Pierogi Fest

What could be better than a beautiful summer day and tent after tent of tantalizing pierogies? Guys dressed as a giant pierogi and stuffed cabbage walking around as you chow down on 12 different flavors of pierogies, in the shade. My favorite was Dan's sweet cheese and cherry flavors. Although their spinach was also damn tasty.

Actually, plans had been hatched as far back as Midsommarfest, when my cousins told me about the wonder that is Pierogi Fest. Interesting, since neither of these cousins are Polish, but just Pierogi enthusiasts. As I learned, during Pierogi Fest, Polish is largely irrelevant, or at least honorary, kinda like being Irish around St. Patrick's day. Although the "You Bet Your Dupa I'm Polish" did crack me up in a special way. I was really surprised by the amount of press surrounding this ostensibly small-town festival. It's the only non-Chicago festival that has really gotten press. And to be able to compete with 3 other festivals that weekend for media was impressive, especially since it was in Indiana. But who can ignore the wonders of pierogies and some impressively good polka bands. I even heard some obetik (sp?)

I think I will mark my calendar for next year. Bust out my Polish Princess t-shirt and make sure I am in town to chow down!

I want to know

(since I've been a bad blogger, I will play a little catch-up.)

• How do I automatically know that 818 is a California area code? Why can I remember stupid numerical info like this, but have lost most of my Greek?
• Why are my legs so tight give the most strenuous thing I did yesterday was walk to the kitchen to mix a drink?
• Why did JK Rowling allegedly give away the ending in an interview that came out less than a week after the book? (Don't tell me, I'm not done and avoiding spoilers like the plague.)
• To what level of fashion hell would I descend if I bought a pair of brightly colored Crocs?
• Do I really need a tank top with the image of Frida Kahlo on it?

And don't even get me started on the bigger questions!

on Pandora: "Between Us and Them" - Ulrich Schnauss

Taste of Lincoln

It's been a few weeks since I went festing. Don't get me wrong, I love the whole wander around drinking beer and heckling cover bands in the twilight, but it gets old, and expensive. So it has been more "private party" (chilling at someone's house with a case of something, listening to music).

However today, the fest came to me.

Taste of Lincoln Avenue is this weekend, which I forgot until I got to work, which is effectively blocked on all sides by festival. There are all sorts of vendors, from local restaurants and bars, to purses, jewelry and birth control (I can't make this up). Which made lunch a little more interesting (duck crepes with spicy strawberry sauce). But the noise level is annoying, if just because they have like 3 stages in the course of 2 blocks. And they area all playing. Wee bit of a cacophony. So on the stage by the back door of my office, you have your standard cover band, and on the stage two shacks down from the front door is some Sinatra wannabe. And now there is a DJ playing Top 40 shit.

Festivals are a lot less entertaining when you do NOT have a beer in hand. And are effectively stuck for hours. And if I don't like the band who's playing, that's a bummer.

On the plus side = mad freebies. Got some Fructisse serum, a mini raspberry mocha frap, and a bottle of Silk Chocolate Soy Milk, which was damn tasty. Maybe I will have to use the Whole-Food-hippie coupon book and get more.

Bus snooze

Or "Why I sleep on the bus". In no particular order:

1. Closing my eyes blocks out all that visual stimuli that can overwhelm, or tempt (damn you DnD).
2. I don't really need to spend 30 minutes of my day staring at someone's ass.
3. I don't want to watch bus amateurs muck up the system by failing to use the right door, or move all the way to the back, etc.
4. It almost makes me forget about the mild carbon monoxide poisoning I am probably getting from sitting in the back of the bus.
5. I can't read on the bus, so sleep is a better use of my time that options 1 or 2.
6. Pavlovian response to motion.
7. Some damn Brits kept me up past my bedtime dancing at Green Dolphin.


God bless Dunkin Donuts large Toasted Almond coffee. Tastes like candy!

on the iPod: "Mahma Nah" - Cake

Harry Potter

After dodging unlabeled spoilers masquerading as news, I finally broken down and bought the new Harry Potter.

