Oh, hi there.

Once again, I plug myself.  Check out my old other blog, which is basically a series of faceless postings ranting about pondering hating on or confused about various subjects and things.

http://csergio.blogspot.com/

Also, from that blog, as I was reading back, is something ASTOUNDING.  

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/uglydog.asp

That blog I mention usually goes something like this, which was again on my mind recently.  Noses.  Consider them for a second.  They suck.  I mean, the best most people can hope for is to NOT have an UGLY nose.  Its not like having beautiful red or blond or curly hair.  Sure, some people have cute noses, but basically most people either have a not ugly nose, or an ugly nose.  I personally think I support nose jobs more so than most plastic surgery simply because so many otherwise attractive people get screwed by having a monstrous or bulbous or crooked or something else schnoz.  I personally toe the line between a prominently Italian nose and just massively dago.  I mean, I feel bad for some people.  Really.

Also, what is the love affair in the creative/art world with wearing black?  Architects/aspiring architects (yeah see lots of those), artists, musicians, theater people, you name it.  I mean every concert you go to, the band has their tour shirt selling in black.  Sure black is a common popular easy to match color, but I mean we're talking black pants black shirt and thick black glasses kinda black here.  What's the flippin deal?  I'm tired of it.  As we like to say about all the alternative/emo/punk kids in Bucktown here in Chicago, you're not so different and rebellious and alternative when every other tool up and down the street on Friday night looks exactly the same as you.  Good quotes I have on Facebook- 

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."

-Mark Twain

"The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution."
-Hannah Arendt

I mean REALLY, do you REALLY feel that individual and artsy and expressive when you look just like everyone else who's trying to do the same thing and apparently not noticing that you are too?  That's why I'm not buying into the thick black glasses architect thing.  Its tired.

LAST.  An interesting thing I've noticed in my field so far is the use of the phrases "sort of" and "kind of".  They've become a kind of analogy, except they don't really precede any actual analogy, just a particular explanation of the way something is that needs special attention.  The phrases get used so much that they're basically one word- kindve, sortof.  Its like when trying to convey something to someone.  Sure, everyone uses these phrases, but architects (and I imagine people in all creative fields) use them like high school girls use "like".  Seriously.  "This building expresses a kindve honesty of construction that is sortof Miesian in that it sortof feigns expressive materiality but actually is kindve hiding the truth behind a sortof mask."  I just made that up but you get the point.

Look Who Else Is Famous

So we went to this cool thing down south of school, where there's like 30 (30!  I figured it would be like 3!) art galleries that have openings once a month.  You get a little map if you want, but basically just walk down one street going in and out in and out.  Lots of little galleries, some big ones, the key of course being that most of them have wine/cheapcheapdisgustingPabstBlueRibbon and also some little munchies/food/chocolate/a bowl of Runts that had amazing tasting Mango Runts (who knew THOSE existed?)/a heaping pile of cheesecake bar squares and cookie bar squares.  In conclusion, SCORE.  

So (are you still with me?- art galleries...) Tiffany came down after work on Friday and met up with me and some archie friends who go to these things every month (for the art of course).  It was fun, grotesque, weird, stupid, cool, ugly, sweet, confusing, disturbing, bizarre, and the other adjectives in between.  But fun.  And one place was taking pictures and posting them online days later for people, for fun.  Hence:

Oops well I guess at least the photographer was professional...

Here's my friends too:

Randi (Alex's roommate), Alex, Jessica, and Kat as the bottom of the uh, four-person, um...pyramid?...thing.

Papa's Famous

Oooooh, check it out, a little something in South Bend to commemorate Papa's service:

Guess who else is famous?  Oh wait he was already anyway.

I Covet

If anyone is in the mood for buying me gifts cause I'm awesome, I desire this book intensely (its clickable):

Modern House Three

*sniff*

Worthless Desserts

I have a huge sweet tooth.  I love desserts.  I love sweet things.  Most things can't BE too sugary for me.  These desserts are a terrible excuse for desserts and waste my time and my stomach space and ruin my happiness.  This is the last for now of my little lists.  Please remind me if you know me well enough to know I forgot something on one of these lists.

