Update!

i am now in chicago. i closed on my house yesterday morning!! so exciting. i went for a walk around the neighborhood and found all kinds of things. i am so close to a million things: sports authority, petco, blockbuster, linens n things, marshalls, dsw, restaurants and food galore, and a ginaormous booze store. that should come in handy!

in any case, i am staying with my aunt and uncle in evanston which is just north of the city and a close in suburb. it's where northwestern is and it is very nice. i have a great suite in their penthouse condo with fabulous views and extremely easy public transportation and shopping options. i called my movers and as of today, it has not been loaded on a truck bound for chicago yet. and thus, they cannot give me an idea of when i might expect to see my worldly possessions again. arghh. that's frustrating! i want to start moving my stuff in already!!

i start my new job tomorrow so that will be good. i'm excited to see what lies ahead there.

i'm completely and totally exhausted at this point... it's been a long month!

it's MOVING DAY!!!!!!!!

holy crap, i cannot believe today is moving day!!! for the last time i slept in my bed in my apartment here in ny. honestly, i don't think it's hit me yet. no idea why, as there are boxes everywhere.... this must be short as i have to pack up last minute things and go get breakfast with my dad. he stopped by yesterday after his trip to maine and before going home to houston. he's taking otis which is a huge help. wish me luck as today will be a very long day. i fly out tonight!!

today is the day!!

well friends, today is the day i can announce my other news (which all of you know anyways). i've been relunctant to say anything about a new job for fear that someone somehow would figure out my blog and announce it prior to me wanting it announced. well, i no longer have that fear as today is the day that i am announcing my resignation. i am resigning from gemini today... and starting my new job at tsg in chicago next thursday! my month of hell is almost over... thank god.

so my new job - if you want to check it out - is www.tsgre.com. i am getting my own office on the 35th floor of a really cool building in downtown chicago. i feel so important to finally have my own office! i'll definitely give you an update after my first day...

poor otis!

my poor little man is sick and i feel awful! yesterday i took him to the vet to get caught up on his shots and a check up b/c the airlines require this in order for him to fly. so he got his rabies shot and another shot and i was so impressed with his good behavior! this morning, i got up (grudgingly) and showered and was starting to get dressed when i realized i hadn't seen my little bunny yet this morning. usually, otis hears the alarm and comes to talk to me and nudge up against me to convince me to get up and feed him and then turn on the faucet for him. and he usually bugs me for water in the bathroom and he is always underfoot while i am going through my morning routine. and then i realized he hadn't done any of those things i had a mini heart attack and started calling out his name trying to find him. he always comes running when i call his name (unless he sees the cat carrier and knows a trip to the vet is forthcoming, at which point he runs the opposite direction). so nothing was normal and i freaked out. as i looked for him, i found a lovely present of some masticated food on the floor and i knew he must be sick. i finally found him underneath my bedside table and he was just all curled up and he gave me the most pathetic meow i've ever heard from him. so i called the vet, and they don't know anything. they told me to just observe him today. um, i have to go to work. so i brought him in to the vet for observation and so the vet could check him out when she gets in this morning. i hope he feels better soon! he is supposed to fly tomorrow to houston. yes, my little man is a traveling boy. while i move and get situated, otis is going to live at my parents' house with them and their two cats, zach and zoey. in any case, i am worried about my bunny and i hope he's ok!

lunch treat

so every once in a while on my lunch break, i like to go to the nail salon down the street and get a 10 or 15 minute shoulder massage. today, i decided that my shoulder/neck has been killing me so i would go and treat myself. the lady was excellent, but she kept remarking at how tense and stressed and knotted i was. i could honestly have let her work away on my shoulders for another several hours. and now all i really want is a nice full body massage. what i'd really like is a boy who wants to massage my shoulders for me....

my loan is approved and other random thoughts!

so my loan was approved today! yay!! i am so excited and relieved and now that is one more thing i can cross off my check list.

but i'm bored. oh so bored. and i'm trapped in one of those dumb time dilemmas. and my coworker and i are going to dinner but he can't meet until about 630ish. now, i've been leaving the office around 515-530ish and heading home. but it takes a good 30 mins or so. and so it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to do that. so i think i'll still probably leave in a bit and just go read my book. i'm reading a real good one right now. it's called water for elephants. loving it. wishing i could read right now, here at my desk. unfortunately, that doesn't look to good to the other employees and the boss man. so for now, until i can think of a way to conceal what i'm doing, i will not be reading at my desk, but rather blogging away at least a few minutes of my very boring day here at the office.

