(quarter a pin)

on saturday i'd organized a little dinner for some of my local buddies who have befriended a phenomenal girlfriend of mine from san diego as she came to town to lurk around northwestern's campus for a few days.

she wants to go to kellogg, so if you can help her get in let me know.

saturday was her night to play downtown, so we planned a dinner in wicker park and eventually ended up at northside grill when piece was jam packed to the gills. there's always cuties at northside so don't give me hell about it.

before dinner kizzle and frazzle and i decided to get a quick roll in, so we met up at seven-ten and strapped on bowling shoes.

if you're keeping score i've been bowling quite a bit lately.

my first few rolls of the fall season have gone pretty well, if you drop out last weekend when i didn't even recall bowlnig until the next evening. otherwise i've been competitive, with a few dominating performances.

on saturday, we had time for three matches, and after two the three of us were all within a few pins of one another, so we decided to make it interesting.

"quarter a pin?" kizzle asked.

"it'll be like $5 max...20 pins is a lot between us. sure." i said.

"sure." frazzle.

i opened up with three strikes and a spare.

and i ran off with an 80 pin destruction of frazzle that really just got worse and worse each frame.

it was a bit gut wrenching, and i think only 20 pins for kizzle, which left frazzle licking his wounds all throughout dinner.

when dinner ended, one of our girlfriends at the table topped our little pre-dinner bowling wager.

"let's play credit card roulette!" she said, having never played and sporting this mischevious smirk on her face like she wanted some risk for dessert.

after plenty of back and forth, we all committed.

and who got stuck with the bill?

kizzle!

(last new years)

From castle rock, wisconsin

From castle rock, wisconsin

(backwards)

part of me wants to go back.

part of me wants to go back to the days when nothing mattered but soccer, women, and music.

i used to get pissed when my mom wasn't sure yet what she was making for dinner.

my biggest concern was running two miles in 12 minutes and how many people might fit into my basement next saturday.

my parents were beyond cool with us throwing parties, by the way.

thanks again, mom, dad. happy anniversary again too.

in california a rainy day was about as rough as it ever got, for a solid four years.

if you take out the first time i was cheated on, a few severely painful mornings due to my social life, and september 11th. and the day i missed a penalty kick to knock us out of the tournament.

sometimes i want to go back.

they say to leave the past where it's at but sometimes you just can't help looking back and admiring the life you've had, because it's the only one you can gaze at with any sort of clarity.

i can tell just by looking back into last november's posts that this time of year is retrospective for me. i can tell i self-evaluate and i look around and i take care to notice the details floating around my friend's and family's experiences.

in highschool i kissed too many girls and i slept through study hall and i faked my way through math. our soccer team's locker room was the kind of room that goes forgotten in the back corner of a humongous school until the weird irish soccer coach who's on the verge of winning 110 out of 112 soccer games in a row demands a locker room.

in college i kissed too many girls and i met frat guys who became like brothers to me and who were everything you'd imagine frat guys typically would be but with huge brains and books published.

my last day there i stayed up all night and in the morning walked the foothills to see the sun rise and then i went to our graduation ceremony without clothes on.

(girl talk)

(that imaginary hottie)

a year ago i wrote something about the quirks i thought were cute about the imaginary girl i was maybe going to meet.

maybe never happened, but we can't all find that special someone at once, and over the last twelve months nearly every one of my buddies has found someone special, so when momma said patience was a virtue she knew what she was talkin about.

yesterday i reposted that year-ago post, even though some of it doesn't sit perfectly with me.

as i get older my tastes change, but not that much.

they refine, i suppose.

okay that's probably hogwash but these days not only have i perfected the egg sandwich but i can taste the difference between a pinot noir and a malbec and a cab with my eyes closed. i enjoyed the last sardine i ate.

in that little fragment of prose about this imaginary hottie i think the least tugging quirks these days would be her ownership of a snake* and the whole jack bauer thing**.

jack bauer's a badass, don't get me wrong, but that post made me sound like i was hoping to kiss his mouth.

so let's update that list a little, shall we?

