Work, Work, and More Work.

Print for two minutes, stop for one. Print for two minutes, stop for one. Print for two minutes, stop for one. Print for two minutes stop for one. Two hundred and twenty one sheets of paper printed. Manually clean the blanket and then run nine print cleaner sheets. Repeat 125 more times. Two weeks and 30,000 sheets later perhaps this job will be over soon.

But as everyone has tried to hammer into my head for the past few years...I should just be thankful I have a job, right?

Right.

That's probably true and all, but it's not how I like to think. This is where I should probably start ranting about the state of the economy and many of the things that took place to get to where we are nowadays, but I have no interest in that at the present moment. I'm just going to continue on 55 sheets a time, just like Sammy Hagar would do, except I will mix it up a bit by printing the cleaner sheets before manually cleaning off the blanket. It's good to change things up every now and again, so the relentless monotony of printing erodes my brain a bit slower than usual. Cranking this Journey song will help with that as well.

"Feelin' That Way!"



So this is what I've been doing all week long and the week before and for a few weeks before that. The press has not been working correctly for about a month and a half and the service folk can't seem to figure out what's wrong. What's wrong is that we have this press that is ten or twelve years old and needs to be put to rest. Don't get me wrong, 6199 and I have had lots of good times together, but at some point one of us is going to have to go, and as you all know, that's probably not going to be me, what with my precise lack of focus and direction.

"Oooohhhhh anytime that you want me, oooohhhh anytime that you want me."

And not surprisingly, the Loop follows up that one with Cheap Trick's I Want You to Want Me. Not that I'm complaining, but pretty easy lyrical transition there rock station. And with that, all of my printing focus for this blog has been shattered, much like the virgin status of all the teen girls who lost it to this song back in 1977.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on, now touch me baby...can't you see that I am not afraid."

Apparently the Loop DJ is either getting blown in the studio or he's doing his best to increase teen pregnancy rates in the Chicagoland area. Either way I appreciate the effort he's putting forth.

That is all. 

Newer Post!

Alright it's been long enough. Time to once again write about nothing, I know you've all been patiently waiting for new content, so here you are. Disappointment forthcoming my friends as I really don't have much to write. Fortunately I've got some fortunes to throw out so here we go...

Behind an able man, there are always other able men. 
This is too gay for me to comment on.

You have an unusually magnetic personality. 
Pretty sure I received someone else's fortune cookie by mistake. No doubt it was one of my roommate's as they're all about eating Chinese food, but very rarely do they indulge in the sweet delight of the cookie. Too bad for them, as they're also missing out on these rare insights. But on the off chance it was meant for me...ahhh...that's way too farfetched for me to even pretend, but perhaps they're referring to a magnetic personality in the case of two magnets repelling each other? That makes a bit more sense.

There is a prospect of a thrilling time ahead for you. 
Now this is definitely true at the moment. Not sure what you kids are doing for the rest of the week, but I'll be heading down to St. Louis in a day and a half to visit with my good friend Tim. Now surely that's enough excitement for most people, but we're not quite done as Thursday night we're going to see the greatest heavy metal band of all time, Judas Priest! I'm not sure if Tim has ever seen them live now that I think about it. It would be a shame if he hasn't already, but I can guarantee he will not be disappointed. Anyway heading back to Chicago the next day on the ol' Amtrak and then also going to see Priest here in Chicago on Saturday night. Honestly, I'm not sure if there could be a better weekend as far as excitement is concerned. Now maybe you're thinking to yourself that this certainly wouldn't be your cup of tea, but that's only because you're stupid and lame. There I said it. Somebody had to.

Good beginning is half done. 
Not sure what to write about this one. Think I had a similar fortune bestowed upon me by these Chinese fortune tellers last time, but not sure what I wrote. Good beginning is half done. Sounds to me like this blog post, but I'm not even convinced it was a good beginning. How about average beginning is hardly done at all, so get back at it and try to do something worthwhile for once? I'm guessing most people might not like that fortune all that much, but it's probably more worthwhile than some of these cookie stuffings.

You're talents will prove to be especially useful this week. 
Again, very true, very true. My air guitar mastery will be on display for several hours this weekend for all to enjoy. Surely I can shred better and faster than that fat dude one row over with the bald(er) spot and the hooker girlfriend. What other talents in my possession will be useful you ask? No idea. Work is busy, and I haven't been slacking, so that printing talent is certainly beneficial to my employer. Too bad for them that I won't be in the office until Monday after I finish up tomorrow night. I'm sure my replacement can continue the work I've started and I'm sure once I get back I'll be finishing it all up. That's what I get paid for, so that's what I'll be doing.

