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)!!