One more note on gmail:

For anyone with extra Gmail invites, you can send them to soldiers serving overseas via this site.

Travel:

I'm tempted to quit my job 31 August, leave Chicago, and go visit T-- in London and do some travelling in Europe. If I don't have another job, it'll be very tempting. I want to go to Spain, and maybe back to Italy, and to Poland and (maybe) Croatia...

Hey, the trip around the world could still happen! Or maybe I'm just doing this because I'm scared about what I'm going to hear on Thursday and am indulging in escapist fantasy while watching the Cubs.

But I do miss Europe, most of all the feeling that in a couple of hours, for a negligible sum of money, I could be somewhere completely different. Sick of London? Three hours and about 50 pounds will take you to Athens. Vienna too expensive? 30 Euros plus five hours equals Prague. Here in Chicago, if I'm sick of the city, well for about $50 and three hours I can be in Michigan, downstate Illinois, Indianapolis, the list goes on and on. Somehow it loses something.

I feel more tied down, even though I'm not really. I can quit my job, leave my apartment, and drive to Mexico if I want. I just need to keep remembering that. Sure it might take a little longer or cost a little more to get somewhere I really want to go, but that doesn't mean I can't get there.

Sailing:

So I am officially a member of JPYC, so I can take out one of their 13' sailboats whenever I want. I can fit probably two other people, and will need a bit of help to get the boat out, but it shouldn't be much work. So if you want to come with some time, drop me an email.

It really is lots of fun. There's something about being in such a small boat on the lake, that, well, you feel as close to the water as you can, and you can get decent speed even on a not very windy day.

Studio 7:

WGN's Studio 7 premieres tonight. It's about trivia players who also have to live together or something. As president of the U of C college bowl team, I received an email from the producers of this. Imagine, I could have been on reality TV. But I would have had to live with trivia players.

I think I'll hold out for The Amazing Race.

NPR related things:

The last two days, I've been listening to Odyssey on NPR and heard U of C professors: today Sean Carroll and yesterday Martha Feldman. Today I admit that I was a little bit pissed to hear that because I was hoping to catch something about the 9-11 commission report. I was expecting to get out of the office pretty early, but had to stay until 12:30 or so (basically to do something that is a giant waste of time... oh yeah and the Sun-Times crossword puzzle).

Also, to anyone who listens to NPR in Chicago, is it Steve Insceape or Steven Sceape? I have no idea why this matters to me, but it has become a very important question of my morning commute.

Minstrel Boy:

The minstrel boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death you will find him.
His father's sword he has girded on
And his wild harp slung behind him.

"Land of song," said the warrior bard,
"Though all the world's betrayed thee,
One sword at least thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee."

The minstrel fell, but the foeman's chain
Could not bring that proud soul under.
The harp he loved ne'er spoke again
For he tore its cords asunder.

And said, "No chain shall sully thee,
Thou soul of love and bravery
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
They shall never sound in slavery.

-Thomas Moore

Funny signs (seen while driving around Chicago):

[at the corner of Oak Park Ave and Addison]: 'We' Serve! Food

[in Glenview, seen in the rearview mirror]: A square sign reading "MTA." This caused me no end of confusion until I realised that rather than having driven to Boston, I was seeing a sign for an ATM. It's cool that all three letters are symmetric.

[In various suburban villages]: Signs reading "Caution deaf children," "Caution deaf people" and "Slow handicapped child playing." Do you think they move the signs when the deaf children move or grow up?

Dead Birds:

Part of my job is answering the dead bird hotline for suburban Cook County. I get some pretty damn amusing calls too. We will only collect crows and blue jays to test. I got back from lunch last Thursday to hear a message: "I have a dead bird, it's been here less than 24 hours, and it's either a crow or a blue jay, so I think it meets your criteria." Uh-huh. On further investigation, it was neither, shockingly enough. There was also the guy who was worried about Mad Goat Disease (though I think that was a prank), the lady who was "risking [her] parakeets every time she took them outside," and myriad people who claim to have been/have close relatives hospitalised for West Nile symptoms. People, it's called the flu.