Your present plans are going to succeed. 
Alright this is just a blatant falsehood, as I have no present plans and I know they're not talking about my going to see Priest this weekend. I specifically made sure to be alive for such an event as this and I'll be damned if some jackass fortune teller is going to...wait a second, it says the plans will succeed. My bad. Apparently I'm good at typing out fortunes, but not so great at recalling what it was that I just typed. Anyway, yes,  my plans will succeed for this weekend. However, one caveat, as I don't really know when I opened up this fortune, so whether those present plans succeeded or not, I have no way of knowing. And damnit...that was another sneeze and perhaps my immune system is feeling a bit compromised at the moment. Not at all interested in such a situation. Cold-Eeze has entered my mouth cavity in case you were curious. Tastes lemony and zincy all at the same time.

Well that's all I have for the moment. Still plenty more fortunes to write about, but we all have to call it quits at some point. Hopefully there aren't all that many typos or other mistakes here in this blog post, as I don't really feel like going back to check. Take care my friends.

Huh?

With that sort of title you should probably understand right off the bat that I really have nothing to write about. It's 1:14 in the morning, I have half a can of PBR left to consume and I'm listening to The Ruminant Band by the Fruit Bats on my iPod. 

Went to The Beetle earlier for a couple of drinks with Andrew and my brother Dan. On the way out I picked up a business card from a photographer who is apparently being featured on the wall at the bar for some unknown length of time. Needless to say I was very impressed by the business card, as it's clean and simple and printed on a nice, uncoated stock. Not so impressed having visited the website and looking at the photographs. Just didn't really strike me as all that impressive. Being somewhat of an amateur photographer with nothing to hang my hat on, I don't really care to be negative, but what can I say...I wasn't all that interested. What can you do? Well first I'll spit out my gum, but as to the photos, they just didn't mean anything to me. Anyway kudos to this person for showing off their photographs. 

Other than that...hell, I don't know. Finished a good book on Abraham Lincoln the other day. Sitting on this yoga ball, or exercise ball, or whatever the hell it is that I've had in my room for a year now and have obviously never used it for exercise. Needed my chair for the dining room table, as the roommates and I had a Swiss woman staying the night due to some unforeseen circumstances with Justin's sister/full capacity at the Chicago hostel/and whatever else I don't know. Anyway she seems to be a good person, so if she needs a place to crash, that's just fine with me. This is a good Fruit Bats album by the way, and if you missed them at Lincoln Hall last night, that's too bad, as they were pretty damn excellent. 

And speaking of photography, it's about time I got back on the saddle and used my camera. For some reason, I've completely fallen off the past few months. Why don't they have a pill for motivation? I'd be willing to be a test subject if something is in the testing stages. 

That's all I've got. Have a good night. 

Gratitude.

So I was thinking about my Aunt Margaret today, God rest her soul. Hadn't really thought about her lately, so it was good to look back and reflect upon her memory, or my memory of her really. It reminded me of the time when I was off at college and decided to study abroad in the Netherlands for a semester. I really didn't have much cash on hand for this trip as it wasn't all that well thought out, but I really wanted to go anyway. I kind of figured things would take care of themselves. Well I was off at school and had probably not seen my Aunt in quite some time...time possibly being years, and out of the blue she called me one day and let me know that she had heard of my plan and wanted to send me some money. Now knowing that she probably didn't really have all that much money, I was a bit reluctant to accept it, and I let her know that it wasn't necessary, but she insisted.

Afterwards, I called my Mother and let her know what had transpired, and she suggested that I just not cash the check when it arrived, and that seemed like a solid solution to my dilemma, but it did show up, and it was a cashier's check. Back on the phone with Mom and she said, well there's not much you can do now, so cash it and use it, which I did, forever grateful to my Aunt and her generosity. That money came from somewhere I never, ever would have expected. Nice surprise.

What I didn't really mention was that my Aunt was manic depressive so she, just like my Dad, would have bouts of mania and do things that weren't quite normal, which explains my reluctance to accept money from her out of the blue like that. But what can I say...that was one of the most unexpected, nice things anyone has ever done for me and I'll always be thankful.

That's all.

Good/Bad.

This is a new segment I like to call Good/Bad. I imagine it'll be pretty self-explanatory so I won't bother with an explanation or description, and no instructions for reading will be issued either. This particular segment will be based upon some of the recent happenings in the past few days, however some happenings will be excluded as I prefer to keep this blog friendly to the families.

