I've Just Closed My Eyes Again

Here is a picture of a Bears flag. You know, just so you don't forget them this year that they're not in the Superbowl. Feel free to forget them from last year though.

Well, kids. I'm almost all ready to go. I have a road trip playlist. T. (who is driving down with me) emailed me and said she wanted songs she could sing to, and so I took care of that. I'm meeting my sister in Mt Pleasant and she's taking the girls for the weekend. I still have a few things to pack, but I'm almost done with that. I still have to print out my Mapquest directions and then I can finally go to bed.

Now, I'm going to stop relating annoying details and tell you about my dream last night. And yes, I'm aware that it's just as annoying to go on and on about your dreams, because no one give a shit but you. I just think if I write it out, I might be able to get the weirdness of it out of my head. So, please indulge me, okay?

I apparently, only had one day to go on a trip, so I decided to go to Kenya for that 24 hour period (who wouldn't right?). While I was there, I took a nap in a desert right outside where people were ransacking a village and making a bonfire out of dead bodies. These same people, woke me up from my nap and helped me get on my plane. I had that weird conflicted feeling I have with people who suck, but then can be nice. Once I got on the plane, it was full of my neighbors and their kids, going to a soccer game. And then I woke up. So, what the fuck was that? Wait, don't answer that. I'm sure any analysis would put me standing right on top of the crazy again.

Sooo, ADD much, Churly? Why yes I do, and now I'm going to change the subject again. If the weather isn't too crazy, I will be off to St Louis right after work and won't see any of you (except T. and Erik) until I get back on Sunday. If the weather is too bad, you're all stuck with me for the weekend. I think we'll all now pray for clear skies.

I'm Happy, Hope You're Happy Too

Here is a picture of the orchestra at All State before the performance.

Seriously, kids. I have no idea what the hell my problem is tonight. I had all this shit to do to get ready for the weekend, and I didn't really do any of it. I even made a list at work of things to accomplish, (and you know I hardly ever make lists) then I did almost nothing on it. Now I have only one evening left, and so I can't procrastinate anymore. I just have to get cracking.

Here's what I did to procrastinate tonight. First I went running at the rec building with my friend K. My IPod, apparently thought that I needed to hear music from the 70's, because besides Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" that's all it played. They were all good songs to run to, and I hadn't heard David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" in forever.

After our work-out we met some friends at Sam's Pizza for some greasy food. Because it's the only thing you really want to eat after a good run, right? Unfortunately, the service kind of sucked. The company was excellent, so I just tried to focus on that.

I got home and had another great phone conversation with Erik, made a quick run to the store for something that Stinky needed and did the Fonzie fix with my headlight that K. suggested earlier in the evening. When I went to pick her up earlier tonight, I noticed that my left lamp was out. I really didn't want to drive with only one all the way to St Louis, and I wasn't sure what it would take to fix it. K. told me that when hers did that, she just hit it and it worked again. Luckily, mine was just as compliant. I didn't try the next Fonzie step of snapping my fingers to see if two hot chicks would come running. Maybe I should have though, I could have used their help packing and getting ready for the road trip.

A Straight Line Exists Between Me and the Good Things

Here is a picture of a goofy statue from the casino the other night.

So, the weather here today totally sucked ass. It went from almost 60 degrees yesterday to below zero and 60 mph winds today. Seriously, why the hell would anyone ever choose to live in Iowa? I think the reason most of us are so boring here is that we can't compete with the weather and we just stop trying.

Okay, enough about the weather, let's talk about me. 'Kay? 'Kay. I have two more days before I drive down to St Louis to see Erik (weather permitting - yeah, that again). I am very excited and I'm trying to get everything ready and packed beforehand so as to reduce the opportunities for me to seem like the country mouse visiting her kissin' cousin in the big city. I don't want to go and forget to bring pants or anything...I suppose it will be the weekend before Mardi Gras, so people may not notice anyway.

The one thing I discovered when I was trying to pack, was the number of cords and chargers I have to bring now. A few years ago, I didn't have one, now I have a charger for my iPod, my phone and my camera. Let's do a little experiment shall we? Wanna guess how many I leave behind when I come back home?

That's about all I got for you tonight. Maybe tomorrow I'll rob a bank or go to a key party so I actually have something interesting to blog about besides the weather.

I've Seen a Million Faces and I've Rocked Them All

This was an ashtray on the bar at the casino.

So, I think I'm just going to go back and talk about the Friday night dance party we had again at the Dublin this week. Why? Because dance parties are serious business and need to be documented again and again and again...Or do they?

Friday night, after Stinky had her pizza and movie party and I had to have five different 8th graders in my house and listen to them talk and then see Stinky kissing her boyfriend, I really needed a drink...Or twelve. My friends T. and K. had already gone out and then come back home. So, I figured I'd just go down to the Dublin Underground and see what kind of Yayhoos I could rustle up.

