And so the Second City Stories must come to an end...

My semester in Chicago was better than I could have asked for. Why? (1) My roommates were amazing. (2) The internship I selected provided a glimpse into the world of finance. (3) I went on many adventures. (4) I explored several neighborhoods. (5) I went to art events and got a taste for the arts in the city. (6) I conquered public transportation. (7) My Sunday mornings were spent attending a wide variety of churches and styles of worship. (8) It was the perfect end to my college career.

I will miss some things. (1) The interesting conversations at work. (2) My daily commute. (3) The same man and woman selling StreetWise that I saw every day. (4) The street performers. (5) Getting free cupcakes with my roommates. (6) And all of the above list.

And, there are things I won’t miss at all. (1) Spending twice as much money on everything. (2) Paying $500 monthly rent. (3) Seeing homeless people on the street. (4) Making mistakes and feeling stupid at work. (5) Being far away from home. (6) Eating peanut butter and jelly or bologna and cheese sandwiches every day. (7) Writing weekly journals for class.

But now it's on to bigger and better things. In roughly thirty-six hours I will be on a plane to Germany, where I will spend two weeks with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece. That shall be quite a big adventure. And upon my return I will seriously start the job search. The train of adulthood has arrived and I must board it. I think I'm finally ready.

So farewell, Chicago! I enjoyed our time together. Thank you for the adventures, the fun, the memories. Until we meet again.

Days 104 and 105

Saturday and Sunday, December 11 and 12

We got up early and were back on the road at 8am. At 11:30am we met up with my uncle, Delwin, for lunch at Country Junction in Dyersville. Two hours later, we got in the car and drove through some cruddy winter weather. The trip took longer than we planned, but we were almost home. In Clarion, twenty miles from my house, we stopped for a pit stop because it would still take a while to get home given the weather conditions. Well, the roads weren’t the best and visibility was nearly zero. We drove out of town and had to stop dead in the road because we couldn’t see anything, not even one foot in front of the car. As much as my dad hated it, being so close to home, we turned around and got a hotel room. He said that if my mom and I weren't in the car with him, he would have driven the rest of the way. I don't doubt that for a second. He's a truck driver at heart. And a Tammen. That's quite a combo. At the hotel we had nothing to do and it was only 6pm. The cable kept cutting out and finally quit altogether, so much for watching The Santa Clause 2. There was no way they were sending out delivery boys, but lucky for us, we had leftover pizza for the night before and I had some food from the apartment that we ate for supper. My dad went to bed at 7:30pm and my mom and I chatted and then went to bed a little after 9pm. What an exciting bunch. The next morning we got up, headed home, and breathed a sigh of relief as we pulled in the driveway. Finally.

Day 103

Friday, December 10

Happy 1: A lady at work has been sitting at Kerry’s desk when Kerry’s not there because her computer is broken. Today, nearly everyone was in the office, which never happens. Being the sweet woman that she is, Kerry moved all her stuff to the cubicle on the other side of me so the other lady could use her desk. Instead of sitting next to Joe, she was now facing him, eight feet away. Kerry said, “Good morning, Joe.” No response. “Joe, good morning.” Nothing. Not even a flinch. She looked at me and said, “I think he’s ignoring me.” That appeared to be the case so she proceeded to get on the telephone and dial Joe’s extension. Joe heard is phone, looked to see who it was, didn’t recognize the extension, got out the sheet with all the numbers on it, was still confused, picked up the phone and said, “Hello?” “Hi, Joe. This is Kerry. I just wanted to say good morning to you and tell you that I switched desks today.” Finally, he looked up and saw her. Boy, the people I work with are intelligent. But sometimes I wonder … These are the same people that debated for five minutes if Reese’s Pieces was pronounced with long or short e’s at the end.

Happy 2: I had my final internship evaluation with my supervisor and practicum group leader. Fun. We sat down and chatted about the semester, my strengths and weaknesses, what I learned, what my plans are from here on out. That kind of stuff. My supervisor, and two or three others that I worked with, got together and graded my overall performance this semester. They gave me an A-, which is “outstanding” according to the grading rubric. I guess I’m okay with that.

Happy 3: My parents came to pick me up this evening. They were behind schedule due to traffic, but this allowed for some last-minute roommate bonding at the apartment. Once they arrived, we (my parents, Rachel, and me) headed to Giordano’s for deep dish pizza. I lead the way and showed off my awesome navigation skills. No directions, just a general idea and an address. We stopped for a bag of Garrett’s Popcorn on the way to the restaurant. Well, it turned out that the particular Giordano’s we were looking for was out of business. So, Dad hailed a cab and we went to a different one. The food was good, but the place was busy. After, I found my way to a Red Line stop that would take us back to the apartment. I bade farewell to my roommate, we packed the car, and away we went. Granted it was nearly 11:30pm, but we left the city and drove for a few hours before stopping at a hotel for a short night of sleep.

Crappy: A client came into the office. He was an older gentlemen and a little strange. One, he brought his husband with him. And he had an issue with shaking people’s hands. Instead, he would give this awkward high-five-like gesture. Bizarre.

Day 102

Thursday, December 9

Happy 1: This morning, my boss and his wife (who also works at MainStreet) brought in their daughter because the babysitter was sick. She is probably three years old and she bobbled around the office checking things out. From my desk I could see into the boss’ office where he and his daughter were watching cartoons on his computer. A little later, when she was alone in the room, she picked up the phone and started talking to the receptionist. Absolutely darling!

Happy 2: In the office building lobby there is an Angel Tree. Katherine took / was given a tag. It was for a senior with a wish list consisting of a tie, shaving kit, socks, slippers, and robe. She looked at it and then said, “I thought this was for a senior in high school, but it might be for a senior citizen.” A debate ensued; Matt and I agreed that it was for an elderly man but Joe was convinced it was for an eighteen-year-old boy. She took it downstairs to ask the front desk. It turned out that it was for an old person and gifts had already been purchased. She came back with a new tag and told us that it was indeed for a senior citizen. Joe asked, “Why would anyone put socks on a Christmas list?” Matt replied, “Are you kidding me? Who doesn’t want to give socks to a stranger?”

Happy 3: There was a pan handler on the street near the train station and he was holding a sign. Generally, beggars don’t say much. This man, however, was praising God. He said, “God is good. He gave me a winter coat with a hood yesterday. God is good.” Now that's a good attitude.

Happy 4: My parents are picking me up tomorrow! The end is kind of bitter sweet, but I think I’m ready to be done with my internship. So, tonight I packed up all of my belongings. Three suitcases isn’t bad. Between packing and watching movies, Kristin and I prepared our last supper that consisted of all the random leftovers in our fridge. Yum? That’s debatable.

Crappy: My supervisor was out sick today so I worked with Joe. And well, I don’t learn very well from Joe. He showed me how to do a portfolio review on Inka and I was completely baffled. At one point I snorted because I was clueless and overwhelmed. Straight-faced and completely serious, Joe said, “Why is that funny?” Really? Do you have a sense of humor at all? While it’s nice to learn new things, it’s a little late in the game, considering my last day is tomorrow.

Day 101

Happy 1: Rachel and I went to Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) between classes. There was a display of 100 nativity scenes from all over the world, which were amazing. Some of my favorites were from Italy, Ireland, Haiti, and a really sweet one from the United States that was made with nails. Beautiful and symbolic. This particular picture doesn't include the wise men and shepherds on either side but it's pretty close. On the way back to the CS office, we stopped at Hershey's and got a free piece of chocolate at the door. Yay for Rolos!

Happy 2: Tonight was the "closing ceremonies" of the Chicago Semester Fall 2010. It was held at the Parthenon Restaurant, which is Greek. The food was phenomenal. We had lots of bread, gyros, stuffed grape leaves, eggplant and chicken lasagna, and baklava for dessert. I'm not one to try new things, so this was quite an experience. I filled up on bread, gyros (lamb with cucumbery sauce), and chicken lasagna. Nearly all of the dishes had nutmeg in it, so it tasted like pumpkin. And the wait staff had awesome accents; they're Greek, of course. The CS staff showed a video of pictures sent in by students other than me, since I don't take pictures. It was fun to look back on our time in the city and see all the places we've been. As an added bonus, we received a black Chicago Semester t-shirt and a large group picture taken during orientation week.

Crappy: I was late to my Metro class. I am never late. Here's what happened. Rachel and I were on the way back to the CS office after going to LUMA. This particular station, Chicago, is different than Clark and Division because the two train tracks are separated by a concrete wall. If you're headed toward Howard you stand on one side. But if you're headed toward 95th / Dan Ryan you stand on the other side. Well, we were chatting and ended up on the wrong side. By the time we climbed the stairs up and then down the other side, the train we needed had come and gone. Needless to say, I was late to class. Drat!

Day 100

Happy 1: I heard some very humorous things on the street today. A street sweeper lady was talking to the man selling newspapers next to McDonald's. She told him, "It's winter jacket weather. You ain't got no gloves. You ain't got no hat..." After work I saw a man and woman crossing the street and the man turned to her and said, "You're looking like a woman raccoon out here." Her response? "I don't care if I look like a bear." Apparently, being warm outweighed looking foolish. Smart lady.

