The grad student is currently doing a winter internship at one of the big four accounting firms in the windy city. She had visited Chicago twice last summer and LOVED it. I figured the winter would be where the rubber met the road. Can she handle the frigid temps as a commuter with no car? Poor thing is now in the midst of the polar vortex, trudging around in crazy cold temps.
I called her yesterday to chat since I knew she and most midwesterners were hunkered down at home, trying to stay warm. When I asked her about the cold, she said it all pretty much feels the same to her. Says it's not such a big deal. Which was honestly a surprise to me. I figured she'd get tired of all the requisite daily bundling in a chunky coat, gloves, hat, thermal socks and boots. That doesn't seem to be the case, however. And good for her. Now if she'd just get off before 8 pm every evening from Mon-Fri and not have to work every Saturday. Then she'd have a chance to really explore the city. If these internships are seen as a way to lure potential employees into the game, then they need to have them working sane hours instead of bogging them down in the drudgery of the rat race and no work/life balance.
The money pit strikes again. About the time we get the new roof finished, a couple of the hinges on the garage door break.
My ride has been trapped inside, waiting on the repair guy to come out today to get the door functional again. It's just a praise the Lord situation that we have the money to keep this place from falling down around our ears.
Last week I made a run to the local used book store to fetch a couple novels the senior needed for her AP lit class. While there, I zipped through the kiddie lit section to see if there was anything cute on display that I could read with the first grader I mentor/tutor every Tuesday. That's when I ran across this bit of fun.
I have an old friend from high school who owns/runs a food truck in the Netherlands with her husband, so this immediately reminded me of them. Plus food trucks are just so popular, in general. We have friends who have used food trucks for everything from engagement parties to fundraisers.
We've been patiently awaiting the arrival of this envelope from Clemson University and it made an appearance in our mailbox on Friday. Our senior was delighted and we paid the deposit to accept her spot in the Class of 2023 on Saturday morning.
Because I'm an obsessive planner, I already looked up the Clemson football schedule for this fall. Sure enough, the Tigers are playing the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest in November. Since the older daughter is working on her second masters degree in Winston Salem, I think we may need to have our own little family of four reunion in Clemson the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Right before Christmas, I had my mother, the senior and her boyfriend accompany me to the photographer's studio so we could get a first look at proofs from the senior's photo shoot back in late October. We had over 200 photos to choose from the photographer's initial cull of over 300, but we were pretty in sync with what we liked and didn't like. Since we went with this trio of photos taken in London of her grad school sister when she was also a senior in high school...
I decided I wanted a similar arrangement for her little sis so the framed finished products would compliment each other. The photographer just sent me a mock up of the three different outfits/poses we chose for the younger daughter, as well as frame choices... decisions, decisions.
Now we just have to book a final session at the studio for her college choice so we can get that included in the high school graduation announcements we'll be sending out this spring. We're finally hitting the downhill slide of senior year, second semester where the drive to earn all As will undoubtedly evolve into an A-B scenario since everything was submitted in the fall to get final decisions from her college apps. It's still hard to believe we're almost done with the high school ride before she giddy ups off to college.
I remember when the grad school daughter hit the downhill run of senior year and it's hard to believe that was already six years ago. I've been keeping track of the weather in Chicago where she's interning until spring break and am glad I'm in Texas rather than having to endure their much colder winter.
Monday night we enjoyed watching two of the senior's top universities in consideration for her next four years go head-to-head in the national football championship. Like so many folks, we were surprised that Clemson pulled off such a resounding win. Go Tigers!
When the senior went back to classes on Monday, she immediately started complaining about how cold they keep it in the buildings. So I went out and bought her some hand warmers to keep in her pockets during the school day. It's hard to stay warm when your body fat percentage is a single digit number!
And finally, we had an alarm system installation started this week (no new gate entry post and panel yet, but it's on order) and we're really enjoying the Ring app with its motion detector lights and videos. What I didn't appreciate was the following pics from video I received loud and clear on the Ring app at 4 am the first morning after it was up and running because I forgot to mute the notifications. It seems one of our local raccoons is coming around again, looking to see if I've remembered to put the strap on our garbage bins so they can't raid them anymore.
Our grad student daughter has an internship with one of the big four accounting firms in Chicago, so she and I flew up there earlier this week to get her moved into her apartment. Poor thing... it was a big flashback to freshman year dorms for all five of the girls she's rooming with on the 12th floor of her student apartment building in the midst of DePaul University. It's back to matchbox-sized rooms, twin beds and sharing a bathroom. Thus far she thinks they seem like a nice group of young women, all recent college grads from Kansas, Washington, New Hampshire, and a fellow Texan. Good thing they'll all be working the Monday to Friday grind and otherwise out of the apartment most days for either their jobs or exploring their new environment. This is the view of the L tracks from her living room window.
We stayed in a nice quiet hotel in the theater district. Every day we walked a 10K, buying her necessities (things like XL twin sheets, a blanket and pillow), plus checking out local tourist spots and eating at some interesting places.
Fortunately, the move-in weather was sunny and mild by Chicago winter standards (highs in the 40s), so it was a really nice trip to get her settled and check out this city I had only visited once in my early 20s. I left our intern with a big scarf and three pair of water resistant gloves, plus the winter boots I bought to wear in Iceland a couple years ago, so she's all set for the snow and bitterly cold weather whistling through the windy city when the next Arctic/Canadian front arrives.
