C is for Codycat

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 04:24:00 +0000

Goodbye, Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Thu, 26 May 2011 04:12:00 +0000

In about two days, I'll be leaving Chicago for another adventure in Cincy/Covington, KY. KY will be the fourth state I've lived in, but since it's a stones throw from OH, it really doesn't count. I have mixed emotions about leaving a place I've called home for 7 years. Geez, has it really been that long? I only lasted in L.A for 5 and that seemed like an eternity. I find parallels between the two cities and my current mentality. I left L.A to run away from things. I met my first real boyfriend out there, then followed him to Chicago only to have that relationship go down in a ball of flames. I also decided L.A was too stressful, expensive, and that I'd accomplished everything I was going to out there. I was ready to shift gears, and those gears was towards a journalism career. I moved home for 8 months, which wouldn't have been so bad except for the constant brow beating between me and the boyfriend. Living at home gave me a chance to collect myself and move to a new city: Chicago. I never thought I'd last more than a couple of months in the Windy City. I actually planned on going to N.Y soon after the move but life has a funny way of not giving you what you want, or at least steering you in a completely different direction. 7 years ago if you told me I wouldn't end up in NY, I would've cried. Today, I'm glad I never made the move, but who knows. It could still happen. I think when you're in your 20s, there's a certain allure of the big city, which is why I was attracted to L.A then Chicago. But now I'm heading into my mid-30s and I gasp at the idea of continuing to live in an overpriced, overcrowded, overwhelming city. I want stability. I want a real home and I feel like I can't get that here. My current apartment is dirt cheap but I have no amenities. I don't own a couch or a bed and there isn't a dishwasher or central air or laundry in this building. There are bugs. Flying and crawling ones that I can't get rid of. I'm tired of living like a college kid. I need a place where I won't be embarrassed to invite people over. I need to be an adult, and it's quite difficult to be an adult in a city where if you don't make oodles of money, you can't afford to live like one. Sure, there are things I'll miss about Chi-town. I'll miss the free public pools, the lakefront, my few friends, the skyline, music venues and shows galore and saying I live in Chicago because that sounds better than saying you live in KY. I won't miss the high taxes and the cold weather and all the people and the sports teams and the neighbor upstairs who won't quit stomping around and I won't miss the winters or the overabundance of sushi restaurants or the overwhelming feelings I constantly have. I could go on but I'm being negative. No matter what, the music scene and John Hughes will always epitomize the city for me (heck, I've even been on the unofficial John Hughes tour). When I moved to Chicago almost exactly 7 years ago, I moved here on a whim with a boyfriend. He had told his family we were moving up here before he even told me. Bad sign. I didn't get a say in the place we lived. I didn't get a say in much. I just was a hanger-on. We lived in a studio (!) apt. It was very small and cramped and wasn't designed for two people to live together. A few months into it, we broke up. It was horrible. I was homeless the first of two times. Yes, I was "homeless" twice. I never was homeless in L.A or OH. A lot of horrible things happened to me while living in Chicago (like losing my dad and being so poor I had to pay a cover with change), but I like to think it helped me build character and become independent. Living in L.A, I was also forced to be independent and not rely on others. After the breakup, I could've easily moved back to OH, but I decided to stick it out. I had a couple of jobs. I didn't like them but they paid the bills. Then I really started writing. I wrote a lot for various local and national publications. I found my voice, so to speak. I became a real journalist. I started going to concerts. I interviewed bands. I went to Sundance. I became that kid from the movie Almost Famous. It was amazing. Between 2006-2008, I was single. It pretty much sucked. I met a lot of interesting men, but they all turned out to be duds in their own way. I quickly realized I wasn't good at being single. Then one spring day four years ago I met someone who changed my life. He was good. Really good. And we became good friends. Then we became more than friends. And now we're moving to KY together. I guess that saying about one door closing and another one opening rings true -- it's like I lost the first boyfriend but then I gained another, better one. It's almost like he was the reason for me to move here. If I hadn't, maybe I never would've met him. Let's just hope things won't go awry for us once we move to a new place. I'm scared to move but also excited. I haven't moved in three years, which has been kind of nice. I really hate moving but at least I won't have to do it alone like I did when I left L.A. I know this won't be the end with my relationship with Chicago. I know I'll be back. I'll miss my friends but I don't see most of them on a regular basis, anyway. I've seen a lot of good friends come and go, which has been pretty hard, especially when you feel like they're leaving you behind. I've always felt Chicago was a transient city, where people come for a short while then move on. It seems like it's a mandatory destination for a lot of people, especially creative ones. There have been so many actors who've lived in Chicago before they springboarded into something better. I'm hoping that holds true for me. I also was thinking how there really aren't places I'll want to return to when I visit the city. It's not like I have my fave bar or restaurant. I think the only things I'll ever want to do are return to the music venues I once frequented, but the way things are going, I may phase out concerts completely. I'll have to find a new career in KY. Maybe I'll keep writing about the same things or maybe I'll venture into something else. What I really want to do is write that book, which maybe I'll finally get around to doing soon. I know people think it's weird why I want to leave Chicago, but I have my reasons. There are hills in Cincy/KY! Rolling hills. There's a lookout where you can see the entire city from a park! Food trucks are legal! And so is happy hour. Chicago is the only major U.S city that doesn't allow happy hour. WTF? Living there won't be a permanent thing (I think), it's just a brief stop along the way to something else. I miss my family a lot. They're getting older and I need to be closer to them. I need to take my nephew to Kings Island. I need him to come visit me for the weekend. I need to go to Cedar Point. I need to go back to Athens, OH. I desperately need to get a cat because the kitty I brought from L.A passed away recently and that confirmed to me my childhood is really over. I need to fill that void with another kitty. I also need to figure out a way to become rich because I'm sick of not being rich or just scrapping by.

But where do I go from here? Up I hope. I need to find a part-time job in my new city. I need to make more money. I'm looking forward to decorating my own goddamn home to my liking. This will be the first time since college I get to live in my own home that I picked out that wasn't previously inhabited with a roommate/stranger. When I move in, the place will be completely empty, and I'm looking forward to that. Finally, a real home. This also will be the first time I've lived within driving distance of my mom. Before, I've lived way to far away to make a day trip or I've lived with her under the same roof. I'll be far enough to have my own life but close enough to pop in for dinner. And to me, that sounds pretty great.

Closed for the Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Seeing as I haven't updated this thing in a couple of weeks and seeing I have no intention to, now would be a good time to mention my hiatus from this blog. I've been steadily ranting and raving for the past 2 1/2 years, but I just don't have it in me anymore. That's not to say I don't have things to rant about, it's just that I really think I should keep certain things to myself. I've had to learn this the hard way of the past couple of years. So, from now on, if you want to know what I've been up, contact me the old fashioned way: send me a message. Yup, it's that easy. Hope everyone's summer is going well. I can't believe it's August already! So much to do, so little time. Maybe I'll eventually return to this format, but for now, happy trails fellow readers (those of you who still frequently read my dribble).

Saugatuck, MI

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:38:00 +0000

From Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon, the boyfriend and I spent some quality beach time in Saugatuck, MI. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Chicago. The weather was simply great -- low 80s and lots of sunshine. Saugatuck is definitely a summer beach town, the kind of place either the affluent own a home or visit for a few days. Of course I don't fall into either category, but I can at least pretend. It's really the closet thing I'll get to a real beach in the mundanity of the Midwest. Whereas Chicago's lakefront is littered with lifeguards and tourists, Saugatuck (or the nearby town of Douglas where we actually stayed)is isolated, lifeguardless, and quaint. You don't have to pay for parking, and the beach is pretty close by. The town has a lot of family and retired people there. We stayed at a bed and breakfast a block from the beach. This was my first bed and breakfast experience, and I found it to be a good one. The innkeeper and his wife were personable and told us what sites to see. They had a nice breakfast waiting for us in the morning. I wonder what it's like to have to cook breakfast for complete strangers every morning. What if one day you woke up and didn't feel like cooking? Could you get away with just setting out a box of cereal and store bought donuts? Probably not. The boyfriend and I joked we would be the anti-friendly bed and breakfast kind of people. Being rude and anti-social would be our shtick. The b&b even had a private pool out back with a cool ocean reef mural painted on the bottom.

After we checked in on Sunday, we headed straight for the beach. There were a lot of people there, but it wasn't overcrowded. The water was surprisingly warm. In the past few days, I've become fascinated with surfing. I lived in L.A for five years, but for some reason never considered surfing (I did own a boogie board and would occasionally use it). I think my new obsession stems from having just watched the classic, 1960s surf movie The Endless Summer (where two young surfers embark on a surfing adventure around the world). I also just read that you can surf Lake Michigan in Chicago in a couple of spots, but if you really want to learn how to surf in the Midwest, you can take lessons at a surf shop in MI. I figure, why not learn how to surf on the Lake? In MI, I saw kids with boogie boards and some guy do some sort of shore surfing. I have no idea what that's called. After we were done splashing in the water, we cleaned up and went to dinner at a nice French restaurant. The food in town was good with a lot of diversity, but I found the clothing shops to be rather lame.

One thing about transitioning from the big city to a small town is everything becomes rather quiet. Almost too quiet to the point you can actually hear crickets. I like the tranquility a beach town brings, but I think after a few days, I'd get really bored and anxious. I do love the idea of renting a beach house for the summer, maybe somewhere on the East Coast, but I would need to be somewhere with an active nightlife like in the Hamptons. Despite the lack of nightlife (then again, I was there on a Sunday not a proper weekend), I consider Saugatuck to be the Midwest's version of the Hamptons (we even spotted a Ferrari, a Bentley, and a Rolls Royce in MI)or the Midwest's version of Laguna Beach (there are a ton of art galleries in the town).

On Monday, we got up just before breakfast ended, ate, and then immediately hit the beach again. Since it was a weekday, the beach and town were less crowded than the day before. I ventured out pretty far into the lake to the point where the boyfriend felt the need to monitor me. Good thing he's a trained SCUBA diver. One nice thing about swimming in freshwater is you don't have to deal with your eyes burning from salt water or the danger of getting eaten by a shark. This lack of worry is fine, but I think I prefer the peril and smell of the ocean. After swimming, we went into town and had lunch at a bar and grill. Then we walked around the town some more, then we went back to the beach one last time.

I think being in Saugatuck made time stop for a day. I feel like I've been gone for days. Hopefully we can go back there before the end of summer and have more beach time. But, now I have stuff to do this week, especially in preparing for the big Pitchfork weekend ahead. Maybe someday I'll be able to retire on the beach, but until then, I can cherish brief summer respites in Saugatuck.

