(a really fun wedding)

on friday afternoon one of my oldest and dearest girlfriends got married.

steph and i have a long history that includes a hilarious childhood relationship, plenty of soccer, and fun all over the country. the girl's energy and confidence are unparalled, and since our entire relationship (at about age 14 or so) consisted of notes passed before and after school* i'd have to tip my hat to her ability to hold down a guy like me with a pen and paper.

the guy she's married, on the other hand, is way cooler than i am, and not just in the way that makes him a perfect companion to a woman who wanted her first dance at her own wedding to include a lap dance for her husband**.

further evidence of his inherent awesomeness include his british accent and the video he made for steph, which his best man shared with the entire wedding.

and which i'll obviously share here. check out this duffle bag of kickass:

there are ways to show someone you love them, people, and that right there is one of them.

as i'm sure you can imagine, the wedding's antics extended well beyond the kickoff lapdance.

a truly amazing couple, who i'm sad to see move to manila later this summer, but whom i will always consider family.

congratulations, steph and doddy!






*no joke, the entire relationship happened in writing, and we didn't even go to the same school so a friend from her school but my schoolbus facilitated our entire relationship by acting as our note carrier. on days during which he was sick or stayed late after school our relationship was put on hold.
**which i videotaped OF COURSE. stay tuned.

(i miss you, chalise)

i suppose it doesn't surprise anyone that i miss chalise.

the neighborhood's less shiny without her, and chicago just won't be the same.

my cousin came to the lake this year with a bit of a conviction that chalise and i were meant to be together...a conviction i'm sure some of you share, and a thought we've both heard before. i do love the girl, and when i write about people i love i tend to get into it, so i'm not surprised that it might seem like i'm just ignoring something deeper.

and i would really never say that the two of us couldn't end up together, but if you know me well that's probably partly just the way i am about things, and partly a nod to the fact that i really, truly, unselfishly love that little nutcase like she's family. love doesn't assume compatibility...in fact the two have a hard time co-existing, in my experience.

but i do know that up to this point we've been who we are to one another, and would never give that up for anything we weren't to one another. over the last two years, finally within walking distance and living closer than we even did during our entire childhood, we've (as she put it at her going away party), "become besties all over again".

we both fought through incredibly painful break-ups and listened to one another ramble on about how confused we were. we got drunk on nights when we really shouldn't have, because one of us needed to. we leaned on one another, and we talked and talked and talked and we changed together and it made us closer.

and somehow she ended up in california, where i was before all this.

...

i miss you girl.

duh.

(getting ready to ride)

"twenty something" was added to alltop, which is a topic aggregator site that displays relevant online 'stuff' in the vein of specific subjects. kinda cool! it appears they've sourced the displayed blogs from 20SB.

i feel very lucky to have been one of the blogs displayed there.

my head's spinning with my TO DO list before the roadtrip, in the way that makes me paralyzed into accomplishing what feels like ZERO and seeing time FLY BY.

i did take branner to the pet store yesterday to get him a travel crate that'll last his lifetime*, some toys, and a long outdoor leash thing so he can chill outside while we're grilling up burgers at the lake...putting the puppy first makes me feel like a true dad.

as for me, well, i'm about as ready to leave as amy winehouse is sober. i have an unassembled dog crate in my back seat, a set of golf clubs that aren't mine in the truck, and i just agreed to grab a drink with brady** after work, because we can all agree that's going to move me closer to packed and ready to go.





*does anyone need a medium sized travel crate for pets up to 21 inches tall? because i might know where you can get one for cheap.

**a big congratulations to brady for having bought a new condo AND sold his current condo, all within the last two weeks. he is living proof that the real estate market is alive, and that some of my friends are responsible, contributing to society-type adults. he's also for sale on the love market...ladies***.

***it's been longer than i'd like to admit that i'd hoped to sneak "...ladies" into a post. check that one off the TO DO list.

