To repent for losing my $20 7-day CTA pass before even opening it I decided to try my hand at biking to work all week long. Being that it's an abbreviated one (I'm blitzing to the UP [not to be mistaken for this UP] tomorrow), I figured there would be few-to-no hitches in my new four-day biking lifestyle. Plus, if one is not 100% (in the sense of being a youthful lady, an employee, and a posessor of a rather zesty mind) satisfied by one's job, one's commute should clearly be the type to yield a sweaty arrival, and to require antics a la bathing-on-the-train-from-Hong-Kong-to-Guilin.

Sadly, such an arrival/antics don't succeed in ameliorating unexpected monkey wrenches in the cogs o' life; yesterday's trip home was met with a steady downpour, invoking camaraderie from fellow commuters and feelings of oneness with nature, but also cold bone marrow and a wet hoodie. Hmmm. I'm not sure if it's an experience I'd like to repeat, though I must, for the sake of principles and regardless of mama nature's wrath should she choose to unleash it, bicycle again at least tomorrow.

To add a positive spin to the scenario, just two hours ago my dear friend and former roommate Ryan totally tightened my bike's handlebars, raised its seat and pumped its tires and, well, first of all I mean that claim in NO WAY metaphorically and second of all I had the sweetest ride home EVER.

Unrelatedly, today's photography is of my fantastic Melbournian friend Megan & me . . . I think this was in Shibuya, by Hachiko, last fall?! Oh, and here's one of Jake, too, the night I bought my camera approx. 12 getsu ago. He's coming back to A-Ville on Saturday! I'll have a roommate again. Let the sake flow like R.C. Cola upon a glistening MoonPie!

Above: more of beautiful/graffiti-covered Hollywood Beach from last week's early morning run.

Current Happenings: A little bit of what one might call a neighborly spat is sucking the humo(u)r right out of me. I've concluded that though noisy, firemen make the best neighbors, while bipolar middle-aged women who go by embarrassing nicknames do NOT.

Oh well.

Yester, I packed both my stomach and a sack of organically-woven fibers full of gratis-but-quickly-degrading food items at FlavorFest with friends Kim/Vicki, so that was nooiiiiccceeee.

Ah, I've found a muse, fleeting though she may be: Merriam Webster's list of newly added words for their Fall '06 Editiion. Very exciting! I am deeply concerned, though, by the fact that unibrow hasn't long held a solid place in the m-w lexicon. Seriously. Somebody with a subscription to the OED (that's you, college network users), please do some research and find out if "unibrow" is (and if so, for how long it has been) part of the Oxford English repertoire. This is important! Do it for the sake of the unibrowed, both famous and not, worldwide.

My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.

Sad.

NASA better update, man. [EDIT 11:15 p.m.: This link has since been modified. Props, Nas'!]

[EDIT 8.25.06, 7:33 a.m.: In response to the proposal the Pluto be recategorized as a "dwarf planet" Dr. Alan Stern had this to say:"It's an awful definition; it's sloppy science and it would never pass peer review . . . " -from BBC.com, Pluto Vote 'Hijacked' In Response. Read the article here, and, if you are so moved, Save Pluto here!]

Today was an EMOTIONAL one. Gosh. Send me flowers and beer and an income, please, minus the flowers. Email for my cubicle address.

Jess came to visit yesterday, which made for an enjoyable Mon. Events transpired as follows: She shopped for some sharp corporate wear and I got complimented on my totally awesome Sally Ann sweater at U.C.of B. on Michigan Ave., we received a phone call from the Zeitgeist and dined on delicious Costa Rican fare at Irazu, and we boozed it up while letting the sweet, sweet cigarette smoke seep into our pores at The Bubble, a local dive. Post-Bubble, we discovered that at night probably 2/3 of the parked cars in my neighborhood are taxicabs of all shapes, colors and sizes. Is it possible that Edgewater supplies the bulk of the city's taxi drivers? Yes, it is. Pls fax for citations/references/et al.

Below, please enjoy a photo, taken yesterday morning and uploaded per Jake's request, of beautiful Hollywood Beach. It's what I subject myself to on my morning runs; a lifestyle factor of land-unlocked-ness is an agreeable one indeed.



Regards,
Eliz

p.s. I saw turtles race at Big Joe's 2 and 6 on Friday. Hooah.

Yesterday I ran home from work, covering about 9.5 miles of solid Chicago ground. Below we have one urban scene and then another from the first 20 minutes of the trek:

1) The JH in its full glory, taken from the GC (from around 1300 N at this point)
2) The eastern-facing wall of building serving as a palette for the uniquely reflective windows across the street (around 500 N State)

Brief explanation of last post: I have long been a serious fan of both White Hen and 7-Eleven and thus the buyout is of great interest to me. 7-Elevens in Japan are pretty sweet, and Chicago area stores are, I feel, slowly approaching Japanese standards of excellence. So I am extremely thrilled by the prospect that White Hen stores, which I love in their own right for all their conveniency goodness and local appeal, may benefit from Japanese-owned-7-Eleven's convenience knowhow. I will be keeping you, readership, abreast of the situation. Catch the Convenience Fever!

