Too busy today (and probably the rest of the week for that matter) to do a full blown post but came across a few news items I wanted to make sure I got links up to. First, with no link, it's start of baseball season but since I'm still knee deep in the madness I can't really pay attention to it - that and it's awfully rainy here in the city so I wonder if the cubs are even getting started. Second - I actually participated in this new (or new to me) concept of "earth hour" where on Saturday night I turned off my lights (but not my tv) between 8 and 9 pm. I heard the next day that the city of Chicago had a 5% decrease in energy demand which means nothing to me but then this article today provided a more relative number for me. Just think what we could do if this was a weekly, or even monthly event...too bad we can't focus for more than an hour in our society.
And finally, I have to admit that I have used someone's reading list (or lack thereof) as a make or break in my dating world. Granted, it was almost always more than just what was on his reading list that made me flee from certain ex's or drew me like a moth to a flame to others- but as you well know books are a big part of me and who I am so it is one of the things I look at in potential partners. Usually I don't care what you read, as long as you read something. And for me it usually isn't a level of intelligence thing but an activity to do together - one of my favorite pastimes is laying in bed Sunday (or really any day) morning with coffee and a book or newspaper, it would just be sensible if my partner was with me.
Okay - back to the grind, just one last link to a site that I may have to go back to when my one year blogging anniversary hits (whenever the hell that is). I don't do a lot of pictures but it would be neat to have a hard copy version of all this mish mash I'm spouting...and really I will take any excuse I can to add more books to mys shelves :)
Monday, March 31, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
So many books, so little time
It's the end of March and I am 6 books away from halfway through my goal for the year...this gives me optimism that I'll make it, but only time will tell. At my last visit to my bookstore I had them look up my totals - I don't have the exact numbers but this approximately where I'm at.
$994 spent since November of 2006 with over 80 some books bought. I think as far as habits go, this one might be the most healthy for me.
The sun is out so I think I might venture for a walk, rediscover some of the music hidden in my i-pod. Maybe break the 1K mark on my book record. It's amazing what a little sun will do to your disposition. Have a great weekend.
Sunday Update - I got a printout from the bookstore yesterday so I could see all my purchasing power in its glory. 95 book bought between November 19, 2006 and March 22, 2008 which boils down to 5-6 a month. 15 of those were gifts for others (about 16%). The winner by far was the graphic novel category ringing in with 42, scifi was next at 12. I've been through 3 $25 credits (which you earn for every $300 spent) and I think I'm about $200 shy of getting another one which shouldn't be too hard since one of the damn workers got me to start another comic book run at $10 a shot and probably 9-10 volumes total.
$994 spent since November of 2006 with over 80 some books bought. I think as far as habits go, this one might be the most healthy for me.
The sun is out so I think I might venture for a walk, rediscover some of the music hidden in my i-pod. Maybe break the 1K mark on my book record. It's amazing what a little sun will do to your disposition. Have a great weekend.
Sunday Update - I got a printout from the bookstore yesterday so I could see all my purchasing power in its glory. 95 book bought between November 19, 2006 and March 22, 2008 which boils down to 5-6 a month. 15 of those were gifts for others (about 16%). The winner by far was the graphic novel category ringing in with 42, scifi was next at 12. I've been through 3 $25 credits (which you earn for every $300 spent) and I think I'm about $200 shy of getting another one which shouldn't be too hard since one of the damn workers got me to start another comic book run at $10 a shot and probably 9-10 volumes total.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Train evacuations and weddings
This morning at the Armitage stop (for those not in Chicago, this is not really anywhere near enough to my work for me to walk from) my train was evacuated. First it was stopped and after a few minutes we got the "sick passenger" announcement. Then a few moments later we were all asked to leave the train. 7:55 on the brown line meant a full ass train emptied out on to the platform. Eventually they rolled the train back so another train could get by (which was way too full to even try and squeeze on) but in the mean time I stood on the platform with this immense crowd as a red line train pulled by on the outer track. The red line was possibly even more crowded than the train I just stepped off and as it pulled by it stopped right across from me. It was like animals in a zoo...on both sides. We just stared at each other, separated by glass, wind and 10 feet of electric track, trapped in our own worlds dangerously overlapping the worlds of those around us. Eventually my (now empty) train took care of getting the passenger to the paramedics and rolled back up to let us all back on. Ironically I ended up in the same seat, with the same guy next to me and the same guy standing in the corner, like this weird 20 minutes or so had never happened.
