I caved, and Cassie would be upset...

I bought a new videogame.  Sorry Cassie, but I know you won't be as upset because my playing shouldn't interfere with your NCIS or Law and Order watching.  The new Halo is sweet though.  I bought it during my lunch break at Shane's today and played it while watching The Office, Always Sunny, and The League.  All are quality programs.  Other than that, today I submitted my references to that Baxter company and replaced some speakers at Shane's.

Tomorrow morning I will wake up at 9:30 to go for a run at 10.  Then, I will probably play reach for awhile, stop by Shane's for my paycheck and then head to the city for Anderson's surprise birthday thing.  I say "thing" because I feel that at 23, he's not having a birthday party...well, I suppose he could, but we're going to dinner and then the bars, not really a party...

Anyways, I feel I should mention that on Stev's second to last night here, when we were at a bar, we witnessed a woman reaching around a man's waist and feeling underneath his shorts, kind of like a reach around.  It was really gross, they were at least in their forties, but we laughed and laughed.  Later, they came outside and I think Chuck shook her hand.  I hope that never happens to me.  First off, I hope I'm never at Rosie's with my wife.  Second off, that's pretty messed up.  Third off, reach around's at that age?  I think it was Stev who said he would enjoy them at that age, Chuck and I adamantly disagreed though.  I think we took Stev's words out of context.

This picture is for Cassie, because she's not on facebook.

Here's to Anderson, it is his birthday

Chin

Wake up call

So, I planned on sleeping in today...again.  However, I was woken by my phone ringing at 9, by a woman who had seen my resume on I think monster.com.  At first I thought it was one of those Aflack calls, but I found out its a job for this place in Round Lake, IL.  It's about 1.5 hours north of here and the job would involve using Excel to process these complaints for this company, Baxter Healthcare, who released over 200,000 faulty colleague machines.  Those are those machines that administer the doses of IV fluid in hospitals.  So, there's around 200,000 of these complaints and I would be expected to process 30-40 of these a day.  Sounds simple enough, and the pay, although it isn't full time, is $25/hr.  That's a decent amount of money and I am definitely considering taking the job, I think I'm going to interview with them in about a week.  I still want to hear back from that law firm as well, so keeping my options open.

I fell back to sleep after talking to this woman and processing all this information and woke up at noon again.  So technically I still did sleep in.  I didn't do much else today, I helped Ron fix our kitchen sink and Skyped with Chuck for a little.  I went for a run with Callie right around when it started to get dark and watched TV for the rest of the day.

Welp, that's all really, I'm working all day at Shane's tomorrow.

Here's to opportunity (Stev's good friend),

Chin

Jokes

Another day at Shane's, another good time.  I feel like I'm repetitive with the Shane's talk, but I really like working there.  I didn't really do much else aside from Shane's, so here's a thought...

I was in a pretty good mood today and I think it was all cause of one good joke...that was told about 5 years ago.  Here's what happened:  I had to go change out the diet coke syrup this morning.  Now, when the syrup runs out, the machine in the basement makes this repetitive hissing noise.  It's loud, not annoying.  Also, the downstairs of Shane's is dark and wet.  This machine is just racks of soda syrups with tubes sticking out of it.  It was while I was downstairs that I thought of the joke.  5 years ago, a coworker, Marty, changed out some coke syrup and claimed that it felt like being in a submarine that's being attacked.  Obviously, you had to be there, but this joke...it just must have gotten better with time, much like a fine wine.  Now, these jokes are knock knocks or "What's the deal with..." necessarily, although they could be.  These are the jokes that remind you of good times passed with good friends...Today's joke, paired with working at Shane's, put me in a great mood, that I'm still in.  So I want to point out some of the funnier times, not really jokes, I've had:

-Meeting Cassie.
-Sweeney picking up Bianca at the foam pit party...and all the excuses we came up with to host that party...(wheeler getting level 60 or 70 in WoW, my Quinceniera, Grant doing well on a test or something, I can't remember Stev's reason)
-All of the Florida Spring break at Lani Kai (Sorry for making the Florida vacation reference Stev).

Odd, it's hard to think of things off the top of my head, but as I think of funnier moments, I will be sure to record them.

