Illinoir

(pictures of all these events are here)

Stretching this birthday out into infinity:

Birthday celebrations started last week with small presents from Chia-Jung, fun toys, etc. Friday night we went to dinner at Buca di Beppo and seeing some improv at ComedySportz.

Saturday was el nutso: in the morning, blindfolded and taken to the airport (I figured out where we were going on the way so I got to take the blindfold off in O’Hare, thank goodness) where we met Dan & Karen (my friends from New Jersey!) who flew in for the weekend. Kick ass. What a great and wonderful surprise to see them. And it was cool, too, to be able to take them around Chicago and watch them see things for the first time. Went to Andersonville Midsommarfest, and then went downtown and up to the 96th floor of the Hancock and had overpriced drinky-poos. Watched the Cubs record the final 2 outs in the second game of their series vs. the Red Sox (good stuff) and then headed back home for showers and changes, etc.

Off to Giordano’s for some deep dish pizza — the out of towners just love that stuff — and I realized it was the first one I’d had since moving back. How on Earth? Dunno.

Then to Morseland, where apparently, Chia-Jung had gathered all the friends of mine she could find to surprise the crap out of me. People I hadn’t seen in years were there. It was overwhelming and touching and wonderful. I think more of Chia-Jung’s friends showed up, and thank goodness they did, or else it would have been a much smaller event. It was cool to see people from all parts of my life gathered together….

And they got me an iPod. I now am spending much time importing every CD I own into iTunes to put onto the sucker. I, of course, went into the computer nerd frenzy of trying to figure out what I was going to name it. I came up with something perfect Saturday night as I was going to sleep, but of course, forgot it. Sunday, setting it up, staring at the “Name your iPod” screen for 10 minutes, Chia-Jung asks, “Well, what were you thinking about when you came up with the name?” (She showed tremendous patience with me — her iPod is named “IPOD”, her computer is named “COMPUTER” [mine’s called “Phineas”])

“Well, I was thinking about how lucky I am to have such good friends and all and came up with a word that really got that point across…”

So I went to the thesaurus, blah blah blah, long story short — iPod’s name is Mazel, short for Mazel Tov — good luck/happiness/etc.

The next day, Dan, Karen, Chia-Jung & I went to breakfast and Shakespeare Garden and the airport to drop the Jersey-ites off. Said our farewells. D&K are coming back soon, which is good good good….

Then to Best Buy to play with Best Buy gift cards. I love Best Buy gift cards….

(pictures of all these events are here)