Hmmm

It's been awhile since my last post. Not only because I've been busy, but because I don't really know what to write about. I've been doing fun things which warrant writing about - such as the Poland vs. US soccer match, starting a bowling league, and finishing up my sailing lessons but I don't really have a lot to say about these things other than they were fun! I would do them all again!

Hmm, I feel that work has been taking up more of my thoughts lately. It is going well and I'm excited about my current project because I'm getting to add healthcare design to my resume, but I can see a lot of overtime hours in my future, which I'm not terribly excited about. I like what I do, but I want to keep doing things like soccer matches and sailing, etc. Somehow I've managed to luck out in my design life so far as to not work too many crazy hours (with a few exceptions over the years), but relatively speaking, haven't had to work into the night too many times. I'm happy to be back to work (for over 3 months now - time flies!) but want to keep making my out-of-work activities a priority as well.

So yeah, bowling is coming to a close in a few weeks and I'm up for suggestions on new adventures now that sailing is over. Some possible trips I see in my future but alas, those are difficult these days because of work as well.
Hopefully next time I will have a crazy story to tell. For now, just going along business as usual.

Old habits die hard

I am nearing my 2 month mark at my new job. Life now finds me so busy that I don't have a lot of time to reflect. When I got the job, I think I got a little over-excited and started making way too many plans. Part of this is because the warm weather is nearing an end (tear) and everyone is trying to cram in as much fun as possible before the Chicago hibernation months hit. I have so much going on that I'm having trouble finding time to schedule my remaining 2 sailing lessons-I've only had 1 so far and it was lovely. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed climbing all over the boat. My next one, weather permitting, is next weekend.

And now a random story I find interesting. I was walking home from a Cubs game last week with my friend Kay and it was dark. As per the usual, I was engrossed in whatever girl-talk we were having that I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. I did not notice that we were walking down my old street where I lived for 2 years, but moved from about a year and a half ago (in the city at night all the streets kinda look the same - haha). I did not notice we were on my old street until we walked by my old apartment and out of habit, I reached out to open the door to my old building. It took me a second of looking around to figure out where I was and why I had the desire to go into this building (no - I was not drunk.) Half of me was amazed that I could walk down this street I used to live on for 2 years and not realize I was walking down my old street, the other half of me was amazed at despite not being conscious of where I was, my subconscious knew exactly where I was and was not going to let me walk by without entering that apartment.

So the point of this? I don't know. To force a point - it's easy to slip back into the past. I am surprised at how easily I am re-adjusting to the working world. I hope to not get bored of it too quickly. So far life is anything but boring and I'm excited to see how it progresses as the excitement of summer comes and goes. Next up. . .I signed up for a bowling league with some new coworkers! Yes - I'm a nerd and couldn't be happier to find some bowling buddies!

Working Girl

So it's been a few weeks and I've been getting some requests for updates. I haven't done any new blogs since I've started working - not because I don't have the time - but because I've been trying to figure out what I think about it. It's been almost a month now back in the working world and I think it is only just starting to sink in that I have a job.

When I was not working, I would wake up every morning and have to remind myself of what was going on in my life: "Ok, today is a Tuesday I think, I have plans to go for a run with a friend" or "It's 10am, did I oversleep on anything? No, ok, I guess I should do some job hunting." or my favorite "Where am I? Oh yeah, in a hostel in Poland." Today I woke up exhausted and had a more familiar thought from my past, "I'm soo tired. Wait! It's Saturday, I don't have to do anything!" I am still reminding myself on a daily basis that I have a job now and need to get up to go to work. Luckily so far I like my job and it's not too hard to make myself go.

So, my goal now that I have a job is to keep doing interesting things so that I don't fall back into my lifestyle I had before becoming unemployed. I had gotten to the point where I would go to work, come home, watch tv and go to bed during the week. Sure, I would go out on weekends, but I became pretty boring during the week. My first attempt to keep life exciting - I signed up for some sailing lessons - future blogs to follow. Also I've been doing a lot of weekend travels to weddings (see picture of my sister's wedding and me dressed up in the mother-in-law's old vintage dress which I wore to the rehearsal dinner), I went to a cubs game yesterday, and I've still been making time to paint!

