First Weekend

Had my first real weekend since I was in high school. That is to say, I worked five days in a row and then had two days off (both Saturday and Sunday). It was nice having a little time to wind down and not have to worry about the next day. My weekend did feel pretty busy though, had Haymaker practice Saturday morning after working at Lush Friday night, then had friends over Saturday evening for a fire and dinner - made some, if I may toot my own horn, delicious fish tacos with mango salsa and fruit, and Sunday I slept in and went to the Chicago Fire game with the frisbee people (yes, that's what I call you guys when my parents ask for the names of all the people I'm hanging out with and I don't want to list the whole group). Kevin came along which was nice, I feel like I never see the Rhombergs anymore, what's up with that? It was great having people over here the past couple of weekends, not that hanging out with the "roomates" isn't fun, but I feel better when I do some organizing of my own, it makes me feel like I have a social life...

Mom hitched a ride to Niagara Falls this weekend and went to see Rusted Root with the Savvy Joes, man I wish I could have gone!! I sent some cd's of Ruthie Foster to Joanie via mom, I've been meaning to get them to her for a while. I can't wait to get out there and catch up with everyone, I always feel extra good after a visit with the Sauvageaus.

Yosemite!!!

I feel a little nuts for not visiting more of our national parks sooner. After Edward and I visited, for not nearly enough time, Yellowstone, I got the idea I was missing out on something incredibly beautiful. That in mind, I can't believe I almost passed on the opportunity to spend five days in Yosemite National Park with five other friends (well now they're friends-I had not met two of them before). Initially I was a little worried about my finaces, but looking back, I spent very little money compared to other vacations I've had, and the majority of what I needed for the trip I had already purchased.

Our plan was to fly into Reno, Nevada on Thursday, drive to the park where our trail reservation provided for a campground site the night before and after we are on the trail, camp one night, backpack for three nights, camp one more and drive back to Reno and fly home (we found out later, via Phoenix). The reality was...different, but you might say it enhanced our trip in more ways than it detracted from it.

Our plane from Chicago left over two hours late due to what the pilot described as the equivalent of the plane's hard drive crashing. Any time you hear the pilot of your airplane start an announcement out with "don't hate me, but..." be prepared to seriously alter your plans for the day. The whole ordeal caused us to miss our connecting flight to Reno from Las Vegas, fly to Salt Lake City and connect to Reno. However, after leaving Reno with a belly full of In and Out Burger (animal style!!!!) in our fifteen passenger van and accidentally getting off the highway at the wrong place, we ended up driving up to a beautiful beach in Lake Tahoe just as the sun was setting over the mountains behind the lake.

Seeing the beach and feeling more than ready to take a dip, I asked the guys if they felt the same. I was not surprised by their enthusiasm toward taking a break from traveling and get our first taste of nature. We were excited to say the least.




After watching the sun set from atop a pile of large rocks donning a sign that said "No Climbing On Rocks," we dried off and hit the road. I drove the van through the mountain passes leading up to Yosemite. It was a little hairy at times being my first time driving a vehicle that size and the end of a very long day, but we made it safe to the park, eventually. I think it was about 1am or later local time (which as you probably recall is two hours earlier than the time zone we left from that morning). Obviously when we entered the park, there were no rangers posted at the gates or campground so we were on our own for figuring out our campsite and bear storage for the night. Apparently this was a busy night for the backpacker's campground (where we were guaranteed a spot one night before and after our trail reservations) because there was not a free spot in the whole place, nor was there an available bear box to store our food (it is illegal to store food in anything but a bear box or can, not even the car). We snooped around and decided to check out the car camping area as well and stumbled upon a free site with an empty bear box. Due to the late hour and the fact that taking this spot was more or less squatting, we decided to hastily get all the food and toiletries into the box and just sleep in the van, get up early, and get out before a ranger could see that we weren't supposed to be there.

We woke up with the sun, I say "woke up" but that would imply that we would have actually gone to sleep, which certainly didn't happen to any significant extent with me and, I'd say all of my companions as well. It was COLD when we got up, the sun had not come over the mountains yet and it was chilly!! We warmed up by hard boiling some eggs and making oat meal and coffee. We hastily ate, and broke "camp," getting out of there as soon as we could so as to avoid any suspicious rangers.

The line at the ranger station that morning was moving very slowly so Matt and I got to chat and listen to a few other people's plans for backpacking in the area before we got our trail pass and bear cans. By the time we packed up and set out on the trail it was late morning and the sun was high, our packs were heavy, and we'd had almost no sleep... Ready to rock!!

