Journal 005

The other day, I bought a new CD tower with the remaining balance on my Best Buy gift cards (it cost a little over a hundred bucks). It's actually two pieces that can be combined, one on top of the other, but I'm using them separately, since the combined tower would be too tall to stand against the wall in my room, because of the way the ceiling slopes (my bedroom was converted from an attic). I've had my CD's sitting on the floor of my room for months now in anticipation of getting new storage space, because I got sick of the old CD towers I have which have an individual slot for each disc. The downside to that kind of a system is that 1) you can't fit double albums that come in the thicker case, and 2) everytime you get a new CD, if you want them to be in order (something that is immensely important to me), you have to move every single CD slot by slot, which drives me insane.

I was looking at towers at Best Buy, and I ended up getting a little cut on my finger, on the cardboard edge of one of the heavy boxes. That was a pain (literally), but as I looked at it, I was relieved that, though it looked fairly deep, it didn't bleed - which would have been something of an inconvenience in the middle of the store.

Back home, building the towers was kind of fun. It's nice that all the equipment was designed such that I didn't need any extra tools like a screwdriver or hammer or anything like that to put the thing together. That was convenient. As with most of these things, there were different options for how to space the shelves, in order to accommodate either CD's or DVD's (or even VHS'es). I knew I had enough CD's to fill more than one but not all of both of the structures, so the first one I made purely for CD's. The majority of my classic rock and blues collection is now housed there - just about 300 albums I'd say.

For the other structure, I figured I might as well create some room for DVD's, since I could use it. So I did two shelves of CD's and two shelves of DVD's. I put my new(er) music albums on there, as well as some miscellaneous stuff like some soundtracks and things I've hung onto, as well as my collection of Playstation games. I put my stack of PS2 games on one of the DVD shelves, along with all of my anime DVD's, and a few DVD boxes, like the Millenium series and the Seinfeld seasons I have. That freed up a little room for my main DVD collection which is mostly housed on one of my old wooden towers, as well as stacked fairly high beside that tower. Though now that extra stack is about half as high, with some of the DVD's being moved to the new structure.

I also have two old towers designed for holding VHS (and only VHS). One of them's been empty for awhile, so it's pretty useless. It actually fell apart while I was handling it, so it's going to the trash once and for all. The other VHS tower contains pretty much the cream of my VHS collection. I don't really have a need to keep them on display, and it's not like I often use them, but I don't really have anywhere else to put them for the time being, so I'm just gonna leave them as is for now. I also have a full dresser whose drawers are stuffed with VHS fansubs, mostly. Ah, the good old days. I should put those in boxes or something. But I dunno, I want more open shelves to put all my books and manga on, instead of stuffing them in stacks in drawers and closets. I wish I had more shelfspace. My figures (models, figurines) take up a lot of space on those shelves in the closet, but where else could I really put them? They need their shelfspace as much as anything.

Maybe you've noticed I put a premium on organization and putting things in their place. Getting those CD's off the floor has really opened up the room, and I managed to move some other stuff around - like, I made some space on my desk, which has been over-cluttered for a long time now. It seems like there's always more stuff coming in, and you gotta get rid of old stuff every now and then to make room for it. It's a never-ending battle. It doesn't bother me, I even enjoy it to an extent, but what bugs me is when I have something that I don't really use, but I can't stand to get rid of it, either. I need like a warehouse or something to put stuff like that, so I can get it out of my way, but if I decide I need it anytime in the future, I can still access it. I definitely have packrat tendencies, though it feels good to purge old baggage every now and then.

Today (the 17th) was my birthday. I really don't like to make a fuss about it, though. I don't want to imposition people with having to buy gifts for me or anything like that. It's nice to have an excuse to celebrate life, and getting a little leeway for a day is nice, but on the other side of that, I don't like being treated with too much extra attention. Like when you go out to a restaurant and the waiters get together and sing to you when they bring out the dessert? God, how embarrassing is that? Luckily I have a family that (mostly) agrees with me on that.

