where there's smoke...

The past few days have been pretty busy, but mostly in a good way. Tuesday I ran, chilled out, then met up with Christy and Jennifer for dinner at Sultan's and drinks at Rodan. We had a good time and talked about anything from all having dude trouble to opening multiplexes to how to crush capitalism.

The next morning I had to wake up early to meet new Edward to uh..go see R Kelly enter the Cook County Courthouse. I've toyed with this idea for a few weeks because I want to see how ridiculous it all is. I haven't been yet because it would interfere with work, and because the spectacle isn't as massive since the judge has a gag order on every aspect of the trial it seems.

We didn't know when he was going to get there so we met at 7, took the California bus down there and hung out. For over two hours. During that time we got coffee from a street vendor, talked to members of the press, people watched other citizens going to court to get sentenced, and talked about why Wes Anderson is good at what he does but how the Darjeeling Ltd wasn't good.

Finally at 10, R Kelly and his entourage showed up. His fans, all women oddly enough, started shouting R KELLY R KELLY!! One threw out her phone number! We got so excited that I started running along the path he was taking so Edward could take photos of us in the same place. You can see these in my flickr photos. After about 30 seconds it was all over. It was pretty exhausting - all that anticipation, then this burst of insanity, then it being all over. Maybe like having sex? Ew.

After the pandemonium we took the California bus north only to find out that it stops running much further south than we needed it to in order to get to brunch. So we ended up walking forever. We walked a lot that morning. I came home, tried to nap but was all worked up, then had to turn right around and go to the Sox game with Soup. I finally saw a winning game this season, putting me at 1-3. By the end of the day I realized I had been outside for almost 11 hours. Oy.

This morning I slept in even though I really shouldn't have. I met Nate at his office and got lunch. That was pretty cool to see where he sits all day. Then I finally spent my Anthropologie gift certificate on a sweetass pair of summer jeans that are a size smaller! Running rules! I also got a cute shirt. Now I just need the weather to cooperate so I can actually wear summer clothes.

Next I went to therapy. I hadn't been in two weeks and holy shit did I have a lot to tell her about. In the end she hinted politely at me being totally pathetic, which I am and am aware of, but still doesn't feel good to hear someone basically say "well no duh things aren't going where you want them to when you do xyz" The one good thing I got out of therapy was cancelling a really Bad Idea Date I had scheduled for tonight. It would have made me feel horrible and not helped me accomplish what I want, so fuck it. Turns out I don't really want to be dating. It took me to actually have a date to realize that.

Now here I am at home. I forgot I was cooking rice for burritos until I thought I smelled burnt popcorn. Whoops, I had burnt my rice. I have never ever burnt rice. So now I'm doing Rice Round 2, meaning another 30 minutes until dinner. I may go to Club Foot tonight for a few drinks, but depends on if someone wants to drive me. I'm feeling lazy.

Tomorrow I'm getting lunch with a friend then hopefully just relaxing. I haven't read as much as I had wanted to during this vacation and I also haven't been watching movies. I've had a good week off and its been enjoyable, but I wish I would have stuck to the "do nothing all week" plan a bit more.

48 cookies and only 1 mouth

I baked 48 ghiradelli chocolate chip cookies this afternoon, got bailed on, and now have just one mouth to chew them with. Guess my coworkers will reap the rewards tomorrow.

Yesterday I got lunch with Torri at Tweet. I hadn't seen her since January, and all I wanted was to get advice from her, catch up, and talk to someone who is sincere, honest, and has a level head. And it was perfecto. She gave me some great perspectives on life and all the shit that is going on in mine. She also recommended some good books too. All around awesome.

I didn't go out on Friday or Saturday, but I actually wanted to. Unreturned texts and confusion on where I'm "allowed" to be lead to me just watching movies alone with my dog. I watched Friends with Money on Friday (eh) and tried to watch Julian Donkey-Boy but found it totally unwatchable. That leaves me with a perfect streak of hating every Harmony Korine movie so much that I have to stop watching them. And this one even had Herzog as a crazy-ass dad and I STILL couldn't stomach it. I turned it off and watched the White Diamond for the 1,000th time instead.

Still miserable and now having trust and faith-in-others issues, which really isn't helping my shitty attitude already. Maybe eating 48 cookies will make me feel so much worse that I'll forget about how wrecked I am.

dinner more often please

Today was the first day of class for the kiddies (a.k.a. college students), so it was pretty busy. I'm also prepping for a big presentation tomorrow to a bunch of professors, which always scares me. But enough of that awesome work talk!