More to come later...

A Lot's Happened Since Then

After going so long without posting here, I'm not sure what to write. It feels like I should have something really profound to say, or at least be super excited to post. I get that same feeling that I have when I save a nice bottle of wine or beer; the feeling that no occasion is good enough to open it the longer I save it. I guess a better way to approach it would be like getting back to the gym after a long time off and just take it easy and slow. Either way, I still think I post more than Morley...

For those of you who don't know, I started Grad school in January to pursue a Master's of Education. Things are going well, very slowly, but I think that's good because I have more time to get my work done. Grad school is kind of weird, probably more so for me because I am in a cohort program which seems to take all the weird little differences about graduate school and exaggerate them. For instance, I have class one night a week and take one class at a time. Also, I found it strange that, because the expectation in grad school is that you are self motivated and truly want to be there, you get A's as long as you do the work. Not that I think my work has not been quality, but I am not used to the concept that teachers create a grading scale in which the process is the important part and the teachers take responsibility for creating a curriculum
that, if completed, will reliably elicit learning and competence. I really enjoy this style and find that, with the pressure off, I do very good work. I even find myself wishing I had class more often.

In order to afford school without going into insane amounts of debt, I made the decision to move back in with my parents who have been more than gracious to me and very understanding with me as a roommate. We are on very different schedules, which I'm sure is a strain on them, but they have been wonderful and more than willing to help me out. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

That being said, I have found myself regressing a little as far as my self-reliance and independence go. I could be a lot better about keeping my room clean and helping out around the house, and I will do my best to improve in this regard.

I have GOT to stop watching so much TV!!! What a waste of time!! Man movie channels are a killer, there's always something on!! Sadly enough it's never really anything worth watching. (I watched a terrible movie called "Hollywood Flies" that starred Vinnie Jones, and stayed up way too late-OOPS!)

No summer Ultimate program this year, which sucks, because that was a nice chunk of money and made for a great summer lifestyle last year. I was at Humboldt Park and could bike over to the beach everyday for some volleyball after work before I went to either work or frisbee, what a life I had!! Since the word came down about our program being cut I've been edgy and uncomfortable because I don't know what my summer will be like. But Lush has been able to pay the bills so far and I've been very happy working there this year.

As for what I have coming up this summer, I'm mostly sticking around town, playing Ultimate, working at Lush, and taking classes. I am excited to say that I will be heading to Yosemite in late July for some backpacking (something I really missed doing last summer). I've never really been anywhere in California other than L.A. and am looking forward to checking out what's up north.

Also on the radar in the distant future is a possible trip to Colombia over New Year's. My friend Jorge has family down there and we've been talking about how sweet it would be to get out of Chicago right about then. Plus, I assume because people are afraid to go there, flights are cheap. So if I can pull it off financially, I'm there!

In other news, I miss the Savvy Joes and the Seattle Flynns (as well as Seattle in general), and I hope I get to see you all very soon

Judgement Day

Tonight I had a rather new, and definitely strange, experience. Those who know me probably understand that I have a talent for pissing people off, and then reeling them back in and creating a point where we can laugh about it and sometimes even be friends. I guess one could say I pride myself on being able to get along with most anyone and, often times our interaction, no matter how long it lasts, begins in this way. David Morley once told me that I get along with him because I can accept him and the things he does, especially when he (metaphorically) throws them in my face and basically says "deal with it." While I get along with Edward because I find common ground between the two of us and work to build upon those things we have in common. These are two very different approaches to getting along with people, but both are effective and both are necessary to build a relationship of any kind. The point I am, very poorly, trying to make is that I do my best to see what is unique and exceptional in the people I meet. This is a practice that has proved successful and has brought, perhaps in spite of itself (and myself), a lot of extraordinary people into my life and allowed me the pleasure of getting to know the best, and sometimes the worst (which never seems quite as profound to me), in them. Tonight, I was put in my place, so to speak.

The story goes like this...

