A Trip to the Windy City

After probably one of the best weeks out with one of the best presenters that I've had so far, I finished my week in Chicago, in one of the worst hotels I've had to deal with. Luckily, I didn't have to stay the weekend in that hotel. I met KAL at O'Hare and then we took the train into the city to stay at the la-di-da Hyatt right downtown. As always, K had a good connection and got us a "Regency Club" room, for super cheap! We got to our room with my crazy load of luggage (thanks for the help toting my big bag K!!) and then went to enjoy the "hot appetizers" in the special lounge for "guests who require an even higher level of service than the Hyatt standard."

We chose convienience over finding a true conniseurs restaurant in the sub-freezing temperatures and found a deep dish pizza place nearby to grab dinner. After dinner, we went wandering around just to see a bit of what surrounded the hotel and see if we could find a bar. Both of us gasped in pure christmas travel joy at the sight of a beautiful old building which had been lit red and green at the top. Across the river we found a gigantic statue of the American Gothic figures in front of the NBC building (and Chicago Tribune sign!) but no bars. So we wandered back across and found a place to get a Sam Adams (since that's what people in other parts of the country drink when they're not drinking Bud, I'm still getting used to not being able to get Mac'n'Jacks ever).

By the time we got to the bar we were pretty much frozen solid. Turns out people have long puffy coats for a reason, and not just as a fashion statement. I decided that I needed to buy the flat, wrap-around black fleece ear muffs that I saw on all of the men about town.

We called it a night pretty early, since we were both exhausted, and proceeded back to the hotel for some absolutely fabulous sleep. This bed... oh god. It was spectacular. There was some kind of thick feather-bed top to it, and it just was so cushy i just melted into it. Although, after having had so many king beds to myself I had to remember that I couldn't turn fully horizontal on the bed during the night.

The next day we had breakfast at the Regency Club room and then went out shopping in the decidedly Seattle-esque weather (45 and chance of showers). Throughout our time on the Magnificant Mile I decided two things: 1) Ann Taylor Loft is KAL's store, but generally not mine. With the exception of a ridiculously on sale (66% off!) pencil skirt. and 2) Designer Jeans don't automatically make you look good. I tried on two dressing rooms full, and decided that I didn't like them any more than I liked my previous $50 pair, in fact I liked them a lot less. Sadly, I didn't find the perfect pair of earmuffs but we did find a Noodles and Co for lunch!

We weathered the rain and enjoyed Millenium park (Yay Bean!) and then met up with another program manager who happened to be in chicago the same weekend. She (well, her cousin who lived in Chicago) helped guide us to a little german christmas market where we proceeded to drink gluewhine (or whatever you call it) and wander around. We were icicles again at this point, since the market was outside and the rain was still falling. Back to the hotel we went to try on our new purchaces and get ready to go out to a show.

We'd gotten half-price tickets for "The Christmas Schooner," at a little theater in Belmont. I found the show a little hoaky for my taste, but it was fun regardless. The story is about a Michagan sailor who in the late 1800's filled up a boat with christmas trees and sailed across the icy lake to bring the trees to Chicago. I was sudenly sturck with amusement that sailing a lake could be so dangerous, but one look out our hotel window (and some jibes from KAL) reminded me that those lakes are BIG. In fact, they're Great. :P

In the morning we met up with one of KAL's friends who had moved to chicago and had an amazing breakfast with gigantic cinamon rolls. We then wandered over to check out Wrigley field, and then we were off again back to fabulous O'Hare. My flight got delayed multiple times (thank you Northwest!) but I ended up finally making it to Kansas City. All in all a great trip!!

Short List: Christmas Break

Aside from the obvious holiday clatter, I'm going to need a mission for my break this year, since I am going to have nothing to do! Here's a list of 12 things to try to get completed by January 5th, when I fly out:

To Complete:

97. Go through goals, re-evaluate, and add #97 by December '08.
90. Go to the Pioneer Square first Thursday art walk. (If there is one on Jan 1st)
83. Make time for a Sister-Bonding event and stop acting like a know-it-all.
70. Make bed every day for a week. (0/7)
65. Create a Lulu.com book of my LJ entries.
63. Knit a cabled scarf.
45. Subscribe to a literary journal.
38. Sell snowboard and coat on Craigslist.
28. Make homemade bread (with yeast, no beer bread!).
31. Eat no take-out or restaurant food for 2 weeks straight. ??????
15. Donate to Locks-of-Love. ?????
37. Cash in change jar only when completely full.

