It Started with a Journal

The Sno-Isle Libraries have switched to a new system! Yay! This is exciting because the new system allows for freezes on holds, which will enable me to maintain a list of items I want in the order I want them. Hallelujah! I haven't played with the new system in depth, but hopefully it will be a really good experience.

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I found an awesome deal on Hotwire yesterday for a Chicago hotel. :D I was surprised because Priceline has not been able to match Hotwire (usually you can get a better deal on Priceline). Anyway, it's only for the first couple nights of our stay. It's a 4★, the Affinia Chicago. I've heard from many sources that it's in a fantastic location. The published rates are over $300/night, I booked it on Hotwire for $84/night. :D :D :D Of course, the way Hotwire works, I didn't know it was going to be the Affinia until it was purchased, but it was a 4★ hotel in the area we wanted and it was recommended by 95% of Hotwire users, so I figured whatever it ended up being would be acceptable.

Since we got such a good rate we decided to upgrade our room to double beds (the regular rate just comes with 1 King-size). The first time I called the hotel's number to ask about rates, I waited and got transferred to the hotel's front desk. They said it would cost $25/night to upgrade. I contacted ropo and we discussed it... we realized it was like a 30% increase from the room itself, but it would still be an overall great deal and we'd be more comfortable. So I called back to book it, except this time I pressed 1 for room reservations. I told them what I wanted and they quoted $75/night to upgrade! O.o Outrageous. I was like, yeah, I'm not paying practically the same cost to upgrade as I got for the room, thanks. So then I called back and waited like I did the first time, got the front desk again, then got the $25 rate from them. Sheesh.

Anyway, so yeah, super excited about that. Of course, we still need to find a place to stay for the remainder of our trip, but I'm optimistic that once we get to a point where those days are less than a month away, they'll go down and we may be able to get another great deal. We'll see.

Update!!! The toughest part of hotel hunting for this trip has been that weekend of May 6-8, because it's butting up against Cinco de Mayo, it's Mother's Day weekend, and apparently there's some 22,000-person convention happening. O.o However, Priceline finally accepted one of my bids for that weekend!!! $120/night at the 4★ Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. Wheeeeeee! I have bid up to $135 before with no luck, so I am pretty stoked. The hotel's published rates are over $328/night.

The only downside is that we need to get a third hotel for the final part of our stay, and having to move around so much probably isn't ideal. But I figure it also gives us the freedom to stay in different parts of the city (both our current hotels are in the NMA area ... maybe we can stay in the Magnificent Mile area instead, for instance), and it's helped us get better rates.

Alternatively, we could extend our stay at the same price, but only for as long as our original booking, so we'd still have to get a third hotel regardless, in which case I feel like we might as well get a better price and move to a new area for the last leg.

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The Woot-Off is finally over, which is good for my credit card. I bought one more thing before the green-caped monkey came out and it was all over... some HDMI cables that I'm thrilled about because I have that new TV coming. :D Plus now I can hook up all of my peripherals that way too (I currently only have 1 HDMI cable). It cost me less than $20 for 4 cables. Woot! <-- so appropriate

You guys, OMG, Billy Elliot the Musical was SO AMAAAAAAAAAAAZING. Half the cast were kids and they fucking danced (and sang!) their hearts out so professionally and it was so flipping awesome and made me feel so awed over what they've accomplished in their young lives vs what I was doing when I was their age. >.> Faith Prince as Mrs. Wilkinson was wonderful. She's not Julie Walters, but despite that I loved her anyway.

It's the last week of the show but I'm considering getting the cheap $25 seats and going back to see it again. I loooooooooooooooooved it!

So yeah, the tickets K. got on Craigslist weren't a scam. <g> I wasn't really worried about that, but it was a possibility. The bigger concern was what kind of seats we had. The Paramount didn't say one way or another to the ticket winner, and they could have been bad seats. Instead, they were center orchestra, which are normally $80/ticket! So we totally scored on that. Had a great view of everything.

There are 4 different Billys, and we saw Kylend Hetherington, who of the four probably looked most like Jamie Bell (and therefore, to me, the "real" Billy). He was such an ickle woobie and soooooooooo wonderful. He's frickin 13 and has been doing this since he was 12, omg.

