annabelle: the most beautiful baby ever.

I realize everyone with babies is probably offended at the title but...c'mon:

(even if you aren't a biased aunt, you have to admit...that's one frickin' cute baby)

Friday night, Katie and I headed out to the suburbs to visit my sister (Jill) and her husband (Rob) and the cutest baby in the world, as aforementioned. This was my second Metra experience and...wow.  What a mess.  You have to wait in a huge line for tickets - they can not be printed online and they don't have kiosks for purchasing.  It's like 1950 in Union Station.  Katie and I (read: impatient) just opted to pay $3 more to purchase on the train - which I swear is the reason why they make it a pain to get the tickets.  We immediately unload our bags, start chatting and get shushed by the lady in front of us because we were in the quiet car.  Of course we moved....there's no way we were could be quiet if we tried.

Jill and Rob were there to see Rob's extended family and upon arrival, we were greeted by many relatives and HOMEADE PIZZA.  I'm pretty sure I ate 10 pieces....I'm going to say it's in celebration of Annabelle's rapid weight gain since that baby is HUGE: 3 months and 15 POUNDS.  She's pretty and gigantic.

Katie, Jill, Annabelle and I also took some family pictures but since I'm new to the Ipad movement, only pieces of us made the photo.

It was so nice to see family - one huge advantage to living here is I'm much closer to my sister and parents.  And the cutest niece in the world.

three week highlights.

Obviously, I'm terrible at keeping up with this...SORRY!  These past three weeks have felt a hundred days long (in a good way) and I already can't remember some of the places I've been/things I've done/people I've met. I can't even attempt to recap.
Some of my favorite moments:
- Some of my Nashville- "Pancake Pantry" running friends were in town so I met up with them for brunch* at Hot Chocolate (which was delicious) followed by catching up at the hotel and shopping at Bloomingdale's. 
*I've learned that you can easily spend your paycheck "brunching"...gonna to have to watch that.

- We had our first official "Roommate Dinner" at Elate.  For those that don't know, I live with four great ladies which sounds like a lot but they are awesome, the apartment is huge and everyone's schedule is so crazy and different, there are a lot of times when no one is home at all.

After Elate we grabbed drinks/dessert at the Gauge. Just walking from one location to another can be really difficult with the wind. I'm glad I have such energetic roommates because if I were here alone, I would stay in every night, tucked into bed with tons of blankets watching Mad Men (which is what I do every night when they aren't home).

- First day(s) of work: after five years somewhere else, it's really hard to start over from scratch somewhere else. There is so much verbiage in this industry that it sometimes sounds like people are speaking a different language. Otherwise, I do love getting up and getting to work downtown in the Sear's Willis Tower and even commuting (again, I'd love it more if it weren't so freaking cold). 

- I ran into a friend from Nashville that I didn't know moved to Chicago...outside of the elevator in the Sear's Tower!  I have no idea how to articulate how crazy the odds are that I would run into someone I know from Nashville, in the Sear's Tower at the exact moment he was entering/I was exiting an elevator.

There's a thousand more things that have happened and, again, I'll try to be better at recording them in the present tense.

tebow + move.

Today was one of the hardest I've had in a really long time.  Mark and I got to Chicago around 7 last night, unpacked the car and organized my new room. It was exactly as I suspected: once the bags were unpacked, the reality of this decision sunk in.  Holy....cow.

All drama aside, it was really hard to say good-bye to Mark today. When I thought about it, it was the first time since we've been together that I say goodbye to him and not the other way around. I was having a really tough time with feeling guilt over leaving our dogs, our house, our life and I called Mark to talk and before I could get into any of this he says: "I'm pretty pumped.  I get to listen to playoff games the entire ride!" 

I can drive myself crazy about what is "right" and "makes sense" or I can just live life and see what happens.  But, still.  Holy....Cow.

commonly asked questions

I think part of why I am a terrible blogger is that I assume no one really gives a crap about anything I have to say, therefore, I never post anything.  So, here's counting on you to give a crap.

Most people have been asking me the same questions about the move so I thought I would just put it all out there.  Feel free to ask anything else - short of my house alarm security code - since I'm sure questions about my life are keeping you up at night.

1) Tulip and Oma are staying in Nashville until the spring when they will live with their grandparents* in Iowa.
Leaving them for awhile has been the hardest part of this decision but I think once the snow melts they will be very happy running around my parents' small town and house and will essentially be spoiled rotten.  My biggest fear now is that my mom will never give them back...
*Yes, I did just imply that my dogs are basically our children. If you don't understand that than you must not have dogs.

2) Mark does, in fact, know that I am moving and I did ask him permission. He will be staying in Nashville when he is town but he probably won't be home much over the next few years and when he is, there is this incredible invention called "airplanes" that make it so that you can see each other in less than 90 minutes.  They are awesome. 

Also, we recently purchased a new car and I'm very confident Mark can figure out how to get there.

3) We are not selling our house...we actually really like it and Mark wants to have a place to sleep when he comes home.  We have a tenant and a cleaning guy so our house will probably be in better shape than when we lived there full time.

4) The reason for this madness is for an amazing job in a field I have been trying to break into for at least 5 years.  Also, it's 2012 and the world is going to end anyway so why not be crazy?!

Okay, that's all I can think of at the moment. Please ask away anything else that I'm sure is nagging you and if I can figure out how comments work (don't hold your breath) I will respond.

xoxo!

two more nashvillian days.

Everything (well, almost everything) has been packed for several days now but it still hasn't hit me that I'm moving.  I am trying to remember the last time I moved - almost 7 years ago - and I think it always happens that it doesn't sink in until you unpack the boxes at the new place.

Outside of packing, I have so much to do and whenever that happens, I completely lose my motivation.  For a pretty mediocre coffee drinker I've probably had more in the past few days than in a normal month just to try and keep going.  I have vet appointments, doctor appointments*, errands to run, recycling to take, supplies to buy, rooms to clean...and less than 72 hours.  Yikes.

Despite how unconventional of a lifestyle this is - and terrible timing right after the holidays - I am very excited to live in a big city but keep a home elsewhere.  I really don't know how often I will be back - especially with Mark being on the road - but if anyone wants to keep up with my whereabouts, I'll do my best to update this thing...although historically I am a terrible blogger.

Let the dual-city adventure begin!
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*I'm trying to figure out how to do the whole doctor thing when you live in two cities.  Right now I'm trying to "stock up" on my appointments - dentist last week, eye doctor this week, buying tons of contacts - but how does this work?  Do I keep my doctor here and fly back whenever I need an appointment?  I already know the dentist is out - no Saturday appointments - and obviously I will have to do this with the vet for the dogs....a lot of junk to sort out.  If anyone has thoughts that has been through this before with a move, I would appreciate the feedback.