Festivals Galore

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:37:00 +0000

This time next week, I'll be embedded in the mayhem known at Pitchfork Fest. Last year I didn't go at all, so this year I'm making up for it by doing double duty. I'm helping Saucony out for a few hours each day, then I'm making use of my press pass. It's going to be a looonng weekend, but hopefully a lot of fun. I'll need to take a lot of photos, shoot some videos, and try to interview bands all the while trying to keep my wits (and sunscreen) about me. Then of course I'll have to quickly turn everything into some awesome blog posts. That'll be the challenge, but I'm always up for a challenge. I know by the end of the weekend I'll be pretty exhausted and sunburnt, but I think it'll be worth it. I'm still waiting to see if I'm getting a press pass to Lolla. That'll be the ultimate reward and yet another exhausting good time. I'm also getting two press passes to that festival in Portland I mentioned in my last post. The boyfriend is going to my "photographer." We have yet to book the trip, so I really want to do that soon.

I feel like I get to do a lot of cool things through my writing, but the downside is, I'm not making a lot of money through it. That's why I have to pick up gigs like working for Saucony and the t-shirt company to help pay my bills. The thing is, I'm not in it for the money, per se. I just love being able to cover cool events and then write about them. I keep hoping I can take my clips and use them to build more clout for myself. Inevitably, I'd love to have more high profile gigs and get paid a shitload for them, but we're also in a recession and most publications can't afford to pay a lot. I'm trying to hit up the New York Times about writing for them. The boyfriend's cousin works for them and provided me with a contact. We'll see what happens. The other night the boyfriend mentioned I should do something with all of the interviews I've done over the years. I have probably written over 100 articles on various bands from all over the world, artists, people, etc over the past five years. I keep thinking I should turn them into a book or at least integrate them into that book I've been supposedly writing for the past four years. But, I don't have any contacts with publishers and thus don't want to go through this whole thing and have it not get published, yunno? Or maybe I should just do it for myself, just to have a huge portfolio to sift through. Either way, I've definitely accomplished a lot with my writing, but sadly, I could always accomplish so much more.

Besides the constant flow of writing, I'm still trying to get Myopenbar off the ground. We're still trying to throw parties to no avail. We have three business partners now who I think can help us throw some cool parties. I just like the idea of saying "business partners." It's been harder to get liquor sponsorship than I thought, but there's definitely a lot of interest. It's nice to know we have fans and that there are a lot of people willing to work for us.

Sunday morning, the boyfriend and I are driving up to Saugatuck, MI for the night. I've never really been to MI (unless you count the time I drove through Detroit 10 years ago), so I'm looking forward to it. We're staying one night at a bed and breakfast located near the lake. I'm hoping for some quality beach time. Tonight I'm going to an open bar thing where one of the NY Housewives will be making an appearance, and then I'm off to a friend's b-day party. The weather here continues to be so erratic. It'll either be cold one day, then rain the next. This is seriously cutting into my pool/sunbathing time! Speaking of pools, I wanted to start swimming laps, but then I found out it costs $22 for the adult lap session at the public pool. Screw that! I wish I had my own private pool to do laps in. Oh well. I've decided to stick to jogging for the meantime. I really want to get into shape.

News of the Strange

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:17:00 +0000

This week has been one of the strangest in recent memory. Like I expected, the weather jumped from spring-y to blazing hot. It's been well into the '90s here with humidity added for extra scorch. I wouldn't mind it so much except I don't have central air in my apartment. This is the first place I've lived (besides a college dorm) that doesn't have central air. We installed a couple of a/c units in the windows, but the other night one of them blew out a circuit. My apartment is weird in that the circuit box is locked away somewhere in the basement and the landlady only has access to it. So, this involved braving the dark and contacting the landlady in the morning. So now we're only using one a/c, which means only one room in the house is cool.

I worked a little this week at the t-shirt place. It's fine and everything, but they kept cutting our hours. Yesterday I worked for two hours and then they set us home. Apparently all of us are working too fast and are getting the work done much quicker than anticipated. Yeah, that's good, but then that means I don't get paid. I guess I shouldn't complain much since it frees my day up a little more. On the days I'm free, I've been trying to hit the pool. The only thing is there's a Pool Nazi. He controls who can and can't have entrance to the pool. He'll tell people it's at capacity when it's clearly not. After making me wait outside the gate for a few minutes, he finally let me in. Going to the pool enables me to get a tan and get some reading done. I've really been trying to read more, but it's hard for me to concentrate sometimes.

To make things even weirder, I'm stunned about Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. I really can't believe MJ is gone. It seems so surreal. I wasn't his biggest fan or anything, but it still saddens me. It's like a chunk of my childhood just died. He was an icon, a musical genius (albeit sorta strange). It's tragic he never got that comeback he was due for. I'm astounded at how much social media has been all over these news items. People on Facebook and Twitter keep posting links to MJ's videos and such. It's getting to the point where if someone posts a non-MJ item, I get irritated because I think everyone should be discussing what happened, not something unrelated.

This week has seen a plethora of open bars. There were like three last night and at least two tonight. It's definitely open bar season. I went to a 3-hour whiskey event last night. Tonight I went to a Red Stripe event. The cool thing was I walked away with free t-shirts and other swag. I finally scored some free t-shirts from work, too. Now I have t-shirts galore! And all for free.

I also scored a gig working Pitchfork. I'm going to help Saucony with some fun stuff. I think I'm also getting a press pass for the fest, so it'll be a busy weekend. I'm beginning to think we're never going to be able to throw parties with Myopenbar. Things keep falling through. It's been much harder to get a liquor sponsor and things keep getting delayed. I'm still trying, though.

This weekend I think I'm going to see Vanilla Ice in concert. For real. He's performing at a bar for only $5! I have to experience the train wreck first hand. I'm also seriously considering going to Portland in Sept. for my b-day and a big music fest. I also need to make definite plans to go to MI for a weekend soon. Until I have to really work again, I think I'm just going to read, go to the pool, write, jog, watch movies, go to shows, and attempt to get things done.

Summers in Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:27:00 +0000

Tonight, I went on what I call a booze cruise around the lakefront. For $25, you get unlimited cocktails, food, and beautiful water scenery. Luckily the rain staved off and it ended up being a warm, summer night. Up until tonight, it didn't feel like summer. It's been rainy and cold here, but summer finally popped tonight. Close to where the cruise was, the red carpet premiere of the Johnny Depp film Public Enemies was being held. It made me think of all the times I'd run into movie premieres in L.A. I guess I wasn't too impressed with the Enemies premiere going on, but we rarely see those in Chicago.

Today I was writing a "where are they now?" piece for the year 1999 and it made me a little nostalgic. During that summer, I was living in L.A. I'd just finished up an internship, was taking summer school, and couldn't find a job to save my life. Despite the frustrations and depression I suffered, I had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends. But, that was ages ago. 10 years, in fact.

This is my sixth summer in Chicago. I never thought I'd live through one of them, let alone six of them. Chicago is so alive in the summer, it almost makes up for the harsh winters. Being on the lake tonight reminded me how beautiful the city can truly be.

Summmer of 2004
I had just moved to Chicago in June. I moved here with the ex-boyfriend and I didn't know a soul. He was busy working all the time, so I spent most of my afternoons discovering the city and writing. The city was so new to me and at times felt overwhelming. It took me a long time to get acclimated to the city and to make friends. In July, I interviewed my first band, Black Dice. I saw Animal Collective open for them at the Empty Bottle (Animal Collective has become so huge. It was then I realized I could see shows for free.

Summer of 2005
Unbeknownst to me at the time, this would become a life-changing summer. At the beginning of the summer, I decided to change jobs. I quit the only salaried and benefitted job I'd ever had to work for a dot.com company. I felt the need to be in a less suppressive environment and around people my own age. It was at this company when I started to make more friends. That summer, the ex-boyfriend and I were going through a rough patch, so we spent a lot of time trying to make our relationship work. Even though I was living with a 40-year-old lesbian, living "on my own" enabled me to work through some of my issues. By the end of the summer, the ex and I got back together, but the ramifications had become too great.

Summer of 2006
This was my first official summer in being single in the city. I'd scored an internship with The Onion and somehow managed to get on unemployment. I begrudgingly moved back in with the lesbian, but I hated living there so much that I spent hours wandering around the city just to avoid her. It's strange to think I lived without a computer and internet. I don't think I could manage to live like that ever again. Once again, my time alone was good for soul searching. I'd go to the beach and sit there staring at the water while listening to my Ipod. For some reason, I didn't have a lot of people to hang out with that summer. In August, I went to my first Lolla ever. Of course that entailed forging my own wristband to gain free entry. Lolla simply blew my mind. The beginning of summer began with the death of a relationship and ended with the death of my father.

Summer of 2007
Two summers ago was probably the most active summer I can recall. I was pretty much unemployed until July when I started working a two month temp job. In August, I started interning at TOC. But in between my work days, I went to my fair share of open bars and parties. I hung out with my friend Theresa a lot. We saw each other practically day and joked that even spending a day a part was too long. That summer, there wasn't a dearth of boys. I found myself entangled in some complicated situations that became quite amusing to me. Once again, I acquired free entry to Lolla and had a blast.

Summer of 2008
Last summer was the first summer the boyfriend and I were an official couple. I suppose it was inevitable we'd get together considering the first time we ever kissed was during a drunken night in July '07. My internship ended last July and a couple of weeks after, I started the same temp job I had the previous summer. Funny how things don't really change much. I spent most of the summer going to concerts and developing a relationship with the boyfriend. In August, I subletted a high rise in the South Loop with an amazing view. The place turned out to be very convenient to attend Lolla. In September, I moved into my current place. Once again, I went to Lolla for free, but this time I got paid to work there. At the end of the summer, a good friend moved away with another one following a few weeks after.

Summer of 2009
This will be my first summer without a couple of good friends living in the city. Somehow their absence has left an unfillable social void. The other day, I realized I've never been on a serious summer vacation. Sure, I've traveled the Midwest and East Coast during the summer months, but I've never taken a long vacation in the summer. This depresses me, so I'm hoping this summer I can change this. I've never been to the Pacific NW, and for some reason Portland seems like a cool destination. We'll see if that trip materializes. I want to go to MI, the Dunes, and so many other places. I want to work (I'm back at the t-shirt place next week) and write and get a tan and just enjoy the city I live in. And of course gain free admission to Lolla.

Work-a-Day

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:26:00 +0000

In the past week, I've been working non-stop. I go to work, but when I come home, I usually have writing to do. The work load never seems to end. Getting up at 6am has been pretty rough, but I've found myself being more productive. I get off work at 3pm, but instead of coming home and crashing, I try to stay awake and get things done. It's amazing the things you can accomplish if you wake up before noon every day! I had to work yesterday and I am guaranteed work until Wednesday, then who knows what. The job has been fairly easy, but takes some concentration. Basically what I do all day is fill t-shirts orders that are shipped all over the world. I'm always amazed how many shirts are being shipped to Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. How do these countries know about the company? I'm on my feet all day constantly walking around. Sometimes I get to pack the orders, which at least lets me be stationary. The job is exhausting, but it's much better than being chained to a computer all day, and I suppose I'm getting good exercise. I can wear whatever I want to work. They blast decent music all day long. Everyone I work with is either in a band or looks like they should be in a band. I think this job is more tolerable than a lot of gigs I've had, but I don't think I could work the early morning shift full-time. I do hope they'll continue to need me after Weds, even if it's just periodically. If not, it might be time to hit the pool and/or beach and start working on my tan. At least I have that to fall back on. I also hope I can get some free shirts out of the deal. I guess anyone can design and submit a shirt. If they accept it, you get $2,000! If your shirt is voted the best of the year, they give you $20,000! Maybe I should start designing shirts. All day long I rack my brain trying to think of cleaver ideas, but nothing has come to me yet. I know I'll never get around to doing it, though.

