elevensies

right, so it's been about 5 months since i've written a new post. not that you could tell, because i removed the date stamp from my blog. but in the interest of full disclosure, i thought i should share. i could come up with many excuses for why this is the case, but really it comes down to laziness. that, and legitimate busy-ness. being a working girl is a lot of...work. sure i have cake hours, and yes i make time for other things outside of work like beer and volleyball games and trips to Target, but i just haven't made blogging a routine yet. it deserves that kind of attention. so, here goes. really this is the third start, but that's okay. there's a cliche about the third try for a reason. i'm going to keep this older count going because it represents the posts i've made since being a Chicago resident, and now i can move on to the rest of number eleven.

two of the best friends i know i will ever have moved away from the city last weekend. whomp whomp. debby downer. Kaeli left for a Mexican adventure with her brothers and mom, and then off to her new life in Charleston. i'm so happy for her to be able to start fresh, but i will miss my Kaels! she's so full of love and light! Kiandra moved home to Minnesota after graduating with honors and two majors. i'm so proud of her and excited for her to be up north where she belongs. i really don't know what i will do now that i can't see her the 4 times a week i'm used to, though. it's crazy to think that Kaeli has only been a part of my life for 2 and a half years and Kiandra for 1 and a half and already they mean so much to me. these two people have changed me for the better and i have been blessed to spend what time with them i did. i am also looking forward to spending lots more time together in the future. i know that no matter where we are in our lives we will always be in one another's hearts. ladies, thanks for being incredible women and thanks for sharing the city with me!

ten fingers and ten toes

i spent so much time working on a spreadsheet today at the office that i actually started seeing stripes. white, glowy, ghostly stripes where there were none. not okay. thank god i finished building the worksheet (complete with complex and crazy formulas) so that i won't ever have to spend hours in front of it again.

the Bachelor (of which i am watching my first and only 3 minutes of this season, seriously) just said "she's going to have her own Pretty Woman experience today." soooo he's gonna dress her up like a broke-down hooker with a bad pink wig in 80s chic street walkin' wear only to bring her to Rodeo and buy her classy lady clothing to dress her up so his rich friends don't know he is paying for sex? sounds like a fun day. maybe if her laugh was as infectious as Julia's or the bachelor looked more like good old Richard i'd watch for a little longer. alas, he's no Gere.

number nine

the title of this post will only be humorous to those members of my immediate family, which i cannot fully explain. it's just another one of those random sayings that i grew up hearing and repeating, but not having any clue they came from movies or books or random bits of pop culture. watching Dana Carvey on SNL as the "church lady," seeing movies like "Raising Arizona," and reading books like "All Creatures Great and Small" shattered the image i had of my parent's comedic abilities. i found out they were just ripping off funny from the greats. it's fine, but it was weird to hear things i had grown up knowing from their original and previously unknown sources. my family, just like all normal ones, is strange. and now to watch "Raising Arizona" for some bedtime laughs.

8's great

playing my itunes on shuffle while i shower has illustrated just how diverse my musical taste is. in one shower and subsequent jam session i heard this interesting list of gems (all of which i totally dug and sang along to):
I Miss You - Dreamstreet
There's a Good Reason These Tables are Labeled Honey, You Just Haven't Thought of it Yet - Panic! at the Disco
Life is Wonderful - Jason Mraz
This City is Contagious - The Cab
We've Got it Goin' On - Backstreet Boys
Que Pasa? - Juanes
Panic Attack - Atmosphere
Some Fantastic - Barenaked Ladies

and that's just eight of the songs...
being eclectic is much more fun, i've decided.

seventh heaven

i'm such a swingin' single. my big friday night plans? curl up in bed with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. re-reading the books is creating very mixed emotions. i had forgotten so many of the little details since i read them for the first and only time so long ago, and i love putting the pieces back together working my way towards the end of the story. but watching the movies right after i finish each book is actually filling me with anger. despite my strong and enduring love for Rupert Grint and all that is Ronald Weasley, the movies are sorely lacking the depth of the books. which is only this apparent when compared side-by-side. i still like the movies for what they are, but the large chunks of story-line, entire characters and character growth and development that are missing hurt me. Hermione is much more annoying in the books, yet despite it all Ron still loves her. Snape is much more curiously allied, it's a lot easier to believe his loyalty to Dumbledore and the side of right reading the books. poor Winky is completely erased and the entire story line of Barty Crouch, Jr. is much less sordid. oh, and where the hell is Pigwidgeon? i want that adorable little ridiculous owl to flit around and hoot madly. oh, well. on to the Order of the Phoenix...my fave.

