Peters Digest

If you live in Chicago, avoid the USPS office at 211 S. Clark at all cost!  It took me three tries to get my package and A LOT of patience.  I mean A LOT.  I am normally very nice and polite but I was so close to being a raging lunatic today it was scary.

First off, they don’t make the certified mail pickups very clear.  Then they send you to three different offices/people all finally leading you to the same bitchy supervisor you talked to the first time you tried to pick up the package.  I forced myself to be nice to this woman who blatenly ignored me and acted like Iwas insanely rude by imposing on her oh-so-important computer time.  She instructed me to go back to the same empty office I just visited.  I politely said that there was no one in that office and that I really needed help.  She looked at her watch and said, “No, there is someone there.” Umm…I was just there and I didn’t see anyone.  “Well, knock (on the huge metal barricade) until someone comes.”  Seriously?  I stormed off in my oh-my-god-I-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face walk and went back to the same office.  As I walked in an employee strolled in taking her sweet time.

I watched her tell a man he couldn’t pick up his wife’s package, even though he and she signed all the proper papers…apparently his wife forgot to print his name somewhere.  I was in a fighting mood so it was a good thing she found my package within an expected amount of time and handed it over.

All that AND I had to pay to park after driving around for 30 minutes in the Loop at lunchtime.  Never again.

Let me recap my day for you.

7:00 Wake up and get ready

8:45 Get call from slightly annoying co-worker who is training the intern that I was told I was going to train…she called to tell me something even more annoying.

9:00 Dr. Appointment- last vaccine in a series of three…hurt like a biatch!  To make up for the pain they didn’t charge me for it!  There must be some new policy because I know I haven’t reached my full deductible this year…to make it even better they didn’t even charge me a copay!  Genius.

9:10 Leave for work appointment…I drove to Bolingbrook and 3/4 of the way there I remembered my appointment was actually in Carol Stream…the complete opposite side of the Chicago suburbs.  Good thing I left early and had plenty of time to spare.  Then I drove most of the way to Carol Stream and realized I went the wrong way and had to drive backwards about 10 miles.  Genius.

10:30 Arrive at appointment and call boss.  Get informed that the promotion I have been patiently waiting on (for almost 6 months) is close but will still be a while since our HR lady just left.

11:00-12:00 Had a genius sales call

12:00 Started waiting for next sales call-she was supposed to show up at 12:00

1:00 Left after waiting an hour- I later found out the lady I was waiting on decided not to come to work.  My waiting wasn’t in vain because I spent the hour picking out everything I want in our new kitchen and had a drawing made up.  I learned it will cost about triple what we thought.

Drive home

Check bank account…Stimulus Package has arrived!!!

Check mail and find out our Chicago parking pass is up for renewal and the massive check we have been waiting on has arrived and is sitting at the post office.   Decide to take care of both right away.

Wait for the bus for 20 min, get off at the wrong stop, walk forever to City Hall to find out the parking passes aren’t available until June 1.  Walk to the Post Office to find out I showed up too early for the package.  I begged her to check…just in case…and she flat out refused.

Get back on bus…realize the bus doesn’t stop at our usual stop since it is an express…walk home. 

I just realized I have a mad blister too!

What a Friday!  At least I am $600 richer.

Pictures of our potential-I-hope-it-all-works-out new place.

Six months from today I will be walking down the aisle and saying “I do!”  You know what that means…skinny time!  It’s time to start working out more consistantly and to start thinking about eating a little healthier.  No worries, I won’t go overboard, since I admit to having a huge sweet tooth and can’t pass up an Oreo to save my life.  Ben and I signed up for one of Chicago’s many half marathons to get us motivated.

I am proud to report that most of our planning is done minus the small details.  The majority of the planning has been fairly painless but not without it’s ridiculous tiffs.  Our biggest argument has been over dessert.  Our mom’s wanted to spends thousands of dollars on dessert and Ben and I were the ones that had to put our foot down.  After weeks are arguing we finally came to an agreement and we won!

