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Chicago Sheri

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The shoe beacon shined on my black suede knee boots today.
I went with the chinese cocktail lounge look.

Starbucks Lenny brought in paczkis that he bought from a polish place on Milwaukee. It was delicious. Happy Fat Tuesday!

I had breakfast for lunch with Brad. I wanted grits, but the place we went to didn't have them, so I had eggs and hash browns.

Went to the Hummer dealership after lunch. Test drove the burgundy one. It was an H2. They had only 1 H1, and it was all blocked in in the front. I put the seat warmer on, felt wonderful. The guy that went out with me for the drive was an older guy so I explained to him a machine like this needs theme music, and put in my mix cd of Snoop Dogg and Wu-Tang Klan. I had fun driving around in it waving to people. "Look at the obnoxious suburbanite driving around in the big gas guzzling tank in an area of only 35 mph!" :)
I only went up to 50 or 55 ish. It was fun, but I could never own one with a clear conscience.





Trouble sleeping for awhile again last night.
I was trying to perfect outfits in my head.

I decided I wanted to dress all Chinese cocktail loungy today. But I was worried I didn't have the perfect shoes for it, still not sure. I am hoping when I go into my closet the perfect shoes will be calling out to me like a shining beacon of light.

And I also decided I need white shiny elbow gloves to go with my green swirly psychedelic dress I want to wear for St. Patricks day. The dress just NEEDS gloves. So I should go check some bridal stores to find the right gloves.

And I think today might be the day I go test drive a Hummer. Not because I like them, just because I feel like being obnoxious.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Not too much info from my doctor appt today, he needs to look over the tests, some other stuff he will be checking on, tapering me off Zoloft from 50mg to 25 starting today. My next appointment is in 4 weeks. He will be checking on anemia and orthostatic hypotension as possibilities or just some random fluky thing.

After the appt I went in search off a burr coffee grinder. I only found one at about 7 places I went to, and they only had one and it was $80. Every place only has the cheapo blade grinder, which I just don't get. Why are all these people buying expensive coffee machines and pieces of shit grinders?!?

Had lunch with Brad at a local mall while we in search of the elusive burr coffee grinder. We split a fiesta sampler at the local Mexican place.

After that, and giving up on the burr coffee grinder for the day, I stopped at Emily's shop to spend time with her and Alex. It's been awhile since I have seen them. She has been doing a lot of painting around there. Alex and I played some Star Wars and Cartoon Network games on the laptop and then played pirate and Fairy Sheri. I tried on several brightly colored belly dancing skirts and pranced and leapt around while Alex yelled "YAR" and pretended his hand was a hook. Then we got out foamy blocks and threw them at each other. He is the best play date EVER!!
We are talking about seeing a movie next week together like the Curious George movie.

Watched Deal or No Deal, don't like Howie Mandel, and then watched Apprentice. I have a crush on the Russian guy already. He stuck up for the damsel in distress, and got the last word in out the boardroom like he was gonna get back at the project manager guy. YAY RUSSIAN GUY! And already there is a guy that has assumed the loud obnoxious person for the show.

Flavor of Love was last night, and Pumpkin got kicked out for the wrong reason, not that she is the one though. And I actually felt bad for New York after seeing her mother. I still can't stand her, but her mom calling her fat on TV in front of everyone and making such an issue out of it! Yuck. But she still has to go. So Hoops should win, but I don't think there is any real future relationship in this thing.

Yes, yes,..I know..I watch fluff. AND I LIKE IT!!

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Doing better.
Just really tired.
I really wasn't up for the interview I had on Friday.
It was in the Merchandise Mart. I got there early only because I still can't read a stupid train schedule correctly....
So tired, I needed caffeine to get me through it, so went to the Starbucks in the place, and then sat my the elevators of where I needed to go and made phone calls. Called Brad, my mother, Brent, and Jason. I felt like I was close to crying on the phone with Brad. I wasn't that sad but just so frustrated, I was tired and just not really up for a few hours of grilling, and just upset thinking about it. Then when I was on the phone with my mother I felt like people were looking at me, like "Are you lost little girl?" I must have had some harried look on my face.
But surprisingly I pulled my shit together, reeking of fake confidence. The interview I think went actually quite well. I interviewed with 4 people and an HR person. The didn't care if I knew SAN crap or not, they had their own group for it. Fine I don't know Veritas, I could take a class and they are hiring 5 unix people, increasing my chances greatly. It isn't through any recruiters either. I will call the HR guy middle of next week and see if he got any feedback on what they thought of me and when I might find out one way or the other. Hope hope hope.....

