The Return

I just got back from a lovely weekend in Galena with Shannon. I'm using this space to apologize to her (again) for my snoring. Thankfully she's nice enough to not throw things at me when I snore. Anyway. Friday we headed out of town for our weekend jaunt to Galena. For those of you who don't know, Galena is about three hours northish/westish of Chicago. It's very near the Mississippi, and Dubuque, Iowa. I had won a nice bundle of "Galena dollars", so we went to spend it. We stopped for lunch at a nice antique store/bar & grill. The food was meh, but Shannon found some really nice stuff in the store. The weather was less than great Friday, but it wasn't horrible. We checked in to the DeSoto House, which happens to be the oldest hotel in Illinois. Clearly, they haven't used air fresheners, but it was a really nice hotel. This chick at the front desk had us cracking up. She was incessantly on personal phone calls the entire weekend, every time we walked by her. Shannon, who looks for the good in all people (or something) said "Yeah, but she's got that dark hair underneath thing, which is cool." I agreed - she did have cool hair. But I still wanted to make fun of her. My parents were adamant that Shannon and I go check out this Breitbach's place for dinner. 'It's a lovely drive.' they said. 'You'll love it.' they said. 'It's easy to find' they opined. I don't think they meant we should drive to this place, which had no address, in the middle of a drizzly, foggy, dark night. But, Shannon and I are always up for an adventure, so we headed out to find this place. It was terrifying. It was so completely out of a horror movie I'm surprised the car didn't spontaneously start playing some creepy soundtrack. At one point we went over this hill, and it was so foggy that Shannon actually stopped the car because we weren't sure there was a road. Seriously. Finally found the place, in Balltown Iowa. Balltown. Really - I don't even need to say anything about that. The food was good. The pie was orgasmic. After we were fuller than full, we headed back to Galena. Same weather, same everything. We had been on the road about 90 seconds and Shannon said "Humor me. Text someone the following - We are heading back to Galena from Balltown Iowa. If you don't hear from us within two hours, please call the police." OF course, I texted these exact words to TheMarty. He took it all in stride, he's good like that. I'd like to relate more of the weekend to you, except whatever happens in Galena stays in Galena. As it was described this weekend, it truly is a den of inequity. I will say that we drank some wine. More than a little. I knew, though, it was time to head home when we had this exchange: Von: "Run that girl over with the car. She's wearing crocs." Shannon: "Who? Her? She's a little girl!" VOn: "Yep" Shannon: "And, YOU'RE wearing crocs." VOn: "Oh, yeah." All in all, a good trip. We did have a ghost in our room, named Henry Wilson. Look him up, he's a fascinating individual. All in all, a good trip.

Blogcation

Taking a week off. See you on the flip side.

Fackin' Oprah

I could hardly get into my building today. See, some lady named Oprah is taping some show across the street from my office in the park. And I guess she's having a bunch of olympians there. It's a mob full-o-soccer moms. Double bleh. I won't be leaving the building today. If I do, I'll probably trip someone. The ole Pritzger pavillion is having a busy day. This morning Oprah, tonight Andrew Bird. Remind me to be far far away from there.

Good

I know, I know, I'm a little late. I didn't feel like Laboring on Labor Day, so here's my weekend in review. Friday night I worked a show at Old Town. I hadn't been there in over a month, so it was nice to be back. I ended up with a lame job, I had to sit in the basement and guard the changing rooms. I alternated with another person, we sat down there in one hour shifts. The other volunteers were getting on my nerves that night though. I didn't recognize a lot of them. I just about had it with my job-mate who was treating me like I was new. I just drank my beers and did some crocheting. I got to catch up with my friend T. It was fun. Saturday I headed South Side with J&T. It was T's birthday. I didn't know anyone at the party, and it was fackin' hot, but I had a great time. The people were entertaining. Too many kids though. Bleh. Afterwards we went to T's parents' house. The stories T and her friend and sister were telling had me cracking up. I was pretty tired though, from the drinking and the heat. I love hanging out with J & T though, they are so awesome. Sunday I got together with Shannon and A. We met up at a Cuban restaurant. It was really good. We then hit a few bars. We went the dive bar route. We had a great time. A is one of those people that I need to hang out with more. I'm pretty sure I'll be seeing her in about 3 weeks, and that will be good. Anyway, we crossed paths with some interesting guys that night. First there was the self-proclaimed "beer snob" dude with the ugly shirt who was trying to keep up conversation with A. Um, yeah, not so much. She said her favorite beer is Boddington's, a solid choice. He dared to infer it was a sub-par beer. Yeah, between myself, Shannon and A, I think we knew a lot more about beer than he ever will. I'm sure he was looking to hit on A, but she was having none of it! We also met some lame band. I'm pretty sure no one had shown up for their show. The one dude wore eyeliner, had horribly dyed 1990's spiky (yet thinning) blonde hair. I think the band name was Saints of Mayhem or something equally horrible. We ended that conversation as quickly as we could. Monday I had a date. It was great. Really great. I don't need to say anymore about this at this time. Let's just say I've had a nice smile on my face since.

Awesome! THank you Wordle!!

> This is fantastic! http://wordle.net/

The Answers

Happy Friday! Here are the answers for the songs that were not guessed: #3 "We hate it when our friends become successful" Morrissey #11 "Looking at the world from the bottom of a well" Mike Doughty #15 "I wanna sex you up" Color Me Badddddd #17 "I'll take you there" crap, I don't remember the artist(s) I'm tired, it's been a long week #20 "Playing with the boys" - Kenny Loggins How's that for cheese? Thanks for playing! The winners are AG and Brando. AG wants pancakes or something from BP Rotten, so I'm out of that. Brando - you will your very own copy of the Best of Cheese! Congrats! Have a great long weekend. I'm off to buy "The Audacity of Hope".

One political post

I keep seeing the footage of the Jackson Jr/Daley/Madigan/Blago hug-it-out. I think it's awesome. I'm most impressed by JJjr. Usually I am not really a fan of his, but in this moment, right now, I'm impressed. Whether what he said was contrived, or even not his own words, the reaction that they got was really something. I also don't think he's the worlds greatest actor - those tears were real. Shit, I would cry if Mayor Daley hugged me, that guy's a big deal. I think Mayor D deserves kudos for getting up and starting the hug-off. He didn't have to do that, hell, he's Mayor D, but he did. In my eyes, that makes him a better person. Madigan and Blago? Meh. Maybe because I really really can't stand Blago, maybe because everything he does is fake and bull shitty. Ok, I'm getting hives. No more writing about politics. Oh, and for my Chicago readers - You want high drama? Get yourself a copy of today's SunTimes and read all of the Mariotti stuff. It's good reading. Even the editor-in-chief chimed in - hilarious. You know it's going to be good when the paper put a picture of a reader on the cover simply because he started reading the Sun Times again now that Mariotti is gone.