Still staying with Grandma. Still staying at my parent's house. Kind of a trip. I spent all my teenage years here and thensome. Sitting in my old room (which is now an office) I recall so many memories. Last night J.T. and I took a walk around the block. I've done that so many times before (jogged it even). I wondered how many of my peers families still reside in the neighborhood? I went to the store yesterday and wondered what the odds were that I'd run into someone I knew. High I guess, but I didn't stop to talk to her. You know how that goes.
So now I'm listening to ABBA and having a hard time staying in my seat - how can people *not* dance to this? We recently saw the musical Mamma Mia (awesome!) and again it's nostalgic. My mom listened to this music all the time when I was growing up. In my bedroom, I used to have this part of the wall reserved for posting stuff throughout the school year. At the end of the year it was full of awards, ticket stubs, pictures and other memorabilia from the year. Then I'd take them all down, patch the holes and do it again for the next year. Now it's all stuffed in a scrap book. I did so many sports and music, the wall was always *full*. :) I did so much growing up here. From 14 to 24 years old. My cat is still here. Fred. I got her for my 18th birthday. Now she's going on 11 - an old lady. She used to be a beautiful, long haired cat, but now she can't clean her fur as easily. I spent a few minutes yesterday cutting the knots out of her hair. I cut Grandma's hair too. It was a beauty day for everyone! I really have no business cutting hair, but Grandma is totally biased and likes how I cut it. It's fun really, and as long as I cut it reasonably short, it's hard to screw up.
I lived in this little town for so many years - over 20. I don't live here anymore, but I live nearby. This "town", which is really a thriving city, is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. I tell people how long I lived here and they usually reply "wow, I bet you've seen some changes". That's for sure. I remember empty fields, and only 4 schools, and 1 grocery store. Now an empty field is rare and there are too many schools and grocery stores to count. At least my parent's neighborhood is timeless. It never changes. Many people have transplanted here from the bay area. Which is okay. Just makes it different to have this flux of new people. It's a nice place to live and you can't keep people out. :)
I used to love this bedroom. It's huge. Two bedrooms with a wall knocked down between so it's twice as big. I had a couch in here and everything. I loved to redecorate and move my furniture around. I used to like to clean my room too, I guess because it was "my domain". I wish I was as motivated about cleaning the house I live in now...
I even drive the same car that I got when I was 16. It's easy to get nostalgic here. :)
posted by hbt at 11:35 AM
Yesterday was an interesting day. So I'm Grandma (Katie) sitting, which I already mentioned. Nothing unusual there. My other Grandma (Ruth) lives right around the corner from my parents so we'd made plans to visit. And the plan was to head over to the new local Indian casino for the afternoon. Sounded fun to me, and I hadn't seen Jason's work yet either. He was working yesterday so I'd hoped to catch him in action! :) About 12:30 I headed over to pick her up. I get to drive Mom's car while I'm here. Call it a perk. Most cars are better than my car (1990 Nissan Sentra); hers is for sure (2001 Toyota Avalon).
First we head to our house so I could check on the zoo. All was well, and Grandma got to see some of our remodeling progress in the kitchen. Then we headed to the casino. What a big place! But *beautiful*. So gorgeous. I mean, it's only a casino, but still, beautiful. The main bar was amazing. Walls of waterfalls, leather chairs, blue lights everywhere, glossy black ceiling and lots of blue iridescent tile. Someone had good taste. And the string of restaurants they'll be opening in a few months is promising. All great stuff. The place was bustling, but not over-crowded. When it first opened, you had to wait in line for *everything*.
We eventually found Jason. Is it possible to be cute when you're dealing blackjack? :) Oh yeah. We said 'hi' then went in search of particular slot machines. Grandma sat down and I headed for the Starbucks (they're everywhere, I swear!) Her $20 was gone in no time on a $.05 machine. We scouted another one and this time it was faster. We went back to find Jason and waited at his table until he went on break.
Break wasn't so fun because he's not allowed to loiter. So we stood in the hallway and chatted a bit, then he had to go back to the "workers only" part of the building.
Grandma had lost all the money she wanted to so we headed home, grabbed some pizza (on Mom, another perk) and watched the second Harry Potter movie. She'd recently read the second book and was interested in the movie. What a good movie! I guess it's time to buy the latest book...
