Weekend Update: Plan B
You wouldn't know it just by guessing, but this weekend turned out great. I decided last week that I was sick of living Plan B, and I'd be doing everything in my power make my Plan A happen. As it would turn out, shifting to the weekend's Plan B after Plan A fell through helped me do just that.
Oh, prophetic ramblings! Oh, superlative irony!
[Early Father's Day]
Original plans called for me to be in Eau Claire on Sunday to celebrate this greeting-card holiday with my parents -- my dad starts a new job in the Cities today, and was packing up to leave Chicago -- which also would have meant leaving for Madison on Friday night to help break up the driving. Instead, I spent the evening with my Pop at his wonderful-yet-soon-to-be-sold condo in northern Chicago. We even got some Doctor Who viewing in! This turned out to be the best way this could have happened, because he didn't even get to Eau Claire until super-late last night, so if "Plan A" had gone through... as, erm, planned... I wouldn't have seen him at all!
But it was great. We talked about stuff and things, life changes, and my taxes! My dad's career before computers was accounting, so he loves this stuff. Is there a better Father's Day present than giving a man a chance to tell the government just where to stick it? I can't think of any.
[Snipe Hunting]
I met up with crabmoon and laviorli (with mandatory harassment of jeklnskinsgrl) on Saturday to look up and visit a few apartments. Sadly, as we took off well after many of their offices closed, we only got to check out exteriors and the general layout of said complexes, but this was really more of a cursory examination of options than any real thrust to go ahead and sign a lease. Once (and if) other elements fall into place, I'll definitely be giving one or more of these places a call. BOOYEAH.
[Crass Commercialism]
I've been spending a lot of money lately, and since I expected a few dollars to be gone no matter what, thanks to the IRS, I'm actually still in pretty good shape. I ended up "celebrating" at Half-Price Books.
I didn't expect to buy anything. I went to Guitar Center and got some new strings for my guitar (my high E broke last week, and only two months after replacing all the strings! vile). Apparently Guitar Center and Elixir got into a spat of some sort, so I was lucky they had any stock left at all. After that is was over to Westfield's, where xoshua was nowhere to be seen, but I DID pick up the new Liberty Meadows -- only two years in the making!
But I saw something... and I just couldn't help myself! LPs. Yeah. Despite having no turntable, I bought every single bit of Yes vinyl they had, as well as something by The Police for, erm, "balance". I also picked up a couple of Laserdiscs (for which I actually have a player). Round it off with a couple of old Spin Doctors CDs, and you have a complete purchase. Almost.
To really complete this nostalgia kick, I bought a DVD box set of The Greatest American Hero. I say "a" because it turns out I got the Season 3 set (thanks to koriandrkitten for pointing that out... jerk! :p). When I went back the next day for Season 1, it had already been sold...
[Fifteen-ish Minutes of Fame]
Earlier, xmerrie1039x declared that this weekend's Rocky would be a "free-for-all", so I absolutely had to check it out. Besides, I owed Holly some ramune from last time (when I forgot to put it in the car), and needed to make good on the promise, ya know?
Minus sacredspud, we did the best we could, but despite many missed or flubbed calls, I believe a good time was had by all. The missing cast was filled by audience members... in the darkness (was it velvet? hmm... too dark to tell!)... After being totally pwned for being Eddie -- which would have been a short and sweet role -- I got reluctantly roped into standing in as Brad for a bit. Enh. I helped out where needed, but that's not really my thing. At least the "here comes the sun!" bit still kills.
Anyone want to come down for the June 30th Midnight Madness show?
[A Prairie Home Companion]
Thanks to a pretty full Saturday, we didn't manage to see this movie, so on to Plan B! Schedules, mainly phil_bond's, made it difficult to do on Sunday, but we persevered anyway... sorta. Mary ducked out, and Lindsay didn't answer with enough time (which also might have given Holly something to do besides read), and -- as it turned out -- Caleb didn't need to be at work until an hour later. And... we were about 10-15 minutes late besides. Haven't had an experience like that since we all went to see The Matrix... seven years ago...
But it was great. Garrison Keillor definitely has a face for radio, but still great. I will definitely see it again.
