YAY for PUMPKINS!

This weekend has been so busy and so much fun! I went down south for a much needed stress-relief from my internship. Oh, it’s been so great!

This week has been stressful at my internship because getting clients signed up for “Befriend-a-Family” has proven to be more difficult than I anticipated. It literally consumes my entire workday—I have no time to see any other clients! When I am not assisting one, or two, or three clients at a time with applications I am polishing up completed applications or calling other clients. I find that I must re-write some applications that are not written neatly. I also must stringently review each “wants and needs list” for Christmas and white-out all inappropriate items written. For example, I had a client ask for a house for Christmas. While I understand that she is in need of a house, there is a fifty dollar limit in our program. While I make this very clear to every applicant, they continue to surprise me sometimes.

So, to get away, I went to a Smashing Pumpkins Concert! I’ve actually have had these plans since the summer but they couldn’t have come at a better time in the semester. My only concern was that the concert was on a Thursday night and was 2 hours away in Bloomington-Normal (Illinois State University). I didn’t know how I was going to get to work the following Friday! However it worked out great with my internship supervisor, who approved an extra day off the Friday after the concert. In return, I agreed to come in on Columbus Day. It is great that Chicago Semester allows us the freedom to work independently with our sites to create the best arrangement. I appreciate that I don’t have to abide by an unreasonably-strict set of guidelines so long as I ensure that I meet my “hours-per-week” commitment.

I went to the concert with my boyfriend, Josh, and our friends Shannon and Rudy, who are also dating. To prepare for the concert, Shannon and I crafted funky T-shirts for us with jack-o-lanterns on them. We thought we were really clever. The concert was a blast! It was just as much a laser light show as it was a concert. Oh, and the Pumpkins put on two encores. It was great.

The remainder of the weekend I spent in Champaign-Urbana. Josh and I went to a corn maze and had a great time. I am truly looking forward to all the Halloween festivities that are beginning to crop up everywhere.

On Sunday night after my return to Chicago my roommate Jackie took some of us to Nick’s Bar to support a fundraiser for her school. I know, interesting—a school fundraiser at a bar, but it’s true. Nonetheless, it was a fun way to wrap up the weekend in support of a good cause. I hope the 8th graders are able to raise enough for their end of the year trip.

It’s been a great weekend and I am now refreshed to take this next week of “Befriend-a-Family” head on!