Married Men I don’t know if I’ve talked about thi…

Married Men

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this — at least on the blog — but I don’t particularly aspire to being married. It’s not because I don’t want the companionship. I’m a person who likes to see tangible proof — or at least a good case study. Having said that, I simply don’t see enough examples of couples who have marriages that I would want to emulate. In fact, recently, I and my friends have been propositioned by a lot of married men. What is THAT about????

I was at Crobar the other night (which is an entirely different story), and a friend identified a man who sitting about 2 couches away from us who she’d recently met at a barbecue. He asked her out, blah, blah, blah. A few days later, it was revealed that he’s married, and ironically, the woman he was sitting with at the party was indeed his wife. This didn’t prevent him from continuing to stare over at my friend and our group. We couldn’t tell if he was embarassed (which he should have been), or still trying to “make eyes” at her (which he should NOT have been).

A few hours later, I was digging through my purse, and I was asked to dance by a man. I agreed to dance with him after I’d located the very important item that had slipped to the bottom of my purse (my lipstick). We danced and I noticed a distinct shimmer on his left hand. He was in Chicago for the weekend, although he’s from Chicago originally. He kept asking me if I was drunk yet, which made me wonder if I was a GHB victim waiting to happen. He asked me what I was doing afterward (no mention of the wife, mind you), and I found a way to slip away when the song changed.

Although these married men clearly shouldn’t be out prowling, the other scary thing is that, obviously, women have no problems messing around with married men, because if they did, a lot of this nonsense wouldn’t occur. Thoughts? Does anyone else find this depressing?

Landscape Forgot to blog about this one. So, I…

Landscape

Forgot to blog about this one.

So, I decided that I’d have a new flower bed built in the front. I built the first one myself, and thought that I should probably get a professional job this time. I didn’t know how much it would cost, but I thought it shouldn’t be a very large undertaking, given that I have a regular city lot, which is about the size of a postage stamp, in the grand scheme of things.

I didn’t know who to call, so when I saw my neighbor’s landscape truck pull up, I copied the number off the side of the van, and called them about a week later. The owner of the company, Zaragoza, came over a few hours later that same day to provide an estimate. He actually told me that, for the construction of a flower bed that’s even smaller than a postage stamp, it would cost $900. WTF??????

The guy that mows my lawn agreed to do it for $150. Should have asked him first.

I figured it out!!! I fixed the template all by…

I figured it out!!!

I fixed the template all by myself! Wow. I guess it had something to do with having too many posts on one page, which apparently didn’t jive with the template. Regardless, my point of obsession is over.

So . . . now that it’s fixed, let me know what you think! I think I like this one better than the last one.

Template woes Okay, so I have a new template, b…

Template woes

Okay, so I have a new template, but I’ve totally screwed it up! It worked on my test blog, but this one, for some reason, won’t align. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this blog is much larger. Who knows, but I’m irritated!!!!

Dead Lobster At my client’s office today, it was …

Dead Lobster

At my client’s office today, it was Katie’s last day. She’s moving onward and upward, so we thought we’d take her for a special lunch.

Ever since I’ve done projects for this company, we’ve joked about having lunch at Red Lobster on Dearborn and Ohio — which is the only Red Lobster in the city, to the best of my knowledge (not that I’m the leading authority on Red Lobster).

Red Lobster, in my opinion, is such a cheese-ball place to go. And if someone suggests going there on a date — fuhgeddabout it!

So, in the name of tradition, and giving Katie a great send off, we trudged down the street to join the 10 other people who were dining in Red Lobster at noon today.

I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but there’s a tank in the waiting area of Red Lobster, and it contains all the little lobsters that are just waiting to be eaten by those waiting for tables. Katie noticed that there was a lobster that didn’t look quite right. I don’t think that happy, healthy lobsters normally lay on their backs, do they? Well … just to be safe, none of us ordered lobster today, and I will forever refer to the restaurant as Dead Lobster!

I must admit, however, that my salmon wasn’t bad. Not as good as the whitefish I had at La Scarola last night, but tasty nonetheless.

Had fun with Gina last night at La Scarola. My …

Had fun with Gina last night at La Scarola.

My friend Chris was good enough to allow us to derail his schedule and join us for dinner. Yummy!

I’d like to discuss one of the perils of being independent — the client who won’t shut the hell up. I have one who prattles on and on and on about things that only warrant a one minute conversation, in my mind. I’m a big fan of brevity, and long-winded people drive me nuts.

Here’s an excerpt from our conversation . . .

“Well . . . when you’re done, you could e-mail me. I guess you could call me, even though I’m taking a few days off. But I really want to know how this is going, so yes, why don’t you call me. Although I’ll also be checking voicemail. Okay, how about this? How about I e-mail you with my cell phone number, and even if I don’t answer it, I’ll get the message and get back to you. Or you can e-mail me if you want.”

At that moment, I was ready to find the nearest blunt object, and impale myself repeatedly.

How about saying something concise, like: “Call me on my cell and leave a message. I’ll check my messages over the weekend and call you back.”?????? WTF?????

Oh, and by the way, for those who have been curious as to whether I’m going to continue to write after I get a full time job — of COURSE! I’m planning to keep a few of my freelance clients — I have a handful of great clients whose projects that I truly enjoy. And, of course, the column will still be there.

Exciting Day! Twice in one month, I get to see m…

Exciting Day!

Twice in one month, I get to see my most favorite college roomates. A few weeks ago, I saw Jacki, and tonight I get to see Gina. Yes, I had a roomate named Gina. Yes, it was confusing. Yes, we used it as a great way to screen the phone calls of unsuspecting men. And yes, we used to see whether people would identify us by our nationalities. (“Do you want black Gina, or white Gina?”)

She’s in town for a conference, and I’m going to pick her up and take her somewhere cool for dinner and drinks. The problem is that I’m drawing a blank. What’s a “cool” place for dinner and drinks that would be exciting for a non-Chicagoan? Give me a quick holler if you have any suggestions. And I mean QUICK — this happens in a few hours.

THANKS!

Decisions, Decisions Still trying to decide whet…

Decisions, Decisions

Still trying to decide whether or not I like the new template. I could use something with a splash of color, or something. Don’t be surprised if it’s different by this evening — or the next morning.

I did something last night that I hadn’t done in a while. I hung out in Tempo until about 1:15 am (for those non-Chicagoans, Tempo is a 24-hour restaurant where almost every Chicago resident — every cool one, that is — has ended up after a long night of partying. Mostly to absorb the gallons of liquor in our stomachs with their sponge-like pancakes or dense fries). My friend Chuck was in town, so we sat there laughing for about 2 hours. Fun stuff.

What wasn’t fun, however, was waking up at 6:00 this morning after getting home and tinkering with my blog until about 2:30. I’m at my client site, sleep deprived, and working on a rather boring project.

Speaking of work, I finally heard from the company. It’s not all bad news. The good news is that they liked me. The bad news is that they’re trying to decide whether they need to hire a person new to the profession (i.e., me), or one with more experience (i.e., NOT me). I’m hoping they sway in my direction.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

This template doesn’t seem to be putting hard-retu…

This template doesn’t seem to be putting hard-returns in my posts.

This is a test to see if I can do it manually.

Okay, so this is the new look. I have to change u…

Okay, so this is the new look. I have to change up from time to time, just so that I don’t get bored. I’m sure there are a few kinks to work out, but other than that, the colors — at least for a while — are smoky gray and black. Let me know what you think.