School is IN

So the past three of weeks have been buu-ss-yy. Sorry for the lack of updates, though. There is no excuse for that. None.

Today was the first day of the second week of the semester, and I'm starting to settle into the routine. The first week is always the most exciting--fresh-faced freshmen staring up expectantly, waiting for me to pour information over their spongy grey matter--but also the most erratic--former students popping in to say hi, last minute copies, meetings, changes, and everything else to maneuver around. Plus, with more than eight hundred new students due to the MCC Promise, the parking lot was full of eight hundred more cars than it usually has the first week of school. Hmm. Problematic. I'll be able to take the train on Mondays, and Tuesday through Thursday I'm at school by 7:30 a.m., so it's not a problem for me to park. Although I did park at an off-site location and take our college shuttle bus (which they asked us to do if we could) and got a cafeteria buck! So, tomorrow's coffee is free!

And classes are going well, so far. Because of the Faculty Development stuff I'm doing, I've only got four classes, which is a nice break. And my honors composition class actually does the homework I assign. It's kind of amazing, and I'm still waiting for them to rebel.

Other things are going well, too. We spent the week before classes started at Greg and Paula's house while they were out of town on a work/vacation trip to California. We hung out with the girls

and Henry had to get used to a smaller bed.

Trevor and I had a wonderful time watching the Harry Potter movies 3 & 4 on Greg and Paula's fantastically huge t.v. with a wondoriuous surround sound system. It was like being at Hogwarts! Only we were at Dogwarts! (I broke that one out while we were there. Trevor did not think it was as hilarious as I did.)

And the gallery is going well, too. Trevor is working on a new blog for them, and I'll post the link here when it's ready for public readership. It's called Cyclops (Trevor thought of the name).

This Saturday I went shopping with my cousin Erica for some delayed back-to-school gear. We really didn't get much that was schooly, but she had some success at the Alley and Belmont Army Surplus. Plus we ate at the Clarke St. Diner: she had pancakes and I had a grilled cheese and vanilla shake. So. Good.

Oh, WAIT, and DAN AND SIMONA HAD THEIR BABY!

Okay, wow. I can't believe that I didn't start off with that news! Maya Emily Segar was born on August 11th around mid-day. She was 7-ish pounds and beautiful. See for yourself:

(This is the day she was born)

(And this is more recently. As you can see, she's gained a little weight and has started playing X-Box. She's obviously brilliant.)

In other baby news, Ann Boger's due date is...in two days! I think she's pretty ready to have their little nugget, and we can't wait to see him. I wish they lived closer so we could see him in person (oh, and Ann and Dan, too. We'd like to see them.), but we'll hopefully visit them soon. Dan and Trevor are playing Scrabble together on the X-Box right now. What's funnier than the fact their board game is crossing over one thousand miles is the fact that their X-Box avatars look nearly identical. The hair color is a bit different, and Trevor's avatar is wearing a suit (I have no idea why). But otherwise, Ann and I could easily switch avatar-husbands and not know the difference for weeks and weeks. Ann, let me know if you're up for it.

Well, papers need to be graded. By Henry. He's got a lot of work ahead of him tonight. I'm going to make him a pot of coffee. And to leave you all with a giggle in your throat, here's a comic Trevor found for me.

Today's Pros and Cons

Pro
Getting to meet the eighteen new faculty my co-chair and I will be leading through their first year. They all seem lovely (especially my new officemate, Lisa), even though the fact that I will be leading them through anything gives me a case of the willies.
Con
Waking up at 4:30 a.m. to be on campus by 7 to meet the new faculty for their day-long orientation.

Pro
Kicking fashion ass in my awesome three inch purple leather wooden-heeled wedges.
Con
Foot, toe, ankle, leg, and, for some queer reason, shoulder pain after nine hours of standing in my three inch purple leather wooden-heeled wedges.

Pro
Listening to two solid hours of my latest audiobook, The Girl Who Played With Fire, which is turning out to be quite good.
Con
A solid two hour commute home in a torrential downpour and the resulting stop-and-stop traffic on the Kennedy.

Pro
Trevor's gorgeous suggestion to order takeout from Butterfly and then watch the Man United game that he taped at our house (we're staying the week at Greg & Paula's, house/dog-sitting while they're away).
Con
Getting chicken instead of tofu in my order of Pad Thai With Tofu. I have never eaten a Pad Thai with chicken. Ever. It was a little weird.

