Jooof

After Thursday night's craziness Friday morning rolled in with a whimper, when I slightly overslept. Blah. I found out that if I really put the gas on in the morning I can get out of bed and into the office in 40 minutes. Ka-pow. Every real sentence will be followed by some nonsensical communication. Muha!

Friday night I was invited to see the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Millennium Park (a short walk from work). The performance included three dances – the first had five dancers in brightly colored outfits dancing to the occasional strike on the piano - think five seconds between notes. It was pretty difficult for me to appreciate. Halfway through the show I discovered that if you make up immature 5th grader's dialog for the dancers then hilarity ensues. For example:

Guy in green: I am going to kick really really high. A lot!
Girl in red: running and spinning is my purpose in life!
Girl in orange: I am going to jump on that guy in blue. It's gonna be awesome!
Guy in blue: why couldn't it be the girl in red? I'll take her for a spin!
Guy in green: I am going to jump all the way into the sky!
Girl in red: woah, did you see him jump? I'm dizzy now.

From there Dave and I went to a college Halloween party - it was sweet! If by sweet I mean totally out of booze twenty minutes after we got there. Ha. We crashed another party where a guy was dressed up as old-school Robin (of Batman the TV show fame) and he had these huge sideburns. I told him that if the Robin in the TV show had chops like that then he would have been awesome! He concurred. Good times.

Saturday I went to a Halloween party where I didn't know anyone. They know me now! It was awesome.

Today was going to be boring: laundry, groceries, fixing relative's computers, etc. Then at 6pm inspiration struck! If by inspiration I mean a friend of mine calling to invite me to a concert at Lincoln Park's own Park West. I'm in! After we met up she worked her "I'm in the music industry"-magic and we were brought to a VIP table in front of the soundboard – the perfect place to watch the show.

This weekend was so sweet and awesome it is amazing I didn't crap my pants the whole time. I should join a "'awesome' over-users anonymous" group.

Six months ago - to the day - I left Baltimore with no idea what was going to happen. Things have turned out pretty good. The moral of the story: quit your job! Or not.

Today after work I met up with my cousin Phil to go to the Chicago International Children's Film Festival up by NWU professional campus (north of downtown). We were invited by our fake cousin Lisa. You can be our fake cousin if you eat with the family once a week for twenty years AND suffer through the House on the Rock together as children.

We were taken to the House on the Rock when we were kids with no idea what it was going to be like. All I remember is a museum that was just filled with stuff: some of it good (I liked the symphonies that played themselves for a quarter) and some of it looked like they bought out garage sales and put the stuff in a room. The thing was that it was many rooms joined one way, so once you got started you couldn't go back and there were no exits that didn't set off the fire alarm. It just kept going and going. We got exhausted and overwhelmed and somehow it was all nearly worth crying over. After I returned from Rome I described the Vatican Museum to Phil: "man, it just kept going like the House on the Rock."

Lisa set us up with free tickets to this evening's opening night gala which included a few drinks and food, some short films that were good (the one from Japan was hilarious!) and a keynote speech by Chicago's own Harold Ramis. The man wrote, among other things: Animal House, Caddyshack, Ghost Busters and Groundhog Day! Funniest shit ever!

After the show I helped cart all the stuff back to the film festival HQ in the most rusted out busted up minivan possible. We took the decorative balloons from the gala and tied them to the van – we must have looked like something else whipping down Lake Shore Drive. After we unloaded the van it refused to start so we pushed it into a parking spot and left. Good times.

Oh! From Japan.

I found out something hilarious at work today – it's not written up in my offer letter or anything but I only get six paid holidays a year! I just reread my whole employment agreement (think: many pages) and it doesn't get mentioned. So Friday after Thanksgiving I have to take a vacation day because I am having company. It's so devious!

Oh, and no internet at your desk! They don't tell you that in the contract either! The deviousness works on many levels.

On the plus side work is, at the very least, challenging for the moment.

Taking the L to work this morning brought me back to the summer of 2000 when I had a job downtown as a gopher. It was exactly the same: no one smiles, no one talks, no one looks at each other. OK- well it was slightly different, about 20% of the people were listening to iPods. I actually get off at the exact same stop in the loop as I did before – it was like déjà vu, all over again*. That summer I used to put on my MD player (people didn't have iPods then) and walk to work with the biggest shit-eating grin possible. Once and a while people would actually look at me, understand, and smile back. It was funny. That's my policy once again starting tomorrow, but with iPod not that POS MD player. How many times can I say iPod? That was really not the point of this blurb but it just worked out that way. iPod iPod iPod – I should really get paid.

I'm never sure what to wear the first day at work so I just wore a white shirt and black pants. I looked like a waiter. It reminded me of catering.

Today I dazzled people with my knowledge of "Look and Say" sequences (thank you number theory!) and I anti-dazzled my boss with my programming skills!
(fun look and say sequence game)

My ears pop on the ride down the elevator! I get no cell reception at that altitude! I saw a beautiful rainbow from an actual window today! (though, I work no where near one) I'm working in a cube again! My exclamation points are not to be trifled with! !!!! so there!

