Well, except they didn't win, but that's okay. The game went to 12 innings, so the excitement was still high. Yes, our seats were super-crappy, but they did give me a good view of the entire field.
It's been awhile since I posted. Life all of a sudden got extra busy during the month of July, and it still hasn't stopped. Where did the time go? I move to Minneapolis this Sunday. Am I ready? Literally no, mentally yes. I'm ready for my next big adventure.
Anyway, so yeah, this past weekend I was in Chicago for a couple of exciting events. After work on Thursday I drove myself to Indianapolis to Sean's house, and on Saturday his fam and I headed up to Chicago for his cousin's wedding. It really was a nice wedding. The church was really big and old (yet because of that it was not air conditioned, oh dear) and beautiful. There was a trolley that was driving all the guests between the hotel, church, and the reception, which were all within a few blocks around the UofI-Chicago area just west of downtown. The reception was at the Italian-American Hall of Fame building (Mikey, I didn't see any pictures of you in there ;) ). Before dinner there was a cocktail hour on the roof of the building, which when I first stepped out the door my jaw dropped. That's because I had a perfect, competely unobstructed view of the Chicago skyline on a beautiful summer's day. Alas, I had no camera because my mother and sister had taken it with them to England (they were there for 10 days on a soccer trip), so I don't have any pictures of it, which is highly disappointing. I kicked myself the next day when I other sister reminded me, "Alicia, you have a camera on your cell phone." Oops. But the cocktails were lovely, the wine Sean's uncle and cousin had picked out was superb. The dinner was just as good and fancy. I felt so high-class. I love those kind of dinners. Then there was dancing, which was fun because the band was quite talented, especially for their rockin' band name: Out of Control. To top off their awesomeness, they played Staley's favorite song, which prompted our tipsy-dial to her. :)
That all went down on Friday, and on Saturday my dad, sister, brother, grandmother, and aunts and uncles from my father's side of the family came to Chicago for the rest of the weekend. Now, I must explain that this is the side of my family that is rather dysfunctional . They maybe get together once every 30 years, and maybe speak to each other once a year, if they are on speaking terms. Lol, anyway, my father had organized this little reunion for my grandmother, who is getting near kick-the-bucket age, and she is probably the most fervent Cubs fan outside of Chicago. She watches every game on TV. It had been 20 years since she had been to Wrigley, so that's why all the fam flew into Chicago. Of course, my dad waited till the last minute to plan this thing and get tickets, so the way overpriced seats were really crappy. But my grandmother loved it, and I enjoyed the game too. I had only ever been to one other game there before, and it was many years ago to the point that I only have vague memories of it. We had dinner that night downtown at Harry Caray's after the game. Yummy! And probably the best service I've ever experienced. The next morning we all hit up the Museum of Science and Industry before parting ways. That is one cool museum, and a very large one. I didn't get to see much of it because we only had a little amount of time, but one day I shall return to that museum and indulge my nerdiness for a whole day.
Let's see...ah yes, bridal shower weekend was the weekend before that. Let me tell you ladies, if you ever have questions about throwing a bridal shower, call me, cause I am now an officially experienced amateur. But let me warn you that it involves a lot more running around than you'd think, and more $$$ than you think. The weekend went really well though. Saturday was Elyssa's shower, and it was a good thing she had invited all of our mothers to that shower, because besides her grandmother and her friend Lucy, it was just the planners and our mothers. So a small shower, but nice. I think Elyssa really liked it, and the moms I were pleasantly surprised that yes, their daughters can throw a decent party. (Or at least that's what Courtney's mother actually told her later!) Sunday brought Monica's shower, which had a lot more people, some of which we didn't know. Monica loved it though, and I think her mom did too. I believe it was Monica's only bridal shower (Elyssa had already had at least one other one), and her mom kept thanking us for doing it over and over. So mission accomplished! Plus it was good bonding time.
I promised Sean that I wouldn't steal all of his fire, so I'll leave him to talk about the previous two weekends, one spent in the Fort and the other in Naptown. :)
Work sucks. Well, it could be worse. I still like most of the people I work with, but the organization in the place has just gone down the tube, plus the fact that we're short-staffed. I just hope that most of our internal problems haven't compromised our service. The newest announcement will usher in more huge changes: we were bought out. Well, kinda. The company is partially owned by Lutheran Hospital and partially owned by the radiology group that staffs it and other imaging places in the Lutheran Health Network. Anyway, the radiologists are selling their portion of the company to the hospital, so that means that the staff will become Lutheran Hospital employees, and much of our registration procedures will change to be streamlined with the hospital's process. The company name will be changing too. So yeah, basically it's a good thing that I am leaving permanently now, because if I were to try and come back I'd have to be retrained because most everything will be changing. It's just been a frustrating month working there, which is sad because I used to be quite proud of my job and I felt we provided a good service. Oh well. Two more days to go!
On a happier note, last week I did have one of those all is right with the world evenings. My girlfriends and I went downtown to this place called Club Soda, and we sat outside, had a drink, and just chatting the night away. I ended up staying and hour longer than I had intended to. It was one of those nights where you just try and hold onto it as long as you can, a collision of past and future, with people who you grew up with and who in many ways know you better than you know yourself. It just gave me one of those "this is how life should be" moments. I need to work on creating those sorts of worry-free, carefree moments more often.
Okay, my bed is calling my name!
But first:
L - It's a small world - Ally was in my Manresa group the one year I was a group leader. She was one of my favorites (oops, are GLs not supposed to play favorites? ;) ). Your job sounds sweet, almost as cool as your title!
Mikey - Congrats on the employment! I do hope that eventually you find something in the field you were expecting. How is life in the Nati?
Kate - Thanks for the email, and a million apologies for not writing back! I hope you're having one of those life-changing experiences.
Sean - I feel bad if I don't give you a shout-out too. Hi?
I miss you all and love you much!
Alicia :)