Pro
Watching the game with Trevor while picking out the chicken in a still-decent dish of Pad Thai and drinking a cold beer from a frosty mug.
Con
Watching Man United play one of the most embarassing games I have ever seen. The 1-0 loss to Burnley, who's just come back from a 30 year relegation stint (yes. thirty. years), was just plain awful.

Pro
Curling up in bed with Trevor and the gaggle of dogs--one ours, three borrowed--for sleep as soon as I finish posting this.
Con
...nothing. That will be the best darn thing I've done all day.

Updates, Updates, Updates!

I don't quite know where to start! I don't think I can go chronologically, since the most exciting part of our update doesn't come until tomorrow at 6 a.m.: Maya Emily Segar! Dan and Simona's newest edition is coming tomorrow, and we're thrilled to our toenails. She's the second of our seven babies, and I can promise that there will be a ton of pictures when she arrives (hopefully Simona and Maya will be resting comfortably by mid-morning).

Yesterday (Sunday), we took the train with Angi and Sean to meet Neill, Fran, Destiny, Fran's sisters, their kids, and Fran's dad at Arlington Park for a little gambling and horse watching. The afternoon was hot, but we had a nice shady table on the terrace and some frozen drinks to keep us cool.

(You can clearly see baby #7, a.k.a. "Poppyseed," a.k.a. "Girl Power" in this shot of Angi)

Saturday (the day before Sunday...looks like I'm going in reverse chronology), while Trevor toiled away at the gallery, I took a day trip to Madison. My college friend Anne and her husband, Matt came into town from New York, and some of the old gang was spending the weekend to see her.

Although I only came for the day, I think I made the best of it. I met everyone at Nick's around noon for Bloody Mary's, then we wandered State Street for a couple of hours, shopping, browsing, and getting sweaty (the early morning rain did little to dry out what felt like 139% humidity and 95 degrees).



One of my favorite new (new to me) Madison stores is Anthology, where I found a yellow onesie (for Maya, of course) that read, "Born to be a Librarian." I also got a gnome ring (yes, that's right) and a couple of greeting cards (you'll know what they say if you get one in the mail).

After shopping, we spent a few hours hanging out at the Terrace, drinking beer, eating ice cream, and just having a wonderful time.

And we stumbled upon an impromptu break-dancing competition on the Mall:

While everyone was freshening up for dinner, I stopped at my old shop, Paul's Book Store, and dropped a bit of cash on a sack full of books. Caryl, the owner, wasn't there (I think I'd just missed her), but hopefully I'll see her again soon. The shop was just as fantastic as it always is. I would have taken a picture, but I didn't want to freak out the guy working there.

It was so good to see everyone, but especially Anne and Matt, who I hadn't seen in about five years. I'm hoping that it won't be that long until the next time.

Last Thursday, Paula and I went to my grandma's place for a cake baking lesson. The cake baking was fun and successful, but the best part (aside from grandma's company) was the huge lunch of salad, mostacolli, meatballs, and garlic bread. We topped it off with spumoni ice cream and cookies. My Lord, Marie, you made our day.

(Although Grandma mixed, poured, and baked these babies, Paula and I frosted them. We worked so, so hard.)

Okay, I think I got us all up-to-date, but for more photos of everything, check this out.

I've got two weeks before classes start for the fall, but unfortunately I won't have too much time to do nothing (one of my favorite vacation activities). But what nothing I do, I'll be sure to document it and keep you all in the loop. Sleep well, all, especially you, Maya. It's your last night in the warm wombiness of Simona!

We saw the baay-beeeeee!

So, as I might have mentioned already, Trevor and I have seven friends and/or relatives who got pregnant around the same time last year (Sheena, Simona, Ann, Caren, Cat, and Jeanette [Angi Power came a little later, but I'm counting her, too]), and every time--every time--in the past nine months that I've thought of seeing "the baby" (any of the babies), I've thought of the Seinfeld episode where the gang goes to the Hamptons to "see the bayyyyybeeeee." It's also a great episode because of the shrinkage and lobster poaching that goes on. But in case you've forgotten the phrase (or have been living under a rock for the past two decades and didn't catch this particular episode), here it is (at least the first nine minutes--shrinkage doesn't occur until part 2).

Now, this says nothing at all about the babies we're expecting, because we know how fantastic looking (not to mention charismatic, brilliant, well mannered, fantastically coiffed...) our friends and family are. And just to prove this, here are some photos of the very first baby out of the seven: Michael Jameson Bux, my cousin Michael and his wife Sheena's darling little potato! He's only eighteen days old, so don't mind his tininess.