These are still the old photos from last week. Sadly, Erik wasn't there this Friday to take hideous pictures of me dancing. I'm pretty sure I have the scariest dance face in the history of cheesy bar dancers anywhere. See what I mean?

Once I walked down the stairs of the Dublin, I heard an unmistakably wonderful foul-mouthed voice. It was my friend L. back in town only one week later. It was going to be a glorious night.

We got down to it pretty early on, when L. dragged me away from a very drunken favorite bartender S., to dance to Bon Jovi. How could anyone refuse? I stayed for a while and tried to text and call Erik with the highlights. Right when I was getting ready to leave, (I had my coat on and everything) Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" came on and I had to go up by the pool table and find L. so we could dance like idiots to one last song.

So, yeah. I didn't even take my coat off when I grabbed the pool table with both hands and swung my head around like the worst strippers do. L. fell onto the pool table, our friend Brad M. laid down on the pool table with a dollar bill sticking out of his teeth for me and the other guy who was dancing with us, fell to the floor. Of course, our friend D. captured it all on film, so I'm sure I'll be truly horrified when I see that heinous image of me all over again. Some girls never learn, do they?

L. told me I was allowed to show her face in the photos I posted on here. So, here she is doing the butt dance with me and looking all naughty and cute. And there's my straightened hair totally unraveling by the end of the night. Remember kids, feeling the funky funky beat of the music isn't always pretty...Especially when it's me doing it.

Oh Yeah, It Was Like Lightning, Everybody Was Frightening

Here is Erik at our friend's bar. Just so you know, that isn't his purse in front of him. It totally doesn't go with his outfit anyway.

The Saturday Scavenger hunt photo prompt this week was sweet. It was super duper easy this week on account of how things transpired. Originally, I was going to drive down to Fort Madison by myself and meet my friend K. and some other people for my friend C.'s birthday. By Saturday morning things had changed, and K. decided to stay in town and go up with me. We also kicked around the idea of stopping at the casino in Riverside where my friend S. tends bar on the way down. I mentioned these tentative plans to Erik over the phone and he said he really wanted to go do all of those things. I informed him that it was only a three and a half hour drive from Madison (where he was working) to Iowa City. He thought about it for a little bit and then called me back and said he was headed my way, but would have to head back on Sunday morning. Sweet! I'll take what I can get. I think all of his friends would agree, everything is so much more fun when Erik is around.


We headed for the casino and got a drink from our friend S. I'm sure it sucked for her because she had to work and couldn't go play with us, even though I did offer to kidnap her and take her with us. That whole "getting fired" thing didn't really appeal to her for some reason. Erik gave me a dollar to play the slots. He played a dollar too. I won $2.00 back and he won .50 cents. Sweet! We decided to stop while we were ahead. We're total high rollers like that.

Here is me and my adorable friend, K. Ain't she sweet?

After the casino, we headed into the thriving metropolis that is Riverside, Iowa to get some nourishment at a place called Murphy's. I have to say, the food was hit and miss. I did kind of like the ambience of it though.

We finally made it to Fort Madison for our friend C.'s birthday celebration. We didn't stay very long, since it was a bit of a drive back, and we thought it might be fun to meet some kids at the Dublin Underground before last call. Apparently, we left just in time. After we were gone, there was some kind of big messy brawl at the bar. We could see it coming though, because while we were there, some jackass threw a Bud tall boy at our table and almost hit me with it. I suppose nothing would make my Fort Madison experience more complete, than getting beaned in the head with a Bud tall boy.

Looking in the Crowd, Your Face is Everywhere

I think Stinky took this photo of the bottom of a glass. I have no idea why, but I'm posting it because I'm low on pics. I'll probably remedy that this weekend.

I'll just give you fair warning that my self-diagnosed ADD is flaring up a bit today. This could be an all over the place, bumpy ride. If you've read my blog before, you won't be all that surprised. If you haven't, it was nice knowing you. You probably won't ever come back.

First of all, it is fucking, stupifyingly cold outside lately. They said it was supposed to have gotten down to 35 below 0 with the windchill last night. It's impossible to even think about looking cute in that kind of weather. Even some of the girliest of sorority sisters were dressing so practically that they looked like they might take up a partner and go to an Indigo Girls show. I love it when we're all on a level playing field. Of course, the word on the street is that this weekend, it's supposed to get all the way to 35 above zero and we'll all feel like we're having a heatwave.

I've been running at the rec building lately since it's so cold and icy outside. The rec building is so awesome because normally there are tons of super hunky international students playing soccer on what is normally the tennis courts in the middle. When I go with my girlfriends, we usually compare notes on who we think are the hottest ones. Tonight they had Lacrosse practice and that was almost as good. My neighbor Bridget was also there and I got to finally catch up on her life and some decent gossip. It's not quite as meditative as running outside by myself, but it's the closest I got to a social life today. I'll take what I can get.

