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HA! So, I was checking my email today, and once a week I get these hilarious emails from despair.com.
It's a "Demotivation" site that sells crazy posters and stuff. These are my favorites, but there's a huge amount of them on their site. Check it out...they are ridiculous funny.
Moving on...
Pitchfork Music festival is this weekend - so excited! It's completely sold out, so it's sure to be a packed place. At least the weather will be nice this time. Last year it was in the upper 90's and even into the low 100's! Friday night is supposed to be in the low 70's to upper 60's. The rest of the weekend is low eighties! Woo Hoo!
Friday night is going to be amazing - Sonic Youth, one of the innovators of modern alt. rock is performing their breakout record in it's entirety. Very cool. The rest of the weekend should be pretty cool too.
Check it out at:
www.pitchforkmusicfestival.com
That's it for today. Hope you enjoy the funny ha ha's ;o) I always do.
Howdy again!
Phew...I don't know about the rest of you, but it's roasty-toasty here in Chicago! AND, since we don't have the luxury of AC (you think we would, based on the rent we pay), we're stuck toughing it out in the heat. Even the dog is panting - that's when you know it's bad. Our dog who, based on the hair I sweep up on a daily basis, should be bald. Our dog who, when it gets into the 40's, starts to shiver. Our dog who, when it get really cold outside, likes to cuddle up with a heating pad. She likes it warm like her mommy. SO, when the DOG starts to pant and I say "It's too hot", you KNOW it's hot!
SO...we had a nice Saturday here. We drove down to Southwest Chicago (not too far into the ghetto) to visit a Polish store/restaurant called Bobak's. We'd seen it on the Food Channel once a long time ago and always thought it would be cool to go there. So...since we live here now, we thought we should visit. We ate at the restaurant first, which had SO much food. My favorite were their mashed potatoes - they had dill in them. How YUMMY! They also had "Pigs in a blanket" - not what you are thinking, though. It's boiled cabbage stuffed with meat and rice covered in tomato sauce and baked. They were OK, but stuffed with pork. Marcia's (Kurt's mom's) are FAR superior. They are stuffed with beef and the sauce is much better. I'm going to try making them sometime, but they are a day-long process. Anyways, all of the other food was really good, too. And at the end we had a little square of cheesecake. Again, not the kind that we are all used to. But it's a kind that Kurt's Gramma Piotrowski used to make. Now Marcia makes it, and it's pretty good too. Something I didn't try, but found amusing, was their polish hot dog on a stick wrapped with bacon. Sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen!
After we ate lunch and were thoroughly stuffed, we ventured into the store. SO many things were in polish, but of course they had the english as well. We saw something (and I can't remember what it was ) that was called bogaty smack. I'm sure it's pronounced very differently than what I'm saying in my head, but I enjoyed the laugh. They even had the "angel wing" pastries and paczki's (pronounced "punchky"). We're planning to go back because it was so good, but maybe not on a 90 degree day ;o)
Funny thing to add...it took us a little over 40 minutes to get there...and only 20 minutes to get back. Gotta love big city traffic. BUT, either way, that was a pretty short trip considering it took us 1.5 hours to get back from IKEA in the NW suburbs - in a normal city it would have taken us 20. C'est la vie!
Anyways we got back and went to a TWO STORY Target - happiest woman alive, I was ;o) We found out that we need a third big bookshelf because we have TOOOO many books. I've been sorting them for the past two days. We have so many history/non-fiction books, we could open our own bookstore! (Something I think Kurt would like to do someday). Anywho...we didn't find the one that we liked, it was out of stock. So we came back and chilled. Of course that's a figure of speech.
There was a music festival goin' on just a block away, so we checked that out. It was pretty boring, so we left and walked around for a while. We ended up eating at a southern inspired restaurant called Wishbone. There, I had the most amazing drink experience of my life. Now...you're going to cringe a little when you hear it, but it's fabulous. Cucumber Lemonade. That's right. Cucumber Lemonade. It's AMAZING! Luckily, the place is on the way to the closest el stop, so you can bet that I'll be stopping by for a glass on the go! YUM! I need to figure out how to make it myself ;o)
OK...now that I've written a novel about the most mundane of things, I should cut it off. Time to put some more books away.
PS - just saw the Police on Live Earth - they're still pretty good for a bunch of old farts ;o) JK...I know they're not THAT old.
Hello!
Well...I'm ALMOST finished unpacking. Had more issues with Comcast, so I've been dealing with those.
NOW that our internet is back up, I took a little time to set up a MOG account.
http://mog.com/Musicbizgirl
Hope that works...
MOG is a pretty cool site - it's like having a blog, but it's ALL about music - very cool ;o)
Check it out sometime....