sexy six

Jersey Shore season 3. that is all i have to say. because that is the only thing that happened today that is worth sharing. not only did the premiere include compulsory bitch fighting between JWoww/Snooks/everybody awesome and Sammi/Ronnie, there was already some hot tubbin', unexpected newbie nudity, adorableness from Vinny, the duck phone and so much more. no matter what is going on in my life, i can tell you that for the duration of this season of Jersey Shore i will be always be found on my couch Thursday nights with my favorite band of guidos, guidettes and juiceheads.

party of 5

for some reason when this song came on during my shower shuffle session tonight i was super into it. i mean, the Chili Peppers are always my loves, but this was totally my jam in the moment. also, who doesn't love when a band uses words like "lexicon" in their lyrics. the lyrics for your enjoyment:

"Save the Population"

History's so strong
History's so strong
History's so strong
History's so strong

Sing another drinking song the honkytonk will do
Making another breaking bone your favorite ingenue
This the distant dawn
This the distant dawn

I put my cards upon the table
I do this because I am able
One picks his broken down devotion
I threw my pistol in the ocean
Eyes wide with revelation
Shine at the police station
And when the verdict comes round
I'm sure that you will go down

Stay all night
we'll save the population
Stay all night
we'll save the population
Stay all night
we'll save the population
Stay all night
we'll save the population

(Instrumental Bridge)

Pistol and its pawn
Sell it to the lexicon
A pistol and its pawn
Blood and border lines be drawn

Take another bottle down the brothel and the shrew
Make another awful sound, a rather gothic brew
History's so strong
History's so strong

I put my cards upon the table
I do this because I am able
One picks his broken down devotion
I threw my pistol in the ocean
Eyes wide with revelation
Shine at the police station
And when the verdict comes round
I'm sure that you will go down

Stay all night we'll save the population....(x10)

four Loko

Snooki and the Situation both wrote books. just read that and soak it in for a second. okay, now think about this: they "wrote" these books, but someone whose brain cells haven't been burned by excessive tanning actually did the putting together of the words part. SHADOW WRITER. i seriously think i missed my calling. how does one get that gig? sure, it's a thankless job and you probably get paid crap, but you get to spend quality time trying to make coherent sentences out of the ridiculousness spouting from the mouths of geniuses like Snooks and Sitch. if you know me, you know my love for all things Jersey Shore. and this love isn't a fake love, or a mocking love. i have legitimately formed bonds with these GTL'd, poofed and juiced up guidos and guidettes. (some more so than others, sure. but nobody actually likes Ronnie and Sammi.) with the impending premiere of season 3 (THURSDAY!!) i am overcome by excitement. i have missed my adorable trainwrecks and can't wait to spend a little more time with them. but, seriously, if you know how i can get in on the ground floor of JWoww's literary debut hit a sister up. or, maybe Vinny and i can get together to write a romance novel, if you know what i mean. shoot, gotta go. it's T-SHIRT TIIIIIIIIIMMMMEEEEE!

i have a train boyfriend. he's hot and has gorgeous dark chocolate hair. his name, you ask? oh, i don't know it. or anything about him, other than that he takes the Purple line to Davis every morning and his office has casual fridays. someday, my friends, i will accidentally bump into him as we sway with the motion of the racing train car. i just have to wait until i'm not sick. and maybe until the weather is warmer so there's less coat fluff in the mix. also i have to think of a line. preferably one that's not creepy or dumb. this may take a while...

3 strikes, baby

now that i have my big-girl real-world job i have more time to do origami. thank god, because i thought my paper folding days were over. or, at the very least significantly decreased in number. but then i realized that working lunch coverage shifts at the reception desk was specifically designed to give me origami therapy time. people are always really impressed by my frogs and boxes. and boxes of frogs. so what if frogs and boxes are the only things i can make?

thank you, Leslie Knope, for reminding me how great The Phantom Tollbooth is. i seriously need to pick up a copy and give that sucker a read. it won't be the same without you reading it to me filibuster style in a town hall forum, but giving it a go all on my own will still be a great reminiscence.

take 2

sometimes the immaturity of people you think you knew is astounding and disappointing. come on, people. we are college graduates! we are in our twenties, not middle school. get with the groove. i'm not going into specifics here, because airing my personal dirty laundry in a public forum is not the adult way to handle it. i'm over it and moving on. vent session: complete.

there are so many things i love about my apartment, my building and my management company. seriously, these people are fantastic. my maintenance man, Mike, is the cutest Boston Irish guy, and so sweet. the guy who showed my my apartment two months ago, Andy, is a goofy baby-face and the literal embodiment of the term "goob." my cleaning lady, whose name i sadly can never remember, is an adorable little hispanic woman with a constantly smiling face. and damn if she doesn't keep this place spotless and smelling delightful. so when i went down to do three giant loads of laundry to discover they give us free laundry during the holidays it was just a cherry on top of my adoration sundae. you can bet your sweet behind that i washed my comforter, too.

