Update from August 27-28
Friday (the 27th) morning started with errands to Office Max. Stephan's store needed lots of loot and I'm the man to get it. I went to the store with around $700 on me. I had to buy a printer/copier/fax machine, phones, a filing cabinet, and miscellaneous office products (staplers, pens, velcro [what?], and so on). I'm so good, that I ended up with only about $4 left... I even calculated for tax! Hey... I was impressed that I almost hit this nail right on the head. That's awesome financial planning... I was almost and actuary!
I then went to Taco Bell by myself. I used to do it at Albion, where I would drive to Marshall (the Jackson one was Laura's) and sit and eat by myself. It was nice... and it gave me a few minutes to clear my head.
And it was good that I got those few minutes because Friday Laura came to Chicago! It was very nice to see her again, but we only had a couple of minutes together before I had call for my performance.

That's right, it was my final performance of the level 5 show. And the odd thing about final performances at the Second City is that they all sell out. From what I hear, they all sell out and then some. My show was no exception. We not only sold out Friday night, but there was a waiting list of 35 people. For those of you who don't know, Donny's Skybox is about half full with 35 people... so we probably could have put on two shows Friday night, both fairly full. The show was great... the audience was very responsive, and even most of the actors decided to add a few things because of the amount of laughs we were getting. We were getting so many laughs that we cut one of the scenes near the end of the show. That's laughs. It was a great experience and something I hope I can do again soon.
Friday night, after the show, Laura, Jim, and I went to my apartment and hung out for a bit. Laura was very tired from her long day, so we called it a night after an hour or two. After Jim left, I got ready for bed and lied down and then my phone rang. The rains had come and Jim's bus had not. I got up, dressed, and headed to Lake Shore Drive. I actually drove past Jim at first, because it was raining so hard I couldn't see him. Once I found him, we headed to his apartment through, at points, lakes of water. Water does not drain very well here in Chicago... so there were plenty of places where we were wading through water in my car. It was an interesting drive... but the rain had let up by the time I got back to my apartment, about an hour later.

Saturday morning, Laura and I woke up (in separate places. Come on! Mommy and Daddy are separated, because mommy makes daddy want to kill himself) and had a nice lazy conversation. It felt really nice to wake up and talk to someone again. Don't get me wrong, I love living by myself. But I sometimes miss waking up and talking with someone first thing in the morning.
I planned on taking Laura to Garlic and Chili (yes, I know Thai food is weird first thing in the morning... but we're weird). Oddly enough, the Thai food restaurant was closed. We then headed towards Coldstone and decided to eat at Einstein's. I paid for breakfast with a "Happy Birthday" to Laura... and we had a pleasant breakfast talking about how awesome I am (Laura would never have that conversation). We then walked back to Coldstone and got ice cream almost first thing in the morning. Nothing says that you're going to have a great day quite like getting ice cream first thing. I, unfortunately, had to deal with something that I'll get more into later... but it was good for Laura to see where I work and how awesome I am (so that we could actually have that conversation).
That was pretty much all of Laura's visit. And, for some reason that I won't get into because it would be talking about my feelings, saying good-bye was difficult. It was difficult because it was very good for me to see Laura again. And not just because it's nice to see a good friend again... but for reasons I won't go into. Let's just say that it's nice to know things are good for someone you care about.

After saying good-bye to Laura, it was time to go back to work. Saturday was Coldstone's grand opening at North Avenue. I really didn't have much to do, but make sure everything ran smoothly. Adam and I stuck around just long enough to see that the face-painter and the magician (I know... shut up), and then we left.
Once the grand opening was under control, Adam and I to Dave and Busters. We had dinner and shot a bunch of stuff... nothing says a job well done quite like pulling the trigger and ending a computer generated life.
After that, Adam and I went to see the movie 'Garden State'. I think it was a very good movie... the kind of movie that Nick would love. Hey son, go see Garden State if you haven't seen it. You would love it.

Update from August 25-26
Welcome to Wednesday morning... and after a 14 hour day, there was a surprise waiting for me at the new store: no electricity. Yeah... that's right. It was another in the long line of 'hurry up and waits' that have made me feel like I have more in common with Ken then just being pathetic with the ladies.
Once we got power, I made more ice cream. Then Nate, the AD, wanted to run some errands with me, so I gave the ice cream job to Josh and headed out with Nate. We took a trip to Home Depot to get shelving for the store. While there, we got all sorts of tools and supplies for the store. It was kind of fun to go shopping with someone else's money. I suggest trying it sometime. We then went to the Container Store and tried to get more shelving and more supplies. Nate then proceeded to argue with the woman who works at the Container Store about whether or not a certain kind of shelving could be attached directly to a wall. Nate said it could, the woman said the manufacturer doesn't allow for that... and they were both being stupid and stubborn. Whatever... that's Nate.
After we got back to the store, we were all very hungry... so we went to lunch at an Asian cuisine place on North Avenue. I wish I remembered the name, but it was alright, so I'm sure I'll go back there.
While we were at the store, Stephan and Nate did more training. During which, SBC showed up to install yet another phone line at North Avenue. I told the guy that he must've made a mistake, as we already have two lines from SBC. I then called Andrea to see if she ordered another line. She, apparently, had Robert call SBC to put in a "fax only" line. I told her that was overkill, but she thought that we needed a fax line; making three lines at the store. So I told the SBC dude that I had made a mistake. He started to do stuff... and then got to the point where he needed to get behind that gate that has thwarted many a SBC dude. We were actually prepared this time, and had the phone number of the landlord. We called her and she was on her way to open the gate. The SBC dude waited around for a while... and then left saying "I can't wait around any more". Less than five minutes later, the landlord showed up. It's that life? (Hint: yes)
After that whole debacle, I had to take even more boxes back to Wells. Nate and I have been arguing about what should stay and what should go since we brought all those boxes over to North. He said that we can't have all these boxes... and I told him that we're GOING to have all those boxes, deal with it.
After all that loot, Brian, Adam, and I went to Taco Bell. It's been a way of escape for Brian and I. But with Adam there too... there was lots of fun to go around. It was a great break... and if I were the owner of the company, it would've been a business dinner.
After that, Adam and I went to Dave and Busters... to shoot stuff. Shooting stuff is awesome. But we also played a couple of the basketball games, and the football game... so it's like we were exercising! (Buy that?)

Thursday morning started late Wednesday night. I had to print off a whole poo-load of "picture perfect" training cards for the new store. I printed off so many, in fact, that I'm going to need more black ink. Then, when I woke up I went to Kinkos to laminating it all. I find laminating fun... perhaps it's because I'm sadistic. I'm not exactly sure... but I do know there's something satisfying to the permanence of lamination. *sigh* I'm done talking about that... but I spent a while doing it, just so you know.
Then, when I arrived at North Avenue another surprise was waiting for me: no electricity... again. It made me so freakin' mad at the contractors. These idiots are costing us so much time (and time is money) before we could actually open the doors. In addition, there was a training session scheduled for the morning which we had to cancel because of the lack of electricity.
Since the training was cancelled, I ended up having to drive a couple of the ladies back to Wells. First, one girl Jennifer wanted the windows open when I wanted AC. Second, they wanted rap when I wanted 311. I hate it when people mess with shit in my car... but I wanted to make it a pleasant drive for them, so I let them do whatever.
The irony continued as I had to then drive those ladies back to North Avenue. I picked up Adam as well, and we headed towards the new store. On the way, one of the young ladies yelled "I'll suck yo dick!" out my window. This was inappropriate for three reasons: 1.) If anyone's dick is going to be sucked in my car, it's going to be mine; 2.) She had her Coldstone hat on... way to advertise what we do; 3.) She's going to be a missionary (the person, not the position). That's just weird. Don't tell me you're going to be a missionary and then talk about sucking dick... I read the Poisonwood Bible (or some of it), I know what missionaries do... they let their youngest daughter die. That's all! Sheesh!
Then Adam and I went back to Kinkos and printed off some flyers for the grand opening. It didn't take us very long... and it was good to be doing work again with someone I enjoy talking to. That makes work a lot easier.
After this long, crappy day, I gave myself the evening off. I went to Circuit City on the way home and bought myself the Three Days Grace album. I like it already... it kind of reminds me of Silverchair... not complicated guitar parts, but lots of energy. From there, I drove around Best Buy to get to my apartment, and I noticed a line around the store. I then remembered that one of the radio stations I listen to here in Chicago was talking about Linkin Park being at Best Buy sometime this week. And that must've been it. Yeah... one of my favorite bands, Linkin Park, was in the Best Buy I go to all the time. If I had an entire afternoon to waste in line, I would've been there getting something signed. Mmm... Linkin Park.
When I got to my apartment, I started playing Resident Evil, which is a game I rented for GCN through Gamefly. Unfortunately for this game, the camera angles and controls are too complicated for me to get into it. I then played a game I bought on a whim, Prince of Persia. That game is freakin' awesome! It's played like a story being told... so when you die, it says "Wait... that's not how it happened" and you go back a bit in the game and keep playing. It's awesome. I'm sorry... but it's awesome. It's like a post-modern spin on video gaming... you really have to play it to understand. And it's only $20 now. Speaking of $20, I also rented Knights of the Old Republic. This makes me a dork, but it's also a Star Wars RPG... so it makes me a super-huge dork who doesn't get chicks. I have yet to play it, though, so maybe I've got a chance.

The NCAA finally made a decision in the Mike Williams' "case". Mike Williams, the USC wide receiver who followed Clarett trying to get into the NFL draft, was denied re-entry into the NCAA. I believe he's still able to take classes, but he can't play NCAA football again. This is a shame... as Mike Williams wasn't the one to challenge the system (that was Clarett). And Williams is probably good enough to play in the NFL (and not Clarett). Williams seems to be caught in the middle of a NCAA/NFL power-struggle... and he's going to loose a whole year of doing what he loves because of it. It's a shame.

Welcome to September (September 1st, that is)
I just want to say Happy Birthday to Laura. Laura is as awesome and intelligent as she is beautiful and elegant. Happy Birthday to a fantastic lady. Too bad you drive me fucking nuts after only three minutes of actual conversation... *sigh* what could have been...
In honor of Laura's birthday, I finally completely sold myself out. What? you ask, could possibly push me over the corporate hump? Is there anything... anything at all that could make me any more of a sell-out than I already am. Anything, that is, besides changing my name to Randrew Jackson County Heatherman Memorial Stadium? ZING! No... what I did was I finally bought myself a head-set for my cell phone. Honestly, now that I've got it, I can't imagine driving safely without it. I can even chop up filthy humans, hands-free!

