Crazy, crazy day. It's just after 2:00. Between now and the time I go to sleep, I have to/would like to do the following:
1. Call and talk to four correspondents.
2. Interview a defensive coordinator, assuming he calls me.
3. Write a story about him, with or without quotes.
4. Do two radio shows (including the Jacksonville one, for those of you who want to listen).
5. Visit my coworker in the hospital, up north from work.
6. Go home, take a shower and find out the latest on our apartment situation (More in a bit).
7. Go to Gina's apt. and hang out a while before heading to her friend's birthday gathering at a place called Bird's Nest.
8. Refigure my budget and find out just how much money I do have, because now I'm concerned again, after SBC screwed around.

All this to do and so little time. That's not factoring in travel times and whatnot, which are bound to be crappy as usual. I'm a little flustered, suffice to say.

In apartment news, our landlord has sicked his lawyer upon our jackass neighbor. One of the other tenants complained that the dude left the front doors open all the time. So, the landlord is coming to meet with Butch and I (though there's no way I can make it) this evening to talk about things. I had to type up a letter with our complaints to give to the lawyer and everything. So maybe, just maybe, we'll be rid of this idiot by the end of the month or so. Boy, I hope so.

Ah well...back to work I go. I have no choice. :)

I learned how to swing dance tonight. So now I'm a hep cat. Or something.

It was cool, except for one thing. They said ahead of time (on the Web site actually) that they subscribe to rotating dance partners through the class. And that's great and fine. They want you to learn how to lead and follow with multiple partners because "it's a social dance," and then you can go and ask anyone who knows how to swing to dance. That's great and fine and dandy. I'm not against rotating partners.

The problem is, during the entire 1:15 class, I danced with Gina for about two whole minutes. I wasn't too happy and Gina wasn't either. I had to learn the basic step with some chick whose name I already forgot. I made the comment to Gina's roommate and Gina that they should have done it this way: Instead of having us rotate from the moment we partnered up, they should have let us learn the step with the partner of our choice. That way, it wouldn't have been so damned "tense." Half the girls I learned with were all tense and uptight and stuff--and that made me a bit uptight. It's hard to dance the right way when you feel that way. Whereas, Gina and I would have had a built-in comfort level. We could have focused on the dancing instead of the awkwardness of not knowing the other person. And as high-schoolish as that sounds, everyone knows that it happens and that you'd be that way too.

So anyway, I got the basic step down, though there are flaws. I guess next week we're learning the "good stuff," turns and whatnot, or something like that. Again, it's fun, but I sure hope I get to dance with Gina more than I did this week. Especially once we start learning the up-close dancing...if this was awkward--the dancing at arm's length--for some of the people there, getting closer is not going to be a picnic for them. So it would be easier to learn with someone you're comfortable with. Otherwise, that will take away from it ever so slightly once again. But that's just my opinion...

So freakin' huge! For the first time in four years of working here, I'm NOT working on the Sunday of the Sox-Cubs series at Comiskey. For the past three years, I've had to miss that game, but it appears that we won't be working that particular Sunday, and that's HUGE. I'm so happy about that. Furthering my happiness, my birthday, which also falls on a Sunday, is a Sunday we don't have to work either. This is just awesome. I'm thrilled about that, because typically, since my b-day is at the end of May, chances are good that we'd have to work. But we work the previous Sunday, and that's just awesome. Wow, I'm lucky... :) I hope it continues.

Tonight, I begin learning how to swing dance. I'm excited and even a tad bit nervous...what if I can't move my feet quickly enough? What if I'm a bumbling idiot? Gina might start hating me...or worse, she'll meet some hip swing dancer dude and leave me for him. It's like that commercial with the surfing lessons and stuff...oh well, her loss then. ;)

Seriously, it should be much fun...I can't wait...anyway, off to lunch with PolishBasia and Husband of Barb very soon...meeting them at Portillo's...go figure. :)

Well, it's our awards issue this week, which means Andy gets to write at least one article. I'm writing our assistant coach of the year story. Now, I like writing stories. It's just the getting of interviews that pisses me off. I hate doing the damned legwork, because it's never convenient. And my thing is this: I'm giving you props and pub in my story, so you should be bowing to my every need to speak to me. However, it never works that way. I always feel as though I'm "bothering" the person. It makes my job a pain in the ass. Actually, it's not so bad as far as the interviewees go. I just can't stand the freakin' dance with PR folks that goes on. With them, it's often a pain. And it drives me nuts. And although we're national, we don't get much respect in terms of jumping up to talk to us. We're not ESPN or any kind of TV. It's funny how athletes are all about getting the TV exposure but don't realize that print exposure often is just as good. Whatever...I'm not looking forward to this. I never do.

Got a lot of my floor cleaned. But there's still plenty left. I'll work on it as it goes. Mostly got the Christmas crap that piled up out of the way. For the most part.

Gina's friend's girlfriend couldn't make it tonight, so Gina and I ended up dining alone. We decided to go to Uncle Julio's Hacienda on North and Clybourn. I'd been there about five years ago while still in school, and it was great then. It wasn't as good tonight--the portions seemed smaller--but it was still fantastic and filling. :) Oh yeah, and everyone, Gina might actually start reading this now, as I sent her the address to this thing. I didn't want her to read all the bad things I say about her here. ;) Actually, I didn't want her to read everything I said here and then have nothing to listen to me about. :) So welcome her if you see her in the comments...or something. I don't know how AOL (which she uses) will handle this stuff.