-Pecan Sandies.  I hardly consider these even dessert, but they're called cookies.  Its like eating sweetened stale crumbly crutons.  Which is to say, awful.  So dry.  Give me milk!!

-Cake.  *Most* cake.  This might surprise people.  But I tirade about cake all the time.  Homemade cake is good and all, its just not great.  And grocery-store sheet cake is, once again, a terrible excuse for a dessert.  The frosting is disgusting-sweet and the cake is dry.  Rum cake, ice cream cake, pudding cake, anything with a nice layer of something squishy in between or frosting that isn't just sugar, is what cake should be.

-Circus Peanuts!  Thanks Chris for reminding me.  Cause YOU like them.  Sick.  They taste gross.  Like stale vomit-flavored marshmallows.  Are you serious people eat these on purpose?  Purge.

-Ice Box Cookies.  The only ostensible "cookie" worse than a Pecan Sandie.  Sandy?  Whatever.  They're dry-er and harder and nastier.  Ice Box Cookies only DON'T taste terrible because they're covered in powdered sugar.  I refer to my entry on Lima Beans for this one.  

-Peanut Butter Kiss cookies.  Y'know, the little peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's Kiss in the middle.  Do they taste bad?  No.  But here's the thing.  You might as well hand me a peanut butter cookie, and a Hershey's Kiss.  The only nice thing about the cookies is the kiss is pre-unwrapped.  But its impossible to enjoy the kiss WITH the cookie, because it comes off the cookie all at once, or at most in two bites.  So you get peanut butter cookie bite, two halves of Hershey's Kiss, peanut butter cookie bite.  Its just too much trouble.

-All those candy bars you only know cause you see em at the grocery store.  Who EATS those things?  Why do they still make them?  I mean Baby Ruth isn't even BAD, but who BUYS THEM???  Bar None, Pay Day, 100 Grand, Skor, Skor, SKOR, SKOR?!?  Zagnut, Oh Henry, Clark Bar, the list goes on.

That's all I got for right now.  There's gotta be more, I just can't remember.

Foods I Hate

This is a fun little list.  Its short though.  It comes down to a few:

-Pickled Beets.  Disgusting.  I don't CARE if they have lots of iron!  They look like they're soaked in animal blood, and they smell like it too.

-Water Chestnuts.  Nose-crinkling nasty waxy crunch to them and little to no flavor.  They make my shiver when I bite them.

-Cake- for NEVER being as good as it looks.  What a disappointment.  Hate isn't the right word, its more of a resentment I suppose.

-Lima Beans.  If I wanted to eat a little sac full of sand...guess what...I'd eat...SAND.  Yeah.  Okay, so they taste good with lots of butter and salt.  Well I'm sure anything tastes decent if you put enough sugar/lard product/sodium/something else unhealthy on it.

See I told you, the list is short.  I like food.  But some foods just suck.  

Word Appreciation

So my cousin Laura likes my use of the word "glorious".  It inspired me to make a little list of my favorite underused words.  So here goes, in no particular order.  I especially/mostly enjoy superlatives for describing things.

-glorious (obviously this must be first- also a Remy Zero song)

-magical (for similar usage)

-resplendent (another similar word, just something no one says)

-ginormous (don't care if its made up, but it'll be overused in a couple years)

-flippin (cmon, Napoleon Dynamite!  Mormons are silly)

-reDICulous (also reeDICKulous, or reeDIC for short)

-preposterous

-silly (start calling things and people silly- it makes you FEEL silly)

-splendid/splendiforous

-lame sauce (Zach Sergio's personal favorite, and oh yes I heard it in a TV show the other day)

-cornhole (its just a game with beanbags we play, what were YOU thinking?)

-yourmom (insert into any sentence for instant humor)

um there's more im forgetting.

Houston Part 2

Featured are me, Tiffany, her sister Karen on the right, Karen's friend Christine farther right, and the legend himself, Tiffany's dad Wes on the left.  Swim caps suck.

