I've Seen Inside My Own Eyeball!

And it was sooo cool. Yesterday, I went to the eye doctor and they gave me a retinal imaging test to be sent to Johns Hopkins for review to make sure my eyes are free of anything suspicious. After they dilated my eyes (by the end of the day, one was back to normal but the other was still dilated. Up close, I looked like a confused drug addict), they took a bunch of pictures of my eyes. When they were through, the technician showed me the images that would be sent over to JH, and they were so awesome and weird! There were about eight images of the insides of my eyeballs, white with blue veins, and a little cornea circle. I feel like I now am very familiar with my eyeballs, and it makes me so happy! I left feeling content, but I forgot to ask the technician if I could have my own copies of the images. I doubt they'd have let me anyway...

So instead, here's a picture I took on my Wednesday commute home from MCC. The sun was shining and I was stopped in the traffic leading up to the O'Hare toll. My pocket monster key chain looked so cute in his shadow, so I snapped his photo.



Thursday night Trevor, his boss Susan and co-worker Dan, and I went to the opening of Art Chicago at the Merchandise Mart. We wandered around, saw some really good art (my new favorite, Armando Romero), some really bad art, and some really, really expensive art. We also ate popcorn and drank Grolsch beer from giant bottles. We ran into a few people we knew, and then met the Segars later in the evening for food at Bijon. By the end of the night, I could barely keep my eyes open from exhaustion, but the good kind of exhaustion.

I stole from a police officer this morning...


...or I accidentally took her peppermint soy mocha latte instead of my normal latte. It was 6 a.m. and I was blurry-eyed and there were multiple coffee cups on the counter. I plead innocence, ignorance, and the fifth degree! Thank goodness there are no video cameras in Starbucks. It was quite the surprise when I took a big long slug from it and got a gulp of minty weirdness. Ugh.

Although Trevor had to work last Saturday night, I met Carrie and Alan, Carrie's sister Ali, and Emily out for burritos at the newly renovated El Cid and then karaoke at Sidekicks. We had a wonderful time, and I even got up to sing Fleming and John's "Ugly Girl," which no one knew but everyone seemed to enjoy.







Sunday was brunch with Kate and Meg at Flying Saucer. Kate expressed her continued love for her pup, Gil, and we laughed at her nerdiness and secretly loved Gil, too. We'll go up to visit her in Madison soon.





I'm going to meet Trevor at the gallery tonight and then we're going to the Art Chicago opening, and tomorrow I've got to go to the eye doctor and then I have to steep myself in paper grading for the last two weeks of school (yahoo!). I've got classes lined up for the summer, but I'll have a few weeks break between the end of this semester before I start again, and I can't wait to lounge for a bit and recoup.

Well, I'm out, so until later, True Believers, it's the POWERS!

Flatfile had an opening last night, and I met my friend Rebecca out beforehand for a cocktail. We moseyed from the Fulton Lounge to the gallery, took in some art, saw the Hunters, and then went with Trevor and Dan to the Twisted Spoke for some munchies and beers. Fun was had by all!

Ups and Ups and tiny downs...

This past weekend was loaded with good stuff. Trevor turned TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OLD on Saturday (yes, he's still younger than me, but our green grocery store gal said that I looked younger! [though Trevor claims it's because of his facial hair, and he might have a point, since he drops about 12 years without that beard.]). He and his friend Sarah drove up to Shoreline Motors to pick up the new bike. The weather was crummy, but they made it back okay, and Trevor didn't end up going in to work, which was nice. Here's Trevor on the new bike, and Henry looking a little suspicious of the situation.




Saturday night we met some of the gang out at our local hitching post to celebrate the birthday boy. We had a great time and closed the bar, though this is the only picture I took, at the end of the night when just Trevor, Daniel D. and I were leftover.



Sunday we watched Man United beat the boogers out of those stinky Arsenal Gunners. Wheeeeheee! And Chelsea tied with Wigan, so we're ahead of them by (I think) five points. Good news.

