tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18138085509534122024-03-05T04:03:43.369-08:00SKOneADayChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-57255010568221504822011-10-09T20:54:00.000-07:002011-10-09T20:54:53.651-07:00InsultsThe people didn't accept my offer on the house. That is in no way a bad thing though. I had intentionally low balled them. The only problem is that I went so low that I insulted them and they didn't come back with a counter offer. I feel like it is such a buyer's market right now though that they should have at least come back with an offer. Meh, there's a bunch of homes in that area with similar, if not the same, layouts. In fact, my plan was that if I couldn't get this home I would go for a short sell home across the street. I would have gone for the short sale first except it take about 3-6 months to finally close on a short sale. Stupid banks.<br />
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I made the trip out to Evanston yesterday with a couple of my buddies. We met Andre there and "tailgated" in the parking garage we were at before the Michigan/Northwestern game. We weren't exactly being social butterflies but we were having a good time. Evanston (I was born in a hospital there) was a lot different than what I would have expected. I knew it was relatively close to Chicago, so I could expect a strong bar scene. This turned out not to be the case. That apparently have 3 bars there, 2 of which we went to. The first one, Bar Louie, you all know is actually a chain. It was closed to the public that day with a $35 cover charge for 2 hours of unlimited drinks. We opted out of that but we had to stop by there to pick up our tickets. The other bar was called Delvin's (?) and it really wasn't anything special, they some outdoor seating I guess...So it was basically similar to my experience at U of I where I just kind of compared everything to AA and probably prematurely passed judgement on a lot of the campus life. Next place I visit I need to make sure I have a tour guide that knows the area. I imagine that if I never had been to AA and went to a football game I would probably end up at Packard Pub or something, not a true reflection of what we really have to offer. Side note, did any of you read the article that everyone on FB was posting about 36 hours in AA? I can't believe the writer said to avoid South U and State St, I mean, we're Alums and we still go there, haha. So the game was cool, we got to meet and talk with David Terrell (former #1 Michigan jersey wearer and mediocre Bears receiver). Here's the picture Moran and I got with him (check out the new kind of Mich colored Oakley's by the way):<br />
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So I am sensing that some of us are getting the itch to reunite or something, I can count 3 events that some of us have thought of:<br />
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1. Late October - Stev has hinted that he will be coming through to AA and Chicago.<br />
2. Late November - Sweeney was thinking of having a reunion for the Mich/OSU game.<br />
3. New Year's Eve - I think we should do NYE in Chicago.<br />
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Now, 2 of those occur in Chicago, at least partially, and I am probably down for driving out for the OSU weekend. So I will go ahead and say that I am in for all 3 (don't hold me to it though). However, I do propose that perhaps we consolidate and go for maybe just one event that all of us can do. Example, Stev in Chicago will probably just be Stev and me. OSU weekend might just be Cassie, Mike O, Sweeney and I (I can imagine Stev might not be too keen on spending all that time travelling to AA after having roadtripped there a month ago). NYE, weather pending, could have promise, but if there snow it might make the commute out from AA a little difficult. I'm just laying these thoughts out here now as I type and I think it would be great if we could all make all 3 events, but that would be extremely unlikely. I will let you guys think about it and please feel free to comment on what you think, as long as these reunions occur on weekends or major holidays (days where I will probably not have work, extended weekends would be best) I am down for anything.<br />
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Last thought, today I went to my company's new building where I helped strip carpet. The previous owners of the building used the wrong glue (ceramic instead of carpet glue) so it was extremely difficult to remove. I did have to laugh at the fact that the machine we used to remove the carpet was called "The Stripper" and when powered on, it vibrated incredibly fast and you really needed to lay into it with your hips to keep it under control and make it effective. Should have taken a picture...next time.<br />
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Here's to a Bear's win tomorrow night,<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-44134054271548206852011-10-02T20:50:00.000-07:002011-10-02T20:50:37.729-07:00High Ball or SlingA Manhattan Cocktail is either a High Ball or a Sling if it does not contain bitters. It's kind of funny how with drinks, there's a new name for it if one thing is changed, left out or added. When you order an Italian sub with no tomatoes, it's still an Italian. Imagine if you had to come up with a new name for that. Thoughts of a software engineer, alright!<div>
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This weekend was pretty good, I can't say I went to any predominantly Asian parties, I can't say I would ever have an interest in that, save for family reunions. I also can't say that I went to McDonald's while hungover and ordered a McChicken while watching daytime programming.</div>
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Nope, this weekend was very very low key. A great change of pace for all of you who have been thinking about doing it. Friday I just went to Muldoon's and hung out with some of my buddies, my friend John Ryan was in town for a little. Now, John is a good friend of Ebbert's, or as Stev would call him, Evert's. When I got into that fight with Ebbert in Milwaukee (did I write about that?), John had Ebbert's back and it left me wondering if I still enjoyed hanging out with John. Well, as it is, time heals all wounds and John and I were able to still have a good time. Then last night was Muldoon's again, but I'll spare you any of the details, nothing too interesting there. Oh actually one thing. A bunch of my buddies and I were drinking in my basement with Ron and Maya's new dog, "Yoda". I completely abhor the name. In fact, his name before they adopted him was "Bo". Yes, as in Schembechler. I wanted to keep that name but they changed it. Anyways, we were hanging with the dog and we were all calling him Bo and I think he was loving it. We also were letting him jump on the furniture, something Ron doesn't want him to do. So Bo is going to be pretty confused as long as I'm still living at home. He won't know his name or right from wrong, demn!</div>
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I got a wedding invite in the mail the other day. It was for Nicole's wedding. Nicole is that Taylor girl who I really liked in the past. I always told Drabik that I was not going to go to the wedding, but when I got that invite I couldn't help but think that I actually do want to go. The problem is, I would not be going to be happy for her, on the surface I would appear that way, but I would be going to critique everything about her fiance. So before I could get the chance to second guess myself, I marked "No" on the RSVP. Now, I don't have to buy a wedding gift either, and a penny saved is a penny earned.</div>
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Speaking of saving, I'm thinking I'm going to make an offer on my first home this week. I found some nice town homes in Bartlett. They will be very close to where my company is moving and they are extremely affordable right now. Basically, the place is a 2 story, 2 bedroom, and 2.5 bathroom unit. There's a big loft that could fit a third person, too. I have a few friends who seem interested in moving in, but I made sure that I can afford this place on my own too. So big week for me on that front!</div>
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For another thought, I was wondering the other day, which of the following is better? First, here's the scenario: You hang out with some girl for a night, be it with a group of friends or one on one. You end up exchanging numbers because you see interest in this girl, sober or drunk. She sends the follow up text in the following days but you find that your attraction to them has faded and it was really just a one night kind of thing. So here's the options. a) Do you respond to the texts but continue with excuses as to why you can't hang out again? Or, b) do you ignore the texts completely and wait out the storm? I ask this because I have had a girl do 'b' to me and I was pretty pissed off about it. Granted, she did respond, but usually it was days later. However, I have come to agree and think that 'b' is the better choice. I mean, with my case, it took me about two texts until I realized that it wasn't going anywhere. In my most recent case, I was the other member of the party, I was the one that they were interested in. I actually took the 'a' approach, thinking "well, it'd be mean if I just ignored her". So I responded with excuse after excuse. Eventually, I did just stop and I think it probably pissed her off more than it would have if I just ignored her in the first place. Hopefully I don't find myself in situations like these anymore though because I'm really wanting to not even have to think about things like this.</div>
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Here's to them accepting my offer,</div>
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Chin</div>
Chinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-89771773381764260082011-09-25T21:23:00.000-07:002011-09-25T21:23:44.906-07:00Thoughts of a Software EngineerAnother week down. It's really starting to get dark early, I hate that. I've got a pretty big week ahead of me at work because we are having a lot of important guests at the company, so I have to make sure that I look presentable and keep myself occupied. As they say, dress for the job you want, not the job you have.<br />
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This weekend was another great time. Sadly, T-Raz got into an accident on the way home from work on Friday, so his car is pretty messed up. That being said, Friday night I committed to making sure he didn't get to down about the accident. We played some pong in my basement, went into quintuple overtime on our last game. We then went out to Muldoon's and walked to Rosie's. On our way to Rosie's, we got into a good conversation about religion and Christianity. I essentially played the devil's advocate while Todd formulated responses. By the time we actually decided to walk into Rosie's, last call had already finished up so we just called it a night.<br />
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Last night was a night that Sweeney would have been proud of. I went downtown with Anderson and a few of his Purdue buddies. We dressed nicely and did the River North bars. Found this great bar called Fleming's (like Ricky!) that has drink and food specials on Saturday nights, which is a rarity for the city, especially River North. Barnes met up with us and got up to speed pretty quickly. A lot of the night blurs along but of course we all got split up. Dre and I stuck together for the most part though. I just talked to Anderson and apparently we wanted to go to this salsa club but there was $10 cover. I remember I was getting extremely tired out at the bars, to the point where if I sat down I would have passed out. Dre and I took a cab back to Anderson's condo (passed out in the cab), then we went to McDonald's and the Redhead Piano Bar. Somehow we all got reunited by the end of the night and headed back to the condo, I think.<br />
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All in all, nothing too crazy this weekend. Today was all recovery. Watched the Bears lose, Lions are looking good. I saw Moneyball tonight. It's a really good movie, it kind of feels like an ESPN 30 for 30 only it's an 2.5 hours long and it's acting, not a documentary.<br />
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I hope that I start getting some good thoughts to harp on, kind of how Cass does in her blogs. Sometimes recapping the week can get tedious and I think you guys probably get tired of hearing the same old stories. Let me know what you guys think, is there anything specifically I should write about? Does this get repetitive?<br />
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Here's to a reunion in October,<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-12189399681524157062011-09-18T20:24:00.000-07:002011-09-18T20:24:27.592-07:00Hello Old Friend(s)If not mandated by Sweeney, there's a good chance this blog wouldn't be updated tonight. So thank you David for getting me back on track, hopefully.<br />
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I guess the main reason for my absence from blogging has been a lifestyle change. No, it's nothing huge, there's no "Craig" in my life, just little things that affect my nightly routines. I have been working out in the mornings with Todd so I have to wake up pretty early and I usually am in bed before 10:30. I'm also in a softball league that starts games as late as 9:30, so no time on those night either. Either way, I'm upset I went so long without writing (or reading). It will be cool to someday go back on blogs from months, even years, from now and remember, "Oh yeah! That was a great weekend" or "I can't believe I felt that way" or whatever.<br />
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So what have I been up to? Reverse chronological order would probably be easiest. This weekend I went to U of Illinois to watch the U of I vs. Arizona State game with Todd and Fabian. We had a great tailgate, something we really didn't get to do too much of our last years at Michigan, so it was fun seeing all the festivities. Going to Champaign, I new I was going to have this "Oh, Ann Arbor does this way better!" I tried to keep my comments to a minimum because it would have gotten annoying to my buddies. Seriously though, it's out in the middle of cornfields and smells like manure (they have a great agriculture program). I was hoping the bar scene (Green St.) would be fun but it really just seems like the student body there drinks to get drunk (not to socialize) and then tries to get in fights (not say hello, literally and 1502-ally). Alas, I digress.<br />
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I guess some of the bigger news in my life comes the the form of my future living situation. Since my last post, I have moved back home with Ron and Maya. Originally, I was looking at some apartments, but I have since been convinced that purchasing a town home is the smarted route in today's market. Basically, the gamble is that to turn a profit on a town home, you have to live there for at least 7 years. I'm pretty happy working at Delta Mobile, and I think they like me there, so 7 years seems very doable for me now. The cost is a little higher than an apartment, but the money goes towards something that will help me in the future. So far, I have looked at some great places, I'm hoping to have made a decision within a month then be moved in before the first snowfall (not looking forward to that)<br />
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Last weekend, I stayed in Wheaton, mostly, and hung out with Todd and a few of his Calvin buddies. It was kind of their first reunion since they graduated, so I was glad they wanted to include me. On Saturday night, we watched that epic Michigan v ND game. I was so pumped after that, my night could've have easily ended there and I would have been happy. We went to Naperville and went to a few bars, had a few drinks, danced a little and mostly talked. Good weekend. Oh, I also went to a nearby horse racing track with my mom to watch some races and do a wine tasting. Definitely a good time, I would suggest it as a date kind of thing, very affordable.<br />
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I don't want to harp too much on the weekend before that because I have talked to most of you about how that trip to AA went. It was a ton of fun, I'm glad we didn't follow the itinerary very much and just kind of had a weekend that would have been similar to if we were still in school. No outrageous shenanigans or anything, even though Wheeler doing trust falls was hilarious. Just a good weekend of catching up with 1502 and the rest of the crew. I was glad that I got to see Uzi a lot because we hadn't been able to meet up during my previous few visits. I was also glad that Traz came with because I think he had a good time and it's nice to have someone to talk to on the long ride.<br />
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The weekends before that start to blur together. There were a couple weekends when I went downtown to hang out with Barnes and his friends then others where I just hung out with my Wheaton friends. David and I got to catch up before he left for DC, it was a bittersweet moment, I thought he would be around Illinois a little bit longer but he has that great opportunity now. Plus, it's 2011, we can text or call anytime, so it's not so bad. He will be missed though.<br />
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These coming weekends I plan to do a lot because it is starting to get cold and I want to irk out as many activities as I can. This includes heading downtown with Anderson, he's back in Wheaton, and going to the Michigan vs. Northwester game on Oct. 8. Anyone who is in the midwest and with some time should come visit in Chicago before it gets too cold, could be fun. I'm sure I will have things to write about from those weekends, but I am going to try to update every Sunday night, maybe even once over the work week too.<br />
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Another reason I haven't written is that I have been watching a lot of Modern Family, that show is awesome. Season 3 starts on Wednesday and I suggest you all watch and maybe even try to watch the first 2 seasons. I'll have to keep up with House and the Office too.<br />
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I will read all your guys' posts tomorrow, during a break at work. I already see a picture on Sweeney's so I look forward to reading all the posts.<br />
