haven't posted in awhile

Hey... I haven't posted in awhile, I know. I really do need to post more often.

Life has been normal... busy, but normal. Seth is deep into study-mode again, which means I'm kinda single until the end of October. I miss having him around and it means I need to take on more "household responsibilities." Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully this will be his last exam (if he passes, it will).

Other than that, just been working and normal life things. Work has been good... so far this year has been pretty calm, which is always a good thing. This weekend is pretty chill --- went shopping for Karen's bridesmaids dresses this afternoon and that was fun. Aside from that, there's not too much going on (except for the normal housework, etc.).

Anyway, I would very much like to take a nap so that's what I'm going to do:)

Labor Day BBQ:)

A very quick little blog... work has been good. The first week was great and very mellow around the school. Week two had some more drama and issues, but still ok.

We had a great time at the Sox/Sox game on Saturday --- gorgeous weather, a great game (well not from Seth's perspective but too bad... lol:), fun times with friends. And then today (Sunday) we had friends over for a Labor Day BBQ and had a wonderful time!

First day of school, rescues, and more...

It's Sunday night and I'm relaxing before the work week begins. The first day back with students is tomorrow and that's always scary-exciting. I'm feeling positive about this year, so I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll stay that way! I'm actually really glad students are back... the part of my job I enjoy is working with the students --- the scheduling and paper-work stuff I do all summer is fine, but I don't really like it. Plus things were crazy this past week with all the changes in enrollment --- adding students and taking them out --- so I'll be glad to have some distractions from that.

This weekend was really nice... we went out to a yummy dinner with my dad on Friday night, then Saturday I went for a swim and cleaned the house... then Saturday night we had friends over for game night. We had a LOT of fun --- just a lot of silliness with the games, and a lot of laughs. We stayed up really late, though, so today we slept in really late. Which was nice to be able to rest, but bad because I'm afraid my sleep schedule is thrown off for tomorrow. And I want to be alert for the first day back.

The most "exciting" part of the weekend, however, was this afternoon when we had major drama down the alley from our condo. I let Toby out around 2:30 and saw several fire-trucks and fire-fighters all around a condo building 3 down from ours. I went over and asked someone if she knew what was going on, and she said that she heard there were people working on the sewer line behind the condo, and the trench collapsed on two workers. So I went to tell Seth and we both were out there (with several other neighbors) watching to see what would happen. We soon learned that the workers were talking with rescuers, so they were ok, but still trapped. Eventually there were about 10 emergency vehicles (firetrucks, ambulances, "breathing apparatus unit," "special operations unit," "collapse rescue unit") and at least 30 emergency workers. We watched them for hours --- they had to dig, shore up the hole so it didn't collapse back in, saw holes in the two decks above where the guy was, set up some sort of pulley system to hoist him out, etc. It was pretty amazing... they all knew what to do and worked so hard to save these two guys' lives. They had all this equipment and expertise to know exactly what steps to take and what plans to try. It was really admirable. Thankfully, after about 3 1/2 hours they were able to get both workers out (one had gotten pulled out after about 1 1/2 hours, but the other one was buried deeper). Both ther workers were in serious to critical condition, but they were both alive, which is the important thing. There's an article about it here: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/08/firefighters-work-to-rescue-worker-from-trench.html
And it was on the news (that was another exciting/interesting thing about the whole situation... watching all the news crews reporting) and actually on the 5:00 news on Channel 7, they had a shot of the crowd watching in the alley and I was on the news! For like a split second, but it was kinda fun:)

So that took up, really, the entire afternoon. It was an absolutely beautiful day so really nice to be outside; I had wanted to take Toby to the park, but he sat with me on the deck in the sun while I read for awhile time later, and went for a long walk this evening with Seth, so it was ok:) And luckily, the whole drama had a good outcome.

Anyway, I should try and go to bed pretty soon. More later...