(tattoo)

it was cool in the bay area that night, but not nearly as cold as my recent trip back to chicago for christmas. the trip when brady had showed me the tattoo he'd went ahead and procured along with an attitude as to whether or not i was serious when i committed to getting one with him.

that attitude being that i was a lost cause. brady can be pretty impatient sometimes.

hence his solo trip to the chair.

back in the bay, i was long past my decision phase...which had admittedly taken a very long time. inspired by brady's tat i'd been doodling in econ class and during the downtime i had between weights and soccer practice, honing in on an image that i knew i could live with for the rest of my life.

something i was going to see every time i took my shirt off. something i'd be explaining to people for years to come.

i had it. and i needed a needle.

deuce and i rode up route 280 along the coast to san francisco, a city where tattoo artists are not only readily available, but chocked with talent. it was dusk, and i wasn't sure how i'd pick a place to have it done, so deuce patiently hung around with me as we walked up and down columbus, nervously indecisive.

how do i pick a place, i thought. it's gotta be perfect. this is forever. like a bride and her wedding dress, i was determined to find the perfect place.

after a few window shopping-ish walkthroughs, an artist in one shop came up to me and asked me what i was looking for. i showed her my drawings, and i explained to her their significance. she told me she loved what i'd done, and asked if she could prep a sample for me. i asked her how long she'd been drawing, and she told me she'd given janis joplin a tattoo.

it was a small, quiet shop with only one other patron, getting her entire back done in three or four sittings, this being her second.

i felt comfortable, and the drawing this woman brought back to me was just what i was looking for. with a lighteness in my gut like the first time you ride a rollercoaster, i paid her to ink my chest.

i've always been a bit of a contradiction...a mix of subversiveness and mainstream...hopefully not quite what i look like.

what i am, without any shred of doubt, is a happy product of my family. extremely fortunate to have been born to the parents who raised me the way they did, into the enormous and close family we have all over the world.

my tattoo would reflect my wonderful family.

i've treasured it ever since.

it's a half sun kind of thing with the four flames discreetly shaped as the first initials of each one of my immediate family members. the sun, being half-shaped, is in the shape of a stemless "D", thus surrounding me with family.

i know that when i have my own family (i.e. wife and kids), i'll get a matching tattoo on my back over my left shoulder blade, directly behind the tat i already have. they will draw a line through my heart.

(the easiest kind of cut)

a friend of mine the other day sat across from me outside a neighborhood bar contemplating something i was sure he would blurt out soon enough.

the breeze was calmly warm and our skies were blue and you could see it in the face of people who walked by along the sidewalk wearing their favorite sunglasses and their best posture in the way that the arrival of summer makes people walk taller because they feel sexier.

he always gets this look on his face when he's got a thought he knows is going to crack me up, as if he's reached a conclusion that i'll have no way to argue with about something completely pointless and trivial that he knows, without a doubt, i'll immediately argue with him about.

it's a blank, pondering sort of look with hints of a devilish grin, while he puts the finishing touches on his hilariously constructed argument or statement, and i usually ask him, 'what?' even though i know there's really no need because he'll blurt it out either way.

"you remind me of someone, and i just figured out who it is."

"who?"

"it's my buddy i used to work with, and it's like you are him, twenty years younger."

"okay. i've met him, like, twice, but i can see it in the way that i think he's a pretty laid back guy."

usually these conversation are far more combative, and ridiculous, and, frankly, entertaining. i was called travis so many times in college that i got used to telling people i grew up in sacremento.

i remind people of people.

"no...it's that you guys both have this impulsiveness. it'll take you however long to decide on something you want to do or have, and then you can't really stop or drop it until you've done or gotten that thing."

...hm. that's true, i think.

i respond with, "i think i might shave my head this weekend." this is what i've been sitting in the perfect summer breeze contemplating, having decided that the upside to life as my own barber outweighed the possible downsides to the first attempt*.

