I've been remiss in my blogging. I apologize. I've just been so....damn....tired.... So here's a quick rundown:

Wednesday: Long day at work, then off to ArtsBridge for a meeting of the board and singers of the group I work with. I was actually pretty hopeful before the meeting, because I figured whatever happened, at least we'd know what we were doing after tonight. Right? Wrong. After much tortuous, but exceedingly needed, discussion, we came to the following conclusions: (1) We're really broke -- strike that, we're really in debt; (2) We either have to take a hiatus for a year or pack it in entirely; (3) the singers want to keep going if we get a commitment from our artistic director; and (4) we have thus far been able to talk with said artisitic director, who is, to be fair, distracted by impending surgery. But that means we're still in limbo. So we're either going to be doing a hell of a lot of work, which is fine and which I'm up for, or we're going to be shutting down, which is also fine and which I'm also up for. But I want to know, and I'm stuck waiting for word from on high. This whole uncertainty thing is just getting to me. Sigh. Anyway, that meeting went long, and then we went out afterward to talk, and I was just so tired. So I staggered home late -- after taking the world's slowest cab, who, upon finding out I lived in a majorly Hispanic part of town, started slagging off Latinos, blacks and everyone else who wasn't white ethnic Chicago (and was surprised when I said, no, I've seen white guys play their car radios really loud too) which makes so little sense it boggles the mind -- and finally got to bed. Arghh.

Thursday: Really, really long day at work, getting the new site together and ready for viewing by the general public. It actually looks really good, and I think we did a great job (if I do say so myself), but 11-hour days just get to you. Then off to Brew & View for The Mummy Returns and Kiss of the Dragon, two movies eminantly suited to Brew & View as I probably would have been pissed off if (1) I paid real money for them, and (2) I wasn't allowed to make loud mocking comments at the screen. (that CGI at the end of Mummy.... Bridget Fonda in Kiss.... oy.) That was good stuff, especially as a double-feature costs $7. Michelle stayed for both movies with me, and Jude and Chad showed up for the first movie. A good, but long, night, but I was tired of not having a life.

Speaking of tired.... Oy. Getting up for work Friday was torture, but I managed. Editing and clean-up of the new site all day, and by the end of the day, I was dying. Seriously considered skipping the gym and trainer, but managed to convince myself to go, which turned out to be a good thing. I felt great, if sore, afterwards. That alwyas happens, but it's always a struggle to get in there regardless. Odd. Then home, dinner at about nine, reading, and bed early. Bliss.

So I'm looking forward to a weekend of little or nothing. Today's pretty much reserved for sloth (and a bit of cleaning up outside, if it doesn't rain, and darn it, looks like it's going to be intermittent rain all day. Shucks, I'm sooooo disappointed.)and tomorrow is brunch and Wayne and Laura's, watch the air show and go over to Jude and Chad's to pillage their CD collection. Huzzah!

Upon re-reading this, it looks like I lead a very boring life. I'm ok with that, to be honest. Newton, you have been warned....

Oh, right, an update on my PeaPod experieince: The guy made it, at about 9:45, and seemed to deal with the neighborhood ok. Nice guy. Plus, PeaPod gave me a nice bag of fruit for ordering for the first time, which would have been a mroe effective gift if I did, in fact, eat things that occur in nature. But the folks at work said the fruit was quite good. Go, PeaPod, go.

And i don't feel guiltly for using PeaPod/Webvan, it's more that I feel guilty for expoliting the system to my own benefit. Which is stupid, because hell, they're the ones who designed the system. It's not my fault. Oh well.

Yes, I do feel guilty about far too many things. I have to work on that. It's all my fault, you know....

I was supposed to meet up with Lotti, John, Jude, Kristin and Kat at The Others tonight, but it didn't quite work that way. The theater we went to was having a $5 special, and the place was packed. Took forever to park -- hell, forever to make the turn-off for the parking garage -- and when I finally got in, I found out the movie was showing at the same time on two different screens. That was cruel and unusual. Anyway, I got shuffled into the wrong theater, couldn't find the group and ended up watching the movie on my own. This is not something I recommend, especialy if you are a scary movie wimp like I am. (The guy I was siting next to kept looking over at me when I cringed, with this "You're not doing so well, are you" look on his face. Sir, I apologize, and I hope I did not ruin you moviegoing experience as much as the people who didn't turn off their damn cell phones.) Very, very effective creepy film. Not quite as surprising as I think they hoped -- and remind me never to read reviews; even when they try not to give things away, they give things away -- but still really well done.

