Got Gas?

We the people of the St. Louis metropolitan area
admit that we must thankful
for the amazing gas prices we are now experiencing.

It finally dropped to $2.89 where my parents live,
and in southside Chicago my sister’s is at $3. 08.

While we know and understand that many people the world around
pay much higher fuel prices than us,
We can still cheer when half our paychecks don’t go into our gas tanks.

So whoever is up there,
whoever it is who actually knows how the hell gas prices work,
thanks for reprieve.

Yours in gratitude,
The Lou

Catch Up

My parents came in town this weekend so I was too busy to blog. It was a great time though. Just relaxed Friday night. Went to the Botanical Gardens on Saturday, which I always love. For dinner, we grilled surf and turf (shrimp and steak) and later some friends came over for games. Sunday was Mass and breakfast and they took off.

I was a slug most of the rest of the day. I spent 5 hours locked in my room reading, napping and playing a little guitar. I’m completely obsessed with Pillars of the Earth. What an awesome reread. Then, I played with my soccer ball in the back yard and later caught the end of the game… DAMN! After that I worked on the skirt I’m sewing. I’m just experimenting and I keep messing up. It’ll be a miracle if the damn thing is wearable in the end. I suppose I should learn how to follow a pattern instead of making things up, but it’s more fun this way.

I know I noted that I had been relistening to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostovo on CD. It was great the second time around as well. I continue to highly recommend it.

Happy Birthday to Me

Margaritas and sushi! They don’t seem to be sitting as badly together in my stomach as I was afraid.

But wait. I started my birthday last evening as I announced periodically over the microphone that it was my pre-birthday party. It was a “clever” plan to get free drinks. It worked. I had 3 or 4 people offer to buy me drinks, only to discover the bartender wasn’t charging me for any anyway. I started a half-assed, but lovely, round of Happy Birthday right at midnight. Minutes later the band came off break and played a riff of “You know it’s your birthday….” It was nice. I had to cut myself off for driving purposes, managing to make it home around 1.

Work was a little better today. No mindless reports til the last 30 minutes. Today I was setting up paperwork for finance deals, running credit reports and verifying phone numbers and work history etc. The activity makes it definitely more bearable. I’ll be FINE for a couple weeks. And it’s close enough to drive home for lunch!

So, I think I said last night that I was sad I hadn’t really planned anything for my birthday. So I decided I would send out an e-mail to some friends about getting sushi. I figured it was way last minute but whoever didn’t have plans could stop by. I seriously would have been happy with dinner for four. I just wanted to DO something.

My friend Jessica couldn’t make it for sushi so she suggested meeting at Hacienda for margaritas first. I had a pink one and a blue one! A few extra people showed up there for a drink before heading to Sansui West, just west on Manchester from Hacienda. I simply cannot believe that 16 of my friends showed up. 16!!! On such short notice. Between them and the calls I received, including one at the exact moment I turned 29, I was really really touched today. (Oh and the sushi kicked ASS!)

Birthdays simply aren’t as exciting when you get a wee bit older (not that I’m old!). But I felt loved today and that’s irreplaceable. I had the best birthday I could have asked for, and I feel blessed.

Thank you Mom and Dad for waking me up at 6:45 to sing Happy Birthday TWICE in my ear. The first time they were experimenting with harmonies and it sounded horrible so they broke into a jazzy second rendition. LOL. Thanks to my sister Wende for reining in the 2 and 3 year old choir, and thanks to Simon and Elena for carrying through. So cute! Thank you Malissa, John, Jim, Greg, Ken, Thomas, Jessica, Jessica, Stephanie, Stephanie, Jason, Jason, Kristi, Tracie, Preston, Janice, Co-Bin, Christian, Joan, Muji, Sheila, Liz, Brad(ly), all the people at Pop’s Blue Moon and all the other people who sent me well wishes.

Now, I am incredibly tired. G’nite birthday!

uh…

I’m not really sure what to write. I’ve only got a couple minutes and I need to leave to go to Pop’s Blue Moon for my open mic/pre-birthday celebration.

Oh yeah, I can tell you about my job. It’s totally boring. At least today was. Straight data entry. But I kept reminding myself how broke I was, so I got through all right. I thought about how shitty it will feel to be working such a worthless job on my birthday, but I can’t focus on shit like that… even though I will. It’s a car credit loan place for people with bad credit. I was sending out letters telling people we would only finance them on a conditional basis. Ugh. But the people were pretty entertaining. It’s only a couple weeks and it might get better.

What else… that’s all I really have time for actually. Hope to see some people down at the Moon.

Tonight/Tomorrow/Tomorrow Night

Tonight I got more than halfway through making a simple, to-the-ground peasant skirt. I’m excited to finish it, though it will be a very busy week and I don’t know when I’ll have time. It feels good to be using the sewing machine again. I haven’t since last summer.

Tomorrow I start a temp job that will go until the end of the month. It couldn’t have come at a better time. It doesn’t seem like it will be something I like much, but it’s full time, pays pretty well and I had to take it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Tomorrow night, I’ll be hosting the acoustic open mic from 8-10 at Pop’s Blue Moon for the third time. It’s pretty slow right now, but I think it has potential. I just need to get the word out there. So far there has been a positive response from people who have heard about it. Also, Wednesday is my birthday, so tomorrow night I plan to ring the day in, though I guess I can’t stay any later than midnight as I’ll be working the next morning. Hope you can come down.

dammit

The Notebook was actually really good. Nicholas Sparks just like to make people cry.