Smoke detecting:

I get home from the pub tonight, in possibly not the most sober of moods (not that I was terribly drunk or anything, just, you know...) and my smoke detector was going off. Well, first I didn't know what it was, so I just stumbled through the dark going "what the hell?" at semiregular intervals, until I isolated it to something on the kitchen table. I find the light, figure it's something near the window, and, sure enough, the smoke detector is sitting on the windowsill, beeping.

My first thought is "wow, I didn't even think the smoke detector worked," followed quickly by "why didn't this damn thing go off when I was trying to kill S-- with a grease fire (entirely contained in the pan, I swear)(sorry)" followed only then by "why is this thing going off now?" There's no reason that I can find, so I decided that it's probably the ran from the storm, since the thing is pretty wet. Or maybe it's a very localised lightning strike. I don't know.

Stuff:

T--'s birthday was yesterday. So happy birthday! (it's ok, I called her on her birthday, too).

If you're waiting on email from me, I'm sorry. I was expecting to write emails on Thursday, when I was stuck answering the phones all day (and the phones? they don't ring often). Instead, my boss had the data entry project from hell (well, almost hell. It's no terrorist database; the consequences for me screwing up are significantly smaller, so small as to be nonexistent). So there was no email, just much typing.

Jazz at the Shedd last night was very fun. And very cheap. $5 for fishes and penguins and sea otters!! Though I admit that my over-reliance on "I love the fishes cause they're so delicious!"
might have been annoying, at least to the fish. And coincidentally, the Simpsons are on as I'm writing this and it's the Troy McClure and Selma episode. Methinks Troy doesn't just love
the fishes cause they're so delicious.

What I've been listening to:

One thing that happens when you spend about 6 hours a day listening to your iPod is that people ask you "what are you listening to?" several times a day. So the current answer:

One Ring Zero, As Smart As We Are
The Magnetic Fields, Get Lost
XTC, Skylarking
Marillion, Clutching at Straws
Black 47, Home of the Brave
The Kinks, Greatest Hits

As you can see, my taste in music is a bit, ah, eclectic. I tend to like bands, rather than songs or types of music. If that makes any sense.

Rock and roll:

The Rock'n'Roll McDonald's is closing at the end of this week, to be replaced by a two story building opening next spring. If you're around, it might be worth a visit; it's a kind of neat place even if you hate McDonald's.

So this is dumb. I had a test, for the cough thing, in the middle of June, ordered by my doctor at the time. The doctor, however, was a resident and finished his pulmonary rotation at the end of June. Therefore, I have to get a new doctor, at the same clinic. Since he's a new doctor, I have to have a special new patient appointment, which can only happen at 10 in the morning. So I'd have to take a whole day off of work. I just want the results of a stupid test. How can I be a new patient? It makes no sense. I'm going to try to talk to either the nurse or the attending on Monday, to see if I can either get some information over the phone or something. If I'm really leaving Chicago in two months or so, why should I get started with a new doctor and all that? It makes no sense.

I'm sick of all of this. I'm sick of having to take nasty-tasting cough syrup just so I can sleep at night, I'm sick of stopping laughing to cough, I'm sick of worrying that there might actually be something wrong with me, and I'm sick of feeling like I'm bitching about something stupid when there are so many real things other people have to bitch about. I hate going to the pulmonary clinic and looking at people with oxygen tanks in wheelchairs and thinking "I don't belong here. I should just go home and learn to deal with this." I'm presently on two different anti-allergy medicines that do nothing for my cough (but I do feel a bit better. I guess I was always a little stuffed up and just never noticed it) and the afore-mentioned cough syrup at nights. I have two different inhalers even though tests have shown pretty conclusively that I don't have asthma. God, no wonder I feel like I'm sick.

