My boss brought in a copy of the most current Crate and Barrel catalog, and showed me this:
Which just so happens to be the same Marimekko fabric design, Samovaari, that I painted on my living room wall in November:
So, technically, I thought of stealing Marimekko's 1970 fabric design first. However, Crate and Barrel decided to use two beautiful, pale shades of green with their interpretation. I chose poo brown.
Touché, Crate and Barrel. Touché.
I realized yesterday that my yearly goal - to get the Christmas tree down before the month of January is in the double digits - has, sadly, still not been achieved in 2007. Every year I make this goal for myself, and every year it ends up coming down at the end of January. Sometimes the beginning of February, like last year, although I don't count that year, because I spent most of January and February of Ought Six being a total shithead. For many reasons. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
Hopefully, though, I'll get the tree down tonight and tomorrow, since my parents are coming to visit Saturday afternoon. There is nothing like a mother's silent judgment to make you snap into shape and achieve your housekeeping goals.
If anyone knows of a cure for what we call "the Jimmy Legs" around here (tossing, turning, kicking during the night), please let me know. Steve has a bad case of it. Every night I'm wedged between him and the cat. Between his bout of the Jimmies, and Babe's head that smells like dog breath because Moj puts it in his mouth......yeah, I haven't slept well in days.
Work is driving me insane today. Seriously, there are some days where I am appalled at my inexperience handling various tasks I have to do. Consequently, I am amazed that my boss hasn’t seen through this sham and already fired me.
I guess I don’t need to be blogging while I’m here, though. But moving on…
Busy, busy, busy week so far. Sunday we celebrated my dad’s birthday, and now I am officially done with holiday obligations. Which couldn’t have come at a better time, because I am also five pounds heavier, thanks to my holiday obligations. Sigh.
But! I had tons o’ fun yesterday evening. My gal pals and I went out. First we went to the MCA for their Bingo/Tango night. The idea is that you play Bingo to win prizes, and then during breaks there are these professional tango dancers who teach lessons. However, the coordinators underestimated the appeal of the Bingo/Tango Night, and so they were horribly over-crowded. Also, the announcer was more interesting in turning the letters B-I-N-G and O into sexual words (“Gonorrhea 26! Orgasm 51!”) while trying to be hip and funny, so he just came off as a jackass. A jackass who couldn’t project his voice, either. I couldn’t hear a damn thing.
So I decided to take a tour of the museum, and I came to the conclusion that I always come to when I go to the MCA – the permanent collection is a piece of crap. I’m not just saying this because I have a bachelor’s degree in Art History, either. For God’s sake, I took ice skating and aqua aerobics my senior year – I don’t remember the Art History part that much. I think anyone would think that the MCA permanent collection sucks. Don’t be fooled by the website’s overview of their collection - I didn’t see the Calder, the Warhol, the Sherman, the Close, or the Reinhardt. Besides the Calder mobile that I might have missed because I didn’t look up, the rest should have been there. And it’s not that I’m looking for the big names in contemporary art or anything, it’s just that if I’m told that they’re there, I wouldn’t mind seeing them as I’m passing through.
The thing that gets me is that the traveling exhibitions at the MCA are fantastic. I went to the Chuck Close retrospective and the Roy Lichtenstein Interiors exhibit, and Steve went to the Tropicalia Movement exhibit last year. I guess I just feel that a museum can’t exist on traveling exhibitions alone – it should have a solid permanent collection, too. We Chicagoans are very lucky that we have the Art Institute to make up for the MCA.
One more thing: as we were getting our coats from the coat check, there was one, solitary comment in the comment box. All it said on it, in small letters, was “underwhelming.” So it’s not just me that feels this way! Boo-yah!
I will now get off my (triumphant) soapbox.
What was really fun, though, was seeing my girlfriends from college. One is getting her Masters/PhD at UC Berkeley, and one is getting her Masters at U of I in Champaign. So we don’t get to see them that often. It was nice to sit with a bunch of girls, knitting, eating Mexican food and catching up on each others’ lives. This is quite a departure from my Usual Social Life, which is mostly a Sausage Fest consisting of Steve,* his roommates, and occasionally a few more guys with some spatterings of girls.
*I must clarify that Steve did go with for the Mexican/knitting/talking portion of the evening. But he’s a trooper like that.*
Other things:
1. I am broker than broke. I’m not really, I get paid tomorrow, but my landlord has this awesome habit of depositing my rent check days after I’ve written it and accounted for it, so my heart stops when I check my balance after it’s gone through. In short, so far my whole Plan To Save Money in 2007 is off to an awesome start.
2. Steve started his new job this week. It’s weird to for him to have the same 9-5 schedule as me. I think it’s going to be awesome in the long run, though, because the super-early mornings or late, late nights that he had as an electrician totally blew, for both of us. Also, he looks adorable in business casual.
3. Hot Chip. Steve had this band in his car stereo, and I’ve been driving his car around, and they’ve grown on me. I especially like the song, “Over and Over” (check out their MySpace profile to listen). However, I can’t decide if I like that song because I really like it, or because it’s just catchy and gets stuck in your head. If I’m feeling all stabby-stabby in a few days, I guess we’ll know the answer.
4. My dog and I had a photo shoot the other day. I promise someday I'll post stuff other than pictures of my dog and my nephew on my Flickr account. Someday.
Today at lunch I went to my favorite coffee shop to get my Yay It's Friday vegan chocolate chip muffin and jasmine green tea. I know it sounds like a horrible combination, but trust me, it is not.
Anyways, the barista behind the counter was this girl I really like, because she always pats Mojo on the head when I tuck him under my arm and take him in the shop when I get my Yay It's Saturday or Yay It's Sunday vegan chocolate chip muffin and coffee. By the way, I can really make any day an excuse to treat myself to a vegan chocolate chip muffin.
Today, though, the barista stared really intently at my face, and then said, "Did you get a new grill?"
What? A grill? I had no idea what she was talking about.
"Umm, no, I didn't," was all I could say.
And then she said, "Oh! Ok. Now, what did you order again? I got so excited that I forgot."
????
Is grill some sort of hip talk for something on the face? I immediately thought of a grill as in the thing you cook with, but that can't be it. The only slang use of "grill" I know is of the "Yo, stop getting all up in ma' grill, dawg," nature, but I don't think that's what she meant. I thought maybe she was talking about jewelry or something, but there really isn't anything around my face except the occasional pair of earrings, and a teeny-tiny nose ring that half the time I don't even remember I have.
If anyone wants to enlighten me on what the hell she was talking about, that'd be great.
I've only been 26 for three days, and already I feel old and behind the times.
An impromptu dance party we had on New Year's Eve. I'm the one filming and giggling. I think my favorite part of this video is that the dog just kept right on chewing his rawhide in the middle of the dance party. We've trained him right.
I got this email tonight, after coming home from dinner and going to our separate homes:
"hey thanks for going out with me for dinner (jimmy johns). i love you."
Adorable.
*******
I hope you all had a lovely New Year's. My pals and I had a pretty good time. I have some documentation here, and in a bit I'll have a wee video as well.
I'm glad it's all over, though. As you can see here, I am tired of the holidays.
I can't wait to get back to a normal routine.
*******
Also, it's 11:37 P.M. right now in Chicago. In about 45 minutes, I will be 26. Is it fun being 26?
