• tired.
• in Biology class.
• missing his earbuds.
• hopefully going to hang out with Dana today.
• hopefully going to see his brother today.
• hopefully will hang out with Tatjana on Sunday.
• going to have a biology exam on Monday.
• on a quite necessary spending hiatus.
• going to edit his paper and organize his reading notes for Monday.
• going to the first QSA meeting on Wednesday at 8 pm in the Martin lounge.
• really tired all of the sudden. This class might have something to do with it.
• unable to wait for debate to start!
• working tomorrow.
• trying to pay attention to the lecture now. Ta ta. ♥

• English education at the high school level
• Horticulture
• Textile apparel design

friday, september 11th, 2009
• We leave Kearney at 5 am and drive to Omaha.
• Ian rides his first plane and doesn't mind it at all.
• I shop and spend way too much money.
• We eat at Bandera, which is a little fancy for the first night, but oh well. I get the world's most mind-blowing veggie burger that has beets, wild rice, and peppers among other things, served with a peanut coleslaw, which was also amazing. Ian got this killer salad. The food was great but we couldn't finish.
• We figure out the train system fairly quickly. We take the blue train into town and then the red line up to North Michigan Avenue, or, the Magnificent Mile.
• We visit my friend Stephanie and have a sip at Starbucks!
• We go to bed exhausted.

saturday, september 12th, 2009
• We see Regina Spektor at the Chicago Theatre! But not until 8 pm.
• First we visit my cousin Katelyn in River Grove at Concordia University. She's been keeping extra-busy with music and cross country which reminds me of the homework I have to do.
• I go to a Whole Foods for the first time in my life and we both eat the salad bar. It is amazing.
• Finally, we go Chinatown, which we had been thinking of since we got there. Ian doesn't understand much, but he does hear someone say "I got some coffee."
• We eat some rolls at the Chiu Quon Bakery as recommended by Chicago Foodies.
• We looked at some paintings for a long time. I sort of thought I wanted to buy one, but I really didn't want to buy one. So I didn't buy one. Ian, on the other hand, was very attached to some embroidery. We came back to look at it again before we left.
• We see Regina Spektor.

sunday, september 13th, 2009
• We eat at the Pine Grove Cafe, a nice mom and pop place on the corner by our hotel. Delicious. I have French toast, Ian has pancakes.
• We walk along the riverwalk. Beautiful.
• I return some completely retarded crap I bought and we stop in Macy's so Ian can use the bathroom. While we're there I try on eight things in the dressing room and buy one.
• I have a delicious ice cream cone and Ian has a delicious shake at Ghirardelli.
• We finally head over to Boystown. We can't really enter the nightlife since we're under 21, but we walk into a little shop called Beatnix where they sell all sorts of random souvenier-type stuff.
• We eat at a place called Home Bistro right next to Roscoe's. Expensive, quaint, but very good. We get a bowl of olives with citrus and spices to start along with some focaccia bread with balsamic vinegar. Ian really wants this chicken thing for dinner but they're sold out so he gets champagne-braised leeks with palenta, which is a bread-type thing that's really good. I get the oven-roasted beet salad. Very good. We get bread pudding for dessert. HEAVENLY. OH. MY. GOD. CRAAAAAZY good. All this talk of food makes me want to go eat right now.
• Millenium Park closes at 11 pm. We walked around for 10 minutes before it closed, then headed home. We visited again in the morning though.

monday, september 14th, 2009
• Packed up and checked-out right on time at noon. They held our luggage for us as we made one last venture into the city.
• We search high and low for some good sit-down breakfast in the theatre/Sears Tower district. No luck, we settle on Dunkin' Donuts.
• We head back to Chinatown for another roll from Chiu Quon Bakery and to look at the paintings again.
• Ian gets the embroidery and we talk to the nicest woman EVER at the post office, named Ingrid. We ship the paintings here. They are still on their way and we are crossing our fingers that they do not break into a million pieces on the way over.
• I explain to Ian that if we go back now we will have an extra hour or so on our hands. He thinks I am exaggerating.
• We go back then and have an extra hour on our hands. Ian realizes I wasn't exaggerating.
• We eat airport food and get on the plane and go home, the end.

I know I need sleep. I'll feel better in the morning. But I'm afraid I won't have time to finish and that my mouth and throat will still hurt so bad that concentration will be difficult. Well, if I'm going to finish my laundry, I have to stay awake for about an hour longer, so I'll give the writing my best shot. It's really cold in the basement. Like, really cold. Okay. I'm going to bed now. Well, I'm going to write. (Haha, riiiiiight.) And then I'm going to bed. Night everyone. And by everyone, I mean Mom, since you're the only person I know who reads this. ~_^ Bye. ♥

So... what to do, what to do? A beautiful weekend ahead of me. I work from 11am to 8pm today... then I hope to see Ian afterward. My parents wanted me to eat dinner with them - they're making beef straganoff, my dad told me with a smile. You can pick the meat out, he said. Yeah, that's a real good way to lure me away from campus - with a house full of dysfunctional people and food I won't eat. Okay, I love them. But if we're not in public, it's very hard to be with them. If we're like, eating at a restaurant, or taking a walk, or swimming, or watching a movie, or playing a board game, we're all cool. But at the most basic and simple of times my family gets angry at itself.

Anyway. I was thinking about the magazine I used to, and still do, love and used to read all the time. I still have all the magazines from my subscriptions down in my room at home. My favorites were Real Simple, Better Homes and Gardens, Vegetarian Times, and National Geographic. I want to pick them up again. I miss home design and gardening. I really want to buy that house on the corner of 29th Street and 1st Avenue. It's so beautiful.

