Hello from Chicago! Here visiting Mom for the holiday. We spent much of the afternoon walking around downtown, both on our own and as part of the Tiffany on Wednesdays tour at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. We had a beer and a sandwich at some little Italian place and looked at the Christmas windows at Field's Macy's. We didn't get over to the Sheeler exhibit today; will do that Friday. Sitting at lunch, I realized just how content I was to be in the city again. The trains rumbling overhead. The people on the sidewalks - some moving fast, some moving slow. The buses and taxis and their attendant ...

Been busy. Real busy. Been in a parade, been to Interlochen. Got new shoes, drove a boat. Saw some of my favorite people. Worked on some stuff I didn't want to do, didn't work on some stuff I did want to do. But in addition to all that stuff, I'm exhausted, I'm stressed, I'm questioning my very existence and what I want to do here most is whine about it. But that's not really fun to read or to write, for that matter. So. On other matters: if you had two little kids, you despise the great outdoors and you had no money to speak of, how would you fashion a vacation with the family? Could visit mom. Or dad, for that ...

So I've been enjoying the English booty (I don't mean Keith, at least not in this particular instance, but then I suppose he qualifies and I have been enjoying him, so what the hell, let's include him too) we brought home: Harrod's No. 14 blend tea, Cadbury chocolates, single malts galore. And I've been missing at least one thing we left behind: music. I swear, those Brits may be whingers, but they have good music. We listened to a lot of Radio 1, full of brand new pop. I was really taken with The Feeling (careful - music), especially the new track Sewn and I'm looking forward to their new release in February. ...

I've been away in mirrorworld. Toilets have flushers on the right. Cars have steering wheels on the right. You look right when you cross the street. Oversize plugs, outlets that have to be switched on. Mushrooms at breakfast are not thought of as odd. I couldn't mention the trip here in advance because it was a surprise for Pete. He turned 40 last week and his girlfriend Kerrie threw a bash of epic proportions. Our appearance at the party was just one of the many surprises she put together. It was a ton of fun - we eventually ended up in downtown London, right at the Thames, at the County Hall, which has been, er, repurposed into an ...

So I went to LA, on a lark, really. The boys I blog with out there snagged an invite to a party at Arianna Huffington's house. How could I miss that? The party was great, very swanky and geek-star studded. I met some LA bloggers and got to meet Arianna herself, too. She is lovely and utterly elegant. Turns out it was a launch party for a joint venture between Gawker Media and Yahoo. I spent most of the evening wandering around the enormous but not ostentatious manse like the (relatively speaking) star-struck hayseed I am, drinking Arianna's vodka and marvelling at the artwork on her walls. (Jasper Johns! example) The ...

to trains Originally uploaded by tejana.

3:52 Ugh. Roll over. Toss off the covers. Too hot: body furiously burning off gin. 5:32 Momentary amusement at the numerical anagram, but it just won't do. I was hoping for something in the 9's, maybe the 8's in a pinch. 6:20 I give up. Hard as I try to bash my circadian rhythms into submission by means of alcohol and sleep deprivation, it wins out every time. I'm awake. No meaningful hope for any more sleep. (transcribed off a sheet of note paper from the Sea View Inn) It's this way every time I visit LA. I plow through my time there, pushing myself onto crazy left coast time by sheer force of ...

And it's on to South Bend, Indiana Flat out on the western plain Rise up over the Rockies And down on into California Out to where but the rocks remain And let the sun set on the ocean I will watch it from the shore Only a few more days and I'll be in LA. I can't wait. I'm busy doing all the things that feel imperative - deciding what music to put on my Palm, printing out maps, figuring out a book to bring, washing my shoes. It was that last one that made me step back and think twice about all this busywork. I'm sure the trip will go well and I will come back to house and husband all in ...

August 2002. Keith made his third visit to see me in the States and wanted to 'go somewhere.' Camping was mentioned and I acquiesced, in the way that you do when you're courting. I'm not sure I'd call the resulting trip a success, at least not in terms of the camping. I'm not much of an outdoors girl. Ok, I actively dislike the woods. But for him, I tried. I didn't have any camping equipment (why would I?) so I booked a night at one of the mini-cabins they have for rent at the State Park. I rounded up sleeping bags, an air mattress, a cooler, a lantern, and folding chairs. I also ...

It tastes really good, made with Jameson's and lots of honey. Keith's out judging experimental films, so it's my only comfort at the moment. I feel like crap. Some throat thing which I am hoping against hope isn't strep. Pittsburgh was an interesting place. We toured quirky dives: Smithfield Cafe (best.lasagne.ever - homemade!) and Pipers Pub (it took Keith a good 10 minutes to realize that it was unusual that the football on the tv was football, Man U v. W. Bromwich) and Essie's Original Hot Dog Shop (quite good, but not a Chicago dog) and the Primanti Bros. shop near the PPG center (french fries and coleslaw right on the sandwich - there's not ...