Coupla Things

Here’s what I learned today:
1. If you forget to renew your license plate registration and it is two weeks past the due date, the city of Chicago will try to tow your car away.
2. If you get to your car before the tow truck does, you should fly like the wind.
3. If you drive around with a “TOW NOTICE” plastered on your window and weird yellow numbers written in official police grease paint on your windshield, people will look at you like you’re wearing an orange jumpsuit and leg shackles.
4. If you don’t want your car to be towed away, you will need to hide it in your garage spot and walk everywhere until you can get the new sticker for your plates.
5. If the guy who parks next to you in your garage spot sees the greasepaint and torn “TOW NOTICE” on your car, he will give you dirty looks and contemplate turning you in.
6. If you see that everyone online is making cool manga self-portraits, you will feel compelled to do the same.
avatar

R.I.F.

If you and I hang out in any of the same blog circles – and let’s face it, this is one incestuous pool we’re swimming in, so we probably do – then you’ve already heard several exciting recaps about Davecago 3. But just in case you haven’t, here’s the Cliff’s Notes version: I met up with RW, Mrs. RW, Leah, Kevin and Katie, Dave2, Kelly, Lynne and her beau, Tori, Robin, Suzanne and Gary for some pizza. Then we got some ice cream. Then we went to one dark bar for fancy drinks. Then we went to another brighter bar for more fancy drinks. Then we got into cabs. Then we went home.
See? Boring, right? That’s what you get for trying to skate by life just reading the Cliff’s Notes. You never even got to hear about this stuff:
Chapter One:
A friendly, yet unfamiliar face that I would soon learn belonged to a radioactive girl named Tori walked in and said to me, “Hey, I think we know someone in common! Do you know Vickie?”
And this being a blogging event, my brain would not compute, so I said, “I don’t know, what’s her site?”
And Tori said, “No, I mean don’t you know Vickie? I’m pretty sure she said she’s friends with you.”
And I said, “I’m not sure… is she at vickie.com, or vickie.blogspot.com? She sounds familiar.”
And Tori said, “You’re not hearing me. She doesn’t have a blog. She’s a person. A person you know in real life.”
And then smoke came out of my ears and I spoke in binary code for the rest of the evening.
Chapter Three:
Kevin and Katie innocently ordered something called a “white pizza” and unwittingly started a race riot at my end of the table. Fortunately, Dave2 had made salt ‘n pepper buttons for everyone to promote peace and love, and soon enough we were all back to our harmonious states.
Chapter Four:
I said, “Hey nerds!” to Kelly and Leah because they were synchronizing their Blackberries and talking about persistent user IDs, but then I had to laugh at the irony of calling someone a nerd while I was busy trading buttons with other bloggers and wearing a lanyard at blogger meetup. It always feels so good to be with my own kind.
Chapter Seven:
I tried to impress RW and Mrs. RW by acting like an absinthe aficionado, but they saw right through me. I’ve totally never even met the Green Fairy, and RW is like BFF with her.
Chapter Nine:
I like to tease Kelly because she has foxy* hair and smells nice, so I stole her bag of brownies (homemade by the radioactively fabulous Tori), but soon realized that you should never play keepaway with people who are 3” taller than you because they will just reach up and grab the brownies without even fully extending their arms and you will look dumb and not have brownies anymore.
Chapters Eleven – Thirteen:
What happens at Violet Hour stays at Violet Hour. I can’t really tell you any more about that.
Chapter Fifteen:
Suzanne kept pretending that she doesn’t have a blog, but I know for a fact that she blogs at www.myhungariangrandmotherisavampire.com, but just doesn’t want people to know about it.
Chapter Seventeen:
Gary told us about how he is going to start a blogger commune in Costa Rica, where we will all eat yucca and sugar cane and pineapples and coffee beans all day long, and it sounded like heaven. I am going to be in charge of growing cinnamon sticks, which I will wrap with pretty ribbon and sell to British tourists.
Chapter Nineteen:
I got jealous because Lynne and everyone at her table were drinking fancy tequila mojitos so I decided to order my own fancy drink called a Tequila Mockingbird, which, despite the clever name, tasted kind of like grapefruit salt.
Chapter Twenty-One:
My phone started buzzing, so I looked down and saw a text message from another blogger, Jessica, who was trying to warn me about some artistically compromising photos she had taken while under the influence of the Svengaliesque Sarah. I made Dave2 pull up the photos, and then was shocked, offended, and extremely disappointed to learn that you can only zoom in so much on an iPhone before the photo gets really grainy.
Chapter Twenty-Four:
Leah, Suzanne and I shared a cab and were almost abducted to Schaumburg – a fate worse than waterboarding – but were able to disorient our cabbie by making him drive down streets closed to through traffic. After he dropped me off, apparently Leah also cleverly convinced him to do an illegal left turn, at which point the cops pulled them over and she was safe to Twitter in peace once again.
Chapter Twenty-Four and a Half:
I ate almost all the remaining brownies before going to bed.
Chapter Thirty-One:
Robin shared secrets with Dave2 and me that some people would kill to learn. All I can say is that it involves World War II and a chain letter. It will be ages before anyone else learns what we now know, and I’m not sure I am going to be able to deal with the responsibility of this knowledge.
Now don’t you see why Reading Is Fundamental? Don’t try to coast through life on Cliff’s Notes alone – you miss all the good stuff.

