Now We're Cookin' (and Taking Warm Showers) with Gas!

I always liked that expression ("Now You're Cookin' with Gas!"). I never really understood it all that well -- I guess gas is awesome to cook with? Faster or something? -- but it seems to apply to our current situation, both literally and more figuratively, I guess.

First of all, we finally have (wait for it ...) GAS in our apartment after a long saga that is hopefully over (furiously knocking on wood) and involved numerous encounters with John the Plumber, our friendly racist Russian (I think?) plumber who doesn't understand any of my attempts at humor until well after they've been made, at which point he tries to let me know that he understands and reciprocates with a joke of his own, which I usually don't understand ... until later, if at all. John blames the Mexicans for the cluster-F that has been our plumbing situation over the last few weeks. Okay, John! Thanks for the hot water!

In the more figurative sense, we truly are revving up our Chicago existence here with an ever-improving domestic situation (beds, couches, dressers and much MUCH more!), bar review courses and a FUTURE JOB for Rachel (that PAYS ... cue angel chorus NOW!), and daily adventures and preparation for Teach For America for Andy.

To the first of these, we must truly thank IKEA for two adventure-filled, headache-inducing trips, the most recent of which did at least include a touch of humor. As we were (over-)loading our car with boxes of assemble-yourself furniture (which makes me feel like such a man! grunt grunt grunt.), I couldn't help but overhear the startled and concerned cries of the young Asian women (over-)loading their car next to me. A sampling of their ejaculations included: "Oh no! This bed mattress doesn't fit in my trunk!", "Oh no! Tying a knot upside down is way harder!", and "Oh no, girl! Why am I bleeding?" Between these hysterics, those of our own (which will go unelaborated upon), and those of the couple on the other side of us whose stack of furniture strapped to the top of their car looked like a mobile leaning tower of Pisa, I thought we had wandered into a Saturday Night Live sketch. In fact, I regaled Rachel with what I thought that SNL sketch would include the entire way home ... she loved it.

Secondly, and WAY more importantly, Rachel has a job! She'll be clerking in Milwaukee starting fall 2011, which is totally awesome, totally affirming, and totally a load off. Now we just have to figure out how we're going to work our household between my job in Chicago and her job in Milwaukee (1.5-2 hours away). Sweet Potatuhs! My wife is smart as heck!

As for TFA, I stopped by the office the other day for a test prep session and then took the Teacher Certification test yesterday. It was crapalicious, so hopefully I didn't do myself any favors like failing it. During the lunch break I went to this awesome place called Maxwell Street Depot and got a porkchop sandwich ("Chicago's Best!") and about broke a lateral incisor on the humongous bone that was still in it. Once I came to grips with the fact that the bone probably made it more authentic and must have been left in there on purpose, I decided it was fine ... although I was also less excited, because my quarter-pound porkchop lost about half of it's weight/mass once I nibbled around it like a scaredy cat. Anyway, suffice it to say, my breath reeked of grilled onions and whatever else they piled on the thing, which I'm sure my test-taking pals were thrilled about in the afternoon session.

In closing, I decided to google "Cooking with Gas." Here's your tidbit (from a website of "American idioms"):

"Although common place today, gas stoves have not always been the norm. Gas stoves started to be available in the 1800's, and until that time wood stoves were the standard.

Now you're "cooking with gas" comes from an old advertisement for gas stoves. The phrase suggests that gas is faster, easier, cleaner, better than cooking with wood."