Official News

I've been careful not to jinx myself on this latest development, but I think it's finally safe to say:

We're buying a house.

And...

We're not moving.

A few weeks ago, we got into talks with our landlord to buy our house, a two-flat in Logan Square. After lots of back and forth and negotiations, it looks like we've reached an agreement. We probably won't close until the end of the summer, but it's still super exciting. Because it's a two-flat, we'll continue living on the first floor, and rent out the top floor for a few years. Eventually we'll either buy a single-family and continue renting out the house, or we'll turn the two-flat into a single family.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We still have to go through the whole inspection, closing, signing-our-life-away process. So, I really shouldn't start mentally planning out how a new fence and siding would look, and how I'd decorate the second floor someday. Or how I want to install built-in shelves into our future office. Or how I want the staircase to look. Because pre-planning all that stuff at this point would be silly, which is why I haven't totally planned out which walls I'm going to repaint and where a new area rug might look nice.

Annoy Your Neighbors at Work Day

Today is take your kid to work day. Although I'm all for this type of enrichment for America's youth, my appreciation ends when those kids are in the office above me, running around, screaming, and making the ceiling shake.

And who the hell decided to give them whistles????

9 Years Ago

I lived.

Sometimes, I get wrapped up in complaining about the weather, my debt, my shortcomings, and the doggie diarrhea on my floor (more on that later), and I forget to be grateful.

Life is good.

New Book

So I finally found a book to read: 1984.

I've never read it — I know, I know! No really, I know. I cracked it open for the first time on the bus on Monday, and by page 8, someone stopped me and said "Is this the first time you've read this? ... Seriously?"

So, I'm finally reading it. Although, it's kind of like seeing "Citizen Kane" for the first time after hearing about it your whole life: You pretty much already know the plot, the themes, and all the good lines.

I have a feeling completing it will take me a while because I pretty much do all my reading on the bus. But now that the weather's nicer, I'm riding my bike to work again. I rode for the first time this year on Tuesday. The route was nice, but holy crap am I out of shape. I was huffing and puffing the whole way, even on the downhills, with a tailwind, when I wasn't even peddling. Hello legs, when did you get so weak and flabby? Jerks.

I am crafty

Enough of this depressing bullmess, let's talk about bags, man.



I made this. It's because I'm so darn crafty. And because my mother-in-law bought me a knitting and felting book and all the needles and yarn to make it.

I've also made a few hats recently. I keep trying to make myself one of those slouchy hats that seem to be all the rage these days, but everytime I finish one, it ends up looking far too hippy for my tastes. So, if you're one of those Patchouli-wearing peeps with quilted corduroy pants and you slightly resemble Shaggy, I totally have a hat for you. Just be forewarned that the hat may or may not have been worn by a shirtless Chris who found that after putting it on, a Matthew McConaughey impression naturally followed.

About last night...

For some reason, the weight of wanting to be better at everything gets to me sometimes. And suddenly, i just want to curl up and check out of civilization for a while because I can never seem to accomplish want I want to accomplish.

I want to lose weight. i want to be an athlete. I want to be one of those people that gets up at 5 a.m everyday and reads the paper and goes to the gym and still gets into work by 8.

I want to be good at small talk ... rather than the person who takes the stairs just so she doesn't have to deal with making conversation with a co-worker she doesn't know very well for a few minutes.

i want to photograph well.

I want to be a better wife, a better dog owner, a better friend, a better family member. I want to remember people's birthdays and send them cards. I want people to rely on me as much as I rely on them, and always be there when they need me.

I want to have hair that looks doesn't look messy all the time.

I want to be one of those people that everyone wants to be around all the time. And I want to be one of those people who doesn't care if people want to be around them all the time.

I want to be someone who doesn't regret saying half the things she says.

I want to dress fabulously.

All you people out there who have it all, who run 30 miles per week and have cute clothes and hair that actually looks done, and have tons of friends and remember birthdays and never drink too much and talk too much, and are engaging, and people hang on your every word. How do you do it? And, can I be you for a while?

Tonight

Sometimes, it's good to give up drinking for a few weeks.

Sometimes, it's takes a few drinks to connect with your true emotions.

Sometimes, you miss your girlfriends, even when they're sitting next to you.

Sometimes, you feel like you've lost all your friends.

Sometimes, you forget who you are.

Sometimes, you let others define you.

Sometimes, you realize you never had your own personality anyway.

Sometimes, you finally figure out that you're not as smart as you thought you were.

Sometimes, you get treated the way you've treated others.

...and it sucks.

Sometimes, you feel like you want to be everyone else.

....anyone else.

...just not you.


But you never had a choice.

I Need Fiction

I finished "The Devil in the White City" a few weeks ago, and now I really need another book to read. Because riding the bus without reading material or an iPod is basically pure torture.

I tend to read a lot more non-fiction than fiction, but after a while my brain gets too full of facts and history, and I need a good story to read that doesn't require me accept that this stuff happened to real people.

I've been meaning to read "Then We Came to the End," but I also have a habit of only reading books about or set in Chicago (i.e. Devil, "The Time Traveler's Wife," "Crossing California," "The Washington Story," "No More Prisons"). Although Chicago is the greatest city ever and is undeniably the center of the universe (If you don't believe me, you should totally read "The Devil in the White City" because pretty much everything you've ever eaten, experienced and thought about is attributable to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago), I should probably read books set in other cities, too.

Got any suggestions? Read anything that's fiction, not set in Chicago, and preferably never been described as "heart-warming" or "as seen on Oprah's Book Club"? Send 'em my way, please.