7- Memorial Day Weekend- Weddings and Sports

Memorial Day Weekend- quite an action-packed time. But the weekend before, Martha and Chris got married- Martha, my roommate and forever-best-friend-Josh's little sister, two years younger than us. Who married a Keenan guy. Who's Italian. So he must be a pretty good guy :) He's from NJ, and they've been out in New York basically since they graduated. Josh and I went to visit a few years ago when it was really cold, and we're going again in March with his fianceeeeeee Andrea. I'm stoked. But anyway, Martha and Chris (who often gets called Roman, his last name) got married. I went. Tiffany didn't because she was in Chicago at another friend's wedding, which was actually in Brown County, Indiana, but she got a ride from Chicago down there. So we went to separate friend weddings the same weekend. Funny.

Here's the groomsmen, including my roommate.

The Basilica looking awesome, along with Uncle/Father Neil looking awesome while saying the wedding mass. I got there JUST in time for the wedding to start because there was construction in the parking lot and I had to go park somewhere else and hurry over!

A picture from the steps of the Dome- its a good wedding tradition to take a group photo on the steps. Everyone was assembling.

This is a great photo because I got a chance to get a picture with my professor from college- she taught me Abnormal Psych and...I think another class but I forget.

She was one of my favorite professors (I think a lot of people can say that), and she was new to ND when I had her. We ended up becoming friends, I asked her for a lot of advice here and there (especially because she was a clinical psychologist!) and the odd coincidence is her husband ended up being Josh (my roommate)'s mom's boss at ND. Then they both moved to Atlanta, so we don't see them much anymore. But she was invited to the wedding and they both came! Which is nice, because they don't have any family in town or anything.

On to actual Memorial Day weekend- my high school, Trinity, always has a varsity vs. alumni basketball game on Friday night and soccer game on Saturday morning- so we went to the basketball game to hang out, watch my cousin coach, and his brother play. We lazily sat in the bleachers. There were a lotta people I knew there from days gone by and it was kinda overwhelming seeing that many old faces...

Saturday morning soccer game. Sweet. As I'd been getting older and less and less people my age were showing up for the game, the recent graduates were hogging the play time on the alumni team every year. So I tried to weasel my way into playing keeper, since I have some experience doing that now. It worked. I played for a quarter of the game (thats me in the back- and the best part is, Nathan is in the shot too!)

And then I basically had the save of the game. The varsity's star player had a wide open breakaway. He thought he was faster that me. He ran around the side of my and I dove full-out and landed between him and the ball right as he was ready to shoot. My sister Jenny got a whole quick series of photos during the save. I made myself proud.

I'm about to belt the ball. It was a little hard to really kick it far cause the grass is always long on this field...

After the game- my dad is always the "lets get a group photo" kind of person- and sometimes he's right :) This was a good picture and its fun that now Nathan and I can play on the same team once a year. My cheeks always turn crimson when I'm hot. And its always hot on Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend.

That's all I got. The rest of the weekend we did what we always do- hung around with family, ate hamburgers off the grill, played basketball and cornhole, drank some cold beverages, went swimming (since we were in SB this year instead of Indianapolis as used to be the tradition...that I hope continues again...) Oops I just realized we definitely DIDN'T go swimming, because the pool was empty (or going to be) because of the next post coming up...

6- Tiffany Needed to See IIT Campus

While Tiffany was in Chicago we had some time to kill and I thought we should do some fun things. She had never been to IIT's campus and I thought it was worth seeing, and the weather was nice, so we went on a little adventure. Its right by the White Sox park (which I still call Comiskey) on the south side of town- a nice view. Its windy up on the bridge, which is over the 90/94 Dan Ryan Expressway, which also has the exit of the Red Line there. On the right is a red stone building that was built in the late 1800s, the original buildings of the original Armory Institute.

The pictures are out of order, but you'll never know. Here's one of three things we saw- the most interesting building on campus. The McCormick Tribune Student Center, built a couple years ago by Rem Koolhaas/OMA, one of the architecture firms we visited in Rotterdam, Netherlands. My professor Sarah Dunn worked on the project when she was working at OMA, pretty cool.

Anyway, you can see the "unfinished" drywall on the ceiling, left that way on purpose (and VERY carefully mudded since it wasn't getting painted) and the metal ribs coming through the ceiling are from the bottom of the tube encasing the El tracks, protecting the building from the sound and vibration.

One key feature of the building, which is definitely NOT up to code, though somehow got approved (maybe because it was considered amphitheater seating, who knows) is this stair-ramp, elegantly called a st-ramp. Its weird to walk on, and there are no railings for the ramp. Not good for a runaway wheelchair. But an interesting architectural feature for sure...

The sunked internet cafe, painted bright orange- looks kinda cozy, or something.

