Red-Winged Blackbirds

Every so often I catch a glimpse of my childhood in the rear view mirror.

Wait. Stop. I don't really talk like that. Okay, start over.

Yesterday I was driving to my parents' house after work and saw a Red-Winged Blackbird and it made me happy. Why? Well, because when my family first moved into the house that I still lived in until very recently, there were a lot of empty lots in the subdivision. Actually, we were only the tenth house to be built, and now the place has its own zip code and Starbuck's. Okay, not really, but trust me, it's huge. So in these empty lots, my brother and neighbors and I used to play, building forts, climbing in dirt piles when houses would begin to be built, etc. We thought of these empty lots as extensions of our own yards. We referred to the two lots next to my house as "the field." It was great. Anyway, if you know anything about Red-Winged Blackbirds, you know that they don't build nests in trees, but in open, grassy areas. So as you can imagine, when our neighborhood was still in its development phase, there were tons of these birds living in all the empty lots. Moving there was the first time I had ever seen these birds before and I thought they were so beautiful - mostly black, but with patches of THE brightest red (and bits of white) on their wing joints. I loved them. However, slowly but surely, as the neighborhood grew, and the empty lots grew fewer and farther between, the Red-Winged Blackbirds started to migrate away from our community, to the places where they could still have the open fields that they so loved. Being a kid, I was probably too preoccupied with school and friends to really notice that they were leaving, but when I would occasionally see one, it would remind me just how many there used to be. And then, after a while, I didn't see them at all anymore. The area that I grew up in has changed so much since my family moved there, it is nearly unrecognizeable. When we built our house, we were out in the middle of nowhere. It was unincorporated, and the nearest main road was about two miles away, and was an empty two-lane highway connecting our town with the next one to the north. Traffic lights were unheard of unless you were actually IN town. In between the main road and our neighborhood was a sod farm, a creek, trees, and the occasional farm house. There were birds and animals and you really felt like you were out in the country. This is the reason my parents chose the place, as a matter of fact. And now? The two miles on the "country road" between the main road and our subdivision is solid houses. The speed limit has gone from an un-posted 55 to 35 mph. That former two-lane main highway I mentioned is now four lanes with a light every quarter-mile or so, McDonald's, Jewel, Target, Starbuck's, Kohl's, a thousand banks and gas stations ... and no trees. No cornfields. The unincorporated area in between towns has become a town in and of itself. There is no open road at all between our town and the next one to the north. You can't tell where one ends and the next one begins. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at all this. All in the name of progress, right? But do we really need another Target or Best Buy? Why wasn't it good enough to drive the extra 20 minutes to get to the one they built just down the road a few years before? That's the thing that I will never understand about suburban sprawl, or whatever you want to call it. I grew up in the middle of nowhere and had to drive at least 20 minutes to get anywhere! Heck, my high school friends never even wanted to come to my house because they said it was in "Iowa." So I drove everywhere. I'm used to it. I'm used to it taking time to get places. I feel guilty taking my car somewhere if it takes less than 5 minutes to get there. Am I the only one? Am I the only one who doesn't find it necessary to have a drug store 10 feet from my front door in order to live comfortably?

Ahh, I didn't particularly intend to go on and on like that, but I just got some thoughts into my head that wanted to come out I guess. But anyway, yesterday I was driving out to my parents' house and I saw a Red-Winged Blackbird in a grassy area between the main road and an on-ramp onto the highway. It was just a small area that hadn't been landscaped and still had the native grasses in it. It was only one bird, and as I sat at the stoplight, I just watched the bird going about its business and remembered how I used to do the exact same thing from my living room window. It brought a smile to my face, but also made me wonder if I am the only one who misses the Red-Winged Blackbirds. Probably not, but sometimes it feels like it.

