Tuesday, March 29, 2011

gnat blogs from SPACE!

ok, i'm not in outer space, but i'm about as close to it as i am likely to ever be (barring the occurrence of any of the dystopic future off world colonies described in many of my favorite books, or, way more unlikely, me becoming an astronaut).

i have nothing chicago related to say, except that i'm on my way there! currently cruising at 7,000 feet over (probably) nebraska... it's looking pretty flat down there. for some reason screwing around on the internet up here is approximately nine times more exciting than doing it at sea level.

one hour and 49 minutes to chicago!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

gnat (begrudgingly) catches up

i am experiencing writer's block.

gnat's chicago experiment has been m.i.a. for a few weeks now, and not owing to lack of material. i keep opening blogger, staring at the empty white box for several minutes, getting disheartened, and giving up in favor of stumbleupon or something else that requires no creative input on my part. sadly even now i'm having trouble coming up with exciting things to say about the exciting things i've done since my last update. you'll have to bear with me.

so yeah... st. patrick's day happened.

every year chicago dyes a stretch of the river green in celebration of st. patrick's day. (los angeles, which lacks both a river and a sufficient non-brown population to be very interested in recoloring it, dyes a few pints of miller lite green instead.)

...gross.

the previous weekend i tagged along with taylor and eileen to st. louis for mardi gras (another holiday los angeles is completely uninterested in) where i enjoyed gumbo, beverages in squirt guns, and entertaining encounters with fellow fat tuesday revelers in the streets of historic soulard.

here's a picture of some beads in a tree. i have absolutely nothing clever to say about them.

before leaving st. louis we stopped at the arch, where taylor and eileen (former resident and frequent visitor, respectively) sat looking entertained as i frolicked in the grass and took pictures from every possible angle...

...including the obligatory "pushing on the arch" shot below.

en route back to chicago we stopped in springfield, the capital of illinois and my former place of residence! also the home of abraham lincoln and one of the stranger sandwiches i have encountered in my sandwich eating career: the horseshoe.

two pieces of toasted white bread, topped with a hamburger patty and a handful of french fries and then drizzled with cheese sauce. i don't know who thought these four food items would go well together, nor am i sure it can really be called a sandwich. mostly i am mystified as to why it's called a horseshoe. (wikipedia offers no guidance on this issue.)

also in springfield, my old house!

yep, that's where i lived when i was three, during gnat's illinois residency round 1. the walgreen's around the corner that i used to ride my red tricycle to is still there.

i've been spring break-ing in california for a little over a week, but will be returning shortly to chicago for more adventures. here's to hoping the blogging deities bestow some fluency upon me between now and my next update.

Monday, March 7, 2011

gnat gets iced

thanks to taylor and eileen, another of my chicago wishlist goals came to fruition last sunday night: a chicago blackhawks game!

it was my first chicago professional sporting event and i didn't have any appropriate gear, so taylor was nice enough to lend me a shirt:

she was also nice enough to explain it to me - jonathan toews (pronounced "tays," or i guess "taze" is more appropriate in this context) is team captain for the hawks.

hockey is more exciting than i thought it would be, but the highlight of my blackhawks experience was definitely the opportunity to casually throw around the word "zamboni" in conversation for three hours. do me a favor and take a moment to say zamboni a few times out loud. i guarantee it will brighten your day. zamboni. zambooooooooni.

the hawks won in a shootout, which, because my only previous experience with hockey consists of a teenage obsession (fine, continuing obsession) with the mighty ducks movies, is how i'm pretty sure all hockey games end. right?

thanks, girls.

coming up next time, gnat's chicago experiment goes on the road. get excited.