let's reset the count to 1 again, friends

Ronald Weasley has stolen my heart. he's such a ginger stud. some haters may say that's an oxymoron. they'd argue that flame-headed folk can't be sex gods, but i beg to differ. i have known more than a couple attractive red-heads in my day and Rupert Grint is just the celebrity embodiment of such fiery hotness. sure he's goofy and dopey, but he's also a loyal and courageous sidekick, battling Death Eaters, Snatchers and the Dark Lord with the best of them. plus, he's got good taste in ladies. Hermione Granger's a stone-cold fox. i'm jealous of his enduring affection for her, but i am content to sit back and watch him, wand a-blazing, fight for the good of the wizarding world, just so long as i can see him shirtless a couple times. oh, and don't get me started on the accent. i'm getting weak in the knees just thinking about it. i may have to re-watch a couple more Harry Potter movies tonight just to get my fix.

living alone i have realized that i talk to myself a lot. like hold entire conversations out loud with my own person. growing up an only child i often had to entertain myself and play alone, so talking out loud wasn't really strange. but now that i'm an adult and i discuss mundane everyday things like what i will have for dinner or what my plan for the evening is with myself, it's a little bizarre. thank god i'm not a loner. i mean, i have friends and spend quite a considerable amount of time with them, i chat on the phone regularly with my mother, and i spend all day making perfectly normal conversation with my co-workers. i'm not starved for attention by any means. so i guess what it comes down to is, either i really shouldn't be alone ever, or i find myself quite the entertaining individual. i like what i've got to say and i want to hear myself say it. i'm not sure which of those conclusions makes me sound less strange, but i think they are both equally true. i love having my own time and space, but i really am such a people person that being alone for long stretches of time (like these past few days when i've been sick) is too much for me to handle. and i do like who i am and what i've got to share with the world, which i see as a silver lining of this whole "i talk to myself constantly" thing. i think i'm a pretty great gal, and that's all right by me.

a triumphant return

as i sit alone on the precipice of 2011 reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, clutching a box of kleenex and eating brownies from the pan, i can't help but reminisce on my life this year and the journey on which it has taken me. i figure there is no better time to get back into the swing of blogging than New Year's Eve, taking a look back at the whirlwind of 2010 and all that it has given me.
this year i,
returned from Seattle to my last semester as an undergrad and RA,
started and completed a second internship with a wonderful group of people,
met one of my best friends at said internship,
took four diverse and not too challenging classes to round out my time at Loyola,
partied hard and laughed harder with the best friends a girl could ask for,
celebrated Valentine's day looking over the city getting drunk on free wine,
Spring Break-ed in Seattle with a friend and my glorious mother,
had a pink pasta puke explosion all over the Granville el platform and various other locations,
became a Twins fan,
had a blast at all of the Senior week events,
celebrated a milestone on May 8th (with someone very memorable),
graduated with honors and my family there to see it,
moved reluctantly and sadly back home and into my parent's house,
got a job in my field working with some lovely people,
visited my loves in Chicago for a few short summer days,
took a trip to Minnesota and the Mermadot for a very special friend's 21st birthday,
almost fell in love but not quite,
went to both state fairs as a vendor not a visitor,
took a fantastically last-minute trip to Vancouver with my favorite person (aka my Mom),
welcomed a mid-westerner to Washington state,
packed my entire life into 7 suitcases and 9 boxes,
moved to Chicago on a wing and a prayer (with no job and only a wonderful friend's couch to call home),
moved into my very own apartment,
celebrated my 22nd birthday with my mother and lots of IKEA furniture,
sent out more resumes than i previously thought possible,
interviewed like mad (once with the biggest douchebag EVER),
got an amazing job that i absolutely love (salaried and with benefits, how adult),
learned a new drinking game,
partied like a college kid,
spent a lot of time laughing and eating and drinking with great friends,
went home for my first Christmas as an adult,
and learned how truly blessed i am to have the incredible family and friends i have been given to share it all with.

so even though i say goodbye to 2010 all by my lonesome this evening (due to my current state of illness), i don't feel lonely. this year has brought me nothing but amazing memories and some of the most fun times i have ever had. sure it wasn't all sunshine and daisies, but as i always say, i live with no regrets. every choice i made this year led me to where i currently am - a happy, (generally) healthy, successful, loving and loved young woman on the verge of the great journey of life. i have wonderful friends spread all over the country to ring in the new year with, even though we can't actually be together. So, here's to an amazing ride in 2010 and what i know will be an even more incredible 2011!

