Jen

Holy crap! Did you guys see this?!?!?!? Hey Mercedes broke up! God, I feel like a chapter in my life has closed! How sad! I even posted a comment on their blog. . .

Anyway, just wanted to let you peeps know in case you didn't already.

Jen

You don't know what you want; it may take you years to find out. You don't know what you need; it's something that may never come to you.

It strange how I keep hearing the same Face to Face song, sometimes up to a whole two times a week. Am I wrong about this, but wasn't “Disconnected” a hit in '93 or something? I think I had this tape . . . and I remember it being really good . . . Did Face to Face ever come out with any other radio hits? Not like it matters, I just think it would be nice to hear something else by them.

I also keep hearing that cover of Boyz-n-the-Hood cover by the one hit wonder band, Dynamite Hack. I do like the song; I think it's really very well done. However, I am very weirded out by radio stations frequently playing old hits. I know there is a lot of shit music out, but really, there's absolutely nothing new or good to play?

On my current shit list of songs it this stupid Foo Fighters song “Little Nicky” or something like that. I just hate it so much. It's just stupid. There.

However, the new Queens of the Stone Age song, “Little Sister” is pretty tight and might make me want to buy the CD.

See?!?!?! I need a CD player in my car!!! In the morning, I am too out of it to find a tape or even find the correct balance to get my I-pod to sound nice on my stereo, so I just listen to the stinkin' radio! I am, however, looking forward to Dicky Barrett's new morning show on Indie 103. Nothing like a little ska to wake you up in the morning!

Now that Becky has sent me copies of the digi photos she took while visiting, I figured that I'd post a few. And I do have to say these are very nice photo's, Beck. Get ready for a photo extravaganza!


This is us walking down the beach in Venice. It was so nice out! Why is it raining again today?


Here is Greg by this very horribly done wall mural at the end of my block. Notice Greg's stance and how it changes very little from photograph to photograph! (kidding!)


The group photo in front of "The Del" as it is known as by the folks who live on Coronado, "the island" off of San Diego. The hotel, as Becky very well knows, is the Hotel Del Coronado which is featured in "Some Like it Hot." I heard a couple of days ago that they give free tours of the hotel if you stop by the lobby! It's a shame we didn't know!


Becky and Greg in front of "The Del"


Gas Lamps rule! (San Diego Gaslamp Quarter.)


Here is a picture of the lovely canals near my home.


Greg and I in my very small kitchen, partying like rockstars.

I hope you like the little photo album. Sorry to bore you with 7 (yikes!) pictures in one blog!

Jen

I was looking at the list for Best Pizza in Chicago  (I would post the link, but I am submitting this blog via e-mail so I don’t know how to do that yet.  Go to www.chicago.citysearch.com for more listings)  and I wanted to share that my favorite pizza place, Art of Pizza on Ashland and Barry, right near the Jewel, received a 9.4 in the ratings!  If you haven’t been there, please try it.  It is the best pizza in Chicago as far as I am concerned.  Has anyone been to Aurelio’s Pizza?  It got a 9.9.

Sorry to go all crazy on the ratings and such.  

Jen

So, I went to L.A. Photo last night which I thought was terribly boring. There are so many exciting wonderful photographers out there. Can we please take down the old silver gelatin prints that everyone has seen a million times or more and lets see some new art people! My only real excitment for the night was when I saw Helen Hunt. She's very pretty and petite in person. Of course, after seeing her, I totally forgot to mention that last Saturday, we all saw Britany Spears at JJ Chill right by my house. It was a madhouse when people found out that she was in there and the crowd nearly doubled after we had, by chance, walked by. So! Let me update my celebrity sighting list!

1) Host from Street Smarts
2) some actor in a movie I can't remember
3) Britany Spears
4) Helen Hunt

I think I am very close to remembering who the hell the 2nd actor is on my list . . .

Jen

I am so tired of copying!  My hands feel all dry from touching too much paper all day long. . .

Anyway, I had a lovely weekend with Becky and Greg.  I plan on posting some pictures as soon as I have access to some.  Here’s our weekend in a nutshell.  Friday: me picking restaurants to eat at that are either closed or I can’t remember where they are, Hinano’s and free popcorn.   Saturday: Venice walk with lots of Kettle Corn, a walk through Bergamot Station where I work and late night BBQ.  Sunday:  Our day in San Diego - fun times at “The Del,” a cute baby, Old Town, the tin shop, being really amazed with gas lamps and looking for Frank’s Last Mexican Cocina or whatever it was called. Monday:  the Venice canals and a sad goodbye.

I am so happy that you guys came out to visit.  It was like old times in a new place.  Someone get me off of that coin!

I wanted to write sooner about this crazy accident that I saw last night where a car actually fell off a double decker, car moving semi-truck.  It was amazing.  I was also going to talk about it in more detail, but now that it is in written form, it seems unnecessary.  