I need a Halloween costume.

made it home. 9000 miles takes 18 hours by plane for those keeping score. it was surprisingly easy. when it comes to climbing over sleeping passengers to go to the bathroom i am like a ninja. instead of "gold member" or "million mile plus!" type rankings for frequent flyer clubs they should call them "world traveler ninjas". whenever they call the world traveler ninjas to board early they should yell "haaai-yaaaa!" so everyone gets really pumped.

i have been up for 26 hours and it has been Oct 20th the whole time! its going to be Oct 20th for another 5 hours and 20 minutes.

getting back into the US was so great. i got off the plane, went through immigration, got my bag and through customs in like 15 minutes. BAM! now that is efficiency. in japan it took, and i timed it, 70 minutes to get through immigration. the line made it look like a fantastic party was going on, but for all their sophistication the baggage carousels in japan are like anywhere in the world and you aren't allowed to karaoke on them.

i start work... monday?
its a block from the L and i will be working at a higher elevation than anyone i know. so there!

ive been eating at all sorts of little stands and everything across cambodia and thailand with no ill effect. saturday night when i met up with Dave and Jenny for dinner at their five star Mariott hotel i went for the fish - where better to get it right? the short story: bad idea.

bad bad idea.
10/17 2:30p

i am now proficient in the deadly art of Thai massage. muha.

in Bangkok i am meeting some RHIT alumni i know. word.
i think i'm doing a Thai cooking class too.

a disposable kodak camera (with action flash!) has turned out to be the perfect temporary replacement to my digicam.
10/14 7p

oooof. i have been uninspired in chiang mai (read: sleeping 12 hours a day). tomorrow i am going to do a full day course in how to give thai massage (no, not that kind you sicko) for 20$ - sweet.

today my camera went kaput. must be about three years to the day since i bought it - pretty good for any consumer electronic but it really could have waited another week.

in japan the people thought i was japanese, in thailand the people think i am thai... and in cambodia the people thought i was japanese. what makes it hilarious is being with white people who actually speak the languge - Elliot in Japan and my big-big-big brother Tim in Thailand. the suprise on everyones face when they speak and i don't is classic.

last night i had this conversation with a waitress:
her: "where are you from?"
me: "america" (keep it simple)
her: "but your hair is black."

one week to go!
10/13 7:20p

i took an overnight bus from Khorat to Chiang Mai - it took 11.5 hours. it was awesome.

i was planning on taking another overnight bus from here back to Bangkok... until i saw a travel agent offering 1450 bhat (~37 USD) flights to Bangkok. sold!
10/11 7:20p

i am now in Thailand staying with my fraternal big-big-big brother (what?!) in a part of Thailand most people dont head to.

leaving Cambodia was difficult. i dont think ive said that about anywhere i have visited before.

tonight or tomorrow i am headed to Chiang Mai.
10/10 2:40p

yahoo has a free internet cafe in Narita airport - sweet. after reading about sleeping in Narita airport i found out they close for the night (what?) so i stayed in a hostel near the airport. of course there is no way to telnet to delete the comment spam i have been getting again...

anyways: departing for Bangkok soon - I am going to try to go to Angkor Wat and surrounding areas in Camboda. actually, i just may fly there from Bangkok right away - i just had the idea and i like it. i do have a hostel booked in Bangkok - but i am only out 10$ if i miss it. we will see what happens.

go read about Ed's stuff - taking a 14 hour ride on top of a coal train in the middle of the Sahara is > this.

10/3 9:20a

I would love to write beautiful postcards for all of you but I find I:m always saying the same things, I don’t have your addresses and there are so many people I want to write. Plus the pictures are by me! For you! Awesome!

Hey ! I'm having such a good time! I wish you were here to enjoy the sweltering Kyoto humidity head butting deer in Nara incomprehensible language asian toilets I think that the experience I've enjoyed most is getting lost in the back streets of Nara sushi chefs yelling for no reason going out in Roppongi (Tokyo) getting lost in Kyoto station accidentally hopping on the express bullet train (not covered by rail pass) also it was so fun to do batting cages in the middle of Shinjuku ask for beef by going “moooo” hit my head on the short doorway see the cross walk in Shibuya (insane!) some of the places we stayed in are crazy, like the capsule hotel in Shinjuku (red light district!) the ryokan with Japanese hot baths the hostel in Takayama that was part of a temple Sunday night I am going to sleep at the airport! You would not believe how crazy the streets are how crazy the lights are how crazy the people are muha! if you come to Japan - always remember to take off your shoes to bow bring cash Sorry I missed Homecoming! I'll see you back in Chicago when you visit me in Chicago for Thanksgiving when I see you Signed your friend your relation your not so close aquantance your internet fixation Alex

I am seriously happy with some of the pictures I have been getting, here are a few (again, resized in MS paint so the quality is not too good - will be better when i can properly photoshop in a few weeks):

Shibuya crosswalk - view from starbucks:




Shinjuku by night:


Takayama intersection at night:


At the Takayama old building preserve: