Janeane Garofalo was AWESOME

I can't even begin to explain how wonderful she is. She is the funnest, coolest, awesome kind of girl ever. And her stand up was funny, but I cannot explain how. It was kind of like being at a party with someone who is 150% on while still being a good listener and only being mean to like Hannity and scary Fox News Republicans and not mean to anyone else.

I LOVE HER!!!!! Like I just love her. That is all I have.

She appeared with Mark Maron who was also great. His comedy was much more complicated and walked a pretty fine line between what most people would find funny and really awkward. And I admit to finding some of it uncomfortable. But I think my favorite thing about it was that he clearly loved watching his more complicated jokes hit the audience because they didn't hit everyone and the people they did hit sort of rolled into the joke in a wave. And he got such great satisfaction out of people running with his very hard, very smart comedy that he completely won me over. I also kept thinking how much Chrissy would like him.

There was also a local comic named Dan something, and I really liked his long geek based jokes. He got a lot of mileage out of being a big nerd and telling really long complicated jokes about the comic books he is a fan of and playing too much worlds of warcraft. I liked him, if I could remember his f ing name I would try to go see him again. It was kind of like Dan Fogelberg, but he obviously wasn't Dan Fogelberg.

what a busy bee i is

This weekend is just chock full of the fun!

 

Tonight, we have Jazz at the symphony center (an evening with Brad Meldhau) and then (like literally I will haul ass outside and grab a cab to haul ass to my seat at the LakeShore Theatre) Jeananne Garofalo.  Tomorrow night a late night preformance of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.  I am so full of stuff to do.

 

Also, I would like to announce my intention to write a novel in about two months.  Instead of the NaNoWriMo version of one month, I want to force myself to do something I can do.  May is rehearsal month for the Ville, and I just couldn't do my very on ChiMayWriMo and stay with it.  The end of the month would kill me, so I am adapting my own version.  5,000 words a week for 10 weeks or 50,000 words/end of novel that is at least 50,000 words--which means if I break 50,000 and finish novel before 10 weeks I stop writing.  I will hold myself to writing at least every third day, but this is asking me to average 715 words a day, so I will need to keep my nose to the grindstone.  I will update my progress here, and I would like all of you to please, please, please keep me to it.  Bet me.  Make demands on me that require me to embarass myself if I do not finish.  Conveniently, the week after my deadline is the reunion of the bitchbarn.  I will even give draft copies there to people who wnat them.  But please, keep me with it. 

 

Rules:

I start on Sunday.  So the 4th of July is my Independence Day (also my brothers wedding so I better get some serious typing done on the plane and around the festivities/

A week is Sunday to Monday.

I have to hit 50,000 words, or I am massive Fail.

 

And away we go.

 

Is this awkward?

Basically, I have taken over being in charge of having my boyfriend take his medicine.  And I am torn over it (oh and this is his anti-anxiety medicine and his blood pressure medicine both of which he takes once a day).

 

Pros:

 

He is total crap at remembering to take it at all and at a regular time each day.

 

When he forgets, he takes a few days to adjust it back to normal which raises his anxiety level, sometimes a lot and then stupid ridiculous things happen like him setting fire to a pizza in the oven (because he thought it would be fine to warm it up in the pizza box under the broiler, it was not fine) as well as him panicking over small things that often make small nuisances into giant disasters.

 

He invents odd science that doesn't really work to explain/justify his spacing of meds.

 

When he is on his medicine, taken correctly he feels better, a lot better (as in not about to panic most of the time).

 

Cons:

 

Dude, I totally feel like his mom.

 

I can be a total hardass about it, and I don't think he appreciates it.

 

Dude, I totally feel like his mom.

 

C'mon, isn't it kind of weird.

 

Dude, I totally feel like his mom.

 

 

Well, and things just become very, very not good when his medicine is not taken.  The doctor has found a good dosage for him, so he doesn't feel hampered by his medicine, and I would imagine that is in part because he takes a pretty low dose at regular intervals and that the blood pressure medicine is a helper at making him feel more calm and relaxed.  And he seems to be at his best self when he is relaxed and happier.  Off the meds he gets kind frantic and things start going wrong and wrong and wronger.  Because he hasn't been on the magic dosage that long (other doses came with there own set of total crap effects), he does still need them.  He is learning lifestyle ways to manage his stress and anxiety but they are all the kind of thing that takes a while to become second nature and super effective.  So for now, I am the medicine drill sergeant. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

******

Also I was totally going to make today's post about how the city is FINALLY in spring bloom.  They put in all the tulips at the beginning of the month for the Olympic Committee visit, but they were just stalks, and now they are flowers!!!!!  And it always happens over a two day segment which has been the last two days.  Of course in some places in Streeterville and downtown, it happens overnight because buildings and places hire landscape gardeners and their crews to do this and they literally do it overnight or early one morning or one afternoon.  In a snap!

My temporary other blog

Hey, please go here if you want to follow my blogging about the play I am in for the theatre company.

 

http://www.barebonedtheatre.org/villeblog.html

 

I am clearly still getting the hang of this and maybe should take some breaths between my sentances.

Exercise

I forget how good it makes you feel, even when you only do a little bit of it.  I have been staying on track with my wii trainer, and I have been feeling good.  And I do this thing where I decide to [run, do yoga, do pilates, jog, go to the gym, hit a NIA class] on a reasonable basis, and I always dread it and try to weasel my way out of it.  And then I go and do it and feel much better in my daily life whether the yoga makes me feel taller or more flexible or the cardio wakes me up or whatever, I just end up feeling better.  And I am sure there is some science about endorphins or something that explain it, and since it happens every time I should be less shocked by it, but every time I am astonished.  This time though I am trying to make it a life change.  Wouldn't it be nice to feel this way all the time?

 

Oh, I will be blogging for the Ville, the live GLBT soap opera that I am in.  I will post links here whenever one of those posts goes live.  I just finished writing my very first ever, and yes, yes I am avoiding working.

 

Feeling confident

I realized a while back that I had gained weight.  Not the just a little bit, but A LOT of weight.  I had moved out of appropriate for my height and into overweight and then well into overweight.  It had gotten pretty not cool.  Most of my clothes didn't fit.  I had moved from muffin topping to gigantic oven mess that has no name, and even though friends and family still assured me I did not look big, I knew that this was getting to be problematic.  Especially when I started feeling it while walking.  I had slowed down a few speeds not because I was in less of a hurry, but because I was too out of shape to keep up my old pace. 

 

So, I think I have mentioned here that I was going to do something about it.  And then I didn't really do anything.  And then almost three weeks ago, I stopped drinking alcohol.  That meant no glasses of wine (well half bottles) with dinner, no margaritas at mexi places, no two and three french martini nights at the local bar, no extra large vodkas and sprite at howl at the moon (thanks anyway Tony), and no Bailey's nightcaps.  Because well I drank a lot.  No, I mean a LOT!  I took a survey and counted it up, and I was averaging 18 drinks a week, that is almost three a day.  You know how many calories are in that?  Especially when you like fruity sugary drinks?  So yeah.  That is a lot.  And it isn't like I was swapping out dessert or anything else for them.  I was adding it all on. 

 

For the last three weeks I have been trying to replace them with something no calorie, water at dinner, diet coke on weekends or if I want to stay awake, occasionally cranberry juice with a shot of orange, sometimes sprite or orangina or horchata or whatever non-alcoholic tasty drink they may serve at the restaurant.  It was way harder than I imagined it would be.  Not that I have really been tempted to cheat, but it totally sucks to wash down those chips and salsa at a mexi place with water when you really want and icy margarita.  And wine bars, without wine?  Ummm, less fun actually.  Cheese plates without red wine?  Well cheese is still good, but it misses its friend.

 

However, I feel a lot better and a lot more alert most days.  It is a little easier to get up in the morning.  I have also started to work out (but so far only a little), but I have begun to see other results.  Like a pair of pants that was getting dangerously close to being my last pair of pants that fit me and being dangerously close to not even that.  I kind of had to wear them with the right shirt that landed just so, or better yet a sweater that sort of folded up all blousy at the bottom or people would totally notice the too much sausage trying to fit into (or rather bust out of) the casing.  Perhaps that wasn't the best metaphor.  Today, the first time in a week I have worn said pants, they slipped on and have more room in them than before.  They still squeeze in a bit at the waist, but only a tiny bit.  I don't feel self concious about them.  At this rate, if I gear up the working out, and I stay off the booze, and I try to protion control/eat healthier for more serious, I may well have slimmed quite a bit down in time for the big 30 looming just over the horizon of two months and odd days away.