Kurt's first day of work was yesterday! He was somewhat nervous, but not as much as I thought he would be. I decided to ride down on the train with him just to give him some company. Boy does it get packed! What was funny was that almost the entire train emptied out at the stop that Kurt got off at - it's a pretty busy area.
His company is located on the west side of the loop in what they call the "financial district." They work within the stocks/bonds/trading industry and are a major "player" in the Chicago markets. Seems like it will be a great fit for him! AND, it's a pretty cool environment. They have a VERY relaxed dress code (he said some people were wearing shorts and T-shirts, most were in jeans), they have a free catered lunch every day (for example they had sushi one day last week, had "Baci" deli yesterday, and some Mediterranean stuff today), AND they have a game room for stress release! He gets all sorts of fancy computers and accessories to work with, and has a library of resources at his fingertips. From the way it sounds, it's a company that takes very good care of their employees and values their abilities quite a lot. It is, however, a pretty stressful environment - lots of work and lots of deadlines. But, they stress working 8-9 hour days and that's it. They want to prevent any burn-out. SO...he is very happy with the decision he made, and so am I.
As for me and a job, I'm keeping an eye out on craigslist and the chicago reader. But I'm still unpacking (can you believe it?) and taking care of insurance, license plates, car titles, and other generally boring but necessary tasks. I should be done unpacking (the clothes are what's killing me, but the office is a nightmare too) by the end of the week, so hopefully I can focus on the job search more next week. I'm hoping to get a record store or an office gig, but I would really like to work at school in the fall, so I'm not sure what to do about the job. Oh well...I'll figure it out.
Well...I should continue with unpacking. I didn't get really far within a couple of hours- was checking out insurance stuff this morning and job hunting, then I got my Grad. Orientation packet and looked through that. SO...I need to be productive, if only for one more hour ;o)
Kurt's work gave him a $75 gift certificate to a restaurant company. So, we're going to use it tonight at "Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba" - it's a Tapas restaurant! We've wanted to go to one for quite a while, but they tend to be expensive. Since it's free, we thought we'd go!
Take care!
Hello to all!
Well...we finally made it to Chicago! We were sore for a few days, but we're finally getting settled in and really liking it here. Everything is a walk away - even the grocery store! What more could you ask for?
BUT this past weekend was a living nightmare, as I'm sure my parents can attest to :O)
First of all, getting into the city took 2 hours - normally it takes 1...so our total trip time was 7 hours. Then getting through the tiny roads with such a huge Uhaul was tough, too. Thank goodness dad was driving ;o) At one point I was outside of the truck running along to make sure we could get through without hitting any cars.
THEN...we had to go down an alley to park/unload the truck - and people were actually HONKING at us to move. HA! I'm not sure where they think we could go!
THEN there were these dudes yelling out the back of their place at Shosta in the cab of the truck and throwing things at her - so I got nasty with them and they shut up.
THEN we had to take the truck back before the store closed, so we got everything out of the bed and left it in the yard.
THEN we took the truck to the location given us by Uhaul and they said that they couldn't take it - but then they decided to keep it. There was no way we were going to get that thing backed out on a busy street anyways, so they would have had to take whether or not they wanted it! THEN we came back and had some moving people move the last of the furniture into the place (which was very difficult to do) - they had to take off the front door to get our couch in (which they tore) - BUT, at least we got it in. We thought we were going to have to trash it and buy a new one!
THEN we finally got to rest. Yeah...that was a long day. I thank the Lord that my parents we here to help and are more in shape than I am - they are like the Energizer bunny X 2!
It's been a rough week with utilities, too. Our phone line needed fixed and we've had so many problems with cable and our broadband, it's ridiculous. BUT, it's ALL fixed now ;o) (We hope ;o)
We've also had some problems with our apartment, but the landlords came over tonight and are really quick to take care of any issues. AND, they are going to let us use a window unit air conditioner that they have in storage for our bedroom! HOW AWESOME! It's been pretty rough adjusting to the lack of AC and 90 degree weather, so this will be a big help. It's nice to have them living next door ;o)
SO...tonight, after resolving most of our problems, we're actually feeling pretty good! We are really looking forward to enjoying Chicago finally ;o) We'll be visiting IKEA tomorrow and "The Taste of Chicago" on Friday! Woohoo!
Take care!
PS-sorry for all of the complaining - just thought you would get a chuckle hearing all the joys of big-city living. HAHA...I just did ;o)
PSS - And our little diggle is doin' good, too! There was barely an adjustment period (thank heavens) and she's been VERY well behaved with the various technicians and our landlords in the house. She really enjoys big city walking - climbing the steps of every house we pass ;o)
This is my final post from Columbus!
