Monday, April 29, 2013

Getting there...

Well, I made it here safely.
I left Tallahassee on Tuesday April 23rd and rolled into Chicago on the afternoon of the 24th.  It was an easy drive, except for some hard rain I encountered leaving Louisville on Wednesday.  I brought the Kia, loaded down with clothes, toiletries  kitchen items and a few craft things.  I got them all unpacked and into the house by Wednesday night.

The house has two stories and a basement.  I moved all my clothes into one room upstairs and am sleeping in the other room (on an air mattress).  I didnt do much last week, except figure out how to get to work and where the closest grocery is.

On Saturday I drove to Plainfield to get a firetruck bed for Nico.  A tollbooth lady told me that I could pay with cash at my last tollbooth, I couldn't.  So, I can't wait to see the ticket or the fine I will get for that. Should be good times.  When I got back, I headed over to campus to video chat with the boys (since my internet at home isnt being installed until Thursday).  On my my way out of there, I swung by the fiber arts store I found in Lincoln Park on my last go.  I picked up some yarn for a hat for Nico (for Christmas). Saturday night, I went to Target to get a few food items.

I went to a benefit on Sunday for the Read/Write Library of Chicago.  One of my friends/coworkers helped organize it.  I went and got to see another part of the city.  In all, things have been pretty good here.  I miss my boys like crazy.  Dave's parents are in town this week- so hopefully Nico won't notice how much he misses me.

My main source of transportation to work is the brown line from Kimball station to Fullerton.  There is apparently work going on on the brownline somewhere so transportation is a little wonky now.  But I asked a transit worker and he directed me in the right direction.  No big deal.

I have a life list item to run all the bridges in Chicago.  Today after work, I am going to give my first couple a try.  Should be fun.

I have a list a mile long of things I still need to do.  Then there are the things I want to do.  :)

All for now.  Will write more later.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Play him out Nico

Not much going on here... I have three days (counting today) left of work at the FSU COM.  So, I may not update again until next week.  Until then, I give you the musical stylings of Nicholas Michael Royse.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Springtime and the Cards

We had such a great weekend!!  First, Dave and Nico went to the downtown get-down on Friday night.  I was in a time-crunch to get a video done for Madi Harris.  JJ was meeting with a coach he knows and wanted to show him video.  So that was my big project last week.  In case you are interested in it, here it is:

I need to fix a couple of things.  But I really like how it came out.  I feel kind of jipped though.  Back when I had to do my highlight tape, it was with actual tapes.  And if you screwed anything up, it was so hard to fix.  this, the most trying thing for me was having enough time to go through all the video we have, looking for the best Madi video.  

Then, Saturday morning, we went to Springtime Tallahassee with Graham.  There were firetrucks.  I think you can imagine how that went.  

Nico and Graham really do get along well.  We stayed at the parade for basically the whole thing, because Nico and Graham were having such a great time.  Usually we're like, "There are no more firetrucks?  Alright! Peace!!"  So that was fun.  Seriously, shouldn't Nico be a model?  He is incrediably adorable.  I hope he doesn't get ugly when he gets older, I dont want people to see pictures of him at this really adorable time in his life and be like, "Dude, what happened?"
Sunday we did some chores and played soccer.  It's funny how soft my skin gets when I haven't played in a while.  One dive and two slides and I have scrapes on my forearm, my hip and my left knee.  But I hadn't played in 6 months.  So I guess that is fair.  

Saturday night, I gave all the soccer stuff to Nick.  It's so weird.  It filled up the back of a SUV.  Uniforms, balls, coolers, pinnies, cones.  It's crazy.  I am going down to the county tomorrow to give them all their charms.  The charms are a tradition I started with them the first season that I coached them.  The first season on the team, I give them a bracelet with their name, WHS Girls Soccer, and the record for the season.  Then in subsequent years, we add another charm for the record, and other soccer charms, and their number.  It's one of the things I am most proud of, that I have done for them.  I know, it's strange. But I love the tradition.  

The Cards won on Saturday night.  Dave's boss had gotten him two tickets for the Championship game in Atlanta for tonight.  Dave asked me if I wanted to go... which let's be real here, any sports fan would want to.  But It doesnt seem right, I've only been in the picture for 9.5 years.  His best friend Christian has been cheering for the Cards with Dave for at least 20 years.  So, they are going to the game tonight and Nico and I are going to hang out at the house.  He doesn't know this, but item #141 on my bucket list is helping get Dave to see the Cards play in a championship game.  So, that is nice.  

