Chicago trip/Signature Room/Shedd Aquarium/Surviving Cougar Attacks/Turning 23....

Yeah I stole the title idea from Seth Meyer. I've had a couple fun and busy days. Here it goes....

Last Friday the 9th I skipped all my classes...ok I actually slept through my first two and went down to Chicago to celebrate Shelly's and my b-day. I caught the Van Galder at 11:30 and got down to Chicago about 3:15. I got on the train to Evanston at 3:30 and then went to Whole Foods for a little bit of a snack before Shelly and my adventure to The Signature Room at the 95th. I met up with Shelly at about 5:30 and we relaxed a little before getting ready for the dinner. The Signature Room is a very dressy and kinda expensive restaurant, but I totally recommend it. If you like being a high roller like me then the money is well worth it.

The dinner started out with a glass of masi white wine from Veneto, Italy for Shelly and an A to Z rose wine from Oregon for me. The Appetizer came, which was a delicious marinated shrimp with almonds. Oh my god was that awesome. Shelly had the special that night: lobster, shrimp and scallop pasta, while I opted for the seared duck breast. Both were full of flavor and it was pretty much sadness when it was all gone. For dessert I wanted to surprise Shelly for her birthday. I made arrangements for a birthday dessert. The waiter came over gave us some silverware for dessert and as he walked away he gave me a wink. Shelly was a little confused "how did he know we I wanted dessert?" Then he walked out with a slice of their signature white and dark chocolate mousse cake with a candle on top and "Happy Birthday Shelly" written on the plate. She was completely shocked! The dinner was amazing and both of us were happy with the whole experience. The view was beautiful as well. If you get the chance, I say you should try it out! I just wish I remembered to bring my camera that night to show you a little of the experience...and for myself of course. I'll just have to remember it.

On Saturday Gehling drove down and we went for sushi. After that Shelly and I surprised Gehling by bringing him to the Shedd Aquarium.


Here's proof....

It was a pretty good time. The Komodo Dragon was the main attraction and was pretty sweet. Here's a couple pics of the time spent there....


Sweet Ass jellyfish....


Most awesome Chameleon I've ever seen....


Look! A chupacabra! Or wait maybe its a Komodo Dragon...you know what...chupacabra sounds cooler, so its a chupacabra....


Dragonhorses/Seahorses....


This thing just creeped the hell out of me....

It was pretty sweet and was lots of fun. I haven't been there since about junior high I think, maybe even longer. So it was nice experiencing it again!

I'm getting a bit tired and the cougar story is pretty long...so I think I'll keep you in suspense and tell you that story tomorrow. It needs its own blog entry anyways...Don't worry, you'll like! Especially the pics!

Before Gehling and I had the leave Shelly on Sunday we ran into Seth Meyer at ICB (the coffee place he talks about all the fricken time. jk Seth). It was nice to see him before I left. I think he did like a 20 hr ride or something that morning...that dude is so hardcore! Good thing Shelly noticed the bikes outside of ICB or we would have totally missed him.

To end this entry...I turned 23 today. I definitely feel old, yet young. I went on a ride today and all of a sudden started thinking about how I'm 23 fricken years old. Its crazy. For my b-day a couple of us went to the Great Dane for dinner, darts and drinks. I was drunk after one crop circle wheat beer and a white russian....I am such a cheap date. Darts was a blast...I've been playing that with Geo and Gehling so much lately. I'm only good when I'm a little tipsy. I think I got so tipsy so fast because I went on a 2.5 hr bike ride and then went to the SERF and lifted for about 1.5 hrs and didn't have too much to eat before those drinks. Awesome! It was a pretty good and relaxing day overall, which was really nice, but now for the rest of the week I'll be doing homework like crazy. Semester is almost over though. And I register for classes tomorrow afternoon! That's always fun for me for some odd reason....

Alright, well I'll leave you with a pretty sweet pic of Chicago....


OOOOHHHHH....AAAAHHHHHH

I think I may try and see if Dallas wants to live in Chicago next summer seeing that we're both on teams out of Chicago so we would be able to ride with them and travel a little easier with them as well. It also gives us a way to experience some new things other than Madtown. We'll see...

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Sweet Jesus....

I promise an update this evening...the weekend must be talked about.

-Signature Room
-Shedd Aquarium
-Dueling Piano Bar
-Cougars
-Pictures

Yeah...all I can say is craziness. Oh and I went for a ride today in the hurricane weather

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Almost....

I'm almost over this cold. I haven't been coughing, the sore throat is gone and I'm feeling a little more energized. I talked with my coach and he got me a bit more motivated tonight. I'll be getting back on the bike on Wednesday (due to time constraints tomorrow). Tomorrow, though, I have some time to get to the gym and lift. I kinda feel like going on some 6 hr rides....

