In 24 days I need to have a new place to live. The toss up is between DeKalb and Aurora. Aurora is closer to both work and the city. I’m going to miss Chicago, but it would be nice to visit regularly. I’d especially like to start printing more and playing more music. Hopefully cutting down my commute by three hours a day I will have more time to do these things. However, Aurora is a little more expensive and feels a little less hospitable. DeKalb, on the other hand, I am well acquainted with. There is lots of affordable student housing and the dollar stretches quite a bit further. However, this would put me about 70 miles from the city instead of 40. Let’s face it, that’s going to make a difference when I’m trying to decide what to do with my weekend. Right now I’m leaning towards Aurora, even if I have to live in a not so hot apartment for a year. (more…)

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The weekend before last I took an impromptu road trip to Michigan where I smoked a hookah, lost $8.90 at a casino, and visited the Kalamazoon Institue of Arts. It was nice to look at art again and imagine being a person that makes art for a living.

Lately I have been looking at houses. It’s difficult to determine exactly what it is I can afford. For the most part I’ve been looking in Aurora, which is near my job in Sugar Grove. Throughout January and February I had been training on a Doosan Puma TT1800SY CNC lathe. It’s different and certainly dirtier than working in the office. This week I returned to third shift after training on first to learn the machine.

My 2002 Mustang GT is nearing 130,000 miles. Currently it has two sounds coming from it that aren’t right. One is a whistling from the engine and the other is a squeak from the front right. The whistling is new as of last night and the wheel squeak could not be diagnosed by the mechanics who saw it this weekend. How much money should I put into it before I consider trading it in for something more practical? I don’t really want a new set of car payments. It would really be great to take a bicycle to work.

This weekend I had some kidney stone related pains for the first time in years. All is good today, and I’m just hoping it stays that way. I’m short on money as it is and certainly can’t afford payments on medical treatments not covered by insurance.

I miss printing and drawing and playing guitar. Think I’ll do some of the latter right now before work.

Voicemails and texts are going unreturned.

The big fat meh.

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My grandparents are off for almost two weeks and I am left dogsitting and housesitting while they are gone. They are still on dial-up internet (yeah, they’re the two holdouts) so I don’t even bother and I relish these moments I can take my laptop to my parents’ house just down the road. Anyway, the last two weeks have been interesting. Driving half the distance with less than half the traffic makes me realize what a stressful part of my life my daily commute from Chicago is. It kind of gets me thinking about buying a house somewhere between my hometown of Northville, IL and the big city. Then I get to looking at houses and there aren’t many in my price range that I fall in love with. Then I start thinking of designing and building a house. You know, actually drawing it out and hauling the materials to the site and making them into a house. It would be a tricky endeavor from the financing to the actual construction, but we only get one go around this globe, why not make the most of it? Maybe I should wait. It seems kind of final.

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Oh, yeah. I made this print at Screwball Press while I was on vacation at the beginning of this month. My apologies for not sharing sooner. It’s three colors on 11 x 14 bristol board. I’ll have some for sale at some point so start saving your pennies now. Unfortunately, I have some priorities that trump art and music right now, so things might be a little slow here for a bit¹. However, if you are on my snail mail newsletter list, I’ll be sending something out within a week (I hope). If you’re not on my snail mail list and you’d like to be, e-mail me with your address.

1. This makes me a sad panda. However, have you ever noticed that I’m a liar? So when I say I’ll have a newsletter out next week, it will be at least two weeks later. Maybe if I say things will be slow here, I’ll post a barage of articles all week long. If you’re reading this, it’s your job to hold me accountable for the things I say I’m going to do, dig?

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Long time no write. You know why? I simply haven’t had enough worth sharing. So here are some things that might be of interest.

RIGHT NOW I am on my first real vacation since 2004. That’s a slight exaggeration as I’ve taken a handful of long weekends, but this is the first time I’ve taken off five consecutive work days in six years. And you wonder why I’m slightly neurotic and depressed all the time. The bummer of it is that I can’t afford to get out of town and do things, so I’m sticking around and just taking it easy. When I return to work on January 10th, I will be training on a Doosan Puma CNC lathe. It will be weird doing something other than the paperwork I’ve been doing for the last four years, but if there is anything I learned from 2010 it is to embrace change. (more…)

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Friday

7:00pm: Wake up later than expected after a long day at work.
8:45pm: Show up 45 minutes late for rock session with Jared and Paul. We tackle Weezer, Pumpkins, Poster Children, Rolling Stones, Wilco, and more. I picked up the bass for the first time in years with marginal success on “Bones” by Radiohead.

Saturday

1:30am: Return home from rock session. Split Domino’s with Jared. In bed by 3:30am.
9:00am: Roll out of bed after five and half hours of sleep. Do some computering and go for an early morning run to clear out some congestion and get some general exercise. Run through songs, work on setlist, and try to time my allergy and nasal congestion medicine for maximum effectiveness during my afternoon set. To eat: PBJ and a red delicious apple.
3:30pm: Show up right on time for my set, but no one is there, save for one of the performers. Promoter decides to hold off starting until 4pm. To my delight, four friends and fans stop by just to see me. Played four originals, five covers, in just under half and hour time. Followed by the talented Elizabeth Stedman and show closed with The Winter Me. To eat: Blueberry, lemon, and pumpkin macarons, followed by blueberry cheese danish.
6:00pm: Dinner with friend Mike at Penny’s Noodle Soup. To eat: Chicken satay and crab rangoon.
7:00pm: Plenty early for The Dandy Warhols show at the Vic, Mike and I headed to Big City Tap for a gin and tonic.
8:00pm: The Dandy Warhols at The Vic Theatre with Blue Giant opening. Blue Giant had some very solid country rock tunes and I picked up their album on the way out. Dandy Warhols put on an awesome show as well. Pretty decent setlist from all of their catalog, but I was really hoping to hear both “Welcome To The Third World” and “Genius”. To drink: Red Bull, Rum and Coke.

Sunday

12:30am: Drinks at Delilah’s. Conversation turns to the state of music today, Black Sabbath, and two man bands. Inspired, Mike and I decided to see if the practice space was available. To drink: Jack and Coke. Whiskey bar means you drink whiskey, fool.
1:30am: After assembling gear and losing the key, Jared, Mike, and I make it to the space. Mike, who had not played music in five years, did a fair job on both bass and drums. I alternated between guitar and bass. Tackled Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Rolling Stones, White Stripes, Poster Children. To eat/drink: Botched Taco Bell order and bottled water.
4:30am: It’s 4:30? Really? Yes. Really. Took Mike back to his car and finally made it to bed about 6:00am.
3:30pm: Huh? What’s going on? Why am I so sore? Is it really afternoon? Ugh. What time do I have to leave for work? Hrm. Made a trip down to the Lincoln Park Apple Store to get my power supply issue diagnosed. Apple Store visits are so surreal, and not in a good way. Kind of turns me off the brand. Back home with enough time to squeeze in a nap before another work week. When am I going to schedule a week of vacation for myself?

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