Chi - Cago!!

Woo hoo!  I am in Chicago on vacation with Alicia (my sister).  We have been here since Thursday and we are having a fine time.

Thursday night, we saw Wicked.  I saw it last year when I was here and Alicia saw it for the first time.  We both loved it.  There was a high school church group in sitting in front of us and there was one girl that was actually sleeping during both acts!  Now this is not exactly a quiet show, I don't think very many musicals are.  But, she was sleeping, I guess that she didn't like it very much.  

Friday, we went to the Taste of Chicago.  It's a big street fair where there are 65 different restaurants that have booths set up.  You buy tickets and purchase food with the tickets.  The tickets were priced 12 tickets for $8.  I figured that for 2 of us, we would need more than 12 tickets, so I was buying 24 tickets, which was a total price of $16.  I pulled a $20 and a $1 out of my wallet, thinking that it would make life easier for the cashier - meaning that I was giving $21 and since the total was $16, I would only need to get a $5 rather than counting out singles.  Well, this cashier was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, he handed me back the single and proceeded to count out $4.  I told him that I gave him that so he would only have to give me a $5.  He sounded surprised and said ok and then gave me $5.  The worst part about this interaction, was that he was wearing a Rush shirt, which means he is/was in a frat and has attended college!  You are telling me that he couldn't figure that math out!

Friday night, we wanted sushi, so we asked the concierge for an idea and we went to a place called Sushi Wabi on Randolph - that was quite yummy - if you're ever in Chicago and want good sushi check it out.  But I would suggest reservations, because we had reservations and still had to wait a few minutes for our table.

Saturday, we headed to the Field Museum, that's where Sue the T-rex lives.  Then we saw Wall-E in the afternoon.  Wall-E was very cute and was somewhat of a commentary on how people are getting larger and lazier and what will happen if it continues.

The best part of Saturday was that we saw these 3 ladies that all had bags from the Oprah Store.  I didn't even know that there was an Oprah store.  Alicia asked that and they said that it was several miles away, they went as part of the Ethnic tour.  So today we looked into a tour and we're going tomorrow!  I am going to see Oprah!!  Alicia keeps laughing at me because I am excited about Oprah.

I will let you know how things go with her.

Phew, the Final is Over!

I had my philosophy final this morning. I took philosophy because I thought it would be interesting, it wasn't. We had a take home essay that was due today, the topic was God and Evil. That actually was interesting, but the rest was not.

So yesterday, I decided to go to Caribou to study. I was sitting in a nice comfy chair, getting some work done and this lady decided to sit in the chair next to me. Then, she starts talking to me:

Lady: Are you studying? Do you have a final coming up?
Me: Yes, tomorrow.
Lady: Oh, I had a final on Thursday, it was the hardest class I have ever taken. We had so much work to do, I hardly got any sleep (blah, blah, blah)

Meanwhile, I am trying to keep looking at my book, to hopefully give her the impression that I can't talk right now, I AM STUDYING!

Lady: (still going on and on). Did you have a lot of work for your class?
Me: Just a lot of reading.
Lady: Still keeps talking (blah, blah, blah)

It was getting to the point where I was going to have to tell her that I couldn't talk right now when...

Lady: Well, I think that I'll go outside now.
Me: Good idea

Then, she came back in a little while later and sat in the chair again, but got up and moved someplace else. Do you think she got the picture?

Today, after my final was over, I went to sell my books. I had 2 philosophy books and a biology book that I had never sold back. The philosophy books, I got a good amount back, but the biology book was only worth $7.50 because there is a new edition coming out. The clerk said that I could try selling it to a friend that was taking the class to get more money. But I told her that I really didn't, so I would take the $7.50. Then a guy in line behind me said that he had a friend that was taking it and he would buy it for $20 and sell it to his friend, since it's a $100 book even to buy used! I was like heck yeah! So I got $20 instead of $7.50 - that's almost triple! Woo hoo! And, since I am good girl, I am depositing the money in my checking account and transferring it to my credit card! So thanks for the extra bucks, random guy!

Cat Vomit

During the storm that we had a couple weekends ago, Simon threw up all over my condo.  (Well not really all over, just 2 spots on the floor and one big spot on the couch)  He is  little bit skittish anyway and I think the fact that I wasn't at home and it was noisy outside freaked him out.  But the worst part about it was that he had a big mess on my new couch!

I bought the stain protection for it so I cleaned up what I could and then I called the store to set up an appointment to get it cleaned.  Here is how the conversation went:

Me : Hi, I needed to set up an appointment to have my couch cleaned.

Lady: What happened to your couch ma'am?

Me: My cat freaked out during the storm and he threw up on my couch

Lady: Well, I am sorry but we can't guarantee pet stains

Me: I am sure that the sales lady told me that pet stains were covered when I bought the couch

Lady: I apologize if she did, but if you read the fabric protection brochure it says (blah blah blah - do you think I read the brochure?  Of course not!)

