01/05/2003 - 8:46 p.m. | chicago recap

Well, it's a good thing I didn't do anything to do, because I have to catch up on all of yesterday. Today was like... sleeping, sitting, Sopranos... Sad, really. I did like 12 seconds worth of chores, which is hadly worth mentioning, but because I did so little, I felt I'd better. I had about half a gallon of generic pineapple juice, and it just now occurs to me that pineapple had some serious health risk attached to it, did it not? I can't remember if it was cancer or diarrhea, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see! But since it's back to work tomorrow (and there's no real chance of seeing anyone this week anyway), a little death and destruction might not be too bad.

Damn, I wrote too much, didn't I?

OK, yesterday was big fun Chicago trip. Big fun too short Chicago trip. Drove up to Aurora with my mom and her friend Doug, and then some "way to really fly" nonsense. I took the El by myself, which really isn't such an accomplishment, except that I don't think my mom would have let me done that in the past. Anyway, I sat and listened to conversations. Some rich whorish woman from Geneva complained about her problems ("A solid gold pillow isn't as comfortable as I thought"). Anyway, made it to Belmont fine and arrived at Starbucks to meet Lisa right on time. I was so happy! I expected her to be waiting there to give me a big hug, maybe a couple of chais in hand... No such luck.

She got there about 20 minutes later. Although it was partially expected, I was somewhat pissy, mostly because I start to get paranoid when people are really late. I think something might have happened to them.

Anyway, we set out exploring what is affectionately known as "Boys' Town." Rocked the Uncle Fun - they had only one J. Geils Band t-shirt, and it was't a very good one :( But I got a blow-up Bubbles doll (and a Misty trading card!) Then the stationary store, which is cool if you like stationary (which I do) Then lunch at some place recommended by Lisa's sister. I dunno - being the slight snob that she is, I figured her sister would've picked something exotic. This place was entirely normal. The only exceptional quality was how slow the service was (ad our waitresses' pot belly - hehe!) Then we set up down Broadway... and then back up Broadway when we couldn't find anything worth going to (well, considering how I couldn't convince Lis to visit "The Pleasure Chest!" The name, she is so creative!!!) We stopped at Reckless Records (so named because their organizational system is terrible), and I got "The Marshall Mathers LP" because, honestly, if I'm gonna freestyle over Bill's mixes, I'm gonna need some practice. Seriously, recommend cool stuff! I need lots of inspiration, not just Brits and homophobes!

After the record store, we got a little lost and found the biggest Gap in the whole world (who would've thought gay guys would like the Gap?) I got another pair of socks, and Lis was grumpy because something she just bought had gone on sale. Then we looked around for somewhere to just hang out, but the coffee shop was just packed with guys, so we to a coffee store instead. They had all sorts of crazy flavors, and the mint chocolate kind smelled so good it was practically orgasmic, so I had to get a bit (it'll suck once I hate it). Then then then... we went to Dunkin Donuts (uhhhh - I think this was my idea) to plan our next move, which kinda sucked because it was us taking the El down to where I was gonna meet my mom. Lis was getting a little worried about approaching dark, so she had to go pretty early, which was sad because we'd hardly done anything at all, and I dunno if I'll be able to see her again before school restarts and she gets all tense again. Anyway, she left, and I went to Crate & Barrel and tried not to break anything (I bet they thought I was a hood). Then I met my mom and Doug to go see a play.

The play was called "Late Nite Catechism," and it was just this actress playing a nun, "teaching" the audience about Catholicism. It was pretty interactive, which is sort of neat, and it's been really long running (like 9 years or something). I dunno - my mom had some bad experiences with nuns as a kid, and she said the experience was pretty accurate. The whole thing was given in a room decorated like a classroom, and the nun was crazy, making fun of people for attending public school and giving people shit for not being named after saints. I probably would've gotten a little more out of it had I actually gone to a Catholic school, but I think I prefer not knowing firsthand.

We took a cab back to the train station (my first cab, too! what an uncultured swine I am!) and then we had about an hour and a half to kill, so I checked every newsstand for something not obnoxious I could read. An hour later, I finally decided on a issue of Spin. I can say this, at least: it was less annoying than Rolling Stone, even if they both cover exactly the same things! "WHITE STRIPES RAWK! KELLY OSBOURNE IS THE COOLEST!" It made the train ride home go by faster... And then the ride home was terribly slow, because of the snow, for one, but also because of the shitty radio station Doug was listening to. It was some oldies show (and I must start off by saying that "oldies" in general bug the hell out of me, no disrespect, of course!) and the theme seemed to be "one hit wonders that reached number one and that were sung by stars on TV shows no one cares about." Some chich from "Mama's Family" sang a song about Georgia. Fucking Christ. Made it home, though, and now I guess I'm all catched up.