Dreamin & bein with Sweetie
Good morning ... this is me. Woo HOO ... we're up early this morning. Well, not straight away exactly, but we're here now ... It's 4:45 am. We were just reading a story about a new kind of house they want to build in poor areas - especially in Mexico where people are living in cardboard boxes.They are calling these dream homes. They are made from shipping crates that can travel on trucks, trains, and ships. Pretty cool, hmm? Just think if you were living in a box. They say they can do these very well for about $8,000. You get windows, air conditioning, paint, and a galley kitchen, bedrooms, a bathroom and well, I'm not sure if you get much a living room, but maybe. It's only 450 square feet of living space. And, they say that people can do a lot with their neighborhood, because you can stack them and build them into shapes ... like maybe a family would form a square and they'd have a nice play area in the middle that was safe.
I like the idea too that maybe you could get two of them for $16,000 which is less
I paid for my car ... and then you could put more bedrooms and a bath in one ... and another bath kitchen and living space in the other. It's actually a pretty good idea ... It would be tempting if you could handle the small space to be independent.
If I could pay for my entire "2-story" living quarter for about $400 over 5-6 years ... I might think that a good deal. Sure ideally I want the same 2,500 square foot like anyone else - but, the basic is having a nifty house that I could afford.
I guess the people that are working on this now was a trio of students competing for a grant through their university. It started when one of the students traveled through a poor city and saw how people were living. He thought you could do better in that these boxes are like 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide and 40 feet deep. The main part is they are constructed of heavy metal, which is an idea that is being used in some of the most luxurious houses. They did a lot of study on how to make thing economical, by looking at mobile houses, boats, campers, etc. I'm pretty sure with a good imagination they are making them real liveable.
I can't say enough what a good idea this is for people who can't afford more of a traditional house. I'm one of those people ... couldn't afford a house so I'm putting twice as much as a double set of these houses to live in an apartment.
Believe me ... I could give up some space. I'd like to be independent.
Hmm, gas is down to an average of $3.12. Wow. That was pretty cool.
Hmm, that reminds me we have a lot of writing we should be doing to catch up. One of the first things was that Sweetie Pie let me sleep in his bed last night. But, unfortunately, he got out and slept on the couch ... that made me feel bad when I woke up and he wasn't there. So, we shagged him off the couch and back to bed.
That's now HIS bed! Yup, yup ... me and Sweetie found our way back to his bedroom last night. That's all we need to say there. Let's just imagine that he's still my Mr. Wonderful and there were smiles all over the place.
For a while we shared some pillow talk. Most of it was listening to what a good time he had in Alburquerkee (sp?) - let's just say NM. I don't want to say too much there because it is his business, but as mentioned before there were a lot of smiles.
Can't imagine a Dad loving his daughter and her company any more than Rich. He's adorable when he's like that. Can see him gushing with pride for her. Not to say he doesn't worry. But, then could you have a great dad if he didn't worry over his girl a little??
He said something before he fell back to sleep that he'd wake up in a little, but then he wouldn't say when and the last word we heard was that he didn't have to go anywhere real quick this morning. So my thought there is he's sleeping in a bit. I will look in on him after our 6 am shower if he's not up by then, but there's a good chance he's fighting jet lag. One thing is for sure when we went down about 7:30 pm, he didn't really wake us up. I see he's bought a new book for himself out here, but I can't imagine he stayed up too late.
He bought a couple other things too. Like he bought a sound machine ... He left it here. It plays a rainforest, an ocean, a waterfall, a rain, and a summer night.
It's really a good sounding recording. You can almost tell what the birds are saying! We have the rainforest on, because we like the sound of the birds which make it sound like its morning. Our birds here in Chicago are very lazy and seem to want to be sleeping in now days. It's 5:15 am and it's still dark outside. Boo on that!
Yesterday during the day we had a staffing arranged for the morning before we went and picked up Rich. The staffing never came through because althought the CSO people were there ... the family was not. So later the family was called and then showed up, but by then I had to go. It's supposed to be arranged again this morning, but if the family isn't there then we'll have to have the meeting without them.
