It's All About Me

I had a "me" weekend and it felt good. I can say that it was the first time in a long time that I did anything I damn well pleased these past 2.5 days, barring the mandatory Body Jam class this afternoon (more on that later) at the gym.

On Friday, I went to a friend's gallery opening in the Pilsen neighborhood, and it was interesting, but unfortunately I cannot afford nice things, such as original artwork, so I just admired. The theme of this particular gallery was "Love/Hate" and was based on two songs, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division, and "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain and Tenille. I have to admit that most of the work there didn't do it for me, but I sure did like the painting of a pig with the word "BACON" at the bottom (everyone secretly, or in my case, not so secretly loves bacon). Another enjoyable piece was two paintings of couples. One couple was Sid (as in Sex Pistols) with Marie Osmond and Nancy (as in Sid's Nancy) with Donny Osmond. I had a good conversation with one of the artists, and he asked me if I was there to give moral support to one of the artist's girlfriends, who I am friends with. I said not entirely, I actually do enjoy art, and wish I had enough money to buy some. After that I corrected myself and said "no, if I had enough money to buy original artwork, I wouldn't be here right now, I would be asleep in Goa, and selling hot dogs from a shack on a coconut and palm tree lined beach" and meant it. Of course, the artist enjoyed my honestly, who wouldn't?

After that, I went to a bar to celebrate a friend's surprise 30th birthday. Unfortunately, most of the other people there are ones that I hold no affinity for, so I made my appearance brief. I was hit with a barrage of questions about my trip, such as the generic "how was it?" and at this point, two months after my return, I'm tired of answering such basic questions, especially when it comes to people who I could care less about.

Around 4:30 AM on Friday night, I was woken up by men yelling outside of my apartment building. Hearing voices from passer-bys in the night is nothing new, but this was different. It sounded like something was wrong. I got out of bed, and peeked out my window to see a large S.U.V. sitting in the street with the driver's side door wide open. Then I see the driver wiping off his hands and jumping back in the truck and driving away. I knew that something wasn't right, but I couldn't figure out what had just happened. Less than a minute later, there was a man standing at the gate to the courtyard of the building calling for help and ringing everyone's buzzers. I could see that he was bleeding, but I still wasn't sure what to do...one of the other tenants of the building called out the window to the man and asked what happened and if he should call the police. Shortly thereafter, a woman came out of the building with towels and let the man into the courtyard to help him and wait for the police to arrive. It only took a few minutes for them to show up, surprisingly, at which point, I got dressed and went outside to see if I could help. I gave the two police officers a description of the guys that I had seen as well as the vehicle that they were driving. I couldn't believe that someone had been jumped just below my bedroom window, I thought I was back in a good neighborhood...so much for that feeling. The next morning I walked outside, and there was blood on the sidewalk, and it's still there, I hope it rains and washes it away. Maybe people who have told me to keep a baseball bat are right, or maybe my dad is right when he says that I should get a gun and learn how to use it to maim. My only reservation about those two ideas, is if something ever were to happen in my apartment, and the intruder got a hold of either the baseball bat or the gun, they would most likely turn it on me.

Enough of the bad stuff, back to me. On Saturday, I went to the grocery store, the post office, and back to my previous residence to pick up some more of my stuff. Then I treated myself to a lunch of fries, a corndog (the infamous cousin of the hot dog), and a cupcake. Then I came home and took a two hour nap, man did I miss taking naps in the middle of the day!! Afterwards, I did some more unpacking, and now all that's left is miscellaneous little things, and putting a bunch of pictures into frames and hanging them. Yay, I have a home!!

Today, I enjoyed tea (from my new teapot) and read the Sunday paper, before heading out to the gym for my torture session, I mean Body Jam class. Since the gym is trying to really push this new class, they required that all front desk staff and managers participate in a preview class. Body Jam is a hip hop choreography aerobics class, and let's just say that I haven't participated in a group workout class for probably 15 years. I'm not saying that I don't like to dance, I just like to dance on my own terms, and not in a large room full of windows and mirrors. Fortunately, none of us were exceptionally coordinated with these new moves, so I didn't feel like a total jackass. Also, I was impressed with myself to make it through an entire aerobics class without dying in the middle, considering it's been about a month since I've worked out, and cardio activity has never been my total cup of tea. At least the music was semi-tolerable and up to date.

In the afternoon I treated myself to a movie. I guess I'm not such a cheap date anymore, or else movies and refreshments are exorbitantly priced nowadays. I paid $9.25 for the movie ticket, and $7.50 for a small popcorn and Coke, ridiculous!. At least it was worth it. I saw "Little Miss Sunshine" and it was great! All of the characters were exceptional in their roles, and at one point I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying. I highly recommend seeing it if you have the opportunity. I can't remember the last time that I was in a theater and enjoyed a movie so much. I should take myself out on dates more often, it was nice.

I made my first full dinner tonight in my new home, and it was tasty. I also caught up on Grey's Anatomy, which is a program that I've always had on the TV in the background, but never really watched it. I have to admit that I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to actually watching it in the future.

So that was my "me" weekend, napping, eating, errand running, cleaning, unpacking, eating good food, sleeping late, and self-dates. I really appreciate it more than I used to since I've been so busy lately. I can't wait for the next one!