Next week will be a lot better for going on these longer rides. But tomorrow I need to work at the commissary for my Food Science class again (week 2 out of 3). After that I have to go in for the cycling research study. Hold a certain amount of wattage for as long as I can, then at 3 I need to head to the Rock Agency and do my monologue for my boss so I can get my scripts and commericals for IMTA.....I only have 8 more weeks until I'm in L.A. I need to buy my plane tickets. So much right now!!!

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

I suck....

....at updating this thing.

But I do have some good excuses. 40 page project, 5 page paper, 4 exams, stats homework, acting class, BikePractice, work, and somehow sleeping. See I was busy...so don't yell at me. Even tonight though, I won't be able to talk about everything I've been up to. So tonights entry shall be able Halloween Weekend in Madison.

It all started Thursday night when I pulled an all-nighter to get the 40 page project done for my food science class. That sure was fun as it totally wiped me out the next day. I slept somewhat cuz I knew the weekend was going to be busy and sleep was not on that schedule. At 4:30 I got ready in my kit for the homecoming parade. I baby-oiled up the legs. That was sweet. I may have to be "that guy" during a race this coming year with the oiled legs! I know you're jealous. So the parade was fun and went by pretty fast and was done in no time...but its been better in years past. After that Minch came down and Shelly did as well. The guys from Sheboygan were suppose to come, but I guess some things came up.

After the parade Ben, the roommates, and I went to go get some costume supplies. We were going as foot clan soldiers from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Most people just thought we were Ninjas...NO!


I think the costume came out pretty well....

Night 1 we went to a teammates house for a party. It was decent. Not much was going on, but it was a good time. And then one of my roommates...I won't say who drank a little too much and prayed to the porcelain god. For a while. But overall the night was fun.

The next day was filled with fun. Geo, Shelly, Gehling and I went to the farmers market to pick up some produce and some stuff for the grill out we would be having later. A trip to the zoo was in store for Shelly and I later in the day before the grill out. I guess the animals go to sleep early or something. It was kinda empty at 4pm when we went. But still got some good pics. My camera died during the trip so Shelly has most of the pics. I'll see if I can get any.


Seal...


Camel...


Ostrich...

Then came the grill out. That was fun. We had so much fun. We had steak, ostrich burgers, vension brats, hot sausage, regular brats, grilled peppers, potatoes, chips and I made some brownies for dessert. Yes, it was good! I was very full by the end. So then we had to get ready for going out night #2. But it looked like it was just going to be Gehling, Shelly and me. We kinda changed up our costumes. Gehling was a redneck and shaved his facial hair into a Fu-man-chu, I wore Shelly's renaissance dress from the night before. And Shelly had the best costume out of all of us. She wore the same creepy guy costume I wore last year. We drew her a mustache and some side burns. It was perfect. She played the part very well too.


Picture this, but Shelly. It was awesome! I'll have a pic of the 3 of us soon enough. You'll have to see it!

We hung out at Gehling's house for a bit and then ended up at state st for the people watching. Some interesting costumes, but nothing super unique. Halloween is always an interesting time.

I wish the weekend could have lasted forever. It was just so much fun and made me happy. I've needed that for awhile. I've been way too busy and haven't had any time for pretty much anything. So this was a much needed break from reality. I somehow lost my voice over the weekend. Don't know how...I guess I yelled too much and it just kept building over the weekend.

Well, I have to wake up super early tomorrow and work in foodservice. Its going to suck. And then I have an exam that I'll have to study for all day for at 7:15 tomorrow night. I better get to sleep. But then the week is easy and it'll be the weekend in no time.

I'll get a good report up about life pretty soon. Maybe after my exam.

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Is late now....

....so just to let you know, my next entry shall include:

1) Cycling & Training
2) School
3) Acting Class
4) Modeling Pics
5) Randomness

I need sleep now...but a blog shall be written within the next couple of days. Sorry for the delay....

Thought you should just know that I'm still among the living....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

P.S. Here's a teaser....


Photography by Jeff Wilson

Hydration vs. Dehydration....

....which one is better?

So I'm getting this written a little late, but at least I'm doing it. Saturday I drove down to Rockford with Baumann to compete in the last RR of the season...Fall Fling #3. First off, I don't know if the midwest knows this, but its OCTOBER!!! Not the middle of the summer. What the hell!?! This weekend was so hot and humid...it was uncomfortable. I mean come on...a man died doing the Chicago marathon on Sunday.

Ok back to the race. Baumann and I got to the race site at about 9:30am with our race going off at 12:35pm. So I just sat around for a bit, tried to do some homework, met with Dan Mendoza (from Purdue), and saw Seth Meyer and Will Nowak (from Northwestern). Dan and I rode a quick lap to see what we were in for and then Will, Seth, Dan and I all went for another lap. This course was extremely boring. It was a 8 mile rectangle course with one or two moderate "hills" on each side. These "moderate hills" were just bumps in the road and weren't hard at all. Everything was big ringed. The only limiting factor in the race was going to be the crosswinds on the 2 longest sides. Oh and we were doing 6 laps...a total of 48 miles.