After reading the first few pages, I realised that it has been a while since I read HP6. So I had to carefully read some synposes (sans spoilers) to get back into the swing of things, since HP7 pretty much hits the ground running. And since I took it to work, the day flew by.

I have joined the legions of dorks" as the kid in the office called me. It's a definite thing here. Like every day this week, there have been at least 3 people on the bus reading it. I was actually surprised to find one as easily as I did (go Target!).

I'm only at page 150, so if I don't pop up again for a couple days, you'll know why.

on iTunes: "Someone to Love" - Fountains of Wayne

Little things

On a Monday, it's the little things that will get you by.

• There is now an Onion box next to the Red Eye, which means I can get my free snark as I get on the bus. I have seen Onion boxes around, but they are hard to find. This is potentially the most exciting part of my day.
• Wearing my tall shoes almost entirely alleviated the fat day look. Instead of looking lumpy, I look long.
• My one receptionist victory of the morning: a solicitor asked if she may speak with So-and-so. I said no and hung up.
• The office drama just got a little more entertaining. Apparently the much-pursued intern is not so available. And suddenly the office is so quiet...

on the iPod: "Fibre de Verre" - Paris Combo

Some balance

To balance the night of crap consumption (ah chips and beer and bites of pie), I decided to get a little balance.

(late nite photo shoot)

I prefer to think of it as my body reminding me to seek the quiet healthy yin to my late night party yang rather than a hangover. But this morning was rough. Bleary-eyed and without coffee, I headed over to rehearsal in hopes that I could produce some brilliance by association. And it worked. Very nice to hear someone so disappointed that I am leaving Chicago, because he is actually excited about what I can do.

Came home, drank some iced coffee strictly medicinally, and took a nap. And a walk. And then I made myself a snack of plain yogurt, fresh peach, honey and flax, with almonds. So damn tasty! Must remember that good food is tasty. But sometimes it just can't compete.


Now to clean the bathroom and do some pushups.

on iTunes: "Soft and Warm" - Voxtrot

Karma swing

Usually, you have to wait to see the balance of karma play out. For better or worse, Karma rarely consorts with Instant Gratification. I'm still waiting on a couple of karmic things to work themselves out. And when it does even out, it's subtle. That said, I witnessed the playing out of karma very directly last night. Hand of God, if you will.

I decided to head to the Music Box to see the Chicago TV Pilot Competition. A friend of a friend was in one, and I generally dig that kind of scene. And I have been meaning to get over to the Music Box since I moved here.

Because my planning skills are lacking, I wasn't able to bus it over. Which meant I had to drive. And the challenge of not finding parking in SoPo OR LP when I returned almost kept me home. Almost. But the idea of a pilot of a vampire and her monster friends taking a human as a roommate was just too irresistible. So I drove on over.

To my infinite delight, I found a primo parking space a block from the theatre, on Southport. But it was metered for another half hour, and in my infinite "wisdom" had used all my quarters to buy coffee so as not to break my big bill. As I stood there debating the gamble, a cab driver opened his window and asked if I needed quarters. Without accepting anything in return, the guy gave me 4 quarters (I only needed one).

Wow!

I see this as returning all the quarters I plunked into strangers' meters as I saw the ticket lady heading their way. And to think I thought karma just let me find the space, it also paid for it!

on Pandora: "Primitive Notion" - New Order

Latin dance night

Who knew a Thursday could be so festive?

With the lure of Brazilian electronica, I finally made it down to Summerdance. I mean, I like Brazilian and electronica, so this sounded perfect. And it fell on the same night as the salsa competition my friend made me promise to see. So I packed my dance shoes and camera, and dragged Kallisti downtown with me.

Fortified with cheeseburgers from Lion's Head, we braced the train to Grant Park. I loved it. The music was good; there was a diverse crowd; and everyone was there to party. This feeling was only intensified when I actually grooved onto the floor. The DJ provided the beats from his laptop, accompanied by a female vocalist, brass player, sax and miscellaneous percussion. With such rhythmic music, everyone could get into it (except Kallisti who at best seemed amused). There was one guy in a tropical shirt who impressively couldn't find ANY rhythm, and another guy who really wanted to be able to do capoeira. The group was misguided into a couple of bad line dances by a very exuberant guy in a green shirt who could throw girls in the air (and you know I wished I was one of them).

