Happy Halloween

I am hoping to get trick or treaters this year on my lovely little side street. We shall see. I was going to dress in costume today but I couldn't find my tiara or a can of peas--so there went my princess and the pea idea.

As you can see Donald won the last contest with Bye, Bye, Birdie. The next hint is that I am thinking of a modern musical thouroughly obsessed with what can happen with good or bad PR. Remember, you must express your guess through lyrics of the songs of the musical you are guessing (just google it if you must). Donald lucked out that his had a title song with those lyrics in it.

If it gets rough, I will add more hints.

Many things

Well, there are a bunch of things happening with me. We have officially boyfriend and girlfriended. Officially. He's kind of totally adorable and seems not to be frightened by my friends, so that is always good (and then have even told some of the really embarassing stories). It is nice.

Jim sent us more stuff!!!! Seriously it is like he is competing in the awesome friend olympics or something. Really. We are very excited. We also hope to get tv and internet in the next two weeks or so, maybe. Stupid boys who lived there before us.

Thirdly, went to very scary haunted house this weekend and screamed a LOT!!!! Yeah, screaming happened, so did whimpering and grabbing peoples' hands, coats, hair and bags quite hard. It was fun though.

Also, new contest in my blog, probably once a week or whenever I feel like it really. I stole this from Lauren. I am going to think of a musical and give you vague hints of it, and you must guess which musical by quoting lyrics from whatever musical you think it is. Guesses must come as quote from lyrics from that musical. First hint, this musical has an oft repeated chorus and probably involves as much screaming as that haunted house and a whole lot more fainting.

You can also request more hints in the comments.

I touched Tom Colliccio's plate

Well, I touched a plate that was purchased from my Pier 1 for the restaurant wars of the next season which is being filmed right now in Chicago.

They actually shopped at the Pier 1 in Old town, but we packed up some stuff for them. It was kind of exciting. I love Top Chef, and I am definitely DVRing next season so that I can see all of it.

Yea for living in a great big city.

Mirrors

Most girls are familiar with the concept of the skinny mirror. It is a mirror that at least one person you know owns. A cheapo wall mirror from Walmart of Target that is a pain to make stay on the wall, and that should NOT be moved from dorm to apartment after apartment, but it is anyway. It is moved because from some miracle (or more likely cheap and shoddy materials and construction), it makes everyone look at least five to ten pounds thinner.

Kelsey had the skinny mirror at U of I. I am not sure who had it at CMS, and I for a while had a version of it--not as awesome as Kelsey's but still awesome. H & M has the opposite. Last night in their dressing room I scared myself with the sight of my mid-section. It looked bloated and flobby and just downright terrifying. I see it everyday, and in general I know what to expect from it, but what I saw in their dressing room was something else, something strange. Then I realized that I had seen my gut in such a terrifying state before, mid-summer when I was dress shopping--it was at an H & M too!!

Now you would think that a store trying to sell you clothes would actively pursue skinny mirrors for its dressing rooms. Make all the chicks think they are skinner than they are and they will take home armloads of the magical clothes. This seems to be a problem that they would want to fix. And yet. . .

Note to self, work out before I hit an H & M, or buy it all and take it home to try on and then bring it back.

It was almost scary enough to get me to give up ice cream and candy. Almost. . . but not quite.

Mies van der Rohe

He's a pretty famous architect. He was instrumental in the Second Chicago School of Architecture, and he totally designed the building Sam lives in. It was on a plaque in the lobby which probably has authentic Mies chairs in it. So, this morning I googled him to see what I could find. Turns out Sam's apartment building is one of his more significant structures--it has a nickname the "glass house apartments" and he has one on the corner of the steel and glass building.

Now, I have always thought Sam's apartment was amazingly cool because it is, but it is also crazy important in the scope of modern architecture. Crazy, huh. Also kind of intimidating, not gonna lie.

You can see a picture of it on the Mies Wikipedia page. It also has its own Wikipedia page. This is them too.

Jim Rules

Just so you all know, it's true. My little present of premieres arrived yesterday--although I have not had time to watch them. I will probably watch them while getting the house all gussied up for its warming party. But how cool is it that he sent me a DVD of all the things I wanted to see but couldn't?

I know that my friends are really great people. I feel like I wouldn't be friends with them if they weren't awesome, but then one of them goes and does something like this and I am reminded how truly lovely they are. Usually I am reminded that they are all lovely not just the one who has done the particularly awesome thing that triggered the reminder.

My friends are some pretty freaking phenomenal people! They are kind-hearted and generous (with their love and their sarcasm). They are funny and smart and I don't think I remember to tell them how awesome they are on a regular basis.

So, Jim you are awesome, and the rest of you. . . better send me a fucking present if you want me to tell you the same.


Just kidding. :) The rest of you are pretty awesome too!

Oh, and there was another date last night. It went well. Sam has met the roommate and the kitty and all went well.

Date Update

The date was great, and if I rhyme anymore in this post, someone should kick me. It also involved some sitcom-esque events (because sometimes I wonder if my life is not secretly a reality sitcom that no one has ever let me in on--remember my best wedding story ever).

First we met for dinner at the Kinzie Chophouse, a steakhouse down in the north loop restaurant district. The food was good, the small talk was good, the server was terrible. He just wasn't really with it. Then it comes to the time when he offers us dessert, and he starts to, but then he stops, mumbles something about having something for us or knowing what we want and disappears. Sam and I just look at each other, and ask if he just said he was bringing us dessert--because neither of us have ordered dessert. We are very confused, and we become more confused when crappy server brings out a big dessert plate with chocolate torte and little pile of hipped cream and sliced strawberries surrounded by drizzled sauce on the plate, drizzled sauce that spells out "Happy Anniversary!"

