It’s Saturday night, what do you want from me?

I saw Nick Cave’s new band Grinderman last night and I damn near swooned despite Nick Cave’s moustache.

I can’t think of a better show I’ve seen within the last few years. The entire audience knew the words to every Grinderman and Bad Seeds song and everyone was really into it. Maybe too into it. I didn’t expect  to be pushed around or dodge crowd surfers at a Nick Cave show. This is why he doesn’t come to the United States you stupid howling frat boys! Well, actually at the end of the show he said he would see us next year with the Bad Seeds. So he will return but no more jumping on my toes, bitches.

And the band looked happy, too. Happy and sometimes a little pissed off. I don’t know if the band’s crew was having a bad night or it was Metro staff but the roadies were incredibly slow helping with broken guitars and falling mic stands. Twice Nick had to abandon his instrument and go to the side of the stage to distract from the slow fixing going on behind him.

Warren Ellis shredded his bow, Nick made the most pained faces singing about his no pussy blues and everyone smiled the most while making lots of noise.

I think they played every song from the Grinderman CD then after many excuses about not having the right members or instruments, they performed 2 encores of Bad Seeds songs. It’s amazing to see the band go from roaring out No Pussy Blues to Nick sitting down to play The Lyre of Orpheus. That’s why I like Nick Cave, every album sounds different and every album is fucking great.

Oh lawd, I gots to go cool off.

I had my sleep study consult today and damn those docs are quick, I do my sleep study tomorrow! I go in at 8pm, get hooked up to a bunch of monitoring devices, someone records me sleeping and I leave at 8am the next day. For some reason, everyone thinks I get paid for this study. I’m not doing research, I’m doing this to figure out why my sleep sucks.
I was worried it would take them a while to schedule and I would be in no insurance/new job limbo land. The intern said it should take about a week to have some results back. And I have no idea when new job will start, that is yet to be confirmed and becoming more frustrating as July comes to and end.

So this week is super busy. My MIA gone for the summer friend returns, sleep study, Grinderman (woo Nick Cave!) and then home for working dad’s store/family graduation and birthday parties.

It may be too early in the day for the other gossiping bloggers but I want to know what happened!

I went to the Printer’s Ball last night. They had secured a much better location than the Double Door for this year’s ball. It was at a nice roomy gallery in Bridgeport. I got there a little late so I didn’t get one of the tote bags I saw everyone stuffing their free goods into. I did get lots of free publications and saw the Blue Ribbon Glee Club, an adorable bunch of hipsters singing songs like Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind” glee club style.
I noticed a ton of cops wandering about during the glee club’s performance. I went downstairs and someone who I assume was an organizer was announcing that the police were shutting the party down. But mom, it’s only 10:30!
In true “damn the man” style, few people left or paid attention to his announcement. The cops near the door were herding people out but the cops inside were just telling people to go and not being terribly forceful. So I went into the next room and watched some guy in his underwear pretend to operate a pretend machine and checked out the cafe before leaving.

I think it was the most mild mannered party ever to be shut down by the Chicago police. They had to bust up a glee club! I’m sure the boys back at the station will be impressed by that one.

I loves Vitamin Water and I love having 50 Cent leave messages for my baby mama, girl, dog or baby daddy.
Yes, it’s just like having Samuel L. Jackson leave messages when Snakes on a Plane came out. Don’t care, still funny.
The passcode is YOUR DAILY DOSE.

From a fake problem to a real one.

I work mostly with substance abuse cases in my new position. Since I have substance abuse treatment experience, my supervisor lets me make treatment decisions and offers help only when I ask. I kind of like it that way. So in our last meetings I mention a difficult case I have. The client should really at a minimum, complete an intensive outpatient program. She has many years of polysubstance abuse and no treatment history. She’s a single mother in a rural area, works far from home at a low paying job and has little family support. She has medical insurance through her job and pays for her own apartment. Those in social service know that things that seem good, like private medical insurance, often disqualify low income clients from services.

The client will lose her job if she does not follow the recommended treatment. The client is not particularly dedicated to her job and may quit her job if treatment expectations are too intensive. She’s not dedicated to sobriety either and has continued to use drugs even after testing positive at work.

So what to recommend? I think an introduction to treatment, some education is better than none. Recommend a combination of self pay group counseling, some individual counseling sessions paid for by the employer and self support groups like NA.  Sounds similar to an IOP but offers more flexibility and lower cost.

My supervisor says no. If she needs IOP, recommend IOP.  A hospital about a half hour from the client offers IOP services. I understand where my supervisor is coming from. The environmental circumstances don’t change the fact that she needs intensive services.  I explained the “some is better than none” theory and my supervisor disagrees. She says it is not our problem if she cannot complete services, we are bound to make a recommendation strictly based on her presenting symptoms/use.

