this isn't super post worthy, i just liked it.
i'm currently halfway through reading middlesex, i happened upon this line:
"emotions, in my experience aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness", "joy", or "regret". Maybe the best proof that they language is patriarchal is that is over simplifies feeling. I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic traincar constructions, like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy"...I've never had the right words to describe my life..."
i've definitely heard this sentiment expressed in a variety of college courses, and emphatically felt it applied to my own life. so it's always nice when your dictionary.com word of the day, not only breaks down the limited ways to wholly describe feelings/emotions, but one i feel could certainly be applied to my own mannerisms
risible \RIZ-uh-buhl\, adjective:
1. Capable of laughing; disposed to laugh.
2. Exciting or provoking laughter; worthy of laughter; laughable; amusing.
3. Relating to, connected with, or used in laughter; as, "risible muscles."
and really, this coupled with my seeming difficulty in completing the daily redeye crossword recently, and being owned in scrabble at our archie's game night on wednesday, i just need work on continuing to expand my vocabulary. hell yeah.
[and, it's been a good week last week. speed summary from saturday: bits of rain, lots of watching of carnivale, basement shows and dance parties and friends to share screw top bottles of wine with. too much more rain, a free m ward invite, complete with complementary soymilk, carrots, fruit and salsa. shlitz at the blind robin despite a downpour, dancing at danny's to smith's+ blondie +new order on a tuesday, 1/2 price whisky at twisted spoke for week two with brian followed by the aforementioned archie's game night, and rounding it up last night at handlebar with ruby + cait+ jason amid sleepover plans, internet shit talking, and the like. big weekend plans, full speed ahead. i'm starting to see the amazingness of chicago in the springtime!)
Friday, May 1, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
it's been a while
tax time has come and gone (phew) and chicago's had a few seventy degree days recently. last friday afternoon was spent on the patio of the handlebar, drinking $4 three floyds and enjoying the sun in a tank top. yes, you heard me. it's coming, i can feel it. i picked the hippie blanket up (finally!) and then had a little skylark action after that, some throwing up action on my part (food poisoning maybe? i haven't been sick like that in ages) and an attempt for a show down in little village (ie getting to the house the minute disrobe ended their set) i've had a series of discussions now concerning a certain amount of disapointment in myself with my lack of involvement in the local music scene whatsoever recently, so when one of my co-workers josh started telling me he was having houseshows in bridgeport i got all sorts of excited. hopefully more will come this summer--it's definitely a part of my life i've been missing a lot out here in the midwest.
vegan potlucks have been going in full force and this past sunday, ruby pushed it to new limits: brunch with the children. The three adorable girls she nanny's came over with parents in tow, as well as ella and another little boy, miguel. Having 5 little ones totter around, as all the adults drank and ate and listened to music definitely made me sit back for a second and ponder the situation. it made me feel real old. in a good way, but definitely reflexive.
Work's been pretty good lately. about a week ago i had a really cute, blonde haired boy, probably about 4 or 5 sitting in the cart as i was helping his mother. i turn to look at him right as he's picking his nose and involuntarily start giggling (or course, right?) after typing something into the computer, i promptly turn back to see him very carefully wiping his boogers all over my belt and just start busting up along. i swear his mom saw the whole thing and never said a word. left quite quickly in fact. and just as i started to clean it, another person hurridely put her groceries down. i can't say i didn't try. Also, I've actually been hanging out with a few people from work and last week it offered me the opportunity to play whirlyball for the first time. Probably best described as an odd marriage of bumper cars, lacrosse and basketball, this definitely pulled me towards my youth, giggling as i was able to smashing in to co-workers. kind of a janky set-up, as we saw one worker get electorcuted on one court and were quickly ushered to another, but a fun new experience nonetheless.
Christina and I have been on pretty opposite schedules lately, but hopefully (maybe?) that will become mitigated come may 11th when i began my new position as a bicycle ambassador! i'm a little sad to be leaving whole foods (health care and all) but i can imagine how much more sad i would be to see all the beautiful days through a glass window instead of on the seat of a bicycle. i'm really looking forward being pushed to explore chicago more everyday, as well as becoming more active in the bike community in a completely different way. it's seasonal, so i have no idea what that means for me come september, but that's all part of the fun.... right?
anyhow, i'm sure there's more but i'm bad at this. and we all have facebook anyhow... i'll leave you with a few pictures from mmi. want to travel more! can't wait for boston!
vegan potlucks have been going in full force and this past sunday, ruby pushed it to new limits: brunch with the children. The three adorable girls she nanny's came over with parents in tow, as well as ella and another little boy, miguel. Having 5 little ones totter around, as all the adults drank and ate and listened to music definitely made me sit back for a second and ponder the situation. it made me feel real old. in a good way, but definitely reflexive.
