Hm, so I was wrong...

Foreshadowing: I woke up at 5:30 this morning and wasn't too sure where I was...

Listen to this as you read:

John Legend and The Roots - Wake Up (Arcade Fire cover)

Thanksgiving was good.  16 hours to Williamstown, MA, I was pretty eager to get out of the back seat with my Grandma, she kept waking me up to offer me clementines.  We spent Thanksgiving with my Aunts, Uncles and cousins and their husbands/boyfriends.  We played football, which is not a tradition for us, so that was weird but fun.  On Saturday we drove south to Greenwich, CT, which is practically in New York.  I have an Aunt there and she had a bunch of family over.  They were the family members that you hardly see though and the average age was around 65, so it was pretty boring.  I was really tired and there was nothing to do, so I fell asleep at 7:30.  We left Sunday and got home around 7 PM.

That night I went to Caliendo's with Squires, we played some darts, she won 4 games to 3.  We were there til pretty late, like 2ish.

Yesterday, things started out great and then just spiraled out of control.  I woke up around 11, made an egg sandwich with bacon.  I went to Cardinal and worked out.  At 3 I met up with Steph to do a wine tasting at Tasting DeVine. It went well, I can't remember if I did the November tasting or not.

After that is where things got not good.  We wanted to follow through on our pact to do 4 Loko hands, so...We went to a few liquor stores and eventually found Joose, so close enough. Ok, so we went to her house, chatted with her mom a bit.  Sean joined us and we played a round of screw the dealer. I was gauging my tolerance off of when I had 1 and a half four Lokos in AA with Sweeney.  So I was drinking pretty fast and it should be noted that all I had eaten was that breakfast sandwich and some bread bits to "cleanse the pallet" at the wine tasting. Anyways, we started playing Kings, but I do not remember finishing the game.  I kind of remember her brother, Greg, and his friends coming downstairs, but very vaguely.  I puked a few times, sooo bad...So I woke up at 5:30 this morning, in her basement, I texted her, she came down around 6 and took me home.  I think I was still a little messed up, I couldn't fall back to sleep probably because of the energy side of the Joose.  I woke up again at 11ish.  That...is not how I envisioned the night going.  I probably only had the equivalent of 1 Joose, but just not having any food in me was really the difference I think.

So in parallel with what Cassie and Stev hypothesized, we are still very far from being adults in some senses.  Maybe next weekend! haha...Isn't it New Drink Tuesday?

Some of you saw this already

Here's to overcast days (great for hangovers),

Chin

Who Will Survive in America

I've been struggling to wake up at reasonable hours these days, as in, around 12:30.  I think it's because it's getting colder out, so my bed feels way better than anywhere else I could be.  That being said, I have to wake up at 5:50 tomorrow to get on the road to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving.  I'm sure I will go back to sleep in the car, but it will be no where near as comfortable as my bed.

Anyways, after I woke up I wrapped some DVD's for the Xmas gift exchange we are doing with our family while in MA.  I bought Cool Hand Luke and Shawshank Redemption.  I worked at Shane's with Gordon.  My ex-girlfriend, Steph, is in town for Thanksgiving, so I shot her a text.  Her, my old friend Sean, and I met up at Caliendo's around 8.  She invited Sean, I don't blame her, it was a really random meeting, I don't think I have had a real conversation with her for about 6 years.  She went to U of Texas, where I thought she had become some crazy party girl.  From what I gather, she did do a decent amount of partying, but she still seems like she hasn't changed too much.  We all talked for about an hour and a half, made plans to hang out when I get back from Massachusetts on Sunday.  We'll see what happens, tonight was random enough but it was also a lot of fun.  After Caliendo's, I drove to Drabik's because he got into town tonight.  We went to Muldoon's to chat a little.  We were met by an old high school classmate, Tom, who would not leave us alone.  I had a beer there and then Dre and I just headed back to my house to talk and watch the Bulls game.

I kind of wish I was not out of town for so long because I am going to miss a lot of my friends coming back into town.  Meh, I like seeing the family.

Here's to old friends,

Chin

The Good Samaritan

I had two opportunities today to do something exceptionally helpful.  There were some pretty severe thunderstorms today and I saw some people with a car that had broken down.  I think I should have pulled into a parking lot close by and helped but it was a crowded intersection and I decided to just make it home safely myself.  Also, I went over to my buddy, Moran's house tonight and on the way back I saw a dog wandering around.  It was about 1 in the morning so I continued driving.  The dog had a tag and everything, so I felt bad afterwards.

I would like to think that I am the kind of person that would stop for situations like this, but apparently, I'm not.  So my goal/theme now is to stop and help people/animals like that.  I want to just do away with the whole theory that the more people that are around, the less inclined we are to help.

