And a very welcome Friday at that.  Here’s whats been happening in my life.  The Farmhouse offer is in full stall mode – meaning that the bank has had the offer for 8 weeks as of yesterday and we have not heard a word from them.  So, with that in mind, and with the deadline for the first time home buyers credit quick approaching, we have decided to pull my offer and make an offer on another house – this time one that is not a short sale.  How do I feel about this?  I’m not sure yet.  The Farmhouse was really a cute little house, but honestly, probably more than I should have for my first house.  The ELH house (acronym for Eight Legged House – which is in itself an nickname for the Octopus heater that is in the basement and is in fact a nickname for what is formally known as a Gravity Furnace), is a one story, 2-bedroom house that would actually be quite perfect for me.  It has 950 square feet, a kitchen, dining room, living room, one bathroom and a full basement that is partially finished, clean and dry.  All-in-all it is a cute house. 

Also, I haven’t posted anything in the last 2 weeks because Greek is kicking my but.  Totally.  Now, I know that languages are a challenge,  Hebrew was challenging enough, but I didn’t have to memorize sets of noun endings in Hebrew… in Greek there are SETS of noun endings.  Which means that I’m really not looking forward to getting to verbs, since verbs are traditionally much, much harder to learn.  Resistence aside, I am learning some things, and they are, perhaps, useful, so I will continue to persist in this class.  Just know that should an inordinate amount of time pass between posts, this is why.

On another note, I did something different yesterday.  I bought contacts.  !  I know!  Fabulous, eh?  This is the third time that I’ve attempted to wear contacts in my life, the other two times were, lets just say unsuccessful.  But I am hopeful that this time will be different.  My only eye defect is astigmatism, which means that my eye is shaped wrong and thus everything is, well, fuzzy.  (Don’t panic – if you’ve ever ridden with me in my car and can clearly remember that I wasn’t wearing my glasses – don’t worry – my eyes are not TOO bad, I just can’t read with them.  So unless you feel that your life was in dire danger, you have nothing to worry about.)  These new lenses are 2-week disposables and I’m hoping that this means they will be more “wet” and comfortable.  I just hope that I can learn to put them in in under 15 minutes, which is what it took me today.  Five minutes for the left eye – then I gave up.  Eight minutes for the right eye (and a full drop on the floor, but I washed it well before trying again) and then another 3 or so minutes for the left eye again.  I think that the left eye just wanted the right to go first, a note that I will make tomorrow morning when I attempt this again.

Finally, here is my Friday Tip:  go watch some Glee.  It is hilarious and the music is good.

I’m back from vacation and sinking in work right now.  I have a few too many projects, but at least they are keeping me busy – I really hate being idle.  Vacation was really nice: I went to bed late, woke up late, took frequent naps and played with the nieces.  I couldn’t have asked for a better vacation.  Well….except that my parent’s house decided to kill all the major appliances while I was there.  They had to replace 2 hot water heaters and a fridge. (And they tried to blame it on me…but I know their tactics and wouldn’t let the blame stick to me.)

The great news, as I found out on Tuesday, is that my 4-year-old niece, Olivia, has decided to build a rocket ship and is going to allow me to be on it.  Whew!  I was very happy to hear this.

Class is going hot and heavy right now and we’ve only had 2 classes.  I believe I passed my first quiz, but I won’t know for sure until Tuesday night.  I’m currently in the middle of memorizing 4 paradigm charts, which is ALWAYS fun.  Believe you me.

*sigh*  What else?  Oh, I’m going to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival tomorrow with Kate, Kate’s daughter Megan, and Jane.  It should be a lovely day – perfect weather and lots of yarn.  Who could ask for more?  I ran sound for an event at church a few weeks ago, for which I was paid, and I received the check yesterday.  So now I have “spending money”.  Yipee!  (Dad, if you are reading this post: yes, I will probably spend money on yarn, yes, probably yarn that I don’t “need”, but I took on the few weddings and events at church precisely so that I could have a little extra spending money for superfluous things like this.  I still have a budget, I’m still in my budget, and I’m not feeling guilty about this.)

