Robin Redbreast

So I saw a robin redbreast a week ago and I thought that the bird may be confused, as a robin redbreast is the first sign of spring and winter seemed to be in full swing. But once again the world illustrated how stupid I am by the first real day of spring. I went outside for lunch for the first time in about five months during which I forgot that I even used to go outside during the day. I was so caught up in my daily 'Outside the Lines' that I being outside seemed unnecessary. For the record 'Outside the Lines' is the worst show I have ever seen. Hopefully the weather will not retract into a frigid pattern and get me sick as it does every time I think that it is going to be warm for the season.

Only in Dreams

Last night I had a dream. It was unlike most dreams I can remember and may very well change my life. I was sick, very sick. So I took a trip to the doctor's office. After extensive testing, they came to the conclusion that I was intoxicated. So they did a body analysis and found 3 pounds of undigested beer in me. In order to get it out of me they would have to operate. Now I don't know whether this is because I am in a period of detox after my rabid stretch of drinking or whether because I am now taking fiber daily to clean myself out, but it seems to me that this dream had some very profound (perhap mystical) meaning.

Brain Damage

On Sunday I took a long hard look at my life. And here is what I came up with. Of the 10 previous days, I got seriously drunk on 6 of them. During the latest rugby match I felt my brain shift from the front of my skull and back, had a pile of bodies fall on my neck, and then got kicked in the temple while I was on the ground getting my neck looked at. By the end of the night, accounts were that I was talking jibberish. Whether it was because of the booze or the knocks to the head will be a debate for the ages, but I was truely stupid on Sunday, utterly unable to do most simple tasks. Over the past couple days I have felt myself regain some brain capacity, but today I have gone into relapse. I don't know if I am having a stupid day (like I'm sure we all have time to time) or if I am doing irreversible damage to my head. Either way, at least I am having a good time.

Savannah 2006: Day 3

In the final night of our rugby trip four of us hung out with some Wisconsin rugby girls and drank the rest of the booze that we had. After a couple hours of drinking games by the pool the security guard kicked us out of the pool area so we all went back to their room. At 10:20 I declared the party had offically became a shitshow. After we drank the remaining beer and ran out of mixer, I stole some cranberry juice from the lobby, but using our better judgement we decided not to use it and decided to take straight shots of whiskey. My sleeziest friend tackled the drunkest one of the group and as he tried to seal the deal she left and passed out in the room that we were all in, then I mistakenly called him a rapist in front of his number 3 choice. My roommate jumped in the pool at about 11 with an 18 year old. The ladies stole one of my sandels and when we went looking for it, it was no place to be found. We told the girls if they found it to just have the front desk to mail it but they insisted that they would take care of it. About 2 hours later my sleezy friend got a text message to say that they found the missing articles and were eager to get my friend's address so they could return them to him. The night ended with our prop, the 18 year old (stilll wet from the pool), and I taking up a late night stop at the Waffle House. A couple hours later our friends left for the airport. At about 8 my roommate and I headed for the airport. We checked the entire hotel room for forgotten items, yet left my roommates gps phone on the top of the bed. We got to the airport around 8:30. My flight didn't leave until 5pm, the airtran desk hadn't opened yet. I thought I might be able to fly standby, but I think the whiskey may have damaged my brain because I forgot the Savannah airport only had ten gates. So not wanting to sit in the airport for 9 hours I decided to rent a car for the afternoon. I drove back to the downtown area and walked around like an idiot for a couple of hours checking out the sights. Then I headed back and my flight went off without a hitch. My roommate on the other hand got in a traffic jam, almost missed his flight out of jacksonville, his flight was delay because of weather (even though he said that he didn't see a drop of rain the whole trip) and then again so air force 2 could take off. We both got home a little after nine, at which point we both looked at each other and decided that we probably should have drove since it would have only taken a couple more hours.

Savannah 2006: Day 2

After our first night of good clean fun, we woke up ready for some exercise. So we travelled to a nearby field to participate in some athletic competition. With some hard effort and some luck we left victorious. After getting some much needed sun after the Chicago winter we played our second competition. The experience of the other teamed and a few of our own miscues proved to be too much and we left in defeat. Yet we were still in the mood to celebrate our first victory. We headed to the local Chilis restaurant for some sustenance after our strenuous days exercise. There we found the most generous bartender, who offered us two for the price of one on their draught ales. Upon finishing my meal and my ales, I recieved the bill. Apparently we were misinformed and the offer was six ales for the price of zero. After recieving the true terms of the offer, I decided to leave a 100% tip in return for her generosity. Later we returned to our home to consume our second bulk malted beverage container of the trip. However this one had a time limit. As in the south alcohol is not sold on Sundays we were forced to return the container before they closed for the holy day. In order to accomplish this mission, we need innovation. We filled up every possible container we could find in order to alleviate the container of its contents. After a tight international competition in a local custom, the contents of our container were exhausted. Later, I remembered our defeat earlier in the day and became very disheartened. Then I was once again reminded of the loss and became outright mad. Angry, I resolved that we would not lose the following day and retired for the night to rest up. Apparently, some fun loving individuals can in during the middle of the night and jumped on my bed in an attempt to resurrect me from my slumber. But my resolve to be rested for the next day proved to be too strong and I would not respond.

