Saturday, February 28, 2009

As a gift to myself, I took Friday of my birthday week off. It was wonderful to have a three day weekend. When I woke up Monday morning to go to work, I felt terrible. I emailed in sick and went back to bed.

I crashed for about four more hours and then got up to listen to the radio. The student radio station I provide tech support for had their first week of programming this week. Even thought the DJs trained hard they were very nervous about their first show. I needed to listen in and make sure there was no dead air. Monday went well but a few other shows had dead air for a bit b/c our mother-flippin’ M-Audio Fast Track Pro is running on beta drivers. We’ve actually only had a few glitches until this week but it’s becoming a bigger problem. I am in the classic situation of figuring out if it is a software/hardware issue or a user issue.

The station got a nice half page article in the Tribune this week. We were above the fold and had two photographs with the article. A sliver of me was in one of the photos shot during a training sessions I was conducting with the DJs. The photos didn’t make it in the online version of the article. 

I may have mentioned in a previous post that I started an account on an online dating database. I had a date this week with a man from the site. I sent him a smile and he sent me a hug. I then emailed him and we exchanged a few emails of light chatter. He asked me for drinks on Tuesday night. We met up at Dunlay’s winebar at about 9. I warned him that I wouldn’t have time to go home and change and would be dressed casually and sporting a bit of helmet hair.

I got there on time and saw him right off the bat. He looked exactly like his photo. He has a terrific look. I am especially drawn to his eyes. He was surprised and pleased that I looked exactly like my photo. His profile was the only one that made me laugh. What I liked most about his profile is his response to the sexy, sexier fill in the blank. “The smell of your skin is sexy; your funny smart ass comment is sexier.” To me, this is a man that a truly feminine woman that can laugh her ass off. I feel like I am a good candidate. I have always been funny but feminine has only caught up with me in the last couple of years.

We had so much fun hanging out. We drank and laughed until 12:30. We also did some kissin’ which was nice. I’ve always wanted to be that couple in the corner of the bar quietly kissing and laughing. He wanted me to go home with him but settled on walking me to my bike. He wanted to hang out the next night but I was nursing a hangover and had to do some school work. We’ve texted off and on this week but no plans have been made. I am being a good girl and not asking or hinting as to when/if we will hangout again. I have instead just sent him a text or two this week just saying Hi and hoping he is having a nice day. He seems to have a super busy professional life but I also think he juggling several women from the dating site. I’d like to at least hang out once more to see if there is anything between us but I’m not holding my breath. I have another interaction happening with a guy on the site but not sure there is a connection there. He seems self-deprecating. 

I was going to go to the Bike Art closing party but didn’t make it. Bucktown is not easy to get to via public transit. I had already put in 15 miles on my bike yesterday (50 miles for the week!) so I wasn’t going to bike another inch. I stayed at home and chilled.

This weekend includes magical adventures for me like taxes, homework, grocery shopping, and laundry! It’s all good though. It’s tasks like these that add normalcy to my life. Also, my grandpa has prepared a package for me about the Jones’ side of the family. That should be coming in the mail any day now. I’m excited to find out what some of my heritage is.
Posted by tyrant at 16:18:27 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Friday, February 20, 2009

middle-aged

Well, it happened, I turned thirty-five. What I thought would be the loneliest birthday turned out to be one of the best birthdays I’ve had in a few years. About six years ago I started hosting my own birthday parties. I love to cook and I love to watch people eat my food so hosting a party is quite fun for me. This year, hosting a party was not an option, no real friends here and no money to splurge on myself.

On Monday I sent a desperate email to my friend Michael to encourage a friend of his, an acquaintance of mine, to take me out for my birthday. I figured Michael would not even email me back because he is busy with his own life but he called me later that day asking me what I wanted to do for my birthday. He had arranged for another friend of his Scott, a local comedian, to take me out. I was pleasantly surprised and happy to have plans for my birthday. Scott and I chatted that night on the phone and made plans for Tuesday night, my birthday. Between chatting on the phone and checking out his Facebook page, I was looking forward to hanging out with this guy on my birthday. I think there is a big potential for a comedian, or any performer, to feel like they are always on stage, and give you a performance instead of just being themselves but this guy seemed down to earth and pretty curious about me. On the agenda was dinner at Calo in Andersonville and then drinks at Green Mill. 

I wanted to get gussyed up on my birthday anyway but since there was a man who was going to spontaneously spend his evening with me I didn’t hold back. I wore my favorite dress, a red three-quarter sleeve wrap around with a plunging neck line. I did my “Bettie Page” look for hair and make up. I wore a black sweater over the dress for a work-friendly look. I had a full day of work and part of class to get through before I could have birthday fun. 

I took off from class at 7. The train ride from the loop to Andersonville left plenty of time to retouch my make up and fluff my hair. I got quite a few stares on the train but didn’t understand what the stares were communicating.

When I first arrived in Chicago the Red Line was under construction and delays were rampant. Now that construction is complete I have to relearn how long it takes to travel. Needless to say I arrived at the restaurant about 10 minutes early. This worked out good because I had time to chill before he arrived.