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Here's to gettin' back on the wagon,<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-89113402320649135822011-07-12T17:19:00.000-07:002011-07-12T17:19:47.671-07:00Taylor Made<i>Get cozy, this is a long one...</i><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">Collin mentioned that maybe if I do get caught up with the events, I will feel more inclined to write more often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So here’s the Sparknotes version of what I had done up until last weekend.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>June 11</b> – My birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Free beer at Duffy’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to get everyone in our group to go to Lion’s Head Pub with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was unsuccessful and left alone but just headed back to my sister’s apartment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I realized that I didn’t grab enough keys and couldn’t get in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I hailed a cab and headed south to a party that Barnes was at.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a penthouse party, really cool actually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone gave me a drink of just straight Effen, gross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I promptly headed back north because I realized I ditched my whole group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, a bunch of them got worried I ditched them for good so they took the 10:40 train back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jake was in Wrigleyville with a couple other friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hung out for awhile, then Jake and I walked back to my sister’s and I had to climb the side of the building and break in through a window that led to the stairway, thank goodness it was unlocked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall, pretty dysfunctional night, spent about $60 in cab fares and lost all my friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve learned and it won’t happen again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, Sweeney missed his train so he couldn’t get there either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moral of the story: Stay with the group.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Late June</b> – I met one of Jake’s friends, Sarah H.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really cute girl, 25% Korean, doesn’t look it though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met her at a fire she was having at her place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jake and I went over there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah and I kind of hit it off, there was interest at least.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next night, I had a bonfire at my new house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t get Sarah’s number the night before so I was relying on Jake to get her over to my house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around 10:30 or so I had kind of given up on her making it over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got to “chocolate” status, figuring why not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around 11, Sarah and her friend showed up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dangit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah and I went on a walk to a local playground which was also the elementary school she went to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told her about 3 times that I wanted to kiss her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Foolish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a complete pig, but we did have a good talk once we got back to my house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently I did well enough to get her number, not a complete waste.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A few days later we went on a date.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hadn’t been on one of those since probably Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hadn’t been on one with a girl that seriously like since probably Alexa, dang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyways, I was nervous the whole day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t eat lunch and I was freaking out that I was going to seem like a real dork.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I picked her Sarah up at 7 and we went and got sushi at this place called Ra.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a trendy kind of hip restaurant and the conversation was actually really good, I think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Afterwards, we went back to her place to watch a movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Little Fockers is a terrible movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her basement is really cool though, she has that Lay-Z-Boy theater style seating with the huge flatscreen, Nice!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Afterwards, we said out good-byes, not 1502 style, but that was ok with me because she seemed like she could be more than just a hook up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The weird thing was that while driving back I was kind of bummed, not because of how the date went or that I didn’t get a good-bye kiss, it was more that we didn’t seem to have too much in common.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I woke up the next morning and decided it actually was a good date, I was just bummed because I got used to the Whitney’s and Sandra’s who gave more instantaneous results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sent the polite, “Hey, I had a good time yesterday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should definitely hang out again sometime”. text the next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her response came about 24 hours later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bad sign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few days later I just texted her to see how she was doing. No response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s really where it’s at and probably where it will stay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moral of the story: Sarah is a Taylor girl, which I am learning is the shady cousin of the Wheaton girl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stev, I know you don’t like to hear of these misadventures, but they happened to me and I know you’ll have some good insight.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Even Later June</b> – Sweeney came out to Wheaton for a weekend!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to the beach on Saturday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to get a bunch of my friends to come out but they were all busy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It ended up being just Sweeney, Squires and me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We actually had a great time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to North Ave beach, had some drinks then played some Frisbee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Squires brought a friend, really funny girl, great personality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spent a good 3 hours in the city then headed home.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Lxk8zhFqPiZwCcDclKo1pJPYZtfGMBm4JZF0EfF14eK8HKMUzWhiikT3PNpOh4ILin-VYZ2Nk-qTdcip08kgDJXrAnUwOZJIpqOIHuLK0Bis3N_hs1J6DQlHKf0I8U9cHW_PJVCccCY/s1600/SweeneyBeach.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Lxk8zhFqPiZwCcDclKo1pJPYZtfGMBm4JZF0EfF14eK8HKMUzWhiikT3PNpOh4ILin-VYZ2Nk-qTdcip08kgDJXrAnUwOZJIpqOIHuLK0Bis3N_hs1J6DQlHKf0I8U9cHW_PJVCccCY/s400/SweeneyBeach.JPG" width="298" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Still in our bathing suits, we went to Tasting DeVine, Wheaton’s local wine shop and did a tasting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Squires left after that and Sweeney and I made our way to Muldoon’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This random kid, Ari, befriended us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He bought us car bombs so we felt kind of obligated to hang out with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the night wore on, some more friends showed up and entertaining Ari became quite a chore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He came with us to Rosie’s where he started getting pretty rowdy with some of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We managed to keep him quiet until last call at which point he walked back to my house with Sweeney and I.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sweeney ditched me and I had to walk Ari all the way back to the train station, about a mile out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told Ari he has to stop insulting people who he becomes friends with because he’s going to get beat up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After I dropped him off, I ran back to my house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sweeney’s and my car were still in the street so I parked Sweeney’s in the driveway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no room for my car at that point so I drove is back to my home home, about a mile away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I ran (again) back to my new home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was pretty exhausted after all that.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Overall, great weekend with Sweeney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moral of the story: I still like mixing my different groups of friends together.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>July 4 Weekend</b> – Sweeney persuaded me to go to AA with him to help him move a desk chair back to Oswego.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would it have been of equal or lesser cost to just buy a new chair?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most likely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That just shows how little of an excuse I need to go back there haha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cassie was at her cottage and Uzi wasn’t around either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, Mike O came out so the 3 of us plus Saint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went light on Friday night, chilled with some longest islands and got prepped for a good Saturday of festivities.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Saturday started with breakfast at the Broken Egg on Main.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around noon, we cracked open the bucket o’ Margarita.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That got us going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around the bottom of the bucket, Saint got home and we headed to Café Habana for the happy hour of Mojitos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt pretty well composed, but Saint still commented that he didn’t realize that we were already as drunk as we were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it was one of those where the first thing to lose its sobriety is your gauge of how drunk you are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember I kept stepping back and thinking, “Oh, I’m not too bad”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After making fools of ourselves at Habana (Mike O was literally barking at the waitresses) we headed to The Arena for some food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that I think we made our way to Charlie’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we had a few pitchers or something then went to Rick’s to get our stamps for later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one was there but we stuck around, Sweeney has a great supplementary video for that part of the weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went back to Charlie’s where Adriana found us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s 21 now, yay!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t have been there for too long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On our way out Sweeney got flagged down by a car full of 4 black people, 1 guy (Corey) and 3 girls (girl A, B, and C).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They asked Sweeney, “How do we get to Necto?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sweeney said something along the lines of, “Oh you go this way that way and um…Ah, I’ll just come with and show you”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this point Sweeney and I hopped in the car and they drove us to Necto.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We kind of ditched the rest of the group, just a terrible habit that I’ve gotten into.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be honest, Necto was not half bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have that stage thing which is a good 3 feet above the rest of the place, so you get that feeling when you look out over Rick’s only you’re even higher up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ended up saying hello to girl A, B, or C.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That went on until last call, when I realized that Sweeney had left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I jetted out of there and called Sweeney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was in the Diag for goodness knows what reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran over there in my new and uncomfortable Sperry’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We found each other and walked back to NYPD, just for old time’s sake. We went to Benny’s the next morning then packed up and headed home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sweeney and I stopped and picked up firework in IN for the Fourth of July festivities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We both dropped a cool $80 at Krazy Kaplan’s(!!!).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">That night, July 3, was a great because I didn’t have to work on Monday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went to Todd’s older bro’s house where he had tons of drinks and food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We watched the Wheaton fireworks and then lit off some of the ones I bought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a pretty low key night and we headed back to my house afterwards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We watched the first half of The Big Lebowski until everyone passed out.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On the fourth we went fishing all day at a local lake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I caught 2 fish!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really tiny fish though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That night we went and watched the Glen Ellyn fireworks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Way better than the Wheaton ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jake has this one friend who I’m really starting to despise, on a Cadence level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This girl, Heather, she’s just very selfish and says some really stupid things mostly because she doesn’t seem to have a filter on her mouth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has this boyfriend that she always talks about marrying; meanwhile, she’s in the backseat feeling my buddies inner thigh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I nicknamed her buzzkill, but I don’t think that does it justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a bunch of other things she’s done that I just don’t feel like mentioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fireworks were impressive though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moral of the story:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can do a lot with a 3 day weekend.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzUMVFsUPXYvP4wwwz0VRFr7EdMpcPdvjUzK0vA9oUABRpCh9ap4w3g9yot2LmCoE4b-V9exbzXMWON3NLa_6Ir5l0lURXYXr0rQILaCxT5MeI7BJTwJQHldyeu7Nyalqr_UErdnXtdyM/s1600/Fishing.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzUMVFsUPXYvP4wwwz0VRFr7EdMpcPdvjUzK0vA9oUABRpCh9ap4w3g9yot2LmCoE4b-V9exbzXMWON3NLa_6Ir5l0lURXYXr0rQILaCxT5MeI7BJTwJQHldyeu7Nyalqr_UErdnXtdyM/s400/Fishing.JPG" width="298" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>They were really small...</i></div><div style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1.5pt; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Now, finally, I can talk about this past weekend.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I left work around 5:50 because I was way too excited for the weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jake and I had been invited to Detroit for a Party Bus with some friends that Saturday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figured that it only made sense to head out on Friday and spend the night in AA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I swung Jake’s and picked him up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heather (buzzkill) was supposed to come with us because she know our friends who were having the party bus but she bailed earlier that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pretty selfish of her because the party bus came out to $34/person so when she decided not to come, everyone had to pay a few more bucks, basically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>AND, it turns out she didn’t even have any other plans, she just decided last minute that she didn’t want to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aggravating, but back to the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I picked Jake up and we headed to Ann Arbor. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got in just before midnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Saint, Ethan, Jake and I headed to Charlie’s to get some longest islands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was going for a carbon copy of the weekend before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know, low key night, rest up for the party bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXA8PBIE7wtosBQqsOdJ5U2gGoA_mtpFgFExYq6UxG3HBfSt_v1aT9YnCWR8aspX0f0E7FY-cxJqz_LyQin-3dqFqmjUcjd3mF2WHyXTySGhxRd6kb5MjorqHwzBJK21aTrdNb74npxaI/s1600/JakeIsland.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXA8PBIE7wtosBQqsOdJ5U2gGoA_mtpFgFExYq6UxG3HBfSt_v1aT9YnCWR8aspX0f0E7FY-cxJqz_LyQin-3dqFqmjUcjd3mF2WHyXTySGhxRd6kb5MjorqHwzBJK21aTrdNb74npxaI/s400/JakeIsland.JPG" width="298" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Somehow, Rick’s got into the equation and we ended up there until last call.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the way, Ethan only ALMOST got his ID taken, maybe I am starting to shed this curse of the under-21ers getting their IDs taken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jake and I picked up some food on the way back to hotel Arch and ate what could very well be my last meal in that house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jake and I got into this great conversation of our goals for the party bus so we decided to take a walk to further discuss the plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked all the way down to 1502, where I took the picture and sent it to some of you, then walked back to Arch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got to bed probably around 3:30 that night.