i had some idiot in an elevator say today, "messengering in chicago? that's a tough job."
i shrugged, "yeah, it's fun though."
"well, you might not think messengering is as fun when you get hit by a taxi going 45 mph." *chuckle*
uh...seriously?
i stared at him for a second and could only reply, "well thanks, but i don't really appreciate your prophesying my getting hit." he continued on about a friend of his who had been hit while walking and how inevitable it was. fuck dude.
and then while running a light yesterday, a pedestrian ran at me, arms out and tried to grab/hit/something me. uh, if you couldn't reach me, i clearly wasn't close enough to you to be dangerous. some days are certainly harder than others.
this past weekend was MMI! after a really good day at work, jake and chris came over to pick allison and i up. prepared with snacks, we hit the road and arrived in mke, straight to the swinging door, a downtown bar where people just kept showing up. amid cheap beer deals and silly games, things got rowdy and we relocated to the uptowner, awash with underage girls and dance music, and way more chicago kids than i thought were coming up, totally rad. time passed quick between pitchers of blast, dumptruck knocking over four girls drinks simultaneously, allison almost getting chris dilts' in a fight with a crazy cokehead after sinking her almond square in his drink, phew. we finally headed back to brian's friend, steve's house, which was fortunately close. all four of us shared his enormous king-sized bed that did not even necessitate squishing.
saturday began with a late, long brunch at comet, and then finally making it over to registration at 2pm. the group finally moved to the "real start". when manifests were handed out, i actively searched out cooter, the one person i knew actually could navigate milwaukee. we figured out an nice four person group of me, drew, kremmin, and another chicago kid, joe. wind and hills, but no snow made for pleasant race weather, and we jammed through the first couple points. realizing the race was much longer than i originally though, our pace mellowed amid gatorade stops, push ups, crawling across rolling trains, and cruising through side streets of sketchy mke neighborhoods. we finally made it back to hi-hat despite many attempted holdups at the cookie/pbr/tire deflation checkpoint, and luckily arrived right before the sleet began. i was stoked enough on free sandwiches, but the after party really got going when they began giving out free pints of 3floyds. i ended up winning 2nd lady and some new knogs, a swerve hoodie, and some ugly cranks, awesome. results on a blog here. early starts at drinking too often means needing to call it a night early and luckily claire and augie had their shit together to go get cars and take care of us since 3-4 inches of snow had fallen since arriving at the bar four hours prior. we headed back to shea, sarah, and kremmin's but none of them were home yet, so we stayed warm with snacks and drinks in jake's car. their space ended up being totally awesome for eating lots of gross pizza, hanging out more and slowly all finding our way to bed.
the nine some odd of us headed out brunch at the palamino the following morning to meet up with the lost kids from the cuttin cruiser who hadn't made it into mke until late the night prior. directly after, our car headed back to chicago in a bizarre pseudo springtime winter wonderland. chris dilts' kept us all entertained with plenty of stories, so good. arriving home was immediately followed by naps and coffee and seinfeld.
(&hopefully chris will have pictures up soon, he got some really good ones, as always.)
sunday night was our last playoff game for indoor season. we lost but it was a super fun game, and against my better judgement, i went out for drinks with the team after. bad choices, but my whole soccer team just rules, so still good way to go out. rough plans for outdoor when spring *actually* comes, fingers crossed for finding more people to *actually* come out.
last wednesday night i rode down to calhumet to watch the races with a really good group, i forgot how much i missed group rides. 108th is real far south though so i was super glad when james offered me a ride down on thursday to ride in my first sanctioned race! i was kind of disappointing i didn't do better, but i think it gets me more excited to try it more and figure out strategy. a totally different scene, but i think one i will be excited to try out more of.
spring, where are you? so many signs: patio furniture on chicago sidewalks, walgreens sudden halt on glove sales, the "official" beginning of spring, but i'm not feeling it yet. shit, i can't wait...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour ...
its been a roller coaster past few weeks.
i switched companies, yes again, but hopefully it'll stick this time. i'm a proud full employee (finally!) of deadline. they've managed to still be busy, and finally having days filled with riding rather than completion of crossword puzzles and snacking is refreshing. working on open wave is a whole new experience and a lot of fun.