This weekend is a bye week (I'm totally stealing my friend T.'s term she uses for her long-distance relationship) for me and Erik. Even as we speak, he's driving up to Marquette Michigan - the home of two of my favorite bloggers/ex-neighbors - on business. At some point this weekend, he will head back down to Chicago, but we won't get to see each other until next Friday when I go down to St Louis for the first time to celebrate Mardi Gras weekend there.

What am I doing this week, you ask? Well, let me tell you. Early tomorrow evening, Stinky is having some friends over for pizza and movies. Then around ten, I may or may not head down to the Dublin to see which whacky/nutty/unpredictable fun folks are hanging out. On Saturday evening, I'm making the trek down to Ft Madison for my friend C.'s birthday party. I think you all know how much I love to go to bars in funky small towns. Feel free to reveal your weekend plans in the comments. I wouldn't mind living vicariously through you for a while.

You've Got to Roll With the Punches to Get to What's Real

These are my favorite flowers in the world. Erik very intelligently asked my friend K. what kind of flowers I liked and then bought what she told him. He's a good man.

Sooo, here's a little story and a little mush all rolled up into one blog post. Enjoy...Or not. Whatever.

Okay. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I had a bad mammogram last Summer. The kind that they make you come back and get another one and then a doctor comes out and tells you that you have to come back again even in a while to see if the bad thing gets any bigger and then instructs you not to worry for six months. Oh yeah. Because I'm not a total fucking spaz or anything...

Anyway, the six months was up this month and I dutifully made my appointment. It was for Tuesday of this week. I didn't mention it to Erik, because he was going to be gone anyway, and I didn't think I would bug him with it, unless there was actually something any of us needed to worry about. But then, through some glorious work SNAFU, Erik ended up staying an extra day, and so I told him what was what with that one thing.

I've been single for a long time and even when I was kind of sorta hanging out with a guy for a while this Summer, I was basically single and I'm used to taking care of my own shit. So, I figured I'd just walk from work, do my little test thing and then walk home like I did last Summer. But let me just tell you how fucking cool Erik was about the whole thing:

Not only did he insist on picking me up from work and driving me to my appointment, he also told me to call him when it was over and he'd come back and get me. Then, when he picked me up, he had a donut waiting for me, and you know how much I loves me some donuts. Okay, and now here's the best part, the very minute he was at The Dublin waiting for me to call him and watching TV and saw that Heath Ledger was dead. That very minute. He texted me to give me the news. He knew I'd want to know that, and who the hell wouldn't?

So, as it turns out, the scary stuff seems to be nothing - in hospital world they like to call it benign. Erik picked me up as soon as I called him and later that night I met him at The Dublin Underground along with S. my favorite bartender and his smokin' hot wife, K. and I had a much needed couple of beers. So, the story had a happy ending. The end.

It's No Better to be Safe Than Sorry

I'm finally getting around to doing the Saturday Scavenger Hunt photo post. Yeah, so it's Wednesday already. So what? This week's prompt was ah-ha. So, today I'm going to show you what happens when you add a little alcohol and a bunch of fun girls to my world. The first photo is me and Erik pre-added ingredients.Look how cute and quaint and civilized we look...

...And ah-ha! This is me in my Gremlins style reaction to alcohol and fun friends - instant dance party. This was the second night of our dance party, so we really had our moves down by Saturday night.

I tried not to show any faces in order to protect the not-so-innocent. And even though Erik isn't in the dance party photos, it doesn't mean he was totally innocent. He was dancing, it's just that he was the one standing on a table trying to document it all.

So, yeah. Ahem. I think this last one was less ah-ha than WOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!

Who could Ever Want More?

Hey, kids. Remember me? That one girl who used to post a blog here and read all of your blogs and stuff? Yeah, well I'm still around, I've just been busy in a really good way. So, in the next day or so I'll be back up and running on full steam. But now? Now I'm gonna tell you about the Saturday afternoon sushi session.
Erik got all the stuff to make sushi and the girls helped him out while I ran around doing my thing. He said they were into it and really helpful, but Stinky's eyes really lit up when Erik brought out the sushi blow torch to slightly cook the tuna.


She even let her friend torch one or two with a little prompting from us. The girls loved all the food except the marinaded brussel sprouts , which Stinky's friend actually tried and then made the best face I've ever seen, before she spit it into the garbage can. Nice.

As you can see, they were really proud of their work. As well they should be.

After they were done making sushi, I did my best to embarrass the hell out of Stinky. After any song played, I'd ask if that was the Backstreet Boys - no matter if the singer was male or female. Then I kicked it into high gear and tried to dance the Spiderman with them. Stinky's friend was doubled over laughing at me for most of her stay.

When Coadster woke up from her nap and found out what I was up to, she sympathized with Stinky's friend and said, "Oh my gawd. I'm so sorry you had to see that. If you never come over here again, I'll totally understand." After I heard that, I felt like my job (and maybe my life) was complete.

