Author: Nicole

Library Creep

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I had some library returns this morning so I decided to hang out and browse for a bit. Unfortunately, that was quickly ruined by some creeper.

A guy sitting at a table of computers was kinda staring at me as I walked past to get to the new release DVDs. Then not 30 seconds later he was suddenly next to me looking at them too. I thought it was weird, but just went to a different row to look at other DVDs, but he appeared in the row perpendicular to mine shortly thereafter. So then I moved over to the new release books and sat across from the service desk to look through one. At that point I kinda forgot about the guy.

I decided to check to out the magazines, which is down on the other side of the library in an isolated area. So I’m sitting there, and not two minutes later the guy comes walking around the corner, stopped short when he saw me, and started going back the other way. Since there was no one else in that part of the library, I quickly walked to the busy kids section, sat down, and texted Joe about what was going on. He works nearby and offered to come walk me out and kick the guys ass.

I ended up going to the service desk, explained everything to an employee, and asked if he would walk me to my car. He was happy to do it, and I described the guy (who was back at the computers by this point) in case he creeps on anyone else.
It sucks because I couldn’t relax and had to leave. I quickly ran to Vitamin Shoppe to pick up an order and went home instead of going anywhere else because my nervous system was overstimulated by that experience.

That’s never happened to me before, so I can only imagine how often it does to really good-looking women. This is the kind of shit men don’t even need to think about.

May 2026 Recap

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05/02-05/03 – Weekend Recap

05/05 (Tue)
Saw our first hummingbird of the year. Also ran errands on my own, and although it was nice to feel independent, I hated it as well. I’m spoiled by Joe doing all the driving and handling the cart when we go shopping.

05/07-05/10 – Extended Weekend Recap

05/14 (Thu)
Joe had the day off so we went to Elsen’s Hill in the morning to look for warblers. We did see a lot of bird activity, even though warblers weren’t part of it. We went to St. Charles later and hit up a few places and stopped at a Mexican place for lunch.

That afternoon we received an order of coffee syrups from Monin

05/16-05/17 – Weekend Recap

05/20 (Wed)
Finished setting up the patio by pulling weeds, planting zinnias and separating the area with Dollar Tree fencing, and adding solar lights.

05/23-05/24 – Extended Holiday Weekend Recap

05/28 (Thu)
On the way to Lincoln Marsh to do some birding we stopped at the county animal control to donate a big box of potty pads we still had in the garage. At this rate I don’t know when we’ll be getting another dog so we might as well donate them and make some room.

05/29 (Fri)
Recently got back into reading, and figured I would stop needing to recharge my phone so often if I used my Kindle instead. Except apparently my Kindle 3 will no longer accept books from Libby. This feels like an intentional move to force people into buying a new Kindle even though there’s nothing wrong with the one they already have.

05/30-05/31 – Weekend Recap

Notable Media This Month:

DTF St. Louis – Starring Jason Bateman and David Harbour, this was a strange, yet intriguing, show. Don’t let the homophobes in the IMDb reviews dissuade you from checking it out.

Big Mistakes – I never got into Schitt’s Creek, but after seeing Dan Levy’s performance in this show, I think I might give it another try.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die – Heard about this one on an Instagram reel and was intrigued. It was so strange but kept our attention. I’m not sure I’ve seen a comedy starring Sam Rockwell that I didn’t like.

The Killer’s Game – My brother mentioned this one so I borrowed it from the library. There is a seriously unhinged line in the movie that made me laugh so hard. Starring two Guardians of the Galaxy alum, it was an entertaining ride.

Shrink – This is an older show about a guy trying to make it as a psychiatrist and much like other hidden gems, only lasted one season. We blew through it quickly and I wish there had been more.

Weekend Recap 05/30-05/31

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Saturday (05/30) we stopped at the Wheaton French Market. We were on a mission to get a tasty breakfast and noticed there were even more booths than last year. We did a loop to check all the booths before settling on the ones we wanted to try this time (there were too many possibilities to try them all).

First we got some homemade bakery treats – an oatmeal cream pie, strawberry poptart, and “bigass” cookie (with chocolate chips and Biscoff pieces). I should have gotten the name of the business because I want to avoid it moving forward. I think I’d recognize it when I see it, though, because it seems like the booths remain in the same location from one week to the next. For the price I was expecting to like everything more. It wasn’t bad, just not impressive. The oatmeal cream pie had too much cinnamon and the cookie didn’t have enough flavor. I only had a small bite of the poptart since I’m not a fan of those in general.

Next to that booth was one serving coffee so Joe got a vanilla latte. That one was a bit lackluster too.

