...so i utterly failed trying to go to sleep early last night...it wasn't all my fault...i didn't even get to ted's for dinner until 7, and then that flavored coffee he made me is what did me in...it was just the pick me up i needed at the time, but the pick me up lasted 6 hours, and although i got home relatively early (before 11), i was still pretty wide awake until 1am when i made a really stupid move on tetris and died...my next chance for decent sleep isn't scheduled until the 13th of december, so i'm gonna have to grin & bear it for the next 10 days...boy, am i gonna be a bitch...



tonight is girls' night out w/ connie & kris if all goes as planned...i dunno where we're gonna eat, but eating is the primary objective as far as i know...and then i'll be seeking out a decent americano, or better yet, an espresso martini...*drool*...



i think i found a vendor who will make decent photo post cards for me...i'm basically gonna use snapfish.com...i've uploaded part of my portfolio to my album there, and i can order postcards from them...i just got my sample batch yesterday, and teddy says these look so much better than the ones i'd gotten from a different vendor...now i just have to choose the photos i'm gonna use...



ok...i seriously need a nap...



p.s. photos from sunday night's advent service are here.

...ok...so i'm supposed to go to la-something wisconsin for my friend sam's wedding this saturday...it's like 4.5 hours away...and i don't wanna stay overnight...so i'm gonna drive 9 hours by myself on saturday...oh joy! thank god for cruise control...let's see...9 hours of music...hmmm...should i make mix cds? decisions, decisions, decisions...which reminds me that i have to pick up my skirt for the wedding from the cleaners on thursday...and i still don't have a top to wear, but oh well...i'll find something i'm sure...pete & amy are flying in for the wedding so it'll be cool to see them again, all be it for a very short time...



...and my friend jozka is coming to town from ann arbor this weekend! it's gonna be his quarter of a century bday! another busy weekend ahead of me, i see...oh well...all i wanna do is sleep in my spare time...but i keep getting distracted and end up doing other stuff...not tonight however...i will be disciplined and get me to bed at a decent hour...9pm sounds good, don't you think...oh, to sleep...to sleep...to sleep...



...so i'm moving in march, and i'm toying with the idea of getting a roommate...or making myself someone else's roommate...i was thinking that a girl my age should really think about buying a place of her own...even if it's just a little tiny one bedroom condo...i just can't stand throwing rent money down the drain anymore...ACH!...maybe next year...i better start packing now though cuz i know i'm a slow packer...i do wanna stay in the wicker park area though...it's quite convenient for me, and it keeps me close to teddy & his brothers and to places i frequent like filter & reckless & penny's...i would consider the river west neighborhood, but places like lincoln park and lakeview are absolutely out of the question...i just know that someone of my temperament will have done bodily harm to someone or something else before too long in a neighborhood like that...you know, loud meat market bars, no parking, drunk people w/ lots of money, bad music...ick...



if anybody knows of any cool living situations in wicker park, bucktown, or river west that are gonna open up the beginning of march or april, please let me know...or if anyone has a really cool place and you're like really cool and you need a roommate, let me know...

...ok...it was a very full weekend for me...now i need a vacation to recover...



saturday evening, i did something i don't do very often that nearly wiped me out...i cooked a meal from scratch...it was a mexican chili corn pie...i was in the mood for making some chili, and i thought this would be a nice twist because it also involved a cornbread topping, and i'm crazy about the cornbread, ya know...teddy was so surprised when he came over after work and found dinner waiting for him...the most he usually expects from me is pasta or tuna sandwiches...after dinner, we picked up teddy's bro dave & we went to the chicago performing arts center down in river west to see the production of the rocky horror show that dave's girlfriend ellen was working on...



...now i've never seen the rocky horror picture show or any theatrical version of the movie, and i don't think anyone could've prepared me for what to expect that night...but it was a $45 show, and ellen got us the tickets for free, so i ain't complaining...it was actually pretty funny and outrageous...teddy & i were a bit nervous about having body parts grabbed by the cast, but we managed to get through the show without drawing any unncessary attention to ourselves that would've gotten us in trouble...i thought the costumes especially for the last scene were absolutely spectacular...i don't think i could've brought myself to pay $45 for this show cuz that's like a month's worth of shows for me, but for free it was worth it...and at intermission teddy ordered an espresso martini from the bar that was really yummy! i'd never had one before, and i highly recommend it! it would have to be at a bar that could make espressos though...