Happy 2: My Fine Art Final Project is finished! All together, I probably spent twelve hours filming, capturing, transferring, editing, and exporting. For your listening pleasure, I included a link that will allow you to hear my masterpiece. Enjoy! http://cardboardboxmedia.com/cbm/anna.html.

Funny: At the beginning of the semester, CS gave each of us a gift card to Corner Bakery. Since the end is very near, I decided to use it up. During lunch, the sandwich was alright but the conversation was better. Kerry, bless her heart, asked me about the weather back home (and she knows I live in Iowa). It would have made sense to inquire about the amount of snow or the windchill or something. No, she wanted to know if we had the same seasons as Chicago. Really? Do we have the same seasons?!? She said, "Well, you just never know." Um, yes you do. Later in the day the office received a box filled with cookies; six unmarked packages full of them, actually. Andy walked into the kitchen, walked back out with cookies in-hand, and said, "What's with these weird cookies in here? It's like space packaging or something." While the bags were indeed unusual, it did not deter any of my co-workers from sampling the contents many times.

Crappy: Tonight will be a late night. It's 11:30pm and I have yet to write the artist statement about my project which I will present in class tomorrow, proof-read three weekly journals, finish two papers (Immersion Experience and Essay of Discovery), shower, and read my Bible. Sounds fun, eh?

Day 99

Happy 1: Today was my last Monday Morning Meeting. It was sort of bitter sweet; no more taking notes and listening to a voice on the other end of the line telling me about last week's mergers and acquisitions, and no more street slang and "What up, Dawg"s from BMac. At the end of the meeting, my boss (as in the co-owner) mentioned that Friday is my last day. They asked when I was officially done with school. I shrugged and said, "Friday?" They laughed. More attention was sent my way by the compliance officer, Andrea. I put together a trendy outfit all by myself (white button-down blouse with a thick black belt). There's a first time for everything. She told me, "You look cute today." For anyone that knows me well, I do not generally get complimented on my wardrobe. I'll take a t-shirt and jeans any day. But compliments are always good.

Happy 2: Outside my office building were two bright orange cones with a sign reading, "Caution: Falling Ice." It never occurred to me that ice falling from thirty-eight stories up would be quite terrifying. And fatal. This really shouldn't make me happy, but it did. Never have I seen a sign like that in Iowa. It seems that all sorts of dangers await city dwellers - crazy taxi cab driver, dark alleys, falling ice.

Crappy: After work, I headed for the Red Line and boarded the train. I tried to squeeze in where I could so others could get on. Unbeknownst to me because I'm relatively short, no one was standing in the aisle like they should be, so we were all smashed together near the doors. Some lady waiting to board the train yelled rudely, "Move down! Move down so we can get on!" People were not happy with her for being so snippy. One guy looked at her and said, "No one needs to talk to anyone like that." And someone else said, "The doors at the other end of the train won't open. Why would I go down there just to fight my way out again in two stops?" Good point! She was all kinds of worried about herself and no one else. We sure put her in her place. I just smiled to myself. No, I'm pretty sure it was written all over my face.

Day 98

Happy 1: My brother is in the military and is currently stationed in Germany with his wife and daughter. When they moved in August I thought I wouldn't see them for a very long time. But alas, due to many potential employers not hiring until the first of the year, my schedule momentarily opened up. It more than opened up, it presented the perfect time for an adventure. I will be done with college in five days and as a little graduation present to myself...I bought a plane ticket to Germany! Sure it cost a small fortune but it is totally worth it. I will be spending two weeks with them, from December 15-29. Never before have I been away from home for Christmas, but I still get to spend it with my family . Apparently this trip will be full of firsts and never befores and boy, I should remember to tell this to the grandkiddies.

Happy 2: My roommates and I attended our very last church service of the semester; "A Chicago Christmas" program at Willow Creek. This particular service was meant for families so there were tons of cute little kids running around. The band was rocking the Christmas music and everyone was jamming out. There was a short message but the main attraction was "The Clown of God," a ten-minute performance about a juggler. A story was read aloud and one man mimed the part of the juggling clown. The kids loved it. I may or may not include myself in that category. What a great way to end the semester.

Happy 3: In celebration of the Prison Break series finale, the roommates and I made a delicious dessert. Homemade chocolate sauce, chocolate brownies, vanilla ice cream, and whip cream on top. In order to earn such a high calorie, sugar-loaded, delicious-infused dessert, I worked out first. I'm not sure they cancelled each other out, but it was worth a shot.

Crappy: Practicum Group Retreat. All of the general Chicago Semester students got together for four hours to reflect and meditate on our time in Chicago. This was a nice idea, but it was not so nicely executed. Instead of treating us like big kids, we were treated like we were in grade school. For instance, they wanted us to form a line based on birthday, going from youngest to oldest. The trick was that we weren't allowed to talk. Before we started the process, they informed us that we should use our fingers to tell others our birthday month and date. Really? Then, we made a collage of "wonder, heartbreak, and hope," cutting and pasting pictures and words from magazines. When we got done they told us to pick everything up and put it away nicely. I swear I heard someone singing Barney's "Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share." So, the retreat was...well, it could use some work. There were some good and bad things about the evening. Since it was the first year they did anything like this, it can only get better from here.

Day 97

Happy 1: PB and Pudding. My roommates and I are near the end of our Prison Break journey. This semester we have watched nearly the entire series, equal to about sixty hours. True, this is a ridiculous amount of time, but really it's only one episode a day. If nothing else, it was a great roommate bonding. And tonight, I made Cook and Serve butterscotch pudding to go with it. What a combo.

Happy 2: Productivity. Believe it or not, my Saturday was well spent. I slept in until eight, worked out, took a shower, ate breakfast, watched an episode with Kristin, wrote two papers, started writing three Critical Learning Logs, continued editing my final art project, talked to my mom twice (briefly), cooked food and ate it, did a little cleaning in the fridge, and spent a solid chunk of time bonding with the girls. Not bad for a lazy Saturday, eh?

Crappy: Today marks the beginning of the end. One week from this moment, I will be back in Iowa. Done with my internship in Chicago and finished with my college education. It's bitter sweet, actually. Sad but exciting and full of possibilities at the same time.

Day 96

Happy 1: Today I worked with Zephyr StyleADVISOR, a performance analysis program. It involved selecting data, designing graphs and charts, and editing the information to match that of three years ago. The first hour and a half went well but then I hit a snag. I worked on it for hours, playing around in the program that I'm not familiar with at all. Finally, I succumbed to the fact that I could not figure it out on my own, and asked my supervisor to help. He came to my desk, instructed me a bit, and then he asked to sit down so he could mess around with it. Ten minutes later he had it figured out. As he walked away he said, "Don't worry, it wasn't just you." That's good to know. I'm not a complete moron, after all.

Happy 2: Rachel finally worked out the quirks and I was able to start working on my art project. After downloading Audacity, an audio editing program, I got to work. It was a little tedious to figure out, but after watching tutorials on YouTube and asking Rachel for some pointers, I began the long process. I sat for four hours at the kitchen table with headphones in, listening to the audio clips of street performers and everyday street sounds. The project isn't done, but I successfully edited the clips so that the best parts were saved and the not-so-best parts were trimmed.

Happy 3: Kerry is the lady I really enjoy working with at MainStreet. This morning she said, "I really like you and I want to stay in touch, so here's my address." I work with some super great people.

Crappy: My roommate, Kristin, came home with a terrible headache. She curled up on our wavy couch, huddled under a blanket, and finally went to bed at nine o'clock. Thank goodness I have never had a migraine; they seem pretty terrible. So terrible that they make it as somebody else's crappy.

Day 95

Happy 1: Chen's Garden. My roommates and I went to the Chinese restaurant in Wrigleyville that I went to during orientation week. That was a long time ago, ninety days, to be exact. Rachel thought I hyped up the food such that she would be disappointed. Boy, was she wrong. The food was just as delicious as I remembered. We shared an entree (sweet and sour chicken) and ordered two appetizers (crab meat won tons and maki rolls). The maki rolls were like sushi only there was no raw fish inside. I had a hard enough time gagging down the "dragon fly" and "tropical" rolls as it was. The restaurant was kind of fancy, with candles on the table, smooth plastic chopsticks, and cloth napkins. I generally like cloth napkins, but not when I would like to discretely dispose of some nasty sushi-like stuff. Our server, Andre, was funny. I tried the "dragon fly" roll per his suggestion, but the girls told him I had a little trouble with it. So, at the end of the meal he brought out the bill and our fortune cookies and said, "It's okay, these taste good." The best fortune of the bunch was: "The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be." Wait. What? Then, as we were walking back to the train, a car full of boys passed by and they yelled out the window, "Hey, ladies." Well, hello there. But it makes me wonder: who taught them manners? Apparently no one.

Happy 2: Kristin kept the wishbone from the turkey they had for Thanksgiving dinner. We broke it and I lost miserably. My side shattered into a million little pieces and went flying around the room, hitting Rachel. The great thing was that it sparked a stroll down memory lane. Does anyone remember the children's show Wishbone? Classic. Educational. Fantastic.

