Ouch

Stomach flu.

I'll spare you the pictures.

Fever. Fun stomach sickness stuff.

I'm going back to sleep.

Big ol' bum

Man, I am a big ol' bum. It's been about a week since my last post, and I feel like I haven't done much in that week.

I have. I readied content for publication for the magazine. That's one thing.

I got fairly drunk both weekend nights. That's something. Something I don't do much these days. I still go out and have a good time with the best of 'em, but rarely on consecutive nights.

I guess this is how I used to feel all the time in my cubicle job. Like a worker bee. Like I haven't really accomplished much, except to work all day and drink all night.

Not to trash cubicle jobs. Mine did a lot of good things for me. I just don't really want to go back.

So yeah. I'm a bum. A generally gleeful bum.

And by the way, non Chicagoans. When it's been hovering around 10 degrees for a month, 46 and sunny feels like nirvana.

Buried.

I just took these through my bedroom window. The drifting in front of my apartment isn't as bad as it is down the block where my car is parked. Not that it matters. A foot and a half drift or a three foot drift. Either way, your car is stuck. I hope classes are cancelled tomorrow.

Like 5000 words.

I'm not feeling wordy, so here are some pictures from this week.

My street during the snow:


This is what it did to the roads. It was so cold that road salt wasn't really working. Yikes.


It was a lot nicer today. This is over by DePaul.


They're doing work on the el over there. This one is a pretty cool shot.

And finally, I liked this one. Just wintry.

We lost.

Better luck next year.

Yeesh

The bitter cold is starting to set in. I think we crested 14 today, but that's as high as the temperature is going to get until Tuesday or so. This kind of prolonged frigidity has been rare since I've been in Chicago. It's not the worst thing in the world.

My car is freshly antifreezed (Antifrozen?) and has plenty of gas in the tank, but just taking it around the block was sluggish and awkward. It was like getting a piggy-back ride from an arthritic, complaining old dude... with leather seats.

Still, the car's out front and ready to roll, because I have to be in Naperville at 8:30am. Gross.

Cool picture, though, huh? That was snapped from the Michigan Ave bridge earlier today.

I've got a fevah.

And the only cure is to prattle on about some random stuff.

*I've been taking the train more, as I've been working more downtown. It's nice, in a way. More relaxing than driving, and since my work hours are flexible, I don't worry about delays as much as I used to. I generally travel during off-times, so there are usually plenty of seats. I have to take the Red Line, though, for most of the trip, and it always smells like... various types of human effluence. I prefer the Brown Line, which I take from my house to the Red Line. It's the Cadillac of public transportation.

*This weekend is going to be pretty tame and filled with work. At first, anyway. Sunday night will be Super Bowl havoc, no doubt. Last weekend was better. 

* I had a hankering for Chinese food tonight and the place by me was closed. I got in my car and drove several blocks (lay off, it's cold outside) in crappy traffic, lost my parking space in front of my building and had to walk back in the chilly weather. It was then that I saw a "China Hut" that I had never seen before half a block from my house. I'd walked by the space in the last few days or weeks, and saw that they were working on something in the empty storefront space, but the windows were covered and I didn't care that much. It's my fault for not paying attention.

* I got a new part time job writing press releases. That should be fun.

* Last weekend I also saw Pan's Labyrinth. It's fantastic. Frightening. Pretty. Worth seeing.

And now? Sleep. I've got a big day of mindless work in the frigid cold. Viva Chicago.

Monday, Monday

You know, Monday gets a bad rap. New Years Day is all about hope and resolutions and turning over a new leaf and all that stupid stuff. "It's the beginning of a new year! Hooray! Let's get blasted on champagne, kiss strangers, and order a Bowflex!"

Mondays start a new week 52 times a year.

Well, I guess Sundays technically do that, but stay with me here.

What does Monday get in return? Grief.

Today wasn't so bad. It's terribly cold. My hands have hurt all day. Also, I was downtown and told some people to give me a call if we were going to be meeting for work. Unfortunately, T-Mobile's downtown network went down today, so I missed the calls. That's pretty great. Thanks, guys. Oh well.

Tomorrow is a teaching day. That's always fun.

Funny Story.

So. Speaking of the Bears.

There was this one time when I attended a regular season game between the Bears and the Panthers. We were cheering for the Panthers, which was no huge deal until the guys behind us went from drunk to wasted and the Panthers really started to lose. Soldier Field is not the place you want to be while cheering for a losing visiting team.

While I hate confrontation, sometimes when I have angry drunks hurling insults at the back of my head, my mouth just starts going. No real destination in mind. Just going.

The game ended as things really started to escalate. The guys threw some punches, though none of them really connected. Security escorted us all out of the section, and the guys told us they'd be waiting for us in the parking lot. They weren't. Or maybe they got lost. It's a big parking lot.

Anyway, I was telling this story at a bar in Old Town one night, complete with details and physical reenactments when I look up and see the very same guys. It was amazing. What are the odds? This was at least a week later and in a totally different part of town.