So we watched the first and many groups after that jump off the dock in the 70 degree salt water, swim to the starting line, and begin their 1/3 mile journey to the paddle-wheel steam boat down the shoreline.  Meanwhile I guess Karen's friend was getting really nervous, and Tiffany was still feeling sick enough she wasn't sure she could do it.  I made a quick last-minute journey to the bathroom.  Once it was our turn (that is, me and Tiffany's dad, in the Men's First-Timers group) to get up there, I didn't think about it much, just lemming-ed right off the dock 10 feet down into the water.  So far so good.  Uh aside from the shock of the cold water.  Most people were wearing wet-suits.  Pansies.  Our swim took about 17 minutes of breast-stroking and occasional salty-mouthed freestyle when I had the breath, frosted with some backstroke when I wanted to watch the women first-timers swim from five minutes behind and pass us.  Oops.  Only some of them though.  

I knew this was the worst part so finishing it was glorious.  We chilled out waiting for Karen and Christine who were in aforementioned women's group to catch up with us at the transition, after being sprinkled off by some overhead water thing and cheered on by volunteers and spectators alike.  Ate some goop for energy, dried off, and hopped on the bike for a leisurely 12 mile ride down the coast of the gulf.  Not too bad!  Would have been worse if I had ended up with the road-bike the bike-rental place was originally gonna give.  UM, no thanks I don't wanna die, a mountain bike will be grand thanks.  Tiffany's dad (we can refer to him as Mr. Burd, I suppose, his name is Wes) decided to pull ahead on the bike part, and it may have caught up with him on the run.  

After he decided to get going, I chugged my PJ (yeah that's Pickle Juice) and sprinted to catch up with him, leaving Tiffany with Karen and Christine (at her insistence, mind you) and we took our time, as the sun was starting to warm up and steam up the place.  Volunteers were great about cheering us on still, and giving us water and gatorade and wet sponges.  The last half mile I decided to sprint it on out and realized I didn't have much gas left, so it wasn't quite as sprinty as I'd have liked, but I told Mr. Burd I wanted to see what I had left.  Finishing alone (and near the end of the entire group of everyone) gave me the chance to be personally announced over the loudspeaker as I came in.  That was cool.  And just like that, I was done with my 3 miles and wearing a wet towel and taking pictures. 

We did some more of the picture taking as the rest of them came in, and walked around where they were announcing winners, handing out trophies, giving out free Papa John's, bananas, sweet tea, energy drinks, and BEER.   Yup, had one of those after plenty of sweet tea.  We went to lunch, took our time sitting around, and then headed back out of town.  All that walking around after the race was enough to get me some sun on my arms and head though, just enough for my nose to peel a little this week.  Thankfully I had a swim cap, helmet, and hat, for the legs of the race, and wet towel for after- balding guys gotta watch the head.

Um so that's it, it all ended rather quickly.  We of course started talking about next year, and I'd like to see how fast I could really do it.  But really working hard at it takes too much gear and training and gear and practice and training, so I'll stick to runs, at least for wanting to be competitive.  But we'll see what time I can get next year anyway.  Probably won't beat 57 minutes, which is what the 9th place Iron Man guy got.  I finished in over two hours.  Yeah the Iron Man is a 2.4 mile swim 115 mile bike ride and full marathon.  Um I'll pass.

We wrapped up the weekend by eatings lots Saturday night- steak and such, wine, lots of relaxing.  Helped clean some pool toys and hung out by the pool with the boys.  So nice being outside.  Sunday was a little party of family and friends to come hang out with Tiffany, with Pappasito's her favorite Mexican food, before we had to skip town.  It was over fast, and by the time it was done it felt like home and they felt like family and it was sad to go.   Especially leaving the weather and going back to class.  Hopefully the Burds will be coming to town Labor Day weekend to visit and meet EVERYONE :)  The icing on the cake was Southwest needing to bump some people, so we took $200 vouchers and a paid return flight plus money for breakfast, to stay in Houston until the morning.  HA!  Victory.  

