It's a Small World

First off. I'd like to announce that this is a double de-virginizing entry for me. (I know what your thinking....there aren't many things left that will de-virginize steve) but it's true. This is my first blog entry made from 30,000 feet, as well as my first entry composed entirely on my crackberry....u can thank Ms. Gina for that one. And if you could see who was sitting next to me on this plane....you'd know there are a few other "firsts" I'd like to try. DA-LISH. (Mom, if you are reading this...this would be one of 6548927 reasons why you don’t want to continue reading this site.

So I can't stop thinking about how small of a world it is. No matter where I go, I always bump into people I know when I travel. Some of you may already know that I had to hop an emergency flight home causing me to arrive at midway by 550am the day before I was supposed to fly home. Caffeine-free I was not in the best mood for flying the friendly skies. Midway could have sucked my friendly sky for all I cared...nobody deserves to fly southwest at 6 in the morning without an ounce of coffee. Nobody deserves to fly southwest during xmas period.

Where was I? Oh yea....so never in my right mind did I expect to see 3 friends aboard my flight to Omaha Nebraska. Last time I saw one of these guys at 6am we were still out dancing!

So I an sitting in the floor waiting for the horrific cattle call of a boarding sw has so kindly gotten me used to (yes, I was on the floor) when I noticed a guy I recognized in front of me. To make a long boring story short....it is the guy who introduced Ms. Brost to her former bf of 5 years. During our talk to girl next to me chimes in to tell me she lives 5 houses north of me and is also from my hometown, Sioux City, Iowa.

I could tell story after story but my all time favorite is this....

I am at the airport in NYC for work with 2 work colleagues. We are picking up our bags from luggage claim and getting ready to grab a cab to Manhattan when a limo driver walks up and offers to take is to the city in style. While this sounds great I notice signs on the wall that say not to do this so I try to weasel our way out of it....the next thing I know I am sitting in a limo with 2 work buddies, and a family of 3. One of my colleagues thinks the young boy with his parents is cute and starts to stare. I smack his leg and remind him that this boy is with his parents. After a few more reminder smacks he stops staring.

As we are going over the bridge into the city I look up to notice the boy staring at me. For fucks sake, I thought. I ignore the stare but of course look again after a few minutes pass to see if he is still looking. At this point the boy says, "is your name steve?". I am baffled and cautiously reply..."Yes". At this point the boy flips over his sidekick phone to reveal a black and white picture of me on his phone.

I swear to god time stopped for at least 30 seconds. Me and both of my friends jaws dropped to the bottom of the limo. The boy then said in a chipper voice "you're my friendster!!!". I still had no clue. ..I was positive I had never met this kid before....finally it clicked. "Ian?" I asked. YES!

I indeed had never met this kid in my life...here is how I became Ians friendster....I moved to Chicago and knew very few people....about the same time Jordan moved to LA and began dating this guy named Eric....well Eric had a friend in Chicago and told Jordan to tell me to IM this guy....uhhhh random party of one? I added Ian to my buddy list and after a week or two finally said hello. Yes it was awkward but Ian is an extremely laid back guy who probably thought nothing of it. He invited me to join friendster and we kept talking about how one day we should hang out.....probably 6 months later we met, in the limo in NYC. Who knew he'd be so quick to introduce me to his parents.

So it is a small world, after all!

Mary Crotchmas!!!

Wishing you a Mary Crotchmas and a Happy New Year!

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday season!

I-O-W-A Iowa all the way!!!

I - O - W -A Iowa All the Way!!!! What the @#$& does that mean??? One of the random songs I learned as a child and can't seem to forget. The sad thing??? That is only the first line of the song....I know the rest...and the sign language to go with it.

So yeah....greetings from Iowa. Home of....well...ME! I am not sure what else is actually FROM FROM here besides Sioux Bee Honey, which I'm not sure I've ever had.

As I'm feeling not so fun and creative tonight.....instead of reading my babble....i will supply you with some not-so-fun facts on Iowa. GET OVER IT!!! At least you didn't have to live here for 18 years!

---Iowa became the 29th state on December 28, 1846.

---Capital City: Des Moines

---Nickname: The Hawkeye State (It sure beats Illinois....the Bottom state. We could have been less fortunate and been named the Browneye state.)

---Iowa Quarter: Nation’s Only Education Quarter (This wins most boring fact of the year award!!!)

---State Flower: Wild Rose

---State Bird: Eastern Goldfinch

---State Tree: Oak

---State Rock: Geode (Is that crackrock because I had to sign a waiver just to purchase a 10pk of Claritin D???)

---State Car: This is not official but I will dub thee as the 13 year old Rose Colored Cadillac I'm driving around town. HOT!!!

