Marc
An Extremely Long List In __ Parts, Encompassing the Past Ten Or So Days Since My Last Communique; Or, Spending Time Away From Home (?) With Your Backpack as Your Only Friend; A Series of Mistaken Identities
(a) Since Monday, December 23 (the day before the day of Christmas Eve), I've put roughly 1500 miles on my car, driving in (roughly) a triangular pattern between Blormal, Chicago, and Kankakee. With the exception of my midnight run from Chicago to Blormal last night, the roads were fine, free of clutter and ice and people flashing their brights at me for driving too slow in a snowstorm. Once I rode in a car with Scoot, Rick, and Matt that careened off into a ditch for no apparent reason. Black Ice. Slow down.
(b) Yesterday I played the role of tourist as I waited for certain people to finish their working days, and I had quite a bit of fun in the process. This whole scenario actually goes along with an argument I was having with someone on New Year's Eve about how the skyline of Chicago is perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing of all US skylines. New York's is amazing, to be sure, but jumbled and too huge to take in at once. LA's is non-existant, and corny, and so surrounded by smog and suburbs that it's difficult to either see, or feel an affinity for, no matter which direction you hit it from. San Francisco's is gorgeous, though it's got an unfair advantage with the peninsula that it sets upon, which gives it this "City on a Hill" type quality. I mentioned during the argument that it always felt to me like the Sears Tower and the Hancock Building bookended the Chicago skyscrapers, which didn't make any sense even to me until yesterday afternoon when I was walking up and down Michigan Ave and realized that, "yes", they do bookend the area when you are in the area. Even at night, though, driving down the Dan Ryan towards either Interstates 55 or 57, the skyline is just small enough and just big enough to see all at once and lose one's self in. I don't think anyone will be able to convince me that a trip driving south down Lakeshore Drive during the summer days can be beaten.
(c) During my touristy expedition through downtown yesterday I made my second career stop at an Urban Outfitters and ended up in a really foul consumer-ish state of mind. The premise of the store is this -- clothes you should be able to buy at the thrift store marked up 400%. Jesus t-shirts, Atari t-shirts, crappy/ugly spreads for beds and couches and etc, all way overpriced. Pre-manufactured retro gear. What a rip-off.
(d) I saw far too many people that I hadn't seen in far too long, specifically folks from both OP3 and MFGL, who were kind, courteous, and gracious enough to sit down (read stand up) and chat for awhile. Jen (OP3) is someone I hadn't seen since Vegas last year, where I lost fifty dollars in roughly twenty or so minutes. D'oh. Jenn and Annie (MFGL) were two blormalers that were nice enough to let me spend New Year's Eve standing around their apartment looking surly all night. Thank you.
(e) Matt let me spend far too many nights asleep on his couch, and I thank him as well, and credit him with my growing knowledge of how to get around alone in the city. I was amazed to see my old friend Shannon's apartment is about six houses behind the left field bleacher section at Wrigley Field. Some Indian kids were having a snowball fight and pretended to throw one at me as I dropped her off. I blinked and shuddered though I was in the comforts of my own car. Then I waited to make sure she got in alright. Then I found my way back to Matt's house on my very very own ... and I was so proud.
(f) I also spent more time in Kankakee this Winter Break than I have since Winter Break 97/98, specifically on account of my boy, Jesse, being home from the military. It figures that as soon as he takes off, nearly 10,000 more reserve troops get put on imminent alert for action in the Persian Gulf. Either way, for safekeeping, I've taken some of Jesse's photographs from his time at Columbia University and hung them up in my apartment. If you're ever over here, I'm sure you'll be forced to look at them and comment on how spectacular they are. Just smile and nod, please. I'm a goon.
(g) I am addicted to making mix-cd's for people.
(h) I am also addicted to singing in the car, at the loudest volume possible, especially to ballad-ish tunes ala acts like Coldplay and the Beatles and (*gulp*) Aimee Mann. Don't beat me up next time we happen to meet.
(i) I have promised myself that I would see The Two Towers once more before school resumes. Anyone interested in making the trip to the Blormal Palace Theatres with me should contact me. If we go on Tuesday we get to bring our own bucket for popcorn and fill it up for cheap. I've got a huge garbage can? All I want to know is, who's coming with me?
(j) Lists like this are lame, and inexcusable, and I know that I shouldn't have done it. This is what I get for not writing forever. I've been the biggest slacker in the free world all break long. I need to find some kind of motivation this week or I will never make it through another semester alive.
(k) Blah blah blah, boogity-boogity-boo.
(l) The Triumph the Insult Comic Dog thing that Matt put up is (also) the funniest thing I think I've seen all year long. How does one come up with the best possible insults so quickly?
(m) To see ridiculously cute/disgusting cartoons, click on this Happy Tree Friends link and make your way through the "Episode Sampler" section.
(n) To see my favorite Homestarrunner cartoon, please click this "A Jorb Well Done" link. I showed it to my seven/eight (?) year old neighbors, and they made me watch it four more times with them. Scoot even liked it. Go fig. A wanna-be rapper/PE teaching cartoon made a real life wanna-be rapper/PE/health teacher laugh. Ah. The intricacies of this world.
(o) I've missed my guitar. I'm out.
