The Weather Channel.com Lies

I cut my last post brief so that I could enjoy a day at the lake. After getting ready, lathering up on Sunblock, filling up a few water bottles and grabbing a book I head outside to find an overcast Chicago sky and a chilly breeze coming off the lake. I turned right back around after dropping off some mail and cat poop, to return and blog and pack for a day in Michigan on a boat tomorrow. (Be jealous.)

You might be wondering, does Amber have friends in Chicago besides the cat and frequent visits from Jason? And the answer would be 'yes!' Besides showing up to work at ZigZag and taking care of a few cute little ones, I keep up with friends. I finally had Chicago style pizza with a few friends from Miami, Sarah, Amber and her twin Elyse. (I have to say, it's kinda weird having a friend named Amber, there aren't alot of us!) All Cincinnati girls! We went to the famous Giordano's. So cheesy and so much sauce, of course it will never replace my beloved thin crust extra sauce cheese pizza from Cincinnati's LaRosa's!

Look at that sauce drenching the pizza...
And the cheese spilling out. (Hungry yet?)
Good food and good friends. (Elyse, Sarah, Amber and me.)

Later that weekend I met with Jen and a few friends to catch the end of some day drinking and the Cubbies vs. Sox games. To be completely candid, I was nervous about moving to Chicago and my ability to make friends. I haven't had to make new friends since I went to Spain and that was completely different because we were all on our own looking for English speaking friends to carry through the semester in a foreign country. This time I felt different because it's such a big city, but so far I have been blessed with meeting new people through Jen and work. So Jen, her intern friend from a few summers ago, Kristen, and Jen's roommate Alexis and the person who got me the job at ZZ went out Saturday night.

At O'Mally's with Jen, Kristen and Alexis.
Me and Jen. I've known Jen since moving to the Wyo. She's a Gator Alum and now has lived in Chicago since graduating in May 2007 and works as a corporate event planner. She is currently doing a party for Coca-Cola, (How cool, right?!)

And I know I have talked about the dog beach I love so much well I finally got to go with a dog! Alexis has a huskie-lab mix, Coda, who we took to the beach. It's nice to have a friend with a big dog to get my dog fix.

Coda is the gray one, cooling off after chasing other dogs around.
Getting ready to leave after a fun little dip. You can't see her eyes but she has one blue and one brown.

I didn't do much for the 4th of July weekend besides cover shifts at ZZ. Chicago does their fireworks the night before the 4th but we decided to decide to skip the fireworks downtown because it's a huge cluster, with gang related shootings and massive amounts of people going in 100 different directions. And you can't see them from North Beach because of the John Hancock we learned this lesson a few summers ago. So we went to the bars instead.

Kristen and Jen out at a bar in Lincoln Park.
After years of interning, it is only fitting that Jen has her own summer intern. Kristen, Jen and Mallory (the intern.)

I think that's enough blogging for one Friday afternoon. I'm back to the lake, this time to walk. Thanks for reading.

xo
Amber

BC

I did have a life BC (Before Cat) that didn't revolve around a 7 lb creature, so let's get back to that. I haven't become a cat lady yet, there is still some hope. A few weekends ago I had a visitor, Jason came to visit and it was a short but fun visit. He made the over night MEGAbus trip to get here on Sunday morning and after a cat nap (there are just so many kitty puns!) we made the very short walk to Broadway (if I was lucky enough to have a backyard that's where it would be) where the annual Gay Pride Parade takes place. For those of you who aren't diligently reading and taking notes of my blog, I live in/near the GLBT neighborhood of Boystown in Chicago. Similar to other cities in the US (like San Fran) the gay community moved in, revamped it, made it trendy and the rest of us followed. And Chicago not only attracts the likes of young women searching for a city to live in that's not far from home, it's the HQ of sorts for GLBT in the midwest. The parade originally was a protest started in downtown Chicago ( I live in Uptown) to protest an incident in NYC and call for equal human rights. But since then it has become a party, an opportunity for daydrinking in the streets of Lakeview to celebrate being 'out' and those who support them for being 'out'. I've always wanted to experience Mardi Gras this is closest I have come. So Jason and I braved the crowds and enjoyed the parade.