Went straight home and napped the rest of the afternoon until Brad got home from work.
I'm just really really tired. We took a nap this afternoon for a couple of hours, and I'm ready for bed again. Eyes burn, back and neck are stiff from just being groggy I think. But I am seeing the doctor on Monday morning. Go over everything with him. Blood pressure is a little low, but not terribly so.

Watched "Broken Flowers" last night, and "Wallace & Gromit: Attack of the Were-Rabbit" tonight. Brad has been out doing himself in the kitchen, last night made some wonderful meringues, and tonight made some hummus for us to pick on.

I was planning on going to an ash scattering today for Richard's boyfriend Juan. I was just to wiped out to get out there and feel really bad about that. I really wanted to be there in support of Richard. Hopefully I can make it out to spend time with him soon, or bring him out here to the burbs.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Had a scare yesterday.
Woke up to use the bathroom while Brad was getting ready for work and passed out.
I felt light headed, and for some reason was panting, although I'm not sure why, it just felt like what I should do, which I am sure just made me more light headed, things went dim to dark and then when I woke up I heard Brad's voice in another room on the phone. I thought I was still in the bathroom and he was on the phone handling a work call or something. Then I felt the carpet on my forehead and didn't know where I was or how I got there. So I called out for him, didn't think he heard me, so then spoke louder "I love you." Partly cause I didn't know what was going on, so I couldn't think of anything else to say and just wanted to let him know I was alright.
He was on the phone with 911. He came over told me I had passed out. He looked so frantic and I felt so bad, I kept apologizing to him for giving him such a scare. The paramedics were there very shortly after I woke up. Brad told them I passed out was unresponsive and he thought I had a seizure because when he went to check on me my eyes were open and fluttering and I was twitching all over like I short circuited or something. He had pulled me into the hall and laid me on my side cause 911 told him to do that in case I was nauseous so I didn't choke on my puke. As he was telling the paramedics about this, I asked him if he hurt his back, first thing in the morning and having to jerk me around and his back had been bothering him lately anyway, but of course he said he was fine, just visibly upset. I laid there while they asked us a bunch of questions, checked my blood sugar levels, and check my blood pressure. I felt much better. So I sat up for a bit, then stood up, walked around a little, then one of the paramedics started taking my blood pressure again and I got hot all over and my eyes started to go again. So they put me in the ambulance and took me to the hospital. Both paramedics were really nice.

At the hospital they did a cat scan, blood work, pee test, and an ekg, all were fine. But still....everytime I tried to sit up or stand up I felt faint. All this stuff going on really wore me out, I was tired. This guy George tried to get my blood work, he really hurt me, we thought he got some but then he told a nurse he didn't so she did it. George was tall, shaved head and had an Village People mustache and was just muscular and massive, but hurt the hell outta my arm! He kept moving it around this way and that as I squeezed Brad's hand, tensed up all over and squirmed my feet.

There was a nurse we called Uncle Leo, but it was a woman, we called her that cause she looked mad/mean but wasn't. It reminded us when Uncle Leo in Seinfeld lost his eyebrows and drew them in too dark and they made him look mad. She looked mad cause her mouth went down like the sides of her cheeks drooped a bit. But she was really cool and talked about her psycho sister in law to me that doctored up pictures of her kids to make the nurses brother look like he hurt his kids and how after it was proved she did that he still went back to her cause he loved her and that is only one of the many screwed up things she has done. I told her it sounded like it was time to step back away from her brother, because it kills me to see someone I care about make such serious mistakes and not listen to common sense, it would just eat away at me. She said thats how she is feeling.

So they couldnt find anything wrong with me really. After a nap and 1 1/2 liters of IV fluids I was able to sit, and then stand up. The nurse stayed with me while I tried this, after she left I started taking off all stuff they stuck on me and started getting dressed. Brad left while I was asleep to get a salad from the cafe since he hadn't eaten all day. I was shimmying the IV bag through my shirt when she came back, and she took it out for me and then Brad came back. They are forwarding all the stuff to my general doctor, and I am calling him later this morning to follow up with him.

We think it was multiple things:
Dehydration - I never drink enough, and maybe it caught up with me
Got out of bed too fast first thing in the morning
I wasn't feel too well the day before, might be a slight cold or something bringing me down
and they said something about optic static tension or something like that.
Since I don't drink much, the caffeine I do have probably doesnt help.