Even MORE pouch cooking

Here is tonight's dinner. A chicken/potato based pouch. Turns out potatoes not fully cooked this way even if they are tiny and red, but we nuked them the rest of the way, and they are even ok this way if you don't mind more raw potatoes. See below for putting it together pics as well as more info about what I made.

Pouch Cooking: pre oven

I was so impressed with the colors of my dinner that I decided I would blog it.



Here is tonight's pouch meal. On the bottom are teeny tiny red potatoes (halved or quartered as needed) and bits of onion that I salted and peppered. Then I added a layer of julienned yellow peppers and on top of that the chicken breasts (each salted and peppered). On top there are halved grape tomatoes, more yellow peppers, some carrots (my other aromatic with the onions), and a bay leaf (because if we are steaming, this could work out well).

Now I am ready to pouch up!

Pouch Cooking: into the oven

Here is my pouch all stapled up (yes with that office stapler) and ready to be put in the oven. The liquid I used was some champagne that was going flat (from mimosas on the weekend), some honey, and some bitters (so I can call this champagne cocktail chicken).

It is actually in the oven as we speak!

cooking

I made my first foray into pouch cooking last night, and even though I kinda screwed some of it up, it was still totally delicious and super easy.  Bascially I washed and cut up some veggies, soaked some couscous for a bit, thawed out some chicken, threw all of the above into a bit of parchment paper, added salt and pepper, dumped some vermouth on it and stuck it in a 400 degree overn for 25 minutes.  Out it came with juicy chicken, perfectly and fragrantly steamed veggies, and sooooo yummy.  I messed up on the couscous prep, and I could've used better veggies (but I had to improvise), but I am soooo doing this again.  Mostly because we have a freezer stuffed with chicken, but yeah.

 

Tonight it is going to have red potatoes and cherry tomatoes in it.  And some other stuff, not sure what.  A yellow pepper?  Onions and carrots?  The chicken, and maybe white or red wine instead of vermouth.  Or vermouth again.  I don't know.  I do what I want.  And I cooked it inside of parchment paper, that I then threw away when finished.  Ok, so not eco friendly, but Heather's approach to dishwashing friendly (ask Chrissy, she will tell y'all, she was my roomie).

 

All in all, I might be addicted.

Thoughts on Miss California

Sooo, Perez Hilton asked a bitchy tough question this weekend at Miss America.  And we are surprised because..?  Did we not know that Perez Hilton was bitchy?  Yeah he asked about gay marriage.  It was a political question, so were some other questions asked.  Miss California answered marriage is between a man and a woman, and Perez Hilton is very open about how he graded her down for it.  This was all over the Today show this morning.

 

They were asking is it ok that Miss America is judged on questions like politics and morality that may be subjective?  I think a better question is, is it okay that she is also subjectively judged by how good she looks in formal wear or a bathing suit (or activewear or whatever bs it is now)?  I think there is nothing wrong with that question.  Miss California seemed to think it not ok that that was why she lost.  Ummm, did she not know who Perez Hilton was?  Did she not know that gays like pageants?  From her answer and her interview, she is a self-identifying Christian of the big yes on Prop 8 variety.  You know the smug God Hates fags, Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve variety.  She stands by her answer (and her God).  Which if she is going to have convictions, she should stand by them even if I think her convictions are bigotry.  But I also think she ought best not be on the Today show bitching about losing.  She knows that answer cost her the crown (or likely did) no one will directly say at camp Miss America, but she also says even if she knew that she would say the same thing.  Well Whoop de doo, then you don't get to bitch about losing.  Like pick one.  Either be a champ for sticking to your bigot guns or or be miss america, but no whining about not getting to be both.  Also, maybe try being a little less of a bigot.  Its fun, ask Perez Hilton.

 

Now I don't know how all my readers feel about gay marriage, but I am all for it.  If individual churches do not choose to consecrate gay vows, well cool that is their right, and I could see where it would be at odds with their foundation or beliefs (kind of like science).  I may not choose to join them, but they are probably fine with that anyway.  I am all for freedom of religion.  Just like I am against tyranny of religion.  This religion has no business in my state affairs.  Quite frankly I feel that a civil marriage is a legal contract not a sacred consecration (thus it is called civil and not like holy or something), and by therefore any two legal adults should be free to enter into it and receive the same protections from the state as any other two legal adults.  The Catholics already kind of get this.  They don't consider a civil marriage to be the same as a church one.  And they need the marriage to be blessed by God and the church to really count.  Umm, other churches welcome aboard this train of thought.  Give civil marriage to everyone or to no one.  Let the churches keep their sacraments out of my government.

 

 

Suggestilbe illness

After Saturday night out with the parents, Sam and his mom were both very sick all day Sunday.  Sam is still feeling awful, not sure about his mom, but I feel fine and so does Sam's dad.  I still feel fine here at work.  Last night I was getting phantom stomach pains, or rather I was convinced any sort of any feeling near my stomach was pain that was the beginnings of what Sam had.  But I was also fairly certain they were not actual pains.  I think part of me just wanted a really good excuse for a sick day.  If I were less totally lazy, it would be awesome to work from home.  However I am realistic about  myself enough to know that working from home would equal not working while at home.  I doubt that is sustainable business model.  Although I do have daydreams where I became a "succesful" romance novel author where I work like 4 hours a day four or five days a week and make enough to not do any other work.  I don't even think I would need to be rich just making what I do now or a little more. 

 

I suppose that if I really think I could make a go at that I should get serious about writing a novel or two.  Right now that business is booming, and they are a business always on the hunt for new authors.  Maybe I should see if I could get one written by my birthday.  Even if it is bad, I could say I wrote a novel before my 30th birthday.  This is a good plan, now I must work on being committed enough to said plan to see it through.  I could start with my Jamie/Paul prototype chapter teaser.

Parents in town (not mine)

Sam's. I went out to lunch with his mom and we hit up the Art Institute's student art show. I didn't buy anything, but probably will try to buy from a jewelry maker I found there in the future (her stuff alone may make me pierce my ears, it is that cool). I would post a link, but I can't find her card offhand.

Then all parents and boyfriend went out to a French bistro for dinner where I had amzing sweetbreads and grilled veggies with cream chive sauce (yummy glands and pancreas!!!) and chocolate mousse with chocolate sauce. After that we saw a set of Monty Alexander at the jazz showcase where the highlight was his trio covering "No Woman, No Cry." Yeah that is right a jazz trio covering some Bob Marley (and Alexander himself is a pianist, so it was a very piano forward cover and totally available on itunes). The best part was, Sam's dad and I both immediately knew we knew it, then quickly knew it was a rock song and famous, then I knew it was Bob Marley, and he immediately knew it was no woman/no cry. Very fun table moment. Sam's mom thought he was a bit too much of a show off piano player, but the rest of us enjoyed it.

Today we did some errand running with his mom. Then we were going to go to restaurant for dinner that we fortuitously discovered was closed before we went there, and we are now waiting for time to leave for our reservation at the Jean Georges Restaurant Vong's Thai Kitchen (yummy tea and noodle dishes await). Then 12th Night at Chicago Shakes.

Pain in my neck

Literally. I have one which I believe to be caused by sitting to much in one position that is bad for it. So. . . I am sitting with my feet flat on the floor, instead of crossed one over the other. I have put my seat and my monitor screen at appropriate Alexander Technique-y heights, and I have tilted the seat to ensure best possible alignment. Next stop lumbar support also massage, sigh I wish. I need to figure out a way to get my insurance to pay for that, also a chiropractor, well at least one of them.

Oh, and hourly get up and move it abouts. But today's real solution may be a shorter day. Going home a bit early to stretch and roll around on the floor in yoga clothes, maybe NIA it up a bit.

Also, Sam's parents get into town tonight. Tomorrow Sam's mom and I are doing lunch and some art. This weekend we will see a Twelfth Night with a huge ass swimming pool as a major part of its set or a high tech Tempest, it sort of depends on ticket availability and if I can get Luke Daigle to get us a discount on the Chicago Shakes tix.

LAUREN AND ZACK were mentioned on TBTL!!!

Because the Brooklyn Tens were having a party, and one of the hosts asked if they heard from Lauren and Zack, the Josts!  But they probably did not go out because Lauren has a bun in the third trimester of her oven.  But, clearly they are far more well known than I, but they went to prom.