And now its back to real life and all the other things I've got to do.  Weather is getting nice and I wanna be outside.  Unfortunately NO.  Tonight I figure out whether I'm getting a new roommate or whether I have to move by the end of April.  Or pay another $100 a month.  Right.  I wish I had a source of positive cash flow lined up for the summer at least...

Houston Part 1

4/7

Oops.  Never finished all my entries.  Time to recap the whole Houston/triathlon experience for everyone.  The whole weekend with the family went by in a flash.  Tiffany and I hopped in the car with her dad and a bleary-eyed Wesley, her 8-yr old brother, at about 10:30pm.  We got home and had some time to catch up and talk to her parents before bed.  They put me up in Tiffany's old bedroom, complete with my own full bathroom!  Fantastic.

In the morning we were off to breakfast with a friend of Tiffany's whose had us over for a party in Houston before and visited Tiffany last fall in Chicago, he works where she used to except in the dental clinic part of an HIV/AIDS adult clinic type place.  She was the program director for the adult day care, if you didn't know.  After breakfast we went over to the center to see her clients and volunteers and old co-workers she had been missing, and I got another glimpse of what it must have been like for her to work there.  She must have been amazing!  Well, I guess she still is :)

From there it was lunch with her mom, who just moved into a new apartment, and was walking around quite nicely.  It was great to see her on her feet, and of course I got to see the scars and hear more stories about it.  She made us a great lasagna-type casserole for lunch and even a blueberry pie to take with us!  She loves Tiffany to death and it shows.  She's coming to visit July 4th weekend for all who want to meet her up at the farm.  Can't wait for the summer, especially after coming back from the south to the cold again, but as you can tell the weather is turning.  Spring fever is almost here- that nervous itching yearn you feel to get the hell out of your office or anywhere indoors and do something in the sun.  Its gonna make the last month of school tough to get through.  That and being a little spent with my project.

After lunch we packed up the cars and the family and the bikes and the MAN-SIZED DOG they have (some kind of alpine something shepherd dog, see picture) and we were off to Galveston.  Tiffany's little sister Karen, who's 15, drove in our car with her friend Christine.  Once hitting Galveston we went to check in for the race and get things like our ankle chip (to track our time), our shirts, swim caps, energy goop in little tubes, and Pickle Juice.  Yeah, the latest in sports drinks is full of salt to replenish your lost sodium, and it tastes exactly like it sounds.  There was also a ton of merchandise for the serious racers- shoes, wetsuits, blah blah blah.  Over it.

After that we went out for seafood.  Sweet.  I'm always up for fresh seafood 100 feet from the ocean.  We got a platter of HUGE oysters and I had a plate of fried catfish, silver-dollar sized scallops, and big shrimp.  Plus a loaf of bread, some soup, and fries, makes for me being disgustingly full.  Got plenty of carbs for the morning race.

We all checked into the hotel, hauled our bikes up there (and the dog once again, Aisha) and went to bed after exploring the pool, hot tub, and computer room where Wesley played online games while I checked the email to see the glorious donations I had received in the last day before the race.  We all hit bed too late to get up too early.  Got up at 5:30, just in time to throw on my clothes and get out the door- I had fallen asleep wondering what I'd do if I forgot all my race gear, the night before.  Ha.  I wasn't nervous at all though, despite still being sick.  Tiffany didn't look so hot in the morning though, while we had our continental breakfast before getting off to the race. 

 

We got there just before 7, and set up our bikes and gear in the "transition area" where it looked like people were pretty serious about getting straight on the bike from the water.  Crazy.  Then it was time to stand around, get our swim caps on (not easy) and watch the age groups before us line up on the dock.  

 

Race particulars are for next entry.  It'll be picture-tastic.

Nervously Waiting...

