saturday was fran’s birthday, so i went over for some awesome food and bennison’s cake. holly came into town! so did robyn! it was cool to see everyone. holly has been working out and looks awesome. also her hair is so long, she looks totally different (in a great way). angie brought her husband, who was sadly the only male in attendance (eric was at a concert with jon & co). we did a little dance dance revolution, which fran is so good at, it’s scary. she was even kicking ass on the mode where one player dances with TWO pads. she was all dancing around and doing turns and doing it backwards and everything! we watched the ‘all for one’ video a few times (of course) and talked a lot. i got fran a set of lotr maps…a special edition with a full gazetteer and prints of hand painted maps and everything. i found the map set at borders earlier in the day – it like hit me out of nowhere and i realized it was the perfect gift. i wrote the tag in elvish too. i ended up spending $100-something at borders, buying enough books to last for a month or two.

last night i got an email from meghan, and she indeed got that big job! she’s currently in santa fe shooting episode #2; they are hitting branson next (oh boy) and maybe hawaii soon! she gets to travel with josh and will be soon moved up to camera operator! THIS IS AWESOME.

when i got off the train today, there was the hottest bike messenger i’ve ever seen sitting at those tables near the food court. he was blond (usually i don’t go for blond guys!) and tall and thin and looked shockingly good in his orange reflective smock. he was reading…something…probably an order slip or something. i totally wanted to throw down (can you use ‘throw down’ when talking about sex?) right there in merchandise mart in front of who-the-hell-cares-who. does this happen to other people too? it must.

…sorry eric.

this weekend eric was out of town so i seized the opportunity to hang out with some friends from back in the day that live in chicago.

friday i organized my past bills and filed them. unfortunately the new filing cabinet i bought is sucking more every day, and standard-sized hanging files don’t reach across its bars. by about a quarter inch. i had fun anyway (yes, fun) throwing away old envelopes and putting things into chronological order. whee! i’m such a rebel!

saturday i got up early to get ready for the cable guy. he came really early (i was his first call of the day) and was very nice (and good-looking but i digress). i spent several hours trying, to no avail, to improve the reception of about half of my cable channels. i did get that great deal on cable and cable internet, but when the phone guy didn’t mention is how my basic cable would give me maybe 20 channels (that come in clearly) and most of them are the ‘ethnic’ channels that i never watch. where is my cartoon network and comedy central and discovery channel? what about spike for cryin’ out loud?? i felt sort of ripped off until i remembered that i was paying for 12 months about half of what it would’ve cost to just get the cable internet, plus i got very clear local channels and at least vh1.

my wireless set up is pretty sweet…at least it is NOW. my router was totally not working at first and i spent a few hours banging my head against that one. i really enjoy being able to carry my tibook around without wrangling a cable.

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after much phone wankery, the comcast rep finally offered me basic analog cable plus cable internet for 12 months at $34.99 a month.

that’s right. you heard me.

this, after the original quote was something like $90 a month after some dinky little 3 and 4 month specials ran out. what was it that made him finally offer it to me? was it that i asked about special packages and introductory deals at least 5 times? was it that i asked him to tell me the price per month after the ‘money saving promotions’ were over? was it that i told him a friend of mine got digital cable + cable internet for $60 a month? was it that i made him repeat my package at least 3 times? 3 times more every time he asked for my phone number or name again? or was it that i finally told him to forget about the cable and just give me the internet by itself?

we shall never know. but one thing is certain: i’m only giving up 35 bucks to comcast a month for the next year, and that feels like a victory.

*nerd alert* Qapla’!

this weekend i unpacked more stuff like my dvd player and computer. still no cable, still no internet, still no bookcases set up (so boxes of dvds and books are everywhere), but otherwise things are sort of falling into place.

saturday eric and i went to see ‘the chronicles of riddick’ which was pretty cool. i think i may have become a vin diesel fan. i know i know! sigh.

sunday i went to see the evanston fireworks, though eric wasn’t able to get in touch with ozzie and jesse. but, lo and behold, when we got to the South Blvd. beach, ozzie and jesse were standing right there! we battled the gnats and lake-bugs and saw some great fireworks. we all got faked out like 3 times by false finales. there were some kids behind us talking about abraham lincoln (you don’t know who abraham lincoln is?? our 16th president??? he looked like a magician is this sounding familiar?!?) and some idiots behind us shooting (illegal) fireworks off over a crowded beach in full view of the evanston police.