Now K. is all into it and is going to watch the movie, etc. Best movie EVAR!

Some of the plot points are different in the musical vs the movie, but for the most part I thought it was very true to the original. The one part of the musical that was different, but that I thought was very well done, was this one scene where Billy is dancing solo, but then an adult male ballet dancer starts to shadow him (they're dancing and spinning a chair at the same time), but the adult dancer is much more skilled/professional, and it was a wonderful way to show us "This is who Billy will become."

SO GOOD.

( I found a sizzle reel! Watch iiiiiiiiit. )

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I've got laria_gwyn and slitherhither into A Song of Ice and Fire now. They're both reading (and enjoying!) A Game of Thrones. YAY!!!!!!!!

While on this topic...

Jon Snow is losing his latest cagematch! Noooooo! Go vote to right this wrong. Or if you're so inclined, contribute further to it. <g>

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Still reading Devil in the White City. Quote from the book:

"I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago... I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages." - Rudyard Kipling

Which I shared with akscully, and she replied:

"Chicago is unique. It is the only completely corrupt city in America." - Charles Merriam

LOL. I'm so glad I'm visiting!

I caved and bought my flight at the ridiculous price they were asking. Now I'm more motivated than ever to find inexpensive hotels (on Priceline). We're aiming for the N. Michigan/Loop area.

David Lebovitz is in Chicago right now and reporting on the great food places he's going to. It is so nice of him to be my little treasure hunter like this.

ropo, we need to go to Edzo's Burger Shop, Floriole Bakery, Xoco Hot Chocolate (for me, not you <g>), Kuma's (another burger joint), and perhaps most importantly, one of Rick Bayless's Mexican restaurants.

From other sources, I also have these on my list: Girl & the Goat, Publican, and Alinea (if we want to crazily splurge -- but even then, we might be too late as they fill up 2 months in advance -.-).

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I had the nuttiest experience with my phone yesterday. I was working from home because I knew I was going to see Billy. I dialed into a conference call at 9, which ended at 10. When it was over, they hung up, and since my screen wasn't on the 'phone' screen but on my menu page, I just assumed the call had ended.

BUT APPARENTLY NOT. Three hours later, I got in my car and my Bluetooth kicked in and informed me that my music wasn't on because I WAS ON THE PHONE. !!!!!!!!!! What!!!!! Apparently I hadn't hung up the phone and that meant that I had been "on the phone" with dead air for the last three hours!!

My monthly minute allotment isn't that high, particularly given that I am sharing those minutes with my parents (whose phones I am now paying for -- long story), so basically that ate up ALL the "any time minutes" that I had, and it's still not the end of my billing cycle. >< I called AT&T to explain, and they were fairly understanding, and gave me a one-time 1,500 minute rollover bonus to cover any overages. AT&T customer service >>>>>>>>>>> T-Mobile customer service. Not sure if I have ever talked about my horrendous experience with T-Mobile, but it was some of the WORST customer service I have ever experienced. Now that AT&T has announced they're buying T-Mobile (for $39B O.o), maybe they can clean up their act (in more ways than one, since T-Mobile also has a poor corporate reputation for their anti-gay policies).

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I've purchased another TV. It's a Panasonic TC-P42C2 plasma. It's not as big as the TV in my room, it's 42" instead of 50", and it's only 720p instead of 1080p, but at that size and at the distance I'll be watching, 720p is all that's needed. I'm paying a bit more because it's a Panasonic, but I love Panasonic products so it's worth it to me. I don't plan to wall mount it but will keep it on a TV stand. I did a TON of research about this (plasma vs LCD, size, resolution, etc.), so if anyone is thinking about getting a new TV for the moment I am a font of knowledge. In about a month, I'm sure I will have forgotten everything. <g>

Purpose of this TV: to use my Wii Fit. I've had the Wii Fit for like 2 years but have never used it, because with my current TV set up I didn't have enough space to actually do the exercises comfortably. Well I am sick of my excuses for why I don't exercise -- this will take care of that. The TV will go in the living room area, which has plenty of space, and I will have no more excuses as to why I'm not exercising.