Like I said, there was some crazy weather today, tornado watches and stuff but that did not deter me from driving to Target after working out to pick out some DVDs and the new Kanye album.  At Target, I saw one of my classmates from high school.  From what I remember, he was a pretty smart guy and he was working at Target.  Now, I wasn't happy to see him working there, but I took comfort in the fact that he was also having trouble finding good work.  I'm really starting to see that it's just not me.  However, that does not change my mentality towards engineering.  I still think starting up a business with Drabik would be awesome, but I don't think I should commit to a plan that is still very iffy.  I suppose we'll see, I do think I will have a lot more job opportunities at the beginning of the new calendar year.  Talking with Anderson tonight, I told him I think the only engineering I could see myself doing at this point/being capable of doing at this point is engineering sales.  I feel that I know a lot, but not a lot about one particular subject.  I also think that, socially, I am very capable of driving good sales and working well with clients.  If I did get a job that was strictly engineering, I think I could learn/remember enough about what I was doing, but the problem with that is that I suck at technical interviews so I don't think I will ever get the opportunity.

Here's to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,

Chin

Ricky! Back to back!

The days have been filled with call of duty.  Stev will appreciate what happened to Ricky and I the other day.  We were playing Zombies with 3 of us.  My buddy, Nick, went down so Ricky and I had to keep us alive for the next round.  I yell on the mic, "Ricky! Back to back!".  It was a great plan until Ricky and I saw each other on our respective screens.  We had overcompensated the back to back and died promptly after that.   Just a funny story.  Then last night, Ricky, Brandon and I played some.  WE each grabbed some drinks and played together, good times.

Today, I woke up at 9 to go have breakfast and go on a bike ride with Squires.  We stopped by my friend, John Ryan's house to say hi, he will probably help me out with the beer hunt tonight.  I'm watching the Michigan game right now and will probably play some COD afterwards.  Mr. Fulton contacted me about a job opportunity, so we will see where that goes.  By the way, my beer hunt might be a little less festive than your guys' but I still think it's a great idea.

To clarify my last post.  When I say "control", I don't mean the person who usually initiates or calls or whatever.  Squires pointed out that the one who has control is usually the one who cares less.  Unfortunately, that's true to some extent I think.

Here's to the Michigan offense,

Chin

Where there's no right or wrong, there's emotion

Work today.  It was really busy for some reason, Shane's cut down the labor to 2 in the evening.  It was Holly, who is kind of slow, and myself.  She spells "lettuce", "lettus"...she could just write "L" but she chose to spell it out, meh...we got a long fine in the end...Call of Duty the rest of the night, I played with my buddy from Mexico, who was in the marines for 4 years and 2 of his friends from the corps.  It was pretty intense, playing a war game with 3 war vets.  I always felt inadequate and that they were always covering my mistakes, it was probably more mental on my part.

Control.

I just had a great talk with Drabik.  The talk got me thinking about how control works in a relationship.  I think now is a good time to talk about it as I feel that my connections with any relationships that could institute a "control" factor are at a minimum, which is a great feeling.  So, I've been in positions where I've relinquished my control in a relationship and it's pretty hard to get some of that control.  Examples, I gave Lexi all the control when we dated, the worst is that I gave it to her voluntarily.  I think once I realized I lost that control is when I became dissatisfied with our relationship.  So the moral of that, don't let them get control, right? I, personally think, no.  I mean, if it gets to that point, then, yes, getting control is important.

I think, however, that a good relationship should not be so dependent upon who has control.  Look at your best friends, control isn't an issue and everyone has a great time.  Obviously, with people we may be attracted to, it gets complicated.  We want to hang out with them, sometimes all the time, but we find ourselves playing silly games.  It's not right to expect them to be as available as we are nor to expect them to want to see us as much as we want to see them.  Sometimes both parties are just that crazy about each other, Cole and Kurt.  That's not a bad thing, though.  Other times though, I have gotten the feeling that I have become a bit OD with girls.  Upon realizing this, I have found myself literally composing texts only to erase them deciding it wasn't the right thing to say or that I had texted them too much already.  It should never be like that, but as humans are often emotionally driven, it is frequently the case when control is a factor.

I think the best way to combat this is to act like you have control, to them and to yourself.  The example I used was Roger Clemens lying about steroids.  He lied to himself enough that even he believed he didn't take drugs.  Even though they might have control, tell yourself that you have control.  Eventually you will gain that control because you've essentially "lied" to yourself for a couple weeks.

I guess the interesting thing about control is that it is based completely upon the mentality of the person who doesn't have it.  So if that person can change their mentality, they change who has control of the relationship.  Either they gain control or, better yet, no one gets control.  It becomes a non factor.  I think most early relationships, dating wise, start with control as a factor.  I think most successful relationship, dating wise,  continue with no one controlling the other.

Believing this is easier to do than applying it though, somehow...

Here's to lettus,

Chin

Can we get much higher?

The lack of blogging is an immediate result of the new Call of Duty coming out.  However, tonight I stopped playing early because I have an interview tomorrow!  The company is called Delta Mobile Systems and they are located in Schaumburg, about 30 minutes north of Wheaton.  I have been waking up earlier all week so that I can be in good form for my 10AM interview.  I got the interview through a friend of my Grandma's at the Sport Center.  I'm not exactly sure what the job is, which is a little unsettling.  The only posting they have on their website is for a C++/C/Java programmer with 5+ years programming experience.  Programming certainly wasn't my focus in school, but if that's what I'm interviewed for, so be it I suppose.