On Saturday, I went to see a play called "Rock 'n' Roll" written by Tom Stoppard. It was about how Communism took over the Czech Republic in the '60s and how the main character was censored for his love of rock music. I learned a lot about world history through it. I had no idea events like Prague Spring took place. I thought the play was pretty good. It even had a rock-centric soundtrack. I kept thinking how music today isn't rebellious the way it was back in the '60s or '70s. Punk music was pretty radical, but nowadays, people don't protest anything. Everyone plays it safe and I don't know why this is. Have people just run out of things to say? It's a shame, really. Later that night, I went to an air guitar competition. Yes, this is a real thing, and it was pretty awesome: guys dressed in silly costumes performing to rock songs onstage...um, yeah. It was like "American Idol" except a lot more vulgar. I have a friend who is a national air guitar champion, so that's how I kinda got into it. This was the first time I'd ever seen it live. The national champion gets to go all the way to Finland to compete, so it's serious business.

Last week, myself and some of the other Myopenbar staffers meet with a couple of event promoters who we might throw parties with. I really hope it works out. They're already throwing a bunch of events around town and seem to know what they're doing. Now if only we could secure a liquor sponsorship and some definite ideas, we'll be golden. It's just a matter of wait and see what happens, but I'm confident this will be the beginning of a fruitful friendship. I'm not giving up on this yet.

Capital City

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:55:00 +0000

Over the weekend, I went to D.C/Maryland to see an old college friend and to attend a wedding. This was my first visit back to the capital in about 2 years. It really didn't seem like I had been away for so long. The boyfriend and I arrived on Saturday afternoon. We flew on one of those tiny jets, and the low-pressure made my head tingle and really upset my stomach. I may have to resort to some Dramamine the next time I fly. It was a sticky, sunny and warm late spring day, much warmer than the weather we'd been experiencing in Chicago. The first thing we did after my friend picked us up was eat pizza at a nearby pizza place. The lunch was good and we all traded dating horror stories. My friend lives in a really nice condo in a questionable part of town. It's centrally located to the Capital and all of that touristy stuff, but if you walk a block down the street, you're in the ghetto. We even saw someone near her place getting arrested. Nice. Later that night, we drove to Baltimore for dinner. The boyfriend had never been there. This was my second or third visit there, but the first since I was like 18 yrs old. I immediately texted a friend who grew up there to see if she had any ideas of cool places to go. Baltimore reminds me of the South Side of Chicago, except with better venues. There seemed to be some cool places in the arty district, but the city itself looked kinda grimy. We picked up her friend and went to dinner at a restaurant known for their crabcakes. Those were probably the most authentic crabcakes I ever had as they were made from large chunks of fresh crab. The dinner came with a lot of food, so we were pretty stuffed. It was pretty late at this point, so we drove back to D.C and went to sleep.

Saturday morning we woke up and went to a great Belgium brunch place down the street. They had celery foam Bloody Marys! And a lot of egg dishes. The entire meal was good, but once again, we were stuffed. The main reason we went to D.C was for the boyfriend's friend's wedding being held in Bethesda, MD. We got all dressed up and went to the wedding at the groom's parents' house. Their house was probably one of the biggest, and nicest I'd ever seen, easily costing over $2 million. Their entire backyard was a garden. I was seriously impressed. I'd never met either the bride or groom, but later on discovered the bride was also from Ohio and had attended the same college I did in Ohio. Small world! This was my first Jewish wedding, and first wedding at someone's house. I'd describe the wedding as both traditional and nontraditional. As the bridal party marched down the aisle, an orchestra version of a popular Journey song played (nontraditional). After the ceremony, they had a cocktail reception with hors d'oeuvres. Instead of having dinner first, they started the dancing before dinner then served dinner which consisted of crab, salad, fried chicken, burgers, fries, milkshakes and corn fritters. And instead of having a typical wedding cake, they had cupcakes instead. They had a well-stocked bar and even a keg. Yes, a keg. That's what I meant by "nontraditional." I think if I ever get married, I'm going to have a very nontraditional wedding. There will be a tater tot bar with toppings and an indie rock band. The evening ended a few hours later, and the boyfriend and I managed to find our way back to my friend's place.

This morning, we realized our flight was leaving earlier than expected. I suppose we should've checked what time our flight was actually leaving instead of assuming. Luckily, we made it to the airport in time. One thing I really like about D.C is their Metro. It runs smoothly, always on time, never any construction, etc, unlike Chicago's transit system. Chicago should take a cue from them. I always have fun in D.C, but like every trip, it's never enough time. I've seen most of the touristy stuff, but would like to go back and spend more time wandering around the Mall, check out some of the music venues, etc. It was really good to see my friend and to attend the wedding. I missed a pretty cool music fest over the weekend, but the trip definitely was worth it. There are always so many people to visit, but not enough time. Hopefully another 2 years won't pass by until I get out there again. Now I just need to visit friends in L.A, N.Y, Nashville, KY, etc.

Tomorrow morning, I start that temp job. I'm not looking forward to getting up at 6am. Not one bit. My former roommate finally moved all his stuff out. Now we don't have a couch or chairs, but there's a lot more space now. The boyfriend finally has what he's calling a study. As of right now, I don't have any other travel plans set for the summer. Festival season is in full gear, so maybe I should concentrate on that for a while and just enjoying Chicago's summer. Well, at least until my wanderlust kicks in again.

Memory Lane

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:41:00 +0000

Over the weekend, I went home to OH. My mom sold my childhood home and wanted me to take a bunch of my stuff back to Chicago. I really hate the idea of owning a lot of stuff, so that's why it's been nice to have stored it in her house. I much rather live like a gypsy than own furniture and stuff. I went home and rummaged through 31 years of memories. I kept asking myself why I kept some of my crap for so long. I guess the older I get, the more I want to shed my material possessions. Less is better. But I worry someday I'll regret tossing out some of my treasures. It's interesting to see how much I've changed in the past few years. I ended up throwing away all of my old movie posters. I guess I thought one day I'd frame them and hang them up in my mansion, but that's never going to happen. Besides, I don't really need an American Pie poster anymore. I used to be such a pack rat. I found about a hundred greeting cards I'd received over the years, including one from my orthodontist. I mean, why did I save that? It made me really sad to go through all of my old stuff, especially sifting through letters my dad wrote me and pictures I took on vacation. I have boxes of photos of cats and California. It's weird to think most of my adolescence was spent with kitties and on the ocean but now both are seriously lacking from my life (sure, I live within mile of a lake, but that's so different than an ocean). I'm just amazed how fast time goes. It seems like yesterday I was living in L.A or in high school. Now it's been exactly five years since I moved to Chicago. I never imagined I'd last this long and I keep wondering how much longer I'll stay here. Someday when I'm bored, I'd love to scan some of my old photos and post them on Facebook. A lot of my old friends are on there, so it'd be fun to mortify them. I also found old drawings, paintings and scripts of mine. Why don't I ever draw anymore? I was pretty good. I guess when you reach a certain age, you out grow some things.

At least it's finally summer. I want to make the most of it. There's so many things/places I want to do, I don't know where to start. I want to go to the beach, the pool, The Modern Wing, MI for a weekend, the Dunes, NY, CA, KY, Nashville, see movies and bands in the park, go to Pitchfork Fest and Lolla, drink cocktails al fresco, read books, write short stories etc, etc. I hope I at least accomplish some of these activities.

Last week I was inundated with a big project. I had to write 50, 180 character blurbs about various bars and restaurants in Chicago. It was harder than I thought, especially since I'd never been to most of the places I had to write about. But, it was a good challenge and education for me, and I'll get paid for it. I also got that warehouse job, so I'm starting it in a week. Unfortunately my shift starts at 7am, so that's going to be a little rough on me. Hopefully it'll be something cool and tolerable.

I was thinking today how I'm probably going to be a wayward soul for the rest of my life. I can see myself just drifting from job to job, gig to gig the rest of my life, never finding a permanent, stable job. And you know what? I'm okay with that -- just as long as I can get by. It sure beats the alternative. Maybe I'm just not cut out for a lot of stability. In the past, the universe has forced me to live my life on a whim. This taught me that I can't always be in control. Of course I'd much rather know what's going to happen in the future, I also know whatever comes my way, I'll be able to adapt quickly. I think I'm destined to be a free spirit/non-conformist for a while longer.

Manic Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:22:00 +0000

For a Monday, today was a little hectic as I had to juggle a lot of different things. I interviewed for a job to be a warehouse temp for a prominent local t-shirt company. I know working in a warehouse doesn't sound exciting, but it's not your typical warehouse. I'd never seen so many t-shirts in one place. I like t-shirts, so it was like being in a candy store. The office is one of the coolest I've ever seen. It's adorned with video game machines, a ping pong table, and art graffiti on the walls. It'd be a very laid back environment to work in (meaning I could wear ripped jeans to work). Unfortunately the position would only last 2 weeks, but it's better than nothing. I have to pass a background check before they'd consider me. Background checks always make me nervous. I don't have a criminal history, but my credit isn't in the best shape. That shouldn't matter just for a temp job, should it? Anyway, I hope I get the job, even if it's fleeting.

After my brief interview, I rushed home to do a phone interview with my fave band at the moment, Phoenix. They are based in Paris, so I got patched in to them. The guy I interviewed had a thick, French accent, so I couldn't decipher everything he said. I'm very excited to see them next month in concert. They even played "SNL" a couple of months ago, so now I can say I interviewed a "SNL" band.

I'm still trying to get a Myopenbar party together to no avail. We've been talking to some liquor companies in giving us money to throw parties for them. I think this is the only way to do it. I feel like we're on the cusp of getting things together, but we're not quite there yet. There's a lot of interest, it's just nothing has been confirmed yet. I wish it was easier. In the meantime, we march ahead.

Yesterday I signed a year lease on my apartment. I've been subletting since September, so now it's official. This is the first time my name, and my name only, has been on a lease. It feels pretty good to finally say I have my own place. Of course the boyfriend is paying half the rent and such, so it's just not me. My mom informed me today that she finally sold my childhood home that's been on the market for almost a year. She wants me to come home and take some of my furniture back to Chicago. This would entail renting a U-haul in Ohio and driving the stuff back to Chicago, something I don't particularly want to do. I just don't like the idea of owning anything that doesn't fit into my car. I think I'm so used to not owning much, that the idea of owning stuff freaks me out. Then again, I have to grow up sometime. Hopefully all will go well with the apartment. If so, this will be the first time since I moved to Chicago five years ago that I haven't moved every year.

