HAPPY LEAP YEAR!

This is a holiday right?

The Karaoke Singer's Guide to Self Defense

After nearly 3 months of carrying this book around with me every day, I've finally finished it. 

 I'm not about to review it, critic it, or even recommend it. I honestly don't know the first thing about what makes great literature, but I can say that this was the first book I've read by a friend.

Tim is not a good friend of mine, but through happenstance we've spent some unusual time together, and I know him better than I know some of my favourite facebook friends.

Because of that, when I initially started this book, I made the rookie mistake of drawing parallels to real life.  At the beginning of the book there is a scene at a kid's football game that made me question everything, wondering which characters were derived from which friends or family, and the obvious connection of the bar in the book to Rainbo, but after about one hundred pages I let go of all my suspicions and just enjoyed the complex story.

I really did enjoy it, but fuuuuuuck; it is not for the sensitive YouTube Kitten watchers like myself.  Tim's vivid imagery and amazing detail really made for some uncomfortable moments, and I must admit, I skipped an entire part of the book because I'm a total baby and didn't want to read more about certain characters.

Another thing about the author: He's really good at singing karaoke.

Thaw

Sunday night I managed to make it out to Schuba's for about an hour to see one of my favourite people in the whole world: Fred Thomas. Part of the Tomorrow Never Knows festival, Fred played as his now solo band (I miss you Ryan!) City Center, which I have been fortunate enough to play with in Detroit, New York, and Chicago.

I wish I recorded his first song Cookies, but I caught the last few. 

 Here is maybe my second favourite.

Record Highs

I took this photo today while I was out for a jog - that's right a jog. I did outside exercise on January 6th in Chicago, IL.

I believe we hit a high of 57 degrees. I witnessed with my own eyes people in tank tops and flip flops. While it wasn't actually THAT warm, it was euphoria inducingly beautiful out as well.

But was it that atypical for January here in the midwest?

According to my research (wikipedia) "The temperature in January averages about 29°F (-2°C) in the afternoon, and 14°F (-10°C) at night. Temperatures can be expected to drop below 0°F (-18°C) on about 15 nonconsecutive days throughout the winter season. On many occasions temperatures can go above 50* for a daytime high, and, although not frequent, temperatures in winter can surpass 50°F (10°C)."

And through google I learned that on this exact day in 2008 it reached 60°F!! That's a few months before I moved here, so I can neither confirm or deny this, but I can honestly say that today was a welcome reprieve, even if it has been a pretty mild winter so far.

Happy New Year!

It's my favourite time of year again - RESOLUTION TIME!!!

You may recall last year's resolution and how it came true. This year I've got 2.

1. Save $200 a month towards my retirement. Once I have enough (I'm not sure how much that actually is) I'm going to invest it in a mutual fund.  See below some sound, drunk financial advice given to me on a napkin.

2. Run 5 miles - like a normal jogging type person.  This was not my idea.

 Because I was forced into this, I've forced Nathan into a resolution as well:

by 2013 he must be able to touch his toes!

He's got a long way to go.

Genuine Class

And the finale in my quest to shed the label of philistine - The Ballet! 

 

Fancy Pants

 

 Cheap Seats

The Auditorium Theater

 my beautiful date Julie

moments before I turned my phone off - unlike the jerk sitting in front of us

I did not take this photo (thanks google images)

It was absolutely beautiful.
I plan on attending so many more ballets in 2012!

Staying Classy

This past weekend I was in Minneapolis visiting my boyfriend, but this time there was more on the itinerary than watching The Simpsons and eating at Seward Cafe. 

For months I had my calendar marked - November 4th Sibelius.

Before meeting Nathan I had never heard of Finnish super genius/total romantic/alcoholic composer Jean Sibelius.
Also before meeting him I used to pluralize "anyway" every time I said it.
I'm a better person in so many ways for meeting this man.

 

such a babe

 

my second favourite pose

 

gross

 

seriously amazing seats

turns out I like harps and am not a huge fan of xylophones

I can't pretend to understand this music anymore than I can pretend I know anything about rap, so I'll spare the half ass attempt to describe what it was like or what was good or bad about it. It was just beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

So far in 2011 I have gone to the opera for free and seen the a Symphony Orchestra for $15. There are barely 2 months left in the year - can I squeeze in a ballet to round it all out?

If anyway can score me seats to the Joffrey let me know!