I think the biggest change in my mentality after being unemployed for almost 6 months is that I seem to think everything is temporary now - more so than I used to. I keep thinking that this job could end any day now and I'd have to figure out something else to do. I don't know how long I'll stay in Chicago bc several of my friends moved to other cities to accept new jobs. Even this week I got a request for an interview at another firm - when it rains, it pours. I found myself thinking, "Well, I did this job for a month, maybe I'll do this new job for awhile."

And even though I'm so much busier than I was a couple months ago, I keep wanting to fill my time with more and more things. I even contemplated finding a retail job for the weekends. I think my mind is going nuts and doesn't know how to handle all of this new excitement of being busy in life again! It will wear off shortly I am sure and I'll be wanting to find ways to take things out of my life so I can sit around and watch a little tv, but for now, I'm happy to be energized and excited about work! (Please, please, work drama stay out of my life as long as possible!)

How to choose a story

I have returned after my month of travels to the windy city and I believe it has taken me a full week to recover. My stomach was pretty upset with me for all the strange things I was feeding it and not happy to even go back to my regular diet here in the states.

Annnnyyyway, enough about that. London was delightful! Ireland was gorgeous! Poland was crazy! What? You want more details than that? Ok, ok

So one of my favorite things about traveling around Europe (I have many favorite things about traveling around Europe) is all the legends / stories they tell about their land and tourist attractions.

For instance, Smok the Dragon that once lived under Wawel Castle in Krakow that liked to feast on young virgins. Or the great Irish Giant Finn McCool who supposedly built the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland to fight the Scottish Giant, Benandonner. Finn McCool did not realize until after the causeway was built that Benandonner was much larger than himself. His wife therefore dressed Finn as a baby so that when Benandonner came over to fight he was afraid because if the baby was that big, then the father must be very large indeed. Benandonner tore apart the causeway on his way back over to Scotland. According to scientists, the thousands of hexagon shaped rocks are the result of an ancient volcanic eruption - not as interesting as the giants in my opinion.

Another favorite part of traveling are all the street performers. I can do without the moving statues, but the musicians I enjoy. I have included a video of my favorite - I love these boys; it is a video from the Temple Bar area in Dublin. Another favorite was a puppeteer in the Zakapone mountains in Poland and some break dancers in Krakow.

Oh! And the lack of clothing accepted by the Polish people! Whilst climbing some gorgeous mountains in Poland we saw several people hardly dressed, but my favorite was a pretty large woman walking about the mountain sporting only a bra for her top - not a sports bra, mind you. I also went to a waterpark in the mountains with my newly wed in Poland friend, Courtney and my travel buddy / roomie Tanya. Can you say Speedos? I know this is not only a Poland thing, but my American eyes are not used to seeing that much of well, you know, out in public places with children around.

Well this was a less cohesive blog than what I usually provide, but that's what you get after a month or random adventures in Europe. There are just too many stories to tell. I will try to tell a few more in future blogs because believe me, there are some crazy stories. Basically I am so happy that I was unemployed and could spend a month traveling, I really can't think of much else I enjoy more. I'm hoping the post-trip depression I always get doesn't set in too quickly.

London Bridges Falling Down

So I'm nearing the end of my stay in London. I leave for Dublin tomorrow. Coming here again has been great, and has renewed my love affair with this city. I would love to live and work here, but am finding that it may not be meant to be. When I decided to do some job searching in Europe I knew my chances were less than great, less than a long shot really, but thought I would try anyway. Hours/days of email writing, networking, application writing, and office tours later and I find myself with zero leads to a real job. The only 'bites' I've had are potential job leads in Chicago, which don't get me wrong - I'm greatful for in this economy and I do in fact still love Chicago. So much so that I went to see the broadway musical Chicago whilst here in London (it was amazing!!) After I am done with my travels I will see if it is not too late to pursue my Chicago lead and pray I won't go too many more months without work, although a summer at the beach does sound pretty tempting if this falls through as well.