Jordan Does Chicago

I am very excited to have been asked by Steve to write a guest blog entry. Thank you!!!! What better place to write this lovely entry than from 30,000 feet in the air somewhere between Chicago and Orange County with the Pussycat Dolls song "Don't Cha" playing proudly from my iPod-superior-portable-music-device. Oooops! I need to be careful, my husband has a very successful business selling iPod's and related products. (I'll elaborate on this more in a minute).

Wow! What an amazing 4 days! They went by sooooo quick! Probably because we were sober only about 1/6th of the time - whooops'a'daisey!!
My 97 hours in Chicago was filled with a little sight seeing, pie hole, bar hopping, Brazilians, a little shopping, Brazilians, Coffee hour at the CruzzieBou, dancing at Charlies (that brought back all too many CH memories), welcoming another to the CrackBerry clan, Brazilians, meals at 5am at Melrose Cafe (where a thrown butter packet almost caused the Queer Civil War), Brazilians, Movie Theater (Bareback mountain: 2 out of 5 stars), Brazilians, Bowling league, and pitchers of fluid from Roscoes that didn't taste like they contained booze (side note - they do... I have pictures to prove it)..... If anyone out there in blog land is sleeping, wake up. The next sentence is important: BRAZILIANS RULE!!!!!!! Quenda Mona in the picture above! That was taken at Roscoes during our Long Island incident. I call it an incident because the Roscoes experience concluded with me ball-room dancing with Fabiano on the dance floor. Bless his heart for playing along, I'm sure he was like "what is this crazy Californian making me do?" Also his roommate Marcio and I were married shortly after....on the street, in front of a wedding gown in a shop window. Classy eh? Odd how the party and dance came before the wedding ceremony. Wait a minute....Maybe that is what we (The Gays) have to do in order for The Straights to be comfortable with the marriage issue. Reverse the ceremony and party? Why not? It makes sense to me.... WRITE YOUR CONGRESS REPRESENTATIVE! But all in all, the Brazilians really made my Chicago trip amazing: Fabiano, Marcio my husband, Diego, Sweet Marcio (yes there are two - isn't that Delish?!?!) and all the other Brazilians I met and cannot remember your name because too much booze causes short term memory loss.



Also of importance was the Turkish and Armeanian dispute talks which were held on 12/18/05 at an Irish Pub mediated by non-other than her honor Steve Cole. David and I came to the conclusion that Turks and Armenians can indeed live in harmony regardless of the crud acts many many eons ago. As a jester of kindness, David has agreed to allow the bowling team "Spare Me" resume utilization of the term "Turkey" when an individual obtains three strikes in a row. Thanks David, I'm glad others beside Turks and Armenians are able to benefit from this union.

Lastly, I want to personally thank Miss Brost for becoming un-overwhelemed on Tuesday evening and spending some time with me. Even though I think she was there more to resume her fabulous bowling than see me, we enjoyed each other's company. For Christmas I am going to present her with a book "How Homos Dress". Yes I know it was sub zero and she was layered, but she walked out of her house wearing Blue Jeans ticked in to a white t-shirt with (...gulp...) no belt. At first, this horrible fauxpa was not evident, but as she begin to perspire as a result of her she-woman like bowling skills, she shed her outer layers and the shocking truth was revealed. Her beautiful eyes could only distract me for a few seconds (side note: they truly are amazing....slurp) Me, being the kind person I am, pulled her aside and loaned her my brown leather belt (which I may add matched my Brown leather shoes perfectly). This was a temporary fix to a very tragic scenario. All of us were content with !
the solution - including Bradford. Mike (of the Mike and Ryan duo) witnessed this transformation and felt the need to correct me, as he felt my brown leather belt didn't match my black shirt. Oh well...Mike, I'm guilty as charged (pardon the pun), but at the end of the day, leather is leather...... Right Ryan?

Thanks again everyone, I cannot wait until next time!!!!!! And remember, when things get rough think to yourself "Es' Okay.... Es' okaaaaay!!!!!" [Blink + Smooch].

~Jordan

Pack yer bags!!!

I am feeling like a little girl on Christmas morning. I would say the countdown has begun but it DONE BEGAN days ago. Aunt QUENDA is coming to town in just over 18 hours!!!!!!! WATCH OUT CHICAGO, it’s going to be a wild and crazy weekend! Can someone put and APB out to the strippers at Madrigals and Cocktail? Jordan will be here in no time!

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow!

We got our first big snow of the year on Thursday and I had no clue it was coming. I went to lunch around 1 that day and the sky was clear and sunny. By the time I got back to the office it had started to flurry. Unfortunately, I work down in a dungeon with no windows. Ok, there are a few windows but it's that REALLY thick glass that you can only see shawdows through. Not so helpful on seeing the snow fall. When I got back to my desk I made a quick visit to weather.com to see what the radar looked like. It showed a snow storm headed directly our way. However, it said it was only going to drop 1-3 inches. These were CERTAINLY NOT AOL INCHES!!!! 3 Hours later there appeared to be a good 5 inches on the ground and it was still coming down HEAVY. I went back to my office and continued to work as I knew traffic was going to be a nightmare. I was correct. I left around 6 and got home around 7. THANK GOD I'm not AB...it took her 4 hours to get home....NO WAY!!!! I live two miles from work. I was thankful for having the wrangler but wished everyone else in the city was also equipped with 4WD. Not so much. I think total snow fall at midway was 11-inches and a plane off the runway.....and more like 8 in my hood.