And now, thanks to Ken's need to know everything about Fantasy Football, here is my latest Fantasy Football draft, Pick by Pick (aren't you lucky?). I had the very first pick this year, so keep in mind that after the that first pick, I picked back-to-back. It doesn't really matter that I took Harrison over McNabb, for instance, since they were taking by me back to back. Here we go:
1. Priest Holmes RB Chiefs - I didn't want the first pick in the draft. I really REALLY didn't want the first pick in the draft. But I got it... so I went with the guy who has been THE fantasy football stud for the past few years. Even if his season isn't as good as the past few, that will still make him one of the top five backs in the league. And, honestly, I don't see the Chief's offense slowing down this year.
2. Marvin Harrison WR Colts - Marvin Harrison has been my #1 WR for years. I LOVE Marvin Harrison. I find it very easy to root for him, and he's very consistent (which I found is key in head-to-head leagues). Oh yes, consistency is key to a head-to-head league... which is why I stay away from the Mo Williams': the guy who will get you 14 points one week and .5 the next. Marvin Harrison is simply the best wide receiver in the NFL and, for some reason, one of the best kept secrets in the NFL. The rest of the league knows how good this guy is, but I don't think the casual fan knows who he is. He. Is. Awesome.
3. Donovan McNabb QB Eagles - This one was pretty easy. He's got TO. That means more passing. He's got no running game. That means MORE passing. Could it mean more INTs? Yep... it could. But the Eagles are supposed to be good... and Andy Reid passes all the time. Ergo, I think McNabb is a great pick.
4. Tony Gonzalez TE Chiefs - As Nate said, the "only TE worth anything". Gonzalez will get you WR numbers all season. As a TE, that's just a huge bonus. He is the best TE in the league, by far.
5. Brett Favre QB Packers - I had to do this. I had to. I normally don't take Favre because I want to be able to bench my players if they're sucking, and I could never bench Favre. But all the talk from Packers' camp is about how much better his WRs have gotten, and how much more dangerous he'll be once the Packers establish that they're one of the most dominating running teams in the league. Give the ball to Ahman Green... Favre's numbers might diminish... but that also includes INTs. He'll easy get me 25 TDs this year... maybe even thirty, because that's what he does. I had to do it.
6. Duce Staley RB Steelers - Anybody who's been following the Duce Staley story knows that he left the Eagles to run the ball more. He came to the Steelers because they promised they'd get back to "Steeler football" (running the ball and playing hard defense). What does this add up to? An above average season from Duce. Plus, by this point, most of the RBs were gone. Yahoo's pre-rankings have all the RBs first. So, if you're not there to draft your team, you're going to end up with 6-8 RBs and only two crappy crappy QBs (like Zack did).
7. Isaac Bruce WR Rams - "But John," you say, "Isaac Bruce is old... he's lost it. Bad pick." Hold on a second. You haven't heard about the offensive rule changes this year. They're enforcing the 'no contact' rule, wherein a defensive player has to keep his hands off the WRs. What does this mean? Quick receivers, like Bruce, will basically be able to run free all around the field. Bruce won't have a Pro Bowl year, those days have past, but he'll have a more productive year than last.
8. Chris Chambers WR Dolphins - Chambers is always one of my sleepers. He's the featured wide-out on a Dolphins team that has no running game. Even when they had Ricky, he was the only player on that team that could catch. With the addition of Marty Booker, will he get more balls or less? Less balls thrown his way, but he might be open more often if Booker's still any good. Less catches, more TDs this year for Chambers.
9. Kevin Jones RB Lions - What's this about John? Well... I had Kevin Jones ranked pretty high on my draft board (draft board? It's dorky... but you're all at home or school or wherever believing that I would do something like that), and he was still around. This pick was more about getting someone so that no one else could have him than anything else. I don't think this is the year for Jones, but I also think he'll do about twice as well as previous Lions running backs. Especially since Nate can't see the games this year. Bwa ha haaa...
Sidenote: I can't imagine being able to see my favorite team (the Packers) every Sunday of my life growing up, and then suddenly not being able to see them. That sucks... and I'm feelin' ya, Nate. I'll honestly tape the Lions/Bears game and send it to you, if you want. I guess I just got used to watching Lions games; and, since they were so bad recently (sorry), even rooting for them. Football is football, and I'm going to love watching it regardless of who I'm watching. It looks like another year of watching Bears' games for me... but I don't mind too much. I'll see two Packers' games and two Lions' games on TV, plus all the Monday Night games and Thanksgiving. And I'll get to root hard-core against the Vikings every week of the season.
10. Tiki Barber RB Giants - I missed that Tiki was still around when I picked Jones. Tiki isn't as good as he used to be, but he's still good for about half a dozen points a week. It sounds like Tom Coughlin wants to use Ron Dayne (Wisconsin!) as a "featured" back. We'll see how long that lasts before the newly svelt Dayne wears out. Barber returns punts and kick-offs and, like I said, is good for about 5 or 6 points per week.
11. Seattle Defense - This was one of my bigger steals in the draft. I don't think anybody knows how good Seattle's defense is going to be this year. Ray Rhodes, as bad as he was as the Packer's head coach, is a very talented defensive coordinator. Keep in mind, Seattle will have four games against the Cardinals and the 49ers, who will both suck big time this year. If the Seahawks can win a game or two on the road, they're in the playoffs deep this year. Too bad Matt Hasselbeck is a little bitch.
12. Adam Vinatieri K Patriots - Mr. Clutch. Need a big-time kick, he's your man. I have a feeling, even though I hate the Patriots (stupid Tom Brady) that they're going to be scoring TONS of points this year. Here's the man kicking the PATs. Nuff said.
13. Rod Smith WR Broncos - Rod Smith is easily one of the most underrated WRs in the league. He seems to always lead the Broncos in receptions, but no one has ever heard of him. Again, I went with consistancy... as Smith will get 5-7 catches a game and somewhere under 100 yards per game (50-70, probably). He's not much for scoring touchdowns, he'll get less than 6 this year, but he'll be a good bench player and maybe a third receiver or I could put him in the WR/RB spot if needs be.
14. Mark Brunell QB Redskins - Forgot about this guy, didn't you? Well... if Joe Gibbs knows one thing, it's how to win with ANY QB. Brunell will win if he can get Gibbs' system... and his numbers won't be spectacular, but they'll be steady. He's a good bencher on my team and maybe even trade bait.
15. Ryan Longwell K Packers - He's been my kicker ever since I started playing FF. This is kind of a traditional pick. And Longwell isn't a bad kicker. He was, for a time, the most accurate kicking in history. Then he changed his kicking form to make kick-offs longer, and that messed him all up. He's still a solid kicker and I will most definitely find it easy to root for him.
16. Atlanta Defense - I was actually going to take the Chicago defense, but they were selected right after Longwell went off the board (nice pick Jason). Then I was going to take Deion Branch, but he was taken right before this pick (nice pick Jason). So I took my next choice: the Atlanta defense. I know the Atlanta defense sucked ass last year, but their offense didn't help them at all. Remember two years ago when they were the first team to ever beat my beloved Packers in Lambeau in the playoffs? Yeah... that's what we're looking for from that defense this year. They've got my former defense coordinator (Ed Donatell) who always had the Packer defense playing tough, physical, let's-get-the-ball-back-cuz-Favre-threw-another-interception football. Atlanta might be right up near the top in take-aways this year.
17. Green Bay Defense - Like the Longwell selection, the Green Bay defense is WAY easy to root for, and something of a traditional pick for me. That's basically it. The Packers' defense doesn't stop anybody, but they will get a few INTs and some defensive TDs. *shrug* I like mah defense, what can I say?
18. Donald Driver WR Packers - Oddly enough, the featured receiver of the Packers' offense went 11 rounds below the second receiver (Javon Walker). While I think Walker will have a break-through season this year (it being his third season), Driver is still the 'go-to' guy in Green Bay. He'll ride my bench much of the season, however, unless he can prove he's better than some of the other guys I've got.
19. Kyle Boller QB Ravens - I think this was an awesome pick near the end of the draft. No one knows how good this kid could be this year. Most people are talking Super Bowl for the Ravens, which means Boller will have to put up some above average numbers. I see this as a "no one else can get him" pick, as well as potential trade bait, if Boller's having a good year.
20. Dallas Clark TE Colts - This was Mr. Irrelivant of the FF draft. The last player drafted was Dallas Clark. Why did I draft him? 1) to back-up Gonzalez at TE, and 2) trade-bait. Clark is better than any of the TEs left out there... and he's probably better than some of the TEs who got drafted ahead of him. Besides, Peyton seems to be getting more and more comfortable with Dallas, particularly in the red zone... so look for Dallas to get about 6 TDs this season. And look for me to try to trade him the week after he gets two TDs in a game (it'll happen).

Update of August 23-24
Monday morning (the 23rd) I spent waiting for the batch freezer calibrator. Hey... does that sound familiar? Like something I had to do Wednesday and Friday of last week? Yeah... well I rescheduled the appointment for Monday. I waited all morning, as the appointment was for the first thing in the morning... and kept waiting, and waiting... and I wrote something that I've already posted on my blog about that whole experience.
At any rate, while I was waiting for the batch freezer dude, Sysco came. They had a whole load of small boxes for us... intelligently referred to as "smallwares". I don't order smallwares, the ADs do... so I didn't know what we got in until I looked through it all. Nate, the AD, was there and he told me everything we had gotten and helped me to know what we still needed. Boy howdy was that fun! Huh? Fun! You heard me, fun!!!
And, as soon as everyone seemed to be doing what they were supposed to, the health inspector finally came. He was just some dude with an American flag hat, and he didn't seem as thorough as I thought he'd be. He just needed to see the few documents I heard he needed to see and he walked through the store with me telling me to get things done that I knew needed to be done, and that was it. We passed the health inspection. Sweet, huh?
So sweet, in fact, that Stephen (the manager of the North store) and I got a UHaul and we used it to move a shitload of boxes from Wells to North. We had to move all these boxes because I purchased a LOT of stuff for the North Avenue store about a month in advance (because of all the delays to the opening).
So that happened, and we figured since we had a truck, we might as well go desk shopping. So I got to drive a UHaul on the street of Chicago (fun, as you might expect) from the new store to Office Max. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Stephen to death, but he asks a LOT of questions. And he's also not very sure of himself... so, even after he found a desk he liked and I said it was okay and in our price range (I again felt like mah dad) he kept looking at other desks. What a goof! We ended up just dropping the desk off at the store because I had my writing class that night.