"THAT'S EXACTLY SOMETHING HE WOULD SAY. and you would both do it, too."

i sat there feeling the contour of my scalp, unsure as to how accurate our mutual assessment of my pseudo-compulsiveness was in fact, silently concluding that we were probably right and simultaneously wondering if this conclusion was somehow influencing my intent to follow through on the haircut.

as soon as chalise arrived she complemented me on my hair, of all things**, and subsequently denied my request for an impromtu salon job***, the idea pushed to the backburner for reassessment later in the weekend.

during which it was never reassessed.

but now, as we cross into the second half of our first warmish summer week, and my hair crawls around my ears and becomes unmanagable, i return, mentally, to that moment when i did, in fact, think i would be cutting my own hair. i remembered feeling justified by the thought that a man who's 28 years old should have done such a thing at least once.

but i'm undecided, and a bit nervous.

so i ask you for your thoughts.





*walking around looking ugly as sin, for instance.

**the nerve, seriously.

***see how i was already trying to get someone else to do it, thus securing a scapegoat? savvy...i know.

(invite them all)

as an avid blog reader i've come to care about certain people around the world that i have never met, may never meet, and quite honestly, may not exist. these people are people i respect. people i find intriguing. people i want to drink coffee with, people i want to impress, people i think are crazy, and people i want to make out with. people i'd buy a beer.

if you're thinking it's weird that i'd do any of those things with people i've never met in person, i'll remind you of two things;

a) i once flew to california, picked up a mini-van and drove it to chicago for a guy i first met once i'd arrived in chicago, and

b) the aforementioned people might not exist...so all those expressed feelings are feelings in effect directed at pixels, jpegs, and bitmaps...

so it is weird.

take a moment to congratulate yourself for being right.

that being said, i have things on my mind that are things related to these people (er, pixels), much like you have things on your agenda.

maybe you have to take your parents out to eat, like brady does tomorrow. maybe you have to move, like pb&razz.

maybe you have a wedding to plan for.

i have those things too. lord do i.

but i also contemplate these pixelated rockstars. i think about the fact that i owe The Ex a postcard. i worry about Tink's internal battles.

and i feel like any member of 20somethingbloggers has passed some social screening that makes them someone i'd go out of my way to meet. i would throw a party and invite them all.

i would throw a party and invite all of you.

i would throw a party in the afternoon sun on the strip of division street between ashland and damen and you'd come with your friends and your lovers and your sunglasses.

you could drink hess or stag's leap vino, local microbrews or the liquor you showed up with.

you would dine on chicago-style dawgs and burgers, bar-b-que'd ribs, or veggie bites.

the scotch selection would impress james bond.

we'd play cornhole and chess and beirut.

we'd talk blogger platforms and geek news.

we'd share reading lists and reader feedback.

a band would play until the sun set and it'd be funky mellow stuff to allow for conversation and when the sun went down a rock band would take over to really get the party started. most of us would enjoy the bands and some of us wouldn't, but we'd all probably blog about it.

we'd become quick friends, just like we are now.

i would.
i would throw a party and invite you all.

(memorial weekend)

i think ya'll can tell i took a bit of a writing holiday over the holiday weekend...aside from the aesthetic adjustments here i took some time off on the prose front.

my weekend accomplishments included the following:

i ran sixteen miles.
i acquired a bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask single malt scotch.
i drank a bit of that scotch. while puffing a cigar. like a grandpa.
branner peed on my bed.
i rearranged my home to give branner more floor space to run on.
and i capped it all off with pizza and a six-pack with chalise and her boy G.

other things happened too.

i missed summercamp, which at times was hard (i found some nice updates on the festival at music for ants...go check 'em). when the flaming lips came on at the bar i was at friday night, i mentally jumped to the festival and felt a longing for the weekend in the woods. having made the right decision for a lot of reasons, all in all i was alright with a long, open weekend in chicago.

this weekend my neighborhood's having a festival of its own...and if you're planning on attending you better let me know. i'm hoping to have a bit of an oper house policy this saturday, so please holler if you'll be nearby.