 

This post will make no sense unless you are a hardcore ten like myself.

TBTL thanks Me!!!

For help with a segment on kanye west wanting to be a better person after being lampooned by southpark.  Anyway.  It made my rather crappy day better.  Crappy because people at work might need to occasionally give me all the information to deal with a sticky situation instead of just enough information to hang myself.  Awesome.  Only three more hours at work.

Brunch with Old People

That is actually listing in my google calendar for this weekend. Sam and I will be eating at a high rise apartment complex for senior living where Sam will play some paino for the oldies and their families, and I will sit by myself and enjoy Easter brunch. We know the head chef of the fine dining establishment on site at this complex, so that is how Sam got this gig and why we will be dining there free. I also may end up occastionally being a lectern at their church services (it is run by the Catholic church). But the listing cracks me up every single time.

Castle

I really, really enjoy the new Captian Tightpants show even if it has nothing to do with brownshirts or outerspace.  I am glad that Captain Tightpants is back, and he is so charming and wonderful on this show.  Plus I like the chick cop who is tough and yet not so hard ass as she wants to be portrayed.  They do the same old same old crime mystery thing and don't really add too much of a twist on that, but whatever I find formulaic mystery/crime tv really, really comforting even if it is bad.  I mean I enjoy it more when it is better, but I will still enjoy it bad.  It is like my tv Linus blanket.  Anyway, I think this is a good version of it on the sheer charming force of captain tightpant's personality.

 

I also am thouroughly enjoying the newest (now like 16 month old) Jennifer Weiner book Certain Girls.  Very cool, very interesting although I checked it out with the like girliest stack of books.  I got that (which was the least embarassing girly since it actually is a good smart book, but the other two were paperback Georgette Heyer's.  Paperback from when like Harlequinn romance was the only people publishing her in trashy bodice ripping covers (well not really because her books have no trashy, like the most that happens is at the end of the book the hero "embraces" the heroine).  Lately she has been reprinted in good nice copies (some in hardcover that I kind of want to own every single solitary one of because I love them, they make me happier when I open them, much like watching episodes of the West Wing).  Anyway, good books all.  Kind of embarrassing to have checked by the security guard at the door to the library.

Went to be early

Like before 9pm, and holy god did I need it.  I feel much more refreshed now.  Feeling more like I can conquer the world.  Ok, maybe just conquer my neighborhood or my building, we'll stick with that.

Ok, so no scavenger hunt. Most likely.

I mean clearly that was going to cost a lot of money, but I let the lowball "Starts at" price be what I visioned I wanted.  It is not.  It is not sufficient.  Sufficient party would require too much more money to happen.  So, yeah, unless I get inspired to write my own and stage it (ummm, probably not this summer), not happening.  Back to the 30 drawing board.

 

Any ideas?  May be medieval times.  Maybe something else.  I might need to see who plays taste of chicago...

I HAVE U2 TICKETS

Oh and Snow Patrol in Soldier Field to a concert I couldn't go to because I would be in Spokane, but they added and extra day and we will back from Spokane, so I can go!!!!  Summer of concerts!!!!  This and Elton John and Billy Joel face to face.  Plus weddings and bitch barn reunions.  BEST. SUMMER. EVER!  30th birthday notwithstanding (although may have an amazing race style birthday scavenger hunt so who knows that may totally rule as well).

Pillow Fight

I went to one yesterday in front of the Art Institute. It was public and about 40 people and very fun. A few hard whacks, but mostly just gentle giggly swats, but I had to cart my own pillow downtown and back. I highly reccomend pillow fights to all out there in the blogosphere.

Harry Potter Yo Mama Jokes

That is right.  They exist.  Here at the Nerdist.

 

"Yo mama so masculine she makes Dumbledore go DAH-YUM!"

 

and

 

"Yo mama so dumb she thinks Sirius Black is the soul station on sattellite radio"

 

Some of my faves because apparently I am some kind of bigot, or I like their jokes.

I don't have a toothbrush

Because last night Sam was cleaning up a mess in the bathroom and my toothbrush was on the side of the sink (which actually was kind of weird because usually it is put away), and he sprayed cleanser on it.  For you know, fresh comet-y breath or something.  Yeah.  It happened late last night, so that meant this morning, no toohbrush.  Used mouthwash but not quite good enough.  Sam is buying me a new one today.

 

 

The Fog Is Lifting

I feel much better, maybe it was rest or better food or doing things that make me happy, but I am feeling better.  Some people at work are being stupid which is not helping the feeling better entirely--mostly because I have been doing things on my own timeline and no one told me that a few things on my list they would prefer get done earlier rather than later which I totally would've done if anyone had said something because it is not like I am doing nothing over here people!  I just have a long list of things to do to recover from whole office spring cleaning.

 

But I feel like I am taking pleasure in things and not feeling clouded over, and that is good.  Getting out of the rut is good.

Captain Crankypants

That has been me lately.  I have just had the blues.  You know? 

 

I would say I am a generally laughy giggly person, and I had a great week last week, but sometime this weekend a fog rolled in.  And it has stayed.  I had to work over the weekend, maybe that was crappier than I thought.  I had a minor fight with Sam this weekend, but I feel it was a fight because I am in a funk and was spoiling for something, plus we resolved what it was about.

 

It is an especially thick funk fog because yesterday I could feel happy fun people at rehearsal doing and saying things that generally get me out of things like this, and I could feel this part of me really wanting to break out of my cloud and join them.  It wanted to laugh and smile and sing along loudly with the song on my ipod while I was walking, but the rest of me just clawed to it and wouldn't let it.

 

And the self-critic is out in full force, chastising specific behaviors and instances I cannot go back in time days, weeks, and months to fix.  And really, really harping on them and their specifics and making it easy to stay and dwell in this fog and I don't want to.  I want to lighten up, and for unexplicable reasons that is not happening.  Tonight I will go home and watch some Sports Night or West Wing, they usually make me happy or maybe I can convince Sam that we should go somewhere new and exciting.  I don't know where that would be, but maybe breaking out of the routine will help me break out of this fog as well.

Recessed

Yeah, so my life met the recession a little first hand last week or two week ago. My hours at work have been cut (and my pay too since I am hourly) to 35 hours a week, but the surprising thing is that I freaking LOVE it. My show is up and running and busy, busy. I get paid less but not CRAZY less, and since I had Sam's help in consolidating my credit card debt I am now paying it down faster AND have a savings account towards a rainy day.

Basically all it means is that I get paid a bit less but I get to go home earlier everyday. Or I can have a half day once a week and still go home early a couple of days. Plus I always take a for sure one hour lunch--sometimes meeting Sam for it. How can that be bad. It has made me a better employee because I have a reason to stay focused and a happier employee because I don't feel like the job is imprisoning me. Apparently all I needed to like my job was do the same job but for less hours a week. It was proposed to me as a temporary measure, but when the economy straightens itself back out and it can be time for me to go back to full time, I will probably ask to stay at 35 hours a week. I am just soooooooo much happier because of it.

Here's hoping this is all the recession/depression does to my life, and I hope it only touches all my readers out there in a similarly serendipitous way, if it has to touch them at all.

Everyone calm down

I found my cell phone, or the staff at Old Navy on State Street did, and I will pick it up later.  Sigh of relief.  Also will copy down all of the phone numbers into the interwebs.  Yea for Google docs!

I think I lost my cell phone.

It is for sure not in the house. It may be at old navy. It may be at nine west, and it may be somewhere else entirely. This totally sucks. Although it may be just the excuse I need to get the new purple phone that I want. We shall see.

On a kick in the kitchen

So last night I made pesto from scratch for dinner when Chris came over to just hang out and watch movies. Today I decided we should make cobbler and I just put into the oven a berry cobbler (where the berries get some punch from whiskey and lemon zest) from a recipie by Emeril. We also picked up some ginger flavored ice cream at the store that should taste awesome with this once we get around to eating it.

Sam helped slightly on each of these, but basically they were all me. I am quite the Suzy homemaker for the weekend.

Part 4: Idaho, Idaho, Go Go Go!

On Friday morning, we woke up and headed up to Idaho in time to attend a workshop in the mid afternoon. We tried to stop by the theater department and see if anyone was around, but no luck, so we headed off to the SUB Ballroom for our first workshop. Benny Green and a few other members of the house band reminisce about a deceased jazz great named Ray Brown. They played a tiny bit but mostly talked, and Sam ate up every second. Then we headed to main street for a second workshop with a piano prodigy named Eldar who was way way WAY more advanced than anyone in the audience but clearly genius and very interesting. After that we went back to Pullman to take my little brother out to eat, and I think he enjoyed spending more time with Sam.