That's not true.

Anyway onto the new segment.

Good - Last week was the first week in a long, long time that it was pretty slow in my department at work, allowing me to work at a much more leisurely pace.

Good - This should be a bad here, but I'm going to break with tradition and go right to another good. Friday night I took the ol' Western bus North to head back to Claremont to hang out with Flame for a while. If you don't know Flame's a cat who lives with my sister. I spent about two hours there petting him and chatting with him and cleaning myself with a lint roller, as he tends to shed quite a bit of fur. I also took some photos of him, which I should probably download and add to this here blog. Perhaps in a bit. Okay in a bit has occurred. So this is Flame posing with his good side, as he had less gunk in his right eye than the left. And below that he's checking out my iPhone, as he was curious how it worked and what apps I had purchased. I think his favorite was definitely the Hipstamatic camera app, which refused to work that night.

Bad - Woke up Saturday morning, caught a cab to meet my sister Jennifer at the vet over in Lincoln Square. We spent about two hours there getting some blood work done on Flame and finally putting the little kitty to sleep. At 11:24 am on Saturday, May 21st 2011,  Flame left this world for another one where all the good kitties snort catnip, play with balls of twine and lap up milk from little white saucers. At least that's what I've heard happens. I don't have anyway to verify this information, but at some point I imagine he'll let me know what's going on over on the other side.  The vet said that we made the right decision as his red blood cell count was really low and his white blood count was really high and he may or may not have had cancer or some other disease that's no fun to live with, even if you're a cat living with a great kitty owner like Jennifer. Here's a couple pictures from our time at the vet.

Well farewell kitty cat! You were quite a good cat for a damn long time and I'm happy to have spent so much time with you. I love you Flame.

Good - Had to get home after the vet so I could get ready and head out to Arlington Race Track for my friend Sean's Bachelor/Bachelorette party. I was taking the Metra, which usually isn't all that fun, but a couple Polish beers and some good songs on the iPod changed all that. Sometimes sitting and listening to good music while consuming a beer or two is a damn fine time. The only part of the trip that wasn't great was that I kept having to turn my head and burp because I didn't want to disgust the two women in front of me on the train. Lord knows what those smelled like.

Good - Arrived at the park and had only missed a couple of the races, the weather was beautiful and I was there with several friends that I hadn't seen in years, not to mention the happy couple Sean and Lindsey. Well this blog is taking forever as I had to stop for a burrito break, so I'll cut things a bit short. Last race of the day was upon us so as I wandered over to place my bet, I asked Marty and John if they wanted in on some of this action. Of course they said yes, so we placed a $2 trifectabox bet on horses 7, 12, and 3 I believe. I've gotta believe my kitty had passed along all his good luck to me as those three finished 1,2,3 in the race. I handed off my ticket to John to get in line, because I had to go use the john and when I came back he approached Marty and me from the ticket counter saying he didn't know how much we won, but we'd have to fill out a tax form. Always good to hear at the racetrack. Ends up we won $1750 on a $9 bet. Now you may be thinking how can a $2 trifectabox bet end up costing $9 as it should be $6. Well in a stroke of genius when I placed the bet I added an extra dollar to it, so we ended up with quite a bit more cash. In hindsight I should have placed a trifectabox with all the cash I had on me, but that would just be greedy. I'm plenty happy with what we won. So that was good.

Bad - Took me approximately 2 hours to get home from the racetrack. Won't bother going into details on this one, but it was quite a long time.

Good - Sunday afternoon I went along with Jody, Avery and Jackson to Avery's friend's birthday party at some Pump It Up place? I think that's the name. It's got giant inflatable things that the kids jump all over and run up and slide down and whatnot. All the sorts of things that I never had as a kid. Though to be fair Avery and Jackson don't have them either, they were just visiting. Pretty sure I got to bounce around in a few of those types of things, so scratch that never had as a kid part. That was just me being lame. Well it was fun to hang out with those three for the afternoon.

Bad - Took my camera along to the birthday party and pretty much every shot sucks. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going wrong. I just don't seem to do very well at pictures when it's kid parties. I think it may have had something to do with the VR on the camera, but not sure. Oh well, you live you learn. Also bad was that I had sandals on so I couldn't jump around on these things either. In hindsight I should have just bought some socks while I was there, but I made the decision to not bother. My bad.

Good - Bought 6 new shirts online from Threadless the other day and they showed up on Friday. They were pretty large looking so I was a bit worried they'd be too big, but I washed and dried one of them and it seemed to shrink a decent amount.

