Ian's Recap of Thurs Night's Adventure

Ian's Recap of our Thurs. night Adventure Con't

Apartment for Rent

Ugh. Looking for apartments is NOT FUN. Sure, there is an excitement level in finding a cool place you can move into. But with the income I have...a NICE place is hard to come by. I was proud of myself for being flexible with location. While I love living in lakeview/wrigleyville, I knew I had to be open. I did find a couple of places in Central Lakeview (a bit north and west of where I live now) but both of the places I decided on ended up falling through. In my search, I found a LOT of shitholes. I didn't realize how nice the place I live in now really is. I am sad to be giving it up.

Let it be announced that on the 25th day of July, 2007 I have paid my deposit and first months rent on my new living space. For the first time in my life I will be living ALONE! I am surprised that at age 28, I have yet to have my own place. But I've always really enjoyed having a roommate and enjoy even more saving money on rent/utiltites.

Something tells me that most of you will find this funny. I will be living on N. RETA. Yes, RETA. Laugh it up y'all. Laugh it up. Ironic? Yes! But let the countdown begin. I will be getting a key on August 7th. T minus 13 days!!!! WooHoo!!

Signed with Love,
Rita Mae

Chicago's World Series Qualifier

Raiiiight?

From behind the bar...

This is officially my first blog from behind the bar at halsted's. I have been here for 2 hours and have made 2 dollars. Thank god jordan had his phone on him as it allowed the time to pass a little quicker as I had someone to converse with.

So for those of you who know me you know of me love for the reality tv show big brother. Season 8 started up last week and for the second time I was a semi-finalist. Obviously I did not make the show as I am writing this from behind a bar. This cast seems like a week one thus far....their "twist" is putting people in the house with enemies. But they only did the "enemies" with 3 groups of people...unless they introduce some more people to the house its a pretty stupid twist. Of course the two fags who hate each other are from chicago. They are lucky I don't know them or it would require me to be extra hateful.

Fortunately they have two hot guys to look at this year. One is nick, a former pro football player...the other mike....a hot hot dark featured white boy. if I were to pick a winner this far out....I would have to go with jameka. The only reason I am picking her is that it is too early to see everyones strategies and I think she is the bomb. I want mike to win but he is already being dominant and will have a hard time not being targeted early on.

Jen??? I loathe the bitch....she is hoh now and I can't wait for her to go home!!!!

Leave a comment with who YOU think will win. In a few weeks I will do it again!

I am going with jameka for a guess at week one.

Along came....

I admit...I give Ms. Quicksell a hard time about her Debbie Downer entries sometimes. And i'm starting to think that the reason I don't write as much as I'd like to is that I don't want to be writing about downer stuff all of the time. It gets hard. I feel comfortable saying that I am pretty lucky in life. I was born into a loving family, I'm healthy and I've got an amazing group of friends. And with all of that...it is still so hard to keep positive spirits all of the time.

I am having an extreamly rough day. I'm sad, I'm lazy, I'm broke and I'm just not happy with a lot of things in life right now. I could go into the deep dark details but instead, I am simply going to let out a big....WAAAAHHHH WAAAAAAAH. Today is my Debbie Downer day and I'm broadcasting it to the world. Ok, to the few people who actually log onto here from time to time.

There is really only one thing I HAVE to do....I have to get off my ass and make good things happen. It is the Summer of Fun Raaaight? I love you Debbie but I don't really have time for you this summer.

I'm off.

From 30,000 Feet.

Its been awhile since I have written from 30,000 feet, I had hoped to write an entry on friday morning on my journey to the hamptons but was going on 3 hours of sleep. Having boarding group A (yes, I am flying the dreaded southwest airlines) I quickly found a window seat towards the front of the plane and KNOCKED out.

So my trip to the hamptons was amazing!!! The group I traveled with was so cool. Often times traveling with a group can be dreadful. Not this time...everyone was laid back, good spirited and there to have a good time. And that we did. The hamptons were not exactly what I had expected. In my head it was going to be one of the most beautiful places in the U.S. That it was not. But there was definitely a ton of money in the city. We got to eat some really good food, see a lot of places and spend a lot of time on the beach. The club scene was ridiculous. We had bottle service at both clubs we went to and spent A LOT of money on these bottles. You would think you'd get more than a small coffee table for your table service.....raiiight? Wrong. And the drama of even getting through the doors was crazy. I am glad to have seen it but it is not for me.

My favorite part of the trip that I am bringing home with me??? The basil hayden mint julip from nick and tony's. The bartender showed me how to make it and I am quite excited to share this drink with everyone....so please....next time you come over ask me to make you one. They are amazingly good!!!!

2007 Toronto Cup Champions

My first post was from Toronto and less than 2 years later I was back. My goal was to visit another country before going back to Toronto but on the spur of the moment Aaron and I opted to be pick up players with the Jackhammer team. Boy are we glad we did. We had a FANTASTIC time. Stayed at a B&B and won the tournament. And met some AWESOME people...thanks jackhammer for letting us join you!

Minerva has gone Worldwide!!!

It's official. Minerva is making it around the world. This cast is called the ss Minerva Cast. And look at how minerva it looks? It was obviously named that for a reason, IT'S MINERVA!!!!

Good Mornin' Y'all

We're Tired Y'all

Total Eclipse of the Heart

vBlog 2.33

Ivey & Steve vBlog v1.0

We actually did it. And it only took one try!!!

Just 2 more days!!!!