Here's to jokes,

Chin

Bear Downnnn

Alllright, I'm a Bears fan.  Yes, I would have always chosen them in the past, but now...you can expect me to try to learn everything about them, just as I have with Michigan's football team.  Anderson and I watched the game together tonight, first half at the Bank, second half at Anderson's house.  There was actually this kind of cute bartender working at the Bank, but as Stev warned me, careful of bartenders...u know they just want the tips.  However, she intentionally undercharged us by 2 beers each, so, take it as you will...

Today was actually relatively productive, I applied for 2 jobs and called that law firm back.  Shortly thereafter, I received an email from said law firm asking me to submit my cover letter, resume, and transcript.  I immediately did and I am now again inspired with the thought of being an electrical engineer...not.  I feel that working in a patent law office would be very different from working for a place like Motorola, so I am more excited about this opportunity than the others.  The other two jobs I found off of monster.com.  After applying to these places, I checked the mail and sure enough, the security deposit had come!  I immediately ran to the bank to deposit that ish...It felt great...today I also made sure my degree is being processed at the school and took care of some car insurance business, its actually been a very productive day.

Tomorrow is Shane's, looking forward to it...I've really always enjoyed working there, we'll see how things work out once Drabik finishes school (we're thinking of taking over Shane's and expanding it)...

Today's profound thought was on friends...particularly guy friends.  To me, it's just interesting how almost all my friends from high school are guys, at least close friends.  It all goes back to the whole platonic thing.  Guys can get in fights, but, c'mon, we're friends.  So today I applied that mentality...Yesterday, running with Callie, she was like, "We should watch the Bears game tomorrow!"...I agreed, but afterwards, I thought, "I kind of want to watch the game with Anderson"...Sure enough, Anderson called me today wanting to watch the game, I agreed, feeling that Callie would bail and sure enough I got a text from Callie while walking to the Bank with Anderson, "Hey, Jenna is watching the game with her fam, so I think I'm just gonna stay in tonight"...and I was just fine with that.  I think that from now on, unless a girl gives me a definite, "Yes, let's hang out tomorrow night, here's the absolute plan, blah blah blah", I'm just going to talk that as talk and not reserve myself for them the following night, it's happened way too many times...

Here's to DA BEARS,

Chin

A familiar day

Today was almost a carbon copy of yesterday, only instead of college football, I watched professional football.  Seeing as it was the weekend, I can imagine a lot of people share this same type of day.  I didn't go out to dinner with my family today because they went all the way to the city.  I stayed home and watched more fooseball.  At 5, I met up with Callie to go for a run, something I haven't done since Stev and I ran that one day.  After that I did big 10's and a push-up complex.  Sadly, I'm sure I'll be pretty sore from that because I've been inactive for the past 6 weeks-ish.  After all that, I watched more fball and heated up some leftovers for dinner.  More football and now I'm in bed about 3 hrs earlier than I am accustomed too.  It's good though, because maybe I won't wake up at noon.

I think tomorrow I am going to try and apply to some more jobs and call that law office downtown back.  I haven't had any profound thoughts recently, hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post something more interesting.

Here's to the security deposits coming tomorrow,

Chin

"I love game day"

Title thanks to David Sweeney.

Picture thanks to David Sweeney.

First day with no Stev.  I woke up at noon and made my way over to Shane's to meet up with Nicole, who is in town this weekend for her Mom's birthday.  We had lunch and caught up on life.  Afterwards, I went home and watched the rest of the Michigan game then watched more football until it was time for dinner.  My family and I went to Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue restaurant in Wood Dale, it was great.  I came home, watched more football, and here I am now.

I was just on careerbuilder and monster and found that none of the jobs appealed to me.  So I went to the Burton Snowboards website and applied for the "Full-time sales representative" position at their Chicago store.  The cover letter was weird because I'm sure they don't care if I'm an engineer that can speak Spanish, but I was still qualified for the position.  I guess we'll see.

Here's to non-engineering jobs,

Chin

"You know what they say...a lint is a shells best friend

Props to Angelo Z. and Nicole G. for this video...

Marcel the Shell"

So, Stev left today.  Sad, sad day.  It marks the separation of the last two 1502ers that coexisted.  My hope is that although our physical distance grows, we never grow distant socially.  Technology these days makes it unacceptable to forget about one another.