Two weekends ago (sorry no transition, just follow the random jump) I went to Oregon to see a dear friend I haven't seen since my move to the windy city in the summer of 2006. To make a long story short her and her fiance decided to get married while I was there. It was absolutely amazing. I can now add "Ability to plan and execute wedding in under 72 hours" to my resume. And while they did the deed in the local courthouse this was no jeans and t-shirt affair. Full blown gown for the bride, tux for the groom, and maid of honor dress for me. The best part? Two hours later we are all kicked back in jeans having Chinese for lunch. Pics courtesy of the happy couple can be found here and if you want the full crazy detail you can check out mine here (but beware, I took a ton!). It was by far the best wedding I have ever been to (sorry to anyone else's I may have attended) mostly because it was my first real close friend to get married and I got to be an intimate part of it. I still think Vegas is in my future if I decide to take that trek (and of course find someone to take it with!) but if I can't do that, I might have to steal their style.
Last weekend I spent some good old fashioned me time holed up on my couch watching more college ball than was probably necessary. For Easter I ate girl scout cookies. It was fantastic. The Stanford/Marquette game was a nail biter and I can't wait to do it all again this weekend, though this time I might have to get down to the Rail for some brunch and bball action - CBS is starting to tick me off and they have at least half a dozen tvs for my viewing entertainment.
For anyone who still hasn't heard the internet boy date saga let me provide the final update/summary. Sent anonymous missed connection about boy I was interested in. Got busted when said boy actually found the post. Set up date. Had date. Date lasted 16 hours (get your mind out of the gutter, it was actually quite PG...okay maybe PG-13), awkward morning actually went better than expected, had hope for future interactions. Waited for phone call. Phone didn't ring. I called after 4 days and left obligatory "Had good time, hope you did to, we should do it again some time" message. Ran into boy at bar later that night (while with another friend). Had slightly inebriated conversation while outside that consisted of him relaying pretty much all the classic not interested lines in the book, "I have to work, going to parents, I'll call you". Spent some time being bummed, wondering what went wrong, what I did wrong, etc. Got over it and working towards moving on. Tallying it under entertaining stories for later in life.
(Another random jump) Currently listening to Sara Bareilles thanks to Tim and Yael Naim thanks to the damn mac book air commercial. And that's my update for tonight, work is getting back into crazy busy for me so that's why my blogging has been a bit slow (and that whole planning and executing a wedding thing was pretty exhausting). I'll try to do more at home till it gets warm enough to be outside.
Two weekends ago (sorry no transition, just follow the random jump) I went to Oregon to see a dear friend I haven't seen since my move to the windy city in the summer of 2006. To make a long story short her and her fiance decided to get married while I was there. It was absolutely amazing. I can now add "Ability to plan and execute wedding in under 72 hours" to my resume. And while they did the deed in the local courthouse this was no jeans and t-shirt affair. Full blown gown for the bride, tux for the groom, and maid of honor dress for me. The best part? Two hours later we are all kicked back in jeans having Chinese for lunch. Pics courtesy of the happy couple can be found here and if you want the full crazy detail you can check out mine here (but beware, I took a ton!). It was by far the best wedding I have ever been to (sorry to anyone else's I may have attended) mostly because it was my first real close friend to get married and I got to be an intimate part of it. I still think Vegas is in my future if I decide to take that trek (and of course find someone to take it with!) but if I can't do that, I might have to steal their style.
Last weekend I spent some good old fashioned me time holed up on my couch watching more college ball than was probably necessary. For Easter I ate girl scout cookies. It was fantastic. The Stanford/Marquette game was a nail biter and I can't wait to do it all again this weekend, though this time I might have to get down to the Rail for some brunch and bball action - CBS is starting to tick me off and they have at least half a dozen tvs for my viewing entertainment.
For anyone who still hasn't heard the internet boy date saga let me provide the final update/summary. Sent anonymous missed connection about boy I was interested in. Got busted when said boy actually found the post. Set up date. Had date. Date lasted 16 hours (get your mind out of the gutter, it was actually quite PG...okay maybe PG-13), awkward morning actually went better than expected, had hope for future interactions. Waited for phone call. Phone didn't ring. I called after 4 days and left obligatory "Had good time, hope you did to, we should do it again some time" message. Ran into boy at bar later that night (while with another friend). Had slightly inebriated conversation while outside that consisted of him relaying pretty much all the classic not interested lines in the book, "I have to work, going to parents, I'll call you". Spent some time being bummed, wondering what went wrong, what I did wrong, etc. Got over it and working towards moving on. Tallying it under entertaining stories for later in life.
