Wow so I suck at this....

It's been forever and four days since I last wrote. I've been busy you see...I caught the flu (I advise everyone to get a flu shot), my mom had surgery (she's doing much better now) and the it took me another four weeks to get over those four weeks. That 's the thing about missing work, it never really misses you. It finds you, in your sleep, on your sick bed. And it sits and waits for you. I had the joy of listening to my voicemail after being sick for a week (and putting up an "I'm out of the office for the remainder of the week and will not have access to voicemail" voicemail, which generally stops the unnecessary messages.....I was graced with 40 messages).

Let's see what other fun things have happened....so the wedding has been moved to April 2008. Matt and I sat down and had a nice long talk, we realized that it would be in both of our best interested to have him as sane as possible for the wedding, and October of 2007 is when he is getting his residency applications together. And I'm pretty sure that he is going to be a wreck to deal with, and honestly, one less thing the both of us need. So April is it. He's matched, done school and will be a pleasant person to deal with. Although if he had his druthers, we'd be half way to Vegas an hour after he finishes boards on June 12th. I'm not cool enough to work the hyperlink thing, but he googled Bellagio Wedding and pulled up a million pictures of the Bellagio (including a Cranberry Bog in the center of the hotel) his lure to elope was, "look Al, we can make cranberry juice..." Tempting...really......

What else, what else...I've become obsessed with HBO's Big Love. Bill Paxton, who knew. I mean really. Where did this come from? The cast rocks, even Chloe Sivgeny (who I really don't like, but damn, she plays a great manipulator). Besides, everyone loves a good story about polygamy. I mean really!

Speaking of...it's on...Gotta go!

A Rendezvous with Bode at a Karaoke Bar

No, I did not bump into Bode Miller at a bar recently...although if I lived in New England, you bet your ass I would sure as hell try. Rather, I just spent the last 30 minutes playing around on joinbode.com, Bode Miller's Website ala Nike. It's a cartoon-ized version of Bode's home and town and from there you can click onto little stars that have what are now called "Bodeisms". Bode tells you his thoughts on things ranging from Pain to Fun to Happiness to The Olympic Creed. I find him fascinating.

Other than being attractive, self -taught, discipline and a world-class athlete, he's a smart bad-boy (hard to find these days). The guy knows how to market himself. He recognizes that his "I don't give a shit" attitude, bugs the hell out of people, but also earns him a hell of a lot of respect.

He says he does this for love, that he doesn't care what people think about him, that it doesn't make a difference if he wins or loses, that he doesn't give a crap about the media (as a matter of fact he hates them), but there he is! In the last 60 days, Bode has been on 60 Minutes, the covers of Newsweek & Time, has a Nike run website and has the whole damn world talking about him.

I have no doubt that he loves what he does and that he doesn't care what people think of him. What I also think is that either he has or he is a brilliant promoter. He knows what he says drives people up the wall, and he knows exactly what buttons to push without making himself a total pariah AND he knows that people will keep coming back for more. He's James Dean, born in the wilderness, on skis.

Le Sigh....

So onto things in my control...since I don't foresee a rendezvous with Bode in my lifetime….

I went to a karaoke bar for the first time last night. Now for those of you who know me, the only singing that I do is either A) in my shower, ALONE, B) in my car, ALONE or c) with my family in the confines of our home while we are ALL ALONE. You see, I have not been gifted with the tone gene. As a matter of fact, I am completely and utterly tone deaf. It's really sad. I love to sing, I love music and nothing in the world makes me happier then when I'm in my car and I hear Dancing Queen or Walking on Sunshine, of If You Steal my Sunshine (yes we all remember Len). Everyone knows these songs, the ones that come on and you just start singing at the top of your lungs, dancing in the car and people around you are laughing because you look insane, but in that "Wow, look how much fun she is having" type of way. And that is great when you are in a car, but at a bar that is filled with people on a Saturday night, WHOLE other ballgame.

So we went to this bar at midnight and my friend Sabrina asked me to sing with her. I told her I sucked; she said she did too, so of course, we picked a song and readied ourselves for the moment of truth.

They finally called our names and we were up doing a super special rendition of, Ace of Bases "I Saw the Sign". Of course we thought we rocked, people got up and danced, talk about an ego boost. In our minds, we rocked out 80's hair band style. We were given the pats on the back and good jobs and of course wanted to go back again.

The next time wasn't as sweet. We decided to do a little ditty by a Miss. Lisa Loeb, that's right ladies and gentlemen, "Stay". Not as pretty as Ace of Base AT ALL. This is where my painful tone-deafness came into play. I don't sing, I yell in a rhythmic manner. And this worked well with Ace of Base since the Swedes didn't have nearly as high notes as Miss. Loeb. People were bobbing and Matt was even singing along, which was totally cute. But we got off stage and my rock star appeal dropped like a 4th graders pants on the playground. I asked Matt honestly, how much did I suck (since Sabrina lied and actually had a pretty decent voice) he told me not only should I not quit my day job, there was no use in getting part-time work either.

