So evidently Lish has forsaken us: she started a LiveJournal. An entry there states "One of these days, I'll figure out how to get my entries over from my blog without actually having to do work, but today is not that day." As Yukino says - "People are supposed to graduate *from* LiveJournal, not graduate to it!" =P
In case you weren't aware, Pixies got back together and have been touring here and there. Unfortunately, I seem to have the misfortune of living someplace that isn't important enough to merit a tour date. Thankfully, I stumbled upon a live bootleg of a concert just this month. It's not quite the same thing, but it's a nice consolation prize.
Yes kids, this is why you don't look at porn sites at work.
(Yes, it is actually worksafe.)
It's official: I am leaving for Seattle at the end of May. I've notified all the people I need to - the parents, the landlords and the bosses. Unsurprisingly, I'm non-plussed about it all. I'm not sure whether to be excited, frightened or both. I know that there are concrete steps I need to take now even after taking those major steps, but I just can't really bring myself to do them for some reason. I've been remarkably lax in updating the resume and actually sending it out. I bought a new fancy digital camera in the hopes that having it will help selling all the stuff that I won't be taking with me in my single compact car, but some how I doubt it. Given how previous moves have gone in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes having my back against the wall in order to make any real progress.
Although the actual move is still a while out, wish me luck. I'm sure I'm going to need it.
Should I be disturbed that my current best source for finding new music is The O.C.? Two out of the last three music purchases have been The O.C. inspired - the obvious choice, Music from The O.C., and the self-titled debut from Rooney.
(The other CD, for those that are curious, is The Postal Service 'Give Up'.)
Last weekend was another quick run up to Chicago.
The primary purpose of this trip was to see my sister in Voyaging - a performance piece inspired by Charles Darwin's voyage upon the H.M.S. Beagle. This was the first time I ever saw my sister in any professional performance, and I'm sooooooo proud of her: she did an amazing job singing and dancing. I'm happy to say it got good write-ups in the Sun-Times and the Reader. Sadly, it ended last weekend so those that did not go are going to have to deal with living the rest of their unfulfilled lives. ;)
The other purpose of the weekend was to feast! Well, at least that's what it ended up being. Immediately after hitting the ground at Midway, I took off for Marché - a contemporary French bistro with opera-themed decor. I met The General enroute and met up with the SBEmail Fan at the restaurant. We ended up spending waay too much money, but it was nice splurging: two drinks apiece, grilled octopus + crispy duck confit plus French onion soup for The General, a main course, then dessert.
The next night, after my sister's show, a group of us went to Silver Seafood - a nice Chinese restaurant. We ended up getting sauteed baby peapod in garlic, hot & sour soup, egg drop soup, fried oysters, shrimp with snap peas & cashews in a nest, General's chicken and sesame chicken. Everything was just delightful, even the old standby stuff you'll get at most Americanized places. However, the baby peapod just stood out in my mind - it was wonderfully light and oh so tasty. The sister pointed out that it's a good idea to ask what vegetable is fresh today...it's more than likely that there's something very tasty that isn't normally listed on the menu.
After all that, I had to Scooty Puff Jr. my way home. The return flight was early, but it was probably better than getting back at midnight. Regardless, the trip was good.
Some miscellaneous notes to bring everyone up to speed with what's been going on the past few weeks...
* Last week marked my third flat tire in three years. I'm beginning to think that there are little highway gremlins that scatter nails and screws in the left shoulder just for me. Either that or the more believable theory that the highway maintenance crews do just a crappy a job of cleaning the roads as they do maintaining them. The unfortunate part of the entire experience was that I still hadn't gotten the currently unremovable bolt cut off the spare...which wouldn't have been much help since I couldn't get the flat off with the crappy provided tire iron anyway. On the ever so slight bright side, it inspired me to get a car charger powered air compressor.
* The end of last week marked "The Great Cleansing" - I actually got around to cleaning both the apartment *and* the interior of the car. It was nice to actually get around to putting things in order and having a somewhat clean place.
* I've been participating in Yukino's short story club. Having never applied myself to writing fiction before, it's been an interesting experience so far. All in all, it's been quite enjoyable getting the creative juices flowing in a way I've never really exercised before.
