Piling On

Coming into this weekend, I had a variety of minor projects, goals, to-do items and things to keep in mind. With the weekend winding down, I've gotten a bunch of them finished, despite my inherent, weather-inspired laziness.

Aside from meeting a friend last night for drinks at a bar on the East Side, I essentially did a lot around the house: cleaning and cleaning up; taking out garbage; laundry; packing up CD's that are now safely ensconced in both my PC's storage and on my iPod; doing a sink's worth of dishes; electronically, via the Internet, renewing a prescription; and, most importantly, insuring my Fantasy Football picks were in (along with the Fantasy Hockey picks) prior to the start of football (and hockey) this weekend.

Notice I didn't mention the World Series -- that omission was purely intentional, as I'd rather watch ESPN 8 ("The Ocho") than watch the Cardinals/Tigers play. In fact, I spoke to a friend in Miami and he asked me if I was going to watch; my response was that, once the Yankees were/are eliminated, all remaining games -- playoffs, World Series, etc. -- are akin to spring training games. And no self-respecting baseball fan gives a shit about spring training games. It's like watching a late-night rerun of the next-to-last episode of Cheers. No suspense, no significance, no point.

I've still got a few items left on my checklist, but before readership herein sinks to match the boredom of my weekend, I'll spare the remaining details. Suffice nothing much of excitement is happening, other than Kaia and I spending time on the phone, guessing hummed TV theme songs, reminiscing about the past and the future, and fighting to stay awake.

Other than that, I'm counting the days until an upcoming party happens. It's scheduled for 11/4 in midtown, and a friend and I have been co-planning it. We figure somewhere around 100-125 people will swing by, and other than burning a bunch of mixes -- rock, lounge, dance, etc. -- all the planning the party requires is making sure everyone knows where, how, how much and when to be there. When necessary, I send out more evites, check in with people and answer the random question via e-mail or instant message. As far as the party goes, I'm really looking forward to it; we're not sure if Kaia will be in town or not, but we're hopeful that her schedule changes and she's able to make it. I've been so preoccupied I haven't done much checking in with many of the people that will be at the party, but I'm guessing as the date approaches, as it continues to do, I'll be increasingly excited about it. About the only thing that, for me, will make it perfect, is if Kaia's in town and there with me. Alas, we shall see.

I've still got a few small piles of CD's and DVD's floating around, so I'm going to return to getting them organized and boxed up in anticipation of getting my place in order and making it easier to move when the time comes. More on that later.

Finally, I forgot to mention a double birthday party I attended last weekend. My friends Linny and Dave (the same Dave who I mentioned in the last post in connection with Tony Bourdain) each had birthdays so a mutual friend decided to throw a mini-surprise party. It was a smallish group that assembled at Kanvas downtown on the West Side; but despite the small size, it was great -- everyone seemed to have fun, and it was definitely a lot of fun. It was called for 7:30 -- I know, very early for a Saturday night party -- but we didn't end up getting there until after 8. Turns out I had been doing work late Saturday afternoon and was wearing a hat, and apparently -- much to my surprise -- the hat left a nice, fat red ring across my forehead. So as I came out of the shower and spied the newly-acquired forehead graffiti, I frantically tried to rub it until it disappeared. As they say in non-gambling localities, no dice. So after 15 minutes of failed attempts at removing the offending line, I gave up, got dressed and grabbed a cab to meet Lisa (of LisaB in Da City fame) and we headed down. I apologized for running so late, and she graciously understood my predicament. By the time we made it downtown, and I had explained the situation to most, if not all, of the attendees, every one of them told me -- either truthfully or generously -- that the line was gone. Unfortunately, in my frantic rush to remove the line and to head out on time, I forgot to bring my camera, so my friends' inability to see the line was not documented, but, unfortunately, neither was the party. In either case, a (belated) happy birthday to you both!

More to come.