Oh – and because I know that most of you are wondering: no news about the house yet.  I knew that this could be a long process, and I’m expecting it to take a few more weeks.  I will be going to look at a few more houses on Monday, so maybe one of those will merit an offer as well.

(Disclaimer: my boss already knows this story – therefore I am free to share it with everyone without fear of any corporate ramifications…this will become clear as you read the story.  All events in here are true and no names/places have been modified for any one’s protection.)

August is one of those months that drive people (staff) who work at institutions of Higher Education insane.  Especially people like me who have the opportunity to work with multiple departments across the campus.  Making sure that everyone has the data that they need, and in the timely manner in which they believe they need it, is absolutely numbing to the mind.  But hey, I’ve worked in Higher Ed for 12 years now, and I wouldn’t change it for anything else.  This August was a little more stressful to me than past ones.  So I decided to take a “mental health day off”.  Since I was stying in the city last week, I thought that Thursday (August 27th) would be the perfect day.  I could sleep late, take a walk down to the marina or to Navy Pier, meet a friend for lunch…and perhaps even go …shopping (which is actually something that I hate to do, but have to acquiesce every now and then when I run out of things like pants).

So I made plans.  I would call in sick with a “sinus headache”, I would meet Michael for lunch, and I would go to Macy’s on State Street (the old Marshal Field’s flagship store).

The first thing that went wrong is that I actually woke up with a sinus headache.  I should have known then that all the rest of my plans should be cancelled, but, being blond and headstrong sometimes work to my detriment.  It was also a little rainy/misty most of the day, which didn’t help my hair one iota, but that isn’t really part of the story.  After I called in “sick” I went back to bed because I was, well, sick after all.  When I finally got up the strength to get a move on, I walked a mile (mistake #2 – because eventually I would have to walk that mile back) to Macy’s.  The one really, really good thing that came out of the whole day was the I found 2 pairs of jeans that actually fit.

Michael’s timing was perfect because as soon as I was done shopping, he was ready for lunch.  We met at the Potbelly’s on the corner of State and Lake.  The store was not crowded and it was a perfect lunch.  When we finished and Michael and I parted ways, I decided to go to the Borders bookstore on State and Randolph.  This was mistake #3.  I found 2 magazines that I didn’t need (mistake #s 4 and 5) and 2 books that I didn’t need (mistakes #6 and 7).  As I was making my way to the checkout counter, I hear a series of loud pops – kinda like gun fire.  Now, keep in mind that I’m blond, but also know that in my old neighborhood, firecrackers go off literally all summer long.  Now had this really registered that this was downtown Chicago, and it was lunch time, I would have eventually come to the conclusion that they weren’t firecrackers…but it may have taken a little while to process.  It was, in fact, gunfire.

You can read the whole story here on the Tribune’s website.  Basically what happened is a man tried to steal a woman’s purse but some police officers were near by.  The purse-snatching man then brandished a knife and took an elderly man hostage, to which the police responded with gunfire.  Five shots.  The man unfortunately was killed. 

So I’m standing in the middle of Borders, about to check out, when gunfire goes off, a store employee yells “hit the floor!  gunfire!” and everyone proceeds to drop.  Everyone except for me…I just kinda stand there thinking…”really?  gunfire…?  hm.  okay”.  Keep in mind, please, that I do have a sinus infection and was on medication that kind of makes one brain process a little more slowly.  But it was a rather disturbing thought and it was a very troubling scene.  Within 5 minutes the police had shut down the intersection of State and Randolph and must have had at least 15 cars, fire trucks and ambulances there.  Needless to say, it was a scene that took me the rest of the day to process and an incident that should have me talking to a mental health professional for quite a while.  In a way, I did take a “mental health” break that day…just not in the way that I had intended.