the windy city

or close thereunto, anyway ... i spent all of this week in st. charles, il -- a little town about 45 miles from chicago -- for training for work. i hadn't ever been to chicago before, except for lay-overs, so this was kind of exciting.

and mostly boring, unfortunately.

well, the training wasn't too bad, and i met lots of people from my firm all over the u.s. and puerto rico, which was fun. (that's a shot of me and one of my co-workers, leila.) and we got limo service to and from the airport -- fun, too, though we didn't have a sun roof to stand up out of. doubt the driver would have let us, anyway. oh, well.

the training was held at this training center that used to be a college campus of some sort with dorms, a fitness center, a bar and everything. so we got to stay in the old dorm rooms: which were tiny! i could really sit on my bed and brush my teeth at the same time, or sit on the toilet and wash my feet in the shower at the same time. and actually, i had to be careful not to lift both my arms up in the shower at the same time so i wouldn't hit any funny bones. and there was certainly no rolling around allowed in the bed. i don't know how students used to put up with those rooms! i did survive, though; don't worry.

the days were spent in the classroom, 8 to 530. then the night life! err, yeah. let's see, monday night was a networking/ice-breaker activity: we had to build a mouse trap using pvc pipe, paper and rubberbands (the "mouse" was a pool cue ball). tuesday night i got out of class, got some dinner, then went on a walk/jog with leila and we found the cemetery that was next door -- very cool -- then i had to do some stuff for work (what i don't understand is how i can have had so little to do over the last 2 months here at this client, and then the one week that i leave there is suddenly so much stuff to do that i have to work on it while i am away at training. yeah.). after class on wednesday night i went up to my room and watched a movie before dinner, then just spent the rest of the evening as a hermit in my room kinda watching tv and kinda working on some other stuff for work, annoyed that i had to do anything for work at all -- oh, and i went to the gym with my friend jen for a little bit, too. thursday night i watched another movie or tv or something again before dinner, then dinner, then leila and i went to the gym for about an hour -- i've never spent so long in a gym before! -- then back up to my room where i spent the rest of the evening on the phone: my sister inge, cute guy, perfect boy, my mom. and then yesterday i flew home!

i am psycho. really. i admit it. one week of not having my packed evening schedule and i was so ready to rip all my hair out. yup, guess i don't know how to relax. like, at all.