It was a 1/2/3 race. There were about 15 cat 1/2's and about 45 cat 3's. We started the extremely hot race out kind of slow. There were a couple attacks to test the field, but nothing much at all. The first 2.5 laps were pretty easy. I tried going with an attack at the end of lap 3...it didn't go anywhere. It was brought back pretty quickly. At the end of lap 3 I started getting a little of the cold shivers. Crap...dehydration is setting in. Lap 4 was the hardest. ABD decided to drill it in the crosswind on the 4th side. That broke apart the field to bits and pieces. A lead group of about 10-12 got a good gap. About 4 Cat 3's in front of me decided to give up and I had to chase. There were about 10 of us fighting to get back to the main pack. Me and 2 others did a lot of work to chase done the front group. I may have used a little too much energy to get back, but the 10 of us made it back to the lead group on lap 5. So by this time I was in the lead group of 20 or so, which started out with 60+. I was definitely feeling pretty good about that. However, I ran out of water and the cold shivers were not going away. I got to the end of lap 5 and had to drop out due to dehydration issues. I was kind of angry. So close. But oh well...I know where my fitness is and found out that I have to start drinking a lot more water.

I just wish it was cooler out this weekend. This heat has been killing me....

This week is not really good for bike practice, which kind of sucks. Way too much homework and exams to do this week, but it'll all be done on Friday and then I get a little bit of a break. So next week will hopefully begin some good winter off-season training. February will be here in no time....

Oh and I do have a new team for next year. Looks like I'll be riding for Team Get A Grip Cycling out of Chicago for the 2008 season. So thanks to Jon Tenney for accepting me on to the team. They offered me some good deals and I know most of the guys I'll be riding with. We'll be doing a lot more of the stage races around the country/midwest. Hopefully the program develops me into a Cat 1 rider. I think it will.

Ok...well, its getting late and I still have a little bit of homework to do, so I must go....

Oh, I was planning on taking pictures at the race this weekend...but it just never happened. I'll make sure to take some soon to get this blog un-boring....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Just A Quick Update....

Just got back from a hard interval ride out west. Legs felt extremely shitty in the beginning, but came to quickly. Just 2 hrs, because I have to get ready here and get to acting class.

I'm getting better about the passing of my dog. My mom says that if she gets another dog she'll probably get another chihuahua. But that probably won't happen until spring if anything.

I rocked my Nutri Sci 510 exam. Well, hopefully I did. I think I at least came out of there with a B. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I guess my short term memory is pretty good after practicing it for the last 5 years of college. Screw studying for an exam a week before it....night before is fine.

I will probably be racing the RR at the Fall Fling this Saturday. Should be interesting seeing that I have raced a bike in 2 months. Hopefully I can stay up with all those fast guys. Or at least not be as burnt out as they are.

Well, shower time....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Remembering....

After last night I decided to drive home to see Einstein one last time. It was too late for him to see me, but it made me feel a little better to see him one last time. So after my first class I drove back to Stevens Point today. I got to hold him and say goodbye. I kissed him on the head and he moaned. I know that it was just air escaping, but it sounded exactly like a moan when he would sleep. I took it as him saying hi and bye. That got to me. I held him for awhile.

I comforted my mom for awhile too. Its hard for her. She got to see him everyday and had a routine with him. Now its just her and the cat in the house. We remembered some memories of funny things he did in his life and talked about how he was a good dog.

We brought him to the vet...we're having him cremated. We'll get the ashes back so he'll be home soon. We kept some of his hair and his collar. We also got some pictures of him printed off. It'll be hard for the next couple days still...I don't have anymore tears in the matter, but I'm numb. I lose focus, and just stare off into space. I'm just not there. It was hard studying tonight. I'll get better...I've been through this with two other dogs. Einstein was just special...he had a certain personality.

Kinda makes you think about death though....

Hopefully I'll have a more upbeat entry soon....

R.I.P Einstein
March 1997 - Oct 1, 2007

Goodbye Einstein....

My mom just called me about half an hour ago. My dog Einstein has passed away....

Three weeks ago the doctors found that he had a heart problem. My mom started getting medication for him. Sounded like he was doing alot better after he was taking the medication. He has had some seizures in the past, but those went away after the medication was given. And then tonight...I thought everything was going fine and then my mother called. She told me that Einstein wasn't breathing anymore and was still. He was having a very hard time breathing. Einstein knew, himself, that it was his time though, because of how he was acting. My mom has been holding him. And now I guess he's at rest. Peace.

