things you may be interested in knowing

Recently I was looking for parking near my workplace with my friend/coworker/neighbor, Anya riding shotgun. We noticed a ton of bell peppers on the sidewalk beside an overturned milk crate. We looked at eachother and said, "Yeaaaaah!!" and Anya gathered the peppers into the milk crate and put it in my trunk. She got back into my car and informed me that the bell peppers were all frozen solid, and we pondered the usefulness of 20 frozen bell peppers.

I forgot about the pepper stash riding in my trunk until about a week later I was driving a car load of people to a see some music, and went to put my stuff in the trunk when I was met with the overwhelming smell of bell pepper. I could hardly stop laughing long enough to explain why I had them in my trunk and when we got to the music venue we put the milk crate and its contents on the sidewalk. One of my friends pelted another with a bell pepper, but he only did this once because it the still solid bell peppers hurt quite a bit.

Today it was a lovely 63 degrees in Chicago. In celebration of the warmth, Ted and I went on a little bike ride that ended with four dollar falafel sandwiches at Sultan's and sitting on the sidewalk basking in the glory of the sun.

We went to a party in the evening, celebrating the birth of our friend Dan. Dan is doing his graduate work studying philosophy of religion down in Hyde Park. The friends who came to his party were all super interesting and I spent most of the evening talking to a lady who has her doctorate in neuro biology. We talked about education, estrogen, animal testing, testosterone, drug addiction and Radio Lab. It was amazing and now I feel like I just had my brain scrubbed clean and subjected to a deep tissue massage.

Meanwhile, my car was broken into. After the party, we walked to my car and I went to unlock Ted's door but it was already open, as was mine. And then I noticed that both of our seats were fully reclined and pushed back and all of the contents of my glove box were on the passenger seat. It was scary having my space invaded like that, and it left me with an uncomfortable feeling of distrust in humanity. I hate feeling that way because it gives me the sense that I'm loosing a peice of hope in my heart.

Items in my car included: Three letters, a book lights, three pairs of sunglasses (two for a dollar each that I got at Thailand, one pair of Oliver People's that I got for free from a friend), oil change receipts, an empty egg carton, a very long peice of yarn, a boom box with a burned copy of Thai A Go Go Volume 2 in it, a snow shovel, 2 children's library books, a bag full of origami cranes, 2 travel packs of tissue, and the unmistakable odor of bell peppers. Only one of these items was stolen, can you guess which one?

BIG

What a difference some exercise makes.
I admit I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately. It could be the cold, it could be the cabin fever, it could be my job, or it could be the fact that I’m currently reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.

This morning Ted and I rode up to Chicago Diner for breakfast (a nice little 20 mile ride, round trip) and by the time we got there I felt as good as new. Stories and smiles were pouring out of the two of us, pausing only to stuff our faces with the best breakfast ever. (We split a Breakfast Bowl: biscuits and gravy, seitan sausage and tofu scramble on top of home fried potatoes, and Cornbread French Toast sprinkled with powdered sugar, served with a side of fresh fruit, blueberry compote and maple syrup. We washed it all down with bottomless mugs of Yerba Mate.)

We had an in-depth discussion covering the loveliness of beet poop.
Ted – “It completely changes the way you think about poop.”
Me – “It makes Valentine’s Day in every toilet bowl.”
and so on.

We also spent quite a bit of time talking some more about Wendy and Lucy. We went to see it last night at the Music Box and it tore us to the core.

We rode back, and I assembled a Theremin for Ted.

Momentarily, we’ll be heading down to Hyde Park to visit a dear friend and consume some Rajun Cajun.

Later, we’ll meet up with the Superbowlers (post super bowl) to watch a terrible movie about the Pineys of New Jersey and their legendary Jersey Devil. It should be awfully amazing.

Life is good, three cheers for the weekend.