Anyway, the night turned out to be quite fun. Fabiano, Marcio and I went to Roscoe's to have a couple of pitchers and then made a long walk up to IHOP for a little breakfast. GOOD TIMES HAD BY ALL!!! There is something so awesome about the first big snow of the year.

Wicked - Front Row

So my buddy Tom came to visit me this past weekend from Philly. He could not have picked a colder weekend to visit. Can I get a MINERVA? Basically.

With it being so cold outside we were limited in things to do. "Limited?" How ironic now that I think of it. Fortunately, Tom did his research prior to his arrival and learned that a couple of hours before every performance of Wicked they action off 20 seats in the front row for $25 bucks. Tom informed me over dinner on Saturday night that we were going to be taking a trip downtown in the morning to put our name into the Witches hat.

He is one lucky bitch!!! They drew 10 names. Tom was #8 for two tickets. Me? Not so lucky...but I was with the lucky bitch!!! ;) When we going to Vegas Tommy?

A Perfect 10???

Click on the image to find out for yourself!!!

Personally, I think she's Olympic bound....

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Tom Cruise Kills Oprah!!!!

A friend of mine sent me this link about a week ago and I find myself going back to it over and over. It's hysterical. We love the Oprah but it was time for her to go.

Follow this link to see Tom Cruise kill Oprah.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5473358668974999495&q=oprah+cruise

We're not gonna pay RENT!!!!

Wow...

First off, my apologies for the delay since my last post. My excuse??? I was super busy and super sick. I will say, however, it's kinda cool to know there are people out there that are actually visiting my site on a regular basis. I got comments from "honey please, I'm losing interest" to "If I have to look at that snaggletooth picture one more time....i'm never going to come back to your site."

So the picture posted above is of my sister and I at the RENT Premiere in NYC. Generally when posting a picture on my site I go through a brief review process...and then post. Rule #752b.ii states that, "If one other than I looks prettier the picture cannot be posted, unless of course the one is a) my boyfriend b) a celebrity or c) Ivey (the bitch always looks prettier than I" So after review of this picture...I was forced to push it aside and search for a "better" one. While there were other pictures of Aaron and I at the cast party....I was forced to veto Rule #752.ii and let this picture be published. There is not much you can do when a girl looks good. (Side note to AB: Don't say I don't ever do anything for you....and yes gentleman....she's newly single)

If you take one things out of this post.....let it be this. GO SEE RENT THE MOVIE!!!!!!! It is FUCKING AMAZING!!!! I admit: I am very biased as I've worship the show since I saw the original broadway cast perform it in 1997. However, even had I never seen the show before....I would have been deeply moved the performance of the entire cast and the many messages that this story tells. I plan on returning to the theater many times to see it over and over. And yes...I will own a copy of the DVD the day it is released.

Today was a good day. I was fortunate enough to have the "day off". I put "day off" in quotes as I was at Starbucks at 930am working on a Marketing Plan....and I'm about to be late for my night shift at XO. But even so...today was great. I finished up at Starbucks around 1130am and went and picked up my former roommate Rich at his hotel. He was in town for work and is now at O'Hare getting ready to board a flight to London. BITCH!!!! After lunch, I picked up Fabiano and Marcio and went to a Brazilian store in the city. I tried Guarana, the Brazilian Original for the first time today. What are my thoughts you ask? DA-LISH!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!! God hates me this year and has punished me to a 12 hour shift at XO on thanksgiving day. Yes, that means I will miss the opportunity to have thanksgiving lunch and dinner with my friends. I had plans to do Thanksgiving at the FAB's tomorrow but unfortunately work got in the way. Luckily my roommate Tommy is going to take my place, I swear I'm not bitter. ;) Hopefully I can get out of the XO at a decent hour so I can join the boys in festivities.

And yes....I do like pink. And quite frankly, I think it likes me too!

Snaggletooth for a Day!

So last night was fun…I was sitting in the kitchen studying Portuguese when I looked down at my thumb and noticed a piece of skin hanging. Yes, this is disgusting…but as a fingernail biter I, without even thinking, gnawed the piece of skin off and began chewing on it. As I’m chewing I suddenly bit down and….”CRUNCH”. What the @#$*??? So what do I do? I spit the material in my mouth out into my hand and observe….

