Moving Day

I moved. Been moving, actually. Still not done. My day off yesterday was pretty much moving. We're about 70% done - still a lot to do but it's all little stuff. Big stuff furniture, TV, stereo, etc. is already in the new place.

More to come.

Tattoo

I missed a day! Before you know it I'll be missing multiple days and then I won't update at all.

It looks like we're moving downstairs to the two-bedroom. It's just not possible to come up with the $1600 we'd need to move to the other apartment we'd been thinking about in Lansing. But at least the place downstairs is a lot bigger. Unfortunately with all that extra space, we'll have to find stuff to fill it up. So now the hunt is on for furniture...how fun. Moving will start tomorrow as soon as we can get in touch with our landlord and get the go-ahead. The hardest stuff to move will be the big furniture (dressers, beds, etc.) but we've already got someone lined up to help us so it won't be too bad. We'll have all week to move the stuff so it won't be a one-day thing which will make the whole process a lot let stressful. And of course it's just down the stairs and around the corner, not five miles away. No U-Haul rental necessary.

What's really interesting about this whole apartment fiasco is that in the course of communicating with our landlord, he informed my sister that he was looking for someone to work in his office. Supposedly he's a chiropractor in Orland Park (about 12 miles west of here) and he's looking for someone with an "MBA" to work for him. Well, my sisters not totally stupid and she knows I don't have one of those and told him so. I guess he knows I work for a bank and must have some business experience so he still wants to talk to me. Now, I've never spoken to the man for more than a minute. I ran into him once in the parking lot after I had first moved in. He took the opportunity to confirm the fact that I'm her brother and not some random guy living with her in a one-bedroom apartment. When my sister calls him tomorrow to tell him that we're taking the two-bedroom, she's going to tell him that I'm interested in this "job" he has in mind for me. Hey, if it's more money I'll do it - I'm easy.

A family friend was confirmed today so we spent most of the day at their house. It's amazing how much a cheap card and a $10 check can buy you - in this case, a delicious dinner.

It's pretty late, which indicates that I don't work tomorrow. Normally, I'd be in bed right now or at least thinking about it if I had to work at 11am the next day. Hopefully I'll be able to utilize my day off for moving and not sleep all day. I got to sleep in today, anyway, and I like to have at least one of those a week.

In other news, my trashy sister got a tattoo. I should've known something was up when she said, "Hey Ben, if I show you something, do you promise not to tell Mom and Dad?" I said no at the time but I found out about it eventually. Apparently it's small, located on her lower abdominal area (I still haven't seen it). However much I might disapprove of this body mutilation, I have to say that the tatoo she got sounds pretty cool. It's the heart-in-a-suitcase logo from U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind album and accompanying Elevation tour. Apparently the tattoo artist (artist...artist!?!?) took the design off of an Elevation tour T-shirt she brought in. What will she do next? More piercings? Another tattoo? Who knows...I just wish she'd get through this "rebellious" phase. In my opinion, she's a bit too old for it. But maybe I'm just all grown up and she's not. Maybe I'm the one that's old. If so, that's fine. I'm comfortable with it. Now she's the one that needs to grow up. Sooner rather than later, for my sake. I'm the one that has to live with her.

Apartment Woes

Worked again today. Seems like a regular thing, doesn't it? Currently, I'm listening to Pearl Jam and smoking my pipe. Does it get any better?

More on the apartment saga.... Today my sister talked to our current landlord about upgrading to a two-bedroom in our complex instead of moving out completely. This would allow us to remain within the terms of our lease. Bad news: a two-bedroom here is $80 more than the one I was looking into in Lansing. Good news: we wouldn't have to break our lease or come up with first month's rent/security deposit on a new place. Which one ends up being cheaper in the long run? Looks like I'll be crunching some numbers.

I'm pleased to note that I have two subscribers. Thank you, Chad and Antonio. You've help me become slightly more famous. Until next time....

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Worked today. Got there at 7:35, left at 3:15. Yeah, I left early due to the no-lunch event that happened yesterday. It's always the little things.... Have to be there at 9am tomorrow so I won't be up too much later. I don't due late nights any more. I can't handle 'em.

Smoked my pipe twice today. I think I'm going to shoot for two a day...yeah, that sounds nice.

I wonder what the cat is doing. She vanishes for hours at a time as cats are bound to do. She doesn't like me much. Sure, she tolerates me. But it's my sister that gets most of the attention. But I try...