That night we went to the Kibbie Dome for the most amazing concert that I have ever, EVER seen. The first half was good jazz of the sort that Sam likes and I try really hard to stay awake for. Because I acknowledge it is good but when I see it late at night in a darkened concert hall (or football stadium) I tend towards nodding off. But I did not nod off and it was good. And then, it was time for Bobby McFerrin. He is amazing. He is incredible. He is possibly the most magical performer I have ever seen. No he probably is the most magical performer I have ever seen. He made a football stadium of 4,000 people most of whom were punk ass high school students silent with rapt attention. I can't really explain how fantastic he was. He as definitely not the goofy don't worry be happy man you would expect. He was calm and very rooted and sharing his music with us rather than performing it. If you ever, ever have a chance to see him I would for SURE go. I certainly will. It was awesome. Also eclectic. He did more traditional sounding jazz, he played the audience as if we were the sound in a giant piano on the floor of the stage (think "Big" but there was no piano he just taught us where the notes were and we sang them--helped by the fact that the audience included a few thousand music students), and he did a one man mini-Wizard of Oz. It was so awesome. I was floored. Very rarely do you go see some art or performance or concert where you can tell that what you are seeing is someone truly genius, truly magnificent at the top of their game. He is that.

After the concert, we went to meet up with my friend Sally who was being kind enough to let us stay at her house. However, we got to meet up with her at a cocktail party for VIPs, donors, volunteers and our interloper selves. She was volunteering as an artist relations guru all festival, and she managed to snag Sam and I each invitations to the cocktail party. No open bars are nice, but even nicer was getting to see some truly fantastic jazz musicians just jam with other musicians. Sam's favorite living pianist was there and on the piano, and since it was a fairly small party in a hotel ballroom, Sam got to stand just a few feet from him watching him play and being in pure heaven. As the night progressed another jazz piano legend came over to join the jamming musicians, but as the piano was occupied Monty Alexander had to pick up the bass. Sam drew in a sharp breath and whispered to me, "I didn't even know he could play the base!" Even later, as Monty Alexander's hands grew sore from slapping that bass, he joined Benny Green (Sam's fave) at the piano playing forhanded and switching sides effortlessly. After they finished, Sam joined Sally and I at our table, he was flushed and a little sweaty just from witnessing something amazing. I asked him then if the trip was worth it, and he told me that is definitely was.

The next day we slept in a a little bit before having breakfast at The Breakfast Club and taking a nap. After nap time we met Sally and her husband for dinner and had a great time talking and just hanging out. I am so very glad that Sally and David will be moving to Chicago soon because they are such wonderful lovely people. That night's concert was half big swing band that I didn't particularly like and half people I did like. There was a really great jazz vocalist who was just totally in the wrong venue. She was the kind of singer you want to see in a dim club late at night perched at a tiny table instead of sitting in the bleachers watching her in a domed football stadium. That night there was more cocktail party, with more great jazz (better than that nights pay concert) and where Sam was encouraged to sit in at the piano. But he didn't. It was a good night, but the night before was just so much more magical that it had no choice but to be more of a denouement.

Sunday morning we drove the long drive back to Seattle, saw Sam's brother again and flew on back into Chicago with no mishaps. That actually was rather amazing because apparently the East coast was a mess travel wise, so we were quite lucky to have a perfectly easy flight from the West coast home.

In a postscript, next month both Monty Alexander and Benny Green will be performing here in Chicago and Sam and I will be sure to see each of them at least once. Go jazz showcase. If it isn't too crowded, I will probably mention to the artists that we saw them in Idaho and that they were marvelous.

Vacation blogging (very belatedly) parts 2 and 3

Part two started getting up at regular work time and getting on the road. We drove from Seattle down to Portland, stopping once for some caffeine and Jack in the Box tacos (YUMMY!). Then in Portland we found ourselves in the Pearl District downtown, parked, and went in search of a restaurant for lunch. That was harder than we thought it would be, but eventually we found a bar that was kind of funky, had free wifi and got some delicious pizza.

Then back on the road, but instead of driving straight to my grandparents, we decided to head down the coast which was a much more beautiful drive. It wailed on us with the rain until right before we hit the coast when the sun came out and it was gorgeous and lovely and a perfect view for Sam's first day in Oregon ever.

We stopped and got out of the car on the beach in Lincoln City. There we were on the Pacific Ocean, on the beach for the second time in February. Although, it turns out that it is much more fun to be on a beach in Mexico in February than in Oregon in February. Then we swung back East to my grandparents farm.

There my uncle Chris and my grandparents met Sam. I am pretty sure that he was well received (my grandmother mught have approved the most). Then we had a delicious dinner of pheasant and bread and a few things before we drove over to my cousin Shane's house to see him, his wife Sadie, and their brand new baby Owen who was 8 days old. We didn't stay too long since they had a new baby, but it was good to see them.

The next day we got up and took a tour of the farm, met my aunt, and spent a little more time with the grandparents before we headed off to my hometown.

Before heading all the way to Pasco, we drove to a winery called King's Estate for lunch at their kinda fancy restaurant. The food was delicious with things like estate cured ham and flight of yummy wines. Then we drove another big chunk until we stopped at Multanomah Falls which is this amazing waterfall just East of Portland. We got out and climbed up to this old bridge across the bottom of the falls, if it hadn't been raining so hard we might have hiked up higher but we didn't. It was raining and we needed to get back into the car and drive all the way to my parents with brief stops for gas and fast food.

That brings us to Part 3: Hometown.

Our first night in, we just hung out at my parents for an hour or two before going to bed and saw my sister a bit when she came over after a meeting she had for work. The big revelation was that my parents let us sleep in the same bed! Sam and I, unmarried, premarital fornicators that we are, were allowed to share a bedroom for the trip. WEIRD!!!

The next day was sort of low key and let us catch up on some sleep. We got up to go take Natalie out to lunch at a little Mexican food place with big BIG margaritas and played with my mother's 10 week old kitten. That night, my aunt threw us a dinner for close family friends who were all meeting Sam for the first time. It was kind of a test, but I think that he passed it. I also got to see my brother's fiancee for the first time since they got engaged (well the first time since they started dating even though I have known her for well over a decade almost two). They seemed very happy.

Our second full day in town, I got to see my dear friend Heather before my mom, my sister, and my brother Tom took Sam and I wine tasting. My mom was BLITZED after the second winery. We had to taste and eat at the third one, but then Natalie and I got a little toasted at the fourth winery. They were pouring EVERYTHING for us there because we bought a great deal of wine as gifts for friends who were putting us up (wink, wink Sally) and Sam's brother as well as to drink ourselves while we are there. Then we had dinner at Tom and his fiancees house with my parents. It was nice, kind of lo key, Kate makes a great pasta red sauce. That night Natalie and I karaoked it up at our local bar. Seriously no one was singing at the Dugout, just us. We sang a ton. A handful of people who knew us (but were not singing) started laughing and heckling because of how many songs we had sang.

The next day we headed up to Idaho which will be part four coming soon. . . hopefully.

Ok, still paused. . . actually may unpause later today

I paused because this weekend started with a doozy of a birthday party, and I got way drunker than I had been in a long time.  That led to a Saturday where Sam and I did nothing.  We made the house messy, we ate chips and salsa as a meal.  We lounged around the house and never got dressed or showered.  That meant Sunday needed to be more productive and then my play got crazy because someone dropped out of the play and there were re-writes and all hoop-dee-durdle.  Although in the end I think it might end up even better for the show than if the rewrites had not been prompted.  (So for those following along in the comments Sam and I were not vomiting, although he managed to massively screw up his sleep schedule during this whole thing).

 

Anyway, things are settling down.  I got some news that should make several things in my life easier--thanks to the genius and generosity of my wonderful boyfriend. 

 

I was also pausing to put pictures in the blog posts, but I think I will just blog AND THEN go back and insert photos.  So later today I may well catch things back up.

 

 

So, pause before more vacay blogging

I have had rehearsal all week, really long ones where we block giant scenes that I am on stage for virtually the entire time.  The good news that is basically most of what I do in this episode, so I don't have a whole lot more to do rehearsal wise for a bit.