This week, so far, hasn't lived up to our expectations. It's not been awful, or anything, but last night's first kickball game of the spring season was cancelled because of poor field conditions. Bummer. And today was supposed to be my rescheduled tattoo appointment--my tattoo artist was sick last week, so cancelled on me after four weeks of waiting. No worries, though, because we were on for this afternoon; however, when I went in after class today (classes went well!), the sketch he showed me for the work was all--all--wrong. He said it was the best he'd been able to come up with, but he really missed the mark and misinterpreted what I'd asked for. No harm, no foul, and he recommended Jason Vaughn, who I'm terribly excited about and think will do a much better job than my original artist. Also, Hannah Aitchison of L.A. Ink fame was in the shop! I walked in and she was sitting at her station packing things up. I gave her a great big smile, because through the show I feel like we're buddies (she seems like such a sweet lady!). She smiled back, of course, but looked a little suspicious. She's so neat, and I wish she'd come back to Chicago. Anyway, I can get excited again about my tattoo, but I've got to wait until mid-June. Though third time's the charm, right? And I've got a good feeling about this one.

Henry and I hung out and took a nice-weather walk when I got home today, which was just as nice as getting a new tattoo. And Trevor has been loving the new bike, taking it around the town Sunday and yesterday, and to work today. He's feeling confident enough on it to have told me last night that I should get a helmet pretty soon! Yahoo!

Enjoy the weather, all!

Trevor's New Bike!

He's on his way home from Racine right now with Sarah, the new bike hitched to Sarah's car. More pictures will come later (and a lot more once this gross rain stops).

TREVOR'S NEW BIKE

We drove up to Racine, WI last Saturday to buy Trevor's Triumph Thruxton at Shoreline Motors. The day was chilly though sunny, and when we got to the shop we were greeted by Jack, the store's Rottweiler (he gave me a lick on the nose), and Ken, the store's owner. There were assorted other motorcycle enthusiasts hanging around, and one gentleman in particular who talked us up for about a half hour after finding out Trevor was getting the Thruxton. He was a huge bike nerd (in the absolute best possible way) and said that if he had the money for a second bike, he'd get the one T. was getting. He said he was, "actually a bit jealous." This made me feel good that a superbikegeek was happy about the bike. He gave us lots of tips on good bike shows/festivals to check out and he really just made us terribly excited about the prospect of the motorcycle in general. Very nice fellow (I didn't catch his name, though we all shook hands).



I talked Trevor into getting us some Triumph tee shirts (Yes, matching tee shirts. We're married, so we can do that.) and Triumph stickers. He eye-balled and tried on some helmets, but ultimately got one on-line a few nights later. Ken, the owner, told Trevor that twice a year they have a season ride; a bunch of guys come to the shop early in the a.m., have coffee and donuts, take a nice long ride, and come back for lunch. I thought it sounded positively civilized and wonderful! The whole experience was great--they treated us like a part of the group and I can't wait to go back to pick up Trevor's new wheels (they're holding it for us b/c T. needs to first get his license before riding it).

And, Trevor PASSED HIS MOTORCYCLE LICENSE TEST! He went (very early) on Wednesday morning to take it, and very nicely passed. All he needs to do is get a new license and registration and he's good to go. That will most likely happen next Monday.

Last night we went out to dinner with Dan Segar to visit his lovely wife, Simona, at her new tapas restaurant of employment on Southport. It was absolutely delicious with respect to both food and atmosphere. Saturday night, we get to see the Chicagoland Power clan for an April Birthday Celebration (psst: Trevor's birthday is April 12). The John and Fran Powers are coming in from the suburbs, as are the newly engaged Neill Power and Fran Napier (whoo!), and we're meeting at the home of the Sean and Angelique Powers. We're all going to eat at a restaurant called La Guardia, which sounds spicy and good. I'll provide a full report.

Sunday brunch will be spent with the Christian and Jeanette Ny(Cy)be(o)rgs and the lovely Annie and Eric (I think...I hope!) Cyborgs. We haven't seen the One-Eyed Monster family in a while, so it'll be nice. Also, it's an excuse for me to buy presents for kids, which I really love to do. They'll get something stretchy and made of plastic, or fuzzy and made of faux yeti fur. I have yeti to decide.



We'll have much more after the weekend, so stay tuned, and stay warm while we ride out the tail end of this crum-bum of a winter.
POW-er!