Happy 3: Continuing with the topic of Thanksgiving, Kristin and I taught Rachel (the Canadian) about the tradition of the presidential pardon of a turkey in honor of the holiday. I came across a rather amusing article titled, With Presidential Pardon, Two Turkeys are Safe (http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/11/with-presidential-pardon-two-turkeys-are-safe-this-year/). Here's a little taste: "Out of 20,000 birds born at Foster Farms, these two gobblers [Apple and Cider] were picked out of 25 finalists after strutting their stuff to an 'eclectic mix' of music. 'It's kind of like a turkey version of 'Dancing With the Stars' ... Except the stakes for the contestants was much higher,' said Obama, to laughter. 'Only one pair would survive and win the big prize: life.' " I don't particularly like the pardoner but his comments deserve a chuckle.
Crappy: Rats! Literally. I saw a rat scurrying along the "L" track. Disgusting. It sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it. But to be fair, it's the first one I've seen all semester.

Day 94

Happy 1: SNOW! I woke up this morning to snow floating outside my window. My apartment is kind of in the nook of the building, in a protected area, so the snow just floated down all pretty-like. There was even enough snow to lightly cover the ground and create a little winter wonderland.

Happy 2: Since my stay in Chicago is coming to a close, I went through the cupboards to see what I had to work with for the last week and a half. What did I find? Treasures, of course. Butterscotch Cook and Serve, Smarties. Mostly goodies from my mom that I saved for a special occasion. Well, there's no time like the present.

Crappy: Half of the students in the Fine Arts class presented their final projects to the rest of the class. The favored mediums were photography and painting, but a few of them used poetry and music. I was really impressed with the skill level. However, this poses quite a high standard on those of us presenting next week. Specifically me.

Day 93

Happy 1: I made a little man with Wikki Stix. While I was home for Thanksgiving, my roommates stayed in Chicago and went to the Festival of Lights. They got fun stuff like Wikki Stix - "the twistable, stickable, buildable, playable one-of-a-kind creatables! No glue, no stains, no mess." Lucky for me, my roommates shared and I created a little orange stick man. Be impressed. He even stands up all by himself. The girls also showed me these amazing 3D glasses that turn distant lights into reindeer. How cool is that?

Happy 2: It was chilly today. I even pulled out my mittens. Winter is finally on it's way! People in the city are such wimps; they've been bundled up for weeks.

Crappy: Long, long day at work. One of those days that never ends. Thank goodness for Pandora and the golden oldies station.

Day 92

Happy 1: Commedia Beauregard Presents: A Klingon Christmas Carol. Star Trek, anyone? Tickets are normally thirty-some dollars but tonight admission was only three canned goods. I can afford that. The whole play was in Klingon with English superscripts on a PowerPoint. It was pretty epic. I don't know anything about Star Trek but before the play started my roommate, who used to be quite a Star Trekian, gave me a quick course on Klingon 101; the history, the language, all the ins and outs. This was definitely an interesting, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Happy 2: It was wonderful to have a week-long break from work, but it was nice to go back to my routine. The Monday morning meetings, the morning greetings: "Good morning, So-and-so." "Good morning." How are you?" "Good. How are you?" "Good.", the sports talk, the boat load of work emails to read and delete. Welcome back!

Crappy: Remember my Fine Art Final Project, sounds of the city? I carried a video camera with me everyday for a long time and all I wanted was to record my favorite boy band. Of course, the one day I didn't have it on me, they were in the train station. And there was a sweet flute player performing cheery Christmas songs. Rats! Maybe I'll catch them tomorrow.

Day 83 - Day 91

Saturday, November 20 through Sunday, November 28

Where to begin? Here's the highlights.

MegaBus to Des Moines, picked up by parents, went to brother and sister-in-law's house, babysat my nephew, attended my parents' sixth grade Sunday School class, visited my old babysitter (she's practically my grandma), made Christmas candy with my grandma and my cousin, saw Harry Potter 7: Part I, got my passport (which cost a fortune), stopped by my hometown Fareway and chatted it up with the full-time ladies, Thanksgiving on both sides of the family, ate lots of yummy food, more candy making with my relatives, did some homework, hung out with my brother and his wife and their little one, church, Des Moines, MegaBus to Chicago, city bus to apartment, home.

Whew! What a vacation!

Day 82

Happy 1: I went out to lunch with my supervisor and another employee, Igor (yes, that's his real name). We waited twenty minutes to get into the restaurant, Sidebar Grille, but it was worth the wait. The food was excellent and expensive. Good thing the company paid for the meal.

Happy 2: At work, while listening to Christmas music on Pandora, the song Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas came on. I only had one ear bud in so I could hear what was going on in the office. At the very end of the song there are two final notes and someone clicked their mouse in time with the music. The sheer coincidence of this happening made me nearly burst out laughing. I don't know how it worked out so perfectly, but it did and it was fantastic.

Crappy: I hate packing. That is what I did tonight. Packed. However, it is for a very good reason. Tomorrow morning I am heading home for Thanksgiving Break. Most everyone else in the Chicago Semester program doesn't get to leave until Wednesday. But I switched some things around and get to have seven days at home with a half-day of travel on both ends. While I am so excited to go home and see family and relax, I am missing a lot of the festivities in Chicago. Parades and concerts and tree-lighting ceremonies. So, slightly mixed feelings: don't like packing, love the idea of going home, don't like six hours of travel time on a bus, love to be with family, don't like to miss stuff in Chicago, love to do fun stuff during Thanksgiving.

As I will be home relaxing and spending time with family and friends, I will be much too busy to post daily entries. Plus, I really want a break. It's tough to write this every day. Do you realize I've done this eighty-two times? So, don't be alarmed, I am alive and well. And I hope you are, too. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Day 81

Happy 1: Hot apple cider. What a nice surprise when I walked into my office building today. The building staff provided hot chocolate and apple cider for people like me that work in the offices. I chose apple cider and it was delicious.

Happy 2: More Art Project Footage. On my walk to work I filmed the clock tower playing a tune and then chiming the hour. Then on my way home I filmed a lady playing the guitar and singing some good oldies songs. I also recorded the sound of the train coming into the station, the voice from above that announces the next stop, and the general noisiness of my daily commute. It is all coming together.

Happy 3: Peter Pan! The very last Fine Art event. So sad. But what a note to go out on! The play at Lookingglass Theatre was amazing. Words can't describe it but I will try. Take Disney's Peter Pan, Hook, Finding Neverland, and mash them all together. The set was nothing like I expected; it was industrial and cold. It forced us to use our imaginations to fill in the rest. The audience was seated on three sides of the "stage," which was really just a cement floor, so we were on equal footing. The cast came in and amongst us, and I was very close to some of them because I sat at the end of the row. The pirates were scary cannibals; clowns, creepy doctors, and a woman with Freddie Krueger-like fingers. Peter Pan, Wendy, John, and Michael actually flew. They wore harnesses the whole time and swung around on ropes, right above our heads. A really fun part happened at the beginning as we were all waiting for the show to start. There were light bulbs above our heads, but they weren't turned on. The cast came out, acting like little children, and wordlessly encouraged certain people to pull the string to turn them on. A lady came up to a friend of mine and wanted her to pull the string. She couldn't reach, so a CS girl sitting behind her pulled the string. Well, this was not what the lady wanted. She scowled at the girl, turned the light back off, and encouraged my friend to do it. She had to stand on a chair, but she got the job done. The story, the characters, the atmosphere, the imagination of it all brought me back to the simple days of childhood. At one point they drew pictures with chalk and I so wanted to get down on the floor and draw too. Super fantastic, out of this world, words can't describe, leave you wanting more, type of play. This was perhaps my favorite art event of the semester, which is saying something.

Crappy: Messed up at work...again. My supervisor came over to my desk and explained something really hurriedly, which is unusual. Come to find out, he had a meeting right then. I got to work selecting certain account numbers and making pdfs. When he got out of his meeting he came over to show me the next step. Apparently, I had made all of them incorrectly because I chose "Internal Review" as opposed to "Client Deliverable." I'm almost positive we didn't talk about that. No matter, I deleted everything I had done and redid all twenty-eight pdfs, printed them off, and paired them with the appropriate manila file folder.

Day 80

Happy 1: Acting Exercises. My Fine Arts class is attending the very last event of the semester tomorrow evening (sad face); Lookingglass Theatre is performing Peter Pan. It should be pretty fantastic. You really can't go wrong when it comes to Peter Pan and Neverland. One of the founders spoke to the class today about the theatre company and the play. As an actor, he was quite animated and definitely not boring. Much to our surprise, he made us do a series of acting exercises. The Hey Game - stand in a circle, one person runs across the circle to another person, jumps up, says "Hey!" and gives that person a two-handed high five, then the person that was approached runs to another person, eventually five different lines are going and it is utter madness. Freeze Frame - get in a group of five people (that I didn't know very well), given a word, silently make a scene representing that word in four seconds, then freeze. Sculpting - sculpt a partner (in my case a boy) into a form that represented a given word. My word was "perfect" so I had him hold a halo above his head and look angelic. Numbers and Sounds - with the same partner, turn and face each other, count to three  (I say one, you say two, I say three, you say one, I say two, you say three, you get the idea), but then we had to make up sounds and actions to take the place of each number. We were selected to do ours in front of the class (Doink, Plop, Holla!); numbers one and three were my creation. These were actually really good exercises for me. It helped me to loosen up a bit and not take myself so seriously.

