I went to work today!

For real! Kind of. I had my first day of temping today. I got up at a totally unreasonable hour and put on clothes with buttons and zippers and left the house and had to be somewhere at a certain time and everything! I mean, it was not glamorous or anything. I counted things and put them into an Excel spreadsheet all day. But! I left the house with purpose and made some money today. See! Mindless data entry can be rewarding :-).

Desperate times

It's 8:45 am, and I've already showered, put a suit on, gone downtown and come back home. We're in the midst of a big push to create income this week.

It began on Tuesday when we returned to our old, trusted part-time jobs--plasma selling. They pay more here than they did in Columbia. Of course, it took us five hours so I'm not sure if we still ended up ahead.

We are also looking into becoming mystery shoppers. I think most websites for this are scams, but if we can find one that is not, we'll do it and it'll be great. Also under investigation is getting on game shows. We've been watching lots of them lately and I really think we can win. Kenny is looking into how much he can make selling other bodily fluids--we'll see about that.

Collectively we've been to 3 interviews with temp/placement type agencies. I might have one more tomorrow to follow-up on the crack of dawn one I had this morning. I think things are turning are looking up. We're not inches from the poor house or anything, but it would be nice if the flow of money were not so one-way right now.

The status of our various stuffed and unstuffed animals.

So, we keep coming across this:

















This, is Booger. When he first arrived in DC there was an unfortunate burning accident that resulted from his hanging out on the chandelier. The dark area on his tushy is where Kenny patched him. He also came with his leg attached backwards and had to have reconstructive surgery on his ear. In other words, he's been through a lot. Booger is supposed to be here:



















Pretty sure we found the culprit.
























So I killed Greenie.



















But he probably won't learn his lesson because I gave him a new one.

How Chicago is gonna make me fat

1. Stuffed french toast. A diner near our house serves a special french toast. A french toast stuffed with CHEESECAKE filling. You kind of have to split it with somebody or I have a feeling the waitresses would scold you.
   
2. Nachos. We had to go to a bar before we had internet at the house because Kenny was having a Lost meltdown. Our first unsuccessful cable appointment was on a Thursday and was supposed to work out perfectly so that we could watch the previous week's show before that night. Instead, we headed to a bar that had free wireless. We ordered our standard $2 PBRs and the waitress asked if we would like some nachos. They were on special for $5. A few minutes later we ordered them and she asked the awe inspiring question, "Do you want those with chips or WAFFLE FRIES?"
   
3. Fried mac n cheese bites. We were at a bar celebrating some friends' birthdays. The kitchen was about to close. I had two minutes to get my order in. I opened the menu and immediately saw them. They were as good as they seem like they would be and they came with ranch for dipping. This is something I had missed about the Midwest. Everything comes with ranch and if it doesn't, nobody looks at you funny for asking for some.
   

The mis-relocation of our stuff

If a goal of moving is to downsize, we achieved that...however inadvertently. We decided to rent space on a big moving truck so that we wouldn't have to worry about gas and towing our car and all sorts of perfectly logical reasons. We got a great rainy day for the load and stacked boxes at least eight high in the really tall truck. Twine, twine, everywhere there was twine. For the Chicago unload, we had 2 hours. Thanks to our friend Jim, we got it done in time. Of course we saved time in the unload because we didn't have to carry our broken furniture to the apartment. I'd say a good quarter of the boxes jingled with the sound of broken glass. And you'd think plastic boxes would hold up better than cardboard. Really not the case. I believe there was a stack of four collapsed into each other.

Some of the things that broke in the move:
Tv stand/cabinet thing
expensive wedding gift I don't even want to mention
2 red wine glasses
2 brandy snifters
1 large white plate
1 brown bowl
2 juice glasses
1 large water glass
1 brown loaf pan
1 brown mug
a host of plastic boxes

And then all of our other stuff is just scratched, cracked, our dented. It's for the best. Puts things into perspective. Our stuff is just stuff. And some of our stuff is in the landfill now.

