...a new home...

I've officially accepted the fact that I live in Chicago.

I have also officially accepted the fact that my last name is Erickson, not Sheets.

As such, I decided it was time to officially say ADIOS to sarahcsheets.blogspot.com, and HOLA to my new blog...whizbangs.

Welcome to Chicago.

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...the X factor...

Oprah gave me a big N.O. when I tried to win tickets to her show.

So much for "favorite things."

It's a good thing I didn't go through with this tattoo.

Well... I'm going to The X Factor instead. Take THAT Oprah.

I don't really know what the X-factor is, except for my friend Jill told me that it's the show Susan Boyle was discovered on.

So Jill and I are going.

They are taping a show here in Chicago, and I'm off to see the infamous Simon Cowell yell at some undeserving people. Excellent!

One particular nugget of interest is the dress code required for all X-factor guests. Since they can describe it better than I, here is the dress code, verbatim, from the confirmation email.

DRESS CODE IS STRICTLY ENFORCED FOR OUR INTERNET TICKET HOLDERS! Hip, uspcale attire is mandatory. Colorful, spring colors are requested. ABSOLUTELY no apparel with logos of any kind on the front or back are allowed in the studio audience. ABSOLUTELY no t-shirts, sweatshirts, white tops, shorts, or flip flops! We'd prefer you don't wear jeans. Please dress hip and upscale as if going to a nice club or restaurant. You will be on camera so it is very important that you dress nicely! When you look great, the show looks great!

IF YOU DO NOT DRESS ACCORDING TO THE DRESS CODE YOU WILL NOT BE ADMITTED.

Yikes.

Hip, upscale attire...I'm going to OWN* you on May 20th!

*no reference to the Oprah Winfrey Network. I boycot all things Oprah. Except for Nate Berkus, as I have recently submitted a request to be on his show in hopes that he buys me a new couch.

...sunshine...

Today marks day three of sunshine in the city of Chicago since I moved here over a month ago.

Yes.

I'm counting.

Finally enough sun to open the tulips and encourage leaves to actually grow.

SPRING!

...visitations...

I, as a Chicagoan, have hosted my first guest in our apartment.

We pulled out all the stops. Gourmet food. Delightful breakfasts. The best accommodations and sleeping conditions. Everything was simply perfect.

Who was the visitor? None other than the great Abigail Davis.

No, she is not, nor will ever be a politicians wife, even though I still claim her name sounds very regal.

And no, accommodations were anything but perfect. Even though I had the best intentions of testing our air mattress before Abbey arrived, somehow it just didn't happen. As a result, the plushy air mattress I had promised her ended up being more like a paper thin layer of padding against the hard-wood floor.

Abbey ended up sleeping on a "pallet," (her words, not mine).

The pallet was a camping pad.

She's a good sport.

After the failure of her sleeping situation, I tried to woo her affections with food.

Making her latte's in the morning...

And the best of my Italian cooking work at night...

And of course, the finest wines.

That's just how we roll.

...irony...

It rains in Chicago. It rains a lot. At least right now it does.

Us city dwellers don't really let it get us down. We're out and about no matter what the weather might hold.

But here's the thing....it's no easy task to stay dry whilst walking from place. You see, not only do we have rain, but we have wind. It winds a lot. Always.

I'm currently cozied up in a window seat at Starbucks. This has given me the privilege of watching person after person walk/run/canter/skip down the street trying to stay dry.

I've seen a lot of this.

sad and sadder.

Having experienced this unfortunate circumstance myself I have the opinion that umbrella's should be made of sturdier stuff than this....

Alternate solutions to the problem? Definitely NOT the floor length fur coat I just saw passing by the window. That seems like a recipe for smelling like a wet animal....

I suggest this.

The only downside appears to be that your arms get wet. But just look at the range of motion she has!! Not to mention the protection from the rain and wind.

In any case it's better than my idea to simply carry attachable wings with you everywhere, so you can at least take advantage of the wind and fly to your destination, instead of trying to hop around puddles filled with dirty street water. Also, flight eliminates the chance of being doused by street water by a passing car or bus.

It hasn't happened to me yet.

YET.

...oprah...

Oprah and I go way back.

Way back to the time when I tried to go trick-or-treating at her Montecito mansion in California, and was promptly turned away by her gate security.

That's how far back we go.

Obviously Oprah and I have a bond, so I thought it only fitting to try and go to a filming of her show. Besides moving to Chicago for my husband's schooling, a chance to see Oprah was a close second in terms of reasons to move.

Not really....

Actually I can count the number of times I've watched the show on one hand. HOWEVER, I have heard tale of her "favorite things" episodes--because who hasn't--and I think I'd really like to get a bunch of free stuff from O herself. So I've been visiting her website daily to see if the reservation window will open and give me a chance to get my name in the lottery for seeing a show.