Hey ... I think Sweeties up. Shoot he wasn't, but we snuck a kiss anyway. WOOHOO!!!
He's such a babe when he's sleeping ... a regular angel babe. :) :)
Picking up Rich turned out to be easy enough. I was there a few moments early so I went around the loop infront of Midway to check out arrivals, and then I parked right down the end of the street at a resteraunt to wait for his call. It was just a couple minutes and he called exactly at 11:30 when he said he was getting back. He had his suitcases because he had them with him - just mine plus his computer bag so we met outside the door, which was pretty darn mushy. Well, almost just met. I had pulled up beside him and even though he looked directly at me, he didn't recognize me or the car. He just kept walking so I had to follow him with the car. I gave him a couple of toots, but the first time when he turned around I think he almost gave me a dirty look, before his sweet smile brushed his face and he knew we were going to want some pretty good kisses.
We got in some talking on the way back to our apartment where he had left his car.
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 1, 2, 3, 4
t s s t s s t s s t
Ok, good ... had to figure that out ... I knew that yesterday was tuesday and 3 weeks before the voting, but I couldn't figure out how many weekends that meant we had. BUT, there is 3.
Did I tell you the part about working downtown for Barack Obama's campaign at his National Campaign Quarters? AHA!!! I didn't think so. I went back over the last entry ... so it's a new surprise to you!!! Next Saturday and Sunday - both days from 10-4 pm. I'm going to volunteer to make calls from campaign headquarters. Here wait ... I'll get the notes and then you'll understand ... WOOHOOO!!!!
Re: Volunteer Opportunity at Obama National Headquarters
Kyle P*** to you - 1 hr ago
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 5:30 pm
Hi Ann,
Thanks so much for your support. Our office is located at 233 N. Michigan Ave and the entrance to the building is on the Southwater street side. There are two escalators to your right that you can go up and check in at the security desk. Security is very tight so make sure you bring a photo ID that has your name on it. Tell them you are scheduled at the 19th floor phone bank and they'll know where to direct you.
If it is ok with you, I will schedule you for 10 AM - 4 PM on Saturday and Sunday, that way you will be able to get onto the floor during those hours. Weekends are a great time to make calls because a lot more people are at home than during the week, so we really apprecaite your help. If you know of anyone else that would like to assist, feel free to have them email me with their name, dates, and times and I'll set something up for them.
If you have any questions or problems getting into the building on Saturday, call 312*** and someone can assist you.
Again, thanks for you committment and know how much we at the office appreciate it.
- Kyle
On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 5:22 PM,
Hi Kyle,
I would like to help. I am available on weekends - I can give 12-16 hours on this next weekend and each weekend up to the election up to the election. I've been looking for a way that I could volunteer. I'm a counselor/social worker and am familiar with phones and making appointments. I wouldn't have had the physical stamina to walk the neighborhoods and I'm not as proficient on issues as others. Making appointments seems something that be good for me.
My cell phone is down at this moment, but the number is 708*** if you want to leave a message. If you would like to call and schedule me in, I will be at work (St. Rose Center 773***) during the week from 7:30-4:00 pm you could call there and you can always email. I check throughout the day.
Look forward to helping out.
Ann
Sent: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:37 am
Subject: Volunteer Opportunity at Obama National Headquarters
Hello,
I'm writing to inform you of a special volunteer opportunity at Obama for America's National Headquarters in downtown Chicago.
We have a large number of Obama supporters that have said they would be willing to travel to a battleground state for the Senator this election season. The issue is that we currently have a list of 36,000 people to call through and confirm the dates and location of their travel before we coordinate the specifics with the various states. We are currently operating a phone bank that is open from 9 am to 9 pm seven days a week so that we can contact all of these individuals as soon as possible so that they can commense their service in a timely fashion. Any help that you could provide would be extremely appreciated - this is a great oppurtunity to get directly involved in putting power back into the hands of the citizens of this great nation.