The theater was a zoo, and getting in and out of the parking garage was a logistical nightmare. Too many cars trying to go down the same little exit ramp. Plus, on my way in, taking the elevator down from the parking garage, a couple of teenage girls were doing fight posturing, screaming and yelling and getting in each other's faces, in the door of the elevator, so we couldn't move. I am now officially old -- I lectured them. "If you're going to fight, do it outside the elevator." One of them got off, and the other one kept yelling. "You're not helping anything, you know." Her boyfriend apologized for her.

I'm an old cranky bitch. And you know what? I kind of like it.

Right now I'm waiting for the friendly folks from Peapod to come make a delivery. I had been using WebVan, but that's obviously not an option any more. I know, I know, it's somewhat pathetic to order your groceries online and get someone to deliver them, but I'm willing to be that pathetic. I mitigate the shame (to myself, at least) by (1) only ordering from them about every 3 months, and (2) ordering all the really heavy stuff that I don't want to be stuck taking up the stairs. So, for example, I tend to order something like 16 cases of fizzy water and several 20-pound bags of cat food. See, the way they work is, you incur a delivery charge if your order is less than a certain monetary amount. If you order a lot of staples/stuff that won't spoil 4 times a year, you don't have to worry about the delivery charge, and you don't have to worry about the stairs.

This is evil, I know, but that's pretty much what I exploit Peapod/WebVan/whoever the next poor schmuck is for. God help me if they ever switch to charging for delivery by weight.

It occurs to me, at this late point in the game, that I should have picked another delivery window. I asked them to deliver from 8-10 p.m. That's when I'm home. But to those unschooled in my neighborhood, this looks like a scary-ass place after dark. (OK, fine, to those schooled in my neighborhood, this is a scary-ass place after dark. Not so scary that you don't want to leave your house, but scary enough that you don't want to be making yourself vulnerable by, say, leaving the back of your truck open while you schlepp 16 cases of fizzy water up some bitch's stairs, especially when said bitch really should be doing her own damn shopping.) I did not fully consider this when I placed the order. From now on I plan ahead, and keep the sanity and well-being of the Peapod guys/chicks in mind.

In other news, we had a long, difficult meeting about the status of the choral group for which I serve on the Board of Directors. God, that sounds stilted -- the group I'm on the board of. (Sounds slightly wrong, but not so pretentious.) (By the way, my favorite example of the absurdity of the no-ending-with-a-preposition rule is "Ending a sentence with a prepostition is something up with which I will not put.") We'll have an even longer, more difficult meeting on Wednesday. I'll let you know how that goes, assuming I survive.

It's a beautiful night, and I've turned off the aircon and opened all the windows. You gotta say this about my building/flat -- you can get a great crossbreeze with all these windows. I love it.

I will be migrating over to my own URL soon: www.fiendishplot.com. It may take a few days, but I'm moving in that general direction. Just a bit of fair warning.

From Wendy's blog, about her novel:

Had a long meeting with my first-draft reader. I've got one last edit to a chapter in the forties, and then I can forge ahead with chapters 52-59.... Hopefully it will be pretty fun to read. We'll see. I'm looking forward to getting some people to read this who haven't been prepped about the backstory. To see how well I've conveyed things. Fresh eyes. What a challenge.

I'll do it! I'll do it! Please please please please please!

Good weekend thus far. Went out to see American Pie 2 with Lotti, Johna dn Dawn on Friday night, far too late. Note to self: Seeing a movie that starts at 10:45 is officially past my bedtime. Very silly, some of it funny, should have seen it at Brew&View.

Had Jude, Chad, JP, Jeremy, Tripp and John over for dinner last night. Jude, Chad and JP will all be leaving in a few short weeks, alas, so I wanted to make sure I could see them before they left. John Aguiar is in town from Texas, working at the Field Museum doing something with monkey skulls. (And yes, John, I'm sorry I don't compost. However, I hardly eat enough organic matter to have anything to compost in the normal course of my life.)

I made a pretty damn good dinner, if I do say so myself -- roasted lamb with garlic and herbs; roasted red peppers with cherry tomatoes, onions and basil; potatoes with rosemary and basil. Plus JP brought taboule, which was really good, and I had ice cream and baklava for dessert. I don't cook often -- I hardly cook at all for myself -- but I can cook rather well, I think. It's just a matter of getting off my ass. I need to check out those "Cooking for One" books.

No I have to go outside and tackle the runaway morning glory that has decided to take over our backyard (Tripp, a.k.a "The Yard Boy", was most disappointed with us.) If you don't hear from me, that means the morning glory won.