This observation of mine is far from scientific. I easily recognize and label the first bit of material as “the piece of tattered skin from my thumb” and push it aside. I then move on to material B…which I quickly labeled in my head as….”Unidentifiable Material.” It is in a perfectly square piece and looks like an oversized piece of salt. With that thought, I labeled Unidentifiable Material B…as “Oversized Salt Cube.” (Had this observation been even remotely scientific, “Oversized Salt Cube” would have been immediately ruled out as I had not an ounce of salt flavor in my mouth…and we all know that salt…tastes like…well….salt. So I lifted the cube with my left hand pointer finger…and used my right hand to flick the cube across the room. (You may be wondering why I was being so dramatic….because I’m now wondering the same thing.) I remember hearing the cube hit the floor with much more noise than a piece of salt would have made and didn’t think twice about it….back to Portuguese I went.

As I shifted my focus back to studying I rubbed my tongue across my front bottom teeth. *pause* WTF????? It all came together in a flash…..MY TOOTH!!!!

I flew out of my seat and ran to the bathroom to see the damage. I was now missing a fairly large piece of my front bottom tooth. Nooooooo!!! Usually in a situation like this I’d turn to the bottle…but instead….I got on my hands and knees and started searching for “the cube.” For some odd reason….in a matter of seconds… I had determined that finding the tooth and preserving it for the dentist was what I needed to do. WAS I HIGH???? After crawling around the floor for 10 minutes I came to the conclusion that I was SOL and I needed to move on….cubeless.

To conclude….(If I don’t start this paragraph with to conclude I’m going to ramble on for another 5 paragraphs….you would hear about my tears over Steel Magnolias, lunch with Fabiano and the trip to the Apple store….be thankful) Fortunately, I was able to get into the dentist today and I now have a normal looking tooth again. And I’m only down $180 bucks. Just exactly what I wanted to spend my money on.

I want it the YAB way....

This just put me in the BEST mood. I wish I could post the video but I can't so you'll have to copy and paste this link.....TRUST ME...it's worth it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6739710473912337648

Shout out: "Thank you Ditty!!!"

Corepole

So it was about this time last year when I received an email at work asking me if I could help find some people for a photoshoot. They needed to be in decent shape but not in "great" shape and be willing to be photographed using some sort of new exercise equipment. I explained that we really didn't find models but would ask some of my friends to submit some photographs to me for review.

I really didn't have much luck but sent her a few different people to choose from. I had included my photographs as well as it paid pretty well and I thought it might be fun to do this with a friend. They responded back the next day saying....we'd like to use the guy in the green shirt...will he be available this weekend for the shoot? The guy in the green shirt was me!!! What did I get myself into?

It was actually a lot of fun. However, we were working out on the "Corepole" all day....so needless to say I was in a ton of pain the days following the shoot. The picture posted above is from the front of the brochure....to see the rest of the shots and for complete information on the corepole....visit www.corepole.com. ;)

Increase sperm production 500 percent???

A few months ago I finally broke down and got a spam blocker for my work email. It was getting ridiculous the amount of SPAM I was receiving. On occasion I will still get a SPAM email or two. Last week was the winner!

Subject: Increase sperm production 500%

SPUR-M Formula

Shoot five times your load and have longer more satisfying orgasms.

Complete satisfaction fully guaranteed by the industry leader - it is a money-
back guarantee that has never been needed by any of our million customers!

This is what the world's top porn stars use for their huge effects!

Ok....I'm sorry...did I read this correctly? "Shoot five times your load???" What the fuck??? I can understand the desire to have a longer and more satisfying orgasm, but to increase my load by 500 percent is just alarming and disgusting. I can't help visualize what this would look like.

I am proud to say that I have no idea what the average man shoots per ejaculation but I can't imagine it being much more than one tablespoon. So for sake of the rest of this topic....let's go with one tablespoon.

This means that after taking SPRU-M Formula...a man who shoots one tablespoon should increase his load size to 5 tablespoons. At first this didn't seem so disgusting to me...until I brought it up with a buddy of mine. He said and I quote..."how many tablespoons are in a stick of butter?" There are 8. Can you picture it??? Remove three table spoons and we've got 5 table spoons of ejaculate.

I will never look at a stick of butter the same.

2 Years and Going!!!!

Wow. It was two years ago today when I made the move from Nashville, TN to Chicago. And in celebration of my anniversary, the City of Chicago has gone crazy!!! People are driving up and down my street honking and screaming....and there is a helicopter that keeps flying overhead so closely that it is shaking the building I live in. There they go again with the honking.......SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!

Chicago has erupted as the White Sox won the World Series tonight...not only did they win....they swept the Astros. And the city is in my face. *Get out of my face! Get out of my face!* While I am very sad to see the Sox win...I'm SO thankful they are done so quickly. I could not imagine having to deal with the South Side for 3 more games. And if I had one more person tell me I needed to support the White Sox because I live in this city, I was going to tie a heavy brick to my leg and jump into Lake Michigan. Where in the MLB rule book does it say that you have to route for a team solely because they are from your city? NO WHERE!!!!! I don't remember any Sox Fans routing for the cubs when they were in the final game for the NL pennant. Nor do I ever expect or wish them to route for the Cubs in the future.