(your dark mountain)

life had begun to feel like a vicious joke.

i'd been in california for over a year, crisp to the wonders of temperate mini-climates, tanned legs, and things i'd only read about back home now within biking distance...things like the ocean.

the wal-mart just off campus stuck out like a sore thumb, tucked in between the authenticity and organic-ness and fresh sushi there were signs that people actually live in califorina all the time.

that excitement fell through the rusted well grates along the side of campus drive on its way from my dorm to yours, apparently, and never negotiated the long slow curve i'd spend the next few years running every afternoon while i should have been in spanish class.

the same road i'd get myself arrested on for driving under the influence at 10am on a sunday morning.

no, you were in your dorm, behind closed doors, suffering.

whatever universal forces brought us from a childhood spent two miles apart, in the same classrooms and on the same soccer teams and pictured together every week in the local newspapers, to an island of beauty, intelligence, and opportunity two thousand miles away, had somehow morphed into forces that delicately drove us in different directions. we were magnets with the same charge.

and you didn't know it, but i was watching closely.

i was watching from a distance and i was looking in through the eyes of your girlfriend back home and the updates from your dormmates and through conversations with our head coach during road trips you stayed home from.

i was intently and desperately imagining your emotional strife and i was cowardly doing that from behind the scenes. i was afraid.

but you see, at the time i could understand.

you've always been like a brother to me, and for all our apparent similarities we've always been acutely aware of our differences. for every comparison those journalists made to our talents and success, we were one another's foil, our grandeur exposed in one another's weaknesses.

i could understand how hard it was to be away from her. i could understand the mountain such an intelligent person would have to climb to defeat the depression wreaking havoc on his heart and thoughts.

i could understand that i was the last person you could look to for help. that i was the inappropriate joke in your dark comedy, dressed in your clothes but smiling like an idiot. i saw the clouds in your eyes, and i quietly respected the distance that i knew you hated but couldn't traverse.

i promised her i'd take care of you. and i promised everyone i'd take care of you, because you had to be okay for me to be okay, as selfish as that sounds to me now.

the reflection in my mirror was dying and i would be there when that reflection looked back at me, gave me the slightest sign i was needed on the inside of an inescapable nightmare.

you were running through the night so fast that none of us could catch you.

...

i rode along campus drive faster than i ever would again that night, as if there was a speed that might take us all the way back to the beginning. i left my bike on the ground and i glistened with a nervous sweat as i trotted through the hospital looking for you.

i walked around that white curtain and i saw you before you saw me. you were wearing dark washed jeans, a blue collared sweater, and nine months of exhausted anguish.

we saw one another and you immediately knew i knew everything.

i saw that realization wash over you and i saw you accept that you weren't alone.

and we sobbed.
and we sobbed.
and we sobbed.

for you.

and at the universe.

it's gonna be okay, i sputtered.

and we got about climbing that mountain.

(slaps)

the band played Slaps at the boundary in wicker park.

SauSau was good...a natural you might call her.

(san diego revisited)

the edward hopper exhibition ends on saturday, and i haven't seen it.

i want to. i'm thinking friday sometime after lunch. join me.

the main concern this weekend, however, is the arrival of my dear friend SauSau from san diego. you may remember the band's trip to san diego.

Sau took us all over san diego, first to pacific beach then to del mar and she's the reason i stayed another day and switched my flight while i was standing on the beach.

my buddies fell in love with her and decided she needed sunglasses so they bought her some, because she wouldn't buy them for herself.

when we're all together we tend to wear our sunglasses.

so she's in town saturday, and we want to take her to a delicious and fun dinner, followed by a deliciously fun after-hours venue.

i want your help.

what are your favorite spots in chicago for entertaining out of towners?

(facebooked)

ah, facebook.

lately i've been spending a bit more time on facebook.

i'm not sure how it works in your world, but the lucky young lady who was voted class president of our high school class gets charged with the enviable task of organizing our class reunion(s).

so on the eve of our ten-year reunion, she's become a bit daunted by the prospect of tracking down 700 people she hasn't talked to in a decade.

i don't blame her.

in a few years, this won't be difficult, because everyone a few years younger than us has been quite religiously dedicated to keeping their facebook page active and updated...the whole facebook craze was a little late for my crew.

