Hanging around Chicago

While I would not want to live here, Jess and I have been having a lot of fun in Chicago. Other than the fact that the hotel we've been staying in the last three days is a DUMP (when we stayed in it last year, it was so much nicer) we love being somewhere where there is so much going on.
At least starting tomorrow we move to a decent hotel for the duration on our stay.
We decided not to go back to MN, we would rather stay here and drive up to Detroit on Sunday the 3rd. So now we have over a week to not get bored and for me to TRY and talk my daughter out of spending any more money. My budget was blown about 2 weeks ago. IWe'll now have to stay in Italy simply because I won't have enough money to go home and start over!
So Friday we were so exhausted both physically from driving all night, and mentally from dealing with the consulate we simply went back to the hotel and slept all afternoon. Afterwards we drove up out of the city as close as we could get to the lake. Saw some beauiful houses as well as signs that said "Senior Crossing" We thought those were hysterical.
We also ended up getting lost on the way back and going into a "questionable part of north Chicago"
Today we decided to walk down Michigan Ave, the main shopping street of Chicago ( at least I think it is) We ended up walking from about 12the down to about 5 blocks south of the river, about 17 city blocks in all, and ended up at the Taste of Chicago. That was fun, good food, and then walked almost to the Navy pier to watch fireworks. About 15 minutes before they were about to start this truly awesome fog bank very slowly over the pier, unbelievable sight.
After all the walking we decided to take a cab back to the hotel. We've had a lot offun being able to hail cabs to get around, what a treat.
Well tomorrow we will be in the new hotel, up above the 18th floor and in a room with a view, so I'm signing off to try and get some sleep. Things are really starting to come together!

Finally at the consulate!

We are now in Chicago and have been to the consulate and it looks like we'll be getting our student visas! (barring any problems). Even though we are still waiting for the original document to come from the University in Italy for my daughter's prooof of enrollment (i got mine like 5 days ago), the consulate said we could start the paperwork with a fax from them.
So Thursday night at about 1 am we called the university and asked them to fax a copy to the Chicago Consulate, and at 1:30 am we headed out to drive the 7 hours to Chicago. We got here at about 9 am, no sleep, didn't even shower or anything, and got papers together to go to the consulate.
We catch a cab to the consulate, go up to the 18th floor and there are like 15-20 people all sitting down waiting. By now it's like 10:00 and I am even more panicked, but it turned out most were for passports. Only three were ahead of us for visas.
The gentleman(sp??) who was doing visa apps asked if anyone was going for student visas, and had everyone take a paper saying that if you didn't have everything on it, you could not apply. Of course everyone started to panick, and starting calling home to get someone to get plane tickets for them , etc....
We had about a 20 minute wait, and then somehow we managed to jump line. (Would Italians be proud of me? )
My daughter and I went up to the window together. The man, not even having spoken to us goes, "Yes I received the fax."
My daughter and I were speechless! Then he asked "Mrs Ortega?" I'm like freaking out by now. And he goes, "I figured it was you, you are the one who sent like thousands of emails to us!" I think coming up with my daughter gave it away, and Ok, I sent about SIX emails in the last two years to them, (and maybe a couple of phone calls) but we thought it was cool he knew who we were! Well, we were hoping it was good and not bad. I don't think he was too impressed with me, but he was very nice to us.
Anyway he starts asking for and going over our paperwork. We had everything except the original for my daughter from the University. I had also picked up the wrong itinerary, an old one. so we bring that in on Monday. I also had to run down and make copies of our passports and licenses, otherwise everything was in order.
There was not one other person there who had even close to everything. When I went downstairs to make copies Jess said she saw him mark everything accepted for the student visa so I am hoping we are set. We asked him to call us when the visas were ready, that we were not leaving town and counting on even fedex.
We now fly out of Detroit (5 hour drive from here) at 7:30pm on the 3rd of July, missing the first two days of school, but the flight is nonstop so the animals won't be sitting out on the tarmack any longer than they have to, that makes it well worth it.
One of the consulate's first words to us was: "don't tell me you need this by today or tomorrow or yesterday!" He was pretty frustrated by everyone coming at the last minute.
I told him that we were supposed to fly out today, but that we had rescheduled the flight for a week from Sunday, he seemed pretty happy about that.
I have to tell you that I was so nervous, papers were flying everywhere, I couldn't find anything, my daughter said I was driving her crazy. But let's face it, this is the most important person you will me, they decide your fate. No student visa, no part time work etc.
So anyway, barring my daughter not getting the orinigal paperwork in the next week, we are finally on our way!
We celebrated with a nice dinner in Chicago tonight, tomorrow it is back to cheap food.

