Man, I missed coffee.

Finally, I'm back at work after a nice 10 day hiatus, and 7 a.m. at the office never felt so great. Working--I mean, actually doing something that is meaningful--is just what I've needed after a long vacation that included mostly drinking, reading, and cleaning my house.

Cleaning is a fine activity, though, because you find out some interesting stuff. For example, the glass surrounding our hanging living room light wasn't actually frosted as my roomates and I had all assumed--it was caked in dust.

I wonder when I became so anal about cleaning, because I used to just disregard things. Not that I was dirty, but let's just say I wasn't washing my sheets as often as I am now (my mom would be so proud).

So Chicago.

On New Year's Eve I mentioned that I partied at a pretty stellar apartment on North Halstead that was above an art gallery.

Well, some people at this apartment decided to fill the jacuzzi and continue the New Year's festivities submerged. I'm not entirely sure what exactly happened, but five or more people crammed in and somehow managed to leak water into the art gallery below.

Fast forward three days: Jessica, the apartment's owner, is now being sued for a lot of cash. I guess that a lot of the leakage ended up on a few paintings worth more than a million dollars.

Whoops.

Good thing ol' Jess is a Harvard grad who just started an $80,000 a year consulting job and can afford a lawyer.

In another Chi-Town monetary fiasco, Emily and a few other girls had their iPods, purses and wallets stolen after one of their roomates brought a random guy home from the bar on New Years. They woke up and he was gone, then they realized that so was most of their stuff.

He promptly charged $1200 on one of the cards at Circuit City.

But guess what--he left his phone number with the girl who took him home.

Whoops.

And if this isn't enough craziness, an inebriated Takayuki woke me up this morning at 5:30 a.m.

Yes, that's right. I was drunk dialed from Tokyo. He said he's coming back to Nebraska next month. I want to believe him, but he was pretty smashed so I'm going to wait until I get a chance to talk with him under better circumstances.

I hope he's coming... of course, I wish I was going. Though I will be, eventually.

He ordered me over and over again to get my ass to Japan ASAP. All I could say is, yeah, I'm trying.

And speaking of the Japanese, Megumi will be here tomorrow. I can't believe it. So Lis, if you want to see her, give me a call. I'm sure she misses you.

Busy busy.

So much to think about.

Time to start planning spring break in San Francisco.