Things I wasn't prepared for this weekend

The following is an off the top of my head list of all the random ass things that went on or were said this weekend that I never really imagined happening in my life....

• Salty nut tequila, and in depth discussions on whether members of the group would drink tequila that had been stashed next to certain party members salty nuts


• In depth discussions on the fate of Tom Brady - was it a rumor, had it actually happened, whose phone was getting the most reliable updates


• Changing t-shirts in the middle of a professional football stadium (went from Bears to Colts - sorry fellow Chicagoans! I was bullied by the man with the money!)


• No Bueno! (over, and over, and over)


• Crafty Beaver - and an in depth discussion on what exactly we thought that store might be selling


• Raigel (sp?) - it's what happens when I try and say cinnamon raisin and bagel at the same time apparently


• Putting a grown man (over 6 ft. tall) in a trunk to see if he fits (he does) and if the emergency, glow in the dark pull cord works (it did)


• "I-Phone: Does everything except make calls"


• "Where are we going" (halfway to Indianapolis), "To the football game; Chicago Bears v. Indianapolis Colts"....(pause).... "But what about the Cubs?"
• "I must apologize for the conduct of my countrymen during the war"...said by an Irish guy...with a fake German accent

I'm sure there is more, but this is good for now.

96 hours

Well the whirlwind weekend is finally done and I have to admit I'm pretty amazed I survived. My brother, who is moving to a tropical island in 2 weeks, and two of his friends just passed through Chicago for the weekend on one last American road trip before he heads off into the land of sunshine and rum.

They rolled in Thursday afternoon to a wonderful Midwest welcome of rain and general grayness. Not the best way to start a trip, but it worked out okay. I took them out for good, cheap Mexican food and cervezas down the street and then over to the neighborhood bar for the infamous $1.50 PBR night.

Friday consisted of a clearer day and lots and lots of walking. Tried to do the Shedd Aquarium free day but realized once we got there that we weren't the only ones with this great idea. Line was a little too long (and unmoving) so we skipped it and trekked back north for pizza and beer. Friday night was fancy steak dinner at Wildfire (yummm....red meat....) and then eventually to a blues bar in that area and then capped off with some good old 4 am action at the Oakwood.

Saturday we headed down to North Ave Beach for some redbull flugtag action. Got there a bit late due to a train that decided to stop running at Belmont and a pub stop on the walk there. Way too crowded once we arrived, but most of the group got close enough to see a half dozen or so crazy contraptions. Then it was back up north for German fest in Lincoln square, napping and then more German fest (had to refill those $12 steins)...

Seeing a theme here yet anyone?

Sunday we piled into the car with a cooler full of beer and tequila and hit the road for Indianapolis. After4 hours in a parking lot I headed into my first professional football game and watched the Bears kick the crap out of the Colts. Good times. More beer in the parking lot while we waited for the traffic to clear and then finally headed home. Got in about 3:30 a.m. Monday morning.

Now it's 11 and the boys are safely back on the road up to Wisconsin for some end of the summer Dells action and a stop off to see mom. They got some crazy deal that is basically a suite with all you can eat AND drink for $400. They are going to get the most out of that deal. I almost wish I could join them. But I think my liver will thank me if I just stay here.

Now I'm back to bed so I can catch up on the sleep I've missed since Thursday night. Hope everyone else had as exciting a weekend as me.

The yellow brick road has been repaved in pink

Just over two years ago I moved to Chicago, with among other things the one and only pink shirt I owned. It's a hot pink wife beater style tank top with rhinestones around the collar. I would wear it with my "going out" jeans when I went dancing. That was it.

Today I am going out for coffee in pink capri pants.

With my nails (professionally done!) hot pink.

Oh, how far I've come.

Thanks L.

Garage sale success

I wish I had something more awe inspiring or craftily worded for you all out there today, but it's just not in the cards. Instead I will share with you my fantastic new furniture additions (a sneak preview for any party goers this weekend).

First up, the bar. I love this thing. It's exactly what I needed to add some much desired shelving to my kitchen, and to be honest, it's just freaking cool.

And the coolest feature? It opens.

I then added a nice little coffee table to the living room. While not as spiffy, it does allow me to stop using TV trays as my main form of counter space.

The place is finally coming together, of course right in line with my waivering belief that I want to stay in Chicago, but oh well. Now I just have to get the rest of the house clean for the upcoming festivities this weekend.

Shall we play a game?