During the break, Kallisti and I walked to Buckingham Fountain, which they light up at night. Despite the tourists, it was a really pretty scene. The music choice was a little odd, and there was a comical moment as we dodged the huge spray being blown in our direction. Because it was both cool (60s) and damn breezy, especially so close to the Lake.


After a little more dancing to warm up, we headed uptown to Excalibur for the salsa event. OK. Excalibur is this castle-looking club that is a tourist magnet. But Latin night wasn't too bad. They had 2 dance floors - 1 salsa, 1 everything else (including some crappy merengue). I danced a couple of times trying hard not to smack someone in the head or get too dizzy. Which was extra fun after a strong malibu-coke. We watched the competition from above, and I went right into my nitpicky/catty mode. Awesome!


We headed out just in time to miss the 22, shivered for a while before giving up and cabbing it back to LP. I drove Kallisti home before falling asleep as I stretched. Ah.

Must dance more. Must also drink more coffee.

on iPod: "Wandering Star" - Portishead

Sweet homesickness

My iPod has been in a Devon Sproule kind of mood this morning. And it inspires such sweet homesickness.

The music itself is delicate folk, beautifully written and sung by the purest voice. She's a Charlottesville local, and I will always associate that CD with driving up and down Rte. 20 (usually to/from Scottsville) in August of last year. Route 20 is one of my favorite drives. A curvy country road that towards Barboursville requires some fun driving, and towards Scottsville inspires pastoral zen. (Unless you're stuck behind a tractor, which is just really frustrating). Listening to this music, I can see the bugs on my windshield, feel the humid air rushing past me because all the windows are open. Feeling a profound sense of loss at leaving such a pretty place.

I deliberately didn't listen to this CD for a while. But now it's something lovely. Probably because I feel rooted enough in Chicago that I am not instantly jumping in the car to head back east. I can compartmentalize better. So that kind of homesickness is something sweet. Because it indicates that there is something lost, but it was something good.

News tidbits

(I spied this on Webster.
All that remains is the facade,
and I loved the non sequitur.)

Besides the Slate article, these articles have rather tickled my fancy of late:

• Gecko glue. My question: how do they know that a gecko remains sticky after pulling it off the wall 1000 times? What poor lab rat assistant got that assignment?
• Hummer vandalism. Dude, if you can afford a tricked out Hummer and all the gas it consumes, why can't you afford to repair it. And then there is the nasty sense of delight I take.
• New solution to the Darfur crisis. How exciting to not only realistically see the root of the problem, but also a viable solution.

on the iPod: "Blow Out" - Radiohead feat. Portishead (Technically, it's on shuffle, but I guess iPod is in a Thom Yorke kinda mood.)

Body revelation

I apologize if this wanders towards the Land of TMI. But I was so excited, I had to blog it. If nothing else, because it seems like the people who read this are female.

During one of my endless surfing sprees, I came across a Slate article by Explainer. I generally like Explainer, because it takes interesting conversation topics and pares it down to the factual. Today's topic - how can the skinny Nicole Richie possibly be pregnant. The short answer is that nothing is impossible, just varying levels of unlikely. But the cool part is the idea that you need a certain and surprisingly high body-fat percentage (24%) to become pregnant, or at least have regular periods.

Not content with a single source (especially one that even mentions Nicole Richie), I did more research. Admittedly, my results were constrained by what sites popped up and were available. The numbers vary, but then again, if it was a fitness site, the "ideal" percentages were lower than fertility sites. Sadly, I couldn't access an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that examined amenorhea and body fat. Some of the more academic/research oriented sites also suggested that menarche depends on achieving a certain body fat. Which, by extension, would explain why girls are starting their periods earlier and earlier in a world of increased access to nutrition or at least Doritos.