Stev and I went on a bike ride to target and kohl's to get some stuff for me.  We then went to Wheaton so Stev could get one last sandwich from Shane's.  I think he enjoyed it.  After some Smash, I took him to the airport.  I heard recently that the human body is not meant to perceive strong emotional events.  Dropping Stev off was a testament to this.  We exchanged hugs goodbye, but it really didn't hit us that, this really was the last time we would see each other for an indefinite amount of time.  We talked about how we would get something arranged by years end, but as everyone has moving pieces in their lives, nothing is for certain at this point.  When I left for Mexico, I knew I would be back in Ann Arbor to move stuff, but now, there's no necessary reason to see each other.  It's just nuts, 4 years of friendship and seeing each other almost daily, cut to now seeing each other maybe 2-3 times a year.  I suppose it's all a part of growing up...sad, sad day....

After getting home from the long ride back from Midway, I met up with Chuck and Anderson.  We went on a search for Sam Adams' Octoberfest, couldn't find it, and ended up getting some other beer.  We played some Asshole, Anderson had to go home around 10 because he has flight instruction early tomorrow.  Chuck and I ran to the local gas station because he was crazing a black n mild and some Mickey's.  We got home and Squires came over.  Funny side story, Stev and I made some frozen pizza the other night but I put in the pizza upside down so it all dripped to the bottom of the oven.  I had just finished telling Chuck and Squires about that when we started to smell burning upstairs. I went upstairs, it was around 12, and Ron decided to run one of those oven cleanings and it was sooo smoky.  He asked me if I had put something in the oven that could have caused the smoke and I said "Well, I mean, aside from the frozen pizzas, I haven't used it much"....So there's one of those lies that I hate telling, but I just didn't want Ron to think I'm that stupid, that a pizza looks the same right side up or upside down...oh man...

So from the 4 years I have known Stev, what is the most important thing I have learned from him...

I think the most important thing he, specifically, has taught me, is to always seek the truth from people.  Like, there's the light conversations people have (shootin' the shit) then theres the conversations Stev has with people.  With his style, you can find a lot out about a person, more than a casual talker would find out in months.  I've used this method many times and it has helped shape and advance important relationships in my life.  Maybe Stev would agree with me, but people like to share private information, but only if asked.  They don't want to bring it up out of the blue, but if you ask them a more intimate question, they will feel inclined to tell the truth.  Especially with people the just met....Maybe there's more behind that, but I don't feel like thinking about that....So thank you Stev, you've helped me become a more real person that looks for the truth in people.  I don't have much of a reason to get up before noon tomorrow because Stev won't be downstairs, so I'm feelin a 2 or 3 oclock wake up...

Here's to Stevann because whatever he ends up doing, we all know the fight will ALWAYS be on,

Chin

A Slow Day at the Office...Again

Today, Stev and I grabbed some lunch with Chuck.  I say lunch because I have been waking up at roughly 12:00 everyday.  Such is the life of the unemployed.  Then I went to Shane's to work, good times.

Tomorrow evening I'm taking Stev to the airport.  I've had a great time hanging out with him since we left for our road trip.  It's sad, from here on out the rest of my activities will be done alone, all the "we" will be changed to "I".  Life in Wheaton is about to get very, very boring.  Hopefully this will accelerate my job searching and I will be off being busy again soon.

Here's to the 1502 legacy,

Chin

"Tomorrow, we'll go back to being friends"

First off, Sweeney is a cool guy, he's not boring, but he's also not crazy outrageous nuts...he's even keeled and he has his priorities straight, although he comes off as cynical sometimes, he generally speaks the truth.

Today was fun, Stev and I saw the Town, which was actually better than I thought it would be, there was a lot of action.  We went to my grandma's for dinner where Stev refused to try the tree fungus, and from what I could gather, he wasn't too fond of the "woody" okra, no one was really.  Tonight, we went to Rosie's for our last night of heavy drinking...with Chuck.  He's headed off to Spain on Monday and I wish him all the best with his future endeavors.  I'm still waiting to hear back from this patent law firm downtown.

Today I was thinking about what it means to be friends with someone who has a significant other.  How close can you be with someone until you become more than friends?  Does that put them or you in fault if something physical happens between the 2?