i volunteered to help out, and to take the reins on our online outreach efforts, because i think we can all agree i'm pretty active online in general...when the organizer in question asked how to make a group on facebook i decided it'd be best for me to just handle it.

which brought me to the second immediate hurdle this whole thing will face (the first being that our generation isn't necessarily ON facebook or the other social networking sites to begin with); our highschool doesn't exist anymore.

that's right...a few years after i graduated, they split our rather large highschool into two highschools on opposite ends of town, and renamed both.

so on facebook, a pretty easy network connection is completely non-existent.

ah, facebook.

your utility is thwarted.

what we're left with, at this point, is a list of the 50 or so individuals who had the inclination to affiliate themselves with the highschool that occupies the same building as the highschool by another name we attended.

so i have a whole bunch of new facebook friends that i haven't heard from in ten years.

and i'm short about 600 people who could literally be anywhere in the world right now.

talk about a haystack.

(the jaws of marriage)

today over lunch at the potbelly at franklin and randolph, braden, jigglin and i realized that we (the band; our group of six) could conceivably never enjoy the occassion of attending a wedding together, and braden's not into sharks.

j: "i can't think of anyone who would invite all of us to their wedding."

b: "other than you or frazzle*, assuming one of you gets married first. which is different because one guy is the groom, and probably a few of us are in the wedding party. we don't have a person outside the band."

d: "this highlights our need for more friends."

b: "and frazzle says he's not getting married for a minimum of four years. i wonder how his girlfriend feels about that."

d: "what he's actually saying is that he'll be single in four years."

b: "ha! he's pretty much guaranteeing that one."

j (looks up from his phone): "hey did you hear about that guy who was bitten by a shark and died?"

b: "SERIOUSLY...why would you tell me that? it's called a PHOBIA; i won't go in the ocean for like three years!"

j: "that's RIGHT, i forgot you're afraid of sharks! i don't have a phobia...i don't know what that's like...you wouldn't even watch JAWS, right?!"

b: "no! why would i do that...what would make someone with a phobia to sharks watch a movie about a huge predator shark??"

d: "...i think they're called "balls"."




*just to clear up any confusion...yes, we do call each other things like frazzle, jigglin, and kizzy. i've included a reference guide over on the sidebar.

(wibs)

today is will's birthday.

i got so giddy to put a birthday post up for will that i started this tonight, which is last night, as you're reading it, assuming you're reading it today, which is april 23rd.

wibs turns 28 today, which means the screaming knuckleheads; the best band without music on earth; are all 28 years old.

oh, except frazzle. frazzle's the baby.

wibs is actually the only true rockstar in our band.

he actually rockkicks, frequently, in public.

usually that happens completely unannounced and sometimes it's on the other side of the bar amongst strangers and for no apparent reason.

which is how rockkicks should be done.

it takes a certain type of man to be known for rockkicks, and since will's kinda known for his rockkicks, it follows that he's a certain type of man.

he's the kind of guy who can fit in with five childhood friends who've known one another since before they knew what women were, in a city full of their childhood memories and acquiantences.

he's the kind of guy who's state of calm can be unsettling for the uninitiated, and unpredictable even to his closest friends. underneath a generally level-headed shell is some tenderness, some turmoil, and a quirky sense of curiosity.

he's self-contained, as most rockstars tend to be. his emotional reveals are few and far between, and usually in the context of a laugh or spectacle, as opposed to confrontation or complaint. he's happy to walk his own path; an understated task in a group like ours, riddled with peer pressure for the sake of humor.

and he's a complex mix of emotional maturity and playful immaturity, which is something i would grant on varying degrees to all my friends. i think with wibs, though, the emotional maturity comes from a place of resolve, and the playful stunts are sometimes public and always hilarious.

his quirks are extensive, and endearing. we love talking about them.

he has stages of 'getting ready' at night. three, maybe four. sometimes he puts on a t-shirt for just one of those stages, only to put on what he was planning on wearing later.

he calls his roommates on the phone from his bedroom to see if it's them in the family room.

and he'll mention his out-of-state business trips the night before he leaves, or once he's already there.

