Step 4: Profit

Last week, I arranged a group activity for about 20 people. Basically, the cost was supposed to be a little over $20/person, so I told everyone to just give me $20 and it will work. I had dinner with my sister and some other people beforehand. I had consciously chosen to just have enough cash to cover dinner, as I would have nearly $400 by the end of the night.. So we paid for dinner, then my sister gave me $40 for her and her husband.

We went to the activity, and I bought a round of drinks for some friends beforehand. Then we all had our fun, but there was some technical difficulties involved. No big deal, but the manager decided to just comp the whole thing for us. So I announced to the group that it was on the house and we should move on to the bar for the rest of the night. My sister comes up and asks for her $40 back. I had to laugh, as I had already spent it. So in one way I profited. In another way, I now owe her more money.

Sweaty Fireworks

I try to go play basketball with some old college friends every other week or so. I was never "good", and a couple years without playing clearly didn't help. Also, I am generally just not in as good of shape as I used to be (stupid law school). This was all put to the test last week, when my team managed to hold the court for the entire two hours. I swear I sweated out 5 lbs.

In more relevant (at least to my dating life), the weekend was spent at the wedding of some friends of the girlfriend. All in all, it was fine; the girlfriend was in the wedding and was over-served by the end of the night. However, everyone seemed to have gotten home fine and the couple is on the honeymoon.

Head on

Over the weekend, I was eating a lunch at a local sandwich spot with my girlfriend. We were seated by the window, and were people watching the entire time. Mainly, we commented on the numerous dogs that were being walked on the great day.

This little girl, maybe 3 years old, comes walking by with her family. She looks in the window and is distracted by something. Distracted enough that she doesn't realize her little body is turning in the direction that she is looking. She runs smack into the window right by me, bouncing off with a startled look. Her dad looks in the window just in time to see me bust up laughing at his daughter. Luckily, he laughed it off too, as his daughter straightened herself out and kept walking.

But I think the point and laugh probably indicates that is good I don't have my own children.

Buy American

My friends from this post came back to the Chicagoland area this past week. They returned with a child. They skipped the whole "insert rod A into slot B, shake, stir, pour, bake at 96 degrees for 9 months" method and instead adopted. In these tough economic times, they chose to buy American and went with a local baby. This was the first time the baby had come to the Midwest, so they had a little party to welcome him. Like the wedding, this party was long on booze, short on people our age. They had their baby shower at a bar. With an open bar. I have classy friends.

For whatever reason, I was the only similarly aged friend to jump on the train and take it out to the suburbs. Sadly, I fouled up the train schedule and missed the train I wanted. This caused me to stay a little later than I really wanted to. Especially with none of our other friends there. I felt bad monopolizing my friends' time, as everyone else there was family. Nor could I really volunteer to help with the kid, because he is the first grandson on both sides and was by far the star of the show.

So after catching up as best I could, I just left a little early and spent my time reading and waiting for the train to take me back to the city. At least I had my pants.

On a brighter note, I made the best pork chops of my life on Monday. I love pork chops, but have always sucked at making them, always too dry. So I hope I have turned the corner here, because my life will be so much better if I have.

I got lazy

I got very lazy.

A lot has changed. I have a real girlfriend. I bought a condo. The girlfriend does not appreciate the fact that my condo's living room currently just has a laz-e-boy in front of the new big screen plasma tv. I still don't understand women...

Work

I hate my job. It makes me almost physically sick. I do not enjoy it. Basically, it boils down to the fact that I do not care about other peoples' problems.

I am also up for my annual review later this month. I am very close to just declining the review and stating I am not interested at staying on. Of course, then I would have no job. But a part of me thinks that the pressure of that may spark me to find something better for me.

Mood Music

Not sure if I really want to write about the new girl, as it is going really well, but I do want to share this experience.

Last night, we went out to eat at a very small, romantic, tasteful Italian restaurant. It is highly recommended as a date place, by word of mouth and by the Internet. We go in and start reviewing the menu. The music is modern at this place. In fact, I think they just hook up a worker's iPod and let it do its thing. Which is fine by me, I actually really like Nelly, and don't mind random N*Sync and other popular music. There was nothing too offensive at all. However, one song clearly needed to be removed from the iPod:

The Sponge Bob Squarepants theme.