I believe that the guilt, should there be any, should lie on the one who is betraying the boyfriend....Ok, so to avoid having to remain so vague...I will refer to the generic people as "her/she" and "me/I"...I think that the guilt should fall on her, I would treat her the same, should she be attached or unattached.  Why then, do I feel the need for closure?  Is it because of the nagging of my friends or is it just my own wishes?  I'm fine, really, with just being a squeeze, however, I am still concerned about how she feels about it.  I think that she has to feel some guilt, if not a lot, especially considering that they use the L word.  If she doesn't, then I question their entire relationship and refuse to believe that she genuinely cares about this guy.  Even more strange is that she is comfortable with telling me, ME, that she hung out all weekend with her boyfriend and they danced...blah blah blah, had a great time...I feel that she literally thinks of me as a friend with benefits.  When I called to get clarity, it went to voicemail, so I suppose I might find out tomorrow...I'm vexed, but I'm not losing sleep, I feel that the weight should remain on her shoulders and I have other concerns to deal with.

Excited for tomorrow, I'm working the afternoon shift at Shane's and then catching The League with Stev.  It's also Stev's last night in Wheaton and I want him to have a good "last impression" of the town and of myself.

Here's to pseudo-confusion (which is more confusing that confusion),

 Chin

"How do you shoot the Devil in the back?...What if you miss?"

Nothing of note happened today, I had another great day working at Shane's...man, if I could pull a decent salary working there, I would have no problem with that...Tonight Stev and I watched one of my favorite movies, The Usual Suspects.  This movie got me thinking, why do we lie?

There's so many different types of lying, some hurtful and some playful.  By playful I mean things like putting salt in Cassie's sugar container.  Yes, she was mad, but Stev and I were able to enjoy a good laugh the other day.  Cassie, I know the memories have to make you laugh at least a little.  Then laugh a little more when you remember that Wheeler, who was in on the joke, drank his salted tea because he was too involved in WoW.  So yeah, thats the playful kind of lie.

Then theres the hurtful lie, the ones that we hold deep inside, maybe tell a few people it's a lie, but generally remain silent on the matter.  Sometimes these are lies by omission, verbal lies to save you own image.  Sometimes we lie casually, even though it could hurt someone else.  These are the lies that I don't understand why I make...

My theme this Summer was to be completely honest with people.  I tried this with a lot of people and I really have enjoyed the results I've seen.  I was honest with all my peers in Mexico, partially because of the whole "I'll not see most of you ever again" mentality, but also because I wanted to use my new theme.  It felt good to not have any secrets that people could hold against me, and most of the time...the truth wasn't even that bad.  Example, in the past, playing volleyball at Elbel field...I would ask tons of people, and most people would respond with enthusiastic agreement.  Then, when it came to game time, it was hard to scrap together even 3 v 3.  It's just like, be honest with me when I ask in the first place, say "You know what, I probably can't make it because...a)I'm too tired, b) I've got a lot of work to do, c) I don't actually enjoy volleyball, d) I don't actually enjoy you."  I wouldn't have problems with any of those responses, however, if d were true, there'd probably be some follow-up dialog.  But why do we fabricate these lies in the first place?  It just results in frustration anyway.  Granted, at the time, the person may be thinking that they really would like to play volleyball...but I think they need to really think more before they sound so committed to things...Example, I invited Uzi out to play some but he straight up told me that he probably couldn't make it because he was helping his bro move in.  In that case, no harm done, I knew not to expect him.  Then there was the entire Z15 house, save for Sweeney, who seemed so excited to play, then I don't think any showed up.  I mean, they were very busy with moving in to their house, Sweeney was the front desk manager for hotel arch...but just tell me that you'll be too busy.  I find myself in situations similar to this nowadays and I have just learned to give or take credibility from people.  Also, I have tried to only commit to things that I legitimately want to do.

Don't get me wrong, I love lying, but in the playful sense..."The suits? Oh, it's our buddies bachelor party", "Ve're zee Schnei Schnei twinz, vee verk vith Chumbawumba"...I hate lying in the manipulative, insincere, and shallow sense, I am guilty of this type too, but I feel that I have curtailed this a lot in the recent years and it has changed my view on life.

Pictures are random today...random in the sense they were taken ages ago...

