Sunday, July 30, 2006
Madison and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
It is now Saturday night. While I intend to write on Friday mornings, last week I didn’t post my message until Monday, so at least there is improvement. I will focus this entry on my trip so far in Madison, WI. Hopefully in my next entry I can do a little more critical thinking and less story telling, but I think both elements are important. To pick up where I left off, I had returned from U of I (which was after my trip to New York)…
I returned on Sunday July 9th, the day of the World Cup championship game. I Tivo’d the game because it was being played while I was on my way back from Champaign. I took all precautions necessary when Tivo’ing a sporting event.
Being able to Tivo a sporting event and not have the result ruined for you is a skill. You must be willing to sacrifice certain risky situations, but over the last two years I have become an expert. There are two important precautions one must take. The first is starting all conversations with “Don’t say anything about such and such.” The second is to avoid situations where information of that nature could be broadcasted (i.e. TV, internet, radio, friends). At school we went as far as establishing a rule in my room that sports could not be discussed without permission (after several incidents involving mostly Danny Cirulnick).
When I did finally watch the game I was very impressed and enjoyed the action until the final result. As much as I hate the French, I really hate Italian soccer. Plus you got to like Zidane and Henry. Which brings me to Zidane’s infamous exit via red card from a head butt, best header of his career.
The next two days were spent mostly finishing Eric’s website, working out, and goofing around before leaving for Madison. On Wednesday, Eric, Danny, and I drove north and I moved in to my home, Brad’s frat house, for the next month. We had one night of drunken debauchery with Brad, without any face punching incidents, at the bars before Kim (read: under 21) arrived.
The following day (Thursday), I woke up and the three of us drove to pick up Kim at the Madison airport. It had only been a week since I had seen her last, but it was great to have her in town. We grabbed a bite to eat at Amy’s and headed back to hang out at the house. When Brad and Tony returned from work we all headed to the lake. While at the lake we swam, played catch, and just laid out and enjoyed the nice weather. When we returned from the beach we met Bo, Brad’s frat brother, at the house and went out for a game of basketball. Dinner was at Vien Tien, a spicy and delicious Thai place. That night we drank again and walked pretty far for a house party tht was not worth the trip. The bars were not an option so we staggered all the way back to the house to finish the night. It was just great to be out with all of my friends and Kim.
Friday turned out to be a pretty lazy day. We returned to the beach for some more of the same, this time without Brad. When we got back to the car, climbed in, and drove about 20 feet before some guy informed us that we had a flat. Sure enough we did and we started to go through the normal procedure for changing a tire when it turned into the biggest hassle of all time. Eric’s car has a special nutlock that prevents you from taking off the tire without the nutkey. A pretty smart crime prevention system, until the key becomes worn down and ineffective at getting the nut off. It took a while before we called a tow truck as a last solution. When the tow truck came he had a pneumatic tool that he believed could do the trick. After about 30 seconds of failure he was about to quit when one last try knocked the nut free. From there it was easy does it, a quick tire change and we were finally on our way. When we made it back to the Pi Lambda Phi house it was time for a little grilling on the porch. This Friday started to shape out like most other days I spent in Madison, beach and grill. Kim and I were so tired by the end of the day that we just relaxed and called it an early night.
Saturday, Eric and Danny left for Chicago. Kim and I just took the day slow and hung out. My mom, Uncle Arthur, and Aunt Alyss came up to Madison. We ate at the Union, took a walk down lake shore path, and did some street shopping. It was nice to see my family and it was fun to see my Mom and uncle on their old territory. That night we made a point to have a nice dinner and we went to an Italian place on State Street, Toti Pasta. It was mostly good but the dish I ordered left something to be desired. It didn’t match up to Pasta Jay’s in Boulder.
Sunday morning Kim and I woke up to go sailing. We were going to rent a Mini-Skow but when we got there we decided to take out a Catamaran which is my favorite boat to sail. It was a windy and sunny day, perfect for sailing. I decided that it was unlikely that we would tip so I told Kim to bring my camera. You could probably guess what happened next. A gust of wind, a rusty sailor, and over we went. Kim was pretty freaked out as we went over, but recovered quickly. I had tipped a Cat dozens of times before so I was not that worried. There was a fee for recovering the boat so I tried really hard to get it back upright myself. We got very close once but it was to no avail and I became too weak to pull it effectively again. They came out to help but cut down the rescue fee substantially. Sailing was great; it was a lot of fun, even tipping. I was a little worried about my camera. I took the battery out and let everything dry. When I tried to fire it up the next day it would not start but a few days later I got it going again. Kim and I went for a pizza at Ian’s (I got steak and fries pizza) before I dropped her off at the airport. The rest of the day was settling myself in my room and taking care of all of the stuff I was putting off until everyone had left.
