what a whirl: weekend update

Friday:
lovely gorgeous day. just cool enough you need to bring a sweater to the boat you and your coworkers will be on for the rest of the afternoon. just warm enough you're glad you tied your hair back. i discovered many things on the boat cruise with the non-profit folks: never eat chinese food when you're on a boat, it's important to target the non-drinkers in your group so you can use their drink tickets, and it's never a good idea to be in a soul train line in front of people who sign your paychecks. when will i learn?

toddled home to meet roomie who, bless her heart, rented The Corporation (which made me hate corporate capitalist america all over again) and carlo ponti's 'yesterday, today, tomorrow.' can i just say that sophia loren is my idol and i want to be her? really. i want to be her - all rounded, voluptuous womanhood and sassy hips and mouth. i especially want to learn how she can take off stockings like that.

Saturday:
slept late and went with roomie to evanston to see 'batman begins.' i rather liked it - for what it was. was it fabulous? no. i must confess that i preferred christian bale in 'equilibrium' than in this movie. i mean, how can you resist the allure that is gunkata? you can't. you are powerless to resist. roomie hated batman with a passion and so we passed the rest of the afternoon in silence, portraits of disaffection brought on by bad cinema. after reading a bit i dug out a cocktail dress for a martini party in river west, with a fantastic view of the Mart and the trains leaving the city. nights like this almost make me wistful for companionship. i hung out, ran into old friends, made dinner plans with a friend and his adorable little girlfriend (fresh like a daisy, she was, and made me feel like a hoary crusty old piece of toast), then came home where i ate half a can of cashews and watched the bbc.

Sunday:
rotarians descended on the city. did you know the rotary club began in chicago? i had no idea. neither did roomie as we left the apartment early to fulfill our church duties downtown. we skipped the actual services to drive down lake shore drive and michigan avenue, killing time. when we blithely arrived at the stately gray church, we were prepared to speed through church tours, intercessory prayer and a little glad-handing. the presbyterians know how to really make you relaxed, you know? no baptist-like stress or angst here.

i sat in the stone chapel, waiting for someone to come in for prayer. everyone had told me, 'it's no problem; no one ever comes in.' oh! foolish hope! the final hymn had barely finished before a neatly dressed woman stepped inside and shut the door behind her. she sat next to me and whispered that her brother had recently died alone and unclaimed in another state. so we prayed together. when she left, i stayed behind and sobbed for five minutes. (bad time of year for me to be thinking about dead family members.) my roomie was faring no better; her church tour was stalled at the transcept while a short asian woman grilled my roomie on the exact doctrinal tenets of our church and the specific wording of the apostles creed. i could see the sweat on my roomie's brow as she desperately tried to wrench back control of the tour group and direct their attention to the fine skinner pipe organ in our choir loft.

needless to say, we spent the rest of the afternoon shunning contact with our fellow man, watching taped episodes of british serial killer tv shows.