Top five update:

One of Jack's closest friends, Lindsey, posted hers here and Molly is making a blog for the sole purpose of posting hers--it will be linked here once she comes up with the name.

Submitting to peer pressure so soon

Megan tagged me on her blog to do this, and Molly said I had to do it. So I'm doing it. My top fives:

1. 5 things under $5 that I couldn’t live without

• Excedrin
  
• Trader Joe's wine (so many decent 4.99 bottles)
• Cheese
  
• PJs (mine are all worth under 5 dollars because they are that worn out)
• Allegra
  

2. 5 favorite movies

• So I Married an Ax Murderer
• Pulp Fiction
• Happiness of the Katakuris
• Mary Poppins (I like the part where they clean the nursery)
• Baby Boom

3. 5 baby names I love

• Clara
• Alma
• Ben
• Oscar
• Candela

4. 5 songs I could listen to over and over again

• Bubble Toes (Jack Johnson)
• Rehab (Amy Winehouse)
• Forever (Ben Harper)
• Seed 2.0 (The Roots)
• Best Imitation of Myself (Ben Folds)

5. 5 people who have influenced me in a positive way

• Elizabeth (an English hedonist I met in Portugal who was extraordinarily comfortable with her body)
• Molly (who first corrupted me--so by extension is responsible for Megan as well)
• Sociology professors (because they are right so now I am too)
• My mom (because she taught me how to make good mashed potatoes)
• By dad (because he taught me to appreciate the finer things in life like TV)
  

6. 5 things that are always in my purse

Boring but true...

• Puppy dog Discover
• Formerly Smartrip, now Chicago Plus Card
• Phone
• Keys
• Alternative footwear

7. 5 moments that changed my life forever

• The first day of kindergarten
  
• Deciding to study in Spain
  
• Deciding to email Kenny when I was traveling in Europe
• Choosing GW for grad school and dragging a boy to DC
  
• Recklessly deciding to move to Chicago without jobs
  

8. 5 obsessions I have now

• cleaning and organizing
• adapting to life with DVR
• getting at least one of us employed
• I would say nesting, but I think we've done it
• news/blogs/scrabulous/gchat/email
  

9. 5 places I would like to go

(limited to places I haven't been yet)

• Seattle (to visit Ms. Carri)
  
• Germany (the motherland)
  
• Korea
  
• Chile
• Turkey
  

10. 5 appliances or kitchen tools I cannot live without

• wine opener
• chef's knife
• pizza pan (has holes and I think is better than the stone)
• wine glasses
• oven
  

11. 5 people whose top fives I would like to see

• Molly (who will need to start a blog for this sole purpose)
  
• Jack (the puppy)
• 3 of Jack's closest friends
  

The story of our luv seats.

So I had this great idea. On our way to the hardware store, we discovered a thrift store. Finally, the answer to our couch dilemma. We needed something cheap, and something that would fill up our bigger than before living space. Ikea had failed us. We found two tweed-like plaid winged back luv seats. The price was right, and I convinced Kenny that delivery would not be a problem because of course I could help him carry them the few blocks to our house. We even did a test lift in the store. Super confident, really.

About 2 blocks later, Kenny's knees were giving out because I kept making us set the sofa down so my arms could rest. Then Kenny had an idea. So. I went to the get the car. We put the two legs I had been carrying in the trunk of the car, and Kenny walked behind carrying his end.

Hehehe.

I drove at about 1 mile per hour. We had to park and both carry it across the one busy street on the way to our house. There were two men sitting outside the fire station who laughed at us. They asked when we were switching. One man ran from his family and asked if he could help. Eventually, we got to our house and carried it up two flights of stairs. Then we returned and started the process again.

I just asked Kenny how long he thought the trip was. He guessed .6 miles.

He was close in that it was half that.

Jack, who had until this point been pretty bitter with us (not so much because we took him from his park and all his friends and made him sit in a car for 12 hours--but mostly because he only had an air mattress to sit on at this new place) began his path to forgiving us when we showed up.

For more pictures of our new home, go here.