Today I wore a sweater for the first time since winter. This is one of the happiest times of year for me. Fall is by far my favorite season. I love the days that are sunny but cool. I love the colors of the leaves before they start to fall. I love going to football games and sweating or getting sunburn. I know for most people spring is the time when they start to yearn for the opposite sex but I always want to fall in love in autumn. I think I love the nostalgia of fall. Looking back on high school football games and the girls I dated in high school and the girls I wish I'd dated. Walking out of the auditorium at Willowbrook in my red flannel jacket as the sun was setting and getting into to my brother's beat up old Firebird to drive home. I remember playing football in people's backyards senior year and sitting around a bonfire in Jared's backyard talking till our parents made us come home. My brother Ralph wrote a song that I think is one of the best things I've ever read or heard about fall. It's called "Autumn Days."
Got the windows down
And the radio loud
The wind blows through your hair at 63 degrees
Memories return
On your mind they burn
You smile half a smile and hit the gas
Everything you do today
Has the sense of never ending
You smell the scent of burning leaves
As the timeless world moves forward
The sun sets in the air and on the trees
On endless autumn days
Frost upon the ground
As you hear the sound
Of marching bands drifting on the breeze
Brushes on your soul
Something makes you whole
You pull your jacket tighter as you walk along
You are no longer there alone
Something passes now beside you
You catch the fragrance of her hair
See the smiling face before you
Remember how the sun would catch her eyes
Those endless autumn days
Watch your breath float by
As you bitter-sweetly sigh
A chill reminds you that you're still alive
Sunlight's fading now
You're driving out of town
With new beginnings waiting on the other side
But everything you come across
Seems to start you reminiscing
You hear a song that takes you back
To the times when things were simple
The former and the present
Seem to be one endless autumn day
Forever etched into your heart
All the joy and all the sorrow
And just how it felt to be with her
On endless autumn days
Things have been insane lately and it would take way too long to try to explain it all here, so if you really want to know about it IM me sometime and I'll fill you in. Something that was supposed to be a hoax ended up becoming true. The lines between fiction and reality have become severely blurred. This past week was awesome. Tuesday we celebrated Mike's 21st at the bars which ended up with me sleeping on the couch at Swanky Bubbles so that I could turn him on his side and stick a bucket under his face when he needed to puke. Oh, the things we do for our friends. I missed quite a bit of class and work the next day. But it doesn't make because Wednesday night Rach and I kicked ass at the Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture edition. If you think you can go toe to toe with me on pop culture trivia, you are sorely mistaken. Thursday was fucking awesome because we got to go see Dan Andriano and Dashboard Confessional for FREE! The show was amazing. Danny was great. There some songs like "Maybe I'll Catch Fire" that I really wanted him to play that he didn't but it was ok because he played "The Only Living Boy in New York." It was awesome. Dashboard just fucking rocked. I love seeing a band whose songs I know all of by heart. I sang at the top of my lungs the entire time and it was great. It was probably really good for Holler at this point in time too. It was a little weird for me that the ex was standing like 10 feet from me the whole time because so many of those songs were what I was listening to when I was getting over her. It didn't keep me from enjoying the show though. Friday Marcus, Sauber, the Stachowiaks, and Kordik came down for a party for Mike's birthday. It was a good time even though at first it looked like it was going to be small. We set up a table in back of the house for Flippy Cup and Beer Pong, which was an incredible idea. This will probably be a feature at every party from now on. Saturday morning I got up way too early to go to the game with Marcus, Chris, Phil, and Steve. It was an exciting game even though we lost. Watched "The Girl Next Door" in the afternoon which was a pretty entertaining movie. Went to Bobo for dinner and invented a new life slogan. "What Would an African Warlord Do?" W.W.A.W.L.D.? We came back to the house to predrink and then I went to a party at Ming's friend's aparment for a little bit before going to the Rave party at Triangle. I had a good time as I think everyone did. Especially Marcus. He was trashed and it was great. I came home a little down that night but I don't really want to go into why. Sunday sucked because I had to do stuff. I hate doing stuff on Sunday. I wish I had just one day of the week where I could recharge myself. Got to watch the X-Files for a little bit though, so that was cool. I haven't watched that show in years. I also made a new mix last night that I'm pretty happy with. You probably don't care what's on it but I'm going to tell you anyway:
