me? an m&m? but of course!

oh how fun! as if making a Mii wasnt grand enough, i can now add a chocolaty, gooey middle and a fun candy shell...

sicky mcsick-sick

from saturday morning to sunday afternoon, i managed to use a whole box of kleenex. it was rather disgusting. i used the majority to stuff the pockets of my coat for our shopping excursion downtown. the shopping was great. the purchases greater. and the wads of snot rags were truely monumental. i cant remember ever having this problem before. my colds usually involve great pressure build up, coughing and/or sore throat (4/10 i have bronchitis, 5/10 it's strep, that leaves that mystery 1/10 times for something else). of course, yesterday was bears day, so i popped some sudafed, robutussin and tylenol and headed to the bar with my fellow fans to bite fingernails, yell obscenities and CHEER at the victory. subtly i would turn my head (between plays) and honk into a napkin or pilfered tp, regretting the lack of kleenex.

i did not realize how sick i actually was, though, until the bill came around. mind you i only ordered a 1/2 quesadilla and a miller lite (hey, it's fizzy water, dammit!), so my part of the tab was minimal. but i had no cash. "where's an atm?", "oh, just up at the corner", "ok, i'll be right back!". and off i went, with only my sweatshirt on, wallet in hand. apparently i was gone for 20 min or so. i'm a little fuzzy on the details, but i do remember being cold, frustrated and w/o cash for 18 of those 20 min. eventually i wandered back into the bar, where my table mates graciously took my $20 and gave me change.

it's kinda funny how if you dont look sick, people dont treat you like you're sick. on one level, i love it. it means i can suffer with my dignity (and bag o' snot rags). on the other hand, drunk people mistake you for someone who needs to have "just one more", or "no, you cant go home! stay here!!!!". silly me, i'm a bit of a sucker for that. but eventually i resisted, climbed into my pjs and hunkered down with the fam for a good movie. i think it was exactly what my drippy nose needed.

OINY

now wouldnt it have been peachy if the pervasive gas above manhattan happened to have been laughing gas? think about it: quite possibly it could have mellowed out the entire downtown area, leaving cabbies waving old ladies across the street. businessmen and urchins arm-in-arm, walking the length of avenue of the americas for shits and giggles. the po-po sharing doughnuts with the knock-off fendi vendor, giggling at the "FANDI" emblems.

but alas, it wasnt laughing gas. the imagined comraderie may have stemmed from slight oxygen deprivation from the smokestacks of new jersey (akin to, but slightly more dangerous than laughing gas and yet, seemingly innocuous to everyday new yorkers). and thus far, media, government, scientists and regular folk alike are still in the dark.

i for one am grateful to know that a mysterious gas leak can and will waft through a massively populated downtown area within hours, without hesitation, cause minimal news coverage and have little reprocussion. it's good to be an american?

cheers!

another year, another thousand notches...

accomplishments, failures, explorations, exploitations, beginnings, endings and everything in between can best describe my 2006. not to say yours wasnt as eventful, but i'm really glad for 2007.

i did have a few regrets at the end of the year. and at this point, i'm willing to point them out so i can sit and stew for a while, and hopefully remedy this for 2007.

i didnt...

1. do the IL - MN drive in October, so i missed most of the glorious fall colors
2. read as many physical books as i would have liked (audiobooks - i got plenty of those down)
3. consume nearly enough chicago hot dogs
4. get a new phone
5. purchase my own vehicle
6. go to the Green Mill
7. get to see Pawlenty booted

december caused a lot of stress for me and my loved ones. we didnt know where to spend christmas, i have 2 jobs now, my day job got rediculously difficult and the night one became demanding, non-9-5 schedules abounded and distracted. so what, oh what, did we do to relieve this stress?

I...

1. did yoga
2. cried
3. went to see lefka at the blue stem w/ my pals wayyy too many times
4. had a bit of a meltdown before christmas
5. consequently spent christmas laying around on my arse with a glass of wine at all times
6. did more yoga
7. made absolutely zero new years resolutions

i also did a little bit of reading in december. not much, mind you, what with all the stress and everything.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
oskar's dad was a victim of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. he searches the entire city for answers. absolutely beautiful.

Batman - Hush by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, Scott Williams & Alex Sinclair
2 books in this graphic novel series. batman & catwoman team up to solve the bizzare happenings in gotham city and metropolis. apperances by your favorite heros and villans. i enjoyed this b/c it was an indulgence. we spent the whole day playing video games, eating candy & popcorn and trading comics back and forth. really. we did.

tasty adult beverages were a common theme this month. i consumed many, but not too many, of course. and always, never when i had to drive. some favorites were:

1. the french kiss martini at the blue stem cocktail lounge
2. the dirty martini w/ blu cheese stuffed olives at blue stem
3. michel frere pink champagne
4. sterling cab-sauv
5. hot cocoa w/ a generous portion of baileys
6. robert craig affinity cab at a taste of vino
7. renwood cab from the liquor store next door

and random highlights of the month included pouring a $165 bottle of wine at the wine tasting; the arrival of my first finished, bound textbook (now that was a difficult baby to birth); and, i got the greatest present ever from h.

so to all whom i have conceivably ignored these past few months, i am sorry. it's been a doozy. i am hoping to have more free time to share with you all in this grand year of 2007.

Cheers to all!