Last week, the boyfriend and I attended the Grand Tour wine event encompassing over 100 samples of wine. I'd never seen anything like it. There were two floors of wine from all over the world. Some of the wine we tasted cost over $500 a bottle. We of course got free tickets, so the event was worth it. After drinking all that wine, I didn't feel so hot the next day. On Sunday, the boyfriend and I went down to Hyde Park to walk around. He showed me his old college haunts and an amazing view of downtown from the vantage of the lake. Sometimes I forget how beautiful the city looks.

I have a feeling the rest of the week might be a bit busy, too. I have writing to do and some events to go to. I'm looking forward to the long weekend ahead, and my neighborhood pool opening. I feel things could conceivably go my way with just a little push. I really hope things work out and fall into place soon because I've been waiting a long time for things to come together.

Summer is Coming

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:09:00 +0000

It finally really feels like spring here except for the occasional chilly day. All the rain has helped trees and flowers to grow out of control. I know it's probably going to go from the 70s to sweltering hot in a matter of weeks.

I can't believe summer is right around the corner. I feel like there's so much I want to do. I want to go to the lake, the local pool, the Indiana Dunes, spend a weekend in Michigan at a beach, al fresco dine, go to the new Modern Wing, the Shedd Aquarium (which I have yet to do) and check out rooftop bars, and travel, etc, but there's just never enough time and money to keep up with everything. One of the advantages in living in a big city like Chicago is there's always something to do, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed with my options. Then again, I feel like that about everything in life: books, movies, social activities.

A few days ago, I saw Leonard Cohen in concert. I like some of his stuff, but I'm not quite the fan everyone else is. At 74, he put on a 3-hour show. His stamina was unbelievable. He's also the second oldest musician I've seen live next to Willie Nelson. I went to the show with the boyfriend, his mom, and her friend. This was probably the only time our musical tastes collided. The show was very civilized with our boxed seats. Of course the next night, I went to a concert at club where it was ridiculously hot and where the lead singer swilled beer into the audience. On Wednesday, we're going to this huge wine tasting. Tickets were $200/per person, but I was able to get them for free. $400 worth of free wine tickets! Amazing. First there was Whiskyfest, now this. I hope I don't die at the event.

In a couple weeks, I will have officially have lived in Chicago for five years. Five years! Where has the time gone? When I hit the five year mark in L.A, I moved away. I feel my time in Chicago might be waning. But, I sorta decided to leave L.A because I realized I was never going to accomplish what I wanted to and I had grown sick of it. With Chicago, I feel like I could continue here for a while longer, but I know eventually I will probably leave. I'm getting sick of the city. I'm sick of noisy neighbors, construction, and just the day to day stresses of life in the big city. I have no idea where I'd go or what I'd do, but that's something I need to figure out. I wish I could go somewhere for the entire summer, like rent a house on Martha's Vineyard or in the Hamptons. This has always been a fantasy of mine. I like the idea of going somewhere remote, where there's less stress and more time to relax, but at the same time, I'm afraid I'd get bored of the calmness.

Lately, I've been especially stressed about what to do with Myopenbar. The writers and I have been throwing some ideas around, but have yet to get anything off the ground. I do think we could be successful at throwing parties, it's just we don't know where to start. We all know a lot of people, so it shouldn't be too hard. Sometimes I think it's futile to keep this thing going, but I feel it's my duty to keep it going for the true fans out there and the people who actually use the service. We just need to steer it in the right direction somehow.

Tonight I finally watched the documentary Grey Gardens. It inspired a play and an HBO movie. Those woman were so eccentric yet interesting. I think my biggest fear is I'll end up like one of those crazy women: living in a dilapidated house, single, owning ten cats, and have nothing to talk about except stuff that happened 30 years ago. Please, oh please, don't let that happen to me.

Extinguishing Fires

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:28:00 +0000

So far this week, things have been a bit stressful. On Monday, I got an email from my Myopenbar boss in NY asking if I'd start working for free. Apparently they just don't have the funds to keep paying all the branches anymore. I was a little upset about it and told them I don't work for free. Then today they hit me back saying what they really meant was they were closing all of the branches except for NY. Yes, Chicago MOB would no longer exist after Friday. I was really shocked and depressed about this. It came out of nowhere. I had no idea that was even an option. I began to think about Chicago without MOB. It's like Polaroid disappearing or your fave bar going out of business. So,I told them I'd like to keep running the branch for free and they said okay. The bad part is now I really need to find a day job. I'd been considering it for a while, but now I don't have a choice since I won't be getting paid anymore. Actually, it's never been about the money (although it's been a nice, motivating incentive). It's been about the camaraderie and getting paid in free booze. There's also a personal angle to keep MOB running. I've met some amazing people through it including the boyfriend. I'm just a sentimentalist at heart, really. At this point, I don't know where to take the site. I've always felt there's been a tremendous amount of potential for MOB to thrive in Chicago, it's just no one has really tried very hard. My writers and I have ideas floating around, but I have no idea how to execute them. I've mainly focused on the editorial side of things, but I do like the idea of getting more involved with advertising and promotion. We are facing a huge challenge to get the word out and keep the branch going, and in some ways, it's sorta liberating. I like the idea of molding the company into my own and steering it into the right direction. I don't know what plans NY has for us, so I'm hoping they'll let us do whatever we want. In some ways, I saved a company from doomsday today. Just doing my part in this recession, I guess. I haven't hit panic mode yet. Yet being the keyword.

For some reason, I really want to go to the Kentucky Derby this weekend. I've never thought about going before, so I'm not sure how it got into my head. I did grow up around horses. My mom bred horses and I rode until I graduated from high school. It's been ages since I've been to a horse show and a race track. I have a friend who lives in KY, so we could possibly stay with her. I have a feeling the fantasy is better than the reality. I like the idea of being surrounded by rich people wearing big hats, sipping mint juleps, and gambling, but I know there would be a lot of traffic and it's suppose to rain. If we don't go, there are plenty of bars in Chicago that are hosting Derby day events, so I can still drink juleps.I'm always so torn about plans. Last weekend I flirted with the idea of meeting up with the same friend in Indianapolis, but it just didn't happen. There are always a million of places/events I want to go, but I rarely do it all. So many things, so little time.

What I'm hoping is I can get some part-time or full-time job and just focus on putting my music blog together. There's so much live music every night of the week in this city that's not being covered. I want to be that person. I'm getting sick of going to well-know shows. I saw three shows last week, all of which were just okay, all of which were nationally known bands. I'm going to start thinking locally.

You can tell spring has finally arrived here. The grass is growing rapidly, flowers are blooming, and people are outside more. Of course it's been rainy and today it was cold again. I guess this is the best we're going to get until summer. Yesterday I jogged for the first time in months. I really want to get into shape. My legs are totally sore. I'm so out of shape. How sad.

For the past week, I've been totally immersed in the "Real Housewives of New York." I watched the first season and most of the second season. I usually try to avoid reality shows, but I got sucked into this one. The show proves how catty and sensitive women are. No one ever gets along. All of the "wives" summer in the Hamptons. I really want to visit there, even just for a day. The show also makes me want to be rich, but not buy any of the fashion these women wear. I have to go to the dentist on Friday. I haven't been in forever. I really hope I don't have any cavities. I hate the dentist.

So, that's been my life in a nutshell for the past week: putting out work-related fires, trying to get my music blog together, healthy doses of reality tv, pitching ideas to no avail, and being dragged to bars to watch the Bulls playoff games with the boyfriend. Yeah, never a dull moment.

Random Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:11:00 +0000

It seems like I haven't blogged in a while. Honestly, I haven't felt much like it. Maybe I'm just getting bored talking about myself all the time. I always feel like everything could be so much better than it is. I want it to quit raining and I want things to function correctly and I just want things to be perfect, but they rarely are.

Spring has finally sorta sprung here. On Saturday, it was nice and warm for most of the day. Then of course it decided to rain. It rained for most of Sunday. In Chicago, we get one nice day followed by a crappy day. The past few days have reminded me how random Chicago truly is for me. I guess the probability of running into someone I know in the city is relatively high considering I know a lot of people and considering I hang out in places where these people also might hang out. A few nights ago, I ran into a couple of former co-workers I hadn't seen in maybe a couple of years. I was just thinking the other day why I never run into them. It goes to show you never know who'll see out and about. Friday night I went to a friend of a friend's to see a semi-famous local musician play in this person's living room. It was a cool experience. It definitely was something esoteric I will document in my upcoming music blog. Again, I ran into a couple of people I knew. The friend who invited me to the party believes she and I have some sort of cosmic connection. I think she might be right because we just reunited after having not seen each other in 11 years. The last time we saw each other was in L.A. The city is strange sometimes. Finally, I went to a cool, new bar last night and randomly ran into a couple of other people I knew. I know the chances are high to run into people, but really, the exact same time and place?

I'm glad it's getting warmer out, but with the warm weather, I start to feel overwhelmed. I feel like I should be taking advantage of the weather in the best ways possible, but at the same time, there's too much to do: festivals, jogging, reading books, the lake, al fresco dining, etc, etc. I don't know where to start. Soon summer will be here and that's brings other anxieties. I don't have any big trips planned for the summer. I want to do small trips to the Indiana Dunes and to a beach in MI, but I'd also love to take a week off and show the boyfriend all of CA. And of course go to Europe. I don't know if any of these things are going to happen. I am definitely going to DC at the end of May, so I have that to look forward to.

This week, I'm going to three concerts, three nights in a row. I need to start putting my music blog together. I need new clothes. There's always an endless amount of chores, self-improvement needs, restaurants to check out, movies to watch, and work on the horizon. And like I said before, things could always be better, but I suppose they could also be much worse.

Road to Nowhere or Somewhere?

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:56:00 +0000

This week has been one of those weeks where everything has been much harder than it needs to be. What ever happened to things coming easy? I feel like I have to jump through a lot of hoops just to make anything happen. I feel like I'm always hustling. So, the other day, I was presented with a pretty cool job opportunity. I can't discuss too much about it, but basically I'm being forced to start my own music blog. I wouldn't necessarily use the word "forced," but if it weren't for this opportunity, I wouldn't be doing it. I actually considered starting a music blog a couple of years ago, but then dismissed the idea. I want my blog to be different than others. I'm more interested in covering the underground Chicago scene, the scene that no one else is covering or talking about. I want to spotlight up and coming bands that people might not know about. A couple of years ago, I considered starting my own music PR company, but that fell through. Last year I had two interviews to be a publicist at a reputable record label in town, but inevitably I didn't have enough experience for the gig. That's okay. What I love about music writing is that it's a combination of writing and promoting. So, now I gotta start this blog and hope people actually read it and hope everything pays off somehow. It's pretty easy to start a blog (I've created like 5 blogs). You know blogging is the wave of the future. Print is dying, but blogging is thriving. I think I'm also going to have to get more into Twitter. Social media is increasingly becoming more important, too. I'm skeptical about everything of course, but I have to keep hoping good things will come from it.