On down State St. to the State St. Village, a new-ish set of dorms covered in a metal screen, with rooftop decks here and there. A nice building.

5- Graduation!

A little bit about graduation. Yeah, if you didn't hear, I graduated from my three-year Master's of Architecture program. I started looking for jobs in March. I resumed after I graduated. I'm still looking. So if you wanna send me a graduation gift, I'm poor :) Or you can just give me a job. I need one of those too.

Before the job situation set in though, I spent some time enjoying the moment. I never liked graduation ceremonies and things like that because I didn't really want to celebrate the fact that I wouldn't see my friends anymore...but it was nice to be proud of myself for something I accomplished and welcome the exciting changes in life that would come soon...or in this case, not come at all.

We had to buy the stupid graduation gowns, and it was surreal to actually put it on and GO...to GRADUATION. After three years. Done. Crazy. Here's a few pictures of us in the parking garage, and in line, waiting to process in...

And once we got in. The School of Art and Architecture got to sit near the front, so that was nice. Best part is my seat ended up being on the aisle, in the middle, so I had a good view of the stage.

And I had a good view of my family who all got there early enough to get seats close to the stage...they yelled for me when my name was announced, I was proud of them for that ;) Uncle Glenn is standing up taking a picture of me, with Bobby by him and then Jenny, Tiffany, my mom, Chris, and my dad all down the row. Nice to have some support.

My classmates down the row.

The ceremony went by fast, even though it was full of the usual pomp and circumstance, and highfalutin garbage like commencement speaker and valedictory address and all that stuff. But I tried to just sit and enjoy the moment, take it in, enjoy the red carpet. Though I did spend quite a bit of it texting my brothers and Tiffany back and forth, which was hilarious, since I could see them across the arena.

It was also weird going up and getting hooded, but kinda cool, and an honor to have a couple of professors there to do it and shake my hand and give me my diploma- made it more personal, since it was a huge graduation ceremony. Again- just weird that I was actually there and it was actually happening, and that it'd be over soon, especially since I knew my friends were moving away.

One friend in particular, Jim, was moving back to MN with his wife Jasmine. They'd been good friends for Tiffany and I and other classmates to hang out with, but Jasmine was from the Twin Cities and they decided to go up there where they could afford a house with a yard for their dog :) So I knew I wouldn't be seeing him much anymore!

Me and Jim.

I took a couple more photos the next day in my cap n gown, for fun, and for the cake I designed for my graduation party the following weekend... I really did have this on top of my cap though, during the ceremony, and when the camera showed me up on the big projector screen, I made sure to take off my hat and point to the sign and smile :) Got a few chuckles.

The following weekend I had a big graduation party at my parents' house, for family, high school friends, college friends, chicago friends, grad school friends. I had representatives of all those groups come to the party! It was great. And I decided to set up all my models and presentations from my various Studio Design finals, so people could see all the work I'd done. And I put a slideshow of my photos from Europe on the big tv, probably the best part, so people could see all the travels I'd done and great pictures I'd taken. Probably like 60 people came to the party, pretty crazy! Thanks to my parents who let me host it there and did a lot of work preparing the house and food for everyone- especially since I couldn't help them much because I was at a wedding reception in Chicago the night before!

Finally, the last bit of celebrating graduation that we did was a trip to Cedar Point. I planned it to make sure Chris and Tiffany could go, and us grad school people stayed at one guy Dave's parents' house near Sandusky, out on a farm in rural Ohio. The bummer part is that it rained bloody murder, and the rides got shut down, and we left halfway through the day. And there were no refunds. Dammit. At least we got back to South Bend earlier...and we got to dry out and eat some food at Dave's before we left, which was nice.

After graduation stuff was over, it was time to start a new adventure...REAL LIFE. And before Tiffany left, we had also decided to really for sure end things, go our separate ways, try and meet other people, etc., something we'd be discussing since she came to visit in Italy, and since I was in Austin in March, and basically that whole semester on and off. I was sure of the decision by the time we made it, and though she was less sure than me, I think time has told that we did the right thing. Though I wish I could meet someone else now...

The odd irony of the whole thing is that she moved to Chicago the same week I started grad school, and then left to go home to Austin, after we agreed to really break up, the same week I graduated school. 3 years of school, 3 years of relationship. Weird. Now I'm looking for a job AND a girlfriend together! Think I can find them in the same place?

4- Spring Break: Austin/Denver

Another concert- Howie Day. Solo. I've never seen him with his band, so it'd be nice to have the chance, but on the other hand he's better solo when he's playing with his pedals and looping and recording vocals and guitar on top of each other on stage. But these days his songs sound better with a full band unfortunately. It was at the House of Blues, which usually is kinda expensive, but it wasn't too bad. Josh came with me. It was a man-date.