It's hard to believe - time has flown by and now we're packing up and leaving for Chicago tomorrow! The plan is to spend the night at my parents tomorrow night then head out early in the morning on Saturday. Bad thing is that I'm already worn out and we still have 2 BIG moving days ahead of us! Let's hope we don't have to move again for a couple more years because I'm getting too old for this ;o) (I know - half of you are probably saying "Old? Yeah right...")
Special thanks to mom for helping out the past two days. She's a super-cleaner/organizer. I'm retarded when it comes to packing ;o)
So...since it's past midnight, I'm logging off and getting a good night's sleep - I'll need it.
Chances are, I won't be posting again until next week sometime. I'm not really sure when we'll have our cable internet up and running...but as soon as we do, I'll be sure to post with pictures of the new place!
Take care!
Howdy!
Well, all of our concerts with The National are over :o(
Friday's concert in Cincinnati was pretty packed, as it's their home town and they had TONS of family and friends there. What was great about the concert was that they played a VERY long set and a lot of their older tunes. What was awful was the crowd. There were some pretty rude dudes who stood right in front of me - so we moved. But it seemed that everywhere I stood, someone would come right in front of me! I guess it's no surprise to anyone that I have problems seeing at concerts - thanks to my mother's lack of height, I'm doomed to see the band as floating heads, if I see them at all.
The drive home was also pretty awful - we were both very tired, so our eyes had some problems staying open! Kurt started out, but I ended up driving most of the way. And, since I'm an amblyope, my eyes have issues staying straight when I'm really tired. I swear I was driving home cross eyed!
SO...due to the floating head affects that I do NOT enjoy at concerts, Kurt and I decided to get to the concert on Saturday (here in Columbus-our last one...sniff sniff) earlier so that we could get a spot down front. Luckily, we did. We had to stand through 1 good opening act (Talkdemonic - a nifty violin and drums duet), and 1 HORRIBLE opening act. Follow my advice - do not buy any albums by "Shapes and Sizes" - they really aren't very good.
But it was ALL worth it - being right up front with the singer and guitarists 3 feet away was pretty gosh darn amazing. They played a shorter set Saturday night, but they still closed with one my favorite songs - About Today. It's about the ending of a relationship - the lyrics for this tune are pretty sparse, but they paint a great, albeit depressing, story.
And, of course, there is always something to complain about at a concert ;o) Don't get me wrong - I LIVE to go to concerts. But there's always something...
Saturday night's joie de nuit was a bunch of frat boys. Smelly-like-rotten-socks frat boys. Now, let's get this straight right away, The National's music is pretty mature, not conducive to moshing. But apparently they disagree with that statement because they were slamming their stinky, sweaty, smelly-like-rotten-socks bodies into Kurt all night. Yay.
We had a tickets to go to tonight's concert in Cleveland but decided that getting back at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning on a week night probably wasn't a good idea...especially since we have a lot to do this week.
Speaking of a lot to do...it's hard to believe that on Friday, we're moving out and Saturday we'll be moving to Chicago! It's been easy to say "Oh, we'll have time to do that before we leave, we've got a couple of months." Then it turned into 6 weeks, then 4 weeks, then 2, now it's only 4 days away! Yipee!
We are SOOOOOOO excited to get the move finished. We looked into having movers take care of everything, but it was (Yikes) $2500.00 - $3200.00 dollars. NO WAY!
So, my parents (God bless them) are going to help us!
What's really great is that Kurt is taking the week after the move off. We'll be able to take our time unpacking and get to know the city better. We'll probably do some sight seeing and scope out all the good restaurants!
Well...I should get going. I need to hit the hay so I can get up bright and early and get to work!
Take care!
8 Days and counting until the BIG MOVE!
We can't wait to be in Chicago!!!!!!!!!!! :O)
But, we're also pretty excited about this weekend, too! One of our favorite bands - The National (see side bar -clips from youtube) - is taking a tour of the 3 C's of Ohio - Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland - while on a nationwide tour. Kurt and I have been in severe "National" withdraw. The last time we saw them in concert was at the Pitchfork Music Festival last July...and that was only a short set. TOO long without one of our fav. bands!!!!!!
SO we splurged and, as an anniversary gift to ourselves, we got tickets to all 3 concerts! One thing nice about liking "indie" bands is that concert tickets are cheap! I think the most we paid was 15 a ticket at the Cleveland show. That's way better than the 80 or 90 we paid for Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the embarrassing amount we paid for Lollapalooza tickets (but it's 3 days and 130 bands - AND it's possibly my future career - that's how I justify it ;o).
Our first concert is tonight in Cincinnati, then C-bus tomorrow, and Cleveland on Monday. Happy anniversary to us ;o)
I should probably sign off now...I was thinking of sorting through some stuff before we leave tonight. I didn't get anything done today...Shosta had her annual traumatic event - going to the vet!
Take care to everyone! I'll TRY to post a few times before we make the big move. If not, I'll see ya on the other side!