BOOM.

I knew Wednesdays could be good for something! I officially have my name in the lottery for seeing an Oprah show. Apparently I'll know in 48 hours if I'm in or not...so I'm taking all the support I can get.

Prayers.

Positive thinking.

Incense burning.

Sun salutations.

Finger crossing.

...and obvioulsy...

Tattooing.

I might go there. I really like free stuff!

...city livin...

Our little apartment has 12 foot high ceilings.

It's awesome. It makes 670 square feet seem so much bigger.

As an added bonus, I don't hit the ceiling when I get excited and jump up and down. And it's also great for P90X-ing, as the program also requires lots of hopping.

Additionally, one entire wall of our apartment has floor to ceiling windows. Pretty cool. Gives us a great view of some offices directly across the street from us. I like to have staredowns with some employees that work at the "chaotic office" as I have coined it. The place looks so unorganized that it makes me cringe, even from afar.

While these windows are really quite pretty, they also provide us with a few challenges. I often forget when I open the shades to let in sunlight (and initiate starting contests), that I'm also opening our apartment up to anyone else who has eyes and happens to glance upwards. Sometimes I have fun peering down at tour groups who come to take pictures of our building, and the one right across the street, the Monadnock. Overall, I don't mind having the window shades open, and have learned pretty quickly that a bathrobe is my new best friend when getting from the bathroom to the bedroom after showers.

Night, however, is an entirely different story. We have window shades for all of our windows, which I typically close at night. Even with everything "covered," we still get a heck of a lot of light in our apartment. Especially our bedroom. For some reason, when the light filters in through the shades, it makes cool strobe like beams of light all across our ceiling and bed.

While the strobes are pretty nifty looking, they make it hard to fall asleep. I'm already battling with the sounds of the El, trucks driving by, random car horns (people LOVE their horns here), and the constant karaoke from the bar located IN our apartment building...so the last thing I really want is beams of light alllllll over.

My first thought is that I need to get an eye-mask. While I've always thought they were vaguely princess-y and pretentious looking, I thought I might be willing to try one out. When I happened across one in the dollar bins at Target, I knew it was destiny.

Also, I think it's important to note that when I was discussing this with Tim, I had the genius idea for Apple to create the imask. This would be a 3d sort of apparatus, made cool in a way that only Apple can. (You heard it here first people) To this Tim replied, Apple should make iglasses! To which I replied, duh, eyeglasses already exists.

Anyway. Last night as I was laying in bed, unable to sleep because of the bright lights, I was contemplating two thoughts.

1. Transform our bedroom into a small, posh nightclub with excessive strobe lights. And obviously make some money on the side.

2. Try out my eye-mask for the first time.

I opted for #2. Even though it felt like something was constricting my face, and I had fears of punching Tim in my sleep because I couldn't see anything, it worked out pretty well. I'm not sure if I'll continue use of the mask, because when I woke up, it was no longer on my face, but on the floor.

Maybe if I had a cool one like this, I would keep it on longer.

Any alternative ideas for blocking out light? Besides the obvious of spending hundreds of dollars on curtains?

...tufts...

I'm couchless.

Without couch. Sans couch.

Couch count = 0.

And I'm in a pickle. The Hubs and I have vastly different decorating styles. I like to think I have them...and so does he. But there is little to absolutely no coinciding of said "styles."

So what's a girl to do when it's time to purchase a new couch, most likely going to cost a pretty penny? This is no hypothetical, I want suggestions. I've worn myself looking online, and I'm not sure what to do next. Without easy access to the burbs, going to basic furniture stores isn't out best option; but should we buy a couch online? (I'm loving that overstock.com has free shipping....)

If money grew on trees, and I had a money tree in my apartment, these are the types of couches I would be allllll over.

You might notice a trend of tufting. My new favorite.

For the hubs?

All leather. A big, leather, man-couch. A big, leather, expensive man-couch.

Compromise?

...the windy city...

If you know anything about Chicago (which I apparently didn't, as I was told this information by a friend), St. Patrick's day is one of the most celebrated in this city. We're talking about dying an entire river green....and this is no small river. Mental image: loud celebrations, thousands of green beer drinking folks, waaaaay too much clothing in every shade green known to man, and leprechauns running rampant. A general joviality comes over the city, which is fun...but probably not the best day to pick for a move-in located in the heart of downtown.

In any case, let's just say that move-in day was a bit of an overwhelming experience. But not quite as overwhelming as driving a HUGE moving truck throughout downtown on one of the biggest holiday's of the year. Maybe I can get Tim to GUEST BLOG about how he was such a baller behind the wheel.