An Extremely Long List In __ Parts, Encompassing the Past Ten Or So Days Since My Last Communique; Or, Spending Time Away From Home (?) With Your Backpack as Your Only Friend; A Series of Mistaken Identities
(a) Since Monday, December 23 (the day before the day of Christmas Eve), I've put roughly 1500 miles on my car, driving in (roughly) a triangular pattern between Blormal, Chicago, and Kankakee. With the exception of my midnight run from Chicago to Blormal last night, the roads were fine, free of clutter and ice and people flashing their brights at me for driving too slow in a snowstorm. Once I rode in a car with Scoot, Rick, and Matt that careened off into a ditch for no apparent reason. Black Ice. Slow down.
(b) Yesterday I played the role of tourist as I waited for certain people to finish their working days, and I had quite a bit of fun in the process. This whole scenario actually goes along with an argument I was having with someone on New Year's Eve about how the skyline of Chicago is perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing of all US skylines. New York's is amazing, to be sure, but jumbled and too huge to take in at once. LA's is non-existant, and corny, and so surrounded by smog and suburbs that it's difficult to either see, or feel an affinity for, no matter which direction you hit it from. San Francisco's is gorgeous, though it's got an unfair advantage with the peninsula that it sets upon, which gives it this "City on a Hill" type quality. I mentioned during the argument that it always felt to me like the Sears Tower and the Hancock Building bookended the Chicago skyscrapers, which didn't make any sense even to me until yesterday afternoon when I was walking up and down Michigan Ave and realized that, "yes", they do bookend the area when you are in the area. Even at night, though, driving down the Dan Ryan towards either Interstates 55 or 57, the skyline is just small enough and just big enough to see all at once and lose one's self in. I don't think anyone will be able to convince me that a trip driving south down Lakeshore Drive during the summer days can be beaten.
(c) During my touristy expedition through downtown yesterday I made my second career stop at an Urban Outfitters and ended up in a really foul consumer-ish state of mind. The premise of the store is this -- clothes you should be able to buy at the thrift store marked up 400%. Jesus t-shirts, Atari t-shirts, crappy/ugly spreads for beds and couches and etc, all way overpriced. Pre-manufactured retro gear. What a rip-off.
(d) I saw far too many people that I hadn't seen in far too long, specifically folks from both OP3 and MFGL, who were kind, courteous, and gracious enough to sit down (read stand up) and chat for awhile. Jen (OP3) is someone I hadn't seen since Vegas last year, where I lost fifty dollars in roughly twenty or so minutes. D'oh. Jenn and Annie (MFGL) were two blormalers that were nice enough to let me spend New Year's Eve standing around their apartment looking surly all night. Thank you.
(e) Matt let me spend far too many nights asleep on his couch, and I thank him as well, and credit him with my growing knowledge of how to get around alone in the city. I was amazed to see my old friend Shannon's apartment is about six houses behind the left field bleacher section at Wrigley Field. Some Indian kids were having a snowball fight and pretended to throw one at me as I dropped her off. I blinked and shuddered though I was in the comforts of my own car. Then I waited to make sure she got in alright. Then I found my way back to Matt's house on my very very own ... and I was so proud.
(f) I also spent more time in Kankakee this Winter Break than I have since Winter Break 97/98, specifically on account of my boy, Jesse, being home from the military. It figures that as soon as he takes off, nearly 10,000 more reserve troops get put on imminent alert for action in the Persian Gulf. Either way, for safekeeping, I've taken some of Jesse's photographs from his time at Columbia University and hung them up in my apartment. If you're ever over here, I'm sure you'll be forced to look at them and comment on how spectacular they are. Just smile and nod, please. I'm a goon.
(g) I am addicted to making mix-cd's for people.
(h) I am also addicted to singing in the car, at the loudest volume possible, especially to ballad-ish tunes ala acts like Coldplay and the Beatles and (*gulp*) Aimee Mann. Don't beat me up next time we happen to meet.
(i) I have promised myself that I would see The Two Towers once more before school resumes. Anyone interested in making the trip to the Blormal Palace Theatres with me should contact me. If we go on Tuesday we get to bring our own bucket for popcorn and fill it up for cheap. I've got a huge garbage can? All I want to know is, who's coming with me?
(j) Lists like this are lame, and inexcusable, and I know that I shouldn't have done it. This is what I get for not writing forever. I've been the biggest slacker in the free world all break long. I need to find some kind of motivation this week or I will never make it through another semester alive.
(k) Blah blah blah, boogity-boogity-boo.
(l) The Triumph the Insult Comic Dog thing that Matt put up is (also) the funniest thing I think I've seen all year long. How does one come up with the best possible insults so quickly?
(m) To see ridiculously cute/disgusting cartoons, click on this Happy Tree Friends link and make your way through the "Episode Sampler" section.
(n) To see my favorite Homestarrunner cartoon, please click this "A Jorb Well Done" link. I showed it to my seven/eight (?) year old neighbors, and they made me watch it four more times with them. Scoot even liked it. Go fig. A wanna-be rapper/PE teaching cartoon made a real life wanna-be rapper/PE/health teacher laugh. Ah. The intricacies of this world.
(o) I've missed my guitar. I'm out.
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