on sunday late morning, i went to the gallery cafe w/ dave & teddy...it's a little cafe/diner/ice cream parlor that has a micro roastery on its premises...they're located on north & wood...we'd never been there before, and it wasn't what i'd expected...there were no couches to lounge around in like at filter...just booths like at a diner...but the coffee was good, and they've got a cheap $1 self-serve coffee...the walls had some interesting-enough paintings by a local artist...



it was a really lovely day yesterday...sunny and warm in the 50s...i didn't need my hat or mittens...unfortunately, teddy had to go to work...oh well...i got to work baking cookies for the advent service later that night...now when i say baking cookies, all that involved was opening a package of nestle's refrigerated pre-cut cookie dough and just separating the little squares of dough and placing them 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and sticking that in a preheated 350 degree oven...the only trick was determining when the cookies were done...i'm such an idiot when it comes to this stuff that even though the directions said it should only take 10-12 minutes in the oven, it took me a good 50 minutes of taking those things in and out of the oven until i was finally satisfied with the doneness of the cookies...i know a lot of people love eating cookie dough, but i'm just not that big a fan of raw dough...if dough were meant to be eaten raw, why the heck are we wasting natural resources and dirtying pans to bake them? those of you who LOVE raw dough may be asking the very same questions...



anyways, i met up w/ nanette & kara & kelly to help set up for the advent service a couple hours before it was to start...they had planned everything already, and i was just there to help...we set up these different prayer/reflection tables that were covered w/ various colored fabric and decorated w/ candles galore and books and pieces of paper w/ reflective questions on them that related to the advent season...i thought it looked great once we were done, and the door that kara had designed to represent the theme for the week was lovely...the service was intimate and serene with opportunities for symbolic interaction...there will be 3 more of these every sunday @ st. paul's at 2215 w. north ave at 6:30-7:30 pm...



more later...

...oh...and in case you were thinking about breaking and entering into my apartment with a cta transit card, in addition to the downstairs fortress, there is a deadbolt to contend with, as well as my pet tarantula (which roams freely about the apartment) that i never talk about because most of my friends are scared to death of spiders...but if you still insist on it, go ahead...

...well, i've committed my first act of breaking and entering...but it was into my own apartment, so i think i'm safe from the authorities...yeah, being the quintessential space cadet that i am, i ran out of the apartment last night without my keys, and 3 steps down the stairwell, that tiny part of my brain which is actually reasonable and on top of things (which obviously had been spacing out the previous 5 minutes or so, at least) snapped awake as i was about to take my 4th step and screamed, 'you idiot! you forgot your keys!' i have to give it credit, though, for waking up BEFORE i stepped out into the freezing cold and locked myself out of the building entirely, let alone my own apartment...i was supposed to be picking up teddy at 9pm from trader joes, but this obviously wasn't going to happen...so just about a week ago, teddy had called me at work jubilantly claiming to have broken into my apartment w/ a cta transit card...i couldn't find one in my wallet, and my ids and various cards were way to thick to do the trick...i used various bits of junk mail i could find and ripped those up pretty good...i reluctantly resorted out of sheer desperation to using the insert for my SY bad moon rising cd which i'd grabbed for the ride...i ripped that one pretty good too damn it...and then i searched the seemingly bottomless abyss that is my purse, and found not ONE but TWO CTA transit cards...crapola...i should've looked through my purse before resorting to my bad moon rising insert...it still took me a few minutes of jiggling and wiggling, but i did manage to break into my apartment...



...then i get down to my car, and it's got a lovely layer of snow, but just on the windshield in the front and back, and since i have wipers on both, i didn't think it would be a big deal, and i got in, turned on the engine, turned on both windshield wipers, only to be greeted by that SCRAPE SCRAPE sound of sheer ice refusing to budge...so i get out of the car and search my trunk for a snow/ice scraper, dropping the f-bomb to the north south east and west, and find a discarded piece of cardboard box instead...so i scrape my windshields w/ that the best i can, and w/ the wipers and wiper fluid, i manage to get the windows clean enough to be able to drive without endangering human lives...SHEESH...



...i'm not even gonna tell you about my blockbuster woes when teddy & i tried to get a video to go over to his brother's place...



see, now that thanksgiving's over, i'm back to bitchin' and moanin'...



on that lovely note, if anyone's interested, my friend nanette & the wicker park grace project are holding advent services every sunday starting tomorrow until the sunday before christmas from 6:30-7:30 pm @ st. paul's community church at 2215 w. north ave just west of cold comfort farm deli...we're combining art and music and reflection to make it an interactive experience...not really religious...it's welcome to people of all faiths and walks of life...this week's theme will be 'darkness (and possibility)'...i'm gonna lend nanette my sufjan stevens christmas cds to play some of the selections possibly...



ok...bye!