We are back home. The cats were thrilled to see us, as usual. They got some kibble and then many pets and a good brushing. Our cat sitter is awesome. She left us a daily log of their cuteness. She even cleaned up when they tracked kitty litter all over everything.

It was a long flight, the first hour was pretty bumpy. But I did well. I am getting better about flying, though I am still pretty retardedly superstitious about it. Oh well. It's my phobia. I am usually back to normal once we level off and smooth out.

Okay we are now going to Arizmendi!!

Tags: travel, yay

Posting from Allison's boyfriend's sweet house in Milwaukee... It has been overcast and warm all day.

After the game last night, we walked back to Camp Kickass. Stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way, figuring that since we'd walked about six miles that afternoon, a donut was in order. We hung out for a few minutes, then got in the rental car and headed north. It took about ninety minutes to reach Milwaukee. Allison was still up, though tired, and showed us directly to our futon in the guest room. I was awakened in the night by some thunder and rain lashing the windows, and then by the nearby whistle of a passing freight train.

Oh and as for the baseball game. The tickets and receipt claimed a 7:05 start time, but ESPN moved the game back to 6pm instead. So we missed the first two innings, which worked out because it made getting to our seats easier. Before the game, Brian and I walked to Claire's and hung out in her bachelorette pad enjoying a beer and some snacks.

We were in the upper deck along the first base line. The place was packed with people. I looked for other Giants fans, they were easy to spot in cream and black jerseys. I was there with my three Chicago pals, who naturally were cheering for the Cubs (though they are all really Tigers fans). Claire and I rooted against the Cubs. Brian was neutral.

I spose it was a good game -- I expected the Giants to be blown out, but they actually managed to get the lead for a couple innings, an amazing feat. I was particularly glad that Bonds did not start, which I am sure irritated all of the home team's fans. Ha ha. He hasn't been productive anyway, no real loss. From where we were sitting, I could easily spy on my local Giants broadcasters in the booth. I love those dudes.

I got a hot dog and was pleased to find that it was grilled, not steamed. It was good too, though I am still not a fan of the neon green relish. And no I did not put ketchup on it. What do I look like some kind of animal?

Showing true class, the Cubs fans in the bleachers decided to celebrate their late rally by throwing trash all over the field. Nuff said.

And that's what happened the last time I watched a Cubs game, when their manager went apeshit after a play at third base and got ejected.

Anyway, the Giants lost. If I have anything positive to say about the Cubs or their fans, it was that (in my section) people were very spirited and paying close attention to each pitch and going bonkers even when a Giant hit a foul ball. I felt like it was kind of over the top though, especially when the crowd went wild for a routine fly ball hit by one of their batters. No you guys, it's not a home run, it's an out.

But it would be cool if Giants fans would treat every game like it was a playoff game, you know? Maybe our fans have gotten too used to winning and don't know what to do with a loser team on the field, and Cubs fans are so used to losing and futility that every base hit is like a grand slam to win the World Series.

Which is kind of pitiful, really.

We hung around after the game and watched the grounds crew. By the time we left, the streets were still full of drunk douchebags, as expected. The five of us headed west, straight down Addison to Lincoln, and by then we were alone.

Anyway. On a quiet shady street in Bayview, Milwaukee. We had all-you-can-eat Middle Eastern buffet for lunch, which was amazing, then headed to the food co-op to get coffee. We will start back toward Chicago in the next few hours and try to lay low the rest of the night so we can get up super early to make our trek to the airport and home.

Tags: baseball, chicago, milwaukee, travel

It has been raining for most of our two-day stay up here in Lakeport, but that's okay. I'm from Seattle, after all, and not terribly bothered by rain, except in the cases when we have to drive in it and people in SUVs are being a-holes.

But anyway, the sun has peeked through just in time for our drive home, which is great.

This weekend has been all about drinking wine and eating a lot. The food has been excellent all around. This morning our hosts/friends made us amazing homemade waffles with raspberry coulis, and served us a yogurt and fruit parfait containing the homemade granola that I brought to them. Nutty!

