Street Tar in Summer

do not forget

san·tor·um \san-TOR-um\ n. The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex. 

I bought myself a blackwatch schoolboy blazer from Anthropologie. I have always wanted a blackwatch schoolboy blazer. It is a “shrunken” fit, and is probably a size or two too small. But I love it. I am blinded by the blackwatch and I do not care how it fits. And I am wearing it out on this 50 degree January day in Chicago.

My parents are not culturally lame. They are with it; they always have been.  While the hipsters are just catching on to the adventures in Baltimore, my father was watching The Wire as it aired on HBO.  He was the first and only person I knew touting the soon to be (re)discovered television treasure.  They used to send me a VHS of the newly aired Six Feet Under while I was away at college.  I would dutifully mail it back on Thursday and I would get it back with another exciting hour the next week.  This was in 2007, and the internet and certainly internet piracy hadn’t caught up with my parents.

So the other day, my friend Dean and I were talking about the Dexter finale?  Did you see it?  I guess I must say: SPOILERS AHEAD! STOP READING!

So I always thought Deb was going to find out and then she was going to die.  I always thought that would be the direction of the show.  And my friend Dean, says, “No, they wouldn’t kill off a main character before the end of the series.  That would be crazy.” And I say, “Well, they killed Nate off in Six Feet.” And he turns bright red, and says, “Well thanks, I just finished the first season.” And I say, (JUST DIGGING DEEPER AND DEEPER) “Oh, well he dies twice, so it’s no big deal.”  And at that point, I think Dean vowed to never speak to me again

SIX FEET UNDER ENDED FIVE YEARS AGO.
that is not my fault.

I loved every second of the series; I don’t think I have loved a series so intensely since it ended.  Have I really gone five years without anything seriously good on tv?

A Chicago Christmas

Andrew and I are staying in Chicago for Christmas, and we could not be more thrilled. We have been in Chicago, and for the past two years we have traveled i.e. suffered in airports due to inclimate weather.  Ironically, this year, the year we choose to not travel, has been the most mild December in recent history.  Aside from travel, our jobs don’t really allow us to travel in any substantial way for the holidays.  

So while we are in Chicago for the holidays, we are living it up.

As we did with our first Christmas in Chicago after we moved here, we are getting peking duck service at Sun Wah on Broadway on Christmas Eve.  For $30, a full peking duck, duck soup, and duck fried rice are delivered and devoured.  When we lived on Argyle, it was only a block away from Broadway, but with the wind and our full stomachs, it was the longest walk home we had ever had.  
And on Christmas, we are waking up with lox and bagels and roasting a leg of lamb, a Flechtner tradition using an Ina Garten recipe.  Andrew is so very excited.  This is the first Christmas we will have with our cat Evgeni.  He has already discovered some catnip treats under the tree and has already tried to unwrap his gifts.  

Happy Holidays!

Today, I am 27.

Every time I have a birthday, I am reminded of how long I’ve been with Andrew. It doesn’t happen to me on our anniversary, but it happens on each birthday. I don’t know what happens when I tell someone that I am getting to know that I’ve been with Andrew for six and a half years, but there is always a disconnect.  Usually (because I am so fresh faced), they ask exactly, how old are you?

Andrew crashed a houseparty I was throwing in October and we officially met in March, 2005. I first met him when I was 19, and we started dating after I had turned 20 in April. He was a freshman in college, and I was a year older running the Community Bicycle Program. For me, it took an instant to know.  I knew; I’ve always known.  And, I am grateful for every second.