Wednesday, May 26, 2004

dolly..

some of you may recall a previous post many moons ago where i discussed my loathing for dolls. well, there's no place that scares me more than "american girl place". my first experience with that horror came about one summer day a few years back when it first opened a store near michigan avenue here in chicago. i was walking down chicago avenue that day and couldn't help but notice a couple and their child exiting the store. it wasn't so much the couple that caught my eye, but more so that the mother was pushing a stroller which was empty because the child who was supposed to be in the stroller was busy pushing another stroller that had a precious little goo-goo-ga-ga doll in it. and they all matched. the strollers, the hair, the outfits, the whole kit and kaboodle. it made me want to hurl.

so anyway, i bring this up again because there's just a feckin' (my irish realtor keeps saying "feckin'" and i just love how it sounds) hilarious
article i read in gaper's block that i just had to share.

enjoy!

Friday, May 21, 2004

blogabloggiebligablog...

i've been fooling around with the new templates and i think i like this one, though the font colors are a bit drab dontcha think? anyhoo.. i've decided i don't like the new blogger comments. i want my old comment box back. but i don't have time right now to figure out how to do it, so bear with me..

the weekend is finally here and c and i will be spending the entire weekend packing. did i ever tell you how much i hate packing? i mean, the "spring cleaning" aspect of it is cool and all because i love getting rid of useless shit, but i absolutely hate packing.

so, i finally found a place with a short term 3 month lease and it's a one bedroom apartment not too far from where i live right now. in fact i'm a block away from the lake, which is fabulous, but the place is like a little box.. no back porch, balcony, nothing. in fact if i remember correctly, the view out of my window is that of a parking lot. i'm feeling claustrophobic just thinking about it. but for a decent and rather spacious one bedroom, it's damn cheap.. only $600 a month, which is peanuts when you're talking about the north east side of chicago. you're lucky if you find a decent studio for that price. i guess the landlord was despertate, what with it being a renter's market and all these days, so he agreed to a short term lease at a low price. i guess i should count my blessings instead of whine about how i'm feeling so unsettled about being unsettled for the duration of the next 3 or so months...

Monday, May 17, 2004

busy, busy..


i know i haven't blogged in a while, but it's mostly because there haven't really been any new developments. i've decided to take the plunge and go ahead and get in the market to buy a place. in the meantime, i have to find a sublet for three months and move out of my apartment at the end of the month. i have a few leads that i'm looking into this week with regard to sublets, and one back-up in case the leads don't come through, but it's been ultra stressful for the past few weekends because there aren't that many sublets available right now that meet my criteria.

at first i set my sights pretty high, thinking i wanted a one bedroom sublet and was willing to pay more than i pay right now. but then reality hit me and i realized that i should probably start saving as much as i can in anticipation of ridiculous expenses i'll most certainly incur for buying a place. closing costs are outrageous! so instead i'm opting for something small and cheap.. am even considering a studio which while inducing claustrophobia at the mere thought, will no doubt help save some cashola. plus it'll only be for 3 months, and being summer and all, i can't imagine i'll be spending too much time indoors. this whole buying thing is definitely gonna burn a huge hole in my pocket, but i figure it's worth it rather than blowing my money away on rent.

on a completely different note.. a funny thing happened yesterday.. c and i were headed to see an apartment and while getting off the train, some european guy (he had a strong accent) pushed her to get in front of the train doors. she did the classic hand in face and said "excuse me, don't you see me standing here?" but he proceeded to barge right through her and their shoulders collided pretty roughly, but all he did was mumble "i'm in a hurry!" and continue on. well, he fucked with the wrong girl. c does not take shit like that. especially from a white dude. at this point he rushes in front of her just as we're at the top of the stairs leading down to the street and c gives him a swift kick (in her defense, she was completely justified after he almost trampled over her) in the ass.. hard! he turned around and screamed "you didn't have to hit me!" and then ran down the stairs like a little bitch. of course c gave him one of her classic dirty looks that pretty much said "i dare you to come back up here and try it again" and when he got to the bottom of the stairs he flipped her the bird and called her a cunt. i love how men think that cunt is the most derogatory word you could possibly use on a woman. obviously he's never been to the vagina monologues. say it with me ya'll.. cunt.. cunt.. cunt! ha, ha.. it was pretty funny. here he was running away from her and she's the one being called a cunt? the guy was so frustrated that he ran out towards the exit and then started screaming what had to be obscenties in his language.

now, normally i don't condone anything like that, but he was truly in the wrong. but we laughed at his ass all the way home.

c might not be a big girl by any means, but she's toned and muscular by default(genetics). she doesn't work out a lick (and i hate her for that!), but my girl is all kindsa tough and stuff. so people don't usually think she can pack a good punch just by looking at her. gotta love it.

so anyway, back to the the housing front. the house buying hunt is well on its way. i saw a few properties. some good, some horrendous. i have one important criteria though, and that is the condo has to either have a separate dining room, or a living room large enough to fit a pool table and a lounging area. my realtor laughed when i told him that, but at least it allows us to eliminate certain places right away.

i'm excited at the prospect of being a homeowner. but i'm upset that i'll have to move twice this year. oh well... c'est la vie..

Thursday, May 06, 2004

the sasser bitch got me...

my home computer caught the damn sasser virus and i'm pissed. at first i couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. i was online for ten minutes or so with no problems. my goal was to update this page for the new may audio pleasure and calendar, but before i could, i started getting the "your computer will shutdown in 60 seconds" warning. so i let it shutdown, not knowing what the deal was, and after it restarted i logged back on to the internet and not two seconds later the warning message came back up. i did it again about two more times, but the same damn warning message came up until i finally gave up and turned off my machine. it wasn't until i was watching cnn later that night where i saw one of the scrolling bulletins at the bottom of the screen referencing the sasser virus that it finally dawned on me why my computer was acting up.

so this morning when i got to work i printed out the microsoft instructions on how to get rid of the virus, and here's hoping that'll work when i get home tonight.

i know how much you guys rely on my monthly music samples, so i apologize for disappointing you all so terribly [insert sarcasm].. i hope to have it updated in the next day or two.

on another note this weekend is all about apartment/house hunting. i prequalified for a mortgage loan yesterday which is great news, but at the same time i'm kind of confused about whether or not to just look for a place to buy instead of rent. then again, considering our lease runs out at the end of this month, i don't really have enough time to bank on buying a place. who knows how long it'll take to find something i like, and then deal with all the time it takes to close, etc. i wish i had acted on it sooner, but of course there were other barriers in my way that delayed everything. but i'd really hate to have to move twice. i hate moving period. though i dig starting "fresh" everytime i move.

in an effort to confuse things in my life even more, i've been looking into a possible move to miami. if that comes through, then it sort of cuts my decision making issues in half. but i'm not counting on it.

[sigh].. life is really stressful right now. too much shit happening all at once.

either way i think i'll have to find an apartment to rent until a) i find a place to buy or b) the miami move comes through. there's no way either of those things will happen by the end of the month, but a friend of mine offered to let me stay at his place if needed, while in transition. he's returning the favor for when i let him crash on my couch for two months after he moved back to chicago from a year long hiatus in costa rica. karma is a good thing.

i guess i'm just a little baffled because i have too many options right now. too many decisions to make. it's making me stress out in a big way and i don't like it. uncertainty does not sit well with deshigrrrl.