The first thing I did to celebrate, just before the day began at midnight, was to put on my birthday suit. Though I've been wearing it quite a lot, lately, so it wasn't entirely special - but it was still nice, as always. I think that of any day of the year, you should be allowed to wear your birthday suit on your birthday. Can't society have a little leniency on that, at least? Although having a birthday during the cold months of the year makes it almost moot. Still, my brother came in with a gift, so I can at least say that I opened a gift while wearing my birthday suit.

A little after that, we went out to Eat N' Park (I had to take off my suit, of course), since my brother's apparently regained his appetite. According to a sticker on the doors, they're only open 24 hours on the weekend now, and only open til 3am during the week. If it's really true, it really sucks. But at least there are other Eat N' Park's around that are open 24 hours, as well as a few other choices. I had my usual large hot chocolate, but it wasn't as good as usual - not chocolate enough. Then I went for my two cheeses - fried, and grilled. I think they should have a Three Meal Combo where you can order a breakfast dish, a lunch dish, and a dinner dish together in one meal. Then I could complete my cheese trio with an omelette.

After sleeping off the day as usual, I got up relatively early (by about an hour) to go out to dinner with the fam (which, in this case, includes my dad and my brother (my other brother is away on work this week - it's his busy season) - we're planning on having a slightly larger eat-out on the weekend). I made sure I had enough time after my shower to shave. The last time I shaved was August. I probably wouldn't have even bothered, except I couldn't deal with the moustache anymore. It was getting too long - and getting to be a nuisance, so it had to go. I've been meaning to do it for awhile, but you know, I always get up at the last minute, and I've never had the extra minutes to spare before dinner. I left the beard, which I haven't shaved in even longer, since I kind of like it, and it's not like it gets in my way or anything. Otherwise, though, I think I like being clean-shaven. It's not worth the trouble of shaving every day, or even every week - unless I had somebody to shave it for. But I guess that's a catch-22 - you gotta shave to get girls, but you need girls to have the motivation to shave. Eh. I wish I was like the Rolling Stones - sleeping with a different teenage girl every night. Not that I'd necessarily do that, but at least I'd have the opportunity, and I could pick and choose my moments. Sigh.

So we went to one of my favorite restaurants in the world - Uno's - to celebrate Chicago-style, with deep dish pizza and electric blues (though the music playing at the restaurant wasn't all blues, and it was a little hard to hear from the table - still, it made for a pleasant atmosphere that appeals to my tastes (not even mentioning the pizza)). We, as a family, started going to Uno's on our annual family summer vacation at Deep Creek Lake during my childhood. Uno's has a location right there on the lake, and is combined with the groovy Honi Honi Bar. Not that I've ever been interested in the bar scene, just that with our parents and their friends, it was not unusual to hang out at bars - outdoor bars with decks overlooking the lake, and arcades for kids, and snacks like nachos and fries and stuff. Thinking about it now, aaah, those were the days.

Well, it's nice that there's an Uno's within relative distance of our home. Not that we go there often. But we went today, on my initiative. I had my usual - the deep dish Chicago Classic, which includes generous portions of tomato and sausage. Although the Prima Pepperoni is also an admirable choice. I've been sickly full all night since eating there, but now that I'm talking about it and reminiscing, I seem to be working up an appetite for my leftovers (even though there still isn't much room in my belly). Generally, I actually prefer flat pizzas, because then there's more focus on the flavors than the filling - but Uno's deep dish is heavenly. And their crust is magnificent, too. Delicious.

Check out that image of Uno's original location on the corner of Wabash Ave & Ohio St, Chicago - courtesy of Google Maps. Chicago is an awesome city. I've never actually been there, and my suspicions are that it's a little colder than my ideal clime, but the fact is, it's well known for two of my favorite things in the world - pizza, and the blues. That's a damn good starting point for trying to impress me.