Since then things have been pretty quiet. I’ve been spending the majority of my days exercising, playing poker, working on my whatifsports team, and goofing around. I have been perfecting my technique at making bacon lorettas. A couple of fun and noteworthy things have happened since Kim left.
The following Wednesday and Thursday was Tony’s 21st birthday. Tony loves power hours and so do I, it made for a deadly combination and I passed out by 11:00 before everyone went out to the bars. The next night I learned from my mistakes and started a little later and made it to bar time and had some fun with all of Brad’s frat brothers. Friday morning I got my first sense of how ridiculous of drunks Brad’s friends are. After a hard night of drinking I woke up to the sound of Tony and everyone up early getting hammered again at 10:00 in the morning. It was like college game day. Friday, Brad’s frat and the frat across the street (Beta Theta Pi) closed off their court and set up outdoor beer pong. I was the only one in the house not drunk at noon. I went out for a run and when I returned Bo was passed out on the porch with empty bottles completely covering him. Moments later Bo awoke and attempted to go back down the stairs to the street when halfway he turned to go back up the stairs. He fell and sat their as his pants, then leg, then shoes got wet. With urine. Basically, Bo was so drunk that he completely pissed himself. The best part is he stumbles up to his room and when he gets there he doesn’t immediately change or take off his piss soaked pants, he opens his fridge and chows on Chinese food. A true drunk. The weekend continued in this way until Monday night.
But, it turns out Monday is the best night to go to the bars in Madison so we obliged. First we went to State Street Brats for dinner and to check out the Beer Exchange. In Brats on Mondays all beer prices are subject to change every 15 minutes depending on how well they sell. TV screens around the bar show the prices and trends of all of the beers. You can get $1 pints of local tasty beers, if you can buy low. Or if you get tired of waiting for the prices to dip as we did you could head to Vintage where they have $1 cups of Wisconsin beers. When I got there my friends were all already there and had a table outside. Unfortunately there was a bug line to get in, so I used some of my persuading powers to get in a little early. I convinced the doorman that I was already inside and I was taking a call. The story seemed especially suspicious because there was no empty chair at my friends’ table. I explained this by saying that one of the guys had not been there when I left. He either believed me or stopped caring and let me in. He looked like Morgan Spurlock from Supersize Me so we joked that he was being a doorman for 30 days for his TV show on FX.
Tuesday night, Brad and Tony, my two main friends here in Madison, left for Connecticut for 5 days. Since then things have been even lower key. It was also the lowest point of one of the biggest poker slides I have taken. I lost about 1,500 dollars in like 3000 hands. I was helpless against the unlucky streak of cards I was seeing. Part of being a good poker is being able to deal with these inevitable swings and prevent a 1500 dollar swing because of bad luck turn into a 3,000 dollar swing because of bad playing. I changed my routine to play more at night when the players are considerably looser with their money. I have since made back 300 and will hopefully be back to my winning ways soon.
Wednesday I played beer pong with Bo against some Betas. We won two of three and then went to Brats for 10 cent wing night. What a deal, a meal for two bucks. Friday Bo and I (we have been spending a lot of time together because we are the only two around) went to play basketball at the rec center. I was happy because my team held the court thru 4 straight wins. I was not exactly a great threat on offense, but on defense I did well to grab rebounds guard my guy and make opportunistic steals and blocks. I don’t think I’ve had as much fun playing 5 on 5 in a long time. Winning makes me happy. Bo and I were so tired by the end we just spent an hour on the porch talking and drinking Gatorade. After a much neede shower, we got some food, got drunk, and headed out to the bars. At Johny O’s we meet up with Tim (another Pi Lam) and someone else. They challenged us to a game of darts and it was on. Bo and I crushed them and continued to get drunk. At bar time we staggered back to the house and went to bed.
This morning I woke up with a slight hangover, which is very uncommon for me. I ate some zucchini bread from an awesome package Kim sent me, and I went on a long walk to a music store where I could buy guitar strings (I snapped one). After a rest I started hydrating for the longest run on my program and the longest run of my life, 7 miles. I had an amazingly difficult time with it but made it back within my goal time. I am at the peak difficulty of my training and from here it winds down for a two week finish that should go smoothly. I made a gigantic plate of pasta and meat sauce and spent the night playing poker, reading, and writing this before I go to bed.