Yeah Yo Situation is Serious

Here is a picture of me and Erik toward the end of the night when I was looking a little on the demonic side.

Erik's here so this will be short. He picked me up from work which was perfect because it was cold enough to make me whine. When we got home we got food ready for our friends K. and H. I had already made potato leek soup the night before, but Erik still had to make his awesomely awesome leek casserole. Our Leek Fest 2008 was such a success that we put both of our friends into food comas and they went home instead of going to The Dublin Underground with us.

At The Dublin, my friend D. said she thought it felt like it was one of those "full moon" nights where all kinds of craziness (both good and bad) could happen. And she was totally right. Luckily, it was all good craziness. My favorite bartender S. was wearing a shirt that snapped up the front, and once we figured that out, we all took turns ripping it open. He said he learned his lesson and would wear an undershirt from now on.

Because one of the ex-bartenders, L. was there. the dance party started early. By the end of the night, we were pulling out every single one of our cheesy 80's and 90's dance moves to Michael Jackson's PYT and Bell Biv DeVoe's Poison. Which, incidentally has one of my favorite lyrics of all time: "Never trust a big but and smile. That girl is poison..." Truer words were never spoken.

Basically, the night was fun and perfect. I can only hope that tonight is half as fun.

I Was Feeling Something Wasn't Right

Here is a picture of the sun coming up the morning after that ice storm.

Okay, kids. Tomorrow is the big day of Erik's visit and I am so close to being ready. I have the groceries bought, the soup is made and I'm almost done with the cleaning. So, instead of me obsessing about the impending visit and getting even more excited, I thought I'd tell you a scary little story.

Where I work, we open a lot of mail from all over the world. And in that process we have come across many different and interesting things. Usually, it's the normal supporting documents students send for their applications all written up on odd sized paper and stuck together with crazy overly aggressive adhesive or pins or all kinds of other crap. I swear that printing things on gigantic pieces of paper that refuse to fit in American file folders is how many countries try to get back at the US for accidentally bombing their embassies - they'll slowly drive us all mad with their ill-fitting documents.

The worst part is finding a piece of hair along with the pieces of paper. One time my co-worker John opened an envelope from India and tiny bugs came flying out of it. We were all a little creeped out waiting for them to attack, but they just swarmed one area of the cubicle until they were killed. Today, though? Today John found a fingernail in one of the envelopes. Ewww. He was super grossed out and I had a lot of fun trying to be even grosser (more gross?) and I made up songs about his new foreign fingernail and of course, it was totally fucking adorable when I was teasing him about it. The bad part, was that during lunch, I walked downtown to the library to return a book, and when I came back to my desk, the international nail was set in the very center of my desk chair. Ewwww, again. It was so much more annoying when the people in my office were trying to gross me out. I grabbed a paper towel in order to remove the offending item from my chair, but I couldn't get one person to admit to having defiled my cubicle with it. The ex-nun wouldn't tell me either - even after I called her Sister Christian. So, I'll have to go back to the office tomorrow and make sure to keep my back to the wall. Apparently, I can't trust anyone at work.

But Everything Looks Perfect From Far Away

Erik texted me this photo he took of himself in the suburb where I lived in junior high. How cool is that?

Soooooo, Erik comes back to visit on Friday. Once again, I'm as giddy as a 42 year old school girl (I got held back a few times). Hopefully, he will be able to stay until Tuesday because I have Monday off for MLK Day.

What's on tap for the visit, you ask? So far it looks like we'll have some people over for potato leek soup and salad and bread and cheese and beer and stuff on Friday night. Saturday afternoon, a friend of Stinky's who is also the daughter of one of Erik's good friends is coming over to learn how to make sushi. She was a little jealous that Stinky got to do that with Erik last time, so they're all going to make more - my friend K. might even join in. Stinky has already said that she thinks Erik is gangster(ah), (which is a good thing, if you weren't sure) so this will just bring him into a whole different realm in her eyes.

Saturday night we're going to head to North Liberty to a bar where one of Erik's friends works and then who knows? Sunday will be reserved for football watching, of course. And that's about as far as we've gotten. It leaves room for any number of fun things, like porn watching, drug experimentation and midget bowling...The possibilities are endless. All I have to do is get a whole bunch of nesting shit done tomorrow.

Where the Kisses Are Hers and Hers and His

Hey, remember how I promised you I'd take a photo of the rubberband ball I've been working on? Well, here it is. It's WAY more impressive in person.

Today was birthday day for a few different people I know. It's also the reason I'm going to make another HUGE drunk girl disclaimer. Judging from my behavior earlier this evening, everything I say can and will be annoying. Consider yourself warned.

