So, I’ve been quiet, I know. I’ve owed an update for many months, as well as a comment here or there. I haven’t updated my LJ, Myspace blog, nor my iw.electricbrainreserve.com blog in several months (not since July for that last one). What’s been going on with A., you wonder?

Well, for starters, in September, Jonathan and I moved into a new apartment. On Broadway in Lakeview, just south of Addison, so it’s nearly dead-center in Boystown. The neighborhood is nice, the apartment is nice, the rent isn’t too shabby. And, as of December 27th, Karen is living here also. Yes, after a mere five months of dating, she’s moved in – and it’s awesome. I’ll spare you all the excessive hyperbole of how things are wonderful between us (because, trust me, I could hyperbole the hyperbole) and just say that it’s perfect. We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas here together, I met her parents in September, we’ll be visiting mine in March and attending my best friend Shannon’s wedding in June. Wonderful, I say again.

I bought a sewing machine in October, I think (not too long after moving in here, is all I know). An old Sears Kenmore, in pristine condition, with all the manuals and fancy parts and bobbin spools and buttonholing attachments and whatwhat. I went to the Brown Elephant (this thrift store down the street that I frequent too much, which happens to help support Howard Brown Health Center) to buy one, and found a somewhat “okay” machine for around $30 that I brought up to the counter. The guy asked me if I wanted to look at one that I had just come in which he had back there. Same price, INFINITELY better condition and features and whatnot. In a nice carrying case, too. And from the late 40’s or early 50’s, it seems from the manual (photos with pictures of women dressed for the decade with the caption “Home economists at work in the Sears Kenmore lab”).

Work is going quite well. I was put in charge of some serious Holiday Ordering business over the season, and it went spectacularly well. I loved the challenge and doing something different, and got compliments from many TL’s and the STL. So now I’m taking on a bit more responsibility in other areas that are in need of organization currently. There’s 3 more Whole Foods opening in Chicago this year, and there’ll be plenty of opportunities to move up, so I’m getting on that train. In fact, there will be one just down the street, about 1.5-2 blocks from me, across from The Brown Elephant, in June or July. That will be quite nice – it will be in a nice area, quick to get to, and I’m going to go for a higher position that I’m certainly ready for.

I bought a piano (also at the Brown Elephant, haha) in November for $200. Nice deal, and it ended up being stupid cheap to move even though we’re on the second floor. A spinet, so it’s not some huge beast, but it sounds quite okay, though a tuning is planned and the repair of one key. Karen practices on it quite often, almost as often as her cello, and it sounds quite good in her hands. I myself need to practice more often.

My brother turned 30 on Tuesday, which I suppose can seem a bit freaky. He and Eloisa are also expect the second baby in a couple of weeks (or less). So I’ll have my adorable niece Sage AND a new awesome kid to visit when Karen and I go there in March. :)

So much to post, I don’t know if I’m missing out on anything. Ask me something if you feel the need to know anything, I don’t know what else I need to include. I’m nursing a short glass of fine sake and feeling quite peachy.

:)

A.