Spring Break 2010- my last Spring Break. Probably ever, until I have kids and decide to take off work so we can do fun stuff. Thankfully I was able to do fun stuff. I went to Austin, to visit Tiffany, and in planning my trip found out that South By Southwest was the weekend I was going- one of the country's largest music and film festivals. Tiffany had friends that were volunteering for an organization, and if we volunteered too (basically picking up trash and recycling after the show, at a large-ish outdoor venue) we could get in for free for two days to the venue, and see some great bands! Count me in. I still have ACL (Austin City Limits) on my radar as a must-do music festival someday.

So right in Austin's airport they had all these painted guitars all over the place, part of a charity event like other cities have painted cows or earths or whatever. Cool stuff. All Les Paul electric guitars.

Lots of them. Above the luggage carousel!

Now Tiffany had been telling me she had a surprise for me and that I'd see when I got there. Turns out Austin got a car-sharing program like Chicago's iGo and Zipcar (which is all over the country) and they have only Smart cars. So she got a Smart car to pick me up from the airport! Sweet. I got to drive it. Not too bad, even on the highway, though it REALLY doesn't like accelerating. Ever. And it had no cargo space. Like enough for a few bags of groceries. Kinda awesome though. And she was excited.

We returned it to its home near UT campus, with the other Smart cars, and walked back to her apartment, grabbing some late-night McDonalds on the way, cause she was hungry, big surprise :)

I left after class on Thursday, skipping Friday class so I could make it for the weekend. And that Friday morning our adventures began. We headed downtown to meet up with her friends, one who walked us all over different areas with good tents (like Levi's tent) where you could get in, sometimes get a free drink, random interactive stuff, live music, booths for buying stuff. We walked down Sixth St. where all the bars are, every one of which had live music all day, all weekend. by the time we finally got to Stubb's, the bbq place/bar that has a big outdoor stage, we had missed the first band I kinda wanted to see, called F***ed Up. Yeah, I know- they have one good song, and I wanted to see them scream their heads off. Oh well.

We did get to see the lead singer walking around apparently having gone for a mud bath after the concert. Or during? He's not an attractive fellow. The band shell is behind him...

We also missed Rogue Wave, who I had actually really wanted to see, and mentioned wanting to see, but Tiffany's friend was too busy touring us around Austin to hurry to the party.

And THEN the real fun started. This was a Spin Magazine party- Spin is a pretty well-known music magazine like Rolling Stone. They were hosting the party, and the tickets were like $80 or something and impossible to get. So getting in by volunteering was AWESOME, especially since we weren't on the "list" of volunteers but came in with Tiffany's friends, who had made nice with the bouncer, which came in handy later too- since the evening party was a separate event that only people on the list could get in to, but since we were in, and acted busy for awhile, we got to stay in without getting shuffled out like everyone else. Score.

While we were waiting for bands to start, a scooter scooted by. Someone said "hey, that's Mini Me!" I said "no its not." "Yeah, its Mini Me!" they said. "Holy CRAP its MINI ME." It was Mini Me. Verne Troyer. And he was MUCH smaller than I expected. He had his legs folded under him so he could reach the handle bars, and he had to actually CLIMB down off the scooter, which wasn't really very tall anyway!

And then he made his way through the crowd, and sat down next to...Lou Ferigno. The original Hulk. Weird. They hung out for awhile, signing things, lapping up the attention, then took off. Odd.

Meanwhile, this weird...Thing was walking around and Tiffany insisted I should take a picture with it. Uh, okay. Sure why not. Its like a blue Statue of Liberty or something.

Finally some music came on. We got to see Miike Snow, who I hadn't heard of but was pretty cool in fact. Some bands that were lame, but one band that was terrible and yet notable, was Hole. Yeah, Courtney Love's band. Reunited, except she's the only original member. Her guitarist was like 20. She was crazy. She screamed a lot. Swore. Had a raspy smoker's voice. And yet Tiffany's friend said she was pretty tame compared to back in the 90s. Wow.

Finally, after everyone was ushered out, and we "worked" for a bit, and got to stay, and went to stand in the front while all the suckers waited in line outside. We got to see a band called Metric that apparently I should have heard of, who weren't too bad. And then Muse came on, the main attraction. I got to see Muse for free. Yep. Hot. I don't have any good pictures of them, but some good video...

The next day was even better though...and WORSE, because the temperature dropped. Texas in March and it was like 40 degrees. I think it was colder than Chicago! I wasn't prepared. We wore all our clothes. But we still had fun.

Outside Stubb's there was another big bar across the street having a party. With a furry blue van. Dunno what that was all about.