Well then, London. . .it's a postcard quality photo around every corner. Between the accents and the architecture and actually finding some tasty food, I'm in heaven. Speaking of food, check out the 'jacket potatoes' - not my most healthy choice, but then, when am I ever healthy? For those of you not familiar with the London lingo - Jacket potatoes are baked potatoes. Other language differences include chips vs. crisps, minding the gap, taking lifts and nobody can give me a clear definition of the word 'Cheeky' although I am familiar with the word - it's just not thrown about in the states the way people use it here.

I find myself being more proper despite my best efforts to maintain my American identity. Saying things like 'quite a lot' and 'a bit' more often with a slight british accent and then wondering what's happened to my voice. I'm one of those people who starts immitating accents when I'm talking to people with accents and am working to stop this. I can't help it. Maybe my subconscious just wants to fit in, but am probably making a fool of myself in the meantime. I should start saying things like 'dude' and 'which way to the McDonalds?' to remind myself of where I'm from.

I'm sad to be leaving London, but am ready to be around more people I know and love again. Another 2 weeks of travel here I come! Oh man, I'm exhausted already just thinking about the rest of my roaming about Europe. It's a tough life ;)

London Fairy Tale

So I'm finally here again! It already seems I've been in London a long time, but it has just been a few days - 5 to be exact. So far I have had a wonderful time and been doing mostly a lot of re-seeing things I saw 4 years ago when I was here for 3 months. It does surprise me how familiar many areas feel, like I was just there yesterday, but I do still feel like a tourist who is just getting to know the city.
So on my first day here, I went back to my old 'hood' where I stayed years ago at the ever luxurious Hyde Park Hostel (I am now getting the experience of staying in an actual London apartment thanks to my friend Gina's sister, Michaela who was very generous to share her studio apartment with me).
After walking by the old hostel, I decided to go back and walk through Hyde Park which is as beautiful as I remembered, but I had forgotten just how big it is. So anyway, I was walking along and this squirrel spots me from about 30 feet away. I look at it and it starts coming up to me until finally it's at my feet staring up at me. I guessed it wanted food and obviously must be used to people feeding it, but alas, I had no food. It put its paws up on my umbrella which I was carrying and finally gave up when it decided I had no food for him. I thought this was a funny little people friendly squirrel until about 5 minutes later I had a bird following me. This yellow little sparrow-looking bird flew to the fence I was walking along and startled me. I kept walking and every 3 or 4 steps I would take it would fly further along the fence to stay beside me. Honestly I was now starting to fear the animals would attack and looked around to see if someone else found this behavior strange. Luckily taking a few steps away from the fence seemed to discourage the bird from following me, but I feel that if I would have started singing a deer and a few bunnies may have come out to dance with me.
Other than this encounter with animals, London just looks like a fairy tale with its old buildings and quaint shops, etc. I have only found one prince charming so far, but it's still early on my trip. Kidding. I will try to blog more happily ever after as my travels continue.

Too Practical??

Those who know me at all, know that I am very practical. I don't like to do things that don't make sense to me. I'm frugal with my money, rarely indulge in more than a couple drinks, never smoke, and feel guilty if I lie around too long without being productive.

This is not to say I don't enjoy the silly things in life, for instance I act like a child on a daily basis: tree climbing, dancing about, singing whatever little tune pops into my head, etc. So when I am accused of taking life too seriously, I don't think much of it. However, when I was out to dinner with my friend Miron yesterday having delicious spicy orange chicken, I was alarmed at my end of the meal fortune cookie's level of boring-ness (yes, I know that is not a word).
Prepare yourself for the most practical, mind numbingly boring fortune cookie message ever given. Drum roll please. . .ah hem

"You have the ability to plan a practical course for yourself and follow through."

