Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. I had a wonderful weekend. On Thursday afternoon, Andrew, Elyse, and I loaded our things into the Accord and headed to Chicago. I think this is my 5th or 6th trip to the Windy City in the past twelve months; not that that’s a bad thing. Elyse stayed with her Mom and Andrew and I were picked up by Nimit near Hoffman Estates, IL and we drove to Nimit’s apartment in Wrigleyville (an area just North of downtown Chicago). We stayed there for the remainder of the trip. Thursday night, we were all pretty exhausted and when we finally got to Chicago a little after Midnight, we talked for a while and then were ready to go to bed when some of Nimit’s friends’ friends came into the apartment after a long night of partying and they kept us up another couple of hours. It was all good though. Friday morning we slept in for a while and then took the train downtown to experience The Taste of Chicago. The Taste is a food festival with rows and rows of booths from everything from exotic Asian foods to pizza to hot dogs to enormous BBQ turkey legs. Needless to say we feasted. I have always enjoyed walking around college campuses so I wanted to check out DePaul University. I was less then impressed with DePaul’s urban campus. It just lacked something… After that, and still feeling grossly full from lunch, we decided to take the 30 minute walk back to Nim’s apartment. While on the walk we passed through an area of Chicago called Boystown (which is Chicago’s gay friendly bureau). In Boystown, I had a very very odd experience, one in which you will have to ask Nimit or Andrew about some other time. We hung out for a little bit downtown and then decided we needed to eat again. Eating was most definitely a central theme on this trip. My favorite Chicago pizza place is Lou Malnati’s and we went back there with Nimit’s roommate Ann Fergus, and had some delicious pizza. After that we showered up and decided we should go somewhere fun. We went to two bars Friday night, Mad River which was a fun, sports bar, and Kirkwood which was just a loud, noisy, mess. It had potential but it was so crowded it became unbearable. After a couple of captain and coke’s, we were ready to call it an evening. On Saturday morning, Josh Koo came over and a bunch of played some epic basketball games in the humidity before heading back to Nimit’s place to relax for a while before more eating would consume. Later that afternoon/night, we went over to Nimit’s cousins’ house and I ate more then I have in a long long time. We had chips and dip, steak, shrimp, burgers, chicken, and more! Everything was delicious. After the basketball in the heat and the gorge-fest, we were all pretty tired. We headed back and met some of Nimit’s friends in a bar near his house but we weren’t there for more then 30 minutes and went to bed early that night. On Sunday, Andrew and I left at about 9:30, met Elyse, and headed back to Minnesota. We made a pit stop in Madison, Wisconsin. Andrew and Elyse had never walked around the city and I think they both really enjoyed it. I have always really enjoyed Madison, WI and it is definitely a mirage in the dairy state. Great restaurants, attractive campus, plenty of things to do, beautiful lakes, and let’s not forget that UW has great academics as well. Had I been in a different state of mind in high school, there is a good chance I would have ended up at UW-Madison. After that, we headed home and here I am.


1. Have I ever mentioned that Fox News is the biggest joke American media has ever seen? It seems every week they hit a new low but this one might be the worst. Every morning, there is this ridiculous corny news show called “Fox and Friends”. This past week, the New York Times posted that Fox News ratings have dipped a bit and apparently this greatly offended the producers of Fox and Friends. The morning crew of Fox and Friends apparently offered doctored photos of reporter Jacques Steinberg and Times TV editor Steven Reddicliffe. According to Media Matters, Steinberg was shown with yellowed teeth, "his nose and chin widened, and his ears made to protrude further"; Reddicliffe was also given yellow teeth and "dark circles under his eyes, and his hairline has been moved back." How sophomoric is Fox News that they doctored photos in their show just to get back at Fox News. They are a bunch of clowns.