Working for the...new semester?

Wait, I don't think that's how that line is supposed to go!

Well, a couple things happened between December and today. First of all, a new year! Welcome 2010!

Second, I went home for a couple of days. Saw Jason's basketball game, went to see Disney's Princess and the Frog with Sarah and Mom, and watched the Badgers win the Champs Sports Bowl with Dad. It was a lot of fun, but very busy!

I worked at the Mansion on the 31st for a lovely wedding. Then Sarah from Milwaukee came over to watch movies on the BATV and enjoy the new year with me. BTW - Dick Clark looked pretty good on his Rockin' New Years Eve show!

On New Years Day Sarah and I went to the Milwaukee Art Museum. We had a great time looking at all of the unique pieces and taking lots of pictures. It was awesome.

Then the unawesome part of the day occurred. After I dropped Sarah off at home, I decided to take my tree to the basement. On the bottom three stairs one of my neighbors had left a very large puddle of laundry detergent. My feet went out from under me and I fell. I had hit my shoulder pretty hard and had sprained my ankle, so Sarah took me to the hospital just to make certain that nothing had been broken. All clear. Whew! I did get a brace for the ankle which I've been wearing pretty much ever since because it does still act up on me. It doesn't like being at a 90 degree angle for a long period of time and I still can't walk too far for long. Grr....

Work on Sunday was tons of fun. Sarah kindly came in early to help me turn on all of the lights. I didn't get much rest off of my feet because the house was hopping. It didn't help that a docent decided to take a rather large group down to our off-limits basement. I had to quickly hobble down the stairs and get them out of there before anything got broken. We just got some new antiques that were not put away yet and in the roadway. Last Wednesday I was up for a quick walk to Marquette (about 7 blocks away) but found that I need to put up the ankle and rest a bit before I could make it home. So I stopped at the Union and sat in their comfy chairs and played Oregon Trail on my iPod for about twenty minutes. Somehow all three of my children were taken away by eagles - explain that one to me?!

On Saturday the family came to town to check out the last days of the Christmas lights at my mansion. I used my free pass to get the family in and walked them around personally. My mom felt bad and made up for her lack of ticket purchasing with a trip to the gift shop. LOL. From there we went to the Cheesecake Factory.

Ok, I'm not morally opposed to the Cheesecake Factory. I just happen to know that there are a lot of great restaurants in Milwaukee so I don't understand why we keep going back there. Does my mother really have to try every salmon menu item? And I seriously don't think it was funny that for MY Christmas present they got something THEY wanted - a Cheesecake Factory meal. I feel like I was cheated. At least I should've been allowed to spend it on cheesecake. Boo. Oh well, at least I could then feel like I was helping by "paying" part of the check. We wandered around a few of the Bayshore Mall stores (I like shopping, but going there makes me feel like I'm bowing to the Gods of Commerce...a little dirty). We realized that we weren't going to make the Pabst Brewery tour, so we decided to drive down to UWM instead and take a car-tour of the campus and surrounding neighborhood.

Much of UWM was built in the 1960s and 1970s, so the architecture isn't very pretty. However, the campus is nicely situated in a green area of the city and with many interesting older homes in the surrounding areas. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to be moving out of my (detergent death trap) apartment at MU next year and up into the Eastside or if I'll just stay and commute the 20mins car / 40 mins bus. Mom wants me to stay because 1) she doesn't want to move me and 2) she doesn't want to drive any farther into Milwaukee. I explained that it wouldn't be much more difficult to get to the Upper Eastside, but she doesn't seem too excited. Hmmmm.... We hit Whole Foods before heading back down to my apartment and they left.

My second bad-ankle Sunday at work was a little easier, but still too busy to sit down for long. Too bad too, because I had a date. Yes, a date with a real live and very nice guy. We went out to coffee at a local shop and talked for almost two hours. I got tired near the end, so I headed home to put my ankle up and watch the new Chuck premiere before heading to bed.

This week I'm trying to get some work done before the school year starts. Technically I only need one class to graduate, but I've decided to take two. The other is a public history course, very similar to the oens I'll take at UWM. However, each professor teaches it differently, so it'll be interesting to see how they each see public history. In the meantime, there's lots to do around here, including studying for exams and writing up transcripts.

Until I hear about UWM, I'm in limbo. Housing, summer job, and future job all depend on if I can get in and if I can find funding to pay for it. My hopes are on a internship/job at the Public Library with city benefits...if I'm accepted to the UWM Library Sciences program. I hope my visits and phone calls to the departments will help me. As for housing, I found a foreclosure that could be a great place for me. My credit score is great and everything. Too bad my little moneys now and large school debts make me look bad to the bank. He never did call back to shoot me down personally. I think I've at least earned that courtesy. I've worked hard to earn that excellent credit score...and that mountain of student loan debt! I'll have to decide soon just how much I want to move because my landlord is going to raise the rents on my place if I don't sign a lease by the end of the month. Ack!

I've linked all recent photos to this page. Please feel free to check them out!
Hugs, Christi and Lily