Ahhh...nostalgia. I just looked at the tons and tons of pictures I have from different times dating from college on. Wow, the memories. See, these pictures brought a smile to my face...I simply have them in the little envelopes they come in from the store really, even though I should probably someday buy albums and label the pictures and everything. I don't think I'll ever forget what any of the pictures are...in fact, I didn't really forget today. In actuality, the pictures were triggers for the memories...I could remember just what was going on and who everyone was and everything. It's amazing. There are some fine pictures of several folks reading this...by fine I mean, stuff you wouldn't really want anyone to see, because they're "bad", but there are also some excellent pictures (and I mean excellent) of folks reading this too...maybe someday I'll get a scanner when I'm making money and surprise you with them someday.

Someday...someday...someday...

Oh yeah, and funny search over there..."service engine soon ignore" Ha! LOL! I hope whoever was looking for that and came here got wherever they were going OK, because I wouldn't suggest ignoring it unless your mechanic tells you to. :)

Yay, more nostalgia. I found my tape of my first semester at NU, when I worked for the radio station, WNUR, and did the morning sports updates. And you know what? I sounded pretty damned good, given that I'd had no experience...at least by the last couple, once I felt comfortable. Wow...too bad I didn't go into radio or that radio didn't pay well. :)

Ah well, back to packing...more or less.

I had posted a blog earlier...but it didn't work. I don't even remember what it was about. I cleaned out my file crate today...got rid of all sorts of old invoices, receipts, paid bills, etc. I also discovered a bunch of CRC Productions stuff...and, even better, the lyrics to the song written by CRC band Happy Panic titled "SouthSide" my freshman year. It's copyrighted by them too, by the way. Oh yeah, and it kicks much ass. I bid on the opportunity to have a song written about/for/by me and done by Happy Panic. I won the bid, but I was terrible in that I just said, "I'm no good at that stuff, you guys write a song about me," even though the guys really didn't know me all that well. Well, it kicked immense amounts of ass (and the words still do, and I'm sure the tune does too)...and considering that I'm moving to the North Side in a week or two, I guess this is kind of appropriate...so here, for the public record (in case I ever lose the sheet :) ) they are:

SouthSide
by Happy Panic (1996)

Twenty years ago
Delivered by the midwife
Baby boy named Andy
Round and red as candy

Baby, Husband and Bride
Lived down on the Southside
Where the folks all take pride
In the place they reside

Have a certain culture
Dialect and sculpture
It's a special place in
Which they punch your face in

Growing in this climate
Andy gave a try at
Walking, but he missed stride
He fell on his Southside

And he fell so often that perceptions of the boy were not the same
So thenceforth Southside was no longer just his home but was his name

Went to school and got smart
Found a job at K-mart
Merchandise for lot less
Including an atlas

Southside became bothered
Soon as he discovered
That his hometown did rest
Smack dab in the Midwest

Seeing the bigger picture made his concept of the Southside come unfurled
He pledged to travel to the Southside, to the bottom of the world

Took an escalator
Over the equator
As far as he could go
Tierra del Fuego

Then he caught an ice floe
Made it to the South Pole
Where his exploits got him
Dangling off the bottom

Then the Earth's rotation sent him flying into space right past the Sun
And Planet X and shortly Southside realized he wasn't done

Dodging giant spaceships
And a solar eclipse
Swam right past the Southside
Of the solar system

With all he could muster
Left the stellar cluster
Then he thought, "Oh well crap"
Didn't bring a star map

Southside thought he reached the Southside of the Milky Way but
Then his girlfriend Donna came and told him, "Andy, you've been traveling upside down!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If anyone knows of any way I can get a copy of that (I might have one somewhere...guess I'll find out as I clean and pack), somehow, let me know. I think it was performed just once when I was in attendance...don't know about any other times. I would be indebted to you for life if that happened. OK, well, I'd just say thanks and buy a couple beers. :)

Ah well...what did I say about me and nostalgia? :) I love it.