Dan, VA, Nate and I had dinner at Friendship Chinese tonight. I had never been, but have been interested in it for a very long time. Tuesdays all of their entrees are only 8.95! Can't get a better deal than that. It was good food, good wine, good friends, great conversation, and just all around nice. Going to dinner is really my preferred method of socializing (as compared to bars or going to shows). I need to get more of these dinner things set up! I'm relaxed and happy, but also home early enough to have some alone time before going to bed. Yay!

a very domestic weekend

I think this past weekend was the most domestic weekend I've ever had. It may come in at a close second to that night when I was 8, and my cousin and I spent the night at my grandmas. We made neon colored skirts with palm trees on them, then did a fashion show. That was pretty domestic. It may also be the last time I sewed until this past Sunday. I took a class at this place two blocks from my house called The Needle Shop. It's a newish (2.5 years old) space, and it is very unfinished. As in, it's in a basement of an apartment building. Sorta smells like a basement, but whatever. The instructor was so amazing. She was really nice and helpful. There were four other women in the class, and they were all cool too. I chose the place mostly because of location, but also because you could bring your own machine. I really wanted to learn how to use my own machine since I know every sewing machine has its own quirks. My grandma, the grandma who taught me how to sew neon skirts, gave me this machine years ago. It has traveled from Madison to SF and now to Chicago. Finally, I made something out of it. A pillow:



I got the pattern on the sides to almost exactly match, but not quite. The zipper looks nearly perfect too, so I'm super proud. Perhaps the best part is that I purchased another pillow form, fabric, and zipper so I can make a matching one. This means I'll have two pillows, and that I will remember how to make them. So next weekend, I'll have another one on the ole couch that is currently dominated with red pillows. The blues will be a nice change. I have all these other ideas now, such as to sew a stripe to my boring curtains. The place offers more classes. I figure I'll take another one or two to keep learning some new skills. I've never considered myself creative, so I'm really proud. I know to some of you this is something you could do in your sleep, but its a pretty big step for me.

The day before sewing day, I went to Cookie Party 2007 at Jacob and Wendy's apartment. A bunch of us got together and baked cookies while watching skate videos. Pretty awesome huh? Miller and Torri came and brought their babies as a surprise, which totally ruled. I hadn't seen Charlotte in months, she's so big now! And Ollie and I had a great time sprinkling cookies and playing "wheres the cookie." He even gave me a hug willingly when he left. My uterus was calling me by the end. I have lots of cookies at my house now to continue the sugar binge.

Saturday night we went to Dan and Virginia's "we're living in sin" housewarming party. Virginia makes a mean calzone and Dan makes some funky looking but awesome tasting taco rolls (is that the name?). I ate tons of both. The night ended with an hours long karaoke throw-down on the couch. He has a karaoke machine and some truly heinous CDs for it. It connects to the tv so its just like being at a bar. We all learned that Andy has a truly amazing talent for singing current rap songs. Even Nate sang (Life is a Highway haha). Finally around 2 am, we slipped our way home on the intense ice outside.

Tonight was my last google-chat night with Kevin, Paul, Matt, Liz, and Kristin for the Hills Season Finale (total disappointing episode!). I also did my grocery shopping and laundry. Tomorrow I'm buying a used tv off a friend for cheap, which is good news for me too. I also have a really cool idea for a writing project to start in 2008. Lots of good things to keep me busy for winter.

Thanksgiving 2007

I have Wed-Sat off for Thanksgiving, since I have to do my last Sunday shift this coming Sunday. Wednesday I relaxed around the house, and cleaned the kitchen top to bottom. I mean really cleaned - moved all the furniture out of there and hand scrubbed the floor. I feel much calmer now that I know what is or isn't underneath things in there. I've never lived somewhere for this long so it's definitely a bit grody in parts. Wednesday night Nate and I caught up on the tv we missed last week.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. When I called my aunt in California she reminded me that this is the first Thanksgiving in four years that I have not been in California with them to celebrate. Hearing that shocked me a bit, and made me sort of sad. Luckily, she told me that well after the bulk of the day was over so it didn't put a damper on my day. Nate and I woke up and I made blueberry muffins. Nate doesn't like muffins, which I do not understand considering he loves cupcakes. I made him eat them anyway. We then lazied about and watched Darkon, that IFC film about some huge Live Action Role Playing community in the Baltimore/DC area. The movie was really interesting. We also put up my tiny Christmas tree, and put the Christmas flannel sheets on the bed. I am a full obsessive when it comes to the holidays and I don't understand why. As an atheist with a bad track record of family holidays, I'm not sure what gets into me every year.

