recap of last seven days. what a roller coaster! i have been so exhausted i slept 11 hours last night!
shedd was free general admission all last week, and i left work early on thursday to go there in the afternoon. new boy and i met up at life on mars (of course!) to get food before driving down there. it was a lot of fun. we got there at about 330pm so there were no school groups but there still was a decent of people and families with little kids. it wasn't too crazy, though. the aquarium is at such a nice location. i like looking at the lake and seeing that skyline!
as for the exhibits, we saw the circular carribbean reef in the middle with all kinds of rays, nurse sharks, a huge turtle named nickel that had buoyancy problems, and all sorts of colorful fish. there was also a scuba diver in there cleaning all the rocks.
there was also a huge exhibit for various amazon habitats. there were paranas (i'm unsure where in "h" goes), turtles, rays, lizards, monkeys, a fucking 26 foot long anaconda!, tree frogs, other various huge fish. it was pretty awesome. saw the little cage where the spider was housed and avoided it.
there was also an exhibit for freshwater lakes and rivers of north america. saw the usual...carp, bass, bluegill, turtles, etc. they also had asian carp, and zebra mussels! those last two were featured in a section about invasive species affecting the local ecosystem.
then there was the ocean exhibit. i really liked looking at the tanks with the starfish, cucumbers, urchins, and anenomes. i like the colors! they also had a bunch of giant crabs. there were two tanks that the glass was magnified, and these housed the seahorses and then sea dragons. i love seahorses, and it was cool to see so many of them in the tank together. their little tails were wrapped around the seaweed. and the sea dragons were awesome. they were kind of floating around, and their swimming appendages looked like plant leaves.
new boy drove me back home before he left for work. i already know he doesn't want to hang out with me again. i was a little upset but i really don't care.
on friday, i headed back to stl. i went out to get food and margaritas with my parents and we had a good discussion about plans i have next fall. while i love chicago socially (and by socially i pretty much mean shows and food), i do not have it in me to stick it out another winter. i feel just like i did when i was ready to leave stl. in a dark place. totally drained. hating life. my number one choice for relocation is florida. i have been waiting to make a decision until i find out what the summer school session is and if i can get into a class i need. the summer schedule was posted yesterday, and i will not be able to get into the class i need. so do i stick it out for summer up here? working and running around? summer here is awesome! or do i leave and go on that adventure i've been promising myself for the past five years?
after dinner and nice conversation with my parents they drove me to the show. it was in the basement of the cranky yellow publishing store on cherokee. it was a cool place. lots of funky clothes and merchandise and a section of books and a zine collective. the basement was pretty awesome, too. very deep and there was kind of a lot of people there.
the bands that played were doomtown (not too bad, it was their first show), squidblade (i thought they were pretty good when i saw them at lemmon's on xmas but they were great tonight!), wifflers (not a solid set. too wasted to play the songs. although shaun was all up on the mic singing silly stuff, such as "what does your squidblade look like?" a la "i live in hell"). then the copyrights played. holy shit! this was the reason i was here! birthday celebration and the copyrights in a freaking basement in stl and people actually showed up and it was absolute chaos.
they played so hard! and we sang so loud! and beer and cans were flying everywhere. i was hoarse and soaked in beer when they were done. the best i have ever seen them play was at market street pub at fest 7, and either this basement set or the set over the summer at sub-t might was the second. they played all songs off of learn the hard way and make sound, some of the newer split 7s stuff, and like two off mutiny pop.
humanoids played last. i was almost blacked out when they played, and only caught the last maybe four songs b/c i was up outside on the street saying goodnight to krissy and talking with some other people.
after the show, nate and chris gave me a ride back to my parents' house, but not before we went to manga. i do not really remember being there. i left and went next door to the city diner and got a veg sandwich. nate came over and sat by me at the counter and ordered some food, too. we went back to manga and i vaguely remember ripping another poster off the wall before we all left.
puked everywhere when i got home. slept in my bro's room cuz he's M.I.A. and my parents are remodeling the house and all kind of bullshit is stored in my room.
saturday was great. it was like 58F in stl on saturday and i went out on the bike to the levee. it was awesome. i haven't really exercised much since october so i didn't go too far, and i encountered two other bikes and five people walking. i also encountered one pitbull. it came tearing around a farmhouse i was passing on the other side of the road, barking and chasing after me. i started screaming and pedaling faster and kicking at it while it was biting at my feet on the pedals. i was terrified. the farm house had three horses chilling in a pen and two other dogs tied up in big cages, but this one was loose and pissed. when i got to the T-intersection at the end of the lane, the dog stopped chasing me and my heart didn't stop racing until i got back into town. jeez!
saturday night i left to come back to chicago with my car all maintained and new tires that my mom and dad bought for my birthday. i got 100 miles south of chicago and the car overheated. i stopped on the side of 55 and cut the engine immediately. i was in the middle of nowhere, could not even see lights of any town that might be nearby. i had my hazards on, but cars and semis where zipping by, not slowing down or moving over. it was very intimidating! after about ten minutes of trying to get the hood open (it was so dark i couldn't even see the latch), i started the car and drove very slowly with the hazards on to next exit and pulled into a gas station. i called some people, and johnny and rich left the show they were at and came and picked me up. i am very grateful for that. we got back into the city at like 330am. what a day!
i called off work on sunday and had the car towed. not having it was a huge hassle. i took metra to work on monday and tuesday, which is fine. its a 1.5 miles away from my house, which i need 30 min to walk there when there is snow like this on the ground. but after work i had to get to school, and that was not easy via cta. it was a bus-train-bus and took 2:15 and cost like $8. luckily, a classmate was able to drive me home. same thing on tuesday. bus-train-bus, and roy drove me home. forever grateful.
i was ready to throw in the towel when i woke up this morning. i started bleeding last night. i'm very worried about it b/c that should not be the case right now. i know i've been feeling lousy mentally, and i feel even worse physically. i attributed the general malaise to the depression and stress, and i hope that is all it is. i was fine at the follow up appt back in october and now this?
then i got a call from my dad. my car is fixed! i am taking an amtrak train this evening to go get it and drive it back home. i was so worried that i was going to be an engine rebuild like last time when it overheated b/c it was the same type of situation all over again, but it was just a head gasket on the radiator and a new thermostat. the car situation being resolved is a huge burden off my shoulders and i am so grateful that its not a rebuild b/c i don't have money for that but i also don't have money to make a car payment.
also, i have a crush on some one. his name is Andrew (why wouldn't it be?) and he's young (22. barely.) he's approached me twice, so i might have that backwards.
p.s.s. the mac and cheese at life on mars = #1 most fav comfort food. potato leek soup = close second.
p.sx3. i feel better already. i will not be enclosing a video with this post.
current conditions:
temp: 28F
wind: 14 NW
vis: 10 mi.
sunset: 535pm
No comments:
Post a Comment