New Job

Yup, that’s right. A new job! I’m hoping this is my last job swap for years and years! It wasn’t like I didn’t like my previous job as a Collections Specialist at Care Ambulance, but seriously, timing is everything!

I was still a temp with no news of Care Ambulance keeping me on permanently and in the meantime I was observing the company and I’ve overheard about many of the changes. Like, company picnics and such are no longer the same. The amount of extra goodies were no more. They catered the main entrees normally, but before they used to also have all these goodies.. cakes, cupcakes, cookies, brownies.. the works! Now, nothing but the entrees. There were other things too, changes in cashing out PTO, department salary caps, and increases in cost of health insurances were just a few that I saw.

Anyhow, since it looked like the new owners were trying to decrease extra spending as much as possible, I figured the company’s outlook wasn’t so good. So, I decided to start searching for a new gig. I landed a few interviews and they seemed to go well. And then, seriously, within that week or the next, someone resigned from Care Ambulance and I was offered his job. Of course, not knowing where I stood with the few other companies I interviewed for, I took the permanent position at Care Ambulance. Of course, a few days later, I get a call and was offered a job!

Now I was faced with a decision! So I weighed the Pros and Cons.. New job vs old job. The new job had higher pay, in fact, it was back to the amount I made before I was every laid off. The new job was also the same position I had back with Divine Hospice Care.. Executive Administrative Assistant. But I had no idea how big or small the new company was. I also was unsure of their stability. Care Ambulance has been around for 35 years. The new company.. only 6. I was super comfortable at Care Ambulance already. Knew the people and had a good daily routine. But, the job was boring. Very boring. Same task all day erry day. Old job was more lax with phone usage. New job, totally strict since they deal with government contracts.

The major factor that swayed me towards the new job. Pay of course! It’s a difference of $5/hour! Which we need now that we live on our own. All the bills are ours! LOL.

I did love the people I worked with at Care though. So I met with my manager and I let her know that I was offered a job and said that I’d love to stay if they can match my pay. Unfortunately, they could not. So, decision has been made. Off to the new job!

(long post.. I know.. but there’s a bit more! LOL)

Life at the new spot.. there’s good and there’s bad. The good.. the company is bigger than I thought (100 employees!). All the folks here are just as friendly as the folks at Care Ambulance. Jeans day erry day! (except when we have important guests of course). Job tasks are waaaay better than what I had at Care Ambulance. Much more challenging and very diverse. The bad.. no more gchat! Waaaaaaaah waaaaaaaah. They block all email clients and chat clients. *cry*. Our phones are never allowed to be seen either. I mean, it makes sense. We deal with government clients. Everything has to be ubber secure. But mang, how do I keep in touch with Jeric, Habibi, Fungangang, and Joany? That’s the only major upset. Other than that, the job is great!

Chicago Day 3 (pictures coming soon)

Good morning!!

Today's our last day.. which is bittersweet. We love being on vacay, but we also miss home sweet home!

Anyhow, our traditional Chicago bfast awaits us! Time to try out the Doughnut Vault! We already knew exactly how to get there, so it didn't take long. Sadly, they didn't have many to select from. They only stay open til like 2pm or until they sell out. I guess they're very popular and you gotta be an early riser to get the good stuff. No thanks! The spot was literally a hole in the wall. You walk in and the inside is probably about 10 feet long and 4 feet wide.
[[picture - donut vault]]

Anyhow.. They only had Buttermilk Old Fashion and an Almond Old Fasion w/ Vanilla Glaze.
[[picture - donuts]]

They were alright. Glazed and Infused was way better. And our bar (Donuttery) is far too high. LOL.

Now that we had food in our stomachs and the weather was decent, we headed off to the very last spot to check out, Navy Pier. There honestly wasn't anything special about it. Santa Monica Pier puts it to shame. We did spend a long amount of time there, leisurely walking around. Guess it was enough time and energy spent because our appetites were back. Time for lunch!
[[picture - navy pier]]


Giordana's (the spot that competed against Gino's) wasn't far. We just took a bus up the street and walked the rest. The wait was still pretty long (about an hour or so). So we put our name down and then walked around. At least all the stores were open this time.

We checked out the Disney Store first, then hit up the Apple Store and Nike and then we got the text. Time to eats!
[[pictures]]

This time we ordered a deep dish that had meatballs in it. Must say, this is our fav!
[[picture - pizza]]

Since we checked out all the sight seeing spots on our list, we had to at least try and get all the food spots on our list. There were a bunch that were too far to go to, but the one that we wanted to try was iCream, which was ice cream that was made fresh! They use Nitrogen to freeze it up super fast, which I thought was pretty cool! You get to watch the whole process. We got strawberry ice cream with oreos.
[[picture - icream]]

It was delicious, but nothing spectacular. The best part was when they made it for you.

