“Here but for the spinning of a sphere, Electric skies and vibrations rise the breach, the birth, the seed inside, The chemistry of common life”

Hey there readers, whiskey here. I have a bottle of water that I’m leisurely sipping on and some big news! Today I was taking a little walk in my home town (read: downtown Chicago) and stumbled upon the downtown location of reckless records. Inside I found these two gems…

and

Got them for $19.99 each. they go for a lot fucking more.

enough geek-speak! time to get some work done.

kisses,

-whiskey

“You don’t know, what I’m all about…like killing cops and reading Kerouac”

kisses,

-whiskey

“The summer, here, it grabbed me by the neck and hung me out to dry, dropping into cold, twist my fists in folds of my winter clothes”

kisses!

-whiskey

“My innate behavior, to mix, to make, to bake! Up in the morning, to start my work I cannot help wanting to bake, a dessert. Like a gladiator, about to meet his fate, I enter my arena, bow my head and start to bake! Flour, sugar, milk, I send out for more, an unsung hero, I need no reward. A short vacation, I’d like to take…after I bake a chocolate cake.” -The Aquabats, “The Baker”

rubbing elbows

kisses,

-whiskey

p.s. come visit me in chicago so we can play

Because my boss said I look disgruntled…

…I decided to go ahead, take a break and update!

So, by now I have been in the Second City for just over a month and Whiskey and Moonshine have been here just a week.  See now I’d usually go into great detail of the follies that accompany moving but Whiskey called me out for not leaving enough room for imagination so here you go: we carried a lot of heavy things, hilarity ensued, our place is starting to look like a home but not enough where I feel comfortable posting pictures.

Also we’ve begun the epic task of sampling all the good things to do around Wicker Park and Chicago in general so we can post some reviews and basically, in a very covert way, convey how great this city is.  Now this past weekend we decided to indulge our inner tourist and go take very cliched pictures at all of the standard spots around Chicago just to get it out of our system because as much as we may want to deny it, taking copious amounts of pictures at the Bean is just undeniably fun.  I’ll post the pictures later, probably under the Images of the Week tab because well those are from my trip to New York in umm…January?!  Might be time for an update, don’t ya think?

We’ve already established some favorite watering holes and are slowly working on being deemed regulars.  Especially at Handlebar.  I cannot express how complete my life would be if we became regulars at Handlebar.  I love that place, and I’m not ashamed to say it.  The next one would be a lovely place called Estelle’s.  Main draw?  $2 PBR everyday, plus a pretty great jukebox, it’s open later than most everything else, and is neighbors with a concert venue.  Enough said.

Alright my patients need me, be on the lookout for Moonshines first post!  If we pester her enough about it I’m sure she’ll have no choice but to post, right?  Let’s hope!

-Wine

PS Pictures!

“The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Tender is the Night”

Whoa. Hey there loyal minions! Whiskey here. It’s been a while. What’s going on with you? Nothing? Yeah, same here. Except the whole fact that I’m moving to Chicago!!!!!!! Pretty great, I would say. Should be a jammy time. Not much time to chat, though. My boxes and bags won’t pack themselves, and that bottle of wine won’t drink itself. 

Some recommendations to help pass the time:

 

“Women ” and  ”Run With the Hunted,” by Charles Bukowski 

“Welcome to the Monkey House” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck

“Nine Stories” by J.D. Salinger

“Resignation Day” by Banner Pilot

“Jersey’s Best Dancers” by Lifetime

“Momma, I’m Swollen” by Cursive

Spicy Chipotle by Sunchips

Pawn Stars on the History Channel.

 

kisses,

 

-whiskey

A Myth of Mental Illness

Folks,

Wine here, and I’m feeling the need to decompress a little bit after my first week at work.  There is very little I can share on here of course about the amazing people that reside on my floor, but I don’t have to worry about editing my own reactions and thoughts.

