things i'll miss about fort awesome:

the huge amount of bathroom storage
making mojitos with mint from our yard in the summer
the lilac bush in the backyard
the front porch swing
having friends just stop by
the party center


things i won't miss:

having my clothes in two different rooms (two closets and a dresser)
trying to get the garage door to close
the creepy area in the back of the garage where an animal was living
weeding
debates over mowing vs. hiring a lawn service
steve having to shovel snow
not being able to reach the mail in the mailbox because i'm too damn short

dang nabbit! i must have been taking the boxes i'd broken down to the garbage area or something -- somehow i missed steve's call. i mean, sheesh, it sucks enough not having him here, but to also miss his call and not notice until 40 minutes after he's left a message saying "i'm going to bed" -- THAT SUCKS.

but things are looking up.

i started off today by going into work and finding out that they'd migrated my computer over to windows xp and that i'd lost all of my desktop documents. and that was a lot of things since i wasn't set up on the server right away and had basically saved everything for three weeks (including plans for the first half of 2004 plus a big strategic presentation and all of the background research) all on my desktop. well, i guess i learned. i'll never get in that habit again. i'll save to some sort of server environment, or to a yahoo briefcase or something. sheesh.

eventually our awesome IT guy (and i'm not being sarcastic, he IS awesome) came and restored my desktop and i was able to breathe again. i felt SO guilty asking him to help restore things since he probably thinks i'm a moron for saving things on my desktop. however, he acknowledged that my computer still isn't labeled as assigned to me since it's not my "final" computer (it's still a loaner of sorts, while i wait for my laptop) or my desktop would have been saved/migrated over. sheesh. so even though i was completely grateful, i had to ask: WHERE IN THE HELL IS MY DAMN LAPTOP.

and then i realized: i have always had bad days on thursdays, and this week it came early. and i took a deep breath and worked on something else for awhile.

eventually i was ready for more hassle and decided to start calling around to the remaining places where we hadn't changed our address/shut off service or autopay/moved our acct to Chicago.

and i have to say: i had an awesome experience talking to my helpful customer service rep at SBC. she was in a great mood and kept saying things like "i am SO jealous -- i LOVE Chicago." or "i'm completely sure i can help you with that. i can do that right now without putting you on hold." amazing! i completely regretted afterward that i couldn't remember her name, or else i would have submitted some sort of recommendation for her promotion or raise. maybe i'll call back tomorrow and ask whatever rep i get who i talked to the day before, and then ask to talk to a manager so i can leave some sort of praise. hmm... i mean, she went so beyond the call of duty it was really nice -- she told me how to keep a voicemail box without having local phone service, and was friendly and efficient. gotta love that.

so then i was in a great mood and thought "i can tackle one more personal thing without feeling like i'm completely behind at work" and decided to call about our mortgage. BIG mistake. not only did they have some sort of issue with changing our billing address (the call had taken 10 minutes at this point) but they couldn't verify whether or not our check for the february mortgage had cleared. steve had written a check and it had bounced since our money was all in our new account here in chicago and well, the mortgage customer service center had no idea that it had bounced in the first place (our bank had notified us) and they didn't even know if they'd resubmit it for payment or not. their lack of any sort of knowledge whatsover killed my mood.

which sucked, because then i called steve and pretty much took it out on him since he was the one that wrote the mortgage-paying check out in the first place. argh.

but that's all many hours ago. many long, frustrating hours ago.

moving is hassle, my friends. in the end it will be worth it. i keep telling myself that. when i first moved to nyc, i knew even less people there than i know here now. and i can't tell you how hard it was to leave. my a2 friends know that i'm always talking about how great nyc is, and it's definitely because of how well that move turned out in the end that i made this one. i just hope it's that "worth it" for steve as well...

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i received my first evites here. :)
my a2 friends know i'm a huge evite fan.
i'm disappointed because one of the evites (from our only friends here, dave + erin) is for the weekend we're in las vegas with zac + penny. however, the other one i might actually be able to attend. i found this group called "meet in chicago" that's for 20-30somethings (and isn't billed as a "singles" group) and they're having a bowling night.
how positively midwestern!!!

they're playing some sort of awful phil collins mix here in the business center. it is frustrating the hell out of me. my first serious boyfriend and i used to argue about phil collins, and i stil feel as strongly about it as ever: HORRIBLE POP FELONIES! sheesh.

i'm sorry i missed steve's call tonight. i miss him and need him here. this is like my nyc move because i don't have my bearings here. what's different is that i know what 99.9% of my bearings are, and his name is steve and he's not here...

