So, so, so freakin' tired...

I just took a two-hour nap, and I'm going right back to sleep. Golf was fun, as it was expected to be...even though I shot a 142 for the course (I was +2 for the course at the halfway point). But, I had some really good shots, seriously, so I'm happy with the score, considering that I hadn't touched golf clubs in about two years. I did well, score notwithstanding. Laz did really well...and I'm sure he'll bitch about the scoring system. I don't have the energy to do it for him. :)

Now, NU is supposedly beating OSU right now...but there's no energy in me to even turn on the TV. I'm lucky I got up to post here.

I'll catch you all later...

Officially, I survived Humboldt Park. I wish I had a t-shirt saying that...

Keys are turned in, stuff is moved out, and I'm officially, albeit temporarily, a South Sider again. The landlord came by, barely looked the place over and said he'd send us the check for the full amount...I said, plus interest, right? He looked at me funny and said, oh, I didn't do that. I said, well, here, then just send us the check for the full deposit and don't charge us for the blinds that were broken and we'll call it even. Good enough...

I left a toy sombrero on the fence post. And my couch in the alley. Wonder how long those two things will last in their current spots. And we left a free admission coupon to Scores gentleman's club (Butch has a stack of these that they were giving away at the freakin' B-Bash that he had to work a couple months ago) on the floor.

Now, I'm crammed into my parents' basement, sleeping on the futon down there with my things stacked about me. The storage facility that Gina rented is now full to the max...but all my stuff fits wherever it needs to fit, which is good.

This morning, I went to get a passport, because I'm heading up to the Toronto area in mid-November to do a story on a Canadian bakery...should be cool. :) I can't believe how much they freakin' charge you for a passport though, especially since you have to wait several weeks to get it. For the money, it ought to be here in a week, in my opinion. :)

Because of my lack of television and lack of time because of packing and moving, I missed the debate...I won't cry over it. I hear my boy "not-Bush" held his own pretty well. Being a not-undecided voter, the debates don't really make a difference for me anyway. Now, I'd love to watch them just to laugh at the faces and reactions and such, but I don't go out of my way. My mind is made up anyway... :)

I have a softball double-header tonight, which should be interesting...then, I play in the PFW softball outing tomorrow morning with Laz, Butch and my cousin Will...it's up in Kenosha, eh, and we tee off at 9:45am. Note: I haven't even TOUCHED a golf club in about two years. So this should be interesting and fun...or something. Because of the scoring system, apparently I still have a chance to win something other than the equivalent of a "horse's ass award"...

OK, I should get some work done. Really...

There are things, as horrible as they would be to happen, that sometimes just make you laugh uncontrollably. ("Huh?" you ask...)

After lunch, I walked into the building. As I did so, a guy walked out of an office, veering to his left. He caught sight of me out of the corner of his eye and glanced to his right, at me, to make sure we wouldn't collide. Meanwhile, a coworker of mine emerged beyond him, heading toward us. The guy looked back ahead of him just in time to change direction and avoid her. She also reacted as late as he did, and they narrowly missed each other. It all happened in a matter of seconds...

Now, had they run into each other at full speed, someone probably would have been lying on the floor, they were moving that quickly and it would have been a blindside hit. At that point, I'd have felt like I was in one of those awesome Southwest Airlines "It Must Be Football Season" commercials. If I didn't just bust out laughing, I'd feel almost obliged to stand over the person who was knocked down and talk isht as though my teammate just sacked the quarterback. :)

Just thinking about it now makes me snicker... :)

BTW, the pineapple to the face in the grocery store Southwest commercial is still the best of them...I die every time I see it. "I'm open over here." Thump.

My legs are sore, as is my lower back. But just about everything I need is put where it needs to be. All that's left is my TV, my computers and a handful of extraneous crap. I will move that stuff into storage after work today, before softball. I will also then leave my keys with my roommate, who is meeting with the landlord to walk through the place and see how much he's going to try to rip us off for.

Otherwise, I have some catchup work to do here, so that's about it for now. I'll post more later on sometime.

This will be my last post from this apartment...then, the CPU is disconnected, because it's time to do so.

Oh, don't get all teary-eyed on me. Overall, not a wonderful experience here at this place...nice apartment, sure, but crappy neighbors, neighborhood and landlord (and we aren't done with him yet, as we have to do the walk-through and get our money back yet--and somehow I believe that will be quite the blood-pressure-raising event.)

The apartment was deceptively nice, and it fit us well, but shoddy worksmanship and a lack of response by the landlord when things did go wrong simply made it not so great. It was good for hosting parties though, I will say that. :)

So off I go, on a long day of packing and unpacking and moving things all over. Including moving my poor dog to The Brook...

Off I go...

Well, I hope you all like the new design and new title. Although the title doesn't technically apply from tomorrow until the end of October, during which time I'll be living back on the South Side with my parents, it will apply soon enough.

Those of you who get emails from me also might notice that I finally took the time to "figure out" Outlook Express...of course, that's just in time for me to put my CPU offline for awhile. I could go out and buy a wireless modem for it, since my bro set up a wireless router at the house, but it's not worth it for a month. And I won't need wireless at the condo.