 

Tonight I need to catch up on unpacking, paying bills that come due at the beginning of the month, and seeing my boyfriend who wakes up way after me and is basically already asleep when I get back from rehearsals and no of course it does not make me bitter that he gets to sleep way more than I do when I am totally exhausted.  Except that oh yes it does.  Oh yes it does.

 

In a side note, I have a potential opportunity this summer to do a solo performance, and I have been toying with ideas of what to do/brainstorming, and right now the front runner is a piece on my obsession with Henry Rollins and like the causes of it that would sort of revolve around the fact that he was the scariest man I could come up with who was also smart and attractive and vaguely approachable (you know except for the part where I do not know him), and therefore in my mind was the perfect man because he was smart and attractive and WAY scarier than I was so of course we would be perfect for eachother because there is no way he would be scared of me. 

 

Obviously it would be longer than that paragraph.  Also, I was thinking that in order to convey who he was to the audience I should have like a scary looking photo of him and maybe play a snippet of his music (of the yelly punk 80's variety).  I think this could work.  What do you my loyal readers think?

My Trip, Segment One

Okay, so I blogged not at all because I had wifi about that much over the course of the trip which was basically really, really great (even though I was kind of concerned that it would go over like a lead balloon since Sam had already met most of those people in my family and it was almost seemingly a pointless expensive trip—well not so expensive, mostly just the tickets). The plan is to over this week blog about the trip in segments and maybe even add some pictures (because I did take some), so here I go. . .

Segment one: Seattle and Dan (Sam’s baby brother not mine)

We left on Saturday, but in the afternoon and as it spent the morning starting to snow more and more on the snow that had already fallen the night before I kind of worried that we would be WAY delayed or cancelled and that was NOT how I wanted to start my vacation that I was forcing Sam to take with me. But here in Chicago we don’t let a little snow get us down, so we took off and only a pinch late because the plane that we were taking was a pinch late in the landing.

The flight it self was long and uneventful and we landed just fine and dandy in SeaTac. Sam’s little brother was there to pick us up. Then we headed out to dinner at a GREAT restaurant called “Wild Ginger” which I would HIGHLY recommend (and on the bus we took to get there we passed KIRO and the TBTL haunted Azteca which got me VERY excited). After dinner we went around the corner to the Musicquarium at the Triple Door and heard some blues, and it was a good, good night where we were joined by a work contact of Sam’s. The next day we hung around kind of lamely, but I went out with my cousin Stephanie shopping, and then we hit Ivar’s for dinner. Also somewhere in there I creamed Sam and his brother at Xbox 360 Scene it.

Monday morning we got up earlyish and got in the car for Segment two: Oregon, Oregon, everywhere with a baby and some white pheasants. . . To Be Continued . . .

Going on a trip

Is soooooo much work! Laundry and errands and plans and so much work. Plus the cat seems to have decided to lose his little mind. So cranky and needy this week.

But I will probably not be blogging too much while gone. But maybe not as I do have the new itouch (although probably they will be short blogs).

Valentine's day

We stayed home and were lazy and cozy. Sam made a dinner of some strip steak marinated a la an Alton Bron recipe as well as a yummy 5 cheese homemade mac and cheese and an arugula, cabbage, carrot salad with Gorgonzola dressing. I made dessert which was a french silk pie (graham crust with a creamy chocolate mousse filling), and we had champagne and strawberries.

I got Sam a new wallet, some balloons and a plant delivered to his office (where the plant can continue to live), and two battery operated tshirts. One tshirt has a drumset on it that you can play and the other lights up to show the strength of the wireless networks near you. They are pretty sweet (and in a picture below).



Sam sent me flowers to work in a cute little silver cup (see in the picture below), a gift certificate to Sephora (yea make-up! and yea! Sam for coming up with this after having to go with me to pick something up there one time), and a little box from Tiffany's in which there was a little "h" necklace in sterling silver. I LOVE IT!! And my sister has a matching "n" necklace that I got her for Christmas.

Perks of Membership

I am a member of the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago which means I can go for free whenever I want which is very nice considering I work around the corner and it makes for an excellent break at lunchtime.  Plus I get to bring a guest for free whenever I go, so it ends up being frequented when I have out of town visitors or newbies to Chicago.

 

Well, they just opened their first very special extra admission exhibit since I purchased my membership.  Wait, actually tomorrow they open that exhibit, but I went yesterday for their exclusive member preview.  Just me and maybe 100 other people wandered through many, many gothically lit galleries all displaying Edward Much and his contemporaries paintings, wood cuttings, and sculpture.  I felt very important and fancy, and it was a FABULOUS break from my job.

 

But I don't really like Munch.  At most I enjoy some of his color combinations, and he had this series of sort of blue, gloomy, serene paintings that seemed very dreary but appealing to me (mostly because they were filled with the colors in the palette of my own wardrobe).  But there were some really awesome paintings by other painters on display.  A fabulous Monet portrait of Mrs. Monet in a red kerchief and a few other bright expressionist street scapes that I want to hang in my house although I suspect they are out of my budget.

 

Alas, I knind of had to breeze through it really fast, and I don't even remember seeing "the Scream" if it was even in the exhibition, but that seems a weird omission in such a comprehensive display, so I guess I will go back later.  Because my membership card means I get to see these exhibits for free as long as they are not at capacity.  I think that is cool.  Although all Chicagoans, the musuem is free all February except for the pay to play Munch exhibit (which I think would still be cheaper than regular general admission), and they have redone things up in the last few months all in preparation for their modern wing to open in the spring.  That means the Pollock is no longer out as well as the stuff near it, but they have beautifully rearranged a lot of the rest of the collection including the dreary and dark hall of armor becoming a bright and airy hall of asians (well you know ancient asian art).

This is what I did this weekend

Here is Sam and I on the train back in from the airport earlier today. It really is irrelevant to the rest of the posts, but I really love the look on Sam's face, so in it goes.

This is the weekend. This is the beach in Mexico in the state of Michoacan. It was a little random place that rents cabanas on the beach and seemed to be unknown to tourists, really only known to people familiar with this pretty wild stretch of the Pacific Coast.


Here is Sam on the beach, looking the other direction.


We headed to Mexico for my Christmas present on Friday afternoon, and we got back today, and it was awesome. We flew into Guadalajara where we spent the weekend with Sam's foreign exchange student and good friend Ivan and many of his friends--all young, educated, well employed, Mexican hipsters. The first night we went down to the main plaza in Guadalajara and just sort of soaked it in for a bit, then we hit cafe for dinner and then we met up with Ivan's friends at a bar called El Pony. It was strangely like a bar we could find in Bucktown, a little trendy a lot hipster. I wish that I had not forgotten my camera because there was a man in 80's high 'v' waisted over the belt leopard print pants. The belt was bright red, he had pointy gold shoes on and on top was a low v black tank top with a little skinny grey cardigan over it. IT WAS SO MUCH LOOK! I could not handle it all night. The guy worked there so he was always around.

The next day we got up early and drove to the beach about 5 hours away. We drove out of Jalisco (where Guadalajara was) into Colima where I saw a volcano, coconut farms (more palm trees than I ever imagined seeing in my life), sugar cane fields, lime trees and banana plants. All from the car window, with my camera locked in the trunk (yeah, I know, good thinking right). Then we drove into Michoacan and got stopped at the military checkpoint on the border between the states. That was interesting. It was a military check point, and it was very strange but they quickly let us pass.

At the beach, we just hung out and napped in the shade of the simple palm leave covered structure and splashed in the divinely warm pacific ocean. Then we drank under the stars and the near full moon, and then we slept and repeated the next day. The beach was awesome!!!! Late Sunday we drove to the nearby village and had lunch in a little open air seaside restaurant where a parrot was climbing around the dining room, his wings seemed to either be clipped or hurt and he could not fly. There we had ceviche and seafood with fruit salsa, and it was very good. Then we drove back home a few hours later (lunching required naps).

Once home we went to bed, and then got up early this morning to fly back. It was a short trip, but wonderful. I recommend a beach in Mexico as a perfect prescription for the winter blues.

is this wrong to do at work

I have a DVD of a spoken word performance, and I thought it would be good company at work because it is a spoken word performance, so I don't need to see it just here it.  Is that wrong?

jokes are fun

So, I don't think it should come as a terrible shock to any of my blog readers that Sam and I are pretty serious, and we both know that we will get engaged sometime and then married at some point after that.  Although those sometimes and some points are very fluid and should encompass many years in total at their smallest points.  Anyway, because of that and the fact that Sam has now met my dad, there is a small possibility that Sam will officially propose with a ring and stuff at any moment now, BUT the likelihood of that happening increases with the amount of time passed, so it is very tiny right now and all this spring/summer/year it will remain small.