We made sure to get lots of relaxing and laying around done, in between big meals and wine tasting. Yesterday as I lay on the bed napping with Brian, I couldn't get this picture out of my head of a scene in my book that desperately needs to be totally rewritten. I realized that if it was so vivid in that moment, that I HAD to just write it, so I got up and went to Brian's laptop to knock out a couple pages. I am deleting something and replacing it with this, and I am really glad. It's a lot better, for various reasons. The thing I am deleting was first conceived so long ago that it really just doesn't belong anymore. A lot of my book is like that and I think a lot of the rewriting will be like that -- things I wrote 9 months ago before the story and characters were fully formed are just going to seem weird now. Oh well. Like I keep saying, it's still fun, so I keep doing it.

And now it's time to go home. Just in time, we'd started to miss the cats. I want to listen to Band of Horses all the way back.

Tags: book, food, travel

The Pacific Northwest: photos of our trip to WA last week.

A few of my favorites:


me and Quitty at the bar


the place that made me cry a little last Friday


this picture says "rural washington" to me

Tags: photos, travel

When we got home, one of the first things I did was get one of my old big boxes down off the shelf in the closet. I wanted to ensure that I did indeed still have my flyer collection. And I do, whew. I have the flyer for my very first punk show, 1/17/92. I have a bunch of Unwound, Jawbreaker, and Screw 32 flyers. I discovered that my band did play with AFI, and that the Gr'ups show I organized was indeed at the Lucky 7 house, not the Central house, and that KARP played as well.

I am going to scan all of these flyers, partially for me and partially for Joshua P.

I dug up a few more photos as well, and of course the prized remains of my zine collection too, which includes Hessian Obsession #1, a large number of Joshua's zines, a bunch of Cometbus issues, and of course every issue of Hex.

It's odd that the Red house is now gray, but is still called the Red house.

Tags: olympia, travel

So yesterday I went to Olympia. I lived there from ages 18-21, and it was fairly life-altering, as those ages inevitably are. I ran into several people I knew back then, and happily they all recognized me, though I look pretty different now. The whole visit made me happy.

Except perhaps for the part where I went to the place where the Smithfield Cafe used to be. It's now a Thai restaurant. The Smithfield was "our" place, the coffee house where all the punk kids would go every. single. day. It was basically our clubhouse, our homebase.

So I went directly there as soon as we got into town, almost as though a magnet was pulling me. And I knew years ago that it had closed down. But I had to go anyway. I just stood in front of it for awhile. I peered in the windows, everything inside is different, I guess all that remains is the shape of the room and the windows, and remnants of seafoam green paint on the outside. I sat there on a metal chair out front, which was supposed to be a wooden bench, and gazed across the street at a view of the buildings across Fourth I had seen a million times before.

And I started crying. The kind of crying that feels good somehow.

Tags: olympia, travel

We arrived in Seattle yesterday afternoon, met by warm weather and sunshine. We took the two-dollar express bus downtown from the airport, then walked down the steep hill that dips down into the Sound toward the ferry terminal. Crossed the broad and deep body of water -- which is too large to be a bay, too small to be a sea -- arriving on Bainbridge where we were greeted by my dad.

Today Brian and I went on a long walk. My dad lives in a somewhat rural area north of Bainbridge Island. We walked on the gravelly edge of the main road in a large circle, covering about three miles, or 8200 steps according to my trusty pedometer. I took a few photos of familiar vegetation along the way; lichen, crab apples, queen anne's lace. Saw dandelions and clover co-mingling, huckleberries, and other hallmarks of my childhood. Observed a few horses grazing in their pastures, heard a cow that seemed to be somewhere in the forest, and sneered at a couple of ugly and out-of-place cookie-cutter housing developments.

Since then we have been just lounging around and waiting for the sun to come out. The sky is still scattered with tangles of ashen clouds, but the temperature is still in the low seventies, so it's perfect. Tonight we'll grill on the back deck and with any luck there will be something watchable on tv, though I doubt it. I wish I'd brought a book with me. I feel like going for another walk. Brian has been working on PHP programming this afternoon.

Tomorrow we'll go over to Seattle again to wander around and have dinner with my mom and whatever else we feel like doing. It's been so long since I really hung out in this city that I am not really sure where anything is. Like, I kind of doubt the OK Hotel is even around anymore. But I'm not opposed to just walking around, though we'll have to cab to a decent neighborhood. Last ferry back is superlate, so that's not an issue.

I always get nostalgic when I am here, and I always gaze fondly at all the tall pines swaying gently in the breeze.

Tags: travel

tulips on michigan ave. this would be unthinkable in SF, as the flowers would all be stolen or pissed on by bums.

( click to see the rest behind the cut )

Tags: chicago, photos, travel