Happy 2: Accordion Mike. In between classes I went downtown and came across Michael, the accordion player. Of course, I saw this as a prime opportunity for my Final Art Project. I stopped and asked him a few questions (he was not very talkative) and filmed him playing a song. When I bent down to place my donation (for his time and cooperation) in his accordion case, he grabbed it out of my hand and stuffed it in his pocket. Well, okay then.

Crappy: Lousy Neighborhood Presentation. My Practicum group gave our Hyde Park presentation today. The people in my group were very hard to work with because they all have strong personalities. I absolutely despise group projects. Rather than have someone else in the group do a crappy job, I generally take the leadership position. This time, however, I just threw up my hands and let them do what they were going to do. When we met on Monday to make a poster and put the final touches on the presentation, I had a good feeling about things. But when we gave the presentation today (which we gave four times because every group rotated rooms), they just read off boring facts and figures about their topics. Lame. I talked about religion in Hyde Park and had a good time with it. (I took Public Speaking last year and discovered that I kind of have a knack for it.) The people in my group were competent speakers but they did a lousy job picking out and presenting their material. And they didn't tie things together like I thought they would. Whatever, it's over and done. But this is why I lead group projects.

Day 79

Happy 1: Grocery Shopping. Made grocery list, took the Red Line to Aldi, shopped, paid, sacked groceries (thank goodness I worked at Fareway), took Red Line back to apartment, made a pit stop at CVS, unloaded groceries, ate some of the new goodies. Done. One hour. Be impressed.

Happy 2: I may have made a new friend at work today. Who? The infamous receptionist. She was alphabetizing the file drawers located right next to my overly-large desk. I told her she could use my desk space if she needed somewhere to put things. She said, "That's okay, but thanks." Whatever, I tried. But then...she started to put piles of files on my desk. Later in the day I walked by her desk, smiled warmly, and she returned it. Can you believe it?! I had no idea it would all come down to sharing my desk. This is definitely progress.

Happy 3: More Window Washers. They scaled the building again today, this time on a different side. I was talking to the part-time gal that sits next to me when we heard the familiar sound of suctions on the window. We looked over and saw the dangling window washer. We were intrigued, so we watched for a little bit, but they're really quick. On his way down the rope to the next floor he caught us watching and flashed us a toothy grin. I'm sure they see some pretty interesting people in a day's work.

Happy 4: We're sitting here, me and my roommates, listening to a Relient K Christmas song; "Sleigh Ride," to be exact. I'm typing on the computer, bobbing my head. I look over and see Kristin and Rachel bobbing their heads too. The fact that we're each in our own little world, jamming out, is comical. Who doesn't love punk rock Christmas music?

Crappy: Problems with Zephyr. My task was to take numbers from four different Excel worksheets and type them into another program, Zephyr, for analysis. Easy enough. Well, there were complications. There are always complications. I had finished one of the lists and clicked "OK." A window popped up that said, "File such and such already exists. Do you want to overwrite it?" The only two options were "Yes" and "No." Of course I clicked "No." That was the wrong thing to do. It closed the window and took all my hard work with it. Trying to solve the problem by myself, I retyped the numbers. Again, the window popped up. Not wanting to redo the list a third time, I went to my supervisor for help. I found out that it was not my fault. The file name that he had me type in at the beginning of the project was causing the problems. We fixed it and away I went. Why does stuff like this always happen to me? Because I'm a Tammen, that's why. We wouldn't want anything to be too easy. What fun is that?

Day 78

Happy 1: Whistling Window Washers. This morning at the office, I heard a thump and when I looked out the blind-covered window, I saw a shadow. The rest of the office and I thought it was a huge bird hitting the window, which is a fair assumption since we're on the thirty-seventh floor. I'm glad it wasn't a bird because it would have had quite a large headache. However, it was some window washers. They were just wandering around on the plank like it was no big deal. I was impressed with their window washing and thirty-seventh- floor balancing talent. One of my co-workers said, "This is why I went to school."

Happy 2: I started my final fine art project today, due at the end of the semester. My vision is to take footage of street/subway performers, get a little background information, and put it all together. If all goes as planned, it should be pretty sweet. While waiting half an hour for the train after work (it was way busier than normal due to a power outage somewhere in the city) I talked to the musicians serenading the masses. Two guys: David on mandolin and kazoo,and Sam on guitar. I filmed them playing a classic song by Johnny Cash. They gave me a card with their contact information; depending how good the project turns out I may send them the file for their amusement. Later in the evening I was out and about again and came across three black guys rapping: Big Boy, One of the Greatest, and Rhythm (playing a box drum).

Crappy: A girl got sick on the train right as we pulled into the station this morning . The train was packed but people managed to make more room when the poor girl was clearly not feeling well. Thankfully, I was right next to the door and exited quickly. I heard some people say, "You've got to be (insert explicit) kidding me!" I take it they weren't too happy. In other train activity, someone was hit and seriously injured by the Red Line. Honestly, I'm surprised stuff like this doesn't happen more often.

Day 77

Happy 1: Sprinkles Cupcakes. My roommates follow Sprinkles on Twitter. The business tweets things like: The first twenty-five people to whisper "sweet and salty" at the counter get a free Salted Caramel Cupcake. These girls like cupcakes, so we got the tweet and sped-walked seven or eight blocks to the store, whispered the magic phrase, and got a free cupcake. It was scrumptious.

Happy 2: Two Skype dates in one day. How lucky can a girl get? Talking to people at home really boosts my spirit. Especially when it's my college roomie, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and of course the cutest little boy in the whole wide world, my nephew.

Crappy: Sunday sermon. My roommate and I attended First St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church. I was pretty excited because it was Lutheran; we've been going to mostly non-denom churches. The pastor preached on money, but did it very, very poorly. He told the congregation that he and his wife give ten percent right of the top, not the leftovers like many people do. Apparently, this church just lost a pastor and many people left because of it. He said that pastors come and go but congregations and buildings remain. Really? Last I checked, people move away and ultimately die, and buildings can burn down or be wiped out by a tornado. This guy talked very little about God. Not okay. However, attending a wide variety of churches has given me an insight into my worship style preferences and shown me that the most important thing about a church is that it teaches and preaches the Word of God. Not the Word according to Man.

Day 76

Happy 1: Rachel and I went on a tour of Evanston. We spent the first hour traveling North to the end of the Red Line, transferring, and riding to the end of the Purple Line. Once we got there it started misting, but we were smart enough to bring an umbrella along. The highlight of the trip was the Baha'i House of Worship. It's kind of a new-age universal religion. That's not great, but the temple was beautiful, inside and out. We went inside and looked up at the dome; the way the light filtered through it looked like a star-strewn sky. Outside, there were gardens and fountains for reflection. Apparently there was an Iowa game in the area. It was a little taste of home seeing the Hawkeye symbol and a sea of black and gold, but we came upon many a drunken college students. At the end of the tour we had a late lunch at Mrs. D's Diner. French toast and hash browns. Relatively cheap and incredibly delicious.

Happy 2: I made supper tonight. Chicken, macaroni and cheese, broccoli, and carrots. All in one. Be impressed.

Crappy: Rain = Cold and Wet. Rachel and I got soaked on our tour of Evanston. Even though we had an umbrella, our pants were wet up to the knee and our shoes sloshed with water. During our soggy adventure we may or may not have whipped out a rendition of Singin' in the Rain. When we finally made it back to the apartment we changed into dry clothes and made steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

Day 75

Happy 1: The flip books are done forever! I went to the Post Office which was actually open today. The teller wasn't very friendly, but I think I won her over with my cheery disposition. Went back to work, printed labels using the postage meter, stuck the postage stickers on the boxes, took the boxes to the drop-off spot on the first floor of the office building. Done. Forever. At least for me. Apparently they do this much work every quarter. Glad I won't be here for the next time around.

Happy 2: Funny story. So, it's my niece's first birthday today. (Happy Birthday, Baby G!) Pretty big deal. I sent her a present in the mail but I wanted to send her an email message too. I composed this cutsie note and was pleased with my wittiness. I typed my brother's name in the address bar and clicked send. By the grace of God I checked my sent folder to make sure it went through. Much to my surprise, instead of going to my brother it went to a NWC student with the same first name. Needless to say, I was horrified. I immediately emailed the guy and apologized. To be fair, I told him he could pretend it was his birthday too, if he wanted. Later in the day he emailed back: "Hahahahaha! I hope you are laughing at yourself cuz you made me laugh. Thanks!"

Crappy: After a month of inactivity, I got to write an article for the weekly financial market update. I wrote the economics section, which is my favorite. In the past the editor has made very minor adjustments. However, I was a little rusty and there were a few items that needed rewording or further clarification. She's super nice so it didn't hurt my pride too much. This just goes to show I need some more practice.