My writing Level 4 class was in a different room Monday night. It's odd, but you don't notice how much that kind of thing effects you unless you really pay attention to it. You get used to writing in a certain space... but then you go into a different space and everything about writing seems foreign. Regardless of my digression, we didn't spend a lot of time writing. I had a couple of my scripts read and we went over what worked and what didn't. It was a fairly productive class, even though it was only four of us and the space was alien.

Hey... today is Albion's first day of classes. I just want to wish everyone good luck this year.

Tuesday morning (the 24th) was spent at the new store. Since we finally passed the health inspection, we were able to start pretending to actually get things done. I showed up at about 10:40 am, 40 minutes later than I was supposed to have. It didn't matter because I was the first one there. Nate, the AD, showed up a few minutes later. Nate seemed fixated on getting lots of people (he wanted 100) to the North Avenue store to make all sorts of stuff happen there. Whoops! Can't get you 100 people, but I know I count as at least a dozen people.
But I didn't count as a dozen people when Josh and I attempted to put the desk (purchased yesterday) together. He and I, honestly, spent at least an hour working on putting the desk together. Why so much time? I think we were both really tired and weren't really paying attention the first time we put it together. We paid attention the second time, though.
From the gratuitously long desk assembly, we proceeded to the fantastically awesome job of cleaning all of the brand new pans, spades, knives, and cambros. This was made more awesome when we saw that there were stickers on most of those items and that Josh had absentmindedly tossed them into the sink without looking. Wet stickers are both easy and complicated to unstick.
While we were cleaning literally every piece in the store, Sysco came with our initial food order. This wasn't a huge deal, but it meant that I would spend the next couple hours makin' ice cream (which I haven't done in a long time). This has nothing to do with anything, I guess I'm just happy that after all this time I'm still good at something I used to do all the time. Let's hope other things are like that. ZING! What? I was talking about jumping rope? I've got nothing.
Nothing except for a run to CostCo with Josh! He had never been there before, so I showed him the ropes (see how I bring it back to rope? I'm brilliant!). We were getting the initial candy order for the store, which is a LOT of candy. We actually got up to the register and had to start saying what we needed to put back to get it under the amount of money we had. It was all very chaotic. So chaotic, in fact, that we ended up getting about 8 boxes of Butterfinger for free. The woman didn't notice, and we didn't notice until we were out the door. I guess this makes me an immoral person, but I was honestly too tired and kind of happy that we were getting something for free after all the money we dump into that store. I'm going to Hell... who's coming with me?
Josh did, because he didn't care either. And we proceeded to run to Wells to get more shit from the basement for the new store. Then, with candy and shit in hand, we went back to the North Avenue store.
Remember we had been cleaning all the new stuff? Well all that new stuff makes a whole lot of new waste. And that new waste goes into a dumpster. Old waste goes into dumpster... all kinds of waste goes into the dumpster! And, since we've got so much new junk that needed to be thrown away and only one dumpster, someone had to make more room. Guess who that was? Yep... I spent some time jumping into a dumpster. I climbed up into the dumpster and used my large man-weight to compress all kinds of boxes, ice cream mix waste, and cleaning products. It wasn't bad to dump into the dumpster, but let us keep this chore in mind for later in my post, shall we?
After playing in the dumpster, I was hungry (gross, yet funny transition). The group of us cleaning at North all went to dinner at Chipotle. Chipotle is awesome!
After dinner, I had to run back to Wells to get even more shit. This time I took Adam with me. While on our way to the store, Andrea called me. She proceeded to tell me a story of earlier today. She started this story by saying how much she hates who she's become... then she talked about who she was in the process of getting a facial and was on the phone yelling. This was the extent of her terrible story... that she was yelling on the phone while getting a facial. Oh, poor facial :( Do you remember the time I was standing in a dumpster? Let's not compare days... I pretty quickly ended the phone conversation... and proceeded to have a terrible time trying to get to sleep because I was so angry at how out of touch she's become.

An Update of August 20th-22st
As was the theme of my week, I had another afternoon wasted on Friday. I went back to wait for the batch freezer inspector. Fortunately for everyone in my company, I was there when the POS system was being put into place. The POS installer was unable to fully install all the equipment because the electricity was off (yeah... I know). So it's going to mean that I get to play around with setting that all up, as no one else is actually going to take the initiative to do it. At any rate, the batch freezer guy ended up being sent on another job and, long story short, I wasted my 9 AM-3:30 PM Friday doing absolutely nothing. Son of a bitch.

But I really didn't have much time to worry about my wasted time this week. Friday evening was the forth of my performances and my family was coming. I was actually so tired from my various days of waking up early and anxiously awaiting stupid people, that I told my family I'd rather take a nap before the show than see them. I think that makes me a bastard... but I'm not totally sure. But it was good for me to rest up for the show because not only was my family there, but Andrea came with her brother, and my friend Adam Traum came, AND Amy from my improv class came. It was the biggest audience just for me that I had at my show. The show itself went fairly well... I heard my dad laughing a couple times and, historically, that has always caused me to break character on stage. Oh well... I wouldn't trade hearing my dad laugh for anything in the world.

Saturday (the 21st) afternoon my family and I went to the Cheesecake factory. Again, I had some really delicious food, but was disappointed by my cheesecake selection. We then proceeded to Nordstroms. Karen needed some new work clothes, so the fam sat around for a while while she picked stuff out. Actually, my dad and I had a lot of fun commenting on the outfits and bouncing witty repartee back and forth. We're both witty, we are. Heehee... at any rate, after a while, we decided to go upstairs and look in the men's department. After a while of having a woman tell us what would look nice, and asking if I liked this or that, she said "I think I know what you want". I followed her to a different section and was shown this beautiful black pin-stripe suit. I tried on the jacket... and it melted on. It fit me perfectly, right off the rack. And the material was so comfortable... I checked the price tag. Keep in mind, it was an Italian suit, and those Italians know their suits. The suit cost $1300. Um... yeah... I'm not even kidding. I think the weirdest part is that, if I had a real good reason to need a suit (which I don't yet) my parents would probably help me buy it. I'm certainly keeping it in mind... as it's a totally badass suit.
Speaking of badass, we then went to the Irish Imports store. I got a Guiness sweatshirt and an Ireland rugby shirt. They're both really sweet looking. And I got a Celtic symbol neck-chain thing which they'll give me for my birthday. I used to wear a cross around my neck, years ago... and I really miss having something around my neck. So there I go.
For dinner, we all went to Chipotle in Elmhurst. It was my sister's first time there, but I had taken my parents a few weeks ago, so they knew what was up. It was good, and it was followed up by a trip to the Coldstone in Elmhurst. I was, I'll just say it, disappointed. I was helped by someone who was obviously new. I didn't even finish eating what I ordered.
That night, my family and I watched The Ladykillers. And, while I thought that Tom Hanks' performance was incredible and his character was unique and interesting and humorous... the movie still sucked pretty hardcore. The ending was predictable. *sigh* Could've been a much better movie. I would like to take Tom Hanks' character and put him in something actually funny.

Sunday morning (the 22nd) my family ate breakfast at Einsteins. It was good... and it got to the point when we all didn't want to say good-bye. At that point we decided to go shopping... for groceries. Hooray for Jewel! We went shopping for a little while, only long enough to delay having to say good-bye again... and that was that. Good-bye was quick, but not painless. It meant so much for them to see my show... especially after having not gone to the first two shows because they were "too tired". I missed them.

Long overdue update (because I can't sleep)
Last Tuesday night (the 17th) I had my Second City Improv level E class. We played a new and improved form of freeze tag, wherein the actors got suggestions from the audience as to what was being held in people's hands AND who the people were to each other. This was a very comforting technique, as it meant that we didn't have to worry about what we were going to do when we froze people... we just jumped right in and where told what was going on. It was also a brilliant teaching technique because we went from the audience telling us what to do and gradually moved towards doing it by ourselves again. It was so helpful... and I don't feel as angry (and hate it as much) when we play freeze tag anymore.
We also played "Jeopardy", which is a game I've never played before. The improv version is basically an exercise in characterization. It doesn't matter what the category is, our character is going to answer based on who they are rather than what is "correct". I got so into my character (Guy Richardson) during the game on Tuesday night, that I actually let fly with a racial slur (for Puerto Ricans) before I could even stop myself from doing it. Whoops! All in the name of realism, I guess?

As much fun as Tuesday night was, it was nothing in comparison to my Wednesday morning (the 18th). I basically wasting my entire Wednesday morning/afternoon at the "new" store on W. North Ave. I waited for the Electrical Inspector, the Batch Freezer inspector, AND the Health inspector. I was told in a meeting the day before (Tuesday) that I needed to be at the store at 9 AM, and I had to bring all this miscellaneous stuff. So I showed up at the store at almost nine, and proceeded to enter the store, whereupon I was met by the electrician who thought I was someone else. He asked me if I was there to open something (in broken English), and I responded that I wasn't the person he was waiting for (for whom he was waiting?). So he did his thing and waited for his person, and I sat and waited anxiously for the series of inspectors who were scheduled to come. An hour and fifty minutes later, the electrical inspector (named John) came to the store. He basically dealt exclusively with the electrician who was there, and some other dude who showed up. They both didn't speak English very well (I'm thinking their native language was Polish... but I'm not sure)... and it was interesting to listen to the inspector talk weird numbers and construction jargon with two men who really didn't speak English. Fascinating to be sure. After a quick conversation and walk-thru with the electricians, the inspector told me that he was going to pass the building, but that there was a LOT of work to be done. 1 down, 2 to go.
A very short time later, Bruce the batch freezer inspector/calibrator arrived. Remember that "LOT of work" I was just talking about? One of the things that needed to be done was a transition from a 'normal' power, to the three phase power needed to run the batch freezer. In short, the batch freezer dude couldn't do shit. He showed up, found out about the three phase power problem, and told me to reschedule when 'I' had fixed the problem. Sweet... thanks dude, I can't wait to do this again sometime. 2 down, 1 to go.
Oh but what a one to be left: the Health Inspector. I got more and more anxious and nervous as time wore on. I've heard stories about the health inspector being a humorless person, who would like nothing more than to shut your food establishment down to make you as miserable as they secretly are. But the Health inspector kept not showing and not showing... and I still hadn't eaten breakfast (or anything) and I got very irritable... and it got to be about 2:30 PM and JD, the contractor, came to the new store. He looked around and told me to go ahead and leave because he was going to cancel the health inspection. Why is that? Because we wouldn't have passed it if they had come Wednesday... that's why. Neat, huh? Um... no... no it's not.