Week in Review numma 3

Hey kids! So here's what went down this week. Last Saturday my roomie and I were throwing a party, so Friday after work I basically started getting ready for that. Well, truthfully, I was kind of pooped from the crazy week I had had, so "getting ready for the party" pretty much consisted of doing my laundry and going to bed early. So that meant that Saturday morning/afternoon was filled with cleaning, shopping, and making general preparations for this shindig. I got my bedroom spotless, and then started on the rest of the place, swept, rolled up the rug (learned my lesson after the last party!), rearranged furniture, etc. I had the task of going to the grocery store for snackies and whatnot, while roomie went to the liquor store and cleaned the bathroom. That is, he cleaned OUR bathroom, and then went to the liquor store. He didn't clean the bathroom AT the liquor store, as much as they might have appreciated that (he does an excellent job). :) Anyhoo, the party was a blast. Several people who I rarely see showed up, and one friend from high school who I hadn't seen in about 5 years! That was super exciting! A work friend showed up later in the evening with his dog, and it just made me miss having a dog so much! And she (the dog, Kawie) was such a sweetie too. Got along with everyone and just made herself right at home! So much so that the next day I realized I had dog hair all over my couch AND my bed. Not that I minded at all. :) Love the doggies. I can't think of too many wild and/or crazy stories from the night, but that's because I once again felt like it flew by and I didn't get to talk to anyone! It seemed like I got a few really good conversations with a few (really good) people, but I know for a fact that some people came and went and all I got to say to them was hello and goodbye. Such is the fate of the hostess I guess. Oh, and eewww. I looked at my camera the next morning and I look ridiculous in every picture I'm in. Yeah, no one will be seeing those. :) All in all it was a good night. I think the final people count was about 37, which is pretty damn good in my opinion! Sunday was a day spent recovering. I slept for a lot of it, watched some TV I think (oh yeah! Desperate Housewives finale!!), and helped the roomie clean up the major garbage, but the rest of the cleaning we left for a time when we'd have more energy ... and motivation.

So Monday after work, that's what I did. I came straight home, changed my clothes, put on some music and got down to business. I cleaned all of the table/counter surfaces, mopped the floor and picked up what was left of the garbage, and put furniture back in order (including the rug which was spared the inevitable spillage). It took me just over an hour and afterwards I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. Cleaning does that to me. :) And even though the roomie didn't say anything to me about the spectacular cleaning job I had done, when he walked in the door (I was in my bedroom), I heard him say to himself "Fantastic!" so that was good enough for me. Tuesday night was Ladies Night, which is always a good time. 6 of us ladies went out to Opera, an Asian fusion (?) restaurant on Wabash and it was EXCELLENT! I recommend it. But if you can, try to go on a Tuesday and ask about the special deal (which won't be around forever!!). You'll be glad you did. :) My meal consisted of Maine lobster spring rolls (very good), Beef with Asparagus (really really good despite the lack of descriptive details), and a Mandarin Orange dessert which, against my better judgment, I finished because it was so tasty! And I had more than half of my entree left to take home and have for dinner later in the week. Yay! Wednesday night I went out to my parents' to have dinner with my little bro!! He's in town for a while from Seattle and wanted to take the family out to dinner. We went to a Japanese hibachi/sushi place that was pretty good. My brother was the only one who ordered sushi, but everyone tried a little, including my Dad! I was so proud of him!! And I think my Mom enjoyed the sushi very much because she kept eating it after my brother and everyone else had had their fill! The rest of us ordered hibachi stuff - garlic shrimp for Dad, calamari for Mom, and scallops for me (one of my new favorite things, I think), and it was all very good. Okay, just a side note here - I feel like Nora!!!! Blogging about food!!! :) So anyway, it was cool to hang with the baby brother, even though he left without saying goodbye! I think he was going out to meet some friends. Hopefully I'll get to see him again before he leaves for home. I think he's going up to Detroit this weekend, but maybe next week. Oh, and that night Mom and I watched the Lost finale! So exciting!!! All kinds of new information, and plenty of cliffhangers - exactly what you want in a season finale. Thursday was delightfully relaxing. All I had to do when I got home from work was pack for this weekend (going to Indiana for a friend's birthday), and go to the drug store. So that's all I did!! Woo hoo! It was great having no obligations for once! Well, once in a long while anyway. I do go through spells where I have absolutely NOTHING to do for days or weeks at a time, but lately that has not been the case. I'm a busy little bee. :) At least work wasn't too bad this week. It was pretty hectic early on, but had calmed down drastically by about Thursday, which was nice. Next week is gonna suck, though, because it's the end of the month and I'm always swamped. Plus one of my coworkers is moving to another department and next week is her last week here, so she will need to be basically teaching me everything she knows about the programs I'm taking over for her. She's shown me a bunch of stuff already, but this will be our last chance to get everything handed over. Blagh. Not that she won't be still in the building and reachable in case of a massive meltdown (which isn't completely out of the realm of possibility), but still. It's a lot for me to take on, still being the newest person in the department.

So that was my wek. Heh, I typed "wek" and I'm keeping it like that 'cause I like it. :P I REBEL AGAINST THE SPELL CHECKER!!!! Wait, does blogger even have a spell checker? Oh look at that, it does. Obviously, I don't use it very often (or EVER). I pride myself on my most excellent spelling abilities, and my obsessive proofreading (and since I said that, everything will now be spelled wrong and people will laugh at me). My grammar sucks, and I may occasionally use the wrong words in the wrong places, but at least I spell them right! Right?