Day 74

Happy 1: Day of firsts. (1) My first out-of-the-office adventure. Remember those Flip Books? The last step is to mail them to the clients. However, they go all over the country so it makes postage a hassle. My supervisor told me to go to the Post Office, take the three boxes going furthest away and record the prices. Post Offices in Chicago are hard to find. I asked where it was and he said it was in the Thompson Building. I thought it had to be a big enough place that I could find it with no trouble. Wrong. I had to ask a lady on the street for help. Once I found the right place I attempted to use the revolving door but it wouldn't budge. The hours posted showed that it should be open. After standing there for a while it occurred to me that it was Veteran's Day. Dork stamp. (That was an accidental pun. Funny.) (2) My first office phone call. I was working on a project and my supervisor told me to call one of the part-time lady's o get some information. Sadly, I needed help figuring out how to dial outside the office. Don't judge, there's lots of buttons. The lady called me back and the receptionist (my super good friend, the receptionist) called me and transferred the call. I felt really important. (3) My supervisor reviewed one of my projects, more tedious formatting in Excel, and he told me it was excellent. That has to be the highest praise I've received so far. (4) My Practicum group ventured to Hyde Park for a neighborhood visit. We met with the pastor of Hyde Park Union Church. When we first got there the church doors were locked,  but there was an intercom and some buttons. Our leader wasn't there yet but our appointment time was looming so I plucked up the courage, pushed the button, and talked to someone in the office, who then buzzed us in. No big deal.

Happy 2: River North Dance Company. The Fine Art event tonight was classical dance, kind of like ballet. It was pretty enjoyable. The thirteen dancers were so talented; graceful and weightless. I'm glad it was only an hour long show; it was hard to focus during the large group dances because there was so much going on. My favorite performance was probably the solo dance that was accompanied by a sweet drum cadence. The performers are talented, dedicated, and ridiculously muscular. Overall, it was a good show. It inspired me to get buff and take dance classes just for fun. Yeah right.

Crappy: Kicked in the knee. After the Fine Art event we were waiting at a crosswalk. A cute little boy was standing in front of us, holding his mom's hand. He was probably three years old and bursting with energy, which came out in fits of giggles and lots of jumping. I was standing directly behind the tyke and he totally kicked me in the knee cap. It really hurt. Those light-up shoes did some damage; my pants got dirty and my knee hurt for two blocks. Geesh, kids these days. It's okay, I still like him. He's too cute to be mad at.

Day 73

Happy 1: My Metro class toured Bronzeville and learned about the history of the neighborhood. The teacher riding along to provide commentary had us stop at her favorite art gallery called Gallery Guichard. Normally, I don't particularly like modern art but this place was great. It was located in a three-story townhouse with a real homey feel and the art was incredible. My classmates flew through the gallery but I could have stayed for hours, which is saying something about the quality of the artwork. I love field trips.

Happy 2: Chicago Semester provided a free community dinner for all of the students. I expected pizza but we were served Pockets. What's a Pocket, you ask? According to the official website, "A pocket is a freshly-baked, multi-grain bread pulled right out of the oven, split open and stuffed with your choice of finely chopped greens, vegetables, cheeses and meats. Served with your favorite dressing on the side." We also had cookies and dessert bread with Nutella. So good. After a delicious supper, I attended an hour-long job workshop led by two CS staff members. They did a good job answering questions and I learned a lot.

Crappy: Class days are very long and tiring. It was not helped by the fact that I stayed up until 2am last night. Not a smart move on my part. Who needs to do homework, really?

Day 72

Tuesday, October 9
(It's after midnight, what can you do?)

Happy 1: The Flip Books. Today I spent a strong four hours on this project. Pick up forty-three page stack, put front cover on top, back cover on top of that, cut binding to size, put binding on, place booklet in binding machine, pull handle down, take out and inspect to make sure the binding is completely round and sufficiently closed, flip back cover over, leaf through book to make sure pages can flip freely, place on stack, repeat. I was nearly finished when I realized there weren't enough front covers. Uh oh. The only explanation is that there were duplicates on the ones already bound. So, I went through them and found eight that had two covers on them. Give me a break, they're clear plastic. I had to take the binding off, which was no easy task but I succeeded. Finished binding all eight books and thought I would take a break. I was wrong. Now I have to box them up. Okay, stick them in a big box and I'm done. Wrong again. Each book has to be placed in its own little box. Sigh. The process starts again. Take cardboard and fold along the correct parts to get the right size box, place one booklet inside, fold in the flaps, take packaging tape and securely and neatly close the box, place on stack, repeat. I got fifty boxes folded, filled, taped, and stacked, but time ran out before I could finish. Shucks. This is a happy because I thought my internship would be like this every day and it thankfully has not been. And it has given me a new appreciation for the work people do behind-the-scenes, without credit.

Happy 2: I was listening to my Golden Oldies station on Pandora and I caught myself singing all the lyrics to a song that came. I didn't know I knew it: Downtown. Join me as I take a stroll down memory lane. It's seventh grade mixed choir. We're singing an oldies medley; Downtown, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Breaking Up is Hard to Do, Going to the Chapel, All You Need is Love, A Teenager in Love. Why would these lyrics and song titles stick with me for after all these years? It's a gift.

Happy 3: Soul Man just came on! Blues Brothers, anyone?

Crappy: Still working on my Fine Arts paper. It's about Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This is an easy one, right up my alley. However, as it's past midnight and I'm still writing it, it's a slight struggle.

Day 71

Happy 1: I had a song stuck in my head all day. We sang it in church on Sunday and it's pretty wonderful. The song is I Just Want to Praise You and here is a great rendition of it for you to enjoy -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5TXbywAoCM.

Happy 2: Worked out, ate mashed potatoes, made depressingly long To Do list, watched political debate and laughed (such that my roommates thought I was watching a sitcom), cleaned out email inbox, watched show with roommates, enjoyed a bowl of ice cream, listened to Christmas music. Productive, yes. But my one goal for the evening was to write a three-page paper due Wednesday. I decided to take a leaf out of Scarlett O'Hara's book (pardon the pun) and "I'll think about that tomorrow."

Crappy: Flip Books. No, this is not the little books you make as a kid with a series of pictures that look like animation when you flip through it really fast. Nothing as fun as that. These flip books are for potential investors. It's a big project that I am so glad to be a part of. (In case you were wondering, that was written in sarcasm font.) We created the forty-five information sheets to go in each book, sent them out to get cut to size, brought them back to hole punch and bind. Lucky for me, I started working on the ridiculously time-consuming task of punching and binding this afternoon. Since the books are so thick, it takes four punches per book and there are about eighty books. Let's do the math, shall we? 80 x 4 = 320. That is the number of times I separated, aligned, punched, and stacked these little booklets. My arm hurts, and rightly so. Tomorrow I get to hole punch the front and back covers and then bind them all together. What fun awaits me! Be jealous.

Day 70

Happy 1: My roommates and I attended Urban Village Church this morning. The praise team was great. I could see the lead singer coming out with her own CD someday; the whole band was awesome. The church is very liberal; the motto on the front of the bulletin reads: "whoever you are - believer or doubter, gay or straight, Republican or Democrat, you are welcome here." Another indicator of their liberalness is on the getting-to-know-you paper where the options are: single or married / partnered. The pastor was very effeminate; he stood with his feet together and his hands on the small of his back. During the sermon he cursed and  used the Lord's name in vain. Both of which are not okay. While I didn't agree with everything the pastor said, there were some good things. He said that while people these days overuse PowerPoint (he called it death by PowerPoint), Jesus doesn't do that. Instead of filling a slide completely with text, He spoke through stories. These parables stop us in our tracks and stretch our imagination. We learn a lot more from that than we would if someone just said, "This is the answer." The pastor also talked about Jesus' focus on the small stuff. We, as Americans, like things to be big. The Gospel is pro-big as well, but it seems that Jesus focuses on the small stuff and turns it into big stuff. The next topic was about money. The pastor said that "Our giving doesn't change God, it changes us," which is totally true. Whew, that was a long message. I have learned that churches in Chicago are not concerned about the length of the service. Back home, if the service exceeded the allotted hour by even five minutes, the pastor got a talking to.

Happy 2: We had real food for supper tonight: homemade mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and chicken cordon bleu. Yum! I forgot what it's like to eat food other than macaroni or bologna and cheese sandwiches.

Crappy: I was under the weather most of the day (a nap and orange juice did wonders). Before church I took some DayQuil and it made me a little loopy. We were on an escalator and I tried to walk up the steps as it was moving (I do this every day). However, since I was drugged up, I got really dizzy-like and stumbled. Note to self: Drugs and escalators don't mix.

A joke for your amusement...
Question: What has four legs and goes, "Boo"?
Answer: A cow with a cold.

