(no subject)
My trip to visit Fella was lovely.
I rode home with Arturo after work on Friday night. There was so much happening in my brain that I didn't sleep much.
Saturday morning, we stopped by his funky Walgreens - such short shelves! - on the way to the airport. I had bought some books for my Kindle app, so I read Katharine Kerr on my phone once I'd made it through the extremely long security lines (I will try to avoid flying on Saturday mornings in future). It was a gray day in Chicago, with thick, heavy clouds, and the moment the plane climbed through into sunshine filled me with beauty. After we reached the lovely sameness of the rippled cloudscape, I went back to reading my book until my phone battery dropped to half, at which point I switched to a hardback book I had purchased a few weeks ago, Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. It is a YA book about time travel, translated from German, and the cover calls it "The International Bestseller." It's pretty enjoyable so far; if I get motivated I may write it up once I finish it.
Once Fella picked me up at the airport, we went to lunch at the Dundee Dell, home of the Great Wall of Scotch, for fried pickles, their unique asiago cheese sticks, and fish and chips. They have a crazy good marinara sauce. After that we headed back to his apartment, and later went out to join his hashing group. If you are unfamiliar with hashing, it's like a scouting hike only with beer on the trail and dirty lyrics inserted into the songs. Afterwards, we all went for appetizers, and were considering staying for karaoke but decided to leave when Scott texted to ask a favor requiring a computer. Headed home and kept company pleasantly until I hit the wall and it was time to sack out.
Sunday, we did mostly shopping: Rocket Fizz, a soda and candy shop where I horrified Fella by putting Cel Ray, the celery flavored soda, in our sack, and I also found Chocolate Pop Rocks, which filled me with hilarity; we stopped for lovely lunch at the excellent Mexican place with the not-at-all-Mexican-sounding name of D'Leons; we went to Shopko for a card table, and I also failed to buy a swimsuit (weird two pieces and $80 dollar one pieces?!); Trader Joe's, which failed to be as cool as the hype led me to expect, but does have truly excellent Thai food in pouches: and finishing out with a stop by a hasher's house to visit the mini-thrift store in her basement, where I successfully purchased a swimsuit for $5 and also had two other items pressed upon me.
In the late afternoon/early evening, I fell asleep while Fella made a mild curry in preparation for company. Hashers Tank and Bunzz and Garbage Day crew Justin, Michelle and Mary came over for boardgames - of course we played Apples to Apples, which I won because I am so neat, spicy, worldly, squeaky clean and smart. We also played Betrayal at House on the Hill, which Justin won by killing all the bodies of the players who were travelling astrally and trying to kill him. At some point I brought out the Cel Ray, so that everyone could have a new experience while only having about a shot's worth to endure. I had the strongest reaction against it, which I find hilarious - I was tasting celery for five minutes after. After all that, we watched Invasion of the Pod People, which taught us that ginger turns people into vacuous lesbians, though really, who doesn't know that?
Monday was a day for taking it easy. We went for an afternoon swim in some ridiculously high winds; the complex pool looked like a wave pool. The winds were warm and the water only cool, not cold, and since we were alone we were free to be very silly, which we did assiduously. I had a huge amount of fun doing that. Once we'd dried off we met Joan for dinner at Blue Orchid, since she had been unable to attend the previous evening, and we all tried new things with great results - I had thought tom yum was a coconut milk-based soup, not a clear soup, but I liked it a lot even though it was a surprise! After our wonderful dinner, Joan left for work and we went to Applebee's for karaoke. Our duet went quite well, and Fella's "Life is a Rock" impressed our tablemates. I sang "Let's Hear It For the Boy" since I have loved it forever, and I had not heard it in ages and laughed through the high scat or whatever at the end.
Tuesday is when I actually had the Trader Joe's pouches to find out how tasty they were. Then Fella made his crazy salad with black eyed peas for me - quite good! Gonna add them to my list of salad ingredients to use. After that, I packed and showered, and we got gas and swung by Mr. Goodcents, which has excellent subs and a creepy mascot. From there we went to Omaha, got to the airport in plenty of time, and sat at one of the tables until it was time for me to find my gate. Plane was slightly delayed, about 20 minutes, no other issues with the flight. Mike and Lea picked me up and here I am. Now I have to get back to life, I guess!