That's it! No more food stops on our list, at least none nearby. We did want to get more donuts from Glazed and Infused. Jeric wanted one to share right now and then 2 more for our bfast tomorrow. Luckily there was one near us. But it was super small! Smaller than the Doughnut Vault. You order through the window and as you look inside, you see they only have a small booth inside of a restaurant/bar. Since they don't actually bake the donuts there, they only had a small selection. We got the maple bar with bacon for


iCream
Glazed and Infused
Batman - Rain
Lightning Storm
Go me home

Chicago day 2

We got plenty of rest! Like 12 hours! Woot! Revived and ready to go!

First stop? Breakfast! Which would be doughnuts of course. We were supposed to go to doughnut vault but we were so hungers and the next bus wouldn't arrive for another 11 minutes. So Jeric yelped and found a closer spot called Glazed and Infused. We decided to walk since it stated that it was less than a mile away. It wasn't really too bad of a walk as far as distance goes. But ughers, it was so humid! Anyhow, here we are!


Their best seller is the Old Fashion donut, so that's what Jeric got. As for me, I got the Blueberry Lemon..


They were both delish. That blueberry lemon though. As you sink your teeth into the soft cakey dough the subtle hints of blueberry and lemon shock your senses! It was that good! The old fashion was pretty moist and delicious as well.

Now time for a trip to the United Center! It was very plain, especially when compared to Staples Center. But! They have the amazing Michael Jordan Statue!


Of course, it's only absolutely fitting for Jeric to take a photo mimicking his pose!


We stayed there for a good amount of time admiring the statue of thee greatest player in NBA history.

Afterwards, we decided we also should visit Wrigley Field. We weren't quite sure exactly what the easiest way to get there would be. So it was definitely a journey. We thought we could take a bus that would eventually lead us to the subway. But as we were trying to find the right bus, we just kept walking through the neighborhoods. It wasn't too bad, but then we came across an area where a bunch of ghetto looking guys were, so we decided to make a quick detour. Luckily the area we detoured at allowed us to spot the subway! Phew!

The subways were waaay waaaay waaaaaaaay crowded. That's when we realized a lot of Cubs gear.. guess there's a game! Some young guys (probably barely 21 or even younger) were prepartying on the way there. One totally couldn't handle his liquor though. He just barfed right there. LOL. It was gross and smelly, but we couldn't help but laugh cuz we've been there before. Haha. And here we are!

Wrigley Field was in the weirdest spot ever. It was just right smack in the middle of a neighborhood! It was probably a block away from where we exited the subway. The surrounding houses/apartments even sold tickets so that you can get up to their roof top or some of the top balconies and watch the game.

It was kinda cool too because it was crowded with all the fans! They were playing Atlanta Braves!


Since we were there, we decided it was also probably a good spot to find me my Chicago Dog. Jeric yelped it and found Chicago's Dog Haus. It wasn't too far, maybe a block or two away. The only thing that sucked was that it started sprinkling on our way there. And these weren't LA sprinkles, nope. These were FAT DROPS! Luckily that's the worst it got on our way there.

The spot was like a hole in the wall. Very small and not very busy. Reviews were great though. I ordered a Chicago Dog and Jeric ordered a Bacon and Cheddar Infused Sausage.


They were alright. Nothing special to be honest. A Chicago Dog just adds a pickle with all the other normal condoments. And the Bacon and Cheddar Infused Sausage.. it's pretty much like Adele's, except Adele's is waaay better.

Time to head back! By the time we got back, it was pouring down hard! Booo.

We were even stuck in the entrance/exit way for awhile. We decided we best head back to the hotel and dry off. So we waited until we saw our bus coming and then made a run for it!

At our hotel, we dried off and changed clothes. By that time, we took a look out our balcony and saw that it stopped raining. Time to head back out! First, we must make a stop and get us umbrellas. We don't want to get stuck again!

We only had a few things left that we must see and that's the Sky Deck and Navy Pier. Since it was late already and chances of rain were highly likely, we decided on Sky Deck.

Sky Deck was pretty cool. You get a wonderful view of the whole city. It was crazy high though. They had these full glass balconies too that you can step out on. It was completely surrounded by glass, so as you stepped out, you can see below you, which was waaay scary! I'm afraid of heights, so that view made me super shakey. Haha. Before hand, I was thinking of cool poses to do, like the jumping pose or planking or a push-up, but when it was time, I totally wussed out. We did sit on the floor though!


Afterwards, we decided to take a walk down Michigan, which is the street along the lake. Jeric wanted to try Dunkin Donuts coffee and grab more donuts as well. He got the Oreo Coffee Latte and I got the Butternut donut. The Butternut donut was one of the better don'ts from Dunkin, but still sub par.

Since we were along Michigan, we decided to check out the Bean again. I'm glad we did too because we got to see what it looked like in the evening with a grey sky, which I think is when it looks best.


We also got to see the fountain that we missed yesterday.