They didn't see me, and none of the people I was with seemed to believe that it was actually the same guys. But there they were. Strange.


SO I BUSTED A BOTTLE OVER ONE GUY'S HEAD!

Or. You know. I would have.

Bears and such.

Look what I found on my doorstep this morning.

Ok, so that's a lie. I just found this guy on google images. There's no WAY anyone in this town would part with a spindly and clearly frightened dog wearing a Bears sweater on a day like today! The Bears are headed to the Super Bowl!

Now I'll be honest. I'm not that excited. I like the Bears, but they aren't my 'team'. They are my number two team, and who wants to be number two? It would be disingenuous to play the fairweather fan now. Don't get me wrong. That's not stopping EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN CHICAGO, but I opt to not go that route.

There's a real sense of guardedness among many of the Bears fans. I'd say that's especially true for the fans who really seem to follow football and are fans of the game, and not just the team. They all say we're going to win, but it doesn't feel like most of them believe it.

Still, if they pull it off, look out. It's never too cold to riot.

I actually left before Sunday's game was over. It was a thrashing, and I'm no gaper. I went to the movie theater around the corner and caught Children of Men. It was a real stunner. The acting was pretty excellent, the cinematography was gritty and realistic, and the dystopia presented in the movie seemed alarmingly possible. Go see it.

Cagematch

So last night I performed twice. I had an 8 o'clock show with Cowlick at the Playground and had an absolute blast. I love those guys. It's really a group that makes you feel comfortable doing just about anything. On top of that, we had a great crowd with lots of evergy that helped fuel the performers. The other groups had good shows too. Always a good time.

After that, I had a midnight show at the iO Cagematch. Our group, Hell Hath No Fury, is composed of people who have all been cut, dropped, passed over, or otherwise disrespected by iO. What a fun group. Seriously. We've performed together twice, but never really rehearsed. The shows have still been north of solid. I hope we can stay in the race. The cagematch has a bracket system based on audience votes. We've advanced to the elite 8. Fun times.

Lake Shore Drive

Know what song I like? Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah.

There are certain songs that really make me miss certain places I have lived. These aren't necessarily songs I've loved forever, though I tend to like them a whole lot. They also aren't songs that I was incredibly keen on the entire time I lived in the place. In some cases, I don't even discover the song until I have lived in a place a while, or even moved away. Some tunes that jump to mind are Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show, which makes me yearn for the mountains of North Carolina, and Carolina in my Mind by James Taylor, which remind me of my childhood in the swampy midlands of South Carolina.

Lake Shore Drive is turning into that song for me for Chicago. Until now, the closest I had come was Sweet Home Chicago, which is fun, but not quite 'it'.

The song feels like something out of "A Mighty Wind" in spots, has the sort of cutesy drug references you might expect from a lot of folk songs, and sings the praises of a road on the shores of Lake Michigan at a time when the winds off the lake make it pretty inhospitable and the city seems bound and determined to ensure I never drive again. Still, I dig the tune.

Anyway, if you don't know the song, here are the lyrics:

There’s a road I’d like to tell you about,
lives in my home town.
Lake Shore Drive the road is called
and it’ll take you up or down.
From rags on up to riches
fifteen minutes you can fly.
Pretty blue lights along the way,
help you right on by.
And the blue lights shining with a heavenly grace,
help you right on by

(Chorus) And there ain’t no road just like it
Anywhere I found
Running south on Lake Shore Drive
heading into town
Just slippin’ on by on LSD,
Friday night trouble bound

And it starts up north from Hollywood,
water on the driving side
Concrete mountains rearing up,
throwing shadows just about five
Sometimes you can smell the green
if your mind is feeling fine
There ain’t no finer place to be,
than running Lake Shore Drive
And there’s no peace of mind, or place you see,
than riding on Lake Shore Drive

(Chorus)

And it’s Friday night and you’re looking clean
To early to start the rounds
A ten minute ride from the Gold Coast back
make sure you’re pleasure bound
And it’s four o’clock in the morning
and all of the people have gone away
Just you and your mind and Lake Shore Drive,
tomorrow is another day
And the sunshine’s fine in the morning time,
tomorrow is another day.

(Chorus)

Grumble Grumble

Well, we're two weeks into 2007 and I have fallen off the blog wagon. I'll see if I can rectify that. I just haven't been in the mood and sometimes I feel like I'm just spurting boring crap into the ether.

Anyway, here's a few random highlights and lowlights:

-The City of Chicago is close to losing a resident. I love this town most of the time, and am its fiercest supporter. Still, in the last week, I have been taken for close to a grand by the make-the-gestapo-proud tactics of the Department of Streets and Sanitation and the Department of Revenue. I pay your stupid inflated taxes. I buy your stupid city stickers. Give me a damn break every now and then, Chicago. And by the way, even a mild Chicago winter could be a little nicer. Don't do me any favors.