1. I Didn't Understand - Elliot Smith
2. So Long, So Long - Dashboard Confessional
3. Could Well Be In - The Streets
4. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths
5. The Dangling Conversation - Simon and Garfunkel
6. Young Pilgrims - The Shins
7. The Way His Collar Falls - Saves the Day
8. Natalie Portman - Ozma
9. Love Letter Typewriter - Mineral
10. Bend and Break - Keane
11. Just Like Honey - The Jesus and Mary Chain
12. The Chalet Lines - Belle and Sebastian
13. Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis - Brand New
14. Overkill - Colin Hay
15. Fair - Remy Zero
16. Passenger Seat - Death Cab for Cutie
17. Twentysomething - Jamie Cullum
18. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
19. Hanging on for Hope - The New Amsterdams
20. Stop Playing Guitar - The Promise Ring
21. South Union - Lucky Boys Confusion
22. Lost My Lights - Robert Nanna/City on Film
-DFP
Saturday was the first day in a long time that I was able to just sit around and not really do anything. It was kind of nice. I went to Bobo again for lunch because Mike, Jodi, and Rachel were going. We had fun recounting the events of the previous evening, laughing loudly, and possibly scaring some old people. I probably shouldn't yell profanities in public. After we were done Mike and I headed home and decided to watch The Graduate. It was an awesome movie and I definitly see why it's considered to be one of the best of all time. I could also see some of the reasons people compared Garden State to it. Some of the shots Zach Braff used almost seemed lifted right out of The Graduate. Adam and his family came back from the game while we were watching the movie and there was a bit of talking, mostly because the Illini actually managed to win. I couldn't quite focus on the film as much as I would have liked but I still really loved it. Dustin Hoffman was amazing.
The Cubs lost Saturday, which sucked. Around ten we headed to floor parties at Triangle. Mike, Jared, Corey, Dave, and I went and we met Holler, Carrie, Debbie, Elise, and Rob there. (An important point to note at this juncture is that Sarah and Holler broke that afternoon, so needless to say Holler was upset and ready to get - as Kordik phrased it - stone-aged.) We went inside and had the lay out of the party explained to us. Different floors, different drinks, different themes. I found the keg on the second floor and I was happy. We made a few toasts to things like "the semicolon" and "the blue longsleeved shirt, striped." Soon the largest game of Flip Cup/Taps I have ever seen started. It was roughly guys against girls with like 12 people on each side. We were taking up 3 long tables. When it got to me the first time, I couldn't flip my cup for the life of me and we lost. We ended up loosing 4 out of the 5 games we played. The girls were totally cheating though because they each only had like 2 sips of beer in their cups. We also had this one guy on our team who smacked the cup really hard every time and could not get it to land upside down. That really hurt us. After we finished getting womped on Holler asked Charles to bust out the beer bong because the "Girl with the cleavage" (aka Debbie) really wanted to do one. Charles got it but Carrie and Debbie refused to do it in public so we all marched all the way up to the top floor of the house. There was some crazy room up there with some sort of leveled thing covered in purple carpet. It was pretty fun to hang out on. The beer bongs started flowing and it was crazy. Sometime during this part of the party I got a drunk dial from Tim Freedlund and his brother John. Awesome. I would have met up with them at the bars but I was concerned about Holler. When I went downstairs to get more to drink, some freshmen from Willowbrook were hanging around. Chris DeFalco and Mike Pietrantoni were there. Very bizarre. There were some people smoking up in one of the rooms and Rob told me "You love pot, Dan!" I don't. Not at all. Back up stairs things were getting a little crazy. Jared was talking to a girl who said she was from London. I thought that was pretty cool but I never really got around to talking to her about London. I did give Jared two important pieces of information though. They call the subway "the tube" and they call money "quid." Holler was getting very touchy-feely. Debbie and Carrie decided to go meet up with Tom Steele for a little bit. We kept hanging out in the cool upstairs room at Triangle. We went and hung out on the sundeck for a little bit which was really cool. There was a canoe out there which prompted Mike to sing a little bit of that Troubled Hubble song. Holler laid down in the canoe and I thought it would have been really funny if he passed out there. No such luck. There was more beer bonging, running around, drinking, and plain old craziness. Eventually, Holler got ill and we had to have Dave and Tony take him home. At this point we searched for Rob and for Jared but they were nowhere to be found. We thought they both might be hooking up.