Hair today, can we please go to Italy tomorrow?

Well, Jessica and I both got our hair cut and colored in Chicago. Hair color and cuts looked great on us both, nothing drastically different at all, but my stylist got all the gold/orange out of my hair and managed to make it a nice ash. I'm pretty sure we could have gotten something similar done somewhere else for several hundred dollars less but oh well, a person has to pamper themselves sometime.

We also both got our makeup done. I'm not one to wear much more than mascara, some foundation to cover up flaws and sometimes some blush. I thought since we were going to Italy I should really get some advice on eye shadow and more importantly lipstick.
I didn't want to trust my makeup to some 18 year old at the Mashall Field's cosmetic counter, that's why we scheduled makeup sessions along with the hair. I think I would have been safer at Mashall Fields. The first hint of trouble was when my "makeup artist" turned out to be a gay male. Trust me, I have nothing at ALL against gay males, except when they are doing my makeup.
When he was done, my worst fears were realized, I came out looking like a drag queen. AAHHHHHHHHHH. As much as I wanted to believe that everyone who worked in the salon was staring at me because I was a vision of beauty, I'm pretty sure it was more shock. I was scary, with cream makeup base applied with a sponge, eye shadow lining my eyes both above and halfway below, then dark brown eye shadow, scary blush on my cheeks that made my foundation look like wax, and lips outlined with a sort of mango lip pencil. By the time he did my lipstick I think he was giving up on me, and had just gone ahead and filled them in with the same pencil!
Those who know me well are aware of just how much I hate people staring at me. This truly ranked up there with dreams of being naked in front of a crowd. Every time I got into a spot that only had a few people, I was wiping my lips and blush off with the inside of my shirt. Never again will I do something like that. Luckily I won $30 later on a scratch off which at least paid me back for the cost of the makeup session, but not for the humiliation endured.

Jessica had a wonderful girl who did her makeup in soft young colors, and she came out looking great!
Oh yes, the movie wasn't filming that day so we didn't get to see any stars. :-(

Friday - still no letter from the school in Italy, so we headed back to Minnesota.
It's now Saturday night and still no letter.
I'll have to call the school again at about 2 am Monday morning our time, to see what address they sent it to.

I was also thinking that maybe the school could fax a copy to the Honorary consulate here in Minnesota. So I am also going to call her first thing Monday morning as well as the Chicago consulate and see if maybe they would accept the faxed copy if the consulate here notorized it. I'm thinking the chances are slim they'll accept it, but anything is possible.

TIME IS RUNNING SHORT! Our plane tickets are for Friday afternoon. *sigh* I am running out of happy thoughts.

One more attempt to catch up

This is the SHORT version.

Packed everything up including 4 cats, drove 7 hours to suburb of Chicago. Cats being transported went pretty darn well. Nice hotel, no confirmation of enrollment from Italy and it's late Wed and no consulate til we get it. If they don't get it in MN by Thursday I am going to have to drive the 14 hours there and back to get it on Friday to bring Monday. That is 4 days before we leave and is really pushing it.