Also this week, I got word I have to start helping to promote Myopenbar more or they're going to cut my pay. I have to start trading banner ads with other companies. This supposedly should be easy, but now I have to work even harder. I feel it's a bit demanding, but maybe it'll be good experience for me. I think I'm just being really challenged right now on all fronts. I love a good challenge, but everything is just stressing me out right now. Like I said, I hope everything eventually pays off(literally and figuratively). It's like planting seeds for a later harvest. Either that or I'm currently on the road to nowhere. Finally, another frustrating thing happened this week. I'm suppose to interview a pretty well known musician. His publicist informed me to email him some questions. The musician wrote back saying he felt my questions weren't up to par. In all of my years of interviewing bands, I never had this happen. So, I had to go back and dig a little deeper with the questions. Some people just like making things more difficult than it needs to be. I am also trying to think of good stuff to pitch to places. This also has proven to be harder than I thought it'd be.

I really want to go on another vacation, soon. I don't have any big trips planned. I think I've been really spoiled with Costa Rica and Austin. There are so many restaurants, bars, and shows I want to check out, but there's just never enough time to do it all. I have to do my best of covering all the bases and fitting everything in, no matter how difficult it may seem...just keep moving forward.

Concerts, Movies, and Whisky

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:26:00 +0000

Right now it's snowing outside. Let me remind you it's April. It is officially spring not winter. Actually, I'm not surprised by the snow. It always seems to snow in April. At least the end is in sight. It probably won't continue to snow into May, will it? That and the fact parking meters have gone way up are making it quite frustrating to live in this city.

On Wednesday, we went to Whisky Fest. I realized I'm not that big of a whisky drinker. Scotch is okay, but I definitely like beer and wine better. The best part about the event was all the free food, soda, and coffee. Oh, and the whisky. They had mashed potatoes with 10 kinds of toppings. Since I really like things my way, touches like this really suite me. I would totally go back again next year, especially if I could score free VIP tixs again.

This past week I saw a couple of concerts. I was disappointed with the Junior Boys show and only sorta liked the Wavves show. I really wanted to go to Morrissey, but I couldn't get on the list and tickets were a lot of money. Plus it was held at a venue I don't particularly like. Someday I will see him, dammit. I heard he took his shirt off. Sigh. Over the weekend I saw three movies. I finally watched the Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In. I really liked it. It was creepy and had some gnarly scenes. I then watched Happy Go-Lucky, which I was kinda bored with. There just wasn't much of a plot. Tonight I finally saw Slumdog Millionaire. I liked it, but I don't know if it deserved to win Best Picture. I found parts of the movie to be kinda cliche. And it made me want to never go to India. But the music, directing, acting, etc, was first rate.

This coming weekend will be the boyfriend's and I first anniversary. I'm pretty stunned that an entire year has passed and we still like each other. It seems like we've been together for longer. I'm constantly worried what the future holds for us. Neither of us are where we want to be in our lives. I just hope that we can figure things out together and that no matter what happens, we'll just continue to be together. I keep thinking that I know someday I'll want to get married. I have this fear I'll be pushing 40 and be all alone. Hopefully by then I'll at least have a couple of cats. But at the same time, settling down sounds scary. I guess I don't have to decide any of this now, but it's always in the back of my head. Sometimes I just wish it wouldn't be so difficult to decide what to do with our lives. I know eventually things will have to change for both of us.

Endless Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:19:00 +0000

This time last week, I was driving back from Austin. It was 80 degrees out. Currently, there is a slushy mix of snow on the ground. Last night it rained for hours. Is it spring or winter? I don't know how much more of this cold I can take. Now I'm back being stuck in Chicago. This past week has thrown me out of whack. It's taken me a few days to adjust after that whirlwind trip. It's hard to fathom I only just got back on Monday morning. Traveling for days will do that to you. So, I wrote about SXSW experience. You can read it here. I love the headline: "A Chicagoan Does SXSW the Hard Way." "The Hard Way." Yeah, that pretty much sums up my entire life. I always do things the hard way, even if there's an easy solution.

I did my taxes a couple of days ago all by myself. I used the site Taxslayer, which was pretty easy to navigate. I pretty much made no money last year. Like, I seriously don't know how I'm still living, it was so low. Of course I didn't report all of my income and I did spend half of last year working as an unpaid intern, but still. It seems like the older I get, the less money I make. Shouldn't it be the other way around? I made less last year than in '07. How pathetic. The good news is for once I don't owe any taxes. I'm suppose to get an ample refund, but I fear all of it will go towards my back taxes. I really hope the government will somehow overlook this and deposit the funds in my bank account, anyway. Fingers crossed. I really need to make more money somehow. I'm considering bartending at the neighborhood pub or something. I even joined a focus group list. There's gotta be someway for me to bring in more income without compromising my beliefs.

Since I've been traveling so much, I keep getting antsy about what my next trip will be. I really need to keep going somewhere every month or I might lose it. I found out a good friend will be in Indianapolis the last weekend of April, so I will try to meet up with her for a day. The boyfriend's friend is getting married at the end of May in D.C, so if I can figure out a way to afford a plane ticket, I will probably go. I have a couple of friends there, so it'd be good to see them again. There are just too many places to visit but not enough time. And with it getting warmer out, I'll want to go to even more places.

Next week might be a busy week. We're playing ping pong for our next Saucony game and on Tuesday, there are three shows I want to see, and it's Whiskyfest on Wed. I used my clout to score two VIP tixs to the event valued at $155/ticket. I'm nervous we're not going to make it out alive. I'm not really a big fan of whisky, but maybe I'll change my mind.

Today I was on Facebook and came across a profile of a woman I worked with back at my intern days on "The Howie Mandel Show." We have a mutual friend, so that's how I found her. Turns out, she lives in Chicago now. She's also a freelancer like me. And she's from Ohio. And her status happened to say something about wanting to play ping pong. I messaged her but she didn't remember who I was. After all, my Howie days were over 10 yrs ago. Hopefully she'll come to ping pong and we can catch up. In my almost five years of living in Chicago, I've never found anyone who I knew from my L.A days living here. I've worked with L.A based crews and have discovered old high school pals living here but not L.A peeps. I guess it was inevitable for this to finally happen. Chicago just got a lot smaller.

Messing With Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:50:00 +0000

So, we did it. We really did it. We drove to Austin, TX for SXSW! I still can't believe it happened. It feels too surreal to be true. Thursday night, the boyfriend, myself, and our French-Canadian friend set out towards Texas. It was a last minute decision. I think we'd built it up so much, we just had to do it. The three of us took turns driving through the night and listening to our iPods. 1,200 miles and 18 hours seemed like a daunting task, but somehow we got through it. We drove through Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, then right into Texas. I was disappointed we didn't get to see Memphis. I was surprised how pretty Arkansas was. I imagined it'd be a shithole. We even drove through the city of Texarkana, which is a famous R.E.M. song. About 300 miles into the trip, we got pulled over. Our friend wasn't going too fast, and luckily got off with a warning. It probably helped that he had a Canadian license. Everything in the South was so green. Spring had sprung whereas here in Chicago, it's still freezing and bleak outside. Texas is a huge state. There is an unbelievable amount of land.When we crossed the border, all I could think about was this. We knew we were in Texas when we started to see gun shops and ads for Bar-B-Q joints. It took a while to get to Austin. We drove through Waco, which made me nervous. Didn't something bad happen there? Just kidding. I knew Waco was bad news because of Bush's Chicken. Let me explain. We were hungry. We'd been driving all night, so we stopped at a fast food joint called Bush's. It was probably one of the worst meals we'd ever had. The portions were huge but the food was sickeningly bland. We realized at this point, it could only get better. Eating at Bush's would become a hilarious and reoccurring joke amongst us.

Once we were about 2 hours from Austin, we hit some major traffic. We arrived at our destination around 3pm. The person we were staying with was out of town, so we had the place to ourselves for the night. The guy owns two cats and doesn't take care of the house. There was cat hair everywhere. The boyfriend is severely allergic and I'm a little allergic, too. I loved his cats, though. One was a tubby kitty, and the other a beautiful yet dumb Siamese.

We took a bus downtown to where all the action was. We hit Red River near 6th Street. Since we had decided to come at the last minute, we didn't have any set plans. We stumbled upon a music venue that turned out to be one of the places we'd wanted to see. The weather was impeccable--80s, breezy, sunny. Because it's always warm in Austin, most of the music venues have elaborate outdoor patios fit for live music. We'd only been at the place for less than ten minutes when he heard our first band play live. I noticed the band the Hold Steady was simultaneously playing live next door. We soon left the venue and as we were walking down the street, I heard Echo and the Bunnymen playing. I was seriously blown away. It was very surreal and exciting. We walked all the way to the east side to check out the Myopenbar party, one of the reasons we decided to come to the fest. My bosses were running a huge lot filled with bands and a roller skating rink. The best part was all the free beer. I hung out with my bosses a little, but they were pretty busy running around. We stopped at a bbq place and had a real meal. We were pretty tired but decided to keep going. We checked out a band called Health playing at a small outdoor venue that resembled a shack. An ice cream man was there giving away free ice cream bars. I had two of them. At this point, we were exhausted and went home and went to bed. I knew between now and the time I'd get back to Chicago, there'd be no restful sleep for me. I only slept maybe an hour in the car, and it wasn't good sleep.

We woke up the next afternoon and set out again. We stopped at a park to see a bunch of bands. Someone told us there would be free booze and food there, but it was a lie. I really like Austin but it's not very veggie friendly. At the park, the only food they had were burgers and hot dogs. So, I just got a bun with veggies on it. Seeing the bands in the park made me think of Pitchfork fest and Lolla. I can see bands in parks anytime. So, we decided to walk around a little. It really felt like summertime there. Summertime in March! We went back to the Mohawk and checked out one of my fave bands, Camera Obscura. So far all of the shows had been free to the public and hadn't require a badge. We walked down Red River/6th St. and stumbled into a couple of more venues. We walked through the chaos of 6th St on our way to yet another park to check out yet another band. I was surprised how many Chicagoans I didn't run into at the fest. I did see Sun-Times critic Jim Derogatis walk across the street. We arrived at a park on the riverfront to see a free Explosions in the Sky show. We had to wait in line for a while, but got in. The caliber of the venue reminded me of Lolla. The whole point of the fest is to experience lesser known bands in smaller settings.I think that's what I loved the most about the fest that any place you walked into, there was live music. Well, almost. Most music fests take place in a big field for three days, not actually in bars and clubs in the city. After the show, the city gave us a spectacular fireworks show. There were a lot of bands we wanted to see, but we needed a badge to get into see them. This is when everything became frustrating. There were either cover charges or badge requirements and long lines. We decided to just walk down 6th street and wander into some establishments. We went to a bar called The Library that advertised, "No live music here!" Like live music is a bad thing. They did have pretty cheap drinks, though. At this point, I was exhausted. We must've walked a few miles. We tried a couple of more bars then decided to see Marcy's Playground. For those of you who don't know them, they had a major hit in the '90s then faded away. But, it was our last hope to see live music before the fest ended. Before the show started, we wandered into an Irish bar and discovered a U2 cover band playing in the back. Never in a million years did I think I'd see a U2 cover band at SXSW. And the ironic part is they had nothing to do with the fest. Finally Marcy's Playground went on and they sucked. They played their one hit and it was over. We stopped off at 6th Street to get some street food. By this point, the street was swarmed with drunkards who could barely walk on their own. I wondered how many of these people were here for the fest and how many were just out on a typical weekend night. We took a cab back to where we were staying to find out the boyfriend's friend had come back into town. The boyfriend thought he wasn't due back till Sunday, not Saturday. This screwed up our sleeping arrangements. There was only one bed and one couch. The previous night, the boyfriend and I had slept in the bed. The boyfriend proceeded to get drunk with his friend. The friend was really loud and kept us all up till 5am. I just wanted to go to sleep! The friend was being difficult about the sleeping arrangements, so eventually he slept on the couch and the boyfriend, our friend, and I slept restlessly in the bed.