Bad - Wore my first new Threadless shirt to work today. Everyone was like, "Oh Dave that's an awesome shirt! Where'd you get it? How the fuck are you so damn cool all the time?" And I just sort of shrugged it all off in my not good at taking compliments/adoration type of way, which is also part of why I'm so cool. Okay no one said anything about the shirt. Wait, that's not true. Andrew told me he liked it and had thought about buying it previously. Anyway the bad part of this is that I took the bus home, got off at Ashland to deposit my track winnings in the bank, tried to get the next bus, which had already passed me by, and then ended up walking the rest of the way home, as there weren't any busses. Stupid bus lines. Got home and was about to walk in the door and I looked down at my shirt and there was a pretty large solid amount of bird shit right on the front of the shirt. Not sure how long it had been there, but I really can't quite figure out how a bird could shit on my shirt and I had no idea whatsoever. That is one hell of a stealth shit if I do say so myself.

Okay well that's the end of this Good/Bad blog. Damn this one took a long time.

What's Going On?

Woke up today, tossed and turned a bit, tried to sleep some more, but it wasn't happening. Took a look to see what time it was, and I'll be damned if it wasn't 6:30 am. This may not be surprising to most of you, but considering that I normally wake up at 8:15 it was way too early to be up on a weekday. Regardless, I decided to get up and get on with my day...which apparently means getting a coffee and writing a blog about waking up too early. Waking up early is always something I'd like to do, but hardly ever actually accomplish. Once I'm sleeping I prefer to not wake up any time soon.

Of course now that I've written about it, I don't know what else to write. Life has been pretty good of late. Not that anything exciting is happening, but I'll take life has been pretty good over life has been pretty shitty any day of the week.

Booked my trip to Vegas last night, which was less painful than I thought it might be. Five nights at the ol' Monte Carlo hotel. Hopefully it's a bit nicer than the 'ol(der) Riviera. My friend Sean is getting married out there to his lovely fiancee Lindsey. Should be a good time. I'll have lots of time to relax and take some pictures and whatnot. This time I'll try to remember to download the pics off the SD card so they all don't get accidentally deleted by my roommate. I had borrowed his camera the last time and well, those are just memories now.

I've also been considering the purchase of a new camera, the Nikon D7000, so maybe I'll have that before the trip. Just need to persuade myself that it's worthy of being owned by such a creature as myself. Or perhaps I just need to persuade myself to shell out the cash for it. Always having to shell out cash for this or that. Okay, always making the decision to shell out cash for this or that. We don't actually always have to do it, but we do it anyway, because we know it's helping out the economy and that's what our President said we should do. Our old President anyway. Not sure what the current one would say about that.

So I won a $200 tattoo certificate last week at a benefit for my friend Justin Sanberg. Not sure I'll go through with actually using it, but who knows, I might. I've never gotten an actual tattoo, but I claim to have one as my friend Chris stabbed me with a pencil in sixth grade and the mark is still there. That definitely counts I think. Perhaps I'll just get a tattoo of a circle, which will represents the macro view of that first tat. I don't think there's any saying or motto or logo or life creed that I need poked into my flesh.

Oh well. Something to think about anyway, as I've got several months before I need to make a decision.

Saturday Morning Madness.

Well not really madness, but it was stupid enough for a headline that I left it up there anyway. Not much to write here actually, but I've been thinking of writing in this here blog for a few days, but haven't gotten around to it. This will be more of a Saturday Morning Tidbits edition I suppose.

Had a dream a few weeks ago that has stuck with me since that time. I was lying in bed on my right side and all of a sudden my body detached from my actual body and started drifting horizontally backwards out away from my actual body, which was still lying in bed. I'd say my ghost form got about five or six feet away before I woke up. Not sure why that's stuck with me, but it has. Sort of like a near death experience where I start drifting up towards the light, but in this case I started drifting towards the bathroom, which means I probably just had to piss.

I'm patiently waiting this morning for my roommate Justin to wake up from his normal Saturday morning/early afternoon slumber. We're supposed to go to Shokolad for breakfast, but knowing him that may end up being lunch. Not sure I can wait that long. Not sure what sort of trouble he got into last night with Jody, as I ended up calling it a night pretty early so I could continue reading my book and get to sleep. I'm reading The Town by Chuck Hogan, which is my Mom's maiden name. Not Chuck, but Hogan. God that would be odd if my Mom's name was Chuck. She'd still be my Mom and I'd love her no less, but still...