Finally, we got a breakfast crepe from a third booth. It tasted ok but was really hard to eat in the container provided so we’d skip that one too. 0/3 I guess, but at least the people-watching was top notch!

We headed to the arboretum next and spent a few hours there before it was lunch time. We had to get Minnie Bird because those pimento cheese wraps are way too good. I didn’t bother getting a dirty soda this time because they sound better in theory than in reality. The soda always tastes kinda flat to me.

Sunday (05/31) the patio umbrella I ordered was delivered. I decided to go with a royal blue instead of yellow after all and I’m glad I did. It matches our existing chairs pretty closely so it looks like a set now.

I love how easy it is to open and close compared to the old umbrella. It’s unfortunate the old one couldn’t last through Pride month though.

I like imagining the rainbow print triggering homophobes which makes me smile.

Extended Holiday Weekend Recap (05/23-05/25)

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Saturday (05/23) we headed to my parents’ to give my brother his birthday gift (a wrestling DVD that I found on eBay since it sold out everywhere else). We also grabbed some tacos from a food truck and small restaurant. My mom made some sides too. One of them, pizza dip, is a favorite of mine.

Whenever we socialize it’s hard to get to sleep so when we got home around 10 pm we decided to head to Woodman’s since they’re open 24 hours. We figured we’d get our regular Sunday morning shopping out of the way and be able to sleep in. Wow, were we surprised to see it fairly busy in the store. Not only that, but the parking lot had people hanging out and 7 Brew had a line of cars in the drive-thru. I guess we’re unfamiliar with nightlife in the area since we’re usually not out past 8 pm.

I ended up getting this bird themed stepping stone.

I had seen it a few weeks earlier and after researching it online decided it was worth the $15.

We didn’t end up sleeping in on Sunday (05/24). Oh well.

Later that morning we went in search of a new patio umbrella. The 80’s rainbow one from my childhood that my mom gave me a few years ago is literally falling apart. The canvas is tearing at the edges and the pole is detaching from the top. As much as we like it, we know it needs to be replaced.

Old Time Pottery had a yellow umbrella on display that we liked, but none in stock, so we headed to At Home in Aurora. They closed the Schaumburg location a year or two ago and the Geneva one is gone now too. That only leaves three in the area so I can’t help but wonder if they will go out of business soon. That being said, they didn’t have the yellow shade we liked in the size we needed but we did get a stand for when we find an umbrella we like.

Monday (05/25) was Memorial Day. We went to Wood Dale Grove for the first time. Another dud when it came to warblers but we did see a Black-crowned Night Heron which is a rare sight.

Afterwards we killed some time waiting for Mexico 2000 to open since we really like their Huevo con Papa y Chorizo (eggs with potatoes and chorizo) which is really hard to find at most Mexican places. We took it back home to enjoy on our patio.

For lunch I made cheeseburgers on the grill. We recently picked up some pickled red onion from the store and OMG why didn’t we think of buying these sooner?

They were soooo good on the burgers!

We had corn on the cob and baked potatoes too. It was a nice relaxing holiday.

Weekend Recap 05/16-05/17

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Saturday (05/16) we stopped at Burger King to grab some breakfast on our way to Fullersburg Woods to see what warblers we could spot. Not as many as I had hoped, unfortunately, but I did add two to my life list – the Magnolia Warbler and Blackpoll Warbler!

A little rant: why is it so hard to find a quick breakfast at 7 am? Taco Bell and Wendy’s stopped serving breakfast in our area, I’m trying not to patronize McDonald’s as much, and Tropical Smoothie Cafe opens too late. Even most of the gas stations have little to no breakfast sandwiches ready in the mornings and I don’t like starting the day eating pastries because I need the protein to not only feel full but to avoid a low blood sugar crash later. I guess I need to start making breakfast burritos again.

On the way home we stopped at Rainbow Cone for a sweet treat. I got a small cone with the traditional flavors and Joe got an espresso milk shake. The dumpster enclosure at the back of the building is painted to match the Rainbow Cone colors which made me laugh.

Afterwards we stopped at Murphy’s Farm to pick up flowers for the patio. We got vicas, some purple flowers I forgot the name of, and red New Guinea Impatiens.

Sunday (05/17) morning we did a little birding at Churchill Woods and picked up some Coleus at Hacker’s Garden Center.

In the afternoon we met up with Joe’s daughter at Sagawau Environmental Learning Center in Lemont to watch them trap and band birds. It was quite the learning experience and really cool to see birds up close and personal even if they mostly caught orioles.

Baltimore Orioles aren’t as large as they seem from a distance.

Afterwards we all went to Matt’s BBQ in Lemont for a delicious lunch. No pics, though, but it was delicious. The pork belly burnt ends and Texas Twinkie in particular were phenomenal.