Thursday afternoon (the 19th) I went to the North Ave store to wait for the ADs and JD. The Area Developers were going to be there at noon to do the final walk-thru of the store and approve it for open. This was made difficult by the fact that the health inspector had been called off the day before because we wouldn't have passed. There was pretty much no way in hell we were going to pass the ADs inspection. The ADs showed up and, from what they were saying, it sounded as if there was no way we would be able to open on the 28th. I quickly called Adam, because he's in charge of putting together the Grand Opening. I told him to halt anything he could as far as the GO... and we'd go from there. I then let Andrea know that we might have to reschedule the Grand Opening (again). After a couple minutes she called me back saying her father was going to the store to hear why we might have to delay the GO again. I basically had to beg the ADs to stay to talk to Mr. Johnson... but they did. And, when he showed up, they totally changed their tune. Oh... it is still do-able by the 28th... no, don't worry about it Mr. Johnson, we'll get it all taken care of. Bitches... The Grand Opening is still up in the air, but I know Andrea called Adam about delaying the GO, and he had already done everything he could because I called him first.

I felt so good about how Adam and I handled the Grand Opening situation, that Thursday evening Adam and I went to Dave and Busters. We were asked to take a "10 minute survey" for SBC and, in exchange, we'd get a $15 gift card to Dave and Busters. Adam and I both filled out the stupid survey, and they'll probably contact me (at least) about the different focus groups they're putting together. They want to know if their products will sell, before they put lots of money into marketing... so it's some kind of marketing focus group that meets 6 times a year (or something). It doesn't matter... they'd be willing to pay me $50 for an hour of work, which is almost as good as what I get whorin', but less messy. At any rate, we used the gift cards to buy dinner and waited for Chip, Adam's roommate, to meet us. We then proceeded to "nerd it out" as Adam would say. We love us some shooting games... including an AWESOME game called "L.A. Machine Guns". We called it la machine guns, because that's cleverly spanish. Whatever... the cool part about this game is that you can't run out of ammo... so just just keep shooting everything. AND the whole platform you're standing on vibrates when you shoot... so it felt all funny, and it made me feel all funny... like when a red-head stares at me from across a room. That had nothing to do with anything. And, speaking of, we went and saw Alien Versus Predator. That movie was a total disappointment. Like Chip said, "It's based on something already established... the movie practically writes itself!" Without going in to why it was so bad, I'm just going to say that most of the beginning of the movie is spent "getting to know" all sorts of different characters that you know are just going to die like stupid bitches later in the movie. The movie should've started about 45 minutes into what it actually was... and the movie should have focused on the Predators slaughtering the stupid bastard Aliens. Period.

This is me rambling while I was waiting... aren't you glad I don't do this more often?
I'm currently sitting at the new store on North Ave... waiting. My job this past week has consisted primarily of waiting. Wednesday morning/afternoon I waited... Thursday afternoon was a meeting with the ADs... Friday morning/afternoon I waited for the same stupid guy I'm waiting for right now. I am very upset at the Icee company because it was their fault I had to wait all day Friday... and they told me at 9:10 AM that the tech would be here within half an hour. It's now quarter after 11, two hours later... and still no Bruce (the tech). I know that he knows where this place is, he was here last Wednesday... so that can't be why he's late. *Shakes head* It's so stupid that the number I'm calling for info on the tech is a California number. They have no idea where the technician is, or who he is, or who I am... for that matter.
I'm very upset at my job right now. Andrea could have gotten anyone to sit and take care of this batch freezer thing, but she chose me. She then proceeded to give me tasks like buying fucking soap dispensers. I honestly feel like she relies on me, but doesn't respect me or what I do. Giving me bitch tasks like sitting around waiting for inspectors or running out and buying a fucking soap dispenser. Fuck that. I'm the multi-unit manager, even if that's not the title that she specifically gave me. That's what I do... I'm in charge of these two Coldstones (soon to be three)... and their managers.
I guess what's really pissing me off is that I've got a hat on and haven't showered or shaved or eaten... and the guy is two and a half (now) hours late, no one can tell me when he's going to get here... and I don't even know if he's going to be here (like Friday)... so I'm just left waiting.
Today marks the first day of Albion's school year. It's the first day of the senior year for Nick, Bohne, Snoop Groggy Gogg, and many many others who I got to know what seems like lifetimes ago. I often wonder what Mr. Michael Bohne's up to. It's been a long time since we talked, and I wonder if he still wants me in his wedding. I also wonder how I'm going to pull that off next summer. It seems like I would need a weekend to do tux rental/shopping, maybe a weekend for the bachelor party and various other events of debauchery, and the entire wedding weekend for wedding events. I suppose Bohne would let me stay at his place, and now that Nick's got his own apartment, I could most probably stay up there in Albion... but who knows if he'll still be living there next summer. Maybe, when I visit Albion sometime this year, I could stay with Nick. We'll see. I'd be most worried about where I'd park overnight... as I seem to be having trouble with overnight parking lately.
Why would I go to Albion? I might come for a Euphonic's concert... but that would be about it. It would take like Bohne as a lead in a play, or Nick directing a workshop play, or Nick's one-man show thing, or something else big to get me to Albion. Maybe I'll go for Homecoming, for the hell of it. See if anyone's willing to kiss my ass. That's basically the only reason I'd ever to back... to get my ass kissed by people who should've done it years ago.
I think saying that I currently hate my job is a gross understatement. I would rather go without my phone, cable, and my car than keep working at this bullshit job. I honestly think about quitting every fifteen minutes or so whenever I'm sitting and waiting for someone. Right now, in fact, I'm thinking about quitting. What I worry about most is that it won't matter if I were to go ahead and quit... Andrea would just get someone else to sit around and wait places. I guess I wish I could say that I feel a sense of loyalty to Andrea, because I used to... but then she couldn't commit to employing me for any period of time longer than a month. All I wanted was some kind of commitment so that I would know if it was okay for me to move further away from the store. I guess one of the things that ticked me off was that I wasn't even able to speak to her during that time (a few weeks in early August). I kept saying that I wanted to talk, and she kept ignoring me or blowing me off or simply saying that we'd talk later.
But let us speak instead of positive things. POST Health Inspector/Batch Freezer guy, I'm back to enjoying life. I could REALLY use some food, and a shower... but things never look so bad when you're sitting in the back of a UHaul that you didn't pay for.
I can tell you one thing, my phone bill is going to be huge. It seems as though I'm spending all day on it recently, including all the calls I made last Friday.
Nate (the AD, not the super-cool dude whose blog you can check out by following the post above) was right: these white polos look nice, but it's too easy to get shit all over them. I've only worn this shirt four times (gross! Do laundry, bitch!) but it's already got loot all over it.

'New' format
Okay... so... basically, in response to Mr. John Sellers, I can't do anything about the STUPID Blogger scroll bar thingy. I've been looking through the html and the templates and everything, and I can't do a damn thing about that stupid scroll bar (besides change its color... ooo, the options!). I don't even think the scroll bar would be so bad, if it didn't completely block out the title of my blog. What a STUPID addition blogger made. Hey, Blogger... thanks for fucking up my page. I guess you get what you pay for, and I didn't pay anything for this website, so screw me. And, if you've got time, go ahead and screw me twice. And tell your friends.

Packers' first preseason game (Part 2)
3rd Quarter: Couch does not look good so far. They keep saying how new he is to the system and how his arm hurts... but he's not even making any passes that are in every system. The ball is short on a ten-yard out, or the ball is short on a ten-yard curl, or the ball is knocked down at the line of scrimmage. Or maybe he gets sacked. Sigh. With Couch at the helm, as Lee Corso says in NCAA 2005, "they were three and out so fast, we had to ask for slow-mo replay, just to recap it." Enough being negative. BJ Sander continues to get lots of practice punting because of how often we're having to punt. I guess that was still negative, huh? I will say that I'm impressed with the way my second defensive unit is tackling. We seem to be wrapping up and driving the offensive player backwards (except for Bhawoh Jue, of course). The second unit seems a lot 'hungrier' (I hate using that term, but it's the best one I can come up with right now) than the first unit. They're obviously fighting for jobs, but they're still not being overly aggressive... they're just tackling very well. But, what's not so very well is Doug Pederson, who came into the game at the end of the third quarter. I don't care how well he holds the ball on field goals, I think he's useless and I want him gone. On his first play, he got sacked for an almost safety. God, what a useless man. End of third quarter: Still 14-3 Seahawks.
4th Quarter: And just when I'm talking about how useless Pederson is... he leads us on the best drive we've had since Favre left the game. Cullen Jenkins, a second-year player from CMU, made the first sack from a defensive lineman I've seen in a long time. Speaking of a long time, Carl Ford, a guy we drafted last year out of Toledo, made his first couple catches of the preseason in the fourth quarter. He was in IR all last year, which is too bad, because I was excited to see him play last year. But, Pederson got sacked on a play that he should have thrown the ball away on. He's like a 80 year veteran, he should know better. Saw a pretty good tackle on a FB by Ahmad "Alex" Carroll. I continue to be impressed by the penetration that James Lee (NT from Oregon State) is getting. We seem to be getting stronger up the middle against the run, which is what we sucked at last year. However, if you want to run outside on our defense, it looks like you can. We went for it on fourth and two... and Pederson sucks. Pederson sucks. Oh... and the fun the ESPN people are having near the end of this "boring" game is that everyone's got a Cheesehead. Ha HA... right? Whatever. Suzy Kolber kind of looked hot in her cheesehead, I'm not going to lie. I'd smack her ass. Huh? I mean... let's talk football. Oh... the game's pretty much over, Seattle is kneeling. Poop on the Seahawks. Oh... did you hear? Seattle's going to the Super Bowl! Because they can beat the Eagles. Whatever. Fuckers... I hate Seattle.
End of game: 21-3 Seahawks.
And, you've heard what I want... I want Doug Pederson and Bhawoh Jue GONE.

