Love in an elevator

Phew! I survived. 25 years old and I am still feeling great. I apologize for the long delay in blogging. I was out of town in Michigan for a while and have spent the rest of the time working long hours and enjoying the last few remaining bits of summer. Definitely the highlight of the past few weeks was two nights ago. For my birthday, Allie bought me tickets to go see Aerosmith. I was so stoked! Aerosmith is a band I had been wanting to see live for about ten years. I was nervous that Steven Tyler, considering he is 62, would not be able to hit some of his signature screams and high-notes. I was pleased when the Bad Boys from Beantown nailed every note, Joe Perry played every guitar riff perfectly, and Aerosmith rocked Tinley Park for almost three hours. They played all their hits - Sweet Emotion, Walk This Way, Dream On, I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, Cryin', Amazin, et cetera. It was non-stop screaming and air-guitar by yours truly. I looked like a huge dork; but I did not care.

1. My birthday has been quiet but nice. I got to sleep in and then I met Ann and Nimit at Nimit's work - the Chicago Board of Options and Exchange. I got a tour of the world's largest trading pit. I'm not even a huge finance but just seeing all the traders yelling and running around was really fascinating. After the tour, we had a nice lunch at Alonte, and here I am. After work, Allie is going to cook me dinner and make me a carrot cake. Not a bad birthday if I don't mind saying so myself.

2. Currently listening to "Dude looks like a lady" by Aerosmith.

2142 Asbury Avenue

Today was kind of a difficult day for me. For the last time, I made the trek up to 2142 Asbury Avenue in Evanston, Illinois to help Jim and Sarah get ready for their move to San Francisco in 36 hours. This won't be the last time I will see them - we have baseball tickets for the Twins vs. White Sox on Tuesday night. However, this will be the last time I will be at their apartment. I have nothing but great memories at that apartment. The first time I stopped by their apartment was for an interview in March of 2009. I stayed the night and Sarah, Jim and I spent the whole night laughing and telling old stories. In hindsight, the lack of sleep may have led to me not getting the job. Oh well, I didn't really want to sell copier machines on the South Side anyway. In early May, when I decided I was going to move to Chicago, my friend Adam and I spent the Friday night with our U-Haul at their apartment before heading over to my new apartment in Lakeview on Saturday morning. In the past 15 or so months, that party has been home to some amazing parties, great home cooked Sarah Lee meals, and lots of time where Jim, Sarah, and other assorted friends and I would just gather to have a good time whether that be grilling or just upstairs with Allie after I picked her up from work and we were not ready to go home yet. As we were finishing packing today, I took a brief moment to just walk around and remember all the great times I had not only at this apartment but with Jim and Sarah, separately and together. Jim is a college roommate and one of my closest friends. Sarah is probably my closest female friend. I am incredibly excited for their move to San Francisco but also filled with sadness. Just little things like a BBQ here, or a house warming party there, will be fun but will be missing something without the two of them here. They know how happy I am for their move - possibly even a little jealous; and that it is only selfishness that wants to keep them here. Plus, who knows? Maybe someday we will be neighbors in California, Minnesota, or maybe even back in Illinois. Fortunately, their wedding is in a few weeks so I will look forward to seeing them soon.

treason

When I first read that Michigan congressman Mike Rogers said that Private Bradley Manning should be charged with treason, I thought that was a bit extreme. But the more I think about it, the more I agree with the congressman. Manning was the soldier who released the 75,000 pages of classified documents to the website, Wikileaks. Which, went ahead, and released them. Now, only one person since 1952 has been charged with treason - the only charge more serious than murder in the United States. But Manning has the blood of many on his hands. Not only have the Taliban vowed revenge, and unfortunately carried out revenge, on many of the informants listed in the documents - in one case, ten teenage boys were hung outside their school, but now future informants will think twice about helping Americans now knowing that their secrecy is now in jeopardy. In addition, according to Newsweek, the Taliban recently sent out letters to people they suspected of helping the Americans because of their mention in the documents that they have five days to leave the country or they will be killed. This was an enormous set-back in the war.