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4zDqOxP2OGjodvWw_6HmcmPrSjyi_WAqoLz4iaaMpqYrWoW7t3UNBRzc4zVuk5jDikEKjLRh2-CTMuWegsceorz4kHvmZhSPrMt5jlxmc_d0_U6Y0liVwrHR_bcURhyphenhyphenPDfBHsv0_l3s/s1600/1502.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4zDqOxP2OGjodvWw_6HmcmPrSjyi_WAqoLz4iaaMpqYrWoW7t3UNBRzc4zVuk5jDikEKjLRh2-CTMuWegsceorz4kHvmZhSPrMt5jlxmc_d0_U6Y0liVwrHR_bcURhyphenhyphenPDfBHsv0_l3s/s400/1502.JPG" width="298" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We woke up around 11 on Saturday morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t have to be in Farmington Hills, where the party bus was starting, until 7 that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cassie came by around 11:30 and we went to Benny’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ7qybvvkxl3CIxsrWnvZOBeAunWkR1mcUa9SzrvTR0oBMmZNkzqAz15iztv31KeTZOGUTOdjuKwVZTRXTGrqEIjRluVjM3P_3mj7GotMNQDzKEgZdUldn_ETrFXQ7KjVWAnhHMbDZGaM/s1600/CassSaint.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ7qybvvkxl3CIxsrWnvZOBeAunWkR1mcUa9SzrvTR0oBMmZNkzqAz15iztv31KeTZOGUTOdjuKwVZTRXTGrqEIjRluVjM3P_3mj7GotMNQDzKEgZdUldn_ETrFXQ7KjVWAnhHMbDZGaM/s400/CassSaint.JPG" width="298" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When we got back, Jake and I got ready to play some sand volleyball and meet Uncle Craig, Cassie’s newest, and first, boyfriend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s a pretty cool guy, really good at volleyball.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Him and Cassie definitely don’t seem to be the lovey dovey type when in public, although I guess he did send her flowers at work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess grew up near Chicago too, nice!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hopefully that’ll get Cass to come visit more often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyways, Cass and Uncle Craig didn’t even play on the say doubles team, in fact, you wouldn’t guess they were dating from the vball interactions, honestly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Cassie, that’s not a bad thing, it shows that you’re not one of those couples that gives up their entire social life for one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I approve and I think he’s definitely a great guy, even though you don’t like to hear that you have a boyfriend still.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, you smile every time anyone says it, soooo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After vball we showered up then Cassie came and picked us up to go to Dominick’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a half pint of their sangria, delicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We talked with Uncle Craig and Co. where I learned most of the aforementioned things about him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a bit, Jake and I excused ourselves and headed back to hotel Arch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We finished watching Hall Pass, a pretty funny movie, said our good-byes and headed to Farmington Hills.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When we got to Mel(issa) and Sarah’s apartment, we were greeted by a pretty buzzed version of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they weren’t buzzed, they were certainly very happy that we got there safely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I presented them with my gift of Pear Grey Goose, idea compliments of Uzi, which was well received, even though we didn’t need to open it quite then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked around to the porch of their apartment, as they live on the first floor so it opens up to the lawn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our buddy, Chey, was there already and he brought two growlers of some delicious beer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We began our pregame and eventually the rest of the group of about 20 arrived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Out on the porch you could see the complex’s outdoor pool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I turned to Sarah (not the same Sarah that I went on the date with) and said to her, “You know, there is about a 90% chance I am going to be swimming in there when we get back from the party bus”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Long story short, Dobs and Luginbill were there and the three of us held down the kitchen area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After we finished the growlers I grabbed the Goose from the fridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t find a shot glass but I found this weird round metal cap thing that was exactly the right size for a shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because it was round on the bottom, it became “The shot glass that can’t be put down” for the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a bit of doing shots of Goose and Freezee Pops (I think I’m onto something there) someone alerted us that the party bus had arrived.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Let me start by saying that party buses are awesome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This isn’t your BTB party bus or anything, it has stretch limo seating then, because of its height (and just because), it has a pole towards the back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our bus driver, Chuck, was really cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dobs and I asked him the craziest thing he has seen on his bus and he claimed that he was carting a bachelorette party around and they requested he pull over so they could pick up three random guys and perform oral favors on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Risky…Anyways, I hopped on with the Goose in one hand the shot glass that can’t be put down in the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few things about party buses:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are like portals that lead to random places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They make you feel more inebriated than you actually are because of the movement. Also, they are very conducive to dancing of all flavors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gave, did not receive, a couple lap dances and the pole was usually too packed to get to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first stop, surprisingly, was a McDonald’s parking lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess some of the girls had to use the bathrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People in our group felt that because they could drink on the bus, they could just wander into the McD’s with beers and stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all got yelled at, haha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was in a responsible mood at the time and tried to keep count of those getting off and on the bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Getting stuck at a McD’s parking lot at 9, drunk, would be terrible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chey and I befriended these two kids on bikes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They weren’t even asking for money, but Chey gave them a $10 and told them to buy themselves some hamburgers and fries. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They immediately turned their bikes around and headed to the gas station across the street, Chey you idiot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got everyone back on the bus and headed off again.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The next stop was Royal Oaks, MI.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pretty big bar scene there and when Chuck dropped us off at around 10 he told us he would be returning at 1:30 to pick us up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ok, I guess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My time in Royal Oaks was relatively uneventful, I spent a lot of it at this cool bar called Woody’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dobs, Lugi and I were together most of the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first floor of Woody’s is kind of like a BDubs, then you have to pay $5 to get to the 2<sup>nd</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> floors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We weren’t about to pay, so fortunately as we were sitting trying to think of a way in a girl came up to us, licked the backs of our hands and pressed her hand against it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she removed it, her stamp had come off onto ours, nice!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes things just work out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My stamp looked terrible but the bouncer didn’t seem to care at all and he restamped us all and let us up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had we decided to pay, it would have been worth it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were tons of bachelorette parties on the 2<sup>nd</sup> floor, or maybe just one huge one or something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2<sup>nd</sup> floor was where we danced and everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor was actually this huge rooftop that opened up to the skyline, very cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like I said though, relatively uneventful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spent the night floating between these two floors, dancing, cooling off and repeating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We left around 1 to meet up with some of Dobs friends at another bar then headed to the corner where the party bus was picking us up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We eventually got everyone together and headed out.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Chuck told us we couldn’t dance on the way back because he had blown an air suspension or something, we could only dance at the stop lights, bummer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we only hit about 2 stop lights on the way back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still had some Goose left and was handing out some of those too.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When we got back to Sarah and Mel’s apartment, a lot of the group went back to another friend’s to sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not being able to dance on the bus kind of killed the party mentality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only ones who stuck around Sarah and Mel’s were Jake, Chey, this guy Jamon, Sarah, Mel, and me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually Sarah and I found ourselves back out on the porch where we had a nice talk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I turned to her and said, “You know I said I was going to want to jump into the pool”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was pleasantly surprised when she agreed that she wanted to so we walked over and jumped the fence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Starting to get a sense of where the night was headed, I stripped down to my draws and jumped in just next to where Sarah was dipping her feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shortly thereafter, she jumped in too. I guess the real kicker here is that Sarah is a Taylor girl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To my delight, the 1502 routine proceeded, proceeded lightly, but still. Then that Jamon kid came up to the pool fence, playing coy asking things like who we were and what we were doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh Jamon, apparently he thought he had Sarah “in the bag”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shooed him away only to have him and Jake return to the fence 10 minutes later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began yelling muskrat to Jake, the code word for get the mess out of here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So they wandered off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some more hellos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We eventually got pretty cold so we got out, walked back to the apartment, and put on some dry clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t quite ready for bed so Sarah and I walked around the area for a good hour or so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got back I passed out pretty quickly, turns out it was about 5 AM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess Sarah, Chey and Jake stayed up to watch the sunrise while Mel and I were just passed out.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I woke up around 10, grabbed some eggs and coffee that Chey made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jake woke up around 11 then we freshened up and headed back to Wheaton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a disposable camera with me that night so hopefully those pictures can get up sometime soon, shed some light on the night’s occurrences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall, awesome weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Got some good Cassie time and learned about party buses.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here’s to mini summer vacations,</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Chin</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">P.S. Stev it was the lower left girl :/ Upper right was a bartender in Wrigleyville...</div>Chinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-531511593524800952011-06-28T21:56:00.000-07:002011-06-28T21:56:00.488-07:00Un-In-June-E-UsIt's getting to be way too long between posts for my. The older these memories get, the harder it is to remember the details. Maybe I can gloss over some of the details and try to get a little more current.<br />
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So, my buddy Jake's birthday was June 5th. On the night of the 4th, we went out to Muldoon's where it seemed like it would be just another Saturday night. I began chatting it up with this girl, think of maybe on the low side of kind of cute, nothing to write home about (just to blog about). We were talking and she had clearly had too much and she seemed like she wanted to have an "adventure" of sorts that night. Here's a quick game, try to guess which girl it is...(I'm in this habit of staying out past sundown and sometimes I have my sunglasses on me all night. Really, I don't find the Frogskins to be very attractive on girls, agreed?)(Also, is it weird that I'm taking these pictures and posting them, is a line being crossed here?)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RXvp_rihatM9Pe2tO0ItwoIaNJFPHNk27suCN8k6d7BGThhPwVHM52VmSRJO8u1KAukjsPh-0xWO7gJ2U5cQ4s-c45AV9WHiu7PoXd1SYPJ9-2UiluNGQGzR4IaTHQ8wozAgNNmNQ-4/s1600/BartenderWrigley.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RXvp_rihatM9Pe2tO0ItwoIaNJFPHNk27suCN8k6d7BGThhPwVHM52VmSRJO8u1KAukjsPh-0xWO7gJ2U5cQ4s-c45AV9WHiu7PoXd1SYPJ9-2UiluNGQGzR4IaTHQ8wozAgNNmNQ-4/s320/BartenderWrigley.JPG" width="239" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8yOqDfaxU_xua15IDbW0m38s1NbPnqOTrDl4fgtkwu_0X0YHj-QIdMvK5ilb3PqQZEuzzlb59-QrKi-QclPnrjLFs8Xqw_e65v9nA0WITjRE350HZT5ksUO1PAZjZ7i-p_QWHzWCWUg/s1600/DT.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8yOqDfaxU_xua15IDbW0m38s1NbPnqOTrDl4fgtkwu_0X0YHj-QIdMvK5ilb3PqQZEuzzlb59-QrKi-QclPnrjLFs8Xqw_e65v9nA0WITjRE350HZT5ksUO1PAZjZ7i-p_QWHzWCWUg/s320/DT.JPG" width="239" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVWMKxBZCuRo3iScRSL2f3GoTTUbh-52XjdZM7AH2JdsfTM-BvUiYSb9e1_w5AJeXDb07-TQ2kjyuFwdiwq2tBAqzMQU5az8s81sasflq3zTAipXxvvU92wmpEOK3itYF2GonJUXSKo8/s1600/Paige.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVWMKxBZCuRo3iScRSL2f3GoTTUbh-52XjdZM7AH2JdsfTM-BvUiYSb9e1_w5AJeXDb07-TQ2kjyuFwdiwq2tBAqzMQU5az8s81sasflq3zTAipXxvvU92wmpEOK3itYF2GonJUXSKo8/s320/Paige.JPG" width="239" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD8MgcA2SnfY6pxbSxykFH1VWCpyuihW0oXpWYZFyCQRJs1Fqs8mtTV56exDyUrmQUr2vWmD8uMPYnXmX2o_6JSbSAPELMa0HtND6J6RKRzP2WZZ_hYzQ0o3LY7EOuUYTopAb3nN2smA8/s1600/Carissa.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD8MgcA2SnfY6pxbSxykFH1VWCpyuihW0oXpWYZFyCQRJs1Fqs8mtTV56exDyUrmQUr2vWmD8uMPYnXmX2o_6JSbSAPELMa0HtND6J6RKRzP2WZZ_hYzQ0o3LY7EOuUYTopAb3nN2smA8/s320/Carissa.JPG" width="239" /></a></div><br />
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When midnight came, I bought Jake a shot of Jack, I think, and told my new friend to go ahead and give him a little lap dance. Surprisingly, she obliged and Jake had a great time. I took notice of his enjoyment and decided I would try to set him up with this girl tonight, that's a good birthday gift, right? Anyways, we went to a house party after Muldoon's was closing.<br />
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This party was a little weird, the kind where you lose the desire to drink. Lots of guys, and aside from the two girls we brought, there were maybe two others. I guess a lot of guys shared my mentality because more and more of us began congregating outside, where there was little to do but better than being in a house of dudes. There were two guys there, classmates from high school, we brought them there and they really didn't know anyone. My buddy, Jeff, was good friends with the guy hosting the party, and then for some reason the two kids started jawing at Jeff. Eventually, Jeff was telling them, "Hey, no one is making you guys stay...so you can just leave if you don't want to be here". They started giving attitude and said they would leave as soon as someone brought them their 30 of PBR they brought. Jeff went downstairs to get it (he didn't want them back in the house) and came back up with no PRB. There was no left, they didn't believe that so they started getting mad. Eventually, one of the guys swung at Jeff. Now, Jeff is pretty jacked, he played football at Taylor, and the man can definitely be a fighter if called upon. One of the kids was so drunk he was probably more of a hindrance than a help in the fight. Needless to say, Jeff won the brief fight, all of 3-4 minutes, before it got broken up. As Jake walked one of the guys out of the garage, he broke free and blindsided Jeff with a right hook. Jeff was facing the other way, so he didn't see it. He took it fine, turned around and tackled the kid into this ceramic pot and then just started wailing away at his face, it was crazy! The kid couldn't stand after that. There's something about hearing fists land on flesh and skulls that I am just not comfortable with. I was feeling pretty uncomfortable with the situation so you can imagine that someone announced they were calling the cops, I wanted to leave. Jeff was my ride there and I know he wasn't about to leave. <br />
