I decided to go shopping with some girlfriends.  We wanted to come up to Auntie Em’s shop and buy some things for our mothers for Mother’s Day.  We all have been to the shop before, and after much looking around, decided to go to the shop and get some of the figurines for our Moms.  We just hope there are some left to pick from.  Auntie Em told me that her shop has become very popular and she is looking to hire a sales clerk.  I wish I lived a little closer but I don’t.  Auntie Em also has been getting offers for data backup services from some of the businesses that do that kind of thing.  They want to help her with her filing and paperwork, to make sure it is safe if she ever has a problem with her computer she uses for her business.  She is okay as she is though.  She had Jason and Kylie who knows all about computers and backing up files and anything like that.  I can’t wait until this summer though, because Auntie Em has promised that I can come to the shop and help her out and she will pay me too. 

The other morning, I watched a pressure washing Illinois Colorado down on a couple of office fronts down on Jackson Boulevard in downtown Chicago, sometimes called the loop.  It was really damp and the spray threw all this mist up into the air, which was actually quite pleasant given it cooled down the air.  Earlier on, it had almost been stifling hot.  The last time I’d been walking around that area of downtown they had been filming a movie.  Movie trailers lined the streets and you saw all the cameras and lights set up, along with props and such.  I even saw some Chicago police cars marked up to see “Gotham City Police Cars.”  That was when I knew they were filming the new Batman film.   A few people even said that they saw Heath Ledger skateboarding up and down Wacker Drive in full Joker makeup and garb.  It’s a shame that he died, especially since this was likely the role that would make his career as an actor.  A couple of off-duty policemen I know who worked as extras kept telling me how great the film is going to be, given how much money and how much hard work everyone’s been putting into it.  I suppose I’ll see for myself. 

Once in a while, I work for my father when he is shorthanded at his store. Sometimes I will work the sales floor, and other times I will do inventory and other odd jobs in the back. The other day when I was there he had me opening packages. I opened one, and it sure did not seem like anything that belonged at his store. It was a carbide end mill. I went and asked my dad if they had ordered that, and he told me no. He had me call the company, and ask them if they would send what they were originally supposed to send, and to tell them that we would send back the wrong package. I do enjoy working at the store though. Many of the people that work there are around my age, and they are all fun to work with and to be around. It is a really loose work atmosphere, despite the fact that my dad works everyone, including myself, pretty hard. Knowing all of them so well made the Christmas party last year really fun. It was nice to be able to kick back and enjoy a few beers with the people that I worked with.

All's well that ends well didn't happen in Greenburg filing bankruptcy made the local media zero in on me like politicians at a baby fest.  Only the media wasn't playing kissy face.  They were out for blood.  My blood.  I was the only successful and famous person to come out of here in the last 70 years, and they wanted my neck.  They had interviewed me for many years on my way up, and most of the stories had been positive.  Once I had made it, however, then they started to rip me apart.  I was too this and I  was too that, and I didn't care about "giving back" to the home town.  They didn't know –and never checked– to see where I had given to any charities.  I had been very generous with the local charities and organizations, but I did my giving anonymously.  I made sure my name was never mentioned by them.  I didn't and couldn't forbid the directors of these charities from saying anything, but no reporter ever showed up to ask.  They just assumed I had not donated anything.  Having money is a curse.  Now I had this Sarah, the news anchor for the local television outlet, standing in my kitchen and refusing to leave until I did an interview.  I was refusing, because I knew that most of what I said would end up on the floor and would never be broadcast.

When I was growing up, our basement was never finished. It had concrete floors and walls, and all the pipes were visible above head. All that there was down there was a whole bunch of random junk, and a couple of

machine aluminum

shelves to hold even more random junk. When I first moved back home after college, my dad told me that I could live in the basement if I wanted to make it nice. He figured the value of the house would improve with a finished basement, so he agreed to bankroll it as long as I did the work. It is a pretty big basement, and I think I did a great job with it if I say so myself. I tiled the floors, put in ceiling tiles and painted all of the walls. I bought a carpet to put down under where I put the wrap around couch and the television and also one for under where I put my bed. There was still a big open space on one side of the “L” shaped basement, so I bought an old ping pong table at a garage sale, and put that down there too. It turned out so nice that I wish I had it while I was growing up.

So I seriously need to reconsider my life. All throughout college I had this grand plan for my life. Not only did I overestimate my capabilities I also overestimated the ethics and morals of the job market I was hoping to enter. I screwed up a lot in my lifetime, mainly in college and the following few years. I guess that it is typical for a recent college grad to screw up, but I feel as if I may have screwed up more than the next person. I enjoyed my party life a little too much. I wasn’t ready to give it up after college, so I moved to Chicago. I received a dead end job as a copyrighter and basically spent all my money (including my rent) on booze and drugs. Not only did the job hurt my career it hurt my credit score too. I finally pulled myself together and accepted a position at a SEO company, mainly working on sponsored links. I eventually got my act together, but the time in between college and my first real position is all a blur and a pain in the butt to pay back for. It was a learning experience to say the least.

The work on the basement remodel is humming right along.  With all the planning we did, it’s become more and more evident how much time and effort and did I mention money, is going into this project.  But, the planning stage is just about done.  The architect we found is very good and we think he will take good care of.  He has a grasp of what we want our basement to look like.  We love the floor plan he came up with especially since he is removing those walls that made us feel closed in and stifled.  The extra windows were added into the plan just in case we need a backup escape route.  Even though it is an open floor plan, we are going to have different areas designated to cover all our basic, fun needs.  We can’t wait for our laundry room to be completed and it will be tucked away from the main areas where the kids where the kids will be bringing hanging out with their friends.  I am looking for to having my own special space, just for me to set up my home office away from the traffic with the privacy I need.