Quodlibets

Friday Random Ten (Cleveland Rocks!!! Version)

1. Away -- Kathleen Edwards
2. Rain City -- Turin Brakes
3. Where It's At -- Beck
4. Does He Love You -- Rilo Kiley
5. Humpty Dumpty -- Aimee Mann
6. Heavy Things -- Phish
7. 'Round Here (Live) -- Counting Crows
8. Gone for Good -- The Shins
9. Baby -- Nil Lara
10. A Foggy Day -- Ella Fitzgerald

Okay, maybe Cleveland rocks, but my random ten sure doesn't.  We are, however, going to Cleveland this weekend, to see PJ.  (And MMJ is opening for them, and I hate MMJ.  Hence, I'm bringing a book, and will read during their set in the concourse.  Biggest nerd ever at a PJ concert?  Maybe, maybe not.  In Grand Rapids on the Vote For Change tour, the guy sitting next to me was reading something philosophical and heavy; he did, however, turn into a raving lunatic when the concert started, and endangered me with his flying elbows, as he jumped up and down maniacally.  Terrible experience.  But he possibly was a bigger nerd.  Or, he was insane.  One of the two.)

Anyway, we're fitting a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in, because this may be the first and last time I'm ever in Cleveland, and I may as well see the sights.  Or, sight.  Whatever.  Also, you know a city isn't big on the food when you check various top ten lists for restaurants in the city and things like Olive Garden and IHOP show up on those lists.  If the Olive Garden is one of the top ten Italian restaurants in your CITY, then I'm not all that interested in being there.  Since my big thing in new places is eating, Cleveland is a blight on my vacation life.  Is that bad?  Oh well.

See you Monday!  (Maybe, depending on the wi-fi situation is at our hotel.  Which, I might point out, we got a special rate on [supposedly] through the Ten Club.  One benefit of S being a PJ freak.)

Slight Glitch

I meant to write this up yesterday, but this will have to do.  Yesterday, I did an Amazon search for the book Sex with Kings, which is an historical account of the mistresses of various kings.  (I once did a paper in college about Louis the XVI's [either him or Louis XVII's] mistress, a very powerful woman in her time, and I maintain a fascination with Napoleon and Josephine and Marie Antoinette to this day.  Anyway, the book seems right up my alley.)

But instead of getting the generic results screen, or the exact page I was looking for, that search pulled up a book about Martin Luther King Jr.  Not kidding.  I just tried to replicate the results now, and it didn't work.  One of those little bugs that happen every once in a while (like the publicized result for searching "abortion": did you mean adoption?), but a funny one.  It's also in considerably poor taste, but what can you do?  It wasn't any human error that produced that result.  As long as it's not still happening....

More on Amazon:  Today, I did a big order for the library from Amazon, for our popular rental video collection.  Three (so far) of the videos are listed as Region: Unknown.  Which means that we can't purchase them, just in case they don't play on Region 1 DVD players.  I wanted an answer as to why certain titles would list that way, especially considering those very same DVDs are available online from Facets--with nary a warning about region.  So I went to the DVD region help page, which wasn't helpful in the least, and was about to email customer service when I noticed a "by phone" button.  If you press this, you are given the option of having Amazon customer service call you on a number you provide, in a time frame you provide.  What the hell, I thought. 

The call was prompt, the help was prompt, but the help was also useless.  The girl on the line just read me the information from the website, which unfortunately for her, I had already read.  I wanted bigger answers.  For instance, why?  Why are some DVDs regions unknown?  She said the only info. she had at her disposal was the information on the web page.  Whaaaaaa?  What's the damn point of customer service if they have no additional information?  I know it's not that poor girl's fault, and I tried to be ultra-polite as I pumped her for information, but really.  How useless.