Minus the whole "Series" thing....today was a GREAT day. Hopefully Chi-town can handle me for another 2 years...

October 17th - SAY NO TO TWINKS DAY!

So it's been awhile since I last went to the gym. Ok, that's an understatement. It's been a long ass time since I went to the gym. I wasn't quite sure HOW long it was until two days ago when I finally forced myself to get back into the habit. So I walked to the "plex" and had to ask when I got to the counter...."Uhhh, could you tell me when was the last time I was here?" Bless her heart....she probably hears this once a day from pathetic slackers like me. She looked down at the computers and restrained from making a face....although I saw a quick flinch when she noticed the date. She then looked me in the eye and kinda stared....speechless. I said..."Oh God....it was April wasn't it?" And she responded positively "the 30th...that's almost May...the very end of April!!!" I was mortified....keep in mind I'm paying nearly 80 bucks a month for this "membership". i nearly threw up...the way I view it.....Saturday's visit to the gym cost me $395....and got me motivated to start living there again. Oh yeah....she had to issue me a new membership card as THEY'VE CHANGED!!!!! Ugh.

My $395 workout was SO not a good one. It was actually quite disappointing. I had been working out pretty regularly for a year and knew what I could lift....so I cut back on the weight for my return. And cut back some more.....and cut back some more.

I WAS MORTIFIED!!!!! i could barley lift the bar...I turned into a twink this past 5 months. I think I would have rather lost a limb.

So please mark your calendars.....I am please to announce that today is the first annual SAY NO TO TWINKS DAY! No worries....the U.S. Postal Service will run as scheduled.

Parallel Parking

I was going through old photos and came across this one. This spot was not really big enough....but we made it work. ;)

Oh the Places You'll Go!!!

Beginning in highschool I began keeping track of all the states I've been to on a dry-erase U.S. map. I somehow managed to lose the map in my move to Chicago. So...while sitting in the Philly airport, I decided to make an electronic U.S. map. As of October 15, 2005....I have been to 33 of the 50 U.S. States. Only 17 more to go!!!

Philadelphia Woody’s Take Second Place

So I’m sitting in the Philadelphia airport and I have a feeling I’m going to be here for a long time. After the fiasco with my trip here…I thought I’d show up to the airport extra early this time. Of course that means my flight is delayed…and they keep pushing it back. Apparently there is a thunderstorm in the SouthEast so the plane I’m waiting for is stuck in Orlando until further notice. They are now estimating 735pm. Which means it will be sometime after 8. Ugh.

So we showed up for the softball tournament in Washington D.C. and so did Tropical Storm Tammy… “Tammy, you’re such a bitch!” It rained and rained and rained from the moment we got there. And I’m not talking sprinkled…it POURED. All games were cancelled on Saturday and we were pretty certain they’d be cancelled on Sunday as well. We went out on Friday until the wee hours of the morning and had a fantastic time. I somehow managed to cure my hangover pretty quickly which is a rarity. We spent the day on Saturday socializing, chillin’ to music, and playing cards in the hotel room. Eventually we got stir-crazy and made a trip to Virginia to go bowling. Good Times had by all. I found it very difficult to bowl without my shoes and bowling ball but managed to knock a few pins down. I bowled about 60 pins below average…..Frustrating.

On our way back to the bowling alley…as we drove throw the pouring rain….we found out that we were indeed going to be playing on Sunday morning starting at 8am. We were staying in downtown D.C. and had a 45 minute drive to the fields so it made for a VERY early morning. The worst part….the tournament rules had changed so that they could complete the two-day tournament in one day. This meant that we’d be playing “one-pictch softball”. This means that as a batter….when you step up to the plate you’ve got a full count and get one pitch. If it’s a strike, you’re out….if it’s a ball or you get a hit….you’re on base. No courtesy fouls….a foul ball and the batter is out. On top of these jacked up rules….each game had a time-limit of 30 minutes. WHAT!?!?!?!? How could this possibly fun? Playing ball in the mud with jacked up rules….it didn’t even sound like softball anymore.

Boy was I wrong….they must have dropped 75 semi trucks full of cat liter down on the fields because while they were muddy….they were not that bad. And the one-pitch thing was actually kind of fun. It made each game extremely intense and fast-paced. There wasn’t much time to think…..it was always go-go-go. And to top it off…we kept winning….we finally got beat by D.C. Coblt in the Winner’s Bracket Championship game. Actually slaughtered would be a better word. It was not pretty. This meant that they went on to the championship game of the tournament and we went to the championship game of the losers bracket. We ended up having to play a team from Atlanta that we had already faced earlier in the day and barely beat. We played them a little harder this time and won comfortably. We were not, however, as fortunate in the championship game. While we played great ball…we fell apart in the last inning and ended up in 2nd place.