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So I quietly walked off into the night, didn't say goodbye to anyone, just left. Now, I've run to the general location of where this party was before, a good 2 miles from home if I take the Prairie Path. The Prairie Path is this path in DuPage county that goes through the woods and it is very inviting during the day. At around 3 in the morning however, it's one of those creepy sights where if you saw the entrance you could probably see about 5 feet in until it enveloped in darkness. I started walking through the Prairie Path and when my eyes finally started to adjust, I made sure to note the closest climable tree wherever I was. There is a history of coyotes on the path. I always thought coyotes looked like wolves until I saw one about 2 months ago while on the way back from work. The ones in Wheaton also have mange, this disease that makes the really ugly and kind of creepy...(kind of like this)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ-2CujfMf0qq8SI2wmQTTuTmoahQSA4syGneQgKxNYHq7V1anE" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway, if I wasn't still a little drunk, I probably would have not made that walk. The whole walk I was just thinking of how messed up the fight was. I realized that I really hope I never get into a fight, I just don't think it'd be a good look on me. I'm a lover, not a fighter.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I got home fine where finally I slept and began to look forward to my birthday, again...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Here's to drunk walks home,</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Chin</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">P.S. That girl I tried to gift Jake passed out on a couch at the party where he left her when the party ended, alone. Haha, poor thing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">P.P.S. I know I was going to try to write more, but I just watched 127 Hours with T-Raz so now it's late...</div>Chinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-40246553955541019142011-06-18T15:49:00.000-07:002011-06-18T15:49:52.973-07:00May Days, Chapter 3: The Spiritual WeddingI did eventually persuade Squires to make the drive out to Austin's wedding with me on Friday. I picked up a neck pillow and downloaded "The Very Best of Enya" for her, she appreciated it I think. The drive was really uneventful, of course the Enya album is some 20 odd songs, so I was starting to feel a little drowsy during the drive, I did fine though. We did make a stop in AA to grab dinner with Cassie and Sweeney and I also went to Uzi's to get my hair cut. He lined me up super nicely! It was really weird just 'passing through' Ann Arbor. I kept wanting to ask about what we were going to do after dinner.<br />
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We got to the hotel around 9ish. The only other people who were there for the wedding at that point were Austin and Brittney and some close relatives. Squires and I ran out to Wal-Mart, got some cards and beer and enjoyed an evening playing speed and a bunch of other card game, we even tried to do screw the dealer.<br />
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Most of Saturday we just chilled in the hotel room because the wedding didn't start until 5ish. We ran out and got some SoCo, an old wedding favorite of mine. The wedding building was about 10 minutes away so we opted to take a cab there. They have some very janky cabs out in east MI.<br />
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The ceremony itself was very short because they had actually already been legally wed in Mexico a few months before. Shortly after getting my food from the buffet style arrangement they setup, I checked my phone because it had been on silent. 3 missed calls and 2 missed texts from Mike O.<br />
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Him: "I'm here I think, nos sure where2 park""Bruh come2 the door"<br />
(20 minutes)<br />
Me: "Ok, u here?"<br />
Him: "Yes!"<br />
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I went to the door and sure enough, Mike O was standing outside with his helmet and a red backpack. I had him put his helmet on his bike and he followed me in. Now, before Mike O walked in I think I was the only minority there, so it was going to be pretty hard to blend in, it didn't really matter though. The bride and groom were still going through the rounds of saying hi to all the guests, so I wondered how Austin would handle seeing Mike O. Austin is a cool guy though so he said hi and took it in stride, as if he was expecting to see Mike O there. Austin is a pretty cool guy. After eating, we went over to the open bar and enjoyed the "wedding special" which was very similar to an sea breeze(?), fruity and they were stingy with the vodka. We migrated outside where there was a gazebo overlooking a river and a little tiki bar.<br />
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The bartender was making margaritas, that's all there really was to drink out there. As it got later, more people joined us and we made a lot of friends, mostly parents. With Mike O there, it quickly turned to a 1502 sort of atmosphere, lots of sexual conversation and tons of jokes. Everyone seemed to be in a good place like us, so people were loving it. It only seemed appropriate that Mike O found a roll of caution tape and decided to add flare to his style. (The headband was still on when he woke up the next morning haha)<br />
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As the reception started to wind down, we stuck around and were actually some of the last guests to leave. It only seemed appropriate that before we went back inside we take the following pictures to compare to the orginals.<br />
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Back inside we actually helped take some stuff out to Austin's mom's car. We got our belongings from the table and noticed one of those disposable cameras that get handed out for picture taking at weddings. In our state, it only seemed like a good idea to take some pictures. We posed and took a bunch of silly pictures then I told Mike O he should take a picture of his dick. OK! He took the camera, unzipped his pants and shot a flash down there. I haven't heard anything from Austin, so he must REALLY be a cool guy. Mike O was the only black guy there after all.<br />
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Squires was the most functional out of us so she arranged for a cab to pick us up. We had him drive us through the Taco Bell then back to the hotel. Our room had access to the roof so we went out there to eat, I learned that Mike O is afraid of heights haha. The rest of the night kind of fell apart, I wandered off into a bunch of rooms that were unlocked, not too exciting. I went back up to the room and fell asleep. When we woke up, Squires was asleep on the ground, I was in two chairs and Mike O had one of the beds. As mentioned, he still had his headband on haha. We enjoyed some continental breakfast and checked out.<br />
<br />
It was weird driving past the Ann Arbor exits and not checking into hotel arch, really weird actually.<br />
<br />
To say that the last two weeks of May were awesome would be an understatement. The wedding was a perfect was to cap off what was a great few weeks. The next thing I had to look forward to was my June 11 birthday, or so I thought, there was a little fiasco that occurred before that...<br />
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Here's to the next wedding we can find to crash,<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-61807308519757625722011-06-12T21:53:00.000-07:002011-06-12T21:53:01.134-07:00May Days, Chapter 2: Socially networkedAs I made my way to the bachelorette party, it became apparent that this was one of "those" bachelorette parties. Adorned in inflatable male genitalia and things of the like, the bachelorette seemed like she was already in a good place. She was a pretty attractive 25-ish year old woman, with a crew of 5-6 girls ranging from skag to as high as a 7.5. I don't remember how I started the conversation, but I was pleasantly welcomed in and began exchanging the usual pleasantries, "How are you?", "What have you ladies been up to tonight?", and "Can I buy you a shot of Rumplemintz for your novelty penis shot glass?" After about 15 minutes of talking, I persuaded them to come towards my group of friends on the other side of the bar. They followed and on the walk I began chatting with one of the better looking friends (of course). I learned that she was a lawyer and she seemed like a fun girl. I introduced my friends and things were going really well for about 30 minutes. My conversations with the lawyer were constantly interrupted by some of the less gifted girls in the group and things never did pan out, unfortunately. Perhaps the best thing to come out of the bachelorette party was when Drabik approached the bachelorette and whispered softly into her ear, "If you weren't getting married, I would fuck the SHIT out of you..." To which she replied, "Thank you, that's so nice!" with a warm smile. And they say chivalry is dead. They resumed their trek to whatever their next bar was and we were left at Lionshead, a position not unlike the one we were in before the bachelorette party. The upstairs wasn't as Rick's-ish that night so dancing was very limited. We eventually left, but I felt content with how things went.<div><br />
</div><div>We did meet up with some old high school friends again, ex-girlfriend Steph K. included. However, at this point her countdown to Mongolia for the Peace Corps had reached the single digits of days and we all know how Wheaton girls are. That being said, the bar we met them at was a good night cap to a fairly entertaining weekend in the city.</div><div>__________________________</div><div><br />
</div><div>2 weeks ago, I took Friday off of work because I anticipated going to Austin's bachelor party in Detroit on Thursday. Those plans fell through and I found myself still in Wheaton, at Muldoon's, on Thursday night, watching the Bulls try to win game 5 of their series against the Heat. As it was, about 8 of us had shown up only to witness the Bulls blow a 15-ish point lead in the 4th quarter and end their season abruptly. Most of my friends left after that, the way I saw it was that I could either go home and mope as well, wasting a perfectly good Thursday night, or I could stick around and wash some of the pain away. I decided to stay and a few other friends stuck around with me too. We started to have a good time again and I got to catch up with a few high school friends that I had not seen in awhile. That's when Lauren approached me...</div><div><br />
</div><div>Now, a few months ago, perhaps as late as December 2010, I began to rekindle my friendship with my buddy Sean. I'm sure I wrote about this night once, but Sean introduced me to his friend, Crazy Lauren. The moniker did not seem to fit the bill as she seemed very polite and actually even had us over for some drinks at her house. I learned things about her like how she works at Genghis Grill, a restaurant like Mongolian BBQ, and she also has an internship somewhere, somewhere that I do not care enough about to remember. I hadn't seen Lauren until the night before this Bulls game, we chatted a bit and she actually seemed pretty cool.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Now, back to Thursday night. Lauren approached me, probably using some line about how terrible it was that the bulls lost. I got into this conversation with her and my friend Kel (Kel is a boy). Lauren went on this 10-15 minute tangent about how Genghis Grill was so much better than Mongolian ("They us new cooking sticks every time", "The food is fresher", "Drink specials are better", etc.). During this conversation I began to think to myself, wow she crazy about Genghis grill, PERHAPS Crazy is a good prefix for her. Well, maybe not crazy, but a little nutty at least. Her and I continued to chat and things became very flirtatious. Now keep in mind, I have been in a bit of a drought, with anything significant dating back to Stev's and my roadtrip (Was Clinton still president then?). Little Bit Nutty Lauren asked me as last call was being announced, "Do you need a ride back?" because she saw the state I was in and knew I probably had not driven myself. I replied, "Well, I rode my bike..." (As in *bringg bringg* not *vroom vroom*). To which she quickly and adamantly said, "Well you can just throw it in the back of my car!". OK. Now I knew that something was bound to happen that night. We left Muldoon's as they were putting the chairs up on the table and she was parked in front of Genghis Grill. After we both got settled into the car I almost immediately went in for the move. We had been so touchy feely at Muldoon's, there was no way this wasn't going to happen, right? WRONG. She deflected my approach and exclaimed, "Wait! We're not even Facebook friends yet!" Crazy Lauren it is. I shrugged back into my passenger seat and took pause. Huh? Facebook friends? Should I have whipped out my phone then and added her? I mean, this is 2011, if you're not FB friends, then you'll never be friends. Obama was never friends with Bin Laden right? She then began to explain that this was only our 3rd time meeting and although she thought I was a cute and nice guy, she wanted to get to know me a little more. Ok, I want none of that. I was shocked and having troubles formulating the right thoughts and responses, prompting her to ask me the question, "Where would you take me on a date?" Maybe I wasn't thinking clearly, or maybe I was thinking completely clearly but I had to respond, "Well...I would, uh, take you to Genghis Grill..." So there went any chance for me. "Really?! You would take me to the place I work at? I'm serious, where would we go?". I answered with some BS about Glen Ellyn and a nice dinner, blah blah blah. She told me that we could discuss as she drove me to my bike. We sat in the Shane's parking lot, near my bike and had some sort of mental standoff. Basically, it seemed that she would not be willing to put out unless I dated her. Oh I see now, so Crazy Lauren is a Wheaton girl! Well, I wasn't going to budge, so I got ready to step out of the car. As I was doing so, I realized I had left my jacket, which had my bike lock key, at Muldoon's. I knew I didn't have much time and would need to hustle back over there because they had started closing down when we left. So what Crazy Lauren saw was me getting out of the car and literally sprinting as fast as I could away from her. Right past my bike, seemingly into the Wheaton night. Probably not a good look on me. So I did get my jacket before they locked up and the night ended with me riding home slowly, trying to digest the comments made. She almost took advantage of me, I could have woken up and found myself "in a relationship". She gave me her last name, but I forgot it so we still aren't Facebook friends. Who knows, I haven't really seen her since, so it could make for an interesting encounter next time.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I got home, cleaned up and fell asleep. I didn't expect to kick the weekend of like that, I had to store up for Austin's Wedding after all...</div><div><br />
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</div><div>Here's to new cooking sticks...every time,</div><div><br />
</div><div>Chin</div>Chinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-34590320845321484762011-06-01T23:26:00.000-07:002011-06-01T23:26:33.791-07:00May Days, Chapter 1: Hulk is in Town$100 for a new laptop charger?<br />
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I've got 5 minutes plus until my phone finishes updating, so I figure I will get my Mike O. on and write this guy more like a book...<br />
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The week following the weekend downtown with Sweeney and Barnes brought two great freinds, Hulka and Steph K. On Saturday, I spent my morning helping my friend Scott and his wife, Anna, move out of their apartment in Schaumburg. I was there at noon and was expecting to be done by around 2. The whole process took until about 3:30, leaving me very little time to get to the 3:54 train downtown. I picked up Drabik, Fabian and Hulka and parked at my house. They immediately walked to the train while I went inside to change out of my clothes that were drenched from moving stuff. I topped off my flask with some Svedka (woof) and ran to the train station...<br />
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When we got downtown we picked our way northwards to my sister's apartment. Her and Trent were on their way out, so we stopped by the nearest liquor store to have buy some beer and liquor before getting our free beer at Duffy's. I was half expecting a text from Steph K. because she was pregaming at some freinds' house nearby (Caroline and Michelle). It was Caroline's birthday so, like Stev, coincidentally, I bought her a fifth of Ciroc. Turns out Steph didn't call me soon enough so the guys and I just headed to Duffy's, Drabik and I one beer deep and Hulka and Fabian an entire bottle of Jack deep (3/4 taken by Hulk). We got to Duffy's and much to my chagrin, Lisa, from Wheaton North, was not working. She was at a wedding in Michigan, the same scenario I would find myself in in a week from then. Anyways, we got this Asian waitress instead, of course she gave us trouble. Then there was this other Asian girl who was just a customer. She came in with a bunch of her friends so she left to join them and drink the beer that she had BOUGHT. She returned briefly after, claiming her friends drank her beer. She promptly grabbed one of our extras, this was NOT OK with me. I asked her, "Are you Asian?" to which she replies all sassy, "Uh yea, you must be really smart". Regardless, I found out she was %100 so my attention became focused on more important things, or just other things. Some of the guys got some food and I swear I do not remember how but our waitress got my number, to my credit, she was kind of cute for an Asian. We left and made our way to Caroline and Michelle's place.<br />
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On the walk over I got the following texts from our Duffy's waitress:<br />
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"Ahh I forgot you guys still have $7 on ur bill for the rest of the food!!!!"<br />
"Are you alrdy far away"<br />
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Now I may be shallow, or too picky, as observed in Mike O's book, Galfing: A Young Man's Guide, but I do believe this is not a good way for a girl to flirt. Why would I want to backtrack to pay you $7 fool? And Sweeney knows, aside from the ellipses, I only like single points of punctuation, none of this "!!!!" garbage. Suffice to say, Asian waitress didn't make anymore appearances that night. We got to Caroline's house, where I didn't give her the Ciroc because I gave it to Steph and Trent instead. It was pretty low key there and I could tell that we were further along then Steph and all her friends so we didn't stick around for too long.<br />