*I’m trying to repopularize the term “foxy.” Please help me in this endeavor.

Megaducks

Q: What’s huge and yellow and goes “sploosh?”

A: 30,000 rubber ducks being dumped into the Chicago River!

no dumping
On Friday, the Windy City Rubber Ducky Derby was held to benefit the Special Olympics. I adopted four ducks, but they didn’t win. Stupid loser ducks.
30,000 ducks behind bars
When I first heard about the event, I wondered, “Hey! The Chicago River is really slow. How the heck are those ducks going to make their way across the finish line?”
swirl
The answer? The Chicago Fire Department, of course. Let’s hope there were no barge fires while this race was going on, because all the fire boats were otherwise occupied squirting at a bunch of rubber duckies.
Fire Dept lends a hand
And by the way, did you even know we had fire boats? I sure didn’t. Sometimes they like to just shoot straight into the air. Show offs.
fire dept
Next year, I’m not taking any chances. I’m going to make my own special rocket ducks and toss them into the water while everyone is distracted by the excessive display of aquatic firefighter virility. Then when I win First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth prizes, the whole city will finally know my name and give me the respect I deserve. I will so totally own the Rubber Ducky Derby. OWN IT!
Ducks

Long Day at Work: A Play in One Act, Oh, and By the Way, It’s an Internal Dialogue

“Who do you love more – me or the boxed wine?”
“Right now? Don’t make me choose.”
“What does the boxed wine have that I don’t have?”
“A spigot and 13.5% alcohol.”
“Damn you!”
“Glug glug glug.”
“I said damn you!
“What? I can’t hear you over the din of cheap shiraz pouring into this juice glass.”
“You mock my pain. Never do it again!”
“Can’t you quote any other movie than Princess Bride? It’s getting old.”
“Prepare to die!”
“Hey, is there any colby jack left?”
“Bottom shelf.”
Fin.

Worthless

For the past week, I have been tormented by an infestation of flies in my apartment. Where are they coming from? Why do they keep choosing my apartment? I have no food here. Truly, no food at all. I’ve been defrosting my refrigerator for the past three days, and have been surviving on nothing but peanut butter and pretzel sticks, both of which are hermetically sealed after use.
I suppose it could be due to the fact that it’s 95 degrees and humid out – perfect fly incubation weather – and some asshat keeps opening up the window in our back hall which is directly above the dumpster.
But more likely, my apartment was built on top of the Hell Mouth and we’re only days away from the Evil One once again walking the earth. If the walls start to bleed, I’m out of here, security deposit or not.
By the way, what good are cats that can’t even catch a fat, slow fly? No good at all. I could totally pull a blindfolded Daniel-san move and catch these flies with chopsticks if I wanted to. I’m trading the cats in for bullfrogs this weekend.

J’adore mon petit canard

It’s not like I’m trying to brag or anything. I’m just telling you that I won a very prestigious award over at The Collective. That’s all. No need to slash my tires.
hollywood.jpg

Mrs. Puppet

Some people believe in destiny, others in fate, but me? I believe in serendipity. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. Like a few weeks ago, when I first saw the Puppet Bike. The whole experience made me so happy that after I wrote this entry about it, I wanted to express my gratitude, so I emailed the Puppet Biker to let him know that my proposal of marriage was bona fide.
Last week I received this response:

You lifted the spirit of all of the puppets… thank you so much. So far, your proposal has been almost unanimously accepted by every puppet and puppeteer, as well as a few others with no affiliation whatsoever. I hope your schedule is free for a lot of courting!