Well, in my ever-constant paranoia about whether I can really afford this apartment or not, I sat down and figured out a "budget" for the next few months. Really, it's not a budget as much as it is, I get checks these days, bills are due these days, can I afford it without going broke? And, barring food money and gasoline money, which is variable, I guess I should do OK, after the first month or two. By then, my income with overtake my expenditures, at least on paper. And then I'll actually be in the black instead of the red. And, I must brag, this is without compromising my $100 of every check goes into my savings account rule. Now, I try to keep that untouched, and I will continue to try, but emergencies do arise, which is where that money has gone in the past. Of course, I'll then have to pay my parents back...I caved and am borrowing money from them; I HAVE to, or I won't survive the next two weeks plus. So I feel a little better about things related to that...of course, everything always looks good on paper. I'll also have some other expenditures I'll need to take care of, such as new tires on my car, possible fixing of the car if the earlier "service engine" light comes on again. But hopefully those things will hold out until I have some money to use. I hope.

Ah well...I finished, completely and finally, to my satisfaction, Urban Therapy's nightstand. I will deliver it on Monday night when I visit for the Bears-Packers game. I took pictures, too, but I'm too lazy right now to post them, plus you can't bitch, because the comments are down. Ha!

Otherwise, things are going good, I guess. I'm not as stratospherically high as I was over the weekend, but I still feel good. Can't beat that! :)

OK then...off to bed I go. Might as well get a good night's sleep while I can...since, again, I didn't do much packing tonight. Next week is going to be crunch time. No excuses.

Finally, I am home and have eaten. It's great to see Haloscam is back to its old, unreliable self. Ah well...off to do some work around here. :)

Ugh. This day just can't drag on any longer. Jeez...

There honestly isn't much better reading nowadays than The Onion's News in Brief. Even the old ones are hilarious.

While hypochodriac Barb obsesses over her weight and cancerous tumors and stuff like that, I think I have a real problem. Remember last week how I talked about how I hurt my back but I thought it would be OK? (I think I talked about it here) Well, the problem is, it still hurts in the morning. It's weird because it goes away during the day, once I've moved around and stuff, and it didn't bother me at softball yesterday. But every morning thus far, I've had trouble just sitting up in bed. That concerns me, but since I don't have any money, I guess I'll have to live with it for a while and hope it goes away. I'm not looking for pity, here, by the way...I'm just stating a fact. I know my blogs sound like I'm the only one with monetary issues sometimes, but I'm neither that stupid nor that naive to think that's the case.

It's official that Saturday at 5pm, we will be signing (after reading carefully) the lease for the new apartment. I hope I can get more packing done tonight, since I have softball the next two nights and plans on Saturday as well as work on Sunday.

I also have to formulate an email tonight to ask folks to help me move next Saturday. Stay tuned, those of you who call yourself my friends. :) Bob, I know you're busy whatever day that is. :)

Ah well, I feel a bit sluggish today...kind of tired of work too. Maybe a little burned out, but it's probably because the weekend can't come quickly enough. Oh yeah, and my little brother has a girlfriend now at school. How cute. :)

Well, I actually got starting doing something packing-wise today...minimal, but a good first step. I collected my CDs, strewn about the house and in the car, and reorganized them into my nice CD rack for easy transport (just put some tape over them and carry). I was quite amazed by the following though:

1. I need to trash some of these before you guys think I'm a metrosexual.
2. I seem to not have bought much in the way of music since returning to the Chitown area in 2000, because my CD tower had one shelf left empty. Now, there's not enough space for all the CDs, but there are only about two extras. I thought I had bought more than that.
3. I really need to get rid of some of these crappy CDs. Really. Man, some of them, I have no idea what I was thinking. And no, I will not share. ;)

Tried Baja Fresh today between work and softball with Barb and Pete. I'd have to say that I think I still prefer Chipotle...but I was told later by my buddy from work (who I play softball with) that you have to get the tacos at Baja Fresh...that's their specialty or something. So Baja Fresh gets another chance.

We lost at softball today, and I kinda reinjured my pinkie finger on my left hand, though not nearly as bad as the first time. I think it's more a fingernail injury than a jammed finger. I also had a great one-handed catch at first on a bang-bang play on which I had to fall (dive) to my left, keep my foot on the bag and catch the ball on one hop with one hand and hold onto it as I hit the ground and as the runner hit the base. Well, I held on and got the force. I even got a "nice play" from the ump when I came up to bat the next inning. That was nice. I had two great rips to the right side of the infield on two at bats, but on each one, it was more or less right to the defender. And they were probably the best hits I've had all year so far. Ah well...maybe next time.

