When Life is a Beach, Start Jones-ing for Indiana

It's been a while since I last blogged. Part of the reason for that is because of lack of material and the other part of that is simple lack of motivation or time. The result is that this particular post will probably be a long one.
I never did hear any word from the place I staged at, I wasn't expecting it but it is still a little sad for me. It was such an incredible place. But Ce' la vie! If nothing else it was a great opportunity and I'm so glad to have had it.
The rest of my week was pretty cut and dry. School was good. So far sanitation class is super boring and my foundations class is all about cutting potatoes and onions. Starting yesterday, though, we graduated to carrots and celery so woohoo! The upside of boring classes at the moment is that is gives me plenty of time to be looking for a job and my next stage.
The career services at my school has tons and tons of job listings which is both helpful and overwhelming so it feels a bit like climbing to the top of the mountain every time I approach it but I'm steadily getting it all organized into a workable situation. I've applied to some jobs already but I still have more places I want to check out and possibly apply to so we'll see what happens.
Though the money I've saved before I moved out here is holding up, the lack of a job leaves me feeling super antsy. I can't tell you the last time I went this long without a job, honestly. I think I'm starting to get tired of my little 5 block radius world too. I primarily go between either school or my apartment at the moment and I really need a change of scenery and situation. Don't get me wrong, I get out and explore but it makes me nervous every time I do, not because of actual fear, but because going out and exploring usually means spending money which the thought of doing without having an income of some sort coming in to replace the money I've spent adventuring makes me anxious beyond reason. It's ridiculous, I know, but to each their own neurosis, right? If you think about it, too, having a driving need for a job is probably the least troublesome neurosis to have so.... Lucky me? ^_~
Anyway, this wanderlust with a dash if cabin fever made my brain stumble upon a genius idea! I'm going to Indiana for the weekend! Now, without the proper background information there are some among you that might read that statement as proof that I have officially lost my mind so let me explain. I don't know anyone in Chicago. Well, that might be a lie, I did visit Sara when she was going to school in Illinois so there is a high probability that some of the people she introduced me to live here too but as far as I know, I don't know anyone in Chicago. The closest person I do officially know is the magnificent Ms. Fox (who has not given me the okay to blog her name so this is the only name you get for the time being) who lives in...::drumroll:: INDIANA! To be more precise (without being precise, for the sake of privacy) about 6 hour drive. Since I don't have a car that makes it very difficult for us to see each other or hang out, until now. The answer? Trains! Yep, I'm getting tickets to take a train to see her! I'm excited! New scenery! Excellent company! An adorable puppy to snuggle in the absence of my own! Who could ask for more?! So, now I'm all jazzed and jones-ing for Indiana!
On a completely different note, I put an obscure reference to a no good, very bad, terrible day I had on Monday which at the time was very frustrating but now, looking back and having told the story a couple of times is actually pretty hilarious. See, what had happened was....
I woke up to go to school got dressed, thought I had everything in order an left for my foundations lab class. As I got about three-quarters of the way there I realized I was missing something crucial, my ID badge. This may not seem like a big deal, but it actually is. They make a big stink about how you need to have your badge at all times on campus, there are signs everywhere about it actually. What's more, that little ID badge has a little chip in it that unlocks the door to the building. Needless to say I had to turn around. By this point and time, there was no way I was going to make it to class in time, without my ID mishap I would have been on time, even a couple of minutes early, but since it became a factor I was pretty much decidedly late. Which made me soooo frustrated and angry. I'll be the first person to admit that I am not known for my punctuality, in fact, there was a joke going around my circle of friends for a while that made it quite clear that I was notorious for quite the opposite, but it always bugs me when I'm late. I have since worked on that and I am much better at it, so when I start falling into those late patterns I become extra frustrated. Eventually, I got back to my apartment, grabbed my ID badge and start out again. I remember thinking as I was heading down the stairs that I could just put on the lanyard that had my ID attached to it on my way to school it by some stroke of luck I figured just take a second and do it then. Lucky that I did too. Turned out that somewhere between my apartment door and where I was standing in the stairwell, my ID badge had decided to become unclipped from its lanyard. So I had to go back to find this stupid piece of plastic that had, by that point made me 10 mins late. I found it laying just outside my apartment door. So I grabbed it, secured it, did one more check that I was not missing anything else and double timed it to school. But the time I got there I was 20-25 mins late for class. I was drenched in sweat from all the running around in my long sleeve chef jacket. My Chef instructor took one look at me and asked me if it was raining outside. I apologized and he was very understanding and said something about how he understands that sometimes life gets in the way But wait! There's more! Not five minutes after I get there he asks us all to pull out our homework so we can go over it in class. What do you know? I forgot it.... Back at my apartment. Oi! I told Chef an he chuckled and told me to just bring it in the next day, no problem. Class went on and everything was fine.
Until...
I got home. I got in the elevator to go up to my floor just feeling beat up and upset about the other crap that had happened that morning. I get off at my floor put my key in the lock to let my self in, start to turn it, and can't. My key got stuck in the lock. I couldn't move the lock, couldn't get the key out, nothing. I fiddled with it for a minute or two, give up, go to the front desk and the doorman called maintenance for me. The maintenance guy gets there and starts asking me questions. The conversation went something like this:
"Is there anyone inside?"
"Nope, I made sure of it. I knocked a few times (but my all my roommates' class started about 10 mins ago so I wasn't surprised but I had still held on to the slim hope that maybe one of them had stayed home or something)."
"Are you sure?" then he proceeded to knock on the door. When he finished with that he started jiggling the key in the door and doing all the things that I had tried to do to no avail. Then, "Was the door all the way locked?"
"I don't honestly know, I wasn't the last one to lock it but it was locked enough to not let me in, so I put the key in and....here we are." He starts in on the explanation about how sometimes this happens because of this that and the other thing and the whole time I'm just holding my breath and counting to 10 trying to not lose it on this man. Eventually, he decides that the key is, in fact, stuck in the lock as I have told him and he goes to get his drill kit and proceeds to drill out not just my key but the whole lock too. Long story short, we all got new keys and I raised the white flag on the entire day and didn't leave the apartment for the fear of what else might just happen that day.
I was actually going to blog about it as it was unfolding and then realized halfway through that maybe blogging angry isn't such a good idea. Everything comes up all profanities and self-pity and who wants to read that?
My roommates and I also went exploring and the such this past weekend. Our building had a pool party BBQ which was alright, there was free food which is hard to complain about. Afterwards, we all went to the beach because, turns out Chicago has beaches! No ocean, but beaches all the same! Lake Michigan is huge though so it makes sense, I guess. The beach is really close to our apartment too, within 10 minutes by foot, actually. We ended up splitting up. They went to sunbathe and I decided to rent a bike and ride it down the coastline? Lakeshore line? Whatever. The path was lakeshore park trail so, there you go. It was a beautiful day and the views were superb, though the sidewalk path was a little crowded. We all met up again And waded int the water until we started getting hungry. Then we headed home, made dinner, had a dance party, and generally bonded more as roommates.
Anyway, that has been my week so far. I hope you found my bad day as funny as I'm starting to. I'll try to post more often so my blogs won't be as long but I make no promises on the matter. Allonsy!

The attached pictures are of the beach