Spring Has Sprung! And Other Nonsense...

Wow...so, how about March, huh? That's really all I have to say about the whole month that I've been away from this rambling side project of mine... March was kind of the same as right now but colder (but not by much) and with a few special guest appearances (Hi Tones - if you read this! Hi Mikey and Scott! It was great seeing you all, I miss you which is really what seeing you made me realize is that the world seems small but isn't quite small enough...come visit again!).

I am still at the temp job, plugging away. Still waiting for things to work out, for the promise of an actual position there (meep,yip, yay! Benefits and sick days and working somewhere where I heart everyone so much!) to come through...Last month I was out on interviews at least twice a week, then scheduling for the 2nd Story Festival started and now...not so much. I got three interviews in with a really nice company (located at the Opera House, which made feel very bougie bouge but, in actuality was kind of rickety and run down in a very 1950's office building sort of way - not the opera house just the office building inside of the opera house) and it was down to one other person and me and it turned out, story of my life, that she had more experience than I did.....Oh well, I guess.

I have finally finished scheduling tech rehearsals for all 100+ folks - directors, designers, storytellers - involved in this years 2nd Story Festival (well, almost finished - there is this one story that refuses to have all three people's schedules match up but it will get solved soon). I never remember how stressful it is to do, what an undertaking it is, like birthing a huge Microsoft table of a baby. We had our first Press Performance this weekend and it seems to have gone really well, which is no surprise because we rock and deliver stories and wine and live music that will make your brain explode! Buy tickets (all two people who read this blog and probably don't even live in Chicago I'm looking at you - Buy Tickets!!) www.storiesandwine.com

Enough shilling you say! Give us an update on exciting stuff like how the boy I heart and I took our bikes out finally on that one warm weekend day several weeks ago. How we biked up the river front path - which P.S. that path is a sneaky beast and will disappear on you and throw you into Devon Avenue traffic and you will be all "What, what what?!? How did I leave behind scenic polluted waterfront and end up confronting four lanes of crazy Chicago driving" - and ended up seeing the sculpture park (pretty) And THEN we went... to the mall. The ghetto fabulous Lincolnwood mall to be exact. We are from Connecticut the mall is like visiting home without the guilt, although we are both broke so it's exactly like visiting home! We had Auntie Ann's (not the full pretzel, thankyouverymuch, just the little pretzel sticks because they seemed less "I'M A BAD FOR YOU AUNTIE ANNS PRETZEL" , although if assembled I'm sad to say they probably add up to a whole pretzel..le sigh) and went to Kay's Jewelry and pretended to look at rings just to egg on the poor souls working there..I'm telling you it was good times wrapped in a 14 mile bike ride (yipes it hurt to sit, or to walk, or to even think of riding a bike the next day).

Life is puttering along. Spring seems like it will never get here and I seem endlessly tired lately... Endlessly tired and craving baked sweet potatoes, which is just weird, although not the worse thing to crave so I'm letting it slide. Things are good and getting better which is what this time of year should be about...So, Yay Spring, please get here soon, and without lots of rain, and with only sunny non-windy days so I can bike to work..Oh forget it, just Yay Spring!

Things that are Yay:
1. New Netflix Obsessions - Manor House (so they take a family and a whole cast of regular folks and make them live in this ginormous mansion and live like they are back in Edwardian times. Really upstairs/downstairs type of stuff... Totally fascinating and reality drama but with enough educational bits to make me feel less guilty. So good! P.S. midway through realized Mikey, Jess and I had watched this before (nerds!) But it was still good!) Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days (Mikey and I took a geography class Senior year of college and oh the stories I could tell about the shenanigans that went on but the main point is we watched a different Michael Palin traveling miniseries. So, I wanted to check this one out and now Dave and I are semi-hooked. Michael Palin is funny AND this was filmed in the late 80's which is fascinating - I mean the USSR existed, so did bad hair, like I said fascinating. Really good) From the Earth to the Moon (The HBO mini-series produced by Tom Hanks keep coming. I was obsessed by Band of Brothers, everyone who knows me has heard all about it. For some reason although this is really good, and the story of how NASA got a man to the moon is engrossing I'm just not feeling it, perhaps some limbs will start getting blown off and then I will like it as much...KIDDING!)

2. This American Life - A mainstay of the Yay! list but must be mentioned because lately it has been really good...Plus in the morning I can't stand music anymore (mayhaps I'm just becoming old or maybe I just hate the morning and loud noise makes me more conscious of it) and the length of an episode is the perfect one to get me downtown and near coffee.

3. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler - This book kills me every time, it is beautifully written and just so true, it just tells the truth about growing up in a family with an absent dad in such a true way. I recently re-read it and fell in love again. Yay Anne Tyler!

Things that are Boo:
1. Winter weather when it's spring - It snowed this weekend people - SNOWED! I know Chicago isn't known for being a paradise weather-wise (encased meat wise on the other hand, we have it covered: brats and polish's and oh everything, I don't mean to brag..) This weather makes everyone cranky and on edge..

2. Stupid Three Trains on One Track - LISTEN CTA, this "project" which you are "working" on whereby all there train lines heading Southbound, in the morning, when we are going to work, better pay off because seriously, seriously this is suck city...