The Embarrassment of Riches

Tonight, I plan to meet with an old fraternity brother of mine who is now a personal financial planner. This - this I am in need of. Not because I'm behind on bills or because I have a mountain of debt - but the contrary.
I have a 401k that I contribute to that I had COMPLETELY forgotten the value of. I looked online tonight and found that I had twice as much tied up in retirement investments than I thought.
Maybe this is a luxury to have, but to me, it breeds more stress. "What am I doing with those investments?" "Are they the right ones?" "Am I investing aggressively enough?"
How the hell am I 32 and only have one credit card to my name? Even with a decent cash flow, I still have some credit blemishes that keep me from getting the same AAdvantage Mastercard that I'd say 90% of my friends have.
And am I saving for a property of my own? Maybe - but I wouldn't be able buy the place I'm renting now if I had to put down a downpayment.
And what about contributing to things other than myself and my life? Very little there.
Time to go see Cary. I look forward to putting my finances in order.

Whew. All set. (I think)

So as of this morning, the paperwork has been sent & confirmed and the bank transfer is in place. We've got a place in the village center of Lagos, Portugal. Check out the google map below!




View Larger Map

30 hours in NYC

As is typical of my trips to New York, I have very little time to actually do anything - but I always end up staying right in the thick of things. So of course my attitude is, "do as much as you can in the hours you're there."
I tried.
Despite the 6 hour flight from Chicago (including an unexpected refuel & 'pause' in Harrisburg, PA), I still wanted to take a little time to shoot some night scenes. I got em. More to be loaded on flickr later.
I came to town to spend the day with Thom Filicia, doing a video shoot for the upcoming website refresh for my client. More about all that in another post. In the meantime - a juicy afternoon shot of ESB, just a block from my hotel on Broadway.

"Underground" dinner Sunday night

Clandestino: The dinner table
Originally uploaded by j_b_copeland

When I arrived in Chicago last summer, one of the first things I remembered reading about was the concept of last-minute, little-known, underground supper clubs that would be held on any given weekend to small groups of people who shared a passion for good food and interesting conversation. In fact, this article is what really tipped me off.
Fast forward almost a year later, and I finally took advantage of an invite into one of the more publicized groups. Chef Efrain Cuevas has been cooking all kinds of food for all kinds of people for about a year now, and with this menu for this weekend - I went for it. I'm glad I did. Not only was the meal stellar, but the setting was equally as unexpected and appealing.
We had dinner in the garden of Chef Efrain's good friend Willy - who's the owner and chef of Honky Tonk BBQ in the Pilsen neighborhood. Willy and his family live in the front house of what was once an old Nunnery (120 yrs ago) that was then sold to a Lithuanian family to become a half-way house of sorts for the people that lived there for some 40 or 50 years. The garden in the back served as our venue for an extraordinary meal. I met a few new folks and we listed to the music of Urban Djinn for a good 3 hours. Oh - and the fact that it was maybe 75 degrees outside was one of the best details for a Texan used to expecting 100-degree days in mid-June.
Clandestino's next dinner is already sold out (only 24 spaces per event) - but I'm going to try for the end of July.

Bermuda this weekend? Guess again.

Oh - I know. I know what you're thinking. You're probably getting pretty tired of the Chicago-love-fest that I seem to spew on a regular basis.
But take Friday afternoon for example. Granted, I took a work trip to Michigan earlier in the day. But I still had time to get back to Chicago, finish up work, and head home to jump on my bike for a ride up lakeshore drive.
And at the top, Hollywood Beach.
On this day, the beach was beckoning. But alas, I didn't have my suit on.


Chris and I fixed that on Saturday when he suggested a trip back to the beach. So we did! At least - until it started getting cloudy and the heavens opened up.
But still. I was able to hit the beach on a Saturday, by riding my bike from my house.
Not bad, I say.

One of the lucky ones

2001/1938
Originally uploaded by june1777

Tonight, on an otherwise unremarkable bus ride home, I listened to one of my favorite podcasts - "The Moth" out of NYC. (Learn more here) Each week, there's a new story from a writer, artist, actor or generally good storyteller.
But tonight's story is an exceptionally sad one-- the story of a guy who came out to his parents, and never heard from them again.


Hear it for yourself (00:11:07):

Under The Influence [of hope]



But as I head home, I count my many blessings... among them, caring supportive parents who love me regardless of who I love and how I do so. Maybe they're crazy, maybe I'm crazy. But unlike Jeffery Rudell, I'm lucky that I haven't spent the past 5 or 6 years wasting my time 'hoping' that they will love me like crazy. They've been doing it for 32 years now.
Yeah. I'm lucky.