Work's been pretty good lately. about a week ago i had a really cute, blonde haired boy, probably about 4 or 5 sitting in the cart as i was helping his mother. i turn to look at him right as he's picking his nose and involuntarily start giggling (or course, right?) after typing something into the computer, i promptly turn back to see him very carefully wiping his boogers all over my belt and just start busting up along. i swear his mom saw the whole thing and never said a word. left quite quickly in fact. and just as i started to clean it, another person hurridely put her groceries down. i can't say i didn't try. Also, I've actually been hanging out with a few people from work and last week it offered me the opportunity to play whirlyball for the first time. Probably best described as an odd marriage of bumper cars, lacrosse and basketball, this definitely pulled me towards my youth, giggling as i was able to smashing in to co-workers. kind of a janky set-up, as we saw one worker get electorcuted on one court and were quickly ushered to another, but a fun new experience nonetheless.
Christina and I have been on pretty opposite schedules lately, but hopefully (maybe?) that will become mitigated come may 11th when i began my new position as a bicycle ambassador! i'm a little sad to be leaving whole foods (health care and all) but i can imagine how much more sad i would be to see all the beautiful days through a glass window instead of on the seat of a bicycle. i'm really looking forward being pushed to explore chicago more everyday, as well as becoming more active in the bike community in a completely different way. it's seasonal, so i have no idea what that means for me come september, but that's all part of the fun.... right?
anyhow, i'm sure there's more but i'm bad at this. and we all have facebook anyhow... i'll leave you with a few pictures from mmi. want to travel more! can't wait for boston!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
mayhem, and then some.
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...
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...
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...
Sunday, February 22, 2009
seven letter word for pilsen doorbell...
whew, its been some time.
[recap]
stuporbowl: evan and chas arrived in town wednesday night. we all went on ira's pub crawl thursday night, totally awesome. embarked for mpls on friday night for two days of absurdity. party bus, ran out of gas at 2am in the middle of no where. finally arrived in mpls at 6am and went back to sleep. brunched, "raced", and then hung out at the end. the real afterparty started when we got back to the rollerderby girls' house and they offered up their liquor cabniet, ridiculous, and totally awesome. we made it back to chicago after a super late brunch the following morning and lots of attempted sleeping on the bus amid many rest stops to ensure our gas didn't get too low.
(link to my flickr set)
(link to chris dilts' set)
being back in california was pretty great: we flew home first to spend time with the family. my older brother treated us to dinner at the restuarant he is currently managing. sheesh, far too respectable for me, but one of the best meals i've had recently. my mom drove us up to sf thursday night, and we stayed with jen and diego at their beautiful new house out in the sunset. sf was dissapointingly rainy for most of our stay, but the sun peeked out friday morning for our trip to atlas with a whole slew of good people. i spent the day stressing out, ironing out last minute details for the race. yummy dinner at jen and diego's, bender's for the friday the 13th alleycat afterparty, and quality time with taco, john blackwell's new puppy at wendy's house. saturday we pulled the race together and 90, yes 90! people came out. i guess i made it more difficult than intended because only 50 finished. still, i had a great time working a checkpoint and heckling. after party at chrome, dinner at golden era with the group, and a stop at gestalt and the uptown after. sunday, we woke up early to meet up with evan at four barrell before traveling to east bay for brunch at steveb's and then drove up to santa rosa to catch the tour of california. pro racers galore, gold sprints, and coffee filled attempts to escape the rain. ate lanesplitters back in oakland and then arrived back into sf to go to sweaterfunk (?!yeah huh?) night at the lepolounge, a weird bar in chinatown. monday was our last day spent getting bfast with noah and his new lady, dani, dave, and james at st francis, packing up and vietnamese sandwiches in dp. arriving back into chicago was actually really anticipated, and super easy despite our insane amounts of luggage, thanks to dave driving us to sfo and jake picking up on the other end.
cog held a one year anniversary party at av-aerie this past saturday. while i had already seen most of the displayed photos, tons of good people showed up and i had a total blast.