Anyway, after eating, we stopped at Starbux and I dropped off Starbux Princess' Christmas gift. She seemed happy, but she was probably faking it. She hates me anyway. :) We hung out a bit at both apartments and then it was time for bed, since we both have work when we wake up (though I, as usual, start at 10).

But hey, that's the way it is. :) "24" returns tomorrow (technically today, Tuesday) if I'm not mistaken. So that will be nice...I failed to mention that I bought The Simpsons Season Three DVD the other day as well. So I have that to watch.

Oh yeah, and I found my copy of the Happy Panic song "South Side" about me...the one that I posted the lyrics for a while ago and I was frantically searching for. I knew I had it somewhere...it was just in a different box than the rest of my cassettes. So I'm happy. But not panicked (sorry, couldn't resist).

OK goodnight, I guess.

After PolishBasia and Troy distracted me on instant messenger for a while, I finally got to my bedroom. :) I moved my bed and shelf. You'd be surprised how hard it is to move a bed on carpeting with just one person. But I managed. Now for the mess all over the rest of the floor...where to start!? Argh.

Wrong numbers can be funny sometimes. Especially those that are (a) telemarketers, and (b) telemarketers that leave a message on your answering machine when you don't pick up.

I was awakened by the phone ringing at 11:30. The caller ID said "Unavailable" so I said, "Fuck it." I hear the message: "Hi this is Toyota of Evanston. We believe your Toyota is scheduled for a routine maintenance check, and we have a good sale on..."

Last time I checked, I don't drive a Toyota and never have. Nor has Butch. Too funny. I almost wished I had picked up the phone. I could have asked if they all still jump up in the air and yell "Oh what a feeling, Toy-ota!" at the dealership like they used to in the '80s when someone bought a Toyota in those commercials.

I have to call SBC, because they rejected my payment because they apparently don't accept Cingular payments as well, which baffles me, because then WHY put them on the same bill? What's the point if I have to send two checks to two different places? I don't get it.

Then I have to clean and rearrange my room. And I'm having dinner with Gina and a friend of hers and that friend's girlfriend. Should be a good time. We're going to Chicago Pizza Grinder or whatever it's called. Gina's excited, so I am by default. :)

Well, I might get out of here at a "reasonable" hour for once. That's the nice thing about the playoffs. But I'm not holding my breath too much. I'll have to sit here for a while, that's for sure--now that I'm done with what I had to do.

I was going to blog about something meaningful, but I can't think of anything. My blog sucks, I know. It has become recap city, and I'm sorry for that. :) I'll try to think of something cool to blog about in the future. :) For now, goodnight and all that jazz.

Here I am. I know you all missed me.

The holidays, when they fall on, say, a Thursday, really throw me off schedule-wise. Today is Sunday, which finally I am in good shape mentally schedule-wise. But I walked around on Thursday thinking it was Saturday. Then Friday threw me off, and Saturday, and AAAAHHHH!!!! Today, I'm back on track. I think.

I've been running around the last couple of days...it was good to see Laz and Kel again, in Chicago and all. :) It was, of course, also good to see the rest of the Ghetto folks, on New Year's Day. It was a good time.

On Friday, I had to work, and then Gina and I went with Gina's roommate and her friend to see "Lord of the Rings." It was good, but I think I liked the second one better--don't know why. I'll have to see the third one again to judge for good.

Yesterday, Gina and I went out to Bolingbrook to get more of my things--there thankfully isn't much left. Gina had not seen my apartment out there and never met Gerard, and she got to do both. Plus, I missed Noodles & Co., so we ate lunch there. Then we went to Kohl's and spent my Christmas money. I spent a whole lotta money on four pairs of pants (two corduroys, two jeans), a new down pillow for my bed, a set of flannel bedsheets and three pairs of boxers, all of which I need. Good ol' Kohl's. Nothing beats Kohl's, I tell you. I got all of that for $140. That's awesome. We spent about two freakin' hours in the store, looking at things to buy. It's nice to have some money to do things with. :) I'm crawling slowly out of the red. That's good.

Today I went to church and drove in the snowstorm to work. I'm not looking forward to the fact that I'll probably have to park blocks and blocks away from my apt. tonight and walk. Maybe I'll get lucky, but with six inches of snow on the ground and this being the first real snow, I'm not hopeful.

But we'll see how it goes. I think I will sleep my ass off tomorrow, get up and clean and reorganize my room. i need to move my bed away from the pseudo-drafty window. I'm kind of "down" that Gina goes back to work tomorrow. That means she'll be busy as hell in the evenings again, meaning I can't see her as frequently as I did during winter break. Oh well...I guess I'll get used to it again. But it was nice to be able to not worry about her having to grade papers and do lesson plans in the evening and all. But it's all right.

We start swing-dancing lessons on Wednesday. We're both really excited, and it should kick much ass. Although I'm mad that we apparently have to trade dancing partners. I'm not going to dance with some random chick. I'm going to dance with Gina, for Christ's sake. If I cared about the other people in the class, I'd have signed up myself. Oh well, I guess I'll live, somehow. :)