alright. i’m back at my apartment in LA, home from the fun-filled week trip to illinois as of yesterday evening (instead of early afternoon–thank you, 3.5 hour flight delay), and i’m ready to start catching up the record here on collapsing. i don’t have much to say from before i left for illinois, so i’ll start trying to recap the fun things from the trip here over the next few days. it seems like there’s so much it’d be hard to do at once, if at all, so we’ll see how far i get.

thursday, dec. 27

it’s always reassuring to know there are weirdos everywhere, no matter where you are in the united states. as i walked up the ramp into the terminal at o’hare i saw the biggest weirdo ever. first: the guy was wearing a cape. a long black cape with a purple lining, fastened across his chest. not a coat, not even a cloak. this was definitely a cape. second: the guy had a gross pony tail, a gross goatee, and was very, umm… well, ugly. third (and best by far): the guy, standing against a pillar in an airport terminal, was wearing headphones and playing air violin. and not in a fun, whimsical fashion as if it were a joke. he was intently and very seriously playing air violin as if he were practicing for an upcoming performance or something. i about laughed my head off, except that i was scared of what a weirdo like that could do to me.

then i hung out with my man dominic at his place. we went to johnny’s for the best beef sandwiches on earth (as voted by numerous chicago publishers, apparently) which were goddamn tasty. and we had some portillo’s for dinner too. mmm. later that night we just hung out at one of his friend’s places with his high school crew, which was fun. they’re great kids and fun, and it made me jealous that all his old friends still all live in the same town (none having moved to, say, houston, texas) because i never get the luxury of just sitting around with a ring of old buddies and just laughing and having a good time. or at least, almost never (see new year’s eve, coming soon).

so that was day one of the adventure, more to come soon…