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The next destination was Chicago Rick's, aka The Lionhead Pub. We arrived and I immediately ordered the 90 oz. Goose Island IPA for us. Drabik and Hulka aren't huge fans of dancing (the second floor) and Fabian was not looking as energetic as he is on other nights, so he seemed like he wanted no part of dancing either. I was not ready to stay on the first floor all night, I mean, who hangs out in the line at Rick's anymore than they should? (not Cass-eyes). I felt this pressure to not settle and let the night fade. Some say that it is darkest before the dusk, others say the grass is always greener on the other side. It was this mentality that called me to raise my chin and make a desperation scan of the bar. It was then that I saw a group of girls on the other side of the bar, no indication of men present. A bachelorette party? Indeed. So I stood up from my chair and picked my way towards them...Chinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-68492681517030063092011-05-18T21:36:00.000-07:002011-05-18T21:36:54.346-07:00What the mess man...My laptop is still dead but ivE been out of the blogging game for too long...so you all will have to bear with me if this has a lot of typos/sounds like a text message.<br />
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I still have to go through and read all your post since the beginning of may, which, based off the amount of writing that w's going on then, will take me at least an hour.<br />
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Lots of things have happened since my last post I think, Oprah had her last show and the bulls are now in the eastern conference finals, although they lost tonight. My life has revolved around just a few Pleasures in life: work, friends, bulls, muldoons and family. Pretty much in that order.being a fan of sports teams is exhausting and I'm one of those people who let's the outcome of these games dictate the rest of my night. Luckily, I'm headed to bed, but the fact that the next game isnt until Sunday kind of sucks. I remember when the cubs got swept by the dodgers in the playoffs my junior year, I went home alone because that stupid girl was a dodgers fan and I needed to finish watching the game, drunk and alone...demn!<br />
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This past weekend was great, Sweeney, barnes and I went out. Sweeney and I canoe that morning and made outltr way downtown. We did a good job of maintaining that all day buzz. Wafted meeting up with barnes, we headed over to duffys for free beer...you'll really have to bear with ms know because my text window is not scrolling anymore so I can't see what I'm typing. Anyways, that cute girl from high school was there again and this time I did get her number, great choice! Then we went to linens head pub, which iIS the ricks of Chicago...Sweeney was suckin face in no time. So almost out of obligation, barnes and I took our dance partners at th time and said hello the 1502 way Sweeney actually got his girls number and has been getting fallout texts from her with these life stories. And all he has to remember her by is "Chicago ricks girl" which he saved into his phon n ...previous weekends have been filled with other Wheaton actives.<br />
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It seems like I may be headed to Austins wedding stag, shires gets car sick so she may not be able to make the trip. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that shell be able to get out somehow still, everyone keeps telling ms to go stag, but then I would feel kind of embarrassed because I already called Austin and told him that I better get to bring a date...<br />
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This weekends is shaping up to be another great one, as my good friend Hulka is in town for a little ni haven't aren' him for a king time so we are going to do the duffys thing again Saturday, run who knows; then the white sox game Sunday...now it's time to read all the other blogs then call it a night l.<br />
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Here's to probably a lot of bad spelling,<br />
<br />
ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-50071529867462779262011-05-01T19:54:00.000-07:002011-05-01T19:57:52.872-07:00"I'll have to learn all the new channels, I don't want to leave"I find myself fighting the urge to write another blog that reflects upon the glory days of undergrad at Ann Arbor. Between watching Steve Carrell's last episode on The Office, reading Mike O's blog (and his Galfing rough draft), and reading Sweeney's blog I find myself in another state of nostalgia. If you want to hear more about the Michigan years passed, just feel free to call me and we can catch up, but for the sake of my (8) followers, I will refrain from writing more about the last 5 years (for now).<br />
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This weekend I switched things up a little. Friday night, I still did the usual Muldoon's thing. Drabik and I ate there for dinner and I didn't actually leave until last call. Old and new high school friends came and went and at the end of the night, I found myself sticking around basically for this one girl. Admittedly, she is/was another Taylor girl, just like Nicole. However, I think she only went there for one year and then left. I've known this girl for awhile, and despite appearances, I was not hanging around Muldoon's to see if I could take her home. I was actually there to see if she was going to go home with this other guy who she had developed a keen eye for. From my perspective, this is what happened. Firstly, her name is DT, or at least that's her nickname. So DT and I were casually talking and actually, I had a fair share of her attention until this guy, we'll call him blue shirt, walks in. Her attention shifted completely to him, in fact, her friends left without her, per her request. Now, this isn't my first rodeo, I've seen this happen plenty of times before, I've performed this plenty of times before. ("Oh Whitney! You brought cupcakes! Thanks, I'm going to go over to Lizzie's now, but have fun with my housemates!"). Being on the other side of the situation is definitely different. I felt like I could have done something about it, but I figured blue shirt had invested more into it (it was just that night I decided to pursue DT). Anyways, after her friends had left, it looked like DT and blue shirt were headed for the exits. Until some more of her guy friends came in and she began chatting with them. Soon enough she had abandoned blue shirt and went out the back door with these other guys. I had to feel a little bad for blue shirt as he took a seat at the recently abandoned table that DT found these guys at. As expected, he whipped out his phone and was feverishly texting with someone. I'll speculate that it was her. At this point, I thought to myself that if I was blue shirt, I would have left, feeling defeated because sometimes I don't want to swallow my pride. He just kept on truckin' though, probably sending those texts where he wants to act like he doesn't care, but in texting her he has already given her the "hand" (See Seinfeld). To clarify, I was not sitting in a corner alone watching this develop, I was with my buddy Paul and his friend at the bar. When last call rolled around I decided to exit out the back door in which DT had exited through about an hour ago. Coincidentally, she was coming in through the door as I left and all I could say was, "Hey, your boy is waiting for you in there". To which she replied, "I know, I'm on the phone with him right now". I guess that's the extent of that story. There's no real moral to the story, just another example of how boys and girls play these games...<br />
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Another notable event from that night, I talked to another stranger again. I made three trips to the little boys room that night and in the last two trips, probably within an hour of each other, I saw this cute Asian girl. "Cute" Asian girls are far and few between so I felt compelled to say something, especially because we had made eye contact both times on my trip. So I went over there and talked to her and her 2 friends. They were grad students at Wheaton College and were just out enjoying a couple drinks. I probably sounded like a bumbling fool, I think I said "Congraduations" to them 3 or 4 times even after they told me they had only just finished their first year of grad school. Oh well, she was 100% Asian anyways, that mountains already been conquered. And so the quest for the 50%-er continues, who knows, she may be "the one", haha.<br />
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The rest of the weekend was uneventful. Really good weather though, I went on two bike rides and a run. I finally made it to a high school track meet. I got to see Collin coaching passionately there, yelling splits to the Wheaton North guys. He found some time to come by and thank me for stopping by. I really can see myself being the old guy that goes to these meets and congratulates kids that don't even know him. Stev is plenty familiar with this and it cracks me up.<br />
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I actually steered clear of Muldoon's last night and just got some coffee with Drabik. I played a lot of Tiger Woods and got caught up with a lot of the NFL draft's transactions.<br />
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Sweeney is coming back to Illinois this weekend (congraduations David!) and I hope that we can hang out a lot before he goes to Costa Rica with the family. If I was still unemployed I would probably be making a spontaneous trip to AA right now to force him to hang out with me in Wheaton until Friday. As it is, I will be happy with hanging out on Tuesday or Wednesday night (or both, *blush*)...<br />
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Barn-es just texted me that The Foreign Exchange will be in Chicago on Thursday night, so I think I may try to get out there and see them. The show starts at 9, that means the 12:40 train will have to do, Friday could be a long day at work.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJXlrUbgJsmV0y3nvVkPRcOis-KZgbUj8vWShZ3sps0n1og5vnlY_jxQxQDYoOVHt3fY5udynqYsIZcNimxOa2vxYljVpBbKUcx-EdPojFo9TgfTwhppBFsl4eslh6O2L40aexHtDX2tI/s1600/FoamParty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJXlrUbgJsmV0y3nvVkPRcOis-KZgbUj8vWShZ3sps0n1og5vnlY_jxQxQDYoOVHt3fY5udynqYsIZcNimxOa2vxYljVpBbKUcx-EdPojFo9TgfTwhppBFsl4eslh6O2L40aexHtDX2tI/s400/FoamParty.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Again, courtesy of David...</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Here's to the new bloggers!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Chin</div>Chinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-24202460738740749592011-04-27T22:25:00.000-07:002011-04-27T22:25:37.696-07:00No, I said I 'like' youBefore I even get started, Ann Arbor/Hotel Arch was another great weekend. But, like I texted 1502 after I got home, it just sucks that it makes me miss the Junior and especially Senior year that I will never get back.. But hey, a toast to Old Father Time, raise a glass because every time we hang out it is the most bittersweet thing when its winding down and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it but make the best of it. Time goes on and even in absence, we grow closer as friends. There's really no need to rehash any of the specifics of what went down over the weekend...bullet point summary below:<div><br />
</div><div>-Rick's</div><div>-Trying to catch up with 1502 with Barnes</div><div>-Rick's (stage)</div><div>-Steinhurst and Co.</div><div>-Taco Bell (gonna get hot sauce in my car like that killer?)</div><div>-End Scene (Hotel Arch with Barn-es)</div><div>-Dominick's constant buzz</div><div>-MY sangria</div><div>-Track meet</div><div>-Sidetrack(s) poor service</div><div>-THEIR sangria</div><div>-Beer (two brothers)</div><div>-Mike O riding his bike</div><div>-Prickly Pear's 1.5 hour supposed wait</div><div>-9 (8) beer tasting at Grizz Peak</div><div>-Prickly Pear's 40 min. actual wait</div><div>-Broken chair</div><div>-Bar Louie (buzzkill)</div><div>-Charley's</div><div>-Hook up on longest islands from Mike O's girl (buzz revival)</div><div>-Melissa and Co. (FEE-ling bad I can't remember the name)</div><div>-Rick's</div><div>-Rick's</div><div>-Rick's</div><div>-BTB (not Cantina)</div><div>-Sleeping on Cass-thighs thighs</div><div>-Wake up from Lizzie</div><div>-End Scene (Hotel Arch with Mike O)</div><div>-Benny's (Zach)</div><div>-No Lizzie</div><div>-Last goodbyes</div><div><br />
</div><div>Take it as you will, those would be the key points of my weekend with 1502/Arch/Barnes. These times will be missed.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Shifting gears, since the weekend I have coincidentally gone to Muldoon's every night I have been back. Whether it be for the Bulls'game or to catch up with Anderson (tonight) I have been going there a lot this month.</div><div><br />
</div><div>The point of the title of this blog is that Mousey is going to be a hard case to crack. Something I didn't realize about Wheaton (college) girls is that even meeting with them can be a challenge. Mousey has been dodgey to say the least. Ok, to her credit we've barely texted but she just seems very passive and uninterested. It's really starting to seem like this isn't going to pan out. Correction, it's very likely this won't pan out. So the title of the blog, right. I mean, I'm "interested" in this girl and she's giving me the cold shoulder before I even get a chance to state my case. She trying to act like I'm so hung up over her...Get of your high horse and play with the rest of the field...it's just like Nicole, too afraid to dip into something a little unfamiliar. I'm not trying to say I'm some hardcore hood kid, I grew up in Wheaton, but these girls are hesitant to hear the point of view of a guy who used to share their sentiments that has been exposed to a little bit of the real (non-Wheaton) world....Nicole needs to realize that with her marriage, she's going to burn some bridges (like I told Anderson), no matter how hard she tries to maintain them. Similarly, Mousey should not tell me that she "goes for a run" every chance she gets, then tell me that she "has a very busy week, maybe next week"...Both of them, just hiding truth behind this guilt of actually not being able to satisfy everyone in the world. Agreed, it would suck more if Mousey just didn't reply, but at least I wouldn't feel compelled to continue playing this game. I'm not gonna give up on the Wheaton (college) girl though, I bet I could find one that is open to suggestions...Time will tell...</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7EG_3gSnnqTp3onbdnxioAFElNuwKZ3mLj1kER4j9owzwyXIgM2dcikK7hGYhvoCOR1t_HtkvSvB3Q8b7yuO6aDycrm5Opv2ah3X0yPX9G1NGPitF8swna60GIouMlklcw4W6mxCuKSo/s1600/Sidetrack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="433" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7EG_3gSnnqTp3onbdnxioAFElNuwKZ3mLj1kER4j9owzwyXIgM2dcikK7hGYhvoCOR1t_HtkvSvB3Q8b7yuO6aDycrm5Opv2ah3X0yPX9G1NGPitF8swna60GIouMlklcw4W6mxCuKSo/s640/Sidetrack.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of David, not the pole</div><div><br />
</div><div>Here's to Old Father Time,</div><div><br />
</div><div>Chin</div>Chinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-63875568560133510712011-04-17T21:55:00.000-07:002011-04-17T21:55:49.457-07:00The Handsome Grandson and Chicken FeetElderly females find me to be very good looking. I also do not like chicken feet, even though I've never tried them, theres just something about finding one in my soup that I don't like. Today I got to hang out with my Grandma, Popo, and her 3 friends. I drove them all around the city, from Michigan ave to Chinatown to Millennium park to the Cultural Center. I think all grandmas talk about how attractive other grandmas'grandsons are. Now if only it was granddaughters talking about how attractive grandmas'grandsons are, you follow? Either way, it stresses me out bigtime driving in the city, but I managed. I felt pretty cool walking extremely slow with four 80+ year old Chinese woman. Not only was I the tallest, by about half a foot, but I also got some free lunch out of it. The soup had chicken feet, I ate around it. Then the shrimp were cooked with the head on so if you cut too close to their brains red liquid oozed everywhere on the plate. That I can take, I love shrimp. Oh, Popo insisted that I drive through Ping Tom Park in Chinatown, so I did, but soon there were people walking on the trail that I was driving on and I realized that cars aren't supposed to be in the park. I found myself making a lot of 9 point turns and dodging drinking fountains and benches. Interesting experience, it'd be like if you found yourself driving through the diag, weird...<br />
<br />
So today was a day for Popo, Friday (night) was my day (night). I guess it all really starts with about 10 minutes after my last blog. My old Shane's work buddy, Collin, who reads this blog (shout out to Collin! My man!), texted me 10 minutes after the blog and was like, "I know this mousey girl!" Without going into details, he does in fact know her so we tried to think of a way that we could arrange something. The only thing I could come up with was, lets go to Muldoon's, drink beer and talk about it. So we did just that on Friday. It was Collin, Dre and I. Dre eventually left, it's actually kind of funny, he stays out, then around 10-10:30 or so he will kindly excuse himself sensing that I will be just fine without him. He's like a good wingman, even when I may not be looking for anything. Anyways, Collin was telling me about Mousey and I must say I am quite intrigued. Yes, I am a sucker for the Wheaton girl, and she seems like she is just that. Hopefully we will meet again and I can really get a feel for what kind of person she is. So Collin and I are talking about Mousey, music, life, Wheaton...everything, meanwhile, the beers just keep coming. Collin was doing what I do to Stev, he kept finishing his beer while I still had about a third left. Needless to say, we drank a lot. I guess the next step is to arrange a meeting with Mousey, otherwise, I will continue going to Muldoon's until I "run into her" again.<br />
<br />
Not too much else this weekend, I was broken on Saturday from all the beer. I'm looking forward to the 4 day work week, then I have no idea what I will do next weekend, will anyone be in Ann Arbor?<br />
<br />
Here's to grandmas,<br />
<br />
ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-8240715044713016472011-04-14T20:42:00.000-07:002011-04-14T20:42:02.001-07:00"You lay down, you stay down"Welp, this is my first chance to really sit down and get some time to write this week.<br />
<br />