1. I just finished reading the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I think I enjoyed it... maybe. Possibly that is just my own pretentiousness coming out. To be honest, I thought the prose was only okay, and I simply did not understand many of the Platonic references that were prevalent throughout. This is one of my problems when I read some of these "important", "philosophy" books. I tend to get frustrated by not fully understanding them.

2. Congratulations to Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice - statistically the two greatest at their position. Smith is the all-time leader in carries, yards, and touchdowns. He was never flashy, but he was tough as nails and outstandingly consistent. Then there is Jerry Rice, often considered the best football player of all-time. Rice is the all-time leader in receptions, touchdowns, and yards. This might be the greatest NFL Hall of Fame class of all-time.

3. Working in Boystown, I spend a lot of time around the LGBT community. One observation I made in the past was that gays smoke... a lot! Well, apparently I was correct. According to a new study by the American Lung Association, gay men smoke two and a half times as much as heterosexual men and lesbians smoke twice as much as straight women. According to the study, tobacco companies are well aware of this as they are prominent sponsors in gay publications, clubs, and bar

Love in an elevator

I have never really been a very big American Idol fan. I tend to like the first or so episodes for the humor, but then I get bored quickly. I am intrigued to see what the show will be like next year. With Kara Guardino being fired, Ellen DeGeneres quitting, and Simon Cowell moving on to other projects, I am a little intrigued to see what America's most popular show will be next year. Especially because joining Randy on the judges table could be some pretty big stars. Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith has said he was offered and will likely accept, and there is also talk of Justin Timberlake and P. Diddy. Can you imagine those guys on the stage? I would definitely give it a try.

1. Well, my Minnesota rube credibility went up today. A friend and fellow Gopher fan invited me to meet the head coach at the University of Minnesota and the athletic director at a bar with about 15 other people. I was in heaven. I had a lot of questions, and Coach Brewster and A.D. Maturi were complete gentleman. It really was a huge blast.

2. The sports news of the city is White Sox coach Ozzie Guillen's recent comments about race relations in baseball. To sum it up, he said that Asian players and treated better than Hispanic players due to racism. At first glance i thought this was typical Ozzie being Ozzie... running his mouth as usual. However, as I talked with co-worker, he agreed with Ozzie. His point was that all Asian (Japanese) players get their own translator (paid for by MLB). In addition, it is uncommon for a Japanese player to have to play any minor league ball - instead, jumping right to the show. At the same time, a Hispanic player will have to work his way up.

Happy Shark Week

It's been a fun, crazy couple of days here. Last weekend was kind of a blur. I arrived to Minneapolis Friday night, went to bed early, saw my high school friend Alison get married at my church on Saturday, leave the reception at 8:00, drive through the night and end up back in Chicago at about 3:30 Sunday morning. After a couple hours of sleep, I was up for my shift of 9-5 at the health club. Sunday night was really, really cool. For the second year in a row, Allie's work did a boat cruise - free food and open bar, of course. We went up and down the Chicago river and ended the night anchored on Lake Michigan with the most spectacular view of the skyline I have ever seen. It really was cool. This past week has been pretty uneventful. A lot of time at work... a lot. This past weekend has been good, too. My friends Sarah and Jim spent their last weekend in Chicago. They move to San Francisco, soon. With a rare appearance from Tieds, we had a great dinner at Tilly's, and then a group of us hung out at Matilda for the evening on Friday in Lakeview. I worked Saturday and then Nimit and I met some friends in Evanston at Nevin's and had a really nice going away get together with Jim and Sarah. I am excited for their move but really sad to see them go. Tonight Nimit and I decided to rent Hot Tub Time Machine. Well. It is not the worse movie I have ever seen but it is not good. I would probably give it a C-. Really, really not a family friendly movie.