After the interview, I am going to head to Carmax to sell the minivan.  I had some good times with that car.  Taking it to and from AA a lot, almost crashing in it with Sweeney the last time I took it up.  Piling into it to drop drunk volleyball girls off at random places, only to loop around and pick half up to go elsewhere.  Going to Grand Rapids to visit Traz, West Lafayette to visit Anderson.  Yes, she will be missed.

My days have consisted of eating a late breakfast, trying to review notes for the interview and playing COD.  I have also been going to the movies a lot with Fabian.  We saw Due Date last Sunday, which is hilarious.  Then, we saw Unstoppable on Friday, which was crazy intense, I highly suggest it, I mean c'mon, it's Denzel.  Wheaton also just got a Chic-fil-a, so we stopped by there, it was a madhouse because it just opened but the service was great and we got our food quickly.

I don't have any cool pictures to share, but here's the screen grab of Sweeney and I outside of Rick's while Cassie is getting into a cab.

You can kind of see me waving!

Here's to the Montana,

Chin

Sweeney...I don't knowww...

Oh my, what a great weekend.

The visit to Ann Arbor was worth all the anticipation I had for it.  Aside from Uzi, I got to see everyone that I wanted to see.  When I got in on Thursday night, I didn't even park at Hotel Arch, immediately to Rick's where I met up with the Waithe's and Stann's girlie, Cassie, Sweeney, Saint, Stowe, and Jack.  They were all playing Chandelier at a table, so I hopped in.  We danced for awhile then some of us crammed into my car to go to Hotel Arch.  I insisted that we go to E Stadium for food, even though I didn't get anything.  Cassie ate everything her and Jack ordered then I dropped her off and went to Arch to sleep.  Stev and I played footsie all night but had a great night's sleep.

Friday, we woke up, watched toy Story 3 with the Arch guys.  At noon, we went to Benny's for breakfast because that's when Cass had a lunch break.  She had a huge Plotchman on her neck from Sweeney.  We went back to Arch and the guys slowly left to get to practice.  Stev and I headed to the track around 3:30 to say hi to everyone.  The first thing Fred told me was that the new managers are getting payed, that sucked to hear, but its ok I guess...good for them.  Lizzie gave me a huge hug, admittedly, it was good to see her, even though she doesn't seem to be very welcome at Arch.  We went outside to watch the guys and decided it was way to cold so we went back to Arch.  Mike O got in around this time, then when Sweeney got back we went to Applebees for dinner.  Picked up some beer for the evenings festivities and began our night.  We played quarters most of the time.  Trying to think of what we did once we left, we ended up in line a blue lep, but the line was too long so some of us left.  We ended up going to Quickie Burger where we ordered some pitchers, at this point I was pretty bad.  BP and Lauren came.  we went back to Arch where I passed out in the basement.

Saturday was game day, I spent the entire morning recovering while we watched Michigan pull out a 3 overtime win.  We went to Main St to eat at Grizzly Peak, it took an hour and a half for our table but it was worth is, even though Saint missed out on a ton.  Sweeney bought 2 cases of 4 Loko and got a can for free.  That kept me good for the whole night.  We played cheers governor, some recruits stopped by, we turned the strobe light on.  Eventually, we left for the volleyball party.  I got to see Ju and a lot of the team there.  Some LAX guy broke a window and Sweeney and I sang and danced on it (WalkinOnWalkinOn BrokenGlass).  BTB Party bus came and took us to Rick's.  Sweeney an I thought about it for too long and didn't get into line until it was too late.  we tried to cut but we got caught.  good riddance, I think we had a better time than if we went down there.  We went to BTB cantina and had a few drinks.  We went  back to Arch and talked until 4:30, even including daylight savings.  I slept on Joe's couch.

Sunday morning I woke up to Sweeney, Mike O and Stev laughing at me for grabbing my crotch while sleeping.  Stev left.  We went to Benny's again, ran into all the vball girls.  I said bye to Ju for one last time.  Thinking about it, I may not see her ever again, which was very sad to me.  With her going to Puerto Rico, I don't see a realistic way of our paths crossing again, unless I vacation in Brazil or her and I are visiting AA at the same time.  Lizzie was also at Benny's, Mike O said she could stand to lose 10 pounds, she's really tiny in the first place, I still don't know why he said it haha.  It was funny though.  We went back to Arch and watched football.  Sweeney went to practice so I went to Brookwood to visit Lizzie.  We talked for a good hour or so, then I went back to Arch to hang out before I went home.  Saint and I opened the locked door in the basement.  I finished watching the Lions game and made my way out.  It was sad saying good bye to eveyone, the drive back gave me a lot of time to think about all the good memories.

Now, I'm back in Wheaton, waiting to go to Target with Fabian to pick up some for sale signs for the minivan and Black Ops.  Carmax will buy the minivan for $2500, great choice!  I figure I will drive the gas out of it first, save some money that way and still try to sell it until my week of decision expires.  I'm glad to see that AK has been reading these posts haha.

Here's to Ann Arbor,

Chin