CHICAGO: If Hepatitis C Were Attacking Your Face Instead of Your Liver You'd Be Doing Something About It

http://brainylady.blogspot.com/continental.jpg

This morning haze hasn't burned off yet, even after two cups of coffee. I don't knw what else to do. Maybe I should eat something? Or will that just make me sleepy? Only one way to find out...

I think the grassy emptiness might be part of the rail yard...?

xpost- no, there used to be a building there, i think the foundation is still there.

yeah, that's kind of an understatement. i almost moved over there almost 2 years ago, there was a place north of chicago on fairfield. landlord was teh hott and she lived upstairs. awesome place but i found a better deal on augusta later that week.

--Partied in Oshkosh on Friday night, really overdid and had to play a parade + two sets on Saturday morning with a crushing hangover.

--Made a bacon veggieburger

--Saw horrible, horrible hip-hop band from Mpls and had to leave

--Watched the first half of the Battlestar Metallica mini-series. You're all right it is good stuff.

--Jesse, sorry for dropping out of chat again last night, my computer crashed as usual.

--Digd0wn will definitely be playing weekends at the Gr33n M1ll just before Xmas AND Fat Tuesday.

On Friday I went to see the Fake Fixxiones rock the house at Alliance. On Saturday I spent the afternoon writing. I also watched Tristam Shandy (clever but not particularly entertaining) and then steeled myself to drive out to the suburbs for the BIG REUNION. Which was: hmmm, kind of fun, but also really weird and somewhat disappointing, too, because for all the people who were there that I was like "OMG that guy" there were twice as many who I wished were there. There were maybe 40-50 overall out of a graduating class of 300-something? But whatever: I got drunk on gin-and-tonics and heard this gaggle of girls say in disbelief, as I was heading outside, "John smokes?" (My goodie-goodie rep hasn't left me.) Then yesterday Kr and I did laundry and then went to see Nina Nastasia (boring, although I think EZ likes her?) and Jose Gonzalez (totally captivating) at the Lakeshore Theater. THE END.

you can have grilled cheese and salsa sandwiches with me for thanksgiving if you're here. or you can go to jenny & jeff's and have a real thanksgiving but whatever.

Also, for some reason, I'm thinking that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed When the gales of November came early. And that it's hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain.

...in high school you don't realize your lifestyles and ambitions are SO different from your classmates...

No, I totally did.

Yeah, I don't know that the suburbanites are incredulous that I'm living in the city as much as I'm incredulous that they're not. But most people are pretty boring.

I figured someone would say something like this. I dunno. I certainly had desires to be worldly and sophisticated that probably weren't matched by the majority of my peers, but I also really loved the community that high school created, and I liked knowing who everyone was and what they were all about. I mean, the roots of the whole "jaymc's spreadsheet" meme can probably be traced back to when I ran for National Honor Society secretary, and my campaign speech was basically like, "I'll be good at keeping track of our members, because I already know all of your birthdays." (In fact, I surprised a few people the other night by saying things like "...so Jermaine, you'll be 28 in a couple days, won't you?") My friend Adam and I made up bizarre animal-related nicknames for teachers, kids in our classes, people involved in theatre with us -- and I made crossword puzzles where all the answers were inside jokes about such people and wrote a song about some weirdo in my gym class. We were stupidly competitive about our class rank and gossiped endlessly. So I mean, I had a lot of affection for this community, and after a while, you think of yourself as one with it. That's why I didn't even think twice about going to the reunion.

That's an interesting dichotomy. I supposedly contribute to the world through my job, my band, etc., but don't feel any happier for it than when I was doing my own work and receiving individual praise for it and getting a sense of accomplishment that collaborative endeavors can't match.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HpovwbPGEoo

if anyone wants to start making weekly carpool trips to k-zoo let me know.