For me personally, this alleviated some of the guilt I felt about my body fat percentage after a couple days of pizza. Depending on the site, I am normal to slightly overweight, which is pretty funny, since I am underweight based solely on pounds. Also, it might explain my funky periods and why they never regulated. Not that I was ever super-skinny, but if I was teetering on the edge of the magic body-fat percentage, maybe that's why. It is nice to know that there might be a reason beyond "my body's weird like that."

on the iPod: "Optimistic" - Radiohead

New me?

Apparently the new me splits a Lou Malnatti's deep-dish while heckling Barry Bonds pinch-hitting against the Cubs before beaching on the bed.

So much for the vegan-dappling SportsNet-eschewing moi. But do I at least get points for using "eschew"? Or watching a Frida biography before the game?

I might need to do penance or something. Which begs the question - to whom do I confess? Instead of 10 Hail Marys and a few Our Fathers, is it more like 10 pieces of fruit and 3 chapters of Artaud? Or is it like the evil priests who made you be nice to a person for a day, the art equivalent of seeing a really bad show, but acting supportive?

Muses nine, pray for me. That I may return to my artful ways and fit into my pants tomorrow.

Staged reading

On the fly, a member of the COP asked me to be his AD for a staged reading. The play is a new adaptation of Woyczek, which I have developed a bit of a taste for since analyzing it for URTA prep. But since it has been a few months since I read it, the adaptation felt even fresher.

In quintessential grass-roots theatre fashion, we met on a Sunday morning, in someone's attic. The playwright and his assistant kindly provided coffee, bagels, and access to their toaster. We sat around in a hodge-podge of chairs for the read-thru before really hashing out some character stuff.

It felt really good to exercise that part of my brain again. The analyzing and trouble-shooting. How can we both connect Margaret to Woyczek AND make her more relevant? Also, it was alot of fun being surrounded by people who were excited about this project, and who were genuinely interested instead of just phoning it in for a paycheck.

And afterwards, I got to enjoy another Chicago treat - Gino's East deep dish!

on iTunes: "Put Your Hands Up for Detroit" - Fedde la Grand

Blast from the past

Instead of my usual evening of Scrubs and generally lazing around the house, I got to meet up with an old friend. Drove up to Lake Forest, which makes Lincoln Park look positively pedestrian to meet up with my high school biology teacher. Or more accurately, the woman I wanted for my biology teacher. She also ran S.A.V.E., the ecology group, and was generally around to support the drama kids. I spent many quality hours camped out in her classroom, either relearning the Krebs cycle, organizing slides, or generally loitering.

So it was pretty wild to kick back and catch up on all my O'Connell gossip. Where everyone is, who's married, who has kids, who fell of the face of the earth. I still think I will pass on the reunion, but it is kinda fun to imagine all these "kids" being grown-ups. Especially since even now, I don't really think of myself as grown-up. More like a slightly better dressed 17-year old with bills who can buy beer. It also keeps me honest, since this is a person who has known me since I was 15. Somethings you just can't run away from. Like bad kilts and a snarky post-it left for a chemistry teacher. But being in a city where no one has known me for more than a few months, it was kinda cool to chat with someone who already knew the backstory.

It was a nice antidote to the severe case of crankypants I contracted at work. I try to leave those in the closet next to the bad-idea jeans, but sometimes, they just come out of their own accord. Not unlike the so-dirty-they-could-walk-themselves-to-the-washing-machine kind of automation. And to top it off, I gave into my cheeseburger temptation just before bed. Ah sweet sweet beef sleep.

on the iPod: "Play" - JLo

Pix

Check out the flickr site. Still collecting photos to post.

Haven't really had the attention span to blog. Will work on that.

In the meantime, my favorite photo:

Family fun time

A major part of the weekend agenda was participating in the family reunion activities.

Basically, the family reunion consisted of moving large groups of people between food sources and tourist attractions, with the occasional detour back to the hotel.

