What a night!

Some nights, living in Chicago is the same as living anywhere else. I'll go to the gym, cook dinner, maybe run to Target or take a walk around the neighborhood. It's a good life, and I'm quite happy with it. But other nights, I have random, amazing experiences that would only happen living in a large city like this. I'm talking "buy a dress after work, and eat things like lobster with shaved truffles for dinner" kind of amazing. Oh, and also free amazing, even though tickets for other people were $95 a pop.



Check out those shaved truffles!

 Thanks to my wonderful, rewarding, fun job at Whole Foods Market, I got the chance to attend the Taste of the Nation event at Navy Pier last night. Our company was a sponsor of the event, which meant there were a few sets of tickets that became available for us the day of the event. I'm not an important person in the company, and only recently got my own shiny new email address. I was just really lucky, and happened to be sitting at a computer reading emails at the moment when the email offering free tickets was sent. You know I responded to that email approximately one second later. Score! Free tickets for me and the husband!

My job is pretty casual (ok, that might be an understatement!), so I was wearing scruffy jeans and a casual top that day at work. No time to go home, so I hit up some shops on State Street when I got off work. Cute little cinched t-shirt dress, purple cork wedges, and a necklace later, I was ready to party!



The view looking down from the VIP lounge

 The food was amazing, and there were tons of fun drinks, too. We tasted about a million things, ranging from Goat Cheese Soup to short rib tacos. There was seared tuna, rabbit rubens, and lamb meatballs. Great deserts, too, although I waited too long and some of the ones I'd been eying earlier were already gone! Dale and Stephanie from previous Top Chef seasons were there to represent, plus chefs from L2O, Tru, Blackbird, Paris Club, and every other top name in the Chicago food scene.

What an amazing night! Keep an eye out for this event next year, to support a worthy cause and have a delicious night out.

Oh, and there were fireworks! Navy Pier does fireworks all summer, on Wednesday and Saturday nights. We had never seen the show before, since we generally try to avoid Navy Pier, but I have to say that it was quite an impressive show!

Sorry for the crappy pictures. Last minute nights out usually mean having your iphone as the only means of documentation!

Intentional Happiness

Life has been a little frustrating around our house lately. Mostly, it's jobs. I can't even get a call or email about any of the teaching jobs I'm applying for, no matter how many times I update my applications. I'm not unhappy with my current jobs-- babysitting and The Chopping Block-- but in terms of schedule and pay, they are jobs I can't sustain on forever. We've been living pretty comfortably regardless of my minimal income, but after doing so for over a year, things are starting to get tighter. I won't bore you with all the details, my point is just that I'm frustrated. I want a real, "grown up" job again, and I want it to be in a school setting. Joe is also feeling a bit stuck at his job, with frustrating management and not any obvious place to get to. So between the two of us, there have been some crabby evenings around our house!

That's where intentional happiness comes in. I first saw the idea of it on my friend The Kitchen Witch's blog, and I commented on how I've been trying to pick out the positive aspects of my life recently. She sent me a !!! card to keep in my wallet, and I've been trying to actually pick out and document some of the !!! moments in my life. Here are just a few things that have made me stop and appreciate my life this week.

This year I have been growing some herbs and tomatoes on our back porch. Not only have I not killed the plants, but they're actually edible! These tomatoes were the first on the plant to turn red, and Joe and I were so excited to eat them. That's major !!!. I also had enough home grown basil to make a batch of pesto, which is now in cute little containers in my freezer, waiting to be eaten.

A great !!! for us is homebrewing. Making beer is a hobby that I am happy to share with Joe. We have so much fun working together to see the process from beginning to end. This is bottling day, which is always fun.

I've been cooking a lot of farm-fresh produce lately, from our CSA share and from farmer's markets. Cooking always brings some !!! into my life. No matter how broke we get, I have a hard time compromising on food. We're mostly eating vegetarian at the moment-- cheaper AND healthier for us and the earth. This was an amazing recipe I made up for grilled polenta squares with collard greens and spring onions, topped with zucchini and white bean tomato sauce.

My jobs have random hours and are low paying, but they allow me !!! like this. 3:00 pm, on the back porch... Get Up Kids on my ipod, homebrewed beer standing by, and a book to enjoy. Ok, so I didn't really enjoy the book (The Sun Also Rises), but I get to feel !!! for relaxing out back in the middle of the day :)

I'm sure I'll document some intentional happiness again. It's a good exercise in counting my blessings, which are many! What made you appreciate life this week?

The job search begins...

I'm at the point in my high school math certification where I can start applying for jobs for next year. That is why our guest bedroom looks like this:



I'm going to my first job fair next weekend, out in the suburbs. This job fair is for secondary teachers only, and focuses on suburban districts north and west of Chicago. There are a few districts that I'm very interested in, and I am excited to have a chance to talk with representatives from these schools! I'm focusing on the suburban school districts first, because they tend to do their hiring earlier. Once this job fair is out of the way, I will begin researching schools here in Chicago. I know for sure I'll be applying to at least a few public CPS high schools, and I will also be looking into some of the Catholic schools in the city.

This is a stressful time, because I'm so ready to just be a normal adult again! I can't wait to have a decent paying job and a regular schedule. I'm really spending the time and energy on job applications, so that no matter what I can say that I did everything in my power to find a teaching job. I know some districts around us are struggling financially, but I also know there are going to be openings because of teachers retiring or moving on. Send some good thoughts my way, and hopefully this crazy year of being back in school will end up being worth it!