The backup plan: St. Louis!

Marshall wearing his seatbelt in the back

We did end up driving west; just not as far west as we had planned! We left Pittsburgh after Labor Day weekend and drove to Chicago. We ended up leaving a lot of stuff behind in Pittsburgh that we had been hoping would fit in the car. The car was a LOT smaller than we had anticipated…

We spent four days in Chicago catching up with friends and family. Marshall met his cousin Marley the cockapoo for the first time and went to the beach on Lake Michigan. Jon and I ate deep dish, explored Evanston, and hung out with high school and college friends. After spending time  in the city with friends, Chicago is looking more attractive than ever, and I’ve actually found a lot of jobs to apply to there in the past two weeks!

Then we drove to St. Louis, where we’ve decided to stay until one of us gets an actual job offer. We decided that driving all the way out to California and spending all of our money on a sublet was dumb; instead, we’re staying with my parents and saving our money for a real move. We’re continuing to apply to jobs all over the place, including Toronto!

We don’t know how long we’ll be here, but we’re happy to be in St. Louis. Every day we’re applying to jobs, networking, and keeping each other motivated. I realized that this is the first time in my life that I have been unemployed. Even as a student, I’ve worked since I was 15. I’m really eager to get back to work, especially for some of the awesome international education jobs I’ve found.

On the agenda for the next week: Blues preseason game in St. Louis, City Museum downtown, Tower Grove farmer’s market, visiting Natalie in Lawrence KS, Penguins preseason game in Kansas City, and continuing our trek to every single independent coffee shop in the St. Louis area!

In memory of Chloe Rose

Less than two years ago, we said goodbye to our dog Casey. This week, Chloe reached that point in every old doggie’s life where being old just hurts too much. In 1996, my mom found Chloe at the Franklin County Humane Society around Valentine’s Day. She was not small, but she was still a puppy, so we guessed she was about four months old by that point. I’ll never forget the moment she popped out of a box in the middle of the kitchen when I got home from school. “Surprise!” said mom. Oh, what a surprise this funny pup would be!

 

on julie's bed, one of her favorite places (as long as julie wasn't in bed, too)

 

We named her that night as a family. We chose something cute to match Casey. I think for as long as Casey lived, though, Chloe thought that her name was both Casey AND Chloe because when we said “Casey,” they both came running. Chloe was full of energy and could jump like no other little dog I had ever met. We liked to keep the dogs in our big kitchen during the day while we were all away from the house, and we blocked off the doorway with a child gate. Chloe would jump over the gate, of course, but also jump back INTO the kitchen when she heard us coming to the door. My dad eventually built a half-door that she could not jump over, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t try.

 

road trip to arkansas with her best friend casey ("the two toddlers")

 

Chloe’s breed still remains a mystery to us. She absolutely looked like a poodle with her curly, rough hair and pointy nose. But her color changed every few years. She had very dark brown spots when she was young, and those faded as time went on, eventually becoming nearly grey. It took us a while to figure out Chloe’s personality, too. She never liked being picked up. She was not interested in meeting other dogs, and really only liked Casey. Her favorite moment of the day was when the mailman came, when she would bark her head off and paw at the mailbox until we opened it up. She was timid when meeting new people, and really only warmed up to some of our closest friends. But she loved being around us. When we got home, she would run into the living room and roll around on her back like crazy on top of toys and bones. She would grab a toy and start flinging it around the room. She was never really interested in including us in the celebration, but we could see she was happy.

 

always a good girl in the park

 

Chloe did a lot of other things that puzzled us. One time we were out of town and she was staying with someone else at a house a few miles away form our neighborhood. It was Fourth of July and a parade in the area had a bunch of noisy firetrucks. In classic Chloe fashion, she freaked out and jumped the fence. The dogsitters searched and searched and couldn’t find Chloe. Eventually they went to our house just in case, and right there in our backyard was Chloe. We’ll never know if she found her way home on her own, or if someone found her and dropped her off. In any case, she was a lucky dog.

 

who wouldn't want to scratch that fuzzy head?!