Scott looked and smelled great. We greeted with a hug and I gave him a peck on the cheek. The restaurant is really big but it was a slow night and pleasantly quiet. He was complimentary of my appearance and seemed happy he had decided to adopt me for the evening (side note: not sure why the word “date” freaks people out. “date” is not spelled m-a-r-r-i-a-g-e). He ordered us a bottle of wine, a Shiraz. We chatted it up for awhile and got around to ordering. My meal, stuffed Gnocchi, was delicious but his was mushroom-y. He didn’t notice on the menu that his meal would be smothered in sliced mushrooms. He pecked at his meal and didn’t drink much wine. He said he had gone out with friends prior to meeting me and had eaten too close to dinner. The dinner conversation was great. Really down to earth and chatty. I think we were both surprised that the other person seemed so cool and relatable. After a bottle of wine, a meal, and some deeelicious Tiramisu (an hour and a half) we headed to Green Mill.

Green Mill is a fantastic place. It was were Al Capone hung out when he was on the North Side. Original decor is in place and there are these cozy little booths to sit in. This is definitely the kind of place were you give your undivided attention to the music. The emcee tells you before the start of each set to keep talking to a minimum. Scott and I got there right when a set ended and sat at the bar at first. We talked and flirted for awhile. He seemed to think it was odd that I did not really have any friends or dates since I moved to town. We were able to settle into a booth by the time the next set started and continued our conversation and flirting at an appropriate volume.

We stayed through the second set and then headed back to his place. I will leave the rest of the evening to your imaginations.

I sincerely enjoyed my evening with Scott. He is a cool person that I hope to hang out with again. In addition to meeting a cool person, the evening was a nice reminder that life is good here in the Chi.

I need to give a special shout out to my friend Michael. This is just one of many times he has gone the extra mile for me.
Posted by tyrant at 20:46:10 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

want-to-do list

I was talking to my friend Stephanie this weekend about my want-to-do list. I think she was a little shocked that I couldn’t name them all with out looking at the list. She encouraged me to sit down and figure out what it would actually take to get all of it done. I begrudgingly accepted her advice. She is my age and has already completed everything on her want-to-do list so she knows what she’s talking about. I am not interested in being as zealous as she is because we need a few things in life to dream about. If we have nothing to dream about, where will we get our inspiration? It was already such a milestone to make the list but now I have to do more. Boo/yay.

For now, I am just making the list its own post. I’m also adding some stuff:
  • Eat and bicycle my way through Italy.
  • Work with under loved kids.
  • Dive a shipwreck in the Great Lakes.
  • Dive ruins in the Mediterranean.
  • Buy a boat.
  • Experience mutual romantic love.
  • Meet my next long term canine companion.
  • Taste every Scotch on the planet.
  • Retire into my own business that includes one or more of the following: my own skin care products, coffee shop, art studio/gallery, bed and breakfast, and/or cafĂ©.
  • Get all of the Mac certifications.
  • Have at least one exhibition of my art and/or photography.
  • Dance on pointe.
  • Buy a low rise apartment building, live on the top floor, and rent out the rest. 
Posted by tyrant at 04:24:56 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

another full week

Last week was bursting at the seems, I was barely at home. 

Schaumburg is always a long day. I taught a Mac Basics class for our Essential Media Skills course. I did some updates on a few machines and hammered out an equipment borrowing agreement. 

I conducted five one-hour sessions for deejays this week. They got progressively better as the week went on because the station manager is requiring each deejay to attend two training sessions. I had quite a few who did both sessions this week. We have deejays bringing in music on iPod, CD, hard drive, laptop, and at least one who wants to deejay using YouTube. I made progress on the written documentation for the radio station technology but have more work to do.

Class went well this week. Class time and reading/research assignments took up about ten hours of my week. Sentence structure and developing story ideas were the focal points of the week. Our textbook suggests that there is two types of reporting: main stream, what readers want to know, and civic, what readers need to know. A reporter has to find and pitch stories that will sell papers (what a reader wants to know) but the roots of journalism have set precedent that reporters are the watch dogs of society (what a reader needs to know). I asked if reporters are pigeon-holed because of this consistent conflict of their job. My instructor answered: “Well, that is the sixty-four-million dollar question.” I gained great respect for a book this week. It is an oldie but a goodie, it is the almanac. It’s the goddamned Interwebs crammed into an easily referenced book. Talk about about wireless access to information? It is too soon to tell but I think it might be my favorite book in the whole world.

A book I’m am growing less fond of by the day is the AP Stylebook. This ragtag book of opinionated formatting suggestions grates on my nerves. It isn’t completely useless it just conflicts with quite a few design standards. In the design world we:
  • do not use two spaces between sentences.
  • do not indent a paragraph.
  • do use a comma before “and” and “or” in a series of three or more.
  • do spell out all numbers one hundred and below.
Wednesday night I went to the beat meeting. We had a few new faces and are still making great progress towards our summer goals. Officer hot cop was not there but I did find out he is gay. It was nice to have him and bike guy on my mind for awhile because it kept me from thinking about the man I can’t seem to get over. Hopefully there will be some new faces soon.

I had a visitor this weekend! My friend Stephanie has been living at a near by artists colony called Ragdale. She had a book reading in Pilsen on Friday at Radio Arte. She stayed with me Friday night and we spent the day together yesterday. It was good to catch up. She will be back in town Thursday and Friday.

I did finally reply to Marcy asking her questions about why she divorced Phil. I also asked why she always seemed to favor my brother over me and why she did not allow my mom to adopt me. I told her if she needed time to respond I understood. She replied the next morning with a combination of hurtful, confusing, and ignorant statements. I do not plan to write her again unless she sends an email asking me questions. I did confirm there are actually two misspellings, not one, in my name on my birth certificate. 

It’s Sunday, midafternoon and there is still studying, laundry, and grocery shopping to do!

Posted by tyrant at 19:52:46 | Permalink | Comments (2)