Dear body,

Please don't hate me too much and please don't punish me too much more.  I need to be awake/productive today.  I know that's a tall order, after what I've put you through this weekend. Oh but it was worth it - it was so fun.  And yeah, I know I have to pay.  I understand that you don't appreciate my going out until 2 AM on a Sunday night, then *sleeping* (which means not sleeping at all) on the floor until 5:30 AM Monday morning to go to the airport for my flight home and coming straight into work where I now have to actually be productive...  And of course this was after spending two long, full (fun, but again, long) days in the HOT HOT sun volunteering and having fun and not really getting a lot of sleep all weekend...

 

OK, so I deserve to be punished by you.  But please take it easy on me, this week was going to be tough enough without the wicked hangover and massive sleep deprivation.  How about we just get through today and then we can renegotiate for tomorrow?  Deal??

Thanks,

me  

Dear Sears Tower,

Sometimes I hate working in you.  Like during storms. OK, especially during storms.  Today was scary!!  It got really dark really really quickly and then the building was shaking and blowing and you could feel the wind through the windows and hear the windows rattling (which I know they do because they're flexible so that they won't blow out but still - scary).  And then it's all gray everywhere and you can't see anything out the windows and that just makes me nauseous.  I seriously had to leave my office and go hang out in places without windows until the worst of the storm passed and I could see the ground again because then I don't feel nauseous anymore. 

Also, what would happen if there was a tornado??  Yeesh, not a happy thought...

Not feeling the love today,

me

Dear Ingram Hill,

Two thumbs up on your latest album, "Cold in California."  I downloaded it as soon as it came out yesterday and listened to it on repeat all day and I must say I am not disappointed.  It's a really great mix of music and I don't think there are any songs that I don't like.  The early runner for favorite is "Four Letter Word" (it's my new MySpace song too!) but that could change as I keep listening.  In general though, the up tempo,  "rocking out" songs are always my favorites of yours.  So YAY and I hope to get to see you when you're in Chicago in September!!

With love,

me

Dear Brain,

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU TODAY??  Seriously, why can you not focus for more than 30 minutes straight?  It's like after 30 minutes a switch goes off and you just have to stop functioning or something.  Too frustrating!!  Making me so unproductive it's unbelievable!  And it's not a good idea for me to be terribly unproductive during a week in which I'm only working 4 to begin with (yay vacation this weekend!).  At this point in the day, I just give up.  But please, tomorrow, can we NOT be like this??

Thanks,

me

Dear J. Crew,

Why do you assume that all of your customers have been blessed with excessively long torsos?  This is just not the case.  I, for one, happen to have a pretty short torso to match the rest of my short body.  And frankly, many of your tops look quite ridiculous on me, as they hit me not at the hip, where I think they're meant to hit, but rather well below, somewhere in the general crotch area.  Not cute.  Now you could fix this by, say, expanding your petites selection to actually include sweaters and other tops but so far you haven't done that.  Just a suggestion.  Because I really really like your clothes but I can't wear them if they look ridiculous!

Trying to give some love,

me

Dear CTA,

I understand your desire to get rid of slow zones in the subway. In fact, I appreciate that you are going to get rid of said slow zones. However, there MUST be a better way to do it than to close the subway and run the red line on the elevated tracks every weekend for 4 MONTHS. FOUR MONTHS!!! Every weekend from the end of August through December. That's a lot of weekends!!! How on earth am I supposed to get places and how are people supposed to get to my apartment? I live near a subway station, not an elevated track station... The nearest brown line stations are each about a mile away, while the subway station is 2 blocks away. Most things I'll just end up driving to I guess, but that's not always an option. And since there's not much parking near my apartment, that's certainly not an option for people coming to see me. There goes a few plans out the window. *sigh* Part of why I chose to live near the El was so that I could use it. Yes, I realized that there are busses. And I'm sure I'll use them some. But they take a whole heckuva lot longer and are a lot less predictable. And waiting for them isn't always an option. Like when it's raining and there's not a shelter. Or when it's dark and I'm by myself. Very frustrating I tell you...

A very unhappy customer,

Me

Dear Life,

 

Not really sure who to address this *letter* to - it's more of just a general observation.  So you seem as good as anyone else. 

 

Expectations are a funny thing.  I used to be such a firm believer in not having any.  Because when you don't have expectations (or at least when you don't have high expectations), situations can only pleasantly surprise you, they can't really let you down.  But when you do have expectations, things never seem to work out the way you want them to.  The last two weekends are the perfect example.  Both were good weekends.  Two weekends ago, I really wanted things to go a certain way, there were certain things I wanted to happen.  It wasn't a bad weekend, but it didn't happen exactly the way I wanted it to and I didn't get to do everything I'd planned and so I ended up really disappointed, EVEN THOUGH it wasn't a bad weekend.  This weekend, on the other hand, I had no expecations, actually thought it was going to be a pretty nothing weekend, and ended up having a great weekend and being really pleasantly surprised a number of times.  Moral of the story, I think I need to go back to my old ways of not having expectations (or at least of minimizing them).  Because I'll take the way weekend number 2 made me feel over the way weekend number 1 made me feel any day, even though, from a purely objective standpoint, they were both really good weekends. 

 

So Life, what's up with that?  Any explanations?

 

Thanks for listening,

Me

Dear Mother Nature,
What is up with this humidity?? Seriously, it has been like 95% humidity (on top of 90 something degree weather) for the past 2-3 days. It is ridiculous outside!! It's almost too much just to stand there, much less go for a run (which I somehow did this morning). I can't even imagine how people manage to work outside in this kind of weather (except that I can because I know people who have to and it sounds really miserable).

Look, I like humidity, in moderation. I actually missed it when I lived in Colorado. Some people complain that it makes their hair frizzy but frankly it gives mine some much needed volume. That said, this is just too much. Please give us a break here!!

Thanks,
me

Dear Summer weekends,
I know the season isn't technically over for another month but in a lot of ways, this weekend is really my last weekend of summer. Which is weird. And mostly has me pretty sad. Not so much about the end of summer (because really, I wouldn't appreciate and love summer so much if it didn't have to come to an end) but about why summer is ending and about what it means. These weekends of summer, as I'll call them, have been really wonderful. I've been really happy. And so I'm really sad to see that come to an end (well, not exactly an end, but with the seasons does come a change). Much sadder than I ever expected to be. But I suppose that's the nature of life and of seasons.

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun ... a time for love...

(now who on earth ever thought I would be quoting the Bible in my blog?? So instead, we'll just say I was quoting the Byrds (who of course are quoting the Bible)...)

Anyway, don't know exactly what the point of this letter was. But Summer weekends, I sure will miss you when you're gone. Thanks for everything though, it's been wonderful!

With love,
me

Dear Simpsons Movie,

Good job.  Two thumbs up.  I must say, I was a bit skeptical about how you would translate on the big screen.  Or about how you would translate into an hour and a half long story that I had heard was pretty much just a stretched out episode.  But you did pretty well.   We certainly laughed, that's for sure.  And I didn't walk out of the theater feeling like I'd wasted my $10, which is generally the standard that I hold all movies to.  In fact, I felt that it was $10 well spent AND that it was worth staying up way past my bedtime for (given that the movie didn't start until my normal bedtime...).  That's high praise from me!  So kudos and thanks for the laughs :)

With love,

me

Dear Fellow CTA Passengers,

Please wear deoderant.  And take showers.  Because really, it's crowded and hot on those trains in the morning and you smell really awful.  A little effort goes a long way.  We'd all appreciate it.

Thanks,

Me