• she reads, doesn't throw away books, and underlines prose or poetry that she digs.
• she loves the rain.
• travel, road trips, and spontaneous adventures are just assumed.
• her daily quest is to crack me up.
• the DJ in the corner at mac's in wicker park, who no one is paying attention to, is her favorite person there every time also.***
• she wears funky rings and killer boots.
• she's got a mission.

there you go. short list.

but we're adding to an old list, so short's probably better.

now for those of you who were too busy to respond yesterday...what quirks float your boat??

*obviously i wanted a snake back then. i now own a much more labor intensive animal.
**i can only assume 24 was airing last november. damn writer's strike.
***this is a little over-specific, but the guy is seriously awesome.

(buster)

this is branner's new cousin, buster.

buster lives in north carolina with my cousin lauren and her awesome husband, but i can already tell branner and buster are gonna be buds.

buster's got that look (and name) that says he's up for a good wrestling match, which is exactly the kind of attitude that branner digs. branner's not a calm dog...he's a dog on crack cocaine.

my sister's dog, shiloh, is a mellow dog, and he looks at branner like he's got something wrong with him whenever they see each other.

shiloh is right.

there's is definitely something wrong with branner.

which buster will have to see for himself someday when the family's all in one place!

(flashback)

a year ago on the blog:

i don't generally harbor any expectations about the next woman i might end up with.

well, other than the standard 'isn't a serial killer' sort of qualifiers, of course.

anyway, i have a pretty open mind when it comes to people. i never write someone off right away, give most people two or three chances, and for the most part, treat everyone i meet with respect. i like most people.

like anyone else, i'm more picky when it comes to attraction and dating. i don't push it either...i suppose i'm not really searching it out. i'll let it happen.

but when i DO ponder it, some quirks i think i'd be into always seem to pop up...things about someone i know i'd find attractive that others i know wouldn't, but also things that were they not to be a part of that special someone's story, wouldn't be missed in any real way either.

this is all just a fluffy way of introducing a list of quirks out there that i think are hot. you know you've done the same thing.

• she knows what RSS, CSS, and XML mean. maybe she can fudge her way through some HTML!
  
• she drinks scotch.
  
• she's addicted to her blog. or other blogs. or my blog.
  
• show owns a snake.
  
• she's started her own company, or side project, or non-profit.
  
• she's got tattoos.
  
• her mom's brother is jack bauer. or just a regular spy.
  
• she loves me.
  
  okay, that last one was a bit sappy, but my creative juices disappeared and couldn't produce any more attractive quirks.
  
  so what are you hoping is weird about your future mate?

(35 years)

today is my parents 35th wedding anniversary!

i just called them to tell them i love them and they were walking around my mother's old neighborhood in new york. my mom was giddy, and she told me they were sitting down for lunch at the corner store where she used to buy cigarettes.

there was a time when i wasn't sure that this 35 year thing would be real.

that it would happen. that i'd believe in it for my mother and my father.

but there have more times that i've seen the immeasurable beauty in the space between my parents...the ways they've built a relationship through a combination of love and hard work, a shared optimism towards life, and a foundation of traditional values.

i'm sure the 7 years before i arrived were more fun than a lot of the 28 (almost 29) that i've been here, so i'm ecstatic the two of them took off for new york for a few days to relive those times together.

mom and dad, i love ya.

(featured badge)

lisa over at i don't think it's going to rain, the enviable founder of 20 something bloggers, reminded me last night that i hadn't put up our 'featured badge'. a few of you readers are also featured and i'm not sure everyone's got it up, so consider this your PSA.

by my count, by the way, 5 of the featured bloggers over there are from chicago.

jessica
angela - she moved for school but she's chi-town:)
jenn
me
and jamie.

did i miss anyone? because today is kind of a two-cup coffee day and i've only had one.

i'm just sayin.

(that bitch sadie)

as i approach the point at which i've paid more in repair costs than i did for the actual purchase, sadie (my car) is blinking a coolant warning.

that is a red level warning, for the folks at home, and red is worse than other colors, if you're counting.

the coolant issue is also the exact same thing that happened a few months ago.

i'm sure you have a decent read on how i feel about this, and after talking to the jamoke who fixed my car back then i have a few tests to run before i have the car thrown through his front window.

this mind you is a week after my car window was busted in on saturday of last weekend, which i thought i twittered until i went to find the tweet and couldn't. huh.




explain to me again why i own a car.

only if you have a car. if you don't, i really don't wanna hear how happy you are.

(picture via tankboy - awesome)