We woke up Sunday afternoon and prepared for our long journey back home. We ate at a great brunch place that had $5 carafes of mimosas. You can't get such cheap shit in Chicago! They served family style brunch which entailed a cake-sized cinnamon role and a tray filled with eggs Benedict, potatoes, scrambled eggs, and French toast. For some reason, it took us four hours to only go 100 miles. Traffic getting out of Texas was a total nightmare. Once we got out, traffic was a breeze. We took turns driving through the night and blasting our iPods. We finally made it back to Chicago at 10:30am Monday morning. Of course when we got to Chicago, it was rainy and almost 30 degrees out. How come whenever I come back from somewhere warm Chicago is freezing?

Overall, we had a great time. It was seriously worth the trip. I can now say I've taken a crazy and lengthy road trip...that I've seen Arkansas and Dallas, etc. I wish we would've planned a little better. If I go next year, I want a press pass, I want to get a plane ticket in advance, and I want to see more of everything. SXSW is insane. About 1,900 bands play within a five day period. It's impossible to see everything. I'd like to go at the beginning of the fest and try to get through all of it instead of just staying for a weekend. We missed out on a lot of day parties because we got there late and because we didn't RSVP for certain things. I think everything we saw was just a skeleton of the fest. It went by so damn fast. Now I can scratch this off my bucket list.

This was only my second trip to Austin, but I really like the city. The problem is, I hate Texas. It's hot. They are too gun friendly and not veggie friendly. If I lived in TX, I would probably have to start eating meat again, and that's just not going to happen. I love how there's always bands playing in bars. I think it's a pretty city. I'd consider moving there if I could get a music writing gig or work for a record label or something. And best of all, it's warm all year round! If I ever do decide to leave Chicago, Austin will definitely be a possibility to live. Myopenbar keeps flirting with opening an Austin branch. If they did, I think it'd be successful because TX doesn't have any anti-happy hour laws like they have here.

I'm happy to finally get some sleep, although as I write this, I still haven't slept much. I'm really glad I've been traveling so much lately. It's good for my mental state. I just know I'm going to get spoiled and need to travel somewhere every month. Hopefully we can keep the momentum up. Next stop, Europe! I also realize that everything from here on out will be easy in terms of traveling. Driving five hours somewhere? A piece of cake compared to what I just experienced. I'm still peeling from my trip to Costa Rica. I've never seen so much skin peel in such random places. I just finished the newsletter and have to participate in Trivia night for our Saucony game. My computer is seriously malfunctioning and I don't know how to fix it. This makes me very mad. Why can't it just work? I can't afford a new one. Anyway, it's going to take me a couple of days to get caught up with everything.

I apologize for the length of this post. I had a lot to say!

Spring Has Sprung

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:42:00 +0000

Today it was a balmy 70 degrees indicating spring is on its way. Of course living in the Midwest, it still could snow any day now. Usually we don't experience spring here. It'll go from winter to summer just like that. I'm hoping this year, we'll at least experience a springtime, but I'm not holding my breath.

Today is also St. Patty's Day, and I could care less. I know I should be all about Irish pride because I live in Chicago, but it's really just another night to deal with drunkards vomiting in trash cans. Over the weekend, the 'hoods were filled with douchebags wearing various green attire. I'll never forgot how on one St. Patty's day I saw a grown man throw up on the EL. It's turned me off every since. I do sorta wish I would've gone to the South Side parade. Maybe next year. Over the weekend, I saw the Ex-Boyfriend's new play. I thought it was really good, but hardly anyone was there. He was really distraught because no one showed up and because it got one mixed review. I think the play is really funny and sad and thought provoking and is worth seeing. It was sorta weird because during the show I sat between Ex-Boyfriend and new boyfriend. I'm lucky the two of them at least tolerate each other, but the boyfriend pointed out it would make for an interesting sitcom. Later on, we ended up at a toga party. It took me a while to realize the significance of the toga -- Sunday was the Ides of March (yunno, Julius Caesar reference). I think Sat. night was my first and last toga experience. Sunday I saw one of my fave bands in concert, Handsome Furs. They were really great and it was cool a lot of my friends went to it. I've been going to more concerts recently. Tomorrow I'm seeing Cut Copy again. This will be my fourth time seeing them live in less than a year. I think I might be obsessed.

SXSW starts tomorrow and we still haven't decided if we're going. I really think we should drive down there, but a 32 drive isn't all that appealing. If we do go, we'll drive through Memphis, Little Rock, and Dallas. I'm excited about the possibility of it and I feel soon I might be too old to do silly road trips, so I think we should just do it. Everything is set for us to go, so why not? I've never taken a long road trip before unless you count when I was 3 yrs old I drove across country with my dad, and when I was in high school, I took a charter bus with my classmates to upstate NY. But the longest I've consistently driven in my adult life is probably 7 hours. I think a road trip of this caliber is long overdue. Stay tuned.

Sometimes I think the boyfriend is sorta ignorant, or maybe just sheltered. I found out a few days ago he's never heard of nor seen the movie Heathers. He's also never heard of Henry Darger, he didn't know what the Ides of March was, and until tonight, he didn't know that when a dog has a white face it means its old. I think 18 yrs of private school was a bad idea for him. I'll admit there's a lot I don't know, but at least I've seen Heathers. I suppose when these thing arise in a relationship, you can either use it as a means to tear you apart or you can embrace it and help each other. Maybe it's my job to introduce him to certain cultural experiences and vice versa. I still just can get over the Heathers thing. I also found out a couple of my friends have never seen the original Star Wars trilogy. That shocked me more than anything. What kind of world are we living in? Seriously. They should show Star Wars in school. It should be a pre-requisite to get into college. I am such a movie snob.

Tonight I had lobster for dinner. The boyfriend and I went to lobster night at the East Bank Club and put the tab on his parents' account. Mmmm...buttery lobster. Tonight I also surprised myself. For some reason on Sat. night, my car battery died. We jumped it and now it works fine. When we got into the car tonight, the radio LCD screen kept flashing CODE. I looked it up in the car manual and in order to have access to the radio, I needed to punch in a code that was supposedly given to me when I purchased the car almost 8 yrs ago. I panicked because I had no idea where this so-called code was. I feared never being able to listen to my Ipod in the car again. But, then I remembered. There was a certain piece of paper I had held onto, that I refused to throw away for 8 yrs. And guess what? It was indeed the code. I punched in the code and voila, my radio worked! I have to give it to Honda and their cleaver anti-theft devices. I'm just glad I never threw it that piece of paper out. Sometimes, I do well.

In the next couple of days, I have a lot of writing to do. Hopefully I can get everything done before I embark on a crazy trip to Austin. Sometimes I feel like I work so hard, but have nothing to show for it. I guess I have to take the little victories along the way.

The Shape of Things

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:10:00 +0000

I've been back from Costa Rica for over a week, and it's kinda sucked. For a few days I suffered from postpartum vacation depression. I kept having reoccurring dreams about being there. I really wish I could just travel somewhere for a month and shirk all of my duties, but that's not gonna happen. It's been fairly cold here, too. I don't think winter is ever going to end. If it's warm, it's usually raining.

I picked up a new writing gig this week. I'm now writing music news/reviews for LimeWire, the peer to peer music download site. They have a music blog, which is pretty cool. I'll get paid a little to cover shows and write all things music. Tonight and Sunday I'll be covering shows. It's been about a month since I've been to a show. I suppose I'll be going to a lot more now. I'm still debating about going to SXSW. Plane tickets are pretty much unaffordable, so we're considering road tripping it down there. Yes, a nice 17 hours there and another 17 hours back. It's sort of crazy to do that, but it'll probably be cheaper than flying at this point. Plus I've never taken a really long road trip before. I really want to go there. Every year I say I'm going to do it but then don't. I know a lot of people going and Myopenbar is throwing a huge three-day party I don't wanna miss. I keep getting emails and invites about parties there. I feel like that kid who wasn't able to party with the cool kids because I had to stay home and babysit my little brother (well, if I had a little brother). I'll be once again disappointed if this doesn't happen, and it looks like there's a less than 50% chance right now. We haven't heard back from the boyfriend's friend who we're suppose to stay with. That's a major issue right now. I suppose if I don't go this year, there's always next year. But, yunno, it'd be nice for it to happen now.

I've been frustrated of late about getting paid for my writing. It's taking certain publications months to pay me for things that should've been paid much sooner. I don't know if it's the state of the economy or what, but I'm getting sick of waiting around for checks. It wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't depend on that money, but I do. I fear I may never see that money even though I keep harassing people about it. Certain things shouldn't be so hard. A couple of days ago, I decided to give up on life. I decided I wasn't going to care so much or try as hard. Sometimes I think if I do nothing,if I just throw my hands in the air is when things happen. One thing I'm not giving up on is giving up. Make sense?

On Tuesday, we had our Saucony game. Finally the entire team was able to get together. We did a Spelling Bee at a bar. It was pretty fun. I remember in the fourth grade, I misspelled "scissors" in my bee. This time, I had to spell pastime, and got it right. Our team actually won the bee by one point. Not that it really matters because we don't win anything, but for a bunch of lushes, that was pretty awesome. I think the more we drank, the better we spelled.

Lately I've been watching old episodes of the American "The Office." I've only seen a few episodes here and there. On the plane coming back from Costa, they showed a couple of newer ones. It piqued my interest, so I had to find out what happened in previous seasons. I really like the show, but it certainly doesn't make me want to work in an office full-time. I mean, I like the idea of money and having a steady job, and getting some employee perks and benefits, but I don't like the idea of dressing up and being stuck at the same place for the next 20 years...or the idea of never being promoted, or the idea of working for a paper company or another dull corporation. But I suppose if I had a really wacky boss, it might assuage coming to work everyday. Or simply annoy the hell out of me.