Before I reveal too much about our epic move and road-trip; it needs to be known that Tim and I BEAT THE ODDS and the twists of fate that were trying to prevent us from moving to CHI-town. A few weeks ago, we visited Chicago to look at apartments and sign a lease. You know, so we actually had a destination when we took off from Colorado with all of our belongings being towed behind us in a questionably sturdy Budget moving van. If I believed in the fates, which I do not, it would have seemed that Chicago gave us a big middle finger upon finding out we were moving there. We took the middle finger, flipped back deuces, and went on our way. But our apartment search was not without a few glitches.

One: We arrived at O'Hare around 1:30. Ante Meridian. Our hotel shuttle was M.I.A. for about an hour, and were were graciously/finally picked up around 2:30.

Two: The next morning, we had an appointment with a company in Chicago that helps people who are moving in from out of town find an apartment. We went to the wrong address. Apparently they have multiple locations... We went to a location all the way through town and out to the psuedo-burbs. Promptly told we were at the wrong place, we did an about-face, and got back on the El heading toward downtown. We then exited for an address at 719 North State Street. Turns out we needed to be at 719 South State Street, which was only about FOUR miles away. Enter taxi ride.

Three: We show up to our appointment about an hour and a half late. Don't worry, we were in constant communication with our apartment finder, who I'm sure thought we were the most annoying people in the world. We left right away to look at apartments, as the day was already about half gone. After apartment viewing numero uno, I reach for my phone, which is no longer on my person. GONE-ZO! As a person who misplaces her phone nearly by the hour, I was originally unconcerned. However, this time it was serious. My theory for the untimely end of my cellular device: I dropped it in a puddle of water, and then it was run over by a car. BLASTED TO SMITHEREENS!!

Four: After seeing about 10 apartments, we FINALLY decided on the one we thought was best. We were at the leasing office of the apartment complex the second the doors opened to find out that the apartment had been leased seconds before through a PHONE CALL. Poo on whoever did that. Poo on you.

It goes without saying that also during this time, the weather was crappy-pants. Raining and snowing the whole time. Thanks for that Chicago.

We DID finally sign off on an apartment, which so far has been great. I promise for pictures and updates proving the fact that we really did drive 1100 miles in a moving truck, towing Blanche behind, through the midwest.

Welcome to Chicago.

Jobsickles

I feel like I'm constantly on the look-out for new job opportunities. I envy the vision of the job stability that I once imagined my future to have. Then I realized that life sometimes gets in the way....

With a impending move in our near future, I'm on the cusp of starting the beloved job search all over again. (If anyone reading this has contacts in Chicago, I'd love to be connected with them!!) So what kind of job am I going to be looking for? Of course one with a super impressive title. Google, being one of my best friends, offered input into this. I was given the following suggestions upon my search...

Smutter: If I could award a job title for sounding dirtier than it actually is, a smutter would take the cake. It's actually a job that involves tending to grain machines, and removing any foreign objects before milling. Highlight: smutters can make up to 20K a year!

No thanks.

Comb Capper: These professionals whack off the caps of honeycomb to extract the honey from inside. A hidden job benefit: working in a perpetually warm climate where bees can live year-round. Santa Barbara, I'm coming back to yoooooooou!

Powder Monkey: Sounds like a energetic ski-bum to me. But no. A powder monkey is a person who stores explosives--think dynamite, blasting powder, or fireworks. They are also around to help enforce safety regulations. Sounds important, but given my propensity for dropping things, as well as my love for candles...I'm going to pass on this one.

Blood-Bank Booking Clerk: First of all, I'm not good at tongue twisters. Secondly, whenever I donate blood, I faint. This is unfortunate for several reasons including but not limited to: It makes me look like a pansy, I have one of the most AWESOME blood types (which I can't currently recall), and I really like to eat the snacks and juice they give you after donating. My conclusion--this is not the job for me.

holy cow

I have so much to catch up on. I've been failing a bit lately on the blogosphere. By a bit, I mean more like a relatively large morsel. Well I'm back. (and so is Britney Spears, by the way.....anyone catch her new single yet?!)

Last night after a classy evening out at the symphony (more on THAT later!), Tim and I came home to relax. By a stroke of luck, we happened across the show, Extreme Couponing on TLC. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS! The people highlighted on the show were essentially addicted to procuring coupons, using tactics from dumpster diving, knocking door-to-door to get other people's unused coupons, and actually paying and ordering them online from a clipping service. It's definitely an bizzare addiction. One lady, Amanda, had 3,000 rolls of toilet paper (enough for FORTY years!); while another man had enough soap, toothpaste, and toothbrushes to last for the next SIXTY years. At least they sound hygienic, because otherwise, they're crazy.

HOWEVER, the show made me think about the potential savings that actually can be found in coupons. Joanie (on the show) racked up a grocery bill of $638.34. What she paid: $2.64!! Um...that's kind of awesome.

With a husband heading into graduate school, and upcoming move to Chicago--where rent prices are about as high as the sky-scrapers--I'm all about money-saving tricks! Any other suggestions?!