while the company is great, i've seemingly had more problems in buildings the past fews days than in the past few months. after almost getting kicked out of one building, and having a very upsetting runin at another, i'm trying to mellow. it's super difficult with newb security guards on power trips, intent on making you feel small and shitty, because they can.
tuesday. was. amazing. 73, awesome. shorts and a tshirt, oh fuck yeah. allison and i met for coffee after work and went to the harold washington for a story week feature on nelson algren, which was quite enjoyable with some really funny, intelligent readers. after, we hit up inner town pub to meet with kim, an awesome girl i had met at mike's the week before. it was somehow devoid of the st. patrick's day idiocy, which was exactly what i needed. i rode home in shorts at 11pm, i'm so giddy for summer.
wednesday i finally hit up the women's night at west town with emily and kim and some other nice ladies. tune up time and box wine made for a good night.
thursday night was messenger appreciation night at blue frog!
(hopefully chris dilts will put up some of his pictures from this soon...)
i know, duh, free beer and prizes are the key to any messenger's heart, but it was awesome to see so many kids come out, and everyone in such good spirits. big ups to augie for making this happen. there are still so many kids i see out everyday and rarely talk to, so it was awesome to have such a fun reason to finally kick it with a bunch of them. the downside was pbr drunk is never a good idea, and friday morning was rough for a variety of reasons.
friday night i saw marcello's band, new thrill parade play at ronny's, which was arguably the worst bar i've been to in chicago. i saw three different kids with acid washed jeans, honest. the show was fun though. goth resurgence? i hope so.
saturday was a late start, but upon trying to retrieve allison's balaclava from jeff perkins, i some how became involved in the skid test for the new gran compe colored tires for the next cog issue. saturday stuck it out in the high 60s, making it totally awesome to spend the day outdoors. lots of kids were out, the cuttin cruiser in full force. we laid down a rainbow of tracks, which i thought was the best part. i rarely skid nowadays, the novelty made it all the more entertaining.
caught up, i was late to meet marcello at the field museum. we took a walk instead and came back west for coffee. now both equipped with bikes, we hit up atomix and then after grabbing some bbq food, headed up to dumptruck and cooter's house. kicking it in the greenbelt on humbolt with good people felt like the best way to spend at spring saturday evening. a tipsy three on three soccer game developed and i proceeded to acquire a matching crack on the opposite side of my glasses, inevitable with me it seems. rowdy and awesome, indeed. we won(!) and wrapped it up, heading over to mike's for a bonfire. my night cap came early and marcello and i headed home rather than hit up jeff's prom party, bummer. bacci's pizza, less of a bummer.
today was a mellow day of coffee and cooking, yojimbo's and thrift store shopping, movies and naps and the smiths. our soccer game tonight we particularly intense, and i achieved the most brutal bruise
riding south on larabee a couple weeks ago into strong headwinds, i suddenly felt something hit my shoulder. i quickly looked around and up into the stupid face of some giggling 10 year old in a school bus. the little jerks proceeded to toss a couple more apple cores out the window until the bus pulled away. ha, i couldn't even believe it, pretty funny.
and some other things...
MMI next weekend!
i switched companies, yes again, but hopefully it'll stick this time. i'm a proud full employee (finally!) of deadline. they've managed to still be busy, and finally having days filled with riding rather than completion of crossword puzzles and snacking is refreshing. working on open wave is a whole new experience and a lot of fun.
while the company is great, i've seemingly had more problems in buildings the past fews days than in the past few months. after almost getting kicked out of one building, and having a very upsetting runin at another, i'm trying to mellow. it's super difficult with newb security guards on power trips, intent on making you feel small and shitty, because they can.
tuesday. was. amazing. 73, awesome. shorts and a tshirt, oh fuck yeah. allison and i met for coffee after work and went to the harold washington for a story week feature on nelson algren, which was quite enjoyable with some really funny, intelligent readers. after, we hit up inner town pub to meet with kim, an awesome girl i had met at mike's the week before. it was somehow devoid of the st. patrick's day idiocy, which was exactly what i needed. i rode home in shorts at 11pm, i'm so giddy for summer.
wednesday i finally hit up the women's night at west town with emily and kim and some other nice ladies. tune up time and box wine made for a good night.
thursday night was messenger appreciation night at blue frog!