Found a large sum of money on the floor at work on Friday around 11:30 am. This is the second time this has has happened to me over the nine years or so I've been there. Probably payback for the time my small cup of change, which was in my drawer got stolen. That was a long, long time ago. Regardless, I was pretty shocked when I picked it up and started flipping through the bills. (I've deleted this part just in case someone besides my four readers stumbles upon this blog before Monday. Don't want them to know the quantity involved) Quite a nice chunk of change if I do say so myself. Stuffed it in my pocket and went about my day as if nothing happened. Well for about 15 minutes anyway, as I soon sent out an email to all the employees letting them know I had found some money to see if anyone had lost it. Many people claimed the money, but no one could provide any identifying details which led me to believe they were trying their best to deceive. Actually not their best, but it was entertaining for a few hours. Anyway five o'clock rolled around and I rolled out of work with a nice little bonus for the week. We'll see if anyone tries to put in a claim on Monday. Not counting my chickens before they hatch.

Cut my finger at work on Wednesday this week. Sliced off a pretty decent chunk of skin on my right index finger. It's healing slowly I suppose. Sort of resembles a piece of sushi. White on the outer ring and a nice pink color on the inside of the wound. Good thing I didn't have to play pool this Wednesday as it was a bit painful and the band-aid kept getting in the way. Also as you may have read on Facebook, I can't pick my nose now. Tough times my friends. Very tough times.

I've already used the word chunk twice in this post as well as the name Chuck. I don't know what this means, but I thought it should be mentioned.

Now I'm at an impasse. The mind has gone blank. The fingers have gone stiff. The ears have...well the ears haven't gone anywhere actually. Listening to the Local Natives album Gorilla Manor. Bought this as it was on my friend Bill's top album list of 2010. So far so good.

I had a 90 minute massage on Thursday. I highly recommend these things, but I'm not really willing to shell out $165 for these sorts of things. I only paid $35 or something like that as it was a You Swoop deal. Well that and the tip. It was pretty damn nice though. Katie did a fine job. However, I did go for a run this morning and my legs seemed pretty shot, which I sort of blame on the massage. She really did a number on my calves. Perhaps it had nothing to do with it, I don't know. Perhaps I just wasn't feeling it this morning. I battled through anyway.

Okay now I know I'm boring all of you. I've lost track of all sense of blog decency so this is the end.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind.

Or so I'd like to believe. The first part is true, the second part not so much, at least not yet. It's surely happening slowly but surely, but not quite fast enough. Woke up this morning to a dream/nightmare where I was in the process of packing up all of my stuff and getting ready to move out. Not out of my new place, but out of the old place. Funny how dreams work. All the parts of the relationship were the same, but the apartment was nothing like the old one. More like some sort of shit building I inhabited during my college days. There were a lot of books to pack up and at some point I realized I'd have to do a lot of cleaning.

Kind of reminds me of the time I went away for the weekend to the Lake of the Ozarks with some friends in college. It was a fun weekend of drinking and swimming and jet skiing and boating. Got back on Sunday night tired and sunburnt only to find a note from my landlord on the door reminding me that I needed to vacate the premises by the morning. FUCK! Forgot all about my lease ending. So instead of a night of recovery, I spent all evening packing everything and cleaning the whole apartment. Fortunately my friends Heather and Amber had moved into the same apartment complex earlier that week or weekend so I moved all my stuff over to their apartment and stayed there for a few days. This actually worked out well for them, not only because I'd be there, but because their third roommate, who they didn't really want to room with, got very pissed off that I was there and decided not to move in. Funny how things like that work out.

Anyway right before I woke up from the dream last night, I noticed that there was a small bag of bathroom/cosmetics lying on the bed, so I opened it up and was about to smell the perfume that I had bought her a while back. Fortunately my olfactory nerves didn't have the chance to partake in that memory as I woke up at that moment. Some memories are best left in the past. Well all memories are probably best left in the past as that's where they have to be. There's no such thing as a memory in the present, unless you hang onto them too long, which I have done over and over. But like I said, the longer time passes the easier it becomes. Now if my subconscious will just play along and help me out. Perhaps I could dream of something a bit more pleasant tonight. Who knows...maybe I also dreamt of pleasant things last night and had the misfortune of having that be the last in line?

Anyway...this beat goes on. And on and on. And on and on. And on and on. On and on and on and on thanks to The Kings. And now some Zeppelin..."Leaves are falling all around, It's time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay. But now it's time for me to go." Of course the leaves aren't falling anymore, as it's spring time and all life starts anew.

