Dear Successful Applicant…

As you're probably aware, Chicago is a big city.  And it has a lot of high schools.  Around a 140 or so.  And not all of the high schools are created equal.

Some are selective enrollment, college prep schools.

Some are vocational schools.  There's a couple of military academies and even an agricultural school in the mix.

And if you don't want to go to your default neighborhood high school (and unless you want to learn about gangs and teen pregnancy, you really don't), you have to apply to go to one of the other schools.  Even if they are on the entire other side of town.

Yes.  Apply for high school. 

Not college. 

HIGH SCHOOL!

It can be a little stressful.  For some of the better high schools 11,000 kids will apply for 1,100 spots.  (Those are real numbers.)

Well, Gwen has been going through the stressful process.  Some of her friends have started to get their acceptance letters.  And finally, Gwen got her "thick envelope".

Being a smart cookie like her mom, Gwen was accepted into her first choice, Lane Tech.

A few Lane facts:

• Lane Tech is the largest high school in the city of Chicago with over 4,200 students.
• Lane Tech is ranked 9th out of all the high schools in the state of Illinois.  (In comparison, Stark County High School (where I sort of went) is ranked 395th. Amundsen, our neighborhood school, is ranked 584th!)
• Lane Tech has more graduates that have gone on to earn their Ph.D's than any other school in the country.
• Lane Tech is exactly one mile due south our condo!

Obviously, Cora and I rightfully proud of our little Brainiac.  We are taking her out to celebrate this weekend at the Pasta Palazzo for some chicken alfredo. 

And then maybe to DQ.

Snow Day – Bleepin' Blizzards!

Last night, I left work a right at 5:00 and was one of the last people out.  The good news is that the CTA did it's job, and the trains ran just fine.  And with everyone skipping out of town early, I even got a seat.  Now, the walk from the train station to my condo was a different story.  Understandably, few people had cleared their walk, since it had really just started, so there was a good 3" – 4" inches with some 6" drifts most of the way.  Not bad.  But it was the wind that really sucked.  It just blasting the snow into your eyes which ever way you looked.

So I put on my sunglasses to protect my eyes.  They promptly fogged up and froze due to the scarf over my face pumping my humid breath right across them.

This morning, we watched the news and saw tomorrow's forecast, and it appears Annie is with us.  The forecast says, the sun will come out tomorrow.  (But temps will plummet.)

With our snow day on Wednesday, Cora, Gwen and I dressed up in our winter clothes and went out to check out the snow.  Correction, they went out in their winter clothes.  I put on an extra pair of socks with my tennis shoes.

The first challenge was making it out of our breezeway.

And things didn't get much better out on the street either…

But then we trudged on to Gwen's school, where the girls took a romp thru the snow.

And while the city was making sure that it got the main roads plowed…

They really hadn't gotten around to doing the side streets yet.

But somehow, this guy made it out..

Speaking of digging out, after out walk, Cora and I took on the task of digging out that breezeway.

No, this isn't what I wore on the walk, or for the shoveling, just for the photo ops.

And while we were out walking, I pointed out to Cora an example of what we in Chicago call, "dibs".  If you shoveled out the spot, you can claim it with "dibs" and no one is supposed to park there.

And woe unto he who violates the "dibs code".

 [LINK].

(And Gwen has the day off tomorrow, and I have to go back to work.)