We all pretty much knew this day was bound to come, but let me officially announce here on thelaze.blogspot.com that I am famous. Well, both Christina and I are famous, but we know which star shown brighter.
Ha!
I made my Top Chef debut last night thanks to the kindness and generosity that my truly famous friend Tina showed upon me back in the fall. We were lucky enough to participate in a taping of the show due to her extra famous connections and it aired last night. The part that was funny (maybe only to me?) is that I hadn't really told any of my friends so they were a bit surprised to see my face show up for the split second that it did, doing a terrifically fake cheers with the other guests at the table. In case you missed it, let me show you. I just happen to have some screen captures.
There we are. "Cheers!"
Here is Christina, rockin' her bob before Katie Holmes even thought it a possibility. "Cheers!"
And, this is no different than the other shot.. just closer up. "Cheers!"
So! I'm obviously on my way to culinary stardom and I would like to thank all the people who have helped to get me to this place.
In other less famous news, I feel simply exhausted today. Prior to being on television I was in one of my final classes before the summer and it was tiresome. I will be glad when I have completed my presentation, written my paper, and can just chill for a couple of months.
I declare this a summer of leisure and workin' for the benjamins. I'm going to try to marry those two ideas and see if I can figure that out.
You can fast forward through the talking and get to the dancing.
All I can say is "can I get my moves back?"
So, yesterday evening was perhaps one of the more stressful and ridiculous evenings I have had in a while and I can simply blame it on my bathtub. After work I had to skedaddle (yes, I said skedaddle) down to pick up my scanned negatives from Joe and given the insane wind of the day this was a second workout for me. I was at almost a complete standstill for most of the ride, but I just stood up and pushed through. On my way back the other direction (still against the wind, mind you) I stopped to pick up some Drano because magically that morning my bathtub had not drained and I found that especially odd because it wasn't a progressive problem, it was an all of the sudden problem. I was fairly certain I hadn't clogged it by dropping anything in it, and I'm generally not a hirsute, so it seemed quite weird that it would just suddenly not drain. But I figured this was nothing a plunger and some Drano couldn't help me out with.
Now mind you, this was around 6pm and I had to be at dinner at 8pm and on top of this my dear friends Jen and Alex were coming to crash at my house. I got home and the water still hadn't drained (gross!) and so I poured my Drano Gel Max in and sat and waited for it to work... but after a good 15-20min I saw no movement, so I made the mistake of calling my landlady. Actually, I can't call this a complete mistake because she solved the problem in the end, but when most people would come, take a look, and call a plumber, (comma happy!) said landlady was on her hands and knees in my bathroom with rubber gloves trying to solve the problem. She spent a good long while scolding me for using Drano because it eats the enamel on tubs (ummmm, this tub is old, that enamel is done gone) and she wondered why I didn't call her right away. Well, I didn't want her in my bathroom on her hands and knees trying to fix this problem, but there she was and it was too late to stop her. For the next hour and a half she worked on it. Taking it all apart, bailing out my tub, and convincing me to boil four pots of water as she claimed boiling water would be the only thing to fix it. She also scolded me for trying to plunge the tub as she said plungers don't work on tubs... but LONG story short, with about 10 pots of boiling water and her plunging my tub forcefully, we got movement.
I cheered.
She left.
Jen and Alex came.
I made it to dinner only a half an hour late.
I didn't have to shower with my feet in non drained water this morning. All is well on the home front.
I'm all about Stevie Wonder's greatest hits today. I'm gonna rock it all day long, except I just skipped the "happy birthday" song because that just doesn't seem appropriate.
It's as though God knew we'd be back at work today and just to rub salt into our wounds, he has made it a grey, windy, cold day.
Joe just asked me if I had taken a bicycle to work today and I confirmed telling him that I came to the conclusion that I would rather be riding up hills as then I would know what I am up against, but with the wind (which is especially cold and strong today), it is an invisible beast that taunts me.
My coworker told of setting her full cup of Starbucks on top of her car this morning only to have it taken away by the tempest. Ha! It's true.