3/27 at Hobby Airport

So, I found out Lake Charles is home to less casinos than I thought.  But probably as many factories as I thought.  They have a nice little boardwalk around their lake, aptly named Charles, with some war memorials and a 9/11 memorial.  They also have a few (but only a few) places for getting a 5lb platter of crawfish for Paul and I (my first) and some fried catfish.  Also got a wicked po' boy for lunch.  Met his gf Valerie, who along with her cousin liked to remind Paul and I that she was from the country and like simple things, mostly in reference to the apple-cranberry-almond-onion-spinach-raspberry-vinagrette salad we made for them.  They however had no problem with the steaks.  I enjoyed being able to drive Paul's Infiniti G35 around Lake Charles a bit in the nice weather with the windows down and stereo on, though only at respectably reasonable speeds.  No really.  But its a sweet car with hot rims and a nasty growl.  

Oh and check out their airport.  Pictures here.  You can see how far Arrivals are from Departures.  Funny, cause I was just thinking about how you never get to walk off the plane, down the stairs onto the tarmac (whatever THAT is) anymore.  And then I had the pleasure.  I also experienced the shortest airport exit ever.  They opened the gate you see there, I walked through it, and I was out of the..."airport".  Right there was also their baggage claim.  A metal table thing.  Outside.  Oh, Louisiana.

I also hit my goal for fundraising today for the triathlon.   Fundraising is hard, and my goal was lofty, and I figured I'd land among the stars.  Well my best friend Josh decided he wanted to git R done and he capped off what I needed (and then some) to hit a grand.  Awesomely sweet.  Now if only I was in any shape to be running this thing, but at least I don't have strep throat and an ear infection like Tiffany (or at least not that I know of).  The weather has felt great every time I walk outside, and thanks to sunroof I even got some sun on my mostly exposed scalp.  My hair is slowly leaving it for dead.  FINE, I didn't want you there anyway.   So I'm sorta bored with this and gonna go now.  Counting Crows' new album came out Tuesday, for anyone who's...counting, and we listened to it on the way to Houston.  So far its a hmmm.

Louisiana Ho

3/25

Right now I'm waiting in Houston Bush airport for my connecting flight to lovely Lake Charles, LA, home of factories and casinos.  Oops already said that last time.  I had the distinction of being able to travel through O'Hare this morning.  I don't like the place.  It takes too long to get to from anywhere, including the train, its too big, too confusing, and too delayed.  My flight actually left mostly on time though.  Coming back through O'Hare is worse because until you've done it half a dozen times, you have no idea where to go when all the signs pointing to CTA (the El) that you've been following suddenly lead you to a place where they all point to YOU, and yet there's neither train nor sign.  Once you figure out that the train is underground, and to keep going down like three more escalators until you find it, you're fine.  Until then, you feel like Alice in Wonderland.  A very merry unbirthday.  

I had another one of those bejeweled O'Hare moments when I got there and tried finding Terminal 2 from the El.  End of a hallway, two big signs.  One says Terminals 1,2 this way, 3,4,5 that way.  Okayyyyyyy start walking wait-what-did-the-other-sign-say?  List of airlines, Continental under Terminal 2, pointing the other way.  OKAY, which is it?  The digital sign with flight info also points that way, so sure, this one's gotta be right and the other decal slapped on the wall is wrong.  Right?  Well, ten feet into heading the other direction is a big double door, perpendicular to my current path(s) conspicuously painted the color of my terminal sign.  But no markings.  BUT, through them at the end of the hallway I see Terminal 2 and an arrow.  Okay, stupid, but I found it.  End of the hallway?  "Walkway Closed, Terminal 2 This Way" and an arrow.  Pointing to A WALL.  A WALL.  A wall???  Okay, backup ten feet, see another perpendicular corridor parallel to my original direction(s), in the same direction as I (almost) started heading before looking back to the sign a second time (and running ten feet in the wrong direction on a moving sidewalk).  Down this new corridor of course is a sign saying Terminal 2.  By this time I'm walking past the workout room in the Hilton.  No seriously.  So after obviously walking the length the original moving sidewalk would have covered, that I was so looking forward to riding, I found, well, at least the beginning of my quarter-mile journey in the right direction.  