After I got released we went home. Brad finally broke. He had kept it together for me all morning and the poor guy was wiped out and just cried. It really upset him to see me the way he found me this morning. He was tired but unable to sleep, head still going. We laid in bed together and then I fell asleep for a bit. After I woke, we went downstairs, he made a small pizza for us to eat and we watched a movie "Assisted Living" Really excellent movie about a janitor at an assisted living place. You should rent it!
I drank a few diet lemon limes drinks too.

I called my therapist cause I had an appt that Brad called and canceled for me, and the Doc was worried. He said the zoloft I take can sometimes factor into what happened, even though it's never happened before. And I rescheduled him to later today at 5pm.

I called Starbucks Jan to see if Lenny was still there with her but he had left. She told me she was about to go to her appt with the atty with all the paperwork they requested. She was ready but really down about the whole thing, I told her I would be thinking about her. Then I called Starbucks Lenny. Cause Lenny wanted to have lunch yesterday and I didn't want him thinking I was blowing him off again and hated his guts. Cause last time we made lunch plans I canceled because it was Valentines Day to I told him that I was sorry but was going to have lunch with Brad. Lenny worries all the time, worries about being annoying or too pushy so I didn't want to get the wrong idea and he sounded really happy I called him just to let him know when I had just gotten home from the hospital.

Had trouble sleeping at first last night/tonight whichever. I cuddled with Brad and then slept for a little over an hour but then fully woke up. So I sat up in bed for a few minutes, and then woke up Brad and told him I was hungry and wanted to go down to fix something to eat. He told me to take my cell phn with to have in case I needed him. I have it in my robe pocket now. No dizziness, feeling fine and ate a peanut butter and jelly. Maybe now I will be able to go back to sleep.

XOXOXO!

Brad's summaries:
http://im2xlt.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Blah.
Having small talk troubles again.
Went to Starbucks, (they email me if I'm not there for a few days), I was fine with a little one-on-one with Jan, but the whole crowd was just to much for me. So I smile and nodded every now and then and mostly read. (After agreeing to lunch tomorrow with Lenny - sushi)
I did try to talk to a somewhat newish guy at the Starbucks crowd, and was very disappointed, which is really assy of me. I made up little stories in my head what he was like, and sat and talked with him a bit and he is really boring. The one thing I liked about him was he had a journal, I liked that he wrote to himself. But everything else was blah blah blah.
Oh yeah there was another newish woman, said she was a writer, but isn't published....assy me again. I can't stand it when people say they are writers and such when they just write for themselves, and in her case she has started 22 stories, and not finished one of them. That is not a writer to me. And she talked too much, I smile and nodded to her the most and then excused myself to try to chat up boring journal guy. But I am being a blah snobby bitch today.
I am tired today.
Stayed up too late last night, was poopy ill today (which also made me tired and bitchy)
Finished the other books, reading Stiff, now also got in "Marley & me: life and love with the world's worst dog", "The complete plays of Sophocles" and "Oedipus and Akhnaton: myth and history".
Yeah,... I guess I am in the mood for some good greek tragedies.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

The maid was here yesterday.
I didn't feel like going home and making small talk.
I went home late but she was still there.
So I sat in the car two houses down from our house.
I think the neighbors thought I was casing their house and were watching me from their windows.
I sat in the car and read Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster, good read, hope to finish it up this weekend and then start in on Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach or on The Year of Yes: A Memoir by Maria Dahvana Headley.
I finished up Little Birds by Anais Nin last weekend, and got Brad kind of interested in it by telling him bits of the stories, so he might read it this weekend before I return it to the library.
Another 3 day weekend with Brad.

Thanks to Lydia (another Brooklyn friend) I had a chocolate covered strawberry, a chocolate covered apple, and a toasted crumpet for breakfast to go with my french pressed coffee.
I have been digging crumpets lately.
And for luxury Brad brought me some french pressed coffee, even brought up some milk and equal up to me while I took a bath (using the Lush products Jennifer (another Brooklynite) sent me for my birthday). It's so luxurious!

I only have one apple and one strawberry left, gonna finish them up tonight, they were SO fabulous. Huge, not over or under ripe, and the didn't skimp on the chocolate either!

Good fruit, coffee and chocolate. YUM!
Maybe next weekend I will do up some fruit and cheese!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006



Happy Valentine's Day.

It's been a Valentine's weekend for me. Brad had a 3 day weekend (Monday off). We had a great lunch yesterday at The Lantern, a local pub. Never been there before, didn't think the food would be that much. But earlier last week the Starbucks gang took me there and I was really impressed, so took Brad there yesterday for a hamburger. It's his new favorite! And then for dessert we went down the street to Cookie Dough Creations and split a small order of M&M cookie dough.