Second Place out of 16 teams in our division. We were very happy!!! I look forward to my next trip with their team. They are an AMAZING group of guys! I am lucky to have them as friends.

The Not-So-Amazing Race

So it’s official. After this morning’s adventure…I have forbidden myself to EVER be considered a candidate for the Amazing Race.

Friday, October 7th, 2005
FLIGHT 1270
Depart MDW-PHL @ 7:45am

My alarm was set for 5:30am. I of course hit the snooze until the last minute and woke up close to 6am. I took a quick shower and was out the door at 6:10am. Plenty of time to still take the train. I board the Red line southbound and plan on transferring at Roosevelt to the Orange Line. For those of you who are not familiar with the El…the Orange Line takes you directly to Midway. That is of course…if you transfer to the Orange Line at Roosevelt and not the Green Line…which takes you way far into the South Side.

So back to my story…I’m standing on the platform waiting for the Orange Line to arrive wearing a Kelly Green polo shirt, my junk in the trunk Levi’s, my brown Steve Madden boots, and a Boston Red Sox Hat. Oh yeah….it’s 45 degrees. Why do I not grab my jacket on the way out the door? Because I’m stupid. So there I am freezing on the platform when the computerized lady voice chimes…”Orange Line, towards midway will be arriving in approximately one minute.” I finish sending my text messages as the train approaches and put my phone in my pocket. When I look up….there are two gargantuan (oh my god….gargantuan is really a word??? And I spelled it right? Wow!) German Shepard police dogs exiting the train I am about to enter. Please note: I have never been afraid of dogs in my life….until the Attack of Wanna-Be-Police Dog Junior. (WBPDJ…..that surprisingly looks a lot like WWJD….what would jesus do…oh fuck! Jesus…Junior…..Christ!!!) That’s a whole ‘nother blog entry.

So as I catch my breath, the doors to the train close and we start to move. It was in slow motion….as I noticed the SWA flight attendant still standing on the platform…I realized in was on the WRONG train. Yes….that’s right…I boarded the green line train headed southbound. Most trains stop every few blocks….but not this one….apparently there is nothing between Roosevelt and 35th st. So as I made my way to this stop I saw two green line trains headed North….which meant that the chances of another train coming quickly was not good at all. I remained on the platform for a few minutes as I scoped out the situation down below. I thought to myself….if I see a cab or two…I will head down to the street and hail a cab west bound to Midway.

Let’s fast forward 15 minutes…I have now called for a cab and am frantic to find a way to the airport. I am standing a block East of U.S. Cellular field wearing a Boston Red Sox cap. For those of you who are unfamiliar with White Sox fans….they are mean….hateful…..and dangerous. I’m not exaggerating. MEAN PEOPLE. Fortunately, I didn’t have any problems. Moments later a CTA bus drove by heading west….by now, I am fairly certain I am going to miss my flight but share my story with the bus driver…..who was FLYING through the streets trying to get me to the orange line in record time. He ran two red lights….not flat out ran but went through them WAY after they turned red. He was also honking at the people on the side of the street and having them walk into the street to board the bus….it was fabulous. I should have slipped him some cash but was more focused on catching my flight.

To wrap this up…..I arrived at the airport at 7:44am. One minute prior to my plane’s departure. I got put on the next flight and am now here in D.C. I arrived just in time to welcome Tropical Storm Tammy to the East Coast. We are supposed to start our softball tournament tomorrow at 10am. L I don’t think it’s going to happen. It’s raining VERY HARD and has been since we got here. It’s not supposed to stop raining until Monday.

So yeah…the Amazing Race and I….we’re not meant to be….it’ll be just Big Brother and I.

My least favorite brand....EVER!

So I had so much fun with the FedEx Kinko's logo that I thought I'd continue by creating a logo for my least favorite brand EVER!!! Let's talk about Nextel.

So the first time I heard of Nextel was when I "heard" Nextel. I was waiting tables at O'Charleys in Brentwood, TN...I remember hearing this annoying "beep beep" sound coming from a construction man's phone followed by a loud broadcast of his fellow co-worker's day-long itinerary. I must admit...I was intrigued by this technology and wanted to know more. As I paid attention I saw more and more people with these Walkie Talkie like phones. The kid in me was excited about the thought of being able to communicate with a cell phone like it was a childhood toy. However, since I did not have a Nextel phone...nor did any of my friends...the thought of actually owning one of these and being able to use it became unrealistic. I guess this was when I first felt a negative feeling towards the brand. It wasn't that I didn't like the brand....it was that I was jealous I didn't have it. Over time...I began to hear this "beep beep" more and more. And then one day...my BFF Jordan got one. No!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jordan used that thing more than I used my right hand. And with it being so in my face....I began to get more and more annoyed by it's loudness and obtrusiveness. The simple "beep-beep" alone made my skin crawl. Especially after I went to look at phones and pricing plans. They were ridiculously overpriced. There was no way in hell I was going to pay that much more for a cell phone just so I could use the walkie talkie feature. Well...at least that's what I thought. Nextel did a great job of making me recognize every tone and beep it's phones made. Smart move guys. Any one of you reading this that has at one point in your life had a Nextel phone knows exactly what I am talking about. They have like 10 rings they use that are signature nextel rings. Let's say you are in a bar and you're a Nextel customer. If a Nextel phone starts to ring or "beep beep" across the bar...chances are...every Nextel subscriber will reach for their phone. Pay attention. It's sick.