I laugh because what else can I do? Sam looks a little stricken until he realizes that I know he did not plan a Happy Anniversary Dessert for us. This does not happen in real life. So we flag server down, and we tell him it isn't for us because it is really not our anniversary. He seems confused that it isn't ours and tells us to eat it anyway. We do, but we laugh about it a lot! When the server comes back with the check, he asks us, "Are you guys even married?" Yeah, not so much. It was funny, and I kept mentioning that it is after all our anniversary as the date went on. Like after the symphony, he asked me if we should do something else, and I said, "Well, it is our anniversary!"

The symphony was awesome. Symphony center here in Chicago is AMAZING! Plus we sat on the terrace. Which meant we were behind/over the musicians and the conductor was facing us. Branford Marsalis was really close to us during one song. Watching the conductor was really cool--he was visiting us from St. Louis where he leads their symphony. Then they played a Thessolonius Monk song instead of the Copeland piece that was scheduled, and wow! Seriously wow! Soprano sax sounding as un Kenny G like as possible. It was great!

Then there were drinks, and then I got locked out of my apartment because I don't actually have a key to my apartment, and I forgot that Renee would be out later than I would be. So we went back to his place. All I am saying is that I no longer fear we won't be able to get past the first date situation. That problem has been solved.

Although, now I worry that I seem like a totally scheming bitchy girl when I really just don't have my own key to my apartment. I realized after the fact that this was just the kind of plan I needed, but I know I wouldn't have been able to go through with it if I had figured it out in advance. It is just too. . .evil and planny. I am not that girl, really not. But it probably seems like I am. Or hopefully, he doesn't think I would do that.

Anyway, things are going well. I imagine that Sam will become my boyfriend soon, if he isn't already--I am not always the best at figuring these things out.

Feeling Better

I am feeling better. Quite a bit. I am rested (or more rested). I took a hot shower (at Anna, Branson and Chris'). I have a date tonight. Dinner at a chophouse and then the Symphony after--with Branford Marsalis. It should be very nice. I am so excited!

God dammit!

my feelings hurt today

Hot water

We were supposed to get this today, this morning, but not so much. Turns out our hot water heater is broken, and if it were turned on it would poison us with carbon monoxide.

So, I was really looking forward to a hot shower and shaving my legs, but that won't be happening at my house until. . . later?

Yeah, later. This blows.

Kittens are awesome

I would post pictures of Steve McQueen, but I am not sure where my digital camera is because well, not so much with the moved in. Living room is painted and partially unpacked (it will look sooooo awesome once we have finished). There will be a new hide-a-bed in it next weekend (which means comfy and free place to stay for visitors, hint, hint). Renee's room is painted and almost all put away. It looks great! It is super pink and bright, but cool looking.

The rest of the house not so much painted or really unpacked. That means my room and the book room/tv room. Also no internet, and the amazing unsecured network has disappeared or been secured and renamed. I have to get all that ready to be hooked up. It looks like we can get the internet pretty easy. I have a modem, so I shouldn't need the comcast stuff (which they lease to you making it cost more then just buying one), and they say it is easy to install yourself, so hopefully soon. Also soon would be TV with cable and on demand and DVR. Cable in two rooms on two tvs. How awesome will that be?

My show is tonight. The boy will be there. He asked me to do something (direct quote) Sunday on Saturday but unfortunately I had rehearsal and work on Sunday so I had to say not Sunday but later in the week. That request came via text but in response to friendly jokey text from me, so I am not sure if this is really progress. However his response to my text (which was something like moving is dumb and I hate boxes and painting, hope your weekend is more fun) was immediate and included invitation. I think this is giving me a little more understanding of the situation. Maybe?

Yeah, right. Like I have any clue what is going on.

I have a kitten

He is adorable and lively and he seems to love me--altough we have only hung out for about two hours. He lives in my room right now. However, he does not have a name yet. Right now it is looking like he will be named Colonel Brandon, Steve McQueen, or Bobby. The first two are front runners. I am not sure whether to go for the more nicknameable one or the full name only cat name. Maybe tonight he will behave in a manner that makes it apparent he is one or the other (for example if I find him at home trying to jump a motorbike over a barbed wire fence, buying me a new pianforte, or whatnot).

The date went well. There was a good show (although the audience was full of the cast of the bad show I saw last month--weird!), with a beautiful final moment--it was lit very dimly for last scene and they pulled all the light slowly away except a candle on the lead who sang the last bit of the final song and then he blew it out (it was a real candle). Really nice (oh the show was Steven Sondheim's "Passion"). Anna Gasteyer was really good! Then we had a drink and some food, and I had a good time, and I think he did too, and then he saw me to the train station.

So, date two went a lot like date one, but better show, less drinking.

Moving or "I wonder how I got that bruise?"

We have moved. There are boxes everywhere and someday we will paint (tomorrow? tonight? soon?). Next weekend/week everything should get settled in. This was the longest move ever!!! I have way, way too much shit, and I thought I had done a good job of throwing things out. Not so much.

We need another key for our apartment, we need gas, we need stuff for the kitty we get tomorrow morning. I don't know where our mailbox is. I cleaned a shower for three hours, and it went from gray and off-white to gleaming white--which was strangely satisfying and super gross all at once.

My show opened, barely, kind of. It was the train wreck of all train wrecks with the 'opening' essentially also functioning as only dress/tech. Somehow it was kind of good (it should have been awful). Someday I will write more about the show.

I have a date tonight, and hopefully once I am settled blogging will be a thing that happens more. Hopefully!

Also insanity seems to be spreading through my office.