Now that we are caught up I will be writing articles with a greater mix up reflection and introspection. Having a lot of time without any structure has been great and might not happen again any time soon so I am glad I have taken advantage of it this summer.
I returned on Sunday July 9th, the day of the World Cup championship game. I Tivo’d the game because it was being played while I was on my way back from Champaign. I took all precautions necessary when Tivo’ing a sporting event.
Being able to Tivo a sporting event and not have the result ruined for you is a skill. You must be willing to sacrifice certain risky situations, but over the last two years I have become an expert. There are two important precautions one must take. The first is starting all conversations with “Don’t say anything about such and such.” The second is to avoid situations where information of that nature could be broadcasted (i.e. TV, internet, radio, friends). At school we went as far as establishing a rule in my room that sports could not be discussed without permission (after several incidents involving mostly Danny Cirulnick).
When I did finally watch the game I was very impressed and enjoyed the action until the final result. As much as I hate the French, I really hate Italian soccer. Plus you got to like Zidane and Henry. Which brings me to Zidane’s infamous exit via red card from a head butt, best header of his career.
The next two days were spent mostly finishing Eric’s website, working out, and goofing around before leaving for Madison. On Wednesday, Eric, Danny, and I drove north and I moved in to my home, Brad’s frat house, for the next month. We had one night of drunken debauchery with Brad, without any face punching incidents, at the bars before Kim (read: under 21) arrived.
The following day (Thursday), I woke up and the three of us drove to pick up Kim at the Madison airport. It had only been a week since I had seen her last, but it was great to have her in town. We grabbed a bite to eat at Amy’s and headed back to hang out at the house. When Brad and Tony returned from work we all headed to the lake. While at the lake we swam, played catch, and just laid out and enjoyed the nice weather. When we returned from the beach we met Bo, Brad’s frat brother, at the house and went out for a game of basketball. Dinner was at Vien Tien, a spicy and delicious Thai place. That night we drank again and walked pretty far for a house party tht was not worth the trip. The bars were not an option so we staggered all the way back to the house to finish the night. It was just great to be out with all of my friends and Kim.
Friday turned out to be a pretty lazy day. We returned to the beach for some more of the same, this time without Brad. When we got back to the car, climbed in, and drove about 20 feet before some guy informed us that we had a flat. Sure enough we did and we started to go through the normal procedure for changing a tire when it turned into the biggest hassle of all time. Eric’s car has a special nutlock that prevents you from taking off the tire without the nutkey. A pretty smart crime prevention system, until the key becomes worn down and ineffective at getting the nut off. It took a while before we called a tow truck as a last solution. When the tow truck came he had a pneumatic tool that he believed could do the trick. After about 30 seconds of failure he was about to quit when one last try knocked the nut free. From there it was easy does it, a quick tire change and we were finally on our way. When we made it back to the Pi Lambda Phi house it was time for a little grilling on the porch. This Friday started to shape out like most other days I spent in Madison, beach and grill. Kim and I were so tired by the end of the day that we just relaxed and called it an early night.
Saturday, Eric and Danny left for Chicago. Kim and I just took the day slow and hung out. My mom, Uncle Arthur, and Aunt Alyss came up to Madison. We ate at the Union, took a walk down lake shore path, and did some street shopping. It was nice to see my family and it was fun to see my Mom and uncle on their old territory. That night we made a point to have a nice dinner and we went to an Italian place on State Street, Toti Pasta. It was mostly good but the dish I ordered left something to be desired. It didn’t match up to Pasta Jay’s in Boulder.
Sunday morning Kim and I woke up to go sailing. We were going to rent a Mini-Skow but when we got there we decided to take out a Catamaran which is my favorite boat to sail. It was a windy and sunny day, perfect for sailing. I decided that it was unlikely that we would tip so I told Kim to bring my camera. You could probably guess what happened next. A gust of wind, a rusty sailor, and over we went. Kim was pretty freaked out as we went over, but recovered quickly. I had tipped a Cat dozens of times before so I was not that worried. There was a fee for recovering the boat so I tried really hard to get it back upright myself. We got very close once but it was to no avail and I became too weak to pull it effectively again. They came out to help but cut down the rescue fee substantially. Sailing was great; it was a lot of fun, even tipping. I was a little worried about my camera. I took the battery out and let everything dry. When I tried to fire it up the next day it would not start but a few days later I got it going again. Kim and I went for a pizza at Ian’s (I got steak and fries pizza) before I dropped her off at the airport. The rest of the day was settling myself in my room and taking care of all of the stuff I was putting off until everyone had left.
Since then things have been pretty quiet. I’ve been spending the majority of my days exercising, playing poker, working on my whatifsports team, and goofing around. I have been perfecting my technique at making bacon lorettas. A couple of fun and noteworthy things have happened since Kim left.
The following Wednesday and Thursday was Tony’s 21st birthday. Tony loves power hours and so do I, it made for a deadly combination and I passed out by 11:00 before everyone went out to the bars. The next night I learned from my mistakes and started a little later and made it to bar time and had some fun with all of Brad’s frat brothers. Friday morning I got my first sense of how ridiculous of drunks Brad’s friends are. After a hard night of drinking I woke up to the sound of Tony and everyone up early getting hammered again at 10:00 in the morning. It was like college game day. Friday, Brad’s frat and the frat across the street (Beta Theta Pi) closed off their court and set up outdoor beer pong. I was the only one in the house not drunk at noon. I went out for a run and when I returned Bo was passed out on the porch with empty bottles completely covering him. Moments later Bo awoke and attempted to go back down the stairs to the street when halfway he turned to go back up the stairs. He fell and sat their as his pants, then leg, then shoes got wet. With urine. Basically, Bo was so drunk that he completely pissed himself. The best part is he stumbles up to his room and when he gets there he doesn’t immediately change or take off his piss soaked pants, he opens his fridge and chows on Chinese food. A true drunk. The weekend continued in this way until Monday night.
But, it turns out Monday is the best night to go to the bars in Madison so we obliged. First we went to State Street Brats for dinner and to check out the Beer Exchange. In Brats on Mondays all beer prices are subject to change every 15 minutes depending on how well they sell. TV screens around the bar show the prices and trends of all of the beers. You can get $1 pints of local tasty beers, if you can buy low. Or if you get tired of waiting for the prices to dip as we did you could head to Vintage where they have $1 cups of Wisconsin beers. When I got there my friends were all already there and had a table outside. Unfortunately there was a bug line to get in, so I used some of my persuading powers to get in a little early. I convinced the doorman that I was already inside and I was taking a call. The story seemed especially suspicious because there was no empty chair at my friends’ table. I explained this by saying that one of the guys had not been there when I left. He either believed me or stopped caring and let me in. He looked like Morgan Spurlock from Supersize Me so we joked that he was being a doorman for 30 days for his TV show on FX.
Tuesday night, Brad and Tony, my two main friends here in Madison, left for Connecticut for 5 days. Since then things have been even lower key. It was also the lowest point of one of the biggest poker slides I have taken. I lost about 1,500 dollars in like 3000 hands. I was helpless against the unlucky streak of cards I was seeing. Part of being a good poker is being able to deal with these inevitable swings and prevent a 1500 dollar swing because of bad luck turn into a 3,000 dollar swing because of bad playing. I changed my routine to play more at night when the players are considerably looser with their money. I have since made back 300 and will hopefully be back to my winning ways soon.
Wednesday I played beer pong with Bo against some Betas. We won two of three and then went to Brats for 10 cent wing night. What a deal, a meal for two bucks. Friday Bo and I (we have been spending a lot of time together because we are the only two around) went to play basketball at the rec center. I was happy because my team held the court thru 4 straight wins. I was not exactly a great threat on offense, but on defense I did well to grab rebounds guard my guy and make opportunistic steals and blocks. I don’t think I’ve had as much fun playing 5 on 5 in a long time. Winning makes me happy. Bo and I were so tired by the end we just spent an hour on the porch talking and drinking Gatorade. After a much neede shower, we got some food, got drunk, and headed out to the bars. At Johny O’s we meet up with Tim (another Pi Lam) and someone else. They challenged us to a game of darts and it was on. Bo and I crushed them and continued to get drunk. At bar time we staggered back to the house and went to bed.
This morning I woke up with a slight hangover, which is very uncommon for me. I ate some zucchini bread from an awesome package Kim sent me, and I went on a long walk to a music store where I could buy guitar strings (I snapped one). After a rest I started hydrating for the longest run on my program and the longest run of my life, 7 miles. I had an amazingly difficult time with it but made it back within my goal time. I am at the peak difficulty of my training and from here it winds down for a two week finish that should go smoothly. I made a gigantic plate of pasta and meat sauce and spent the night playing poker, reading, and writing this before I go to bed.
Now that we are caught up I will be writing articles with a greater mix up reflection and introspection. Having a lot of time without any structure has been great and might not happen again any time soon so I am glad I have taken advantage of it this summer.