Saturday's party had a stage at each end, and was hosted by Rachael Ray. Apparently Matthew McConaughey has a record label, and his first signed band was there, some rasta reggae band. And he was standing in the front rockin out in his green beret.

It wasn't until afterwards that I realized that he was enjoying the drugs as much as the music, because he was something-ed out of his mind. He could barely walk or see it seemed like. By the way, he's also from Austin and a big UT fan. He was also wearing flip-flops, and it was 40 something out.

But I urged Tiffany to get a picture with him cause she (or her mom, or both, I forget, since it was a year ago) loved him. After a couple nudges she walked over (I told her, you're a girl, of course he'll take a picture with you). Not a bad photo! He hardly even knew what was going on.

Then we got to see some bands that didn't suck, like She & Him- the "She" being Zooey Deschanel, from Elf/Yes Man/500 Days of Summer, who I kinda have a crush on. She has this sing-songy voice...unfortunately she looked less cute wearing a big coat since it was freezing. She said she had a cute dress on but it was too cold to show us. She played an electric ukelele. Had bright blue eyes. They play cheesy music that sounds like the 60s, but who cares.

Then we saw Andrew WK, a band that DID suck, though they're pretty well known. Lots of screaming. And crazy looking band members. And a chick in a spandex work-out outfit, who did nothing but rhythmically punch the air back and forth to the crazy beat of the song, as if she was doing calisthenics or aerobics but to hard rock songs. She didn't play an instrument. She didn't sing. Ridiculous.

Another band that didn't suck, Jakob Dylan (from the Wallflowers, son of Bob Dylan) who also had special guest Neko Case with him- who at the time I hadn't heard of, after I realized it wasn't Nico from The Velvet Underground. She's good though. He was good, though a little boring. And looking old and gray...

Here's a shot of Rachael Ray, she was excited to introduce each band, even the ones that sucked, like her husband's band who was so bland and unoffensive un-anything that they were like the tofu of rock bands. Completely flavorless in every way. And her husband looked ooooooold.

But thanks to Mr. and Mrs. T's sponsoring the party (the makers of the Bloody Mary mix) we got to have bloody marys and margaritas all morning to keep us warm, along with Rachael Ray's appetizers. Some complained that the food wasn't good. Uhhhh, its FREE!? Geez.

After that we left for awhile (cause we knew we had the hookup to get back in) and went somewhere warm and had some chili with her friends, one who had a car and gave us a ride home at the end of the night. Awesome, since it was like 1am and freezing.

In the afternoon/evening we saw a weird band called The Drums that sounded like The Cars and wore tight pants and slim ties and looked like Mr McFly and danced like I imagine he would. Saw Minus the Bear, who all these college kids were stoked to see (whatever, they were okay) and then this insane band called Circa Survive, and I finally found out what the genre of screamo music sounded like.

They looked like normal white guys, until the lead singer started screaming lyrics, like he was experiencing some combination of death-throes and blinding rage, and he screamed like that for the whole hour or whatever. The college "kids" around us loved it. And couldn't believe I didn't know who they were. They were terrible. The guy was wearing like Eddie Bauer clothes. Yet had long stringy hair.

And then, finally at the end, when the lights when out for a sec, suddenly he was in the crowd, on top of Tiffany and I. Like knees and crotch. We pushed and lifted until he got to his feet standing on the railing. Wish I'd gotten pictures or video but I was using both arms to keep him from crushing us.

Finally after all the college kids left(I call them kids mostly because they all looked and acted like they were about 15, and there were lots of very short Asian girls), the main event came on, the Scissor Sisters. I knew they were probably kinda gay, but I wasn't prepared for a guy in a wife-beater and vinyl pants when its 40 degrees outside. They were weird but entertaining. Seriously it was freezing and they were not wearing a lot of clothes and played for a LONG time. The lady looked like an unattractive version of Julianne Moore. With a weird dress.

Finally we made it back to Tiffany's apartment, and here are our wristbands from the weekends events- we had to get two different Stubb's ones each day for the day and evening shows. We did pretty well that weekend for not paying a dollar!

The rest of my time in Austin was spent seeing Uncle Bill and eating food. We had Chuy's tex-mex (free happy hour nachos with amazing margaritas), he made us steak dinners on Sunday after mass and we watched a movie, and then him and I went hiking another day. We also got some bbq at Rudy's- beef brisket- an amazing food I never knew existed. I need to go back there. Got to drive by the IRS building that had a plane suicide-crashed into it, also, if you remember hearing that story. Right by the highway. Chris' college roommate Isaac's sister Rita, who works for Uncle Bill's church, drove us out to Rudy's. Going back to Austin in March AGAIN for her wedding! Rudy's here I come... or Chuy's...they make this spicy ranch dip that rules.