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.