hibernation sickness...

so do you remember in return of the jedi when han solo was unfrozen from the carbonite and he was disoriented and blind for a brief period of time? well you should.

this morning i woke up and just could NOT get out of bed. yes, i know we all have similar problems in the morning (at least i hope you do...morning people are NOT my friends), but today was different for some reason. i suspected i may be getting sick, but this was seemingly unlikely since fatigue was my only problem at this point. fatigue from what? who knows, but my guess was the whirlwind 4-day tour de force in chicago that i had not yet fully recovered from. time travel may also be involved since i made it back from crestwood, IL to A2 in 3:15...regardless of what double D may tell you.
anyway, my policy over the past year has been to not risk it with even potentially getting sick, and it's paid off quite a bit (i wasn't sick for the entire school year and then some), so i called in to work and went back to bed....until 2:30pm.

shot of the chicago skyline/lake michigan from shedd aquarium. i've grown quite fond of this city-

yeah, i don't know what my problem was, but by the time i woke up the new issue was hunger. my last meal consisted of some grilled italian sausage & (believe it or not) vegetables at double's place (thanks to double & gwen for the great meal!). this event was a little over 19 hours earlier. as one of the hungriest people on the planet and cursed with the metabolism of a hummingbird (that means it's fast, for those of you who aren't ornithologists), you'd think i'd be dead putting myself in this situation. i don't know why, but it happens quite frequently, and i have a diverse list of people who get on my case about it. i look forward to the day when i can eat my favorite foods from time to time, but just eat some sort of food pills when i'm in trouble. james has even offered me glucose tablets before...i told him to keep them since he definitely needs them more than i do.

group shot at the club 'leg room' on rush street in chicago. great place, and it was open until 5am!!! talk about venues on my kind of sleep schedule...that being said, we left around 3am since we were all set by then-

it was julia's friend neha (who i had met earlier this school year) who suggested going to leg room...definitely a good choice...note the FISH TANK in the background :)

anyway, food was now the priority. i'd also like to thank my boss for being understanding about the whole thing, especially since this whole project won't move forward without me working on it...then again, i'm the only one working on the project.
i got ready and headed out to pancheros, but as i approached the university, i realized this was a BIG mistake...for one of the most popular (to outsiders) and abhorred (to natives & students) events in ann arbor had just begun that day...THE ART FAIR. streets are blocked off everywhere, clueless pedstrians wander all the streets, overpriced garbage is on display at every corner (seriously, i can create better stuff than a lot of these people...then again, i was really good at art. thanks to the rents for cutting that off and sticking me in computer classes in jr. high...but that's another story). it was too late to turn back, and i was already being pulled in by the flow of traffic (and hunger-pangs) like the falcon in the tractor beam.

shot of 'the bean' sculpture in grant park...this thing was amazing; reminded me of a rounded version of the spaceship in 'flight of the navigator'. i am also a fan of the prudential building (on the left).

not only that parking is ridiculously expensive and nearly impossible to find! i drove down the street next to my usual parking structure and what do i see? a sign in front of the gates saying "parking $10"!!! not the usual $.80 per hour i'm used to forking over. not only that, all the meters were capped off with those annoying orange 'no parking, tow away zone' hoods which they seemingly place arbitrarily throughout the city to generate further parking/parking ticket revenue.

upon returning to the hotel from the night on rush street, gwen decided she wanted to play the piano in the main lobby. i tried to play my infamous rendition of 'the marine's hymn' but was somewhat incapable of hitting all the notes. dangit.

as i drove down the street past the students holding up $5 parking signs (they do make quite the killing off the art fair folks by letting them park on their lawns), i prepared myself mentally for the highly likely scenario which would have me walking a couple miles onto campus in the 96 degree weather (i can't tolerate sunlight for long...see vampire references throughout this blog, as well as 'stenothermic at 70-75F') just to get my burrito and get out. i was in too deep and far too hungry to turn back.
luckily, as i drove maybe 200ft past the parking structure, i saw something that one almost never sees in the middle of the day on south forest near central campus...especially during art fair...an OPEN SPOT not near any meter. i quickly moved to park in the spot without even thinking, of course once i was settled in, i got out and stared at the sign by the curb for a good 5 minutes. it's tricky in A2...they have random signs and random rules that always result in me getting a ticket. previous experiences have had me parked too close to the flush of a driveway, no parking on tuesdays, no refilling the meter, no black honda civics, no people from ohio, no people that can actually drive, and of course 'flying cars only'. regardless, it looked like i would be ok. i took a moment to look around and watch as other cars went by, desparately seeking parking as i had just been...it was a sense of accomplishment, and probably the most productive thing i had done or would do the entire day.

with the parking issues over with, i headed into pancheros. but my experience with the evil art fair was not over yet. i was in line behind the worst thing that could possibly happen at pancheros (no, not big ten burrito fans or penguins)...confused, indecisive out-of-town customers! i was starving, already sort of shaking and beginning to overheat, i was also seeing images of golden gars and priyanka chopra everywhere, and i had to wait behind these idiots as they just sat there saying 'uhmmmmm' for about 5 minutes. the menu is right in front of you people!!! check it out and decide BEFORE you hop in my line (yes, i said my line). this also had nothing to do (at least initially) with the fact some of the workers are somewhat hard to understand and speak kind of fast. one of the ladies ended up ordering something and then having them open it up to add more...i hope she was happy with her subsequent burrito breach (more on pancheros dining terminology at another time). needless to say, these idiots were served and i somehow managed to get my food before passing out in my favorite booth.

as we were driving down cicero ave towards devon st. in chicago, double practically spun the car around so we could drive back and get a pic of me in front of this storefront. nice.

well, that's all for this episode; i'm sure there is plenty more i could waste your time with, but i have stuff to do. tomorrow will be our mini-bbq featuring omaha steaks i got as a groomsman present from cryder's wedding (i've heard their steaks are some of the best), and following that an outing to dominick's and who knows what else. yes, the thursday night events are still going strong even without the school schedule and all that jazz. later kids <:><

music:

"Deja Vu" - Beyonce featuring Jay-Z

"Chand Sifarish" - Fanaa soundtrack


random pic:

we were really close to wrigley field at one point during our trip (a big game was just getting out, so it was chaos). it's pretty common knowledge that i'm not a baseball fan by any means, but i must say it was a nostalgic site since the cubs were the first team i remember being aware of when i was really little. probably because all our good cartoons/shows in north dakota came from a chicago station. weird.