The next battle is the after wedding brunch.  Any ideas how to plan a brunch for a couple who has 5 separate sets parents and a huge out-of-town family?  We want to scratch the whole thing but a couple of the parents keep insisting on doing something.  I almost guarentee the day after our wedding Ben and I will be doing a tour of the suburbs visiting our various sets of parents, which is by far the last thing we want to do.

Monday night was a normal evening in our household.  We had dinner, cleaned up, and both went to our respective computers for a little email time.  The minute I sat down at my desk I hear Ben say “Honey! The Hills is on!!”  Yes, we watch The Hills on a normal basis.  It is one of our weekly staples.  Most people would think he was telling me about the show because I wanted to watch it, but no, it’s because it’s one of his favs.  He gets much more excited about The Hills than a Cubs game. 

As we were watching the show I mentioned how Whitney hasn’t been on lately.  Ben disagreed with me and a small discussion ensued.  Ben then says, in a very I-know-more-than-you way, “you seriously haven’t seen this show in a while.” Clearly telling me I don’t know anything about the show.  Take a minute and picture this situation.  Go ahead, do it.  Do you see it?  Ben, a 26 year-old male, who spends everyday trying to find the cure for lung cancer and likes to play poker and drink beer with his friends was criticizing me, a 26 year-old female who is into pretty much anything girly.  He instantly realized what he said and immediately started cracking up.

That’s right ladies, my man knows way more about Lauren, Lo, Whitney, and Audrina than most females, and is proud of it!  Don’t mess with him when it comes to the shows plot…he’ll romp you.

He’s also a major fan of The Real World, The Gauntlet, and pretty much any other reality MTV show.

He’s mine, all mine!  Hands off.

After a week of haggling over the price of our potential new condo we have come to an agreement.  I’ve signed my life away and they are starting to take my money, so I assume that is a pretty good sign the place is ours, right?

I know I am supposed to be excited about all this, and I am, it’s just a little scary at the same time.  Last night, Charlie and I walked past the building and I started having major buyers remorse.  What if only old people live in the building?  Don’t get me wrong, I love old people but we are hoping to meet some younger folks to hang out with.  What if they have really stringent rules, like not being able to vacuum after 10pm?  What if Charlie isn’t openly accepted like he is in our current building?  What if it wasn’t the best financial decision?  We really wanted a balcony and won’t have one, will that be OK?  And so on, and so on…

Then Charlie and I got back after our long walk and I am reminded of all the reasons why we want to move.  Independence from our parents (Ben’s parents own our current place).  We want a place to call our own.  We need to make the investment sometime, so why not now.  We can hear everything our neighbors do, everything.  The nightly string of freight trains and the screeching Amtrak totally impedes my Sunday night TV watching ability.  And most of all, we will finally have an elevator that works!  The elevator was broken last night, just in time for me to be hauling up a load from Costco-including 2 gallons of milk and a massive dog bed.

I am sure it will be great.  Hopefully around 6.15 I will be reporting that we are officially homeowners.

Here is the place.

A couple weeks ago I got an email from my BFF, Charlotte, asking if Ben and I would like to join her and her husband camping and rock climbing in southern Illinois.  We didn’t really think about the camping side of it, rather, it was an opportunity to see them so we immediately said yes.  They live in Boston so we don’t get to see them very often.

If you know me well, you know that the thought of bugs, dirt, mud, no showers, and going to the bathroom in the woods is not something I cherish but, like I said before, it was an opportunity to see Mike and Char and we weren’t about to pass that up.  We are also always up for trying something new and love adventures so we were excited.

We quickly realized we have NOTHING when it comes to camping gear or rock climbing equipment.  We’ve done both before but have always mooched off of people… so why not continue to mooch.  I called up my wild wilderness dad and asked if we could raid his stash.  He frequents Alaska for hunting trips so I knew he would have some pretty hardcore stuff.  He gave us a tent (an awesome tent), sleeping bags, thermarests, campfire gear, camo leatherman tool, and a slew of other exciting things. 