I guess the "big" news for me this past week and a half is that I met this really cute girl at Muldoon's. It was actually last last monday, when UConn and Butler were playing for the national championship. This girl was sitting at in the corner table with her friend and we kept making eye contact. I noticed she was just drinking water, which I don't mind, I mean, it was a Monday. So I was still riding the "Do sumthinnn" theme so I actually did something. I was with my friend Sean and I told him as we were leaving that I was going to say something to this girl. So I used the worst in line known, "I'm sorry, but you look really familiar, where do you go to school?" The line is besides the point, the fact that I actually talked to this girl and her friend for a good 15 minutes shows that I'm doing better with these things. The other unsmooth part is that I didn't get a number and I can't remember her exact name, its either Suzanne or Susana. And her friend, I have no idea, I do not remember. So I've been calling Suzanne/Susana by her alias, "Mousey". Sean said she looked like a mouse. Anyways, Mousey is a Junior at Wheaton College and was at Muldoon's doing a study for her intro to anthro class. They were observing and recording the was people interact in certain social settings. They chose Muldoon's. Mousey said they would be there a lot for this project and that was my stupid excuse to not try to get a number, "Oh, I'll see her later..." I've been back there every night that I could find someone to go with me, be it Drabik, Sean, Fabian, or Moran. Tonight, no one could go, so that's why I finally have time to write this. I'll be pretty upset if I find out she was there tonight.<br />
<br />
Since that night, I have been trying to figure out why I have this attraction to girls who go to these fairly conservative Christian schools. This is what I have decided: I want to instill the things I learned from being at U of M to a Wheaton girl/ a girl that thinks life if fluffy and all that. I even tried to think of individual things that 1502 taught me...<br />
<br />
Wheeler taught me to be carefree, like the turn off your brain kind of carefree. The "real" carefree.<br />
Stev taught me to talk to strangers, girls particularly, and that they sometimes like those mysterious/borderline creepy responses.<br />
Cass-eyes taught me to be a lush. I mean, wine nights were awesome and then we would just harass Cassie, "Cheeen! I keeel you!" Plus Cass is the biggest lush herself.<br />
Mike O. taught me that sometimes you've got to step on other peoples toes. I had my rough times with him, but looking back he was hilarious and he's a great friend.<br />
Grant taught me that you can do your own thing and still be considered a great friend.<br />
Krista, I didn't learn much from her...that's ok though.<br />
<br />
And honestly, all of these traits, I do believe I carry more than I did before Michigan, I'm not just saying them to reminisce or something. So back to the Wheaton girl thing, I think I want to "convert" one more or less. Not that I want them to drop their Christian faith, in fact, I would prefer they grow stronger in it because, Lord knows, I could use some strengthening myself. I just want to I guess corrupt one just a little so that things that are normally taboo to them are more openly discussed because I feel like that is the purest form of honesty. there's other reasons too, but thats just an example. I could rant about it forever, but I see you all enough so we can talk about and I can get your opinions.<br />
<br />
With the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm really looking forward to the Easter weekend trip.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0OePTG_poLhEENEO5zgONUphOJI20erkPa8igE-uNehhzqnFUPQpMoGOr-L8oWS-JnCxmWMnyUHSKSoR_Jz8JMTax2t_KtG8Y6sWPPS3g60HPntctqly236xgNFLhOzmo4Lcvuyg2ibs/s1600/Sangria.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0OePTG_poLhEENEO5zgONUphOJI20erkPa8igE-uNehhzqnFUPQpMoGOr-L8oWS-JnCxmWMnyUHSKSoR_Jz8JMTax2t_KtG8Y6sWPPS3g60HPntctqly236xgNFLhOzmo4Lcvuyg2ibs/s320/Sangria.JPG" width="239" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">This is not my winning recipe...</div><br />
Here's to, obviously, Mousey,<br />
<br />
ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-21298018775435284322011-04-03T21:14:00.000-07:002011-04-03T21:14:29.931-07:00Do Sumthinn!Whenever I wake up with a hangover, big or small, I always think of that lil wayne song where the chorus is like "I feel like dying, I feel like dying"...<br />
<br />
I always look forward to the weekends so I can sleep in and regain my energy. This weekend did I did the opposite of that. I also always look forward to going out and hanging out with friends. This weekend I did a lot of that.<br />
<br />
So, Zach, my friend from Mexico who hung out with us in Ann Arbor in the Summer came to Chicago. Coincidentally, Nick, my other Mexico buddy, was coming into the city from Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I literally got home from work on friday at 6:46 on Friday and I had to catch the 6:54 train out to the city to meet up with them. So I ran and grabbed some clothes and stuff and Ron drove me to the station. Fast forward, I met up with Zach and Nick at Union Station and had a drink. Then we went to a bus stop to wait for Joel, another Mexico buddy. This was on the north side, this homeless woman was in the bus stop too, just casually smoking a blunt haha. It was a small bus stop overhead thingy, so the 3 of us just kind of stood all around her and acted like nothing was strange. Fast forward, we went and got sushi, well they did, for some reason I decided not too eat, I just got a beer. Then we went and got keys to my sisters new apartment, which is awesome by the way, 10 minute walk to duffys. The apartment is huge too, no more walking through the bedroom to get to the bathroom, or just using the fire escape instead, actually, they have an exterior stairwell which would work. So we got the keys, went to Duffy's. It was pretty crowded but we stayed in the front area, Nick and Joel aren't the types who like to dance...er by dance I mean the ricks style dancing, they just like to chill. Our waitress/bartender was coincidentally my friend from high school, Lisa. The story with Lisa is that she was on the cheerleading team with my ex, Lexi and Chuck's ex, Kristin. Lisa and Drabik kind of had a thing. So the 6 of us would hang out from time to time. Honestly, Lisa is/was the most attractive one out of the 3. Back to Duffys, I opened up a tab, I thought Lisa was hooking us up because it was 4 shots of tequila for $10. Then we just alternated between shots and beers. Zach made a comment about how he felt like a "little fish" because the average age was probably about 25-26. So we started calling Zach Little Fish. Then he spilled half of one of his shots on the table, justifying the name. I got worried because I still hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Surprisingly, I didn't get that bad. But I slowed down my pace a little, then they started calling me Little Fish. Almost right after that Zach spilled his beer so he became Little Fish again, awesome. When closing time came around my buddies wanted me to get get Lisa's number but I didn't, instead I invited her and one of her other bartender friends to Yak-Zees, the bar right down the street. She said they would try to come after they cleaned up the bar. So I closed out my biggest tab ever and we went to Yak-Zees and got a pizza, which was awesome because usually kitchens arent open that late. Lisa and her friend never showed, bummer. We went back to my sisters empty apt and fell asleep, the 3rd time that I've slept in her apt before she has haha. We woke up around 9.<br />
<br />
"I feel like dying, I feel like dying"<br />
<br />
Not too bad though, we walked back to Duffy's and got breakfast and Mimosa's. Zach and I parted ways with Nick and made our way to Wrigley for the Cubs game. The Cubs won! 5 run eighth inning, nice! We walked back to Steph's and then made our way to Michigan Avenue. Zach got some sick blue and maize Adidas shoes and I almost bought a pair of Ray-Ban aviators. We got dinner at a Chili's while we watched the Butler/VCU game. Then we took the L back to my sisters to get ready for the night. Fast forward, we ended up taking the L to the south side, so sketchy. People would just drive by us and mean mug us while we waited for the bus. Once it was a middle aged black guy in a minivan, he just slowed down and stared at us. It didn't help that we were wearing matching Michigan rain jacket's, and Zach had this girly bag to hold the fifth he bought for the friend who's birthday party we were headed to. Zach also found this vodka infused whipped cream, it was really popular at the party. Fast forward, we got to Steph's (not my sister), south side apt before the party to pregame. Barnes and his buddy, Larry met up with us there too. The theme of the night became, "Do sumthinn!" It was inspired by the song "Touch It" on Pusha T's new mixtape. The song is exactly what you think its about. When people, mostly U of Chicago track people (because Steph is on the team), most of the girls were wearing the nerd outfit. You know, the whole big bottle cap glasses, suspenders, short shorts and long socks. A lot of them were pretty cute and already pretty drunk because they were at a nerd party. It was a great party, they had some Asian DJ who was pretty good, a whole room just for dancing, filled with lap dances for the birthday girl, a jealous ex boyfriend of the birthday girl, and good amount of cute girls. Unfortunately, it was not the last party of the evening because around 2 everyone just poured out and us 4 guys were left with nothing but 2 of the girls who were lesbians. Steph left with her ex, Zach was trying to get with Steph, so he was kind of pissed. Then we started getting him amped up saying that the ex was a tool and wasn't leaving her side. So Zach got really mad and punched a door and started screaming f*ck...It was sooo funny, but I feel bad because we totally amped him up,for no reason really. His knuckles were bleeding a lot, too. He sent Steph a text that was something like "You made the wrong choice, I would have licked u up and down nasty" haha. Then Larry drove us to Barnes' apt. His place is really nice. We got to bed around 3ish. We woke up at 6:40.<br />
<br />
"I feel like dying, I feel like dying"<br />
<br />
This time for real, Zach and I had to wake up that early because Little Fish Zach got a 7:30 train ticket out of Union Station. We made it there in time but I felt like crap, Zach was still drunk. I made sure he got to the right terminal then I walked to my train station. The next train for me wasn't until 8:40, such a long wait. Fast forward, I got lunch with Anderson, he left for pilot's training tonight, demn! He'll be in North Carolina for about 6 weeks now. I haven't done much else today, which stinks because apparently it got up to 71 degrees, according to Uzi. I just stayed in an played the new Tiger Woods and watched the cubs game. I hope that I won't be drained at work tomorrow.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGv6pOppDPxMa7AYCujFdoZnEKdPr9b2iGwCcanGukrOg1t-wJNboHrFm5hUej2RFnicJxQALFwR9WVoUGpEzbYpOC9dp0otSzMB2P0XAwXRgBEI2_MQ47qV3fRRWJr3u6nXjJaBLnUJ8/s1600/Wrigley1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGv6pOppDPxMa7AYCujFdoZnEKdPr9b2iGwCcanGukrOg1t-wJNboHrFm5hUej2RFnicJxQALFwR9WVoUGpEzbYpOC9dp0otSzMB2P0XAwXRgBEI2_MQ47qV3fRRWJr3u6nXjJaBLnUJ8/s400/Wrigley1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLdv1_2KzbaXU55gpNqADrUl55CX2I_6BSZ78-nigoplxsI9K672Oh2jKrCDkVBavvtU2PYTpIx38sGmfwpZVD_qPDMqeYUYN0xl3GyGA3xZOgzig1WM7hdDFfzxVDurW0c3vyEuoZuU/s1600/Wrigley2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLdv1_2KzbaXU55gpNqADrUl55CX2I_6BSZ78-nigoplxsI9K672Oh2jKrCDkVBavvtU2PYTpIx38sGmfwpZVD_qPDMqeYUYN0xl3GyGA3xZOgzig1WM7hdDFfzxVDurW0c3vyEuoZuU/s400/Wrigley2.JPG" width="298" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqiBYEh7mSVuhaICzuwKomWSOlv3NTmvcncKKkU-WkvevenqxVQTcc4bvne3E8hIBtKa1fiyI4ARu1uYE-8PckO4DbcvGW9rIsLLJHWJicJfYZfWKzGXeIGa2i28n5possolgc4kEhXM8/s1600/LexBus.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqiBYEh7mSVuhaICzuwKomWSOlv3NTmvcncKKkU-WkvevenqxVQTcc4bvne3E8hIBtKa1fiyI4ARu1uYE-8PckO4DbcvGW9rIsLLJHWJicJfYZfWKzGXeIGa2i28n5possolgc4kEhXM8/s400/LexBus.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lex has his own charter bus!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's to Little Fish,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Chin</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Chinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-10020309801503277532011-03-27T15:31:00.000-07:002011-03-27T15:31:36.905-07:00Three way marriageLike Stev, nothing much happened this week. Todd was in town for Calvin's SB so we hung out on Friday night. Actually, we had a pretty good time, set up a BP table in my basement, neither of us had played in a while. Then we went out to Muldoon's and as usual, we ran into some old HS classmates. This time it was some of the guys who stayed in town and went to Wheaton College to play football. I asked one of them about why he thinks so many of the kids from the Christian schools get married so early. First thing he said was something like how he went to 8 weddings in the past year, just for football teammates alone. These are all kids my age, if not younger. Ridiculous. He told me that he believes they get married so young because they're relationships are formed around their faith, so it is a marriage of 3: Him, her and God. This marriage of 3, or "Three way marriage" as Dre puts it, seems like it would be the ideal, cookie cutter response to these kids getting married so young.<br />
<br />
What doesn't make sense to me about this is, why can't the relationship be "three way" when they are just dating? Aside from the joint bank accounts/assets, status, rings and ceremonies (all of which aren't THAT important in the long run) the only difference I can see between going out and being married is the sex, at least for these couples who believe in abstinence, which happens to be most that go to these Christian schools. Now, I would be hard pressed to get any of the 3 couples I know who got engaged last week to admit that sex was a factor for marriage. Granted, it would be a too much information kind of statement, but I dare one of these couples to admit it to me. The other problem I see with getting married this young is that you are limiting yourself to something. Example, Nicole's fiancé lives out in Colorado. She's effectively limiting her professional career to something/someplace in his area. I'm sure she will be happy, but could she have been happier if she could have searched the entire nation/world for a job.<br />
<br />
I think Anderson is doing it right. He is still dating Jackie and they are both cool with that. Also, they love each other but they are realistically in love. None of this puppy love crap. They know that their careers and financial situations transcend their feelings for each other. Anderson just got a job with Piedmont Airlines as a pilot for them. Congratulations to that man again. He will be in Charlotte, NC for training while Jackie will be in the Chicagoland area looking into getting into financial things. In the end though, their situation won't be clouded by "Well, we're married, so we NEED to make this work"...It's more, "Well, we're dating, so we WANT to make this work"...I think that by staying dating, they put less strain on they're relationship and it will be better for them in the long run when they finally do find themselves in a situation where they can get married.<br />
<br />
I'm probably just bitter about it, for good reason though.<br />
<br />
On a different note, my sister will be moving to a bigger apartment next weekend. It's also closer to the bar scene downtown, so we'll have a good place to crash while downtown.<br />
<br />
Also, I think that if it's cool with Wheeler and the rest of 1502, I would like to eventually have a reunion in Pescadero, CA, where Wheeler's mom has a summer home. It's gorgeous, on a bluff, tons a land we could bring the dirt bikes out and its in wine country. Just a thought. Until then, I will take 3 or 4 of us meeting up in the midwest. I can't wait until Easter weekend, the only time I went to Dominik's was awesome.<br />
<br />
Here's to one month from now,<br />
<br />
ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-22049554327133277462011-03-20T10:47:00.000-07:002011-03-20T10:47:36.027-07:00The Adjustment BureauIt's been a pretty uneventful week. The regular work schedule, except I'm starting to work later on some days, until 7 or so. It's pretty unfortunate that I've started working later days because it's starting to get lighter out for longer. So I thought, "Great, I can get home and run before the sun goes down". As of last week, I only made it out on Monday, even then the sun was down before I finished the run because I got home late from work.<br />
<br />
Drabik and I have been hanging out a lot lately, going to the local coffee shop, going to the bars or seeing movies. We went and saw The Adjustment Bureau on Wednesday, good film, I would definitely recommend it. I expect that with the warm weather we will start doing more stuff outdoors, frisbee and basketball, things like that. I've come to realize that I am definitely a warm weather kind of guy. I don't mind the cold, but I am always in a better mood when the sun is shining and I don't have to put on tons of layers.<br />
<br />
St. Patty's was relatively uneventful for me, I met up with some buddies at Caliendo's, had some green beer and then went to Muldoon's for another beer with Drabik.<br />
<br />
Perhaps the most exciting news this week was that Anderson got a job for a regional airline. He will be flying for Piedmont Airlines all across the east coast. He'll have to move out to Charlotte pretty soon to start training. I'm really happy for him, he get's tons of sweet perks. He can fly anywhere he wants to for free, as long as there is an open seat on the plane. That means he could just go to the airport, check the departures board and hop on any plane going anywhere in the world for free. Then family members get 25 free flights a year, too bad Anderson doesn't have a sister. He gets to have a travel partner, which will be Jackie, at least until they get married. Then he also gets 8 travel buddy things where we can fly for free as long as he is on the plane with us, nice! So we are planning a weekend to South America or something.<br />
<br />
Nothing else much happened this weekend, I woke up this morning to see that I got a text from Nicole last night that read, "I'm engaged!" So that's the end of that chapter, can't say I'm happy with the ending, I did like her but I think that this last month has really nixed any chance of us becoming just friends in the long run. Since she started dating this guy, maybe 3 months ago, I stopped liking her, gradually. Then, just as I would be pretty much over her, it seemed there would be a text from her that stirred it all up again. I'm just saying, when/if I get engaged, the first people I am telling will not be people who I've had a somewhat romantic past with.<br />
<br />
My lack of going out this weekend has led me to look forward to what Stev did in Wake Forest, so I'll wait patiently until A Family Affair, Part 2. Haha.<br />
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Here's to the outdoor season,<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-71345464476106727022011-03-13T21:27:00.000-07:002011-03-13T21:27:11.415-07:00The Fab 5Of course that's the title after watching that documentary. Except our Fab 5, being the 1502 house, doesn't have anyone doing basketball analysis for ESPN.<br />
<br />