There were Drag Queens...
And more Drag Queen Brides

Chicago PD's float

And Bikes!
And dance groups!
And more floats. Oh my!
And a shout out for Obama! (other politicians were there too)

And that night after watching Spain win the Eurocup (yay!) we headed over to Ukranian Village to meet up with a few of Jason's friends from Oxford who he grew up with, Ben and David and David's girlfriend, Katherine. We headed to David's favorite restaurant...a Mexican fish restaurant. For those of you who aren't familiar, I hate fish, always have and always will. But now I have an excuse, I'm a vegetarian so there will be no Nemo eating for me. But I had Jason take a pic of his fish dinner, it was quite the presentation.

No need to explain my aversion to fish, but Jason enjoyed it.

The next evening after I babysat in the morning, we headed downtown to Grant Park to enjoy the taste of Chicago. It was crowded (Jason hates crowds) but the food was good...

The "Bean," a huge tourist attraction for Chicago visitors, it's a large hunk of metal seating near the Art Institute.

Jason and I doing the tourist at "The Bean". Jason was cringing.

Jason, the brat and a nice cold one.
I went straight for the chocolate turtles. And BBQ (fake) chicken on a stick. I ate it to quick for a photo moment.

I like keeping Jason around because he makes me try new things like rice pudding and cranberries...

Very good!

And he got to see the Budweiser horses.

Very big pretty horses in very smell cages. (so sad.)

It was a quick but fun visit, and hopefully worked in luring him to move to the Windy City, except now that I have a roommate of the feline persuasion he might stay away forever.

I'm off to enjoy the nice weather by the beach. More Chicago pics to come, it just takes forever to upload them!

The Honeymoon Is Over

"You make someone a bridesmaid and then they shit all over you!" (The dimwitted sister Jenny from the 80s movie "Sixteen Candles) Well Cat is not exactly my bridesmaid and she didn't poop, but far worse...she peed on my bed! Yep, that's right, little orphan Annie decided to use my bed as her litter box this morning (while I was still in it, mind you!) I woke up this morning with my foot in some warm liquid, upon further inspection I find it's cat urine...the worst smelly thing ever. (Keep in mind that I spent the better part of last year chasing after an incontinent old dog, so this is very bad in my book!) I quickly ripped off the sheets and read up on what I should do to clean up bedding, mattress pad and down comforter! Because my laundry resources are limited, there are only three machines in my building 4 flights down and I had to be at work in a hour, this was going to have til after work. So following instructions from fellow survivors I threw my bedding in the tub and sink in some water and headed to work. I learned that there are usually 4 reasons why a cat will piss in a human bed:

1. She has a UTI. (Quite the possibility if she had been slutting it up before I took her in.)
2. She thinks her litter box is too dirty. ("Oh sorry, Princess, I'll get that cleaned up for you right away.")
3. She is pissed off about something. (No pun intended.)
4. She finds the feathers in the comforter to be offensive. (No somewhat witty comment for this one.)

Also, because I had way too much faith in Cat I skipped buying any Nature's Cure at the pet store on Saturday (looks like the jokes on me.) So after fretting about it all day at work and emailing my go-to-guy Don (the rest of the world as askjeeves, I have askdon) I walked to Petco to get some Nature's Cure and litter box refreshers. So I came home to a surprisingly not smelly apartment with a remorseful Cat, and got down to business. And of course, this is the afternoon that they are working on the machines and I am out of quarters. Oh, and did I mention the weather in Chicago finally decided to turn summer, so it's blazing hot and humid in my apartment. (Do you all want some cheese for that whine?)

A remorseful and scared Cat hiding. It kinda looks like kitty time-out.