(hopefully chris dilts will put up some of his pictures from this soon...)
i know, duh, free beer and prizes are the key to any messenger's heart, but it was awesome to see so many kids come out, and everyone in such good spirits. big ups to augie for making this happen. there are still so many kids i see out everyday and rarely talk to, so it was awesome to have such a fun reason to finally kick it with a bunch of them. the downside was pbr drunk is never a good idea, and friday morning was rough for a variety of reasons.
friday night i saw marcello's band, new thrill parade play at ronny's, which was arguably the worst bar i've been to in chicago. i saw three different kids with acid washed jeans, honest. the show was fun though. goth resurgence? i hope so.
saturday was a late start, but upon trying to retrieve allison's balaclava from jeff perkins, i some how became involved in the skid test for the new gran compe colored tires for the next cog issue. saturday stuck it out in the high 60s, making it totally awesome to spend the day outdoors. lots of kids were out, the cuttin cruiser in full force. we laid down a rainbow of tracks, which i thought was the best part. i rarely skid nowadays, the novelty made it all the more entertaining.
caught up, i was late to meet marcello at the field museum. we took a walk instead and came back west for coffee. now both equipped with bikes, we hit up atomix and then after grabbing some bbq food, headed up to dumptruck and cooter's house. kicking it in the greenbelt on humbolt with good people felt like the best way to spend at spring saturday evening. a tipsy three on three soccer game developed and i proceeded to acquire a matching crack on the opposite side of my glasses, inevitable with me it seems. rowdy and awesome, indeed. we won(!) and wrapped it up, heading over to mike's for a bonfire. my night cap came early and marcello and i headed home rather than hit up jeff's prom party, bummer. bacci's pizza, less of a bummer.
today was a mellow day of coffee and cooking, yojimbo's and thrift store shopping, movies and naps and the smiths. our soccer game tonight we particularly intense, and i achieved the most brutal bruise
riding south on larabee a couple weeks ago into strong headwinds, i suddenly felt something hit my shoulder. i quickly looked around and up into the stupid face of some giggling 10 year old in a school bus. the little jerks proceeded to toss a couple more apple cores out the window until the bus pulled away. ha, i couldn't even believe it, pretty funny.
and some other things...
MMI next weekend!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
my puppeteer is making me furious.
last thursday, despite the torrential downpour, allison and i headed up north to meet up with other chifg'ers at the green eye for ira's pub crawl. surprisingly, about 8 others also showed up. from there, we went north to the two way for boiler makers, relax for $1 schlitz, and wrapped it up at the metal shaker, an awesome bar that hosts all sorts of metal shows. deciding i couldn't let the rain thwart my plans proved best as i still had a great time.
allison traveled down to the north american handmade bike show in indianapolis on friday night with ben, chris and dana. since i had work until 6pm, i stuck around in chicago on friday to meet up with caitlin at the bikeart party at the flat iron, saw al's band play and then went with jake and claire up north for (another) allison's birthday. snacks and some silly charades-ish game kept the night awesome.
augie picked jake and me up saturday morning to drive to indianapolis. we arrived at the show in this huge convention center and overwhelmingly wandered around for the next few hours, staring at beautiful bikes and seeing far more people that i ever imagined would be there. the broakland kids had a booth, so we hung out there a lot with teddy ruckspin, chilling in the lounge chairs. allison, augie, jake, augie's LA friend ryan, and i went to pizza before heading over to this cool art-loft space (really similar to flat iron) to FINALLY see macaframa. i was super excited and despite most other people being pretty mellow, couldn't help myself from excessive hollering and cheering. i was really impressed with the final product and excited to yell for nate's fall, steveb, phil, and everyone else. the rowdiness all went downhill from there with a dance party with the montano kids boom box, drunken beer can (and bottle...) throwing, and an unfortunate move to a nearby bar where we were kicked out after a few hours. ha. luckily, we were able to stay at kyle and tj's hotel room and slowly recover the next morning while watching vegas vacation before heading out for brunch.
linked to andrew yoman's flickr set, with some of the least flattering pictures, ever.
