OK...Gerard and I were just spooked by a low rumbling...and it wasn't thunder or a truck--it lasted far too long. What it sounded like was what airplanes taking off from Midway used to sound like from our house, before all those noise restrictions were put in years ago. From our parents' neighborhood, we could hear the roar of the planes whenever they were taking off to the southwest. It was a low rumbling. It was weird...so now I'm turning off my computer, because things are getting weird...and I don't want my CPU zapped if there's a lightning strike. :)

Tick, tick. Tick, tick. Tick, tick.

They say we're in for some really, really, really severe storms tonight, and they've even thrown in the "could produce numerous tornadoes" line this time, something you don't usually hear. We're not far from the first storm coming through...we're under a severe thunderstorm warning, which means it's right on our doorstep, practically. So this should be interesting. Thankfully I'm off work tomorrow, so if I get no sleep tonight, it won't be the end of the world.

Like I've said before, I love meteorology and if it hadn't looked so hard to study and math were my thing, I'd have gone into it. Of course, I guess it's never, ever too late, right? :)

Ahh...Thursday and Friday recap.
Thursday. Randy was here, but didn't get here until around 7:30pm. He had a marathon inteview, which is probably a good sign. We then met Luis at Cafe Iberico, a Spanish tapas bar on LaSalle north of the River North Nightlife area. I recommend this place to anyone. It's phenomenal. The sangria is great and the tapas is even better.

We didn't stay long and opted to meet Luis' girlfriend, Monica, and a couple of her friends at The Note where it was samba night every Thursday. Samba is a Brazilian dance, and the band there, Chicago Samba, was awesome. The Web site has clips, and the first one, Butacada, is very similar to two instrumental percussion songs they did that were just awesome. I had never heard anything so good...I was hoping they'd have a CD, but alas...I didn't see one. I'll probably be trying to convince Luis to go back there sometime.

Friday. Randy left for home because of the t-storms expected to be ravaging the Midwest today. I thought that was a good idea, though I was disappointed that he couldn't stay to see our 16-inch softball game and hang out at the bar with us afterward. Softball, I didn't do so well. For whatever reason, I had trouble handling this pitcher's pitches and went a pathetic 0-for-3 on the day, lining out to left, grounding into a fielder's choice and then, the icing on the cake. Down one in the bottom of the seventh with one out and runner on first and second, I grounded to third base, where the thirdbaseman stepped on the bag and doubled me off at first to end the freakin' game. I realized afterward that the pitcher had beaten me, because I got to thinking about her pitching instead of realizing that all I had to do was poke the ball into right field or ground out to the right side to move the runners over. Instead, I stupidly tried to pull the ball. Dumb. But, I guess we all have bad days.

Today, I'm not sure what I have planned, to tell you the truth. We'll see as it goes, I guess.

yeah, softball in two and a half hours. I'm, as usual, psyched.

I'll have a Randy Recap later, because I know you all want to know what kept us busy yesterday...

Well, I'm kind of excited...my buddy from Springfield, Randy, is coming in a matter of minutes. He had an interview with The Daily Herald and he and his girlfriend (and another of my best friends from down there) are working on moving up here. That would be fantastic if they did. They were the two main people who kept me sane while I was typing to everyone up here how lonely and depressed and missing you guys and Chicago I was. The thing is, they didn't take offense to it when I told them how I needed to get back here, and I love 'em for it. So I'm happy they're close to getting here...maybe. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

Donna and I went to see X-Men 2 last night and it was good. Maybe a hair below the first, because the writing/story seemed a little rough in this one compared to the first...and, without giving anything away, I just have one thing to ask: What the hell was Iceman doing at the end? Picking his nose?

Anyway, I've liked X-Men more than any of the "comic-book-to-movie" genre. I've kind of always said if I read comics, X-Men would be the first...just have always been intrigued by them, I guess.

I never really did get into comic books though when I was younger, I guess because I wasn't really exposed to them. I guess that's the only real way as a kid you "get into" things. We had a drugstore on the corner of my parents' block that sold everything. But it didn't carry comic books, at least not that I knew of. There were no comic book stores in the vicinity of my house, and my friends never were into them either. So I didn't have the exposure. It's kind of like the NHL. Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz prevented cable-less people from watching the Hawks by putting them on Sports Channel. So I didn't watch them, and thus never got into hockey as much as other sports.

I miss that drugstore, as it's long gone now. I remember the first time, how happy I was, that my mom let me go there to buy baseball cards. That was important because it was the first time I was allowed to cross 51st street, the busy street, by myself. I was 17 years old...just kidding. :) This drugstore was pretty big...we never really went into the "grocery" area, where they had things like cereal, canned goods, etc., because we never really needed that stuff from that outlet. I do remember the pharmacists being nice people and knowing, as all neighborhood pharmacists do, us by name and knowing pretty much why we were there.

Now, the drugstore has been gone for awhile. The "grocery" half has been replaced by a Hispanic-owned furniture store (I only know it's a furniture store because I've looked in the windows. The sign's in spanish. :) ) and the small, corner-shop area is an ice-cream shop--but not a sit-down place...it's a paleta shop. Which is fine with me too, because nothing beats a 40-cent strawberry leche (sp?) ice cream bar from the bell-ringing, cart-pushing paleta guys. Of course, it's probably more expensive than 40 cents now...I haven't had a paleta in so long. ahhh, the memories.

I hate spies. Not the international kind, because they're cool.

