A couple crazy weeks

These past couple weeks have been a whirlwind. Sometimes fun, sometimes horrible. A recap:

The store I work at (Chicago Dance Supply) has been recently kicked out of our space to make room for a bank and a take-and-bake pizza place. We opted to move to the upstairs retail space in the same building, rather than moving somewhere completely different. The customer base is great in that area (there's a dance studio right across the street), and the neighborhood is good. Also, the actual moving would be easier. We've had the space available to us for a while, so we painted, put down a new wood floor, knocked down a bunch of walls, installed a new ceiling, and built some custom-fit fixtures for our merchandise. The actual move happened the first week of April. It was CRAZY. Pretty much nothing was planned for this move, we just all knew we had to be there every waking moment all week. And we were. I spent 6-8 hours there every day, on top of Starbucks. We took inventory on everything in the store, from pointe shoes to leotards to fairy wings to thera bands. Then, we moved it upstairs. We moved up 6 8-foot tall bookshelves, 10 t-stands, and innumberable other fixtures. We built new shelves and new hanging rods and new hooks on every available wall. We hung waterfall hooks on every pole. We built up and up and up, because there was no space to spread out. We need step-stools to get at about half the merchandise. We painted shelves, desks, walls, trim. We cleaned the nice new floors like 20 times. We arranged and re-arranged and arranged again. It was nuts. But it got done. There are still little things to do, to put away, to organize. Every time I go into work, something is in a different place. We got a new computer which I have to set up and get going. But the new space is great. It's cute, it's cozy, it's functional, it's ours. We really worked hard to make it just for us, exactly how we needed it. And a week of work later, and many a bruise and scrape, it looks great. Come visit sometime!!

As I was leaving work on Friday night, after being there for 9 hours following a 6 hour shift at Starbucks, I said to my co-worker: "how much do you want to bet I'll be sick within the next 3 days?" And, by Sunday night, I was proved right. I had this terrible headache, and tried to go to bed early only to lie there until 4am not sleeping. After 2 hours of sleep, I attempted to go to work at Starbucks. After just a few hours, I looked like death and felt like I was going to fall over, so they sent me home. By the time I got home, I had a 103 degree fever. I spent the next 3 days in bed, unable to do much of anything. They came to spray my apartment for bugs on Wednesday (something I agreed to let them do 4 times a year in my lease), which forced me out of bed to at least get the door. Thankfully, I got better quick after that. I was back at work by Thursday, though I hadn't eaten in 4 days. And I was chipper enough by Saturday to go to Holland for a wedding. I lost 5 pounds, which is a plus. But being sick is never fun. I'm back to normal now, though, which is great. I'm sure those 5 pounds won't stay off for long, as I'm seriously enjoying being able to eat again :)

The wedding in Holland was great. Mike and I played a great round of frisbee golf before-hand (we passed a bunch of boys who seemed amazed that I would play a round in my heels and dress). The weather was nice, if not exactly summer-y. The reception was fun, I got to dance a little. The food was great. And I got to go on a road-trip, one of my favorite things. It made me miss my college friends, though (Jennica!!!), my Reeverts Girls, my dancer friends. I miss the peace and straight-forward-ness of college, of Holland. Much as I love the city, it was nice to be back with the tulips and the trees.

In other news, I tried to make brownies yesterday. They didn't turn out well. Oh so sad.