~ i am dedicating this first post in my return to blogging to the people who have touched my life most of all this year: Kiandra, Jeremy, Rachel, Hailey, Cassandra, Kaeli, Madison, Jona, Karrah, Audra, Katie, Bryan, Krishna, Kira, Eric, my 17th floor girls, and of course, my mother.
i hope that the new year finds all of you safe, healthy and happy. and, even though some of you aren't in my life as much anymore as you once were, know that you will always have a place in my heart and a share in my memories.

xoxo,
Claire

DAY SIXTY-SEVEN ~ 9.19

ELEVEN.

after packing 5 large boxes to be shipped, 2 suitcases, a couple more Space Bags, and moving the few items left into neat piles to be packed, my room officially looks sad and empty. well, emptying is more accurate, i suppose. i have a little more work to do, and a few more suitcases and boxes to pack, but i've severely dented the daunting piles of packing. i can feel all the hard work in my body, too. my lower back is in pain like whoa, and the rest of my muscles and joints are joining the pain party. time for drugs and sleep, my friends. i've got the first of my last 5 days of work tomorrow. technically it's a half day, but it's still all gross.

DAY SIXTY-SIX ~ 9.18

TwElVe. soooo myspacey.

i did it at a trot, and a gallup, but i also did it real slow so my heart didn't palpitate. i was also not late. i did the PUYALLUP today! recreationally, that is. i've been there 3 times already this fair season, but when you are working not only is it not fun it's downright torturous. a newly christened Seattle-ite Kira and my mother joined in on the adventure. let me say, we sincerely ate our way through the fair. we plowed through some delightful fair fare (haha, check out that clever play on words there folks) including roasted corn on the cob, a GIANT slab of barbeque ribs, curley fries, cotton candy (just my mom and Kira ate that, because it's nasty) and an elephant ear (which i devoured all by myself). the ribs came with a delightful side of pickle, which i can easily say was the greatest surprise of the day. after we rolled ourselves back out to the car, we all headed home looking forward to the impending food comas. delicious day.

today's burning questions:
who is "Kathy the Turner" and what is she turning?
why am i in this basket and where are we going?
did Buckley flush the "toalit"?

DAY SIXTY-FIVE ~ 9.17

lucky 13.

the one day i wear heels to work because "all i ever do is sit all day, right?" i end up standing, walking, and doing general manual labor all day. wonderful. my feet kill. i dealt with a shipment of 40 boxes, moving each one approximately 3 times each, and ran around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for stuff and organizing other stuff and planning for an event i am not attending tomorrow. not my favorite of days. i just have to keep chanting my new "get through my last few days of work" mantra...Chicago is soon...Chicago is soon...Chicago is soon...

DAY SIXTY-FOUR ~ 9.16

catorce.

all told i worked for 11 hours. straight. in one day. sure, that includes drive time to and from the distant land of Puyallup, but still. geez. i'm beat. also smiling and talking to unfortunate looking strangers all day long makes me hurt, body and soul.

DAY SIXTY-THREE ~ 9.15

uno. cinco.

that's really it. i used to like wednesdays...but working in the office all day made me not so excited to celebrate the day of hump.

DAY SIXTY-TWO ~ 9.14

sixteen days.

in other news, i've begun another countdown on the sly. this secret countdown marks the number of days i have left at work. the work that i can no longer focus any attention on anymore. my brain has left the office building. thank goodness it's only a couple more weeks of this lameness.

i'm thinking of entering my leg hair in the record books. it's bad. i'm seriously a woolly mammoth right now. yuck. but girlfriend just doesn't have the time to shave her legs right now. it takes all the energy i've got to get through the days, let alone take care of the caveman look. especially because i'm not showing the gams off anymore this season, and nobody but me knows. well...and now the whole internet knows. oops.

DAY SIXTY-ONE ~ 9.13

while my own personal countdown (aided by Keeks) began a while ago, i figured i might as well start one here. in a mere 17 days i will be an official Chicagoan. now, when i say official i mean i will be an individual who resides addressless and jobless in the Chicago area. but that's really just semantics. so here we are: ONE. SEVEN.

best investment as of late? my jean jacket from Old Navy. sure, it's a bit retro, but it's super cute and perfectly suited to this dreary fall weather we've been having. i've been sporting it like it's all i've got. and that's nearly accurate, seeing as how pretty much everything else i own has been packed, piled to donate, or had the life sucked out of it in a Space Bag. which i am still in constant awe of, by the way. also, i promise to never wear an entire outfit made of denim (a la Justin and Britney circa 2001).

DAY SIXTY ~ 9.12

tonight while working at the Puyallup Fair again i was insulted by a greasy salesman of hair styling products and accosted by the Cookie Lee jewelry lady. neither product is on my must-have list for now or ever, so that was a waste of their time. i will tell you that piglets are super cute no matter what anyone else thinks. especially when they are clamboring over one another to get fed. ADORABLE.