i was fading fast, and there's a starbucks downstairs, so i went down to get some more coffee to keep me going.
and then it happened -- my little happy event for the day that made it all better: a random customer told me she loved my boots.

the presentation went well (thank you thank you thank you to those of you who wrote to ask!).

of course, there are several other fires that i need to put out before the client heads out of town tomorrow morning, but at least we're on the right track.

hopefully tonight i can either go home at a reasonable hour or join the younger members of our team for their scheduled happy hour. i think i deserve a drink!

i cannot believe i am still at work.
color me pissed.
i would leave now, but that would mean i'd have to come in earlier than our meeting on sunday is scheduled for. and i don't want to do that if i don't have to, since steve will be here. plus, i have a beer from the departmental happy hour that i had to miss to keep working. so i guess i might as well work while i can drink.
he called me today and told me that uhaul had no record of his reservation and that he might get a truck. a lot of stress and hassle ensued. eventually he got a truck out in belleville, loaded it up, and just called to tell me that he will indeed be here tomorrow with a bunch of stuff to unload. yipee!!

argh! today has been crazy as well! i thought for sure we'd have a slam-dunk with the plans we presented to the client this morning, but instead i need to revise them before monday! argh! luckily the reps i've had to call are pretty much able to get me some revised plans, but still -- i hate to demand a same-day turnaround, especially on a friday!
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i am using lots of exclamation points!

i had a weird dream last night -- the first dream i've remembered since i moved. this guy that i've never even talked to from work was in it. is that a sign that i'm at work too much? i mean sheesh, i ride in the elevator twice with this guy (NO idea who he is) and all of a sudden he's popping up randomly in my subconsious?!?

okay, so i wrote a veryvery abbreviated msg to rebekah. and i'm still angry, but at least i feel better about having expressed my appreciation to her for her nice email.

i found out about some more shake-ups at my previous employer. actually, not at the last actual employer of mine, but at their ad agency, which was my employer before that. a very nice man who'd worked on the business for a long time was -- how shall we say this? -- no longer someone that they needed on the team at the agency. and so he decided to retire.

and then i heard more about some of the sad, misunderstood programs that i used to work on that nobody else understood and how they've fallen into disrepair or might be discontinued. (sigh) i guess it's definitely good that i'm not there anymore, toiling without anyone appreciating or understanding my work. hell, if nascar (at 1/10th of the media budget) is more important than media, or more attention-getting, well, that's not the place for me.

okay, i really must go sit in a hot bath right now and think about absolutely nothing. or maybe look at a magazine with lots of ads for shoes...

i just had a swearing fit at the stupid computer here in this stupid computer lab. i composed a message to rebekah in response to a very nice email she sent me a week ago and then somehow the screen refreshed and it was erased. so i wrote an abbreviated one, and then the screen refreshed (!!!!) and then i wrote a reallyreally f**king short one and then the screen refreshed. i have no idea if it's a hotmail issue or a browser issue, but i am done trying for tonight. seriously, i am near tears over this right now and that is not a good sign. i need a hot bath.
i worked until 11 pm tuesday night and 12:30 am last night, with only about 1/2 hour breaks for dinner each night. i can't wait until this presentation is done on monday so i can get a life!

i got into work around 8 this morning because i couldn't sleep. i knew it was going to be a big, bad, long day. i was still waiting for a whole bunch of proposals/modified proposals for the next couple of marketing campaigns from vendors and i needed to tie everything up before tomorrow since i'm out at the client tomorrow and then we're presenting on thursday.
well, i just left work. i worked 15 hours today. yipes!
i feel good about the changes to the plan though. some things are pretty "out of the box" and i had a helluva time fitting them into our little planning-spreadsheet framework. i emailed the whole damn modified plan to the guy that's been training me, dropped him an IM (he logged on again from home around 10:45 pm) and told him i was giving up for the night.
i think he was astonished that i was still at work!
it probably wouldn't have taken him as long since he didn't have to keep referring back to what was bought before (he probably knows that offhand) and he knows how to massage proposals into the planning spreadsheet. ugh. maybe working a big fat day like that will further persuade them that i need a helper monkey and pronto!

at least i'm glad about how it turned out.

i should have also worked a ton on the big strategy presentation that i'm giving next week. i worked on that a lot last week while waiting for the Q1 + Q2 proposals. and i worked on it more on the train to and from michigan. and i worked on it so much that the stupid presentation grew to 55 slides, which is ridiculous and not even thinkable for a client presentation.

luckily i had a really good meeting with the rest of the team around 4 pm today about how we're going to tie everything we're doing in the strategy presentation together. i guess i get to work late tomorrow night on that. ugh.

