little victories

One of the biggest things I've learned this year is that life takes patience.

Ever since I truly entered the "real world" it feels like I've dealt with enough job-related failure to make up for the previous 24 years of success-kid glory. Buuut I try to just keep on living and trust that things will work out in time, and maybe they actually will. I've got the guy and the city, now I just need to see what falls into place for me.

Today I did have my first good job news in 8 months: I've landed a part time job leading school field trips at the nearby Morton Arboretum for the fall! So I'll have something fun to keep me semi-busy for a while. It's all about the little victories! I decided to let the news propel me into making today a good one.

To celebrate Ben's official first day of teaching 10th grade history I made cosmic brownies

 And I got a library card!

And I love the pretty flowers in our kitchen.
(I feel like people either love or hate lilies depending on how many funerals they've been to. Luckily they remind me of Easter and I am obsessed with how they make the whole room smell nice.)

Also, I just discovered the new Bravo show Gallery Girls. Have any of you seen it yet? It is kind of like a cross between The City and Real Housewives. And I watched it for two hours even though alllll the girls are super annoying. Oh Bravo. Please tell me I'm not the only one that is totally addicted to the trash reality channel?

an epic night on the town

I feel SO lucky and blessed to have an amazing group of women in my life. I had absolutely no trouble choosing bridesmaids for our wedding, since I automatically had three sisters/sis-in-law and then three I consider best friends from different stages of the past, literally from infancy through college. I'm also lucky to have them all within driving distance (minus Ellie who flies back to Slovakia this week, wahh) and am so happy we were able to meet up in Chicago this past weekend for the perfect bachelorette party.

I am not usually a super-crazy-let's dress up like fools for attention and go out dancing till 2 am-type of girl, but she definitely does exist within me to emerge for very special occasions such as this one. I embraced the tiara, sash, and personalized buttons and just went with the flow. The flow of drinks, that is. The night started with pink fizzy punch and pizza and just amped up from there. Ben and I haven't made it downtown since we moved here almost 3 weeks ago (WHAAT!) so it was fun to hop on the L and hit the city for the first time as an official resident and not local tourist (weird!!!)

And we even got some safe-for-internet photos:

Self-timer rockstars.

Christine! Livin it up like we're back in college.

Hostess/sis in law Ashley (and a photobomb). No, I am not actually wearing a Vegas showgirl style headpiece, but that would have been hilarious.

Oh, also, we played a quick round of Quelf. Which should be played at all parties.

 

Sisters! 

 The most delicious pizza ever. Homemade crust and fresh mozzarella yesssss. I think it honestly was extraordinary, despite every single thing I ate all night having the label of "most delicious ever."

 Making friends on the L.  Thanks for putting up with us, random fellow passengers!

 Downtown! So. much. walking. I have the blisters to prove it.

 Aaaand then we went to a drag show. Wonderful decision. Although kind of disturbing to see "men" who were prettier than us.

I never fail to get the hiccups. Luckily they are cured by biting on a slice of lemon or lime! Every single time. Try it!

 We were miraculously still alive the next morning, and dragged the guys out for brunch. Thanks for being such good sports re: the party headbands, guys :)  Ashley lives on the border of Boystown and Wrigleyville so we didn't get many second glances walking around at 2 pm wearing them. Good times, good times.

My favorite part of a good party weekend is laying around the next day and re-hashing the night's events, when all of a sudden it becomes clear how ridiculous and hilarious it all was.




our new apartment, so far

 Moving is always exhausting and always disorienting, and Ben and I have both had some pretty epic moves over the past couple years (Pennsylvania to Oregon in only a car, anyone?). However, this particular move was the biggest yet I think, because it's officially the first time that we've moved to a place we officially have together, and also the first time we've really combined all our stuff that's been hiding in basements and storage.

Since we were only moving across the state, I was down-playing everything in my head. How stressful could it really be?? Well, then we discovered our new apartment had been vacated hours before we arrived, and hadn't been thoroughly deep cleaned in what seems like 15 years, and we had to go to Michigan to get Ben's furniture, and then the huge heavy couch wouldn't fit through the door so we had to give it away, and then it turned out we had SO. MUCH. KITCHEN. STUFF. and nowhere to put it, etc etc so I honestly have no idea where the past two weeks have gone, other than into a vortex of cleaning and unpacking and giving Target all my money. 

But the hard work has been paying off and we have curtains now. And a new couch. So it's really starting to feel like home. Ben has been working hard to get his new classroom ready for next week and busy with orientation stuff, and I've been in this strange place where I freak out because I don't have a job but I'm also glad I have time to work on our home and cook good food and explore our new neighborhood. We're pretty far from the Loop so it hardly feels like we're in a big city at all, until I drive around and hit the awesome six-way intersections that are EVERYWHERE in Chicago because of the awesome one-ways and diagonal streets.

But despite the stress and uncertainty that seems endless I am extremely happy to be here in this place, physically and mentally, and in life in general. Moving has been a great distraction from wedding planning, but I guess I should get back on that bandwagon now that we're only a month and a half away. And I know I'll find a job when the time is right. Geographically we are now equidistant from both sides of our family and have lots of friends and family in the city as well, so I am excited to begin this new huge chapter. Best of all, I'm starting to realize that Ben and I will proooobably never have to be long-distance again, and that feels almost too good to be true.