I feel I often over use the term "bestfriend". I have 4 people in my life that I use these words with regularly. There have a been a few times when I've been called out for having too many best friends. Doesn't "best" mean one? Ok by definition I'm not using the word correctly but these 4 people will always hold a special place in my life and I feel are worthy of being called "bests". If they have a problem sharing the title they can take it up amongst each other. It'd be an interesting battle. So while I have four bests i only have one Grace in my life. I think every gay man has that one woman in his life that he puts up on a pedestal above all other women in the world. The girl who understands him and who he can share his darkest secrets with. This woman to me is Jennifer Ivey. Yes she is the girl pictured above and yes she will kill me when she's see's the picture I have chosen to post. This picture was taken on February 4, 1999 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I will give photo credit to Ms. Shirley Ivey. I have no clue what we are drinking but I can assure you that we are WASTED. Moments later I think i was holding Ivey's hair back while she was throwing up in the bathroom.

So kill me Ivey Jo. But you gave me attitude that there was no mention of your arrival. Now there is mention....a picture....and here goes the announcement......WE WILL BE DOING A DAILY VIDEO BLOG WHILE SHE IS HERE so stay tuned!!!!

And let's go back to the picture above. Does it look like she's wearing a strippers coat? What's up with that?

Love you girl! See you in two days!
Chill

We Survived!!!

So I have to say this weekend was an amazing one and quite adventurous. I had planned a 25 mile trip down the lower wisconsin river over 2 days. The boy and I both woke up with a cold and I decided that instead of leaving at the crack of dawn....we should sleep in so that we were better rested for day 1. We left land around 4pm and headed downstream. With the late start and a leisurely pace we only traveled about 7 miles on day one. We set up camp on an island in the middle of the river and had about 60 minutes from our arrival on the island until sun down. We worked very well as a team...the tent was up and the fuel for the fire was collected all before sun-down. We built the fire, made chicken tortellini (sp?) and laid under the stars with our cocktails until we finally moved into the tent for a nights sleep.

This is where the fun began. I was raised camping on the Missouri river and am quite aware that the river level can rise quite quickly with rain upstream. To our knowledge there was no rain North of us. When I unzipped the front of our tent I noticed that the island we were on had changed drastically. THANK GOD we moved our tent to a better spot before we settled. Or we would have slept underwater. Our kayaks were beach bound when we went to bed. WERE beach bound. One of the kayaks was gone and the other was barely stuck in shallow water. I grabbed a life jacket, water through the water to the kayak and took off downstream while the P built a fire. Surprisingly I found the other kayak about a mile or so down stream, tied it to my boat and paddled upstream. Paddling upstream sucks...especially against the wind with a 2nd boat tied on. Luckily the fire was started, we made some oatmeal, packed back up and headed downstream. Our total trip was about 14.5 miles. We'll be back to do a 25'er and then the 90 mile trip to the Mississippi River.

We got back to chicago about 30 minutes before the Mika concert we had planned on attending for his birthday. We unloaded the jeep, changed as fast as possible, and arrived at the concert smelling like dirty river water. the concert was amazing!!!

Camping with Rhode Island...not IN Rhode Island

So I'm headed to Rhode Island for a 24 mile kayaking/camping trip. We should be back Monday night. If I end up missing one of us has killed each other. Sauk City here we come! Here's to hoping it's an amazing weekend!!!

Happy May Day!

So I grew up always looking forward to May 1st, what my family knew and celebrated as May Day. While a lot of the country celebrates this holiday with a May Pole we always followed the tradition of making May Baskets for our neighbors. My mother and I would always go to the grocery store together to purchase a bunch of strawberries (so we could use the little green baskets for our base), pipe cleaners (the handle to the basket), and then a bunch of various candies to fill each basket. While I always loved making our May Day Baskets (most of the neighbor’s used Dixie Cups), my favorite part of the tradition was delivering the baskets. The tradition is that you are to try to deliver the baskets without getting caught. We'd ring our neighbors bell, leave the basket, and RUN!!! If you got caught they'd have to kiss you.

So i'm curious....has anyone out there ever heard of this tradition? When I moved to the south for college people thought I was crazy...and i've yet to see this happen in chicago. I looked the Holiday up on Wikipedia and was happy to see that this is a recognized tradition that's unfortunately been fading since the 20th century. SEE BELOW...and please leave comments to tell me how you celebrated the holiday.

WIKIPEDIA:
May Day is May 1, and refers to any of several holidays celebrated on this day. May 1 was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures, and many elements of these holidays are still celebrated on May 1 today, such as the Maypole. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer: hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was "midsummer."

In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, Mary's head (in works of art, school skits, etc.) will often be adorned with flowers. Another May Day tradition (fading in popularity since the late 20th century) is the giving of May baskets, small baskets of candy and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors' doorsteps.

My Get-A-Way to Denver

Here I sit on one of the bumpiest plane rides I’ve been on in a long while in route from Denver back to Chicago. My former roommate Rich flew me out on miles, so sweet, so that I could come visit him and his boyfriend. I could not have asked for a better trip. It was very low-key and relaxing which is exactly what I needed. I had met his boyfriend, Brian, on several occasions but always briefly so I didn’t really know the guy very well upon arrival. He was gracious enough to change his work schedule so that he could pick me up from the airport and then he and I spent my first few hours in Colorado together as Rich was still at work. I can confidently say after getting to know him better that he is SUCH A SWEET GUY and perfect for Rich. I am so happy they found each other. I also met several of their friends as we had people over for dinner last night…all good people.
I would have to say that the highlight of my trip was Rich and my adventure to the Red Rocks. Our hike was a light one that lasted just a couple of hours as we spent our time hiking in and around the Red Rock’s Amphitheatre. It was AWESOME! It was a sight that I have always wanted to see as so many bands I love talk so highly of the space. Now, I just need to find a way to see someone like Dave Matthews, David Gray or Keane there. It’d be pure bliss. Rich and I got a little camera happy and took about 160 pictures between the two of us. You can click on the album cover at the top right corner of my page to view a portion of them. Enjoy!