This weekend's eastward travels with Jake, roommate, were sublime.

On Friday we were enthralled by the marbley and sweet and somewhat unrehearsed* peformance of Rufus, accompanied by sister Martha and mama Kate. This followed a very thorough preparation in the form of dear, comedic interludes by Jeff Daniels, the pulsating and partially nude talents of the Kiyoshi Nagata Ensemble and the suprisingly resonant voice of wee, nicely coiffured Jackie Greene. It was an evening of turbid sensations/emotions, i.e. (in no particular order) hunger, love, hate, awkwardness, fatigue and patriotism. From post-performance 'til 5:00 a.m. these emotions propelled us through good times at the Old Town Tavern and even better** ones at the Casino Windsor and Ontario's finest Tim Horton's.

Saturday brought us delicious meats and vegetables in Dearborn followed by an extensive, dismal tour of Detroit including a dead-camera-battery-stymied driveby of the Heidelberg Project. Grey Detroit skies propelled us back across the border and deep into the heart of the Golden Horseshoe -- to Chatham, ON for some zesty delights and, after, the duty-free shop. Olfactorily sated with various duty-free aromas (this and this, notably), we returned to Shagan's apt. in Bellville and slept.

Mostly it was great. Once I finally get the caked Windsor filth out of my pores and off of my car, I'll start to think about doing it again; the benevloent shade of the Maple Leaf is beckoning already.

*Likkkkeee, he flubbed a lot of chords. But his voice made up for it, mostly.
**I say better but, truth be told, I'm still too confused to judge.

The week's breaking news: expiration of the moniker "Maoxie Moonpie"; our one-time-southern-belle of a benevolent feline currently responds more readily to Maoxie Man-Pie. Heavens. Does this look like a dude to you? I mean, I think it's easy to understand why we were confused for so many months.

I have been letting my brows run Sasquatch for weeks now in the name of soon getting them either waxed or threaded. Both of these options are steps in new directions and readily available in my neighborhood. How to choose, I wonder.

Last week's Zeitgeist: the South Side, which I visited not once but thrice in seven days. On MLKJr (Milk In A Keg Jr) Day I visited U of C's campus to hear Julian Bond speak. His message was definitely polarizing, but also very compelling; I left feeling uneasy, but maybe that's what one is supposed to be feeling on MLKJr Day. Maybe!? Other trips featured an RTA meeting (caught the tail end of it but 'twas informative nonetheless), a trip to the 63rd-and-Stoney-Island YMCA (where I did a partial 7:30 mile on the treadmill and felt amazing), and one to help water orchids at the manse (mansch). The South Side, friends, is definitely growing on me.

Other big news: I have 60 new G's of hard drive to keep my playlist robust. In 3 days Rufus will be crooning to me and Jake from the inside of Hill Auditorium, and in 4 days we'll test the new passport laws [edit --> Mom says such laws are for air travel only, 'til '08, but we'll bring 'em anyway] on the way to Windsor. Big excitement!

Per a conversation betwixt roommates earlier today, following is a list of words that enjoy frequent usage in my apartment/life (compare with the norm if you must).

Phalanx, Brear, Maoxie, Moonpie, Piss, Nip, Avail, Glug, Burst, Blitz, Extreme, Filthy, Nice, Nipponic, Grind, Pop, Barack, JBT, Sack, Bag, Mushroom, Hard, Mush-Cut, A-Ville, Zeitgeist, Tango, Argentineans, Beautiful, Chug, Bloody, Devil, Digits, Rio, Buenos, Cabo, Tibet, Temp, CTA, DTW, Mansch (Manse), Cog, Stim, Point, Heavy, Natsukashii, Kowloon, Gameplan, Really, Redhot, Whitehot, Gird, Loin, Lantau, Lexis, Lexicon, Demo, Nani, Ii na, Shim, Poach, Sedgwick, Token, Tarmak, Blitzkrieg, Horseshoe, Breezer, Roblag, YachtRock, Vadge, Wrigsack, Teat, Kawaii, DimSum, Obama, BBC, Rufus, Regina, DFo, WhoaB, Bigsies, Doodoo, Shapoopie, Squatch, Brella, Yakult.

Read it out loud -- it's like poetry.

Though I've always been a fair weather fan, I am now wholly addicted to CPR's This American Life. It's pretty serious.

Roommate Jake, a freshly minted YMCA member, gifted me a guest pass to gain free entry to all amenities at the McGaw YMCA in Evanston. Though the pass wasn't valid as the McGaw is outside the Chicago municipality of which Jake is a member, the receptionist waved me in anyway. Woo. 8:27's on the treadmill, serious medicine-balling, bench press, glute workouts and other healthy activity transpired.I haven't done bench press in perhaps thirty moons. Owch! I am already a little bit sore and predict drastic increases in such over the next two days; it feels amazing.

