Week 5 and 96 Floors Later

I will fully admit that this week was not nearly as insane as last week, so there were actually nights when I came straight home from work and relaxed. Trust me, I was as shocked as you all are. Even though the craziness was less, we were still very busy in the office, but we were pretty much in the office all week rather than out talking to people and having meetings. So really I can’t say anything too exciting about that, just that I still do enjoy working with Sharon and Nicole.

Like I already mentioned, it has been a very relaxed week, but I’m definitely fine with that. I’ve decided that every once in awhile you need to come down from the insanity and know how to be still. Amy and I had several roommate movie nights this week, which is practically unheard of. We were thrilled to be able to watch Sex and the City the movie last night! It arrived on Wednesday, and we had to wait two days to watch it!

I was happy to find a place in the Merchandise Mart (where my office is moving next week) that has sushi to go. Even though this isn’t the greatest sushi like you can get at a restaurant, I have to say it isn’t bad. I was craving something other than the very little I had in my refrigerator, so I picked some up on my way home on Thursday. It was delicious! Now once again, it cannot replace actually going out for sushi, but it’s a temporary fix for those times during the week I don’t feel like spending much money. Actually, next Wednesday night I will probably do something like that again. I work at the Chicago Semester office from 6:00 to 10:00 PM that night with Jim, and we decided that sushi is in order for next week. There aren’t very many people that usually come that night anyway, so we figured we could at least have dinner. 

Thursday night was our art event night, and we went to see David Dorfman dance. I don’t even know what to tell you about event because the majority of the time I was confused. I believe it was post-modern dance, and I know it was based on the story of John Brown from the Civil War. For those of you who don’t know, I believe Brown was the man who claimed God gave him instructions to fight slavery using violence. If you can picture that in dance with a lot of other things thrown in, you’ll understand what I went to see. They used audience participation, and not even five minutes into it my hotel roommate, Julie, and I got pulled on stage. Luckily, we just had to sit there and observe—not dance! It was a fun night though; for the most part I enjoyed the performance.

To cap the weekend off Amy and I made dinner when I got back from work last night. Then we met with Marianne and Brittany and walked to the Signature Room lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock Building. We decided dinner was maybe out of our budget but that we could do drinks. I highly recommend for anyone to do this as we had a great time and a beautiful view! Our server even told us when people had moved, so we ended up right next to a window. The three girls had drinks, but I was craving something sweeter. I definitely had carrot cake, which was amazing (no offense, Mom—I love yours too!!) If you’re in Chicago you just can’t miss an opportunity like that, especially when the weather is so beautiful right now. I guarantee it was the highlight of my week, so now I’ll have to see what the rest of the weekend brings!

All Work and No Play...Or Not!

It has been such a crazy week—I probably say that every week though. This time it seems especially true because I worked extra hours at my internship and was constantly on the run. I think the only day I came straight home after work was Tuesday! I’m not complaining though because part of these after work activities are social calls. My internship definitely has been busy though. We’ve been troubleshooting on some things and trying to finish up other projects while new projects are coming in. It’s a never-ending process, and I have to say I admire Nicole and Sharon. The two of them do the work of at least ten people!

This week I went to some meetings with Nicole and did follow-ups with other people. We either had days where we were never in the office or days where we were all glued to our computer screens. There was nothing in between this week. We had our monthly mixer at Tiffani Kim Institute, which is a wellness spa in the River North area. Ai Japanese catered the event, so we ended up going to the restaurant for an after party when we got everything cleaned up. I was so excited to have my first sushi in Chicago! I can’t believe it’s been four weeks, and I’m only now having my first sushi. What is wrong with me!? We had a nice meal and great service and just got to catch up with some of our members and board members. The event went really well though minus a few problems that came up before it started. We pulled everything off though. Thanks to Erin, Kelly, and Amy for helping serve drinks! I love you girls for doing that last minute. I met a lot of great people and hopefully will be meeting up with some of them soon—professionally and socially.

This week’s art event was at the Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier. We saw the play Amadeus, and I absolutely loved it! This is definitely an art form that I connect to well. The theater was beautiful, and the actors did a wonderful job. This was my first time at Navy Pier, so I can finally say I’ve been there. I think it’s one of those things you just have to see if you’re in Chicago; it’s wrong if you don’t.

As always I’m happy it’s the weekend! I went to Wrigleyville on Friday night with Nicole to meet a bunch of her friends, and we had a blast. They have nicknamed me Pledge or Intern, it just depends on who is referring to me. Apparently, they thought I should have been up there today as well. :) They were all great people, and we just enjoyed the fact that the weekend had finally arrived. On Saturday we had our progressive dinner for all Chicago Semester students and staff, and it was excellent! I have to admit that I didn’t participate in all the courses because I was full from lunch. It was definitely a good eating week though! I had breakfast at the Holiday Inn-Chicago Mart Plaza on Tuesday, Mr. Beef sandwiches on Friday, and Cheesecake Factory for lunch on Saturday. My Chicago dining experiences will continue. :) The big news is the Cubs clinched today! The city has gone wild!