Approaching the end of the shift at Lush, a couple of men (who happen to be black) came in the store and were looking to get educated on beer. I suggested that the best way to do that would be to drink a bunch of different styles of beer back to back and compare the differences. I also offered to talk them through the beers before they took them home to which they replied, "why don't we just have them here and we can talk about them as we go." I excepted their offer and we began tasting and discussing beer, which eventually turned into a very candid, frank, extremely humorous, and very informative conversation about culture, marriage, dating and how race plays a role in each of those. For me it was an enjoyable and entertaining way to end the night at work, which usually consists of me and my coworkers cleaning and closing the register, for the guys working their way from Pilsners to Stouts, it made the time in between my explanation of the development of India Pale Ales and the subtleties of Belgian Ales much more interesting. Take home message: the conversation was light hearted and profound at the same time, and I found it to be a unique experience that I could have only had while working at Lush.

After we closed the store, Erin and I headed down to the Skylark for a drink and met up with two separate groups of people. One group was with Erin's room mate celebrating her birthday (who probably thinks I'm very strange because I gave her a pomegranate as a birthday gift , the other was with Evan, Erin's boyfriend. I know Evan better so I pulled up a seat at the table with him and was introduced to his friends, one of whom I recognized from the Monday night Bike sprints at the Cobra Lounge who was sitting across from his girlfriend, who seemed quite pleasant when she introduced herself. Still giddy from my interesting conversation at the end of the shift at Lush, I found a break in the conversation where I probably used some awful transition to allow myself to bring up what I thought was a profound experience. So then, I harnessed all of my epically horrendous story-telling skills (my stories are really bad and usually go no where in case that wasn't clear enough, but often to the point of being comical-a redeeming quality) and blurted out something that ended in the group blinking in silence and me trailing off and shortly after apologizing for wasting their lives. That last part was an attempt to show that I understood that my retelling of the nights events made no sense and that the example I used to illustrate how strange, yet exciting the conversation was for me fell far from conveying that sense on to my audience. Long story short the conversation broke down and I may have, in my best awkwardly friendly way, have tried to restart it again, but to no success and the couple in front of me starts getting up to leave. This is where it gets good. As they say goodbye to Evan and his room mate, who is also at the table the girl, whose name I thought was Anne but turned out to be Lyric (wow! how did I make that leap? Although I don't feel that bad because Evan's room mate heard the same thing when she introduced herself to me), looked right at me and said, "you were really boring." I wasn't sure I heard her correctly and just kind of smiled dumbly until she said something to the effect of "screw your class loyalty" and "you offended me." To which I replied, "Wait, you're serious?" Duh! Anyway, I tried my best to graciously apologize and show that I wasn't the bigoted frat-boy douche they seemed to think I was, while also trying to explain that the examples I used from my, looking back on it now rather taboo, conversation at work were not my own views but were simply examples of how strange an interesting the conversation was. I don't think any of my last ditch efforts made a hill of beens difference in their perception of me, and I won't say I don't care. Now, I want to say that, in my own defense the rather objective parties of Evan and his room mate seemed to think that though my story royally sucked, I didn't say anything out of line (whether or not they said that to make me feel better I can't say, though I afforded them the opportunity to let me know).

I have always felt like I can get along with anyone and it was a shot to my obviously overgrown pride to have two people straight up dislike me. I don't want to sound pouty, and if I already do I'm sorry, I don't resent these people for not liking me and I am impressed with their blunt honesty about their perception of me from tonight. Had they not said anything I would not have taken a step back and looked what I said tonight and thought about how I can't just tell everyone everything because I am excited (more importantly you poor saps who read my blog and are obviously already bored would have even less to do). Tact is something I could stand to learn how to use more often. Still, I really don't think I was that out of line (I know I being vague about the details of the conversation I had at Lush, but in an effort to avoid effing up the story in some offensive way while also practicing a bit of my new tool, "tact." I will spare you the specifics).

Evan seemed to think that these two probably judged me based on a few things (my clothes, my flapping mouth which spat out pointless garbage, that goofy grin I was sporting the whole time, and perhaps a number of other things that I can't imagine) and pegged me as maybe a "little fratty." Here is what bothers me. These people get upset at me because of, what I can only imagine was something amounting to them confusing what I was quoting from my previous conversation to show how unique it was to me as my own views on gender and race, which are characteristics identifiable superficially, that also have cultural and social prejudices associated with them. Then, if Evan's suspicions are true, they attributed these views of mine, as they perceived them, to certain superficial characteristics that carry with them certain stereotypes. BAM! I just got judged, maybe.