This might also mean that I need to get myself a Kinect for Xbox 360. :D

The one thing I am kind of trepidatious about is that I bought it on eBay. Since it's a second TV I really wanted to be frugal. The thing with eBay is that it's almost always fine, but I seem to have bad luck with buying electronics there specifically. So hopefully there won't be any issues. >

I still haven't purchased my Chicago ticket yet. The unrest in the Middle East and other factors have been driving up gas prices, and the airfare rates have been hiked accordingly. I SO should have bought it when it was at $134/each way. /cry

I've pre-ordered A Dance with Dragons!!!!!!!! \:D/ Borders is currently offering it at 50% off, which is more discounted than both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I also said I would pick it up at a local store, so I wouldn't have to pay shipping, and ensure I'd get it the day it's available.

City of Fallen Angels is coming out April 5. Wheee! Cassie Clare has announced some of her tour dates, and on April 14 she's going to be at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, which is actually really close to me. So I think I might go and get all my MI books signed. I don't know if anyone else would be up for this -- elle_blessing maybe, as she's the only one who I know locally who loves the series as much as I do -- but let me know!

And of course on April 17 HBO is premiering Game of Thrones.

This Friday J. and I are going to Pair for dinner, and on Saturday, I'm going to a get together with my work team. My manager is cooking an Indian feast for us (he's a foodie like me), so I'm looking forward to that. I've signed up to bring appetizers, and right now I'm torn between bringing Chinese drunken chicken, or bacon jam (homemade).

First things first -- ropo and I are going to Chicago! In May! Right now I'm thinking May 4-11, though I haven't purchased my plane ticket yet. Probably going to wait on that for awhile, because unlike the old days, it seems that you can get better fares the longer you wait, rather than planning ahead. I'm also planning to Priceline a hotel (if possible, in the North Michigan Ave/River North area, or the Millennium Park, Loop, and Grant Park area) -- and again, waiting will behoove us.

I've never been to Chicago before, so those in the know... What should I see/do?? Which are the restaurants I must check out? I'm open to all cuisines! We probably won't be renting a car, as the public transportation is supposed to be great (right?), but we probably wouldn't want to trek too far. I'm so excited!

I'll also have to think about what I'm going to do with Talis and Jaime. Talis will almost certainly be kenneled, but I should probably see if I can have a friend take care of Jaime or maybe have a neighbor come over (but the only neighbor I actually know well enough to have come into my house is older, and I don't think I could ask her to take care of the kitty litter, in which case I might as well kennel him too).

Over the weekend corianderstem and I went to check out Avalon, a new restaurant in West Seattle that her friend opened about a month ago. It was really cute, serving more upscale food at imho very reasonable prices -- for instance, I got the duck ham eggs benedict with dandelion pesto for $11. Here's my food porn post about it.

I've gone a little nuts in the last few days, buying tons of makeup. I've been fascinated by these videos on YouTube where girls demonstrate different techniques to apply makeup (especially for the eyes). For me, specifically, it's particularly helpful to watch the tutorials for/by Asian girls, because they have the same eye shape, skin tone, etc. I used to think Asian women simply weren't meant to wear eyeshadow -- several makeovers at Nordstrom and other cosmetic counters in which the makeup "artist" put makeup on me like I was a white girl convinced me of this, the results were TERRIBLE -- but I was wrong! When applied properly, with the right technique, Asian girls can wear eyeshadow! You don't know what a revelation this is to me.

I was never one of those girls who sat in a room with my friends and made each other over, and maybe as a result, I never really learned the "magic secrets" of makeup. It wasn't like we wore NO makeup. We all wore a minimal amount, some lipstick and eyeliner -- but that was about it. There was a time I experimented with wearing foundation... but let's not go there. Those were dark times. Not to mention that I was 16 -- my skin was never going to look better; why was I trying to cover it up?! Anyway -- I've carried makeup minimalism into adulthood. But now I'm going to experiment more. I feel like I should have done my experimentation when I was younger so I'd know more now, but oh well.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't think women should have to wear cosmetics. I'm all for people who don't use it and are totally happy with how they look. But I also feel that if using makeup makes someone feel good or more confident about themselves, then they should go for it. Plus it's fun!