Sir Grump Munch

June 23, 2003

Most of a week.

Another busy week and weekend, so much to recall. I need to do updates more frequently, but that conflicts with my whole "get out and enjoy life more" thing, so I'm torn...

Monday I had a late dinner with Maniotes at the Chicago Diner. I'm pretty sure it was Tuesday that I ate dinner with Naz at Joy's Noodles on Broadway, and Wednesday that I went out for tea and Vegan Black Forest Cake at Kopi Café with Kelly. Thursday saw another kind social invitation from Naz, who I met (along with Allan, Simone, and a few others) at the Wicker Park Holiday for a little celebration of Marta's (Naz's Polish-American vegan roommate) birthday. Happy Birthday Marta! After that on Thursday I went to Neo (no more Carol's Pub, I'm fed up with that scene) for "New Wave" night, where I watched beautiful girls dance and tried to steer clear of the throngs of gay men (I accidentally wore an old thriftstore shirt that had sort of a rainbow on it...whoops) and a few irascible bikers.

Friday evening until early Sunday AM I was treated to the company of Vanessa, who'd spent the work week in nearby Milwaukee and couldn't resist the siren song of Chicago traffic this weekend. We ate Indian food at Udupi Palace (so-so) and watched movies (Buddhist Shaolin Avengers and The State)on Friday. Saturday we broke fast at Pick-Me-Up then headed to the lake and then downtown for lots of walking in the hot sun around the "Jag Mile" area and over to Navy Pier (neither of us had been before). We soaked up the scenes of tourists, sailors, and teenagers before heading up to Scooterworks to pick up some essentials and chat with the crew. We met Naz for dinner at Alice and Friends and watched more movies (Shaolin Fox Conspiracy, as well as highlights from Dragon Master, Deadly China Hero, and Assault of Final Rival) Saturday night. She got up early and drove back to Minneapolis to her boy and kitty, both of whom were surely wild with anticipation at her return. She's one of the smartest people I know and talented in several disciplines to boot. I'm so happy for my friends who've teamed-up with such fine women (Draplin, Ryno, Hudson, Dimmel, etc...I hope you know who you are). I'm still searching for my better half, but am confident that eventually, we will find each other.

Sunday I went to the lake for a while and then made some curried mock duck with potatoes for the Earthsave vegan potluck. Learned more about bicycling in Chicago from the guest speakers and plan to start bicycling more this summer (I rode to work today).

This week: I plan to walk to work some morning to document the colorful neighborhoods in-between my abode and work. I plan to give a scooter ride to a cute girl I've never met. I plan to attend an Earthsave meeting, a KFC protest, a Japanese summer festival, a Metalucifer concert and go to Neo again for more dancing-watching. You could say I'm "livin la vida loca."

Current favorite song: Archangel by Samhain.

Posted by pj at June 23, 2003 09:29 PM