(Here's Auntie Carol [a.k.a. New Grandma Bux] with the little guy. I took this picture with my phone. The next four shots were taken by Erica and look much, much, much better. Look on.)

(Jameson)

(Erica and Jameson)

(Carly and Jameson)

(Me and Jameson)

He's pretty smushily fantastic. I really can't wait until Sheena and Mike need a night out so I can come over and smother him with smooches. Like I'm about to do in the picture above. I look like a stalking smoocheralla.

Now that I have aunt fever (although technically he's, like, my second cousin? I think?) I am quite looking forward to the next six babies. Simona is next (she's also two days past her due date. C'mon Maya, let's goooooooo already!) and hopefully she'll be ready soon. And then I think it goes Ann, Caren, Cat, Jeanette, Angi. Or something like that. Pictures of all babies will follow in abundance once they arrive.

Also, my friend Angie sent me this picture from the fabric and folk art fair we went to a few weeks ago, and although I already wrote about it, I had to show you all how I fared against that old lady with this gigantic knitting needles:

Hopefully I'll have all student stories graded and grades turned in to the records department (one lady named Noreen) by tomorrow afternoon. Then it's back home for Bunco! I'll let you know if I win. Or if I get the boobie prize. Or if I do neither and just have fun, which always happens, so I'll let you know something for sure.

Good Night!

It's Officially Summer

Summer School ended Thursday, and although my students are turning in their final stories next Tuesday, we're finished with class. Here they are!

They were a small group, but a great group. We're missing one student who's in Door County for the week (we're heading up there ourselves Labor Day weekend...yahoo!), but I told her I'd photoshop her face in there.

Last weekend I went to the Cubs/Reds game with my friend Angie and her parents who were in town visiting from Ohio. We ate hotdogs, nachos, and drank beer. It was great.

And that's about it. I finished a few books this week--one that I really enjoyed (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and one that was mediocre but that I got for free from Goodreads and took me less than 24 hours to read (Fear the Worst). Last night I finally finished a book that I'd started months ago (Things I Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me) and was really only worth reading because of the Stephen Colbert, Larry Wilmore, and Tom McCarthy entries. But that's only three out of forty-six, which probably tells you something. So today I have to figure out what to start reading for my three weeks of "summer vacation" (which will actually be filled with meetings and fall semester prep). I have stacks of books to choose from, so I'll let you know what I decide.

Yesterday I spent part of the afternoon sunning myself on our roof deck, but today is pretty cloudy, am I'm considering going to see a horror movie that T won't possibly be interested in. He's at work, so I can get away with such things. The tip that it was a little too windy for me to sit outside on the 7th floor was this:

This tent landed in the parking lot from, I'm assuming, one of the private roof decks. Unless it fell from the heavens...I'm just glad that it didn't land on our car. No one has come to retrieve it, so they might not be aware that it escaped. Hopefully they realize before it starts raining or before the car it's blocking needs to run errands.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far. Tomorrow we're going to visit the new Bux baby, so I'll have lots of pictures for you all!

This is fun for me

A couple of weeks ago, Mom and I went to the Container Store (it's so nice to have them in the city--we popped over to North and Clybourn for breakfast and then a bit of organizational shopping, and neither of us had to brave the highway!). Both of us got these plastic earring holders, and that evening, this is what I did:

I found that I had earrings I hadn't thought about in years! I re-discovered the first real pair of earrings my parents got for me (those little gold hearts on the top left), and I saw that I had more than enough yellow earrings, and that the blue feather earrings I got a couple of years ago aren't as spazzy-gaudy as I thought (or are they? I, of course, still probably have a biased view), and I might actually wear them in a non-costume sense. This took me about an hour, and after seeing Mom that week, she told me that she'd done the exact same thing with her organizer. Two peas in a pod, I tell ya'.

I forgot to blog last time about two very important things:

1. Mom and Dad Bork are now city dwellers!

I'm sure you got that from the statement I made earlier, but as I typed it I realized that I'd completely forgot to show you pictures from Moving Day (July 1). So here are a few that don't really showcase their new digs, but do show Mom putting the first things in her cupboards. Which is very exciting.

That last one is a little blurry, but blurry is just how we felt seven hours of unpacking and breaking down boxes. As I said, these photos don't do the space justice; the boxes are all gone now and you can enjoy the beautiful floors, windows, furniture, and view. More pictures will come next time I remember.