Back to "Plan B" for now, but I'm working on it. Really, I am.
See (most of) you crazy kids next week!
~Sean
Oh, prophetic ramblings! Oh, superlative irony!
[Early Father's Day]
Original plans called for me to be in Eau Claire on Sunday to celebrate this greeting-card holiday with my parents -- my dad starts a new job in the Cities today, and was packing up to leave Chicago -- which also would have meant leaving for Madison on Friday night to help break up the driving. Instead, I spent the evening with my Pop at his wonderful-yet-soon-to-be-sold condo in northern Chicago. We even got some Doctor Who viewing in! This turned out to be the best way this could have happened, because he didn't even get to Eau Claire until super-late last night, so if "Plan A" had gone through... as, erm, planned... I wouldn't have seen him at all!
But it was great. We talked about stuff and things, life changes, and my taxes! My dad's career before computers was accounting, so he loves this stuff. Is there a better Father's Day present than giving a man a chance to tell the government just where to stick it? I can't think of any.
[Snipe Hunting]
I met up with crabmoon and laviorli (with mandatory harassment of jeklnskinsgrl) on Saturday to look up and visit a few apartments. Sadly, as we took off well after many of their offices closed, we only got to check out exteriors and the general layout of said complexes, but this was really more of a cursory examination of options than any real thrust to go ahead and sign a lease. Once (and if) other elements fall into place, I'll definitely be giving one or more of these places a call. BOOYEAH.
[Crass Commercialism]
I've been spending a lot of money lately, and since I expected a few dollars to be gone no matter what, thanks to the IRS, I'm actually still in pretty good shape. I ended up "celebrating" at Half-Price Books.
I didn't expect to buy anything. I went to Guitar Center and got some new strings for my guitar (my high E broke last week, and only two months after replacing all the strings! vile). Apparently Guitar Center and Elixir got into a spat of some sort, so I was lucky they had any stock left at all. After that is was over to Westfield's, where xoshua was nowhere to be seen, but I DID pick up the new Liberty Meadows -- only two years in the making!
But I saw something... and I just couldn't help myself! LPs. Yeah. Despite having no turntable, I bought every single bit of Yes vinyl they had, as well as something by The Police for, erm, "balance". I also picked up a couple of Laserdiscs (for which I actually have a player). Round it off with a couple of old Spin Doctors CDs, and you have a complete purchase. Almost.
To really complete this nostalgia kick, I bought a DVD box set of The Greatest American Hero. I say "a" because it turns out I got the Season 3 set (thanks to koriandrkitten for pointing that out... jerk! :p). When I went back the next day for Season 1, it had already been sold...
[Fifteen-ish Minutes of Fame]
Earlier, xmerrie1039x declared that this weekend's Rocky would be a "free-for-all", so I absolutely had to check it out. Besides, I owed Holly some ramune from last time (when I forgot to put it in the car), and needed to make good on the promise, ya know?
Minus sacredspud, we did the best we could, but despite many missed or flubbed calls, I believe a good time was had by all. The missing cast was filled by audience members... in the darkness (was it velvet? hmm... too dark to tell!)... After being totally pwned for being Eddie -- which would have been a short and sweet role -- I got reluctantly roped into standing in as Brad for a bit. Enh. I helped out where needed, but that's not really my thing. At least the "here comes the sun!" bit still kills.
Anyone want to come down for the June 30th Midnight Madness show?
[A Prairie Home Companion]
Thanks to a pretty full Saturday, we didn't manage to see this movie, so on to Plan B! Schedules, mainly phil_bond's, made it difficult to do on Sunday, but we persevered anyway... sorta. Mary ducked out, and Lindsay didn't answer with enough time (which also might have given Holly something to do besides read), and -- as it turned out -- Caleb didn't need to be at work until an hour later. And... we were about 10-15 minutes late besides. Haven't had an experience like that since we all went to see The Matrix... seven years ago...
But it was great. Garrison Keillor definitely has a face for radio, but still great. I will definitely see it again.
Back to "Plan B" for now, but I'm working on it. Really, I am.
See (most of) you crazy kids next week!
~Sean