and to top it off, one of the most friendly people i've dealt with so far (and my pseudo-boss) isn't going to be working with me anymore because we're apparently going to be structured a bit differently. i guess we find out more thursday.

ugh.

i wish this past weekend would have been less stressful. i would have to say that working a 15 hour day today was less stressful than going through my crap and trying to get rid of things. no fun. *plus* when you are supposed to be getting rid of your beloved possessions there is a feeling of guilt for having so many in the first place. (sigh). i am too nostalgic.

right now i'm nostalgic for my apartment. let's blow this pop stand!

meeting people is hard...
i went to the um alum club dinner tonight. interesting mix of people: architect, egyptologist (who is living at her mom's while finishing her dissertation), a pediatric cardiologist, three guys from abbott (pharmaceutical) and three people that i didn't get to talk to at all.
hmm...
not sure what they thought of me, though, either.
it was definitely nice to have plans in the evening, so for that i am grateful. however, i'm not sure if i'll follow up and try to see any of those people again, or if i'll just wait and see if any of them are at the "meet and greet" dinner next month.
i just scoured craigslist to see if there were any people interested in forming a bookclub and found a few people. maybe i'll have enough energy tomorrow to email them and see.
i am so tired...

i just saw a guy with a head full of gray hair (!) in the business center. hooray for having other people over 25 in the building!
i can't believe how nice it is to have a view from our apartment.
we didn't pick this apartment because of the view. we looked at one on a lower floor that was less expensive and ended up picking our apartment because it had more closets. and i'm so glad we did since nothing is more mellow than staring out at the water and the sky.
no, it's not a scenic beach with crashing waves. and yes, you look past other buildings and a construction site.
but it's relaxing in the way some people find television to be (if you can get past the crassness of the content and the blandness of the humor). and i'm happy to have it.

it's amazing the difference between last night -- when steve left and i was fine about being here alone -- and tonight. last night my head was full of everything i had to do and i was fine with being alone to do it. tonight i am so intensely aware of how few people i know here that it's pretty pathetic. i'm not really sad or depressed or anything like that -- just aware of being alone. and i haven't really been alone since i first lived in new york. heck, even on business trips i have usually been either with co-workers or in new york city with all of my old friends. here i don't have that "cushion" and it's an interesting feeling...
when i first moved to new york, i remember that i spent quite a few nights readingreadingreading and i took a lot of baths. i read "lolita" and loved it. i thought about reading it again right after the first time. i wrote letters. i sorted through the treasure trove of saved letters, Playbills, ticket stubs and photos that were in the boxes i dragged along to my little studio apartment. i was productive in a very personal, alone sort of way.
i have other "projects" like that with me that i should be doing/could be doing. i have a file full of pictures that should go in an album. i have several important letters that i need to write to friends who aren't online. i brought tons of books i thought i might read before i decided to be social here and make friends. and yet somehow i really don't feel like doing any of that.
maybe i'll make a gin and tonic and call steve...

okay, so that was a bit cheesy.

more thoughts from this week...

when i was down here in the business center the other night there was a guy playing bridge on one of the computers, and he had a bridge book with him and a notebook that he was taking (dare i say) copious notes in. i am hoping i'll see him again so i can ask him about bridge. maybe it's going to be the next big game-playing thing, like mah-johngg was a couple of years ago in hollywood.

we're allowed to wear jeans to work on fridays. however, according to the staff policy manual, they should be "pressed and clean" and free of holes/fraying, etc. i have jeans, but they're just, well, jeans. i have pretty much stayed away from paying more than $30 for a pair of jeans. and now i'm wondering if i should shell out and get some fancy jeans for fridays. i won't do it right away (i went for "dressy" and wore cords on friday) but we'll see -- i don't want to look like the stick-in-the-mud new girl from the sticks.

erin came out to see us on saturday, which was great. i convinced her and steve to head up to wicker park instead of staying in the miracle mile area for brunch. we went to the bongo room so that i could hopefully see megan, but no such luck. still, the brunch was damn great. and after brunch erin was in the mood to look in some of the cool girly shops in that area. (score!) i just wish i'd remembered to have erin sign our guest book.

we still have to name our place.

so i made it a week. and two missed episodes of "sex and the city" (yipes! i cannot wait to see them on our "tivo" next weekend!!!)
so far i am really loving the apartment. i didn't think that the view was going to be that important, but it is wonderful to stare out at the lake, and tonight it's really nice and clear with the moon so big and bright (not sure if it's waxing or waning, but it sure is nice!)
steve came out this weekend, which was wonderful. we had originally planned to spend this weekend apart and see each other for the first time since the move next weekend, when i have an extended weekend thanks to mlk day. not only was it nice for him to visit, but it was extra nice because we both really needed it: it's great to still be so in love and excited about one another.

