The Late Night Random Ten

I've survived nearly my first week at the new job, by far the hardest time of a restaurant job. Not only did we get a great review from one of the big critics, the new issue of Chicago magazine our oysters as the best in the city. Yikes! They said last night, the place was packed with "oyster snobs" comparing our oysters to those of other restaurants.

Yesterday's lunch was insanely busy, and they put me in the busiest section of the restaurant. I got my ass handed to me. I found out later that the manager wanted to leaven me a little bit. I suspect he also wanted to see if I melted down. I didn't.

Bad news on my ibook today. The screen problem was apparently caused by a bad logic board. That's a $400 or $500 repair. Instead, I went on ebay and grabbed a G4 (my old one was a G3) for $345 plus shipping. Yes, I sniped it-- I'm the sniper extraordinaire on Ebay. In any event, I can just transfer the hard drive of my old one to the new one when it arrives.

More good news was that I was able to get in and change my class to the correct one this morning. It was a good thing I did; there were only 2 seats left in the section I wanted. The next chance I would have had to switch would have been Tuesday-- the section would certainly have been closed by then.

I had a chance to chat with a counselor, and discovered that a bunch of people have gotten into the University of Illinois- Chicago's Pharmacy program from Truman College. She pointed out that it's important to develop good relationships with the professors teaching your classes, so you can get letters of recommendations from them.

I did my random ten with my ipod, since the ibook's in the shop. While I listened and blogged with the headphones on, Adam was listening to Dick Biondi on the oldies station and writing an email to our Congressman, Rahm Emanuel, with suggestions for strategies to encourage the use of environmentally-friendly energy production, including tax incentives to farmers who who allow wind turbines to be built on their land. We had a discussion about alternative energy, and I suggested some reading to him.

I've mentioned before that everybody's called him the "little man" since he was very young, and that he has an old soul. You can see why.

I have to figure out how to download pics to the desktop, so I can't show you our white trash backyard yet. This week, it's been filled with the detritus of renovation. They're working on the garage now, so there are siding panels, scrap wood, and a bunch of other crap-- in addition to the canoe. I can't wait for this to all be done.

My random 10:

1. Brown Eyed Girl- Van Morrison
2. Chevy Van- Sammy Johns
3. Maxine- Donald Fagen
4. Lookin' After No. 1- The Boomtown Rats
5. CIA Man- The Fugs
6. Guns On the Roof- The Clash
7. Maggie's Farm- Bob Dylan
8. Baby Don't Go- Sonny and Cher
9. Atlantis- Donovan
10. Uncertain Smile- The The

1. I'm old enough to remember this being played on the radio in 1967.
2. Yeah, that Chevy Van. Up there with Afternoon Delight and Disco Duck with stupid '70's songs.
3. From Nightfly, solo album from Steely Dan's Donald Fagen's, one of my favorite albums of the eighties.
4. From the great '70's punk collection No Thanks!
5. Great spoof of "Secret Agent Man," by the 60's Kings of Irreverence, The Fugs
6. The Clash's song about being arrested for taking potshots at pigeons with an air rifle. Seriously.
7. "He hands you a nickel/He hands you a dime/He asks you with a grin/If you're having a good time...."
8. Remember when Sonny and Cher were marketed as a hippy act? That was before Sonny was a Republican congressman and Cher was a diva.
9. A few posts ago, I mentioned Don't Look Back, the documentary about Dylan's 1966 tour of England, and Natalie mentioned a scene where Dylan was ripping on Donovan. I love Donovan, and particularly this song, a story-song about the fate of the fabled Atlantis.
10. Love this dark little song by Matt Johnson. In 1983 and 1984, when I was in college at Eastern Illinois University, there was a bar called Mother's that was normally a jock bar, but on Thursday nights, our friend Eddie deejayed, playing lots of punk and new wave, and we ruled the place. This song always grabbed me and carried me away-- the piano at the ending is ethereal.