Back to the States

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:44:00 +0000

I arrived safe and sound back to the U.S late Tuesday night. When we got off the plane, we were immediately greeted with 27 degree temps--that's -3 Celsius, mind you. I've spent the last couple of days in a complete daze. Where am I? Where's the pool? It is time to eat again? I must say I will miss eating and drinking for free everyday, but then again, I can drink for free here in Chicago.

We checked out of the resort late Tuesday morning and attempted to drive to the airport. We were hit with obstacles of construction along the way. I should explain in Costa, they have this thing called "Tico Time" where the inhabitants take forever to do anything. It's part of their relaxed lifestyle. Everything takes longer than it should. We reached a point of the road where it was down to only one lane. The construction worker said we'd be moving in four minutes. Well, 15 minutes passed and we were still waiting. Finally, we got the greenlight. A few miles down the road, this happened again. If you think construction is bad in the States, it's much worse in Costa. This is because it seems highly organized. We made it through the construction and continued on our windy trip through the mountains. All that tossing and turning made my stomach a little queasy. We were restrained for time so we didn't get to stop at one of those numerous restaurant/bars/fruit stands we saw on the side of the road. If I ever come back to Costa, I'm going to do more non-touristy things. I realized everything I experienced during the trip was through eating at hotels and hanging out with other tourists and tour guides. Next time, I want to go off the beaten path. I also wished I would've researched the country a little more before going there.

We finally made it to the rental car place but had to wait almost an hour just to return the car. It was ridiculous. At the airport, we had to pay an exit tax of $26/person. I have no idea why. Our flight to Miami was packed. Tuesday was sorta rough because I was trying to work on the newsletter, dictate to my guest editor, and board a plane. Never again will I try to do both. On the plane, they screened Beverly Hills Chihuahua which I am ashamed I watched. It was just as horrible as I thought it would be. I really miss the golden days of flying when you'd at least get peanuts. Now you have to pay $3 for a cookie. At least on these flights they gave us an entire can of soda. We landed in Miami and were swarmed with so many people from all different countries trying to get through customs and immigration. After we got through those points, we had to go through security again. The only good thing is we didn't have much of layover. Traveling can be such a pain in the ass.

Overhearing other people's conversations in the rental car place and airplane, it seems like a lot of Americans love Costa. I think one couple mentioned they have a place there. Another guy mentioned he lost his job so he decided to take a vacation. I think a lot of people have this "fuck it" mentality. Cold outside? Go somewhere warm. Lost your job? Go on vacation. Both of our flights were packed. I like the idea of having a winter place, or place just to get away to. I don't know if I'd want to make Costa that place, but every winter I want to try to go somewhere warm. I wish we could've stayed for at least 2 weeks or a month. I like the idea of jetting off somewhere for a long period of time.

So, now we're back to the grind. If I have withdrawal of Costa Rican food, I can visit the local Costa Rican restaurant a mile from me. I just might have to do that. But, it's time to start dieting and eating healthier. Now, I have to figure out if we can go to SXSW in Austin. I procrastinated on getting a ticket, so now we're looking at over $600 a ticket, which is more than we paid for our Costa Rica flights combined. I really want to go as Myopenbar is throwing a few parties and my bosses will be there. It'd be more like a work thing. Plus it'd give me something to look forward to and give me another excuse to leave the cold.

I also have been presented with another job opportunity. The thing is, I get a lot of potential opportunities, but they don't always amount to much. This is frustrating. I'm hoping this one will pan out better. I have to write a sample article, first. It's so much pressure to make it good.

I'm glad it's March. Spring (in the technical sense) is a couple of weeks away. I think we could all use a little Spring right about now.

Pura Vida

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:12:00 +0000

The Costa Ricans have a saying called "Pura Vida," or roughly translated, "the good life." For the past few days, I've been living that life here in Costa Rica.

The last time I wrote, I was staying in La Fortuna near a rain forest. The weather in a rain forest consists of sporadic rain, then dryness, then more rain. It's like this all day and night. I had a difficult time sleeping at the hotel as every morning and night I could hear cows mooing and dogs barking. I think there was a farm across the river. I can't emphasis enough how much I love buffets. Luckily this trip has mainly consisted of that. We woke up in time for breakfast Friday morning and feasted on omelets, granola with yogurt, cafe con leche, guava juice, rice and beans, and assorted other breakfast items at the buffet. I noticed that in Costa Rica, the bagel doesn't exist. What a shame. I also noticed they use pineapple in omelets and tuna fish, which I surprisingly liked. One thing the Costa Ricans do is fill your cup up with half coffee and half creme. Since I love coffee with my creme, this totally works for me. The entire day was a bit rainy and humid. Later in the afternoon, we went on a rain forest hike. Our tour guide, Pedro, led us and a group of about eight into the forest. He pointed out a toucan from afar, a woodpecker, and howler monkeys playing in the trees. He told us there are over 112 volcanos in Costa but only 7 are active including the Arenal, which we would try to see later. The hike was informative but exhausting. I'm so out of shape. Afterwards, we loaded the bus and drove to a spectator point to see if we could see lava spurting out of the volcano. It was dark and cloudy, so we couldn't see much except for a blurry outline of the volcano. Our next stop was the Baldi hot springs. This resort has over 15 pools of various degrees of hot pools you can swim in. The hottest pool was about 152 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course the boyfriend felt the need to take a dip in it. Of course he only latest for about 10 seconds before running out. They had pools with water slides, so I went down one of them. After the hot springs, the tour guide drove us back to the hotel. All in all, it was a successful day of adventure. I watched some movies on tv which are mostly in English with Spanish subtitles. This has been a good method for me to re-learn Spanish, especially curse words. I can now say sonofabitch, shit and sex in Spanish.

On Saturday morning, we woke up really early (7am). We indulged in a breakfast spread and then headed for the trees. The boyfriend talked me into doing the canopy/Ecoglide tour with him. The tour consisted of us, a Russian couple and four trained tour guides. I was totally petrified the entire time. We climbed high in the forest and did a series of glide obstacles. The tour guides strap you into two cables and harnasses, then you simply let go and slide down the cables to the other side. At one point the tour guide asked me what I was afraid of and I responded with, "muerte," which means death. He laughed and said I was being silly. Even though I was nervous about falling, I also had a lot of fun hanging from the trees. One course was about 430 meters long. I couldn't even see the end until I was almost to the other side. They also had a Tarzan swing within the course. This consisted of being strapped into ropes and literally stepping off a platform and swinging pendulum style through the forest. I almost chickened out, but I'm glad I did it anyway. The freefall only lasted for a second. After the journey was over, we were rewarded with a free beer to relax.

After our morning of adventure, we checked out of the hotel and drove to our resort in Puntarenas. I was so happy that our adventure portion was over and our beach days were upon us. The drive took over three hours and was quite scenic. We drove through the hills and saw the Costa Ricans in their natural habitat. I wish I would've had more time to spend with the indigenous people. Everything I experienced on this trip was seen through a bubble of hotels, tourists, and tour guides. I would've liked to have spent a day eating at places the locals do. Driving through these towns, I noticed most Costa Ricans don't have much. Their houses are small, they leave their laundry on a clothes line to dry, their doors are always open suggesting they don't have A/C, etc. They don't have sidewalks in Costa Rica, so many people are seen walking along the road trying to catch a bus. I wondered what it must be like to live like this.

Early in the afternoon, we arrived to the Double Tree Hilton resort. Whereas the rain forest was steamy, this part of the country has a dry heat. For a recession, the place was packed. There were a lot of families and elderly people staying there, both Spanish and American. The resort reminds me a lot of a cruise ship except stationary. Everywhere you turn at any time of day, there's ample food and drink. It just one gigantic smorgasbord and open bar. My life for the past couple of days has entailed waking up in the morning, eating, drinking fruity drinks and beer, swimming, going to the beach, eating and drinking some more, sleeping, then getting up and doing it all over again. Basically, I've become a glutton. The resort has pool bars where you literally swim up and order a drink and imbibe it in the pool. There's the Sunset Bar which is a bar stationed on the pier and is only open during sunset. This has been the boyfriend's fave as he can enjoy a cocktail while watching the sun dip behind the Pacific. At night, a live band usually plays cheesy Spanish music. They've played a lot of radio station music from 10-20 years ago that was sucky even back then. I don't understand why they can't play more recent music. There's even a casino here. Last night, I played the slots. The boyfriend informed me this was his first time ever in a casino. I was stunned. I mean, how could you possibly go your entire life without stepping into a casino? I went to my first casino when I was like 20. I also spent a week in Vegas. My parents took me gambling a bunch of times, too. I guess you can say I popped his casino cherry the same way he popped my leaving North America cherry. There are two fairly nice restaurants at the resort that you can eat at: a Latin one and a seafood one. Last night we ate at the former and tonight we'll dine at the later. The food and wine are much better at these restaurants. They serve wine out of a bottle, not a carton, like they do at the other bars.

For all the access we have to "free" booze, I must say I haven't been drunk yet. It could be because the drinks don't have much alcohol in them and also because I've been pacing myself. I've been living on pina coladas, nachos and papas fritas. You can basically wake up at 10am and drink until 1am. Unbelievable. I'm disappointed the resort doesn't serve Bloody Marys, that there isn't a hot tub, and that the pools close at sunset. I also imagined the resort being more like a Spring break free for all with drunk people drowning in the pool, but it's pretty tame. I think it's because this resort is more family orientated.

As I write this, I'm lounging in a beach chair shrouded by palm trees and staring out into the shimmering sea. It's very windy but it's helping to make the almost 100 degree temps seem less. I have seen a total of four iguanas walking around the resort. Ick. Today the resort is emptier than it was over the weekend. I guess a lot of people went home. I'm sad that we have to leave tomorrow, but I don't think I could keep this Corona commercial lifestyle up indefinitely. Yes, it's been great to have fun all day, but after a couple of weeks, I think I would get bored just chillin' all day. At the same time, I wish I could take a month off and just travel, then come back to real life, then disappear off the grid again. I think this might be the only way I'll be able to sanely function in Chicago. It's been nice not having cell phone usage or being chained to the computer all the time. I'm also seriously considering taking some sort of Spanish refresher course or re-teaching myself. I really would like to be able to speak and write complete sentences in Spanish instead of tossing around random words here and there. I would like to be more fluent then take a trip to somewhere like Spain where everyone doesn't speak broken English. I should also mention I'm pretty sunburn right now. I guess I underestimated sunbathing near the Equator. I also think something bit my foot because it's slightly swollen. And I have sand embedded in my hair and various other orifices. And I guarantee I'll be the only Chicagoan peeling in the middle of winter. Ah, the joys of foreign travel.

