Starry Wisdom

Yesterday work took us to California’s Great America. This was actually a “get to know everyone between us and the rest of our business unit at our Corporate Overlords. Except I didn’t meet anyone from them, but I did meet a few new people from my “company”. Funny how that is.

It was really hot out, so after some lunch and beer, and riding all the open roller coasters at least once, I decided to call it a day around 3pm. I went over to google to beg a free beverage off of Erin, and then I went and read for a while.

Later, when she was done with work, I went over to her house, and I met her two kittens, Tig and Colby:

Colby is the black and white one, Tig is the gray one. They are adorable and full of energy. I played with them a lot, throwing little toys on their big climbing tree for them to go up and retrieve seemed to be a favorite of theirs. They also love wrestling with each other. And they seem to be incredibly friendly, and took to me right away, following me around Erin’s house.

So, that iPhoto problem from last night… solved it. iPhoto made a secret little directory to mimic the mounted USB drive, and made a fake library there. Once I found that, i was able to disable it, then point iPhoto at my real library, and Bam, pictures back.

Next, I played with Garageband to make some ringtones for both my and my pal nvrlnd’s iphones. The Leekspin song makes a good one.

You know what’s kind of funny. How things can have flavors, even though you don’t put them in your mouth. In particular, I’m talking about injected medicines. MRI contrast dye is very metallic tasting. It’s put in your arm, and you feel warm, going up your arm, to you shoulder. And then you feel like you are chewing on a piece of metal, except you aren’t. Even more interesting is the contrast they use for an angiogram, which tastes like metal and also gives you fireworks in your eyes!

I really hope to not deal with either of these again, at least for a very very long time.

I get to get my 18 month MRI tomorrow. Basically it’s to get a baseline for what the contents of my skull should be like for the future, but hopefully it will be the last one I need ever.

If you never have had an MRI, it’s sort of like being inside a clothes dryer with a pair of shoes. Except you don’t move around. But it is a round tube, and it is thumpy. Good times!

I am back home. Yay.

iPhoto might have eaten all my digital photos from the past 18 months, including many of the ones from my trip. Boo.

I might be able to ressurect them, but the album information will be gone. Ambivalent so far.

Today’s my last day in Chicago. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. I’ve had fun the past couple of days, had dinner and drinks with friends last night and saw Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, and had a wonderful brunch this morning with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. I need to pack now, and then go stop by my Grandma’s for a few minutes to say goodbye. All-in-all this was a good trip.

So, I taught my mom how to send text messages this week. You see, a year or so ago my mom called me when I was at a movie. More than once, because my mom is a bit weird like that (more on this below). After the third time my phone vibrated I sent her a quick text “Im at a movie, call you later”. And she somehow managed to eek out an “OK” as a response.

This year we were seeing a movie last weekend and while we were waiting for it to start, my mom had me show her how to send a SMS, not just reply from her phone. I will admit the interface on her phone is kinda kludgey, but we figured it out. Cut to Tuesday of this week, I am out to dinner with my brother and old friend, as I posted about earlier in the week. While driving home my mom manages to send the following to me:

“Neil did you get this” – 11:33PM

“Dont know how to get message” – 11:33PM

“Laundry” – 11:49PM

“Did you get my message” – 12:07AM

Well, it’s something at least. Then last night I was out again, this time meeting a friend from SF who was having a homecoming of sorts to Chicago (he just moved out West earlier this year) at his old hangout bar. I figured I might as well go, since I am in town and all. After a while we leave that bar and go to another, that some people I met last night didn’t want to go to, there was a third bar they wanted to go to which interested me a bunch more – I mean it’s called Hungry Brain! Eventually I did make it to Hungry Brain with Courtney and Joe (who had just arrived before we headed out), and we hung out there for a bit, because it was approaching 2AM last call time. But they have IPAs on tap, so I have to give them a lot of credit. And a brain motif, including a sculpture of a brain with an Jeigermeister IV.

Anyway, after last call there, the two people I was with call the other people to see what they are up to. I figured I needed to head out east anyhow, as my car was there, so when they said “People are going to blah blah at 4200 Clark, I figured that put me a bit closer to my car than I was at the time, so I was game for hanging out some more. We got there, and hung out, and no one else came, so we decided to call it night. Just then my mom SMSed me:

Mom: “Hi are you having fun”
Neil: “Yeah probably headed home soon”

Hey, she’s getting the hang of it. So we go outside and say goodbye to Joe, who lives in the neighborhood, and Courtney and I share a cab, as my car was on the way to her place. On the drive south I get two texts:

“How is it going?”
“I am getting good at this sort of it just takes me a long time”

Courtney asked me who I got a text from, as it was getting close to 3am. I told her my mom and she thought it was hilariously cute that a) my mom figured out SMSing and b) that even at almost 33 years of age, she was waiting up for me. Yes, that’s the other strange part about my mom. When I’m staying at my parents house, she can’t go to bed (not sleep, she was asleep on the couch when I got home) until I get home. Which I guess is endearing in a way, but also sort of weird.

I’ve imported all the old content from my blogger travel blog. The Japan category encompasses that trip, and Travel encompasses it all, in case you are interested,

As I promised, here are some pics from yesterday.

Lake Michigan – it’s really big. I like how still it is compared to the ocean:

The Chicago skyline, as seen from beach near Montrose Harbor, through summertime haze:

The Water Tower, a survivor of the fire that made Chicago the city that it is today:

The John Hancock Center, one of the coolest buildings anywhere:

Last night I went to Avec in Chicago with my brother and our childhood friend Jason, who is my age. We actually had brunch with him and his wife and young son last Saturday, but more on that later. Avec is a “tapas” like place – well small plate Mediterranean food, to be exact, which is rather popular so we had a good long wait to be seated. It is primarily long communal tables, so as a party of three we had to wait for an end spot to free up to be seated. And the chair (besides the benches along the walls) have fake backs like 3-4 inches high. Just what I didn’t want after wandering around Chicago all day and standing for 90 minutes waiting for the seat.

Anyway the weird seating aside, dinner was good, and we had a fun time talking. One thing that came up is that Jason and his wife basically alternate who is sleeping and who is awake during the night, in shifts. He stays up Late and his wife gets up when he goes to sleep. Basically, he plays World of Warcraft all night, except when the baby needs attention. Even more strange, he plays on the server I started out on. He tried to get me back in to the game, and to get my brother playing. Keith was in to it, save for the fact that he doesn’t have internet at home currently. Hah.

I will post some pics from earlier in the day later.