2. Two Fridays ago, my cousin Erica came down from Park Ridge to join me at Edelman Gallery's opening (T's new gallery, and if you haven't checked out their website, check it out! Now!). After snooping around their terrific new show and some other openings in the 'hood, Erica and I had dinner at Oggi and then I showed her our roof deck before escorting her home. Here are some shots from the roof:

Of course the second one is blurry because I'm not good at taking self-portraits, especially when there's someone else to focus on. But isn't she cute??!! Yes.

That's about it from our camp. Thursday is my last class for the summer semester, and I just have to read some revised student stories and then turn in their grades by next Friday. I've been busy the past couple of weeks getting together a mailing we're doing for Faculty Development to announce the faculty workshop in August. But that's going out (finally) this week, so now I can concentrate on other things. Like the next workshop in January! Ha!

I'll have about a week off in early August with little to do but read, watch horror movies, and hang out with Henry. I'm really looking forward to it, and will update you on my laziness with relish.

Until then...

BORK POWER!

Life is a bowl of cherries.

And a nice glass of wine, of course.

This posting will be light on text because I must get to sleep or I will fall over. But last weekend my friend Angie and I went to the Midwest Fabric and Folk Arts Fair. Yes, it sounds like a nerdfest. But it was fantastic. And this is what we did:

There will be a lengthier posting to come this weekend, but I'd like to leave you with this image of the boys:

Sleep well, everyone!

Surprise Presents!

My office-mate, Katrine, saw this apron over the weekend and thought of me. It's pretty fantastic. I wore it tonight to serve me and Trevor up some pizza slices (Henry looks distressed because he was not offered any pizza. I think he's considering eating my toes in retaliation.). Next time I'm having people over, I'll throw it on over something pretty (prettier than jeans) and french looking.

What's funny is that around the time Katrine was getting me this awesome apron, I was at P.O.S.H. (one of the greatest places to buy...anything in Chicago!), saw this little trinket hanging on the wall, and thought of her! She likes religious iconography, so this carved wooden cross covered in Mexican milagro charms is perfect for her (there are a couple of cats on this one, which is why she got it).

So we did a spontaneous gift exchange, which turned out to be fitting because she'll be moving into a single office down the hall at the end of the month (July, not June). They're sort of "good-bye for now, it's been nice rooming with you," presents. Either great minds think alike or eleven months is the time when the brains of two people who spend a lot of time in the same small space start to meld. Meeellldd. I guess it's best that she's getting out before we start dressing in identical sweater-sets.

Tomorrow morning, the elder Borks are FINALLY MOVING DOWNTOWN! Just as a reminder, this is what their condo looked like last July. I'll have pictures tomorrow afternoon of the "final" product. Though I doubt Mom will let me take too many until they've unpacked. They've been living in that fantastic hotel in the A.H. for three whole months, and I think it's safe to say that they're anxious to do a few things in their new home (make a pot of coffee, sit in a comfortable chair, use an oven, not have to eat a continental breakfast with 87 Alabaman tourists...). We'll let you know how they settle in.

It was a lovely weekend

The weather was finally cooperating with us, so we thoroughly enjoyed the weekend: a low-key Friday night, dinner with the Neenans and Fratinis on Saturday night before Jeremy N.'s (Julie Papadia's fiance) birthday party, Simona's Sunday afternoon baby shower (see photos below), pizza with Brenda and Derek who were visiting from Fargo for the AFSP Overnight walk (they had a great time and walked 20 miles like champs), then lunch with them this afternoon between laundry, homework, and Facebook futzing. Tonight I plan on sleeping like a log while the breezy evening flutters around outside our window. And I plan on falling to sleep while mentally putting together tomorrow's outfit. I'll let you know what I come up with...

Suburban Oddities

On Thursday evening I had dinner with my friend Jen in downtown Crystal Lake. I was a little early, and since I had never really explored the CL downtown area, I wandered a bit before going to the restaurant. And this is what I saw:

Weird, right? This shop was closed, but it looked like a thrift store/regular clothing store/fabric shop/junk shop. I really wanted to go in (morbid curiosity), so I might come back when I have an early afternoon sometime this summer.

My dinner with Jen was fantastic and we were so caught up with chatting that I had to run for my nine o'clock train (the next one wasn't until midnight). Thank goodness I was wearing sensible (but sequined) shoes, and I made it with seconds to spare.

The weather, as I'm sure you all have noticed, has been grotesquely hot this week. But on Wednesday I sat on the roof deck for about an hour (without melting, thank you very much!) and graded papers.