Savannah 2006: Day 1

My first spring break of my experiences in the real world went off without a hitch. After polishing off a bulk container of malted beverage early friday evening our group went for a leisurely stroll down the streets of Savannah during the celebration of the life of one St. Patrick. Yet I feel that all the other guest may have been up to wrong doing, unlike us. For example, we noticed some possible underaged youths at the front of a long line to get into the indoor section of the party. In order to fulfill our civic duty, it was necessary to check IDs at the door. After we were convinced that no wrong doing occurred, we made or way into the party. Later we found an individual who had soiled himself as the toliets were apparently to far away to reach. Yet his friend graciously chased him around the street with toliet paper. Also we found that the street party had run out of beer. This we found most troubling. I had a deep conversation with some of the vendors under the suspicion that they had beer but were merely keeping it for themselves. After they convinced me otherwise I went to relocate the remainder of my party. As the evening faded, we made a resolution to return from wence we came. Upon our first encounter we met a cab drive with a propensity to overcharge. We negotiated the price to no avail. After a brief altercation between him and I we fleed looking for another ride home. We found a most pleasent chap by the name of Milton. Although I am not entirely sure that his operation was part of the formal economy, he offered us the best price and outstanding service. The night passed with many memories and story of time with great friends.

Spring Cleaning

So recently I found out about a type of supplement that cleans out your colon and makes all the waste left over from your body evacuate. The supplement is called Perfect 7 and it is one of many of these types supplements. Apparently when you completely clean your colon, your farts do not stink anymore and your trips to the toliet are expedited. So I got curious about this entire situation and did some research pretty much the all of yesterday. Apparently if you take longer to do #2 than #1 you have some constipation. Then I looked further into what blocks up your colon in the first place. Apparently consuming stuff with a lot of perservatives, artifical flavors, alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine makes your liver work overtime to cleanse the body but it does not always get all the toxins out. These toxins mix with mucas in your colon and build up in your colon or intestines. There have been reports of people having 40-50 pounds of backed up fecal matter in their intestines! I am quite interested in seeing exactly what comes out of my colon during this experiment and I'm sure that I will blog about some of the results...stay tuned for excitement.

Spring Break

So my college is on spring break this week and since I am a real person I am at work. To me this seems unfair. Why does the work force not deserve a spring break? I think that it would be more important for the work force to actually collectively take off a week in March. It would do well for our country. As a protest to the lack of spring break in the real world, I have decided to not work very hard this week. I don't know what exactly this move will accomplish, but hopefully something. Besides I guess I'm taking a mini spring break in the form of an extended weekend. But its just not the same, as it will somewhat difficult to cram a week's worth of hardcore drinking into 3 days... but damn it I got to try.

The Library

I went into Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center in downtown and I must say that I was quite impressed with the facility. It was so big (9 stories) and there were several librarians on each floor. I forgot how much I like libraries, since I have not actually been in one for amost a year. In school, I accomplished so much in libraries. But now my mind has become stagnant with only one subject to focus on and no library trips at all. When walking through the library lobby, I pondered the possibility to going to grad school, but then I remembered that I need a full time job to live independently (see Jobs Suck).

Small Achievements

So in my pondering over what make people happy, I thought of small personal achievements. This idea came after thinking about the Academy Awards where big achievements are recognized. But despite all the emotion and pleasure that comes out of that night, I wonder if these people get more satisfaction out of winning the awards or seeing their performance for the first time. I feel that I would much rather enjoy seeing something I did very well than to be recognized for it by others. If we measure our achievement against what other people think, then we will start to take our focus away from doing something well and start focusing on obtaining approval. Although I use a large stage to demonstrate this point. I feel that the same is true for our daily achievement, whether they are making someone else happy or making a really delicious beer.

Friends

As I have observed in the previous blog money does not necessarily make you happy. But then the question becomes: what does make people happy? Perhaps one of the front-running ideas is interaction with friends (in which I include family). It seems to me that when feel all alone (as in the case of a breakup), we can feel very alone, vunerable, and inadequate, even though that is not the case. But then as we have more and more pleasent interaction with others, over time we really start to feel better.

Money and Happiness

Does having money really make you happy? When I remember back to the times that I was most happy, money had little to do with it. I was a child and had no money and that was pretty good. I was in college and had negative money and that was great. Most of the people that I know that have a lot of money are generally pretty grumpy when they are around it. Right now I'm am listening to a guy scream and yell about a mistake that cost him money and his response will most likely shorten his life. It just seems to me that maybe people were not meant to live for the pursuit of earthly possessions. But since so many people live this way it is hard to even think of alternative ways to live.

Ash Wednesday

I occurred to me today exactly how much about Catholism that I once knew but no longer do. You would think that I would retain more after 12 years in the Catholic school system. Although I still know some things that surpised me. For instance I remembered that the ashes that make the cross on the forehead are from the burn palms from last year's Palm Sunday and I even remember what Palm Sunday commemorates. But I had no idea what the 40 days of Lent represent or what the ashes symbolized. I had to look it up on the internet. "Remember, man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." That is a cheery thought. All this information reminds me of how big a part of my life the church was in my childhood, while I have little involvement at this point in my life. I wonder at which point in my life, if any, that I will return to find religion.