Mah Packers' first preseason game! (Part 1)
1st Quarter: I continue to be impressed by my offense. With Favre, Green, and a bevy of receivers, we seem to fairly methodically march down the field. Ahman Green is incredible... he is simply amazing. He has the uncanny knack of being able to squeeze forward for an extra yard or two whenever he falls forward. In addition, I feel like our running back core is incredibly deep and talented. However, I continue to be disappointed with my defense. My cornerbacks (unless they have dreadlocks) suck... Barnett is the only linebacker worth anything (he's only in his second year)... and there is NO ONE on the defensive line who can do anything. As a unit, the defense is unable to stop opposing offenses from making long LONG drives. End of first quarter: 7-3 Seahawks. And, as most people who watch preseason football know, the first quarter is really the only gauge of your starters... the final score shows who has better back-ups.
2nd Quarter: Najeh Davenport cut his dreads! Noooo!!! BJ Sander, the punter we traded up to get... I don't think you heard me, the PUNTER we TRADED UP to get, made his first punt in the second quarter. It was a good punt... still not worth trading up. I also got my first taste of the Packers' first round pick, Ahmad "Alex" Carroll. He basically got screwed on a shitty pass interference call early in the second quarter. Speaking of first apperances, the second quarter let me see Tim Couch for the first time as a Packer. I liked Couch in Cleveland... I always thought he should have gotten the nod over Kelly Holcomb. I suppose they didn't like the interceptions (64 TDs to 67 INTs)... but my Quarterback is Favre, so interceptions aren't a big deal to me. However, I've seen wide receivers drop about three catchable balls from Couch... so Couch is looking pretty crappy, and I don't know if it's his fault (he held the ball too long on the fumble, but whatever). My punt returner, the Arena League star Antonio Chatman, has yet to impress me. As a Packer fan, my thoughts about the punt returner are to catch the ball and not fumble... anything beyond that is gravy. The last year that we DID have a punt returner worth anything, Desmond Howard, we won the Super Bowl... so maybe there's something to be said about getting a punt returner who actually doesn't suck. Speaking of players that suck, I want the Packers to cut Bhawoh Jue. He is terrible. Absolutly terrible. He can't cover and he can't tackle. I don't know why he's still on my team... but I really want him gone. I'm watching him missing tackles left and right... he's a terrible terrible player. End of second quarter: 14-3 Seahawks.

Week Three... 60% done with the Level 5 Show
Madden 2005 is the most complicated and in-depth sports game EVER!
Speaking of coming out of nowhere, Rhea and Jean called me at about 6 PM Friday evening. We brought their loot upstairs and parked them in the Piper's Alley lot. On our way back to my place, we stopped at Garlic and Chili: Healthy Thai cuisine! I love that place... and I correctly referred to it as "cute" (because it is cute). I believe that both Jean and Rhea had an enjoyable experience at Garlic and Chili... thanks, in large part, to my brilliance and knowledge of what is indeed cute. I'm awesome.
I'm so awesome, in fact, that week number three of the show was fantastic. The audience was smaller than the past two (last week was PACKED!), but they were definitely laughing louder than previous shows. I felt pretty good about this weeks show, actually... and I think I finally (FINALLY) "found" one of my characters, Grant. It was a good show, and I look forward to next week when my family finally sees it.
Saturday, I took Rhea and Jean to Oakbrook. Rhea needed to buy a suit, and I needed to make sure that their car was moved from the lot before the 24 hours was "up". So it worked out for everyone! Hooray! Anyway, we went to Oakbrook Center which is a large shopping plaza. I hesitate to say 'mall' because it's so much more than that. It is a magical place. So magical, in fact, that we had lots of fun shopping for Rhea's suit. Everyone except Rhea had fun looking for Rhea's suit. We ended up at Sears... and I forced Rhea to try on this cranberry suit. Why? Because I thought it looked cute... it had a nice pink dress shirt underneath... whatever, you know it was cute. So cute, in fact, that it's the suit Rhea bought! I win!!! She bought my suit!!! Ha ha! Take THAT, other straight guys who can't pick out cute clothing!
My reward was to take the lovely ladies to The Cheesecake Factory. Mmm... the Cheesecake Factory is so delicious! I ate this chicken chipotle pasta and then, when I had absolutely no room left in my stomach, I had a piece of peanut butter/chocolate cheesecake. Mmm... do good... job well done, indeed.
After completely gorging ourselves, we split up quickly and I headed to the Irish Outfitters store. It had all manner of Guiness and Notre Dame shirts (and Rugby shirts!!!), and all kind of pictures and cute little Irish things. It was a cute store... and I think I was hardcore hitting on the young lady who was working there. Maybe it was because she was singing along with the Irish jig music the store was playing... or maybe it was that I'm an easy easy slutty man.
Sunday morning, Rhea and Jean left... and I spent much of the afternoon and evening writing and cleaning and napping (yes, even napping). It was a relaxing afternoon.
The climax of the day was a phone call from my son. Nick and I spent about an hour talking about various things. I think he'll be coming to the last performance of my show, on August 27th... and, if Laura's still coming, it'll be a fantastic evening.

A wasted afternoon? or divine intervention?
Wednesday started fantastically. I was awoken to a phone call from Abby... the Silent Alarm had somehow gotten pulled, and she wanted to know how to turn it off. I gave her a suggestion or two and she handed the phone to the Police Officer who had shown up at the scene. He seemed to think that I was a slightly deaf person, as he kept asking me if I "hear" him. He said that I needed to come and fix the silent alarm so that it, basically, never had a false alarm again... and he said it in a fantastically condescending way, as if I didn't understand the gravity of a false alarm. In addition, he said that if we kept having false alarms, if there was ever a real alarm he would "not be so quick to respond". I was so taken aback by this man's audacity, that I didn't even think to ask for his badge number... because what a fucking asshole. He just basically told me that they wouldn't respond if we had a real alarm... no, wait, I take that back. He THREATENED to not come if we had a real alarm. When I told him that I didn't know how to fix the alarm system, and it came out that I was not the owner nor the manager of the store, I honestly think he was a little embarrassed that he was leaning so hard on me. Our phone conversation ended about 10 seconds after that revelation occurred. Too bad for me, as that's when I got the clarity to think about asking for this guy's name and badge number. What an asshole.
After the various SBC disasters of the past couple weeks, I was not looking forward to going out to the new store again. I was actually pretty hell-bent on not going out there Wednesday afternoon... telling myself that if they couldn't figure it out themselves we would just use another company. But my Catholic guilt, which controls my life in every way, prevailed, and by 3 PM, I was out at the new store waiting. The appointment was for sometime between 2 and 6 PM. So after not having heard from this dude for the first hour, I called SBC. The woman told me that we were the last stop on his route and that he would be there at 4:22 PM. "That's pretty specific" I said in my normal half-asshole jest. She did not take it as a joke, and proceeded to explain to me exactly how that time was calculated. "Okay, interesting" I responded. I then called Jeremy Johnson (Andrea's brother... and the dude who's taking Seth's old job [remember Seth? of course you don't]). I told him that SBC would be out at the store at 4:30ish and I asked him if he wouldn't mind coming then and taking care of it, as I was an hour and a half early (and, honestly, because I didn't want to have to deal with these bastards for the third time. I was very frustrated with them). He asked me if I wouldn't mind waiting. Wow... what a perfect way to spend such an already awesome day. He then said "why don't you go to that bar across the street from the store or somethin'. " I too depressed to drink (as funny as that sounds)... but the new store IS going to need a place to get groceries (like bananas), so I went for a walk to try to find aforementioned grocery store.
I decided to walk up Damon, instead of Milwaukee... and I noticed all sorts of bars on Damon. Not much else... lots of bars. I continued walking North up Damen and came across a Potbelly. It's a sandwich place... and I've been meaning to try it (as I've never been there), but I still hadn't found a grocery store so I kept walking. A couple blocks later, convinced that I wouldn't find a grocery store, and way hungry and pissed that I was going to be wasting my afternoon, I was ready to turn around. This is the weird part. I didn't turn around. I thought it would look weird to the people on the street if I just turned around for no reason... so I kept walking. I don't know why... I just did. I then came across a Chipotle... which is a totally sweet mexican restaurant (one of my new favorites). I said to myself "sweet... forget Potbelly's, I'll go in here". And I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't kept walking for no reason.
When I was almost finished eating, Jeremy called me back. He said he had made it to the new store after all, and wondered where I was. I turned around and headed back to the store (and my car). He and I talked for a bit, waiting for the guy to show up. He wanted to know if I was happy with the company currently and what I felt about the way things were going. While I was about to respond with "No, I'm not happy. I had a talk with my sister about going back to school to get a teaching degree" he said "Because I really want you to be happy." I don't know why, but that struck me. I had been under the impression (because I'm paranoid) that Andrea bringing Jeremy in meant even LESS for me to do, and that maybe he would try to figure out a way to phase me and my salary out of the equation. Hell, if I were him, I'd do it. Hmm... if we get rid of this guy we don't know what to do with, I'll be making more money. You're damn right I'd be gone. But he not only wants to keep me around... he wants me to be happy with my job and the company. Divine.
After shooting the breeze and talking shop a little past the "4:22" time, I called SBC again. This time, the man on the other end told me the guy wouldn't be there until "4:44". I did not use the joke a second time. I told Jeremy, and he had better places to be, so he left. I ended up waiting until after 5 (two hours from the time I got there) for the repair specialist. But this dude seemed worth it. His name is Roy Smith... and when he got there, brotha told me everything that needed to happen and how he was going to do it. This is a FAR cry from the first idiot they sent. I told him that if the construction workers left before he was done, I would come back and lock up.
So I left a little after 5:30 and headed back to my apartment. I had to do laundry badly (and only did two of the five loads or so I need to do)... so I waited for another two hours (to make sure I didn't have to go back to lock up) and I started my laundry. At almost nine o'clock, Roy calls me to lock the store: almost 4 full hours after he started. I had just put both loads into the dryers, so I had about an hour to accomplish this task.
In the car, on my way to the store, I got a call from Ken. Congratulations are in order, as he passed his promotion test and will be, as of early next year, a Staff Sergeant. This unlocks a bevy of nicknames for me to use (including "S.S. Kenny Hoots", "FUBAR Four Bar", and the 'token' "Sarge"). While we were talking, I was forced to take a detour as the North Ave bridge was being worked on. Thank goodness Ken's as big a computer nerd as I am, because he was able to direct my detour. It was like having On Star on board... *nods* Ken's my personal On Star. I got to the new store and was able to lock all four doors with my four keys (even though only one of the keys works... and it works in only one of the doors... figure THAT one out, if you will), and get back to my apartment in time to fold my "dry" laundry. What a fantastic day!