I have to make a recommendation this week. I’ve been “given my orders” but like I said, unless I bring up an issue in a case, my supervisor doesn’t notice what I do.

This is by far the biggest crisis I’ve had to deal with in a while.

I got called a hipster.

I of course denied but then I started thinking:

-I live really close to Wicker Park

-I own a lot of Threadless shirts

-I’m really sad that Filter closed.

-I’ve been to Debonair Social Club twice (but only for open bars!)

-I really want an old moped.

There are lots of things that don’t make me a hipster like not having a bad haircut, not owning a white belt or a bicycle and I’m not going to Pitchfork this weekend.

It was my acupuncturist that said I’m a “hip kid” after commenting that she liked my Threadless t-shirt. I told her I was a geek and she said geeks don’t get acupuncture because they question Eastern medicine too much. She is right about that, I’ve had to defend my actions to my geekier friends several times. (My current defense being “fuck off, it’s my body.”)

I didn’t even know that it was an old moped I was coveting until today. I’ve been calling them motorbikes and finally saw a manufacturer name on one today and looked it up. I thought mopeds=scooters. Something where you’re sitting, knees bent, like a Vespa. I guess I was wrong and the bikes I see out all over my neighborhood are mopeds. There’s even one chained to my fence but I haven’t determined who the owner is yet.

So if(when) I get this new job, I know what my first stupid purchase will be!

Unrelated to the current crisis, I have ear seeds in my left ear. Hopefully they will stay in for the week and I can play with them and see if they’re helpful. They kind of look like jewelery.

Transformers! Robot fights! Action sequences so fast you leave dizzy and not sure what happened!

For special effects that cost so much to produce, they could have slowed down the fighting a little bit so I could tell what was going on and not just watching a flash of metal fly across the screen. Maybe I was a bit overwhelmed since the theater was packed, I had to sit in the 4th row. That movie is a whole lot to take in up close.

The audience seemed to like the movie as much as I did. I felt left out during the first 10 minutes when 1 soldier kept spouting Spanish lines. Everyone laughs but whitey.  The “plot” was a typical nerd boy falls for hot girl thing but luckily it was often interrupted by Fighting Robots!

And to all the people bitches about it being a big car commercial:

1. Not as bad as The Italian Job.

2. Didn’t you all play with Matchbox cars? Weren’t they modeled after actual cars?  Ya it sucks to see obvious logo flashing but it’s nothing new.

I’m also kind of curious to know what the mystery trailer for the yet to be named movie is all about. I still call Godzilla.

Godzilla Fights Robots!

I went to the 2nd party hosted by going.com at Debonair last night. These people love open bar and for that, I love them. They had some good DJs this time. The downstairs DJ (possibly Hollywood Holt, can’t remember) could transition from Salt N Pepa’s “Push It” to Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks”and make it work dammit! He mixed a lot of old music like Technotronic and C+C Music Factory with current hits.

And then came Juiceboxxx! I don’t think he’s even old enough to be at a bar but damn is he fun. He grabbed the mic and ran into the crowd for most of his set. I could see a divide between people who had some idea who he was and people that were in the back thinking “WTF is this skinny white boy screaming about?” The people up front jumped and screamed along, his excitement is kind of infectious. I wish more musicians would throw themselves into the crowd the way he did.

Now it’s going to be insanely hot the rest of the weekend. I should have gone to the Taste after work on Friday. Oh well, I am prepared to sweat for my city. And my fatness.

I turned in everything the research job asked for. I got letters of recommendation, transcripts and I went to the doctor. I am very anxious for a confirmation call now. I’m not feeling as bad about leaving my current position anymore. Even with the promotion, I will still be making more at the research job. And my current job isn’t all that interesting. I feel like I’m running in circles all day, doing follow-up upon follow-up.

At the doctor, I mentioned my sleeping problems, night terrors and constant napping. The doctor suggested a sleep study. So I’m going to hopefully make an appointment before I quit this job so I can suck all I can out of my stupid HMO. She wants to see if there is a neurological cause or if I’m not getting my good “deep” sleep. She also referred me to a psychologist just in case it’s none of the above and I’m just fucking crazy. She mentioned putting me on Tegretol and I’m happy she can’t (or won’t) because of my defective heart.

I told her I’m trying acupuncture and looking to go a non-drug route. I get bitter about taking meds after a while. I get angry when my big uncoated pills get stuck in my throat or when I feel sick because even after all these years I still forget a dose occasionally. It’s a common feeling among those with any sort of chronic illness. I’m sick of being sick. Fix me NOW or leave me alone. And goddamn, stop lumping me in the same category as other sick people. I hate them.