 and we surveyed them all, seeing the city from the train that runs above it. Some of them we were only on for a couple miles, but hey, we rode them anyhow. It was definitely a great adventure. Maybe tomorrow I'll check out the bus system.... that makes me a little more nervous than the trains.

It has been busy busy busy, and I expect it will continue to be that way for.... well.... the whole semester. But I'm going to do my best at updating and keeping current on this blog, but no guarentees. The semester will have flown by before I know it, I'm sure.

And prayers on Thursday and Friday. That is the start of my internship and I get to begin with classroom/training/tests and stuff. And I really want to get there without too much difficulty.

Miss you all lots! Hope everyone is doing well! I'll let you know when exciting things happen in my life - and don't forget, Chicago is a great place to visit!!

Let's Pack Up and Move to....

I prefer to post when the inspiration strikes. However, the inspiration is currently not really striking, yet I wish to post anyhow, since, well, I started this blog kind of about Chicago stuff and since I move tomorow, I thought I should mention it.

That's right, I'm moving to Chicago-land in the morning. Dad is taking me and dropping me off... and coming back in a week (less than) to bring me my car, which is required for my internship but I don't intend on using much for other purposes. Sometimes it is great to have a daddy that travels a lot - he needs to be in Chicago anyhow so it isn't really out of his way toooooo much!

I hope God talks to me a lot while in the big city.... but even more I hope I'm open and willing to listen.

I feel my heart torn in so many different directions right now, I simply have to remember to be one place at a time. At this time, Chicago is that place.

So LOOK OUT Chicago! Here I come!!!

Let the Good Times Roll

Chicago??? The big city???? Ahh! What was I thinking!?!?!?

Umm, not so sure about this whole thing. I already miss my SAU friends and I haven't even left the state yet. And the distance between Matthew and me is already too great.... so here I go making it even greater. Bah humbug to that. However, we did both get Skype and webcams set up.... So hopefully that will help a little. It has so far.

Well, I hope to use this blog in my free time in Chicago (ahem, not that I'm sure I'm going to have any free time) to keep track of my life and to let other people in a little. We'll see how it goes.

I'm so excited for 2009. It is going to be a great year:
1) Living in Chicago for a semester (Yes, I'm nervous now, but it will be a great experience)
2) Graduation (I will miss all my friends terribly and will probably be a teary-eyed mess, but it is time for a new step in my life)
3) Vacation to the Grand Canyon with my mom
4) Wedding planning! It is quite fun to be a "bride-to-be!"
5) GETTING MARRIED!!!!! (Not that I'm excited at all.... ha.)
6) My neice's first birthday
7) Having a place to really call home..... rather than the (almost) 4 homes that I have now. It'll be nice to have at least most of my stuff all in one place.

God, walk with me this year through all the big life changes, joys, and sorrows. I don't handle change well, but I'm so excited for what is to come. Woo! Bring it on, 2009!!