Now, some of you might be thinking, “Wait… what do you mean almost unanimously accepted? Who’s the holdout?” I can’t be sure, but I suspect it’s the alligator. He seems like a bit of a skeptic, so maybe he thinks that I’m just trying to marry them for their money.
Nothing could be further from the truth. My love for the puppets and puppeteers is unconditional. And I’m completely willing to sign a pre-nup if that’s what it takes to prove it.
This Sunday, I was driving home after a long day of taking photos by the lake, when I saw a crowd gathered on the corner near my apartment. I craned my neck to see what the commotion was about, when suddenly my heart raced a bit. It was the Puppet Bike again! Was this a sign? Were they trying to tell me that they had accepted my hand in marriage? I squealed into my garage, grabbed my camera and ran down to the street corner.
puppet bike
gators
I stood there, grinning madly and snapping photo after photo, hoping for a nice one I could put on my desk at work. The kittens were kind enough to stop for a moment and pose for me, but then they went back to the grueling work of show business.
kittens
getting paid
Anyway, it’s strange to think that I might not be single for much longer. Stranger yet is the fact that I’ll go straight from single to polygamist, but love is blind. I haven’t talked it over with them yet, but I think I’d like to start a family right away, so in lieu of wedding gifts, please send us new or gently used socks, spare buttons, googly eyes, hot glue guns and perhaps some felt.

Non-Emergency

Sunday
Chicago Non-Emergency, how can I help you?
Hi, I’m calling to report that there is water bubbling up out of a crack in the street by my apartment.
Is the water coming out of a sewer grating?
No, it’s coming out of a crack in the street.
So it’s not coming out of a sewer grating?
No. There is a crack in the street, about a foot or two from the curb, and water is bubbling out of it.

Okay. I’ll just need the address and I can report it.

Great, thanks.
Monday
Chicago Non-Emergency, how can I help you?
Hi, I’m calling to report that there’s a hole in the street and water is bubbling up out of it.
Is the water coming out of a sewer grating?
No, it’s coming out of an actual hole in the street.
So it’s not coming out of a sewer grating?
No. I called yesterday to report that it was coming out of a crack. Now the crack has expanded into a hole about a foot in diameter.
Is it on the curb near a sewer?
There are no sewers anywhere near it. It’s a hole. In the street. With water coming out of it. Seems like a problem to me.
Okay. Can you give me the address? I’ll write it up.
Great, thanks.
Tuesday
Chicago Non-Emergency, how can I help you?
Hi, I’m calling to report a giant sinkhole about three feet wide in the street outside of my apartment with water gushing out of it. And it’s nowhere near a sewer.

It’s not coming out of a sewer grating?

No.
So is it in the street?
Yes, it’s in the street. I called twice now to report this. It started out as a crack. Then it was a hole about a foot wide. Now it’s a hole about three feet wide. At this rate, the entire block will be gone by Friday.

And do you know approximately how wide the hole is?


Ma’am?
Yes, it’s approximately three feet wide and one foot deep. Look, people are parking their cars right next to this. Someone from the city needs to come out and at least put up some barricades before it gets any worse.
So it’s in the street along the curb then?
OH MY F*CKING GOD! THERE IS A THREE-FOOT WIDE SINKHOLE IN THE STREET NEAR THE CURB NOT BY A SEWER WITH WATER COMING OUT OF IT AND CARS AND SMALL CHILDREN ARE ABOUT TO BE SWALLOWED UP BY IT IF YOU DON’T SEND SOMEONE TO FIX IT!
And do you have the address?
::Sigh:: Yes, I have the address.
Okay, I’ll write it up.
Great, thanks.
River runs through it
Sinkhole

With precision

When he looks up from the table, it becomes apparent that he is much younger than his white hair and pale eyelashes would indicate. He is muttering to himself as he lines up seven packets of sugar on the table. One by one, he places the packets in his left hand. He taps the packets gently against the table to square them in his hand, adjusting them with precision. He tears them open all at once and quickly empties all seven into his coffee.
This continues with the seven creamers he has lined up next to his cup. Picks one up, shakes it, pulls back the lid, pours it in, taps it three times, pushes the lid inside the container, licks the singular drop of cream off the index finger. Then six more times, identically, including the lick.
He only stirs once.

Martha Stewart-Bin Laden

I was rifling through my glove compartment today in search of a pair of sunglasses when I found a folded-up piece of paper containing the following list:
• Blue poster board
• White poster board – 5 pieces
• Rope
• Hook
• Gold paper
• 8 “C” batteries
The strange thing is that this list was written in my own handwriting, and yet I have absolutely no recollection of creating it, and cannot for the life of me imagine what it was for. This makes me wonder if I suffer from some sort of dissociative identity disorder, and one of my personalities is either really into arts and crafts, or is a terrorist.
I’m kind of afraid to be alone with myself. This must be what it feels like to be a werewolf.