Its just hard for me right now. 10 years is a long time to know someone, love them and then just lose them. He was family. I chose him when he was just 12 weeks old. So small. So energetic. So cute. I just can't imagine him not moving anymore. Barking at my friends...biting their ankles and then running away. The Cat and him fighting. I had a chance to go home last weekend and I didn't go. Thats what hurts the most...I had a chance to at least see him one last time. I don't remember the last time I was home and got to hold him or play with him. He was the one to spend the day with me while I was home alone. I would feed him a little piece of my bagel, cuz he was always bugging me to have some. Yes I was attached to him. He was a good dog. Yeah he was a little chihuahua. He always knew when something was wrong and would come over to you and make you feel better.

I wonder if he was asking where I was just to say bye one last time....and if he was I feel so bad for not being there. Just to hold him. I'm happy though that he was held by someone that loved him and he loved back...my mom. Atleast she was around for his last moments and he didn't have to go through all of this pain by himself tomorrow. She was able to comfort him.

Good bye Einstein. I love you.

What did I do today?....

....well, first off Mark and I stayed up until 3am watching Clue (1985) and Bulletproof Monk. Yeah, it was bad movie night for us. We decided to say screw you homework and did none. So then today...my super exciting day...I got up at noon, ate breakfast/lunch, sat on the couch and then past out again until 4:30pm. I then sat on the couch and watched America's Funniest Home Videos. Good times.

I finally got to the coffeeshop at 6pm to start doing my homework...which I should have been doing all day. Sat there for about 3 hours doing multiple quizzes and studying for NS 510. Then...we (Steamer and Gehling) checked the weather, cuz it started to lightening and the wind was getting a little strong. Well, there was a big storm coming so we decided to haul ass home before we would get soaked. And now its raining.

I will probably be up for awhile tonight trying to learn a crapload of stuff. But Mark and I will probably put in a couple more "bad" movies while doing homework...we'll see if we get stuff done.

Oh and I've been denied by two teams so far...but I understand why. One is only a Pro/1 team only and the other one pretty much had their roster set in July. So I've learned a couple things so far. They given me some good tips and now I know for next year...get my resume out in June for the 2009 season. Oh well...I'm still waiting on 3 more teams' answers.

Time to learn some more of this shit....



And this....



Yeah...my life is boring. I'll have an interesting post one of these days soon....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Lookin' Good....

I took a day off the bike today to recover from the previous 3 super hard rides. I was going to make sure to be recovered for the CX race at Lapham Park tomorrow, but I didn't have enough time to get all the parts I need to get a fully working CX bike. I'm bummed, but at least I know that I'm racing next weekend. So looks like I'll just be going on a longer ride tomorrow to start the base miles....kinda depends on how much homework I get done....

So instead of the cycling thing today...I did the photo shoot thing. I went to the same photographer as I went to last year and he remembered me. But this time, he liked what I did even more. He even had to tell me that he was "going to shoot the shit out of me today". It was awesome. I definitely went out of my comfort zone. The pictures were much more intense and looked amazingly better. I don't look anything like I did last year. You'll see a couple of the photos soon enough...I'll get them in about 2 weeks, maybe even sooner! So I won't go into details until later about outfit and everything.

I guess the europeans are going to just eat up my photos, because I have an "androgynous look"...which makes me look European a little bit. Don't take that the wrong way...its a good thing in modeling...and thats good for me, if its good for modeling.

Crazy thing though....I have to get even better. Workout more, watch the diet more...its a crazy life. Cycling and modeling. And just think I want to go P-R-O in both. I think I have a good chance for both. You've got to try the P-R-O life to know if you like it or not (So true Seth Meyer). I think I'm going to enjoy it....

Well time to study how fatty acids, carbohydrates and proteins are catabolized and anabolized in the body. Yeah I know, you're jealous....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Next Year's Team....

So I've sent my resume and goals to about 5 teams for next year. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Time to start training hard. Stay tuned....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Coming Into Form A Little Late....

So since I've been getting back on the bike, I've noticed that I'm stronger. I've been tearing off some legs. I've been able to go harder for much longer. Still have no sprint though. Maybe after taking 1.5 months off the legs are fresh and want to spin. That would have been useful during the season. I've definitely missed the bike and it has made me think about next season. I'm trying to decide on teams for next year right now. I'll probably send my resume to a couple this weekend. I really want to get on some type of development (pro) team...so if any of you have any ideas, please tell me. I want to grow into a better cyclist and improve into the high ranks. Be able to do more NRC races and more stage races. So yeah, if you have any opinions, do tell.

CX this Sunday in Oconomowoc and then Fall Fling RR on Oct 6. I want to show what I have at these two races. I'm staying in Cat 3 for CX and then upgrading if I win. After that all happens, winter training starts hardcore with CX on the weekends for some intensity.

I need a team for next year....

I hate school...thank god I graduate Dec '08....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Play Or You'll Never Know....

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I haven't blogged in awhile...and I bet it was killing all of you. Sorry but I'm going to make this short, because its 1:15am and I have a quiz I have not studied for in 8 hours....

So we're into the 4th week of the semester already and that means exams soon. I have a nutritional biochem exam this coming Tuesday. After that I'll have a FS 437 exam, then Ed psych exam, a huge 25 page project for FS 437 and then a stats exam. This is all before the 12th of October. So these next couple of weeks will be busy...not actually tough, just tedious work. But then right after that last exam on the 12th I'm planning on heading down to Chicago.

Other than that I've gotten back on the bike and feel fresh and stronger. I've started training for CX and one last RR on Oct 6 down by Rockford. I've started up a Friday Coffee Ride for the UW team...just an hour easy and then go get some coffee on State St. Its a nice way to meet newbies and get an easy ride in between super hard rides.

About 2 or 3 weeks ago the Freshman 15 ride was held. About 40 people came out...met some new members, watched Steamer punch the asphalt with his face trying to do a wheelie, and had a good time. Took some pics....Oh and by the way, I purchased a new camera, so more pictures should be going up on here as I ocassionally update this thing.


Julio and I showing the Freshman how its done....


This is right after Steamer punched the asphalt with his face....


At Espresso Royale after the ride...Julio looks excited as all hell....

I'll be starting the real, hardcore winter training in October. Hoping for some really good results next year and another upgrade. I'll be racing for a new team probably. I'll let you know about that later when stuff actually goes through.

As for acting class...I've been working on the monologue that I will be doing at IMTA. Do you remember the show "The Kids In The Hall"? Well, if you don't, it was a spinoff of SNL in the late 80's/early 90's. I'm doing an "open letter to the guy that stole my bike wheel". Should be a good one. I've been going to acting class every Saturday morning and soon will be going every Wednesday AND Saturday. I also have a photo shoot this Saturday morning to build my portfolio for IMTA. That'll be a fun time, except for the 8am start and then acting class right after it. Oh well, I guess it has to be done.

Well, I just want to give you a quick overview of what's been going on with my life. I'm having a good time, but something is missing...and I know what it is. Time to get to bed...gotta wake up early and memorize the Urea Cycle. I say it all the time, but I'll try and keep this updated more....like Seth Meyer's Blog.

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

My 100th Blog....

Yeah 100th blog...craziness, I know....

So its 2:10am and I'm at work. People are retarded on weekends. I really don't enjoy talking to drunkards that don't understand why they can't get a "free" ride. The night will be done soon, and I'm exhausted. I walked pretty much the whole shift...from one end of the campus to the other end and then back again. Yeah, thats a lot of walking. Now I'm helping the dispatcher with all the dumb people out there....

Tomorrow I'll be doing a little bit of shopping and hopefully getting in a ride and some homework. So it should be a nice relaxing day.

As of lately I've been running alot. I've been doing the Parcourse over by the Nat. Its a 2.5 loop with 18 exercise stations. You run between them and then do the exercise. I believe its for ROTC people. Its hard as hell and Tanner Gregory has been pushing me pretty hard. I'm definitely getting stronger and faster and I'm definitely seeing a difference in my body....and I think the running has been working for my cycling. The other day I went out on a ride and was able to push it harder than I ever have on the flats. Its interesting...or maybe my legs know what its like to be "fresh" again after not touching a bike for a month or so.

If you want to know where the parcourse is and want to be crazy like me here's the map to the course:

http://www.recsports.wisc.edu/nat/parcourse.pdf

Well, sorry that this post was a little boring and didn't have much substance, but I was kinda bored and had nothing to really do. I should have more important and exciting updates to come soon...and hopefully some pics too. Who knows...I may buy a camera tomorrow while doing all that shopping....

Ciao ciao...
Waitey

Improvisation....

So today I had my first acting class at the Rock Agency....

Right when I got there I was taken aside and had some polaroids taken of me. I might have a gig in St. Louis sometime soon. A casino in St. Louis is looking for fun and sexy looking people for a photo shoot. I guess the rate is really good and they'll fly me down there and I would suspect I get to stay in a hotel free of charge. That would be pretty sweet. They are going to submit the polaroids tomorrow and I should know early next week.

The class itself is going to be fun. I think we're going to work more on improv. Today we just got to know each other, played two truths and a lie (to see if we can stay calm and composed...one guy thought I played poker, cuz I had such a good poker face I guess. And they guessed wrong about my lie...actually no one got it). After that we did one word story...you know one person says one word and then the next says one word and so on and you make a story out of it.

So that was the class for week one. I think it'll get more intense soon. I have to find myself a monologue by next wednesday. I have no idea what I'm going to find. We'll see and I'll let you know....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

The Start Of My 5th Year....

September 4th, 2007 begins my 5th year as a college student. I'm kind of ready to be done with this school thing...even though I want to go back many more times for many more majors. Kind of an oxymoron. Even after this year I have one more year left and then a 900 hour minimum internship somewhere in the U.S. Then I have to take an RD exam. Three more years before I can even start a real life job. I don't know...if I get a really good contract deal after IMTA I may take a bit of time off of school. But to be serious...I don't think I could just quit school. I need some type of backup, just in case.