I mean the kind of people who look into your life without your permission, on purpose or accidentally, in order to find weakness, fault or a mistake.

IF THERE ARE ANY SPIES LOOKING IN ON MY LIFE via this blog, and you know who you are, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE AND NEVER COME BACK. You've offended me by offending someone close to me, and we don't want you here anymore. Whether that person was right or wrong, it doesn't matter. You're not going to get any further information here, because we're smarter than you. Period. Go away.

Disclaimer: If you're confused by this message or have my permission to be here, that means you are not a spy and should continue reading the joyous, happy posts of my blog. Anyone else can fuck themselves. :)

On to hockey...I had a very pedestrian game today. No goals, no assists, no spectacular plays. Just an average game in a loss to the best team in the league--but we showed improvement in that we didn't get mauled like we did the first time we played them this year. Don't remember the scores, but hey...playoffs next week. :)

Well, the PFW Maulers (as is our team name) lost today 17-6 after five innings (slaughter rule). However, we left with a good feeling...five of our six runs were scored in an excellent top of the fifth inning, during which I had a two-RBI triple that chalked the right field foul line, and then I was promptly driven in by a home run. We hit well that inning, but obviously didn't do so well the first few innings. I was 2-for-2 with a single earlier in the game. That means, and this will end sooner than later, that so far in two softball games overall, I've not produced an out from the batter's box. In our 16-inch game last week, I was 3-for-3 and reached on my fourth "at-bat" on an error. Can't remember if that costs me an at bat or not.

Ah well...I'm feeling down about the Missouri tornadoes, after watching the news on it. But I have no time for that...I gotta get to bed. :)

It's so nice out today, I think I'll go eat on the lawn outside of Potbelly's today, by myself if I have to. Funny, I just realized we all call it Potbelly's, even though there's no "s" in the actual name...ahhh, the Chicago accent. Soldiers Field, etc.

Anyway, we have our first PFW softball game tonight, and we're hoping to improve upon last year's 1-10 record. Captain Andy Hanacek has resigned and turned the reins over to someone else, who is going to coach and not play. How about that? So, maybe, just maybe, we'll win more than 2 games this year. But I'm going to put more stock on the 16-inch softball team I'm on with the neighborhood guys and gals than this 12-inch team.

OK...it's hard to try to explain this kind of stuff to you guys without sounding like I'm bitching. But I'll try.

Today, as you all know, I had to work when normally we'd have the day off. We were told to come in at noon. However, I'm sitting here now at 5:30, I do have work to do. But I have no idea when I'm leaving. I was hoping to make plans of some sort, even just by myself to clean around the house. But I can't do that because I'm here not knowing when I'm leaving. I can't go up to my supervisor and say, "When are you expecting us to leave?" because then I sound like I'm just trying to get out of here and not working well or working my ass off. Make sense?

So meanwhile, I sit here, uncertain of whether we can leave when we're done with our work, leave at, say, 6 p.m., or leave after an eight-hour shift, putting that at 8:00pm. That is what sucks...that I am in the dark about what's going on. I need to clean my apartment through and through, because my buddy from Missouri is coming up from Wednesday through Friday or Saturday, and my place is a big-time pig sty right now. Tonight, really, is the only full night I was going to have, since I have softball tomorrow night--I'll just have to bust my ass home afterward and get whatever cleaning possible before I grow tired and go to sleep. Same with tonight, I guess. We'll see. How's everyone doing? I haven't had any comments lately, and I was wondering if I've ostracized all with my ramblings. :)

Well, here's the in-depth news on the tornadoes in southwestern Missouri. Still don't know if anyone I know was involved in any of them. It's amazing how I feel about this. It's kind of creepy, because it's not like I was that attached to Missouri. I guess it just weird to realize that, hey, part of my being was wiped out by Mother Nature, even if it was just a small part. Anyway, Battlefield, Mo., is less than five miles from the apartments I lived in while I was down there, and I'd driven through it a couple times because it was a nice little bedroom-community town that was cool. Maybe that's why it's creepy to me, because it was so close to a spot I called home? I don't know. :) Never been to Stockton or Pierce City though. Oh yeah, and a bit of trivia that might be incorrect: I think a year before I lived there (I was there in 1999-2000), Stockton's downtown burned down in a massive fire--I think. You think they'd get the hint. Springfield News-Leader

Here's a map of the area we covered and where the tornadoes hit I lived just four miles north of Battlefield, on the outskirts of Springfield.

I went to the Sox game yesterday, and that was nice. I knew I'd have work today, so I slept in before doing some work and then heading to the Sox game. I had a throbbing headache that went away after I took some Tylenol, but it came back again today. I think I'm too stressed out.

The problem is, I have no way to relax right now. No day off now until Saturday, since I have to work tomorrow too. I suppose if I didn't let it bother me, I'd not be stressed about it, but it's a little tough to not think about the fact that I'm expected to work and do all this crap and I'm not really compensated for it. So, who knows...this may pass. Or I'll remain pissed and find another job. We'll see how things go.

I was particularly angered today only because I had Sox tickets today, but had to work and assumed I wouldn't make it to the game because we'd be working late. Instead I was let out at 6, meaning if I'd have pushed them to let me out at 5:45, I could have made it. But I wasn't told until 5:30 that we would be done around 6:30, and then they let me go at 6 because I mentioned the Sox game. Yeah, it rained out the game, but that's still $20 down the drain. But whatever...