Miserable?

Roscoe the Pug With Ice Bag On His Head- Miserable in the Seattle Heat
Originally uploaded by zoomar

This weekend ought to be miserable.

Jude is in Ann Arbor.

I'm flying to chicago on Sunday - where I'll spend two days in an airport hotel talking to people who really don't want to be there about something that they know almost nothing about.

And payday is a week away.

Yup - this weekend should suck harder than a crack whore with rent due (to paraphrase myself)

Instead I shall impose myself on friends. eat, drink and take up some of the many marvels that the city has to offer.

I'll go and pick up my free tickets to Words and Music over at BAM (think the kind of theatre / cinema where earnest older ladies with short hair scoff brownies and at the Bush administration)

Then I'm gonna go and check out the new sandwich place down in what used to be the heavily hispanic Southside of Williamsburg. This one is called Papa Lima Sandwich and is actually modeled on Zingerman's (the owner studied at UM and is a cue card man on Saturday night live as well as a sports bar owner!)

From there it's me - the dog - the park - the greenmarket and a bit of a run before hitting Pilates for the first time in a week (that's gonna hurt)

After that it's the guilty pleasure of a movie alone (I'm thinking The Brave One in which Jodie Foster gets all Charles Bronson on our asses) before heading off for drinks with Jono at Sweet Ups (described by Time Out NY as making you feel "as though you've walked into a detective novel") and dinner at Fanny (I know)

Finish it off with wild salsa a Bembe - a hot, sticky, rum fuelled latin dance spot and I've managed to fill Saturday and have a recipe for a Sunday lie in.

Miserable not. There are advantages to the city - especially in September weather of brilliant sunshine and 29c.

Your Room Awaits

Your Room
Originally uploaded by stevenjude

A few things that you should know about Ann Arbor before you come and visit....

Ann Arbor ain't that big - there are about 115,000 people; a populatin that falls to 78,000 when the students go home.

It's one of the few left wing bastions in Michigan - famous as the place thta Kennedy announced The Peace Corps, Johnson asked or a 'great society' and anti-Vietnam demonstrations first blew up.

It's not always cold - though around 130 days a year sees tempertaures below freezing

It's home to Zingermann's - a rather good deli that feels more Californian than anything.

It's twinned with Tubingen, Belize City, Hikone, Peterborough (Canada), Juigalpa, Dakar and Remedios

The words "Go Blues" go a long, long way

Locals call it The People's Republic of Ann Arbor or 25 square miles surrounded by reality

We have space for you. You'll get a bedroom, a rooftop terrace, a skylight and a train that comes through twice a night making more noise than you thought legal or even possible

See you there

Waiting

wideawake
Originally uploaded by stevenjude

It's 7pm on Monday and I'm in an office sparsely populated. Third eye blind are playing on the company i-pod. A co-worker is typing with more speed and precision than me (no swearing, no tongue poking out, no pecking at the keyboard) and there's a guy pacing and talking on a landline in a closed room that's not as soundproofed as I think he believes it to be.

I've just eaten the most awful veggie burger and am now trying to slosh it down with the remnants of a filthy Albanian white - the kind of wine that hopes a vaguely risque name might erase the bitterness and bite below its screw top. Not that I'm a screw top snob. Some of my best friends have screw tops.

Oh and if you're reading this, you're on facebook and you haven't added me shame on you. I need to get through three figures on friends and you could be the person that tips the balance.

Similarily if you're from Farnborough (or surrounds) and you've been reading this please let me know who you are... I lived there as a kid and the name on my sitemeter thing is arousing my inner cat killer.

Again a post about nothing. Had to postpone scan results as it clashed with me being in Chicago.... but no news is generally good news

Been quiet recently

IMG_4133.JPG
Originally uploaded by stevenjude

Sorry that the blog has been duller than an airline steak knife of late. Just that I'm drowning in a sea of stress created by other people solely it seems to see whether I can survive a cortisol tsunami.

There's work with its immovable deadlines and multi headed opinion beasts. It's like trying to tame Medusa's mane at times. Then there's Jude's move and wee things going wrong there from time to time (no sound on the cable box - so no TV... not a major issue but a niggle and an example)

There's me trying to stay social and not become a (slightly) thinner Aretha - tied to the house by some strange force over which I've no control.

There are minor house screw ups in London. Insurances, gardens, painting to be done... all of that stuff. All hard from a distance.

There's a credit card that cancels itself upon use and allows you access to re-activate only via a UK freefone number that doesn't work outside of the US.

And then there's being alone. Missing your wife. Wanting a new life. And generally feeling sorrier for yourself than you should.

None of which excuse the inactivity - all of which contribute to it.

Jude has an apartment

So Jude signed on the apartment today, moved in her stuff and is currently in glorious repose on a blow up mattress.

20ft windows, no blinds and top floor make this a risky pose... but she's all guts and glam.

Move went well - the power is on, the place is clean, the furniture is in place and to date a dodgy plug (in the bathroom sink), a row of dead sockets (there will be an on switch somewhere) and a fire that will smoke the place out the first time that it's allowed to burn are the only things that we've founf wrong.

Every car in the car park is German (Audi, BMW, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes) in a state where the vast majority of cars seem to be Fords with the phrase "I work at Ford. I drive a Ford." placed on the license plate.

Anyway enough third party information. More soon. Sorry for the quick entry... having all kinds of connection issues here

If I was Bart Simpson

IMG_4117.JPG
Originally uploaded by stevenjude

Then I'd probably look like this.

As would most ad planner.

Which is kinda scary.

When you think about it.

Which I do.

Which is also scary.

Man I need to be busier.