Pictures:





Captions:
1) Pastoral South 53rd
2) Delicious Coffee Boss
3) Sweetly Napping Schwinn

Above are some photos of the weekend. I spent a chunk of Saturday undergoing a 30-mile solo bike ride down to Hyde Park in alternating idyllic and chaotic settings. See, up on the north side (Hollywood Beach area) the lakeshore path traffic is usually pretty light, so the path is highly runner- and biker- friendly. But apparently (this was only my second time riding through ze thick of it) from about Fullerton on down to Roosevelt the path is simply bursting with users -- runners, bikers, roller-bladers, volleyball-players, families, tourists -- and the task of navigating it requires great vigilance. So the hightened awareness demanded by increased traffic made those middle 3ish (so 6-7 after doubling back) miles vaguely stressful, but the other 23/24 were peaceful and beautiful and, with respect to experiencing the south side, completely new to me.

This morning I took a lovely trip to the beach. I hadn't been planning to go but the delicious Michigan air smelled amazingly good as it wafted through my living room window. Mmmm. Aromatic. Thus I subjected my sore haunches to bike seat contact once again and pedaled my way down to la playa for a swim and some sun exposure.

The afternoon involved a drive to the completely incredible Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights, during which I acquired, amongst other things, a giant bottle of Hakutsuru Sake and some Japanese-style tupperware. Very exciting! Following the trip was a viewing of The Break Up (which I thought quite funny despite skepticism expressed by my brother as he gave me directions to the theater of over the phone), and some late-night and highly entertaining commentary (by my cohort-for-the-day Kim) regarding the exhibitionism of one particularly saggy-pantsed cyclist. Enjoyable.

7-Eleven and White Hen Join Forces to Bring the Ultimate in Convenience to Consumers



"DALLAS, TX, August 10, 2006 - In its largest acquisition in 20 years, 7-Eleven, Inc. has announced the purchase of White Hen Pantry, Inc., a Lombard, Ill.-based convenience store chain. White Hen operates and franchises 206 stores in the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana, and licenses another 55 in Boston. With the addition of the White Hen stores, the number of stores 7-Eleven operates, franchises and licenses in North America increases to more than 7,100."

Continue Reading Marriage of Convenience at 7-eleven.com
Check out White Hen's updated article at wikipedia.org

Yesterday was my three month anniversary at work. Somebody warned me that the industry to which I'm contributing my efforts is a powerful black hole of sorts, and that I should get out while I still can. None of this advice was new to me in any way, but it gave me an appreciated little jolt. See, I do have some tell-tale marks of assimilation into the field; I have adopted a completely new lexicon and am privy to more responsibilities than was initially the case. Yet I still feel I am but paddling safely at the benign edges of the giant, distant abyss o' no return. Many, many moons (and possibly a tsunami) must pass before the undertoe takes an icy grip and pulls me in FOREVER. I'm not afraid, not just yet.

So Jake, wiling away his time and willing strength into his broken limb down thar in TN has chosen to ATTACK the blogging world with a prolific number of entertaining entries. Brace yourself for a barrage links, photos, Chinese and Japanese characters, irreverancy and MORE.

Also yesterday, while out running in the AM, my toe met the corner of the sidewalk with unusual force and ensuing leverage, and I bit it HARD on the concrete. Owch. Bleeding knee(s) and hands ensued, but I prevailed. A pox on the house of the guy who watched me fall without helping. A pox, I say.

I can't sleep. I drank too much milk, maybe. Gross.

To your right -- 'tis a photo I took at the front end of yesterday evening's Edgewater run. The statue is of Nicholas Senn, of Senn High School fame, resting placidly upon a stone pedestal. He has huge feet and a mightily bracing countenance.

Back to bed.

Sooo, my phone service has been down for, mmm, twenty-eight (28) hours. Every time I try to make contact with the outside world, I get a "network busy" signal. I am currently blaming the concentrated population of Lollapalooza for such business, though there's no real basis for that speculation.

Yesterday morning held about, mmm, five hours (three games' worth) of sun-baked Ultimate Frisbee. It was really hot, and I drank a lot a lot a lot of water and, afterward, the most delicious Coors Light I'd ever tasted. I had not been expecting such early-morning exertions, but they were had, and I was tired (there were only two of us ladies, so no subs . . . gosh). Despite my lack of skill (though it's possible I'm improving) I will probably play again this fall. Woo.

In my current forced-antisocial state, i am watching what the Ecuadoreans touted as El Secreto De La Montana, but what I do believe American viewership knows as, um, Brokeback Mountain. The copy may or may not be pirated and very grainy, but I think I get the gyst. Just now our protagonists were untangling a mess o' sheeps, and now they are punching eachother in the faces. It's kind of slow.

Please keep dear, sweet Verizon in your warmest thoughts.

[EDIT: Service is back! But the guy above -- he's been here all along, just hanging in my living room window. GLORIOUS!]:

Of all the foul artificial flavorings coursing through the veins of people(s) worldwide, “hazelnut” has GOT to be the worst. Below are number of links (not scratch-and-sniff -- in that case you'd have to curb your gag reflexes) for perusal!

Nutz Sparkling Soda Pop
The Science in Artifical Flavor Creation
The Official Website of the Hazelnut Council
Wikipedia: Common Hazel
Nutella

Here's what I did this past weekend: I cut out early on work. I ate. I exploded. The womenfolk (myself included) in my extended family froze their/our (which is proper, I wonder) collective tailbones in the river and then some of us spent an hour in the balmy waters of Lake Michigan near Saugatuck. Jollity ensued. Not necessarily in that order.

I have a new roommate for the month of August, and she will be on NPR tomorrow morning. That scenario is kind of exciting.

Tomorrow I plan to cart my camera around the downtown area and take some photos after having been shown up by Dave re: all things pictorally Chicago. Sit tight.