Around 4 I got dinner ready. Dinner was a premade turkey roast, homemade mashed potatoes, box stuffing, and biscuits. Not fancy by any means, but more work than I usually do for a dinner. Everything turned out perfectly, which makes me think that next year I can step up my game and maybe make my grandma's awesome stuffing recipe. I still won't be able to do a 'real' turkey though. We also had some of the high end Sterling merlot that I love. Below is a photo of our food and my hokey holiday plastic plates.



As a frame of reference for how Midwestern this meal was, here is a photo of what I ate last year in Oakland on Thanksgiving. What you see is polenta with tomatoes and cheese, and eggplant stuffed peppers. Oh yeah and roasted duck heads (ew).



Yeah, our meal lacked any color or vegetable (we skipped the salad so we could stuff ourselves with potatoes), but oh well. Nobody said you had to eat healthy on Thanksgiving.

Later in the evening we attempted gingerbread cookies that turned out to be disasters. We melded two different recipes, didn't have the right sized bowls, didn't cut and cook them properly, didn't have a rolling pin...it was bad. I'm going to buy a rollin pin and some parchment paper and try for round 2 gingerbread cookies later in the week. I guess some part of Domestic Day had to go wrong.

work accomplishments

Today I microwaved bread and was pleasantly surprised.

on the menu for tonight

Season finale of Big Brother 8 is tonight, so Nate's coming over and we are going to eat and drink and be sad that another season of amazing reality tv is over.

Appetizer: cracked pepper water crackers with a garlic and herbs spread

Salad: italian mixed greens with croutons (for nate) and red vinaigrette dressing (ranch for nate)

Dinner: homemade baked and crusted mac and cheese using colby and monterey jack cheeses. Should be interesting considering I don't have the appropriate casserole dish for it.

Dessert: some cheapo peanut butter and chocolate chip bar thing that you just throw in the oven. thanks Betty Crocker!

Wine: Liberty School cabernet sauvignon

I'm a bit nervous about using a bigger pan for the mac and cheese, but I think it should be ok. Otherwise, I can't wait to have a gut busting meal tonight. Too bad the weather got all hot again so it won't taste as cozy as it could.

Food rut

Cleo's Waitress: What will you have?
Me: Grilled cheese please!
CW: You get that every time you come here don't you?
Me: Uhh..yeah... (shame!)
Nate: LOL and you thought I was the one to never try new things!

Treated.

Not much new

Look! Audrey's first Artist's Rendering! I'd say it's pretty accurate, except Audrey's woof is more of a WOOF! And she's not roo-ing like wild. This photo brought to you by a camera phone and some boredom I assume.
I don't really have anything else to say. A busy day at work, which is sadly the start of a very busy week. Tomorrow I'm taking Nate to Adobo Grill for the "Thanks for babysitting Audrey" meal I promised him a month ago. I'm looking forward to it. They make the guacamole at your table! And they do tequila flights! This will be good.

Re-cap

I'm working from home today. First time I've ever done that! I have some research and writing to get done, and its -16 (no joke) outside so I decided the office got the boot for the day.

It's Monday, which I believe means its the weekend re-cap edition of Causing Accidents. Friday was freezing cold. Nate and I got some home-cookin' at the Silver Cloud and watched Thursday's sit-coms. Staying in felt great. Saturday was Amanda's birthday party at Black Rock, and despite the below freezing temps, everyone made it out for it. JP and I decided that running to Black Rock was a better idea than walking, and in many ways it was until I couldn't stop coughing all night.

Sunday I wanted to get some stuff done, but ended up sleeping until 1:30. Nate and I worked on the PUZZLE we bought Saturday. Yes, we bought a totally dorky puzzle and are putting it together. It's actually really hard (read the description on the link). After we got most of the edges done (ok, after Nate got most of the edges done), we went to Ed and Soup's Super Bowl Party. I ate like and asshole the entire time. Tons of Hooter's Chicken Wings, brownies, tater tots, Natalie's cookies, artichoke dip, lil' smokies (lol), jalepeno poppers, pizza rolls, bacon wrapped dates, all the typical football food. The game was sort of fun, until that whole Bears Lose bit. The party was a good time - we deep fried a White Castle hamburger, and have that on tape. I foresee some YouTube viral action going on with that recording. My clothes stink of deep fryer, but the fried pickles, and fried everything else we ate were great. I'm pretty sure I can't eat for the next four days to make up for how bad I was. Then we got home around 10 and for some reason I was so tired I couldn't function. I fell asleep on the couch and it took a lot of work for me to make it over to the bed for sleepy time.

This week will be quiet, as its still insanely cold out. I'll watch Lost, but other than that I have no plans.