Well, the pool party was cancelled, but that was a possibility, as my friend's mom isn't feeling so well and we knew that. So I have a few hours with which I can do some things and be productive, and that's good. I'll probably hit Men's Wearhouse and by my suit and shit, to get it out of the way now instead of during the week. I know I have a few other things to do, but I'm struggling to remember them right now...I'll think of them soon enough. I do have some writing to do for work, and I still want to start that short story soon and get it rolling. Gotta do it now while it's fresh in my mind, or it will never happen.

Zentra last night wasn't as ridiculously trendy as I thought it would be. It was a bit trendy, but was a very typical dance club, really. I was there for maybe an hour and a half (no problem, since we had no cover to get in and free vodka drinks for the first half hour--only $5 after that anyway, for a nice-sized, well-made--though diluted--screwdriver), and we sat out on the patio area, talked shit and I left to go get Barb and Pete and head to Streetside Cafe to see Mike hit the decks. Luis and Monica met us there. As usual, Mike was good. For comparison, I had a screwdriver at Streetside and nearly gagged because there was hardly ANY orange juice in it, and I think it was the same price or maybe a bit more. But the bartender did a solid job with the Stoli Oranj/7-UP drink later...not too strong, not too sweet. Good deal. Some guy was there with a polaroid camera, taking pictures and charging $5 for them with a nice little display stand. I gave him $7, even though it's quite possibly the worst picture of all of us, we agreed. None of us was really ready to take a picture, and he just kind of snapped it and that was it. But hey, he's gotta make a living, just like me. ;) The five of us started talking camping and psuedo-hashing some things out. It should be a good time, even though I will be a "fifth wheel" now. But that's OK. I'll just use the trip to re-energize my batteries and do some thinking about things...not that that's particularly always healthy for me, but hey. Maybe I'll find one of the bluffs, go out there and just sit and relax. Maybe I'll take a sketchbook and try my hand at that. Maybe we'll take Monopoly (or Solarquest...yay!) and play that for hours and hours. Who knows? :) That's part of the fun of the trip, really. Just going and being there. So we shall see. After Streetside, we dragged Luis and Monica even further north to the Denny's near Barb and Pete's place and I ended up getting home around 4:00 or so. Pretty damned tired too. :)

Time to go home. I hope traffic isn't bad, because I'd like to get home sooner rather than later and get some work and/or relaxing done. Busy few days ahead, it seems. Tonight, I'm going to some supremely trendy club (Zentra) with Luis and Monica for a couple hours, then swinging over to Streetside Cafe (Armitage and Kedzie) to relax and listen to my cousin's boyfriend, who is a DJ (Mike Rosey), hit the decks in a relaxed atmosphere (read: no real dance floor or anything...just sitting and listening to the music). You're all invited, of course. Mike starts playing at 12:30 though, until 2am, so I don't know if that's too late for any of you. :)

Tomorrow I start out with a pool party, followed by the Sox game, followed by potentially meeting Barb and Pete to celebrate Pete's birthday, if they're still out, those drunks. ;) Then Sunday I work.

I'll try to recap the day's events and tell you of any more freakin' dreams (ones that I can't turn into stories) I remember. Last night, I was in a NASCAR race in a little, noisy, orange low-rider Honda Accord. Yet somehow I was gaining on the leader. That's all I remember.

My mind blew up on the way to work today. I think my imagination is back...don't know why or where it went, but it just seems to be coming back. The dream I had about the cop...I'm going to turn that into a short story. I have all sorts of ideas for it, and for a change, none of them are cheesy. It will not be a comedy by any stretch of the imagination, though the darkness of it is not a product of how I've been feeling. The darkness just seems right about it. I think the idea works on a hundred different levels...now, hopefully I can sit down and hash it out. I'm going to take down the dream post, because I don't want to give away the story. :) What will this accomplish? Likely nothing, other than me being able to "create" with my mind again, something I haven't been able to do for years...and I can't wait...I have to make some time.

Man, I'm excited. :)

Wow, I won't have softball tomorrow for the first time in a while. That ought to be strange. But, maybe I'll come home and do some work around here for a change. We shall see, I suppose. I always say that, but I guess it'll depend on how the day goes first.

Otherwise, I'm going to bed now. I'm not too talkative this evening. :)

My mom got the flowers I ordered. She called and was really happy. She said, "I knew the minute I saw them that they were from you; I didn't need to even read the card." I asked how she knew, and she said because I'd be the only one to get her daisies, because she knows I love daisies and that I know that's her favorite flower. She said anyone else would get her some stupid conglomeration of florist flowers, but these were perfect. So I was happy. :)

Won by forfeit in softball today, which makes sense. The team was 0-18 prior to playing us. I figured they probably just never showed up. Nice that folks have money to burn.

