It's dark, rainy, and cold outside and I am at work listening to Built to Spill and suffering from writers block.  This may or may not be a good combination.  

Working hard? Yes and no.  I have less than a month of school and about five million things to turn at school and a list of events to look after for work.  My eyes will fall out any day now, promise. 

Went home for Easter.  Drove around a lot and my head wanted to explode from all the pollen stuff in the air.  Spring really hasn't hit Chicago yet so my head didn't know what to do with all those flowers blooming.  After eating too much food I hit the airport only to forget my phone.  No phone means being glued to my computer so that I can communicate with the outside world.  This also means looking at a screen for longer that I'd wish.  

On the bright side, I will finally get all my work done for school and graduate.  I will most likely get my phone back tonight.  The Crossfader King events will be fun and worth all the worrying/planning.  And spring will finally reach Chicago soon, to be immediately followed the next day by summer.  

In other news Melanie is doing fine and riding high on oxycontin.  She has gotten a lot of funny get well cards and lots of yummy food.  Feel free to send any desserts to me because she has too many.  Also, if you're trying to sell her anything, right now would be the time to do it.  She can be talked into mostly anything considering she thinks our dog Murphy is talking to her.  Just kidding...kind of.  

Seriously though, thanks to everyone who's been thinking of my mom.  She really is doing great and it's good that they caught that junk before it got more serious.  Go by and see her if you're in KC.  She has lots of good treats.  

you know what happens when you assume...

I got bored for the first time the other day. It was around 5 so I decided to take pooch on a long walk. I guess that's a semi good way to deal with boredom, it was either a walk or ride my bike but I hate riding my bike during rush hour for fear that I might get run over.  Plus riding my bike resolves night time boredom, not day boredom. I had my first night ride the other night and it was a much needed one.  I love riding through the quiet neighborhoods and down Chicago Ave. and when I hit the bridge that goes over the highway you have the perfect view of the city.  I think seeing the city like that is one of my favorite Chicago moments. Summer nights and riding bikes go very well together.

Today I went over to Chris's to pick some stuff up and he gave me the Rainbo calendar poster that I totally forgot about.  The background of the poster is of photobooth pictures and Chris and I are in one of them.  There are a bunch of other kids on it too like Alicia and Raneta, Casey and the other Rodan bartenders, and other familiar faces that I don't know names of.  The picture of Chris and I is lovely, I think I am pretending to pick his nose, go figure. I like that they did that for their calendar, brings back tons of good photobooth memories. 

I start back at Feast tomorrow. Kind of excited to have a job again and to see old co-workers and also kind of nervous that I am going to mess something up per usual, oh well. Lately its been hot and humid making me not want to be outside but you can't waste a summer in Chicago by being inside, you'll regret it when the winter chill hits.  Other than that I've been to my storage unit a million times it seems. I guess I still haven't totally settled down since most of my belongings are in storage right now.  I did however get my bike out so me and my trusty ride are roaming the streets again.  There was lots of stuff that I was thinking I should write in this but apparently not.  I am going back to KC for 4th of July with Reas.  Should be fun to have a family hang out and to play with Murphy.  

Anyhoo, I keep either forgetting to take my cameras with me or just can't take them with me so I've been taking pictures on my cell phone.  I'll spare you all the pictures of Bradley but here are some more goings on with me and my city. 

Something I really like about Chicago are the names of stores.  I used to live on Ashland and across the street was a place called "Very Best Dry Cleaners".  "Always Open" is a good one too, I don't know I just think its funny because its so obvious. 

So this is the park that they've spent the last year or two working on.  It used to be a gravel pit filled with trash, its pretty now and there's a ledge to skate there so there's fun for everyone.  There are some things that I don't like about though, which are the people who use it as a dog park and take their dogs off their leashes and the old men that go there to tan. Two things my days could do without seeing. 

Laura and I saw this dog in Buffalo Exchange. Its wearing a Tutu. 

We hang out on Laura's porch a lot and watch the bike riders and softball games going on across the street.  Its summer and I like doing things that involve friends and porches.

ughhh

This is my last week of lectures for the semester. I have no finals but luckily for me I do have four more papers and a group project, all due in the next two weeks. So in an effort to avoid the library I took up my friend Ariella's invite to a cocktail/house warming party in south Dublin this past weekend. Getting to see how non students live is always nice, plus we ended the night at a horrible yet funny club. It had fake palm trees, arcade-esq carpet, and every neon light ever created plus they played every song from those club mixes that you see in infomercials.
Other than that I've been trying to read/do research, plan out some travels for May, and just hang out. 3 Euro drinks are gone from the school bar so a bar down the road picked it up, so new Tuesday hang out, also I never want to eat chipper again (fast food), oh and NEVER go see The Orphanage unless you really like being scared, but go see Shine A Light if you like music esp. the Rolling Stones.
I just realized that I haven't posted any pictures of my school or things and places that I do or go to in my everyday life so I am going to try to do more of that. I neglected to think that normal things I do are as interesting if not more than the random things I go to or see. So more everyday pictures will be happening.

Beautiful look at the Helix (right) and the northern part of campus.

Middle of campus with the Library at the far end. Really not the prettiest campus.

IES took me to dinner. It was the good-bye dinner for everyone else except DCU. I think wer're the black sheep of the IES family but whatever, I got a drink and dinner out of it.

The place was a really nice Italian restaurant. My cab driver kept telling me this. There were also wine bottles hanging from the ceiling.

Its 15 Euro for a pitcher of Heineken and a very large bowl of really good chicken wings. If you ever go to Dublin be sure to hit up the Ivy House in Drumcondra . Good craic, good food, you can't go wrong.

No pictures from the cocktail party but plenty from the weird club. The whole night was a lot like this, blurry and creepy/funny with a lot of neon. I actually know this guy so he's not a random club creep.
This guy I do not know. He and his friend hijacked my camera for a few minutes and preceded to take pictures with Ariella and I. After this the night basically ended, Ari and I weren't able to dance to cheesy music anymore and the boys were well locked. Good thing for taxis.