his roommates will kill me for leaving out what i'm sure is a long list of funny things the man does.

but it's most important to give will his due, because on his birthday i want to make sure he knows how f*cking great he is. chicago wouldn't be the same without him, and our group of friends would be incomplete if he weren't here playing in the city with us.

he adds incredible dimension to our group, to my world, and i think to all of his relationships, and i think that's a statement i aspire to in my own life, so i don't say that lightly. if my words understate my reverence for the guy, it's because i tend to lose my point in prose; wibs could very well have ended up in another city, but he and my friend kizz came to chicago after college, and we'll all better for it.

so will...happy birthday buddy.

(he made a list)

there are a few open bl-issues i want to clear up this morning. bl-issues = blog issues = issues raised by my blog.

you see, i operate in the realm of semi-anonymity in the sense that "d" is a mythical creature with a low-profile job. oh, and an active sex life.

hopefully you like this unicorn of a man i've created.

but in all seriousness, working in a public, yet vailed, medium is challenging and rewarding, because the things i write come back to me in phone conversations, bars, and all over the net. my blog feeds into a number of different online locales, the most explicit being facebook, which is the one place i do feel i can control who sees what.

so people in my life read this stuff, and if you're a blogger, you know sometimes you make new friends from other blogs as a corollary to blogging. the people i know and the people i sort of know, in a lot of cases, have questions about certain things i write.

bl-issues.

so i'd like to clear a few up.

• branner got his name from branner hall, my freshman dorm. professor john casper branner, a geologist, was stanford's very first faculty member, so technically my dog's named after an intelligent individual...not a cesspool of drunken make-out sessions.



• i'm not pining for my ex-girlfriend. in fact, beyond hoping she's really happy, i am in a great place about our relationship, which ended many months ago. i haven't seen or spoken to her in a few months. the downside of writing about an ex is the natural speculation it sparks for readers. i didn't start writing about her until i felt a peace with the whole experience, and i did so mostly because i think a lot of my readers might take something away from the long road kate and i took to get past one another.



• summercamp, the music festival i bartend each year, is going to be a solo affair, unless braden can find a cohort to make it a threesome. there's no room for another worker in chalise's absence, per management, so either i'm rolling down there alone or someone laid-back and able to buy a ticket will kick it with brady while i'm slingin' the sauce. apologies to everyone who was interested in working the fest...it's out of my control!



• cha-rule is moving to san diego, which i actually first noted in the comments of ex-everything's blog. this is less a bl-issue as just an issue for this blog's writer. i think the best word to summarize the why of this move is "pursuing", and i think now is as good a time as ever to get on with pursuing sh*t.

any other questions, concerns, or comments i should be aware of?

(fanmail)

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Alice XXXXXX wrote:

It's not weird that I want to actively have sex with your blog, right?

(it can happen to anyone)

this weekend, in bits and pieces, i recieved some very, very tragic news.

a person who's played a very big role in my life was roofied in a club in new york city, and then date raped by the two young men who'd laced her drink.

i didn't realize how hard it would be to write the sentence after that sentence...as if the punchline preceeded the joke, where no joke exists and where those words in no universe could ever be called a punchline.

in the way of pertinent detail, she is (and will remain) one of the strongest women i know. if you're close to me, you know that between my family and friends, strong women are a foregone conclusion...and i would pick her in a fight (verbal or physical) against nearly every other female on that list. i'd take her above 98% of the men i know as well, without exaggeration.

her strained sentiment; "can you believe this happened to me!?? of all people, you'd think it wouldn't be me."

an example of that strength has been her reaction to what's happened; she's spent the last few days working with detectives, trying to piece together what's happened so these two don't go unpunished. she'd drag them through city streets to make an example that would lessen the likelihood of future victims.

she asked me to post this, so people would start reminding each other that the danger is there. that people in their late 20's and early 30's aren't immune. this doesn't only happen in college.

