Oh my god.

My friend S. got me the best - well, the funniest - birthday present ever.

It's a rap written and performed by Rap Master Maurice for the guy I was dating/seeing/whatever up until Valentine's day, when he disclosed he'd been seeing someone else, and the next day, when he brought her to the (small) bar/music venue where he knew I would be, and stayed all evening.

This is seriously hilarious and genius. Go to Rap Master Maurice's page. Once there, click on "A Lot of Nuts."

Enjoy!

Happy 3rd birthday William!/Summer's really here

William (nephew) is 3 today! Here's his awesome golf swing:
...which means less blogging, and more jogging (I've stopped calling it running), going out on weeknights, dog beaches, and weekend events. It really is true that we in Chicago fit the entire year's worth of outdoor events into 4 months. I looked at my calendar and I don't have a free day off until the end of July.

Plus it's been crazy busy at work, with the first week of classes, the festival, and another 2 projects I'm working on.

And: meeting new people through the magic of the internets. It's going pretty well, though at times can be overwhelming. The tradeoff for any adventure is that I have no free time. If only I didn't have to work 8 hours a day!!

Kids art classes are fabulous, and I found out all but one of my classes aren't running again this session. Most of the kids are repeating, too, which is a good compliment, but means I have to come up with more and more interesting projects... translation: more unpaid research and planning time. See, we're only paid for the acutal45-minute class time. Not the one hour setup and prep time before classes, or the 15 minutes between each class, or the 45 minutes after class for cleaning the art room. So, the better the teacher you are, the less you get paid. Interesting concept, and I am sure it goes for public school teachers as well, though they at least have pensions (and the world's pity).


William and his parents (my stepbrother and sister-in-law) came in from Bangkok for their annual summer visit last Tuesday, and due to slight family emergency, I got to pick them up at O'Hare! Unlike many people, I love going to the airport. I want to make a kids' book about it.

My stepbrother wanted to keep them all awake until 10pm to avoid jetlag, so we went to the the zoo and for a walk around. I love this child. Because of work I had to miss his big 3rd birthday party with the rest of the family at my parents' place this weekend, and that is a bummer. But I had a great weekend anyway.

Went late to party/BBQ Thursday (and stayed too late), where I made delicious margaritas and Sheila made incredible lime velvet cupcakes with margarita frosting, and was exhausted on Friday when my Dad came to town and stayed overnight. We went running Sat. and I took him out for breakfast and Sheila came too, which as great. We then walked to the new Belmont Art and Music fest, which was nice but a bit empty, and then I took him to the airport. Stayed in Saturday night after doing a couple favors for friends.

Yesterday was the last day of the Sunday art classes for the session, and we did the cupcake project, of course. Then worked a few hours, and biked to the Hideout's A Day in the Country fest, where I finally met in real life and hung out with an amazing guy (not interested in dating, we emailed today, but still super cool), and also saw a lot of friends. It was fantastic. I was tired. By the time I biked home, I was literally OUT. OF. STEAM., so Lois got no walk, just a backyard romp. I started cooking myself some dinner and fell asleep, so it became today's lunch.


The Hideout by night, after the BBQ truck pulled away, with the strains of Freakwater squeaking through the speakers...

Jogging* and laundromat, and maybe some cleaning this evening - *it's lovely weather!!

Happy Birthday P!

(Me - with giant happy cheek action - and the birthday boy in his Opera America office during my birthday trip to NYC in February.)

P McDiddy, you are a fantastic person and a great friend, and your next 40 years are going to be just amazing. Happy big 4-0!!

Though I couldn't be with P as he celebrated his "Lordy, lordy..."
birthday at Lazy Meadow, I still managed to have a great weekend, but a few lame and funny things were thrown in. Here goes:



Friday night, I did a last-minute babysitting gig for my 5-year-old friend Tommy. I haven't seen him for a while, and I usually hang out with him in the context of his parents (whom I really like,, too) or with his older brother Jimmy, who's 9. So I was
excited for the opportunity to have an evening "date" with just Tommy. Well,
apparently his school just stopped the daytime naps for his age group, and he was already totally asleep when I arrived at 6:30pm (see above).



He stayed asleep all night, but not in one place. I
spent the evening downstairs reading - without music or TV on - and somehow, I didn't
hear him get out of his own bed and wander over to the master bedroom
and climb in. I went upstairs to check on him at one point, and I have
never felt such pure panic as when I saw his empty bed...

Saturday started with an early walk with Lois and then an 8am run - that's right folks, I said run (but I meant JOG)! I went over to the local running shoe store where they have an 8am Saturday open running group, and I finally made it to that. I met some nice people, found a woman who runs at almost exactly my pace, and made it to the 3-mile turnaround and then about halfway back without stopping, so I figure
about 2.25 miles. It was great! My goal for the summer is to run in a
fun 5K, and by the fall do a 10K. I also posted on Craigslist for a
once-a-week beginning running partner, and have had some great
responses. I meet for a run with my first "buddy," T, on Tuesday
after work.



Then, my cousin M called, and he and his wife K and baby Spencer (who's 2 months old already, and I hadn't met him!) schlepped up to Lincoln Square from Hyde Park, and dang if they didn't take me out to lunch! It was an awesome afternoon of visiting, baby-kissing, window-shopping, salad-eating and stroller-pushing, and it was gorgeous weather to boot.


I gave Spencer some sunglasses (his first pair). Then we went to a store and I bought him his second pair, too, because they were hilarious. I should have taken a picture of those, too.


This is the German band that plays down the street from my house at the Glunz Bavarian House bar and restaurant. They make my day on weekends in summer. I can hear them from my bedroom window.

I was then sposed to meet an internet "just friends" guy at Ribfest,
this sorta crappy festival (in Chicago, you can find 5 festivals going
on any given weekend from June-October) exactly one block from my
house, so I went over there, fought the crowds to buy tickets, got a
beer and a not-great bbq pulled-pork sandwich, and watched a fun band, The
Blacks, play. The internet guy never showed up, but my friend
J called, so we ended up going to a bar for beer. It was perfect. I
learned about his planned polka band called The Lincoln Square Polka
Boosters (which I would really like to be in, but then I'd need to actually, finally, learn to play an instrument).



We were walking across the neighborhood (trying to avoid the Ribfest
people) to the next bar when we noticed that the German band was still
playing, so we sat right in front and enjoyed their set (and a couple big beers)
from up close. What a fun Lincoln Square-y day and night!