My co-worker John turned 13 years older than me today. His special day made him hyper and even harder to take than usual. I know I've already told you that I walk a mile to work and when it's seventy degrees and sunny I have a hard time looking very glamorous, but when it's cold, I'm kind of laughable. So, today it was probably 102 degrees below zero in the morning. I was wearing several layers and a hat and my big puffy coat - the one that my girls tell me makes me look like a gigantic purple marshmallow. Well, when I wear the hood up on that jacket along with my hat, I look more than a little bit on the "challenged" side. When I got to work, John's wife was dropping him off and he had the gall to stand in front of me and laugh at my dork-assedness (another imaginary word brought to you compliments of drunken Churly). So, I did what every self-respecting girl would do, I flipped him the bird with both hands. Of course, I was wearing mittens so it was kind of dumb, but John knows me well enough to know exactly what was going on under the fabric.

Tonight I met some friends at George's for my friend K.'s birthday. Among other things, we had an enlightened conversation about which chicks in what seventies TV shows were hot. I used to date a guy who thought Joyce DeWitt from Three's Company was hot. The guys at my table definitely begged to differ. Then somehow we got on the subject of whether Whoopi Goldberg was attractive and there was a little discussion between one of the guys and one of the women about if Whoopi sucked or not. I offered up my usual suggestion - that they take off their shirts and wrestle over it, but they weren't into it. Damn.

Okay, kids. I think that's quite enough bullshit for one post. Come back tomorrow when I'll dispense a ton more.

You Know These Reckless Thoughts of Mine are Following You

Hey, my coworker finally came through with her New Year's Eve photos. This was the only one that turned out alright. Here's me ordering the first drink that led to my demise that night. My friend L. is in front drinking Busch lite over ice. Yes, you heard that right.

I didn't do much but geek-out tonight. Of course I did all the running around with the girls I had to do - which was a lot. I switched nights with my ex, so I can go to my friend K's birthday party tomorrow night. But after I got home, I drank beer and played Galaga. Erik called me from Chicago where he was geeking-out with his friends watching Youtube videos and searching the beautiful, wonderful internets to find this picture of a kid that looks like Chris Farley:

Seriously, how fucking sweet is that? They also sent me a link to a guy in Mexico who does these crazy black velvet paintings, but you all know I'm way too lazy to put links in my posts. Just know that they were all wonderful in their unbridled cheesiness.

On Sunday I actually had time with both of my girls. I took them to the mall so Stinky (who is the girliest out of us) could help me buy make-up. Of course, she found some other friends, and left me and Coadster to fend for ourselves and Coadster is worse about the girly stuff than I am. When I asked her what color eye shadow I should get, this is what she said: "Mom. How would I know? I'm such a tomboy I had to ask a gay guy to do my make-up for show choir." I opted not to buy any and just use any of the 500 colors Stinky already had at home. It was safer that way.

What Would You Wonder and How Would it Seem?

The word for this week's Saturday Scavenger Hunt was Hmm. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it until this morning when I was talking on the phone to Erik. He stopped me in mid sentence to tell me he had just driven past a gentleman's club that was called "Bean Snappers" and he was going to stop and take a picture of the sign for me. First of all, I love the term "gentleman's club" because there is nothing more gentlemanly than a bunch of drunk guys shoving dollar bills in a stripper's g-string. Secondly, if you read the sign, it appears that it's a club for nude gentlemen. Thirdly, I love it that Erik would turn around and go back to take a picture of the "Bean Snappers" sign. Seriously, who would appreciate that more than me? No one, that's who. So, to bring this all back from my frighteningly tangented brain, I thought the picture of this sign was perfect for Hmm.

I've been slowly but surely trying to get all my shit done this weekend. I'm not completely there, but let's just say I've been chiseling at stuff and I'm close to there. That's pretty good for me.

Last night the planets all aligned and I was able to meet my friends A. and B. at the Mill for greasy food and a couple pints. I think the last time I was able to drink with both of them was about two years ago. Usually, one had to stay home with the kids or work or wasn't up for going out, but last night both parts of the couple were in attendance. It was very nice and very mellow and I was home by eleven. I've been so good about drinking responsibly and getting home at a decent hour, that I might have to go on an all night bender just to shake things up a little.

A Smell of Wine and Cheap Perfume

So, this will be short because I drank early and now I'm very, very sleepy. Here are some show choir pictures I promised you. Of course, Coadster is the girl with the darkest hair.

I met some friends at George's tonight after I dropped Coadster off at the basketball game. The minute I got there, my friend I. informed me that we were heading over to the Dublin Underground. I texted Erik to tell him where I was and that I was drinking with my favorite bartender S. Erik texted me back to tell me that he was watching me. There is a picture of his face in a deep sea diving helmet that hangs from the wall at The Dublin and we always joke that he can see me.

Most of the owner's family came down to the bar. I've known them all since I was about 18 and I am always happy to see them. My friend T. let me take a video of her singing to a Journey song and it was just about the most adorable thing I've ever witnessed. At about 9:30 we were all ready to go and I made it home around 10. And now? Now it's time to go to bed. The end.

