For your flower-viewing pleasure...

OK...many of you actually like rain, so I'm using this analogy: When it rains, it pours.

Got an email today about another job, setting up an interview for Monday. Also, yesterday at the SuperNovas, I "networked" a possible landscaping job opportunity with one of the SuperNovas' friends.

So I have a slew of opportunities in front of me. Of course, no job has been offered, but at least I'm getting sniffs. That makes me feel much, much better.

This evening, Oak Lawn softball resumes...I don't know if I remember how to play, it's been so long. ;) Otherwise, I need to make time to go out to Bolingbrook and pull weeds, dammit.

OK...got a call from a magazine out of the blue, that I spoke with at the M e d i l l fair. I have to call them back on Tuesday to schedule an interview. It seems like a good post...it's a trade mag, but for a much better industry than water quality. And it's a higher-up post than what I'm in now.

So, my point: If you are a praying type, please throw a good luck prayer in there somewhere for me this week. I'm really tired of being jobless. :) If you aren't a praying type, well, think good karma thoughts for me or something. :)

Now I can recap a bit too...

Yesterday, work was pretty easy, for a change. We hosted Park Ridge Park District little leaguers. Although it was easy, there were at least three incidents of snobby attitude directed by parents toward myself or my coworkers. I shouldn't be too surprised, I guess, but given that this hasn't happened yet this season (with stereotypically snobbier suburbs playing there), I was a bit surprised. Oh well.

Afterward, Luis, who worked until 10pm, and I went to...Hawkeye's! For the first time in ages, we decided to get a beer there and catch up on things. It was like old times, except without the staff knowing us, because the place has gone through massive turnover. But alas...we need a new bar. We're going to try this place that Butch and I have been to, called Celtic Crown, up on Western near Montrose. Cheap beer and eats and the atmosphere seems cool. So we'll see.

Today, Gina and I will help the SuperNovas build The Great Wall of Grayslake. It'll be visible from satellites sitting on the roof of their garage. But not any higher. :)

Tomorrow, that thing called softball in Oak Lawn continues after a two-week hiatus. I hate that. Because now I'm gonna be all rusty...then again, the way I'm hitting, maybe a two-week layoff is what I need. We'll see.

Ah well...I'm gonna go play some MVP Baseball, I think.

I'm so tired of this crap. Really I am.

Yesterday I applied to a place that almost HAD TO consider me. It doesn't even look like a real-deal kind of sports Web site, but I didn't care. They need "experts" on a given sport. Well, for fuck's sake, 3.5 years at PFW kind of qualifies me as an expert, doesn't anyone think. Yet still, I haven't heard back--not even a peep. And this is a Web site, so you'd think they'd be all over emails and shit.

Bunch of fuckers. I'm getting really, really, really fed up with this. Very disillusioned as well. I'm about ready to give up on journalism...though I don't know what for. I mean, for the love of God, doesn't anyone want/need a damned good editor? Does anyone care anymore about that stuff? It's a shame if not.

Ah well...I'd tell you what I've been up to, but now I'm tired. So maybe I'll tell you later.

Yep, I think ol' Bushie boy cost me an insufficient funds fee by suspending the mail by one day (don't know for sure, but I can blame Bush anyway). Asshole. I needed that check Friday...not Saturday.

Wedding on Saturday was a good time. But, what's interesting is that I either saw Ted Frank at this wedding or I saw his freakin' twin. I swear to God. Now, I wouldn't have thought twice about it, except that the groom was an NU grad, one year ahead of me, and there were plenty of NU grads there. In fact, if any of you heard of/saw the band Smarmy Kitten(?), the groom was a member and the band was there. Whatever. I did not approach TednotTed because I didn't want to be like the guy on Groundhog Day: "Phil?!?! Phil Connors?!?!?" and then be wrong. :)

I was waiting for the dude to get up to go to the bar or something, and I would conveniently head over there to force his hand. I figured, if it was him, he'd recognize me. ("How we gonna recognize him, Dr. K?") But TednotTed's date got up EVERY time and got them both drinks. That was funny in and of itself.

I'm sure it was just a damned good lookalike. He was too subdued to be Ted. But hey, who knows, right? There were a handful of other NU folks there who I recognized, or at least thought I did. But whatever...

Sunday I worked my ass off at the ballpark until 11:30pm, so it'll be a good check unless we're rained out Wednesday.

Today was a pretty lazy day. I got up at 10am planning to go to The Brook to weed the garden (again!), but it was storming. I figured rain the rest of the day, or threatening at least, so I went back to bed. Got up around noon to bright blue skies. I was disappointed. :) So I played MVP Baseball most of the rest of the day, then had KFC for dinner at Gina's and watched "The Pianist" and "K-19: Widowmaker" while she worked on report cards.

Tuesday (which it technically already is) in PFW softball, is a rematch of last year's game vs. the all-Asian (Korean, Japanese, I don't know) team called the Marine Jets. They beat us last year--here's the post, in all its glory, of June 11, 2003: "Basically, we were robbed of a potential win in softball when the ump made a completely incorrect call on a play at the plate that would have put us within two with two outs and myself and our other solid hitter coming up with two outs and a man on third. Our runner performed a perfect hook slide at home and his foot slid over the plate, but the ump had a bad position and called him out. We went nuts...we could have had at least six of us tossed (leading to two-game suspensions) even though the game was officially over. It was nuts, but warranted...he had blown 2-3 calls (depending who you ask) already. It's too bad too, because he seemed like a nice enough guy, he just didn't get good position. So we lost, 8-5 in a game that we could have won against a very fundamentally sound team of Japanese or Korean players...they yelled in their native tongue the entire game. It was interesting, to say the least."

They're still fundamentally sound, and they still yell the entire game in their native tongue. :) Christine, do you know any of those languages? Can you come and tell us if they're telling us we suck in some Asian language? :) (That's one of the coolest Seinfeld episodes: The lip reader episode.)

Ah well...off to bed soon, I think.