 

Anyway, that is background.  Sam's company like all the rest of us, is feeling the economy pinch and therefore will not be giving lavish bonuses or raises.  People will get them, but from a smaller pool and raises will be reserved only for the truly exceptional and will smaller than usual, so Sam is not expecting the usual bounty he has gotten in the past.  I have been teasing him when he says that we can't get engaged because girls cost money, by saying that well when he gets his bonus he can blow it all on a ring for me.  However, he teased me that this year it doesn't look good.  This makes me think that the next time we see the two guys who founded the company, as we have gone to dinner and concerts with them upon occasion before, I should tell them that we aren't engaged because they did not pony up enough of a bonus for a ring this year.  I think this will be hilarious, and I think they will be amused too because well they have senses of humor and Sam and I met because of their company (it hired my friend, she introduced us at a work event, etc) and they know the whole back story. 

 

This story/joke is less amusing than I feel it should be.  And it is because I totally jumbled the backstory and constructed it very poorly.  Part of me wants to go back and polish it up so Alan won't give me grief, but I am too lazy.  Deal with it Cate Blanchett!

Tarot cared from sallyacious.com

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Superbowl

An example of why I love Sam as much as I do:

We are not watching the superbowl, or we are but on delay. On that delay (thanks Tivo!) we are just watching the commercials and the halftime show. That's all. Also he keeps calling the Steelers the Penguins. This is what I call superbowl sunday!

Oh kitty!

My cat has been odd lately. A lot more cuddly than usual, but I think that may be related to kitty anxiety. Steve McQueen has a bad or sad lonely day and then ambushes us for cuddles when we come in the door after work. He also leaves a puddle of cat hair on the couch. He is such a weirdo. But I guess more snuggling is better than no snuggling. Or less.

Unrelated, lately I feel like I have learned lately that I seem to be a head of or an early adopter of some trends, but I think this is pure accident. Well and lots of unfettered internet access with some time to use it everyday to relieve the slog of the workday. So I twitter (a little not on my phone) and I have a collection of reliable bloggers who find cool pop culture and political tidbits, and I look in on them at lunch and in lulls, so I tend to know stuff pretty quickly. This is very weird to me becuase I generally feel like I am the last one to know about everything.

thank you chrissy

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Low
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Medium

Discover Your Sins - Click Here

Totally on tv

There was an insanely brief shot (well so far but I am assuming that it is all) of my office as "Platinum Cats" in the Patrick Swayze series "The Beast" last night. It is basically exactly how I see it as I walk from the bus dropping me off on Michigan and Jackson, of course when I see there is not a trashy stripper sign with lots of neon. Awesome!

I seem like a fool!

Because I listen to TBTL and laugh aloud at it often, which is kind of embarassing on the bus or walking down the street.  Chrissy, I strongly reccomend this show to you because I think you will really like it also Jim.  Others of you may not like it much I think that Robyn, Margaret and Sara Jo will be annoyed and think it a waste of your time (I am not saying you would be wrong), Jon might like it--it could go either way, Sally you just won't see what the big deal is which is probably for the best because you do not have time for it.  Sisavadty I think you will like it but it will take a few shows to get there.  Teebs you are like Jon and could go either way, either total love or total hate. 

 

Stupid Lauren has made me one of the tens, and I can't go the roller skate party a week from today, but I am seriously thinking of trying to force Sam's brother to go because he lives in Seattle, and I do see the stupidness of this plan.  I do see it.

Do not worry, things are looking up

I mean in general.  There is much less crappiness than last week.  I am again in one of those funks where I just really, really wish life could in general be a little less hard like it seems to be for some people I see outside me.  I mean it probably isn't, this is just my sad puppy perception.  But I do really wish things could stay easier for more than like a week at a time.  Like where did I not learn all the life lessons that make other people seem to get by all happily, you know?  Was that what I traded in the genetic or life lottery in order to get nice legs and red curly hair?  I would gladly trade if that is the case.  And I get that I am responsible for some of the problems I had, that I made dumb choices that had foreseen and underestimated or unforseen consequences.  I get that.  But it just sucks.  I was going to expound on that, but I can't really add anything.  It sucks when you fuck things up.  It even sucks harder when you don't fuck things up but they get all fucked up anyway, that seems to be the theme song of my life lately.  Well, it is not as dire as all that, and that blanket statement could be true of any number of people I know many of whom are like myself far happier and healthier than a lot of others at the specific point in time in which I write this.  I have many things to be thankful for.  And it would probably do me well to be thankful for them and to focus on the things I can change.

Seriously?

Because you know my life needed my job to be totally sucky and kind of bogus after suffering through the hard bits in my personal life, it decided to try to kill me with stupidity and misery all rolled up into one.  There is a trade show in Miami Beach and it has been a disaster at every, every every EVERY front.  Not even joking.  Nothing has gone right, well, or smoothly and all of it has made my life miserable.  Now I take full responsibility for a few things that yeah, they should land at my door and I have been owning them.  They are relatively small wrinkles in this ocean of crashing hellish waves and actually would not have been rippling if other people had held up any tiny little part of their ends of the deal or been anything but totally procrastinative.

 

So yeah, Friday 4pm almost left thinking you know part time retail and busboy is better than this (because that was the moment lots of things just evaporated/disintigrated without warning), but I thought Monday can only be better main boss who I was very mad at is a whole time zone away and schmoozing which means he will NOT be talking with me, and he will be gone a week which is just totally awesome since right now I kind of want to kill him and that will definitely be time enough for me to calm down.  But was today better.  No.  No it was not.  MORE things went wrong that should not have gone wrong again if other people here had even partway done their own freaking job ad the only way I could have fixed it would have been to literally use them as a puppet to do their own job or if I did it for them, but I was already busy doing some of their job and you know MY OWN.  So yes, today worse.   Really would like a day that doesn't totally suck.  That would be great.  And at this point it doesn't even have to be a good day and will still be better than this.  By a lot!

 

Tomorrow seeing Spamalot!  Here is hoping that will assist in the bettering of my day.

Lauren, Lauren, Lauren

I blame you.  I blame you for corrupting my days with TBTL or its full title Too Beautiful To Live at Seattle area talk radio show that airs at night, but that I download from itunes and listen to on my ipod.  It is led by Luke Burbank who would be familiar to you if you are a big fan of "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me an NPR news Quiz" because he appears on it and does hosting duties when Peter Sagal is on vacation.  I have liked him on there for quite a while.  And Lauren kept raving about this show and how wonderful it is, and I bit.  I downloaded it one day and in hour one I was like eh, this kinda sucks, and hour two I was like well it doesn't suck but it isn't as wonderful as Lauren says, and hour three I was like motherfucking Lauren I like this.  Dammnit.  However, did I mention the three hours were just 1 days worth of this show.  Thank God I listen to podcasts at work otherwise this might ruin my sleep.

 

Ummm, yeah, so I also kind of reccomend it, and I want to go to their roller skate party on the 30th of January and yeah.

 

Also I have worked out quite a bit this weekend and my legs hurt.  They hurt.  They hurt kind of a lot.  BUT I am 1/4 of the way to the 5% initial buy myself an itouch as a reward goal (because then I can get the thingy that goes in my shoes and tracks my workout and stuff.  Which means I lost 2 pounds since initial weighing.  Only 14 more to go to 10% and 6 more to go for the 5%.  I have also saved $50 towards the purchase of said future itouch.

 

And as for rough patch of last week's bemoaning, considerable progess has been made towards returning to smoother patches, good progress.

Sometimes relationships are hard

I think we all know this. The boyfriend and I are in a hard patch. I don't believe it is an unendurable hard patch, but certainly a very bracing and learning hard patch. That's really all I feel like saying about that.

For the record, no one is breaking up, no one is doing awful things to the other, nothing like that is happening. There is some fighting and some misunderstanding and some crying because that is what happens the best of us in rough patches.

bad weather bad tummy

The weather outside my window is shaping up to be just as awful as they predicted. Almost as awful as my tummy illness of today. It started last night and this afternoon I started to feel better. But suckiness of gettin over stomach flu like things is that once you can eat food again you are starving and slightly wary of being illprepared to digest all but the blandest of foods. Yeah, that as kind of gross. Sorry.

