...i am currently posting this from cafe ritz on walton & ashland...i'm here w/ teddy & greendeeve...kiara, teal pheal's roommate is the barista...i'm having my americano as we talk resolutions and stuff...you know...serious life stuff that you talk about only over coffee & scones...i just wanted to post this cuz apparently there's free wireless internet here too...SNAP!



teddy & i went to penny's & then to myopic so i could visit our kitty...i call it our kitty but it's really myopic bookstore's kitty...he's so cute...i also got a book of czeck poetry for my modra jozka and a new flanner oconnor book and this book called state of mind about this guy who traveled to towns w/ interesting names like bliss, ny or justice, va or love, va etc...it's about finding the meaning of life and all that jazz...i'm like really rushing through this cuz it closes at 6pm here at cafe ritz...it's a grey day but it's lovely to share coffee & cookies in front of the warmth of a fire and get free internet that's faster than the connection i get at home...



bye y'all!

...ok...so i'm away from my computer for one day, and what happens? i check my email and i get not ONE but TWO wedding invitations...like WHAT THE FRICKIN' AY??!!! ha ha! yes...two dear friends of mine are getting married...one is like a big brother to me and owes me a fishing trip...the other is none other than my dear ryan of serene...yowzas!



...so snowboarding...yeah...uh...well, i tried...for about an hour...but there's not much you can learn when all you can do is crawl down the bunny hill backwards cuz the only way you can get yourself up from a fall is with your face to the hill...every time i would do that, i found that the only way i could move was backwards with my ass in the air clawing at the hill if i started going too fast...that's not very much fun...so i traded in the snowboard for skis and had a lovely time the rest of the afternoon...i was fine on skis keeping up w/ teddy & dave & ryan & ellen who had been boarding on the other hills that were more challenging than the bunny hill...i can't tell you how much i love the sensation of gliding down a hill on skis...i don't know if i'll ever become a snowboarder, but i don't think i could ever give up skiing...after driving back to chicago, we dropped off ryan & then went to the leadway for beers and shots and a game of pool...we were thoroughly exhausted...and now i'm mighty sore on my upper body...it's all from the boarding portion of yesterday cuz i didn't fall at all when i was skiing...i think next time, i'll take actual snowboarding lessons...who knows...maybe i'll never get it...there's always skis though, and it's good to know that even though it's been a few years since i've skied, i've internalized it enough that it's like riding a bike...



boy am i sore though...

going snowboarding w/ teddy, dave, ellen & ryan from trader joe's! hope i make it through the day in one piece...toodles!

...friends, chicagoans, countryfolk...lend me your corrugated boxes! yes, i am starting to deal with the reality of moving in the next couple months or so and it's not very fun...last night, i made a list of some of the things i want to throw away for starters...i figure i shouldn't start boxing stuff until i know what i'm taking and what i'm not...and if i'm not taking it, i might as well toss it now...



...add to that the fact that teddy & his two brothers jay & dave & dave's girlfriend ellen are all moving about the same time, and you can just imagine how much i'm looking forward to the end of march...you know, what i realized? before spring hits, i will have helped move teddy's oldest bro dave THREE times in NINE MONTHS and both teddy & jay TWICE in SIX MONTHS...am i the only crazy person who takes vacation days to help OTHER PEOPLE move? probably...i myself will need a whole week of vacation to pack & move i'm sure...



...tonight i'm gonna go look at a 3000 sq foot loft in ukrainian village that's currently occupied by a bunch of djs...i've always wanted to live in a converted loft of some sort...and this would be just a few blocks from the other metra train that goes to my work...i don'k know if i'd want to give up having a place to myself, but with 3000 sq feet, that's lots of space for 4 people i think...i'll probably find another apartment for myself, but i just wanna see what i'm missing...

...you know what's an interesting experience? getting a voicemail from your landlord at lunchtime that your apartment building has been broken into and that maybe you wanna check out whether all your stuff is gone or not...being in lake forest at the time, and it being only lunchtime, i didn't think i should just skip out of work since if i'd been broken into already, there really wasn't anything i could do but cry anyways...so i called ted and asked him to go over there...he was finishing up his laundry when i called, so i had a couple nervous hours to wait to hear from him during which i got to reflect on how attached i am to my stuff...i have renter's insurance, so it wasn't the money...it was more of the stuff that's really irreplaceable...like my guitar...and all my photos that happen to reside on my computers...i think i'm gonna have to make some backups and keep them at my mom's house or something...



...the good news is that my apartment wasn't touched...i talked to my landlord later and he clarified that the break-in didn't occur today but a few days ago...i was lucky...the first floor tenant was totally cleaned out...luckily, i'm in the attic, so the robbers probably ran out of room in their getaway vehicle after they stole stuff from my landlord's office & cleaned out my neighbor's apartment...



...stuff comes and stuff goes...thieves break in and moths destroy...but there are things that can't be taken away by crowbar or mold...those are the things i want to run after...