wow i can't believe how many loose ends there appear to be here at work. i am sure it'll get better. i just hope i haven't pulled out all of my hair and gained 15 pounds by the time everything is sorted out. steve would be really bummed to move here and find me much heavier and bald!

i can't believe i keep forgetting to write this:

our fortune cookie fortunes on sunday (at the restaurant in little vietnam) read:

"Now is the time to try something new"
and
"Good beginning is half done"

considering our big move is half done, pretty friggin' auspicious, no?

ohmigod i worked almost 13 hours today!
i am sooooo not a morning person (as anyone who knows me is well aware) and yet we had a 8:30 meeting out at the client's office, a good 45 minutes away. so the acct. director picked me up at 7:30. and the coffee i had in my travel mug turned cold almost immediately, but i made it through.
the client seemed nice. it kinda freaked me out a bit since she kinda looks like me and seems to have a similar disposition (direct, but friendly: very midwestern). she's from wisconsin and is a big green bay fan. i guess i should learn more about cheeseheads (bruce, are you reading this? you could give me some tips!). or i should at least learn to pronounce favre.
i think i'll be good on this account. the agency isn't getting any industry trades and had no idea how to answer some of my questions about the client's business goals or how certain programs meet them. hopefully having spent the last couple of years being little-ms-pizza-client will help.
my boss was great at trying to psych me up. he bought me logo crap at the client's company store and even treated me to breakfast. awww... he also invited steve and i to dinner this weekend with the other Asst. Director and their wives. hopefully we can make it, since it's always nice to meet the people your coworkers and boss are married to!
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this apartment building definitely serves an interesting demographic. the business center is hopping on any given night around this time, as far as i can tell. a group of young african-american guys were just in here and then they all got cell phone calls pretty much one after the other. that left just me, a college-age couple crouched together at one computer, and the young woman next to me who just finished her time down here. she was here when i got here about 45 minutes ago and the whole time she was using some sort of instant messenger service called "Single Me" with a huge logo on it. i hope she had luck and had to leave to go out on a date.
two people just came in, so i think i'll use good computer-user etiquette and log off. besides, i have spent way too many hours in front of a computer today basking in its blue glow. sure, i've done it before and i'll do it again, but that doesn't mean i should make it a habit.

hmmm... i'm beginning to think that maybe the nice couple i met last night was right: this building does seem to be filled with very young student-looking folks. at first i thought "no way -- this building is too pricey" but then i realized: not for the most irritating type of college students: the really rich ones.
ugh.
i guess i could be wrong. they could all be 23, post-college, and i might just have no sense of what a college student looks like anymore.
my guess is it looks like the guy i rode up the elevator with after work, though: parents wearing designer coats rode up to his lower-level apartment (aka one-bedroom) with him. and they had a whole ton of long-term grocery items on a bellhop cart (case of bottled water, two large gallon-size jugs of o.j., boxes of garbage bags...)
how come i'm not from a wealthy family???

my first day at work...
i think it's going to work out darn well. of course, i have tons of questions about the account. my brain is reeling. but i also have a whole bunch of ideas and from what i've heard it seems as though they're not unthinkable ideas. and it's nice to be in that sort of environment (for a change!)
i'm jumping right in, that's for sure: the group director is picking me up at my apartment at 7:30 tomorrow morning so we can head out to a client meeting. woohoo!!! bring it on!!!
is it 7 pm already? i guess i decided to stay late and look around online, but had no idea how late. my office is a weird bunker/meat cooler type room: strange metal doors and rounded walls of frosted glass. and the doors can't really be propped open or they block the hallway that runs outside. i went online and looked at a bunch of posters. i'm definitely going to have to get something up pronto so it doesn't seem so soul-less in here.
dinnertime!

