Breaking: There are buildings in Chicago and case management is hard.Bonus pug pic.

Yeah, yeah, it's been awhile. Deal with it. My life is not that exciting (who am I kidding. Yes it is).

Anyway:

You know what the next best thing is to a long weekend? The short work week that follows.

Complete with cheesy, comedic tour guide.

You know what makes a short work week even better?

CHICAGO. ARCHITECTURE. BOAT TOUR.

So right after the EDSSC took off for Labor Day, Fourth Pres. decided to close early that Thursday for a "staff retreat." Otherwise known as "free boat trip to look at buildings on the Chicago River+ Free lunch + Free drinks."

What is simple living? Not this, for sure. But I'm not one to turn down things that are free or boat related, so of course I went. Plus, it was mandatory.

The tour itself was pretty cool. I would never have known any of the stuff they told us otherwise. Sure, I can't rattle off the fun facts now, but I've been spouting off little tidbits of info to my housemates as we've trekked around the Chicago area (again, ladies, super glad not to have been voted out of the house yet.)

So please enjoy this visual representation of my time on the Chicago River:

Crucial. Revolution Chicago IPA. Fo' free. 

Trump Building. 

This is a building of some significance. 

Also a significant building. 

LUNCH. 

This building follows the curve of the river. Trippy. 

I'm sure this building mattered. 

Bridge. Still architecture, so it counts. 

People live in those. 

Statue of someone hailing a cab. No, really. 

Minor journalism nerd freakout.

I'm basically a Sun Times photographer
because I took this with my iPhone.

More buildings, I guess. 

This building is architecturally important.  

Uh oh. Don't worry, I got another. 

Some building. 

I think this one is important because it
was designed by a communist?

NOT the tallest building in the US. (Thanks for the update, Thomas.) 

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel.

The building next to the Willis tower.

Look at dat skyline. 

That was fun, no? I went home and had a nice nap afterwards. Being a full-time volunteer is not without its perks.

This past weekend was not as architecturally focused, but pretty stellar in way of activity nonetheless. Trish's boss, Michelle, decided she was going to take us to lunch in Chinatown on Saturday. While I'm a big fan of cultural diversity and going new places, I can say with the utmost certainty that I would never have gone to Chinatown on my own decision. It's pretty far from where I live right now and I lack the motivation to do cool things sometimes. So thanks to Michelle for dragging my apathetic butt to south Chicago.

My zodiac symbol means I'm sensitive and
emotional. I mean, I also don't identify with
goats, but come on...

I'm beyond glad we went. Sure, Chinatown is a neat area with some weird things to see, but holy crap can we talk about the food for a second? I like Chinese food, but I've never been blown away by it. After this lunch in Chinatown, I'm a little sad that I wasted so much of my digestive energy eating Chinese food that wasn't this Chinese food. This was one of those meals that I'll still talk about years after the fact because I'll probably spend the rest of my life trying to find potstickers that live up to this experience. Or maybe I'll just need to go back to Chinatown. Real talk: I'll probably go back.

This. This is the place. 

The food was so good, I went home and took a nap after. I seem to be celebrating a lot of my good times these days with naps.

The next day, support people Steve and Colleen took us to a festival to raise money for a hospital that caters to people with disabilities. It was a nice wholesome time that was for a good cause, so I'm really glad we got to check it out.

And now for a story that begins with astounding excitement and ends with some crushing disappointment.

Remember Darrell, my case management project (how dehumanizing does that sound? I need to think of something better to call him, like my "let's fix your life" buddy or "fixer-upper friend." Open to suggestions here.)? If not, check out my post from two weeks ago here. Back? Okay cool.

So, Darrell and I had our first official session about a week and a half ago in which we outlined his goals and discussed what our first steps would be. As mentioned before, Darrell is in a shelter. The shelter he's staying in right now is one of the more popular shelters in Chicago because it is really easy to get a space there. The problem is, however, said shelter seems to value quantity over quality because it's not the nicest place out there. I've yet to meet a resident of this place who likes staying there. Abby, who helped conduct the meeting because she is awesome and I have no idea what I'm doing, suggested that one of the very first things we should do was not only get Darrell out of the shelter, but get him into something more long-term and less awful. There this one shelter, Lincoln Park Community Shelter, in Chicago that has been described to me as the "Mecca of homeless shelters." Not only is it more selective, but the quality of their services is infinitely better AND they have case managers on site to help residents find jobs and permanent housing. The rules and regulations that come with the place are pretty strict, but Darrell is a good guy, so I didn't think he'd have any issues with that.

The way you get a spot at Lincoln Park is not unlike how you win tickets from a radio station. Starting at 9 am on Monday, a potential resident can call the center and ask if there are vacancies. Guests of the shelter either get kicked out or move on to something better quite frequently here, so as long as you are the first to request the empty spot, you get in. At the same time, everyone is trying to get into this shelter, so it's a race to the operator.

Abby proposed this plan of attack: Darrell and I would meet at quarter to 9 on Monday. At 5 minutes to 9 am, we would start calling. We knew wouldn't get through right away, but at least we were getting the ball rolling. Then it was a simple matter of hitting redial until someone picked up or we were told there were no open spots. It was a clunky plan with a low success rate; one of my co-workers once redialed 106 times in a morning and still didn't get her guest a in. But it was the best we had going on.

Darrell and I both made it in on Monday and began the redial process. Redial, wait, hangup, redial. Do that about 60 more times, and you have a good grasp on how I started my week.

Redial, wait, hangup, redial. Wait, hangup, redial. Wait, hangup, redial. Wait, hangup, redial. Wait, hangup, redial. Wait, hangup, redial. Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial.Wait, hangup, redial....."Lincoln Park Community Shelter, how can I help you?"

I nearly fell out of my chair. We got through.

"Yes, I'm calling about vacancies?"

"Well, m'am, our waiting list for females is very long. You probably wouldn't be able to get a spot for..."

"Oh, no! No, no, no, no, I'm calling for a man. Our guest. Darrell. I'm calling on behalf of Darrell X who is looking for a vacancy."

That changed everything.

"Okay then. Tell Darrell to be here tomorrow at 10 am and we'll see what we can do."

I almost cried. We got Darrell a spot. On the first round of calls. I asked him for a high five and spent the rest of the day in the warm after glow of a case management success. I told everyone who would listen about my awesome luck. I was marginally not awful at the case management things.

But you know what they say about that asshole Murphy and his stupid law. This was way too good to be true.

We got an email from Darrell the next day that was frought with confusion and disappointment. He had been at the shelter at the appointed time, brought all the appropriate documentation with him and waited patiently for his admittance.

And the shelter wait listed him. Turns out our information was bad: getting though on the phone the first time didnt get you a spot in the shelter, it got you a spot on the waiting list to get into the shelter. This place is so popular, you basically put yourself in a lottery just for the chance to wait to get in. No promises about getting a bed, just that the shelter might consider you. Might.

I was more than a little crushed when I found out. Abby assured me that this was still a victory, as we're closer to getting Darrell a better place to stay when we were when we started, but I can't tell Darrell that. Not when he has to go back to the crappy shelter. Not after we assured him we had gotten him in to Lincoln Park.

But we'll keep trying. This isn't a failure, really, but it doesn't suck any less. Cross your fingers that we get him in there soon.

That's too sad of a note to end this post on, but I'm out of things to talk about. So here's a low-rez picture of a pug sitting on a bar stool. Yes, we found a bar with a pug who sits at the bar.

He thinks he's people. Silly pug.

And just like that, everything is wonderful again.