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

In good working order...

So I am officially a short-timer at FSU.  Less than two weeks.  When I started thinking about transitioning to DePaul, I was a bit cavalier with Dave and Nico.  I just figured that we would figure out a way to make it work.  The problem is... the legislature.  Seriously.  When I got the job at DePaul, we were in the drop dead period of just before the session, so Dave couldnt leave.  But DePaul wanted me there yesterday.  So, I just figured I would figure out a way to make it happen.  Dave and I have been apart before.  I went to Malawi.  I went to DC for an internship when I was 7 months pregnant.  Whatever.  I just didnt think it would be that hard on Nico.

Turns out- it is.  

The thing is, it might not be, if the session wasn't happening.  If Dave could sort of coast at work and go into overdrive at home, then it might be doable.  Its just really hard to be in overdrive at work and at home.  What that means is Nico gets pretty unhappy when I am gone.  And I am caught between that rock and the hard place... knowing that in the long run, the kinds of things Nico will be exposed to in Chicago will be far outweigh the shittiness of being away from me for 1.5 months.  But then I have to ask myself, "there is no harm in asking right?"

So long story short, I asked my new boss at DePaul if I could push my physical start date back by about 10 days.  He said yes, and that is great.  But I can't help but feel like I am on the verge of being fired.  From a job I just got.  Wouldn't that be unfortunate?  It gets us closer to when Dave's mom can come up... which is great... Nico likes hanging out with her.  But there is nothing like the feeling of about to be fired from a job you just got.  

Does this mean that I am going to stay on for another 10 days at the College of Medicine.  No.  I will not be doing that.  I hope to use the extra days to get packing.  And help out as much as I can with DePaul stuff here in Tallahassee.  Which is great, because I wasn't really sure how I would get stuff packed up on Friday April 12 and leave on Saturday April 13.  But I just assumed it would happen.   

Other than that... going through the list of stuff that has to be done before we can move. Yesterday was doing something about our bikes.  We have three.  That we never ride.  One has been sitting out in the yard for a year, the other two in the the shed.  So I asked a friend to get them in good shape for us.  Nico's new favorite thing is checking to make sure something is "in good working order."  So that is what we did after school yesterday.  He kept saying, "Mom, I am getting this bike in good working order."

It's pretty great.  Dave made it home last night before we were done with dinner, which means he got to read to Nico before shower time.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Easter 2013

So, like an idiot, when I made my transportation plans to and from Chicago, I didnt realize that I would be coming back Easter weekend.  Which is kind of annoying, since Easter is one of my favorite holidays.  Luckily, Dave took Nico to Premier on Saturday for an egg hunt (after the "Spring Bunny" made an appearance at his school on Friday- apparently Nico is pretty boss at finding eggs... which is a step up from where he was two years ago, where he was terrible at it.)

The Easter Bunny brought Nico some fire trucks and some candy.  Turns out one of the firetrucks was a collector's item.  Which is no longer in it's box.  Yikes.


I ordered a Chicago Fire Department Sweatshirt from CafePress before I left.  I had it sent to Chicago, thinking I would put it in a box with some candies and other stuff (a care package, if you will), but it didnt get to Chicago till my last day there, so I ended up just bringing it home... which the boy loved!!


Isn't Dave photo bombing Nico funny?


The House

So, we have a house.  In Chicago.

I am so excited about it.  It's actually a townhouse.  But it's an end unit.  And it has a basement.  And a fenced yard.  And two bathrooms.  And three bedrooms.  And plenty of storage.  We might even have room for activities.

Even cooler?  The place is about a 40 minute commute from my office... a bus for about 10 minutes and then the train for about 25 minutes.  It is completely fabulous.  Nico, Dave, and the dogs are going to love it.  


The place is a little bit older, but it looks like it has been taken care of... all the lights work and such.  Which can't be said for 1522 Atapha. #justsayin.  It has tile and hardwood floor throughout, except for the stairs going down to the basement.  But I suppose that is so that Grannies can't hide out in their rooms down there and scare kids as they walk down the stairs.  True story, Granny Bishop threatened to do that.  


Assuming that I don't get fired and or kicked out of the city, I think this is definitely a place that we could live for a while.  Dave and I are hoping that our next place will be a house that we buy.  A real fixer-upper.  Seems like it's about time.  In any case, I missed my boys like crazy last week.  I didnt get much done on a the writing-blogging-working out schedule.  I did manage, however, to watch all of Season 5 of Mad Men.  So, I have that going for me.