INTRODUCING - BETA LEO

i know betta fish is spelled 'betta', but his name is officially 'beta leo'. he came w/ papers. his favorite artist is m. ward. he spends his time swimming, hanging out w/ pals zubra, duhr and chort. and his favorite animal is the lion.

TRADITIONS OF NOT FOLLOWING THRU AND PREVENTING SPOILED DOGS

tomorrow will be the third time i've signed up for the shamrock shuffle and NOT ran it. i think it's partly due to the fact that i always sign up so far in advance i never know what i'll be doing that weekend - this because of the fact that it ALWAYS fills up so quickly. and it's partly because i sign up on my own each year and have no one to keep me accountable. and partly because of the weather.

the first year i signed up i lived in the burbs and it was freezing rain. i woke up in the wee early morning and quickly fell back to sleep. the year after i was just too hung over to get up. and this year there's supposed to be 3 inches of snow on the ground when i wake up tomorrow...so thanks but i'd rather go sit in bio class for 4 hours then ride the train downtown at 7:30 to plod thru 8 miles of slush by myself.

i should come up w/ a part two to this tradition. "every year i will enter the shamrock shuffle and then instead of running i will spend the day sleeping in and eating italian beef sandwiches" (i'm hungry)

ps maddie literally just stole my pillow. she moved it w/ her long ambidextrous limbs over to her half of the bed and proceeded to fluff and prod it to her liking before plopping into it. i quickly pulled it away in an ongoing attempt to prevent her from ruling the apt.

CLOTHING OPTIONAL

why do people crochet accessories for tree trunks? i don't know what else to call them and since i don't have a proper camera i won't have a pic for you. we'll since i am holding a computer w/ answers i guess i'll search for the one to this question and provide you with it.

so i searched tree scarves and this is the first thing i found. not what i was looking for but awesome!

i found this helpful diagram that helped me figure out the old children's song to teach kids how to tie their shoes. i had never understood it.

finally success! after google-ing 'yarn around tree' i found this! oh no. it's pretty much what i expected. there is no real reason. these people just think it looks good. that it's art. i don't think it's art at all. i think it's tacky garbage around perfectly fine tree trunks. it's the kind of idea i'd expect to come out of walmart. kits at home to make 'sweaters' for your naked trees. :(

BABY MOMMA

my favorite lines from the movie:

Kate Holbrook: Did you just stick your gum under my coffee table? Angie Ostrowiski: I don't know. Kate Holbrook: What do you mean you don't know? You think you're at an Arbys right now? Angie Ostrowiski: You know what? I WISH I was at an Arbys cuz theres better food and cooler people there! Kate Holbrook: [Kate looks under coffee table and gasps then looks at Angie] Did you stick all this gum under here? Angie Ostrowiski: I DON'T KNOW! Maybe you stuck some of it under there! Kate Holbrook: Yeah, actually you might be right cuz sometimes when I work a really long day I like to come home and chew a huge wad of bubbilicious gum and stick it under my reclaimed barnwood coffee table! Angie Ostrowiski: B!t@h, I don't know your life!

DON'T THINK ABOUT IT AND YOU WON'T LOSE

you, my friend, just lost the game :)

I WISH I WAS A LITTLE BIT TALLER, I WISH I WAS A BALLER

it really annoys me how people judge celebrities no matter what they do. i guess because some people judge any/everyone no matter what they do and celebrities are easy to pick on because everyone knows their shit so people don't feel like they're gossiping quite as much. "not like i spread the rumor. everyone already read all about it. just putting my two cents in."

anyway, this morning power/B52/something...was talking about kid cudi. (day an night) the mention of it sounded familiar and i just looked him up. i had heard the song and i had liked it a lot. i shared it w/ friends. i looked him up to see if i could find more of his songs. i still do like it a lot. but they were making fun of him cause he made a statement that he doesn't think he wants to record anymore because his friends are telling him he's starting to change (not for the better). so the radio people were joking, saying he doesn't know what famous is and just giving him a hard time for thinking he's something that he's not. and yet when celebrities are pushed and pushed into fame and it becomes too much and they crack then people say, 'well they knew what they were getting into. they chose that career....".

just irritates me.

MAD DOG

my first shot using my comp cam. maddie lept onto my bed and decided my back was a pretty decent location to chew on her new bone. her way of showing gratitude. guess that $30 trip thru the pet aisle was worth it :)

I'M JUST SAYIN

this weekend was my bday! 28, a nice round number :) and julz bachlorertte party. it was a great birthday. i reaped the benefits of hanging out w/ some of my favorite ladies w/o all the stress of arranging it or having the focus on me. well actually julz was more then happy to share some of the spotlight of her 'last night out' ;) w/ me. i did some how end up getting two happy birthday serenades, free cheesecake, a bday shot and a martini by the end of the night :)

we went to a comedy show and it was the opener's bday too. he informed me that it was pi day (3.14) don't think i'd ever heard of that. it was also the bartender's bday at the hotel bar. that's where the martini came from :) the main comic was hilarious! our drunk server from dinner ridiculed us for going to the funny bone. he said he'd had three bad experiences there. but luckily he was wrong and it was a good time. and yes our server was intoxicated. he was on call and decided to drink w/ his buddies at the St.L parade...not a smart idea but i'm sure waiting w/ a buzz is pretty fun when you have a crowd like us!

