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So today is the 1-month-iversary of my marriage to Jeff. Hey, being married is pretty sweet, as long as you're into the person you're committing yourself to and OK with them being up in your grill everyday. And I mean "up in your grill" in a loving way. Oh, here are pictures if you want to see them. In news, I am continuing with guitar - Guitar 2 starts tonight - and I have also added Harmonica 1 to my activities. Last night the instructor also had me sit in on his Harmonica Forever class to see if I might want to upgrade. I think I could hack it - why, I had harp tween my lips since I were but 10 year old! - but I need to put a little practice in before I'm sure. I got my bike all tuned up a couple months ago, and I've started to get out on it again. My goals for this summer include riding to and from the botanic gardens in suburbs (40 mi. round trip) and doing Bike the Drive next month (maybe with a group of Buchanans and a Serantes?). But first I have to get back in bike shape. All in all, I'm really enjoying 2009 so far. I'm more emotionally stable than I've been in a long time. I feel like I'm coming into my own as an adult, in a way. I'm learning to play music. Baseball is underway. Summer in Chicago is coming up. How glorious. I still feel antagonistic toward my job, but I'm working on that. Is this feeling what people mean by being in your prime?
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Have you guys seen Speed Racer? Holy shit, this movie is awesome. The Wachowski Brothers are heroes. These guys are so cinematically talented and innovative, but Speed Racer got pooped on by critics like nobody's business. I don't know what people were expecting. I don't even know what I was expecting... something much less captivating than what I saw on screen, definitely. I'm sure this is a tired comparison, but it's like digital acid, all giddy brightness and starbursts and trails. This film really begs to be viewed in a theater, and I'm sorry I didn't see it that way. Honestly, the mediocre reviews kept me away. Those of you who know me know I'm pretty picky - although not snobby, certainly - about the movies I watch. I don't like to waste my time. Speed Racer kept me interested for about 95% of the 135-minute runtime. THAT is an achievement! If you see it, try to see it in HD on a giant screen. Otherwise, it will lose a lot of its luster and, in that case, the cartoon plot might not be able to drag you through.
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Clearly I've fallen off the update wagon. Here I am, gingerly hoisting one leg back on:
-I'm coming up on the last week Guitar 1. Right now I can play an array of chords, tune my axe (heh!), and I'm trying to teach myself a little picking. For our group recital on Wednesday, we're playing "All My Lovin'" by the Beatles. Old Town School of Folk Music on Lincoln, 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday! Be there!
After Guitar 1 comes Guitar 1 Rep. I've already signed up.
-Here comes marriage! In hand, we have a dress and a photography contract. Invitations have been sent out, and a few people have even RSVPed (if you got an invitation and you haven't RSVPed yet, DO IT). For anyone who might be feeling slighted that they didn't get invited: don't worry, you're invited to the reception in June, which will be way more fun anyway.
-Snow has returned to Chicago. We had just enough of a break from it that I'm happy to see it again.
-Battlestar Galactica is winding down - there are 4 or so episodes left - and last night's episode was terrible. I'm feeling cheated, BSG. You need to kick Jane Espenson in the teeth, then invent a way to go back in time and rewrite that shit.
That is all.
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Hardly anyone on my friends list regularly updates LiveJournal anymore. Tleex and comealongfool are still pretty good about it. 619nerd pops up occasionally. But the rest of my friends page is a mix of rss feeds: Wil Wheaton, APOD and Savage Love. I'm just as guilty, though; my own posts are few and far between. I can't give a good reason for not posting. I occasionally do and think interesting things. Like, right now, I'm in Vail, and I've been busting my ass learning to snowboard. That's moderately interesting. I start guitar lessons on Wednesday. That should be an adventure. I suppose I'm just not sure anyone else cares about this stuff. But then I think how nice it is to read posts by my friends, especially the ones who I don't see or talk to very often, just to keep tabs on their lives. So, in conclusion, I'm going to make more of an effort to keep up on here. I hope you'll consider it, too. Current Location: Vail, CO
I'm all:  physically tired
On the spin: Brain Age in the background
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Baseball season is in full swing. In the past couple years, I have become a bigger fan of baseball than I ever thought I would be. In general I tend to see professional sports as pretty useless. I don't like football because the pace is too slow: play 30 seconds, confer for 5 minutes, repeat for the next three hours. BO-RING. I don't like basketball, hockey or soccer because they're hard to follow, although I admit the continuous action is appealing. But there's something about baseball. The pace is leisurely. It represents summer and sun, peanuts and hotdogs and beer. And this game... it's all brains and reflexes. You don't have to be a big beefy dude to put that ball out there or be an adept fielder. You have to be smart and quick (and maybe just a little psychic). Part of what is fueling this new obsession is 3 Nights in August, which I finished over the weekend. I was interested in reading it even before I learned it was about a Cardinals series against the Cubs in the Cubs' most recent glory season, 2003. That was just the icing on the leather-coated and red-stitched cake. Anyway. The Cubs are looking pretty good this year so far. Most of their standout hitters (Lee, Ramirez, de Rosa) are reaching an early stride, and some new folks (Soto, Fukudome, Johnson) are making their bats heard. Their defense is looking sharp, sharp, sharp. In tonight's game against the Mets, they turned four double plays; last year, they were usually on the receiving end of that number. It's too early in the season to tell anything, of course. In the NL Central, St. Louis and Milwaukee are nursing similar records. In the NL at large, Arizona and Florida are both looking mean... especially Arizona, which crushed the Cubs in the division championship last year. But, if the Cubs can avoid their eternal nemesis, injury (Soriano has been an early casualty, but he wasn't doing much, anyway), then maybe, just MAYbe... this will be their year! Go, Cubbies! I'm all:  geeky
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This morning a little after 8 a.m., my friend Kent and I and a bunch of other idiots did a polar bear plunge at North Avenue Beach. To give you an idea of what that was like, I'll tell you that not only did a cold front move in yesterday and so it was about 20 degrees when I got up, but it snowed some inches last night, too.
