you see, i work in a 100-plus year old building downtown. i believe that it is an historical landmark. it still has old stylee elevators that require elevator operators, which is quaint the first couple of times. in fact, one of the operators has worked in the building for over 50 years and the entry hall has been named in his honor. the building also lacks central air. my office has a wall unit so i stay cool most days. but walking into the halls is like emerging into a turkish bath. this might be appealing if i was only wearing a towel. we do have a liberal dress code, but i'm not sure that would really go over.

today, i found myself waiting in the hallway, for an elevator for what seemed like an eternity. it was sweltering. i started searching my bag for my smelling salts. it was that bad. at least, i had company. a young student who was off to cruise some cute boy at the downtown borders. ah, young love.

there has been construction on michigan avenue for months. more correctly, it has been under michigan avenue. apparently, there is a parking garage under this stretch of road. strange, but it makes perfect chicago sense. well, the city has been rebuilding and reinforcing the garage, which has left the street torn up and closed off at most side streets where i might stroll on any given day. SO, i haven't been paying attention to traffic, because there wasn't any. on the way to the bank, i blithely step off the curb to cross jackson and am almost sideswiped by a city bus. you see, the city had reopened the intersection. apparently, i never got the memo. damn that mayor daley. now i actually have to PAY ATTENTION walking down michigan avenue. ugh.

at the bank, the musak version of santana's smooth was softly playing in the background. my first thought was that i'd rather gouge out my own eyes with a grapefruit spoon than work in an office that played musak all day. my second thought was of that drunken Austin saturday on sixth street where rebecca and i changed the lyrics of that song to reflect rob thomas' girth (no, not THAT girth, yuck!). "give me some fries with some cheese and just be quick about it! cause you're so HUGE!".

on the way back, in my delirium, i began to think about how cool Max Headroom was. i loved that matt frewer. remember that doctor doctor show? what a hoot. but of course, max headroom was way too cool for network television with its dark world and multimedia conspiracies. didn't it star that chick who's married to corbin bernsen? are they still married? i mean senor bernsen isn't really a celeb i keep tabs on, but there was that l.a. law reunion and i think i just saw him in some disney channel movie playing the wacky dad. of course he was. remember when max headroom was in that art of noise song? what was it? paranoimia? that shit was hot.

oh, and i bought ash's free all angels today. first day on release. i love to do that sometimes (ok, most of the time). all music geeky and such. it rocks. yay. guess i can cross that off my list of things to look forward to.

speaking of things to look forward to, my fourth of july trip is shaping up to be a "very special blossom". first, a reunion show of sorts as several stars from my sf incarnation currently reside a la big apple. sort of like when lilith guests on frasier. only funnier. second, a huge cross-over event with one of new york's finest. buffy and angel can bite us. this is the real deal. third, the pilot for a highly-anticipated spinoff, currently in development. every 60's sitcom worth its salt deserves a new-millenial update. watch this space for details.