RIGHT ON GREEN SHOULD NOT BE CRIME

one thing that i hate more than...a lot of other things...are buses. i love the concept but i hate the actual monstrous vehicles constantly holding me up and blowing black smoke in my vents. my hate for buses has made me sympathize more with bus drivers. but regardless, when i am driving and i catch a glimpse of a bus that is about to slow me down, i can feel my pulse start to rise and my road rage begin to flare.

one of the most aggravating bus situations is when you are stuck behind one that is making a stop on a corner, ON A GREEN LIGHT, when you need to turn right. did you know it is illegal to turn right in front of a bus? i mean, it makes sense, but common! and by the time everyone has exited/entered the bus the light turns red. that bus has just made you miss 15 seconds of a perfectly good green light. and now you can't even turn right on red cause that blasted bus is going straight and is going to ruin the morning of the person it bulldozes in front of to get back in the left lane.

KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN

here's an interesting addition to items recently found in the gutter. this morning as I was walking to my car. it's a pretty dreary wintery day today (grrrr) but what did i see shining brightly atop a pile of leaves? a dildo. a bright, neon, pink dildo. so in the future be sure to pay attention to what's been tossed to the side of the road and lemme know if you find anything good!

ANNUAL MUSIC FESTIVAL LOCATED IN GRANT PARK

NFW!!! my roommate got two lolla tix today! on monday they announced that they would be putting a very limited number of tix up for only$60 (the face value is around $200) at some point this week. but gave no indication of the day or time. i checked periodically everyday but today my dept had a half day so i was at the diversy rock'n'bowl when my roommate tried frantically, and admirably to get a hold of me to see if i could get more. there's a limit of two to a customer w/ this deal. i didn't get the 3 texts and voicemail till an hour later. :( but she's letting me buy her second!

i am SUPER pumped for this. i went w/ her last year and had a great time but wasn't familiar w/ most of the bands. she's since expanded my musical horizons 100 fold so i'm probably going to pee my pants w/ anticipation of the full line up. they've already announced: jane's addicion, b boys and depeche mode!

the next round of tix are going to be out march 31st for bout $170 i'm guessing. here's the link. after that they'll be about $200 for the three day pass and i think $60 for single day tickets.

FAVORITE QUOTES

time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

LAST YEAR'S TRASH

last summer, siiiigh summer is almost here again, my roommate and i went out in wrigleyville after a cubs game. it was an important game and cubs won. wrigleyville was delirious. the streets were closed and filled with people, the bars were blasting 'cubs go cubs', and we were at the houndstooth for 40oz mickey's. after a few hours my roommate and i started to head home. we stopped at a bar near her old apartment and met a couple guys. had a drink, chit chatted for a while and then i think they started acting like pricks so we headed home again. first we had to stop at a dunk'n'doughnuts to use the facilities. there were some other antics but it was a while ago so i don't remember the details.

we did documet some of the walk home in boystown when we ran into some friendly strangers who posed in a few pics with us. they were hilarious and we were an instant happy family. i think the ice breaker was my roommate's broken sandal which she had been keeping onto her foot only by the shear strength of her first and second toes. i believe it was at this point w/ the photogenic strangers that she finally ditched it and decided to walk w/ one shoe. by the time we made it home she was shoeless. and they were never to be seen again...

i get a chat today from her saying "you'll never guess what i found in the gutter 5 houses down from our apartment!" well i'm always up for a game of 'guess' so i throw out a few real great posibilities; a parking ticket, $100 bill, her keys (any 1 of the 4 missing sets) her gloves, a Hungry doll, yep, it was one of the sandals from last summer. we've had about 3 street cleanings since last year and i've probably walked by it 100 times w/ maddie. i can't believe she finally noticed it today. and there it stays.

I'M NOT PLAGIARIZING!

i just didn't have anything to blog about and i really liked this song and it's raining outside so...

BISHOP ALLEN RAIN LYRICS
bed clothes, why am i in bed clothes?
watching out the window
watching what i don't know
on the fire escape now
hands they start to shake now
ready for the rail to break now
and i'm awake at last awake

cursing, rattling and cursing
go ahead and do your worst then
your worst that i can take

oh let the rain fall down
and wash this world away
oh let the sky be grey
cause if its ever gonna get any better
its gotta get worse for a day

morning, where am i this morning?
now its really pouring,
crawling up this shore
and i walk the neighborhood
and umbrella does no good
and i guess its in my blood
couldn't stop the flood

drowning, everything is drowning
go ahead and take the town
the town is yours to take

oh let the rain fall down
and wash this world away
oh let the sky be grey
cause if its ever gonna get any better
its gotta get worse for a day

calling, calling, falling, falling
grab on my guitar
and paddle with both my arms
headed where the voices are
i'll end up far so far away

oh let the rain fall down
and wash this world away
or let the sky be grey
cause if its ever gonna get any better

its gotta get worse for a day
its gotta get worse for a day
its gotta get worse for a day
its gotta get worse for a day
i knowits gotta get worse for a day

GREAT SUCCESS

It's been EXACTLY one year since I last posted in my first blog. Deb found the links for me last week but it wasn't until today that I guessed the right combo of Username and Password to allow access to the blogs for new posts. (Valhalla and Picture Pages). Truely an exciting moment in my day.