Always Carry Your Umbrella

I’m sad to say that I don’t have a lot of exciting things to tell about this week because I think the reality of the working world has sunk in for all of us. This was the first week where we actually had four days of interning and one day of class, and it was a long and crazy week for most people I talked to. This week I already had deadlines to meet and many meetings to go to. Tuesday morning we had a board meeting, which meant Monday was preparation for that. On top of that the quarterly newsletter is launching hopefully next week as soon as we get some final information. I had three meetings on Thursday, and I got to do two of those on my own. It gave me a chance to explore the area and meet some great people. I still really enjoy my internship, but I definitely am seeing the downside of event planning with some things that have happened this week. We get through it together though, and it’s a great learning experience.

As for the rest of the week, we didn’t get totally soaked any of the days. I decided to invest in a raincoat after last week though, and it’s definitely come in handy! Our art event was inside thankfully at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and on Wednesday during class we went to the Art Institute to have a guided tour of some of the exhibits. It’s great being able to get into some of these things that otherwise I probably wouldn’t know about or think about going to.

Last weekend I had a roommate weekend with Amy on Saturday and Sunday. I took her to the Cityscape Lounge on the fifteenth floor of the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza because we could each get a free martini. It had an amazing view, so we just hung out and caught up on life. You would think when you live with someone that you would actually see and talk to them—not always the case. Life is so hectic for both of us during the week. We also went to this great frozen yogurt place called Berry Chill. During the week I haven’t done a lot because I haven’t really been home at night because of work or class or whatever else comes up; I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, there’s always something going on in Chicago.

Who knows what will go on this weekend. We went to Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville on Friday night to meet up with people my friends knew and had a great time just being out and knowing we didn’t have to get up for work in the morning. I’m definitely appreciating my weekends all that much more! I will say this, my mind has been elsewhere lately. A week ago my cousin had her first baby, Maddox Jackson Taylor, and he is absolutely perfect! It will probably be awhile before I see him, but until then I can just obsess over how cute he is in his pictures. THEN on top of that news, my brother got engaged just a few days, so I’m soon to have a wonderful sister-in-law as well!! I just had to share my fantastic news with everyone, even though it doesn’t really relate to Chicago. Don’t worry, Chicago, I haven’t forgotten about you. :)

The Circus of Chicago Life

I’ve just completed my second week in Chicago, which seems unreal. Most times I actually do feel as though I belong here, and I figure that’s a good thing. I mean there are still days when someone tells me to meet them at the corner of whatever and whatever, and I have to think which direction I need to go. I’m getting used to my apartment neighborhood as well as my internship neighborhood. I guess this would be a good point to actually tell what I’m doing this semester. I’m working with Sharon and Nicole at the River North Association, which is a chamber of commerce for the River North area basically. I have a feeling the entire semester will be a lot of learning, but I’m definitely learning a lot right now. There are programs I’m learning on the computer, and I just know I have to ask questions. I’m learning the files and where things are in the office as well as in the area. Nicole and I took a walking tour on Friday after a lunch meeting we had. I’ve met some of the board members and will meet most of the rest next week. I’ve talked to some on the phone or through e-mail, and everyone seems excited to have me on board. Granted, sometimes I feel like I make things harder rather than easier since I question so many things, but I’ll get the hang of it. In a little over a week we have our monthly mixer, so I’ll get to put my event planning skills to the test. Overall, I’m loving it, and Sharon and Nicole are wonderful women to work with.

I definitely got quite the learning experience on Thursday. You should always carry your umbrella with you in Chicago because you never know when it might rain. I actually did good and remembered it on Thursday since it was overcast in the morning. However, the windy city tends to hold up to its name, and umbrellas don’t always work well with wind. So on my way home from work, I was already wet when I got on the subway. Well, the subway kind of floods when it rains, so I was walking through puddles of water and then jammed between people on the subway and had a hard time getting off at my stop. On top of that I then stopped and talked to someone when I got off and just stood in the rain because at that point it didn’t even matter I was already soaked. The story gets better than that though. We had our first art event, the Zoppe Family Circus, in Pilsen to attend in the rain on Thursday night. Our directions weren’t wonderful, and we had to walk over a mile (at least it seemed that long) in the rain to the park where the circus was. Then we had to tromp through the mud and sit and freeze in the tent. We ran back to the train station after that and were just so excited to get home for the night. It was just ridiculous and miserable, which somehow made it laughable. People probably thought we were hysterical and in need of professional help.

I’ve done a lot of great things in the city this week actually. I went out to Naperville last weekend to go to the Gavin DeGraw concert, which was fantastic!!! Thanks to Kelly for hooking me up with a ticket! Then we attended the free Andrew Byrd (I think that’s the right spelling…) concert at Millennium Park on Wednesday night, and I also attended Wine Fest at Millennium Park on Friday night. There are some great events that I’m totally taking advantage of right now just because the weather is so nice, and you don’t want to miss them! Flutag (once again on the spelling) is also one of those crazy events that was quite entertaining. It was basically people from mostly the Midwest who designed “flying machines” to see how far they will fly when going off a ramp at North Avenue Beach. That’s probably not a good description, but feel free to look it up. It’s sponsored by Red Bull! It’s been a good week and weekend, and now I just need to stop enjoying myself so much and get some homework done. Great…