The Fortunate One

Good things are coming to you in due course of time. 
Due course of time? What the hell kind of vague time frame is that? As if I have that kind of time on my hands to wait for good things? I'm fucking 37 years old now. My time on this planet is coming rapidly to a close. I can't have a fortune that promises me something in the future, as there may not be one. Okay whatever. I guess I'll just wait for these good things to come in due course of time and in the meantime, I'll sit and do nothing while waiting.

You will always be surrounded by true friends. 
You know I've often wondered about this. What is a true friend and how do you really know whether they are true or not. I've had very good friends who did some odd things every now and again which made me wonder how true of a friend they actually were, but I suppose it all worked out in the end.

Anyway the title of this post was not only referencing the two fortunes I received from my Chinese food last night, but also the fact that I now have a whopping three people following this blog. I feel very fortunate to have this kind of support a mere two/three years into this project. With this kind of popularity this blog will soon be taking over the blogosphere. I don't know how I'll react to this kind of success, but I'm sure it won't change me all that much. Perhaps I'll be able to hire someone to write jibberish in my place so I can concentrate on doing nothing. Yeah that's the ticket. Perhaps I'll steal more lines from Jon Lovitz and force my hired help to laugh. Well I'll have to think about all this some more, but for now...bed time. Thanks for your support folks.

Morning Bus Ride

I made the rookie mistake of catching the first bus to go by this morning even though I knew damn well there was going to be another one right behind it. I'm not sure if that decision had anything to do with the woman with nice legs climbing into the bus right before I did, but regardless, I followed her lead. Paid my fare and walked to the back to find one seat available so I squeezed myself and my backpack and my pool cue in between two folks who were no doubt happy to share their space with such a fine looking gentleman (you'll understand in a bit) like myself.

Well my comfort was soon shattered when I noticed an older looking woman standing near my seat. I thought to myself that she wasn't really all that old. Certainly not old enough to need this seat, but my conscience acquiesced and I offered up my seat to her and she readily accepted. Good deed for the day finished not more than 45 minutes after waking up. Not too bad.

Now I found myself standing in the unenviable position on the stairs leading up to the back of the bus. This is no doubt one of the worst spots for trying to remain upright. Fortunately that also didn't last long as a rather boisterous woman soon left her seat and forced me down and right out the bus so she could get on with her morning. Stepping back onto the bus, I was now situated right near the exit doors, which happens to also be not the greatest of standing options due to the people exiting those doors every stop or so. I made the most of it by enjoying my iPod and peering over some woman's shoulder in order to ascertain what she was reading on her Kindle. I wasn't quite successful at that, but she seemed to be reading some sort of self help book as there were bullet points and some helpful suggestions on life...none of which I can recall at the moment and apparently none of which I will be using in trying to better myself. Opportunity lost.

Shortly thereafter the stench of cat litter permeated my immediate standing area. I'm guessing it was the slightly overweight, reddish-blonde, curly-haired woman who had recently found her way towards the back of the bus, but I wasn't positive. Needless to say I don't understand how one can reek of cat litter, unless of course, you live in a closet with several cats, most of which are on the verge of dying. My thoughts of cat litter soon ended though as the rear doors opened up and some middle aged man burst through them with his rolling luggage cart, pushing me and the woman with the Kindle further into the litter stench. When the bus driver motioned to him and let him know he couldn't enter the bus through those doors, he defiantly raised his hand along with his bus card and replied, "it's okay I have an unlimited ride bus pass". I had to chuckle at that and the bus driver told him he had to exit the bus and enter the front, which was already jam packed with people. My gain in available space was now their loss up front.

Exiting the bus at Milwaukee avenue I crossed Chicago Avenue so I could begin the morning wait to see just how long it would take for the very unreliable #56 bus. I had only stood there a few moments when the man with the rolling luggage cart, who wasn't well versed in Chicago bus travel etiquette disgustedly said, "Fifteen minutes?!". Knowing exactly what he meant I asked if that was the next Milwaukee bus arrival. He said yes, I commented on the schizophrenic nature of that line, wished him a good day, and headed across the street into the depths of the subway system.

Why Am I Reading This?

So I finished reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens a week or so ago. It had been sitting on my bookshelf for many years so I decided to see what it was all about. I'm still not sure I know what it was all about because there were so many times I had no idea what I was reading. Whole paragraphs and pages passed by without me having any clue what was actually going on in the story. In the end I believe I got the gist of the story and a Google search helped me to understand what I may have missed.

