Updates
So its been a busy few weeks here. Since my last post I went to chicago and back, continued supporting Al through her brother's wedding drama, and failed to have a vasectomy.
Went to stay with my older sister in chicago for 4 days. I can say that thankfully, i did not smell like fish by the end and my sister even broke down in tears when it was time to go. We've become really close over the last few years, and its been really nice.
But while we were there, we had a great time. The first day Al and I wanded chicago by ourselves taking the L train to the Natural sciences museum (she'd know the name, but I don't remember. Its the one with Sue the T-Rex in it.) We saw Sue (he's hard to miss), and also spent a little extra to see their mythological creates exhibit. Totally not worth it. It might have been for someone less versed in mythology than Al and I, but there was very little new information. And the bits about dinosaur bones potentially being the basis for dragons wasn't exactly blinding insight. There were a couple of new things though. The coolest bit was watching lab techs working up on the 3rd floor. They had signs saying "do not tap on the glass" or somesuch. It made it feel like the lab techs were in a zoolike display - Do Not Feed The Lab Tech!!! It amused me. That night, we took my sister to see Avenue Q. That was definitely a blast.
On Friday, we went with my sister and her Fiance and saw the Aquarium (awesome), and the planetarium, which was so-so. For dinner, we went to a place called Glenn's diner, which had some amazing fish. There breakfast was really good to (we went there again sunday morning).
Saturday, on several people's recommendation, I demanded that we go to Hot Doug's. There I got a jerked sausage (with plantain!!!) and their fries. OMG their fries!! These are apparently fried in duck fat. So terribly delicious.
After that, it was off to the Art institute (which was sadly much closed for renovations, but still enjoyable) and then a walk around the park in that area. They had two giant obelisks with water flowing from the tops and over all 4 sides and digital faces that appeared and spat water into the center space. And there were children and adults playing in and around them. It was really neat. We went back to the house and played several sessions of Rockband. Now, I have chuckled quietly at the growing addiction to this game, but I chuckle no longer (having purchased the base set myself). It is really quiet a bit of fun. My sister works for the video game industry, so she gets tax write offs for most of her purchases (she is investing in and researching her industry), and thus has all the cool toys. After that we went to a nice Italian place called Francesca's. Very tasty food. Sadly, my stomach chose than night to act up (always gets upset when i travel), so I didn't really enjoy my dinner until the next night. When we got back, we played more rockband and chilled out.
Sunday was mostly relaxing. We did run out to Ikea (which was farther than expected) and played around there. After that, it was more Rockband and then running out to the airport to fly home.
I'm going to try to get some pics up on my flickr site, but we'll see how motivated i turn out to be.
Al's brother is getting married, and for those that haven't heard me bitching about it, they've set the date for July 4th. Yup, that's right, they've decided to make everyone drive out to their wedding on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. More than that, they are co-opting a day off for their own purposes. I get that it is a day most people are guaranteed to have off, but I still think it is shitty and self-centered for them to have done so. Of course, I think they're entirely self-centered in their world view, so it isn't exactly unexpected.
Plus, there has recently been increased tension between Al and her brother over our decision surrounding putting people (specifically, their parents) up in our place. I requested that we not have people in our place for more than 4 days and nights. He turned around and (for all intents and purposes) accused her of not doing enough to help the family (translation: him) and not being a good daughter because she put limitations on when they could stay. Her father has (probably at the instigation of her brother) decided that this means that we aren't welcoming them into our house and have made noises about renting a hotel that they can't really afford rather than stay with us. And both of them have been at her about how controlling I am and the changes (with definite negative connotations) that she has been going through. This, strangely enough, has resulted in my having developed a definite chill towards them. I am attempting to take the high road and stand aside from this bickering, but it is not easy, especially when Al gets upset and needs to talk and I have to decide between being comforting and defending myself. Plus, I am trying to keep from letting all of this stress me out, since the last thing either of us need is to be going at each other while all of this is happening
Finally, to top off the recent activities, I attempted to get a vasectomy last friday, and failed. Well, I didn't fail as much as the doctor failed, and his failure caused the whole procedure to come unglued. See, there is a consent form that anyone under 30 and without children (natural or adopted) must sign at least 30 days before the procedure at this hospital. What I didn't know, and what the doc failed to catch, was that the form, once signed and dated, is only good for 6 months. I originally signed my form back in november, 30 days before the originally scheduled surgery. However, the date was just over the 6 month requirement. So I was sitting around the surgery prep area in nothing but a hospital gown waiting around for close to 2 hours only to be informed that we would need to rescheduled. The only upside, because i had had concerns about the anesthesia they were going to administer, and wanted to talk to the doctor about it, they didn't administer it to me before cancelling the apt. Otherwise, I would have been all drugged up and would probably have had to argue with the hospital about paying for those services.
