Stuff

It feels like 400 things have happened in the blink of an eye. I'm doing a lot of stuff and in a little bit of time. I work around 32 hours per week at Starbucks, and I am realizing how tiresome that is. It is still a great place to work and I love my coworkers, but I am getting ready to open my own place. I am learning a lot and I think that I will come away from this experience with a lot of new knowledge and an appreciation of a slower-paced life.

In an attempt to clean up the floor where there were still boxes full of books, I decided to make a bookcase. Craigslist was not supplying me with a bookcase that I liked, so two Sundays ago, I dragged Derek to Home Depot to design a bookcase with me on the spot and purchase all the stuff we needed.

Here is the bookcase in mid-assembly

TA-DA! The beautiful finished product. We are very proud of it.

My friends came to visit! Here we are in Grant Park. This is the only picture I took on my digital camera of the group. It was as if we said, "Okay, group picture! Cancers wear yellow and get on the ends and act goofy!" Marie and I do things alike a lot.

At the Earwax Cafe, the ladies and I indulged in some local hand-crafted sodas. Mine is the ginger ale. It was good, but not as good as Oogave's ginger ale.

I think it was the Saturday after they left, I made Derek his favorite breakfast food, which is French Toast. Well, he likes chilaquiles a lot, too. But we'll call this his favorite just for fun. Anyway, it is cranberry walnut bread from Whole Foods with a vegan batter and baked cinnamon apples with a fruit salad. Vegan and delicious!

As I write this, Erika is learning how to play the bass. She is already so good at it! We're gearing up for this migration to Nashville, where we won't have a bass player. Erika could easily become our bass player. She is natural at it and she wants to learn, so she's on her way. Karyn came with a drum, and I'm listening to them jam.

This weekend we're going to Milwaukee, and I'm excited about all the vegan food we're going to eat! We're going to see the Dead Sea Scroll, go to the brewery, maybe see a play, and definitely eat vegan. I've found a bunch of places online and I'm stalking their menus already. I can't wait to go here http://www.thecometcafe.com/COMETmenus.html ! I want the vegan gyro or the vegan BLT. I've saved up my tips for a couple of weeks for this weekend, and I'm very much looking forward to going. I talk about food so much. Derek thinks that I am a foodie, but I shun the term. I don't know why. There is nothing wrong with being a foodie. I just don't want to be one.

I'm going to get to bed soon. I got up at 3:30 this morning for work, and although I napped a little this afternoon, I am still sleepy. I'll be getting up at 6:30 tomorrow, so I want to get enough sleep to sustain me through an 8 hour work day on my feet. I'll update again after Milwaukee!