Being Catholic and today being Friday, I stuck to my religions convictions (read guilt) and refrained from meat today. I even did a little fasting and had only bread and Diet RC for lunch (water just doesn't cut it). For dinner I went to my church's fish fry. Good fish but ungodly (get it) expensive. Found out last Sunday that they're going to close my grade school. Seems the Catholic schools in the south suburbs aren't faring so well so they're going to consolidate five parish schools into one new school with two campus. They didn't pick my old school to be one of the campuses so now the church is going to have a big vacant building. Wonder what they'll do with it. It's a bit sad to think about the whole sitution - the fact that a place I spent nine years of my life will no longer exist after June of this year. I guess we all have to move on.

Count the States

Saw this on a friend's xanga site so I thought I'd do my own.

create your own personalized map of the USA or write about it on the open travel guide

A related log I've been keeping is a list of the interstates I've travelled, inspired by another friend of mine. Here they are:

4, 20, 25, 30, 35, 135 (KS), 235 (OK), 235 (IA), 40, 240 (OK), 540 (AR), 43, 44, 49, 55, 255 (MO), 355 (IL), 57, 64, 65, 70, 270 (MO), 75, 275 (FL), 80, 280 (IL & IA), 88, 90, 190 (IL), 290 (IL), 93, 94, 294 (IL), 95, 295 (RI), 96, 196 (MI)

Great Basid

Smoked my pipe again today. It's a good pipe. It makes me happy. Worked today too. No problems with Cathy today - she was actually nice. Unfortunately, I didn't get a lunch today. Instead I had to drive to Oak Lawn (103rd and Cicero...about 15 miles each way) to "exchange some documents" with a Suburban Bank & Trust branch. Well, at least I got to spend some time away from the bank.

I'm thinking I should write a book. Ok, I know what you're thinking. But hear me out. I have a map. It's not too detailed but it's got all of the essentials: coastline, kingdoms, cities, mountains, rivers, and more. I've developed a "mythology" for the map, including descriptions of the kingdoms, brief histories, and random facts. I think what I have so far would transfer nicely into some sort of fantasy novel. Only one problem: I have nothing else. No plot, no characters, no general idea. Just a fairly detailed setting. I guess it's a problem I'll have to work out...but in the meantime, here's the map I've developed for your viewing pleasure.

The green denotes land and the blue water in case there was any confusion. "Great Basid" is the name of the island. The other large red captions are the names of the kingdoms. Note that Basid (Bass-id') is broken into three parts - these are provinces (north, east, and west). Other kingdoms are Lorel (Lor'-el), Aþena (pronounced Ah'-thin-ah), Niwelond (Nih'-weh-lond), Norðbeorgland (North-bee-org'-land), Meðelstede (Meth'-el-sted'-eh), and Rosella (Rose-el'-ah). Main cities are Osterbogen (Aw'-ster-bog-en), Boné (Bone-ay'), Aþnos (Ath'-nos), Gimstan Geofon (the 'g' here sounds sort of like a throaty 'h,' Him'-stan Hey'-oh-fahn), Heahburg (Hey'-a-burg with a throaty 'h'), Teátera (Tay-ah'-ter-ah), and Basidia (Bass-id'-ee-ah).

Yeah, I've put a lot of thought into this.

New Pipe

My first real post. Finally. Worked today at 7:30. I was five minutes late. Cathy gave me hell for it. Or at least I think it was because I was five minutes late. It could just be because she's a total bitch. Or because she doesn't like me. Or becuase she resents the fact that I know more than she does. It's probably a combination of all three and a battle I don't think I can win, so is it really worth fighting? Sure, I can get there five minutes earlier but that won't solve everything else.

Got my new pipe today. It's a cheap meerschaum I ordered off the internet mostly because I don't know of any excellent toboccanists here. Also got some tasty tobacco with my order but of course I paid for that too. A couple of pictures below.

The second picture is my favorite - it's so damn close-up and clear. It's cropped and resized but I think it still looks nice. The original kicks ass, trust me. The top picture isn't nearly as nice but it shows off my huge (to me) bag of tobacco. That'll keep me going for a while. As you may notice I've already utilized it twice today so it's no longer pretty and white on the inside but I knew it wouldn't stay that way...that's the point.

My sister left here around 9:30 dressed like a hooch. I'm being serious, she had so much eye makeup on I had to do a double take when I first saw her. Her friend had about ten times as much makeup but this girl should know by now that no amount of makeup is going to fix her. Trust me on this one.

My task now is to move out of this place. It may take a month or two but I've got an "in." A friend of mine lives in an apartment in Lansing. She claims her landlord is awesome and the apartment below her has been vacant for a while. It's only $40 more a month and for an extra bedroom and a lot more space elsewhere, I say go for it. Of course, there's other issues to contend with such as breaking our current lease, coming up with the first month's rent and a security deposit, etc. At least I have a goal.

Working late tomorrow - 11:30 am. That's a nice switch from 7:30 days. But I actually prefer getting home at 4:15 rather than 7:15, so I can deal with the mornings.