25 years ago a brilliant movie was released. I watched this movie countless times as a kid - on TV, on beta max, on VHS. Yesterday that brought that movie back for one night to the big screen all over the country. That movie was War Games. If you are not familiar with this film than I highly recommend you go out and rent it - trust me, it's the best 114 minutes you will spend this weekend.

The basic idea of the movie is that a high school kid hacks into the back end of a military computer and starts a worldwide nuclear war, though he thinks he's just playing a game. This was before personal computers were common place in the American household. There were no laptops in every coffee shop, no such thing as the internet. It was the forefront of what was soon to be possible. It was also released at a time when the threat of an all out nuclear war was something that still hung in the minds of most individuals as one of the scariest things imaginable (not to say that this is not something that is still pretty freaking scary today).

My family loved this movie. So yesterday my mom drove to Harvard, IL and took a Metra into the city. My brother jumped on the Metro in DC and headed out to Virginia (he originally wanted to go to NY but by the time he got in touch with his friend, they were sold out). And even though we were separated by time zones and many miles we all settled into watch this long time favorite on the big screen together.

It aired at 7:30 p.m. regardless of where you were so my brother actually got a jump start on the viewing pleasure. Here in Chicago we got to the theater probably about the time he was starting (so basically ridiculously early) and settled into wait. The show began with nice never before seen interviews and history of the film, a really crappy preview for the sequel they are making and eventually the originally story began. The audience was pretty decent, some loud laughter at moments, especially during the old technology scenes, but overall not too chatty. Then two thirds of the way through it happened.

The scene is at night and the two kids have decided not to give up hope and are trying to find a way back to the mainland (watch the movie and this will all make sense), when the screen goes dark. Yup. Dark. Movie stopped, no idea what has happened. The whole audience audibly groans. People start to get fidgety and complain. Then we all burst out laughing. Because there in the corner of the screen, faint and almost ghost like is the image of a "start" button from a computer screen. That's right. A start menu button. In the middle of the movie about a computer who learns and takes over military nuclear warheads. It was great. Almost as good was when I pulled out my phone to see what time it was and saw I had a text message from my brother. It read - "Hope ur movie went ok. Ours crashed towards the end. Computer problem. The irony is great."

Halfway across the country the movie crashed in the same damn place. He was right, and the irony was just getting better. Our film eventually started back up and we got to go to the glorious end. Turns out they never got the east coast up and running again - guess being an hour behind isn't such a bad thing some days.

3...2....1....

This week (and last) are really really busy so I don't have much time for a full fledged update or rant. So far this summer I've seen Feist at Ravinia, Public Enemy at Pitchfork, Hulk and Hancock. I'm going to War Games tomorrow and hopefully will get to see the newest Batman sometime soon. Also coming up is a trip to a horse race track (first time for me!), my birthday with possible festivities, and a visit from my brother as he swings his way around the country before jettisoning off to a tropical island to live and play.

But today I saw something I just had to share. The newest gadgetry found at Staples. DVD's that will self destruct in 48 hours. Okay, so maybe they don't actually blow up (my coworker wouldn't let me use the company credit card to find out) - but how else would this work? I could read the webpage, but that's no fun. Instead I like to believe that after two days of activation they have a James Bondian demise.

Oh Doogie, you've come so far

Everyone needs to go to this website and watch this amazing 3 act web show. The final act comes out tomorrow and I think is only free till the 20th. Trust me, your life will be better for it.

Yay Avenue Q!

This one is for you Lizz.....





more graph humor and song chart memes

More Wordle

I assume I will get tired of this at some point...This one is from the whole blog so far. Thanks to Will for actually getting me the text document this morning, glad to see someone has even less to do at their job than me. It seemed that the words changed each time I went to mess with color or font so I stopped when I saw that it had pulled "fucking" and "gaiman" because that made me happy.

And again, here is the tiny linked version to the gallery pic.

Can't say no to $1.50

We were supposed to go out for one beer. That's it. One. And then I was going to go home and clean my apartment for my next day, early afternoon punch party. We started with one. We did not stop.

My new local hangout has a special on Thursday's that include $1.50 bottles of PBR. I like this for three reasons. One, PBR reminds me of home, though all my previous experiences with it were in the can variety. Two, when you drink PBR out of a bottle you learn that under the caps are playing cards and if you are nice to your bartender he will let you keep those caps, and someday, if you try real hard, you can own a complete deck of PBR cards that you can then play bar poker with. Three, I can not do anything in this city for $1.50. I can't even ride the train for less than $2.00.