Tonight features beginner Tango lessons. Hurrah!

I am free from CorpAm tomorrow in honor of MLKJr. Day and might go see Julian Bond speak down at U of C.

Three Track Operation begins on the CTA's red, purple and brown lines in April:

"The proposed shift to three-track operation . . . will result in more crowded trains and longer commutes. With approximately 1,000 trains and 185,000 customers traveling through it each day, the corridor is the most heavily trafficked area on the CTA rail system. During evening rush hours (3 – 6:30 p.m.), the CTA will have approximately 25 percent less capacity – the equivalent of more than 17,400 customers if trains were fully loaded. Morning rush will also be congested [with] 13 percent less capacity, or space for 8,600 fewer rail customers."CTA Press Release 1/10/07

Awful. Completley awful. If my $20 Schwinn makes it through these cold months I forsee my commute becoming all-bicycle-all-the-time (a current approximation: 65% cycle, 30% train, 3% bus, 1% car, 1% ped). Wanting to love the CTA and actually loving the CTA are two very different actions.

Our neighbors are SO LOUD and the floors are SO THIN. Sweet Jenny.

This week I got markedly sick for the first time since I lived in the eastern hemisphere. It was crap. I blame it on the higher altitude of my jearrrb (30th floor) and/or the hot-cold-hot weather. By this afternoon, though, I felt better and credit such greatness to a steady diet of White Hen supplemented with delicious ginger tea a la Dave. You, too, can enjoy:

Get some water, a splash o' lemony juice, cinnamon [sticks], [star] anise, fresh ginger root, honey.

Boil the water with the juice and the anise.

While the water heats up, peel and thinly slice about 2" of the ginger root.

Burn the cinnamon stick.

Once the water is boiled throw in both ginger and cinnamon, turn down the heat and let it all steep for 10-ish minutes.

Add some honey to taste. And some bourbon.

So that's that. It's delicious and medicinal. Yum.

The Chicago branch of my office is moving a couple blocks west and the move, parallelled with my normal duties, has been the focal point of corporate life for a good three or four weeks now. This being my first experience with a move of such scale I've been struck by the starkly contrasting efficiencies and inefficiences it has presented. First we were given large stackable orange crates on dollies into which we piled (well, some stacked . . . or filed -- I piled) everything we'd need at the new locale. Older but still relevant documents were sent off the whimsically misnomered Iron Mountain.

And everything else? Trashed. Huge dumpsters lurked in aisles between cubicles for weeks, pulsing with an ebb and flow of office accoutrement(s), i.e. files, loose documents, huge boxes filled with the same, decorative sundries and those promoting esprit de corps (company-emblazoned stress balls, mouse pads, coffee mugs, etc). My guess is that 90% of what was discarded was readily recyclable. When I posited this stat to or discussed it othwise with my dear, sweet fellows it was met with complete incredulity. A example follows:

Scene: Elizabeth at photocopier

B: (enters with approx. 2 lbs. of white paper documents). Hey E, is the recycle bin around here? I can't seem to find the dumpster.
E: Yeah, right over there (points over shoulder). It's probably good that you recycle that anyway.
B: Okay (throws documents in bin)
C: (from outside the copy room) Hey B, I moved the dumpster -- it's out in the foyer if you need it.
B: (actively removes documents from recycling bin via a shoulder-deep plunge) Oh, good -- they're too heavy for this recycle bin, I think. (exits purposefully)

At this point I was too curious and maybe even too stunned to protest -- Too Heavy? As a hurdle across the path toward corporate recycling, that of heft completely blindsided me. With awareness of this curious prejudice I am planning on steering these fellows away from heft-related leanings in the new building, I just have to formulate a plan. Hmmm.

In other news, Chicago's Regional Tranportation Authority is actively promoting improvements in public transportation all around the area via, amongst other things, community meetings. I am really curious as to what may come of these and other actions transpiring via Moving Beyond Congestion and will be sure to share anything of note.

Today's Fact: If you go to Antarctica you will access the island on a Zodiac. To learn how to maneuver these beasts you will attend many "Zodiac Briefings" both on your clipper and/or the Argentinean mainland. Completely awesome.

So said a poncho-loving Buckeye to me as Scolson and I shopped for 100% cranberry juice (well worth the extra $1.00) on 12/31/06. Yes indeed. The poncho is the Zeitgeist of the millennium. Wow!

It's the new year which means it's time for resolutions which means that everyone needs to learn a new language. I'll focus on chiseling away at (hm, wrong metaphor, maybe? how about "applying puddy to?") my first grade level Japanese while the rest of you expand your personal CorpSpeak lexicons. Corpspeak Dictionary went public in conjunction with the New Year and as a minor contributor I am quite pleased with the unveiling. Please check it out!