-I got a new part-time job. Document management for a bank. Is it super-compelling? No. However, I do get to work a TOTALLY FLEXIBLE 15-20 hrs a week for a decent hourly wage. While I am there, I never have to answer a phone or talk to anyone. I get to scan and organize documents while listening to music and daydreaming. Not bad for a part-time gig.

-I had a blast a sketchfest. Both shows were a smashing success, and it was a fun environment.


Anyway. Times are a tiny bit tough. Lean, but never bad.

Sketchfest

Every year, some comedy types here in Chicago host SketchFest. Folks from all over come to perform. Most of the groups are from the US and Canada, and I’d bet that the largest chunk of those are actually from right here in Chicago.

For the first time, I’m taking part in the festival. Twice, actually. Fowler Family Radio Hour performed opening night to a very warm response, and Cowlick performs tonight.

One thing that gets a little old about the improv/sketch scene here is that it gets a little insular. You end up getting the same folks through the door for event after event. The audience gets jaded. Things stagnate.

Sketchfest brings in a lot of fresh blood. I hardly recognized anyone in the crowd, and they seemed to really enjoy the show. That was fun.

Long Break

Well, I had a great Christmas break. It was a week and a half of warm weather, fried nonsense, bonfires, presents, and jokes. These days, going home almost has a sort of summer camp feel to it. During the holidays, there are more bodies than beds, so cots, air mattresses, and couch-sleeping is all pretty much par for the course.

As you can see, Mom made a visit to the App State bookstore before Christmas. I nabbed Bailey a Cubs outfit, too. We're doing our best to indoctrinate her nice and early.

It was warm. One day I washed my car in a bathing suit and a t-shirt. Another couple of days we drove around with the top down. We ate like kings, spent lots of time with friends and family, and even drove through Boone on the way back.

One night we even had this little redneck extravaganza:

The smoke in the foreground is from a bonfire. In the rear (in front of the barn and under the tarp) you can see a silver pot on a burner attached to a propane tank. That contains a frying turkey. The pickup truck contains several wooden pallets that fueled that bonfire.

yum.

Anyway, the trip was awesome. It 's good to be back in Chicago, but things are pretty hectic right now. 0-60.

Hap hap happy days.

I'm in SC visiting my family for Christmas. Expect updates after the Christmas Crazy winds down.

For the record, it's like 70 degrees out.

Hmmm.

So I was pretty jazzed about my trip to Chattanooga and the ASU/UMass game. (in case you hadn't noticed).

Now I'm back in town, I've got my mind on Christmas, and I'm temping for the day to earn a little extra holiday cash. (That's what you do when you work from home and don't have much else to do on a particular day.)

I'm sitting at the desk of a UMass grad.

Hold on. Mild irony is on line two.

2 in the bag.

I just got back from Chattanooga, and boy, oh boy what a game! It was an awesome experience. On top of great football and AMAZING weather, I saw tons of old friends that I never get to see anymore. We tailgated for about 6 hours, which seems about right to me. You should have seen the stadium parking lot. UMass fans were scarce. It was like a home game. And we weren't the only fans to make the journey. Chattanooga seems pretty close to Boone, but in reality, it's about a 5 hour trek. Fans coming from places like Raleigh had about an 8 hour drive on their hands. There were lots of fans there, though, that I am sure traveled at least as far as we did to see this game.

We nailed it. The Mountaineers started out shaky, but corrected with the sort of precision and ease that makes ASU such an awesome team. That only underscores by faith in the talent of the team and the insight and skill of the coaching staff. UMass put up a solid fight. They are a good team with a lot of talent. The game was no walk in the park, but we just out-fought, outran, and out-played these guys.

Lets do the numbers, sports fans:

Miles from Chicago to Chattanooga to Chicago: 607 + 607= 1214
Hours in the car, round-trip: 9.5+9.5= 19
Motels stayed in: 2 (though since one of them was a Motel 6, maybe 7?)
Chick-fil-a or Bojangles restaurants in Chicago: 0
Percent chance that I would visit the south without eating at both of those joints: 0
Degrees outside: 68
Clouds in the sky: 1 (Maybe. All day.)
Approximate percentage of Finley Stadium's seats filled by ASU fans: 80-85
Total number of fans in the stands: 22,808
Number of DI-AA National Championships to have that many fans in attendance since the championship moved to Chattanooga in 1997: 0
Years Armanti Edwards has been alive: 18
Other 18-year-olds I know who can run or pass like he can: 0
Kevin Richardson's 2007 Rushing Yards: 1,676
Number of years Richardson has left at App: 1
Number of years Edwards has at App: 3
Times in the next 3 years I think we can rock this thing again, at minimum: 3
Points scored by Appalachian State: 28
Points scored by UMass: 17
How right Adam Witten was in guessing the score, by percent: 100
Riots started by UMass students in Amherst (story): 1
Riots started in Chattanooga or Boone by ASU fans: 0
National Championships won by App State in the past two years: 2
Rough percentage that amounts to: 100

How awesome this weekend has been for me, for the school, for the team, and for football, on a scale of 1-10: 11.

Go App. And then go again. Because that's what you do.