My calendar is naked

Well, not naked, but pretty bare.  Especially considering the last months and what not.  Having two jobs fills up the calendar, so does having a play, and two jobs and a play turns out to be a killer.  Right now, I am in hiatus mode on play.  I have one job.  So there is a grand total of 1 play related commitment on my January calendar and then a second maybe committment--it is rough because it conflicts with a boyfriend related thing, so it may depend on which one I go to (also on weather, if it doesn't totally suck I may go to the far off one, if it does totally suck I will NOT be going to the far off one). 

 

In fact my main conflicts of the moment are trips or visits.  In exactly 24 days, my parents come to town for a weekend.  In 32 days I go to Mexico, and in 47 days I go to the Pacific Northwest (kind of all of it, weather permitting we will hit Washington, Oregon, and Idaho) for 9 or 10 days.  It should be great fun. 

 

But boy does my calendar look unfamiliar because of it.

Sunday, Sunday

I am tired. I had a pretty busy holiday season, and I was hoping for the New Year's portion to be a little easier, but then my sister came and my free time to accomplish things disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Anyway, as a result I was kind of a whiny brat to go home early from a birthday party on Friday night, and I fell asleep in a big heap on the bed at like 11pm and slept and slept and slept until today.

Having my sister and her boyfriend here was wonderful!! We ate out, we hung out, and we did very little other stuff besides the new year's eve party. Everything was great, and I am so glad she came.

On other news, Sam and I are trying to be better at eating and spending by trying to eat in during the week. There was a big grocery store trip today in order to prep for that. It should be fine. I am also suggesting that we drink out a little less and when we do that we don't actually need to buy drinks for everyone else every round or so.

Sister is in the air!

They bought tickets last night, and they are here through Friday.  They should be over the friendly skies of Salt Lake City right now, and I will see them around 5pm.  They are even braving the el system all by their selves.

 

Tonight we head out to dinner at a Brazilian style steak house called Zed451, and I feel that a mega feast of meat, meat, meat, some not meat, and a lot more meat will make them very, very happy.

So much has passed

The first holiday vacation with Sam's family.  His lucid grandmother is ADORABLE!--a spunky fun 80 something, and I would love to be like that when I grow up.  His other grandmother is not so lucid and in her 90's and very fragile, but I am very glad I got to meet her if for no other reason than it seems to make Sam feel better (she had a fall and a health scare about 10 days before we got to Tulsa that made it seem as if I would not get to meet her without an unexpected and very sudden adjustment to our trip).  His parents are wonderful as always, and his brother is no where near as awful as they make him out to be.  It was 76 the last full day we were there and we filled it with good Meixcan food and a walk with the dog.

 

My brother called me as Sam and I sat in the plane at Midway for the 18 or so years it seemed like we were tracked there.  He just got engaged and will be married on the 4th of July.  This all seems very sudden to me, and he is my younger brother so I of course project the fact that I have been dating my significant other for a year and a half ish and am not quite prepared to actually marry him and I am old, so obviously he cannot possibly be prepared to marry his significant other of a few months at his age.  I get that there are some serious flaws to that logic, but I have not seen this brother since he started dating this woman (who we have all know for something like 20 years), and I did see him in August, so I think that my difficulty in dealing with this information should not be read as a meanness on my part.  This is a whole lot of change to believe in while having no concrete evidence in front of me.  I just want him to be happy and have very little with which to reassure myself.  When I see them in February, my hopes are that all will be assuaged.

 

Oh yeah, and I "get" to be in the wedding.  I HATE being in weddings, and I think I would rather NOT be in the wedding, but I also am fairly certain that my brother and future sister-in-law will be VERY disappointed if I were to have told them no (to be fair I have been in 2 weddings in my whole life--as a flower girl at 5 and a maid of honor at 23--and after the second one I swore that I would never been in one ever again much to my sister's utter abject horror because OF COURSE I meant no other wedding except hers at which point I told her  yeah I don't want to be in yours either because it will be a wedding right? so it isn't against their wedding it is a general anti-participation prejudice against weddings, I find them far more enjoyable as an audience member and NOTHING more).  Theoretically, I won't have to wear a hideous dress.  Supposedly I get to pick a knee length black dress for myself.  Oh and that sister will be in wedding with me.  But so will sorority girls and actual cheerleaders.  Seriously, my brother is marrying a sorority girl who was a college cheerleader and is now a cheer coach.  I have nothing more to add to that.

 

Also, it seems likely that my sister and her boyfriend will come in to town tomorrow for a few days.  Sam will meet her for the first time and her boyfriend will meet me for the first time.  This will be totally AWESOME!

oops, forgot to tell you I AM in Tulsa

We arrived at 10am on Christmas Eve.  But only after another hour or so of delay.  But that was one hell of a storm.  We were rewarded today with 75 degree weather here in Tulsa.

Yes, I am still NOT in Tulsa

So, 5 hours of waiting in Midway plus three hours of waiting on the plane at Midway (because we were about to take off but we had been de-iced so long ago that the wings had refrozen so we had to go back to the gate which took forever since all the gates were full, so we needed more fuel, so they had to recalculate our load, and we needed more water and then we headed back out to be de-iced AGAIN and finally got in the air), finally flying to St. Louis and then being told (after hanging out on the flight for a half an hour or so since our southwest flight was continuing to Tulsa) that they were NOT flying us to Tulsa because our crew was over its hours.  Yeah.  Because it was weather no free hotels or food (well they brought us crackers and water and pop).

 

At this point it was past 1am, and they needed to help us rebook for today.  It took them a half an hour or so to tell us that in fact there would be a replacement flight created for us first thing in the morning at which point we looked into renting a car and freaking driving the last six hours (because FYI if we had driven to Tulsa we would have already BEEN there).  So we wait in line for a good hour and a half to get rebooked.  Book a room at a local Marriot and grab a few hours of sleep before heading back to the airport.

 

Where MORE indignities occur.  See, we "bought" our tickets less than 24 hours in advance, so the TSA needed us to get extra special searched when we went back through security.  So that was awesome, and then we discover that our 8 am flight is now an 8:30 flight because the crew did not get enough rest.  Well, no shit sherlock, we didn't either.  Also couldn't simple math have figured that out last night?  But whatever!

 

So here I am at the gate in St. Louis (hi Ken and Mandy) waiting to board in the next twenty minutes, so that hopefully we will get to Tulsa before 2009.  Here's hoping.  At this point I will not believe that we will get to Tulsa until we land on the freaking ground.

Holy Airport Hell

It is about 6pm.  I have been in Midway airport since about 2:30 pm.  I should've left on a flight to Tulsa via St. Louis at 4:45pm.  It didn't.  I has been delayed many, many, many times.  The airport sucks balls and is totally crowded (which may have to do with its inability to allow me to enjoy anything about it right now, oh yeah that and the delayed plane.  In fact the only worse airport to be stuck in at this moment is probably O'Hare where Southwest does not fly.

 

However, I just received good news as I started to type this rant blog.  The good news is that our plane, coming in from Pittsburgh is in the air!  Midway and the FAA have serious restrictions on planes they are letting come here, so if it is on the way, it should (oh please oh please oh please dear deity) land here, and then we get on it and then we get to St. Louis and then to Tulsa all before midnight.  Although it turns out that I may not have needed to take off work today anyway.  I guess I just wanted to hang out at an airport ALL DAY AND NIGHT.

 

OK, that's all.  I hope all of your holiday travel adventures are nicer (right about now Sally and Dave are very, very glad they killed theirs early and I cannot say that I blame them).

Christmas Ornaments

The first one is the glass globe ornament that I loved but that didn't seem to sell as quickly as other ones last year, either that or they way overstocked. The other two are a series of ladies that Pier 1 has been having. The flamenca was from last year, and the Indian woman in the sari was this year (this year also has a Japanese woman in a kimono, but she isn't as pretty as the Indian woman).

Busy weeks

I had a work holiday party Friday night, Sam and I threw our own holiday party Saturday night, Sunday I went to a matinee of "Dirty Dancing the Musical" which is the most awesomely bad thing I have ever EVER seen and which made me shake with glee for most of it, Monday we had our very last performance of the musical episode of the Ville where we rocked the house, and Tuesday I went shopping for my work's operation Santa Claus.  Yesterday I rested and took the kitty to the vet and got a fever from Sam who was sick with a fever.

 

Yeah, busy.  Tonight I gift wrap (for Operation Santa at work) and holiday gift/winter boot shop.  Then Friday and Saturday I have to somehow get to a a party, two plays and work at pier 1.  And then we are in the home stretch to holidays in Oklahoma.  Whew.

