LPN in Chicago

hey all--i just have a few quick questions.

right now i'm in nursing school in california (my husband's military) and will be home to chicago in about a year and a half. we're already planning for everything for when we come home (we're not homesick or anything, lol). so, first i found the apartment complex (river city, btw) and then i started looking at jobs and it appears to me that all of the hospitals (i believe i looked at all the university hospitals as well as northwest community in arlington hts. because i loved being a patient there while in high school and would deal with the commute) only hire lpns with an adn. does anyone know anything about this? the track i'm on isn't for a degree but since i looked at the hospitals i started freaking out. turns out, though, i'm a lot closer to my assoc. than i thought (my freshman year at uic somehow slipped my mind, lol) so i can get it done here but it'll be a rush and i'll have to take these classes in addition to nursing and in the summer semester after nrsg classes are done but there's only so much you can squeeze in to those spots. arg, i wish i had figured this out earlier! i only took 4 classes in 2 semesters because that's all i needed to get into the program...grr...i could have easily taken art history, math and pe...

i'm also planning to bridge into an rn program at a city college once we get back and settled so i was hoping to hear from those of you who've gone through it and get your opinions on that program.

hmm...i think i'll highlight my questions because they're surrounded by so much babble, sorry! :imbar

well, thanks for reading and i hope to see a bunch of responses!!