I managed to burn only one small portion of my body: my knees. Strange, right? I had doused myself in 45 strength sunblock, but I was using a clipboard as a hard surface for my papers, and I'm guessing the metal clip reflected the light directly onto my knees. So I had saucer-sized red spots on the center of each of my knees for about three days. They're gone, now. Just in time for me to go back on the roof!

We've got a really pleasant weekend planned. Tonight is dinner at West Town Tavern with friends and then a birthday party at the Five Star bar up the street. Sunday afternoon is Simona's baby shower (I went overboard yesterday with presents...) and then in the evening we get to have dinner with Brenda and Derek, who are in town for the AFSP Overnight walk. We haven't seen them in months, and I can't wait.

Don and Danielle Prabish are also walking tonight (20 miles through Chicago), so I'll be thinking of them and everyone else who is doing this for such a good cause. Part of me wishes I'd gotten myself together to do the walk again this year, but another (more convincing) part of me is happy to just donate, think good thoughts, and then snore the night away.

Have a good weekend, all. Enjoy the weather because it might be snowing on the Fourth of July!

Touristing

I've lately felt as though Trevor and I have been acting like tourists in our own city, and it's been pretty nice. Last weekend the two of us went to the MCA to see the Olafur Eliasson and Buckminster Fuller exhibits. They complimented each other perfectly and we could see Fuller's influence on Ellasson's time, light, and spacial experiments. Among so many of the cool pieces (a black room with a sprintzing misting rainbow of water, a hall of yellow light that turned everything black/gray and white, photographs, sculptures...) was this wall-o'-moss that's actually living and will change color slightly as the exhibit lives in the museum:

You can sort of see the colors already. Up close it looked like millions of millions of dried out dandelions. Really cool. (And no, we were not supposed to take this picture.)

We left the museum and got picked up and whisked down to Summit by Dan and Simona to eat at their favorite Lithuanian restaurant, Grand Duke's. I've never seen so many potatoes on one restaurant's menu before, and I've never put so many delicious potatoes into my belly. It was so good, and we were in a spud-stupor for the rest of the day. After dinner we went over to the deli portion of the restaurant and got some treats: cookies, Lithuanian thyme tea, beer, and Trevor got sprats. He hasn't tried them yet, though he says he will soon and he sounds excited about them. I have a feeling that they will sit in our cupboard until the next millennium.

We were supposed to go to Madison to say bon voyage to Kate (she's moving to North Carolina. Well, she's moved already, actually) before she left, but Henry decided to barfy, so we had to cut out the trip. But, I just look at it as an excellent opportunity to visit a state I've never been to before in the very near future. It's supposed to be pretty there, and since Kate's arrived, I'm sure it's even better looking.

This weekend was Fathers' Day, and we first went out to Yorkville Saturday night to hang with the Power clan. Almost the whole gang was there (missing our Floridians of course, who were apparently swimming in the ocean this weekend, those little sprats), sans Destiny who was then headed down for her summer mission trip to New Orleans. We ate good food, had good conversation, and then played many rounds of Catch Phrase, which was fantastically fun even though our team sunk like a brick.

On Sunday we went to the City Bork's for ribs and fixin's from Smoque, one of the joints visited this past winter by my Rib Supper Club (where my friend Angie said the brisket was the best she's had to-date). Greg and Paula got plates and plates of ribs, cornbread, mac-and-cheese, and corn-on-the-cob. There was cake and pie for dessert and then a nice Smoque-stupor for the rest of the day (we're quite fond of food-induced stupors). The girls were also in rare form, and Trevor was good enough to capture them:

And then when he was finished snapping, he got to pose:

When we got home, Henry was beside himself with confusion as to why he hadn't been invited to the party, especially since he'd gotten to hang out with Greg at the house on Thursday night when I kicked the boys out for my Bunco group to come over. But, he'll get over it, I'm sure, and hopefully he'll get to see Pepper very soon.

Today I finished up being a tourist by heading up to the Prime Outlet malls near Kenosha to meet my friends Kate and Jim and their fantastic kids for some shopping and lunch. I, of course, found many good things and bought most of them. Kate and Ella did very well, too, though Jim and Keenan spent a good portion of the shopping time walking around so Keenan could nap. It was, as usual, great to see them. And now you can, too!

And now, full of dinner and procrastinating reading student papers, I am blogging, doing laundry, and sipping the coldest water I could get out of the tap (I tried not to mention the weather until now. What happened to those beautiful days of early summer? Of 75 degree days with light breezes? Instead it's WHAP! right into August humidity.). But I'll go with the promise to report back here soon. Stay cool!