Slave to the grind.

This weekend I was so busy and productive I amazed myself. I stayed in on Friday, knowing that I would be hilariously busy both Saturday and Sunday. At least, that's the reason I told myself.

I decided to give myself an adventure on Friday. I had this great idea to join some co-workers for a drink after work, stopped in literally for one drink, then made the bad decision to take the Metra train home. While I am very well versed in the el, I am not very well versed in Metra, and it came out on Friday.

I hurried my way out of the bar an headed to the Ogilvie Transportation Center. I knew I probably didn't have much time to catch a train, so I ran to the ticket counter and bought my ticket, then hurried all the way across the station to get on said train. I hopped on the last car with about a minute before the train was scheduled to depart. I grabbed a seat and waited patiently for the train to take off.

I was working the Sudoku puzzle when the conductor came through. "Tickets" he called. He stopped by me and grabbed my one-way zone B ticket and asked me where I was going. I answered, then the last thing I want to hear him say, he said. "We're not stopping there."

"Dammit," I thought to myself. "fucking express train."

Fortunately for your hero and humble narrator, he had answers for me. He told me to hop off at the Clybourn station and wait for the next train that would stop where I wanted it to stop. Unfortunately for your hero and humble narrator, that next train was at 5:20, just over an hour from that time.

It was raining.

I am a bald man.

I don't like rain.

I hopped off and saw a taxi waiting. I asked if he was waiting for someone, or if he wanted my fare. He was waiting for someone, and said that if I waited a couple minutes he'd take me if they didn't show. I walked around the corner, hoping to find a bus stop. I hate the bus, always have, and always will. I saw an Ashland bus head north, meaning I had to wait for the next one. Fortunately, it was rush hour, so I didn't have to wait long.

I hopped on, and got annoyed instantly. Traffic was terrible, and it took us 15 minutes to go the distance I had just walked in less than 5. I realized an opportunity and got off at Belmont, thinking I could take the Lincoln bus, which would save me 3 blocks of walking in the rain. I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally, I got so sick of waiting, I thought, hell, I could catch the brown line just 2 blocks from here. So I did. I finally go home at about 5:30, 90 minutes after I left the bar downtown.

Lesson learned: read the Metra schedule before you get on the train.

I spent the night on the couch, watching my Netflix and drank a bottle of wine. I retired early, and woke up very early on Saturday. I played around on my computer for a while, shopping around for some equipment I knew I was going to buy later on, but I was doing research. My roommate finally woke up, and I asked her if she wanted to head out with me. She didn't, but she said to take her car.

I wish we would have talked about that the night before, I could have gotten started a whole lot earlier. My first stop was my bank. Deposited my check, then it was off to Target to buy a new boom box. Of course, whenever I'm at Target, I know I'm not going to get just one thing. Today was no exception. I can't help myself around cheap DVDs. After spending $40 more than I needed, I was off to Micro Center. $85 later, I had a new CD-RW drive for my computer and a new network switch for my apartment. After that, grocery shopping, and voila, I've accomplished more in my morning than I expected.

Then, the treat of treats.

No one had told me that NBC was going to start showing Saturday NHL games. Not one person. How I didn't already know is a mystery as well, but there you have it.

I was rather disappointed in the color commentators, however. Mostly because of this statement: "He'll be playing for Detroit in the Olympics."

Oh. I hadn't realized we had reverted to city-states for the Torino Olympics. Good to know.

I saw what could possibly be a dream job for myself and a couple other folks I know- the guy who stands between the benches and talks to not only players, but linesmen as well, during the game. Wow. I'd pay good money to do that job for a day. Really good.

I had plans to meet with friends at a bar called Quencher's at 7. When I got there at 7:30, none of them had arrived, so I sat down and had a sandwich and beer and waited for them to show up. Finally, I felt a hand on my back. I turned, and saw my friend who I have a crush on.

I've had this crush for a while. She knows about it, too. The last few times I've seen her, though, it has seemed like the feelings are more mutual than I initially thought. We had a couple drinks together and caught up. My other friends, who were stuck in the suburbs, called up, and said they'd be there soon. She had to hurry, as she was going to see a band at 9:30, so we went to my friend's brother's tattoo shop, where there was an art exhibit.

This particular shop will be a sponsor for my MS Team this year. I'm very happy to have them aboard. The art was pretty good, but I went straight to the tattoo art books. I wanted to see what kind of work he did. He's good. Very good.

Afterwards, we headed back to Quencher's for a drink before we went out for karaoke. As you can tell from the timestamp of my previous post, I didn't get home until very late.

I was less than bright-eyed yesterday morning, to say the least.