Now I decided to read The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Not sure where I got this book, but it too has been sitting on the bookshelf for a while. Needless to say this one also has me quite confused as the characters use language that makes no sense to my brain. A few consecutive pages were filled with people saying they were "tight". Over and over this adjective was used and I'm guessing that it meant drunk, but I'm not completely convinced. Just checked the online Merriam-Webster's dictionary and indeed that's what it means. The sixth definition is "somewhat drunk".

Now if I could just figure out what the rest of the text means, I might start to enjoy the book a bit more. I've never read anything by Hemingway, but his style is a bit odd. Lots of descriptions are given of the streets and the country, but they don't really give a good sense of what he's describing. At least not to me. He's no John Steinbeck, that's for sure. Perhaps it's just this book though. According to the last page of the book, other Hemingway classics are available at your local bookstore or by mail. I can fill out the form and for just $4.95 have another copy of this book mailed to me...not including the $1.50 for postage and handling costs. I bet Amazon can't beat that price. Crap. This deal expired on December 1st, 1987.

New Post!

I started writing a post about this weekend, but it wasn't coming together, so perhaps this more non-specific title post will help me move things along. So far so good...two sentences already.

I went out to Geneva, IL this past Saturday to celebrate my Aunt Gert's 90th birthday. Ninety years. That's a long, long time to be alive. I'm 37 now and it feels as if my life is just about over, so I'm not sure how one gets through 90 of these years. I suppose if I'd stop looking at the half empty glass every now and again, that could mean that I still have 53 more years before I'm that age. That's a lot of time to figure out what to do with life and possibly there will even be some leftover time to start doing whatever has been figured out.

Anyway it was a fine, fine birthday celebration and nice to spend some time with the family. Unfortunately I was a bit out of sorts due to a long night of gin and tonics and winning at various board games. Okay I only won the 1986 board game edition of Wheel of Fortune , but I also won two games of catchphrase as well...along with some help from my excellent teammates. What I'm trying to say is that I dominated, but I was certainly feeling it in the morning when I forced myself out of my warm, cozy bed only to find the cold reality of life facing me square in the face. I stared back at it for a minute and then started the shower.

But enough with all that...

So my Aunt Gert is my Godmother, and has been ever since my parents bestowed that grand honor upon her. Guess that would have been back in 1974, which was just about 37 years ago. It was nice to sit and chat with her for a while as I haven't seen or heard from her in the three and a half years since her husband, Bill (my godfather) passed away. Shame on me for not communicating with her, but half of the blame must lie with her as well, correct? Incorrect actually, I was just trying to make myself feel better.

Anyway I ended up telling her about when I was in grade school and they bought me a little pocket calculator for Christmas or my Birthday perhaps. Now you may not think a little kid would be all that happy about a calculator for a gift, but I was pretty darned happy as I had previously spent some time using the one my Uncle Bill owned. The thing was pretty tiny for those days and gold and well, it reeked of power and money and luxury. Okay I probably didn't really think that, but it was cool. Needless to say I brought it into Chicago the next weekend and due to my Father's persuasion left it there with him to use while I was back home. That was the last time I ever saw that calculator. On my return trip into the city, I was told that it was lost or some other stupid bullshit excuse.  Several hours were spent that first weekend combing up and down the alley hoping to find the "lost" calculator. All for naught. It was gone and a lifetime of disappointing math test scores took it's place.

So I'm not sure what my Aunt thought of the story, but for some reason I wanted to tell her. Actually that reason was because I don't know if I ever told them what happened to it in the first place. I can't recall if I just tried to pretend it wasn't missing or if I let them know my Dad had thrown it out in some sort of manic depressive rage. I'm guessing I didn't tell them that, and the guilt has been weighing on my conscience for many, many years. Needless to say I almost never let my Dad borrow anything from me these days. His loss as I have some cool stuff that I'm sure he'd like.

Well that was my Saturday. Well it was only about 5 hours of my Saturday, but that was the most interesting part. Perhaps you won't agree after reading this blog post, but whatever.

Nothing But Fortune.

I have nothing to write. Life is passing by slowly bit by bit and I've just been following along for the most part. Not sure where it's leading actually so I'll just add some more fortunes I've received...well besides the $900 Super Bowl square I won. Nor shall I mention the $1300+ bucks I received from land my deceased Aunt apparently owned somewhere in the great state of California. I think that's all the unexpected fortunes...at least of the monetary kind.

How dark is dark? How wise is wise?
This is stupid.

Never Judge a work of art by its defects. 
What am I supposed to judge then? By the way I've been reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. One of the more difficult books I've read in quite a while. I've got some grasp  of what's going on, but for the most part there are many passages that just leave me bewildered.

