Bomb Investigation ruins evening

Its a Monday, nobody really loves Mondays. I complete a day of work full of meetings and decisions. I go to the gym and complete about 3 miles of treadmill time. Its finally time to go home, make some dinner and relax. I get on the train and it stops at Harlem, opens the doors and announces "this train will be sitting as there is police activity at the Addison stop. We will remain seated for awhile". Awesome - I'm sweaty and hungry and just want to be home - it is Monday after all. The next announcement brings even better news; "this train will go to the Jefferson Park stop and will be turning around, everyone must get off the train at the Jefferson Park stop". AWESOME! So we go to the Jefferson Park stop and get off the train. Now, I've been in the city for 11 months but really don't know how to navigate the CTA bus system too well... this could be interesting.

After waiting in line for the 56, a super intelligent and expert communicator from the CTA announces there will be a shuttle that will be stopping at all the train stops up until the California stop. Perfect! I wait in line for the shuttle. Once we board the shuttle we are on our way down Milwaukee. The display of pure common decency that I witness next is truly astounding! An older white gentlemen (lets call him Earl) is talking extremely loudly on his phone making everyone roll their eyes and start to become even more annoyed than they already were. Our bus driver stops at a couple of stops to announce this is a shuttle and people waiting for the bus should continue to wait for the next one. This is what unfolds:

Earl yells "hey bus driver - where did you get your driver's license? A cracker Jack box?". Skinny little blonde girls says "Hey relax, we are all trying to get to the same place".
Earl yells "don't talk to me you stupid Bitch".
Entire Bus goes bananas "HEY! COMMON! SHUT UP! WATCH IT BUDDY!" etc. etc. etc.

Next one of the most racist conversations I've ever witnessed happens (disclaimer: I'm paraphrasing - this is NOT ME talking!!) This conversation is between Earl (same fine gentleman as before) and Bill (middle aged large black man).

Bill "Why don't you shut up and not talk to women like that"
Earl "I bet you go home and beat your wife"
Bill "At least I have a wife"
Earl "Do you even graduate grade school"
Bill "I have 2 college degrees you fool"

And it got progressively worse from there! I saw a street sign for Belmont and hopped off, found another bus and hopped on!!! I have never in my naive years witnessed that kind of racist talk and was not about to witness it now.

2 hours and 10 min later (on a trip that normally takes 40 min) I was laying in bed completely exhausted and dumbfounded at how completely shocking people can be!!!

PS. The "bomb" was a suitcase someone left on the platform full of work papers - nothing explosive, nothing threatening, nothing scarey.

My first Sprained Ankle

My friend Allison were walking along and I was talking, as usual, telling some story when I stumbled only to biff it hardcore and land on my hands and knees. My first reaction was to get up but I was literally seeing white. I felt pain so bad that I thought I was going to pass out. I slowly got up and my ankle hurt so bad with every step - I giggled through the pain of course.

I got back to my cube and took a look at my enlarging ankle, some co-workers came over to get the scoop. One of them promptly went to get what we refer to as the "dumbass" award and another went to get me an ice pack - gee, whose nicer??

So I spent the last 2 days with my leg elevated, icing on and off every 20 minutes. It takes about 5 minutes before I'm dreadfully bored. You have no idea how difficult it is to do the simplest tasks like carrying laundry or walking up 4 flights of stairs or doing my hair standing on one foot. It is getting better but what an idiot to completely biff it walking.

Single in the City

So the funniest part of my last post is that I am now, in fact, single. And yes I have encountered a few tasks that I used to call "man jobs" that I now must complete on my own. They mainly include killing bugs, taking out trash, and putting gas in my car. Why can't Illinois be one of those states that doesn't allow you to pump your own gas - must move to one of those someday!

So on the bug front - One evening I returned from the gym and when I was getting into the shower I discovered a spider web that went from one side of the shower to the other - and what was in the middle of this web? I big brown spider. EEEEWWWW! I had no idea what to do - so I decided to get a pitcher from the kitchen, fill it with water and throw it at the spider web. This did not end exactly as I hoped. The spider did fall into the bottom of the shower but as I threw the pitcher for some reason I pulled my arm back and ended up soaking the entire bathroom. How does that happen??? So now I have a wet and slippery floor and a spider running around my bath tub. Next I go and put on some tennis shoes and stop that spider all while almost biffing it. The end result is the spider is dead, which is what matters, but it also ended with a big mess.

Genius I tell ya..

If I was single - this would be my life

Thank goodness I'm not single. Erik has been gone for a week and I already encountered my first man-job mishap!