(another busy day of bonding)

On Sunday, after everyone got themselves to church (later if you were a slack local like my sisters and me), we converged on Eat First in Chinatown. This caused a bit of confusion, ala Abbott & Costello, since we all knew we would eat first. Duh. The entire Loo clan pretty much took up the entire restaurant. My table ordered Hong Kong noodles and baked pork ribs, both of which were excellent. And you could graze among the other tables, since there was plenty of food.

Next stop was the Spy Museum, which I had never seen before. Very cool and chock full of information, but trying a little hard to be Disney. Also, I didn't really like the serpentine layout, since you never knew how close you were to the end of the exhibit. Which was extra tricky, since everyone in the group moved at a different pace. So you were always feeling like the slow one, only to rush and pass 3 people. Apparently the West Coasters are more museum efficient/less geeky than us East Coasters. So they waited in the cafe as we absorbed a wealth of spy knowledge.

Taking a break from Chinese, we headed to Fuddruckers for burgers and shakes for dinner before enjoying the fine air conditioning at the Multiplex. While one cousin handed off tickets to Ratatouille, three of us conveniently hogged 17 seats. Appropriately, the movie was also about food, although not as much fun as some of the other Pixar movies. And at the end, I made my brother sit through the credits so we could cheer for Femgeek! (To say nothing of the fact that I am a credit-watcher, and my brother is incredibly patient with me.) After the movie, my siblings and I drove a cousin back to her hotel, and probably grossly traumatized her, simply by being ourselves and siblings (it's easy to forget that common-knowledge teasing is TMI to the normal people.)

(the Loo's preferred the Democratic side)

Monday was a similar theme. We convened in the Cannon Building for a tour of the Capitol, courtesy of my uncle, who is super-knowledgeable on all things Capitol. One summer in high school, I worked in his office, so I had been on his tour. Which takes infinitely less time with only 2 people instead of 30. There were some fun photo ops (the Roaming Gnome goes to Washington, playing Chairman, etc), and lots of interesting anecdotes, but after nearly 5 hours, we still hadn't made it to the Senate side. Wisely we abandoned the House of Lords in favor of food (I think this is the longest we went without food all weekend). One group headed to the Pentagon, another to the Supreme Court. Some of us ended up at a Mexican place, which was appropriate, since I bailed after lunch to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

(Very nice exhibit. Only 1 Kahlo work, but lots of interesting photographs. Sadly, not worth the price of admission.) It was nice to get some quiet time, even if it did involve walking in the blazing heat a distance a bit further than I originally estimated. Then again, I had alot of Chinese and milkshake to melt off.

Went home via an impressively empty Metro, where I carefully packed my Pee Wee's before enjoying some Bubba's BBQ at another family meal. Fortunately, this was an informal thing at someone's house. And it involved beer. Unfortunately, I had to catch the Delayed Plane, so I pretty much mauled my BBQ, took some photos and headed out.

(grazing over the BBQ pickin's)

It was alot of fun to hang out with various cousins. Because of geography, I only see them once a year, if that. But we are all planning on the next gathering for next year's wedding. Time to start saving my pennies and grains of sanity now!

on the iPod: "Cite Tango" - Astor Piazzola (arranged by Gotan Project)

Downloading and debriefing

Despite being absolutely zonked when I finally crawled into bed, I had problems falling asleep, because my brain decided that 2.30AM was really the best time to start processing all of the information I had accumulated in the past few days.

For the first time in days, I had some quiet time last night. As I waited for my perpetually delayed flight out of Dulles. Unfortunately, there is only so much you can do in an airport, especially when you have to schlep all your stuff around with you, lest it be destroyed by the overeager Homeland Security guys. So I did some reading, called the Cheese Fiend, balanced my checkbook. And checked the board as my 8.20 flight got delayed to 10.20, 10.45, 11.05, and finally boarded at 11.30.

Fortunately there were only like 20 people on the flight, so we all got to stretch out. And despite the hassle, everyone remained pretty chill. Annoyed but in good humors. I remained as zen as possible, but did worry about how I was getting back from the airport. As it turned out, I caught the last orange line train out of Midway, the last 36 uptown (yes the 22 is 24/7, but for all its good qualities, punctuality or predictability aren't 2 of them.) Blearily walked home from the bus to put my Pee Wee's in the freezer, shower and head to bed.