I feel really lucky that I had to chance to visit Costa Rica. It's such a beautiful country. It reminds me of California in a lot of ways with the Pacific, the palm trees swaying in the breeze, the hills, the Spanish speakers, the warm temps, etc. I would like to come back someday and explore Manual Antonio and Monteverde. I was also expecting clear, blue waters here but that's only on the Caribbean side. That'll be my next destination, well, that and overseas. I'm hoping this is just the beginning of my world travels. I need to keep the momentum up and experience life in other countries. I think my ultimate job would be as a travel writer, but I have a feeling most publications probably wouldn't be able to afford to send me out. I'm not looking forward to returning to the cold and my routine in Chicago, but at least I'll have the memories and photos to keep me warm, or something like that.

¡Costa Rica!

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:00:00 +0000

I made it to Costa Rica okay. Yesterday we woke up at 4am and headed to the airport. Running on two hours of sleep, it made for a long travel day. Luckily, the trip was broken down into 2 1/2 hour increments. We flew from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale, had a two hour layover, then flew to Costa. On the plane, they showed a stupid Diane Lane/Richard Gere movie, but at least it made the time go by fast. We arrived in Costa and had to fill out light paperwork to go through immigration and customs. I never knew you had to fill out paperwork. When we got to San Jose, we were greeted by hilly terrain, palm trees, and dried grass. Everyone in Costa speaks both Spanish and English, but I have this "when in Rome" mentality. I took a couple of years of Spanish in college, but have sadly forgotten most of it. I've been frantically writing down the words I don't know and looking them up. I just don't want to be a tourist, but I know speaking broken Spanish isn't good either. The chick at immigration started to speak to me in Spanish, but I had no idea what she was saying. The currency they use here is called "colones." The exchange rate is about $1 for every 500 colones, so it's a bit daunting at first when something costs like 5000 colones. It's been hard to get to get use to gauging things in Celsius and kilometers. We stopped at a convenient store and bought a six-pack of beer for $1. Unbelievable.

So, at the ripe age of 31, I've finally gotten my first passport stamp. It feels pretty good to have finally accomplished something. The next step was getting our rental car. At the rental agency, the guy told us he'd lived in Chicago for 24 years before moving to Costa. Even in a foreign country, it's still a small world. For some reason it took almost an hour to get our car. They were pretty slow at the place. We rented a SUV with GPS--something I'd never used before. So far it hasn't failed us but I don't really trust it. We checked into the Adventure Inn hotel. There's nothing special about it. At least they had computer stations with internet (we also have a laptop). Even in the rental car place they had free computers for patrons. We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant, which was decent. Restaurants seem to serve most entrees with a side of veggies and potatoes. We then went to bed fairly early, exhausted from the day. I couldn't sleep very well at first. It was hot and I kept having restless dreams. And I swear there were bugs buzzing near my head. Ick.

We woke up early today and dined on their free breakfast. One of my fave things about staying in a hotel is free breakfast...and I'm not talking Continental breakfast but a full-fledged meal. A typical Costa Rican breakfast consists of fried eggs, rice and beans, fresh fruit, and tortillas. They served guava juice and plantains--not a fan-- and starfruit, which I like. The original plan was to stay three nights in San Jose and then go to the all-inclusive resort, but we realized all the sites we wanted to engage in involved driving for at least three hours one way, so it made more sense to stay in a different area. San Jose is just very industrial and unimpressive. We checked out of Adventure Inn and headed to Fortuna to see the Arenal volcano.

It was about a three hour drive through the jungle. I must say Costa Ricans drive recklessly, especially down two way highways. Our journey was met with winding roads, verdant vegetation, stalled cars, trucks, narrow bridges, steep drops, rushing ravines, and at two different times, parts of the road had literally sunken in. There was always some sort of restaurant or bar off the side of the road or someone selling furniture and/or produce. The side of the roads were also littered with colorful houses and ample landscapes. Needless to say, it was a beautiful and adventurous drive. By the time we had arrived in Fortuna, the weather had turned cloudy and humid. My hair is extremely frizzy. I should’ve brought some anti-frizz hair products. We checked into the Volcano Lodge, a much nicer, quieter and more expensive resort. It’s nestled not to far from the volcano and is filled with lush flowers and plants. There are two pools with a Jacuzzi and spa services. The wireless internet doesn't work in our room but works outside. There's also free computers in the hotel lobby. Being here is such a contrast from the city. Earlier tonight, jungle sounds were taunting us. I have no idea what's lurking in the dark forest. Tree frogs? Cows? Insects? I've already been bitten by mosquitoes. It sounded like one of those "Sounds of the Jungle" recordings people listen to in order to relax and/or fall asleep.

Tomorrow we're planning a full-day of adventure. First, free breakfast and then maybe pool bar and then we're taking a hiking tour of the volcano followed by a visit to the hot springs. The boyfriend really wants to do the canopy--basically playing around in the tops of trees in the rain forest. This doesn't appeal to me at all, so I might skip it--although I'll be worried the boyfriend might fall and break his neck. At this point, I'll just be happy to get to the beach portion of our trip. I'm so much more of a beach girl than a play around in the trees kinda gal. I just wanna lay on the beach and drink fruity frozen drinks. Even though I'm suppose to be on vacation, I'm still trying to manage emails and focus a little on work. I just can't turn that part of my brain off. Maybe someday I'll learn to completely let go.

I still can't believe I'm in Costa Rica. It's slowly beginning to sink in. It's sure a nice change to be away from the city. Chance of snow, 0%. Chance of being attacked by monkeys, probable.

Vacay Awaits

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:16:00 +0000

I leave for vacation in less than two days, but I feel sorta anxious to leave. Why is it when you plan to go on vacation, there are always a myriad of things that come up? I got a call today to work on a tv show this weekend, but alas, I will be sunning in the tropics. I feel bad not being available to people, especially when that entails making money. Damn. Other things I will be missing out on is our first Saucony game, a friend's going away party and a concert. Oh well. You can't win them all. In preparation for leaving, I've had to dictate responsibilities elsewhere. I don't really like to dictate because I'd rather do everything myself. I have to leave someone in charge of Saucony and another person in charge of being guest editor. Maybe part of it is I don't trust other people, but I also feel like I'm shirking my duties and just passing the buck onto hapless souls. But, sometimes we just need a vacation. I think everything will be okay as I'm trying to get organized, but I know I will still worry a little. And at this point, I could really use a vacation. I'm sick of Chicago, sick of winter, sick of how frustrating simple chores become, sick of the daily minutiae...yeah, I need to lay on a beach for a while. Hopefully when I get back, everything will have worked itself out somehow. In the meantime, I have a bunch of stuff to get done tomorrow and then I can be on my way.

It's strange that I actually know people that have been to Costa. It just seems so exotic and random to me. Well, not as random as Luxembourg. I feel like I don't deserve to go to Costa. I mean, what have I done to deserve this trip? Or better yet, what have I done to deserve a guy to take me there? Then again, most of the people I know have traveled the world, so maybe it's my turn. I just don't wanna boast too much about it. Yet.

Like every year, I watched the Oscars last night. I think it was better than the previous year but still sorta cheesy. I remember as a kid how much I loved the Oscars. I would make sure to see every movie. It was like my fave event of the year. I would sit there and pray certain people would win and then get upset if they lost. I would cry during acceptance speeches because they inspired me. I really wanted to win an Oscar. I had a speech all planned out. Alas, I don't get as worked up about the awards anymore. I still love watching, but I just don't care as much. I haven't even seen Slumdog and Milk. Watching the awards didn't make me miss L.A or my days in Hollywood at all. I'm so completely removed from that scene and I prefer it that way. I do sometimes wish I had a reason to wear a fancy dress like the actors wear. I think it would be fun to wear some gaudy Valentino number for a night. But other than that, I'll just stick to watching them every year from a far.

Things Can Only Get Better

noreply@blogger.com (Garin) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:27:00 +0000

This time next week, I will be in warm Costa Rica (that is if my plane doesn't crash or isn't delayed). I'm getting excited, but I'm also stressed about taking off for a few days. I worry people will be trying to get a hold of me when I'm gone. I really wish I could be one of those people who goes on vacation and shuts the world off for a few days, but alas, I can't. I still need to figure out who to put in charge when I'm gone. I don't like to relinquish control. I also wish I was going on vacation with a ton of spending money. I have no idea what to expect in Costa Rica. I still can't believe we're going. It feels like a dream. Part of me wants to rub in the fact I'm going on an exotic vacation, but another part of me feels weird about it. I don't wanna brag too much. I hope Costa is everything it seems to be. I will be sure to take a lot of photos. I'm not looking forward to the plane ride. Our flight leaves at 6am and we don't get to Costa till the evening. I know I won't be able to sleep much the night before thus risk feeling air sick all day. Sometimes I'm not the best traveler.

When I get back from Costa, I will then have to decide about going to SXSW. My only concerns are the airfare and getting into events. I know a few people either going or thinking about going, so this might be a real possibility. We can stay with the boyfriend's friend and just try to get into the events. I know during the day, everything is free, so we'll see. It's just something I feel the need to experience. Also, it'd be nice to see my aunt and uncle who live in Austin. One trip at a time, I guess.

It's gotten frigid here again. It snowed a couple of inches last night and was really windy. Thank god I'm taking off soon. I can't stand this winter anymore. Early in the week, I was inundated with a bunch of writing deadlines. I hate it when they all converge, but I managed to get through it. I even interviewed a sex toy delivery guy and wrote an article on him. Yes, you can get sex toys delivered right to your door in this town, anytime of day.

This Saturday night is going to be crazy. I was able to talk a bar into giving us an one hour open bar and drink specials for the boyfriend's late b-day and one of my other writer's 30th b-day celebration. I think it's going to be one of those "man, I drank way too much" nights, and one of those babysit the boyfriend and help him out of the cab nights. Fun. I'm hoping we'll have a good turnout and everyone will have a good time. I like that I can use my connections to help people out.

Everyday, I'm realizing how horrible this economy is. It's surprising that anyone still has a job. I know it's just going to get worse, though. The boyfriend keeps saying he'll quit his job and then I'll go off to work and support us. I don't like this idea. I rather be the leecher than the breadwinner. I don't know how anyone can afford anything anymore. It's such a shame this had to happen. When I walk through my neighborhood, I'm noticing more and more empty storefronts. I have a vision of this city becoming a ghost town. I miss the hey day of the '90s when everyone was experiencing economic growth and had a superfluous amount of money to throw around. Then again, that's what probably got us here in the first place. Things are never going to be gluttonous again. I keep hoping everything will become cheaper and cheaper, like it's 1989 again. I'm just waiting for airfare to be like $100 round trip or less and for stores and restaurants to basically give things away. Things are cheaper, but not cheap enough. Gas prices are still high. I suppose some people still have a lot of money to throw around. I guess some jobs and a upper class still exists. I wish I was independently wealthy. Sigh.

Finally, a local blog interviewed myself and two of my writers. We kinda come off as pricks but hilarious pricks. I was worried some people would be offended by the article, but so far we've gotten positive reactions. Check it out here.