Day 69

Happy 1: Field trip! My Metro class and I went to Diwali, the Indian New Year celebration, held at Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. The whole experience was interesting. Our first stop was the "Shoe Station" where everyone had to remove their shoes and put them in a bag to be retrieved on our way out. The place was packed with a crazy amount of people; they told us that during the course of the day 25,000 people would be going through. Lucky for us, we had a tour guide. His name was Sitish (pronounced Sih-teesh), he spoke quietly but I learned a lot from what I could hear. The Mandir was beautiful and with incredibly intricate hand-carved wood and marble. Since everyone was sock-footed the marble floors were heated. Nice. Each year, the celebration has a theme and this year it was vegetarian(ism?). It's supposed to help you reflect and become inspired. Statues of their idol/god were everywhere and so were pictures of their spiritual leader/"inspirer." I was really uncomfortable and sad when I saw people bowing and praying to this non-god. On the way out, they gave us Indian sweets and a calendar with a picture of the inspirer. That's going up in the apartment, for sure.

Happy 2: My roommates finally returned from their travels to the Big Apple. While I enjoyed having the apartment to myself for a few days (in which time I cleaned the whole place, thank you very much), it is nice to have people to hang out with again.

Crappy: I never get sick. Never. However, I think I will be taking some NyQuil tonight...

Day 68

Happy 1: Mid-Point Evaluation. Today my Practicum Group Leader (PGL) came to MainStreet to meet with my supervisor and me. We talked about the internship: what I've been doing, how well I've been doing it, what I want to accomplish by the end of the semester. To be honest, I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. What if my performance is sub-par? I needn't have worried because my supervisor gave me an A- for an overall grade thus far. He's worked with six or seven other CS interns and he said that he rated me one of the highest. What do you know about that?

Happy 2: Worked late at the office because I just love it so much. For real. I got into the groove of things after four o'clock and didn't want to stop what I was working on. (I have to earn that A somehow.) On the way home I picked up some Garrett's Popcorn, the Chicago Mix. Then I turned on a movie and got to work; picked up the apartment, did laundry, did some paperwork. As you can tell, I went wild and crazy because it's my last night roommate-less.

Crappy: Okay, this kind of freaked me out. It was later in the evening and I was bumming around the apartment. I heard someone outside my door putting a key in the lock. I know it can't be my roommates because they're not getting back until tomorrow night. I stop what I'm doing and stare at the shadow of the person outside my door (actually it was shadows, plural, because I think there were two people). About thirty heart-pounding seconds went by and I heard the person try a different key. Why were these people trying to get in my apartment? Perhaps they were polluted. Perhaps they were confused. Whatever the reason, it sure got my attention. Good thing my dad provided me with Pepper Spray for just such an occasion. Thanks, Daddy! Oh, in case you're wondering, no one got in. They finally figured out they had the wrong door and left. Took 'em long enough.

Day 67

Happy 1: Morningstar Stock Forum. The forum was held downtown at the Palmer House Hilton. Since I arrived by myself, I had to find my own way around, which was confusing but I figured it out. There were seven forty-five minute sessions throughout the day in which the speaker, generally the CEO or CFO, would talk about the company: current position, past performance, future goals. I attended FedEx, Choice Hotels, General Mills, Boardwalk Pipeline, Strayer Education, Wipro, and General Electric; some of these presentations were better than others. The day was broken up by a catered lunch. I sat down to eat with my supervisor (he came later in the day) and was amazed to see six different utensils placed around my plate and a cloth napkin folded into a flower. On my plate was this strange lettuce sculpture. Upon further inspection it was lettuce decoratively placed inside a red cabbage shell. There were lots of interesting vegetables in the salad that I have no idea what they were; I tried really hard but didn't eat very much of it. At first I was really disappointed because I thought that was the meal. Boy, was I surprised when this old man whisked away my salad and replaced it with a yummy pasta dish. After that we ate a fruit cup dessert. The plate had a pretty design on it; but alas, it was no design, it was fancy frosting/sauce. In the afternoon there was snack time, too. There were huge yummy cookies, chips, pop, water, juice, basically anything you could ever want. I was going to grab a bottle of water but something caught my eye: La Croix Natural Berry Flavored Sparkling Water. How could I pass up something with the word 'sparkling' in its name? Sad to say, it tasted terrible. To be honest, I only took it because it looked super fancy. Funny story: Earlier in the day I was waiting for the next session to begin and was sitting in a comfy chair, or what rich people call comfy. This Indian guy asked me if there were any goodies in the Morningstar bag (every attendee got a bag with information packets in it). I told him there was a pen in my bag. He asked if it was nice. I told him it was pretty good. He said, "Let me see it." Alright, whatever floats your boat, buddy. So I whipped out the pen, he took it and turned his nose up at it. I said, "It's not good?" Apparently not. Come to find out, he was the CEO of one of the companies. Yeah, if I were a CEO I wouldn't be impressed by some free crappy pen, either.

Happy 2: Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We always get the cheapest tickets for Fine Art events. At the CSO, that means sitting at the very top of the concert hall in the nose bleed section. I could see the stage fine, it was minuscule, but I could see it. The seats were so straight up that I felt like I was falling forward which gave a whole new meaning to the phrase 'sitting on the edge of my seat.' All of the music was composed by Aaron Copland. The entire concert was phenomenal but my favorite song was Appalachian Spring, which is the piece I've been focusing on in my Art Encounter papers. The music was rich and beautiful and it sent chills down my spine and brought tears to my eyes. Yay for classical music.

Crappy: Given that I spent my day at the aforementioned activities, it was a long day of sitting and listening.

Day 66

Happy 1: One would assume that the classes at Chicago Semester would be easy. True, they are much less rigorous than college but they still call for some effort. At the beginning of the semester we were given the choice between three small-group leaders for the Fine Arts class. I chose the music guy and he ,of course, has the highest standards of the bunch. However, when I receive a good grade I know that it was deserved. Today was one of those days. On our weekly art reflections we are graded on three things and I received all check pluses. (I think that is equivalent to an A but there's no way to be sure; he gives checks, check pluses, and check minuses. So is a check minus a C? I hope not, because I've received a few of those.) We also got our Second Art Encounters back; mine was about Aaron Copland. The grade on the paper: A+. That's right, I'm pretty much a genius.

Happy 2: In Metro we watched snippets of "A Class Divided," the documentary about an Iowa teacher that taught her third grade class a lesson about discrimination. On the first day she made the blue-eyed students the superior race and on the second day she made the brown-eyed students superior. Since third graders are young and impressionable, they really got into it. One kid even punched his best friend in the stomach for calling him names at recess. The students learned that people are no better than others because of their eye color, or skin color, for that matter. I thought it was a great way to tackle the difficult issue of race. And the kids were super cute with their little horn-rimmed glasses.

Crappy: My roommates left me to go to New York until Saturday. They helped their college professor with a film project last year and that film is premiering in New York at a festival. Since they played large roles in the production, the college paid for their round-trip plane tickets. Fun for them. Lonely for me.

Day 65

Happy 1: Election Day! Republicans clenched the House majority but it looks like Democrats retained control of the Senate. Brandstad is projected to take the governorship from Culver but I hardly think that's an improvement. Exciting news just in: all three Iowa Supreme Court judges (the ones that overstepped their authority and made gay marriage permissible in this state) were voted out. Way to go, Iowa!

Happy 2: Today I finally finished a project I've been working on for weeks. It needn't have taken this long but I had to wait for my supervisor to teach me how to link certain cells. I am so glad to be done with it. I feel very accomplished now. Woot.

Crappy: My supervisor and I made plans to go to a stock forum all day on Thursday. However, our plans changed when my supervisor was told he needed to be at a meeting in the office Thursday morning. Now I have to check myself in and spend the first couple hours at the forum by myself. Granted, it was my choice to do it; I figured it would be a good learning experience for me. We shall see.

Day 64

Happy 1: So, I messed up today. It's a long story, so I'll try to keep it brief. I was working in Excel, linked a cell to a different spreadsheet, saved, and closed. In the meantime, someone deleted that specific piece of information that was linked and when I tried to open up my file it read: "Error. Unable to Load." Sweet. I started tweakin' out (a common phrase that I hear around the workplace) because I thought I had lost all of the data, about 300 cells worth of stuff that I didn't know if it was retrievable or not. Sick to my stomach with the thought of telling my supervisor what happened, I decided to figure it out for myself. Lucky for me, I had written down the changes I made, and was able to find the original file from six weeks ago in my desktop recycling bin. Whew! Catastrophe averted. It was without a doubt a God thing.

Happy 2: One of my co-workers is getting married this coming weekend. They put a card in a manila folder and passed it around for everyone to sign. It was kind of fun to be sneaky. Then, right before the end of the day, the boss called everyone in for a company meeting. It turned out to be a two-minute celebration / presentation of the card to the groom-to-be. He was completely caught off guard. It was slightly awkward. Fun times.

Crappy: I sat in on the Monday morning conference call as usual and this is what I heard at the start of the call. "Good morning. Like B Mac (a nickname for a guy in the office) would say, 'What up, Dawg?'" The guy on the other end answered, "What up, what up?" It's kind of like when my parents do the fist bump. It's just wrong. I mean, seriously, these guys are in their forties and fifties. Please stop. You are not cool. I repeat, you are not cool.

Day 63

Happy 1: At church today the pastor taught us a little about Halloween. Apparently, Christians wore masks to make fun of the evil spirits. And beggars would go door to door for treats and in exchange pray for the people within that home. Interesting, eh? I like that explanation of Halloween traditions.