Wish You Were Here

Hey, kids. Guess what time it is? That's right. It's time for another installment of Stinky's self-portraits. You know, just in case you've forgotten what she looks like from all those other five million self-portraits I've posted on here.

These posts are great for when I have no life and just want to put up photos. Can anyone explain that weird blogger phenomenon to me? The one where when you are doing things that you can actually write about, your internet goes down and your work is crazy busy? But then the minute you got nothing going on...BAM! You suddenly have the time and the means to write a whole lot of nothing.

I'll have you know that I actually got some sleep last night and felt much better today. I still haven't done shit about all the stuff I've been procrastinating, but now I have an entire weekend to piddle away and maybe, just maybe, I'll finally get my shit together.

I did watch some high school show choir tonight. Stinky took some photos of Coadster in all her pageanty-type hair and make-up. She looks like the poster child for when tomboys go bad... er, I mean, girly. We just haven't had time to load them into the computer.

On the boy front, things are still going strong with Erik. I was joking with T. And K. about how last Fall when T. started dating her St Louis guy, I said, "I'd never be able to do the long distance thing..." And that's why I should never say never. Seriously, though. It's hard. I really don't think there's anyone else I would do this with besides Erik. Most guys I know aren't evolved enough to help me work through all the different angles and be so reassuring and accommodating through it all. So, hopefully, we'll get to see each other again next weekend. Until then, it's all texts and phone calls. Thank god Erik has a really hot phone voice.

I Never Did Anything Out of the Blue

Here is my aunt's Mastiff all tuckered out on Christmas Eve.

So, kids. Let me just tell you how exhausted I am. it's been kind of a long day and I haven't been sleeping the best and now I'm all sleep deprived and stoooopid. What that means for all y'all, is that this will be a refreshingly short post.

The most exciting thing I did today was to drive myself and my friends to the rec building to work out and get in a little girl talk. We also talked about how K.'s neighbor, who is this kick-ass master organic gardener guy, said he wanted to be part of our garden crew and T. said she might be in as well. I'm excited already and we have how many months until we can plant? I also took Coadster on a hunt for whatever certain kinds of make-up she needed for her show choir performance. Geez, with all that excitement, it's no wonder I'm so tired.

Okay. I'm off to get some sleep so that I might be able to function a little better tomorrow. There are about a hundred million things I've been putting off and now I have to finally pull my head out of my ass and get shit done. I hate it when I get to the point where I can't put things off anymore.

And When It's Time for Leavin', I Hope You'll Understand

Ondine and me and K. at Devotay for Ondine's special birthday dinner.

I think I may just make this a clean-up post. I got so behind with everything when my internet was down, that I feel like all I've been doing is back tracking. So, this is my attempt at tidying up the last week, so that I can get to a point where I can actually report things as they happen.

New Year's Day, Erik and I woke up late and met many of our friends at The Vine to watch some bowl games. Surprisingly, I wasn't too hung-over, but I still appreciated some wings and a carbonated, caffeinated beverage. At around noon, Stinky called and asked if I could pick her up at her friend's house. Coadster stayed at her dad's house on New Year's Eve after calling me to tell me that she had been at a party that was busted by the police, but not to worry because she wasn't one of the kids who got arrested. Thanks, honey. Hearing that, makes mommy feel so much better. Whatever happened to kids hiding all their exploits from their parents? Did they do away with that on the Millenium?

On New Year's Eve, Erik told me he wasn't ready to leave me yet, and so he pushed back his free lance work a little further. It made my new year. Tuesday night we were really low energy and did a lot of lying around on the couch watching football and a movie with Coadster.

On Wednesday, we went out for dinner at Devotay for Ondine's and H.'s birthday. I love going out to eat with my friends, because we all order different stuff and then share it.

Erik had planned on leaving Friday morning, but had to take care of some things before he left and decided to stay long enough to bring me lunch. Around 2'ish the cable guy came by and finally fixed my internets. Erik texted me and found out I was at home. He called me and said he was at our friend Dexter's house and asked if I wanted a ride back to work, and while he was at it, maybe he'd stay one more night and leave on Saturday. We had talked about the fact that we never went to see a movie on our week long date and so we could rectify that now. Sweet.

We went to the Hamburg Inn for dinner and then to see Charlie Wilson's War. I thought it was pretty good. On the way out, Erik said, "Wow. We've been really political lately."

I said, "I know. Let's go get drunk now." We headed down to the Dublin and didn't really get all that very drunk after all. Stinky came home around 11:30 and we got home almost an hour before her.

When we woke up on Saturday, Erik decided to stay until the next day. I didn't have the girls on Saturday night and it would give us some more alone time. We went to my friend James' house to watch the Steelers in the playoffs with some friends. It was a decent game, even if the Steelers didn't win. The Steelers started off sucking, but then my friend James told me to pretend to call them and let them know I was watching. And once again, it was dorky, but it totally worked. The Steelers came back and almost won it. Freaky.