So yeah...i bent over and let Nextel pound me in the ass with no lube. FOR TWO YEARS!!!! Not only did I pay a ridiculous cost to get my phone, and service plan....i agreed to two full years of service. THOSE BASTARDS!!!! While I was getting ripped off....the service worked great....in Nashville. But upon my move to Chicago the hatred for Nextel multiplied by about forty-five million times! I could not get a signal in my house and I dropped on average about 10 calls per day. IT WAS SO ANNOYING!!! It got so ridiculous that I had friends begging me to switch carriers. When I brought this up to Nextel customer service on a weekly basis....they apologized and informed me that it is impossible to have 100% coverage in all parts of the city. They also pulled up some bull-shit statistical information on how I actually dropped only 2 % of my phone calls and that I get way better service than other cell phone carriers would provide me. This only fueled my fire. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw things. In fact...I don't even want to write anymore....I am going to go find something to break.

Let's talk about Kinko's...

So I made a trip to Kinko's earlier in the week. Not by choice...because I had to get something done for work and I had a short amount of time to drop it off before I made a meeting. As I made this conscious decision to take my job to Kinko's my inside's sank. My memory quickly reminded me of the countless times I promised myself to never put my nerves through the Kinko's experience again. Had this been a personal task I would have opted to take the work late to OfficeMax, the UPS store or hell...find a young Asian boy on the street who would be willing to bind some proposals together.....but this time...late wasn't an option.

Fortunately the one thing consistent about Kinko's is they are ALWAYS oblivious to my presence. I know I can count on that. When I visit Kinko's I feel as though there are 49 too many employee's behind the counter doing everything but helping me. They crack jokes, yawn, watch the clock tick and bitch about the customer who was lucky enough to get serviced before me. SERVICE THIS KINKBLOW'S! I'm through.

July 2005

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A man named "Onestone"....

I don't know if it's because it's so early in the morning and I'm easily amused...or if this is this funny......either way....enjoy....
There once was an (American) Indian whose given name was "Onestone", so named because he had only one testicle. He hated that name and asked everyone not to call him Onestone.

After years and years of torment, Onestone finally cracked and said, "If anyone calls me Onestone again I will kill them!" The word got around and nobody called him that any more.

Then one day a young woman named Blue Bird forgot and said, "Good morning, Onestone." He jumped up, grabbed her and took her deep into the forest where he made love to her all day and all night. He made love to her all the next day, until Blue Bird died from exhaustion.

The word got around that Onestone meant what he promised he would do.

Years went by and no one dared call him by his given name until a woman named Yellow Bird returned to the village after being away for many years.

Yellow Bird, who was Blue Bird's cousin, was overjoyed when she saw Onestone. She hugged him and said, "Good to see you, Onestone."

Onestone grabbed her, took her deep into the forest, then he made love to her all day, made love to her all night, made love to her all the next day, made love to her all the next night, but Yellow Bird wouldn't die!

What is the moral of this story?????............................

OH, come on...take a guess!

And the moral is....You can't kill two birds with one stone.

Steve vs. Jordan

The fun has begun.....check back daily....

A man named Jordan.....

What can I say about Jordan??? He's an amazing character.....the one guy who can make me laugh even in when I'm in the worst of moods. Many of you have probably seen his "comments" to my blog entries.....Christ....half of you have told me your read my blog soley for HIS comments....ok...well maybe just one of you...but you know....Exaggeration is much more exciting to read.

So here he is......as I'm writing this I've yet to decide which picture of him I am going to use....but if I know me....it will be a picture he HATES me for posting....I will call it now....he is going to threaten our friendship on removing this photo.....and when I don't...he will hack my site until the photo is removed.......With that said.....LET IT BE ANNOUNCED....."that's what you get GINA for trying to steal the spotlight of my blog!" ;) You know I love you...OH MY GOD......it's about to happen.......Ladies and gentleman....please click the photo below to see the video of the one.....the only.....GINA SHANTEL SHAMONE!!!!!!!!!

Calling Mr. Tale.....Mr. Cock Tale!!!

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Janelle is Gone....it's a sad sad day...