No notes in my phone. I decided to do this really stupid thing where I don't tell people certain things about my life, they can only find out this stuff if they read my blog. It's really a stupid idea, so I'm not going to do it. But the one thing I haven't told anyone in real life is that I got into an accident on Friday morning going to work. I was behind this SUV, trying to go right on red. There were no cars coming, so she lets off her brakes and I thought she was going to go out. So I start looking to see if I'm clear to go, turns out the woman stopped for no reason, so I gave her a little love tap. We get out of our cars, there is absolutely NO DAMAGE to her car, none. In fact, I took off some dirt is all, so I actually cleaned her car a little for her, son of a...My car has a little scratch on the fender thats all. Still, she insisted that I give her my insurance information because she wants to take her car into the shop, just to make sure...Eff it, so now my rates will probably go up because she reported the accident, not to the cops, just to her insurance. To top it all off, she was Asian. Really? Most people who know me know how I feel about Asians, and that's just so typical, "Oh well, I'd like to get you're insurance information just in case...because I don't care if I screw you over, I just want to make sure my car is ok"..Woman, your car is fine, there is nothing wrong with your car...but please, feel free to screw me over..and why did you stop again, there was nooooo oncoming traffic, oh my gosh , so pissed....<br />
<br />
The way I figured it, since my Friday's are usually really good, something great had to happen to me to off balance the accident. Nothing too cool really happened, in fact, I ended up working until 7:30 that night, then Dre and I just watched the bulls game and nothing else really.<br />
<br />
I guess the "great" thing that happened is that it's getting warmer out. Also, with daylight savings now, I will be getting home when the sun is still up. That means I can start running outside after work, which I've been looking forward to for awhile. For some reason my knees don't like the treadmill, usually they're supposed to be better for your legs than running outside or whatever. Also with the warm weather comes longer days, I'm hoping to join some sand vball leagues and a softball league this year. Then outdoor basketball with Dre, bike rides with Squires, runs with Callie...Warm weather is awesome.<br />
<br />
Last night, Dre and I went to Muldoon's, local Wheaton bar, to watch the Bulls vs. Jazz game. Mike wanted to get some coffee from La Spiaza, local Wheaton coffee shop, so we went there first. Squires joined us at Muldoon's, great special on Sam Adam's. We all talked, had a good time. So when we decided to leave it was only around 10:45, I guess we started a little early. I was in bed earlier than the nights I have work the next day...<br />
<br />
Lizzie was at the Bulls game. We were talking earlier in the week about meeting up for lunch in the city. She never called so I just didn't go downtown. I would've really liked to go downtown this weekend, St. Patty's day parade, Barnes texted me that he wanted to hang out and getting lunch with Lizzie would've all been fun. As it is, I didn't go downtown...could've been a great time. After the Jazz lost, Lizzie texted me that she wanted to go out...Had I gone downtown I would've been in favor of that, but I wasn't.<br />
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On the other side, I have been spending way too much money. Chicago with Ike and Uz was expensive and then Ann Arbor last weekend. I had a $15 charge to Quik-E burger that I do not even remember. Kind of funny, but I'm disappointed that I was that reckless with my spending. I figure that it must have been when Zach, Chelsea and I were walking back...<br />
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I think I'll do my best Stev and slow down until Ann Arbor in April, easy to say at the end of the weekend. We'll see how I feel next Friday...<br />
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Here's to Spring,<br />
<br />
ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-13214030179191999542011-03-10T19:32:00.000-08:002011-03-10T19:32:32.917-08:00"You're yester, I'm to-day"What do you think when you see an attractive girl/guy walk into a room?<br />
<br />
I think I usually like to think that they've at least noticed me, too. A cocky mentality, and probably one that prevents things from happening...So a poor mentality to have nonetheless. I get this feeling of, "Well, they should approach me then...". Ah whatever, in this Wheaton area the girls are usually complicated, see Nicole. I think earlier in life I would think that they don't even notice me and still not do anything about it.<br />
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I guess thats why there's the Stevs and Stanns in the world, they are the ones who actually do something about a cute girl in a room. Like its a missed opportunity should they just walk out with no words/numbers exchanged. I suppose I should give him a call soon, get a pep talk. Stev, next time we hang that's what I think the goal should be. With the suits, I'll be feeling pretty confident. We need to make sure Mike O can be out there then.<br />
<br />
I'm talking about this because some Wheaton College girls just walked into the coffee shop Dre and I are in. He Facebook chat's me, "You see those girls who just walked in? That one is gorgeous". I've developed this terrible habit of not looking at girls when they walk into places, kind of just catching them in the corner of my eye. Buy her an espresso shot, send it over. I know that Cassie would love that. Why are Wheaton girls so "high maintenance"? I think its just because they were raised comfortably in most cases, that combined with the piety of the town, they usually have pretty high standards. Even when I was talking to my ex ex about why her and I never did more physically she just went, "Oh Wheaton girls..." like its something they're just born into and can't control.<br />
<br />
Here's to the Wheaton girl,<br />
<br />
ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-41082047256288949382011-03-06T18:30:00.000-08:002011-03-06T18:30:38.764-08:00Fresh for the club, just took a half an hour napI'm about to write this before watching last Monday's HIMYM, if it's got a good theme I might have to post again later. I figure that there's a lot of events that I have to cover though so I didn't want this post to be too long.<br />
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I should have written about last weekend before this one, my brain is overloaded and I will probably forget some of the details in last weekend. On last Saturday with Uzi and Ike we got downtown via the train sometime before dinner. We went to Mich ave to do some shopping. The only thing we bought was 3 pairs of socks for me because I had a huge blister from my shoes and had to cover the blood. Before I forget I have to tell this story about Ike. He fell asleep in my car for about 20 seconds and when he woke up he was like, "Just thought you guys should know, I just passed out" It turned into this running joke for the weekend, ah, I guess you had to be there. Back to last Saturday, we got some deep dish pizza, Ike got hit on by some cougars, they thought he was 19. I guess they failed to see that he had a long island iced tea and we were sitting at the bar, I guess it was just an in line. We went to Ike's friend's apt, Britney, where we pregamed. She knew Stev, Wheeler and Mike O because of the phi psi date party they went to. That whole Carly/Kim/Helga(?) fiasco. Needless to say, Britney was pretty cold to me when she found out I knew them, especially Stev haha. Barnes and his buddy, Larry, came by had some more drinks and Britney told us she had some cute friends coming over. This led to the first note in my phone.<br />
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"The promise of good times (Britney said that her friends were coming over) and how is makes a pregame a lot more positive(?)"<br />
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I don't know why I have these deep thoughts when I should be out socializing and what not. Barnes was hungry so him and I went and got burgers from this small place. They were known for being rude and all so they swore at us and called Barnes a bunch of bad things when he only wanted lettuce and ketchup. Anyways, we go back to the pregame and keep waiting for Britney's friends. They showed up not too much later and their appearance led to the next note on my phone.<br />
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"Then it's baddd"<br />
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It was a note that added to my first thought. These girls were not worth waiting for 2 hours. Yeah that sounds shallow, but we felt like Britney manipulated us haha. There were only 4 girls and Britney had mentioned that she had 6-7 cute friends coming. So Ike asks me jokingly, "Where are the other 3 girls?" I replied, "Where are the other 7 girls?"...that was mean too.<br />
<br />
We made our way to this bar called Rockit, expensive, $9 for a single rum and coke. Uzi's friends from the night before, Jen, met up with us and we went to Crossing, one of the bars that was closed the night before because we got there too late. It was pretty cool, really big and it had dancing or chilling, I liked it. Ike got into a dance off for some reason. This guy did this stupid flip, like using his hands and all and accidentally kicked Ike in the mouth haha. Then the guys other dance move was to lay on the floor, on his stomach. Uzis like, "I thought he was going to start doing the worm or something, but he just laid there, on a dirty a** floor". So funny haha.<br />
<br />
At some point in the night some guys pulled up in a car and the passenger told Uzi that he looked familiar. Uzi responded, "Yea, you look familiar too...like Owen Wilson." Then I chimed in, "Yea! but add 40 years!" The guy was upset apparently, but they pulled away before anything happened, good thing. It's bad, I'm starting to get rowdy when I drink, but I think its just because we had liquor and almost always only drink beer.<br />
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The other thing that happened that night was getting pizza. They had a pizza called "Popeye Pizza". Ike thought that it was going to have buffalo chicken on it, like Popeye's chicken, but it turned out to be a spinach pizza with tomato slices. Ike was pissed so he spit most of it out, it was gross how he did it, food everywhere out of his mouth. Overall the pizza sucked, so we all cracked up when a guy leaving the place, by himself goes, "That's some good a** pizza" haha.<br />
<br />
Uzi and I crashed at Jen's place, I slept on a couch in their living room. I woke up at around 4:30 and there was some other dude crawling under my covers. He was facing the other way on the couch so we just made eye contact and I was like, "Yo" kind of questioning him what the heck are you doing. He ignored me and we both fell back to sleep. Throughout the night we fought over my blanket and kicked each other for room. I have no idea why I didn't just tell him to get off or whatever. Around 8 am on Sunday, one of Jen's roommates comes out and she sees the 2 of us sleeping there. Turns out he was her boyfriend and he is used to sleeping on a couch so in his drunken stupor he got up from her bed and came to the couch I was on, even though...I was on it.<br />
<br />
So that was the weekend with Uzi and Ike. Then Sunday night was David Gray with Squires. Understandably, I guess, she asked if I wanted to drink on the train ride. We did. About half a fifth of some Bacardi. Drop Kick Murphy's was playing downtown that night also so we made some friends on the train. they were pretty rowdy and Squires said she saw one of the girl's vaginas because she had a short skirt and apparently, no underwear. We got into the city pretty early so we went and got some drinks at the bar around the corner from the Chicago Theater, cool place, I can't remember the name of it though. The concert was awesome, it was a small venue and there was really no bad seat, except for Squires' seat, because she sat behind this guy with a huge head, huge. We had to run/hop a cab to make it back to the train in time, our driver even made some illegal turns to help get us there in time. It was also raining, so we were pretty wet.<br />
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One thing I noticed while watching the concert is how much we can be controlled by our environments. DG is a very romantic light rock kind of artist and I guess to put it one way, it would have been weird to go with a guy friend.<br />
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It took me all day Monday at work to recover. I got very little sleep over that weekend. It didn't help that I had to get up at 6 to take my grandma's trash out. The two things I wrote on my phone that night were:<br />
<br />
"An interesting juxtapose" (No idea why I wrote that)<br />
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"Drunk me makes good decisions and drunk me makes bad decisions (6 am for popo)"<br />
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I leave extra notes because I've really been forgetting why I write some things.<br />
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The last thing I wrote that weekend was "Stupid people", don't know why I wrote that.<br />
<br />
On thursday I went to see Grand Rapids with Drabik, it was pretty funny, like an indie 40 year old virgin. "NTS-not too shabby", I've got to start saying that.<br />
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This weekend I went to Ann Arbor. Stayed at hotel arch, obviously. Great hosts as usual. I picked Sweeny, Saint and Terp up from DT Chicago, they were visiting for SB. We had a really foggy ride out to MI, Saint actually drove because I had to eat my McDonald's. We just stayed in on Friday night because it was already 12:30 when we got in. We talked with Joe's parents for a long time and had some boxed wine. Woke up Saturday morning and watched Selena, kind of. Sweeney fed me a 22 oz. IPA from his favorite brewery in San Diego, or his fav brewery period. The most expensive beer I've had, Ruination, and probably the best IPA I've ever had, which says a lot because thats my favorite type of beer. Then I had some one of his other beers from the same brewery called Arrogant Bastard. Cassie came by for a little. Sweeney almost Naked Manned her but his chickened out and left his boxers on. My buddy, Zach, from Mexico came by, he knows Dobs too. Then Dobs, Sweeney, Forys, Zach, Saint and I went to Ashley's for Guinness floats, thanks for the ride Cassthighs! I never had a Guinness float before, good stuff. Midway through, Chelsea, another Mexico friend came by and joined us. Zach, Chelsea, Dobs and I all went to BTB Cantina to meet another Mex friend, Samantha. There was a black frat there or something so it was pretty packed. Zach and I Samantha Sandwiched with her on the stage, I was cracking up the whole time. Saint joined up with us and eventually him and Dobs left. Chelsea, Zach and I went to Rick's and danced a little. We left and I walked Chelsea home. We sat and talked in her living room for a little and eventually gave her a friendly 1502 hello. More of just a 1502 wave, nothing much too it at all. I guess she just recently broke up with her bf so she was a little emotionally unsteady. I offered to leave and she let me leave, meh, aside from the fact that it was 4 am, I was kind of glad to leave because I didn't want any confusion. The other thing, I think I totally stole Zach's kill. Actually I know I did, jerk move by me. I know I did because he texted her something like "Hey, if you want to still hang we should" or something like that. I'm not trying to step on any toes on my weekends in A2. Oh, the other reason it would have been nice to have stayed over at her place is because I want to be like Stev and not actually sleep at Hotel Arch when I have a reservation there anyway. Benny's for breakfast this morning, he was dressed in that nice stuff as usual. I visited Lizzie for a little bit, found out she actually bought a dress for Austin's wedding, well, used that as more of a reason to buy a new dress. However, now it looks like she might not be able to come, I guess we'll see. Squires, you may be able to come to this wedding after all haha. Driving home I realized that I forgot to sign the guest book, again. So here's my entry that I forgot to write:<br />
<br />
"Comfortably established as the premier place to lodge at for me, Hotel Arch will be sorely missed when I can't stay there anymore. So I will keep coming here as many times as possible. Joe and Dobs were great roommates and David flexed his culinary prowess once again, even though spiral ham makes you real gassy. Can't wait until the backyard opens up again!"<br />
<br />
So now I enter a solid month of workdays and weekends. Maybe some Chicago trips every now and then with this weather warming up.<br />
<br />
Here's to Hotel Arch (again),<br />
<br />
ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-73071470527815267442011-02-27T14:16:00.000-08:002011-02-27T14:16:52.519-08:00"That's some good a** pizza"Gotta catch my breath. What a weekend, 2 trips to Chicago down, 1 to go. Uzi and Ike came out for the first weekend of Mich's SB. They got lost on the way into Wheaton and didn't get to my house until 10. We drove to the city, in some pretty bad snow, and got to my sister's apartment at 11:30. Of course AT&T sucked and I couldn't get a hold of her so we were standing in the little entry room trying to get in. For some reason I brought a pillow, so I felt foolish just standing there with my little overnight bag and pillow. I never bring a pillow, weird.<br />
<br />
Finally we got in and headed out to the bars around midnight. We wanted to get some drinks before we went to the planned final destination, John Barleycorn, but we had nowhere to pregame. So we did a mini barcrawl on Broadway, heading south, so away from boys town, great choice! The first bar was this little irish dive. It was like the beginning of a joke. "An Asian and two Africans walk into an irish bar..." I think I got the first round of shots, SoCo and lime, then a PBR to clean it off. We got some strange looks in that bar. Onto the next one. Friar Tuck's, my dad's old favorite bar downtown, was second. Ike got us a round of these weird jagerbomb kind of shots, they tasted like root beer tho. Then 3 IPA beers, of course Uz and Ike hated theirs'...they like those fruity drinks I guess. It was someone's birthday there and they had to take a shot from the anus of this blow of sheep, then kiss the sheep so it didn't feel used...Last bar before Barleycorn was this MSU bar, Uzi tried to get a discount saying that he went there, didn't work. He then ordered us a pitcher of margarita. So we were pretty good after that, so we hailed a cab and headed North. We got to Barleycorn and they were closing so we didn't get to go in. We ran into one of Uzi's friends, Jennifer, in line though and she suggested this new bar called Crossing. Ok. The four of us piled into a cab. I was surprised that she just ditched her other friends to come with us because she barely knows Uzi, they had only hung out once or twice before that. Crossing was also closing, demn! Got another cab (Cassie you'd have been in heaven with all these cab rides) and went to The City Tap, dubbed the shi**y crap because I guess its pretty dirty or whatever.<br />