Days off, in-laws, "stay-cation"

Haven't written in awhile because I've been pretty busy. I've had off work for a week now and I don't go back to Monday (I took last Thursday off because my in-laws were in town, but this week the school is closed). It's been really nice... even though I kind of missed not going anywhere this summer, it was also nice to be home (plus we have Vegas in October and probably Spring Training in Arizona or Florida in the spring, and hopefully San Diego in May, if Seth passes his next/last exam). And this week was nice because with my in-laws in town we get to kind of be like tourists... we did a lot -- Botanical Gardens and tapas on Thursday (which I love and have to get to more often... it's so beautiful and relaxing there), Sox game on Friday (it was great! Sox won 10-5 against the Yankees), street fest (we took Toby with and he had so much fun:), Greektown and Jersey Boys on Saturday (which I really enjoyed), Second City on Sunday (SO funny), and Lincoln Park Zoo on Monday. Then they went home, but Monday night I went to showtunes with Jen and had a great time (as always), and Tuesday I went to Movies in the Park with Lauren, Jen and Charlie and, as always, we had a great evening of picnicking, drinking wine, talking, and watching the movie. Then today I decided I need to take more advantage of the fact that Chicago museums are free for educators... so I went to the Aquarium/Oceanarium, which was great... loved looking at the fish and whales and everything. It made me want to go diving again really badly. And then since I was there and had a little time and it was free, I decided to go to the Planetarium to see the star show.

Plus, the weather has been amazing the past week --- mid-70s, sunny, breezy.... just amazing. It'll be tough getting back to work after the 10 days off or so...

Anyway, Seth and I are going to watch some TV. More later...

Really nice day....

Hello... had a really nice day today. We started out by going to lunch with Glenn, Sarah and Jason, then Seth went to a Cubs game and I headed home. It was absoultely gorgeous weather this weekend .. warm, but not hot, no humidity, sunny with some puffy clouds and a light breeze. So Toby and I went to Lincoln Park up by Montrose Harbor and enjoyed the weather, I read for awhile, and we just lazed around. Then I went to yoga class, which was also nice and relaxing. Now I'm just waiting for Seth to make dinner and then eat and relax this evening.

Not much else has been going on... just working for the most part. This weekend was actually pretty laid back, surprisingly. We went to a fund-raiser for my friend Colleen's dad on Friday night (he needs a liver transplant... it was a great event), then on Saturday night we went to Taste of Lincoln to see the band 16 Candles with Glenn and Sarah. It was fun for the most part, but at the beginning it was SO crowded and we had these annoying people by us. It was really claustrophobic ... but then they stopped letting people in so it got much better and then was fun.

This next weekend (well end of week and weekend) my in-laws are in town so that's busy, but fun. Then I have the next week off work and not much to do, which I'm very happy about:)

Blog....

Hello. Late night Sunday blogging... not very tired tonight; not sure why. Saturday night was Chris and Lauren's wedding and we had a really good time. It was nice not being in the wedding and just being able to have fun with my friends. Anyway, I slept in today because we were up late with the wedding last night, but I was still sleepy and now I'm just not tired. We went to see the new Harry Potter movie tonight so that maybe why I'm up... sometimes it's hard to go do something then get home at like 11:30 and go right to sleep.



Anyway, I'm going to try and read or something to go to sleep.

Fourth of July weekend

Writing at the end of 4th of July weekend. We had a great time... Thursday I had the day off and Seth got off early -- and we got our new TV (the old one broke a week and a half ago)! It was very exciting... it's a great flat screen HDTV and it's so nice to have a nice one:) Also on Thursday we went for a nice long bike ride....

On Friday Seth went golfing, and I did cleaning most of the day, except for taking Toby for a walk, and then going for sushi for dinner with Seth. Mostly, we got ready for the BBQ on Saturday! Then on Saturday -- 4th of July -- was the BBQ. We had a great time, even though it rained for part of it (since we're on the 1st floor, it didn't get us too much on the deck) and the sun came out and it became a beautiful evening eventually. We had a lot of fun and good food!:)

Then today, we pretty much just lazed around and cleaned from the BBQ. We're going to go take Toby for a walk now so more later.