I'm sorry, I just fell asleep. Seriously!? That's my fortune. Typically I pay little attention to these things, with the understanding that Confucius is not relaying these messages from beyond the grave; they are instead probably being typed up by former journalism majors who can't figure out what else to do (no offense to any journalism majors - I know some of you and you're good people.) I'm not going to lie, I was a bit offended by this fortune. I was taken aback at how much it fit me and seeing it in writing illuminated how un-exciting my outlook on life sounds.

I will take this moment to defend practicality. First of all, my 'cheapness' is what now affords me to live in unemployment without fear of losing my apartment and even plan a trip to Europe. Secondly, think of all the brain cells I am saving by not falling into a drunken stupor every weekend. Umm, ok, I'm running out of ways to make practicality sound impressive.

Basically, I am aware that the reason this fortune offends me is because maybe I get upset at myself for being too practical at times. I hope during my time off from work that I take the time to be a little irrational and just simply do what I want. I mean, it's not like I have a job I may lose or children to grow ashamed of me. Come on Megan, your life should not be so boring that practical cookies make you hang your head in shame.

(Ok, it is too ironic that the cookie image at the top of my post pops up on the first page of google images when you type in 'fortune cookie'. Even google can predict my actions.)

A tourist in my own city

So, I'm biding my time waiting for the day I get to hop on the plane for London, and then Dublin, and then Warsaw. It's coming up in less than a month, but in the meantime, I'm itching to travel! One of those pesky little things that goes along with being unemployed, is not having a lot of money to throw around, so basically I have to fool myself into the idea of being on vacation here in my own city. I did go on a fun little road trip last weekend to Toledo with my partners in crime, Kay and Miron, but even this did not fill my urge to explore.

Luckily for me, Chicago is packed with places I still have not been. My ex-roommate Laura, who currently resides in Boston, came to town a couple weekends ago and we roamed around Chinatown, Oldtown, Wicker Park, and so on. We hit some old goodies, but happily for me we discovered some new treasures. I learned that the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago was named for the first African American Mayor of Chicago. Also that Wacker Drive was named after Charles Wacker who pushed Daniel Burnham's and Edward Bennett's City Plan for Chicago. It takes a tourist coming to town for me to learn some basic facts about the city - thank you Laura.

Before my fellow unemployed friend, Jyotika, got the hell out of dodge to go live in India last week, she showed me her favorite place in Chicago - Graceland Cemetery. It was beautiful and the final resting place of many Chicago architectural geniuses (Daniel Burnham, Mies van der Rohe, Louis Sullivan, to name a few).

Finally to take advantage of the weather that is finally getting warm, I read outside today at Millennium Park and it was wonderful. But alas, I may not be able to call myself a tourist anymore. I finally had to give in and get an Illinois Driver's License as my Nebraska one is expiring. A single tear fell, but I'm embracing my Illinois status as I am calling it home for now. Still trying to figure out what comes next. Stay tuned.

Don't have a story

I don't have a funny little story to tell or adventure to share this time. Thought I would just write about what my life as an unemployed person has become. The days of the week no longer matter. Sunday, Wednesday, they don't mean anything. I was talking to one of my several unemployed friends and she feels the same way. We keep track of what day it is mainly out of habit. Also I've found that I like going to the grocery store in the middle of the day when everyone else is at work. I find myself avoiding running errands on weekends because there are too many people around and in my way. I feel like an 'old person' who avoids rush hour traffic - but my traffic is people instead of cars since I walk or bus most places.

It has been sunny out lately, which is wonderful, but it has still been cold so the sun is mostly a tease of nice weather which I am so excited for. I have decided that if you have the choice - become unemployed in the summertime. Having all the freetime in the world is not so fun when it's freezing out. But it's getting better and I'm so excited for hot days and my trip to Europe is coming up.