 

She lived a long, lucky life. She had hip problems for a long time, which made her really dislike being picked up. We tried to respect that, but she was also just too darn cute! About a year ago, her hearing started to go. Then her eyes. Then her teeth started falling out. Then this week, her legs really stopped working and she stopped eating. She lived as long as she could. The thing that makes me happiest about the end of Chloe’s life is that she perked up for a couple months of summer. She was not seeming very happy during the cold winter, but my parents got her hair cut in the early summer and said she was like a brand new dog. She hopped around the backyard garden (as much as you can hop at age 15) and relaxed in the sunshine. That’s how I’ll remember Chloe: hopping in the sun, smelling the flowers, and staying close — but not too close! — to the family that knew just how to scratch her head in the perfect place. Thanks for being our funny, curly girl, Chloe.

Chloe Rose Barbier Bularzik: November 13, 1995 – July 15, 2011

And then I took a little time off

No posts for three weeks? Oops. I think I’ve gotten to the AND THEN period of this school year. Lots of things are happening really fast. I’m finishing my thesis, applying for jobs, turning 26, going on spring break, going on a second spring break, hosting friends from around the country, and very possibly moving in three months. So my AND THEN story can start like this: First, Rachel came in town, and then I applied to a job I really want, and then Rachel came in town again, and then I worked a big event at school, and then we drove to St. Louis, and then we drove back to Pittsburgh, and then it was my birthday, and then Jon gave me a mandolin for my birthday. Photo highlights below! More AND THEN coming soon…

jon and rachel, extremely bored in the cathedral of learning at pitt

dad can't keep his eyes open, but clancy finally learned how to sit and stay (in downtown st louis)

the lovely grand hall in st louis union station

My life in sports towns

It must be hard for people who don’t like sports to live in cities like Pittsburgh and St. Louis. To feel like a part of those cities, it’s pretty much necessary to own at least one article of clothing with a local sports logo and have a few intelligent things to say about the sport. Well, maybe not intelligent, but it helps to know the difference between quarters and periods, half times and intermissions. In St. Louis it’s all about the Cardinals, with occasional bursts of excitement for the Blues and Rams. In Pittsburgh, Steelers fans make the most noise, but most everyone loves the Penguins, too. Oh, and they also have baseball, kind of.

Since Jon and I met six years ago, both of our cities have had excellent winning streaks. The Cardinals won the world series, the Pens won the Stanley Cup, and the Steelers won two super bowls. Now living in Pittsburgh, I’ve had the chance to be right in the middle of a lot of sports excitement. On New Years Day, the NHL sets up an outdoor game between two exciting teams, this year DC and Pittsburgh. Thinking that there was no way he could afford to go, Jon and I planned to watch it in the warmth of our own living room. A few weeks before Christmas, his mom called me and told me that she got him tickets and I had to keep the date open, but keep it secret from him. Not so easy, but I did it! He got the tickets on Christmas morning, called me up to invite me to go, and the preparations began. However, the forecast for January 1st was not snowy and cold; it was rainy and warm.

wearing the winter classic colors high up in heinz field

The game was postponed until evening, when the temperature was low enough for the ice not to completely turn into a pond. At 40 degrees and drizzly, it wasn’t easy to sit there for three hours. The fact that the Penguins lost to the Capitals didn’t make it any easier. We were sitting next to a lot of fans from DC, reminding me about how much nicer Pittsburgh people are. Even though the Penguins lost, it was still incredible to be a part of such a huge event. Our seats were really low and close to the rink, and we stayed warm by waving terrible towels and drinking hot cocoa in souvenir mugs. Plus I think my super cool blue mohawk hat will come in handy in the future.

view from our seats of both teams warming up

Five weeks later, the Steelers were in the Super Bowl. Again. The whole city was nervously excited about the potential for a seventh Super Bowl win. People wore black and gold for days before the game, from shoes to wigs to beads to jerseys. Car radios blasted Black and Yellow and Here We Go Steelers, the top story for days on local news was about what the Steelers were doing in Dallas, and grocery stores were packed with people stocking up on food for the big game. Our friends hosted a party at their new house, complete with every snack imaginable including a Steelers cookie cake. We packed their TV room with black and gold gear, including those terrible, terrible towels.