speaking of closets... did i tell you that i have a walk in closet now? not a big deal for most people in america, i guess, but it is for me! i mean, it's my first one and i am actually able to see all of my clothes and they don't get wrinkled. a brilliant invention if i do say so!
(i can't believe i've missed 11 minutes of "sex and the city" by now. i almost think i should continue to type for 19 more minutes just so that i'm not as tempted to think about it and pout!)
when i went to the tv lounge tonight to see if they had HBO on the big-screen tv in there i met a couple that told me this building is absolutely hopping with crazy college students most of the year and the only reason it seems quiet right now is that they're all on break. i don't know if i should be happy that we're at least in a hip young building or if i should be scared that they'll drive me nuts. i'm inclined to feel scared, but am trying to think positively about it. apparently there used to be crazy hot tub parties and those have died down somewhat, so we'll see what it's like if and when they all return (although shouldn't they be back by now for classes tomorrow???)
here's another move-in story: there were two shelves missing inside one of the kitchen cupboards. i was pretty sure they'd turn up somewhere in the apartment (after all, why would the previous tenants take them and why?) but i was wrong. so friday we logged a work order with maintenance and this morning we were visited by a very eager-to-please Hispanic gentleman that was a little out of breath the whole time. he had to come back to our apartment three times because the shelves were too long for the cupboard the first time. then they were still too long the second time. then the third time they finally fit nice and tightly in the cupboard. we felt a little bad for him since he was so obviously bummed out that he didn't get it right the first (or second) time, but he was very pleasant about the whole thing, even if he was slightly out of breath the whole time and seemed to have a hard time understanding a couple of other questions we asked him. the whole episode was definitely amusing to us for its sitcom-like qualities, but my guess is he didn't see the humor.

okay, so i refuse to get sad about the "sex and the city" thing. that's just silly.
i hope steve, rebekah and minh are making good progress getting back to ann arbor. the snowstorm today was a bit crazy. i woke up early (well, early for me for a weekend), and was out and sitting in the living room/dining room around 9 am. the sky was clear and i could see out to the lighthouse. i was surprised because we had heard it was going to snow 3-5 inches last night, and there wasn't a sign of snow. i began to think that it had passed us entirely (after all, it had been almost 50 just two days ago). however, by 9:15 it was raining and it turned to snow around 9:45.
rebekah and minh must have been worn out because they slept in quite late (i told them not to attempt to see both the art institute and miracle mile in the same day!!!). i believe they didn't realize how much it beat them up until they were asleep and then their bodies knew they needed to rejuvenate!
by the time they were up there was probably over an inch on the ground and the wind up by our 20th floor apartment was blowing the snow in all directions. it was really quite amazing to watch, and you could barely see the shoreline. the lighthouse was completely obscured...
i know it's cheesy, but i'm really looking forward to work tomorrow. it will be good to use my media brain again after a couple of months off. and it will be nice to be at a company full of hip young people (as most ad agencies are!) so that i will be inspired to be hip myself. god only knows i loved most of my coworkers at domino's, but there were plenty of people there whose idea of fashionable work attire is a polo shirt embroidered with the company logo! and when i wore my marc jacobs skirt (which i was so dang excited about) adam had to say something snarky and make me feel completely out of place. (sigh). i guess that's yet another reason it wasn't the place for me. i mean, when the management team is all dressed in company logo gear or bill cosby sweaters, well, i guess i was spending too much of my income on designer goods for no reason. now i can actually be happy to have some nice things instead of feeling guilty that they're gathering dust in my closet.

so here i am, beginning the chicago experiment.
the move went smoothly, with the small exceptions of the rose bowl (*disastrous* for the wolverines) and the fact that i'm currently wigging out over not having HBO right before the final season of "sex and the city" premieres (t minus 11 minutes and counting!!!)
in order to see the show, i was debating walking next door to the hyatt and trying to persuade the bartender at the sports bar to turn off ESPN for a half-hour, but i figure that tomorrow at work i can ask around and see if
a. someone from work will invite me over to watch the rerun tomorrow night
b. someone from work will know a bar nearby where i will stand a good chance of being able to watch the rerun tomorrow night
c. there will be a tv at work with HBO on it and i can camp out at the office for the rerun tomorrow night
so yeah, that's my biggest problem with the move. and i guess if that's the biggest problem, well, then it has been a successful move thus far.
i was a little concerned because the apartment isn't really near a megagrocery store, but i was able to get a bunch of staples at a little grocery/deli nearby that has a surprisingly large inventory. the fresh produce selection is, shall we say, sparse. however, i was still glad to discover it and it's better than nothing.
rebekah and minh took us to vietnam-town today and treated us to a bunch of their favorite dishes and then guided us through the grocery store there. i am now loaded up with tea and various sorts of asian bouillon cubes, noodles and frozen edamame. mmm... edamame. i may have to have some of that later.
i don't think it hit me that i live here now until steve left with rebekah and minh. i think it still seemed somewhat vacation-like, especially since we had very little time alone together here before zac and penny showed up to visit (which was great, by the way -- i highly recommend having a whole bunch of friends visit the first weekend you move so that it cushions the transition and they can wander around discovering your new neighborhood with you!). so now that he's gone, i was really looking forward to watching some tv and vegetating. i guess i'll take a bath and read.
the computer center here just emptied out. i know i'm just being paranoid/grumpy, but i think they're all going back to their apartments with premium cable and big tvs to watch "sex and the city" without me.