I’ll tell you all about it

My weekend was awesome and I had an incredible birthday! 27 isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but after yesterday's gonzo 11 hour car ride, it'll be a bit before I'll have time to blog about it.

More news later, stay tuned.

08.28.06 7:44am(12 comments)

A ‘full of wit’ moment

So I'm sure you've all heard of The Jay and his moment with the disabled woman at Kroger, otherwise known as the "Peg Leg moment." I myself had a similar moment today, although fortunately, not out loud.

So I was walking out of my office building and down the street. I waited at the street corner for the light to change and when it did, I saw a strange man walking towards me. With other people walking by, I didn't get that great of a look at him, but he was walking funny and I thought to myself, "that guy is so stiff, I wonder what kind of rod is jammed up his ass."

When I passed him, I noticed he had not one, but two hooks, one on each arm, and was carrying a few pieces of paper in his left hook...

If there is a hell, I'm going there.

08.18.06 10:40am(3 comments)

I’m gonna be ready this time…

Be prepared folks, there are going to be dixie chicks song lyrics in my titles for quite some time. Just thought I'd warn ya...

So yeah, last night = t3h awesome. The opening act left a lot to be desired in a 'rhyming man with man' , dave mathews wanna be with no stage presence, but Lura and I sure had a good time making fun of his lyrics. Yes, under my skin my heart is broken too, and now, after your song, I have a sudden urge to go to the campus convenient store to spend down my meal plan with the girls down the hallway in my dorm. Thanks for that flashback. I suppose you want to tell me about some crazy game of poker next...

It's been awhile since I've seen a top 40 type act and all of the super production stuff that comes with it. But boy-howdy, were the dixie chicks right on, pumping out good music with ease and grace, making for a great show. I really do wonder how their coming out to a red light flooded stage to 'hail to the chief' would go over in a place that wasn't a 'so blue it's indigo' city like Chicago. OH WELL - I'm not in any of those places anymore, Suckaz! But yeah, great show, sold out or close to it, and thunderous with the sound of everyone singing along. Did I mention we were 17 rows away from the stage? No? The best part is that our awesome seats were the same price as the rest of the seats at the united center minus the seats in the very top row. Ticketmaster is my bitch.

And as always, when I see a really good show, I'm inspired to pick up Betty, the ole sparkly blue gee-tar. I'll probably sign up for some guitar and or other various dance / vocal classes at the old town school post japan trip. I'd like to sign up for a lilstreet art studio class them too :) So much to learn!

08.16.06 9:46pm(3 comments)

Hair saviour and my thintuition

Remember how I went to a fancy, hip salon that all the gals were raving about and got a horrible, soccer mom / jennifer aniston haircut? Well, I still have that haircut and I've been looking for a solution. I called for a recut and they wanted me to go back to the stylist so that she could redeem herself. Yeah, um, NO THANKS. I'd like to avoid any future catastrophes on my head, especially under the hands of the woman that got me into my current position.

So last night, I went with my boss Mary to her salon, Maxine's on rush st. Incredible. Not only did I have a really good time there, but her stylist, Amy, took some time to take a look at my hair, recommend a product to fix the damage done by the color, flat ironed my hair, SHOWED ME HOW to flat iron my hair, and then went over some hairstyles that would look good on me. I scheduled an appt with her next friday where she's going to show me how to blow dry bangs the right way and then, if it works, give me a new cut. I'm so impressed. Also, Mary's neice works there as an apprentice, and is also incredibly friendly / hip.

What to do after a quick jaunt at the salon? Go out to eat! We went to heaven on 7 on rush, which has pretty decent cajun food, for Chicago. Fortunately, I was able to catch Tom on his way home, so he came to dinner as well. We all split some crabcakes and then I had some gumbo, collard greens, and - get this - garlic shrimp on parmesean cheese grits. OMG. Needless to say my thintuition kicked in shortly after I got my meal and I ordered a to-go box, but still. How is it possible for me to eat this kind of food and still lose weight?

You're probably asking yourself, WTF is this stupid thintuition business? Well, I came acrossed this free signup for a study sponsored by the Lakeshore Athletic clubs and thintuition, so I thought, what the hell and signed up. It's free, they have web tools, and I get free passes to LAC, so why not? Well I got my packet, read "the overfed head" and started rocking my thintuition. The idea is that you modify your behavior to mimic the behavior of a chronically thin person, which is you eat only when you're hungy, eat the foods that you desire, and stop eating when you are satisfied. Sounds simple right? Well, it's a concept that I had heard before, but never really could get into. However, the thintuition folks present it from the view that diets are bad for you, give you bad habits, deprive you, and make you yo yo despite your best efforts. The Overfed Head, while very simple in execution, has a lot of good ideas and is very anti-diet establishment. I saw this, 'Down with the diet man' and I was hooked; a concept that really resonated with my liberal leanings. Yeah, it gets really tough sometimes, especially when there is really good food around, or it's time to eat lunch and I'm not hungry. But I've been trying my best to stick to it and I've lost about 8 pounds in the last few weeks.