Practiced rollerskating together in the basement. Brad is getting A LOT better, every time he skates he makes vast improvements.

Last night I was taking a late night bath and he came in with the loofah and did my back for me. I like being taken care of like that, being bathed and washed up.

This morning he woke me up with a card and a large basket of treats he got me. Cookies, crackers, sweets, and made me a piece of cinnamon raisin toast for breakfast.

I picked him up and took him out to lunch. Nothing says romance like lunch at Hooters! :) We split a buffalo chicken sandwich and curly fries. I gave him a card and a box of chocolate strawberries for our dessert.


My friend Addy is visiting Columbus for work this week. It's not a walking around city like New York, Chicago or San Francisco, and cold. She isn't enjoying it very much. So I set her up on a lunch date today with my mother. I think it's so cool that even though I don't live at "home" anymore my mom still gets to meet my friends. :) I think both Addy and my mother needed the company.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Why are they playing all american music to introduce all the different countries as they come out?

When they lined up the ex olympic athletes dressed all in white Armani, I couldnt help but think of Logan's Run and imagined them starting to float before exploding in the air for being old has-beens.

Yesterday was good.
I met up with Brent for dinner at Italian Village on Monroe. He even brought me a belated birthday gift. He is such a good date. Had a lot of catching up to do with him, his new temp job that sounds like that cast from "Office Space". One guy with HUGE fish on the walls of his office and another guy that walks about with a baseball bat. I told Brent he needs to start walking around with a golf club at work.

Then took the blue line to Damen. Sat in Filter for about an hour drinking iced coffee. Had a very cute squeaky voiced girl talk to me a bit. She was darling.

Then walked up the block to Quimby's for Steve's book reading. I get to see him briefly once a year at these things. I was hoping his step-brother might be there, since I met him before just to have another face I know there..but he wasn't. Got to catch up with Steve and some of what he has coming up and been going on with him. Then after the reading we went across the street with a group to Piece for beer and pizza. I went back and forth about going, worried about feeling socially awkward since the only person I knew was Steve and he would be busy with the crowd. But I went, and luckily enough 2 really nice guys sat next to me and were super talkative. Ernie, and I think the other guy was Dave. Fun guys, enjoyable conversation, the kind I enjoy: vietnam vet, dad was in WWII, crazy ex-wife that put her poop in flower pots but was a brilliant creative type but then stabbed her mom and is hospitalized (which I thought was sad) and being force fed through a tube since she refuses to eat, both published, one used to own his own bookstore, didn't go to the last Steve reading because he got an offer to smoke hashish with someone having something to do with the Cubs.

Oh yeah and they had a neat idea, an author book. A blank journal just for authors to sign so they have them all in one place. The first signing they got was James Frey. It said "I ? Ernie & Dave. Love James Frey" We all agreed that despite all the big hoohah, we still liked his books.

Hugged Ernie, Dave and Steve goodbye at the end of the night.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Any locals wanna meet up at Quimbys this Thursday Feb 9 at 7pm?

I am going to go see Steve Elliott, doing a book reading there for Stumbling and Raging: More Politically Inspired Fiction

Quimbys
1854 W. North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
773-342-0910

Other authors that will be there:

Audrey Niffenegger - Author of The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Three Incestuous Sisters: An Illustrated Novel

Stefan Kiesbye - Author of Next Door Lived A Girl. A book I have been meaning to read, so now I can buy it and get it signed.


***Also any of you in Columbus Ohio can go see them the day before...Feb 8 Weds at Wexner Center
Wed, Feb 8, 2006 7:00PM
Film/Video Theater

"Writer and editor Stephen Elliott will be here to read from the anthology Stumbling and Raging: More Politically Inspired Fiction along with four of the book's contributors: Courtney Brkic, Jeff Parker, Stefan Kiesbye, and Michelle Herman (an Ohio State associate professor)."

Sunday, February 05, 2006

I like watching the Puppy Bowl II on Animal Planet way more than the Super Bowl XL.



Went out dancing last night. Brad is a good dancer. It's been so long, I felt a little awkward but went for it. I don't know what to do with my feet....

I liked watching other people dance, see what they were wearing, pick out the cute girls for Brad, and point out all the girls that looked like their boobs were about to fall out.