After the game we headed to The Motley Cow since it was the last night at its old location. There were only a few people there - mostly it was the owner and the employees having their last supper. I had a beer and just a little taste of whiskey that was being passed around before we went home.

On Sunday, Erik finally left. Wah. I got back into my normal life again. I went running for the first time in 10 days and Coadster and I went to see Juno. I really, really, really, really liked that movie - and feel free to add some more really's to that.

Now, after this totally mundane, totally scattered post, I'll attempt to resume more updated blogging. Of course, I'm not guaranteeing anything...

Can You Dig It? (Yes I Can)

This photo was taken in the photo booth at The Holiday Club in Wrigleyville. Neither one of us has a skin condition, it's just the blotchy photo booth ink doing that to us.

I decided to back track a bit now that I have some photos to add. Tonight we're going back in time to last weekend when Erik took me to Chicago. As most of you know, I was born in Chicago, moved away when I was about a year old, moved back to the South suburbs when I was 10 and moved away for good when I was 14. A lot of my family members still live there, and I will always have a little junior high school girl crush on that city. Would I ever want to live there again? I doubt it, but I love to visit.

I know I've already said this, but the 3 1/2 hour drive there and back was almost the best part of the trip. It was a great way to cut all the distractions and talk about a bunch of stuff. One thing I will say about Erik, is that I've never been bored with him or run out of things to talk about. We made it into town around eight o'clock. After getting our Bears tickets, we went straight to dinner, which, as I've said, was all-you-can-eat sushi. You had to bring in your own alcohol, so Erik ran to the liquor store and picked up some sake and Sapporo beer.

After dinner we went to a few bars. Our first stop was the Holiday Club where we took that picture in the photo booth. After that we stopped into some bar that had a country band playing "Redneck Girl" and the owner and his wife were noticeably lacking in teeth. I told Erik that we could just as easily be in Iowa at this bar. We finished up at a sports bar that is probably crazy busy during baseball season, but was pretty tame that night.

The next day we woke up too late for a proper meal. We were going to stop at a Star bucks for caffeine and pastries, but luckily we spied a Dunkin' Donuts across the street. Which made us very happy and gave Erik occasion to flip off the Star bucks as we walked past and say, "Fuck you Star bucks and your four dollar pastries..." Amen to that.

First and foremost, this photo is up here so we can all see how adorable Erik is, but then if you look behind him, you can see DIANE! Unfortunately, we didn't photograph her Bears tattoo at the top of her back.

The game weather started out okay, but then the sun went away and the wind kicked up. The most entertaining part of the game was meeting a woman named Diane - pronounced DIANE! because she was just that loud and larger than life. She loved the Bears more than any person I've ever met and I lived in Chicago for several years. She lost her ear muffs when she first got there and when Erik found them, she kissed him. Later, after she found out that he was a Saints fan, she kept wiping her mouth and complaining of cooties. DIANE! definitely made our Bears experience. She said the f word at least four times in each sentence and refused to sit down during most of the game. I had a hard time choosing between watching DIANE! or watching the game. At one point, the camera guy turned around and we all got on TV. I'm sure the camera guy was just trying to film DIANE!

I got a migraine about halfway through the game, but Erik was really good about taking care of me. He rubbed my back during the ride back on the El and after we stopped to get gyros and tres leches cake, he drove the whole way back to Iowa where we had another great car conversation.

I'm Standing Up the Morning After

Here is a picture of me and Erik that our friend R. who owns the Dublin underground took of us early in the evening. He accidentally cut off Erik's head.

So, okay. I know I've been the worst imaginary blogger friend here the last week or so. Don't worry though, I'm full of excuses. Mostly, my internet was down at home, but also, Erik ended up extending his visit as much as he could and didn't actually leave until Sunday morning. So, um, yeah. I was a little busy. Now though? Now Erik is in Chicago and working and my internet is also working and so I promise to be a much better blogger from here on out.

Here is me and some of my friends a little later in the evening. I actually think we held up pretty well, considering that we started before 6 in the evening.

Since I have these photos from Erik, I'm finally going to write about New Year's Eve. Yeah, I know I'm a week late. So what?

We got to the Dublin Underground in time to celebrate midnight in Ireland at 6 pm here. There were at least four other people from my office there too, so I tried not to get too terribly sloppy and paced myself pretty well, if I do say so myself.

Erik and I never made our dinner reservations, which is pretty much what we predicted. At around ten, we left the Dublin for George's and had an extremely high class, romantic dinner of cheeseburgers and warm cashews from the nut hut. It was actually kind of perfect. I ran into a bunch of people I hadn't seen in years at George's and we all migrated over to a party a block away at this one guy's house.