"I'm so damn bored I'm going blind and loneliness has to suffice..."
I was pleasantly surprised to see an email from Miss Chelsey Wagemaker Monday morning. And I was even more pleased that she actually asked my opinion on something. Anyone who wants my opinion on the things I think I know about (read: anything) will get a very lengthy response. I am long-winded. And opinionated. I'm long-windinated.
Tonight my writing class had been turned into a songwriting class. Sounds cool, huh? It really REALLY wasn't. My instructor seems hell-bent on having us write a song together as a class, so we started writing a song together. It was terrible. Just awful. There was nothing I could do, either. Once we started going in one direction that was it... I couldn't "right the ship" as it were. We had decided to title the song "This is how we power play"... but it wasn't a song about hockey. It was a song about using your social or political power on a micro-management level (such as your boss or manager using their status to push you around). There are lots of things I would be interested writing a song about... this is not one of those things. And the songwriting instructor was all about keeping the lyrics as simple as possible... just a boring ass night. Blah.
After class I headed to Coldstone to check up on mah store (like I do). I was sitting and talking to Brian when I noticed a two-year-old boy in a stroller being very animated and energetic (even though it was 10-something at night). So I turned my attention to him, and he saw Brain and I watching him and he pulled the cover of the stroller over his face. Cute. Then I noticed the mother of this child was a big lady. I want to say with confidence that she is pregnant again, 'but you never can tell' I thought to myself. Then I looked over to the father and I noticed his goatee. He was wearing glasses and looked very familiar to me. Then it hit me: Matt Clement. It was Matt Clement and his wife and son. So, after he had been wrung up, I made eye contact with the young lady, Jessica, who had served the Clements and we both were pretty sure that it was Matt Clement. It was interesting because I tried to get Jessica to go over to them and ask, just to make sure we weren't stalking a random person... but she was too shy. I razzed her a bit about being shy, and we noticed someone else in the store go over to him and start talking like he was someone famous (you know how that goes... shyly walking up, a bit "I knew it" when they realize who they're talking to, a very polite good-bye). Famous people are great.
On Tuesday morning, I had a scheduled meeting with Andrea, Brian, Stephan, Adam, and Robert. What am I doing at Coldstone? I still don't know. It sounds like Andrea wants me to check in with the various managers (all four of those guys) FIVE times a week. No offense to the big boss lady, but there's no way in hell that I'm making 20 calls or visits per week. I might check up on both stores five times a week... but I really don't care what Adam's doing.
My Improv class Tuesday was interesting. Ed Garza had us playing new games and one of them was as uncomfortable as I've felt in class in a while. We played a game which has a name... I which I knew the name, but whatever. The premise of this game is to show "clips" of classic sitcoms (like TV Land sitcoms) which originated in a foreign country. So, as the improviser, we play the characters from these sitcoms, except we have to have an accent of whatever country in which the show originated. I felt uncomfortable not only in the fact that my accents sucked and were highly inaccurate... BUT also in that I didn't know the shows we were supposed to be portraying. I'm coming to realize that I'm best when I can prepare... and improv games that I can't prepare for are really tough for me. Improv is tough for me. Period. Football is not tough for me... and here we go:
Terrell Owens, my least favorite football player in all of football (yes, I even prefer Randy Moss to TO), said something else stupid. What a surprise this is. When asked by Playboy magazine if his former quarterback with the 49ers, Jeff Garcia, is gay, Owens said "Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat". Wait, wait, wait... it gets better. When asked about this quote, he responded "I didn't say he was gay...". Interesting change of pace... when asked about whether or not TO is the stupidest person in the history of the world, John Steeno said "Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat..."

No new apartment, but it sure feels like it so far
Friday marked week two of my play... and this week I actually had some people in the audience. Brian and Cherise came from work, and Jim & Katie Aumann came out to show Albionian support! That's right... Katie Aumann! Thought she was dead, didn't you? That's because she's been out of this novel since the opening chapters. But I'm here to tell you that Katie's alive and well (and looking well as well), and she at least pretended to have enjoyed the show. And speaking of the hottest red-head I know (huh?), I even gave Miss Chelsey Wagemaker a call (oh! now I get it). She was unavailable, but I left a fun message. By 'fun', I mean 'could be used against me in a court of law if I were ever on trial for sexual harassment'. Anyway... I think everyone enjoyed the show, and it was nice to have the support.
As of last Tuesday I decided to renew my lease in the same apartment. I still have yet to receive my new lease, but I'm pretty much planning on staying. With that in mind, I've decided to basically re-arrange all the furniture in my apartment. So that, even though I'm not moving into a bigger/"better" apartment, I've still got something to which to look forward. Saturday, I took a trip to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick some things up. I got a new CD tower and a DVD/video game tower, and I also purchased some things for my bathroom. And, after two days, my bathroom is cleaner and in better shape than when I moved in. All I'll need is another week or two and a couple more major purchases, and this apartment will be a few million times better than the apartment I've been living in for a year (yes, even though they're the same apartment).
While moving stuff around my apartment, I had the misfortune of starting to watch "The Replacements". It is a terrible, terrible movie. Not only does it consist of the most trite football movie script ever (it was basically the same movie as 'Necessary Roughness'... or at least they stole every character from that movie), but the soundtrack was atrocious. Simply horrendous. I'm also disappointed in the cast... as it's got Gene Hackman as the coach (he makes for good coaches in sports movies). And, right before it came out, there was something on Sportscenter about how Keanu Reeves had studied footwork from actual NFL quarterbacks... and his form could impress even scouts (or something to that effect, everyone was really impressed with his form). But it really didn't matter how good or bad his form was... the movie was terrible.

What's up with me lately?
Monday was my first Level 4 Writing class. My instructor's name is M.T. and she seems okay. I got a pretty bad first impression... because she's got some of the same mannerisms as my mother, who should not under any circumstances be teaching me how to be funny. For example, she went through all five members of the class and asked us questions like "What do you want to work on most? What do you feel you're best at? Where do you see this going?" and so on. It's almost exactly like what my mom would do if she were teaching a class. Oh well... at least I know how to deal with people like my mother (kill her, take her place, start a motel). (That was a "Psycho" reference... did you get it? I'm not actually going to kill my mom, please!)
There's a new Chris dude in my class, and he sucks hardcore. He's the type of guy who wants to write down everything the teacher says verbatim... and he'll stop class and ask what she said like three minutes ago. He also, after I told everyone we should probably not give rewrites to actors the week they're supposed to be memorizing, said something to the effect of "can't we just tell the actors 'this is the new script... learn it'?" What an asshole this guy is.
Tuesday was my first Beginning Improv Level E class. Our instructor is Ed Garza... who used to run the Training Center. He has already given us lots of feedback... and that's totally awesome. I also was in two different scenes with Katy, who is really really good. I hadn't realized how good she was until we acted together. Again, the class was too large to really do a lot of anything, but Ed's feedback somehow makes it all okay (at least for now).
One of my friends, Adam, is taking classes at IO and they have what they call 'The Lottery'. The lottery is a randomly selected person from each level (1 through 5) who do a show together every Tuesday night. So there are five people who are in the show every week, and then they rotate in seasoned veterans... so there are 8 or 9 people in the show. This week, Adam got to be on stage with the amazing TJ Jagadowski... so I had to go see. Keith and I left after our first Level E class and headed to IO to see the show. It was a good show... and what an incredible opportunity for Adam, as in one point in the show, TJ was watching Adam intently... following his every move (as any good improviser). It was fun.
What is not fun is the fact that I'm sick. I spent much of yesterday and a lot of today sleeping and resting around my apartment. The good news is that I've got my bathroom just about as clean as when I moved in (as I decided to use my energy to clean). The bad news is that I haven't gotten much done for work in a couple days. Not that it matters, seeing as Andrea and I really haven't talked much in about two weeks. Whatever!

I saw that the Pistons traded Corliss Williamson for Derrick Coleman and center Amal McCaskill. This is presumably to add salary cap room (no thanks to the signing of Rasheed... which was LOTS of money). I suppose this trade adds size, and gives us a better back-up for the Wallaces than McDyess. But we did trade a 30 year old (Williamson) for a 37 year old (Coleman) and a guy who was out of the league from 1997 to 2001. I half expect us to release McCaskill. But now with Williamson gone we'll see this Argentinean, Carlos Delfino, as the back-up small forward behind Prince. Our team just loves players from different countries. Hooray for foreigners!

Hello August and Time with the folks!
Saturday morning, my parents called me. After not coming to my show, they decided to surprise me by heading down to Chicago anyway to spend the day with me. By the afternoon, we were headed out to Oakbrook. I had never been to Oakbrook before, and it kind of reminded me of some of the suburbs in Detroit: there were large buildings that were quite obviously the headquarters of businesses, shopping plazas, and very little grass (although the grass they have is meticulously groomed).
Once we got to the hotel, we checked in and headed to Elmhurst. Elmhurst, unlike Oakbrook, reminds me of a small town that isn't very close to a major metropolis like Chicago. It kind of reminded me of some cities in Wisconsin... just a quaint little town.
We drove around for a while, trying to figure out where we were going to eat. I saw a Chipotle, so I mentioned it, and my mom was not too into it. Like most "new" restaurants, she would just as soon eat someplace she's been before. But I eventually convinced my parents... and they really enjoyed Chipotle. I win!
Speaking of winning, we then went to see The Bourne Supremacy. I'm not sure how that segue worked, but it did... trust me. The Bourne Supremacy was good (not great), and all that stuff you've heard about the shaky hand-cam camera work is true. You want to stand up and yell for a steady shot about half-way through the movie. One thing I will say about these "Supremacy" movies that I really like is the fact that, when we as audience members know something is wrong, Jason Bourne knows something's wrong. You don't sit in the audience and think to yourself "He's a spy-type-guy... why doesn't he know that he's being followed?" or "why doesn't he know the only Russian in India is there to kill him?" Not these movies... Jason Bourne knows something's up when he sees a Russian in India.
After the movie, we went to Oakbrook Center. It's one of the highest scale shopping "malls" I've ever been to. It had only the kinds of places in which I wouldn't shop (because they're too expensive). After walking around and not buying anything, we headed to the Cheesecake Factory which was located right next to the mall. It was a beautiful building... Italian architecture... it looked like a more upscale restaurant than the Cheesecake Factory (but it wasn't). Unfortunately, the store hadn't opened yet. It actually opened Monday, August 2nd... but that was not Saturday, oddly enough.
We still had to eat, so we stopped at a Giordanos. I don't know if my parents have ever been there before... but I hadn't. I liked it more than Gino's East, but Lou Malnati's is still the best! You don't care. Speaking of stuff you don't care about...
We stayed the night at the Wyndham Drake Oak Brook. It was swanky. The hotel rooms themselves were nothing special, but they had tennis courts, an indoor and an outdoor pool, jogging trails, and probably a golf course. Whatever... it was a swanky hotel.
In the morning, my parents and I went to Breakfast @ Einstein's Bagels (which they hadn't ever been to either, but my mom was a little more open to new restaurants after the good Chipotle experience). They really enjoyed Einstein's, and even took a take-home menu so they could check the website. My parents are cute.
So cute, in fact, that we then went shopping @ Old Navy. I know... They're my parents and I shouldn't go shopping with my parents... but they were buying and they were cool about not forcing dorky clothing on me. So it was fun... and it was very good to see them.
We had a few long talks while we ate, and it appears I have to be completely self-sufficient in one year's time. That's the big news... and that's what's got me worried. Because I can't be self-sufficient right now. My bills are too large and, even though I'm salaried, I'm not making enough money. So I'm basically going to spend the next year trying to figure out how I can live and work in this city... or else I'll be leaving Chicago in a year. We'll see.

