Synchronicities deserve their own posts

I just told Ally that I feel bad when I want to write about synchronous things that happen to me as that is the theme of her blog, but sometimes she writes about non-synchronous things and I don't call her a biter, so with the promise of a link, I have permission to write about this.

Last night Maggie (sick of her yet? I'm not) and I went to this bar in her neighborhood we had passed with the twins on Sunday, but figured we should return when we weren't babysitting. The place is called the Charleston and was a good Monday night drinking spot. There were about 5 people at the bar, all over 40 and none of them area yupsters. As we finished our beer, 4 of the 5 people went up to the stage. We decided to stay for another drink so as not to leave these kind folks without an audience. They covered a bunch of 80s songs, some done well, some not so well. They were a chick-led band and got me and Maggie talking about singing. Turns about Maggie, like I, had quite the singing (and acting) career in middle school and high school. We were both turned off by the Skidmore theatre and a capella scenes to stick with those things in college, but we both agreed we miss singing. I had more recent singing outlets with our weekly Alley karaoking in Saratoga, but I am missing it now quite a bit.

On my walk home, I went through songs I used to sing that could perhaps be added to my future "repetoire" (karaoke, or otherwise) and recalled a tape I used to listen to all the time and really got me into singing. (I'm talking age 7 or 8, probably, so I don't really want to imagine how I actually sounded.) All I remembered was that it was a Billboard compilation from the 60s and I could only remember a few songs. I made a mental note to look it up online, but I am sure I would have forgotten to do so. When I got to the library today, lying on the table, in my regular spot, was the book of complete Billboard #1's from 1955 to 2000. I was able to flip through and find the year of my beloved tape: 1963.

Synchronicity? I think so.

Here are the songs. I find a lot of them annoying now, but there are a few gems:
1. Sugar Shack, Jimmy Gilmore & the Fireballs
2. He's So Fine, The Chiffons
3. Dominique, The Singing Nun
4. Hey Paula, Paul & Paula
5. My Boyfriend's Back, The Angels
6. Blue Velvet, Bobby Vinton
7. Sukiyaki, Kyu Sakamoto
8. I Will Follow Him, Little Peggy March
9. Fingertips - Pt. 2, Little Stevie Wonder
10. Walk Like A Man, The 4 Seasons
11. Go Away Little Girl, Steve Lawrence
12. I'm Leaving It All Up To You, Dale & Grace
13. Surf City, Jan & Dean
14. It's My Party, Leslie Gore
15. Walk Right In, The Rooftop Singers
16. Easier Said Than Done, The Essex
17. If You Wanna Be Happy, Jimmy Soul
18. So Much In Love, The Tymes
19. Deep Purple, Nino Tempo & April Stevens
20. Our Day Will Come, Ruby & The Romantics

I listened to this tape all the time. It was probably on rotation with the Mermaids soundtrack (Cher, Winona, and Christina Ricci film, not the Little Mermaid), the Big Chill soundtrack, and Green Day's Dookie. Kids loves oldies and soundtracks and East Bay punks!

"You look dumb"

The past few days have been characterized by no furniture, twins, and a whole lot of time with people named Maggie.

I was in a really great mood all day Friday, as you can probably tell by all the "!"s and superlatives in my last post, being new employed and excited to spend time with two of my fave 518ers to see a 518 band, The Mathematicians, play 5.18 blocks away from my house until I got home before the friends came over and was immediately greeted with "I have bad news" from my roommate Lauren.

Blah blah back-story: Lauren used to live with Shannon. Shannon had to move pretty suddenly to New Orleans and left a lot of her stuff in our apartment, including the bed and dresser I have been using. I knew she was moving back here in February, so I planned on slowly getting a bed and dresser of my own by then. Her twin sister, however, recently moved here and called Lauren on Friday to say she would be by Sunday to pick up all of Shannon's stuff. There was some big misunderstanding somewhere where someone thought the stuff was in storage and not being used by me. The twin is a nice girl and I hear great things about Shannon, so I can't be mad at them directly, but I was pretty pissed just about the situation in general.

I decided I wouldn't let it ruin my celebratory night/weekend and would deal with it later. How I love procrastination!

So on Saturday, Maggie and I went to Fulton Market District to visit several galleries. I wasn't thrilled about any of the art until we got to the Packer Schopf Gallery and saw the laptops etched (is that even the right way to describe that?) by Michael Dinges. I never really wanted a tattoo, or to draw all over my computer, til I saw these.

On Sunday I babysat with Maggie for her cousin's kids. It was fun hanging with three-year olds! Twins, too! I have missed kids and would like to start babysitting again. The parents of the twins let me borrow their nice air mattress, so I at least have something on which to sleep til my new bed comes on Thursday.