Happy 2: Today was endless. Have you ever had one of those days that just goes and goes and never seems to come to an end? Yeah, today was one of those days. I got nearly all of my weekend To Do list done, went to church, took a nap, participated in Halloween festivities, and watched a movie. I love productive days.

Crappy: Some CSers and I partook in Chicago's Halloween celebration; we went to the North Halsted Street Halloween Parade at six o'clock. The girls looked it up online and thought it was for little kids. Uh, they were wrong; very, very wrong. It was essentially a costume parade for adults. What kind of costumes did they wear? It is safe to say that the majority of the males were dressed as females. And the females were dressed in little to nothing. Gross. Disturbing. Inappropriate. Disgusting. However, there was a cool float with fire-breathers and flame-throwers. A guy breathed fire right in front of us and I could actually feel the heat from the flame. Other than that, there was no entertainment. We were standing on the sidewalk to watch but we were smushed up next to the rows of people ahead and behind us. I was so close to throwing up my hands and leaving but I couldn't move. The parade was a bust, the costumes were appalling, I was tired of having some dude's witch hat and hair in my face, and claustrophobia was threatening to take over. Never, never again. We rode on the same train as Batman, Robin, a priest, and Freddy Krueger. It was scary because we were underground and the lights went out for at least ten seconds. When it's Halloween and Freddy is on your train you get a little freaked out. Good thing we had some super heroes to protect us. When we got back to the apartment, Rachel and I wanted to watch a scary movie/psychological thriller. This is generally not my style, but in the spirit of the holiday I thought I'd give it a try. We watched "Memento." The story line was intriguing and the filming was well done. But it was terrible. One of those movies that leaves you with a yucky feeling inside. There was also mega overuse of a certain curse word; it's one thing if it fits the character but in this movie it was definitely forced. Not a movie for the kiddies. (I read my Bible and listened to Christmas music because I was freaked out. God makes everything better!)  Halloween in Chicago...crappy.

Day 62

Happy 1: Little drummer boy. I heard the sound of drumsticks pounding on buckets in the distance. The music called to me and I was drawn to it. There was a black man with sweet hair, kind of longish and braided. And sitting next to him was this little tyke, probably six years old. So cute! They did this responsive playing where one would go and then the other would mimic. They also played together, and it wasn't super easy stuff. This little guy was really impressive. He even twirled his sticks and kept the beat. A crowd gathered to watch, mostly because of the kid. Everyone that passed by on the sidewalk had a huge grin on their face. To support the arts and encourage the duo, I gave them one dollar. Wow, I'm amazed at my own generosity.

Happy 2: Ferris Wheel + Fireworks + Navy Pier = Awesome! A group of girls and I went to Navy Pier to watch the nine o'clock fireworks and participate in the Halloween activities. Rachel and I spent six dollars just so we could ride on the gigantic ferris wheel. It was big and pretty with white lights. The view was spectacular, with the skyline and the lake, but it was a little scary too. I admit that there was a lot of nervous laughter that may or may not have been me. Give me a break, we were up high and it was windy. Just before we got to the bottom the fireworks started out on the water. It was absolutely worth the money.

Crappy: Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble right here at the CTA. Okay, not as catchy as The Music Man but I tried. Rachel and I were on our way back from the Children's Film Festival that Kristin (my other roommate) has been working on at her internship. Since she's on the staff, we were put on the VIP list. That's right, I'm a very important person. Anyway, on the way back to the apartment, my U-Pass didn't work at the train station (which is really unhandy because I use that pass at least twice a day and usually more). So I talked to the CTA lady and she slid her magic card through for me. In the meantime, she saw Rachel with her fancy video camera. She wagged her finger and said, "Uh-uh, gurl you can't be bringin' that up in here. Mmm, you could get in big trouble for that and get sent off to jail. What you need to do is go to such-and-such a street and axe the one department, no I think it's the other department, no it's that one. Yeah, go there and axe for permission and they'll give you a badge that you just wear and nobody will give you no trouble." It went on in this fashion for a good five minutes. Rachel and I got the point after about thirty seconds. Good thing Rachel already got the footage she needed. The lady meant well but she was sure long-winded.

Day 61

Happy 1: Prepare yourself, here comes Excel nerdiness at its best. Today I put the final touches on the Excel project that I've spent at least twelve hours working on. At the bottom of the page I was supposed to have the page number and date and some other information. The date had to be linked to the front page so that everything would automatically update. My supervisor told me there was a way to put text and a formula in the same cell. He was going to show me but I preferred to learn by trial and error. Here's the final product. ="[MainStreet Advisors Tactical Asset Allocation Portfolios - "&TEXT (Cover!Q38, "mmmm yyyy") &"     " & "page 3]". This super sweet formula produced this: [MainStreet Advisors Tactical Asset Allocation Portfolios - November 2010     page 3]. It took me a long time to figure out the whole ampersand thing, but now I'm a heck of a lot smarter.

Happy 2: I succeeded in annoying the receptionist again today. If this were a contest, I'd be winning. She doesn't like me and the feeling is mutual. Since she "talked" to me a while back about not being in the little conference room when she needed it during lunch, I have tried to take my break at roughly the same time every day. More for my convenience than for hers. If I wait until she goes, then it's a whole hour before I can take mine. While she's running around the office filing things, I go on break. That way there's no way she can say I went in the room when she needed it. About 30 minutes later she opened the door and said, "Do you mind if I eat lunch in here?" I said, "No problem!" and I moved my things over to one half of the table. She left to go get water or something and didn't even close the door on her way out. When she returned she closed the door loudly, almost sat down, sighed, and left the room in a huff. Whatever. I think she thought I would let her have the room all to herself. Like that would happen. One, I was there first. Two, the large conference room was available. Three, see reason number one. I continued doing my Bible study and smiled to myself as I heard her throw her things on her desk and sigh every two seconds. Ah, the pleasures of thoroughly annoying the people you don't like. This shouldn't be in the "happy" section, but this is my blog and I can do what I want. Don't judge.

Crappy: Several of my co-workers acted like middle schoolers today. They like to nit-pick at everything this one girl does. Yes, she's not a particularly good worker, but that doesn't mean people should talk about her behind her back every time she's out of earshot. So, I was packing up my stuff to leave for the day. They were talking and I'd had it up to here (I'm gesturing at the forehead/eyebrow region) so I decided to say something. I said my piece, but I don't think most of the people got my point. One lady said, "Yeah, it makes you wonder what it takes to get fired." Well, yes, but that was not what I was talking about. Whatever. The main culprits just kind of looked at me. One guy said, "Let's talk about such-and-such." He's obviously not one for confrontation. Then the other guy that is in my work space said with a mischievous grin, "Join our side." The whole situation was pretty awkward. I'm glad I did it because it's been on my mind for a long time. Don't get me wrong, my co-workers are great but they can be not nice sometimes. Unfortunately, it was my job to bring it to their attention (in a nice way).

Not Necessarily Happy, Not Crappy, Just an Experience Worth Mentioning: My roommate, a fellow CSer, and I went to Chinatown after work. We wandered around and saw the Nine Dragon Wall and a pretty courtyard with stone zodiacs. For supper we ate at this legitimate Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant. There were hundreds of entrees and beverages on the menu, and that is not an exaggeration. We each ordered an appetizer and shared (I ordered crab rangoon, of course). The wait staff was on top of things because they filled our water glasses after each sip. That may or may not be an exaggeration. In any case, it was much too frequent for my liking. Do you want me to fill up on water or your food that I actually have to pay for? Some people next to us ordered fish that still had a tail and a head and bulging eyes. Nasty! That is a little too authentic for me. After supper we stopped at a Chinese grocery store. The smells were overpowering, mainly the meat. I walked down the meat aisle and nearly lost my supper. The meat was out there for everyone to see; there were turtles in a bucket and clams and other squiggly things in see-through containers. It didn't help that the aisles were narrow and there were lots of people walking around. I prefer Fareway any day. On the way back to the apartment, we met a huge group of bicyclists, we're talking hundreds. These were no ordinary bicyclists, they were all decked out in Halloween costumes. One guy rode by and waved at us and then continued to stare at us even after he went past. I feared for his safety. Keep your eyes on the rode, buddy.

Day 60

Happy 1: The Chocolate Milk Diet. Here's what happened. This guy in my office, "John," is rather rotund. Every day his wife packs him a healthy lunch. And every day he eats it and then goes out to get some non-healthy food. Today, another guy in the office, "Mike," found some papers on the printer. He flipped through them and said disbelievingly, "Who printed off the Chocolate Milk Diet?" There are two girls in the office who always talk about their weight and dieting, but it did not belong to them. So, we're all speculating and wondering who the heck it printed it off. Then "John" comes out of his office and said, "What are you doing with that? That's not for your eyes." And he snatched the papers out of "Mike's" hands. The office roared with laughter. It was extra funny because it was from Women'sHealth.org. A little later, while "John" was out of his office, my co-workers went to town. They went to the store and bought a jug of chocolate milk and placed it on his desk, printed off a picture of a glass of chocolate milk and taped it to his office door, and changed the background on his computer to chocolate milk. They're pretty hard core when it comes to making fun of people. I really enjoy good natured teasing.