Well, my classes for this semester are as follows:

Food Sci 437: Food Service Operations
Food Sci 438: Food Service Operations Lab
Nutri Sci 510: Advanced Human & Animal Nutritional Biochemisty
Ed Psych 301: Human Learning
Stats 301: Intro to Statistics

Its actually turning out to be a not so hard schedule. I think the hardest class will be Stats 301, because I hate Stats so much. I'm done at noon or two everyday.

With all of this I'm going to start taking some more classes at the SERF this semester. I'm going to start taking yoga, powerflow (a pilates + yoga class), core crunch and I think I'm going to start swimming once a week. And I'm starting tomorrow with the classes....not all at once of course. Oh and don't worry...the cycling is still in there as well. Most of these classes are in the morning, so biking will be all afternoon....

It'll be a busy semester....a lot is happening and a lot is on my plate. I like it though. I still want to take some more trips too...

Ok off to the SERF now actually to meet up with Tanner....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Pirates, The Polish Pimp, Signature Room on the 95th, and a Bag of Nuts ....

I had an AWESOME and AMAZING weekend!!! I traveled down to Chicago/Evanston to visit Shelly and tour some of the cities. There was not a dull moment and I’m actually planning a trip back very very soon....possibly in about 3 weeks if things go smoothly. So here’s what we did in 4 days....Oh and every day was perfect without a single cloud in the sky and 80 degrees!!!

Friday:
I got on the Van Galder bus at 2pm from the Memorial Union. Minch dropped me off since he was in town to hang out. I got to the MU at 1:15pm, because I didn’t know if the bus would be busy or not seeing that it was a Holiday weekend (Labor Day).

The bus got to the MU a little late. But I got a good seat all to myself. After the first stop I had a bigger guy take the seat next to me...pretty much coming over into my seat, so the ride became a little uncomfortable for a little bit. The next stop the seats in front of me opened up and he moved to them. AH leg room again! When we got to Rockford I had a girl board the bus and sit next to me. She must have been tired, because she fell asleep pretty fast. Bad thing....she really wasn’t that cute and her head began to migrate towards my shoulder. Thank god never fell on my shoulder...she was probably drooling.

The bus arrived at the Union Station on the corner of Jackson & Canal in downtown Chicago. I saw Shelly out the window waiting for me patiently. I got out and met up with her. I was very happy to see her...but we needed to catch the Metra to Evanston and it was leaving in 5 minutes. We hailed a cab and told him to take us to the Train Station. He informed us that it was only about 1 and a half blocks away. He definitely wanted a larger fare. Shelly knew it wasn’t only a block and a half. Turned out it was 4 blocks away. Yeah, we walked/ran at a fairly quick pace. We barely caught the train, but we made it. Shelly and I got caught up on life a little bit until our stop at Davis.

We made it to her apartment and got changed quick. We were meeting some of her friends at the Jazz Festival going on in Grant Park. It was getting a little colder outside so we put on a couple of layers. We caught the L and took it into Chicago. It was a 45-minute train ride so we caught up some more. Shelly is always good conversation. She told me a bit about the “community” on the L...I definitely got to see what she meant over the weekend. You’ll just have to experience it yourself if you haven’t already.

We got into Chicago and made our way over to Grant Park after asking for some directions. Very nice guy gave us directions and we made it with ease. On the way Shelly showed me the “Vag” shaped building. Shelly described it as a “yonch” (I believe that’s how it was spelled) instead of phallic. The lights of the city were amazing and had a certain mood, which I found relaxing. We met up with Shelly’s friends and listened and talked through the rest of the jazz concert.

After that Shelly and I went to Chili’s to get a little food in us. The others went to drink some on the 25th floor of some apartment building with better security than a federal prison. Shelly and I had some good food at Chili’s....now I know its not chicago style food or anything, but it was good to us. We met up with her friends on the 25th floor. Now this girl thinks her apartment is amazing...um yeah about that. The view out to the city...yes that is awesome. Yet one should hang something on his/her walls to at least bring some life into the room. It was very bare and not really interesting. Shelly and I each had a beer to end the night, while the others went out and drank until 3am or something like that. We caught the L back at around 1am and headed straight to bed when we got back.

Saturday:
This was an extremely fun-filled busy day. We did wake up a little later...maybe about 10:30/11:00am to recover from the late night. We got ready got some breakfast at Whole Foods (which is exponentially cooler than the one in Madison, by the way). We took it on the L and headed into the city. Our first stop Millenium Park.

Millenium Park is pretty sweet. “The Bean” is really cool and the inside of it is, well, “tripping”. We defintiely took some good pictures of us in front of it and around it. Next we headed over to the Band Shell. Yeah...it looks like someone blew it up after creating it and decided that was better than their original design...which was. We continued through the park and stopped at the “boardwalk river” and dunked our feet in for a little bit. Yeah it was a tid bit nipply, but felt amazing on this 80 degree, no cloud in sight, sunny day. Some sunscreen was applied and guns were showed off...mostly Shelly’s. We continued on after about 20 minutes. Oh and I guess Shelly had a surprise for me, but was going to keep it a secret!