Stopped at Hawkeye's afterward, because I was feelin' a little down. It's going to be ups and downs for a while I think. But I'll survive. Especially when I get distracted by things like a White Sox win. That's always nice. They've put together a six-game winning streak now, which is huge as far as this year has gone.

Ah well...I have to drag my happy ass out of bed by 8am tomorrow (which seems late to some of you, but is early to me) to do the PFW radio show from home here. Then I go to work, as usual.

Again, I say, ah well. :)

Sadly, I have not met nor dreamed about the yellow-eyed girl again. Oh well. :)

More evidence came yesterday of why I should not be allowed anywhere near any coaching duties for the PFW softball team. What a phenomenal game! We played hard the whole game and I dominated on the mound through five innings. In the bottom of the sixth (we play seven), with a six-run deficit to overcome, the other team magically became hitters. They nickel-and-dimed nine runs out of me that inning, hitting base hit after base hit after base hit. It was nuts. We had a few errors too, by the way. But I couldn't have pitched any better. I walked two guys the whole game and I felt really good on the mound for the first time in weeks. So in the top of the seventh, we needed three runs. We'd been in this spot before and succeeded. But we got two quick outs, then a single. Then, our batter hit a lazy popup just over the third-baseman's head in the outfield...it dropped and our runner advanced to second base. Then, their guy kicked the ball while trying to pick it up. I was coaching first and mumbled, "oh, yeah, go, go, go..." thinking out loud that the lead runner should advance. Our batter got to first right at that moment, heard me and rounded first base without looking that the lead runner hadn't moved from second. I turned around and didn't even watch the rest of the play unfold because I blew it. We lost 14-11. It sucked, but we were happy that we finished the season 7-4 overall, a gargantuan step up from teams past. Tonight, I have volleyball once again, and it's my mom's birthday. I ordered flowers for her, so hopefully she gets them when she gets back from work OK. And I hope she appreciates them, which I'm sure she will. :)

I almost forgot to tell you guys that tonight is huge in PFW softball. For the first time since I've started playing here, we're in the playoffs. We're 7-3, just like the other three teams in the playoffs with us. We're the #3 seed by tiebreakers. We play the #2 seed at 6:15, and then the championship is at 7:15. We're all pretty psyched and ready to go out there. So we'll see how it goes. Wish us luck. :)

Sometimes I wonder how the brain works. I hadn't remembered a dream in a long time, and I wonder if the fact that I remember a vivid dream last night is a direct result of Laz talking about his dreams the last few nights.

Anyway, last night, I dreamed I was at some sort of banquet/wedding in some random hall. I saw this beautiful woman walking up to the buffet-style dinner table to get some food. Usually, I can't remember stuff like this--and usually, my mind isn't powerful enough to create new, imaginary people, but for whatever reason, my mind did. Maybe my imagination's coming back. Yay! :) Anyway, she had a lighter brown long hair, not really shiny, but nice, was more than half a foot shorter than me and had nicely tanned skin. I wanted to dance (though i heard no music). So I walked up to her and actually hugged her from behind (?) and said, "Do you want to dance?" Of course, she agreed, since it's my dream.

But the funny part is, we started dancing, but we were doing some weird dance that could be possibly classified as swing, but with more of a closeness to it. I'm not talking like dirty dancing--it was not sexual or anything, maybe SENSUAL, but as though we were the only two out there, and we were dancing really closely yet at a swing-like pace. By the way, I still heard no music. But there were others dancing. I was transfixed on her eyes (though she was much shorter than me), which were an unbelievable, bright, sunflower-yellow color. They were beautiful--the most beautiful thing I'd seen. As was her smile. We were excellent dancers and perfect with each other out there, and everyone said so after we were done.

We finished dancing, and she went back to her table. I remember a "friend"--don't know who, it was a random voice--saying, "You should go and talk to her; you're in, you know?" And I said, "I know I'm in, that's why I don't have to say anything. She'll come over here and ask me to dance again, I know she will. I made my point and my interest known. And then I'll talk to her."

Then my mind skipped ahead, and I was returning to the room (I assume from the bathroom or something...I guess my mind doesn't like to dream about peeing.). I walked over to a table full of former CRCers...it was a long, cafeteria-type table, which seemed odd, because most of the other tables were the round, wedding-reception types...none of you folks were there, but I'm talking like, people we'd probably forgotten about and that some of you never met...Doug Cohen and Amy Liu, Huggy Bear, Jamie Wughalter, Nikki Waller and a whole bunch of other people I can't remember at the moment, mostly from my freshman year. They all were happy to see me and many of them were impressed at the show I'd put on on the dance floor. They asked me who the girl was, and I said I didn't know, but I'd tell them as soon as I found out. I talked to them awhile (in dreams, it's tough to remember general conversation for me...it's like Peanuts...wah, wah wah, wah wah wah...) and then went back to my table, a round one, where I was sitting alone. This time I heard some general music, and the dream ended after the girl came up to me, as predicted, and asked me to dance again.

