Habit

I like my bicycle. A lot.

Especially when it is warmish outside. Riding a bicycle in rainy, snowy, barely-livable-because-it-is-so-cold weather? Not so fun. BUT. Having ridden in rainy, snowy, barely-livable circumstances? Makes warmish biking that much better.

Hi bike.

This is where you live.

But there's this one thing that's carried over from those it's-gross-outside months. I keep my bike indoors wherever I can. This includes at the The Cops' house, in my apartment, and Shimer. In my apartment and The Cops' place I have specific permission to do this. The Shimer building, not so much. So when my tires started getting all gunky from the dirty snow/slush, I began carrying my beautiful bicycle through the halls trying to avoid giving someone a reason to deny me this privilege.

Before it got so disgusting, I rolled my bike all over tiled indoor floors. Carried it up some steps to get into buildings maybe, but once inside my good friend just rolled along beside me until we reached our destination. Now that slushy tires aren't so much of a problem, I should stop lugging the thing all over the place.
It has wheels. Carrying is unnecessary.

But I still do. And I can't bring myself to stop. I have no idea why.

So every day I'll hoist the thing up these steps...

Into the IIT Architecture floor (where they keep artsy yet geometrical things lying around for ostensibly decorative purposes)...

Around a few more architecturey corners...

Past the isolated first-floor Shimer admissions office...

Doing the opposite of what the Shimer arrows tell me to do...

Open an unnecessarily heavy door to climb a few flights of these:

Make it to this door (which is usually not so kindly propped open like this):

Round the corner and head to my bicycle's Shimer home: the weird area through the women's bathroom door but before the women's bathroom.

Since my bike doesn't have a hover option, it is inevitable that it would end up making slushy marks somewhere.

But I like to think this adds character to that weird, sparse area. Also it's not like anyone notices a few tiny tire marks right? At least that's what I tell myself.

But the threat of messy tires is over. So I don't know why I keep picking the thing up as if it doesn't roll. My arm doesn't know why either.

But, listen, arm. It's like I tell the Shimer carpet. A little discoloration adds character.

Keyed

Mad.
That's what I was when I pulled my laundry out of the drier Tuesday. Not immediately. In fact. I quite enjoy pulling laundry out of the drier. That freshly dried laundry smell? Not much beats it, you know?

But the brief happiness encountered when opening the drier door was not enough to shroud my annoyance when I saw my gray camisole.

The poor thing was helplessly entangled in the confines of my favorite comfy t-shirt. Twisted were those previously perfect cotton straps. I realized immediately the damage would be irreparable.

Look at those straps! Do you see how the one on the right is grossly out of proportion? I do.

Originally I was merely mad at myself for not having the foresight to hang dry the strappy portions of my wardrobe.

But then I started untwisting...
And soon found a happy little scapegoat for my laundry woes...

How could this happen?? I immediately checked my keys, since the most logical explanation would be that at some point my own room key was dropped among the clothes.

But I had my key. All of them, in fact. So the question was, who did not have all of their keys?

Aha! The culprit. 809. My floor. Shimer students even. Figures. Read all the great books you want, but it won't do a thing to prevent losing keys in driers.

A Birthday

So Monday was this girl's birthday.

She wanted to go out. Except for... it was Monday. Which means the next day is Tuesday. Tuesday isn't really Saturday. Tuesday isn't really Thursday either which, for me, is kind of like a Saturday. Nope. Her birthday was Monday.


So my roommate made her cupcakes which I decided to disguise as fat baby chicks. You know... so that people wouldn't eat them before we gave them to her.

There are a lot of vegetarians and vegans here at Shimer. Cupcakes? They might be inclined to commandeer cupcakes. Cute baby chicks? Not so much.

BUT. The poor thing didn't get to go out. Luckily the day after Friday is Saturday. So we went out Friday.
How, you ask, can a college student afford to take a friend out to dinner for her birthday? Or maybe you would ask how a babysitter could afford that. Or maybe you would really hit me hard and ask how an artist could. You would probably throw in 'starving' as a cute little adjective. And though you would be completely uncreative by throwing in the cliched adjective, I would answer you.

The Answer:

What is Groupon? The Groupon fairies explain it best:

Groupon is a deal a day site for Chicago. We find the unbeatable deals on fun stuff to do and buy in and around Chicago. But here’s the catch - you only get the deal if a certain number of people join. That’s why businesses offer us these prices, because we can guarantee them volume.

Groupon = “Group” + “Coupon”

So the other day the groupon was to pay five dollars for fifteen dollars worth of food at a Mediterranean restaurant.

I am not stupid. I bought the Groupon.

and proceeded to the Sultan's Market by bus.

and brought friends.

including the birthday girl who ate this:

Compliments of Groupon, of course.

And what do you know, Groupon picked a winner. Good food. It was open late...

It was pretty:

And. Most importantly...

It had a sea horse. Winner!

Government Money

Okay so my work study job? Not all that difficult. I work weekend college which––contrary to what you may think––does not happen every weekend. Weekend students meet every third weekend, and, unlike us lowly weekday readers, they get meals at Shimer. That's where I come in. Discussing three weeks worth of great books can work up quite an appetite.

But since technically I'm only reeeally working when a meal is nearing... there happens to be quite a bit of free time.

So. Let's review. Lot's of free time, but lots of hours. Only have to work every third weekend. So how did I end up with this job?

Yes, weekend college students just happen to need early mornings to cram in all those intelligent conversations.

Which means they need their coffee started even earlier than early morning.

And their breakfast set out.

In an aesthetically pleasing way of course.

Oh and they're going to need something on which to eat all that brain food. Roll some tables out? Make sure it's before people show up.

You might have to be a little particular about having six chairs at each table...
(all right, maybe that's just me)

And yeah. Those mornings? Saturday and Sunday mornings? I'm not sure if you're aware... but they follow Friday and Saturday nights. So yeah. That's why I have this job.