This week has been tumultuous, at best. Arguably worse with both ups and downs.
I received news at the beginning of the week that my grandfather had passed away. We were never particularly close, but its still pretty terrible news to bear. Also, because my mom and I are close--and I knew it would be most difficult on her. Monday morning, I walked into the office at Deadline and my dispatcher let me know it would be his last week. He had just returned to Chicago from Boston, where he had been for the prior two weeks, due to his mother's passing. After 10 years at the company, he re-evaluated priorities and decided it was time to move back, and be closer to his family. I entirely respect his decision, especially this time of year, yet I still can't help but be a little selfish, and know I will miss him a whole lot--for his professionalism, superior dispatching skills, and just being an amazing person to chat with on the radio all day. My work experience is certainly going to be worlds different once he's gone.
I received some similarly terrible news this afternoon. All I want to say is: love your friends while they're here. I'm sure we've all felt the disconnect--the times when you're in a room of people and still feel entirely alone. I've been the fortunate enough in these times to have someone magically find the words to reassure me, demonstrate that I have truly wonderful people in my life and people who, for some reason or another, value me and bring me to realize its all worth it. Tell someone you typically would not explicitly share with, just how awesome you think they are. How glad you are to have them in your life. &hugs. a lot more hugs. you can never have enough hugs.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
longest weekend, ever.
a long friday with pleasantly continuous work bulldozed forward with a 6pm meet up at the garage. we waited around and packed up a full cuttin' cruiser of 14 people to roll out to bloomingdale for the pre-cross hotel party. hotel party?! you ask. yes, hotel party, at the hilton.
cuttin crew members rented out 4 rooms: our room hosted nine people. bed bouncing and a realization the minibar was NOT to be messed with was immediately followed with a visit to the cave bar ($2 fat tires, in a cave with leopard print carpeting, woah.) to a necessary trip to the pool before it closed at 11pm. group cannonball jumps, splash wars, and getting pushed in too many times, accompanied by lots of talks from the hotels workers meant we were definitely made to leave at closing time. next step: the karaoke bar. kelly clarkson, george michael, and ODB kept our group dancing, and the wedding party that was also using the space, kept us fed. 2am bedtime meant nothing when a group member is escorted back to the room at 3am, alarms start going unanswered at 6am, and everyone is yelling by 7am. by 9am, room 354 was wide awake and ready to find coffee, lots of it. 9 people in claire's car and we made it to bentley's pancake house. our waitress blew phil's mind when he realized he could have pancakes, and potatoes, and eggs. oh man.
someone had already carried the couches to the top of the hill, giving us a prime spot. the races passed with lots of amplified heckling (see: don't give a microphone to augie until he puts on the bunny suit), beermosas, and sod hand ups. our group departed before the 4Bs, enabling us to arrive back in chicago before the sadie hawkin's ride. i arrived at the blue frog and was blown away by the sheer number of bikes. 81 couples showed up to ride and show off their style. i was worried with the immediate police presence at the beginning (who beelined it for korby. luckily he handled that well) and a short bout of rain and the hour late start time, but manifests were finally handed out--8 mandatory checkpoints, a handful of optional checkpoints, and 2 1/2 hours to ride--and the ride went off surprisingly smooth
allison, kyle and i handled the handlebar picture checkpoint. we photographed about 65 couples, and were able to see most of the riders in all their stylish attire/costumes. &we were well able to entertain ourselves with the dress-up attire.
link to set
the after party at the cobra was also well attended, but the lack of drink deals and randomized participation in open sprints led people trickling out early. i personally was exhausted due to the prior nights excursions; my lack of money and inebriation led me to cut out around 1am.
12 hours of sleep, big lebowski, lots of coffee, tj's shopping trip and bike repairs made up my sunday. hibernation time for the upcoming week of probable rain, overdue indeed.
cuttin crew members rented out 4 rooms: our room hosted nine people. bed bouncing and a realization the minibar was NOT to be messed with was immediately followed with a visit to the cave bar ($2 fat tires, in a cave with leopard print carpeting, woah.) to a necessary trip to the pool before it closed at 11pm. group cannonball jumps, splash wars, and getting pushed in too many times, accompanied by lots of talks from the hotels workers meant we were definitely made to leave at closing time. next step: the karaoke bar. kelly clarkson, george michael, and ODB kept our group dancing, and the wedding party that was also using the space, kept us fed. 2am bedtime meant nothing when a group member is escorted back to the room at 3am, alarms start going unanswered at 6am, and everyone is yelling by 7am. by 9am, room 354 was wide awake and ready to find coffee, lots of it. 9 people in claire's car and we made it to bentley's pancake house. our waitress blew phil's mind when he realized he could have pancakes, and potatoes, and eggs. oh man.
