pbaker's Journal: Sleater-Kinney, Chicago Marathon, Sunday is HBO

So this is my first Journal entry. I'm pretty sure no one will ever read it, but who cares.

Last Thursday, I saw Sleater-Kinney play at the Metro. GODDAMNIT they were freakin amazing. It is just amazing when Carrie and Corin are singing back and forth at each other. I don't think there is another show like it anywhere else. They played the last song of the encore for like 20 minutes. I suppose maybe it could have been two songs back to back, but either way it was truly awesome. When they come to your town you better go fucking see them or I will never talk to you again.

So I didn't get tickets to see the Foo Fighters at the Metro next Saturday. The Zone is giving away tickets all week, but you have to listen between 8am-5pm so like I'm never listening to them during those hours. Crap!

My dad and sister ran in the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. I had to meet my dad at the 20 mile marker to give him a dry shirt to change into with an American flag on it. Then I was supposed to meet him at the 25th mile marker to give him an American flag to carry across the finish line. Sounds simple enough right? Well my next door neighbor, Danny, and I were at 31st and I forget what to hand off the shirt. A bit after the 4:50 pace runners we see my dad. After we give the shirt to my dad he tells me that he wanted the hat we brought too. The hat was in my brother's car who had just left to go to the finish line to try and see my sister finish. So Danny and I head down 31st to Michigan and start heading north to 18th. The 25th mile marker was around 20th street. I call my brother and tell him he needs to come bring the hat. He meets us at Michigan and 18th and then we start heading east along 18th. This of course doesn't go through to Lake Shore Dr. where the course is. So after Dan and I have run 2 miles to get where we were, we have to start back tracking south. ARGH! At 20th street there is a bridge to go over the train tracks separating us from Lake Short Dr, but it was blocked off by police. We ask them how to get to race and they tell us to keep going south and look for the train signs. Okay... We pass McCormick place as we go about a mile south (that's 3 miles for those not keeping track). A little after 26th street we see an unguarded set of stairs going up to a bridge that goes over the train tracks. We start going up. From the top of the bridge we can see the race south from us crossing the train tracks. Doh! Well it wasn't a bridge that went all the way across the tracks. It only went to the middle of the tracks to a landing platform for people to board trains. Crap! So we jumped the railing and crossed the tracks on foot only to be greeted by the barb-wire fence surrounding the McCormick place parking lot. We climb up track light overhang and jump the barb-wire fence. We cross the parking lot and we finally get to the race. We were at the aid station at the 24th mile marker. We stand their a bit then start walking north towards the 25th mile marker. Not too long after the 5:15 pace runners go by. SHIT!! Did we miss my dad? We would have to have slowed down a whole half hour for us to not have missed him. I didn't know what to hope for? That my dad was keeping his pace and missed us? Or that he slowed to a crawl so we could meet him. Well in a panic that we missed him we start full on sprinting towards the 25th mile hoping we might catch him. We get to the 25 and practically collapse with exhaustion. We wait there hoping to see him and eventually we do. Turns out he just ran out of gas at about 22.5 and was walking the rest. So we were able to get him his hat and flag afterall. So we decided to walk along side him until we get over the last bridge before the finish where we can then exit the course and meet him after. We get half way over the bridge when a police officer stops us and tells us we can't go over and that we have to backtrack [again] and go under some underpass to get to the finish from there. So we go back sound under the underpass only to be greeted by more police telling us we have to go further south to some back path along the lake. So we keep going south I don't know how far get to the bike path so we can now change direction again and head north on the bike path. Well long store short, [too late] after who knows how many miles north again we finally get to the finish area and head to the Charity Village to meet up with everyone. Damn my feet and back are killing me today.

Sopranos was great last night, although I still think the second episode was the best of this season so far. Curb Your Enthusiasm was funny as hell once again. That show just gets funnier and funnier every time I watch it. It's hard to watch and not think that it's real. Mind of the Married Man was pretty good too. Poor Mickey just digging his own grave towards the end there trying to talk his way out of why he didn't want his wife to go into the eye doctor's office. That was hilarious.

Played BattleTech tonight. Dave N Busters shortened their hours so we didn't get to play as long as usual. I was sad. :-( Well that's it for now.