today i was overjoyed. we were supposed to be hit with an ice storm that, instead, only sieged the bottom half of illinois. i, on the other hand, was able to work in the mild 18 degree, partly cloudy weather. motorists seemingly get most aggravated when following the horn, i give them the hand sweep, the "yes. you are behind me. go around, duh" motion. after that interaction today, this woman today rolled down her window and in the garbled speak you are only able to barely hear when someone speaks to you from inside a car, said (i only assume) that i was too far in the street for her to safely avoid me. i gleefully did what i haven't been able to do for weeks now, trapped in these silly lobster gloves, and flipped her. i don't normally condone these things, but there was something so absurd about being excited to be able use all five fingers. the weather does funny things to you.

on that same run i delivered these:

there were 500 of them-postcards that cost $225 for this cheesy clothing boutique, for which i'm sure i was payed $5 or something even though it was on armitage and sheffield. the woman called me hon, honey, and sweetie in the two minutes i was inside, classic. anyhow, when i told my dispatcher about my new-to-me front rack i put on my road bike it made her really happy. she's been giving me all the loop "car" runs, (which is actually often a client who doesn't believe a biker can carry anything more than an envelope...but i'm all about the small-ish boxes that pay me twice as much), which is super awesome since it's been pretty slow. due to the slowness, i've been up to update my monday only, to all-week crossword puzzle champion.

maniac randomly called me last week-him and joven had decided four days prior that they were to embark on a cross-country road trip, and that they would be in chicago on friday night. it was super funny to have them just show up-we ate at chicago diner, hung out at a show at jake's, watched mean girls in the morning and checked out some record stores. joven was determined to hate the cold while maniac made it a game to shovel snow. i'm a terrible tour guide, but they were only here for a day, so there wasn't too much showing around to do.

tour da chicago is well underway. the tour is a chicago tradition, i think this is the 8th year running. there are six or so races in the series, all with a slightly different theme. chicagoans apparently don't understand that alleycats should happen at noon though, so i slept through the prologue and and arduously dragged myself out of bed for the 8am start times the past two weeks. it's been fun to race again and have a reason to get people out. luckily it's been cold, pretty bitterly so, way too cold for snow. the dry cold i can deal with, the wet cold is the suck. anyhow, this past weekend was a lot of fun despite flatting out early on. val graciously hosted after, and sunday morning was filled with bagels and hot cider, yum.

my mom also made it out two weeks ago. she somehow came out when it was the coldest its been: hovering in the single to negative digits all week plus wind chill. still, we made it out and about everyday. thrift store shopping and dinners and took her out to bar deville one night to meet some friends. its great having a mom around to make you dinner again too, definitely awesome.

right now i'm loving free coffee mondays at mcdonalds. yes, mcdonalds. its gross, i shouldn't go, but when you want to be inside and mcdonalds is offering you a free warm beverage, i do not decline. this is mostly advertised in corporate elevators. maybe this is why they try to relegate us to freights...anyhow, maybe they don't know who they're really inviting in. (ir)regardless, its an added excuse to hang out in rock and roll mcdonalds. as if i need an excuse. also loving: the public library, pedestrian shields, chi-mix gear parties that turn into "nice-beer-drinking-at-chris'-apartment", new couches, and netflix.

i also felt that i should update because some big other events are coming up-stuporbowl is this weekend and chas and evan are coming in tomorrow evening to squeeze in some chicago time before minneapolis. things are pulling together for the valentine's day race and i'm looking forward to see all my bay area buddies.

crossing fingers for the 10 day weather report to be correct for once and it to be non-snowy and awful this weekend!

i've reached a new low..

i'm updating from the mac store on michigan ave. the ways i've been needing to spend standby is pretty absurd, too bad i find it altogether too entertaining. this morning was actually pretty busy, so i guess its not too bad.

after pining for thai food for weeks, my wants were finally fulfilled-we ate at dharma garden, an all veggie (plus some fish dishes, but you know..) restaurant up north. i order something i thought was going to have deep fried tofu that arrived with deep fried tofu, veggies and all, amazing.

other than that nothing too exciting. i am getting paged right now, byeee!

schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\, noun

new years eve was pretty awesome. chris jensen showed up with a bike trailer full of champagne and two dominics worth of sparks (yuck), hilarious. we arrived early to a mellow gathering, which quickly changed as the apartment filled with "ski lodge" dressed friends and only escalated with ruby's nine hour dance mix. most everyone i wanted to see was there, plus lots of dancing and yummy snacks, pretty hard to NOT have a total blast. success indeed.



the following thursday was quite slow and thankfully filled with 2pm brunch and hours of batman the animated series, wrapped up with another movie and winter bike revamping. booyah. friday night was spent at colleen's playing 90s trivial pursuit and eating much pizza, yum. apparently i am not too much of a child of the 90s though, i can't even answer most of those questions, sheesh.

this weekend, i finally went ice skating! emily and simon were my happy accomplices, weaving our way through families and crush-ridden high schoolers. despite sore ankles and questioning my probable involvement in the destruction of a small child, it all ended well (and with no falls!) and was a lot of fun. after watching vh1 top 100 hard rock videos (yes!) at matt's, i attended a reading and screening of a couple shorts by animator jo dery at quimby's. i'm reminded how much i enjoy storytelling too, as it began with a fellow named walker mettling who read aloud from some collaborative 'zines he had compiled, in addition to a couple personally penned short stories. it also ignites the thought i might attempt some writing, something casual such as that is super appealing.

we won our soccer game on sunday! only the second win we've been able to pull off, but its been lighthearted all along. i didn't know many of the other players well before either, and its been a great way to interact, especially grabbing a couple drinks from our "sponsor" so close by makes the whole evening an awesome weekly outing. we only have one more game, followed by playoffs though. i'm feeling a drive to seek out other activities so my life isn't entirely consumed by working and casual hanging out.

sometime last week, jake and i finally made it out too "zoo lights" armed with hot chocolate and a need to view some animals. if it isn't self evident by the name, its the lincoln park zoo open at night and lit up by tons of holiday lights. again, i was surrounded by families and small children, but i was determined. the giraffes were awesome, the polar bear was no where to be found, but the best was the howler monkeys, displaying bizarrely human-like affection. really, all the monkeys ruled.



in other good news, 161 n clark ridded themselves of an extremely annoying messenger center. the security guard told me "the building figured you guys are busy and in a hurry and we might as well just let you guys do your thing." uh, fuck yeah. i only wish this was a group realization.
its been slow at work though, i've been finding better and more absurd ways to fill my standby time. daily crosswords puzzles and the discovery of the loop library's graphic novel section, in addition to elongating the list of spaces you will not be kicked out of.

ALSO, evan and chas are coming to visit at the end of january with plans to travel to mpls for the stupor bowl, which should be totally brutal and absurd. casey and travis and maybe some other sf kids are tentatively planning to make it out too, i'm super excited. mom is coming next week, and i believe gino will be around too. hooray for visitors, i need to begin thinking of all the places i need to take people when they come visit.

we began netflix too! any movie suggestions are welcomed.

as always, i'm bad at being succinct, the rambling comes too easy. and to those of you were luckily not the recipients of a more or less coherent text message, happy new year! if only i could remember to actually write 2009...

and ps. the weather has been fantastic. one 60 degree day last week melted all the snow and now it feels like a dream that the snow ever occurred. i know that'll probably change in two days, but i've been lovinggggg it.