Music, Friends, and U-Haul Stupidness

Here's a quick recap of the past couple of days:

Friday Night
To my excitement, Porkchop was able to leave work early Friday evening and accompany me to see the Ditty Bops at the Mad Art Gallery (tickets courtesy of Soozi). Porkchop is glad that she did, as she found someone new on whom to develop a crush. Check out the Ditty Bops website and see if you can guess which band member it is (hint: Porkchop has something in common with said band member).

Unbeknownst to me, the Gallery puts out fold-up chairs for concerts. So, my strategy of arriving stylishly late during the opener backfired as we had to stand by the wall. But it worked out, and we still enjoyed the show.

It was great to see so many locals turn out to support a not-too-well-known band that is touring the country via bicycle. The show was pretty fun with the Ditty Bops crew dressed to match the former function of the Mad Art Gallery (it's in an old police station!). Here's a pic from the DB website:



And, here's a photo of me wearing my new DB t-shirt (this is the first concert t-shirt I've purchased since Le Tigre played Madison in 2001):



Saturday
After being distracted Saturday morning by dirty dishes and yoga, I left for Columbia to help K&B with packing and moving. At one point during the afternoon, I stated that my visit was not a social visit; but, in reality, I did lots of socializing while packing their dish- and glassware. I was impressed with the progress that they had made with packing and discarding unneeded items; there really wasn't that much to do.

Mid-afternoon, U-Haul called to report that they did not know when or where K&B could pick up their truck on Sunday. This and a bubble-wrap-buying excursion led to plans to dismantle the U-Haul operation. We are all in agreement that U-Haul is evil. Very evil. [See Porkchop's Livejournal May archives for reports of our most recent U-Haul troubles.]

After B and I had dinner at Main Squeeze (K opted to avoid her public and requested take-out), we prepared ourselves for K&B's second goodbye party. The first one was for the general public, while the second one was for the select few. Such an exclusive party could only be had at the Arch and Column, the finest gay bar on the business loop.

Besides strong, cheap drinks, the A and C also serves up karaoke on Saturday nights, a treat of which many at the party partook. B heated things up with Pour Some Sugar on Me and K (Miss Kitty to the A and C crowd) delivered a thrilling rendition of Hotel California to much applause. I watched and enjoyed meeting some of K&B's "new friends."

Sunday
No longer used to turning in after 2 am, I slept in Sunday morning, finally dragging myself off the futon around 10:45. In order to have some much-needed tea, I had to wait for K to finish her coffee; when I finished my tea, I washed the cup so that K&B could share more coffee. You see, while packing the dishware, I forgot to take into our account our cup/mug needs. Oops.

By the way, K did a terrific job using up various perishables by making an egg scramble with spinach, cheddar cheese, and various heirloom tomatoes, served on sundried tomato bread. Yum! I helped by using up the rest of their pesto. Oh, and we had a perfectly ripe mango on the side.

After lunch, it was back to packing and cleaning. I accompanied B on some errands, including picking up their 17-foot U-Haul. We arrived at the perfect time: 4 people in line when we arrived, 20 when we left. Ugh!

K&B lucked out by receiving a fairly new truck with bucket seats instead of that stupid bench seat. Alas, however, their truck is tinged with racism. You know how the U-Haul trucks feature different states? Well, they have Montana, complete with a contemplative portrait of an idealized Sacajawea, along with some crap about "why did she mysteriously disappear after the Lewis and Clark expedition?"

Awesome.

A little bit after bringing the truck in, I had to cut out. So, I missed all of the folks who promised to stop by Sunday afternoon. K described it as being like a wake. Murrrr....K&B are so well-established in the Columbia queer community and well-liked by all (well, all of the sane people, anyway), I'm sure people will reminisce about them for years to come.

But, onward! It is time for Chicago and the many opportunities and fun times to be had there! Yay!!

On my way into St. Louis, I stopped at Trader Joe's and picked up a random mish-mash of items. Hey, who knew TJ had such good sushi? Their spicy California rolls are very yum (or maybe I was just super-hungry). While traversing the aisles, I rolled my cart over a brick of cheese! I didn't know what to do...it wasn't my cheese....and now it was squashed. So I just left it there.

Things to Come
Things I'm looking forward to:

• Porkchop is off Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday! Craziness!!


• I'll finally get my massage on Saturday.


• Downtown Restaurant Week is approaching. Twenty-two restaurants will be serving 3 courses for $25. We're going to try An American Place, where the focus is on farmers market produce, regional items, and artisanal products, for a terrific bargain price!


• I came across this terrific blog today. I'm pumped to learn that there's an anarchist bakery nearby, an urban organic farm where I can volunteer, and so many socially conscious young folks in our area.

An Accomplishment
I'm working on getting through my third workday without visiting the "cappuccino" machine on the second floor. A while back, I developed a nasty habit of making a "chococcino" every day. But now I've gone cold turkey.

How am I doing this, you might ask. When I get the urge, I just picture all of the 50-syllable chemical compounds that comprise the drink sitting in my body or making my cells mutate. Gross.

Hey, if I can break my coffee habit, I can do this.

Craft P.S.
I know I'm not holding up well to the Needles portion of my blog. But I just have to finish a scarf, and then I will move onto more creative, more fun projects. I promise.