AND AT DEB'S REQUEST....

After lugging my dirty ‘dry clean only clothes’ around with me to and fro work for several weeks hoping one of the days I would have enough patience and interest to drop them off, and after wearing a pair of pants specifically to get them dirty enough to warrant including them in the cleaners drop off batch, I finally had a spare moment in between my long overdue trip to the doctor and my appointment with the sofa, to stop by a cleaners. I wanted a place close to my apt and en route to work so I stopped at a place on Montrose.

I walked past the typical 40 washers and one woman doing her laundry to the back where it seemed someone should be working. there was a little corner office w/ a window that looked slightly business like. The man that appeared looked like he had just gotten out of a sleeping bag under the el…no offense to homeless people, old men or international people. I very quickly realized he didn’t speak much/any English. He was the kind of older man you would say, “oh look at that cute old man” if you would have seen him drinking coffee and reading the paper or playing a game of horse shoes speaking Polish w/ other old men. But not if you were entrusting almost $200 dollars worth of work clothes you were still paying for on your store credit.

I handed him my articles, he tousled them around as though they were a strange animal or a pile of unidentifiable objects. I said, “two shirts, two pants”. He repeated what I said. Then after a little more shuffling he managed to find a carbon copy slip and handed it to me w/ a pen. w/ the little training I’ve received in dry cleaning I filled it out as thoroughly as I could hoping this would improve the likely hood that these clothes would make it back, safe and clean, in my closet. I handed him the slip. And from his motions and slight words I gathered that he wanted me to write the quantity and kind of articles I was dropping off. I explained and showed to him that I had already done this. After he said, ‘ok’ or a version of the expression I think he felt he had performed all necessary duties for this transaction. I was still quite wary and was trying to think of something to do or ask to increase my confidence about leaving these things with him. I ruled out simply asking him, “will I ever see these clothes again?” and “are you really going to dry clean these?” and decided to ask, “do you know when these will be ready?” he again repeated what I said, and then threw out a date 6 or 7 days from that moment.

That was all I needed to make my decision, I apologized while quickly scooping up my clothes and heading for the door explaining I needed them much sooner than that but thank you very much. I have since taken them to a place I had used before, where the man typed my name into a computer and made small talk about the weather. They have been hanging in my closet, clean and in their plastic bag for the past week. :)

LIFE ALTERING

so i went to the tailor yesterday. of course it was an experience. he announced to the whole place, "SO YOU NEED THE BUST TAKEN IN, EH?!" (the whole place being a guy waiting for his dry cleaning and the other workers) I had to stand in the front windows of the place. he was almost shoving his nose in my pits to pin it and i was afraid they stunk from HARD day at work ;)

anyway, he pins the bust and then says he'll need to take in the whole dress all the way down to the pick ups. i was like ok, a little nervous about what this was going to look like. I mean i know he's a professional....but....so he starts pinning along my thighs and when i say 'along my thighs' i mean so hard/close to my thighs i'm not sure a layer of nano-pantyhose could have slid btwn my skin and the dress! then he asked if i wanted the waist taken out. UM? tell me again, why are you pulling and tugging the dress and pinning it as tight as possible and then asking if i want it taken out?

at this point i didn't know what to do, my first experience at a tailor. didn't know if i should let him do his thing, tell him to just take in the bust, or go to another tailor! i had checked reviews on several places before going here so i didn't think the experience was going to be any different anywhere else, but it just didn't look right to be so tight. finally after i distractedly answered some of his annoying questions (one of these questions actually being 8 different versions of him asking me if i wanted him to hem it shorter and me repeatedly saying NO) i pretty much shouted out, "CAN YOU JUST DO THE BUST?" He just kinda looked at me, said it was up to me and took the pins out of the rest of the dress.

of course we couldn't just write the ticket and be done w/ it. after a considerable length of time discussing the matter of pressing the dress he suggested i come in when it's done and take a look at it. make sure it's ok and then decide if i wanted it pressed. i said that sounds great. then he asks me, "so do you want me to write for them to press it on the ticket?" ummmmmmmm seriously? dude can we please just be done i need to go get a shamrock shake!! i paraphrased that i wanted what he had just suggested, come in-see-then decide about pressing- and he said ok and it was over.

it will be done sometime before the 16th. :)