Ok, bye.

Ministry of Silly Walks

There's a dude I encounter occasionally (who, incidentally, looks like a blonde Dan Aykroyd) who has the funniest walk I've ever seen. He's kinda long in the torso, so his legs seem short, and his feet turn out a little bit, but damn can he get those things going fast! And somehow he doesn't bounce at all while walking, so if you only saw his top half, he'd look like he was gliding (like the nun in Blues Brothers! Another Dan Aykroyd connection!). But the oddest thing is that his enthusiastically swinging arms don't go straight back and forth - one of them sort of crosses in front of his body on the forward swing, and the other veers away from him on the way forward. How this guy manages to walk in a straight line is completely beyond me! But it sure is fun to watch. :)

sleep-telephoner?

The other night I was having a dream about a coworker who sits in the cubicle next to mine, and in the dream he collapsed and was knocked unconscious or something. I heard him fall over so I went into his cube and saw what happened. I decided I needed to call 911, so I reached over to use the phone on his desk, only as I was doing so, I started to wake up. As I opened up my eyes, I realized that I had grabbed the stuffed dog that was on my bed next to me and was currently in the process of bringing it up to my ear to make a telephone call.

And then I laughed myself back to sleep.

Well!! Week in review

I definitely did not think that there would be no postings at all in between my weekly reviews, but the way this week went, I am not surprised this happened. So let's just dive right in, shall we?

Last weekend was tons of fun, and busy!! Started out Friday with the Bachelorette party I mentioned in my last post. It was a good time. I really only knew the bride and one other person well, had met a couple others once or twice, and the rest I did not know from Eve, but they all were very nice (and funny!), and a good time was had by all. I was very proud of the bride for finishing ALMOST everything on her list of embarrassing and/or stupid things she had to do, and managing to wear her bachelorette sash for the entire night (the hat with the veil was abandoned relatively early for fear of hat hair).

Aaaand, it is now Monday again and I didn't even finish writing my entry for last week. Well, let's just continue right on. Saturday I made my way over to Kristi's house for her sweet boy's second birthday. So cute!!! He was making eyes at me all day. :) Not sure how much he appreciated my gift of a chronicle of Oz stories - he was much more interested in the giant semi-truck filled with Matchbox cars - but it'll be something he can get into at a later age ... I hope anyway. Nora and I had plans to go to a Secret Machines show that night, so I took off and met her at my apartment where we had a drink or two before departing for the Metro. We were meeting a friend of mine from work and her roommate, and they were running a bit late, so we went to Full Shilling for a beer while we waited. They showed up just before showtime and we arrived at the venue just as the band was taking the stage. Perfect timing! And the show?? AWESOME!!! Love their live show so much! Their albums are amazing, but they don't even do their live show justice. The lights they use are perfect for their sound, and the atmosphere makes it so easy to just fully immerse yourself in the music. I am so excited that I'll get to see them again at Lollapalooza, though I am guessing they'll have a daytime slot and it won't have nearly the same effect as the shows I've been to in the past. But you can bet I will be in the audience at every show they have in Chicago from now until the end of time. Yeah. :) Well, after that was over, we chatted with some Metro employees who recommended we head over to Gingerman Tavern cause that's where they were also going, so we did. Had a couple drinks there, then made our way back to Smart Bar where the bartender from Gingerman said he'd be going once he closed up. Why we decided to put our fate in the hands of all the random employees we met that night I'm not sure ... well maybe it was because they were cute ... but we danced and drank the night away and I believe we all had a smashing good time. Not to mention we randomly ran into my roommate and his bro at Smart Bar. That was nice. But yeah, that was the latest night I had had in a very long time. Nora and I went back to my place to go to bed at around 5 or 5:30 (details a little foggy at this point). Next morning I got Nora up so she could make her way out to the burbs for Mother's Day brunch, and ended up just staying up myself - for some reason I have a hard time sleeping the morning after drinking a lot. Sleepiness doesn't come until much later in the day. And boy, did it! I too went out to the burbs to see my Mama. Some family was over for a barbecue and I tried to be sociable for as long as I could, but at one point, I just had to escape. Right before dinner I went upstairs to my old room for a bit of a lie-down. Didn't get any actual sleep 'cause I was called down to dinner. But AS SOON AS dinner was over (I even skipped dessert if you can believe it!!), I went right back up for a glorious little nap. Got up just in time to head back home and watch "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" (Desperate Anatomy, for short). Good stuff.