someone had already carried the couches to the top of the hill, giving us a prime spot. the races passed with lots of amplified heckling (see: don't give a microphone to augie until he puts on the bunny suit), beermosas, and sod hand ups. our group departed before the 4Bs, enabling us to arrive back in chicago before the sadie hawkin's ride. i arrived at the blue frog and was blown away by the sheer number of bikes. 81 couples showed up to ride and show off their style. i was worried with the immediate police presence at the beginning (who beelined it for korby. luckily he handled that well) and a short bout of rain and the hour late start time, but manifests were finally handed out--8 mandatory checkpoints, a handful of optional checkpoints, and 2 1/2 hours to ride--and the ride went off surprisingly smooth
allison, kyle and i handled the handlebar picture checkpoint. we photographed about 65 couples, and were able to see most of the riders in all their stylish attire/costumes. &we were well able to entertain ourselves with the dress-up attire.
link to set
the after party at the cobra was also well attended, but the lack of drink deals and randomized participation in open sprints led people trickling out early. i personally was exhausted due to the prior nights excursions; my lack of money and inebriation led me to cut out around 1am.
12 hours of sleep, big lebowski, lots of coffee, tj's shopping trip and bike repairs made up my sunday. hibernation time for the upcoming week of probable rain, overdue indeed.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
maybe i'll actually be responsible.
so much time, so many big events. winter is around the corner and im almost ready to hunker down and cuddle up, in many ways. i'm in the midst of season 4 of the wire and simutaneously beginning mad men. chris and i both are receiving netflix coupled with a hankering to cultivate hometime hang outs, both within our house and between the burgeoning humboldt park neighborhood. chili nights have been a tuesday mainstay with rotating households, in addition to ali and kyles continuation of bbqs (despite not venturing outside for too much during them).
traveling has been high on my priority list, though sort of unrealized until recently. maybe it has in part been due to the many awesome travels ive experienced already this summer (nyc, boston, tokyo, and most recently philly) but the restless is worming in my mind-while money is often the issue, its going to have to happen (sf over winter break, portland for the westside, guatemala for cmwc, atlanta for nacccs, and some desire to check out nyc in the winter. best to keep up on those airfare wars.)
while october was bleak and could be, november has dawned sunny and crisp, a treat of actual fall instead of a straight leap into winter. i've tried to cobble together a bike for cyclocross season, but my trips to cyclocross have instead been beermosa and heckling filled rather than actual racing. this weekend promises a little of both--the cuttin' crew is hosting a hotel party at the hilton before the cyclocross race on saturday. i have been promised a borrowed bike and a chance to pre-ride the course to assuage my hesitant nerves, primarily due to my absence of dirt riding since, santa cruz really.
our trip to philly was pretty fantastic. i realize more and more how greatly i rely on other people for my happiness. while i enjoy my alone time, being in a non-stop group is amazing. departing on friday morning, we (jake, allison, scott and i) drove the 12 hours + 1 hour time change to arrive for a pre-party at tattoo mom's and followed by an after party at donovan/matty/magic's house, which happened to be where we were sleeping too. others had complaints--i just miss punk houses, so the holes in the walls, the 3 people also sleeping on the couch in the morning, and the sticky kitchen floor didn't particularly bother me. the pbr hangover did. the remainder of the chicago crew (claire, augie, nico, chris, and mike malone) woke us up at 7am when they arrived with a giant cuddle puddle and lots of delirious chatter. not being able to fall back asleep, we ventured out for coffee, bagels and bloody marys and spent the rest of the afternoon in style at rittenhouse square eating vegan philly cheese steaks and slow rolling in the surprising warm and sunny weather. more hanging out ensured back at the house and at 6pm, we headed to the race start. jeff was not only throwing "house party cat 2" but hosting the start and a checkpoint at his house, what a guy.
i wanted to actually ride rather than just party, so i found the straight edge kid.
we did some serious planning:
matty, mike and i stuck together for the whole race, cutting down narrow one ways, and dodging yells and horns. space wine, spoonfuls of peanut butter, a beer bong, jello shots, s'mores, and dice games later, we rolled in 7th, 8th and 9th. we went back to the kegger party and back to the kyber and then the after after party. oh philly knows how to do it. with a 3am return, we woke up for an amazing vegan brunch and headed out for the long drive back. so much driving, and more money than i intended (or should've) to spend, but totally worth it.
