6 months later... A synopsis

I know it has been a very long time but I will try to catch up on things that I missed. First, I want to mention that I used the effects on my pictures in my headings from this website http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com.

Let's start from the beginning...

In July we went up to Minnesota for the fourth of July to visit Ben's family and to say goodbye to everyone before we left the Midwest. We had a lot of fun and got to go out on Gerry and Kristen's boat. That was a blast! We had tons of fun tubing and water-skiing.

We also celebrated our 1 year anniversary in July. We didn't do anything too extravagant. We went downtown to this supposed hole in the wall, diamond in the rough sort of place. It was actually a grungy bar that doubles as a secret and amazing seafood restaurant on the North side of Chicago. It is in a basement lit with Christmas lights, and they served lollipops with all the orders. It was a great adventure. Afterward we walked along Lakeshore Dr and watched the Navy Pier fireworks. I thought I had a picture of the restaurant, but I guess not. We also ate our cake. It almost tasted the same, but then it just didn't. I never want to eat year old anything that has not been heavily processed and packaged/canned again. Fortunately, I was able to enjoy shoving the cake in Ben's face.

My friends and I went out so that I could say goodbye to Chicago. We did Sushi in Hyde Park, visited the Hancock building, and dessert at the Grand Lux Cafe. Here are some pictures from the night:
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I also took pictures of a few places on campus before we left.






We packed up and left for Arizona at the end of July. One of my friends came along so that she could make her way to California. The initial months in AZ were a bit tumultuous. A lot things happened that I am slowly erasing from my memory. Eventually things settled down and Ben and I both got jobs. Around the end of September we moved into our own beautiful apartment. It is almost twice the size of our last apartment and I still can't get over the fact that I can open the fridge all the way without hitting the counter on the opposite side. Here are some pics I took on the trip to AZ:





Now you are all caught up! Well, at least until November.

We Both Graduated! Ben=Master's, Natasha=Bachelor's

Not much has been going on for us. We have been looking for jobs and trying to figure out our lives with or without life altering plans. It is frustrating not knowing what we are going to be doing a month or even a week from now. On the bright side, it does look like we will be staying in Chicago through August. Given the lack of excitement and thrill in my current situation I have decided to give a recap on senior week and graduation.
For those of you who don't know, senior week is a period of time that the seniors have to party while everyone else takes their finals. Seniors are forced to finish their finals anywhere from a week to a week and a half in advanced. I finished Tuesday of 10th week. Yes, I know that is pretty amazing. It is also a miserable experience to have to complete course work, attend classes, and take finals all before finishing all of the assigned material in the course. I did not attend very many of the Senior Week activities, although I did attend enough activities that Ben and I got eat free food for a little over a week. Anyway, we went to a couple of very nice receptions that required formal attire and served wine with elegant food served on china. One thing Ben and I enjoyed was Prom Night! U of C does not have very many dances so it was fun to try this one out.



My family came in Wednesday night and on Thursday we did an architectural boat tour on the Chicago river in the pouring rain. This was another senior week activity hosted by the U of C. It was freezing! My poor family from AZ were not expecting temperatures below 50 during the middle of summer and neither was I.




Skipping ahead a bit, Friday was Ben's Graduation! It was a beautiful warm day just like every graduation day should be. Afterward we celebrated with coveted Chicago pizza at Giordano's. Then we continued on with my senior week and went to the Museum of Science and Industry night. At the beginning of every school year U of C rents out the MSI and has a dessert night where incoming students/graduating students can see all of the exhibits while enjoying the beautiful desserts.


Saturday I finally graduated. This had to be one of the most miserable experiences. It rained and rained and rained and rained then stopped and rained again and finally with only 20 minutes to go, stopped for good. The fact that we had to sit outside with no provisions other than the emergency poncho that they handed us made for an awful experience. Hair was ruined and be warned that those stupid gowns are in no way water proof. Everyone was shivering. Also, U of C's emergency rain plan to shorten the ceremony consisted of cutting only one song! Needless to say, it did not shorten the ceremony, in fact we went longer than expected. Turns out U of C really is the place where fun comes to die; even graduation sucked. Don't be fooled, I really did love every minute a spent at the U of C, which I'm pretty sure officially makes me a masochist.


To end the day we went to one of my favorite restaurants to celebrate. Ethiopian Diamond. I absolutely love this place.