Other than that, life has been fairly normal. Plenty of plans in the works, but we'll see how those fall.
Went to stay with my older sister in chicago for 4 days. I can say that thankfully, i did not smell like fish by the end and my sister even broke down in tears when it was time to go. We've become really close over the last few years, and its been really nice.
But while we were there, we had a great time. The first day Al and I wanded chicago by ourselves taking the L train to the Natural sciences museum (she'd know the name, but I don't remember. Its the one with Sue the T-Rex in it.) We saw Sue (he's hard to miss), and also spent a little extra to see their mythological creates exhibit. Totally not worth it. It might have been for someone less versed in mythology than Al and I, but there was very little new information. And the bits about dinosaur bones potentially being the basis for dragons wasn't exactly blinding insight. There were a couple of new things though. The coolest bit was watching lab techs working up on the 3rd floor. They had signs saying "do not tap on the glass" or somesuch. It made it feel like the lab techs were in a zoolike display - Do Not Feed The Lab Tech!!! It amused me. That night, we took my sister to see Avenue Q. That was definitely a blast.
On Friday, we went with my sister and her Fiance and saw the Aquarium (awesome), and the planetarium, which was so-so. For dinner, we went to a place called Glenn's diner, which had some amazing fish. There breakfast was really good to (we went there again sunday morning).
Saturday, on several people's recommendation, I demanded that we go to Hot Doug's. There I got a jerked sausage (with plantain!!!) and their fries. OMG their fries!! These are apparently fried in duck fat. So terribly delicious.
After that, it was off to the Art institute (which was sadly much closed for renovations, but still enjoyable) and then a walk around the park in that area. They had two giant obelisks with water flowing from the tops and over all 4 sides and digital faces that appeared and spat water into the center space. And there were children and adults playing in and around them. It was really neat. We went back to the house and played several sessions of Rockband. Now, I have chuckled quietly at the growing addiction to this game, but I chuckle no longer (having purchased the base set myself). It is really quiet a bit of fun. My sister works for the video game industry, so she gets tax write offs for most of her purchases (she is investing in and researching her industry), and thus has all the cool toys. After that we went to a nice Italian place called Francesca's. Very tasty food. Sadly, my stomach chose than night to act up (always gets upset when i travel), so I didn't really enjoy my dinner until the next night. When we got back, we played more rockband and chilled out.
Sunday was mostly relaxing. We did run out to Ikea (which was farther than expected) and played around there. After that, it was more Rockband and then running out to the airport to fly home.
I'm going to try to get some pics up on my flickr site, but we'll see how motivated i turn out to be.
Al's brother is getting married, and for those that haven't heard me bitching about it, they've set the date for July 4th. Yup, that's right, they've decided to make everyone drive out to their wedding on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. More than that, they are co-opting a day off for their own purposes. I get that it is a day most people are guaranteed to have off, but I still think it is shitty and self-centered for them to have done so. Of course, I think they're entirely self-centered in their world view, so it isn't exactly unexpected.
Plus, there has recently been increased tension between Al and her brother over our decision surrounding putting people (specifically, their parents) up in our place. I requested that we not have people in our place for more than 4 days and nights. He turned around and (for all intents and purposes) accused her of not doing enough to help the family (translation: him) and not being a good daughter because she put limitations on when they could stay. Her father has (probably at the instigation of her brother) decided that this means that we aren't welcoming them into our house and have made noises about renting a hotel that they can't really afford rather than stay with us. And both of them have been at her about how controlling I am and the changes (with definite negative connotations) that she has been going through. This, strangely enough, has resulted in my having developed a definite chill towards them. I am attempting to take the high road and stand aside from this bickering, but it is not easy, especially when Al gets upset and needs to talk and I have to decide between being comforting and defending myself. Plus, I am trying to keep from letting all of this stress me out, since the last thing either of us need is to be going at each other while all of this is happening
Finally, to top off the recent activities, I attempted to get a vasectomy last friday, and failed. Well, I didn't fail as much as the doctor failed, and his failure caused the whole procedure to come unglued. See, there is a consent form that anyone under 30 and without children (natural or adopted) must sign at least 30 days before the procedure at this hospital. What I didn't know, and what the doc failed to catch, was that the form, once signed and dated, is only good for 6 months. I originally signed my form back in november, 30 days before the originally scheduled surgery. However, the date was just over the 6 month requirement. So I was sitting around the surgery prep area in nothing but a hospital gown waiting around for close to 2 hours only to be informed that we would need to rescheduled. The only upside, because i had had concerns about the anesthesia they were going to administer, and wanted to talk to the doctor about it, they didn't administer it to me before cancelling the apt. Otherwise, I would have been all drugged up and would probably have had to argue with the hospital about paying for those services.
Other than that, life has been fairly normal. Plenty of plans in the works, but we'll see how those fall.