Happy 2: I got together with my supervisor and my "second" supervisor to discuss the projects I've been working on. No pressure. I was pretty nervous because a lot of the stuff they have me do just runs together; it's all so similar to me. My biggest project is the SRI (socially responsible investment) research I've been working on for several weeks, pretty much since I started. I didn't know if it was what they wanted, if it would be useful to them, or if I displayed the information in an easy-to-read fashion. When I pulled up the file, they scrolled through it and told me it was exactly what they were looking for and that it would help them decide in which funds to invest. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Good jerb, home slice.

Crappy: More office stories. Remember me talking about good natured teasing? This isn't it. There is one employee that no one particularly likes. She has been known to play Internet games and watch movies at work, while she's on the clock. This is an actual employee, keep in mind, not just an intern. (Not that I would do that). Apparently, she did something really silly yesterday and one of the guys reenacted it for the enjoyment of practically everyone in the office. Come to find out, we thought she was at lunch but she was in an office ten feet away. I don't think she heard or realized what was going on in her absence, but that shouldn't matter. What is this, middle school? I don't laugh at their comments, and I try to stick up for her and give her the benefit of the doubt on most things, but nobody has any of that. Yes, I admit that playing games and watching movies while you're on the clock is unacceptable; someone needs to bring that to her attention. Doing something not so intelligent at work or talking ridiculously loud (which she does), not such a big deal. Leave the poor girl alone.

Day 59

Happy 1: Today in my diversity class we watched a documentary about black migration in Chicago. "Promised Land" was really interesting and I especially liked it because it was narrated by Morgan Freeman. Class was made even better when the professor let us out thirty minutes early.

Happy 2: Two words - Lion King. Chicago Semester treated us to a Broadway showing of the Lion King. Well, they bought the tickets with the leftover money from my Fine Arts fee from the beginning of the semester. So technically, I paid for the ticket myself. They were $25, which is not much at all for Broadway. As you could probably guess, we were in the nose bleed section. It was still amazing. I sat on the edge of my seat because I was so enthralled...and because that was the only way I could see the whole stage. The opening scene, "The Circle of Life," was impeccable. It nearly brought tears to my eyes. Seriously. Words can't describe how great this show was. I saw it at the Civic Center in high school and seeing it a second time did not disappoint. One of my favorite scenes was after Simba and Nala ventured into the elephant graveyard against orders. Mufasa and Simba were out in the field and Mufasa took off his "king" hat and laid his "weapons" on the ground. This is really symbolic of him stepping out of his role as king of Pride Rock and stepping into the role of Simba's dad. Then he sings "He Lives in You," referring to the past kings. But I took it to mean God. Nice connection, huh? Boy, I'm getting good at this analysis stuff.

Crappy: The people at Chicago Semester told us they would provide bread and peanut butter and jelly for us to make sandwiches on class days. Well, that is a bunch of lies. The last two weeks there has been no bread. What is that? I count on that free food. I think I'm paying enough for them to provide one PB&J a week.

Day 58

Tuesday, October 26

Happy 1: Fire Drill at the office. The lights flashed and a voice from above told us to evacuate to the 33^rd floor. Once we arrived (we meaning the people from the top five floors), the fire marshal said, “This is not the magic floor you go to in an emergency.” No, really? He also mentioned that Floor 37, which may or may not be my floor, needed to drop everything and listen to instructions. Did we just get reprimanded? I think so.

Happy 2: This week's art event was at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Similar to other abstract and contemporary art events, I was not impressed. However, on our way out we stopped at the gift shop to look around. What did I find? The amazing 2-Carat Cup. This is no ordinary mug, oh no. The handle is really an over-sized ring. When you grab the mug, one finger slips into the handle and it looks like you're wearing this gigantic diamond ring. It's pretty sweet. Why not look classy when you're drinking your steaming mug of hot chocolate?

Crappy: Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day. I like rain, but in the city it is not so fun. Sure, I had an umbrella, but umbrellas don’t protect your feet. My nice dress shoes sloshed with water the whole way to work and my pants were wet up to the knee. Well, almost. No matter, it was a pretty yucky morning. Keeping in mind that I have to ride the train with other wet, umbrella-carrying individuals. So much for calling Chicago the windy city.

Day 57

Monday, October 25

Happy 1: More. Cupcakes, that is. More is the name of a business that only makes cupcakes. Apparently, they have a truck now, kind of like an ice cream truck, only it’s for cupcakes. To celebrate, More was giving out free cupcakes to the people following them on Twitter. I do not, nor have I ever, nor will I ever, Tweet but my roommates do/have/continue to do so. They found the location of the truck, right in the Gold Coast, and we waited in line to get a cupcake. I got a red velvet one because I’ve never had that kind of cake before. It was beautiful and ginormous, and scrumptious.

Happy 2: My roommates and I have been bonding over the show Prison Break. It’s pretty fantastic. Violent and conspiratorial and kind of evil, but fantastic. My favorite character is this guy that plays, as in manipulates, everyone; he has at least three names. He’s really a bad guy but I can’t help but be impressed with his talent.

Crappy: Little did I know, my supervisor and my second supervisor were out of the office today. They did not leave me any projects to work on. I was bored out of my mind. Sure, there is this one long, never-ending, tedious project for me, but I can only work on that for so long.

Day 56

Sunday, October 24

Happy 1: I slept in this morning. My brother was sick and my sister-in-law was under the weather a bit, so we didn’t go to church. Generally, this would not be acceptable, but legitimate illness is allowed. Sometimes. I got up around 8:30am, showered, and worked on the homework I couldn’t do on the bus. It made me feel much better about life. That would be the "getting some homework" done, not the "skipping church" part.

Happy 2: I watched the Bears game on a…wait for it…a television. We don’t have a TV in the apartment, so my football viewing has been limited to watching the plays and descriptions on NFL.com. It’s so much better to watch it like a normal person. The outcome of the game wasn’t good, but it was nice to see the action.

Happy 3: Can’t forget to mention Baby Time. Since I was the only one at Travis and Brandi’s house today, I was allowed to be a baby hog. Braiden is so cute and such a happy baby. Yay for aunthood-dom.

Crappy: After spending the weekend with family, I was not ready to go back to Chicago. It was so refreshing to see cornfields and tractors and the sky and open spaces. I was definitely a little sick to my stomach with the thought of leaving Iowa and returning to the craziness of the city. However, my mom gave me the Our Iowa magazine. On the bus I leafed through it and found articles about my hometown (who would have thought), and businesses and people in the surrounding area that I actually know. It was a pretty sweet taste of home to take back with me.

Day 55

Saturday, October 23

Happy 1: My mom, dad, grandma, aunt, and two younger cousins came to my brother’s house for the day. The men folk (Travis, Dad, and Braiden) stayed at home while the women folk went shopping in Des Moines. First, we went to the China Moon for lunch and then we hit the town. I didn’t have a list but I did spend some money on a necessary pair of jeans and a purse. Not my favorite thing to do, but spending money is a necessary evil in life. On our girls’ day out we also stopped at Krispy Kreme to buy some doughnuts. My drug of choice: glazed with white frosting and sprinkles.

Happy 2: After we got back from our adventure, Travis served the crowd homemade chili and cheesecake. Yum. I love home cooked food. It tends to be lacking in Chicago, specifically in my apartment. Which may or may not be due to my cheapiosity.

Crappy: Can anything be crappy on a day like this? I think not.

Day 54

Friday, October 22

Happy 1: My Practicum Group went on a neighborhood visit to Hyde Park; another beautiful day for a walking tour. One of our stops was at the University of Chicago where we observed the pristine architecture of the buildings and the layout of the campus grounds. We used the student center as a place to talk about our internships and whatnot. It was ridiculous; huge portraits hung on the wall, a fireplace warmed the middle of the room, and chandeliers decorated the high ceiling. This is nerdy but true - my initial reaction was, “I feel like I’m stepping into Hogwarts!” (for those of you who unfortunately don’t know, Hogwarts is the school in Harry Potter).

Happy 2: I went to work in the afternoon but then left early to catch the MegaBus at 5pm. I was nervous about the ticket process because they only required you to have your reservation number, in any form. Some people had it written on a scrap of paper, others were folded up and stuffed in their back pants pocket, and mine was neatly folded and highlighted. When the time came, a MegaBus employee came down the jagged, scattered line (if you can call it that) and checked off the reservation numbers on a list. Once you were approved he gave you a rectangular piece of red construction paper. That was my ticket to get on the bus, a red piece of paper. Well, whatever you need to do to get the cheapest bus fare. We loaded the bus and headed to Iowa thirty minutes behind schedule. A guy named Chris sat next to me and asked, “Is it okay if I talk to you? Tell me if it's not.” Well, that was nice. We ended up talking, mostly him, the whole six-hour trip. It passed the time.

Crappy: Speaking of the bus trip, I had planned on doing my huge stack of homework on the trip home so I wouldn’t have to think about it over the weekend. However, the reading lights above my seat and the seat next to me did not work. Really? Of all the seats on the bus I had to sit in the one with no lights. It’s really too bad it gets dark so early these days.