Tomorrow maybe I'll make a good big dent in packing after work, as I have nowhere to go for a change. We'll see...my freakin' plans always seem to change as the day goes on.

Yeah, hi...um, I did NO packing today, despite the implication in the last post. Damn. :) I'll get it done, but I have to start a conscious effort very soon.

I'm still up in the clouds, and that's good. I went to Luis' house for grilled burgers and some beer, and then we went to Hawkeye's to drop in, since we haven't been there in a while. Like I said, I'm still flying high, but I might just be in the level below the stratosphere after Hawkeye's tonight, because I got some of that news that is just really good, but really unfortunate. My bartending friend is moving out of state. I know no details, as she wanted to tell me about it when she wasn't working (which is nice of her), but she did say it was a good thing for her and that it was probably temporary. So, that was a bit of a downer...but not really bad, because, you know, if it's good for her, then that's fine for me.

Luis also tried to drag me down today by telling me I've done everything wrong. But not even his down-to-Earth crap could sway me. I'm still feeling great, and I hope it continues.

Tomorrow, work again. And softball in Park Ridge late, like at 9:30 or something like that. So it shouldn't be too bad a day.

My dad put something in my car...some additive...and now the car is working well. That's good, and I hope it lasts. Maybe the insides were just dirty or clogged or something. I don't know. Whatever it was, it's OK for now. Like I said, I hope it lasts. That's only because I really, really, really need to get new tires. Those ain't cheap either. :)

Gonna actually start weeding through my shit here and start throwing away stuff and packing stuff. I'm working on fixing a moving date, so I can solicit help from all my wonderful friends. But that's to come in the future.

For now, I'm hungry. So I'm gonna make some food and then start packing. What fun! :)

This has to be the first Sunday I've worked on which I've been higher than a kite...and I don't mean in the drug-influence way. Though i guess that would be a first too, if it were true.

I'm just so happy today, even with the concerns about money (having to do with my car, which I need to take to my Dad's work tomorrow because that Service Engine Soon light came on and the car was misfiring). My Dad thinks it's not going to be cheap. That, of course, is horrible timing since I've got to pay the first month's rent for my apt. on Saturday. Even with the fact that the weather was so beautiful when I was heading to work. Usually, that pisses me off that I have to work on a weekend day when it's really nice out. Today, it was a nice day and it made me smile, truthfully. I was all smiles today too. Not even the crap that I usually get shoveled at work could get me down. I'm so psyched and happy...I hope this continues tomorrow and lasts a while. I really do. And it may...especially since I'm looking at two weeks of nostalgia staring me in the face, given that I have to start packing up the house for the move. I like nostalgia. :)

I'm in a great mood because I had a FANTASTIC time at Hopperfest last night, and I'm really happy about it. I thought I was going to get there later than I did and that everyone would be leaving soon after, leaving me unsatisfied socially. :) But everyone stuck around for a good long time. I had a few drinks, but didn't even get tipsy and I didn't even get tired either. So I got home and went to bed at 4am, but I wasn't in danger. :)

On top of it all, I simply haven't had as much of a good time as I did last night in a while. And it's not like we did much more than sit around and shoot the shit. But we joked around and had a great, great time, and that's what made it fun. Barb talked about her Friend Group A meeting Friend Group B, and that's the coolest thing, because I get along with whatever group I'm not in as well as the one I'm in. Hell, maybe I'm my own group, I don't know. :) But I've really gotten along really well with Barb and Pete's friends, and that's huge. At least to me it is... :) Meeting these folks has been great, and I had a ton of fun meeting more of their friends yesterday and shooting the shit with them more...it was a rockin' good time, and it's something that just doesn't seem to happen as much as it should.

I've now boosted Barb and Christine's status up from Starbux Princesses to Starbux Twins. They are identical twins, attached at the hip...and I told them as much yesterday.

I also had a great time with my friend Michelle and her friends on Friday. I wish I'd gone to Second City previously in my lifetime. But it's not for the easily offended, I don't think...a couple of the skits were the type where you laugh but say, "that's horrible to say/do, but it's funny."