Mixed Moss

Today was my first day of work. I work for The Ground Level Cafe, which is under the umbrella of Community Christian Church. There are two locations: North (in Naperville) and South (in Romeoville). I have gotten to know my boss Katie and I really like her, despite the fact that we were both pretty tired today (you’d be surprised how much a one-hour time difference can throw you off!) She listens to Nickle Creek and Cold Play, drinks vanilla lattes, and says that nothing at work is worth getting stressed out about and that the staff at CCC and GLC like to have a lot of fun. All of that means I’m sure we’ll get along well. Fridays I’ll be having a meeting and lunch with the other interns; so I’ll get to know some people then. Thank goodness! People to hang out with!

Today I had lunch at Portillo’s. They are famous for serving the definitive Chicago-style hotdog. I had my first one today. It contained all of the following, and then some: mustard, onions, fresh tomato, poppyseeds on the bun, relish, a dill pickle wedge, and fresh cucumber (the last three seemed a bit redundant). It sounds weird but was very good. Apparently they also serve a great Italian Beef Sandwich; I’ll try that next time.

Some weird things about this place:
-Two words for you: urban sprawl. There are only like two tiny neighborhoods where the houses are even close to old: downtown Naperville and downtown Plainfield. The rest is brand spanking new subdivisions. They all look the same and are very confusing, and there are no big pretty old trees in them. I miss the trees.
-People seem to eat out all the time. Like, twice a day. Katie has noticed this too.
-Nobody plays country music in the restaurants or stores. Lots of jazz, though.
-There are no hicks. Anywhere. Tons and tons of people, but literally none of them are hicks, or even farmers. No tight blue jeans with belt buckles, no trucker hats, no confederate flags. Weird.
-No teenage guys walking around in baggy black jeans and oversized white t shirts, either. I suppose that’d be downtown. But I’m not used to living in a place with so many people and houses that doesn’t have a real downtown. Downtown Chicago is an hour and a half away.
-The people here all seem to be fabulously wealthy…compared to what I’m used to at least. Maybe that’s why there are no hicks and no teenage guys in oversized white t-shirts…there are literally no poor people here. Weird.
-The hispanic population here is insanely big. I thought there were a lot in Fairfield…but I was wrong. Not that that’s a problem. It’s just weird. They have multiple radio and tv stations in Spanish here.

I don’t really fit in here. But neither does my boss…she’s from Texas and listens to country music and her dad is a camp director. And she is happy here. So maybe I can be too. We’ll see. Give me a week and maybe I’ll know better.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2004 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.