Ah well, enough blabbing. I have to get up early early to finish packing and get ready for my dad and Gina's brother to come and help me. If anyone's free around 9am or so, come on by! :)

That's all for now. And probably for tomorrow too, but we'll see. Busy busy.

You know what I was thinking on the way home just the other day? I was thinking, do blind people have a completely different view of beauty than those of us who have full vision?

Blindness is something that really intrigues me...not got so old that the cataracts prevent vision. I mean full-on blindness--no light, no color, nothing but blackness. I'm always intrigued when I see a blind person, especially one out on his/her own in the city. It piques my interest...not in the heh, let's see if this person runs into the wall kind of way, but more in the let's see how unbelievably well-adapted this person must believe if they are crossing Armitage at Western with nothing but a walking stick (or whatever they're called--sorry) and their ears to hear the traffic.

It just intrigues me. I know those that are out there don't need my help, typically, but if they did, I'd love to help, if only for the chance to talk to them. I would hope that my questions, "Do you not see at all, or do you "see" blackness?" etc. would not offend them or make them think I was an idiot. But it intrigues me...someone who hasn't seen a Britney Spears or a Halle Barry or a George Clooney wouldn't necessarily be bound by the conventions of beauty, would they? I doubt you'd meet an anorexic or bulemic (for the reason of being skinny, that is) blind person...would you? Or are they just as pressured as those of us with sight?

I don't feel sorry for them, I should clarify. It is sad that some have never seen a beautiful sunset or anything along those lines...a beautiful woman, man, painting, bird, mountain range, constellation, special effects in a movie--all things that are just unbelievable to the eyes. However, they don't have to see the disfigurement of all the bad things in life...graffiti is not a problem for them...nor is light pollution...nor are fat-ass, unhealthy people who wear things they just shouldn't...nor, really, is urban sprawl or the "horrors" of war in terms of visuals. To me, it's just intriguing...

In fact, maybe one of these days, if I'm feeling bored and inquisitive, will try to find a blog by a blind person...it just seems that the day-to-day life of a blind person told to those of us with sight would intrigue me. Think about your day-to-day life...and then think about it had you never been able to see. It sure is amazing...

Condo inspection went well, with only the bathroom sink P-traps needing replacement and the furnace's blower motor needing to either be calibrated to a higher speed or replaced. We will have the lawyer ask that they take care of the blower motor or pay us for it. We can replace the P-traps...I could do it with my eyes closed.

So that's good news...everything else, with the exception of a few tiny things, got good reviews. So, I guess that means, barring legal B.S., it's ours. :)

I'm over Paris...really, I am. I hear it's probably as dirty as Cleveland anyway. :)

Now, though, I'm tired...half a slab of ribs, corn on the cob, 2 appetizers and black beans & rice will do that to you...along with a pint of beer.

More...sometime. I move Wednesday, so who knows how much over the next month I'll post...just an early warning. I'm sure I'll be fine, but just in case, be prepared to be without my (ha, ha) gripping text.

Oh, and finally, after doing some research last night on my old emails on my Mac, I discovered that today is the one-year anniversary of the day I asked Gina on our first date...about this time last year, we were at her wine-tasting party. But the day had only just begun...technically, I didn't ask her on the date until about 5 or 6 am, after her party had ended and we had gone to IHOP. One week later (our "anniversary," if you will) would be our first date. Anyway, that wine-tasting night was a long, but very fun night...obviously well worth hearing the birds chirping and seeing dawn breaking over the trees in Bolingbrook for what would be the last time I saw and heard such a thing, because I moved out of Bolingbrook pretty much the next few days...

And hear I am, one year later. Wow...

Well, it looks like it's going to be one of those up-and-down days...I just had, and lost, a trip to Paris (France, not Texas) for a week for work.

The reason: I'm going to Cleveland the day that I'd get back from Paris, but my flight is already booked, and there's no way to change the Paris plans. Instant quote of the day, from a coworker: "That's OK Andy, I hear that Cleveland is the Paris of America."

Sonuva... :) My dumb luck, I guess...

Today is the big day in the condo search...the home inspection goes down at 1pm. So cross your fingers that nothing's wrong with the place...once the inspector OKs it, pretty much, it's ours. I wish though, that I could be there...I think it would be interesting to watch this guy ply his craft. But that's me...

Today started out blah...I stayed up later than normal packing, so I tried to sneak in an extra 10 minutes of sleep. Of course, traffic was terrible, so I got in late...I knew that the little sandwich shop/cafe downstairs would be closed today, so I stopped at Starbux...they could make coffee or any kind of drinks b/c the water main had broken.

But after I got to work, things turned up...I finally got through to a baker I've been trying to line up for a story...and, I remembered that, yes, I'm taking a half day to go to the dentist. But it's a half day. Plus, me and Troy are grabbing some dinner and talking isht tonight...somewhere... :)

But hey, good enough...I actually have some work to do.

Andy