Carrie and Debbie came back and Mike, Elise, and I left the party to go to the house. I went running around our neighborhood looking for an ATM so I could pay for the Pokey Sticks we ordered. When I got back to the house I found out that Adam's dad was still awake. Apparently Carrie walked out of the bathroom and fell down right in front of him. We hung out upstairs for a while and then when the Pokey Sticks came we ate them in Jon's bedroom. After that we went to bed. Elise shacked with me again.
The next morning Jared came home and we found out that the "English" chick was an imposter. Turns out she was just some IMSA girl that happened to be at the party. When Jared found this out he stole her pack of cigarettes and went and played X-Box in some guys room till 5 o'clock in the morning. He doesn't actually remember any of this, but he wrote himself a note on his computer so he would remember in the morning. Later in the afternoon Holler came by to try to put his night back together. Turns out he didn't remember anything after the first beer bong, except for falling in the canoe.
Friday Night's are usually a good time. It's the longest possible time away from having more class. This Friday was bound to be particularly interesting for a number of reasons. First of all, Jodi has started to come out of mono retirement so we new she'd be coming out with us. Also Debbie is here from Bradley visiting Carrie and visitors are always fun and always seem to liven up the situation. And on the subject of visitors, Adam's dad and sister are here visiting, which we knew might make coming home from the bars a little more eventful then normal.
The night started kind of slowly with dinner at Bobo China. Carrie, Debbie, Amanda, and Elise actually ordered food off the menu. I didn't know people actually did that. After dinner I came back home and bummed around for a few hours. Adam's dad showed up and made fun of me about how messy my room was. It was Friday and I was in the middle of doing laundry. I mean, come on. So eventually we all decided to go to Clybourn later after Jodi and Rachel vetoed Brothers and Legends and I vetoed CO's, Kam's, and Station. Mike, Dave, and I went to pregame at Swanky Bubbles (aka Jodi and Rachel's apartment) and we were going to meet up with Holler, Rob and the gang later. Rachel taught us a cool game called Lottery. Here's how it goes:
-Lay the cards out in a circle in the middle of the table
-The first person picks a suit
-Everyone draws a card till that suit is drawn. Whoever picks the card of that suit has to drink the number on the card
-Everyone else counts one number at a time going around the circle.
-If the drinker finishes before the group has counted to the number on the card, then whoever's turn it was has to drink the number on that card.
-The drinker has to say another suit before setting down their drink. If they forget the have to drink the last card's number again.
-If someone in the group says the wrong number while counting, they drink the number on the card.
The game was a lot of fun and Mike sucked at it really bad. Really bad. He always forgot to say a suit before he put his cup down or didn't know what number he was supposed to say. He drank a lot. He got so drunk we came up with a nickname for his drunk personality. Cooter Mike. Real Mike left us, but Cooter Mike was partying it up all night long. When we finished the game Jodi and Rachel decided they wanted to meet their neighbor. They were out creeping around in the hallway while we waited inside. Rachel came running through the door and jumped into my lap. I had no idea what was going on. Mike ran into the hall and started yelling something about Fitz. Mike and I met Fitz freshmen year when he knew Betsy and Andy. Turns out, he lives next door to Jodi and Rachel this year. We also met his roommate Andrew. Jodi thought he was kinda hot but then decided later that he was sort of creepy. We went over to check out their apartment and hung out for a while. We told them that we would be a Clybourn later. Then we headed out to meet Holler and the crew over there.