AND THEN!! The week from Hell. I don't particularly feel like going into all the details of how hellish my week was - it was all work related - but if you can imagine one of those weeks when you think you have a few reasonaly achievable goals to meet, and you come in each day thinking, "Hey, today shouldn't be too bad, I have this, this and this to do and that's all," and then EVERYTHING GOES WRONG. New things are piled on your desk by the minute and the things that should have taken 5 minutes to complete end up taking 5 hours, and every single thing has to be done RIGHT NOW ... yeah, it was like that. In fact, it was exactly that. Which is why there were no blog posts last week ... and why I didn't even finish this one until today, Monday, a full week and 3 days after my last posting. Grrrr. Who knew this blogging thing would be so demanding!!? Wait, who's demanding anything of me? Hmm, no one really is, now that I think of it. It's just me. In my imagination I have this gaggle of faithful readers who start to wonder what happened to me when I don't post in a few days, and then if it gets to be a week with no posts they all start to turn against me and post angry rants on an imaginary fan forum, but there are those few who will always stick up for me saying, "Hey people, she's a busy lady and wouldn't you rather she be out and about living and doing things so that once she has some time again she can have something interesting to write about?" and all the skeptics are like, "Yeah, but man, a week? She can't even find time to post one sentence in a week?" and the good folks say, "Hey, don't be a hater."

But then I remember that I have a very active imagination.

Cheers!

Week in review

I don't usually just write about the everyday things that happen to me, like what I had for breakfast, or which bars I went to last Friday, but I think I may start a weekly thing where I just sorta give highlights of what's been happening lately. Yes, I think I will do that. And this will be the first one.

So, I feel like I have been extremely busy lately and haven't had much time to just chill, but I'm probably not really any busier than any other week. Anyhoo, last weekend was pretty cool. Friday was Cinco de Mayo, so some friends and I went to a little Mexican restaurant on Ashland for some good food and tasty margaritas. Though the wait was excruciating, they sent their waiting patrons to the bar across the street, where they could get drinks if they so chose, or in our case, bowl after bowl of chips and salsa. The food at the restaurant was pretty good, but if I go there again I will be getting what Jillybean had, which was plantain enchiladas with mole sauce. Yummy! Saturday I ran a bunch of errands in the morning, including hoofing it over to the Metro to get my tickets for the Secret Machines show tomorrow (yay!!). Jillybean was having a jewelry show over at her place for a friend of ours who makes really cool jewelry, so I headed over there and hung out for a while. I ended up buying a very cool necklace made of pyrite and a pair of Russian serpentine earrings which I can't wait to wear. So pretty! Afterwards, I met up with Nora for an eating extravaganza!! After a bit of trouble getting over there (D and K beat us even though they left considerably later!), we made it to the restaurant Sweets and Savories on Fullerton. All in all, I had a good impression of this place. It was very small, but classy and comfortable. And even though some might be a little taken aback by the extremely friendly and chatty staff, I liked it a lot. Nora and D went there specifically for this one dish that I won't get into the details of (you can read all about it on Nora's livejournal), but I do believe we were all very satisfied with the food. I know I was. However, given the rather pricy nature of the place, I decided it was in my best interest to call it a night after that, and give my wallet a little rest. :) Some people, including my roommate, were planning on heading over to the Musicbox around midnight for some 3-D porn, but as intriguing as this was, I decided not to partake, and I'm sorta glad I did, because I heard the next day that 3-D porn tends to lose it's excitement factor after about a half hour. *mental note* :)