<br />
We got some drinks and just kind of posted up. Ike was hilarious, doing all these weird dances, making fun of people. There was this one guy checking out Uzi from behind. I guess I was supposed to tell Uzi because eventually the guy approached Uz and they talked a little. It was funny to watch. The best part of that bar was when this really drunk nerdy looking kind of guy started aggressively groping his girlfriend while dancing, then they fell over. So the dance floor cleared a little and Ike jumped in the middle of the floor and did this weird dance that involved this clawing motion. He looked retarded, literally. People were coming up to him and telling him he was doing a great job. Oh, then there were these Asian chicks, they were looking in our general direction for awhile. Ike went over there and talked to them and then came back. He comes up to us and he's like, "Yo, so they're Filipino" We looked at him and were like, "We don't care, we didn't want to know that". This one guy called Ike Kanye West, Ike was pissed haha. We left City Tap around 3:30. Got some subway, went to my sister's apt, ate then went to bed. Uzi and I had to share a blow up matress, we were packed like sardines.<br />
<br />
Well, I want to write more but I have to start getting ready to go downtown for the 3rd time for a David Gray concert with Squires. We're taking the train, Squires "assumed" that I wanted to drink on the train, bad reputation I suppose haha.<br />
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I'll finish the rest of the weekend post soon hopefully, which will include an explanation for the title of this blog post.<br />
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Here's to Filipino's with fake bosoms,<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-62686644712310653412011-02-19T22:44:00.000-08:002011-02-19T22:44:28.671-08:00Without BiasDre and I checked out a new bar in downtown Wheaton last night. It's across the train tracks, so it's farther away from the other bars. Its a different kind of place, they play the music really loud and it seems like the kind of place people would dance at, but theres no dance floor really so I don't know what they're going for. After one drink there we left for Muldoon's.<br />
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Tonight we hung out with a couple of old HS friends. To me, they were more just classmates in high school, but Drabik grew up with. We went out to dinner, a bunch of places were packed so we ended up going to b dubs. Shay, from last summer, was working there so we got to talk for awhile. After, Mike and I came back to my place and watched another 30 for 30. This one was called "Without Bias", Stev, there's a chance you might know what this one was going to be about.<br />
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As for the notes left on my phone.<br />
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"The end of the world would be fun, aside from the actual ending"<br />
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I think it wouldn't be the end of the world scenario, more just a situation where you had to evacuate a city at all costs. I think about the movie "I am Legend" for the set-up I guess. Imagine just driving to get out of your town, only to find yourself stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, moving nowhere. At that point, you would get out of your car and just start running. That's where I think it would be fun. Think about running through traffic, leaving all possessions behind, no matter how valuable. You just have to run, dodging other people opening their car doors to do the same. On what is usually a 70 mph highway, everything would be just so out of place like "Why am I running on this highway, what are all these cars, where am I running to? I guess the chaos and everything would just be overwhelming, I think I would be in this surreal state, immune to feeling, emotional or physical. The only concern would be "Run".<br />
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I found myself writing that in my phone when I was stuck in traffic going to my mom's last night. I thought that it would be so much faster to get out of my car and walk/run there. Rarely would we find ourselves in a situation where it would be appropriate to leave our cars behind. In fact, the only situation I think I would leave my car is if I was running from something life threatening, even then I think I would find it hard to get out. Look at all the people who get run over by trains or drown, all because they refused to give up their cars. Just a though, albeit a morbid one, but the thrill of leaving your possessions would be so nuts.<br />
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"Without Bias"<br />
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The 30 for 30 we watched tonight was about the death of Len Bias. This parts for Cassie:<br />
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Len Bias was a really good basketball player at U of Maryland in the mid 80's. He got drafted in '86 by the Celtics. Within a week after he was drafted he was back at the Maryland campus getting ready to party with some buddies. Long story short, they did some coke which led to Len having seizures, going into cardiac arrest, and ultimately dieing. Messed up. One of the people they interviewed put it perfectly, he said something along the lines of "Len was the perfect example of how high we can fly and how quickly we can fall". I mean, he just got drafted, that's like walking into 1502 after your last day of exams senior year. Then he just died.<br />
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As I write this blog, I'm wondering why its so depressing sounding. I don't think its some metaphor for why I want to move out of my house and all, I think it's just coincidence that both these thoughts were about the end of the world and death.<br />
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On a separate note, Nicole was in town this weekend. We didn't hang out at all, she suggested getting Jamba tonight but I declined, deciding it best not to...not to hang out(?). She's dating this Colorado boy, they seem very serious, she indicated they are planning on taking the next step after she graduates. I keep thinking about this conversation we had at Shane's before. It was that whole platonic talk, about how guys can never think of girls on a platonic level. I have changed my opinion on thats though. Anyways, Nicole said that she almost agreed, but she thinks that on rare occasions it can happen. I now agree with that, but it was something else she said to me that stuck out. she said that she believes that when a couple get married, that both individuals should be willing and should stop socializing with the opposite sex. So I know that it may sound like I'm twisting this, but I know that she said that. So basically, she thought that when she gets married, she should cut out or at least be willing to cut out friendships with all other guys besides her husband, citing that we should do anything for love.<br />
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I didn't mull it over that much until now, but I am realizing that to have accepted her invite to Jamba would have given her the impression that I was cool with being friends. Once she gets married, there is no way, if she is true to her opinions, that we can ever be friends again. No way. Nicole and I are not that "rare" case of completely platonic. I'm interested to see if she really gets engaged even if they've only been going out for a few months. Them Taylor girls...<br />
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I have to mention that Dre and I have been playing a lot of basketball. I've developed a decent shot. I had a great stretch of time starting on Thursday night when Mike and I played at the Sports Center. I played really well, even made a game winning 3. Then, on Friday I got all greens on the way to work. At work, I talked with my boss about my performance this first month. She said that she thinks the things I have done are great and that this report I wrote was very well composed. It was a good stretch of about 24 hours. Actually, this whole weekend has been pretty good. I hope the good fortune just keeps rolling. Ideally, I would win some sort of sweepstakes that gets me 2 tickets to NYC next weekend but that probably won't happen. I'll take no world endings or deaths, I'll consider that good enough.<br />
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Here's to Livin' on a Prayer (just texted to me by Stev),<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-73557221472514139202011-02-17T21:05:00.000-08:002011-02-17T21:05:52.427-08:00Run Ricky RunThis was bound to happen...The note I left on my phone this time was...<br />
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"A buzzword kinda guy"<br />
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I wrote this last Saturday while I was out at the bars. I have no clue where I was going to go with it. Suffice to say, it won't contribute too much to my thoughts...Maybe I was getting excited when people said words I liked.<br />
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Recently, I've been contemplating moving out of my house. Actually, I should say I've been contemplating when to move out of my house. I really want to move out now, but who knows if I will be sticking with this job past the 6 month "trial period" they've got me on. Also, looking around, it's pretty expensive to have an apartment by yourself, I want to look for a roommate it makes things a lot cheaper.<br />
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I talked with Wheeler on Skype the other day, we spent half the conversation setting him up with his blog. I didn't realize it was his New Year's resolution to stay in better touch with his AA and HS friends. That's how I got him to start his blog. We'll see if he keeps up with it, right now its looking grim. I think I need to tone down the whole imposing things that I like onto other people. I've realized I do it a lot. Like, I pretty much made Wheeler make his blog, I made him play Smash when he hated the game, I made everyone in the house watch Conan. I'm going to stop being so assertive with such subjective things from now on.<br />
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Lastly, I want to come out to AA within the next month, I was thinking last weekend of Feb, but Sweeney and Cassie I know you're doing the sober month, so let me know when a good time would be.<br />
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Here's to buzzwords,<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-33143705697292428022011-02-12T10:42:00.000-08:002011-02-12T10:42:57.997-08:00Reggie Miller vs. the New York KnicksI forgot to mention that I'm titling each of my blogs after a 30 for 30 that I have watched because my sister gave me the first 15 episodes for Christmas. So the King's Ransom was about when Wayne Gretzky got traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings. Last blog really didn't have anything I could relate to that so I forgot to mention that. I've made 2 new notes on my phone:<br />
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1. "Becoming our parents (the coughsneeze)<br />
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All my Wheaton friends know how badly I want to move out and find my own place. People always tell me stuff about how I sometimes act like Ron or something. While I can't bring myself to say that I don't want to be like him, I can say that having lived at home, there are certain things that I want to omit from my personal habits. Examples: Every morning, without fail, if I don't wake up to my alarm, I wake up to Ron clearing his throat downstairs at the kitchen table. He does it a lot in the mornings and its loud and he does about 3 or 4 throat clearings each time. I just can't stand it. I know its not fair, obviously its something he can't control, but just hearing it literally every morning is the worst. Also, I'm not a morning person and when I go downstairs hes always at the kitchen table read the paper. As he's reading he always goes "Hmm, hm, HMMM", as if he's reading an interesting article. I know he does it because he wants me to ask, "What's so interesting Ron?", these days I don't though so he usually pauses for 10 seconds or so after then just tells me anyway. Sometimes he tells me about something I already know, which is the worst. A couple days ago, "Wow! Jerry Sloan resigned". I knew that already though, usually I'm just too tired to tell him I already knew that so I just respond in kind, "Hm".<br />
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Anyways, the coughsneeze is Ron's version of sneezing. It's a very abbreviated sneeze so it sounds like a cough. At work the other day, I sneezed and my officemate goes, "Sorry, but are you sneezing or coughing because every time I sneeze you say 'God bless you' to me, and I would also say it to you but I just don't know if you're coughing or sneezing." I explained to him that I was sneezing and realized I'm going to be exactly like Ron in that sense. Ugh...Sneezes are not something we can control, let alone how we sound when we actually sneeze. I guess I'll just have to accept that I will become more and more like Ron everyday and just hope for the best.<br />
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2. "The couple years Jordan wasnt around"<br />
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This idea stemmed from the 30 for 30 that chronicled the 2 years that Jordan was playing minor league baseball. Since I was a Bulls fan, I really don;t remember paying any attention to those years. Watching this 30 for 30 though, I realized that those were two awesome years of basketball. I highly suggest that you check out that show. I wanted to compare Jordan not being around to us not being around AA. Not to say we are like the MJs U of M, but to say that I want to keep an eye on what's going on there even when I'm not around.<br />
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I have to go pick up Fulton and return a shirt, I wanted to talk about this more. I welcome you all to think about it and leave your comments. Stev, I know you helped them with the Avatar Mock Rock haha. Cassie, I guess you're kind of like the Pippen because you're still in AA but we're not all together.<br />
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Here's to the becoming Ron version 2.0,<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1813808550953412.post-79729813442097743362011-02-09T21:39:00.000-08:002011-02-09T21:39:52.108-08:00King's RansomStev...yes, I am enjoying the new lupe song, but you know how I am, I usually REALLY listen to a song when the whole album is out. As far as the next reunion, I will be in AA for sure the first weekend of April, but I am open to going out there anytime before then for a weekend. Or we could always try to meet somewhere else, I know Drabik has been meaning to get out to NYC for a while now. Then Cassie will be back in Illinois for that vball thing she was here for last year. Problem with that is that I'll be in Michigan at that time (May 26) for Austin and Brittany's wedding. But yea, I'm open to a weekend anywhere between myself and everyone else, maybe not Wheeler tho.<br />
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And Cassie, I also miss the daily updates, but I think we're all busier now then, plus blogging isn't as novel anymore. I do check to see if both your blogs are updated every night tho, haha. Nevertheless, I have been trying to right thoughts onto my phone so I could talk about them in my blog, because I never have any ideas of what to write about. So here's the two ideas I have written down on my phone.<br />
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1. "Are humans instinctively monogamous?"<br />
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I actually posed this question to Sweeney. I was thinking about it just because of how frequent divorce is and how we've all definitely been attracted to multiple people, sometimes at the same time. Sweeney's answer was no, but he thinks that our ancient ancestor's were, so from time to time there are humans who are monogamous. He proposes that goes back to our ancestors because back then, humans were more concerned about things like surviving themselves, not trying to expand their lineage. Now that we have such easy access to food and shelter, humans now focus on spreading their seeds or whatever. That definitely makes sense. Then when you think of the monogamous animals like those ducks that look like they can run on water, I think they're going extinct. Penguins also, and they're monogamous because of how hard it is to live in Antarctica, I'm really only thinking about March of the Penguins haha. Obviously, Sweeney persuaded me to agree with him, so I'm sticking to it. I just hope that if/when I do get married it's someone that I can get along with and stay with for until we're too old to worry about getting a divorce, like 60-70, just because it would just be a hassle at that point. Even so, once I retire I just plan to focus a lot on travel, since that's all there will be to do.<br />
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2. "Ode to coffee"<br />
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I wrote this note down last night while Anderson and I were at Front St. getting some beers. We talked all about the regular things, him about Jackie, myself about the girlfriend that I don't have, him about flight classes, myself about my new job. We were thinking of finding a place together when my job moves to Elgin, but its looking grim right now, I still do want to move out by the end of March regardless. Living at home is just getting so aggravating with all the little things that me parents do, but thats for another time. Anderson and I got on the subject of coffee and how awesome it is. He buys his from Dunkin donuts a lot, I hardly buy coffee already made, except for when I go out to bfast. I guess I wrote "Ode to coffee" thinking I was going to have some well structured verses or something, but its really just that I like it a lot, I realize that I can't abuse it (only 1 travelers mug from mon-fri), and that it makes me feel like I can do way more crap than if I didn't have it. It usually gets me through until lunchtime. Then at work, after lunch I get a huge crash. Its been rough sometimes, I just try to stay moving. Oh coffee, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...naw...<br />
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I am going to try to blog more often, hopefully this new method of writing ideas will give me more content to work with. And Cassie, I had a dream last night, could you check the book for what it means? The dream was that I played some catch with Conan O'Brien in the Wheaton City Hall parking lot. Check for words like "parking lot" or "O'brien".<br />
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Here's to the trinity of blogs, may they live forever!<br />
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ChinChinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15633830313265134104noreply@blogger.com2