We got a great seat right on the side of the dance floor where we could watch everything and still have room to jump up and dance. Also very cool...there was a MUCH older couple out dancing, and a few scattered middle of the road older people as well. There was one really really big girl in a tank top dancing. I saw a couple skinny girls giving her looks but she kicked all our asses dancing! I mean that girl danced non-stop for many many songs, I was a wuss and only danced for like 2 songs in a row. I even almost fell over I got so dizzy trying to krump!


Today is my birthday.
We are going out for brunch. Going bowling. Open gifts, eat cake, and then get ready for superbowl.

I still have card and gifts to open, but Brad brought me my big gift from him and mom last night after we got in. A pair of K2 Athena inline rollerskates!!! I LOVE THEM!!!

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Went to the coffee house that sounded very women with a y.
Turns out it was just a very bad description. Sounded like they were trying to do something....
Had breakfast there, Brad had an egg sandwich and I had 2 eggs and flapjacks. The food was very good, Brad really liked his sandwich and thought what we got wasn't as over-priced as some of the other stuff on the menu sounded. Not sure how long they will stay open, no big signs or ways to draw in people. We'll see. They had lots of games and magazines to keep you there and hang out. After we finished eating we took our coffees downstairs where is was quieter and more cozy.





Brad had the laptop, did emails, posted and surfed. I read a few fluff magazines and then went through the comics and did the crossword. We walked around the building to see what else was in there, it's pretty big. Mostly small businesses, like accountants, attorneys and stuff like that.

Then we went ice skating. Much bigger crowd on the weekend, its usually about empty on weekdays when I've gone before. Brad got some skates and went out a bit, but too many kids flailing and falling everywhere for him to get comfortable and try it out. But he got to watch me skate, he has never seen me ice skate before. I liked showing off for him, and I slammed into the plexiglass that he was standing behind a few time to mock body check him. :) It was a good work out. I felt better this time, had a little more maneuverability, shifted from side to side more easily avoiding all the kids.





After that we went home and watched Flightplan. Enjoyed it, then went upstairs for a little naptime. We were gonna go to Sullivans but I just don't feel hungry enough. So still gonna go, just taking a raincheck on it. We will pick on leftovers (pizza and thai) when we get up, then get dressed and go out dancing later tonight. I'm excited to wear my slut boots for Brad. Last time I got to wear them was for Addy, when we went out.

Starbucks Jan announced she was ready to leave her husband and is calling an attorney to get things started. I am so proud of her, she sounded more excited and happy with herself than scared. Took Starbucks Lenny to lunch. Ate some Thai food. He ordered curry noodles with chicken and I ordered pad thai. He took one bite of his then said he couldn't eat it cause he doesn't like curry. He choose the place to eat and ordered curry noodles..... I made him take a bite of mine, and he loved it so we traded. I like curry, it was a red curry. He is talking about starting into some therapy, I told him I thought it was a good idea.

Last night we ate pizza from Lou Malnatti's and watched the 3 hour show on Discovery (with WAY too many commercials every five freaking minutes!!!) Grizzly Man. Interesting show, didn't think it was worthy to win Sundance award, but not sure what it was up against, so whatever. I liked the bears and the cute little foxes. I think his heart was in the right place but what he was doing was more destructive then helpful. He wasn't doing any studies, or documentation. It was more for himself then the bears. And the medical examiner was just weird, he seemed way too into "telling a story".

Today we are going to a newish coffee shop that sounds kinda women with a "y", but still going because they serve Intelligensia, have free wi-fi, and to see if it's as flaky feeling as the mission statement sounds.
"provide a setting in which women can be nurtured and empowered".

Then we might either go ice skating or bowling this afternoon. I want to go to Sullivans for steak, creamed spinach, and au gratin potatoes. Then I want to go out dancing tonight, but we will have to tape SNL since Steve Martin is hosting.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Got up early and took the train to Chicago this morning, headed to River North.
Had an appt with my gyn to take the annual look at my lady bits.
She is the one that found the lump in my neck that turned out to be thyroid cancer, she can also, just by touch, feel a 3.5cm fibroid...I told her she is a freak that she can just brush over and feel that shit!! Really nice greek lady. Has 3 kids, just lost one when she was halfway through her pregnancy very recently. I love her to pieces! ...another person I hug goodbye.....

Lots of construction in that area. I'm walking by old projects, then round the corner and everything is being knocked down and made into offices, condos and gyms. After my appt I stopped in Kitsch'n, sat at the bar and had some coffee while I asked the Magic 8 ball some questions.

Sat at Union Station watching people, had some pizza then took the train home.