J-O-B

Instead of studying for my 5pm final, I felt it more urgent to update my loyal readers on the life I'll begin to lead on January 4, 2011.

I got a job! Yahoo! And a really good one! Yippee! For a company I really love! Yesss!

I'll be working at Hollister, Inc. in Libertyville, Illinois. No, this is not the clothing store. It's a medical corporation where they design and manufacture different medical devices for continence care, ostomy care, mother-baby care, and wound care. My first role will be more customer-service oriented so that I can get to know the products and understand their operation. Then, I'll go into sales! It's a privately owned company, and its just very evident how much they care about their employees, and of course their patients, and I feel great about working at such a quality organization.

Libertyville is about 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. So, for a year or so, I'm going to live in downtown. My roommate and I found a great apartment for a relatively low price (low for downtown Chicago, so let's get real. In any other town I could probably pay 3 mortgages for one month's rent). But its a safe building, a high-rise, with a gym and 24-hour door-man and all that other jazz. The lease agreement and all other formalities are still in the works, so hopefully I'll be moving in sometime during the holidays!

The bad part (besides the astronomical price) is the commute. It will probably take me about 45 minutes (on a good day- with not a ton of traffic and not a ton of bad weather and I think I may find at least one of those two "bad day" qualifiers on mostly every day). But to me, living downtown will be a fun experience for a while because I'll be able to get to know the city and make friends and experience the "night life" and the other cool stuff that there is to do downtown in the spring and summer and fall (I'll stay inside during the winter, obvi). Then when my lease is up I'll decide what area I want to move to, and maybe if the commute hasn't killed me by then, I'll stay somewhere near the city.

The OTHER bad part is that I totaled my car Saturday. I was actually extremely lucky that I wasn't hurt (besides a few small bumps and bruises and black eyes), because I was going at least 70 mph, in the rain, on the toll road. Stupid, I know. I hit water and hydroplaned, hitting both guard rails, my two front tires blew, my windshield shattered, my head hit the window...it was so scary :( But anywho, I'm thankful to be alive because it could have been worse times a million. I just need a new car now! I think I'll find one that is in good shape, that I can pay cash for, and drive it for a year or so, and maybe make another car purchase a little later.

Anyways, that's an update on my life, for those of you who have been running around your homes, like chickens with no heads, in anticipation of my next blog. Provided that I pass my classes (and who knows about that one), after graduation on Saturday, I'll be makin' some moves! After my graduation party of course, on the 23rd (Nibbles and a Nightcap, as my mother so cleverly dubbed it- she thinks), to which I hope everyone is able to attend.

The next time I post, it will be from my downtown Chicago apartment. Yahoo!