Settling Down, Settling In

Well, we've certainly been keeping busy since our last update. First, on Sunday, my parents stopped in for a visit. My dad's job sent him up for some new training, and of course my mother couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop by and see our new place. Since my parents are tourists (and Cary Anne and I are barely more than tourists), we decided to head down to Navy Pier for the evening, where my mom enjoyed souvenir shopping and Pops enjoyed looking out at the boats.

That same day, word came from Colorado that Cary Anne's brother, Marshall, had proposed to his girlfriend of a year, Mackenzie. Their first date was mine and Cary Anne's wedding, so we like to believe that we had something to do with it. We all knew the proposal was coming, so it was nice to finally see it come to fruition. Back in August, Marshall moved across the country from Virginia to be closer to Mackenzie so it's good that things worked out, because if not I can only imagine how awkward it would have been.

On Monday, my Kentucky license expired so we headed to the nearest DMV so I could get a Illinois license, and it was...crowded, to say the least. When I would renew my license at the DMV closest to us in Lexington, it wasn't uncommon for the employees to outnumber the customers, but at the Chicago location it looked like a crowd waiting outside a Best Buy on Black Friday.

Luckily, despite the sea of people, my number was called in about 20 minutes. I guess when Illinois officials envision the streets of Kentucky they see a lot of horses and tractors because they didn't trust me enough to give me a license without making me retake the written test. Before going, I had reviewed the more obscure info in the state handbook, and I kept spouting off little tid bits to Cary Anne on our way to the DMV. Know what the punishment would be if I got convicted of illegally passing this school bus, babe? A three month suspension of my license and a $150 fine. In the end, my studying paid off because I passed with a perfect score.

After our trip to the DMV, we headed out to the suburbs to see my parents one last time before they headed home. Since we were already out west, I couldn't resist stopping by the local Krispy Kreme, since there are none in the actual city. The place was roughly twice the size of the store I worked at in Lexington, with a large sitting area, two production lines, and bays for the delivery trucks to back right up to the warehouse. I sent this picture to my old boss, Clayton, with the message, "They have chocolate cake!" Our store stopped making chocolate cake back at the start of the year, and I think Clayton is still bitter about it.

On Tuesday, Cary Anne and I headed to our weekly Bible study. We've been attending the Edgewater campus of Community Christian Church since we've been here in Chicago. Community Christian is a church that started out in Naperville, and has sprouted satellite campuses all over Chicagoland. The Edgewater campus, right now, is basically 25 people meeting in a rented out art studio, a big change from the mega-church we attended back in Lexington. 

After the Bible study, our group of 7 decided to head out and do some chalking, which is basically diet graffiti with a positive message. Apparently, this is something the Edgewater campus has been doing basically since they launched a few months back, so once a week we go out and use chalk to write short, encouraging notes on the the sidewalk for people to read on their way to work the next day. At first I thought the idea was a bit silly, but as the night went on, people kept coming up to us talking about how they had seen the chalking before and how much they enjoyed it. So, my attitude quickly started to change as I realized even the smallest gestures can have meaningful impacts. All in all, it was a great evening and really made us feel like we are actually starting to settle in here.

Officially Unemployed

This week, Cary Anne and I each became officially unemployed. Here, we'll break down our thoughts on the matter separately.


First, Cary Anne: 
Its not the first time I’ve been unemployed. I was unemployed just before and after Spencer and I got married, but it feels like such a bigger deal now then it was then, probably because Spencer is going to be unemployed at the same time I am and, in case you haven’t noticed, NOBODY is getting hired these days. Call us stupid, but we’re actually quitting our jobs in this economy and spending a boat load of money moving to a brand new city (that I’ve never even visited before in my entire life!) I feel like I should be scared. But I’m not, not really anyway. A few weeks ago I was absolutely terrified that we were doing this, but now I’m more excited than anything else.


I’ve been though four jobs in the past year. Some were good, some mediocre. I will definitely miss the people more than the jobs. The mall was brief and rather unreliable, but I had fun and discovered how much I would love to make clothes! The call center… well, it was a call center. I met some great people and didn’t always hate being on the phone, but it was just so…full of regulations (to put it kindly).

My favorite job of the past year was definitely working part time at the library. I LOVE the library. I read so much! Mainly when I was supposed to be shelving the books as opposed to browsing through them, but I managed to keep my browsing under control and actually get a decent number for books shelved in a night.  I loved the people: always friendly, funny, and had GREAT book recommendations! There was always great conversation to be had, whether it was about routines and products for curly hair or defining the ‘science fiction’ genre or about physics (I would elaborate here, but I never really understood what was going on in these conversations, people who work at libraries are too smart).  I had a great time every night and weekend I worked and will truly miss everybody at the Beaumont branch of LPL.


Now, me:
Yesterday, after 2 and half years, was my final day at Krispy Kreme. And it was bittersweet.


I took the job back in June of 2009 thinking it would probably just be a summer gig, but it quickly stretched into the longest stent I've ever worked in one place. What I think I liked most about the Double K is the people. Believe it or not, after graduating from a small Southern Baptist college in rural Kentucky, my friend base was not very diverse. (A lot of white bread in that crowd.) Working at Krispy Kreme, I've become friends with people of different ages, and races, and backgrounds, and Wing Feast on Sunday Afternoons (where a bunch of us from Krispy Kreme gather at Buffalo Wild Wings) has become one of the favorite parts of my week.


While working at a fast food joint can be extremely tiring and frustrating (which I've written about over on my comedy blog and even wrote a stand-up routine about), some of favorite memories are also from my time at the doughnut shop.

Over the past several months my manager, Clayton (the guy up in the boxes on the right), has been trying to scare me into staying. (Believe it or not, hard-working, reliable people aren't always easy to come by in the fast food business.) He keeps saying that Cary Anne and I won't be able to find work, that we'll end up on the street, and that he'll have to come save us when he takes his vacation in December. I think he's joking (for the most part), but it definitely is a real fear. I'm leaving steady work at KK and I even turning down an offer to come back to work at Geno's (a formal shop here in town that I worked at during prom season and loved) to move to Chicago. It's a big gamble, and hopefully it pays off.