I’m essentially in charge of the same amount of people as I was when I was an RA at Miami.  It’s even funny when some of the same concerns overlap with my current residents and the first-years I lived with.  What’s not funny of course are the individual stories I’ve been studying this past week as I try in the vain attempt to get to know some people through their chart.  I’m pretty sure if I were a better writer I could have 30 or so movies based on their lives and each one would be just as hard to believe as the next.  I have former gang members who upon giving up gang life was jumped by an old rival gang, put into a coma, and now shares his story with different community groups all the while communicating with a lightwriter attached to his motarized wheelchair.  If you’ve seen the movie 50 first dates, I can assure you the plot is not nearly as funny in real life, and trying to reconnect a woman with her grandson in the deep south so she can just go home can leave you feeling quite helpless.  It is encouraging however to see the progress that has been made but equally as discouraging to see the lack of hope that resides in almost everyone who works and lives there.

Needless to say I leave work everyday feeling a little…and by that I mean quite a bit…guilty that I get to simply clock out, get in my car and come home to my own apartment.  Having to calm people down who swear they’re locked in a prison and want nothing more than to just step outside is something I wasn’t really expecting to do.  I of course went into this knowing full well I would be dealing with various hallucinations, delusions, etc but it never really dawned on me that I may have to try and justify to a grown adult exactly why they can’t even sit outside on the bench to smoke.  Maybe it seems cliched to think that this really puts things into perspective, but yeah it really does.  With just a few minor changes in fate I could just have easily ended up in such a facility yelling at some kid to let me have a second cigarette.

Apart from the residents I can say with some conviction that I do still in fact despise CBT and now fully realize how ineffective and unjust the current system of health care is especially concerning mental health.  Most of my job unfortunately is spent filling out various forms for state funding and updating unorganized patient charts.  My job would be infinitely easier simply if everything was paper less.  Alright I’ll just stop the stream of consciousness post here.  I’ll try and limit the updates from my job as they will probably just be quite depressing and there is far too much good stuff going on around me to update about instead!  Hopefully one of these days Whiskey will give us all an update too!

-Wine

Moving (On)

Folks,

Wine here and I’m all settled in our new “headquarters” in Chicago!  Actually currently I’m at a lovely coffee shop named Gallery Cafe, sipping on some less than stellar espresso and bummin’ on some WiFi since I have yet to call and get our cable and internet set up.  But, all that matters is that I’ve got most of my stuff all moved in and organized, and with some serious help from my family, can walk around without fear of infection from swine flu, leprosy, or anything else that has been seen on House, MD.  I’ll wait to post pictures until Whiskey and Moonshine can make their way up here in about a week in and a half because the place is just simply quite empty.

I kind of felt like this might turn into quite the introspective entry with some underlying theme of arriving, freedom, youth giving way to adulthood, or the realization of one’s past influences and realizing you’ve only reached the foot of the path but hell even typing the themes out involuntarily causes my eyes to roll.  So just please assume that I’m experiencing all of these emotions, but honestly I’m more concerned at the moment figuring out which album to listen to as I traverse my new neighborhood.  I think I’ve pretty much settled on the latest from The Builders and the Butchers.  It’s probably best characterized as Franz Nicolay and Colin Meloy’s love child.  Good schtuff!

Well hey problem solved, but oh wait I start my “crazy” job tomorrow.  I’m pretty sure the deep reflections will come after a full day there…now excure me but I have to see a girl about her Where the Wild Things Are tattoo…and show her how to pull a proper shot.

-Wine

“Oh please don’t barrage me with the questions to all those ugly answers.”

seeing Cursive tonight at the world-famous Grog Shop. show’s at 8. Please go. I’ll be there alone…not unlike “The Recluse”…..ha!….get it!?….ahem….anyway yes, I’d like the company. We can share a drink or two.

kisses,

-whiskey

Ok just one more video…

I couldn’t help myself after seeing this video either. Can you tell I’m trying to put off packing…

Anyway, if you ever wondered how far you could push a loop pedal or maybe question how in these rough economic times, you could create your full string section? Just watch the video below of Andrew Bird playing a little solo concert in a cathedral for Pitchfork TV. Yes, boo and hiss at the hipster music website BUT they have some good ideas…like this one! This makes me want to bring my violin along to Chicago just so I can try and then completely and utterly fail at recreating this.

Andrew Bird – Cemetary Gates Session

That’s all for today…I promise!

-Wine

PS I couldn’t actually get the video to embed its sweet self into the post SO you’ll just have to click on the link