Some real world news... okay, it's not world news. But it is real news. I did find my lab report. However, Ian called the Quality Inn O' Hare and clarified whether or not we were allowed to check in since we aren't 21. Even though he's a Quality Inn employee, the answer was no. So that takes out our $35/night hotel option. I went online yesterday to find something of similar quality for a low price. There were prices as llow as $55/night but if we're going on this trip to enjoy ourselves, let's just say we definitely wouldn't want to be there. The best deal I could find was the Holiday Inn O' Hare. The rooms are beautiful, it's very clean and has lots of positive feedback. The hotels by the Midway Airport are closer to downtown but I could not, for the life of me, find one at a low price. Low to me is under $110/night. So, this means we need to cancel our reservation, quickly, and we'll have to pay $181 each, plus tax, instead of $75. Not that big of a difference. We will survive. I just need to work more and spend less so I can afford this. I have no idea what I've been spending my money on. Although yesterday, I did finally break $1000 again. Naughty me, I had gone below $1000. The thing is, we've paid for just about everything. So, all we have left to pay for is the hotel and food and take-home goodies, should we get any. So about $250 each. Lovely. I have a sad face right now. Anyway ... I work in two hours and twenty minutes. So. I'm going to find something to do. I really hurt. A lot. Love you all much. I'll try to write about something interestinger next time. ♥ Alex

Poor Leslie. She was in a horrible mood tonight at work. She's such a great person but she's been going through some hard stuff. She's the type of person who makes it known when standards aren't being met. And she should, she's Customer Service. She doesn't pick on the cashiers so much as the managers, mainly because so many protocols down in the front end don't work or are completely impractical. By the way, I'm talking about the grocery store I work at, in case you were wondering. I really do feel tired - more tired than I think I should feel.

I am deathly afraid that I lost my first lab report for Intro to Soils. I had it at least 80% filled out. I bought folders tonight at work because my binder is just plain to bulky to be carrying around everywhere. So my plan, should it work out through some haywired reason, is to keep my labtop, notebooks, and folders in my bag and just carry my textbooks the way I did in high school. I'm really tired, lol. Did I mention that? But I have this craving to write. Speaking of which, I haven't in over two weeks! Holy cats! I have totally left the world-that-does-not-read-this-and-does-not-care clueless as to my dorm conditions, the defining qualities of my new classes and teachers, and the nutritional variety of the cafeteria food. What a terrible crime. I will tell you this - most everything is excellent except for my dorm quality. The rooms in my hall are the smallest and darkest on campus. In addition, there is a leak in the celing near the window and though I do appreciate having the window, no one has come to fix it despite two maintenance requests and a visit to the Hall Director. Otherwise, campus life is pretty good. My parents decided it would be better for my personal development to not drive a car whilst on campus, so they have kept it.

So Ian came to visit me and I am eternally grateful. ^_^ <3 So I'm going to go now. Ttfn. Alex

I have one week and one day 'til I move into my dorm. I still need to sort out my clothes and my bedding and figure out what I'm bringing, but I plan to do that right before I go. Also, once school starts, well, that'll just be plain fun. But a month from yesterday I will be riding on a plane from Omaha to Chicago! With my boo. ^_^ Also, I accomplished a lot just during this morning. I got my illness sorted out at the doctor. I dropped off my thank you note to my English teacher in person. And my plans for my parent's silver anniversary are underway. You know what, though? I wish there more holidays during the year where I could ask for gifts. Really, for me, there's only Christmas and my birthday. And my birthday is in April. And Christmas is four months away. To be fair though, my parents did finally let me order my laptop which should ship in right about at the start of school. But the other things I kind of want include the following:

Okay, so that's all for my wish list. I've got to go soon since my mother's patience is "wearing thin," in her own words. Ttfn. Alex

When I came home, just now, my brother put ona skit for my mother about how there was a terrifying stranger in the house - me, of course. You see, my mother takes everything seriously. On the rare occasions during which she uses humor, she always flashes what could be described as nothing other than a dorky smile beforing continuing on with her day. For once, I wish my mother would give my brother a smart reply, like "I'm going to kill you." Sarcastically, of course. Seriously, I'm not implying the promotion of anything violent. Two of my very good friends use the phrase "I swear, I will destroy you," on a regular basis. Of course, one of them also uses phrases like "Kitty mrow mrow," "yay!", and "Oh dear God." [Tee hee, Ian.] Oh, how I love The Series of Unfortunate Events. And Christina Aguilera. - sigh - So, my family claims we need to clean the house in order for my dad to have a "nice birthday." Of course, it was not my decision whatsoever to by a 2000 sq. ft. one-story house with an equally large finished basement. It was also not my idea to never, under any circumstances, have a garage sale in order to reduce the number of things we have to clean. I have sworn since I was 11 - give or take - to live in the smallest living space possible with the fewest possessions possible, excluding clothing, and to take impeccable, immaculate care of it. My judo instructor once said "It's better to do one good throw than 100 bad throws." Actually he said it much more than once. He is also a high school physics teacher, which reminds me, college classes start in exactly two weeks. Excitement.

Well, to be perfectly honest, I really should get to cleaning. I'm sorry this post doesn't contain miraculous insight to the mysteries of the world, which is my goal, but we'll just have to live with this, won't we? Until later loves. Alex