...I'm a little concerned. Apparently on Friday while I was on my way to Comic Con, there was a drive-by shooting that took place no more than a few blocks from my house, close to where my father and brother live.

The police are investigating it as a hate crime that might be related to a stabbing that took place about two blocks from my house at the Carls Jr. down the street.

Arcadia/Temple City is supposed to be a safe suburbia where you can raise kids and let them play in the front yard without worrying about them. Shootings and stabbings don't happen here.

It's a little surreal to think that my neigborhood isn't as safe as I thought it was.

More information on the shooting and it's victim can be found here and here.

On a happier note, I will at some point this week do a Comic Con post, but right now I need to get back to work and stop worrying about my stepbrothers walking to and from school, and Taylor walking home from work late at night.... and Bill riding his bike past where the shooting took place...

If I do not get my hands on a copy of Kinky Boots to keep for my very own, I will have to kill myself.

I fucking love this movie.

Now I see what Piers was goin' on about all year. Fucking brilliant!

Well it finally happened. I've been waiting all these years and it finally happened. I went down to LA for my interview today and of course, the recruiters are zombies. So not only do I not get the job, but I have to spend most of my day running around the hotel dodging zombies and trying to get back to my car. 'Cause of course, I keep a shotgun in the trunk for just such an occasion. I even remembered to pack the armor piercing shells this time!

I just hope I get to the Walmart first. The last thing I want to do is wait in line to raid the damn place.

Okay, major thanks to everyone who did their best to help me find someplace other than a hotel room to stay. I really, REALLY appreciate everything you guys did, from simple suggestions to actually hunting down friends and family for me. It was all incredibly kind of you, and I truly am grateful, so thank you.

Fortunately, my parents have decided to pay for a hotel room, which I both appreciate and am slightly bummed about. Not because I hate hotel rooms or anything silly like that (I actually don't mind them), but because they've already paid for so much of what I do that I feel bad that they're spending any more money on me. I even told them that I was finding somewhere else to stay (at the time Tony's family was potentially willing to put me up for a night), but they still wanted to spend the money and get me a hotel room for some strange reason.

So, now I have a place to stay, but I've still got lots of time to kill. I land at about 8pm on the 17th, my interview is at 11am on the 18th, and my return flight leaves at 8pm that same day. So okay, maybe it's not LOTS of time, but there's a good several hours in there where I will be bored out of my mind, and since checkout is at noon on the 18th, the only thing I can really do once my interview is over is hang around the airport and wait for my flight. Which means I have a new request for all of you:

Anyone have any idea of stuff I can go site-see in Chicago? My transportation is limited to the CTA system and airport shuttles, since it's cheap and a taxi would be WAY to expensive, but if any of you guys have any suggestions on places I should try to visit while I'm there that'd be awesome. Or, for those of you that know people in the area, if any of your friends or family who you were going to ask to put me up for the night aren't too terribly busy, I'd love to be given a mini-tour or something by someone who actually knows the place. So yeah, if anyone has any ideas of stuff to do that's inexpensive and fairly easily accessible from the O'Hare airport, I'd appreciate it.

Okay, here's the deal.

I have a job interview in Chicago on June 18th. It's for a flight attendant position so the company I'm applying with is covering my flight expenses. I'm on my own though, for transportation and hotel. My flight gets in at about 8pm on the 17th, and leaves at 8pm on the 18th. So here's my question:

Any of you in the Chicago IL area or going to be or know someone who will be that I could potentially crash with?

I know I can book a hotel room pretty easily, but I'm really low on fundage right now and it'd be amazingly helpful to me if I didn't need to book a hotel. I can use CTA for transportation and I'm pretty sure I can cover bus fare, so I'm not looking for anyone to pick me up from the airport, but a place to sleep for the night would be really REALLY helpful. If you know anyone who might help me out feel free to give them my email address or phone number or anything they'd like information wise. And of course I'm more than willing to talk to them myself.

So yeah, if you can help in any way, I'd be eternally grateful.