still do not know why the towel is terrible

At no point during the game were the Steelers winning over the Green Bay Packers, so it was a pretty low-energy, stressful event from our end. (I think most of my Midwestern friends were cheering for Green Bay, partly for their disgust over Big Ben.) We stuffed our faces with cookie cake as the clock winded down and it was clear that Pittsburgh wasn’t going to pull off a miracle win. The trouble with the Steelers losing big games is that everyone in this city gets grumpy. When I used to work at the yogurt shop on Sunday afternoons, I wouldn’t even have to ask the customers if the Steelers had won; I could see it on their faces. The city’s football obsession is a big concern for the local authorities as well. The past two championship wins inspired fans to set things on fire and break storefront windows. But this year with a loss, the news reported minimal fires and only a few arrests. Ironic, no?

still feeling some hope for #86

In Memory of Casey Marie

Anyone who knows me well knows that there are six of us in my immediate family: four are human and two are canine.  Casey came into our lives in 1994, and then Chloe in 1996, and these two doggies have been important family members for the majority of my life.  My parents got their first dog, Hildy, before my sister and I were born.  Hildy was adorable, and I wish I could remember more about her.  She died in October 1994 at age 14.  I cried a lot when she died, and I was eager to have a new puppy to cheer up our family.  My mom and I found little Casey at the Humane Society.  We called my dad and told him to come meet this puppy, whose papers said she was a lab mix.  “A lab? She’ll be huge! And you want me to come all the way down there? What a big waste of time,” my dad said.

 

Always so cozy and always wearing a bandana. That's how I will remember my Casey.

 

We jokingly quoted that for years, even this summer when we found out that Casey had skin cancer.  It turned out that Casey wasn’t a lab mix; she was a small terrier that perhaps had a great-grandpa lab, my mom said.  Whatever her breed, she was the greatest dog a kid could have ever asked for.  She was my first puppy, and I remember being scared of her as she raced around the backyard to get out that puppy energy.  I called my mom at work one day to ask what was wrong with the puppy.

 

Casey studying with Natalie and I in high school, but also hoping to get some of our popcorn...

 

I was 9 years old when we got Casey, which was the perfect age for a girl to get a puppy; she made me lots of friends!  She was the most adorable little puppy, so everyone at school loved her instantly.  As she got a little older, she hung out after school with my friends and I nearly every day.  As I ran around the neighborhood with my friends, I often had Casey at my side.  “Take your sister! And take Casey!” my mom would say as I ran out the door, headed to the park after school.  She let kids pet her and pick her up and dress her up in absurd outfits.  She was incredibly tolerant and gentle.  If she ever really got annoyed with kids, she would simply run to my mom, who would always protect her.

 

Julie and Casey lounging at the park

 

Our family wanted a very well-behaved dog, so we signed Casey up for obedience classes with Judy Strickland, a.k.a. The Sgt.  She was a very strict lady, but that’s what works!  Casey not only learned how to sit, shake, lay, stay, come, etc., but she also won the agility prize in her class!  She got a blue ribbon for being able to walk on the balance beam, walk over strange surfaces, and jumping over little hurdles.  I was very proud of her and my sister and I made agility courses in our backyard to help her keep up her skills.

 

Casey reading with Jon in Kentucky

 

Because Casey was a real family member, she got to go on a lot of adventures with us.  She went to Kentucky Lake many many times, and she’s also been to Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, and probably more places that I just can’t remember now.  I was hoping that she’d make the trip to visit me in Pittsburgh, but it was too late.  Casey became very sick this past week.  She couldn’t eat and could barely walk.  On Wednesday, November 18, my parents decided that she was in too much pain, and that they should put her to sleep.  Although I didn’t see Casey in that terrible condition, I know they made the right decision.  And although I wasn’t there, I can still feel that she is gone.  She was the friend that was always there.  She was full of love and personality.  She had a different bark for every kind of situation, and we understood her language.  Even though we brought another dog into her life, our funny Chloe, Casey still knew she was important.  She slept at my feet for years, and I cried so much when I had to leave her for college.  She always knew what it meant when I had suitcases.  I think no matter how much I try, I can never express how much Casey meant to me.  And I will not fully understand it, either, until I go home for Christmas and experience our family without her.

Casey Marie Barbier Bularzik: October 13, 1994-November 18, 2009.