So it finally happened. Janelle has been evicted from the Big Brother House. The nerd herd prevailed. :( At least she kept the show worth watching until the end. And we're left with Maggie and Ivette. Gross. How did that happen? Oh that's right....Howie messed everything up weeks ago...

It's 2am and I'm just winding down from a busy night at XO. Thank you Big Brother for getting me all wound up again!

It's bedtime...I've got to be in Grant Park for the AIDS Run & Walk in 4 hours. It should be a fun day!

Chicago MPG - Grand Champions!!!

Wow....what a GREAT weekend we had in Milwaukee. Aaron and I arrived on Friday afternoon and met Bob and Tom at the host hotel. The rest of the team showed up during the next couple of hours as we had a few drinks and shot the shit. Round-Robin games started on Saturday morning at 8am. For some reason it seems we always get the 8am draw...I ended up pitching the entire weekend and had a good time with it. It was the first time in MPG history that we've won a tournament. We've gotten good at taking 2nd and 3rd....but never 1st. We went undefeated in bracket play and faced Toronto in the Championship game to finish the tournament.....we owed it all to one thing.....LUCKY SOCKS.....see the entry below for more....

Ken and Steve sporting their "Lucky Socks"

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This Week is Going to Suck!

This week is going to suck....BIG TIME. Fortunately, I will be rewarded at the end of the week with a trip to Milwaukee for a softball tournament. Why it sucks....

MONDAY
Day Job - 8:30am - 5pm
X/O Job - 5:30pm - midnight-ish?

TUESDAY
Day Job - 8:30am - 5pm
Bowling League 6:30pm - 9pm
Tivo'd Big Brother - immediately following bowling

WEDNESDAY
Day Job - 8:30am - 5pm
X/O Job - 5:30pm - midnight-ish?

THURSDAY
Day Job - 8:30am - 11pm
Tivo'd Big Brother immediately following work.

FRIDAY
Day Job - 8:30am - 5pm (unless I can get out a couple of hours early)
7:05pm BREWERS GAME

SATURDAY-SUNDAY
Softball Tournament (I am going to miss you Connie!!!)
he he he....Hello Kitty!!!
When am I going to get to watch Big Brother?!?!?!?!?! Ahhhhhh!!!!

CMSA Awards Party

So even on my day off I got roped into being at X/O. Today was the 2005 CMSA Softball Awards Party...held at none-other than....X/O Chicago. I was disappointed my team didn't show up to celebrate our 3rd place victory but I had a good time none-the-less. Livio joined me for the festivities and I got to see some faces I haven't seen in quite awhile. I probably won't be posting much over the next week as I have to work a lot at X/O in addition to the day job. I'm not complaining as I could use the extra cash for my trip to Milwaukee this weekend. MPG and some boys from the Philly Woody's team are meeting in Milwaukee to play in a NAGAAA tournament. Should be fun!!!!! Woohoo!!!! Expect some pictures!

X/O Chicago

T minus 32 minutes......WHY GOD!?!??! WHY!?!?!?!? I have to work at X/O in 32 minutes.....31 now. Last night was painfully miserable. I worked at the day job from 8:30am until 5pm....and then X/O from 5:30pm until 1am. It was a slow and unprofitable night. Let's hope tonight goes better. After work I went to Livio's to meet his two best friends.

27 minutes....shower time!

The Drink Is the Devil.

Wow....I think I have finally recovered from my drunken blur of a birthday. I had a BLAST!!!! (I think) I took a half day off at work and had bleacher seats for the Cubs. vs. Braves game. For those of you who don't know me very well....I loathe the Braves. Fortunately, I was surrounded by Cubs fans (this time) and didn't have to verbally abuse any Braves fans. I must admit....it was one of the most tame experiences I've had in the bleachers. The last few times I have sat out there...I had to double check and make sure I was at the MLB and not the WWE (why can't it still be WWF?)

ADVICE....if you plan to do the day game bleachers and drink yourself into oblivion....do yourself a favor and WEAR SUNSCREEN!!! I don't know how many people told me that prior to game day....of course I didn't listen....my mother would be so proud!

Ivey's Visit to Chicago

So the vacation is coming to an end but I must say...it ended with a bang. It had been two years since I last saw Ivey (my "Grace" if you will). I finally talked her into flying up here to visit me for my birthday. She flew in on Friday night at 9pm and flew out this morning at 725am. A quick trip but we made each and every minute last. It was the best present she could have gotten me. After two years it was like we didn't skip a page....I look forward to seeing her again! OH YEAH!!! She brought her new boyfriend of two months with her....his name is Travis....I APPROVE!!

Toronto

Who thought I'd start a blog while on vacation in Toronto??? Not me!! I've been in Canada for 2 full days and am LOVIN' THIS CITY!!!! It is way smaller than I expected it to be but the people here are amazing and BEAUTIFUL! Full of ethnic people....I LOVE IT!! Now only if I could find one to marry.

Anyway, that is all for now.....just wanted to get something started.