So the lesson learned from my Karaoke experience: Next time I'm at a karaoke bar and am asked to sing, stick with Swedish Rock.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

It's Saturday afternoon and my ass has been out of bed for way too many hours. Work has forced me to wake up hours early and drive down to the South Side of Chicago to visit the wonderful world of Hyde Park. So I've learned a few things since I've been in Chicago:

First--Don't mess with Chicago Hot Dogs, Chicago Pizza or any other Chicago food. They take it very seriously and won't even second guess running you through with a sharp object

Second--Make sure you know the color of the Sox (Red is NOT the correct answer here). Even with the excuse of, "I don't follow baseball," you may wind up on the FAR South Side, alone at night, holding a sign that reads, and “Tupac is dead!"

Third-- The University of Chicago is a waste of space.

This third point is going to be my rant for the next paragraph or so. Where should I start...the first time I was at "THE" University of Chicago, I grabbed a student newspaper to read it. Being the avid reader, it's always great to see what student newspapers have to say about things. So imagine my surprise when the cover story title line reads, "Warm Weather, Students Study Outside" and the byline reads, "Students flock outdoors to the detriment of their grades." The top half of the first page of a top 15 school in the country and the only news they can relate is that students have decided to study outside. So, okay, we think to ourselves, well, maybe there isn't anything exciting going on in the world today. But here is the thing, why, WHY is the fact that college students removing themselves from the dusty library holding their dusty books worthy of note? Because THE U of C students suck at life. That's right, because you know, you're going to get a "98.4%" if you sit outdoors to enjoy the autumn foliage, rather then the "98.6" (which can of course be rounded to 99%) you could have, if you'd only continued breathing in the stale air.

I wish that were it. I would have felt bad for them, if that were the only idiotic evidence that I had. However, it isn't. Point number two: Hyde Park used to be the most beautiful part of Chicago, however over time it deteriorated and became a less than desirable place to be. Over the last few years, that has slowly changed. THE U of C, is the center of Hyde Park, its core is a city block set of beautiful old stone buildings, with several grassy knolls in the center and rather deep and large water fountain. Now, this sounds absolutely lovely. However, never, NOT ONCE, have I ever seen water in the fountain. I've seen old, dead leaves floating in rainwater, but never once have I seen water. And the lovely grassy knolls that are inside the quad, never manacured. No gardeners, no one cleaning the leaves or maintaining the grass. It's dark and gloomy (towering oak trees cover the quad) and completly unkempt to the point of embarasment. While I don't expect the perfectly manicured lawns of Duke, I did expect something more than a sqaure block filled to the brim with 10-year-old dead leaves. Since Rockefeller created this university, why don't they have money to, um, I don't know, get a damn rake?

There are several other example of run-ins with students, however because they are related to work, I don't have the ability to share. But trust me, the byline above pretty much explains most all of them.

So tomorrow is the Super Bowl and to be totally honest, I could care less. I'm more excited about the fact that I get to have awesome beer, fatty foods and watch insanely expensive commercials and of course, have the hopes to see Janet Jackson's breasts again. Now I understand that this is the epitome of American Male-dom, like if you don't do the Super Bowl thing then you weren't really given a pair when you were created. But come on. Do most people really care about these two teams? The day of the Super Bowl is the day where hospitals have the highest incidence of women coming in with injuries related to spousal abuse. That is something that we as a society should be proud of. So women watch out, your man's team gets beat, so do you.

I am very fortunate. I grew up in a family where football was NOT the past time (thank God) and I am engaged to a football fan, who understands and works around my deep hatred of the game. I try, I have tried. I even went to an area football game last night. Where I spent nearly the entire event speaking to a girlfriend, who, like me, could care less about the game. I just can't seem to get into it. I see a bunch of men, it tights, running after each other trying to grab balls. It looks ridiculous.

Oh well. I'll never get it. But I'll continue to go to the Super Bowl parties, drinking beer, eating ribs and hoping Janet will flash us one more time...

Something New

So I've been thinking about doing this Blog thing for a while. I would get the the "create" page and then blank. What do I title this? How the hell can I not be cliche. Well as you can see, I gave up on that idea. I figured, once I actually started this thing, it really doesn't make a difference what the hell its called.....

So I was in my kitchen this evening, thinking about the state of my affairs and I had this realization; I can't remember the last time that I had a challenging converation with someone other then my fiancee. Something that's made me think, made me see another point of view, made me want to go out and learn more about that topic. I've given up on politics, I can't STAND it anymore. While I watch a fair amount of films, I'm not a guru. I love art, but don't have the ability to have passionate converations about that and I can't put down a book. I carry books around with me all the time. Short of Science Fiction, I'll read it as long as someone says its worth my time.

Since I graduated college three years ago, I've read a small library's worth of books, but I've never really had the ability to discuss them. They all sit in the back of my mind and get old and dusty and every once and a while I can pull one out, brush it off and give a small bit if information to someone, who more then likeley won't ever pick the damn book up.

Nearly all of my friends are A) In school and don't have the time to read all the books they are supposed to, let alone read for pleasure, B) Haven't picked up a book since the FIRST Bush was in office or C) Only read fluff and therefore can't have a meaningful converation even if they wanted to.

I miss college for that reason. For me, it was one huge, ongoing discussion and debate. Every class session was something new, it made you think, it made you angry, it made you excited. I would walk out of classes exhilirated. I miss that. And I think about joining some sort of book club or something, but where would I find that? I mean, really? If everyone I know is either a self-selected illiterate or quarantining that part of their brain, what am I going to do?

So I think that's the reason why I started this blog thing...at least I can be passionate with myself...that doesn't sound healthy though.....