We then realized we needed rock climbing gear since the last time we tried to mooch that we ended up completelty obliterating a pair of rock climbing shoes.  Ben and I went on the search for the cheapest pair of rock climbing shoes in history.  In the process of buying Ben’s shoes we met one of Charlotte and Mike’s climbing friends who would be joining us on the trip.  He actually sold us the shoes.  Did I mention that Char and Mike live in Boston and we are in Chicago?  Random.

Anyway, we had our gear and were mentally prepared and ready to go.  Then I got the call from Charlotte telling me the hellish travel issues they had getting to Chicago.  We were suppose to arrive in SoIL early am on Saturday but didn’t actually get there until 4pm (it’s a 5-6 hour drive for us).

Upon arrival, we immedialty jumped out of the car and found the nearest rock to climb.  Ben and I have climbed exactly 4 times in our life and we were with a group who do it pretty much 4 times a week…we were pretty funny looking.

Anyway here are some highlights from the trip:

I never knew there was such beautiful scenery in southern IL!  I felt like I was in a mysterious lost wilderness somewhere and couldn’t possibly be in the land of flat lands and corn fields.

Charlie went with us and was the happiest dog in the world.  We almost lost him in a waterfall, though…my heart stopped as I saw him sliding on the water soaked rocks about 5 feet from a 20ft drop off…all I could do was scream BEN!! BEN!!  Charlie was able to get a grip and saved himself.  Both Ben and I were ready to plow into the water and over the cliff to save him.

We set up camp in the pitch dark.  Ben is quite the tent-putter-upper.  He managed to do it by himself without one of the fancy headlights that everyone else had.  Charlotte failed to add it to our list of things to bring and to mention that to be a cool camper you need a head lamp.  We survived with our MagLight and mini LED flashlight.

I succeeded in achieving one of my main goals in life, which is to eat s’mores each and every time I am near a campfire.

I managed to get up a MASSIVE wall with the assistance of Benjamin.  It was the hardest thing I have ever climbed but it was pretty amazing.  I fell a few times so I definitley didn’t master it but I made it to the top.  Charlotte did it after me and said it was really hard, which made me feel great.  It didn’t change the fact that my forearms were throbbing for the next couple day, though.

Ben found his traditional Man-Stick.

We slept in a tent and survived.  I still had myself freaked out pretty much the entire night, though.  At one point I thought we were going to be run over by a car.  Then there was a wild animal sniffing the perimeter of our tent, which I later found out was a dog.  My feet almost froze off but thanks to Charlie laying on top of me the majority of the night I stayed warm enough.  I also managed to have myself convinced that I was covered in ticks and would probably die of Lyme disease soon.

We pulled 5 ticks off of Charlie on the ride home and three once we got home…we also pulled three off of me!  Eww!

We saw some of the most amazing stars I have ever seen in my life.

And finally, we got to spend some quality time with some of our best friends who always manage to take us on our favorite adventures.

A man, his dog, and his Man-Stick 

Spider Lady: That’s me!

The land of corn fields?

A happy, happy Charles

The End.

So it has been a while.  I can really only blame it on the fact that I haven’t sustained my normal level of boredom.  The last couple weeks have been crazy with travel and much of my spare time is taken up with looking for a new place to live. 

About a year and a half ago, Ben and I decided to buy a pre-construction condo in Printers Row.  Good investment decision right?  Wrong.  About the second the ink dried on my signature the real estate market crashed as did much of the economy.  I was pretty much freaking out from then on out.  I also was flipping out about the fact that somehow I needed to come up with a massive down payment and still live in one of the more expensive cities in the country.  Oh yeah, and get married.  I was basically a stress case and it wasn’t fun.