"The inevitable outcome"

"The improbable outcome"

Chin

Another Weekend in Chicago

Well, the weekend was bound to be a good time with the shows, it was just a matter of how good of a time we had.  I like to think that we had a great time in the city, but it can really wear down on a person.  On Friday, we decided to pregame for the show at 2.  However, we were still in Wheaton and the show didn't start until 7.  We hung out with Anderson, he had finished flight instructing early and had some beers while playing asshole.  Stev and I then ran to the 4:54 train and made it just in time.  On the train I finally got to try one of those Joose things, not too bad, I can see why all the housemates liked them.  We then stopped at my sister's apartment and got the extra key and had a chat.  We finally got to the show around 8:15, but we only missed Jason Mraz, which we decided we were cool with when we decided to take the later train.  The first night was good but no completely unexpected songs, although they their Talking Heads "Burning Down the House" cover, which I've always liked.

After the show, Stev and I made our way through the thick crowds to John Barleycorn, a place we went earlier in the Summer (can't believe that was this Summer, seems like forever ago), with Cassie and a couple of my Wheaton buddies.  The place was packed and the dance floor was a bit overwhelming, as expressed by Stev's face:

drinks cost a ton and we decided to leave for Duffey's.  The walk to Duffey's is soberingly long though and by the time we got there all I did was use the bathroom and say hi to the bartender.  It was actually pretty late at this point and we headed back to my sister's to sleep.

On saturday, we woke up to gray skies and fairly heavy rain.  We were starving so Steph gave us a rainbow umbrella to use.  A rainbow umbrella in the heart of Boys' Town Chicago for 2 guys, I'm sure people got ideas about us.  But hey, our server at the Melrose St Diner was quite friendly.  After lunch, we trekked southward back to Duffey's to watch Michigan irk by UMass.  It wasn't pretty, but we won.  It's always a good thing when a team can find their own faults and still win the game.

We headed back to my sister's to get some R&R before going back to Duffey's for free bud lights.  Now, we wanted to be at Wrigley, a 30 min walk, by 8:30, but the free beer only went from 6:30 til 8:30.  So we drank at a good pace for about an hour and a half then made our way to Wrigley.  The second night was definitely better concert-wise, Stev got his Crash and I got my Last Stop.  We met up with Squires for a little but her phone died so we didn't hang out afterwards.

After the show, we went back to my sister's to enjoy a flask of McKormick's mixed with soda of our own choice, then we headed back to Duffey's.  Thinking about it, we were at Duffey's on three separate occasions that day, impressive.  After Duffey's we went to a bar also on Diversey, cannot remember the name, and we were there until about 3:30.  It was a late night....

Sunday morning we made the "longest walk of shame" home.  We sat in the basement the rest of the day and recovered from all the walking and drinking.

Today was a similar thing, we chilled, had lunch and dinner, went for a bike ride through Northside park and my high school, where there was women's flag football going on...oddly.  Then we went home watched the Saints' game and Smashed.  Good times.

Work at Shane's all day tomorrow, gotta make that money, til Chris gets us our security deposits back at least...idiot...

Now it's time to catch up on all the thoughts of a receptionist I have missed

Chin

Dmb show was tonight

Had a great time...I will update more on sunday

"Even a 3 legged dog still has 3 good legs to lose "

Today was roughhh...

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to prep myself for my 9:00 interview downtown.  Admittedly, I had very high hope because I talked to Mr. Terrazas about the position last week and he said that I could basically go into the interview and as long as I didn't drool on myself, I was good.  In fact, that was not quite how I felt during the interview.  I was greeted at the place by Andy and Sayeed.  Andy, who would be my boss for the internship, worked at the company but was also an engineering prof.  The internship was to be a quality assessment person for this "market making" company.  It was supposed to have little to do with engineering, but Andy started the interview asking me all about engineering.  I was definitely caught off guard and, needless to say, I would have probably been better off drooling...Towards the end of the interview, Andy confided that most people just plain don't like him, due mostly to the fact that if any under his supervision messes up, he gets fired.  He also pronounced me "uneducated", claimed I wouldn't even be considered for the internship had Mr. T not forced him to give me a chance,  and indicated that he thought I partied too much in college (this after meeting me 20 minutes ago).  I tried to explain to him that I was in Mexico for 2 months and I had not brushed up too much on my engineering.  That part is my fault, but the way I figure it, if a company can't understand that I just need to get enveloped in an engineering position (should I choose to be an engineer, which is questionable at this point...) then the company and I probably aren't a good fit for one another.  In all, I think Andy was just trying to scare me away from considering the internship, thinking I was underqualified.  Goood riddance, I hardly see myself taking this job...the guy made me feel like trash...