I was showering before work and my tub started to fill up. The water was up above my ankles!! So I get out, and dump in some draino that we had for clogged drains. The water did not move - it was just sitting there. I tried plunging the drain - nothing! So I left it with the door closed (so my cat wouldn't go for a mid-day swim in draino) and the fan on. I get home and check the drain - NOTHING its STILL STANDING THERE!! UGH!! I try one last plunge for good measure then it's time to go in - I go in search of a wire hanger (I must insert a mommy dearest "no wire hangers" joke here). I un-wrap the hanger and try to stick in down the drain. I can't even get the wired hanger down the drain!! AAAAHHHHHHH!! Where is a man when you need him. My next thought was Im ust stick my hand in the drano water to see if something is lodged in there...

THE DRAIN WAS CLOSED!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY - FREAKING CLOSED!!!!! I pull up and twist the drain and the water drains in about 35 seconds. Mission accomplished...

Memorial Day in the City

Erik and I went for dinner with our neighbor memorial day weekend. It started out being a normal evening, we sat on the patio at "Smokie Bones". That is something we cherish in the city- a pation. A restaurant with a good patio will literally become a favorite solely because of their patio, it doesn't really matter your prices or the quality of your food - if you have a patio, you are guaranteed business.

As we are sitting on the patio eating our brisket (we don't have a patio at home to grill so we need to eat bbq on a patio at a restaurant, or something like that anyway), 4 fire trucks pull up to the street. One so much as bullies a 4 runner to reverse down the street. As we look up, the apartment on top of the dry cleaners next door is on fire. You can literally see flames. No one really seems to be panicking... even the fire fighters are tra-la-laing around. Finally they put a latter up to the balcony, one climbs up the latter and stares. Literally they just stare at the fire. So we finish our dinner and hop across the street to take a better look.

Aparently a barbeque (also known as a GRILL) started on fire. HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! So of course Erik and I pose for a picture in front of the fire - I mean that seems appropriate, right???

What a random evening!

Look above the cleaners sign - you will see the "fire" and "fire fighter".

Vehicle Update

So I feel like I should be updating everyone on the mess this whole car thing has turned into.

Lets start with Monday morning about 9:30am. I receive a phone call from our insurance company stating they cannot find my car. Towing Company A (let's call them TC-A) was supposed to tow the car after the accident to Auto Body Shop A (Shop A) where it was to be locked up until they heard from my insurance company. We gave the insurance company Shop A's information and when they called to follow up on the car - Shop A educated the insurance company that they have never seen said car. WHAT?!?!?! Where the H - E double hockey stick is my damn car???? So we got on the phone via conference call (shocking, right?) and I began to persistently request information regarding my vehicle with Shop A - I mean it was a 5 car crash how exactly did we lose these cars??? My insurance company instructed me to call the police since they were the ones that called the tow truck in the first place. After 30 min on the phone with the Chicago PD's finest - I decided to leave work to do some investigation...

So I start with calling TC-A I pulled out my receipt and got the phone number, upon calling said number I realized it had been canceled. Then I googled them - called that number and that person no longer worked there. After literally 8 or 9 phone numbers - I start calling auto body shops and find one who has a cellphone number to one of the drivers. I call said driver and he educates me that Shop A refused my car per the insurance company's request. R U KIDDING ME??? REALLY?? As you may recall - my insurance company was the one that told me my car was missing! So attempting to fight my boiling rage (and popping a xnax) I waited on hold for 1 hour and 15 minutes to give the insurance company TC-A's information because they wanted my car towed by Towing Company B to Auto Body Shop B. I left the information and went on with my day.

At 4:00pm I get a phone voicemail from the insurance company that they are still awaiting the information of where my car is and if I could please contact them soon it would be appreciated. Upon my next contact with said insurance company - I found out they had no record of my 1 hour and 15 minute hold time and conversation. Learning from my mistake the first time - I made this intelligent human call TC-A and TC-B along with Shop B and keep me on hold and in the loop every step of the way. How many insurance call center peeps does it take to... (there's a joke in here somewhere).

So today is WEDNESDAY (reminder- the incident was saturday) and E persistently contacts Shop B for updates. Finally Shop B reveals the estimate is $5800 and it will take 3 1/2 weeks to fix.

AMAZING...

No tolerence for those without insurance

So its Saturday night, I get home from Iowa at about 8pm and we decide to chill at home and catch up on Friday Night Lights. About midnight we get a knock at our door. This is strange because you have to be buzzed in through two external doors before getting into our building, then climb 4 flights of stairs before knocking on our door. Erik answered it and it was our neighbor Amy. She said "hi Monica you need to come down stairs, your car is totalled, would you like a piece of cake?". We are both like - WHAT?!? So we get dressed and go down stairs where I see a 5 car pile up - mine is the 4th.