Weather is great here, went to Six Flags, it rained and we should have saved our money. Cats are all fine in hotel, though Kitty wants out badly. We go into Chicago tomorrow to get haircuts, color and makeup at a salon that was rated #1 in Chicago by some magazine. It's on a street that is blocked off because they are filming a movie with Will Farrell, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Glyllyhall(sp) and someone else, so hopefully we will have to ask permission to go through and also be able to watch them make the movie. Maybe our names are on a list!!!
Excuse me.... Diana and Jessica Ortega............. Right this way Ms Ortega... (they open the barriers and let us through, making the crowd wonder who we are) *LOLOLOL* yeah right... *s* ok, all caught up on the blog as far as I am concerned. :-)

Still catch up on what has been happening

After booking Rome and Chicago, we now have to give up our two dogs and one of our cats. This has been the hardest thing for me so far.
Our dog Toby we have talked "Home For Life" into taking. This is a place in Wisconsin that takes in dogs and cats that are unadoptable. Toby is at least 17, and I didn't want him put to sleep. Home for Life will keep them until they die naturally. I'd been trying to get in touch with them for a while, no one ever returned my calls. Finally I got through to a live person. Unfortunately this happened a day after a news story on them had aired, so now I'm thinking I sound just like all the other people who have called after seeing the story. Making a long story short, they accept a crap load of money to take my older dog. Thanks heavens, now I know he won't be put to sleep.
I tried to get them to take Gus also, but they said they didn't have room for a dog that might have problems with other dogs. Kitty could go to a woman that worked at the shelter. She said that she would work with Kitty to be an indoor cat and then find someone to take her, That really isn't what I wanted, but time was really running short and I didn't know what I was going to do with her.
We had been waiting for the house to close before we could place Toby, Gus and Kitty because the shelter wanted cash up front. Makes sense, person promises money for taking dog, shelter takes dog, person dissapears. Best to get the money first.
The day that we took Toby, Gus and Kitty to their new homes was a tough one. We started out with both dogs, driving to Stillwater to drop off the money at the shelter's accountant. I felt like I was selling my dog into slavery or something. Bring a wad of money to a location, at that point they will tell you where the shelter was, including the fact that there is an electric gate at the entrance. Very weird.
The place was great, much smaller than I had thought, but lots of healthy animals all over. Still very hard to leave Toby.
Next was Gus. Gus the Wonder dog. The woman taking him is sure that he is her now deceased dog by the name of Gomer. Same shape and size, type of dog. I believe her. The name Gomer fits Gus perfectly. Hey, two Gs also! She had touaght Gomer to wink. Guess what, Gus winks. *Twilight Zone music*
We drive back to the house to get Kitty, and then drive into Mpls to drop them both off.
Oh yeah, I didn't mention that we have a rental car, black interior. Well it was black, now it looks grey under the massive amount of Gus hair that is all over the car. Since then we've vaccumed it, but I'm think 2 more vaccumings should get most of the hair of the car. *sigh*

As soon as we started driving to the house, I started freaking out about Kitty. I didn't want her adopted out, and I didn't want her in S Mpls. She is so great at going out, which we had allowed her to do. When you would come inside the front door she would zoom out before you knew what happened. Anyway, I started obsessing(sp) about this until I was in tears.
To make it short, Gus went, Kitty in now coming to Italy with us, making it 4 cats. I just couldn't take away her freedom like that. i'm hoping we are in an area where we can let her outside.
Gus loved the place, didn't even look back. The woman who took him called me the other day to let me know how he was doing. It's like he lived there forever. That is so good it made me cry. I'm not mad he's not missing us at all, just thrilled he's happy.

Catch up day

It's been a while since I posted, I was feeling like blogging is sort of a self centered thing to do, but then my friend Eric said he actually checked back for new entries, so I thought I should really make an effort to keep it updated. I suppose if I want anyone to read it I should also give out the URL to people!

Quick version of what has been happening:

9 pm the day before closing the house the sale fell through, buyer didn't qualify (the night BEFORE?)

We sit over a week waiting while they scramble to get approved.

My friend Jody who is also my realtor is going to do some fancy footwork to buy the house in her son's name, then resell it.

This doesn't work and she (my dear friend) ends up buying me out of my equity, keeping the house in my name and giving the the majority of the money in cash.

Ok, so after all this, we have money. YES. Monday June 6th I finally fax in our applications to the Univsersity in Perugia and Western Union the money to them.
I start checking online to see if they have picked up the money. In the meantime we actually get our plane reservations. We leave Minneapolis on Friday June 24th, get into Rome in the morning on the 25th. Ok, now this is starting to get a bit exciting, BUT from past experience I know that if I start to enjoy things too much, something will happen.