 

Although I won my friend Sallyacious' 1,000 comment contest and I get a cool book!  Pictures of ornaments this weekend or early next week.  Maybe tonight.

Poking around on the internet can be bad

It can be.  It sometimes is.  Or not bad so much as unsettling.  Like when you find the you tube page of an ex boyfriend who now dresses up like Jesus and ministers to people in Virginia, that is unsettling.  Although instead of getting really angry, like I used to whenever talk of him and Jesus connected (this is the ex now known as Jesus boy), I was mostly really proud and happy for him.  Even if I disagree with a lot of what he espouses as the true way to follow Christ and be a believer, I am proud of him for really making something of his life and happy that he seems to have found a peace which he never had when I knew him.  He was a deeply unrooted person when I knew him, and I think that fed a lot of his general unease with the world.

Christmas Online Shopping

I ordered a book online for the boyfriend's dad for Christmas, and so of course I ordered some books online for me too.  In fact, I realized I could get the whole set of Thursday Next books for like $18 plus like $12 more in shipping and handling, so I did of course (I was getting them all used thus the excessive shipping from amazon).  Then they all start arriving, and actually every single one of the 5 separate shipments is delivered on the same day (which is way impressive on its own) EXCEPT one.  There are 5 books in a series right, coming from 5 different locations.  Guess which book in the series didn't come? 

 

That's right!  The very first one is the only one missing.  I have yet to receive "The Eyre Affair" which I was hoping to start and then read on the planes and trip to Tulsa and back.  I mean I still have time, but they said it could come as late as December 23rd at which point I will be at work and leave from there to go catch my flight so I won't be able to grab the mail back at Sam's house hoping it would be too big to fit in the mailbox that I do not have a key too so it would be shelved below.  Ugh.  It better come soon.  I don't want to reread them out of order!

Laptop Recovered

So I am typing this on my very own unharmed totally returned laptop--which is what happens when a friend of a friend who is a total jackass and idiot gets drunk with a few others altogether late at night in the living room.

Needless to say some people just got disinvited from this house permanently. But laptop is back as with everything in it. I guess I might try backing things up.

Latop Stolen

So, very long story. That I may or may not get to ever writing down here because it is not a good stroy. My laptop was stolen last night, and I am not entirely sure when I will be getting another one. Or if I will be getting another one in a reasonable time frame.

Fortunatly I didn't have anything too irreplaceable on it. Some photographs, but I am not as prolific a photog as some so it is probably only a couple of hundred--most of which I have saved onto photosharing websites but some that are long, long gone.

Today there will be filing of a police report, and we will see. Sam is looking at the bright side of how shopping for a laptop is fun--he is suggesting a really thin mac.

Anyway, not sure how much I will be able to post for a while.

Christmas Tree decorating tips

As several of you (and others who saw my tree or the picture of my tree) have commented on it being lovely and "elaborate" I think Chrissy called it, I thought I would include some tips on how to take your own tree into the realm of fabulous without losing the I am a real person's real tree feel.

 

Tip #1--try to make everything you put on the tree coordinate.  Make them all one or two colors, or all metallic, or have a similar element or color through out.  I stuck to red and gold and white/iridescent, although making it a normal tree meant that when I really liked an ornament I said fuck it and put up whatever I want (there is an bright blue sari on the Indian lady that matches the flamenco lady on the front of the tree).

 

Tip #2--vary the sizes and shapes of stuff you put on the tree.  Or make them all identical.  But I used at least 4 sizes of round balls.  I have 5 or 6 very vertical ornaments, and when I hung all the ornaments on the tree I looked at the hole to balance and fill out.

 

Tip #3--have a basic ornament or two that you repeat multiple times throughout the tree.  I have a big glass globe, glass stars, clear gems, and gold jingle bells that are all over.  Buy these in bulk like 20 or so at a time--jingle bells are usually a dollar or less at pier one or target, and the others often come in packages or can be scavenged post Christmas for a steal.

 

Tip #4--know what looks good on your lighted tree.  Some ornaments that look cheap and are cheap at the store look way better than the expensive ones.  Look for ornaments that will reflect light with glitter, beading, facets, sparkle, shimmer, reflective surfaces.  Even when these look really lame and CHEAP in the store, they often look the best when integrated into the tree.  Unless you have a very specific theme like all wooden ornaments or toy trains, these are what start to bring your tree to the next level.  Also, if you have lots of matte or fabric or wood ornaments, use white lights and less of them to set them off rather than upstage them.

 

Tip #5--don't skimp on a garland.  My tree looks LOADS more awesome this year with very little changed.  There are a few more ornaments, but in the exact same vein as the ones there before.  The main change was having a garland.  And garlands can be easy, this was a ribbon (well two spools) that I bought at Home Depot for not terribly much money (for garland).  Ribbon with some metallic elements and wire are the most impressive of this kind of garland (in my opinion) although if you have a homier tree (like my friend Robyn's advent tree with hand knit ornaments, a paper chain or popcorn or cranberries on a string might be even better (also cheaper).

 

Tip #6--this might take a few years, so think of it as a long term goal.  OK, yes I thought about my tree this way, and it has been three Pier 1 holiday seasons in the making for my tree to look this nice.  Year one was some inexpensive basics and cheap plain glass bulbs from target.  Plus stocking up on my favorites when they went on sale after the holidays.  Year two was pretty much year one (with the after Christmas bargain additions) and some glittery gift tags to fill in.  Year three was the addition of some LED lights as well as some new ornaments from after Christmas year two and new new ones (because I had a better job), plus a major, major post Christmas discount win because NO ONE else liked my favorite ornament.  I bought like 5 of them for about $5 total instead of closer to $5 each.  Year four I have only added garland, some more jingle bells (on sale!), the glass gems (in a package, on sale!), and a few more ornaments (mostly to mix it up with some vertical and because I went from a 5 foot tree to a 7 and 1/2 foot tree) and also because I just like them.  I like Christmas ornaments.  So sue me.

 

Merry Christmas!  Happy Hanukkah!  Happy any other holiday out there that you celebrate this time of year!

My Christmas Tree

Or rather, Sam and my Christmas tree! This picture doesn't quite do it justice. There are LED lights on it, and lots of the ornaments are clear or transparent which not so much show up well in picture, but they look lovely on the tree! And there is a wreath on the door. Very nice indeed.

I am very proud of it. Most of the ornaments are Pier 1 (except for some plain glass balls from a value pack from Target.

There are the target balls, enormous prop glitter balls, teeny tiny mini tree balls, jingle bells, clear gems, transparent stars, these great transparent balls with diamond studs, a few long skinny glass ones, hand painted ones, beaded ones, to birds, a Spanish lady, and an Indian lady (sari and all). The garland is some big wired ribbon that I thought was really pretty at Home Depot where we bought this "slim" 7 and a half foot tall faker. Boy do we need a tree skirt! And a topper. Looking at my local Walgreens for that.

I feel like it is themed and coordinated while still being pretty eclectic which is what I was going for. Quite frankly the use of garland this year (which is new) is my favorite part, and even though the mini tree balls almost disappear they do an great job of filling in color and light. Yea Christmas!

Ponderings for this week

Things I have pondered lately.  I was SO a fish out of water where I grew up.  My perspective on ok and right and wrong were even different this is beginning to dawn on me now that I live in a corner of the world where I am surrounded by people with similar life views.  I am not saying I am surrounded by yes men (or women), but I am surrounded by people who start from the same point as me.

 

That Prop 8 in California is totally and egregiously wrong is a given with my my coworkers and friends and neighbors.  Well, some of them may actually agree with it, but they take the anti view seriously enough to not let on if they do.  Back home I know I would face frowns and faces and going to hells for loudly proclaiming equality full equality for homosexuals.  Even from some of the liberals.  I mean they would say that they like gay people but marriage would be coming on a little strong.

 

Here, I live in a place where gay men and lesbians holding hands, having children, and being very open and public about it isn't weird.  I mean I would imagine in some neighborhoods in Chicago it would be, but in the ones where I travel, it is just the way it is and no one seems to mind.  I mean they treat it exactly the same as hetero couples doing it (for the most part, I am sure Chris will speak up to correct me). 

 

I am sure there are some here who hate in the same way people did back home and in Idaho, but they are the quiet minority.  Exactly the opposite of what I saw back home.

 

It is nice.  One day it will be like that everywhere and people will shake their heads that Americans used to not let gays marry.  How silly and wrongheaded we once were.