Mike – I’m glad you liked the pics!

Ok, back to the photo world.

Mike

Hello Hello...

Jen - I got your card and pictures...thanks! It's nice to be reminded of warmer times (the Braid show last summer) when the temperature is hovering around 10 degrees for most of the week. Things are actually starting to warm up a little today, but the last few days were brutal.

Like I said in my last post, I've been super busy recently. Work has been hectic, and I'm trying to decide if/when I want to move to a new department. While I enjoy my position for the most part, things can occasionally get brutally boring. The woman to my right constantly blares WNUA (How much Ramsey Lewis can one man take?), while my boss on the left can't figure out how to get her Bad Company albums to play in the computer. Other than that, office life is peachy.

I went to my friend Corey's place for NYE...

(Corey not pictured here, sadly)

Last weekend I cleaned my room and organized all my CDs for the first time in ages, putting everything in a case and on the shelf. Here's part of the mess that was present only 2 days later...

Those stacks on the floor are at least a good 20 albums deep. Do I really listen to that much music? Yes, yes I do. There are seven more cases just like that, too!

I make my triumphant return to grad school in 2 weeks. I couldn't possibly be less excited. I'm sure it won't be too bad, but I'm not looking forward to 3 hour lectures, 40 page papers, and classmates droning on and on about their "totally kickass" database administrator positions. The only thing I'm excited about is taking printer paper from the computer lab for my home printer. That, and the surprisingly delicious subs from the NIU-Naperville cafeteria.

Jen

High School Related Dream #2.

Apparently I'm dating this guy Steve, who, as most people know, I really didn't care for in high school. When we were in first grade, our Pound Puppies got married.* That was the last time we really got along. Anyway, Steve and I and a group of our friends - Laura (the trombone player from High School Related Dream #1), Ian (who most, if not all blog members know), and random miscellaneous people from high school who names I can't remember, are at the arena of the Detroit Red Wings, which looks seriously more like someone's basement than an establishment to play hockey. We all walk to our seats, which are blocked by a giant wall. I only get to see just a slight glimpse of our goal (of course Detroit is playing the Blackhawks!) I'm extraordinarily pissed about this, but no one else I'm with cares. They are all to busy expressing their ranging hormones in the teenage fashion (aka a lot of flirting and play fighting, with the occasional make out session.)

I go searching for better seats and come back empty handed. Laura hands me something and I say “ This better be drugs!” and she says, “of course it is!”

The boys in our group go somewhere I'm not sure of, leaving only the girls behind to gossip. I then ask Laura where the drugs were from and she said Steve. I then say, “Shit, another drug dealer. I guess we have to break up.”**

The dream continues on only for me to realize that I am a 26 year old in a 16 year old body. I'm sick of the people I'm with and decide to go look for better seats again, even though I am now on acid. I end up running into an old friend/old co-worker of mine and decide that I want to hang out with him instead. He has to go to a job interview with the Redwings management, so I amuse myself by going up to the people at the nacho stand and asking them if the owners were Greek.

I'm sorry that I am relaying these stupid dreams. I'm figuring that the one person who will probably get amusement out of these is Christie.

However, I do think it's strange that I have this realization mid dream that I am not a teenager. Does anyone who reads this know anything about dreams?

*This is really true and not apart of my dream.
**In real life, Steve, at least I think, is not a drug dealer. It's also weird that I said “another drug dealer,” like I dated a whole series of drug selling men. As far as I know, I only briefly dated a male prostitute - at least that's what I think he was.

Jen

I know this is a lot to ask of you, Southern California, but can I have one weekend, just one stinkin' weekend when it isn't raining?!?!? It seems like such an odd request that I have to ask for it to be sunny here, of all places. What a drag! I hope that its actually nice when Beck and Greg get here! Hmm, let's check the weather.

Today, a friend of Matt and mine, who works at this clothing store on the promenade in Santa Monica, told me that I could take any thing I wanted in the store for free. This is the kind of store where you can basically walk off with anything because the manager is never there and there is no security at the door. So, I thought about it for awhile, and if karma would kick me in the ass for it, and rationalized that as long as it was a "gift" from my friend, it wouldn't be so bad. So, I looked around the store and couldn't find a damn thing I liked. Is that karma already in action?

I have a couple of exciting events happening in the near future:
1) Beck and Greg, in town next weekend with a day trip planned to go to San Diego.
2) I will be attneding the opening night reception of Photo LA with the peeps from the gallery I work at. I've been to the opening night at the Chicago art Fair a couple of times and it was a great time. I hope this is the same.
3) We have a big opening at the gallery in a couple of weeks for the new show - should be a lot of fun.

It's sad that two of the three events involve work.

Checking In:

I'm alive. I'm also very, very busy at work. I'll attempt to finish my "Best of 2004" when I have the energy.