I drove her home and hung out for a while. Played my harmonica. I can play a scale now without much pause, but the lower notes are giving me real trouble. We'll see where it goes. I bought it specifically for one song we do with an easy harp solo. In fact someone had a cameo last gig and played it for us. He'd never played harp before and learned the solo in 3 days. Heck! I can do that! But I don't have the song with me over here so I can't practice it...
Last evening, Jason and I made plans to meet at a bar to watch a band (felt like we were going on a date or something!) The guitarist and his friend (who is my friend) came out to see us play so I wanted to return the favor. Little did I know I was networking.
*Had to stop and give Grandma her eye drops. It's twice a day. Kind of weird laying her back and touching her eye like that to hold it open, but she's a really good patient.*
So my friend was there at the bar. He's a guitarist too and we're trying to recruit him. He's thought about it, but not much else. The band was pretty good. They had a good sound and tackled some hard songs well. Had a good Santanna guitar sound. And a quality lead singer, which is refreshing. They were expecting another woman to show up around 11 to sing a couple songs with them, but hadn't shown up yet. The guitarist guy approached me and asked if I knew any of their songs - they do mostly classic rock. The end agreement was if he could get the words to a Pat Benetar song, I would sing it. Well the woman at the bar wrote them down for us... And yes, half way through the set, I went up there with my scribbled notes and sang a song. I knew it mostly and didn't have to read much. I had to stand directly in front of the drums - way loud. But it was fun! Got a quick plug for the band, and applause, then hopped off the stage. I think people were impressed because it seemed so unplanned. Later that woman showed up and she did do a song (Black Velvet) - a sexy song. She was real good; we've seen her before in her regular band. I couldn't help but wonder how we compared. Sometimes when you get good singers together, it comes down to personal preference... It doesn't matter I guess. I had my first real "sit in" with another band and it was fun.
Then to top it off, yet another guy guest sang for the last song, and he was awesome. Perfect for the song. This big oaf looking guy with long, wild hair - but he was captivating and played to the audience very well. Apparently, he's an awesome guitar player too.
When the gig was over, there was some more chatting with the band. Thanks for singing and all that. I said any time, and they may take me up on the offer. They're not playing any in July, but I suspect they'll be in touch after that. They also showed interest in coming out to see us next gig. We shall see. And Jason had a good opportunity to get us booked there, and that seemed to go over well.
It's all good.
posted by hbt at 11:06 AM
I'm back from Chicago. Spent the week there on a lovely business trip in the lovely windy city. Actually, it wasn't all that lovely until the last day. But the business show I went to was fun. I flew out on the red-eye Monday morning and arrived around 2. I hadn't even arrived at the hotel yet and my coworker was calling me on my cell phone; I had a message waiting for me in my room too. It's good to be wanted. ;) The day was a whirlwind of sorts and I was a bit tired. Went to dinner with yet another coworker - this one from Germany. :) It's nice to work in a global team... We ended up at some random restaurant. I had good mushroom ravioli - it was one of those fancy dishes where they don't give you much food. I think they call that "gourmet"? My friend ordered a disappointing salad... :( I didn't find the good cuisine in Chicago - I'm sure it exists. I managed to lose a couple pounds on this trip. Terrible!
Tuesday I slept in a bit. Long night. Did work stuff, but that's too boring to record forever more in writing. Tuesday night was the "big event" for the conference. A night at The House of Blues. House is really an understatement. It was four stories, had two bands, and many bars - all of which serving free alcohol. Of course I took advantage of the hospitality. I hung out with more of my coworkers - many I don't get to see except at these shows. My French coworker showed me a dance at the last conference in Lisbon and he tried to refresh my memory. Too much twirling... (Twirling and drinking... bad combo). And if that place wasn't enough, when it closed down, we headed to "Buddy Guy's". Some old blues guy opened a blues bar that had blues bands. A hole in the wall and right across the way from the hotel. The band was good too. One of the singers had this ammunition belt (at least it looked like one), full of harmonicas. Pretty cool. They only come in one key so you have to get several.
I was so inspired I went out and bought myself a harmonica today. No, really! It's harder than it looks!