I really don't know what happened tonight, and I may never know exactly what I did to offend these people. I am alright with them thinking of me as a complete jerk who they would care never to run into again, but I would like to take away from this experience a few lessons about myself. Learning to be tactful with new acquaintances is a big one, but another entirely is that some people are not ready to be thrown into being my friend and excepting me for who I am nor are they prepared to invest the time to find some common ground and build a friendship out of it. Some people just want to have a beer and have me shut the hell up.

What a Day

Last Tuesday I enjoyed one of the best days I've had a long time.  I began the day by getting up at 6:30 or so, which is a feat in it's own right for me these days, and headed out to LaGrange Park.  I was "doing a favor" for my aunt Chris and hanging out with her youngest, Liam, who had the whole week of school off while his older siblings had to attend Monday and Tuesday.  Chris had her clinical rotation all day and couldn't be home.  When I arrived at their house around 8:30, Liam was still sleeping and Paul was getting ready to head out.  Figuring that I had a little while before Liam was ready to get moving I sat down at the computer and wrote some emails, facebooked and read some blogs as I had a hot cup of coffee.  After about half an hour I decided that Liam was not about to keep me waiting all day, and went to go and put into practice the waking up kids technique I have learned under the supreme master of waking up kids, uncle Tom.  Now, Liam is a little like Matt in some ways, he's pretty big (I think it was in third grade when he toppled a sixth grader in the playground for picking on his, ironically very small, best friend Ricky), he has always loved showing off his body, as Edward learned first hand on the beach in Michigan (much like Mitch and Doreen learned the first time they met Matthew as a baby, walking down the street butt naked, having left a trail of clothes on the sidewalk), he can be a little slow in the morning, and they both have been arrested for underage drinking.  Okay, I lied about the last one.  All jokes aside, I used all the old tricks like, shaking, bouncing, jumping on him, tickling, nothing was moving this kid.  So I decided to grab Sean's guitar and take a page out of the Vince Gogo book of waking up people and sing a horribly out of tune and obnoxious song until he couldn't stand it anymore.  I really don't think that my singing was what actually got him up so much as he decided he was ready, but either way he finally got out of bed and, due to his rather pungent odor (another similarity to my brother), we decided it was best if he showered.  

When he got out of the shower, I was ready to get moving, Chris had left her pass to the Brookfield Zoo, and I was on a mission to see some dolphins.  I friggin' love dolphins, and apes, apes are sweet!  Anyway, Liam had other plans.  He and his friend, he explained, had invented a game which involved shooting a hockey puck at the garage door from different distances and the first to miss looses.  After beating him a few times, informing him that I was vastly superior in the game of hockey and that his sad attempts to continue were futile, I suggested that we head out for some breakfast and... DOLPHINS!!  He wasn't quite ready, and wanted to play again, we changed the rules up a little to make it more difficult and I let the game get a little closer in hopes that almost winning would be as satisfying as winning.  After going to triple over time, I finished him of (evil chuckle) and we headed to the zoo.  I cannot remember the last time I was at Brookfield Zoo, but the place hasn't changed much since then.  The buildings look a little sad and run down, the animals still don't really do much of anything, except for the Gibbons (one of the lesser apes), who were teasing some sort of otter who had to share a habitat with them.

Liam, obviously, had been to the zoo more frequently because he had a plan the minute we walked through the gate.  On his list was the 80 or so year old Cockatoo whose name I forgot, the "fragile kingdom" and the big cats.  In about two hours or so we saw the entire zoo.  Although I must admit I forced him to sit and watch the dolphins with me for at least thirty minutes.  There were a few other moments, besides seeing the dolphins that is, that were worthy of mention, both of which came from the pachyderm house.  Number one happened as we approached the first rhino and Liam informed me that I we need to be on the lookout for it turing around because his friend once got peed on by a rhino here.  The way he explained the rhino peeing was one of those priceless kid moments that I can't possibly do justice to in writing and left my cracking up.  Go figure, as soon as I walked up to the pen holding the huge specimen of African megafauna and was reading the sign which warned that Rhinos mark their territory by SPRAYING urine in ALL directions, the thing turned, faced the wall of the pen (thank god) and proceeded to pee, no sandblast, the wall behind it (I'm pretty sure I saw some paint flake off).  We had a good laugh, which probably sounded like Beavis and Butthead, and moved on toward the other side of the building, which brings me to the other notable experience I had at the zoo.  The Hippopotamus.  That's it.  The thing didn't really do anything except eat hay off the floor of its pen, but it was effing HUGE!!!  Wow!!  You could have stacked up five of me and it would not equal the girth of this enormous creature.

