Chicago MMXII

Hey do you all want to know the epilogue to my ear ailment saga? Great! I went to an ENT yesterday and I've got a hole in my left eardrum and lots of fluid trapped behind swelling in both of my ears, so I'm temporarily deaf as hell, but it's probably not infected anymore at least. They gave me a steroid to stop the swelling and I can already feel it working, I think. The hole should heal okay and I'll be able to hear again.

Did you know... an ENT can look in your ears with a microscope? An ear microscope that they stick right into your ear! CRAZY.

safety razor = removable razor blade, handle, blade set perpendicularly to handle

congrats on yr eardrum hole, carl

i just use an electric razor

i hope those steroids don't make you feel crazy, carl! also congrats on the eardrum hole heal.

I totally make faces to make shaving easier. That is, when I shaved regularly.

I wore purple shorts today so if the steroids make me go crazy, I'll be dressed appropriately.

(it's just a medrol dosepak. limited dosage, limited time, and I'm not bipolar (prednisone can precipitate manic episodes in people with bipolar disorder (but this isn't prednisone, either)) so we're all good.)

Nick, I am shocked that you use only an electric razor.

why? i'm not a very hairy person and also i JUST DON'T GIVE A FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

Shaving has actually been on my mind a lot in 2012. After I shaved my beard early in the year, I bought this fancy expensive Italian shaving cream at Merz Apothecary. I really liked it and found that it gave me a closer shave, but then I got really into trying to get my shave as close as possible, and in the process I think I did more damage than good in the form of cuts and razor burn. Eventually I realized that some parts of my face/neck are just never going to be super-smooth, and it's dumb to try to get the other parts that way, because then it looks uneven. The end.

(prednisone can precipitate manic episodes in people with bipolar disorder (but this isn't prednisone, either)) so we're all good.)

um really?
because that sounds suspiciously like what happened to me when i was given prednisone for a stress-induced rash

i have been thinking a lot about shaving also.

That's what the doc told me. I wouldn't take it as evidence of bipolar disorder, but it's definitely something you might bring up to a doc if s/he wants to prescribe it again.

i really hate shaving. i wish i could grow proper facial hair.

i really like having stubble or a beard but i think my beard is too intense for my face. it's super wiry and i always get ingrown hairs/razor bumps. i think i'm stuck with shaving for my own safety.

oh interesting:

• Many African-American men benefit from using a single-blade razor, or a DE razor. Dr. Joely Kaufman explains, “I highly dissuade patients who suffer from razor bumps from using triple or quadruple blade razor systems. The closer the shave, the worse the razor bumps will be.”

I've been thinking about shaving a lot because it's warm out and now I have to shave my stupid legs. At least long skirts are fashionable this season so I can get away with shaving once/week.

carl, when the doc looked into your ear, did they have a screen where you could see what they were seeing? the audiologist i went to had that, it was crazy.

actually when i went to pick up my ear plugs i'd been getting weird crackling in one ear every time i swallowed or touched it. she went in with the ear camera and found that i had a hair stuck to my ear drum, which was acting like a piece of paper stuck to a speaker. she went in with a tweezers and grabbed it, it was so satisfying.

NO thank god I did not see my fucked up ear insides on a screen. I have seen my cervix on a TV screen, and I nearly passed out (and there was nothing wrong with me! The doc was just like "Check it out, it's your cervix lol") so there's no way I want to see my diseased, hole-y inner ears.

i am definitely not taking prednisone again unless i have some VERY serious reason to take it. i don't think i'm bipolar, but it was a rough time and that shit was like crazy hot sauce on my brain.

Actually, you should mention that reaction any time a doc wants to prescribe you a steroid.

any steroid, I meant, as in not just prednisone. "Crazy hot sauce on my brain" is very descriptive and sounds awful.

it was a perfect storm of events, but yes i will dr carl. i will. it was not a good time.

John mc, I recommend you check out Dollar Shave Club. Fucking Mach 3 and all those cartridges are EXPENSIVE. $6 for 4 good razor cartridges is amazing, IMO. Plus the founder and CEO in that video is lovable.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/05/24/new-morgan-station-open-on-green-pink-line-l/

Cool. I wonder if there will now be an asterisk on this record:
http://timeoutchicago.com/things-to-do/this-week-in-chicago/15116941/chicagoans-set-new-cta-riding-record

^^which, all joking aside, is something I'd LOVE to try to do

Somebody who writes for a local publication is riding all of the bus lines start to finish and writing about it. I think that sounds kind of cool. Or the guys who walked the entire length of Halsted. I don't think I'd want to beat the CTA record, because there's no much running, but I'm generally interested in this kind of stuff.

I had a friend who visited all of the dive bars directly off the red line south of Jackson. I don't remember how it went for him, but it sounded like fun.

cta record seems pretty beatable with luck, based on the descriptions in that article

That new train station is a block away from Haymarket, which brings that bar into reasonable happy hour territory (especially for me since I can get the Green/Pink Line here).

The woman riding all the CTA bus lines has finished.

Did she write something about it somewhere? Or is she going to the grave with her observations?

Yes I believe it is all in her redeye blog.

Ohhhhh Redeye.

I have a p strong dislike for stunt-based memoir writing shit.

I don't know, depends on whether or not she used it as an excuse to write about herself or if she took advantage to really write about what she saw. I'm definitely interested in the latter, not so much with the former.

I only followed the twitter account of the endeavor. It was entertaining.

I just went to the RedEye website to see if I could find her blog, but goddamn I'm actually impressed that they managed to make navigating their website an even more horrible experience than reading their shitty rag in the first place.

I like stunt-based memoir writing if it is on blogs and is about Chicago public transit. And jvc OTM - bonus points if its about Chicago and not her personal journey.

But shit like "The Year I Wore Diapers All the Time" or "Rooney: How One Woman Lived Her Life According to an Old Fart's World View and What Her Eyebrows Looked Like at the End" is not appealing to me.

Oh LOL at the Red Eye sucking online, too. God I hate that paper. "paper"

http://www.ajjacobs.com/images/page/cover_yolb.jpghttp://robynokrant.com/LIVINGOPRAH_bookcoverSM.jpg

Oh! I just grasped where the new Morgan St. is, exactly. That's great b/c there was a long dead patch there.

I was going to say it wasn't that big a dead zone, but it's over 1 mile between Clinton and Ashland, which is quite a ways. Esp. considering the Red line in Uptown where there are a bunch of stations 1/4-1/2 mile apart.

Yeah, you no longer have to get off at Clinton and walk over the highway.

(That is, if you're going from downtown to Restaurant Row, which I've done on a handful of occasions.)

Of course, I'm sure there are vast stretches of the South Side that are also in need of a new el stop.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8c/Debbie_Downer.PNG/215px-Debbie_Downer.PNG

Or train service at all.

Well, yeah, that's what I mean.

What's going on I the Loop with all the people in running gear and numbers pinned to them??