It was almost midnight by the time we made it to the party. This photo was taken during our midnight kiss - when it really was midnight in Iowa. Erik was really good at celebrating midnight all over the world. At different times during the evening, he would tell me it was midnight in Helsinki or Nova Scotia or wherever the hell else and we would have to kiss again. I've never been so happy for how many different time zones there are in the world in all my life. We finally caught a cab home around 1:30 or so. It was the first year in a long time when I felt like I rang it in perfectly.

I'm also going to weasel my word for the week in here for the Saturday Scavenger hunt. I chose the word this week, which was New. So, here's to a new relationship in a new year and also, my new red dress that I got WAY on sale. Oh, and since I'm not very good at paying attention to who chose the last word, I'm going to pick Mrs. Big Hairy Woman at Baby Bull blog to choose next week's word. I hope she hasn't done it for a while.

I Need a Drink and a Quick Decision

Here is a blurry photo at the caucus of the head of the writer's workshop and one of my favorite writers/readers. If you ever get a chance to hear Lan Samantha Chang read, I highly recommend it.

So, last night I caucussed. I went to City High and there were well over 700 people in the cafeteria there. It was hot and loud, but the whole process was pretty interesting. There was all that wheeling and dealing and yelling and chaos. It kind of reminded me of playing the game Pit when I was kid. Basically, even at the beginning it was all over but the shouting. Obama took it hands down and Edwards had enough people to remain viable. Many of us were surprised that Hillary didn't have enough people initially to remain viable, but acquired the 108 she needed to get herself a delegate.

Erik was at Hoover, so we were texting each other back and forth about who was at our caucus and all the drama that was taking place at both. He texted me a photo to show me how crowded Hoover Elementary was and I texted him this picture of my Hotz Street neighbor's butt supporting her candidate. I figured he'd be interested in that.

We were done with the caucusses by nine. At that point I dropped off my friend K. and her neighbor Jen and Coadster and I finally made it home. I messed around with the computer and had no idea what I was doing. Erik tried too, but couldn't figure it out either, so now I'm waiting for the cable people to call me so I can run home and get things going and get my fix. God, I hope they can fix it today.

Of course, the end of the caucusses also means that Erik is leaving. He has to work at a couple of different places in the Midwest,with the tentative plan of coming back in ten days. I'll be fine for ten days, won't I? I'll definitely miss getting picked up from work everyday, and having food made and dishes done when I come home from work, but mostly I'll miss having Erik around being all fun and hot and shamelessly dorky. So, the countdown starts anew...

If They Got Thunder Appeal, Let Them Be On Your Side

I went to the cable place last night and got a new modem but didn't get it set up yet. Erik and I spent some time hanging out with the girls before they went to their dad's house and we went to Devotay to meet our friends and celebrate Ondine's and H.'s shared birthday. It was our last night together without my girls, so after dinner we went home and took some time to talk about what we want to do from here on out.

I've decided to caucus tonight. I was hesitating a bit because I wasn't sure what the girls were doing and it does take some time. But Coadster is going to shadow caucus (since she's not 18 yet) for Obama and Stinky is babysitting for some people so they can go to the caucusses. I haven't been to the caucusses since the eighties, so it will almost feel like the first time.

Okay. Since everything is conspiring against me blogging, I better go now. Work is insane right now because of a certain deadline for a certain graduate MFA creative writing program that apparently all thousand applicants waited until the last minute to apply to.

***Finally, I'm adding this because I keep forgetting to do it. The word for next week's Saturday Scavenger hunt is "NEW". Because it's timely this time of year...

Don't Let It Get Away

Here is Stinky and her friend on New Year's Eve. Mr. St Louis taught them how to make sushi while I was at work. Mr. St Louis is a saint.

My internet has been down for almost a week now, and I haven't died yet. A couple times I felt like I might, but then I soldiered on. I'm not sure how much longer it will be, but the cable people are supposed to come out on Friday and check it out. According to my router software, the issue is with the modem. I'm going to switch that out today with a new one as soon as I get off work, but if that doesn't work, I might be jonesing until the weekend.


Here's a picture Mr. St Louis took of me at the Bears game with my camera phone.

Mr. St Louis is still here. He was originally going to leave on New Year's Day, but now he's going to stay and caucus on Thursday night and so we get to stretch our first date out even longer. Yippeeee! Maybe I can talk him into staying until the elections next November...

We also talked about my blog a little bit during our Chicago trip. He doesn't exactly understand the whole blogging thing. He's read mine before. He found it a couple of months ago when we were still just friends. But Mr. St, Louis said he had no problem with me using his real name and showing photos of him. Sooooooooo:

Here's Erik at the Bears game wearing his Saints gear.

I'll try to write about New Year's Eve and about our Chicago date here in the near future. I'm kind of waiting on some photos my co-worker took at the Dublin Underground before I got too drunk and scary looking.