5 posts tagged “laura”
It's crazy times right now. Lots happening. After the surprise birthday party last week, we were somehow more manic this week.
On Thursday, Jess and I got out of work early, went to see WALL-E and had dinner together. Afterwards, we met co-workers at a bar as it was the day of Laura's birthday. They had been there since they got out of work, so we were by far the most sober people there. Until Lindsay's Doug showed up. Poor guy. We ducked out of there early.
I... can't actually remember what we did during the day on Friday. I do know we got lunch and did a bunch of shopping at Target, but other than that, I think we bummed around. At 7pm, we met up with Laura with a mini-picnic then went to the harbour. Lindsay and Doug met us there and we all sat on the waterfront to have our picnic. Eric and Mitchell showed up shortly after, just in time to watch all the fireworks going off along the lake.
We dumped shit off at home, then went to a nearby bar for a couple of drinks.
On Saturday, we had a ton of errands to run. We paid our economic stimulus cheque into our bank account, went through the pre-approval process at AT&T (ahead of the iPhone 3G release on Friday!), then Jess went to the dentist while I took a faulty item back to Target. We were going to go to a barbeque, but after having a long nap, we just went to our favourite Mexican place and chilled out.
Today, we went for lunch and did more shopping. We needed more sporty clothing as we've been asked to fill in on my office softball team. Yes, me, playing sport. I know, right? Anyway, we got all of that stuff, got it home then got ready for our first softball practice. There were only a handful of people there, but we got a good go of it. Neither of us was as bad as we expected - I connected with the ball a lot, and wasn't a total washout at catching. Bowling (sorry, pitching), however, was another matter.
This week is going to continue the activity. We're taking tomorrow off as we have a lot of chores to do. We have Wolf Parade on... Tuesday? I can't remember. I need to listen to their new CD more. Hopefully this means we get to see The Josie after what seems like forever. Thursday is the Big Kahuna - my green card interview. After aeons, it's finally a reality. Jess is currently wading through a file of paperwork the size of Alaska so we're ready. Then Friday is possibly iPhone day, if they have enough in stock.
Busy busy busy.
On an unrelated note, one of my favourite albums of last year - Heresy & The Hotel Choir by Maritime - came with a bonus 7" featuring two songs. One of those songs was called 'Boy From School', and was pretty awesome...
It turns out, it was a cover of a Hot Chip song...
Which was also covered by Portastatic...
This was a good weekend. I am going to mention a bunch of people's names - they're mostly co-workers, don't worry.
We had wanted to see WALL-E on Friday, and even arranged to do so with our friends Jason and Brad, but two things transpired to prevent us. First, the showing we wanted to go to sold out right before I could order tickets online. Then Jason had to stay late at work because of a production issue. In the end, we just ate at Chili's (mmm, bacon and beef in a bun) then watched an entire disc of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
Saturday was chores day, so we tidied the crap out of the house, got lunch then Jess went home while I got a haircut. My mane was growing increasingly impossible to deal with and horrible to look at, so it had to be removed. We didn't get long to bum around before we met Doug, got in a cab and headed to Lindsay and Laura's surprise birthday party... at WHIRLYBALL!!!
Whirlyball is awesome. You're in a dodgem car that has a foot pedal and a crank for steering. While steering with one hand, you hold a plastic lacrosse-style net and attempt to throw a small ball at a circle of mesh on a baseball backboard with the other. As well as Jess, Doug, Lindsay, Laura and myself, there was Jeff, Lindsay's husband Doug and a ton of their friends and family. I felt slightly odd crashing into a cousin or brother in an attempt to get the ball, but it was wicked fun. I think I have found my "sport".
Also, for the record, Lindsay's dad owned.
From there, we headed to a bar called Schoolyard for the drinking. More and more people came along as the night progressed - Kristian, Jason, Brad, Brandon, other Jason, Mike and Betsy, and more of the birthday girls' family and friends. Everyone seemed to get along, and we were out till after midnight, at which point we turned into (very drunk) pumpkins and made our way home.
I woke up feeling as fit as a fiddle, possibly aided by drinking piss weak Miller Light all night, but Jess seemed mucho hungovero. Despite that, we managed to get our shit together and walk on up to the corner near Jason and Brad's place to watch the Chicago Gay Pride Parade. The parade had only just started when we got there, and it turned out to be a long old haul. People joined us - Kristian and his brother Kristopher, Jason and Brad's friend Karen, Doug and his friend Jess, another girl called Shelly... I have no idea who she was.