Walking back to the train station, I started to think "I can't answer even some of the most basic engineering questions...should I even be an engineer?"  I texted my buddy Drabik to discuss taking over Shane's together, I just really wanted no part of engineering at this point.  Obviously, the feelings were stronger then, than they are now and I will continue to look for available engineering positions.  Tomorrow I am calling into a patent lawyer firm to inquire about an opening there.  My buddy, Chuck, has done similar work and I feel that it could be something that would interest me.

I worked at Shane's this afternoon and had a great time with my coworkers.  Working there definitely improved my day and helped me forget that I'm "uneducated" (quotes because I really don't agree with that guy).  Stev came by as we finished closing up and we head to Tasting De Vine for a wine tasting.  Having not eaten anything, I was feeling it after about the 3rd of 8 glasses (they gave us 2 servings of one of the whites).  Stev and I had some good conversation and exchanged stories with Amanda, a girl who has been local to Wheaton with me since the 1st grade. We then had some beers at the neighboring restaurant/bar and rode our bikes back to my house.

I admit, I do feel that my life lacks direction at this point...but I still know that I want to excel somewhere.  I think that the combination of my general failure to get a job and running low on cash has given me this mentality.  So the goal is to find a job and get cash.  I love working at Shane's, but that's not a full time thing and it definitely is not enough money to support myself.

Tomorrow, Stev and I have the first of two nights of Dave Matthews Band shows at Wrigley Field.  It's going to be a great day, especially in contrast to today's.

Here's to Fridays,

Chin

Schnei Schnei especial...

Not too much today, took care of some insurance stuff with the cars...job interview tomorrow morning in the city for that internship.  I wonder what Stev's going to do while I'm gone.  Today's post is just a Schnei Schnei snippet.

A job I'm qualified to do, finally...

Today marked my first day at my new job at Shane's Deli, which is actually my old job that I held for 5 and a half years.  Last night I was admittedly a little nervous, whenever I do get a real job I'll probably pull a Stev while trying to sleep the night before.  Fortunately, the whole day went off without a hitch, the amigos were happy to work with me again and we never got too overwhelmed with customers.  The new workers there are plenty capable too.  I worked for 9 hours, from 10:30 til 7:30, with a 30 min lunch break with Stev and Squires.  This is my attempt to fit them both in a picture but they were on opposite sides of the table...

I've got an interview on Thursday morning for an internship at Infinium Capital Management in Chicago tomorrow.  It'd be a 6 month internship and it would have very little to do with Electrical Engineering, which...could be a good thing.  In honesty, I really just didn't enjoy engineering as much as my classmates did, in my opinion.

Tonight Stev and I watched The Full Monty, we're trying to watch a bunch of movies that were nominated for best picture awards in the past.  It was pretty funny, I'd suggest checking it out if you like male strippers and comedy...I guess...

Stev's blog about why girls have it good was pretty interesting, I definitely suggest you check it out on his page.  Cassie's blog was hilarious, even though she was probably not trying to be funny....

Chin

It was weird when it happened, but its funny now

Today was relatively uneventful.  I had to help my dad this morning because his spare tire popped on the way to the tire shop.  Stev and I moved a bunch of the stuff from 1502 to the basement of my house and made this pretty cool entertainment area.  We stayed in the basement until dinner and then had some really good brats and peppers from my family's garden.  Because Baltimore was playing today, we went to Bdubs to watch the game and visit Squires.

Getting out of the car at Bdubs, I noticed the crack in my windshield that SafeLite had "fixed" had grown to this huge crack at the bottom of the glass.  When we were about to go into the restaurant I called them.  That spurred this 25 minute conversation with Huey, some guy who told me that it was not SafeLites problem but they would refund me my money.  But its like, your job at Safelite is to remove cracks or at least prevent them from spreading.  They did the exact opposite for this car.  Thats like...if you went to Benny's and ordered a western omelet and instead received a kick in the groin from that lady who always messes up orders and a chicken parm.  Buuut, you would get it all for free, so you shouldn't be mad.  Its worse than that tho, because now I have to pay to completely replace the windshield.  At least insurance will pay for it tho.  Stupid SafeLite...