We walked in and it was pretty empty in the place. Elise tired to get in with Jen's ID but got turned away. Holler says she hesitated a little with the zipcode. Kind of unusual for the Cly on a Friday night but I've seen it that way before. It was hard to get drinks at frist because pretty much all of us got shut down by the bartenders. Luckily Tom Steele was there and happened to know someone who was working, so he hooked us up a few times. We were all hanging out and having a good time. Rob and Tony left because Tony wasn't feeling well. Man was he hitting on Jodi and Rachel a lot. So a few minutes after he left, this creepy old looking guy came up and started talking to Jodi. I couldn't really hear what he was saying. I did notice him smell her drink though. Then she started walking away with him. I was really confused and nervous. I asked what was going on and someone said something about her getting a free drink. I decided to follow them to make sure she was ok because this guy was majorly creepy. I followed them toward the bar and then they turned and started to go outside. I started freaking out. I ran back to everybody and this is when I realized she was getting....a drinking ticket. I found Rachel and we went outside and saw them taking her into a big State Police van. We decided to stand across the street and wait for her to get out. We started pooling our money. Mike and I both called Carrie to tell her and Debbie to leave the bar. I pulled out the $20 I had left in my wallet. Everyone else started handing over whatever they had. I ran to the ATM and grabbed $40 more. When I got back , Jodi was out of the van and hugging Rachel. We went back to Jodi's apartment and she was still very shaken up.
When we got the apartment, she went to her room to get a big bag of quarters. Debbie and Carrie sat on the floor of the apartment and counted out all the money. While they did this, Mike, Jared, Holler, Rachel, and Dave went out to Green Street to "show boobs for money." Carrie and Debbie figured out that between the money we'd all pitched in and the quarters that Jodi had we had the $280. We ran down to the street to get everybody else. They had collect like $3.65 or something. We all decided to drink more to celebrate. This led to much insanity. Like people eating pickles out of each other's mouths and olive juice being spilled all over the floor. Rachel taped a piece of paper saying "Free Jodi" on it to her stomach. Somehow this evolved into Mike putting on a pair of "Kiss pants." That escalted into shiny silver pants, a fishnet shirt, a lot of make up, a pink feather boa, a horsewhip, i purple feathery fan and some crazy tall boots. I must say, it was possibly the most humorous thing I have ever seen. I think he might have even been wearing fake eyelashes. Carrie wrote "Balls" on his forehead. I will add a picture to this entry as soon as I get one from somebody.
We left Swanky Bubbles around 3:30 or so I think. We stopped at Niro's Gyros on the way home and the manager let us in even though they were closed. It was a good time.
I'm just going to say that it's awesome that the Cubs have won their last four games straight. They're still ahead in the loss column so if they keep winning the Wild Card is theirs for the taking. Unfortunately I've been too busy to catch many of the games lately. I had a story today and I turned something in that was six pages long and I'm not very happy with it. It's barely even a story at all. I couldn't really figure out how to get it to go where i was trying to take it so I found a comfortable place to stop. I'll probably add onto it more later. Finishing early let me go out to Murphy's last night though. It was fun. Got an awesome Miller Lite/Bears football shaped logo glass. Hung out with Rob, Holler, Carrie, and Mike for a couple hours. One of the Belgian guys that's living at Triangle bought us beer. We talked about some fun stuff and I found out some interesting information about a past relationship. It's funny when you find out something someone told you was a complete lie. Not that it matters anymore, but interesting nonetheless. Yesterday at work I listened to this album I just downloaded called "A Grand Don't Come for Free" by The Streets. I saw it advertised all over in London so I wanted to check out what it was all about. I thought it was really cool. There aren't any particular songs that stand out because the entire thing tells a story. I know there are a lot of albums that claim to tell a story but usually they're impossible to follow. This tells a completely clear story with major and minor characters, a solid plot, a climax, and a resolution. It probably isn't everyone's cup of tea but I enjoyed it a lot. I'm actually listening again right now. While I was listening to it yesterday at work I started thinking about how I'd like to move to London for a few years. I really loved that city and I want a lot of time to take it all in. I could probably never afford it and I probably wouldn't even be able to find a reliable job. But it's something that I would honestly love to do. Right now I'm debating whether to go out, stay in and study, or just stay in and relax. What shall it be?