Several hours and two rain-induced interuptions later, we headed to get food, eating at a pizza place called Purgatory Pizza. We were ravenous, and after waving other people's food by our faces for what seemed like forever, they finally brought our pizza out... except they got it wrong. In the end, they gave us the wrong pizza, a smaller version of what we actually ordered and all our drinks for $6. We felt bad, though, and left a huge tip. The pizza itself was tasty... with a really crispy base.
And that was our weekend.
But it is. Bo. At least it's been a fun, productive weekend.
After the cable was installed yesterday, we got some lunch, set up the various boxes in our lounge how we wanted them then headed out to a nearby-ish bar to meet some of my co-workers - Jason, Laura, Kristian, Lindsay, Mike, Peter and various spouses/friends/partners. Jason turned 33 so we all got him tipsy enough to slap people:
There are more photos of the mild debauchery, but I'm only sharing a cute one:
Being the lightweights we are, we ducked out early (but then, we had started drinking before 5pm). Jess ended up watching Bridget Jones while I passed out.
I felt very manly.
We got that home, and then spent the day tidying up the apartment, going on a huge grocery shop (in which more than 50% of the items we bought were vegetables or fruit), watching the hilarigross reunion special of Rock Of Love With Bret Michaels and generally bumming around.
It's a shame it's over already.
The title is pretty apt right now. It's taken from the song 'Unravel' by Bjork (which featured on Homogenic, one of my all-time favourite albums) that Radiohead recently covered on a webcast.
Original...
Radiohead cover...
Jess returns home in two days, we've been apart for four, and it's a very strange sensation. After all that cross-Atlantic bullshit, I hoped we would never spend ridiculous amounts of time apart ever again. Not that a week is very long, but I miss that stinky cheesehead.
After my last update, I napped ahead of going out for the midnight screening of Donnie Darko. I met Jason, his boyfriend Brad and their friend Valerie at the cinema. We weren't sure who else was coming, so after fifteen minutes, we headed to a nearby bar where we bumped into Laura and Mike. After a few drinks, Laura and Mike stayed on while the rest of us went to see the film.
It was a different version to the version I own - there was extra footage and better explanation of the bizarre plot. Having not seen the film for a long while, I really enjoyed it and it was worth staying out till 2.30am for. Especially as it reminded me of how much I love 'Head Over Heels' by Tears For Fears. I had also forgotten who was in the movie - Donnie's girlfriend Gretchen is played by Jena Malone (if you haven't seen the film Saved!, do it); one of the two bullies - although not the one named Seth - is played by Seth Rogen (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad, Knocked Up); and crazy Christian teacher Kitty Farmer is played by Beth Grant, who was the pageant official in Little Miss Sunshine and Ralph's mum in My Name Is Earl.
Yesterday, I spent much of the day in bed - playing Command & Conquer 3, napping, watching Comedy Central. Doing as little as possible pretty much. I went to sleep quite early, waking (randomly) just in time to watch Metalocalypse before dozing off again to my iPod. My only contact with the outside world all day was when I ordered in some Thai food.
Tonight it'll be more of the same, but tomorrow I'm going out for dinner with Josie and Gaz and Wednesday I get Jess back.
Today was the second morning I woke up without Jess. It doesn't feel right, but it's only going to be a brief and temporary sensation so I can handle it. At least she's having a good time in Hawaii - yesterday, she tried surfing, which makes her far braver than me.
So far, I haven't been very rock n' roll. On Thursday night, I went out drinking with some folks from work - Leslie, Bryan, Kristian, Eric and Jason Y. The most outlandish it got was me drinking a $9 beer called Delirium Tremens (as in "the DTs" - latin for trembling delirium). I got home at a reasonable time, and made myself veggie chicken burgers without burning the place down.
Last night, I ordered in pizza and spent the night watching stand-up comedy on Comedy Central and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace on [adult swim]. It's nice seeing weird British TV make the leap over the ocean almost completely intact (apart from minor bleeping - this country is so puritanical about rude words on TV). I also cleaned the cat box, tidied up a little and tried to get my Ozone working with Leopard, but it doesn't like it till new drivers are released. Boo. So much for recording this weekend.
Tonight, I'm meeting people from work for some alcohol and a midnight showing of cult classic Donnie Darko. Of course, I own it on DVD and can watch it whenever I want, but it'll be good to have a night out. I think it'll be myself, Jason S (I blogged about him before - he writes for Chicago paper Redeye) and his boyfriend, Leslie, Eric, Erin, Brandon B, Brandon H and his fiancée, Laura and Guy, a freelancer who worked for us recently. Of course, you don't know any of these people, but it's a good little crew.
In the time it's taken me to write this, I've listened to an awful lot of The Cure. Time for something a little perkier methinks.