this trip also made me think a lot about allison and my arbitrary decision to move to chicago. how would've turned out had we chosen philly? matty and donovan said we would've hated them already (ha!) but there is something to be said about the much smaller, scene feeling of philly that is more akin to portland or santa cruz where i find chicago on par with los angeles or even new york in the numerous neighborhoods and sheer size of the city that invites completely different community. who knows, maybe i've just been introspective lately, but i really can't help to consider (too introspective on this, and far too many other points probably...) i always liked the off minor lyric, "who you are is not a function of where you are", with a personal interpretation of too many people who continue to move, searching for something that they lack and hoping to magically find it with distance. i've thought that to be true in the past, but lately i've definitely been meriting an opposing viewpoint-that where you live can still largely dictate the scenes you involve yourself in and the ideas that are thrown around. i didn't feel like that changed greatly when i moved from santa cruz to sf, but it definitely has changed with my move to chicago.
anyhow, enough of that, i still have plenty on my plate, and a lot of good people around me. the new house (we moved back in september to humboldt park--the commute's longer, but the neighborhoodly vibe is worth it) is much larger and pretty amazing.
traveling has been high on my priority list, though sort of unrealized until recently. maybe it has in part been due to the many awesome travels ive experienced already this summer (nyc, boston, tokyo, and most recently philly) but the restless is worming in my mind-while money is often the issue, its going to have to happen (sf over winter break, portland for the westside, guatemala for cmwc, atlanta for nacccs, and some desire to check out nyc in the winter. best to keep up on those airfare wars.)
while october was bleak and could be, november has dawned sunny and crisp, a treat of actual fall instead of a straight leap into winter. i've tried to cobble together a bike for cyclocross season, but my trips to cyclocross have instead been beermosa and heckling filled rather than actual racing. this weekend promises a little of both--the cuttin' crew is hosting a hotel party at the hilton before the cyclocross race on saturday. i have been promised a borrowed bike and a chance to pre-ride the course to assuage my hesitant nerves, primarily due to my absence of dirt riding since, santa cruz really.
our trip to philly was pretty fantastic. i realize more and more how greatly i rely on other people for my happiness. while i enjoy my alone time, being in a non-stop group is amazing. departing on friday morning, we (jake, allison, scott and i) drove the 12 hours + 1 hour time change to arrive for a pre-party at tattoo mom's and followed by an after party at donovan/matty/magic's house, which happened to be where we were sleeping too. others had complaints--i just miss punk houses, so the holes in the walls, the 3 people also sleeping on the couch in the morning, and the sticky kitchen floor didn't particularly bother me. the pbr hangover did. the remainder of the chicago crew (claire, augie, nico, chris, and mike malone) woke us up at 7am when they arrived with a giant cuddle puddle and lots of delirious chatter. not being able to fall back asleep, we ventured out for coffee, bagels and bloody marys and spent the rest of the afternoon in style at rittenhouse square eating vegan philly cheese steaks and slow rolling in the surprising warm and sunny weather. more hanging out ensured back at the house and at 6pm, we headed to the race start. jeff was not only throwing "house party cat 2" but hosting the start and a checkpoint at his house, what a guy.
i wanted to actually ride rather than just party, so i found the straight edge kid.
we did some serious planning:
matty, mike and i stuck together for the whole race, cutting down narrow one ways, and dodging yells and horns. space wine, spoonfuls of peanut butter, a beer bong, jello shots, s'mores, and dice games later, we rolled in 7th, 8th and 9th. we went back to the kegger party and back to the kyber and then the after after party. oh philly knows how to do it. with a 3am return, we woke up for an amazing vegan brunch and headed out for the long drive back. so much driving, and more money than i intended (or should've) to spend, but totally worth it.
this trip also made me think a lot about allison and my arbitrary decision to move to chicago. how would've turned out had we chosen philly? matty and donovan said we would've hated them already (ha!) but there is something to be said about the much smaller, scene feeling of philly that is more akin to portland or santa cruz where i find chicago on par with los angeles or even new york in the numerous neighborhoods and sheer size of the city that invites completely different community. who knows, maybe i've just been introspective lately, but i really can't help to consider (too introspective on this, and far too many other points probably...) i always liked the off minor lyric, "who you are is not a function of where you are", with a personal interpretation of too many people who continue to move, searching for something that they lack and hoping to magically find it with distance. i've thought that to be true in the past, but lately i've definitely been meriting an opposing viewpoint-that where you live can still largely dictate the scenes you involve yourself in and the ideas that are thrown around. i didn't feel like that changed greatly when i moved from santa cruz to sf, but it definitely has changed with my move to chicago.
anyhow, enough of that, i still have plenty on my plate, and a lot of good people around me. the new house (we moved back in september to humboldt park--the commute's longer, but the neighborhoodly vibe is worth it) is much larger and pretty amazing.
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