Anyway. That was Tuesday. Wednesday morning was more work. I had to validate some computer setup thingy for my thingy the next day. This thingy was the reason I was even there. :) They do pay me to do something useful... We came back later that evening to setup our room and it, of course, took longer than we'd hoped. A group was waiting for us downstairs to go to dinner and I had to send them off without us. :( Group outings are the best part of these shindigs - it was disappointing. But it was for the better. We got our room all set up and the 3 of us followed after the group. I don't know why since we sat at a different table... This was supposed to be some great steak house. Pah! My $40 aged steak didn't compare to what we can do on the grill at home. I was severly disappointed. But too hungry to care. I recalled my meals over the course of the day. Let's see. Orange juice for breakfast (freshly squeezed!) Pretzels in the VIP lounge for lunch. By dinner time, I was faint with hunger. *sigh* What a dope!
Wed night I must have had nerves or something because I didn't get much sleep... Our session thingy was at 8:00 the next morning. Needless to say, not much sleep that night.
At some point along the way I decided to paint my toenails. I knew I'd be wearing sandals all week so I wanted to relax 15 minutes and do this. Sitting on the toilet (lid down!) with my foot on the tub edge, I painted away. Only I got careless and knocked the open bottle of nail polish into the tub, spilling pink polish all over. OOPS. That's gonna stain... I tried to wipe it up with Kleenex, but alas, it only smeared. Worried the cleaning people would freak out, I made a plan to buy nail polish remover to clean it myself. Until then, I kept the "do not disturb" sign hung.
Moving on. Thursday was the big thingy. The thingy went well and I'm relieved. There's a lot of prep work for these thingies, and customers pay to attend, so they really need to be smooth. And it was. By 12pm I was free of all obligation and responsibility. What a nice feeling...
Thursday night was sushi night with the team (minus one). The big boss too. We got a big, round table, and proceeded to have an awesome sushi dinner. A bit more sashimi and nigiri than I prefer (gimme maki), but it was fresh. There was exotic eating as well, none of which I was interested in. The craziest was the oyster shooter with the (raw) quail egg. Hey, all four of them said it was good, and none of them died. Positive testimony. After dinner, the big boss was ready to party, as were some colleagues. I however, was falling asleep standing up. Ready for bed. We split off and some of us went back. We took the train to and from dinner - an authentic experience considering we don't have trains like that locally. Cool stuff. I wish we did have trains, but they're not so compatible with "urban sprawl".
Friday - a free day. I went to bed around 11 the night before, and gee, got up around 11. My first sound sleep in the hotel room. Pillow was hard as a rock, but didn't matter that night. Guess I was used to it. My coworkers' sessions were wrapping up around noon and I caught them for lunch. They had successful sessions as well and I was pleased to hear it. Played the tourist after lunch. Trip up to the Sear's tower. What an awesome view. I could stare at the horizon for hours. So serene. What else did we do? Walked the Navy Pier, which was not so exciting, but it was windy. And they DON'T have an IMAX theater. Took the free trolley around a bit, and did some walking as well. It's nice to know you're never far from a Starbuck's.
By this time, some people were heading home. I however stayed over another night so I could play in the city a little. A couple coworkers did as well so I had company. Chicago was a foreign place to all of us. :) I had done some research on things to do. Most of it was totally worthless, but I at least had a list of sushi restaurant reviews. We took the train (I was the expert) and got off in a more residential looking area. Reminded me of old town. Very quaint. Cute little shops. And a good sushi restaurant. We ate maki, and it was yummy. The firecracker roll was my favorite - it had some tempura batter in it. Just the crunchy batter. Surprisingly tasty. :)
That sums up the evening. Next day was breakfast on the sidewalk at some place that served way too many eggs. There was a Puerto Rican parade and many were walking by in T-shirts showing their Puerto Rican pride. There were also pictures in front of a neighboring hotel. They had been marching around in a circle for weeks, megaphone and signs in hand. Chicago does have a lot of unions... You don't see picketers here so much.
The rest of the afternoon was spent finding a boat, then riding a boat, and getting an architecture tour on the Chicago river. Did you know they reversed the flow of the river? And that some rich guy had nude parties at the lighthouse? Lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen - Thai chicken pizza - my favorite.
Then it was back to the hotel to grab my junk, take a nearly-vomit-inducing cab ride to the airport, say my goodbyes to the city, and head home. A memorable trip.
posted by hbt at 12:18 AM
Hmmm. I typed in a nice, long blog entry and the result was... a "big post error".
posted by hbt at 12:02 AM