It was both of our first times. We could see the crowd of people on the beach as we approached from Lake Shore Drive, as well as four or five local news vans. We tromped through the snow packed over the dunes until we made the beach, and then spread out the big towel. The thing I was really assaulted by was how angry the lake was, and how the waves were spraying ice up onto the shore as soon as they crashed.
A few people were doing their rites when we got there. I saw a middle-aged man and a boy of about 12 going in, and they were surrounded by a large group of observers. Kent and I stood around mostly clothed (I was wearing snowpants, coat, long underwear top and bottom, t-shirt, hat, and 2 pairs of socks) for a few minutes. Kent was interviewed by a local news guy. We both started peeling off some layers, still unsure about how we were supposed to do this, and then a couple girls next to us asked if we wanted to go in all together.
We stripped down - me in a 2-piece and Tevas, Kent in his racing shorts - and the four of us moved over about 20 feet to a section where the ice shelf wasn't so steep. We just kind of messily threw ourselves in and started wading out. Ahhhhhhhhh. Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh. I read it described as like a thousand knives being stuck into your body at once. That's pretty accurate.
We dunked under and then booked it back to the shore. I had a hard time getting back up on the ice shelf... I was afraid I was going to cut the hell out of my legs (I did). We sprinted back to the towel and started trying pull on clothes, but my fingers and feet were so numb, that was really a challenge. As soon as I got my shirt on, the same guy who interviewed Kent interviewed me. I could barely move my lips, and it sounded like I was having a stroke. I think I babbled something about how it was awesome and I mentioned the knives and I said that yes! yes! I would do it again!
Fully clothed, Kent and I huddled on the towel and watched the next contingent, which was the main group of guys who organized the thing, go in about 5 minutes later. After that we made a swift exit to the confines of the Prius. All in all, it took less than half an hour. We rewarded ourselves with breakfast at Pauline's, where we spent the next hour comparing where we hurt and tingled the most and STILL BEING COLD. Like, from the inside. Like, at the core, y'all. Then I came home and curled up in bed with the warm body that was still in there, and when I woke up I could feel my feet again.
Would I do it again, like I told Mr. CBS2? Yes. Yes, I think so. But, you know, probably not until 2009. :)
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So for people who don't know, I've transformed myself into a lacto-ovo vegetarian over the course of the year. I did it in quarters; at the beginning of 2007 I stopped eating red meat, then in April I subtracted pork, then in July I subtracted poultry, and then in October I subtracted fish.
I know this isn't too groundbreaking, but for me it's been a definite challenge of will. I've had a few lapses, but mostly I've stuck to it. I've gotten support and ridicule alike. I've said over the course of this experiment that I'll go back to eating meat in January, but I'm a little conflicted. I mostly miss the variety and delicious opportunities meat offers; I've yet to become too creative in my vegetarian cooking/dining. And I really, really miss sushi (one of my lapses, in fact, was a California roll... not the most authentic item I could have caved to, but it was in front of me and I couldn't! resist!). But when I contemplate my return to the carnivorous kind, I pause. It's like... I can't even imagine eating meat any more. Even though sometimes - viscerally, droolingly - I really want a hot dog or a tender slab of ribs, I can't bring myself to bite into them, mentally. The thought of it skeezes me out a little.
Except for sushi. Roll up a maki to stuff in my grill, and I'm in. ;)
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