Running and Eating

I haven't talked about the diet lately because lately there's been no diet.  I've gained back a few pounds, and I'm trying not to be demoralized and I'm trying to balance eating for pleasure and just eating.  If that makes sense.  I'm also going to have make more of an effort to work out, which means that I'm starting a work-out calendar on my fridge, to prod me into the gym or onto the streets at least five times a week.  (I'm nurturing what might be a futile hope that when S and I move the city, my sister will consent to us being running partners.  I hope she can try to see that it might be good for our motivations, and think it's a good idea.  No clue if she will.  Hey Kate!  Don't dismiss the idea offhand, okay?)

The eating has been, though, the absolute problem.  I'm sick of every single thing that you can possibly bring for lunch, and the only things near me that are somewhat do-able for lunch are Subway and Roly Poly, and I'm sick of those too.  So I end up either getting something bad for me, or coming home and trying to make the hellish lunch a memory by splurging on a snack I absolutely should not be eating.  I need to find a better compromise, but I'm having a hell of a time.  (It doesn't help that I absolutely hate hate hate eating in the lunchroom with the er, other persons that eat in the lunchroom at noon.  So I absolutely don't want to bring something that has to be microwaved, because then I have to go down there and cook it, and walk out, like some sort of asshole.)

I know, I'm just bitching.  But part of me hopes that this public bitching will help me get more on track for where I want to be.  Which is slightly more comfortable with my weight.  Of course, it doesn't help/hurt that I have to be in a wedding in June, which is making me panic about looking good (because yes, I'm stupid), and also making me feel like I might be motivated.  Might be is the key phrase.

Blurg

I'm not sure my job could get any more boring.

That is all.

Quick Question

So who else bawled their way through the last ten minutes of Grey's Anatomy last night?

Anyone?

Notes on Service

On Saturday night, S, my mom, Kate and I went out for dinner.  We figured we'd be hungry after the apartment searching, and we could make the night into a Mother's Day celebration-type dealie, since my mom was going to visit her parents on Mother's Day.  My mom had the privilege of picking the restaurant, off of my master list of restaurants (have I mentioned the master list here?  I can't remember.  Anyway, it's an ever-growing list of restaurants [mostly in Chicago, but not all] that I'd like to try, or if I already have, go back to [because you can never, ever, eat too many meals at say, Frontera Grill].  We're pokily going through the list and trying new places and eating at familiar ones; I'm sure that will pick up some when S and I are living in the city.), and she chose Shine/Morida, a Japanese/Chinese restaurant.  I'm not sure how I came to put that restaurant on the list (I can't remember anymore what the impetus is for each individual restaurant--there's over 30 on the list), but I decided to refresh my memory of it on Friday.

Almost every single review I read about it said the food was excellent but the service was horrible.  I'm always a little wary of reviews--food taste can be very personal--but when everyone says the service is bad, I get a little nervous.  Regardless, we weren't going to try to get a last minute reservation somewhere else, so off we went.  And the service?  Not bad.  Not even so-so.  Our water was refilled when it needed to be, our food came out promptly and piping hot, and the waitress was very accomodating.  I mentioned the reviews to the table, and Kate said that she almost never has problems when reviewers say there are problems, so what gives?  Is it that we're indifferent to service?  Maybe we don't demand a lot from our servers, and so their performance seems perfectly adequate?

I think Kate said that she thought maybe some people wanted their waitperson to be their best friend, and hold thei hand through the entire meal, which might contribute to the problems.  But that surely doesn't account for the majority of people who complain.  And I mean, I've had bad service before.  Not often, but every once in a great while, you'll get a waitperson that seems like they couldn't care less about serving you.  That's when service is the biggest problem; I don't think that you can fault your server for bad seating and a crazy busy restaurant.  There's only so much one person can do.  Maybe I'm too inclined to give a server the benefit of the doubt, when it's busy.  I understand that it's not easy catering to tables full of demanding patrons, who think they're entitled.  I worked retail, and as I see it, waiting has to be four million times more painful than retail.  Maybe some people don't give servers slack when it's out of control.

Anyway, I can't say that I'd ever write a review of a restaurant and bash it because of its service.  It could be the fault of one waiter, and it just doesn't seem fair.  I suppose if there is a pattern of bad service, then okay.  But having such a good experience really makes you doubt the other people reviewing the restaurant.  (The food at Shine/Morida tasted pretty good to us too.  I'd certainly go back.)

