Exotic flavours

I didn't have much planned for yesterday evening besides trying again to give Crazy Brother a call, but I ended up riding back with a married pair of coworkers who tipped me to something called "Family Night" at the Armory. "Exotic animals and ice cream, what more do you need to know?" It was an awesome night climate-wise (so far, we've only had one day of August that felt anything like August) so this fit right in with my resolve to get out and stretch my legs a bit more.

In the end, the exotic animals were a no-show. Or rather, accounts suggested that they'd packed up and left 45 minutes earlier than scheduled. There was still an ice cream truck, however, doling out pricey little boxes of gourmet flavours. Not sure I would buy it again: Rather than being scooped to order, it was refrozen after being plopped into the boxes and refrozen hard. (For me, ice cream isn't edible unless it's a bit soupy.) Rosemary-plum was an interesting combination, but for the same price I could have a whole pint of Häagen-Dazs dulce de leche (and in fact I do have that in my freezer at home).

So the real pleasure of the evening turned out to be hanging out with my coworkers and their friends, one of whom still works for snowy_owlet's bad old employer. We were joined by a friendly mother and son who were just as disappointed as us to have missed the animals. She's graduated one child already and is looking at going back to finish up college, at which we wished her all the best. When the group broke up, I got an invitation back to see my coworkers' house which was just a few blocks off. Typical Chicago brownstone, but with an especially nice new deck out back.

We bantered mainly about food, as you might expect. And I may have figured out why, despite the fact that he's a really nice guy and all, I've never completely warmed to the husband: He's not terribly smart. And by "smart", I really mean "intellectual"--obviously, given the work he's done as a music producer, he's very clever at some things. But his sense of humour is kinda lame and whenever I try to talk ideas with him, I get questions that reveal he really isn't following my explanations terribly well.

But that's by no means a dealbreaker, given his (and her) other virtues. They seem to have interesting friends, and that counts for a lot. Near the end of the evening, a masseur friend of theirs showed up and came along when I announced I was heading home. It was eerie how much he sounded like my buddy Vivanaut despite having nothing in particular in common with him. When he found out I'd been to China, he tried his Mandarin on me and I became painfully aware just how much mine has deteriorated from five years of disuse. They walked me to within two blocks of my house, which I thought was pretty damn decent.

Unfortunately, I was too wound up from the whole enjoyable experience to sleep soundly and ended up sleepwalking through today. But it's been an easy day--at one point during my afternoon desk shift there were only five people in our area. Tomorrow promises to be busy and social so right now I'm just looking forward to a quiet night at home.

Pending

Well, that may be the last I see of Crazy Neighbour Lady. She was here this evening with her lawyer (who either doesn't remember or is gracious enough not to acknowledge that I'm the one who kicked her out of a condo meeting two years back) cleaning crap out of her storage locker. We were shooting the shit about the landscaping and monshu urged me to ask what was up with the sale of her unit. It's under contract but--typical CNL--she couldn't recall the names of the buyers. So is it my hot bear couple or not? THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME!!!