After leaving Stev alone for this time I finally went into Bdubs.  We watched the game, had some drinks, some wings and talked with Squires for a bit.  Ravens won but it was sloppy.

I got a job!  Stev had to remind me in the car that I start tomorrow.  Granted, its not going to be my fulltime job, its just a short stint at Shane's Deli to get some cash in my pocket.  I'll work a full day tomorrow from 10:30 til 7:30ish.  There's going to be some memories there, just completely new coworkers.  Hopefully it all comes back to me smoothly.  I'm still waiting to hear back from Motorola...

Hopefully Stev and I can do something fun tomorrow so there will be more to talk about...Til then, here's a step by step of how to Dougie by killer...and wheeler eating a banana milkshake.

Chin

"we can get off here and find a place to go"..."no, nope...im good now"

Chicago...close enough to wheaton to spontaneously go there, far enough to be a huge inconvenience to leave there...

Our trip to the city was a great time.  Feeling inspired after the michigan game, Stev and I decided to take the 8:54 downtown.  We got in around 10 and, after a colt 45 40, we stopped in the bathrooms at ogilvie and made our way to Duffy's.  At Duffy's, Anderson's old frat bro, Bryce, was working and we bought $20 all you can drink bud light and wells wristbands.  Losing the influence of the Colt 45's, Stev and I drank at a torrid pace, trying to get back to that level...This rate continued until 1, when the all you can drink expired, but Sandra had just texted me that they were at Hotel Victor, a club near river northish.  So we hailed a cab and made our way down.

After waiting in line for about 15 minutes stev and I got in and met up with Sandra and some of her friends/sorority sisters.  They had formed a seemingly unbreakable circle, which I really didnt notice, but it made it hard to interact with all of them.  Most of the people there were latino and there was music coming from all directions.  We danced until about 3 AM when Sandra and her friends left.  They left in a hurry and Stev and I were left outside with no idea what to do.  We hopped in a cab and headed back to Steph's apt.

I swear the cab ride must have taken 25-30 minutes because the driver took all these wrong turns, at least thats what I thought.

Me:  "Hey, why don't we turn left here, we're trying to get to Melrose"
Driver: "You want me to turn left from the right lane?"
Me: "Well, why are you even in the right lane?"
Driver: "Would you please just let me drive?"

This guy...we eventually got there and I had to wake up my sister to have her let us in.  She had made this makeshift bed for me and Stev slept on the couch.

Oh, Stev has the smallest/weakest bladder, I learned a lot about him last night.

I woke up a few times in the night and sometimes had no idea where I was.  When I finally woke up for good I though it was 9 or so...nope, it was 12:15...So we made our way southward to the train station.  This walk, deemed "The longest walk of shame" by Cassie, was miserable.  It was sunny, there was this festival thing and I was extremely hungover.  After 15 minutes of walking we hopped on the red line to get back downtown.  Another 15 minutes walking after, we got to Ogilvie.  We chilled for about an hour, waiting for the train and I worked on not being hung over.

Finally getting home we recovered for a little and got some Capri pizza for dinner.  We played some Smash and then met up with Anderson, who had been having dinner with Jackie.  We went to Dominick's and picked up a 24 pack of Bud Light.  We also got some spaghetti, Stev and I were hungry again.  We played Asshole for a good amount of time, but I think we had some good conversation during that time.  Suffice to say that I'm really grateful for my friends and the honesty we share with each other.

Chin

P.S. Bears got lucky with that call today...

"what's today's quotable?"..."hasn't happened yet"

Stev an I are on the train to the city...today we didn't do much, went on a run, watched the intense mich/nd game...and now were headed to the city to maybe meet up with Sandra and her friends. We'll sleep at my sisters probably. Tomorrows blog will contain the details of what happens tonight.

Chin

The crack is bigger now, but we fixed it...

First off, shout out to Dave Sweeney...he was a great sport for all of welcome week.  He played doorman, front desk and room service for hotel Z15 (I'm sure he would have done an escort service if asked).  So props to him.

As for today, not too much happened.  Stev and I woke up and went to Shane's and discussed what I would be doing for them in the future.  Turns out I'll be working Tuesdays and maybe some random shifts here and there.  Ideally, I will find a real job and only have to work there for a little.