"this is why you have a blog, right? tell your readers to look out for one another," she said, "tell them to remind their friends and their readers that's it's not about being strong, it's about being careful."

for a crime that's so underreported it's terrifying, i applaud her resolve.

there is a reason that i would put this in front of you, and it is most notably not to evoke a sympathetic response from you as a reader.

in fact, there are some things i'd (we'd) much rather you did instead of commenting here expressing your sorrow or support for my friend.

funnel that support in the way that she wants you to; spread the word a bit and look out for each other. blog about it. share your stories. twitter it (@dblogged - see my "buy your own drinks, eliminate date rape"), pownce it, stumble it...just spend a minute to give it some attention, because it can't hurt.

for a very non-PSA guy, that's my Publice Service Announcement for today.

don't let me understate the gravity of what's happened to someone i care about, because trust me...there are very few things that touch on what little violent tendency i might have, and rape is probably the first topic on that very short list.

my heart aches for her; the emotions she'll face going forward could very likely be some of the toughest she'll ever face. the resolve she's shown in the immediate aftermath will falter, and she will rely on her close family and friends to be there when that happens.

but having spoken with her over the last few days, i can tell that high on her reactive priority list is her feeling that her unlikelihood as a victim makes others more likely victims, and her motivation to pursue justice and acknowledge the experience publically (as difficult as that may be) is sourced from her desire to be part of a solution, where others can't find the strength to do so.

you can help her in that endeavor.

(baseball and crack)

chicagoans have spent most of this morning and early afternoon clamoring for cubs tickets, which went on sale at 10am this morning.

this annual event is probably the world's best example of an internet clusterfuck.*

chicago business screeches to a halt and every man, woman, child, and puppy sits on the internet hitting refresh and emailing each other about how many windows they have open at once and what technique just GOT THEM IN OH MY GOD I HAVE FOUR TICKETS TO THE WHITE SOX SERIES blah blah blah.

somehow the ticket brokers always seem to skip the virtual waiting room, which is a concept i'm not sure i ever envisioned the internet to include.

a waiting room?

online?

i gave it a five minute try and then i promptly gave up, secure in the assumption that the odds of me wasting my morning trying to get baseball tickets were far less than the odds of the cubs actually having a decent season before i'm using a walker to get to the cafeteria of whatever retirement home my ungrateful children stick me in.

i jest.

my children will be wonderful.

instead i got distracted by StumbleUpon, a digital tool that until now was (and still now is, sorta) confusing to me.

the concept of falling around the internet drunk wasn't lost on me (having surfed the internet drunk many times already), but how it worked, why it worked, and what it meant were all really murky concepts to me.

but now...

a.
ddict.
ed.

addicted.

get over there and sign up. especially if you're friends with me.

TSK band members in particular. bloggers in particular.

befriend me.

i still don't completely understand it all, but it's basically a big orgy of website sharing...with the funniest or weirdest rising to the top. it's crazy new websites and youtube videos without all the not-funny and not-interesting stuff in between.

it's like the top-watched videos on youtube ON CRACK.






*although it sounds like lyndsay lohan's nude pictures on the new yorker mag site caused quite a stir earlier this week.

(anticipate)

everyone knows i've missed chalise. that's her on the left of the pic, with our friend zoey, dancing (as usual).

so everyone probably understands how excited i was to get this text on wednesday:

cha: I love you so much! Be home Friday at midnight. Nightcap?!

she's back from st. martin, back from her six week adventure, back in our neighborhood fuck i get my best girl back!

the fact that it's koitz's birthday isn't lost on me here either...the world makes a little sense sometimes.

combine all this with the fact that some of chicago's best bloggers are getting together tomorrow evening, and i've got myself a pretty damn great weekend ahead.

but you know what?

you know what i've got in store for you?

i've got a major announcement for you.

an announcement i'll make on monday.

the same day we honor our past presidents because we're not sure if the current one's worth honoring.

the same day most of you don't have to get up early and go work for someone else.

the same day you get to work for yourselves.

on monday,
after i've met a bunch of wonderful bloggers
and i've tackled chalise
and thanked her for not staying in the carribbean,

i will let you guys in on a little okay big thing that i've kept from you months and months and months.