Spent the past few days in Virginia doing all flavors of family things, from the low-key visit to Charlottesville, to the high-impact reunion schedule. Caught up with cousins and lots of eating. And taking lots of pictures and moving in large crowds. So I have alot to catch up on. Will post more after I drink more coffee.

on the iPod: "Strange Little Girl" - Tori Amos

Trip Home

The short version:
Drove down the dull but scenic 29S to Charlottesville. Met with my adopted mom for TnL to catch up and play with ani-mules. Rode over to Huskie Play Group underneath 50lbs of Tasha who insisted on her front seat. Got my College Inn cheesesteak, since Chicago does not understand the concept. And while a combo is tasty, it just ain't the same.

Got to walk around downtown in the sweltering Virginia heat before heading down to Scottsville. Scored some serious BBQ from Pee Wee's to be smuggled back to Chicago where they think BBQ means "anything that came off the grill". And a nice long chat with the Domestic God as he taught me how to make key lime pie (which we then "sampled".) Ended up sleeping over before jetting back up 29.

Now I wait in queue for the shower.

on iTunes: "Whoo! Alright! Yeah! Uh-huh!" - The Rapture

Happy Fire of July

With a healthy dose of holiday, I have had plenty to blog about, but little time to blog. What a fabulous problem!

Yesterday was a great example of why I love the 4th of July. It's a lazy holiday all about having guilt-free fun with people of your choosing. And the biggest gift decision you have to make is what kind of beer to snag. Old Style to be classic, 312 to be local, Corona to be seasonal, or something just random? And the holiday involves optional travel and FIRE.

Still working on why Independence Day = fire (either works or grill). The best I can come up with is that one of the primary ideas in the Bill of Rights is to bear arms, i.e. mini, hand-held explosions. And there was alot of outdoor cooking and explosions in order to procure said independence. Or because nothing says fun like blowing shit up. Which I think is slightly more likely. And fireworks are alot more fun when you aren't shivering.

Woke up extra late yesterday. Caught part of the embarrassing Cubs game (they got spanked by the crappy Nationals). Went home to make ugly deviled eggs. The buggers just wouldn't peel, so they ended up looking like someone had already started nibbling. I operated on the idea that if they were tasty enough, people would eat them no matter how ugly. Which made my perfectionist side twitch, but hey.

Did some grilling at the same place as the Memorial Day BBQ, which has a great deck, wonderful food and an eager beagle puppy. Chatted with some very reasonable vegetarians, talked shop with the dancers, and discussed the charms of Amsterdam. And shared my watermelon with Face (the puppy). Good grillin', amazing fruit (huge raspberries, strawberries, and cherries; dripping sweet honeydew and watermelon). And I got to flip some burgers.

For fireworks, I nearly drove up to Evanston before I realised that I could walk to North Ave Beach and catch them there. I power-walked to the beach so I wouldn't miss anything. Watched people leaving early (freaks), with all their picnic equipment in tow. And these folks were severely equipped. Kept thinking I saw fireworks which were only the lit-up buildings in the trees. Caught some amateur shows with their Indiana supplies of contraband and cool fireworks. And I discovered that the best place to watch fireworks is wading in the water on the beach. I rolled up my pants and waded into the Lake, watching the burb fireworks to the north until the Navy Pier show started at 9.30. All in all, I saw about 5 different displays from the same place. While it didn't have that resounding thump that I love, it was gorgeous. I had plenty of space and the zen of the cool water.

Sadly I was pulled away from my spot by a woman in scrubs looking for her shoes. It only took me a couple of seconds to realise that something was hugely wrong. She had a plastic hospital bracelet on and seemed really paranoid (some hospital had taken her babies away kind of thing). And she didn't really know where she was looking for her shoes. When she enlisted the help of a couple of nice guys, I slipped off to call the police. Tricky to describe the situation when the 911 operator expects some variation on the theme of "I think my hand is on fire".

