Monday, June 12, 2006

Poultry Days and Nights

So Thursday afternoon I went from work to home, catching an episode of Battlestar Galactica to get my fix before the weekend and then I was off to the southside. I began my travels and travails by stopping into Steve Wang’s I’m done with 22 years of school party and gave him my compliments on finishing his Ph. D. He seemed rather happy.

Afterwards I made my way to the pepperland where I joined in the watching of most of “The Devil’s Rejects” which was not so bad as one would think it to be, as it was written and directed by Rob Zombie I believe. A bit gory and violent though for my tastes.

The morning of our trek to PD began well enough. After numerous short delays, all necessary, especially the oil change, our humble party of four, whom I dubbed the amazateers began our excursion to the poultry filled town of Versailles, Ohio. The trip was relatively uneventful, and the highlight was Jason attempting to expand our horizons on the depths and lengths to which impromptu fictional narrative could be taken.

Upon our arrival to the fields I was delighted to see Tazo, Ian, and Jeff followed very shortly by Trudy and High School. Never ones to dilly dally we hastened to erect our tents and when Whit and Russell arrived, we made our way to the fair to get our first savory slices of their world famous chicken. It was delicious. Upon our return we commenced Schtick playing and my team did fairly well, though we were admittedly more experienced. My favorite personal maneuver was when I crept along the edge of the pond behind our opponents, and waited for them to forget about me ( which given our current state was about 1 min) I then emerged from behind a tent and laid the disc in the goal. A bit cheap, but oh well.

Saturday morning started off with a thud as the weather was rainy, a bit cool, and a hair windy. So our first two games were a little trying at times. We played fairly well, but our lack of cuts held us back, but we managed to win one game. It was a much better experience for me in terms of playing, than mars last year. I’m not in a whole lot better shape now, but at least I’ve played a fair amount of ultimate recently, which enabled me to play fairly steady offense after the weather improved and satisfactory defense. One of our woman, Jen Shannon, made two amazing layout catches on offense. Probably the most startling athletic plays I’ve ever seen by a woman. I believe that she caught both on on the edge of her fingers after some crazy contortions. Sunday we found ourselves in the C bracket and won our first after being down 6-5 and lost our second after being up 6-5. Not a bad weekend, could have done better probably, but I loved the sideline banter and motivational speeches supplied by my teammates. It was fantastic to play with such good women, we often played three of the four guys back as handlers and just had the women get open and score upfield.

Pretty good weekend, I’m really looking forward to Mars and its own brand of hijinks. I’m going to try and do a few sprint workouts between now and then, so I’ll probably be amazing. I’m looking forward to my soon to be amazingness.

Friday, June 02, 2006

The New Toy

So I am writing this entry on the train on the labtop that my company has thoughtfully provided me with. It’s a Dell Latitude D810, which Akira thought was a nice machine, and it does seem to be. The train was delayed 7 minutes due to a “customer dispute.” Word has it that it was a pair of long-separated-by-the-Atlantic sisters who came to blows over whether scones or toast were the proper receptacle in which to enjoy Jam. The past sentence was obviously a fallacy, but then again, why hide from my mendacious nature.

Memorial Day weekend was enjoyable; Rachael, Ethan, Alison, and myself journeyed out to western Illinois where we enjoyed my Aunt’s chalet. It was a delightful time with much scurrying about the woods (and away from lightning), some superior cooking, and Ethan and I trying to catch a fish with some chicken wire, two sticks, and French toast. As the reader might expect, we were unsuccessful in our attempts but I like to think that our methodology improved throughout the course of our time out there.

On Monday I snuck into the CUSL summer league hat tournament, and played neither well nor poorly. We then went to take a dip in lake Michigan and Rachael quite gamely completely emerged herself in Lake Michigan for what I believe was her first full fresh water submersion, very exciting. The water though, was a bit cool to the touch, but refreshing because of it. It felt afterwards like I had taken a 4 hr nap, but after 30 minutes I felt like I needed a 4 hr nap, which to avoid any undue alertion (definitely not a word but was the first to come to mind) is my perpetual state of being.

After the lake we went to jason’s place where we grilled through the rain on Jason’s new grill. At the cookout a friend and former co-worker from Maine showed up and informed me that another good friend and co-worker from Maine was moving to Chicago in about a day.

Well the next day several of us chanced rainy perdition for $.25 beers at the horseshoe in Lincoln Square, Claire and I got there about 1.5 hrs before anyone else and we talked for some time, which was good, as beforehand we had never really talked. Anyway, people showed up, the BBQ sauce there is spectacular, as are the falling off the bones ribs, and the rock band wasn’t bad. Jason labeled it his new favorite bar in Chicago, but he’s rather impressionable, though experienced in the bar realm. Bryan, the food, brownies, and ice cream was very clutch when I got back.

On Wednesday I got a call and ventured south on Sacramento to meet up with my two friends from maine. Though I got the address walk and peddled for about 30 minutes between 2600 and 2300 blocks knowing it was on one of those two and ended in a one, or at least I was pretty sure. Eventually my intuitive prowess though saved me and I realized that she probably lived near the house that had a car with Ohio plates outside of it. The conversation with the guy on the first floor went as follows.
Me: did you happen to notice a young woman moving in on this street in the past day or two?
Him: no, can’t say that I have. What’s her name.
Me: Melissa Simon.
Him: no, haven’t heard of her.
Me: really b/c I think that’s her car out front and I think the address ended in a 1, which this house happens to do.
Him: Oh, you know what, yesterday a girl moved in upstairs into my land lady’s place to sublease.
Me: hmmmm…that sounds like it just might be my friend, could you take a look?
Him: sure.

I was rather bemused at the fact that he couldn’t think of anyone moving in and then a minute later recollected that someone had indeed moved into his building the day before.

I enjoyed a fine dinner and was really glad that the one friend has moved here and I got to see the other before she began her formal architectural training.

Well that’s about it for the week, I have some sort of weekend plan thing arranged, but it’s a little undecided when and how I’ll get to everything. Oh and my jaw hurts. Last night I was walking into the living room and opened my mouth and my jaw, right near my ear, popped, like people cracking their fingers. Its been hurting a little all day. Anyway, that’s all I got at the minute as I head back to my place.