Opening Night
I hate how the media is treating Ricky Williams' failed drug test as the reason why he retired. It's as if the media doesn't understand Ricky's lack of greed, and how he wants to be out of the spotlight... so they're trying to find anything as the reason why he just up and quit football. Maybe Ricky realized there's more to life than football... or maybe Ricky doesn't want to end up with the knee problems that Earl Campbell and (more recently) Jerome Bettis seem to have. You know, it's nice to be able to walk in your mid-thirties.
Thursday afternoon I had a "what am I doing" moment. I spotted Andrea and Brian walking down Wells, so I started walking with them. Andrea was going to meet her brother Adam for an early dinner, so I sat outside with them while they waited. When Adam arrived, he was introduced to Brian and asked him what Brian does for the store. Brian replied "I take care of inventory, and I order stuff from Sysco... that kind of stuff". Now if someone were to ask me what I do for the store, that's probably how I would've answered. I sat while Brian answered, agape, wondering what it is that I do now for this company. I'm still working on that, I'll let you know when I find out.
Thursday evening was the 3rd Annual World's Largest Ice Cream Social. For three years, Coldstone has used this day to raise money for the Make-A-Wish foundation. For some odd reason, I found myself setting this all up Thursday evening... and telling everyone what to do and how to do it. I really don't understand what I'm doing... but whatever. We raised a LOT of money for Make-A-Wish... and I do feel proud about that. And here's no segue...
I just got a letter slid under my door on Friday. As of Monday, August 2nd, Planned Property Management is planning on showing my apartment. And the fun news is that they're planning on showing my apartment pretty much any time of any day during the week: Monday-Friday 10-8PM, Saturday 10-7PM, and Sunday 10-6PM. I feel like a bitch... like the building somehow owns me. And, to make matters worse, they said that I had until July 20th to renew my lease. This Donna woman called me last weekend (after the 20th) to renew my lease. We talked and she said that she would call me Tuesday. Did she call me Tuesday? No... she did not. The reason I haven't called her back is this whole ComEd/electricity bill thing. I supposedly owe 10-11 months of electricity bills which I didn't know about. I'm waiting until I get those bills before I can yell at everyone involved.
I got a call from my mom and dad at around 4 today. They decided they were too tired to show up to opening night. So not only did my sister cancel on me Thursday night, my parents cancelled Friday afternoon... I went from having my whole family at opening night, to having none of them in less than a day.
Speaking of my family not coming, no one I know showed up to opening night. I was supposed to have my boss, Brian, Kat, Keith and his wife and their friends there, and Amy said she might come. So I was thinking I was going to have 7 or 8 people coming... and none of them showed. I don't think I had a single person I knew in the audience opening night. And that was hard to take... it even hurt that Andrea didn't show up, because I told her that my parents were no longer coming. Whatever...
RIP "Traveling Through". We've got four scenes that we're rotating into the show... and they're going to replace a scene called "Traveling Through". That scene was the three men in the cast, and I got to play a creepy backwoods gasoline attendant name Enus. I became very comfortable with Enus... and he will be missed. I thought it was a very good scene... but there was something about it being all the men in the cast that made it replaceable.
After the show, we had a couple "cast party" type things. We went to the Fireplace Inn (on Wells)... and I got some food. Then we went to the Ole Town Pub on North, and some chick who came to the show bought me a PBR. Nice, huh? Well... she was already drunk, so whatever.
At about 2 am, Brian called me to apologize. Turns out he and his boyfriend broke up... and he was (understandably) too upset to come to the show. It was cool that he called, which is more than I can say for my boss.

Time to talk sports again
You hear about Wrigley Field and the falling chunks of concrete? That's funny. Because they're talking about closing Wrigley for at least a little while. Where would the Cubbies play? US Cellular? HA! For some stupid reason, the Sox fans would probably boo the crap out of the Cubs. So I suppose the Cubs could pull something like the Bears did a few years ago and play either at U of I or some other college (maybe a closer college). They could also pull an Expos and play in some other country. How about Cubs games being played in Mexico for a while? Or who wouldn't want to see a Cubs game in Iceland? In all honesty, my guess is that the Cubs will only close certain sections of the stadium at a time, allowing the park to still stay open and the Cubs to still play at home.
Now it's time to talk basketball. Rasheed Wallace stays a Piston, signing a five year deal. Does this make the Pistons a perennial powerhouse? The Pistons have a very young and very deep team. But, keep in mind that they did lose Okur to the stupid Jazz.  They have decided to replace him with Antonio McDyess (who I would have been tons more happy to get if this was 1998). My guess is that McDyess will get big minutes during the beginning of the season and will lose minutes as Darko is integrated into the lineup. I think the Pistons will definitely be good next year as well... but the East has changed.
First of all, say good-bye to the powerhouse Nets in the East. I hear that Kenyon Martin is headed to the Nuggets, and I don't think the Nets have enough without Martin to compete in the now awesome East. With Carlos Boozer leaving Cleveland (to the stupid Jazz), Drew Gooden is going to the Cavs to take Boozer's place. I think it'll take another year at least for Cleveland to be any real competition. Who does that leave? Obviously the Pistons will be there, and the Pacers will make the Central Division the best in the East; and the newly Shaq-ed Heat will make them on of the three best teams in the East. Who will come out of the Atlantic? Your guess is as good as mine. My guess is that the Knicks are ready to take the division title... but they aren't as good as the Pistons, Pacers, or Heat. We'll see.
To football now, and I start with Eddie George becoming a Cowboy. A very good move for the Cowboys... who can now give Julius Jones an easier transition into the NFL. The Cowboys also finally released Chad Hutchinson. This was the Chad Hutchinson who was supposed to be the new Troy Aikman no more than two years ago. What happened? Well... when you play baseball *Drew Henson cough*, you aren't playing football.
The big news is that Ricky Williams retires out of nowhere! Tony Kornheiser says (and I tend to agree) that running back in the NFL is the easiest position to replace. Again, I agree... except Ricky Williams is one of those backs who will carry the ball a million times a game. He's the kind of running back who carries a team... and it's a shame for his football career that he won't keep playing. But it's not a shame for Ricky Williams the person. Remember this is the player who had a team's entire draft traded to get him, so his NFL career started in the spotlight. He used to wear his helmet (with the visor) when people interviewed him, because he has that "I'm shy and can't really talk to people" thing going on. He started a website so that he could let people know more about himself without having to talk to them. He's a photographer (and a pretty good amateur one, if I do say so myself)... and a person who seems to want to be left alone. Keep in mind, this is the same Ricky Williams who had someone pull him down by his dreadlocks during a game... only to have the league tell him that his hair is part of his uniform, and is fair to be tackled by. I mean, that must've really pissed off Ricky (it obviously did, as he then shaved his hair off). So good luck to Ricky Williams in wherever his life takes him.
And, almost finally, the most incredible sports accomplishment of my lifetime: Lance Armstrong wins his sixth straight Tour de France. From what I hear, this is the most grueling three weeks in all of sports... spending six hours a day on a bike, going up and down mountains, and being pretty bored as there's nothing to do on a bike for six hours besides keep peddling. It is physically and mentally draining... and Armstrong has dominated for six straight years. Add to his dominance of his sport the fact that he was diagnosed with at least three different kinds of cancer (prostate, brain, and something else), and was giving only a 50% chance of living no more than a decade ago... his accomplishments are truly remarkable.
ESPYs
The ESPYs came and went before I even knew it (they were something like 10 days ago), and I wanted to comment on them. Brett Favre did win two! Both the awards he was nominated for he won... he is an amazing man. The Detroit Pistons won two! For best team and best upset... they deserved both of those. Larry Brown won for best coach! He deserved it, too. For some strange reason, the fans were allowed to vote and they voted (in my opinion) correctly. People actually got awards based on merit, and not based on whether or not they play for the Yankees. How does that sound, MLB All-Star voting? Sounds like something you should try? Stupid Yankees.