eli, jason grove +montano, and stevie all came to stay in chicago that night before flying out on monday. it was awesome to just hang out, catch up, and half watch rad before deciding in finally needed to turn in for work.
this week we also went up to chris' house in roscoe village for vegan desert night. ate cupcakes, pretzels, home roasted coffee and other select beverages, best idea ever!
on wednesday, we held out monthly chi-mix-gear night at ruby's house. theme: ultimate break up mix, this time in mp3 form. good turn out and i came home with lots of new music already on my ipod. i've spent the past couple days making my way through playlists, awesome. theme for next month is body parts i believe. suggestions? this could be a good one.
book club was postponed to next week, though i made it halfway through the kundera book. i'm also mostly finished with xenocide, drawing the ender triology to a close for me. dorky or not, those books rule. i've been trying to catch up on netflix rather than holding onto them for weeks. o lucky man (5 hours, but surprisingly smooth) rosemary's baby (good, but totally weird), road to welville (funny, great cast) and i'm en route to ingmar berman's cries and whispers.
friday was free absinthe hour at the dark room followed by a couple hours at the cobra. imagine how that went...i spent a rainy saturday with jake, drinking coffee, cleaning, eating beets, more naps, watching 12monkeys and (always) more seinfeld. finally ventured out in the rain to see gino, who was in town for his birthday. bizarre party, but good to visit.
i'm hoping the torrential downpour is finally gone for a bit so getting to soccer isn't a drenching experience...
allison traveled down to the north american handmade bike show in indianapolis on friday night with ben, chris and dana. since i had work until 6pm, i stuck around in chicago on friday to meet up with caitlin at the bikeart party at the flat iron, saw al's band play and then went with jake and claire up north for (another) allison's birthday. snacks and some silly charades-ish game kept the night awesome.
augie picked jake and me up saturday morning to drive to indianapolis. we arrived at the show in this huge convention center and overwhelmingly wandered around for the next few hours, staring at beautiful bikes and seeing far more people that i ever imagined would be there. the broakland kids had a booth, so we hung out there a lot with teddy ruckspin, chilling in the lounge chairs. allison, augie, jake, augie's LA friend ryan, and i went to pizza before heading over to this cool art-loft space (really similar to flat iron) to FINALLY see macaframa. i was super excited and despite most other people being pretty mellow, couldn't help myself from excessive hollering and cheering. i was really impressed with the final product and excited to yell for nate's fall, steveb, phil, and everyone else. the rowdiness all went downhill from there with a dance party with the montano kids boom box, drunken beer can (and bottle...) throwing, and an unfortunate move to a nearby bar where we were kicked out after a few hours. ha. luckily, we were able to stay at kyle and tj's hotel room and slowly recover the next morning while watching vegas vacation before heading out for brunch.
linked to andrew yoman's flickr set, with some of the least flattering pictures, ever.
eli, jason grove +montano, and stevie all came to stay in chicago that night before flying out on monday. it was awesome to just hang out, catch up, and half watch rad before deciding in finally needed to turn in for work.
this week we also went up to chris' house in roscoe village for vegan desert night. ate cupcakes, pretzels, home roasted coffee and other select beverages, best idea ever!
on wednesday, we held out monthly chi-mix-gear night at ruby's house. theme: ultimate break up mix, this time in mp3 form. good turn out and i came home with lots of new music already on my ipod. i've spent the past couple days making my way through playlists, awesome. theme for next month is body parts i believe. suggestions? this could be a good one.
book club was postponed to next week, though i made it halfway through the kundera book. i'm also mostly finished with xenocide, drawing the ender triology to a close for me. dorky or not, those books rule. i've been trying to catch up on netflix rather than holding onto them for weeks. o lucky man (5 hours, but surprisingly smooth) rosemary's baby (good, but totally weird), road to welville (funny, great cast) and i'm en route to ingmar berman's cries and whispers.
friday was free absinthe hour at the dark room followed by a couple hours at the cobra. imagine how that went...i spent a rainy saturday with jake, drinking coffee, cleaning, eating beets, more naps, watching 12monkeys and (always) more seinfeld. finally ventured out in the rain to see gino, who was in town for his birthday. bizarre party, but good to visit.
i'm hoping the torrential downpour is finally gone for a bit so getting to soccer isn't a drenching experience...
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