Memorial Day weekend was all I had hoped for. We really did have wonderful weather and I managed to work in a healthy amount of leisure and productivity. This all culminated with the ultimate Chicago "summer" activity of cooking out, sitting on the stoop, engaging those who pass by. It really was a lovely afternoon that lasted into the early night.
I am working on many things today. I have projects closing in. I am keeping my eye out for the UPS man who will bring me this:
because I am obsessed with video lately. I know I am bit late on the trend, but it occupies my thoughts quite often and Franc said that Ira Glass said that this was the camera to have, so, I bought it.
It is Friday before a three day weekend and I feel simultaneously tired and excited. So much time to do life things! What will I do? The oppotunity!
I had a lovely little lunch with Tina at Mitchell's. I ate a veggie breakfast sandwich and she had grilled cheese and soup. Our waitress looked like she was still in the running toward becoming America's next top model.
My fellow Oberliners are all headed back to our alma mater for a little reunion this weekend and I have decided not to return. Not this time around. I feel a little weird about that because I don't like the thought of such dear friends having fun and me choosing not to participate, but I just didn't feel quite ready for that place. Five years is a while and a lot has changed, but maybe not enough for me to return to that environment. I need a bit more space and the travel timing didn't quite work out anyway. So, give me another five years and I'm sure to be there.
For now, I can't wait to hear the stories of relived debauchery.
I find my generation's ability to talk about itself so interesting.
I mean, that is what this blog is. I just talk about myself publicly and that is sort of silly and unnecessary, but there is some sort of gratification in doing so.
I think what complicates it more is how blogging isn't honest. It's not a diary, it is a public log and it has no true merit as a life document, more of a "this just in" sort of deal. Whenever I begin to writing about things that are current I find myself questioning my authority and ability to say what I think, so I revert back to being the authority on myself.
But my approach to writing my blog is that I want it to be entertaining for me to be writing and also entertaining for whomever to read. So, that is the tone I will continue to take.
I feel antsy today. I'm not doing a great job of accomplishing things this week and I think it has to do with the impending three day weekend as well as my late start to the week. Rather than feeling rushed to get things done, I just feel like it is too late to get things done so I will piddle away the week.
Memorial Day always takes me by surprise. It doesn't feel like a real holiday to me. As if it wants to be the fourth of July, but hasn't got the heat to keep up.
I have good plans for the weekend though, and I hear the weather will be sweet.
(note: "Sweet" is a new adjective for me. Never used to use it, but now I can't stop. It's kind of 90's, no?)
I realized yesterday that I have not had a night at home in nearly three weeks, so I took advantage of this opporunity, skipped the gym (poo poo to me) and spent the evening at home tending to things. I actually was headed to the gym, but it began to rain after work so I just high tailed it on my bicycle homeward.
In place of the gym I actually made my way over to the grocery store (canvas bags in tow) and purchased some good produce for the week. I brought home some organic tofu that I am marinating in jerk sauce, cause that seemed like an interesting experiment.
I spent some time sorting negatives as I have scans to make this weekend and watched episodes of 30 Rock, which I have heard much about but had not taken the time to watch. It is actually really hysterical. I had some really nice laugh out loud moments.
In less Mundane news, Johnny Depp is in a movie that is going to be filmed less than a block away from my work. It is a Dillinger movie, I hear? I just wrangled my coworkers into going and exploring. I kept thinking I would be yelled at, but I was not. I declared I was definitely going to be leaking images to the internet... so here we go.
This is fake brick they have put up over some of the buildings.
This used to be a place called Fiesta Mexicana, but now it is a fake jewelry store.
This is my favorite. That is Qdoba behind there! Ha. burritos hidden by this fantastic facade.
This is Subway. Ha.
All fake.
The biograph gets a face lift.
And finally...
That is McDonalds. As you can see, my coworkers dress much nicer than I do.
I'm looking forward to being blocks away from Mr. Depp. I plan to stand outside the set and yell "JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNYYYYYYYYYYY! 21 JUMP STREET! I REMEMBER!"