So, what do I do with all my time you ask? (This is what everyone asks the unemployed and my answers are always different)

1. sleep
2. hang out with other unemployed people
3. job hunt
4. travel (just got back from Nebraska; planning for London, Dublin and various cities in Poland)
5. restart old hobbies I abandoned (see pointillism photo)
6. shop for bridesmaid dresses and make veils for the 2 weddings you are maid of honor in for this summer (this may be specific to me and not all unemployed people)
7. feed my Netflix addiction (currently addicted to the series Dexter and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
8. volunteer - I'm currently working on some graphics work for people with Aphasia - may blog more about this later
9. most of my time is spent reflecting and trying to figure out what direction I want my life to go. No major realizations yet, but it's only been 2.5 months :)

There are other boring things such as walking around, trying to get motivated to work out again, taking care of silly things like finally getting an IL license. But alas, there is always something to do

It's a bird! It's a plane! No wait, yeah. . yeah it's a bird

I am currently in my home town of Omaha, Nebraska (which contrary to popular belief, is not located in the south - Omaha is pretty much a straight line west from Chicago - look at a map people).  It has been a mostly fun time, beginning with road tripping across Iowa with my sister to get home and surprise my mom.  She was thoroughly surprised, but mostly just wanted to know how many lies we had told her in order to keep this trip a secret.  Basically the answer is, a lot.  My sister and I are very good at deception (with the help of dad of course - he would be upset if we took all the credit).

Anyway, the main purpose of this post is to talk about my trip to see the Sandhill cranes in Kearney, NE.  Every year an estimated 600,000 cranes migrate through the Nebraska Platte River Valley.  My parents were planning on going to see them and I decided I would expand my unemployment adventures to the middle of nowhere Nebraska.  On the way to Kearney, we stopped at the ever-impressive Great Platte River Archway http://archway.org/ which is basically a tourist attraction museum created over interstate 80 which leads you through a replicated Oregon trail, covered wagons and all.  Basically it was as wonderfully cheesy as would be expected - with a cowboy to greet you at the door, wax figures demonstrating how to survive out in the great plains, and fake lightening and thunder as you walked through the exhibits.  After this national treasure, it was time to move on to see the cranes.

My parents went to see the cranes land in the evening, but I was mostly interested in seeing them take off in the morning.  So, we woke up at 5:30am in order to get out to what is called a 'blind' out by the sandhills of the Platte River so that we could be ready before the cranes get up and fly away in the mornings to fill up on corn in the fields.  A blind, I have learned, is essentially a shed with holes cut out of it so that you can look out but not be seen by the birds.  Before the sun began to rise, I felt very silly, huddling in a pitch-black shed with other bird watchers. . .waiting. . .for something to happen.  I have decided that this was the closest I will ever come to feeling like I am hunting.

Finally when the sun rose far enough to see what was in front of us, we could see thousands upon thousands of birds resting out on the water.  We were told that most often what makes the birds take off is an eagle, which could come by and scare the birds off at any moment.  After probably only a half hour of waiting, in the distance I could see what looked to be a black cloud coming our way.  As you probably guessed, the black cloud was actually birds.  Soon after this, an eagle did scare the remaining birds and I found myself being overwhelmed by thousands of birds swarming above.

For some reason I can't get the video to upload right now, I will try again later, but it was pretty amazing.  In conclusion, all you Nebraskans who have not made it out to see the cranes take off, it's well worth the trip.  Unemployment task #5:  Bird Watching
Check

Used to being a man

In my efforts to try new things in the city, I went with my fellow unemployed friend, Laura, to the Winter Dance at the Frank Gehry Pritzker Pavillion.  This is a month-long effort in Chicago to promote tourism and basically try to get people to actually pay for some dance lessons.  I, however, have no intention of paying for such things but will take advantage when lessons are offered for free!  So, the dance lessons were offered to my delight on the stage of the Pritzker Pavillion (see images) and was a grand time. 