Delicious foody goodness:

I have eaten such good food this weekend (Addis Ababa on Friday, La Fonda on Saturday) that it's going to be difficult to go back to my usual meals that rely heavily on steamed vegetables and pasta.

Oh well. I shall go to Hyde Park Produce tomorrow so that they will at least be fresh steamed vegetables.

A peg-legged seagull:

I can't find a link anywhere, but on the local news this morning, there was a story about a one-legged seagull given a peg leg composed of two doll legs by some sailors who found him. Awesome.

Stupid scheduling:

So, of course, the Amazing Race, the only show I really care about watching this summer, is on Tuesday night, the same as pub trivia night. I'm not giving up pub trivia, so I'll have to do without TAR.

Substantive updates soon. I've been a bit busy.

Mozilla:

When even Microsoft-owned Slate recommends switching to Firefox, it's time to switch. And the new version is pretty cool.

Smile:

Internet in my apartment works! It's been a great lazy night, drinking leftover Sangria (it is better after being allowed to sit-- tastes more like strawberries) and trying to explain baseball to S--. Beautiful.

Sorry:

I notice I haven't been updating much. I will hopefully have internet at home starting tomorrow (stupid SBC. I'm actually going to write a letter). Maybe things will be back to normal then.

12 hours in Maryland:

I flew to Baltimore last night, catching a flight at 8:15 that got into BWI at 11:15. It was a pretty good flight, despite my all-abiding hatred for Southwest. (Stupid Southwest with its stupid non-assigned seating and its stupid refusing to tell you that your flight is delayed and its stupid screaming babies) The guy next to me was pretty interesting, if a bit too "Wow! A math degree from the University of Chicago! That's really great!" (Side note: how does one respond to that? I smile and say thanks, but does anyone else have a suggestion?) He also bought me a drink, which predisposed me towards him.

Despite the delay taking off, the flight landed pretty close to on time, and due to fortuitous circumstances, it managed not to take an hour and a half to get to the hotel. In fact, I was checked into my room by 11:45 despite the following exchange:
Desk Clerk: You have to leave a credit card, for incidentals.
Me: (digging franctically through my purse) Hmm, I don't seem to have one. Is an ATM card OK?
DC: Yeah, but it'll hold the money for 7-10 days.
M: How much money (trying to remember how much will be left in my account after the rent check clears)
DC: $30
M: Oh, that's fine.
DC: (swipes card through) Oh, this doesn't have a major credit card. We can't take it. You can leave $20 in cash.
M: Hmm. (I start going through my wallet) I have $18.
DC: It's $20.
I finally gave her dimes, which was my meter money. Stupid.

Anyway, quick shower, a little Cartoon Network, and sleep. Wake up approximately 5 hours later. Hit snooze button. And again. And again. Finally get up, throw my stuff into a suitcase, go check out.

I went to my test then. The first time I took it, it ran over three hours. This time was under an hour and a half. I was out by 9:30 (I'm 95% sure I passed, too, but she couldn't tell me for sure. It still has to go through quality control or something). Problem. My flight is not scheduled until 4 this afternoon, and hanging around BWI for the next 6 hours is going to suck.

I called the travel agency and discover that 12:45 and 1:30 flights are booked, probably because of the holiday weekend. Urrgh. I decided to go to the airport anyway, to see if I could standby on one of those. I got to the airport about 10:30 and to the ticketing agent by 10:45. She said that she couldn't confirm me on anything, but that the 10:45 flight had been delayed, so I should try that. When I got to the gate, I discovered that the other flight hadn't even arrived, and that they had tickets. So I get in (though natch in the C boarding group). I'm back in Chicago by 12:30. Wow!

I realise this piece bears little in common with the New York Times' "36 hours in _city_" You know, I didn't eat in Baltimore at all, and all I had to drink was a glass of wine on the plane (not very good-- I'm sure you're shocked). But that was my experience.