So for these reasons I headed down last night to meet a friend for the already mentioned one beer plan. Well, that plan quickly unraveled into a much longer plan when I figured out how to bet on the NBA draft. I'm a bit of a gambl-aholic and have had a pretty dry existence lately so when the opportunity sprung to my slightly addled mind I couldn't pass it up. It started with us noticing how damn young these kids looked as they were ushered out of college and into NBA history. Then we started betting a dollar each time one of the kids were in the audience (the ones not there had their stats flashed right away which cut off the betting process) and shouting "Freshman!" or "Junior!" with the winner taking the pool. If we were both wrong the money stayed in until one of us got it right. I think I ended up walking away $5 up. I was a big fan of this game.

So as we were absorbed in this process, which took awhile since there was a 5-7 minute break between each pick and we couldn't bet on the kids not there, our one beer night stretched out till we both had a full hand of PBR cards. Lucky for me we never set a bet on that because my buddy ended up with two pair. And that's with me trying to rig it by looking at both and picking my favorite. Looks like I should have paid more attention to what I was handing over.

3 and half hours after I came in I found myself with a full hand of caps/cards, an extra $5 and ready to go home. I settled my $10 bar tab with a $20 and hit the road. My goal now is to figure out each Thursday how I can turn whatever is on the sports network into a betting adventure. Wish me (and my liver) luck.

You killed my father, prepare to die.

more graph humor and song chart memes

Thanks Devo

more graph humor and song chart memes

It's only funny because now it's summer

Once again stolen from the archives of "Overheard" I bring you....


But, More Importantly, Why Is Your Subway Outside?
Guy with luggage: What's the temperature tonight?
Guy without luggage: Two.
Guy with luggage: Two? Two! Why the fuck do people live here!?

Brown Line
Chicago, Illinois
via Overheard Everywhere, Jun 6, 2008

Flickr Meme

I got the idea from my friends blog over here and thought I'd give it a try. Fun stuff. Thanks Rob.

The Concept:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favourite food? right now?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favourite colour?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favourite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favourite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. What is one word that describes you?
12. What is your Flickr name? (I had to cheat a bit on this one because my Flickr name didn't pull anything so I shortened and got some random ass photos)

300

No, not the movie filled with hot guys running around nekkid with swords...hmmm...nekkid guys with swords...sorry where was I? Oh yeah, 300 is the threshold I just crossed as a book owner. Thanks to my twenty new purchases from Printers Row book fair (if it weren't for all the other people that fair would be my own personal vision of heaven) I am officially at 302 according to Library Thing. I think I may even be higher than that since I know there are a bunch that either won't enter or that I've missed.

So now I must delve into my new purchases and contemplate if it's time to actually shelve the 30 or so that are sitting on the extra shelf in the computer/storage room as opposed to the library set up in the living room. Unless of course the thunderstorms stop (which they sound like they have) and I work up the energy to go check out the neighborhood watering hole.

Oh, and that last post's title? Yeah, I titled it before I started writing - there was a whole nother direction I was intending to go and then never went back and fixed the header. Teaches me to write first and title last, sorry about that. And Rob, my hair is actually naturally curly which I only embraced last winter when I went to St. John with my brother. I'll try and get a recent pic that isn't too bad and post it, it's some crazy stuff :)

If it weren't for this nagging social justice, I would be a rockstar

It's 80 some odd degrees in Chicago today and humid as all fuck outside, so of course I decided today would be a good day to flatten my hair. That and the 60% chance of severe thunderstorms of course. But heat be damned because I am having a great day.

Summer hours started at my place of employment today which meant I got to cruise out into the sunshine at 11:30 to start my weekend. My 2 hour annual review took up almost all my morning so it really didn't even feel like a work day. The review went well which put me in my rockstar feeling mood, plus it's my two year anniversary this week in the city which makes me pretty giddy.

I'm still trying to figure out where to put my studio sized air conditioner in my loomingly large one bedroom apartment so I had to settle for opening every window not blocked my books or boxes when I got home today. Suddenly living in the windy city isn't seeming so bad. I actually get a decent cross breeze which is making my apartment tolerable, well that and my light weight summer beach/pajama pants.