i have no relevant pictures to post, but i think i'll pick one at random from my desktop and write a short blog about it just because i am so dang bored... let's see what i can dig up right now...



oh excellent... i came up with a picture of the boy i'm hung up on and his brother. we were in vegas at the moon club in the palms. such a great night, but i was pretty much falling asleep in the booth by about 430 in the morning. i was so done for the night!

let's try another photo...



ah... that's better. here's me and higgins when he was in town the summer before this one. we had a blast on his visit. his dad and little brother and little brother's friend were all in town for the angels games. we went and the angels won! yay. it was so fun. we had the best seats and of course our angels red on. in the sea of blue. it was great. but we also did all the touristy things. i dont think higgins had been to ny before this visit, but i may be making that up... in any case, we had to have our picture taken with the wall street bull... and this pretty much started the bull picture visitor phenom. or something like that. in any case, after his visit, everyone who came to see me and wanted to do touristy things had to have their picture taken with me and the bull. so cheesy and yet so fun. i probably have 7 or 8 bull photos. i'm going to have to find a replacement for my bull pictures in chicago. i'm thinking maybe one of the characters in oz park... we'll see...

and speaking of chicago, to bring this full cycle... i've already been invited to my first party. it's a wine tasting event hosted by none other than our friend, devon. i'm so excited! i love wine tasting parties and i'm excited to meet some new people. i'll blog and photo that once it happens on nov 10th.

and so i'm officially bored of blogging and i'm sure you are bored of reading this nonsensical random blog...and so i'm done... for today...

el gordo y la flacka

ok, seriously... there is a woman on spanish tv that i get mistaken for... a lot. i don't know her real name, but i do know she is on a tv show called el godo y la flacka. i have been told many many times that i look just like her but dozens of people across the country. i'm not kidding.

a random sampling of places and people:

*at the drugstore checkout - the clerk started talking to me in spanish and then asked me if i felt ok when i didn't respond. um, i don't speak spanish. and then he asked if anyone had told me i look like so and so on spanish tv... um yes.

*at the airport checkin - again, has anyone told you you look like so and so? uh, yes.

*at Triple Net - a couple spanish speaking coworkers first told me that i looked like her a few years ago

*the receptionist at my dentist's office

*a lady at the st regis in dana point... do you know you look like this person on spanish tv... yeah, i've heard that... oh?! you've heard that before?? yesssssss....

*taxi driver

*and a whole host of other receptionists and grocery workers

so... you be the judge... here is her picture below...

queer eye in the elevator!

ok, weird subject line, i know. but, i was coming back from lunch yesterday and got in the elevator with 2 other women and a guy. i noticed the guy had an escada bag with him and thought to myself, good grief, that guy did some serious lunch shopping. waaaaaay worse than i've ever done. and then the two ladies got out and it was just me and this really well dressed guy. and i looked over at him and thought, wow, he looks just like carson kressley from queer eye for the straight guy. he got off at floor 8 and i'm not sure what's on that floor, but i did hear the receptionist say, hi carson! you haven't been here in awhile. and so i deduced, that i indeed was correct and it was carson kressley riding in my elevator in my office building. yup.

and then, i swear, leaving work as i was walking to the subway i walked right past jake gyhlenhaal...but i could be making that on up. but it looked just like him!

and i never have 'celebrity' sightings...

you've got to be kidding....

Child’s chalk doodle draws graffiti citation
Parents of 6-year-old artist warned to clear away flower or face fine

NEW YORK - Chalk it up to New York City's crackdown on graffiti.

A 6-year-old child's chalk sketches on her family's stoop brought her parents a graffiti-removal notice that threatened a $300 fine.

First-grader Natalie Shea said her mom got a ticket for graffiti and it wasn't even graffiti.

"It was art, very nice art," Natalie said.

But a neighbor in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood saw it differently and dialed the complaint line.

The family was sent a form letter of complaint giving the family 45 days to clean up the graffiti.

Natalie's mom said she'll act more quickly to wash off the doodles in the future.