First off, you guys are such smart-asses it's not even funny.

It's amazing what a difference a day literally makes. This time yesterday, I was in the midst of a personal emotional crisis. I was nearly puking, crying and was shaking so much that I nearly fell off my chair. I knew I would get no sleep. I had heard and misunderstood some things that literally nearly floored me and I was an emotional wreck.

That is why I got 30 minutes of sleep Sunday night-Monday morning. I floated through work though today...completely wired but tired too. I'd share the complete story, but many of you are bright and can probably figure things out by doing a little sleuthing. Anyway, I talked to the person involved today, and, amazingly, it went far better than my previous 12 hours worth of flipping out warranted. We cleared a lot of the air without getting angry and then spent the next three hours talking of the good ol' days and talking about just anything at all. Whatever came to mind. Things we'd never said, things we'd never done but wished we could have. Things we hope for in the future. We set some ground rules, such that we would be completely and totally honest and not get offended or insulted by any advice or anything either person said. The reason being: We're looking out for each other, not competing. We talked better than we'd ever talked before, and it was sincere...not forced or watch-dogged.

I like the new role, so long as the role stands the test of time. I can deal with it, which I wasn't sure I could. My misconception of a previous phone call...a very big misconception created by my temporary insanity and the vagueness of the answer to a question I mistakenly asked...was cleared up without anger because there was communication and explanation. And both sides seemed satisfied.

Surprisingly, I've not been happier since before March, because I can now talk to this person like never before about things I've never spoken before. Had you asked me if the situation would have reached this conclusion prior to the evening, I would have said, "No way." But, as I told some folks, I had NO IDEA how things would go. So, for now, and hopefully as long as possible, this works, so long as both sides hold up the bargain. YOU HEAR ME, OTHER SIDE? ;)

Now I'm going to bed.

Public service announcement: Getting 30 minutes of sleep at night. No good. Just so you all know.

Well, it was good to see the Sox kick ass today. They've been playing well, which I've been trying to avoid enjoying, only because the trend thus far is to play well then play like crap and let me down. So I'm trying to keep calm about the whole thing, really. :)

Hmmm...let me think if there was anything really cool about my brother's graduation party. Well, not really. Disappointing attendance by the majority of the Hanacek/Haniacek family kind of kept the fun quotient supressed a bit. Not that it wasn't fun without them, but it could have been more fun. But, I guess we expected it, as there was a disagreement between my dad and one of his nephews, so maybe it's best everyone stayed away. All in all, it was cool.

I had a good time, particularly playing Railing Volleyball with Eddie and his soon-to-be college roommate and best friend(?) from high school and the volleyball team. It was one of those great made-up games, where two people were on the porch and three were on the ground, and the railing acted as the net. How we didn't break any windows, I don't know. I also had a good time talking shit about some of our relatives on my mom's side of the family. But that's another story for another time. :)

One of the highlights, my dad's oldest sister was there, and she had heard I was getting into the family history stuff, so she brought a bunch of papers--letters and official documents and such--to give to me to help in my search. She also confirmed that Grandpa was from Jurgow, Poland, but it was in Czechoslovakia for a while. She also told me something I hadn't known, and that's that my Grandpa and Grandma met in Pennsylvania, when they lived there (near or in Uniontown, Pa.) I had originally thought they'd met in Poland and came across the pond together. Of the papers, the letters, I was told, are in a northern, border dialect of Slovak, but they should be translate-able...or whatever word. Also in the papers were a couple documents in German, but we have NO idea what they are. One of them is dated 1912. So I'll have to get those translated. But, after we got done talking (briefly), she said if I have any questions to just call. I said, well, why don't we get together and sit down and talk. She said that was fine, somewhat hesitantly, but I think it's because she didn't understand that it would be better for me to do it that way than what she wanted, which was to do my thing and if I had a question, call. That way's OK too...but I need to focus. That's not focus. :)

Now, I'm kinda just sittin' around, relaxing before having to head back to work as usual tomorrow. We're slowly creeping back into the regular-season routine now, having a paper every two weeks until mid-to-late August. Training camps start this week, so, I guess, here we go again.

I'm a triolet

If they told you I'm mad, then they lied. I'm odd, but it isn't compulsive. I'm the triolet, bursting with pride; If they told you I'm mad, then they lied. No, it isn't obsessive. Now hide All the spoons or I might get convulsive. If they told you I'm mad then they lied. I'm odd, but it isn't compulsive. What Poetry Form Are You?

Although clerihew sounds a lot like me sometimes too.

I, as a clerihew, Tend to be merry; too Merry, it might, perhaps, by some, be claimed; But I'm sure that these people are wrong, and need to be grievously maimed. What Poetry Form Are You?

As a Gemini, I can be both, because I said so.


Eddie's graduation party was cool, as expected. Now, though, I'm tired, so I'm gonna go to bed. I'll chit chat with everyone tomorrow, hopefully.