BINGO. Two days gone by, no pickup of the money by the University. I send an email to them in English. 2 more days go by. I get a reply in Italian that says when they get the money, they will send confirmation. GRR

2 more days go by, now it's Friday, I send another plea in Italian, knowing they won't get the email until Monday. Jess and I end up going to an all night Kinkos to wait for a reply.

Oh, I haven't mention the lack of internet problem. We are now sleeping on air mattresses in the house to save money, so we have no internet access to check up on things, play games on Pogo etc, all those important things a person does online. So we have sort of a system of hitting all the places that have wireless. First we starting the morning with Dunn Brothers coffee, morning being a pretty loose term here. We have been getting to bed about 2 in the morning, and sleeping til 1 or 2 in the afternoon, about 3 we are up and about and go to the coffee shop and check mail to see if I have confirmation etc.
After this we seem to go shop. I have to tell you, I'm not a shopper in the first place, I mean I hate it, but every day there seems to be something that is absolutely essential to our well being in Italy. Converters, special purses so we won't get pickpocketed, new shoes... :-)

I go back and forth on the question of whether or not I should get a new laptop, this one is so old it doesn't even have USB ports, although the port I can hook up to does have them. I decide it will do as I plan to be sitting in Piazzas drinking wine and checking out Italian men, not surfing all the time.

Anyway, after shopping, most of the coffe shops are closed, so we head out to the restaurant Buffalo Wild Wings, where it turns out we are the only ones who have ever used their wirelesss internet. We also find out there is only one spot in the restaurant were you can pick up a signal. We develop a ritual. I head in first, handing my computer to Jess, at the same time asking what she wants, she scopes out the table to see if it is open. If it is, she races to the table telling me over her shoulder what she wants. If she manages to get the table all is well, she plunks down the computers on the table and comes back to change her order to what she really wanted.

Only two times have we not gotten our table, the first was when we decided to go to Kinkos and pay to surf (in my opinion this should be against the law). The other time we tried a different table on the other side of the restaurant. (there are only two places where there are electrical outlets) No go, signal was so bad we went to Kinkos.

The first time at Kinkos we pull all all nighter. This is because when you sign up to pay for internet through T-Mobile, you get a 24 hour free pass. I'll be damned if I am going to pass that up. So from 11:30 pm until 9 am we surf. I'm all business, we need to get a hotel outside of Chicago, by Six Flags so that we can play and then run into Chicago for business. The hotel has to be cheap, close to the gates, accept pets and be available the dates we need.
This is no small feat. It takes probably 4 hours of my going back and forth between many sites that book hotels. It's amazing how there is such a price difference when you book online.

I get the hotel booked. Country Inns in Gurnee, nice place, king sized bed and sofa suite is all that is available. This turns out to be an awesome choice. Room is big and on the top floor, I get the king sized bed, Jess is happy with the sofa. Except for the family next door who let their kids run and scream for hours on end, it's the perfect hotel.

Booking Rome is harder. It's the high season, and you have no idea what the hotels are like. They all describe themselves as the perfect hotel. When you read some of the people's reviews of them, it's a but scary. Even the hotel I decide to boook says the shower is so small you can barely turn around in it. Prices are sky high though there are a fair amount of hotels that take animals. I start looking at sites that have reviews of the hotels. This takes me about 5 hours, but I find a great deal. The Hotel Luxor, small rooms, but clean and near the center of Rome. They accept pets, so I book it for 4 days. Yeah! We have a hotel booked in Rome! I feel like a big shot now. Diana - International Woman of Mystery. Hmm.....

I've been keeping an eye on Jess, who is sitting behind me. She has either been surfing, playing games, reading or trying to sleep with her head on the table. I have to say she's been a real trooper during all this. We've had arguments, but only when we are so totally exhausted we can't see straight anymore. Thank God she is like me and doesn't hold a grudge. The perfect travelling partner.

OK, we have reservations for Chicago and Rome. I still need to book Perugia for the days before we can get into our apartment, but that will have to wait until some other things are settled. I can only do so much at one time or it gets too overwhelming.

I'll continue this update later, Six Flags and that icky guy in the old man's suit is calling me now. :-)