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!)