This week has felt like a whirlwind. Nothing too exciting happened on Monday, aside from watching the finale of "What About Brian" which was filled with drama! Can't wait for next season (if there is one)!! Tuesday, I went to work an hour early because I had a doctor's appointment later in the day and instead of using up sick time I wanted to try and make up as many hours as I could. Surprisingly enough, it is much easier for me to get up earlier for work than it is to stay later - traffic starts to suck coming back into the city if you leave any later than 4, and despite my best efforts, I think I am becoming a morning person!!!! Ack!! (I feel like Cathy when I say Ack.) So, I asked my Mom to come to the doctor with me (though, in retrospect I didn't need her there at all), and the appointment ended up going really well. We were there to discuss prescription options, and I had pretty much made a decision before I went in, and was happy to hear that my doctor had basically come to the same decision. Made things easy. Perhaps I will discuss in more detail in another entry. Anyhoo, the rest of the afternoon/evening was for me and my Mom. We went to lunch at the Grand Luxe Cafe (very good) and then went shopping for a while along Michigan Ave. We looked in Crate and Barrel for what seemed like hours (that place is frickin 'uge!), then went to Borders where I couldn't leave without buying 3 books, and then made a short stop at Watertower where we were very disappointed in the housewares section of Marshall Field's (soon to be Macy's - boo hoo!!). After that, we were pooped so we went to *$'s to set for a spell, then went our separate ways. I think I got home and crashed on the couch, then just went to bed. It was an exhausting day. Wednesday I went in to work early again, and then went out to the 'rent's for my usual Wednesday visit. Dad and I popped over to Pier One to get some pillows for the new wicker furniture the parents just got for the sun room (apparently my Dad didn't trust himself enough to go alone - heaven forbid he buy the WRONG PILLOWS!!!), while Mom made a delicious spaghetti dinner. Then Mom and I watched "Lost" (so exciting!! another hatch!!) and I hit the road back home. I think by this time, the early (and busy) days were finally catching up to me because I was exhausted and decided before I even got home that I was going to go in at the normal time on Thursday. I totally needed that extra hour of sleep. Then on Thursday I was hoping to have a relaxing evening at home, but that didn't really end up happening. I told a coworker that I'd help her out after work by following her and her carpooling friend to a mechanic to drop off her car and then drive the two of them home (they live near me). This was kind of a pain because the weather was nasty and traffic was nasty, and after dropping them off I realized I had to go to the drug store, and I didn't end up getting home until after 6, only to have to go back to the drug store again at 6:30. Blaarrrgh. But then I watched some "Curb Your Enthusiasm" I got from Netflix and I thought, "Well, at least I'm not Larry David."

So now we've reached today. Aren't you happy you made it this far??!! :) Today I came in at the normal time but I'm planning on staying an hour later because I am staying out in the burbs for a while tonight. A coworker is having a bachelorette party nearby work tonight at 8, and it seemed like a pain to go all the way back home after work only to come all the way back out here again at 8. So I decided to stay here until 5, then head over to the mall to get some things I need (still need a Mother's Day gift!!), grab some dinner (possibly with another coworker friend who is also going to the bachelorette party), then head over to the bar where people are meeting. Should work out I think. Tomorrow I have a bunch of errands and chores to do in the morning, then there is Kristi's baby's birthday party (Yay for 2 year old's!!), then the Secret Machines show at midnight - which I still have to coordinate the meeting-up plans for. And then, of course, is Mother's Day on Sunday. I'm going out to the burbs again (man, my car gets a lot of miles put on it!!) to see the Mama, and my grandma and great aunt will be there as well for a little barbecue. That should be nice. But once again, I don't think I'll have ANY time for myself to relax this weekend. Oh well. Maybe next weekend - wait, no that won't work. Maybe the one after - nope, not that one either ...

They want my genes!!!

Okay, this was kind of creepy. I was at the doctor yesterday (not a GP, but a specialist with an office in a hospital building where there's all kinds of other doctors' offices and whatnot), and a lady in a white coat came up to me and my mom and asked me if I'd been told about the NuGene program. I had not, so I said so. She went on to explain that they are starting this program where people with various diseases give DNA samples so that researchers can study which genes play a role in the development of common diseases, like diabetes for example, and help to develop treatments and cures. I basically just let her do her spiel, and she gave me a brochure and was on her way. Then I looked at the cover of the brochure, which said "Your Genes, Everyone's Future" and suddenly, images from all those movies where scary clones get made and something goes all wrong and they go on a rampage killing their natural couterparts filled my head and all I could think was, is this how those movies usually start out? An innocent attempt to help out future generations leads to a bloody massacre? Wait, stop, no!! I don't wanna!! I mean, not that the scary-clone-makers couldn't get my DNA anyway if they really wanted it, what with the exorbitant amount of blood I have given for tests over the many years I have been going to this hospital. But still. Something about the idea of willingly giving my GENES for "research" totally creeped me out. So my answer to this lady, should she happen to be reading this blog, is a nice, polite, "No, thank you." As cool as it may be to one day find out that I have a twin, I would not want it to end up being a CLONE twin that is trying to kill me and take over my life.

Congratulate me please!!!

I PASSED THE TEST!!!!

That horror of a Configuration Data Management Apprentice test that occupied months of my time and finally finished about two weeks ago ... I PASSED!!! Woo hoo!! This is happy news indeed.

Here's the e-mail I got:

"Heidi:

Congratulations on successfully completing the NDIA CDM Apprentice exam taken on 20 April 2006! Following are your scores:

Part 1: 72.5% Part 2: 82.5% Part 3: 80.0% Part 4: 78.8%
Overall Exam: 78.4%

Additional scoring information will follow in a few days by USPS letter."

AND, just so you really know how smart I am, the average score for this test is only 71%. Yeah, I'm a genius, I know. :)

Cheers!