Now as the machines diligently run downstairs and this morning's offensive wake-up call nearly forgotten, I worry about the future. Is this going to be a normal occurrences? This can't keep happening because I am no Daddy Warbucks and Nature's Cure and the quarter machines cost money.) Is she going to be forever banished from the bedroom? Is she trying to tell me something, and I need to brush up on my Meows? Is she really sick? So my question for any of you who might be cat owners, what should a novice cat owner do? (Besides kicking her to the curb, exactly where I found her.)

As you can see she has made herself at home, so I don't think she wants to be evicted for this morning's offense. (Excuse the mess.)
Her perch while I get ready.

Further news on the Cat front, I (and by that I mean Jen, friend with a car, and me) am taking Cat to Chicago PAWS next Sunday at 6:45 AM to get her vaccinated, tested for Cat HIV/AIDS (no, really,) spayed/ pregnancy taken care of and microchipped. If she is indeed pregnant, and it is early on they will abort it (sad but this world does not need more mutt-cats running around) or will have to euthanize the kittens (double sad which I don't think I could handle and will probably try and find homes for potential grand-kittens, which leads to even deeper questions which Amber in the Windy City is not a forum for.) As far as names go, I haven't really settled on one. But have thought of a few...Cat still stands, or Hap, named after Audrey's last movie role in "Always" which she plays an angel guiding Richard Dreyfuss, or Fred another homage to Audrey (suggested by fellow blogger and cousin, Lucas).

Look for future blogs about Cat and other aspects of my Chicago life. "That darned cat!" (Okay, I think that's enough movie references for one blog.)

Call me crazy...

I have a new "project." Call me crazy (Jason thinks I am), call me dumb ...I took in a stray cat/kitty this afternoon. Before you judge let me tell you about my afternoon. So I decided to take a walk by the lake before the big rains came in tonight, and I was on my way home when I bumped into the building maintenance guy. Now, Manuel is a very nice man, he's helped me on numerous occasions and we chat whenever we see each other in the hall. He was sitting on the front stoop playing with previous mentioned cat/kitty, when I came home. He asked if it belonged to me and I answered 'no' but being the animal lover that I am, I sat down to play with it. It instantly came to me and was totally chill and sweet. Manuel went inside to show a unit and I continued to play with the cat. So before long I turned to go inside but the cat tried to follow me. At this time, I decided to take action. Two key points I forgot to mention, the cat had a collar on and had a wound about an inch around on it's neck. So I picked it up (which it didn't like) and I took it inside. I gave it water to drink and started calling around vet clinics asking "what the hell should I do now" because of it's scary looking wound. The cat made it's self at home and didn't do any weird cat thing like hide under the bed where I couldn't reach it.

A place up the street from me suggested taking it to VCA a walk-in clinic and so I called them, and they told me to bring it in. So before I hopped in a cab (you can't take animals on the CTA) I posted a 'Found Cat' on Craigslist with this picture.
So after a nice cab ride with a chatty driver (who by the way, loves cats but didn't have a suggestion for temporary name) I arrived at the clinic. They scanned it to see if it had one of those fancy micro-chips for when an animal gets lost, and put me in a waiting room. I got an estimation for how much it would cost to take care of it's wound and suggestions as to what to do next. I decided to pay for the treatment and got the numbers of no-kill shelters in my area that had openings for cats. I also found out that 'it' is a girl, probably around a year old and 7 lbs.

The Wound after being shaved and cleaned.

On my way out the receptionists who have multiple cats told me they think she is pregnant and that if I take her to PAWS they'll take care of that for me. I'm thinking "Oh shit" and then whisper to my new friend "you slut". The two nice ladies heard me...whoops. Jen picked me up and dropped me off at home with my new project after getting some food and cat litter. I gave her some food and showed her the toilet.

The carrier the clinic gave me and her food and toilet.

And for now I'm calling her 'Cat' after Holly Golightly's cat in "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

I think she approves of her temporary name (she is checking out my Audrey book collection)

And now I'm blogging and she's curled up sleeping. Tomorrow I am going to call around the shelters and vets to see about missing cats and make a sign for my building.

All curled up.