Ice Cream Sunday
Sunday morning started early. I woke up at 7 so that I could get to rehearsal this morning.  The rehearsal was from 9 to Noon, which is apparently early for everyone because it really showed. All the cast members looked groggy and tired. Even the writers looked like they were saying "I don't care if you get my lines right, just get through the f--king scene". The rehearsal went fairly well, overall, with only one or two major screw-ups. Those screw-ups, unfortunately, consist of people not being memorized.
After rehearsal I had three phone messages waiting for me... two from work and one from my son. I'll start with the two from work. We recently had to change our alarm code due to someone's fabulous awesomeness. I won't go into it, but I will say that it involves someone writing down the alarm code and the safe code on a "Coldstone Creamery 1533 North Wells" business card AND labeling the codes "alarm code" and "safe code" and then losing that business card. What an idiot. So this morning the alarm went off and the person at the store didn't know the new code, so she kept punching in the wrong code... and come 10:15 AM the cops came and gave us a ticket for a false alarm (yeah... the cops ticket that shit). I called Brian at noon and gave him the override code just as ANOTHER cop came by to give us yet ANOTHER ticket. I don't know how that's possible to give us two separate tickets on the same day for the same thing... would they have just kept coming with tickets if we couldn't get it fixed? By 10 PM would we have had 5 or 6 tickets? What the shit? So I came in and looked at the tickets... talked to Brian for a bit, and went to the gym for more fun training!
After the training, I rushed back to my apartment, changed and ate, and headed back to the store to pick up Brian. We needed to go to CostCo again, and Brian (being the manager now) should be in on this whole process. I told him I would be willing to go to CostCo for his store... but that once the other stores opened, it was going to be impossible for me to do the CostCo runs for all three stores. On the way back from CostCo, we stopped by the only Taco Bell I know of in the greater Chicago area. Brian misses Taco Bell too, so this is the second time we've stopped there together (hot boy-on-boy action at the Taco Bell). I talked to him about everything my dad and I had talked about Saturday afternoon... and he listened. It was nice to be able to talk to someone about feelings again. It's just different than when you're on the phone... being face to face is so much better. I don't know... it was nice. I also told Brian not to burn himself out, as he's come back from ICU with all sorts of energy... ready to pull ice cream and sing and make his store the greatest Coldstone in the country. All these things are good... but I just warned him to pace himself.
Speaking of pace and no segue, it was "Ice Cream Sunday" on Food Network. They had an evening of ice cream related stuff... and I taped most of it. I was lying on my futon, half watching the tv and half wanting to be asleep or dead. It was supposed to be relaxing, I think, but it kind of wasn't. I've got so much to do in the next two weeks that I might as well have just gone to sleep at about 8 last night and woke up insanely early this morning. Too late now, I guess. Enjoy your Monday.

Wow... why do things keep sucking? Do YOU know why? Because I don't
Saturday didn't start out that badly. I didn't set an alarm for the first time in weeks (maybe months), and woke up to (probably) a wrong number at 9:30. But that didn't matter because it was still almost two full hours later than I normally wake up. When I woke up, I turned on the tv and looked around for something to watch... and I came across a Miami/Florida State football game on ESPN Classic from 2002, which I started watching. For some reason (perhaps the impending football season) I just became flooded with Fall memories... sitting on a Saturday afternoon watching football, going to St. John's Cider Mill and getting apple cider and doughnuts, the smell of the leaves, going to Ferris State games with Nate and Jase and sitting in the student section or the opposite endzone and talking football/playing football/enjoying each other's company all afternoon. I was flooded by such a nostalgia that I wanted it to be fall and I wanted to be home... and I missed everything about the fall in Big Rapids, Michigan. If I didn't have this writing 5 show, and a rehearsal Sunday morning, I probably would've driven home. But it's not fall... and I would've been disappointed if I went home because nothing's the same.
Saturday afternoon I got a call from the renewal agent at Planned Property Management (the company that owns my apartment building). She gave me an offer at a rate a little higher than this past year's rate to stay in my apartment. But the rate she gave me was significantly less than the I told her that I was looking to maybe move into a one bedroom apartment in my same apartment complex... because I've decided that my studio is really too small to spend another year in. And it is... it's a small room and not a place I could bring friends over if I ever decided to have friends. Or even, heaven forbid, I try to date someone. Although, the more I think about it, the more I think that I just can't afford putting up the extra cash to have an apartment that I can have people visit. Y'all may just have to put up with the floor.
I then called my parents to tell them about the offer to stay in my apartment, and just generally to catch up on what happened to me since we last talked (probably last weekend sometime). My dad and I talked for a while, and I'm not going to get into it... but my dad and I basically argued about money. Long story short, I think I've got one year to make myself pretty much self-sufficient. Thusly, I'm having to re-adjust my thinking on a lot of things (as I honestly can't afford to live in this city without help). Say good-bye to Thad. Say good-bye to lots of other things, and say hello to an even more frugal (if it's possible) Mr. J. Steeno.
At night I went to dinner with Andrea and Brian at Salpicon on Wells. It's a very expensive Mexican restaurant and, in my opinion, wasn't worth the price. But, as with all business dinners, I didn't pay, so I guess it was worth it(?). No... even if you don't pay, overpriced food will always be overpriced. That made sense.
After dinner, the three of us went up to the sun deck of Andrea's apartment complex. It's been surprisingly cold in Chicago for late July... I think it didn't get any higher than the mid 70s today, and there was a wind all day which made it seem even colder. Anyway, we went through all the applications for crew members from the Wells Coldstone. The applications included one from a guy who I do improv with, Jerry. I don't really want to go into this, but I don't really think he'd fit into the Coldstone atmosphere. Unless we want our new thing to be yelling really loudly and swearing almost every second. If that were the case, he could most certainly be our poster child. And it's not like I don't think he's funny, because he is... he just isn't a team player in a team game... and it really shows. I do feel bad, though, because he's asked me twice about it and I'm going to have to say either "I don't know" or "It looks like you're not Coldstone material" or "You're a fucker, shut your mouth". All of those things are difficult to tell someone, so I don't look forward to it.

Phone Calls... lots and lots of phone calls
Thursday morning I spent making phone calls. I got a notice from ComEd (an electricity company) that there has been electricity used at my apartment (obviously), and I haven't set up service. This is true, as I was almost positive that my building took care of all utilities. This is not the case. What does that mean? Well... I basically owe 10 months of electric. In case you don't know, that's a lot of money. So I called ComEd, and I called my building, and I called all manner of companies for work. I was basically on the phone all morning and a little bit of the afternoon.
Then, in the afternoon, I got a call from Coldstone that they were out of credit card paper. My job is interesting, indeed. So I drove to Office Max and purchased the necessary credit card paper.  I also bought myself some new pants for the Level 5 show (some Dickies... just because Ken thinks I look hot, I mean, because Ken likes Dickies, I mean... um... Ken and stuff).
On my way back from my errands, there was a fire at Cabrini Green. It was filling the air with a brown (not black) smoke... and it smelled awful. I looked around on the different Chicago News websites to link something to the fire (because I was right there when it happened)... but, unfortunately, a fire in the projects isn't newsworthy enough. Apparently no one died, otherwise I would've been able to show you at least a little article about it. Here's the point of today: No one cares about poor people.
After that enlightening experience, I had an evening of running lines. I met up with 5 of the 6 cast members of my Level 5 show. We went over a lot of the scenes and did all kinds of speed throughs. It was good, I suppose, because there are a lot of people in the cast who don't know their lines as well as I do (the consummate professional, as always). After running lines, we went across the street to Corcorans and got some drinks and some food. We must have spent a couple hours sitting and talking. It was very nice.
After that, I went to Cobblers square and spent another hour or so talkin' to the Big Boss Lady. I basically told her I'm going to be in Chicago for at least another year... and that it's time to take the next big step in our relationship: I'm buying us a dog. I'm kidding. I'm not buying us a dog.
Friday morning looked a lot like Thursday morning. I spent the whole morning on the phone. I called SBC to set up service for the new store on North Ave. Speaking of Coldstone (I can put this anywhere in my blog, because, chances are I'm talking about Coldstone), Andrea called me. The reason I've been having so much trouble ordering stuff is that our bank account is a little light. So she wanted me to make a deposit this afternoon. Three hours later, and I'm done with the deposit and back at my apartment eating lunch.  
The lunch was short lived, as Andrea called again. We've got signs to put up at the new store locations, and she thought that today was the perfect afternoon to do that. Andrea drove me to the new store... for the first time. It's "bigger" than the store on Wells, but it doesn't have as much space for storage. Andrea and I had a "fun time" putting up the 'Coming Soon' sign. I'm not even lying, I loved every second of people constantly asking when it was opening, I loved that weird guy who thought he would help us by telling us where the sign could go and how to put it up, AND especially I loved the dust and stuff that was getting in my eyes while I was in the construction zone. Fun fun fun.
At any rate, about half-way through the day I got this feeling that I should be somewhere safe... that I should be in my apartment, just playing video games and basically hiding from the world. It was a weird feeling, but something I couldn't deny all day. I felt like I should be somewhere hidden all day. It was so odd... and it wasn't like anything happened yesterday that made me think that I should have listened to myself. It was very weird.

It never ends
Last night I went to a "student-lead" Improv class. I put student lead in quotes because that phrase seems to connote that someone was actually leading... which was not the case. I got so upset at how much of a waste of time it was, that I almost just left. Nobody seems interested in playing along... and, what's worse, there are definitely people who just want to do their own thing and they really aren't interested in what you're saying or trying to do. That just burns me up inside. Regardless, it was really well "put together" by someone from the class... who basically figured we'd all be adult enough to lead ourselves. Still, not the case. Then everyone went out for drinks afterwards, and I couldn't stand being around them long enough to drink anything, so I didn't go. On top of the behavior of the students, the instructors didn't cast me in any good games. I'm in SLSR (shift left, shift right), which could be a good game, but it's not. And I'm also in a game called City Bus, which ranks up as one of my least favorite games ever. It easily lends itself to having 8 people (it's a large game) all on stage at the same time talking all at once with no one listening. This is KILLER because half my class does that anyway.
After that crappy rehearsal, I went and saw Dodgeball with Andrea @ the AMC River East. The interesting part about the location is that Andrea had never been to the River East, even though she's lived in Chicago her whole life. I guess I just can't imagine not going someplace like a movie theatre in your hometown, as my hometown was so ridiculously small. Furthermore, she said she didn't even know the AMC existed... and I really can't imagine that. The movie had it's moments... and it definitely had great lines. It's one of those movies where you could be talking to someone about the movie and go back and forth with funny lines... how did that not make sense? It made so much sense in my head. And then, reading it, I'm thinking "What am I trying to say THERE?" It doesn't matter... what I mean is that Dodgeball is the kind of movie that I could be in. I could be in it right now, if I were in LA and cast in that movie, I would have fit right in.
I wasn't able to work out today. I went to XSport, and they were unable to print out the ticket I needed. They said that I had worked ahead of my payment schedule, and that I would be unable to train until I had been billed for it. I guess that's okay, as it's been a long time since I lifted, and I was really tired. But it sucked, because I was prepared to lift. I did get a chance to talk more to Julie, who seems to be the only staff member at XSport who knows my name. And she's cute, so that's a plus. Knows my name, cute, has a pulse... my kinda lady.