Yesterday, I hung out with another Maggie, a friend from high school. She was a year above me, but we had math together and had a lot of mutual friends. We ate Thai food, looked at furniture, and talked about people I haven't thought about in 5 years. She remembered more people from my class than I did. "What ever happened to that girl Stevie Jo?" "Uh, who?" Seriously, who? Did she even graduate with us?

A lady just walked out of Alliance Bakery with her backpack under her trench coat. I get that it's raining, but sometimes I want to tell people how dumb they look.

My friend Katherine just sent me a voting guide for inmates. In case anyone is in need of this, here ya go.

11 behind Google

I got a job today! With a company called Thoughtworks that's been rated the 12th best company to work for in Chicago. I obviously can't confirm that yet, but the people I met today were awesome and the office is super cool. I am pretty damn excited. I start the 13th, Papa G's birthday. The parents will actually be here next weekend. I gotta start making plans. I'm thinking the itinerary Alissa and I had will need to be changed a bit. Scratch of zoo and some of the drinking, add a museum or two and more new restaurants. A good weekend to all! I'm gonna stroll and enjoy this lovely fall weather.

I blame it on Don Draper's hats

On the subject of nostalgia, I seem to also be nostalgic for a time in which I never even lived. This probably has another name for it than nostalgia. I was feeling that a bit when watching 400 Blows the other day. It wasn't just Paris I wanted, it was that Paris.

But, I have really been jonesin' for decades past with my new TV obsession: Mad Men. This TV obsession is different from Gossip Girl; this is actually a show everyone should be watching.

Heavy daytime drinking, smoking, and chauvinism characterize the work place, yet the people still seem classy as hell...Maybe because a small part of me wishes all that was kosher today? They're not all admirable (I hate the little turd Pete) and even the class acts stumble like in the episode I watched last night in which Sterling vomited in the reception area of the office, but that's because he had 2 dozen oysters and 3 martinis for lunch and had to walk up 20 flights of stairs due to a broken elevator. Maybe I've just been won over by the great clothes and dapper gents, but I still am jealous of their lifestyle, even if it's filled with glass ceilings, infidelity, and all that stuff.

Nostalgia-Driven Post

Since arriving in Chicago, I have been too busy getting to know new things to be nostalgic for old things. Or maybe there just wasn't any catalyst to make me miss anything and dwell on what I left. Over the last few days, however, I have been missing some places and I blame this on talking to Jocelyn, fall weather, and Francois Truffaut.

On Sunday, Jocelyn told me to "come home." I actually do think of Saratoga as home these days with Dad and Stepmom so close by and so many friends still there. Then she told me she is buying a house there, something I could see myself maybe doing someday, and I'm a little jealous.

Plus, now it's fall. Fall is my favorite season in Upstate NY. I have fall traditions there, and I don't have fall traditions here yet, though I am still enjoying this change in weather. Last fall was a weird one, but a great one and I keep thinking about fun excursions I had this time of year last year:
My first time hanging out with Dede. We went apple picking.
Going to the World's Largest Yard Sale in Warrensburg with Sam and Jamie
All the cooking and going out with Chloe
Seeing Ted Leo with Kara and having to drive back from Troy with the top down, not by choice
First wing nights with Bob and crew
blah blah Saratoga Nostalgia blah blah

I got over Saratoga yesterday and started missing France when I went to see one of my favorite movies 400 Blows at the Gene Siskel Film Center (what a cool place!). I've seen it many a time, but never on the big screen, so I'm glad I went. It's really one of the best films ever, I believe. I like the whole Antoine Doinel series and have them all lined up on NetFlix to watch again. The 400 blows score was in my head through the night and all I want to do is live in Paris again. Not right now, but it's gotta happen. I don't want to teach English, which brought so many of my friends back there this year and last, but I'll think of something. If I move to Paris, hopefully I will marry some adult version of this:



Sorry for the sap, but it's autumnal! Get it?? Cuz of maple syrup and stuff? (I guess sap's produced all year long, isn't it? Well, maple syrup = Vermont = leaves changing, yeah yeah, you get it. I'm done.)

