Diary: December 2004.

I say it all the time: 9/04 - 9/05 was a great year! One of the best. So here is the December installment.

This was in many ways a kind of sedate month; Chicago was cold that winter and so far exceedingly wet. Sam and I went to a pub on Broadway and listened to stories of the ghost of an alcoholic who was easily placated by placing a cup of vodka at the foot of the stairs. The drink would be gone in the morning. We walked in the bitter cold down Kenmore and Argyle, past all the neon lights of the Lao and Vietnamiese restaurants there, and on down Broadway to the Green Mill for free jazz. It was a long walk, about two miles, from our apartment. We were a block from the beach but it was too cold to go out there. It was around then that Sam got his job at Cherry One and quit at the Lego store for good. I was settling into my job FT although it was a temp job. I spent weekends in Hyde Park and tried to make as many scavhunt meetings as I could. I was also spending nights putting together my grad school applications and reading up on my Artaud and Kaufman.

On December 10th, Lisa and Jenny Blair hosted Gothic Funk Party #2. From Lisa's account:

This party involved Gothic Funk apparel (with plenty of selection for anyone who showed up un-gothic-funkified), Tea of varying types, home-made fortune cookies with Fortunes written by Amber and by my old friend Josh, Unicorn rainbow pops, Christmas lights, projections, nachos without any dip, candy canes, two kinds of cheesecake, blueberry coffeecake, oranges, apples, beer, soda, One pizza, a Mystery written by Connor, a murder, culprits, a clue (which was mistakenly eaten), a Tarot-card reading Booth with Connor as Reader, a chalkboard upon which drawings were made based on what was overheard of the Tarot readings, four of which occurred (drawings by Amber, Steven, Joe, Lisa), and music:
Bert & Ernie Sing-Along, The Southwest Michigan State Choir, Bjrk, Space Odyssey 2001, Star Wars, Chilling Thrilling Sounds of The Haunted House, Radiohead, Patsy Cline, extremely sexy dance music from India, Symphonion Music Box, All Time Polka Hits - Six Fat Dutchmen, and The Age of Aquarius - The Fifth Dimension.

Two weeks later, as Sam gave us a ride back to Flint in his increasingly unreliable Beretta, with wind spitting through the air and darkness, I discovered Postal Service. Christmas was fine. I was shocked the day after when the tsunami hit; I became obsessed with it for awhile. It's hard to understand such a thing, so much water, when the most water I'd seen in a home, a house, was six inches standing in my basement back in Flint, or an occasional overlapping river. I seem to recall it was snowy though. I celebrated Christmas with my family but not my girlfriend... the last time this would happen. I rode down to Ohio for the New Year. I sent off the first of my grad school applications to Washinton state and Louisiana.

Where were you in December 2004?