When we left the zoo, we were both starving.  I wanted to get the car back to my mom in case she needed to run some errands for the upcoming trip to Niagara Falls for Thanksgiving.  We arrived in Oak Park and mom suggested we go to the Depot for some lunch.  Brilliant.  I hadn't been there in way too long.  Plus, it was right up Liam's alley.  We sat at the bar and he ordered himself a tall glass of chocolate milk and a club sandwich and I, under the conviction to try something new, went for the meatloaf sandwich.  Anna, the first lady of the Depot, took our order and chatted with us when she had a free second, and in between that Liam and I talked about hockey, Blackhawks snow shovel girls, school, work, you know, man stuff.  We polished off our food in record time, scarfing down the deliciously seasoned fries, coleslaw, pickles, all that remained were Liam's tomatoes because he has convinced himself that he doesn't like them, so I ended up eating them for him.  Afterward, he informed me that what he had just experienced was "the best club sandwich I've ever had," so I made him tell Anna, which he did not seem the least bit shy about.

By the time we left it was getting to be time for me to get down town to take the kids in our after school program to the UIC Physiology lab.  I asked Liam if he wouldn't mind coming along, and, you know help me keep the high school kids in line.  He was down with it and we got on the train toward the city.

The story from here on out gets pretty boring, we go to the lab, Liam plays it cool, doesn't really seem to mind hanging in the background and my parents come to pick him up and ship him back home for the night.

Chris and Paul, you guys have great kids, I hope that whatever eventually springs from my genes is as fun and interesting and talented as Sean, Samamfra, and Liam are.  Seriously, any time you want to get rid of them for a while, send them my way.  Well, at least until I move home, then you'll have to ask my roomates if it's okay.

Carl Weathersby at Buddy Guy's

Last night, after a short nap and an amazing pasta dinner at my parents' house, I ventured to Buddy Guy's Legends with Matt, my cousin Luis, and Mike Risher for a night of blues. I figured it would be a great place to take Luis that would give him a heavy dose of Chicago. Matt, of course, suggested that going to Duffy's or McFadden's would be a better option and, in the hours leading up to us arriving at Buddy Guy's, mentioned to several people that his brother was dragging him to some blues club. Dad graciously gave us a ride and, after honking at some girls walking down Harrison street near UIC in their going out skirts ("going out" denotes sequins), dropped us off at the doorstep. After paying the $15 cover we headed toward the back bar of the already crowded club and parked ourselves near enough to poach seats at the bar and order drinks with relative ease. I started off the night with a delicious Bell's Amber compliments of Luis who had the same. The bartender was cute and nice so naturally my brother hit on her a little while she busily filled orders. The opening act was Joanna Connor who had a build like the trunchbull from Rold Dahl's Matilda, but without the scowl. She had some serious bluse chops, and could pull off sounds reminicent of anything from the Staple's Singers to the Allman Brothers. The boys were not overly impressed by Ms. Connor, and her tiny, male rhythm guitarist who could also play some serious blues but would have to work on his street cred. to make me believe he had the blues. All in all a decent opening act. Before her set was over, Damitz and her roomate came, and we were soon also joined by Magdonna. While the set was changing in preparation for Carl Weathersby, we switched to cheaper beer (cans of Schlitz or pitchers of PBR), the girls talked with the boys and we fell out of eighth grade dance formation.

Mr. Weathersby went on a little after eleven and the minute he played his first note after his rhythm guitarist warmed up the crowd with a few tasty licks on his hollow body Gibson, we knew why he was the main event. He cranked his two amps way up and played faster, bent strings higher, and sang harder than I've seen in a long time. Even Matt said "Dude, this guy rocks." The crowd would scream out and cheer in anticipation when he would turn down the volume and the band would strum quietly in the background until he would suddenly turn the knob back up and wail on the guitar again. This guy could really work the crowd, he would come down off the stage and play at the front row tables, he even channeled a little Hendrix here and there and played with his teeth.

We all had a great time and ended up staying until I could barely keep my eyes open. It's crazy that I don't go there more often, it is so close to my apartment and well worth the money. All in all the night was awesome, great dinner with great wine (Cechony '05 and '06), great music and even better company!

Magic Slim and the Teardrops are playing the New Year's Eve show there, perhaps I'll get a group together to ring in the new year with some blues.

President Barack Obama!

Yes, we can.

Well done, America.

Time to buck up and get to fixing this country!