Also, through the whole process of securing a mortgage we decided that we may have bitten off more than we can chew.  We could afford the place but we would have eaten ramen every night so we could still go out once in a while.  Not our idea of fun.  Note to future pre-construction homeowners…be sure you include taxes and property insurance in overall monthly payments…no one told us about that stuff.

Anyway, last Monday I got a call from our developer saying that due to some recent financial trouble, the building will no longer be sold as condos but as rental apartments.  Meaning, we are out of the contract AND we are getting all our money back, plus interest.  Hallelujah!  Best day ever.

Now, Ben and I are on a mad search for a new, much cheaper place.  Thankfully, like the rest of the US, the Chicago real estate market has tanked and we can afford much more in a condo than we could a year and a half ago.  Thank goodness we are just buying a place and not selling one.

Now, all we do is look on the MLS, search random websites for pricing information, talk about a certain place we found, how much it would cost to fix it up, what to update, what not to update, about looking at other places, about looking into looking at other places, comparing other places to the one we found, about whether or not we should we make an offer, and my favorite, discussing why don’t we talk more about the place we’ve already talked to death.  Apparently, I am not talking about this enough and Ben is calling me out on it.  Mr. Talkative, welcome to my world :) 

Good times.

I made a quick trip to Nashville this week and am currently sitting in the airport waiting for my flight.

I took a quick survey of the waiting room and this is what I see:

A lady sitting across from me holding her purse.  The purse is a lovely black nylon with red crosses and pictures of praying hands all over it…ALL OVER IT.  Pretty.

A man to my left reading ”Four Wheelers” the magazine. 

An older gentleman wearing his WW II veteran hat and an American flag belt (he’s quite cute).

And to top it off…a man just handed me a sticker with an American Flag on it.  As he handed it to me he said, “God Bless America.”

Gotta love airports.

The alarm went off at 4:07am this morning and somehow I was able to convince myself that it was a fluke and that I didn’t actually need to get up.  I did this until 4:32am when I realized, Oh S%$#! I do need to get up, I have to travel this morning!  I skipped the shower (I showered last night) woke Ben up and we booked it to the airport.

After a record breaking trip I managed to jinx us by saying “wow, that was fast!” and then the traffic hit.  I managed to get into the airport on time, I checked my bags and then got in line for the Premier security line.  I had to stand there and wait for about 10 men to go in front of me because no one would let me through.  I had the pleasure of watching as half of them got rejected from the special person line.  That’s what they get for being rude to a lady!

I looked to my left and reminded myself that…Oh! That’s the Corner Bakery that was robbed this weekend!

I then went through security and continued my weekly thoughts on why it takes men so long to to get through the line.  They aren’t supposed to be the prissy ones…I am (or at least my gender is).  Seriously, most men I see take 3 bins plus their carry on plus their computer case.  I take two and get through in about .3 seconds.  It’s quite funny to watch them with all their plastic bags and toiletries all while still trying to look manly.

Then I walked the 12 miles to the F Concourse…F12 to be exact…the farthest possible gate, which can only mean I will be on an itty bitty plane today.  I sit down next to a lady who is easily taking up three seats.  She turns to me and says, “What time is it?” Not, “Excuse me” or “Do you have the time” just a blunt “What time is it?”  I fish out my phone and tell her it is 6:07am and hear “Guhhhh, uh! almost there!”  What?  Then she says, ”Now I know why I never travel.”  Right lady, because YOU had to wake up early and YOU have to sit in an airport, you have it so much worse than the rest of us.  I wanted to tell her that she sounds like a fool for telling me that because she has to wake up early it is reason enough not to travel.  Have fun in podunk USA for the rest of your life.  Okay that was mean but it’s early.

Then she started rocking out to her pink Shuffle with matching pink ear phones.  She is also wearing pink pajamas and is probably close to 40.

Now I am on the itty bitty plane next to a not so itty bitty person.  At least it isn’t Mr. BO that was next to me in the boarding line.  Good thing it’s early and I am going to pass out.