(dumptruck's flickr set)
av-aerie is just a totally rad space, and conviently only 8 blocks from my house. i went to see brian dewan, nana gringold, and music tapes there last night. i'm missing having motivation and friends who want to go to shows. i'll work on it.
we had our first meeting of book club last thursday. shit, i'm super excited to see this actually manifest after far too much idle talk. we chose milan kundera's the book of laughter and forgetting. we'll see how it actually flows.
restarted the next season of indoor soccer. i keep hurting myself but finally learned to just wear contacts. we won our game this past week picking up three awesome players since we were short that night. totally ruling.
i brought back a bike i had left at rigg st. and finally have three complete bikes built up: a work, track, and road bike. pictures to come soon cause i'm super proud of them. hopefully i'll get the last bike i have in working order and i'll be set for sometime.
now that february is wrapping up, i call total bullshit on everyone who told me february would be the worst, weatherwise. hrm, it's been a breeze compared to the average 13 degrees of january. i'm desperately awaiting daylight savings time though-working late just isn't as arduous when it's still light out.
[recap]
stuporbowl: evan and chas arrived in town wednesday night. we all went on ira's pub crawl thursday night, totally awesome. embarked for mpls on friday night for two days of absurdity. party bus, ran out of gas at 2am in the middle of no where. finally arrived in mpls at 6am and went back to sleep. brunched, "raced", and then hung out at the end. the real afterparty started when we got back to the rollerderby girls' house and they offered up their liquor cabniet, ridiculous, and totally awesome. we made it back to chicago after a super late brunch the following morning and lots of attempted sleeping on the bus amid many rest stops to ensure our gas didn't get too low.
(link to my flickr set)
(link to chris dilts' set)
being back in california was pretty great: we flew home first to spend time with the family. my older brother treated us to dinner at the restuarant he is currently managing. sheesh, far too respectable for me, but one of the best meals i've had recently. my mom drove us up to sf thursday night, and we stayed with jen and diego at their beautiful new house out in the sunset. sf was dissapointingly rainy for most of our stay, but the sun peeked out friday morning for our trip to atlas with a whole slew of good people. i spent the day stressing out, ironing out last minute details for the race. yummy dinner at jen and diego's, bender's for the friday the 13th alleycat afterparty, and quality time with taco, john blackwell's new puppy at wendy's house. saturday we pulled the race together and 90, yes 90! people came out. i guess i made it more difficult than intended because only 50 finished. still, i had a great time working a checkpoint and heckling. after party at chrome, dinner at golden era with the group, and a stop at gestalt and the uptown after. sunday, we woke up early to meet up with evan at four barrell before traveling to east bay for brunch at steveb's and then drove up to santa rosa to catch the tour of california. pro racers galore, gold sprints, and coffee filled attempts to escape the rain. ate lanesplitters back in oakland and then arrived back into sf to go to sweaterfunk (?!yeah huh?) night at the lepolounge, a weird bar in chinatown. monday was our last day spent getting bfast with noah and his new lady, dani, dave, and james at st francis, packing up and vietnamese sandwiches in dp. arriving back into chicago was actually really anticipated, and super easy despite our insane amounts of luggage, thanks to dave driving us to sfo and jake picking up on the other end.
cog held a one year anniversary party at av-aerie this past saturday. while i had already seen most of the displayed photos, tons of good people showed up and i had a total blast.
(dumptruck's flickr set)
av-aerie is just a totally rad space, and conviently only 8 blocks from my house. i went to see brian dewan, nana gringold, and music tapes there last night. i'm missing having motivation and friends who want to go to shows. i'll work on it.
we had our first meeting of book club last thursday. shit, i'm super excited to see this actually manifest after far too much idle talk. we chose milan kundera's the book of laughter and forgetting. we'll see how it actually flows.
restarted the next season of indoor soccer. i keep hurting myself but finally learned to just wear contacts. we won our game this past week picking up three awesome players since we were short that night. totally ruling.
i brought back a bike i had left at rigg st. and finally have three complete bikes built up: a work, track, and road bike. pictures to come soon cause i'm super proud of them. hopefully i'll get the last bike i have in working order and i'll be set for sometime.
now that february is wrapping up, i call total bullshit on everyone who told me february would be the worst, weatherwise. hrm, it's been a breeze compared to the average 13 degrees of january. i'm desperately awaiting daylight savings time though-working late just isn't as arduous when it's still light out.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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!
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!
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