first few days of work, plus some fun

well, i've been broken in to the gallery now. worked 3 days. thursday was the first. it was good. kinda busy b/c of the new show (which opened yesterday). lot of cleaning, straightening, putting up labels. cleaned walls. got the mail. rearranged/organized the gift shop (Beate said i have a good eye for that!). lot of simple (some might say boring) things but i enjoyed it because i enjoy being at the gallery. finally got to meet amy this day, and she's really nice.
day two was more cleaning, putting up galler titles (on large sheets of contact paper that has to be perfectly level at the right height for Beate to be happy). met Kristin, a volunteer, and Sarah, another intern. they were both really nice; both artists as well. unfortunately it was sarah's last day before going back to school. we toasted her with champaigne before the opening. the opening was really fun. met a few artists, talked to them a bit. mostly just greeted people and ate cookies. looked after the artisan gallery- helped people if they wanted to try on any of the jewelry. the show is really good- you can check it out on the website (link in last blog).
today (yes i work weekends) was a short day. almost as soon as i got there, an artist walked in and i chatted with her for a bit. mostly about her ceramics studio and how i should visit it when i have time and possibly take a class there. it would be really cool, but i think it clashes with a cs class. got to visit ARC Gallery, just around the corner from Woman Made. it's another woman run gallery; they had some good stuff, too. sent out a few emails. did some filing. took some notes on a piece that got broke by kids running around during the opening yesteday. then i got to go home. early, even.
btw, here's my schedule:
thurs/fri= 12-7
sat/sun= 12-4
mon/tues= 5 hours each anytime between 9 and 5 at the CS offices. or whenever i feel like it if i am visiting other galleries. as long as i get 5 hours each day. this is basically my weekend.
wed= classes 10:30-5

so that was work stuff. what else have i done? well, on thurs i went to the circus. it was our first Fine Arts Event. Zoppe Family Circus, a small one ring show run by the same family of Italians for 6 generations. very quality, old time style circus. funny and impressive for being so small. saw a father who juggles his kids with his feet. basically, one child sits on his feet (he's on his back) and he flips them and catches them on his feet again. but they do twists and land perfectly. sometimes the littler kids stood on his feet and did perfect flips. it was good to really get into it and feel like a kid again. hadn't been to a circus in a long time, and i loved it. it was great! .....
other than the fact that it was freezing! raining and windy. all day. bought an umbrella that morning that broke as i was walking to the circus. and then it started raining harder. i was on my own, coming straight from work (still in work clothes). followed the directions we were given and figured out pretty quickly that those directions were wrong. turned around, missed the street i was looking for because my glasses were rain spattered and foggy. thought i was gonna be late, soaked all the way through, stepping in puddles, in a strange neighborhood. asked for directions and kept walking. (btw the directions we were originally given made it sound easy and quick to get to. they lied) when i finally got there (an hour and a half after i left work), i was greeted by 3 soggy figures that turned out to be our professors. they surprised my by telling me i was the first one there! i couldn't believe it. but soon the rest of the class wandered in, in varying states of wetness. a few actually got there late, after the show had started. of course, Nino the clown made fun of them for it! but we all survived. and the professors shuttled us to the train stations afterwards. while waiting for a ride, a bunch of us crowded under a roof/shell of umbrellas, trying to keep dry and warm. it would have made a good pic, but no one had a camera.

so those are the events so far. tues we go to museum of contemporary art!!!!

I am starting to feel at home here in chicago. took my first solo bus ride to work and back and i survived. getting my bearings directionwise. the people are friendly enough (except for the bus/cab drivers). we're going dancing tonight. the apartment is...well, it is. that's about it. we hear every delivery truck, every garbage truck in the mornings. every fire truck, police car, and ambulance in the middle of the night, and a few drunks in the evening. i set off the smoke alarm making pizza rolls last night. that was fun.
been doing reading for class, plus finished 2 pleasure reading books already. got a lot of travel time to read. so far, chicago has generally been good to me. but i miss my friends still! need to hear from people. call me! *coughtuckercough*

well, i think this is long enough. love you all!