Prairie Landing
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Since Colliculus is effectively on hiatus, time to catch up on some photo-posting!
We went to Seadragon's wedding Memorial Day weekend, which was an awesome, awesome time. The wedding and reception overlooked the Hudson River, the day was beautiful, and we hung out with our friends for something like 7 hours. It was a long, drunken reception to say the least.
The night before the wedding, we stayed at our friend's parents' house, which had *the coolest*, the most retro decor. Photos did not do it justice but here's a sample:
The night of the wedding, we stayed at the nastiest motel I've ever set foot in. We shared the room with 3 of our friends, one of whom had to sleep on the floor. He's lucky he didn't get infested with anything because I'm fairly certain I didn't hallucinate the critters I saw running around at 5 in the morning. There was an A/C unit over my head and it made loud clanking noises all night. It was like having my head under a dishwasher. Imagine my surprise when the next morning I discovered that wasn't the only thing it had in common with a dishwasher:
We went to Seadragon's wedding Memorial Day weekend, which was an awesome, awesome time. The wedding and reception overlooked the Hudson River, the day was beautiful, and we hung out with our friends for something like 7 hours. It was a long, drunken reception to say the least.
The night before the wedding, we stayed at our friend's parents' house, which had *the coolest*, the most retro decor. Photos did not do it justice but here's a sample:
The night of the wedding, we stayed at the nastiest motel I've ever set foot in. We shared the room with 3 of our friends, one of whom had to sleep on the floor. He's lucky he didn't get infested with anything because I'm fairly certain I didn't hallucinate the critters I saw running around at 5 in the morning. There was an A/C unit over my head and it made loud clanking noises all night. It was like having my head under a dishwasher. Imagine my surprise when the next morning I discovered that wasn't the only thing it had in common with a dishwasher:
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The world is small
. . . when you work at a big agency.
Today I was about to get off a plane and the guy next to me piped up -- as people often do right after landing, when it's safe to talk because you're not going to get stuck in a conversation that's boring, irritating, or fine except for the lack of socially graceful exit strategies. He saw my be-logoed bag and said, "You work for Agency E?" It turned out he worked there for 4 years, in the New York office.
Then on the jetway I was behind another guy, who was really slow and kind of blocking my way with his bags and such. When we got into the gate he turned around and said, "I used to work for Agency E too, here in Chicago."
BTW I was unimpressed with the "no liquids" thing. There are a lot of signs up but not a lot of enforcement. I could have bought a bottle of water (or anything else) at the gate and brought it on the plane, without anyone at the gate even *asking* passengers if they had liquids. I mean c'mon, at least lay the guilt trip on us!
I got a blackberry last night. Today I noticed that 100% of first-class passengers were operating either a phone or a blackberry when I got on and trooped back to the cattle lot.
Today I was about to get off a plane and the guy next to me piped up -- as people often do right after landing, when it's safe to talk because you're not going to get stuck in a conversation that's boring, irritating, or fine except for the lack of socially graceful exit strategies. He saw my be-logoed bag and said, "You work for Agency E?" It turned out he worked there for 4 years, in the New York office.
Then on the jetway I was behind another guy, who was really slow and kind of blocking my way with his bags and such. When we got into the gate he turned around and said, "I used to work for Agency E too, here in Chicago."
BTW I was unimpressed with the "no liquids" thing. There are a lot of signs up but not a lot of enforcement. I could have bought a bottle of water (or anything else) at the gate and brought it on the plane, without anyone at the gate even *asking* passengers if they had liquids. I mean c'mon, at least lay the guilt trip on us!
I got a blackberry last night. Today I noticed that 100% of first-class passengers were operating either a phone or a blackberry when I got on and trooped back to the cattle lot.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Oh, how I love idiosyncratic, expressive homemade signs!
Lately I've seen a bunch where people abuse the "thought bubble" clip art, so that items for sale are thinking about stuff they totally would never think about, if they had thoughts at all. This one takes it a step beyond.
