Holy Crap I'm Moving to Australia!!!!!

Obviously I knew this was coming, but who knew it would come so fast.  All of the time spent talking and negotiating and waiting and all of a sudden - it's here!  Maybe it all became real when I booked my ticket, or maybe it's the fact that I literally leave in three days.  Yikes!

So as I think about the next six months and living on the other side of the world, of course I'm thinking of the things I'm going to miss.  The obvious of course is my husband and my family, but there are a few random/funny things that have popped into my head over the past few days that I thought I'd share.

My short list of things I'm sad to miss over the next six months:

• Football.  Watching a few preseason games has gotten me so excited for football season.  Especially college football.  I love the game, I love tailgating, and of course, I love trash talking.  I'm going to have to find an American bar in Sydney that will air the games.... of course the games will be on at 3 in the morning, so I guess I'll just have to watch the highlights online.  The bright side?  Given the Bears performance on Saturday, I don't think I need to worry about them making it to the Superbowl this year.  
• Fall clothes.  Okay, I know I can't really complain since I essentially get two summers in a row (which also means skipping a Chicago winter) but I really love fall attire.  It's really strange getting the September issues of Elle and Vogue with all of the fall trends and knowing that I won't be wearing any of them.  I do still plan on devouring both magazines on the fifteen hour flight, but I guess I'll just have to pick up an Aussie fashion mag or two upon arrival.  
• This next one is super lame, but hey we all have our guilty pleasures.... Season 2 of The Vampire Diaries.  Ridiculous, right?!  I know, I can watch it online but it's just not the same.  I love this show!  Also, this was always, my fun thing to do for myself on Thursday nights.  Chris would call me at 8:01 because I'm the worst phone talker when I'm watching any of my favorite shows.  

All that being said, I am still super excited for this next adventure in my life.  I'm going to be working like crazy, living in a new city, driving on the opposite side of the road, and exploring an entirely new part of the world for me.  

Okay, Sydney.  Here I come!

True Dreams of Wichita

Since we only have a few weekends left together before I ship off to Australia, my husband and I are trying to spend as much time together as possible.  That means I got to spend this past weekend in Kansas.  Yeah, that's right...Kansas.

It was a last minute plan...obviously - no one plans to go to Kansas for the weekend. I found a cheap one-way ticket back to Illinois from Wichita on Sunday night, so it was a go.  Chris and I left at around six in the morning and headed on the long drive down to Kansas.

As weird as it may sound, I think the drive was my favorite part of the trip.  I don't know what it is about being trapped in a car with the worst scenery ever, but I always love road trips with him.  Maybe it's the undivided attention... or maybe it's the singing.  Either way we had a fun relaxing ride down and made it into town around 4 or so Friday afternoon.

All I can say is Kansas looked exactly like what I expected.  Really small town-ish, if that makes any sense.  Very flat... and plain.

So what do you do on a Friday night in downtown McPherson, Ks?  You go to one of the two nice restaurants in town.  We went to a place called Amics, a little tapas right in the heart of downtown.  I use the words 'tapas' and 'heart of downtown' very loosely.  We were lucky enough to go to Amics when they were hosting a wine tasting.  It was really fun!  Seriously.  There were about twenty five to thirty people in the back half of the restaurant and they had the local wine distributor lead us through a tasting of five different white wines.  Besides tasting the wines (we loved all but one of them) it was great to get to know some of the people of McPherson.  Everyone was really friendly and in true Chris Olson style, we had a few new best friends by the end of the evening.

Chris had to work most of the day on Saturday so the wife of the owner of the local office offered to take me around town.  "Sure, that would be great!" I said, wondering how this was going to turn out.

Michelle picked me up from the hotel around 11 and off we went!  Well, not exactly.... I hop in the car and she says
"Well, what do you like to do?"
"Uhh... what is there to do?"
"Hmmm.... yeah, not much"

Oh boy.  This is going to be a long day.

Somehow, by the power of greyskull, we were able to stretch what really should have been a five minute drive around the town into a few hours of chatter, lunch, and a little shopping.  Of course we ended up, you guessed it, downtown.  There actually were a few cute little knick knack stores, and it was fun to see Michelle talk to literally every other person that walked by.  I'm still trying to figure out if it's because the town is that small or if everyone really knows each other.  I think it's a little bit of both.

So what do you do on a Saturday night in McPherson, Ks?  No, you don't go to the second of the two nice restaurants in town, you go to the country club.  Oh yeah, up in the club!  Of course we were li-ter-ally the only people in the club, but the drinks were delish and the food was surprisingly tasty.

I didn't get to see Chris as much as I would have liked to, but it was great having a few extra hours that I wouldn't have had otherwise.  And of course having a few fond memories of Kansas too.

The End of an Era - Chicago, It's Been Real

After living in downtown Chicago for 7 years, I've sold my condo and moved.  Gasp!  Don't worry I'm not moving to the 'burbs.... but I'm not sure if Central Illinois is much better.

Maybe I should back up a little bit.  I'm an army brat, so I've moved around my entire life.  And until living in Chicago, I had never lived anywhere for longer than five years.  I never in a million years thought I would end up in the midwest.  I honestly don't even think I really realized that Chicago existed (except for Oprah, maybe).  But through a series of life events and jobs I found myself in downtown Chicago.

I moved to Chicago the summer of 2003.  I lived right in the heart of Wicker Park on Division.  I lived above a breakfast place, had to street park.... the whole nine.  I don't know if it's the city of Chicago or just the age I was when I moved here, but Chicago is where I really found myself.  I've been fortunate to travel a bit with my family growing up and for work and Chicago is hands down one of my favorite cities.  I've met some of my best friends here, partied like a rock star, become a die hard Chicago sports fan, and tried as many new restaurants as physically possible.

On Halloween weekend 2006 I closed on my condo.  Yeah, not good timing on my part, but hey - I just bought a condo all by myself!  I took the plunge and bought the perfect place for me - a super cute, top floor 1 bed/1 bath in Ukrainian Village.

I was an official Chicagoan!  And of course about a week later I started dating my now husband.  We've had a good run of "time sharing" between Chicago and Peoria, IL but alas it was finally time for us have a home together.  After a little over three years of living in my condo it was time to say goodbye.

Now, I've moved a million times.  Across the country and across the globe, but this was different.  This was my home that I purchased all by myself in my city where I had finally put down some roots.  I was a little nervous about how I would feel as I walked out of the condo for the last time.... no more living in the city, no more walking just a few blocks to grab the Ashland bus, no more walking to the corner to Oggi for dinner, no more just swinging by Nordstroms on Saturday afternoon.... but honestly, it was surprisingly painless.  Of course, I'll miss all of those things, but I'm so excited for the next chapter and the next adventure on the horizon.

Maybe it was the distractions of planning the wedding and now planning for a short term assignment in Australia (extending that city living just a little longer!) but I think I've made the transition pretty well!  Although I'm no longer a Chicagoan, it's still got a pretty big piece of my heart.

Chicago - it's been real.  I'll miss you.

Let's get this party started!

Okay, so I'm totally new to this blogging thing so bare with me.  I figured now is the best time to get it started with all of the big changes going on in my life.  I'll add more later in separate posts but in the course of a few months I've sold my condo in downtown Chicago, gotten married, and now I've accepted a short term international assignment in in Sydney, Australia.  Whew!  Let's just say things have been busy.

Enjoy the blog, check in often, and drop me a line every once in a while.