monday ozzie and jesse came over to eric & jon’s and we grilled some sausages and burgers and ate lots of snacks and drank a lot of beer. jon had a copy of the latest harry potter movie, so we watched that (after some confusion involving hooking eric’s computer up to the tv) too, although the opening title screen looked more like ‘natty notter’ since it was in russian or something. there was a lot of passing out afterwards, then some adult swim later on. saw the episode of ‘futurama’ where bender turns into a girl robot and the ‘family guy’ that takes place after the apocalypse.

today i finally got this one dvd project out the door…after a whole year. i can’t help but think that i would rather be unpacking or cleaning up the new apartment right now.

on wednesday i moved all of my stuff from the old apartment to the new one. jon and eric helped with the couch then mom, dad and i were on our own for everything else. we had my parents’ pickup and my grandparents’ little saturn station wagon. it took 8 hours to shuttle everything back and forth, making for about 6-7 trips total. things are still sort of a mess over there, but furniture is set up and the kitchen is getting in order. the new place is pretty big, so for awhile it will be a bit sparse. i am still waiting to find the perfect entertainment center, although that will probably have to wait until i buy a bigger tv. 19″ isn’t going to do it for me (hahahahaha. ha.).

anyway, ok, also i would like to get a bigger bookshelf because i have an insane amount of books. the bookshelf at the old place was filled – i mean, books shoved on the top and the sides and wedged in there and everything – and my bookcase at my parents’ house is in the same state. mom and dad brought up this coffee table mom got from a neighbor for $10 which is not the most attractive thing in the world but will serve its purpose for a good long while as i would rather be investing in like a nice reading chair for the sunroom, a ginormous tv, an actual bed instead of a steel frame for my mattress, a second computer monitor, a larger dresser and a ton of lighting fixtures.

tonight is a little get together at pat & jessie’s, then tomorrow eric and i am going to see ‘the chronicles of riddick’ at 1pm if anyone is interested. sunday is the big family 4th of july party at my aunt and uncle’s where i could possibly meet my cousin’s man-friend…but i still don’t know if i’m going to go. things are really messy at the new place and i don’t want to leave it like that. there is a lot of drilling and screwing and…uh, mounting…ok i swear i’m talking about furniture here. none of you believes me do you? *sigh*

saturday i took the metra to aurora to meet up with my mom, hit the outlet mall, and see my dad. on friday/saturday he and bunch of guys were on their way home, driving down from a fishing trip in alaska. these guys get together every year for this big trip and this year my dad got to go. unfortunately it was the worst weather these guys had seen in 20 years and they only got in a few hours of good fishing during the whole week. it actually hailed one day, was never above 50 degress and was dark and rainy and windy the whole time. but, it was a surprise that i was coming down to meet him so dad was really happy to see me. i don’t think i’d seen him since april!

saturday night eric and i had some late-night mexican food from garcia’s which was good, but then on sunday i had a rough bout of indigestion – although i felt more awful than i have in months, gi-tract-wise, so it might’ve been some mild food poisoning. ugh. i spent the day trying to find a comfortable position to lie in and eric read me a story and made me soup and all of those other nauseatingly adorable things that couples do for each other when one is ill. AWWW!

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so this past weekend was…interesting.

friday jon, kate, eric and i went to ravinia to see the ben folds and rufus wainwright concert. good times were had – there was hard lemonade and guiness and wine, plus chinese food and chee-tos.

saturday was the Last Cookout at Andrew’s place – he, trevor and dave a parting ways (at least for now)…i guess their landlord is sort of an ick-day. there were bratwurst and i had some mudslide that kate brought.

afterwards eric and i met up with ben, sara and ben’s friend (from galesburg) matt at the diversey rock ‘n bowl. fran had just driven up from florida and found an apartment that very morning so she came out too, sort of to celebrate. and also, we hadn’t seen each other for a year!…except. that halfway through the second game…fran’s purse was stolen. from where it was all of 2 feet away (at most) from where she and i were sitting.

and then came the suckiness.

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i found a new apartment! it was the 3rd one i looked at, the second listing i saw. it is large and cheap and quite nice and i’m very very happy with it. it’s kind of far west, but that’s ok – i’m signing the lease tonight!