A little story about this to amuse you, during one of the dances, we had to get in a big circle and dance with your partner for about 10 seconds, then you would dance your way through the circle and have to switch partners, then dance with that person for about 10 seconds, etc.  Well, as these things go, there were more females than there were males, so many girls had to play the male dance role.  I volunteered to play the part of a man.  However, the group was full of beginners and as we proceeded round the circle, people of course messed up and I ended up getting partnered with a boy.  Because I was used to doing the moves in reverse, I was messing up and to my delight and his, I got to use a phrase I never thought I would have the context to say. . ."I'm sorry, I'm used to being a man."
I then got the hang of playing both a male and female dancer so I am now an ambidextrous dancer (for this one and only dance I am sure to forget in a few weeks).

I'm supposed to be job hunting?

First, I want to say that I have a love-hate relationship with winter. I can't stand the cold, however the snow does create some gorgeous landscapes. Also will take a moment to complain about the dog owners who for some reason think that snow is magic and makes their dog's poo disappear. This is not true, just saying.
Well, I think I gave my mom a minor panic attack when I mentioned trying to set up some interviews in London. In May I am going to be in my best friend Courtney's wedding in Poland and I have decided to take some time to travel around while in Europe, seeing as I have no current reason to be in Chicago. I am excited to experience a new country and confuse the Polish people with my American ways, but am also very excited to return to England, if only for a short time. As everyone has been warning me, the economy in London is awful as well, but I'm going to try to look for jobs there anyway. And if I don't find one, instead I will cross some more buildings off my list - check out this book cover - my brother got it for me for Christmas last year and the girl on the cover looks exactly like me!! Ok, I know you can only see her from behind, but the back of her head looks identical to mine. Come on, you must agree. Fate? I believe so
Also, I must find that shark sweatshirt somewhere

It's raining men?

Well, I have had some requests for more juicy blog posts. I doubt this will be a regular occurrence on my blog, but men do seem to be coming out of the sky since I became unemployed. I have a few theories why this is happening. . .
1. Despite what I would hope to be true, maybe some men don't really want strong, independent women. Maybe they really just want someone they feel they can take care of or feel more powerful next to. My unemployment has taken me down a peg and I can now play the role of the damsel in distress. Unfortunately for these types of boys, I'm horrible at playing this role and they will soon realize I like to take care of myself.
2. To give boys the benefit of the doubt, more than likely this has nothing to do with my unemployment; instead maybe people are realizing it is almost valentines day and they have no dates. Unfortunately for the boys, they will again be disappointed as I already have plans - movie night! Kay, I did not forget.
3. Final theory; God is messing with me. Or maybe sending boys to amuse me since I have free time and they can also buy me some food as I am now a bum. Wait, this counters the liking to take care of myself comment. hmmm
Ah well. This wasn't really a juicy post

Insight from the Burbs

Well,
It's only been a few days since my first post, so I have not discovered much about what to do with my life. I did get some tips however from my cousins. Mostly I'm posting this because my little cousins are so adorable. So watch the video.
The other pictures are of the train tracks on the way out to St. Charles.

Week 3

So I have been unemployed for 2 weeks now. Starting on the third week. I'm starting this blog, well, because I have time! Also, I feel that if I start a blog, it will motivate me to do some cool things with my time so that I have something to write about. Nobody wants to read about how I sat around watching tv for 8 hours. Well, this may make people jealous, but is not the point of this blog. Also makes me sound pretty pathetic.

So, things I have discovered in the first 2 weeks of unemployment:
1. Life does not end when you don't go to work in the morning
2. It is very easy to find ways to fill your time
3. There is an alarming number of people roaming the streets during weekdays, sitting in coffee shops, etc and I have NO idea what these people do for a living
4. Most importantly, I have already learned that unemployment is exactly what I need right now. I've been going through the motions of life and not making myself figure out what I want to do next. Hopefully this blog with help me document my findings ;)

Oh, and one fun thing I've done so far with my freetime - glass balconies at the Sears (or Willis) Tower. Check it out