Been checking out this journal for awhile, “To Philly, From Alaska, w/ love”. This guy seems to be living out my ‘Northern Exposure’-inspired dreams of running away to Alaska. “In Alaska, the bigger rivers that connect villages become state highways when they freeze.” Sounds like perfection.
While browsing the local Sunday paper, I happend to see that the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet was performing in town that evening. The concert was at the University of Chicago campus, w/ the poor directions we were given, we enjoyed a nice tour of the south-side of Chicago. There are a few rough areas down there. When we hit Comiskey Park, we don’t even hit the local restaurants. After a couple of detours, we managed to find street parking and grabbed a couple of available tix. Even feeling a bit old and out of place in the college environment, there were enough old folks so we didn’t stand out too much. ...
Our office shares a lobby with the Illinois Institute of Art. Its students are always scattered around at small tables, meticulously going at a pad of onion paper with a straight edge and a drafting instrument. I sometimes pause and take advantage of their being so focused to really look at them: all of 19 or 20, thin as pencils, dressed in the latest silly fashion and pouring their souls into a rendering of a costume or a house or a frog. ...
While Jen spent the day hiking 26 miles through the streets of Chicago doing the Avon Walk for Cancer, I spent the day with my brother at the Chicago Printer’s Row Book Fair. Five blocks of booksellers, food, and live readings. It was amazing to see the streets packed with folks with that much interest in reading. We got to see Chuck Palahniuk perform ‘Guts’. Only three people fainted during the reading, bringing the total on his reading tour up to 43 people who have passed out during the performance. The paramedics came and took them away. It was quite a visceral experience. Chuck was giving out coupons to folks who asked questions during the Q&A session to receive gifts from him in the mail He really seems to make an honest attempt to connect to his readers rather than just pimping his books. ...
Just a good, peaceful evening. White Sox game on low (beating Minnesota), a few windows open, and nice steady rainfall in the background. Jen is out for the evening, so I’m catching up on some mundane IT tasks. This is good, this is calming, the quiet is very much enjoyed. For further excitement, I expect a fair amount of reading will round out the evening following the games conclusion. Yep, this is the pure, burning excitement of my life. ...
Just finished watched the latest Errol Morris film, Fog of War. Morris’ films are always compelling, he has a definite knack for discovering worthy subjects. This time the subject was Robert McNamara. I do hope that at the age of 85, I have some semblance of coherence and memory that Mr. McNamara retains. “At my age, 85, I’m at an age where I can look back and derive some conclusions about my actions. My rule has been to try to learn, try to understand what happened. Develop the lessons and pass them on.” ...
A Scream Looking for a Mouth: One of my favorite authors, Hubert Selby Jr. passed away. He was the author of “Last Exit to Brooklyn” and “Requiem for a Dream” and others. His books were huge for me when I was in college. “The Demon” was just pure hell ripping through the pages. One of the most honest looks at stupid male behavior, it always served as a great reminder to me of how capable everyone is of self-destruction. ...
I could easily get spoiled by days like today. 76 degrees and gorgeous. I swiped Jen’s iPod and loaded in with some new music I got last night (Grant Lee Phillips and My Morning Jacket) and headed out to walk along the lake front. It’s so great to have access to Lake Michigan only 10 minutes away. There’s no way I’d want to move to the western suburbs and lose that. It was nice to see folks outside, enjoying the weather. It was mostly yuppie housewives and old folks, but there were a few artists here and there sketching the water and the million dollar homes that exist along the lake in Evanston. ...
Taking the day off tomorrow, been working about 11 days straight after last weekend’s domain move fiasco. The weather’s been pretty amazing, springlike (mid 70s) and quite comfortable. Took off an hour early after fighting with the president’s workstation. It was fantastic to drive home with the windows down and the new Wilco CD (A Ghost is Born) at full volume. Aside from work, the rest of life is starting to settle into place. It’s nice to have the health club membership for stress release and high-speed internet for getting work done. ...
Up later that I should be, can’t seem to sleep much lately. It’s been a few days since I’ve gotten more than six hours. That used to be no biggie, and I was cranking on the coffee, but I’m down to at most a single can of diet coke a day for caffeine intake. This is just brain-not-shutting up energy. Thinking a lot about the future, the next step, the next plans, plenty to do, just need the time to do it. We actually made the plunge and got cable tv, along with the high-speed access. I’m hating myself for all the time wasted. I couldn’t even enjoy the sopranos (that and the shield are the only reason I even wanted cable), my brain just kept chugging along in the background, digging in little reminders of time wasted. ...