Tonight I will celebrate with the one person I knew when I first moved here and tomorrow includes a trip to Printers Row book fair...I can already see the dent in my wallet that is going to cause. A possible exploration to a new neighborhood bar tomorrow night will round out what I hope to be a gloriously productive weekend.

So now I'm off to finish my book - I'm reading Guinevere by Sharan Newman, but since I'm almost done I feel no reason to add it to the sidebar. I'm struggling with what to pick up next, so any suggestions are always welcome!

Not doing the dishes

I'm headed out for a much needed vacation that includes the ancient art of cleansing the mind, body, and soul through whiskey and camping. It's going to be great. I postponed my departure date thinking I could squeeze in a few more tasks before I settled into my oh so comfortable bus seat to home. I'm almost finished packing. I've had a nice little dance party while flattening my hair and listening to Ani, Panic at the Disco, Elvis, and Tufts Beeelzebubs. I watched some Oprah. I am embracing the vacation spirit. I am not doing the dishes in my sink. Not making the bed. Not picking up the clothes that didn't make the cut. My one resignation? I will try and take the garbage out as I head for the train (though this week it's mostly empty beer bottles).

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend doing whatever it is they do to celebrate whatever the reason is we always get this Monday off in May. I'm going to go get flung.

Living life one word at a time

Sometimes you just have to let go of conventional thinking and play outside the box. Even in the small things in life, oh say like Scrabble, you just have to ignore the rules and make it up as you go along. That folks is what I seem to be doing these days. And this is the photographic proof of it.

It's missing the top row, but you get the idea. My favorites? Sunked, Sqat, and Jizz with the blank tile that turned Tune into Tunez. Too bad we didn't keep score, would have been interesting.

100 posts

According to my sign in page I currently have 99 posts...I wonder if that counts the dozen or so drafts that I never got back to? Either way "Happy 100 to me!"

The madness of my life is over for now and thank you to everyone who put up with me this past month while work was getting crazier and crazier. We did a smashing job and now I have time to breathe again, in fact I did such a stellar job that the boss let me take today off - and I'm going to use it the best of my ability. It's going to be in the 70's today here in the windy city and the brief outing I had this morning to forage for coffee from the deliciously staffed Beans and Bagels on Rockwell proved to be delightfully warm out at 9 am. I have since come home, dragged out my picnic blanket from the back of the closet and will be venturing out around noon for some Wells park lounging and reading. It's going to be great.

The weather is warming up which always puts me in better mood - the adventures of the past 24 hours haven't hurt either. Sorry folks, no sordid details on the blog on this one, I learned my lesson the hard way last time. Plus this is so far from conventional, regular, or typical that there really is not much to say except yes, that is a big old smile you see on my face.

The world around me? Let's see, Edwards has come out for Obama but the rumor is his wife hasn't (though since I haven't had time to read an article longer than 2 paragraphs long I'm not sure how much validity that rumor has). And honestly when I heard the news I wasn't too impressed - this election season has sucked the life out of me and I just want it to be done with an end result of McCain losing. California has overturned the gay marriage ban - which is about damn time, I have no room in my heart, ideology or belief structure for a culture that writes into its laws a ban on love based on the gender of the individuals involved, it's just fucking stupid. The polar bear has been moved to the endangered species list and the Tribune ran an article on Thursday with the saddest/most adorable picture of said polar bear on the front page. I wish I would have remembered to clip it and hang it on the fridge (those of us without kids have to improvise refrigerator art).

Coming up - my favorite camping trip of the year, Spring Fling, complete with bloody mary church service on Sunday, horseshoe tournaments, and late night whiskey. A girls night out with some of my favorite former co-workers. The formation of a kickball league in which I plan on sitting on the sidelines with a book and witty commentary. Public Enemy reuniting for the Pitchfork festival (please someone say they will go to this with me!). Half day Friday's for the summer. My best friend from high schools 30th birthday. A possible trip to Atlantic City (which I learned you can't actually fly to oddly enough, the closest Expedia.com can get me is somewhere in Pennsylvania and then I have to rent a car). My 2 year anniversary in Chicago which I believe necessitates a party or a new tattoo, or both.

I'm off to enjoy the sunshine - hope everyone else is having a fantastic day (and I also hope you all go see Iron Man, trust me it's worth it)

Overheard

Taken from Overheard in New York...

Ah, the Buckeye State
Brooklyn family court employee: What's your daughter's name?
Mother: Chicago.
Brooklyn family court employee: Like the state?
Mother: Yes.

--Brooklyn Family Court