Andy got some inspiration from my closet-cleaning and is now cleaning the bathroom. This afternoon we’re going to the Chicago History Museum, and then an early dinner at Las Pinatas. O Las Pinatas how I have missed you. How I have missed your perfect margaritas and enchiladas nortenas. I know that if I want to get any writing done I better do it before our excursion; after Las Pinatas I will be in a nirvanic food coma bliss.

I’ve been reading about RangeRoamer, which essentially is a rentable cell phone service. It would be quite useful for my London trip. MY cell phone will be worthless there because it doesn’t function outside the U.S. The RangeRoamer phone is delivered to your office before your trip, and when you get back you just slip it into a prepaid return envelope. It comes with a charger and everything. $20 of prepaid talk time (all incoming calls are free). I think it let me be a lot more flexible once I’m there.

I need to come up with some Chicagoist ideas for this week. Don’t have any good ones. Like Andy said, maybe something at the museum today will trigger an idea. I miss writing fiction regularly. Sometimes writing all this non-fiction stuff is a drag.

Jeremy and I talked on the phone a few days ago. He’s been in L.A. about two weeks now, which is long enough for the two of us to have a fairly in-depth discussion of why L.A. sucks. The driving. The parking. The fear in the air; except, it’s a SUNNY fear, a fear that’s always the same temperature every day. And that makes it more sinister. I suppose it’s that dichotomy that David Lynch picks up on, draws inspiration from to create his work. L.A. is the worst and best of America. But mostly the worst. (I apologize if I am offending any L.A. readers out there).

Had a dream last night I won a spot on “Wheel of Fortune” being taped in Hawaii. But once I got there they decided it needed to be taped in Chicago for technical reasons and so they flew everyone back.