What have I learned from my thintuition? I'm thirsty, all the time. Most of my thirst presents itself as hunger, so now that I'm paying attention to what my body is telling me, I'm not as hungry as I used to be. I don't eat breakfast anymore and I often don't eat lunch until late afternoon. When I do eat, I don't eat very much. But, I'm eating what I want to eat. I'm not depriving myself, and I'm completely satisfied. There is a lot of wasted food, but I'm sure that once I get used to listening to my thintuition, I'll be able to adjust accordingly. My thintuition freaks me out and surprises me sometimes. The first day that I didn't eat breakfast and almost skipped lunch, I was really shocked. Why wasnt I hungry? How was it, that for the first time in my life, I was able to eat 3 bites of ice cream, direct from the container, and then PUT IT AWAY? I'm also really big on sparkling water now. Don't worry, I'm taking multivitamins, so I'm not undernourished.

The hardest part? Giving myself a break and ignoring all of the diet programming from my life. Do this, eat that, don't eat this, eat at this time, fat is bad, carbs are bad, sugar is bad, not eating enough is bad, you must eat breakfast, you must exercise 120 minutes a day, take this pill, don't take this pill, and it goes on and on. I think I'm on the right track and this seems to be an idea that really resonated with me. We'll see if it works out. Check it out yourself - you never know what your thintuition can do for you.

08.11.06 7:55am(4 comments)

Suzy McSewallkindsofstuff

I mentioned below that I was taking part in a craftster craft swap, specifically for people who had never been in a swap before, and it was a really great experience for me. First, I was paired with someone who lives in my neighborhood. Second, was the great task of figuring out what to make her. Her requests were a messenger bag, handspun yarn, and a journal, which didn't match so well with my talents of knitting, tote bags and melted bead things (don't ask). So, I figured, OK, this is a time to stretch my talent a little bit and go for the gusto to make something really spectacular for my first swap. And a messenger bag is like a totebag with a flap and longer straps, right?

I came up with:

Not too shabby eh? My swap buddy gave me the suggestion of going to the thrift store and harvesting fabric there. So, I went to ye ole Village Discount and bought a few skirts, 3 of which could end up as stuff for this swap and 2 more that could end up as stuff for me, if this swap proved succesful and I was actually able to make a bag out of skirts. Since houndstooth is oh so stylish these days, I chose that. She wanted something sturdy that would go with everything and the bag that she showed me as an example was a khaki / brown - so black was definitely in order.

With the help of yet another excellent craftster tutorial, I was able to whip up an excellent messenger bag, without pattern. And, since I was doing a lot of sewing black on black, my mistakes aren't readily noticable, thankfully. So I had the parts of the messenger bag, and it didn't really seem much in the style of my swap partner, who is very into celtic design. What do do? I headed to the local Joann's for inspiration and found a bunch of cool little celtic design buttions that I added over the clasp and at the corners, mostly to customize the bag a bit, but also to cover up my drunken driving seams (I don't drink when I sew, although I really should start, but it looks like I do). I also picked up some calico lining fabric because the skirt I had chosed proved to be way too flimsy for the heavy use that this bag could potentially get.

Following that, I made the needle roll and the journal cover. I threw the needle roll in because my partner is an avid knitter and also an organizer of one of the local Stitch n' bitch groups. I have no capacity to make handspun yarn, but I threw in a skein of the oh so colorful and awesome recycled sari yarn that I purchased, to balance out the black and white a bit.

All of this was done, mind you, while Tom was baking in the hot sun at Pitchfork, a concert at which I was convinced that I would never last more than a few seconds - but at least they let you bring chairs, unlike lollapalooza, where the only place you could sit down were at the 3 park benches in grant park or on the ground. I'm really starting to despise summer music festivals, but that is a rant for another time. Nonetheless, I too was baking in our apt in the living room with my sewing stuff all setup on the coffee table, since I don't have a table to sew on. It works much better than I thought it would.

Anyway, so I whipped all this stuff up, went to the SnB meeting, met all the cool women there, and swapped with my partner. I got a purple tatted snowflake, a beautiful and colorful needle roll, and some pink origami butterfly earings and a necklace - all very awesome stuff. All this on top of the experience, and confidence to sew a messenger bag, something I never thought I would be able to do.

So what did I do this weekend instead of going to lollapalooza on saturday and sunday? Well, on saturday afternoon, my friend Ann and I went to North Halsted Market Days and played in the glory that is Chicago's gay community, but the rest of the weekend, I sewed another bag, which is almost finished. This one is a little more complex and has a pocket on the flap - WITH A ZIPPER (something I've only ever sewn once and that was like 15 years ago). But it's made out of something that used to be a skirt and some coordinating fabric that I had in my stash. And most importantly, it's PINK!!! Once I finish, I'll post some pictures. I think I'm really liking how it's coming together.

However, not so much sewing will be done tonight since Tom and I will be heading to a late concert at Ravinia to see Christopher Riley play radiohead.

Have I mentioned recently how much I love my life in Chicago? No? I LOVE IT HERE - OMGWTFBBQ...

08.07.06 7:39am(0 comments)