If interested, you can reply to this email directly and we can set up a time that works for you; or you can call 312*** and someone will assist you with scheduling a time to come into the phone bank.
Thank you for your support and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Kyle P***
Obama for America
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See that's it!!! Pretty simple, hmm? I can't believe yet that I'm going to be doing this. I will be in Barack Obama's building where he actually comes sometime. I've obviously have no idea if he's planning to be in this weekend. Most likely he has to stay out on the road, but it's pretty darn cool anyway. I respect Obama more than any common movie star. Campaign headquarters though are on the 11th floor and we'll be on the 19th floor where the phone banks are. So, it have to be pretty unusual for him to be in those hours and passing through the extra floor, but then thats not why we volunteered.
It's just that we wanted to do something special for him. We wanted to "do our part." I had sent in something a while ago and had gotten involved in the blog where I said that I'd be willing to do somthing. Because I'll just be making appointments, I won't be in a position of having to sell anyone on Barack ... the people that I'll call are other people like me who said they'd like to do something. It's a real good deal. I would have never made the door to door canvassing - not without the old wheelchair ... this is really ideal. We'd thought about making calls before, but again there was selling of Obama invoved and I'm not as good on that and I wasn't sure of the phone locations. But, this time we'll be smack dab in the middle of downtown at official campaign quarters. I'll be more protected there than the rock of Gilbrater.
We still have to figure out how to get there. We did some good research on that, but didn't reach anything conclusive. We got the part where we could drive to the Metra train station here in Brookfield and ride downtown to Union Station for a weekend pass that only cost $5. That's a good deal and would be fun. I've always liked train rides. But, it's about 1 1/2 miles to get to the office location from the train station. I tried to figure out bus routes, but the two main ones I saw that would take us there ... were express routes that only operated on weekdays.
When I talked to Rich about it he said that maybe we could use a taxi. I'm not sure how much money we would need. It certainly isn't a long distance, but it would be nice. I'm not too experienced though in catching cabs downtown. I don't know if they go down every street so if they'd be on Michigan Avenue at 4-5 pm at night on both those days. I think Michigan Avenue is like one of the city's biggest streets, so it probably be better chances than not. That be good.
I don't want to get involved in driving my car around down there. I could do it, but it's hard and would be very costly to park her in a garage. Maybe I'll know more though after trying it the first time, because I'd like to volunteer more. This Kyle person was so fast in getting back to me after I'd noticed his email and he scheduled me up right away for the middle of the day which is great hours, so I'm figuring not everyone he sent out to on their long list of cc:'s was volunteering. Even though this is task specific - calling people and making appointments. There is 3 weekends coming up between now and the election - and I'm hoping that I get in on each of them. Maybe I'll have learned something this first weekend to make me more valuable the next weekends. So, you can imagine how important it will be to keep the costs down.
I'm not sure all of what Rich is going to be doing while I'm gone, but he's not sticking too close to home lately. There's been a couple fishing trips, his daughter, his mother, his sports. So basically, I don't feel like I need to stay at home or have other appointments. Most likely it will be another month before seeing the boys and I haven't been bringing work home. There's still time in the morning to write and I can be with Rich at nights. I'll have so much to think and talk about Hehehe. AND, I know the other thing I would be doing is watching politics and news on TV. Wow. But, in this instance, I will be right in the middle of the political parts of me. I just can't imagine anything more exciting. I hope I'm good at what they need.
Anything else we're doing can wait.
AHA! We're back and huggy bear is here too. We kind of relaxed with him a bit. We took our shower, got our stuff ready and then crawled back in bed with him for about 20 minutes. It was glorious. Most of the time I stayed awake and just thought of how happy I was to be holding him. I felt so wonderful. Everything felt 110% whole - like I had no other purpose in life, but to be living that very moment.
posted by Ann Marie @ 10/15/2008 09:40:00 AM
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