Gifts

So Valentine's Day happened for real, and Sam and I were not together for it because well I work a whole shit ton. I have decided to allow him to describe his hiding o my Valentine's Day balloon bouquet under his desk as "storing" because it turns out that brilliant plan did not discourage his coworkers from finding them, liberating them, prominently displaying them, and giving Sam much grief over the whole thing. It was wonderful.

This weekend we finished exchanging gifts, which I thought would be cards and some sort of trinket or something (like tickets to a concert here in Chicago or a show, something along those lines). He did give me a card, and inside the card he told me that he was taking me to New York City sometime this spring for dinner and a Broadway show and a night at a jazz club. This will take place April 18-20. There is a list of shows that I would like to see, and he will get to see two famous and great jazz musicians whom he has never seen before play at a club that he has never been too (Ron Carter and Jim Hall at the Blue Note). He is very excited. I am too! I am hoping to see either Spring Awakening or Sunday in the Park with George (but Spamalot, Young Frankenstein, and Legally Blonde are also contenders), and I might just maybe have to get tickets to a matinée on Saturday if possible too. It might just have to happen that I see two shows--although I might opt for the non-musical all-black Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for the other.

I have already called Lauren to tell her I am on my way there. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of the time in NYC, although two ish days is not a long time. BTW, this fabulous gift is why I decided that he can store my gifts under his desk whenever the heck he wants. Also, btw, how freaking lucky am I? I mean really? I have the best boyfriend ever.

Have a house guest in for the weekend. Tbert explored some neighborhoods, went to my company party, had late night nachos with my roommate because I was wasted, went for sushi but the place was closed so had Oaxacan instead, was subjected to a piano bar where now Sam's bartender knows my drinks too, froze to death in the awful wind, and hung around my house today because it was way too frigidly windy to want to leave and go about. That was his visit in a nutshell, and I feel I was not the best host, but. . . I don't know. I had a really long week and I don't really know his tastes well enough to tailor a good visit to them. I did however assume (probably correctly) that my greatest hits of big lame chains that we don't have back home would be a bad bet for him. I save that one for people from the Tri-Cities. They like all the touristy schlock: Bubba Gump's, the terrible parts of Michigan Ave and downtown. But they are also the people who can't like a restaurant if they've never heard of it. So, Teebs, I am sorry that I was a kind of lame host.

Still Sick

I am feeling better, I just need to dry up the crap in my sinuses and make my throat stop coughing. However, I did not go to work today because I still feel crappy and it is soooooo cold and windy here. It is 2 degrees (not a typo, single digits here) with a real feel of -17. My throat would never forgive me if I ventured out in that, I would not stop coughing, it would make it hard to breathe. I cannot leave the house in that not if I want to get better. It should be warmer tomorrow, thank God!

A week

A very busy and not busy and uneventful week where I swear I did stuff but I sure can't remember what.

There was much sleeping in to recover from the brother visit because woowee did we drink and have fun. The Friday night I went out with friends and had the worst waiter in history (while Sam was in Virginia visiting a friend from high school).

Saturday and Sunday were consumed by season 4 of the Wire which I watched while swaddled in anything on earth that would make me feel a little bit warm because it is fucking freezing here in Chicago. The temperature right now even is not a positive number BEFORE you factor in the 10 mile an hour winds which make it colder. Yeah, nothing happened this weekend except work. It was too cold to move.

Sam came back Sunday, and I informed him I was sleeping over at his house because it is warmer. His buildings heat works really well, possibly too well, but I prefer that over the heat at my house which actually works fine, the main problem is that my room used to be outside in a porch and now it is inside and not really insulated well enough for not a porch. I needed to sleep at the warm house. He didn't mind though--turns out he might like me.

Monday was a nothing day. Tuesday I got in trouble at work for things that were not my fault by the person who's fault it actually was, but since he owns the company it turns out he gets to do that. Sam was going to make me dinner as a comfort, but he accidentally made a bottle of bar-b-que sauce fall off a shelf and explode all over his kitchen and dinner, so we ended up having to go out. Which was good, it just was awful cold to walk up the block for food.

Lake Michigan is freezing over, and I would take a picture some morning, but that would mean stopping in the cold and using cold fingers to take it, and well did I mention how flipping cold it is? Frozen Lake Michigan is pretty sweet.

Last night I ventured out again to a fundraiser for Jon, Chris, Sara, Luke, Branson, and Turpin's theatre project/company. I drank some, introduced Sam to the rest of the Idaho in Chicago gang (who were all together for the very first time ever!!!!!--this exact group anyway), and sang some karaoke. I did a duet with Chris Plummer on our song (Cruisin'), a duet with Anna on Dixie Chicks "Sin Wagon," Jamie made all the Chorus Line types sing "What I Did for Love" because she is cruel and unusual, and then I sang "The Shoop Shoop Song" all by my lonesome.

And yet it feels like nothing happened. Except it turns out I did something dumb with my finances which I am in the process of fixing. Blech.

Tomorrow I see Holly Harper and maybe Emily Gann-Korff, and they meet Sam.

Fuck it is cold!

That is really all I have got. It is cold inside our fucking house. It is cold outside, and there are major warnings to cover all skin if you MUST leave your house and limit time outside to less then thirty minutes at a time. Fuck me. I don't want to go to work ever again if possible.

What is the difference between nine degrees and nineteen?

One means your snot still stays liquid as it drips down your nose, and the other means it freezes or congeals onto the inside of your nose and there is stays on your walk to work. It is bitterly cold here, and it will only get worse this weekend (which means the frozen thermometer is the weather icon for Sun. forecast on my forecastfox). My plan is to not leave the house tomorrow. I will do my taxes, do some apartment cleaning, watch some movies, and basically wrap myself into a blanket for the whole weekend--my roommates have the same plan.