According to the police and witnessing neighbors, this is what happened:

Someone stole my neighbor's car, took a victory lap almost hitting a little girl (why a little girl was out on the street at midnight I will never know) and she screamed which is why the neighbors all ran outside. On his second lap around he lost control of the white bronco, hit two parked cars before smashing into mine. The other two cars were up on their sides smashed into trees. Mine was just kind of schrunched. So the super intelligent neighbor just purchased the vehicle and didn't have insurance.

The police wrote up police reports and my other neighbor went into his apartment and got us all a beer. Right with the police there we drank a beer - that's weird, right?? So apparently it's illegal to have a wrecked car parked on a city street in Chicago - so the cops made us tow our cars. The towing company gave me a receipt and the place it was going to and at about 4am, we finally made it back to bed... carless.

Someone has a case of the Mondays...

Its Monday morning just like any other Monday morning... I'm walking to the train, I got my headphones on listening to some music. About 7:50 amI get to the platform at Belmont and wait for my train. When you have your ipod on, you can tell a train is coming but you can't tell from which way - so I look down the station to see if the lights are coming my way. There was a gentleman looking down at the tracks with his hands in the air with a "what the Hell" kind of expression. The train comes to a SCREECHING STOP. Smoke everywhere. In my head I was thinking - really? Did they just stop the train b/c he was too close to the edge? That seems silly, I need to get to work.

Then I hear a woman SCREAMING at the top of her lungs "oh my god oh my god noooooo". So I pull off my ipod and we all start migrating towards the stopped train. A man pale as a ghost is walking by and I grab his arm asking what happened. He said a man just jumped infront of the train. Then you smelled it... it smelled like burning hair (did you know the train tracks are electrical? I didn't). I am just standing there FROZEN, the guy is under the train and CTA members are running like crazy back and forth. A girl I work with came up to me and was like, uh Monica - we need to go to work lets go. I felt like my feet were glued to the ground - I absolutely could not move. So finally the fire department starts clearing us out - I finally got to work about 9:45am by a co-worker who came to get me.

As the day went on I was completely in shock - I needed to find my feeling box and get those feelings stuffed down in there. As I worked through my change management process - I started to get angry, I mean really angry! Ok I get it - you want to die - this is your choice. You have already made that decision. Now the 2 busiest commuting times in Chicago are 8am Monday morning and about 4:30pm Friday night. Now, if you are selfish enough to actually kill yourself - how about we not do it at one of the busiest travel times - if you're going to jump in front of a train - do it at 3:00pm on a Wednesday. I promise the trains go just as fast and you won't mess up thousands of people's days. GEEZE!!

The Big Move

I have had some random stuff happen to me since I moved to the city of Chicago so I decided to blog about it. I spent the majority of my life in small town Iowa where you know your neighbors and everyone looks out for each other. I have known my best friend since I was 5 and still talk to her all the time. My parents are good people, like actual GOOD people. We have a farm - its my quiet vacation get away. One of my favorite things to do is go out with my family back home - we are close and I know they will ALWAYS be there for me no matter what!

So when my boyfriend finally convinced me to move into the city I was anxious, scared, nervious, interested, curious, excited but most of all I was trying to be a "big girl" and make sure that noone knew I was feeling any of those. We chose an apartment in a safer neighborhood (more to come on that) with a close (1/2 mile) walk to the train and a parking space (which was taken away after 2 months).

So we put all of our stuff in a pod and store it for three weeks until we find a place. (thanks again Tammy & Rob for your basement). Erik set up 7 different appointments for us to look at places and we finally found our first apartment in the city. We called the pod people to have it delivered and apparently you cannot park a pod in the Chicago city limits unless you have a drive way. I'm not sure if I've ever actually seen a driveway in Chicago but we surely didn't have one. So we had 2 options:
1. Rent a UHaul go out there unload the pod into the uhaul, then drive into the city, unload the uhaul into the apartment, then drive the uhaul back to the burbs.
2. Hire a moving company for $700 to do it all for you.

If you're not sure which I chose - you don't know me very well!!

Next, I had to learn the CTA. It really isn't that complicated once you get used to it - of course I had to do a dry run prior to my first day of work to make sure I was comfortable riding the train by myself. Turns out all is good - next thing to master is the bus system - that I am thoroughly confused (probably b/c I don't know N, S, E, W from up or down).

Now the fun can begin...