Rock Haus

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Things that make me happy:

Bananna Quik.  After a period of about a year or so where I couldn't find it anywhere, in the past few weeks I have found not one, not two, but THREE vendors of this glorious nectar, two of these locations are a hop skip and a jump from my house. There are few things I love more than artificial bananna flavouring...

Little yellow puppies with tails so waggy their entire butt has to get in on the action, who are so incredibly excited about Every. Little. Thing. that one almost fears they might explode, raining glee (well, glee and puppy entrails) over all that which surrounds them...almost as good as the puppies are the people who bring them to my house so I can meet them.

The fact that one of my co-workers has a Klezmer music ringtone on her cellphone

I changed my mind about the camera I'm getting. Instead of the high end point and shoot, I'm gonna go for the SLR. Hopefully I'll have one of these babies in my hot little hands within the next couple of weeks....I can't wait.

This is the week where Mother Nature smacks me in the back of the head and tells me she always liked men better...my face has errupted in a sort of plague, that which is not affected by the plague is scaly and dry, I am v. hurty, and I look like arse. In the interest of making myself slightly less repellant, in the next few days I'll get a haircut, dye my hair, paint my nails, and maybe even wear a skirt...in the meantime I pop Midol like candy and hope I can refrain from killing music students who insist on singing songs from Rent in the elevator.

In the interest of not being such an asshole, the next few months are going to be about working, long walks, improving my posture, fixing my teeth, taking pictures, wearing skirts, reading saucy books, taking more pictures, figuring out how to make the perfect dirty martini, taking still more pictures, working on my apartment, writing more in my meat world journal, eating more healthfully, sleeping more regularly, and generally not being so infuriatingly whiny, and making myself completely INSANE fretting over things I have no fucking control over whatsoever. Hell, I might even do some drawing.

I can be such an asshole

Lately I've been very caught up in my own head. Very self pitying, very selfish, very poor me...it's been one big fat pity party here in my world. Nothing like a phone call from one of your oldest and most treasured friends, who casually drops the C-bomb into the conversation to make you realise you really need to get the fuck over yourself and realise just how lucky you are. You are my family. I love you, and you will be okay.

Hooray!

Happy birthday Abe Vigoda!

Just do as you're told and nobody needs to die.

I don't like to repeat myself, but just to remind you what you're doing tomorrow night, if you happen to live in the Chicagoland area:

Dirtbox Racers
Raining Bricks
A-Bomb Chop Shop
1 Dickens
Show starts at 9
$5 cover

Silvies is located 1 block west of the Irving Park Brown line stop.

Beyond that. Went to the dentist for the kajillionth time this morning. Hopefully only another 5 or 6 more visits before I'm finished...on the bright side, aside from my 2 remaining wisdom teeth, I think I get to keep all the rst of my teeth! hooray!

Oooh, and last night I had a guy in his early 20's tryng to chat me up. He wasn't entirely repellant, so it wasn't so bad....But still....he was at least 5 or 6 years younger than the kids I used to babysit in Jr. High. Jeezy creezy I'm old.

Tuesday Morning...

I absolutely love that song, why I sold my copy of The Pogues "Waiting for Herb" is beyond me - if anyone out there can hook me up with a copy, you will totally be my homie for life, for real, I'm so not frontin'.

So Brown Line re-vamp began in earnest this past week... I really didn't think it would affect my commute since it was starting at the north end of the line, before I get on the train. I was wrong. I got on the train today and it took half an hour to get from Damen to Belmont - for those not in the know, this should take about 10 minutes.

What made the ride particularly pleasurable was the gentleman sitting behind me constantly making that noise that the less delicate of us make before hawking up a honking great big lugie.  Fortunately, at no point did he actually spit on the floor of the train, as it would have been a real struggle for me to decide whether I should throw up or try to kill him first. I detest spitting, it skeeves me out, and the noises that accompany it are just as bad. I got off the train at Belmont and switched to the Red Line, thinking that this might speed up the process. It didn't. The ride that *should* take me 25-30 minutes from my place to work, ended up taking me over an hour. All I can say is that this re-vamp had better be worth it.

I checked in on the status of my tax return, if indeed what they say is true, the money should be in my account in plenty of time to have my camera before Florida. I won't be using it to shoot Mr. and Mrs. Wendy's wedding, but it will be nice to go some place different with my new baby and take some pictures.

Hopefully in the coming months you will see a lot more new images here at the Rock Haus...between my new camera and several other ideas I have, even if I have nothing to say, this blog will at least become a little more visually interesting. So if it doesn't, I am relying on *you* faithful readers (all 12 or you) to call me out on it.

Okay, I should actually do some work now...seeing as I'm *at* work and all...

sigh

Spent my Monday doing nothing but laundry and watching telly. Finally watched The Ring, which I have to say based on what I'd heard, was nowhere near as scary as I expected.

Worked tonight, after work went to the newly open on Mondays Matilda, with Big Rob, had a few PBR's, was joined by The Dave...just as Rob and I were leaving he LBEM stoppped in...I wonder if there will ever be a time when I cease to be awed by how breathtakingly knee wobblingly handsome he is. I mean, even if he didn't tower over me, those eyes of his just SLAY me. And don't even get me started on the saucy grin...Makes it very hard not to kick him in the shins and beg the question "How can you not fancy me!!?? Do you NOT see how fabulous I am? JERK."