So we started walking....where we were going, I had no idea. I then saw Navy Pier come into sight and thought it was possibly at Navy Pier. It was, but I still had no idea what we were going to do. Finally Shelly stopped the suspense and told me. I had the option of renting some bikes and biking along the lakeshore...or...sail on a pirate ship! I picked the pirate ship. It was a really fun boat ride. Shelly and I made a lot of fun of the deck hands...as they talked about sausage-fests and flirted with each other. We got some really nice photos and some funny ones, which I’ll get up later. We had an excellent time on the boat. It was nice a calm and we had some good talks as well.

Right when we got off the boat we bought some well deserved Brown Sugar Cinnamon Roasted Almonds. My God are those things GOOD! We finished off a ½ pound of those babies in under 10 minutes, no doubt. We headed back over to Michigan Ave to do a little shopping after that fun adventure.

We got in a bunch of stores...more than I can remember. I got to try on some Rock & Republic Jeans too. Yeah that team that decided to take over Superweek. I tried on the jeans and they were really nice. But I know why they are so well funded. The cheapest pair of jeans was 205$! Um yeah I’ll pass for now on those. We just tried on some stuff and looked through the stores. Just a couple things were bought.

We decided we would eat at The Cheesecake Factory. It was pretty busy, but only had to wait 30 minutes. Their menu is 19 freakin’ pages long! It was so hard to choose. I finally decided on a Spicy Chicken Chipotle Pasta. After the meal Shelly and I decided we would get a slice of cheesecake to bring home. About 2 pages of just cheesecakes...this was going to be hard. We ended up getting a Dutch Apple Streusel Cheesecake. Yes it was delicious when we had it later in the evening.

Our final stop of the night....The Signature Room on the 95th for a night cap. It was a lounge/bar/restaurant on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building. It was a busy night...but I bet its always busy. We finally got a table after a 50min wait or so I would say. It was close to the window and the view was amazing and actually kind of breathtaking. Shelly ordered a glass of Champagne, while I got a Lake Shore Martini, which included Grey Goose Vodka, Chombard, and Champagne. Both drinks were 12$, but worth it. This was the type of bar I enjoyed being at. Expensive drink in a nice atmosphere, beautiful view and good company is always fun for me. Shelly and I talked for the next hour, while sipping on our drinks. Our talk was serious, funny, interesting, and exciting. We then took a walk around the Signature Room and took a couple pictures of the city and of us.

It was time to head back to Evanston. We got on the L and it smelled like someone defecated all over the place. We met some Freshmen for Loyola and joked with them about it. Somehow Shelly knew they were Freshmen right away....probably that psychology major she just got. After 3 stops we all decided there was no way we were going to be able to survive in these conditions. At the 4th stop we jumped off that car and ran to the next one. Smelled a lot better. We got home not too late this time but we were exhausted. We passed out pretty quickly...well after looking for speedos for me and looking at some other fun things....

Sunday:
We woke up at 11:30am still tired. Today we were going to stay in Evanston and tour. We also decided that this was going to be the day we do a little sunbathing. We got our swimsuits ready and headed over to Subway to get lunch while on the beach. On the way to the beach Shelly gave me a nice tour of Northwestern. Where her dorm the first two years was, the library, the student center, and the infamous It is a very beautiful college. Very green. It’s nothing like UW-Madison. And Northwestern is packed together unlike spread out Madison. She also showed me where she works. Her office is the one of the best in the building. Two large windows to bring a lot of light into the room, her own computer/s, and the office itself is large. She’s got a pretty sweet set up. I guess her office is better than her boss’.

Making our way to the beach was a little hard with construction all over the place. There was actually no way to get over to the beach, so we decided to set up on the rocks along the lake shore. The skyline was visible to our right and the water did not end. We picked out a nice flat rock and made it ours. We ate lunch and sunbathed. We were there for about 2 hours or so...time just flew because it was so fun. As I got burned we had a long conversation with many tangents. Our conversation was held our a very wide spectrum....deep, humorous, informative, etc. Who knows how we do it, but we can talk about anything and keep finding more to talk about...I love it.

We met up with Seth Meyer and Chris, Sam and Matt (Shelly’s friends) at Blind Faith Cafe, a vegetarian restaurant and had an amazingly good meal. Sam tried to test me...he looked at the bill and asked me to guess the total within 2 cents. If I guessed correctly he would buy my meal. I kind of memorized the menu somehow and guessed. I guessed 86.54$. The bill was actually 100.98$, but I didn’t know that gratuity was already included. So we took out the gratuity and found that the bill was 86.62$....I was 8 cents off. Damn it. Shelly was pretty close to with a guess of 87$. But no free meal....oh well.