I rode home with Arturo after work on Friday night. There was so much happening in my brain that I didn't sleep much.
Saturday morning, we stopped by his funky Walgreens - such short shelves! - on the way to the airport. I had bought some books for my Kindle app, so I read Katharine Kerr on my phone once I'd made it through the extremely long security lines (I will try to avoid flying on Saturday mornings in future). It was a gray day in Chicago, with thick, heavy clouds, and the moment the plane climbed through into sunshine filled me with beauty. After we reached the lovely sameness of the rippled cloudscape, I went back to reading my book until my phone battery dropped to half, at which point I switched to a hardback book I had purchased a few weeks ago, Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. It is a YA book about time travel, translated from German, and the cover calls it "The International Bestseller." It's pretty enjoyable so far; if I get motivated I may write it up once I finish it.
Once Fella picked me up at the airport, we went to lunch at the Dundee Dell, home of the Great Wall of Scotch, for fried pickles, their unique asiago cheese sticks, and fish and chips. They have a crazy good marinara sauce. After that we headed back to his apartment, and later went out to join his hashing group. If you are unfamiliar with hashing, it's like a scouting hike only with beer on the trail and dirty lyrics inserted into the songs. Afterwards, we all went for appetizers, and were considering staying for karaoke but decided to leave when Scott texted to ask a favor requiring a computer. Headed home and kept company pleasantly until I hit the wall and it was time to sack out.
Sunday, we did mostly shopping: Rocket Fizz, a soda and candy shop where I horrified Fella by putting Cel Ray, the celery flavored soda, in our sack, and I also found Chocolate Pop Rocks, which filled me with hilarity; we stopped for lovely lunch at the excellent Mexican place with the not-at-all-Mexican-sounding name of D'Leons; we went to Shopko for a card table, and I also failed to buy a swimsuit (weird two pieces and $80 dollar one pieces?!); Trader Joe's, which failed to be as cool as the hype led me to expect, but does have truly excellent Thai food in pouches: and finishing out with a stop by a hasher's house to visit the mini-thrift store in her basement, where I successfully purchased a swimsuit for $5 and also had two other items pressed upon me.
In the late afternoon/early evening, I fell asleep while Fella made a mild curry in preparation for company. Hashers Tank and Bunzz and Garbage Day crew Justin, Michelle and Mary came over for boardgames - of course we played Apples to Apples, which I won because I am so neat, spicy, worldly, squeaky clean and smart. We also played Betrayal at House on the Hill, which Justin won by killing all the bodies of the players who were travelling astrally and trying to kill him. At some point I brought out the Cel Ray, so that everyone could have a new experience while only having about a shot's worth to endure. I had the strongest reaction against it, which I find hilarious - I was tasting celery for five minutes after. After all that, we watched Invasion of the Pod People, which taught us that ginger turns people into vacuous lesbians, though really, who doesn't know that?
Monday was a day for taking it easy. We went for an afternoon swim in some ridiculously high winds; the complex pool looked like a wave pool. The winds were warm and the water only cool, not cold, and since we were alone we were free to be very silly, which we did assiduously. I had a huge amount of fun doing that. Once we'd dried off we met Joan for dinner at Blue Orchid, since she had been unable to attend the previous evening, and we all tried new things with great results - I had thought tom yum was a coconut milk-based soup, not a clear soup, but I liked it a lot even though it was a surprise! After our wonderful dinner, Joan left for work and we went to Applebee's for karaoke. Our duet went quite well, and Fella's "Life is a Rock" impressed our tablemates. I sang "Let's Hear It For the Boy" since I have loved it forever, and I had not heard it in ages and laughed through the high scat or whatever at the end.
Tuesday is when I actually had the Trader Joe's pouches to find out how tasty they were. Then Fella made his crazy salad with black eyed peas for me - quite good! Gonna add them to my list of salad ingredients to use. After that, I packed and showered, and we got gas and swung by Mr. Goodcents, which has excellent subs and a creepy mascot. From there we went to Omaha, got to the airport in plenty of time, and sat at one of the tables until it was time for me to find my gate. Plane was slightly delayed, about 20 minutes, no other issues with the flight. Mike and Lea picked me up and here I am. Now I have to get back to life, I guess!