After that, we went to SafeLite to get my windshield fixed.  Stev an I chilled at the neighboring Dunkin' Donuts for 30 minutes.  When we went to get the car, they made the crack in the windshield bigger, but apparently it won't get any bigger than the size they made it. Whatever...

We then went home and chilled.  Stev took his position at the laptop while I red deaded.  this went on for about 4 hours.  I have literally seen the mailman pass by my house the past 3 days now, just becasue I've been in the same seat each time.

After we got some food (twice), Stev and I decided to start makin moves.  We ended up driving to the nearby Mobile and picked up 2 40's each.  We then played Smash with random characters and random stages.  Terrible idea, but we each finished our 40's in prob bout 1 to 1.5 hrs (agreed upon by Stev and I later).  Then Squires picked us up and we went to Caliendo's for some fierce dart playing.  I won every game but the last where Squires actually cheated.  It was worth it though because she kindly took us to McDonald's afterwards.  I think if I won that last game she would have made us walk home, joking...

We had a good talk on the way home from McDonald's, conversations similar to those that I have had before.  When we got home Stev and I ate and talked some more.  We agreed to run tomorrow because I've been really lazy for the past month or so and it's starting to cool down so it should feel good.

So on tomorrows agenda:
Run

That's actually it I guess, so we'll see...

Chin

Schnei Schei Twins - Love, beats (ft. Killer Cass)

Road Trip in Summary

As my first post is coming way later than Stev's...I think I'll summarize my views on the midwest roadtrip.

Leaving AA
Truly a bittersweet moment.  After a day of drinking came a night of power houring, getting a frosh track student an MIP and resisting arrest charge, Zumee Zumee, and the rebirth of the Scnei Schnei twins.  Truly a great last night in AA.  The next morning my original plan was to leave around 10, however, after Benny's and saying all the goodbyes, we didnt get out until 11:30.  Then we had to stop by Killer's AA house to pick up my minivan bucket seats, and drop off the security deposit agreement papers, which apparently are null and void now, haha...not really (27.7% ain't bad...haha).  I will miss Ann Arbor, best 4 years of my life, by farrrr...

Akron
Akron was great.  I got to see my Mexico roommate, Angelo.  We had some of his family business' pizza, Guiseppe's.  It was the best. Angelo's girlfriend, Nicole, was hilarious.  Molly, another Mexico friend, stopped by and we got to catch up a little.  We went to U of Akron and pregamed with a frat then went to a bar called pints, where we had something.  Angelo succeeded in getting me pretty messed up.  We we got home we smashed on some pizza then went to bed in Angelo's tight basement (picture).  The next morning his mom made us bfast and we hit the road.

Bloomington
Getting into Indiana was the longest drive but it was well worth it.  We met up with Sandra, another friend from Mexico.  I took her to her last class of the day and also picked her up.  Meanwhile, Stev was off doing Stev things with Amy, his Bloomington sweetheart.  That night we got some beer and I made Sandra Arnold Palmer's with Burnett's Sweet Tea Vodka.  It was gonna be one of those nights.  We went to Kilroy's where Stev got us minipitchers of long islands.  Sandra was havin a rough time so I finished the remainder of hers.

Ft. Wayne
Ft. Wayne was nice and low-key, a good change of pace from the heavy drinking that had been taking place.  My Mexico buddy, Nick, is married and was in the Marines for 4 years.  We went to an Italian restaurant and caught up a little.  Nick took us out to a couple bars and at the second one I got a call from my Chicago job.  I almost immediately sobered up as I received the news that I didn't get the job.  However, I got offered a 6 month intership at the same place, which might be cool.  We left for Wheaton the next morning.  Which reminds me, I still need to pay a stupid toll I missed.

Back Home
So now we're back in Wheaton where I fill my day playing videogames that became cool while in Mexico and are no longer cool (Red Dead), applying for other jobs (this cool one that involves wind power and Spanish), and figuring out what we're gonna do at night.  Tonight we went to b-dub's to visit Squires, they were packed because of the Saints'/Viking's game.  Tomorrow Stev and I will go to Shane's to see if we can work there for a little to get a few bucks, then I have to go get the windshield of my car fixed.  All this should take about 2 hours.  What to do with the other 10 hours of consciousness is still to be discussed.

With this blog, I dont know if I will update it everyday but we'll see how long I can keep at it until I lose interest.

Stev's blog: ksoneaday.blogspot.com