I wandered back to the water, but by then all the waves me have to pee; the fireworks were over; the spell was broken.

on the iPod: "Tristan and Isolde" - Devon Sproule

The Vegan Experiment

For the past couple of days, I have been trying to do some minor detox. Nothing drastic, no fasting or concocting. But in the past week, I have eliminated caffeine, alcohol, meat, dairy and grains. Till finally yesterday, I only ate fruits and veggies. And even when I was eating grain, it was Whole Foods approved. It was an interesting experiment, but nothing I could realistically maintain on a regular basis.

It's easy to eat fruits and veggies during the summer. I stocked up on corn and tomatoes and potatoes and broccoli at the Farmers Market. Cramming them underneath cantaloupe, various berries and cherries, peaches and kiwis. Yum! And they are all so snackable, which is key since I am total grazer and generally do not have the attention span to cook.

Yesterday I discovered I like prep work. I like cutting things into little bits and then putting them in gladwares in the fridge to eat later. After work I was ravenous. So I made a salad (and my own vinaigrette) which I munched as I roasted potatoes. I was terribly proud of myself because I was cooking healthy food, and it tasted good.

The pros: I felt much better. Lighter and more energized. And I dropped alot of body fat.

The cons: I still love me some cheeseburgers and chocolate, which can not be adequately substituted. It is really tricky to avoid animal products. I was perpetually hungry (which is probably what kept me going, since I always had the foraging impulse.)

So it's good to know they way I can tweak my diet to detox without the dramatic. It's also good to know that there are cheeseburgers down the street that I can eat without vegan guilt.

on the iPod: "Morning Song" - Zero 7 (I have been working on a compilation of late, hence all the Z7).

Hee

Here are some of the random gems cracking me up lately:

1. The cause of the nasty back-up on the Expressway yesterday.

2. This sign on the back of a bus.

("Date Someone Ugly!
Feel Better About Yourself")

3. The image of a couch flying into Kallisti's 2nd floor window. Or even better, the look on the neighbors' faces as a couch goes apparently airborne. Still glad I missed the real thing.

Travails of the butt

(ok, I mostly just had to use this title)

As the Fashionista will attest, this is not the first time I have had butt issues. I am mostly really sore. Not even because I have been terribly active. It is probably because I spend so much quality time sitting on it. So I have spent alot of time stretching at my desk today.

Which I am extra inclined to do wearing my comfy yet cute gauchos. I finally succumbed to the trend, about a year too late (hence why I had such a hard time finding a pair - for super cheap at Target!). But they are so cottony-good and the right length to make me want to move and do contact-improv or yoga or something active. Given the chance, I would never wear anything but these and my green skirt.

Meanwhile, I research massage schools with student rates, so maybe someone can fix my butt problem and general alignment tweaks. Snap Crackle Pop!

OK, had to share because I knew everyone would want a status report of my butt.

on the iPod: "Warm Sound" - Zero 7

Urban oasis

In the middle of the city, there are a few little refuges that I have discovered. And somehow slipping into the quiet but knowing I am still in the middle of things is extra cool.


About a block from where I work, in the shadow of the Sears Tower, I found a little park. Bunch of Adirondack chairs, some flowers and swanky lights. The lunch spot of choice. But since I tend to take my lunch extra late, it is even less crowded. Sure, there is a fair amount of tourists gawking at the tall buildings like they have never seen tall buildings before, but overall, a really nice place to breathe. I think it's all the green. And the chirping of Nextels is an oddly appropriate substitute for the crickets.

(mutant zucchini)

On Saturday, I actually made it to the Farmer's Market in LP. It smelled amazing with all the fresh produce, including herbs I don't know how to cook with. I browsed and sniffed my way through the tents. Meanwhile, all the designer dogs were pulling owners sipping their Venti Starbucks, many of whom also piloted $800 strollers and overdressed children. But still a nice little hideaway.
on iTunes: "Chicken Soup with Rice" - Carole King