Jen

I just wanted to say that it is raining so hard here, there is at least a good two inches of water just hanging out in the parking lot.  I think I see someone putting sandbags in front of their gallery doors!  Do they know something I don’t?!?!?

I this better than a blizzarding snow storm in Chicago?  

The answer is: yes, yes it is.

Jen

Today I saw some actor pumping gas at the Arco on 4th and Pico. When I say "some," that is because I know who he is, but can't for the life of me think of his name or the movie he is in. I can remember his voice and what he was wearing in the scene he was in, but can't remember the stupid movie! So let me add to my celebrity-sighting list.

1) Host from Street Smarts
2) Some actor in some movie I don't remember

I had this crazy dream the other night that I was in either high school or college (it felt like high school but was more reminiscent of college) and I was at this choir/band concert that was just horrible. An old friend, Laura, that I no longer see due to mutual differences has, this trombone solo that was god-awful. I was at this event with my friend, Jen whom I have known since first grade. Anyway, our conversation went something like this.

Me: I didn't think that Laura still played the trombone?! (in real life, she never played the trombone)
Jen: Yeah, she's been telling everyone that she is first chair in band.
Me: I haven't seen the band in awhile, but if she is first chair, then the band must suck!

I have no idea why I felt the need to transcribe my dream here, but I just thought it was hilarious when I woke up. You should have seen her perform that trombone solo! Why the hell am I dreaming about this?

I am very happy to announce that Matt just got a new job that I helped to set him up with. Yay! No more Starbucks and Real Food Daily! I will miss the free coffee and food though. : ( Honestly, it’s not worth it for him to work at either of those places. Although Real Food Daily is great because it’s vegan, organic, and delicious, it just isn’t paying the bills.

Do you ever wake up and just feel totally discombobulated even though you have had a full night of sleep? I woke up late, debated over what to wear much too long and then ended up changing outfits after I finally made a decision. I let my cereal hang out in the milk too long until it was soggy and I have this pimple over the right side of my lip that makes my face look distorted and hurts like hell. I hate mornings like that.

Thanks to Matt’s Dad for the longest comment that I have ever gotten on a blog. It still sounds like you guys had a nice New Years, even if it didn’t end up at a middle aged homosexual party (true story). Just for the record I don’t exactly know what my thesis is going to be about (something about the snapshot aesthetic in color fine art photography) and the book I want to publish is the visual half of my thesis project. It’s an 80 page or so 6 by 6 inch book with photographs and text by me. It is called “thegreyhouseyears.”

Lates.

Becky

Happy new year to you all again! yay!

We had a lovely time at the Berko's for new years and we were happy not to have to clean up the next day! However we were not happy to have to get up at 9:00 to drive 3 hours to my sisters house. Nonetheless we were happy to see my family and play ring around the rosie with my niece - mostly involving her spinning in circles until she got dizzy and then falling down and laughing. it was cute.

Anyways, I'm really writing to rant about our upstairs neighbor lets call her school marm. She has told us in the past and mostly in the summer that we were too loud on the porch or that our music was too loud. We apologized and have tried to be quiet and have even left her notes when we are going to have a party to warn her about the possiblity of noise.

We got a note left at our door (with a plate of brownies that greg thought were poisened, but I ate one and it tasted bad but I did not die) that many times "your audio overwhelms mine" with the hope that we could work things out.

So we have been planning on talking to her to try to "work it out", but last night she knocked on our door at 8:00 when we were watching Everybody loves Raymond and grading homework, and she told us that our TV was too loud and could we turn it down. What?? 8:00??? Was it really that loud if we were also able to talk across the room?? are you kidding me?? do we have to speak in whispers from now on?? and god forbid sometimes I laugh!!

Anyways, we are not sure what to do now. how do you "work it out" with someone who wants you to turn your TV down at 8:00?? - that's prime time baby! Please send us any advice if you've had to deal with noise-sensitive neighbors....

ps - can't wait to come to cali!!

Jen

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Did everyone have a nice night? Matt and I had my friend Eric and his girlfriend, Kelly, over for dinner. Then we all went to Eric's sister's party about five blocks away. After midnight, I started heckling people from the balcony and we all got invited to another party. It was a nice night- nice weather, nice new friends. I miss home though; I miss hanging with my best friends.

My fear of tsunamis have subsided a bit since we haven't been hit by one yet in Southern California. Even the ocean is tamer now that the rain has stopped.

Matt and I started to watch a movie called "Highway Men" but it sucked so bad we didn't finish; I fell asleep. In other words, don't rent it.

My top 5 New Year Resolutions:

1) Try to be better about calling people (back).
2) Do more fun things in LA
3) Finish my goddamn thesis.
4) Start playing guitar/bass again. (yes, it sounds like a chessy resolution and it is.)
5) Get my book published.

Looking at this list, it looks more like goals than resolutions, but who's really counting?