Mooj or Moodge, depending on which one of us you ask

It's Mother's Day, and even though it's absolutely 100% a Hallmark holiday, it's one of my favorites, because I adore my mother, and I love buying her presents and telling her so.  My sister and I seem to have slipped into a fantastic dynamic relationship with my mom.  She's one of my favorite people, and I bet if you asked my sister, she'd say much the same thing about my mom.  But instead of a gushing tribute to my mom, I'm going to make a list of my five favorite things about her.  Here goes:

• She loves loves loves to laugh.  And her laugh is contagious.  And attractive.  She laughs easily, and often, and it's very fun, because you're just laughing right along with her.  As a corollary, she's also willing to be goofy and poke fun of herself.  Once, she was warning a rabbit in our yard that she was about to let the dog out (not sure why, but she was) and yelled, "Runny, Bun!"  She's always willing to laugh about that incident--and we still do.
• She's practical in ways that I'm not.  Sometimes that is just helpful.  I always turned to my mom for help packing shit, whether it be for a move or a trip, because she's just good at it.  She seems to have a knack for it.  She's also the best person to have around during a move, because she doesn't tire easily, and I think she loves being helpful.  She's an immense help, and I'm not sure how I'd do these things without her.  In fact, if I told you how many times I've called her and said something like, "How do I iron again?" or "Wait, tell me again how to hard-boil eggs?" or "What's the best way to bake a potato?" or even, "Help me with my cross-stitch, I need help!" you'd probably be embarrassed for me.
• She's into games.  I don't really mean board games, though I suspect she'd happily play board games if we wanted to, but I guess I just mean games in general.  She likes computer games, word games, number games--you name it, and she's played it.  I'm not sure if it appeals to her love of puzzle-solving, or what, but she's really into that stuff.  She even went through a whole period where she played the original Zelda for Nintendo (or Super-NES) all the time.  I think she won the game, even. 
• She's a great sport.  I mean, she'll attempt anything that Kate and I have a mind to attempt.  The zoo in February?  Okay.  The muddy alternative craft fair in Chicago?  Sure, why not?  Frankenmuth road-trip?  Right on.  So I guess I mean that she also has a great sense of adventure.  My sister, her and I took a trip to Spain together, and though things got a little hairy by the end of the trip (I just needed more alone time than I was getting, and we weren't such big fans of the Spanish cuisine), it was fun.  I'd definitely take a trip with my mom and sis again.  I suppose what I'm trying to say is that she's game for almost anything.  I like that.
• She unabashedly loves pop music.  She'd rather listen to one of those NOW compilations than say, the Beatles.  Not that she minds the Beatles--she just really enjoys listening to pop.  I think it's quirky and hilarious.  She also pretty much seems to avoid, in her personal listening, the stuff she grew up listening to.  Once she told me that she used to fall asleep every night to Dark Side of the Moon, complete with clanging alarms in that one song.  But I bet she hasn't listened to that album in YEARS.  Isn't that funny?

I'm sure there are five million other things I could tell you that I love about my mom (just came to me now--her love of all things Xmas.  Love that about her.), but I'd probably at some point start to be boring.  Anyway, I love you, Mom.  I don't know what I'd do without you.

Shell-shocked

We have an apartment.  We have an apartment.  We have an apartment.

Repeat, over and over again, and that's some idea of what's going on in my head.  I was pretty much sure that we wouldn't find an apartment the first day we looked, but we did.  We're moving to the big bad city in July, and oh my god.

Oh my god.

That too, is running through my mind.  It might be more like:  We have an apartment.  Oh my god.  We have an apartment.  Oh my god.

It's good, I promise.  I'm not unhappy, or anything like that.  I'm just overwhelmed and shocked and nervous and yes, a little bit excited.  It's in a fantastic location, it's HUGE, and it's more expensive than we thought we might be paying.  But it's so good, it's so damn good.  So yeah.  We have an apartment.