I'm sure that behaviour wouldn't score me any points

Off to bed I go...hopefully I'll drag my backside to work on time tomorrow morning...

bits...

Congratulations to the freshly minted Mr. and Mrs. Kate.

Congratulations to the soon to be minted Mr. and Mrs. Bridget.

I'd like to send a shout out to my blog stalker!

I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, "what in fuckery am I gonna do next Thursday night?" Well here's your answer - You'll be at Silvies, seeing the Dirtbox Racers. They're playing with Raining Bricks, A-Bomb Chop Shop and 1 Dickens. Show starts at 9, $5 cover.

I did my taxes. The one advantage to living 500 miles below the poverty line, as well as having additional funds taken out of every paycheque I get, is that not only will my return pay my rent for a month, it will also get me this.

Had a lovely afternoon with Miss Sarah and her ladies who brunch, followed by a  couple of drinks with Spot and lovely Wendy (aka, the soon to be minted Mr. and Mrs. Wendy) to discuss wedding photography, and how I will be spending my 3 days in sunny Florida next month. Came home, one of my favourite people came over to watch Sunday night Fox tv and buy me a pizza, and now, I think I'm gonna make it an early night.

Late Baltimore wrap up...

I had a wonderful time in Baltimore. I stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Sherri in their absolutely gorgeous home. I visited a few years ago shortly after they had moved in, It’s an older house, and quite a fixer upper, and fix up they have. From the refinished woodwork, to the heated tile floor in the sun porch, to the Murphy bed in the guest room built by Mr. Sherri and his own two hands,  they have worked their asses off on this place and it shows. I totally want to move in with them. Many many thanks to  the two of you for being such wonderful hosts and letting me live in a real grown up house for a couple of days. And additional kudos to Mr. Sherri and his remarkable culinary skills – last nights dinner was nothing short of the shiznit.

I decided to go to Baltimore as a way of clearing my head/pulling my head out of my ass. A lot of things at home were just piling up in my head and making it very difficult to think.. Going to a place that was familiar and seeing people I’ve known and loved for years was exactly what I needed, and without even going out and hooliganing it up too much (since Mrs. Sherri is in a delicate condition that prevents her from participating in our usual debauchery)

Got in on Friday, was met by Mrs. Sherri , we went to lunch at the Paper Moon, went back and hung out at the house for a bit, in the evening we went to Hamden to meet up with Mr, Sherri for dinner, but not before having a bit of a browse in a couple of the great little boutiques…I am totally gonna order myself a Hamden Charm School t-shirt. I forget where it was we had dinner, but I had a lovely mozzerela and tomato sammich, After that it was back to their place where I was treated to a v. tasty dirty martini, and a movie, then it was off to bed.

On Saturday, the lovely and talented Jen joined our ranks, and later in the afternoon we were off to Molly’s, but not before stopping for a couple of quick ones at the MRT.  This was my first time at Molly’s, and it was exactly the kind of bar I love – small, cozy, neighborhoody, cheap, and unpretentious, not to mention if boasts the coldest beer in Baltimore. Since the MRT, although the same is also very different, Molly’s will be my new meeting place whenever I return to Charm City. Got a lovely crowd in to Molly’s, despite impending precipitous ass pounding.  Molly and Mr. Molly were of course there, there was a brief appearance by the younger Goatwax daughter and Mr. Beetz, Lovely Janet was there, John and his wife Julie, Kevin C., and Tom and his wife Jane. I hadn’t seen Tom in probably 10 years, but I got back in touch with him when I became friends with Jane on MySpace. Can I just say she is totally (frikkin frackin) awesome? Tom was one of the greatest guys I ever dated – he set a very high bar for future boyfriends (a bar which obviously I have limboed waaaayyyyy under once or twice since then, but…) but it’s because of him I know that not ALL men are witless asshats…my point being; Tom, I have a total new friend crush on your wife, and if she lived in Chicago she would SO be part of my girl posse, whether she liked it or not.

After several hours at Molly’s, many hugs and pictures (to come later) and catching up, we all filtered out into the snow, and went our separate ways. Mr. and Mrs. Sherri, Jen and I went and got some Chinese takeaway, and went back to the house.

Sunday we woke up to a winter wonderland, and commenced with the digging out (well, they did, I waited until a path had been dug since I’m an idiot and only had my chucks with me which aren’t exactly snow friendly…)  Went to lunch at the Towson Diner, and then had a browse around Fells Point. Jen left later in the afternoon, and Sherri and I hunkered down to watch a couple of movies while Mr. Sherri made a very very yummy dinner.

So that was my weekend. It was wonderful to see all you folks, and those of you I didn’t see, I will definitely see next time (which hopefully won’t be in another 3 or 4 years). Special thanks to Jen, my fellow amazon, best roomie ever, who made the trip from Pennsylvania, under threat of snow and without benefit of a shovel. I look forward to seeing you in Chicago later this year, and biggest warmest and fuzziest thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Sherri for being outstanding hosts…

Pictures to come later...

BITTER.

BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER. BITTER.

Aside from that...DBR totally ROCKED Double Door.

mmmm...painkillers

Sweet, sweet painkillers....mmmmmm.

I just made a kickass carrot soup. My usual curried one, except this time I tarted it up a little further with coconut milk, and ginger....goddamn yummy. Ideally, a nice accompaniment of crusty baguette would be nice...but not today.