Norman

One of my least favorite things about living in Chicago is grocery shopping.. er, rather the inconvenience of grocery shopping. Granted I realize they wont allow grocery carts to be taken into the parking lot because then they end up being stolen and turned into a homeless person's primary source of transportation, but this is pretty inconvenient. Basically you can only purchase as many groceries as you can carry because you're not going to get those bags to your car if you can't carry them from the shopping cart coral to your trunk with two arms. Same goes for walking from my car through my garage, down an elevator, through my lobby, up another elevator and to my condo. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Plus I'm psychotic and refuse to make two trips.. ever.

The quality of the grocery stores in Chicago, save for Whole Foods and Trader Joe's of course, is disgusting as well. The major chain, Jewel, is like shopping in a communist country to me. Bad selection, high prices and a general "just be glad you're getting something" attitude from the employees. There's no bread lines but with the current state of the economy I wouldn't be surprised to see one at Jewel soon, accessible only with your 'preferred card' of course. By definition, the word "jewel" means a rare and exotic precious stone. Jewel the grocery store, on the other hand, is about as rare and exotic as happy hour at T.G.I.Friday's yet somehow less satisfying.

Aside from grocery shopping today, my life has been very occupied with my new addition. Please say hello to Norman, the 3 lb 8 ounce holy terror with blue eyes and the attitude of a war general in puppy form:





Norman is so great and so sweet. I picked him out at Christmas time when I was home for the holidays out of a litter of three puppies. My mom ended up taking one of the puppies, I ended up taking one (obviously) and my mom's sister ended up taking the third. He was finally ready to be picked up around Valentine's day so I flew down to Tx to retrieve him. Such a handful and such a joy all at the same time! Norman is looking forward to the weather warming up.. I can't blame him. I wouldn't want to take a shit outside right now either.

Lots has been going on. And nothing, all at the same time. Less time in between postings from now on, I promise.

Over and out.
M.db