Dinner time! We decided that we were going to try deep dish again. Maybe yesterday's pizza was meh because we ordered the wrong thing (personal pans). Time to try out the other spots. It's either Gino's or Giordana's (both are seriously on the same street and only a couple thousand feet apart. Talk about competition). Gino's was an hour wait and Giordana's was a two hour wait. We put our name down for both and just waited to see who'd text us first. Meanwhile, we walked around. We found the Disney Store, but boo, it was closed. We ended up just standing around there since it was already too late for anything else to be open. Then we got our text! Gino's was the winner.

We ordered a small deep dish pizza with sausage and pepperoni. When we got our order, we realized yes, we ordered wrong yesterday. This is what a deep dish should look like! And taste like! Sooo good!


We were quite stuffed only ate half the pizza. But that's okay! Save the rest for later! We spent the rest of the evening hunting down the spot where they filmed Dark Knight. It was the scene near the end where Batman faces off with Joker.

We ended up walking the Chicago River to find our spot.


As for the Batman scene? It was a total bust. We were trying to find it and couldn't quite find the exact spot, only spots that looked like it. That's when Jeric checked online again and found that it's actually two parts of Chicago pieced together. Booo.. Oh well, it was still quite an adventure.

Back to the hotel!
Good night!

Chicago day 1

Today we finally explore Chicago, Illinois!  

We were up late as hell packing and prepping all our gadgets.. Totally didn't sleep til midnight.  Which doesn't seem bad for a normal day.  But it was no normal day..  our flight was at 6am and was at lax, which meant we should leave around 3:30/4.. Which further meant I had to wake up at 2:30 and Jeric at 3!

So yes.. We started our vacay with total lack of sleep!

Then! On the way to the airport the 22 was completely closed by the 405!  And the detour was ridic!  It took is to a closed ramp!  Eventually we made our way to the 605 through the neighborhood.  And then my dad floored it to try and make up for lost time.  

We got to the airport at 5am.. Not too bad.  But still.. We went to Alaska airlines (as that was were we booked from).. But that was not our airline.. They don't fly to chicago!  Haha.  Whoopse.  We were American Airlines.. So we had to walk a few minutes to port 4.  Still.  We got there in good time and relaxed some before boarding our plane.  

The plane ride.. Not comfy of course.. Thankfully only 4 hours long!

Luckily Philip told us we wouldn't need a car rental and that we could load these cards with a 3 day pass for the subway and buses.  So we loaded our cards and took the blue line out to Madison, which was wheee our hotel was on.

And finally!  We are here!

Now on to finding out hotel.. We took the subway but had to transfer to a bus which we couldn't find so we just walked!

Took us 20 minutes to reach the hotel.. That's 20 minutes with a few hours of sleep and no food in out tummy's.  So once we checked in and got settled.. It was off to find a pizza spot!!

Closest one was Lou Minalti's.. We tried getting bus directions from the front desk, but that didn't work.  We walked a bunch more.. And ended up grabbing donuts from Dunkin Donuts..

After a boost of energy from the donuts.. Which see meh.. We got some directions and found our bus!

And here we are!  Lou Minalti's!

We got appetizers first because the waitress said our pizzas take 30 min to bake.  So we ordered the combo platter..

The best were the small balls of fried cheddar cheese.

For our pizza.. We each ordered a personal one.. Jeric got the Lou special (spinach, motzerella, mushrooms.. And he added sausage).

I got the original which was sausage motzerella and tomato.. 

Mine was delish.. Jeric's was ok..

After pizza we found the subway and took it towards our hotel.  But when we exited I saw we were near millennium park so we decided to go since there was plenty of light still.

We were immediately greeted by a head statue when we got off the subway.  Not sure if there was any significance as there wasn't a plaque or some sort of description of the statue.  As we ventured further we ran into the bean!

The bean was my favorite by far.  It's futuristic/alien like.  And when you walked into the middle it was so freaking weird!  The way it reflected off itself was awesome.  Kinda looked like a bungho..  haha.

We loved the bean so much that we stayed there for a good thirty minutes.

We could've stayed longer, but there was more to see.  Like e Jay Pritzker Pavilion, which was this artistic looking stadium.

And a garden.. which we didn't stay at too long.. I did find these flowers very purty tho.

As we walked through the park we saw a "taste of Chicago" event so we went there.  Admission was free but food was waaaay expense.  Like $9 a serving.  We ended up just a walking the whole thing.  And by doing so we ended up at Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park!

By then we were way tired.  Our legs were struggling.  So we headed back to Madison and took the #20 bus to our hotel.

Good nighters!!

I'm baaaaack!

It's been tough trying to get back into blogging. We've been busy with settling into our new home, which has been lovely. It's great having our own place. Our home, our rules! Haha. The only hard part would be having to always clean-up everything ourselves. But at least, if we don't have guests over, we can leave the mess for another day if we aren't up to cleaning it at that moment.

Anyhow, I'll try and update you in the following posts on all the happenings! And I'll try to post more again. Plus I gotta finish up our trip to Chicags!

Toodles for now!