As for the offending blue flower, it was erased by a heavy rain.


please tell me they are kidding with this news story!! honestly, when does drawing on the sidewalk or front stoop constitute graffiti?! and since when do we have neighbors who are so nit picky that they call the cops about it? holy lord there is so much wrong with this posting that i just had to blog about it. courtney, you better watch out where your darling little man doodles with chalk when he gets a little older!! :)

new post just for devs...

i'm sick. oh yay. love having a nasty cold. it's so fun and so sexy to have a runny red nose. it's also really helpful in getting everything done that needs to be done in the next few weeks. oh boy. so yes, here i am sitting in my pjs watching hgtv and blowing my nose on a friday night. wow, who is jealous?!?!?

so these past couple of weeks have been super stressful and tiring. i've been traveling way too much. last week i was in atlanta for a conference from thurs-sat and then i came home for the night and left the next day (sunday) for vegas for yet another conference. i just got home late wed night. thurs, i got myself a fine cold. vegas was a lot of fun. scott was there, but i barely saw him. i did accuse him of avoiding me. he denied it. whatever. sure wish i could knock that boy outta my thoughts... but that as we all know is so much easier said than done.

here's a funny story from the conference. so i had a coworker (pat) and a guy i do business with (kenny) among a bunch of other conference people i was out with. well, i saw a cute boy in the bar and wanted to talk to him, but being the dumb girl that i am, i decided i was too shy to do anything about it. well, pat decides to play wingman and i told him to find out if the guy was gay or married. so pat goes over and asks him that and the guy was all, what?! pat's all just answer the question! so he goes neither and pat says come over in a few minutes, the girl i'm with wants to meet you! and he did!!! ahahahaha. ok, maybe it was funnier if you were there or if you knew these people, but i was dying. anyways, spent the night trying to forget about scott by going out with this guy. we ended up hanging out until 430am at jet with another guy in the industry. it was a blast... but the guy wasn't scott and i left at 430 to pass out. god, i'm so lame. go ahead and say it ladies....

so here i am... my head is foggy and i've slept pretty much all day. at least otis is a good cuddler... i'm off to take more nyquil...

offer accepted!!

holy crap!

they accepted my offer and we were able negotiate a great price. i couldn't be more excited!!! i want to close as soon as possible, so we'll see when it actually happens but neringa thinks that we'll be able to close on oct 29th! wow. my dream of chicago is really really coming true! omg!!! i have so much to do before then!!

an offer was made!

i put in my very first offer ever. i have all my fingers and toes crossed that i get this one. it is so beautiful! neringa thinks she'll hear back from the seller today... i can't wait!

here are some pictures of the property. it is located at 847 w fletcher which is in lakeview.

my amazing aunt and uncle.

so, until recently, i didn't really have much of a relationship with any of my family besides my immediate family and my grandparents. this weekend as i was house hunting, i got to stay in evanston with my aunt kathy and uncle chuck. i feel so lucky to have an aunt and uncle that i am getting to really know now. they are wonderful people and i am so excited that i get to live near such solid family members soon!

chuck spent both sat and sun with me and my realtor neringa. he was so patient! neringa says that normally people see 6-8 places and then are tired and quit for the day. we saw 15 each day! chuck dutifully went to each one and gave me his opinions. he was so helpful!

kathy was so wonderful and so nice. she gave me one of my nana's rings that she thought had also belonged to my great-grandmother as well. it's beautiful. so gorgeous! and then she gave me a vintage gucci purse that used to belong my nana as well. it's definitely been lovingly used - a lot, but i think that adds so much character!

the ring: (a little blurry, but you get the idea)


the gorgeous vintage gucci bag:



househunting:

the two days were definitely a whirlwind! we saw so many properties in so many areas. i really wanted to get a feel for what was available. on saturday, we saw so many properties. i can't even begin to remember all of them. but one did stand out: george street. it stood out so much that we even decided to go back and look at it again on sunday. on sunday, i found one that i really liked as well: fletcher street. it is just a few blocks from george street. and it turns out it is even closer to public transportation which i've learned is key. it's a great option, but it isn't george street. i lost george street to another buyer. while i was working on getting an offer together, the seller accepted one. dang! so back to the drawing board. do i go with the second option or do i continue to look? the second option is really amazing too! beautiful wood floors, amazing kitchen (though i'd prefer darker wood) with wine fridge and all viking/bosch appliances (that i don't know how to use yet). a bathroom with heated floors and a to die for shower and whirlpool tub. a great balcony/deck off the master too. and garage parking which is key for cold winters! and close to transportation. seriously, what am i even pondering?! anyways, the search came to a close and it was a long long weekend!