This is in a tea shop, by the way. They sell tea drinks, really expensive loose tea, tea pots, and the provocatively named Yummy Buns. Make sense?
There's another one in our neighborhood where a hot dog is contemplating its tastiness, but I don't have a picture of that yet.
Homemade bank signs are a little harder to come by. I like the CDs and the little flame that is just THAT excited about a 5.35% APR.
Lately I've seen a bunch where people abuse the "thought bubble" clip art, so that items for sale are thinking about stuff they totally would never think about, if they had thoughts at all. This one takes it a step beyond.
This is in a tea shop, by the way. They sell tea drinks, really expensive loose tea, tea pots, and the provocatively named Yummy Buns. Make sense?
There's another one in our neighborhood where a hot dog is contemplating its tastiness, but I don't have a picture of that yet.
Homemade bank signs are a little harder to come by. I like the CDs and the little flame that is just THAT excited about a 5.35% APR.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The Magic Captain
I read this week that commuting via public transportation induces stress just like driving at rush hour.
Witness:
I'm riding home today and this mushmouth behind me is making a commotion. He's bumping me with his newspaper and trying to get the attention of the girl across the aisle by yelling, "Hey! White Girl! What's that picture you got?" White Girl is studiously -- very studiously -- pretending not to hear him, which is bugging him more and more. Finally he taps my shoulder. I turn around and he asks, "Why won't that white girl talk to me? She pretend she don't even hear me!" I said, "Well, first of all, it's kind of rude to call someone 'White Girl.'"
(This is not the first time I have stepped into the role of CTA Conductor of Etiquette. As in, "People might have pens, but they might not lend you one if you start by asking them, 'What the fuck is wrong with you fuckers? Don't nobody have a pen?'")
Anyway, Mushmouth insisted he didn't mean it that way. I understand, right? "And besides, maybe she doesn't feel like talking right now."
This shut him up for about 10 seconds and then he was at it again, shouting about the picture while she forcefully, now, ignored him and everyone else looked nervous. He said that there was something he was going to do to her with the picture, and eventually got up, walked around so he was facing the picture, looked it over and then threatened to break it. Still, she refused to look at him.
She got off right about then at Fullerton and three DePaul students got on. Immediately he greeted one of them, saying, "I'm the Magic Cap'n. What's your name?" She introduced herself and they got on like old friends. Tension disappeared. He became a harmless, friendly CTA rider and nothing more.
Witness:
I'm riding home today and this mushmouth behind me is making a commotion. He's bumping me with his newspaper and trying to get the attention of the girl across the aisle by yelling, "Hey! White Girl! What's that picture you got?" White Girl is studiously -- very studiously -- pretending not to hear him, which is bugging him more and more. Finally he taps my shoulder. I turn around and he asks, "Why won't that white girl talk to me? She pretend she don't even hear me!" I said, "Well, first of all, it's kind of rude to call someone 'White Girl.'"
(This is not the first time I have stepped into the role of CTA Conductor of Etiquette. As in, "People might have pens, but they might not lend you one if you start by asking them, 'What the fuck is wrong with you fuckers? Don't nobody have a pen?'")
Anyway, Mushmouth insisted he didn't mean it that way. I understand, right? "And besides, maybe she doesn't feel like talking right now."
This shut him up for about 10 seconds and then he was at it again, shouting about the picture while she forcefully, now, ignored him and everyone else looked nervous. He said that there was something he was going to do to her with the picture, and eventually got up, walked around so he was facing the picture, looked it over and then threatened to break it. Still, she refused to look at him.
She got off right about then at Fullerton and three DePaul students got on. Immediately he greeted one of them, saying, "I'm the Magic Cap'n. What's your name?" She introduced herself and they got on like old friends. Tension disappeared. He became a harmless, friendly CTA rider and nothing more.