(Another random jump) Currently listening to Sara Bareilles thanks to Tim and Yael Naim thanks to the damn mac book air commercial. And that's my update for tonight, work is getting back into crazy busy for me so that's why my blogging has been a bit slow (and that whole planning and executing a wedding thing was pretty exhausting). I'll try to do more at home till it gets warm enough to be outside.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
I'm in Oregon!
Whenever I am on vacation I try and do at least a quick "hello" post. So here is my live from the West Coast Hello!
Flight was long but went well - other than the asshole in the O'Hare airport that decided when section two was called that he would breeze past the obviously formed line and take the lead, if it wasn't 7:30 in the morning I might have cared more. Got into Redmond 6 hours later to a brilliant blue sky and snow...yep I brought the devil with me from the midwest.
Got to see Bobby's photography hanging in the local coffee shop which was really fucking cool and then spent 2 hours digging through wedding dresses Friday night.
Now it's Saturday morning, we just had an amazing breakfast of the thickest bacon I've seen in ages and homemade crepes (God how I love friends that cook and cook well!), basketball is on in the background (Go Badgers!) and we are slowly getting ready to head back out to explore.
Hope everyone is having a great pre-patrick's day weekend.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Weekend Wrap Up
Well I am headed to vacation tomorrow for 5 glorious days so I figured I'd better do a quick, random thoughts in my head kind of post so I can clear it all out the way and simply relax for the next hundred hours or so.
First - right now the vote is one for and one against my plan to bring 5 pairs of shoes on vacation with me. Technically it would mean packing four pairs and wearing one - the breakdown is one pair of tennis shoes, one pair of low-top chucks, and three pairs of dress shoes. See I have to attend a wedding while I'm there and I think I should have options when the time comes to get ready....plus dress shoes are tiny(ish), right?
Next up - like the film industry needs any more of my damn money. I feel this is just some ploy to reach into my wallet and take an extra $15 from me, but like shiny advertising I am sure I will fall for it when the release date arrives. I read the book - forgot the beginning before I got to the end kind of read - so can't say with any authority if the claim that "there's just too much information for one movie" has any validity.
Want to see a picture of the cutest dogs ever? Come on, you know you do. Just click any one of the obnoxious word combos that I've made into links here in this paragraph. I like to claim they are my dogs, and while technically I did find them, they are 110% my mom's now. Awww, man I miss those guys.
In the news world there is the whole Spitzer thing - but really does anyone need to hear more about that? Didn't think so. I did however find this really depressing and scary section of the online Chicago Tribune. The section, titled "The Blotter", has a tagline that reads "Short takes on local crime and mayhem". The top headlines?
Not exactly a warm and fuzzy section to start your morning.
Book update - 249 books owned (in Chicago). 15 books read so far this year (and almost done with #16).
That's all folks - I'm out for the great state of Oregon. If I get a chance I'll do a traveling hello from the West Coast. Have a great weekend.
First - right now the vote is one for and one against my plan to bring 5 pairs of shoes on vacation with me. Technically it would mean packing four pairs and wearing one - the breakdown is one pair of tennis shoes, one pair of low-top chucks, and three pairs of dress shoes. See I have to attend a wedding while I'm there and I think I should have options when the time comes to get ready....plus dress shoes are tiny(ish), right?
Next up - like the film industry needs any more of my damn money. I feel this is just some ploy to reach into my wallet and take an extra $15 from me, but like shiny advertising I am sure I will fall for it when the release date arrives. I read the book - forgot the beginning before I got to the end kind of read - so can't say with any authority if the claim that "there's just too much information for one movie" has any validity.
Want to see a picture of the cutest dogs ever? Come on, you know you do. Just click any one of the obnoxious word combos that I've made into links here in this paragraph. I like to claim they are my dogs, and while technically I did find them, they are 110% my mom's now. Awww, man I miss those guys.
In the news world there is the whole Spitzer thing - but really does anyone need to hear more about that? Didn't think so. I did however find this really depressing and scary section of the online Chicago Tribune. The section, titled "The Blotter", has a tagline that reads "Short takes on local crime and mayhem". The top headlines?
- South Side man charged in weekend slaying
- 2 shot on West Englewood street
- Man robs LaSalle Bank branch in loop
- Body found in garbage can in Englewood alley
Not exactly a warm and fuzzy section to start your morning.
Book update - 249 books owned (in Chicago). 15 books read so far this year (and almost done with #16).
That's all folks - I'm out for the great state of Oregon. If I get a chance I'll do a traveling hello from the West Coast. Have a great weekend.
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