A good beginning is half the task. 
That's true I suppose. Like this morning. I woke up at 8:30 am and got on with my day. So far it's been somewhat productive. Nice to wake up not hungover and not tired. Desk is clean. Clothes are almost put away. Photos have been downloaded. Work has been done on self. A bit of a shame that it's raining outside, but much better than snow.

All things come to him who goes after them.
I don't know how this him character is, but I feel as if I'm not related in any shape or form.

You achieve great peace of mind when you talk with an old friend.
This is probably true unless you call that old friend to bitch and complain about what a shitty friend he or she really are. That usually doesn't result in peace of mind, though I suppose if you had to get it off your chest and that person really were a bad friend, perhaps it would. I retract my first sentence as I proved myself wrong one sentence later.

The situation is changeable, yet you cannot push the river. 
This is true. I've been doing some work today and last night to help me realize that things can change. Sometimes being stuck is easier. Actually it's almost always easier. Dangit.

Your heart is pure, and your mind is clear, and soul devout. 
Perhaps my heart is pure, but my mind is never clear. Yoga helped that for about a minute quite a few classes ago. I need to turn in my 10 pack of classes Groupon and get back there. I don't know what a devout soul means.

Well that's it for the fortunes. Not sure where these all came from as I haven't eaten all that much Chinese food lately. There they go into the trash can which was empties once already today. Speaking of Groupons, I also need to call for the cleaning service one I bought last week as this place isn't in the best of shape.

I haven't been drinking enough water lately. Not sure if you've noticed or not, but it's true. I missed the sun today. There was quite a bit of it this past week and to have a dreary, rainy day was a bit disappointing. Not that I was needing to get out of the house for anything, but I did turn down a couple dinner invitations and the rain did have a small part in those decisions. Mostly it's because it's Sunday night and I just don't really like to go out on Sundays. Tomorrow is the start of another week at work and I sort of like to take it easy and relax Sunday night.

More Fortunes

You will be showered with good luck tomorrow!

Not sure what happened the day after I got this one, so I don't really know if it came true or not. Perhaps I could have paid a bit more attention.

First to start does not mean the first to cross the finish line.

That's a good point. I'm 36 years old and that's pretty damn far into life as far as my thinking goes, but it just goes to show that it's not too late to start something else. Especially when you consider how much closer I am to the finish line.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

I have no idea what the hell this means. Talk about a shitty fortune cookie. Wonder which Chinese place this one came from, so I don't bother ordering their bullshit again.

He that can't endure the bad will not live to see the good. 

You probably already know what I could write in response to this one, so I won't bother. Needless to say I've felt some good lately and it's an excellent change of pace. I expect more of it.

The New Year.

So I suppose it's time for some resolutions to start off the new year, eh? Well too bad, I don't have any to share with you nor did I write any for myself. Nothing needs to change. Things are fantastic! A-OK! Dynamite! Well not really, but things are pretty good. The turn of the calendar year is a good thing this time around. And anyway, I lied...I did write up some resolutions. Things need to change and the only way for that to happen is to make the changes yourself.

In case you're wondering the bird has nothing to do with the resolutions or the new year. Just a picture I decided to add for the sake of having the ability to add, subtract, divide, but hopefully not multiply.

Number one resolution is to start conquering this world of photography. I've stagnated quite a bit for no good reason and it's high time I chose to stop that stagnation. I've had a wealth of knowledge sitting an arms length away for almost a year now and done nothing with it.

Number two resolution is to start writing more often, thus this blog post a mere five days into 2011. Now just to clarify, me writing more does not necessarily mean it will be entertaining or interesting or witty or even bearable. It just means I'll write more. Perhaps I'll write an essay about bird nostrils. Perhaps an article about telephones and those who use them. Perhaps something about trucks and long distances travelled. I don't really know what I'll write about, but gosh dangit, I will write.

Number three resolution is to use the phrase gosh dangit more often in honor of my old friend Travis Shaw. I believe he married and moved off to another continent, but I can't recall which one.

Number four resolution is, well let's just keep it at three for the time being. I don't want to overload your sensory capabilities with my amazing resolution setting ways. That would be bad. No reason for that. None whatsoever. In fact to slow things down a bit, I just want you to know that I'm eating a corned beef sandwich with pepper jack cheese. Pepper jack? Really? Yeah I know it was a tough decision I faced at the deli counter Monday night, but I thought, what the hell, it's a new year...go for it Dave! And so I did go for it. Was it the right choice? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But it was my choice and three dollars later, it was my cheese.

So there you have it. New year. New cheese. New resolutions.