Shelly invited everyone up for some wine/beer. Chris, Sam and Matt came up. We all had a drink...Shelly poured me two glasses of wine...and I was drunk. Yeah, I know, I’m a lightweight. We all tried Shelly’s new moist heat neck rest she just got in the mail. Yeah, all I can say is that it was weird and kinda smelled bad at first....but it got better.

They didn’t stay long (we think they may have gone out for the 3rd night in a row). It was getting late, but Shelly and I decided to pop in the movie Big (with Tom Hanks) and make it a late night of movies. We passed out pretty late....and we had spinning class to go to in the morning. Eh, it was the weekend....gotta make it fun somehow. And I know cycling tired has given me some of my better performances.

Monday:
Ok so the staying up late and watching movies kinda made us tired, but we still got up at about 10:30 or so. Shelly had a free guest pass to the gym so we were going to go to a spinning class. When we got there we found out that they changed the schedule for Labor Day and there was no spinning class at noon. So we decided on the next best thing...pilates. Ok all I can say is this class kicked my ass. I swear to god it was harder than riding my bike. I got done and I could barely walk....I’m going to do pilates more. Thanks for taking me to that Shelly!

After our grueling workout we ate at Wild Oats...which is exactly the same as Whole Foods. I packed my stuff up after lunch and then we took a nap before I had to catch the Metra into Chicago at 5pm. Shelly and I said bye to each other before I got on the train and parted ways....


And now I’m here. Sorry I wrote so much...you probably got bored. Well, I wasn’t. I’m somewhere between Rockford and Madison. I’ll be home soon. I really don’t want to be. This weekend was the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. Shelly made the weekend really fun and she was a good hostess and it was really good to see her again and hang out with her for 4 straight days. I miss the weekend already....but now I have to get ready to go to school tomorrow.

I’ll have some pictures up later. I had to use Shelly’s camera, because I do not have an operating camera right now. I’m looking for one...I’ll probably get one this week. But Shelly has all the pictures from this weekend....I’ll get them sometime soon.

I may be making plans to go back down to Evanston in about 3 weeks....maybe sooner. We’ll be able to do some of the things we weren’t able to do this weekend. Chicago is too big to do everything. But this weekend was filled to the brim. I can’t wait to go back.....

I wrote alot, but I hope I didn’t forget anything.....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

Soaking wet....

Will this rain ever stop???

So today was day 2 back on the bike. It rained this morning, I went to hand out bus passes. I almost choked some people for asking retarded questions. Over and over people would ask the same dumb question. Yes there are dumb questions. And I guess handing out bus passes to faculty and staff for 8 days so far is kinda getting to me. I'm easily annoyed as most of you should know.

After that I called up Steamer to see if we're still going on the ride we planned if it was nice out. It was definitely nice. 84 degrees, feels like 90. Sun was out and everything. Went home and got ready and went. We got to the lights on Seminole, stopped and got soaked....from our sweat. It was so fricken humid.

As we went along the clouds started covering the sky and it started getting dark. We were going to do a couple intervals up Observatory, but we decided against that idea. We hit Paoli and it started sprinkling. We turn on to Trail Range Rd and there's construction. So we had to CX it and go around it into a field and come out on the other side of it. It started raining a little harder at this point. Frye then says "Knock on carbon, but I think it won't get worse than this." Right when he finishes saying that the heavens decided it would be fun to "rain on Frye's parade". It started pouring. Within a couple minutes we were riding thru rivers on the road. I couldn't look forward because the rain was hitting my eyes so hard. I kept looking at the ground. My thighs were getting pelted and it felt like I was getting hit with hail. About 5 minutes later the rain comes to a complete halt. There were deep puddles everywhere. Then the sun comes out...and goes away very quickly. We're almost to Seminole again and then look to our right. Black, omnious clouds and you could see the rain. The thunder sounded like lightening blew up a house right next to us. Ok time to TT it back. We got back fine, but soaking wet.

I haven't had a fun ride like that for awhile now. Everything is still so serious even though this month was dedicated to "fun rides". And my legs felt awesome...its been awhile since I've felt like that. I guess 3 weeks off does give me a good break off the bike. It just takes the second day to actually feel good.

Well, I'm bored at work. Only 2 more hours to go. Hopefully I'll go home and just pass out...not stay up until 3am. Tomorrow is more torture...bus pass distribution. I've learned my lesson. Don't sign up for buss pass distribution shifts. After that hopefully its nice outside, because I want to sit at a coffeeshop all day and people watch. And seeing that madison is filling up again there are some crazy people and HOTT girls to watch.

And I should have a new digital camera soon. I get paid pretty soon and have some ideas on cameras. I'll take tons of pictures and then blog about random shit soon. Make this blog a little more interesting....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey

New Look....

Let me know if you like the new look! It was time for something new....

Ciao ciao....
Waitey