Visitor #3

This weekend my friend Alissa came to Chicago for a visit, her first here. We did lots of fun things: saw Why? play Friday night, went to the Lincoln Park zoo, got in an argument deciding whether to go to John Hancock or Sears Tower, went to John Hancock's Signature Room for martinis, had dinner at the Fiddlehead Cafe (that place where I saw that Swarthmore alumni thing going on that I wrote about several posts back. Sorry, I don't link you to previous posts like other bloggers do, not because I don't know how, I do, but because I'm just lazy), brought people from different periods of my (recent) life (Skidmore, Saratoga, now) together at Rainbo and had a lot of fun, found ourselves in a taqueria turned late night karaoke bar (all the songs were in Spanish), woke up too early this morning and spent a little time in bed watching Gossip Girl (A's call, not mine, and three-quarters into it, after Chuck told S "Your life is over, slut!," A decided she really liked it), then walked around my neighborhood, had lunch with Maggie, and called it a weekend. Alissa makes me laugh differently than I usually laugh, orders for me in restaurants, calls me Gedz, and has the most entertaining interactions with strangers I have ever seen. Alissa also says "hella" now; it's weird, but it was a hella fun weekend.

Having a friend coming to visit and showing her around my new city really made me feel like I live here. I liked it, except that all the fun and the little-to-no sense of responsibility I have right now has made me start to feel a little anxious. Yes, I am temping, so I am "working," and making money, and also looking for things, but I don't really know what I'm looking for. I took advantage of having someone who knows me quite well here this weekend to get an outsider perspective on what I should be doing. We brainstormed on my skill set and interests and concluded that if I give up on the editorial pursuit, I should be a cab driver. I, however, don't really want to be a cab driver, so I really have some thinking to do.

I know these questions, this anxiety isn't unique to me. Duh. It's probably one of the hardest things most people have to deal with, figuring out what they want to do. I don't really need to figure that out yet. I just want to find a job that could potentially introduce me to something I want to do, and if it doesn't accomplish that task, I would deal with it for awhile, and probably enjoy it, as long as my coworkers were people I liked and the dress code didn't mandate super conservative attire in varying shades of drab.

Maybe this is why there's that book about parachutes. I haven't read it though; I am afraid of heights--unless there are martinis at the top.

I don't write my stuff anymore; I just kick it from head--BAM!

I rarely explain my post titles because they are either 1) obvious or 2) dumb. (Also, I usually don't title them until the end, at which point, I am done writing. Duh.) Because I am taking you back to this one does not mean I have dismissed it from the "dumb" category, only that it was chosen to explain the sort of random, just-writing-because-it's-been-a-week-style of this post that I'm about to write while it also alludes to a song performed by a band I saw play on Sunday night, something I will briefly perhaps write about below.

Last week I started a temp position at a health care group that provides affordable health care to young and expectant mothers. The work itself (data entry of handwritten applications into the online database) is not thrilling, but the motions are so repetitive that I can easily think of other things and talk with my fellow temp and still do the job. I have learned in the last four days that there are a lot of mothers in Chicago who are years younger than I am. It scared me when I came across an applicant with my exact birth date who already had 4 kids, and she's not nearly the youngest with a family already this big. I try not to think too much about their circumstances because I don't know more than what's on the paper, so maybe they have great boyfriends or husbands, familial support, or maybe they don't. We try to keep it light, creating our own catalogue of "Great Baby Names in 2008," subtitled: "Names by Babies for Babies!" (Too far? OK, no subtitle). To date the tops have been two sisters named Parris and Phrance and today, I saw two boys China and Korea who just welcomed a sister named Egypt. I guess I have a penchant for geographically-influenced names.

In other news, Jess arrived. She and Ally and I had a marathon hang fest that included exploring Hyde Park, seeing Obama's house, taking a long stroll in the Loop and along the river and Mag Mile, trying pizza my roommate recommended (it was good, but it wasn't pizza), and going to a few bars.

On Sunday, Lauren and I were supposed to go to the Hideout Block party together, but she got guilted into working three extra hours. Ally was considering it, but she was abducted by aliens. So, I ended up there alone. And quite happily alone. It was a nice little break after all the hanging on Friday and Saturday (no offense to A & J, would have happened with anyone, and unemployment and being in a new city have made me very used to my alone time). I saw a Michael Jackson cover band (bad), Rhymefest (pretty okay), the New Pornographers (good!) and Ratatat, not Ratatatat, as some girl kept saying, (better than last time!). I drank a Goose Island IPA (good) and a pulled pork on cibatta sandwich (really good!).

It was great to see the NPs for the first time. Neko Case is pretty rad. Ratatat as I said were better than last time I saw them (summer 2004 I think). They have picked up another member (I think they used to be just two, right?) and some more instruments (it seemed), so they relied less on their video montages and good looks (ok, well they are really tall and have interesting hair) to keep the crowd engaged. They, of course, ended with "17 years," a song whose intro hook is great, but really the only reason why it's so liked, I think... I know, I am not being very sure of my language, facts or opinions here. I'm just kickin litle preemy baby thoughts from my head...