04.27.05 - 10:19 p.m.

I am officially regressing. Despite the fact that I have received an actual promotion at work and now own an actual Grown-Up Bed from Crate & Barrel (courtesy of my round ass breaking the old bed frame a few weekends ago, through a series of events to embarrassing to recount), it seems I'm stuck in ninth grade.

I bought tickets to Lollapalooza 2005.

My Grown-Up-ness comes in handy at this point, though, because it gives me enough financial leeway to do such things. Not complete leeway, because this is a LOT of money for me to be spending at once - on top of the bedframe purchase, no less - but something compelled me to do so. A weekend with my sister. In Chicago. Listening to hip bands, and the Pixies, and Weezer, and Dinosaur Jr., and Billy Idol. How can we lose? And I went a little bit nuts when I realized we could stay in a Kimpton hotel for more or less the same price as the Travelodge, so I went for it. One more weekend of sister-silliness before she starts grad school, and we both get a little older, and have less time to do these kind of things.

I don't know why everyone says cooking is difficult. I just whipped up a little appetizer from the Babbo cookbook (ok, I only made half the recipe since I didn't have any red onions on hand and didn't feel like grilling anything at 10 at night) and - so easy! Just a bunch of shiitakes, tossed with olive oil, garlic, sage, and rosemary, then tossed in a 350-degree oven for 20 minutes. Drizzle with a mix of balsamic vinegar, anchovy paste, salt, pepper, and olive oil, and CHOW DOWN. It was supposed to be part of tomorrow's lunch, but somehow it ended up in my stomach ten minutes ago. Whooops.

Some people read chick-lit to relax. I read about goat cheese and fennel. To each her own.