Me: Ok, then can you change it so that it says I threw up on the couch?

Lady: Oh no, ma'am, these calls are monitored

So I guess that she had no sense of humor!  I couldn't get an appointment for a week and a half to have it cleaned, which brings me to today...

The guy gets here at 8:15 am (way too early!!) and he looks young, like in his early 20s.  I show him the stain and he starts cleaning it.  It's a little bit awkward with both of us sitting there is silence, so I decide to make conversation.

Me: I guess you guys have a lot of stains to clean, I couldn't get an appointment for a week and a half.

Him: Well, that's our job.

And that ended the conversation.  I was wondering should have asked him about the strangest stain he's had to clean?  Or what about the biggest stain he's had to clean?  But it didn't seem like he wanted to talk about anything, so I turned on Good Morning America.

When he was finished, I had to sign a form and he had written on and this is an exact quote, "Cleaned cat puke".

And, in case you're wondering, the couch now looks great.  The cushion is still damp, so I had to haul it to the bedroom and close the door so that the cats wouldn't sit on it.  But now I have a vomit stain free couch!!

The moral of that story is: people that work at a furniture store have no sense of humor.

Too Many Books!!

I have a lot of books and by a lot, I mean a lot.  I should count sometime.  A couple weeks ago, I decided to start selling my books on Amazon.  As a result of this, I have been at the Post Office almost every weekday since then.  

Yesterday, I had 4 books to ship.  I had the same clerk as the day before.  He told me that I must read a lot.  So explained that I just started selling books and that I have posted over 50 on Amazon and they keep selling.  He said that he never really reads.  Then another postal clerk began taking packages from the stack behind my clerk.  She commented that he was a very good stacker.  I said, I guess that you played with blocks a lot as a kid.  He said yeah, cause I didn't read!  Then when I was leaving, he told me to read another 4 or 5 books tonight and come back tomorrow!

But so far, I only have 2 to sell today.

I'm famous!

Well, not really, but I feel like I am.  One of my favorite bloggers is Karyn Bosnak, she is so funny.  She has written 2 books, you should check them out if your haven't, Save Karyn and 20 Times A Lady.  I read her blog daily and sometimes comment on it.  Well, she wrote a blog about a GW quote about being disappointing and there were a couple people that commented they weren't going to read it anymore because she wasn't a fan of the Pres.  I posted about "My Cat is Smarter Than the President" bumper sticker and one person asked me where I got it.  Woo hoo Phatty is helping someone out that I don't even know!!

In case you're interested in getting one, go to cafepress.com

Something New to Try

Yesterday, my co-worker Jason told me that he found the perfect online dating website for me. He heard a commercial for it while listening to the radio. Guess what it was farmersonly.com. So I laughed. Then he told me that there are over 200 people listed in the Metro Detroit area. That was shocking to me - I didn't that there were that many farmers around here. Maybe I should check into that, or not.

I am trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up and it has not been easy. I am currently taking a Philiosophy class, which is not really something that I needed to take, but I thought that Philosophy would be interesting. I have found in taking the class, that it is not. Today was the last day and we have our final on Monday. There is this girl that sits next to me and we chat, but that's about it. She has not been coming to class very often, pretty much only on quiz or test days. On Monday (when she missed class) the prof handed out some readings that will be on the final next week. So I was telling her what she missed and she asked me, "Have you read them yet?" I replied, "No." Then she had the nerve to ask me, "Are you going to or can I have them?" Um, hello - if you would come to class, you would get the readings. So I suggested that she ask the prof for them. What nerve!

My Bumperstickers

So, I am not really the biggest fan of this administration. So I have a couple of politcal bumperstickers on my car. The first has Bush's Last Day on it and the second says "My cat is smarter than the president". With that, I mean Simba, not Simon. Simon is cute, but I think he's not all that smart.

Which brings me to my point. I had to stop at the post office after class today and when I was getting out of my car an old man was driving by in a pick-up truck. I stopped walking so he would not run me over. He stopped behind my car and yelled out the window, "Your cat is not that smart!" and then drove off. I started laughing, but the worst part was that I couldn't think of a good comeback.

Now I need to find a good anti-McCain bumpersticker. I think that I will head to northernsun.com, they always seem to have good ones!

Welcome

So here I am starting a blog.  In case you're wondering where the name came from, it's from one of my sorority sisters from college.  She was drunk one night and that's what she called me.  Well, I actually think she meant fatty (although, I wasn't back then, she was larger than me) but I think that phatty is better!

I really enjoy reading other people's blogs, so I figured why not start my own.  I have funny things that happen to me on a regular basis, so now I can share them with you.