"Summering" in Chicago

I haven't posted anything in a while but that is because of some technical difficulties that hopefully will be resolved on Tuesday. This does not mean that the last few weeks have been uneventful.

We are officially "summering" in Chicago. I like that phrase because it sounds so aristocratic when in fact, it is not. After many, many months of searching for employment Kansas, we decided that Alex's chances of finding a job in Chicago may offer more potential. My father-in-law reluctantly offered us to stay with him and we took him up on the offer, I think to his surprise. I say "reluctantly" because he hates dogs. He thinks that they are filthy, disgusting wild beasts that should not be pets to begin with and if they have to be then they should only stay outside. Have no fear! Davey is slowly turning his heart to moosh.

My last day at the Eaton Steakhouse was on May 15th. After almost a year, I had had enough along with 90% of the staff. Everyone, with the exception of 1 server, a busser, and 3 line cooks walked out the day after Mother's Day for lack of pay. I am still waiting for my last paycheck to clear. One of the employees called the Wichita Eagle and a story was written but it had little to no effect in helping the staff receive their well-earned paychecks. The Labor Board has been contacted several times. I'm glad to say that I no longer have any part in that business.

With that said, Alex and I packed some stuff up, cleaned the house, passed our keys over to a well-trusted neighbor and friend and decided to take the long way up to Chicago with an 10 week old puppy who travels amazingly well! On our first trip up to Chicago we travelled south to Oklahoma City because why not? What else did we have to do? It's a nice little city. We stopped to walk through the Botanical Gardens for about an hour with the dog. Then we hopped back into the car and headed toward Tulsa which we drove around for a few minutes before heading toward Joplin, Missouri. The drive was very nice and quite beautiful. We spent the night in a decent hotel, ate breakfast and headed to St. Louis.

I can't believe how BIG St. Louis is! It seemed to stretch on forever and ever. We stopped for a much need break at the Jefferson National Expansion Museum to stretch our legs and walk the dog. He was a HUGE hit. Everyone wanted to touch him and tried to guess what breed he was. We heard everything from Black Lab to Sharpe. Only one other dog was interested in playing with him. 

Here's our first glimpse of the arch while driving in the city:

In the shadow of the arch with the Mississippi River behind us. It was pretty swollen from the rain and some of the streets were closed off down by the banks.

While at the Jefferson Museum, we parked in the parking garage. Okay. No big deal. When we were done with our tour of the park we went back to the car only to find out that they don't take debit cards. We didn't have a single cent on us. I handed the guy my driver's license, pulled over to the side, and Alex walked around down town St. Louis for more than an hour trying to find an ATM or restaurant that would give us cash back. This is after we spent a half hour on the phone with both our bank and Citibank trying to get our pin numbers. What a mess. Alex finally found an ATM, we paid our parking bill, and got out of there as fast as we could. 

The day before Z's (my brother-in-law) graduation he had a track and field tournament. It was pretty neat to watch. I have to admit that I've never been to one before. I cheered for everyone. I think my favorite event was the 2 mile race. This one kid kept the same pace the entire time. For the first mile and a half he was almost a lap ahead of everyone but in the end he took 3rd place. It gave me chills. Then there was a relay race that was really incredible. On the very last lap this other kid from another school hit his internal nitrogen button and flew by everyone and took first place. I could not believe the speed and power that this one kid had. I just about cried.

Here is Z and I before one of his 2 relay races. Not only is this kid super smart but he is incredibly fast.

It didn't take us long to settle in. We decided to stay in the room in the basement for a bunch of different reasons. First, we'd be closer to the puppy. He's allowed outside and in the basement and once in a while when my father-in-law isn't home we let him upstairs. Of course, we're out of the way in the basement too. I've rearranged the furniture to make it feel like a little apartment. I did some deep cleaning and we packed up a bunch of things that haven't been used in ages and claimed the space as our own. It doesn't hurt that the basement is the coolest part of the house too. Anna (my mother-in-law) likes it to be very warm in the house and we love to sleep cold, so it only seemed like a natural solution to stay downstairs.

Here is Davey attempting for the first time to climb up on a chair. He actually got up there but was way to scared to jump down. He whined like a big baby until I helped him down a few minutes later.

My stepmom was coming down to visit for a day, so a week later we drove back down to Wichita to see her. She didn't stay for long because the drive up to Michigan is a long one, but it was nice to be back home and see family again. We had a chance to catch up with the neighbors, pack some more stuff up, and head on back to Chicago. This time we drove directly there and it only took about 11 hours. The puppy slept the entire time. We actually had to wake him up to exercise him. We did take him for his 12 week check-up while we were back home where he officially weighed in at 30.2 pounds! 

He has commandeered the little chair down stairs. He'll curl up and nap here for a good 2 hours if we let him. I figure this will only last for about 2 more weeks until he out-grows the space. He's getting pretty stocky and his back comes up about an inch past my knees.

He tries to eat just about everything. He finally found this stick the other day while we were taking him for a walk and adopted it as his very own. I peeled off all the bark. He'll sit in the sun for a good portion of the day chewing on it.

He's finally started to play "Fetch"! Getting him to let go is a little bit of challenge but he's catching on. I love how happy he looks when we play games with him. 

Z graduated on May 29. It was a typical high school graduation with the exception that the Valedictorian didn't give a speech nor did the Honor students walk first. That's probably because 98% of the graduating class was an Honor student. Every single graduate has been accepted to a major university. A couple of them will be attending Creighton with Z in the fall and one of his best friends will be attending West Point.

My mother-in-law graduated today from De Paul University. We convinced her that she should attend her graduation ceremony and experience walking across the stage to hear her name announced to the entire audience with the title "With Distinctions" afterwards. This is her 4th and 5th degree. I'm not kidding. She is really quite brilliant. She has a B.S. in Chemistry, an M.S. in Chemistry, a Ph.D in Organic Chemistry, and today she earned a double MBA in International Business and Marketing. Holy Moly! I give it 3 years before she's back in school again just for the sake of learning.

We went to a Polish restaurant for dinner, one of her favorites. I hate the way I look here, but out of all the one we have this is the best one. Alex is actually leaning on me and I'm falling forward. Plus, the lady who was taking the picture refused to tell us when she was taking the picture. We stood there for a good 3 minutes with permanent smiles waiting for some kind of cue. That's so annoying! 

Dinner at the Warsaw Restaurant: from left to right: Alex, Amanda, Zoran Jr., Anna, and Zoran Sr. Pavlovich.

I'm sure your eyes are ready to pop out of your head from staring at the computer for so long. I'll try my best to make sure the next couple of posts are more like Haiku's instead of short novels. I hope you have all had a great past couple of weeks!