At Midway, which is an equal drive from downtown as O'Hare, or close enough, I can get there in 35 minutes instead of 1:15 from downtown, and I can follow the BRIGHT ORANGE STRIPE on the ground from train to airport, at which point I can get to any given terminal within 15 minutes including security.  And usually fly cheaper, on Southwest.  But O'Hare has a better food court....

Spring Break!!

3/24

Well I'm writing this on my one-millionth train trip between Chicago and South Bend, 2hrs37min plus taking the El home.  Its always a bittersweet trip, but since September has been much better since I usually have Tiffany to ride with me.  Its an odd feeling because going TO South Bend is usually nice, since I'm going home FOR something, but leaving always feels sad to be leaving home but relaxing and nice to be GOING home.  Its weird having two homes, I guess.  

Its nice though especially being relatively po' to have an abundance of food and drink at my parents' house, especially my latest craving, vanilla soy milk.  Its like a melted vanilla shake.  The "Very Vanilla" flavor is "The Taste Kids Love".  Yes, yes it  is.  Yum.  Tiffany made my family her specialty and favorite, Red Beans and Rice.  There was some dispute about the existence of red beans, and whether they were different from kidney beans.  But it was tasty.  Too bad the ND basketball game wasn't.  There always seems to be a wealth of Breyers Vanilla Bean Ice Cream to welcome me as well.

I'm also finally reading my Aunt Patricia's lengthy writings about the last year and months and weeks of Aunt Glo's life, and my grandma's as well.  It certainly dredges up feelings that have been only barely submerged.  Of course so does celebrating Easter at my grandma's house, but the weird part is that mostly its just like normal with lots of people and food, and you forget that someone is missing, or more importantly WHY, even if it IS her own house. 

I did wanna go visit her new resting place since it was the first holiday we had spent without her, but my dad said her headstone wasn't prepared yet or anything because of the weather, so I sorta let it go.

*ANYWAY*, otherwise it was nice being home even if it DID snow.  Being home is never long enough, even if it IS for a week.  Its a nice calm, relaxed, free feeling being there, especially if my only priority is spending time with people.  I always wish I had more time to talk to Chris about work and life and such, or Nathan about lots of stuff but he's usually out and about like I was in high school.  And Jenny I just never get enough time to talk to about anything really.  Its interesting because her and I are very much alike in personality and even some interests (art, music, reading) and yet our lives and activities have taken completely different paths, but it'd be nice if we could be closer friends regardless.

This week as you know I'm running the triathlon.  Unfortunately I'm not getting healthy as quickly as I had hoped- unfortunately the food, desserts, and Easter candy didn't helps as much over the weekend as I'd hoped, but some sleep did.

What I wouldn't give for a week with no obligations where I could do whatever I wanted to.  It would definitely include playing a lot of guitar.  I'm currently listening to some depressing Counting Crows.  They release a new album tomorrow!  Its amazing the experiences and memories I have tied to music...but that could be due to the fact that I try to listen to it whenever humanly possible.

I'm gonna check out now and try and work on a couple things and clean up my computer.  I'm flying out tomorrow to visit my friend Paul in Lake Charles, LA, home of lots of factories and casinos.  I get to stay in "Carl's Room" at long last- when Paul bought the house I was in life transition and he was trying to get me to move there and move in with him :)  After a few days its off to Houston for the triathlon.  Hopefully some sun and warm weather will clear out my sinuses before then.  Please dear God.

Everyone who donated, thanks, I'm still trying to bug people once more cause I'm at $775 out of my $1,000 goal.  Never thought I'd get nearly that much.  Wow.  Bye.

Looking back, I think the hardest part was when grandma got beyond being able to talk, and because of her health and everyone missing work and school that I was really just waiting around hoping she would pass sooner than later.  I almost didn't have the space to really feel the hurt because it was replaced by relief at her pain being over and everyone being able to get back to the important events in their lives.  Being that relieved that someone is gone was weird then and is weird now- much of the grieving for her death took place before it had even taken place I suppose...