And some things to work on:

94. Buy 10 CD's rather than downloading. (3/10) [Barcelona, Helio Sequence, Death Cab for Cutie]
89. Attend 5 plays before I turn 25 (and have to pay more). (2/5) [The Imaginary Invalid, 3-16-08] [A Marvelous Party, 7-11-08]
88. Go to 5 new restaurants in Seattle. (2/5)
82. Send thank-you notes for all gifts from Christmas and birthdays. (C07, B08, C08, B09, C09, B10)
80. Send a "Just because..." note 1x a month for 6 months. (0/6)
59. Complete a visual journal.
67. Back-up hard drive 1x a month for a year straight. (2/12)
95. Increase my list to having seen 50 of the AFI top 100 films. (26/100)
57. Write a blog post a week for 3 months straight. (5/12)
17. Take a spa day once every 3 months (Hot House, Massage, Facial, Manicure/Pedicure, or Bubble Bath work!) (3/11) [Massage, 9-26-08]

That didn't really shorten the list much from it's 101 state, but hopefully it'll help me figure out what to do when I'm hopelessly bored (and prevent me from catching up on season 1 of Gossip Girl). ALso, since I'll be heading into year two I want to try to catch up to pace a bit more than I'm at. If I can cross off twelve things I should definitely be much closer than without them.

New Jersey Tackiness

Really...?

Fake frescoes on the ceilings, fake marbling on fake columns, gaudy Christmas decorations everywhere, fake Grecian statues, gold accents everywhere, and even a ceiling panel that has the constellations of the night sky on it. It's like a low-rent version of all things holy.

Not to mention the glorious Christmas music on a loop. Everything from operatic style carols, to children's choruses, to some kind of chintzy organ music.

I am in hell.

Although, when it comes right down to it this week I've been enjoying things more than in the last few previous weeks. In Manchester I got out and drove around town a bit, and my presenter is great fun. Yesterday after the seminar, we drove through "downtown" trying to find a place to grab something to snack on since our flight was so late. We discovered that almost nothing in Manchester is open at 3pm, especially nowhere that you could get a glass of wine. After a few instances of "driving like a Bostonian" (ie backing up and making u-turns/3-point turns in traffic) we managed to find an irish pub that served only pizza. It was good pizza at least!

She drove to town in a PT Cruiser so we had a car in Manchester, and after taking that thing for a spin (or two or three in downtown Manchester...) I ended up getting another one for us now that we're in Jersey (although it's a much better color... Cherry Red rather than Electric Shock Blue). It's much more fun to drive than the gigantic SUV's I've been having previously, even though no matter what color it is, it's still an ugly car.

Next, we get to drive the Jersey Turnpike to Newark. My wallet is drastically weighed down with coinage for this part of the treck... I'm pretty sure I went overboard. I'm guessing I've got about 10-15 dollars in coins. That's what I get for packing them the morning I was leaving. I'll definitely have to let you know how the hotel that is next to the correction center turns out... Yay Newark!

The Days Get Longer

Here’s a clearing house post, to make up for the fact that last week, while I had a great presenter I was stuck in a part of the country that made me want to beat myself over the head. No offense to the better parts of the Midwest, but I have to say that Indiana, Toledo in Ohio, and Michigan definitely qualify for “fly-over state” status. Anyways, I’ll give you a run down of things I’ve been thinking about:

Job Satisfaction

At some point in every job I’ve ever had I’ve lost interest. Maybe I have career ADD. I’m good at pushing through for defined periods of time though, something that has helped me with any class I’ve ever taken. Luckily, this job is extremely defined. Two more weeks and I’ll have the first real Christmas break I’ve had in a long time. Maybe that’ll help me wake up at 6am and actually almost care about what I’m doing.

Because in fact, waking up at 6am has become a process of dread. Every day I know I will face people who will not be satisfied… people who rudely refuse to fill out evaluation forms with only 4 questions, people who are insulted that you cannot solve all of the problems that they themselves should have checked on, participants who rudely insinuate that I’m insane to be doing this job, hotel staff that either move like molasses or go so far over the top to be nice that they cant get anything done for all their graciousness. There are plenty of folks who are nice, but it’s hard sometimes to put up with all of the crap that gets thrown my way… especially when I’m in places like Detroit or Toledo where there’s nothing to be done outside the seminar.

