Thursday I am going to Abbey Pub to see Steve Elliott as part of an art show going on there.

The wildly successful cabaret-style show is hitting the road again, bringing audiences a blend of spoken word, music, drag, burlesque, and multimedia performance art. Intelligent and hot, disturbing and hilarious, the performances offer a wide range of perspectives.

Location Abbey Pub 3420 W. Grace (at Elston)
Phone Number 773-478-4408

Fee $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

Lots of snow this weekend, shoveled driveway.



Made an apple cake the other day, came out really good.

Went out Friday night to see Carolyn for her book reading of Rain Village.
It was really nice meeting her, she is just so sweet and darling. Also met Jeff and his wife, and some other people as well.

She opened her book reading with a guy playing the didgeridoo



Which was really cool, never seen it before. Trying to watch hard how he was breathing.

Then Carolyn got up there,read 3 different passages from her book, and then did some follow-up Q&A. She did really great.



Then walked a few blocks to a place called T's for food and drinks.

Up all night doing scheduled work maintenance.
Pretty much settled back into work, got all my access stuff back.
Planning another trip to Seattle this coming month and for much longer this time (almost 2 weeks!) Brad is gonna fly in for a few days as a mini-vacation.

Went out last night with Starbucks Jill and her friends Tippy and other Jill. She has been asking me out for awhile now and I would keep making up excuses...I do that. But had a great time. Bartenders took care of our drinks, and we just paid for food. Ate appetizers.

Tonight going to Carolyn Turgeon's book reading for Rain Village with Brad. Get to meet Carolyn and hopefully another online guy I talk to JD also.

Then Saturday gonna stop by Bob's place (another online guy) for Vampire movie marathon.

I was supposed to start back to work as an employee on the 19th but then end of last week they asked me to start back a little earlier on the 12th (this last Monday) so I did.
Went into the office everyday this week to get all my logins and accesses reactivated, and all these different webpages I have to register with for travel, corp card, new laptop, online business ethics class. I don't like being unorganized, unsettled.
But now, end of the week, getting it all back together. VPN (remote access) is back up. Just in time for me to go back on call :) starting on Tuesday for a week. I will be the primary on-call for our group and another group that we cross trained with (we both report to the same boss)

My Paul Frank watch battery died. It usually a bit of trouble finding someone with the battery part. I went to Macy's cause they sell Paul Frank watches, but they don't replace the batteries. So I went to another place in the mall, they said they could do it in 10 minutes, so I dropped it off and got a coffee. When I went back she said she thought they had the part but then turns out they didn't and when she was putting it back together she lost one of the springy things on the floor somewhere and had to sweep up to try and find it. So I wandered around somemore and bought a pair of pink flannel pj with white skulls on clearance for $5. Found another watch place, gave them the battery part I needed and they said they had it. She had the watch part back in at the other place so then I took it over to the new place. They said they'd have it done in 10 minutes.
Got back in 10, they had the new battery in but then accidentally smashed the watch glass face part when they were putting it back together. They had already filled out a thing to have it sent out and repaired but it will take 4 - 6 weeks before they get it back. But now I wont have to pay for the battery..and I have new pink pj's.....but just watchless for 4 to 6 weeks.

I love love love my Paul Frank watch, don't want another watch, just want my Paul Frank watch fixed.

Getting over my cold, almost totally gone, just a little cough left.

Had a board meeting earlier this week, went on for over 3 hours and kinda got heated. The newsletter person resigned and I twisted Brad's arm into doing it. So now he will go to the board meetings with me, and he is in charge of our monthly neighborhood newsletters. Just nice to have another thing we can do together. Couple of community meeting things we might be attending next week too. Depends on how busy my on-call schedule goes.

Seattle was kind of a mess.
Work shit got worse just as I was boarding the plane.
All contractors were booted as of 1/31 with 1 day notice.
I still got to go out for some training and do some networking before the cutoff since I had already boarded the plane.
I accepted the offer they made me yesterday, start back on the 19th.

I am a little disappointed, since I didnt get the money I wanted, I feel a little less about myself, self-worth. It's stupid shit, I am being a pain in the ass, I am just really sick (going to see the doctor tomorrow morning...I think I am infected, probably got it from my flight home) So I am probably more emotional/sensitive from that.

As stressful Seattle was, I did enjoy meeting a bunch of people I do work with, lots of emails and late night phone calls with. It was good networking for me...I hope....I think. See.. I am being a pussy again....stop stop stop

Seattle has lots of pretty mountains.





Soon as I got back from Seattle, Brad, Mitch and I left for a lodgey place in Wisconsin for a long weekend (also to celebrate my birthday) It had a hottub in the living room. It was in the negative temps, so we just holed up.





It was kind of Northern Exposure-like.