Update:  Okay, I'm kind of panicking.  Family, I know that it's par for the course, but I just can't stop saying "what if..." or "oh my god, maybe there isn't laundry in the building" or "what if we hate it".  I'm just a big worrywart.  I'm excited but scared, and things certainly aren't quite squared away yet.  (For clarification on that cryptic statment, you'll have to contact me directly.  Let's just say things have gotten slightly weird regarding our application.)  And for comebacknikki--we're north, but not very far north.  We're (hopefully) living in Lincoln Park.  For my commute, it's better if I live further south in the city.  We didn't want to go much further south than Old Town, and no further north than south Lakeview.  So we ended up in Lincoln Park. 

Grrrrr, I HAVE to stop panicking and worrying and being scared, or I'll be crazy by the time we move.

After a Hiatus....Friday Random Ten

1. Into the Mystic -- Van Morrison
2. She Says -- Ani DiFranco
3. I Am Superman -- R.E.M.
4. Swandive (Live) -- Ani DiFranco
5. Play -- Flunk
6. At Last -- Glenn Miller
7. Begin -- Toad the Wet Sprocket
8. Rose Rouge -- St. Germain
9. Disappointment -- Morrissey
10. Mrs. Potter's Lullaby -- Counting Crows

I have loads of things to say, but for now, I'll leave it at this:  boy, I wish I didn't have to work today.

As for now I'm gonna hear the saddest songs and sit alone and wonder

This morning, I stumbled on one of the saddest--and yet intensely interesting--blogs I've ever found.  I'm sure that I only think it's so sad because a) I don't read a great lot of sad blogs and b) the subject matter is sad to me, personally.

Sometimes I wonder if S and I aren't getting on a train that only has one stop, at the end, and that stop is break-up central.  I know that sounds pessimistic, but it's incredibly hard for me to suss out what S is thinking about us, and about the choices we're making.  We're hitting four years on June 11 (or 12, not quite sure of the date), and I'm fighting with myself all the time about the M-word.  Rationally, I'm not so sure I want it, but I'm also quite sure that I want S to want it.  Does that make sense?  And rationally, I know that a little piece of paper doesn't make it any harder for S to wake up and want out.  But that's my fear, anyway.  I'm afraid that one morning, he'll wake up and realize that he's not where he wants to be and hightail it back to CA. 

The fears are unfounded, and I know it.  I know he adores me, and I sometimes am scared by how much I love him.  And I don't doubt that the move we're planning in July is the right move.  It feels right in that place inside me that judges whether things are right--the part that told me the first library job was wrong, and that tells me now that the job I'm in, while it's not perfect, is right--and I'm fairly certain S is looking forward to, plesantly anticipating the move.  Any thoughts I have about us breaking up are panicked, uncareful thoughts.  They're borne out of my fears of being abandoned, of being tossed aside as I once was.  They have nothing, friends, to do with S. 

Anyway.  Check out that blog, but make sure to start at the beginning.  (Also, this is just a random observation--the man writing the blog is someone involved in the Improv community in Chicago, just as my cousin Sketch is.  I'm sitting here wondering if they know each other.  Small world, right?  I discovered the blog through a library blog that I read every morning at work, and I possibly know someone who knows the blogger.  Weird.)

*Update:  Okay.  Things get weirder.  In the process of reading the blog, I think I recognize someone I went to high school with.  But only tangentially knew.  Nah, I convince myself.  No way.  But later, the aforementioned blogger mentions a friend of this person I think I knew ("Trupe" as named by the blogger) and this friend's name is Quinn.  A screenshot of Quinn's blog is featured.  Long story short, I DID know that guy from high school, and he is friends with Quinn, someone that I am connected to in myriad ways--my sister had a crush on someone in his band in middle school, S knew Quinn before he knew me, because Quinn's g/f worked at Borders, Quinn and I were at least acquainted in high school, more so than some of those other people.  Frankly, this is a little odd.  The blogger first is connected (most likely) to my cousin, because they seem to have been at Improv Olympic around the same time, and second, is close friends with someone I went to high school with.  Seriously.  Odd, right?