Luckily, this week I should be able to go traipsing through Phillidelphia and drive down to the lovely little part of Long Island that another PM and I found last time I was there. Then there’s Chicago… and man am I looking forward to that. It’s going to be great fun to wander around town with KAL, just being low-key but seeing a great city. That’s what I love about this job, and what I just can’t do in Toledo or Detroit—getting out and investigating cities. Detroit’s hotel did have a water park, but considering it had only one slide and I was the only guest in the entire park, it was just awkward.

The Future

It’s the thought of indefinite periods of time spent working a single job that grabs me by the throat and throttle the will to work out of me. That’s what happened with my last lab job… and what I fear will happen once this job is over. I don’t know much more now what I want to do than I knew before. All I know is that I don’t want to spend an exorbitant amount of money on grad school unless I know that it will be worth it. Debt has always scared me and I’d managed to avoid credit cards entirely until now (but those reimbursement checks cover all of that anyways), but to pick up debt in this economy without a clear method of paying it off scares me.

The state of the economy also scares me. What does one do when things are heading towards a depression and there’s no clear career path to head down? I think I need to start working towards a position that can become a career, because I need to be able to build into a promote-able position… but not knowing which direction to go in bogs me down.

In fact, I want to make a plea of anyone who actually reads this. Sometimes people outside of the situation have the clearest sight of the situation. If you don’t mind, I’m extremely curious what any of you see me doing as a career. Please leave a comment… Do you see me in a suit running business meetings? Do you see me back in a lab coat? Do you see me with a reporter’s notebook? Anything would be helpful.

NaNoWriMo

No, I did not finish. I got 60% done, and then realized I needed to rewrite a section of over 800 words as well as write all of the sections that I had not really thought out. Once I got bogged down in feeling sick and not wanting to eat, writing completely lost its excitement and I fell far enough behind that I couldn’t manage to continue. I’m going to try to get the story finished, and the plan is to push for Christmas. It’s horribly terrible in my opinion, and I’m at the point where I hate every word of it, but I wanted to do this, so I’m going to finish it. That’s what I do, complete assignments.

Christmas

As far as Christmas goes, I’m really not feeling it at all this year. Considering I don’t really feel a spiritual connection to the holiday, don’t really feel excited about spending it with family, and pretty much hate the present aspect, I wonder how I make it through every year. Many of my friends are going to leave town around the holidays too, which makes me sad since I finally have time to spend with them.

However, I don’t think I’m a scrooge anymore since I don’t mind that other people enjoy Christmas and I’m happy to try to make their holidays more fun. While I exempt myself from the cousin gift exchanges because I don’t want it to become my aunt buying me a present and my mom buying my cousin a present, I do like to give gifts. I just don’t like feeling forced to do it all at once along with the rest of the world and honestly I really appreciate giving little thoughtful things more than big all-out extravaganzas. Plus, I’m trying to get better at accepting gifts with excitement.

One thing I think I’ve realized is to ask for different things, no matter how much it feels odd to request things out of someone else’s generosity. I don’t want clothes (unless you’re getting me silly socks, underwear, or Christmas pj’s just for fun), but I like getting accessories, especially scarves and mittens and the like (anyone who hasn’t heard of it should check out Etsy.com for fabulous homemade things. If shipping doesn’t work out in time, I’m always a fan of getting a photo of what is headed my way). I’d love a stash of books to take on my flights, or CD’s/iTunes gift cards to entertain me. I’ve already got a decent book list in my archives on this blog, but as for CD’s, I’ll try to fill in a list at some point (although new bands I might like are always appreciated, I’m into slightly folksy music lately a la The Submarines and The Weepies). I also told Mom that I want stuff I hate buying for myself: makeup, perfume, gift cards for treatments like pedicures, haircuts, facials, or massages. Also, no matter how picky I am about coffee now, I’d still love the international coffee currency (ie a Starbucks card).
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So that’s that for now. I’m somewhere over the Dakotas on my way to Philly right now, connecting to Manchester, NH (if only it was England!!). I’m hoping to beg the Shuttle driver into driving me to town since I’m going to be lacking a car. Hopefully more posts will happen this week as I can feel the weight of crappy Midwest hotels and grouchy participants lifting. But expect a nice ranty post about the Newark Holiday Inn… ugh.