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T h e A d v e n t u r e s o f C h i c a g o J o

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A Busy Week and Weekend

2004-10-11� � 4:32 p.m.
Holy cow, y�all. It�s gonna be a busy week. And it�s not that, �Oh crud, I�m gonna be stretched in every which way� kinda busy either. This is one of those, �It�s a good thing I�m mostly an extrovert because this is going to be fun� kinda busy.

Tonight is a fundraiser for the Chicago Gay Men�s Chorus. I�m meeting a few people up there for what should be a fun evening. I�ll make the drinks come slowly this time so I don�t end up stumbling down Diversey while drunk dialing my sweet boyfriend, insisting that we find sushi for dinner.

Tuesday night is a reading by James Ellroy, author of LA Confidential. I met him once back in college when he thumbed his nose at UT for not allowing him to sell his books at his presentation. In retaliation, he went up the hill and gave a free talk (with books for sale) at my little liberal arts school. Being in the school�s writing program, I got into a small group discussion with him.

He was intimidating and an arrogant fuck to the extreme, but -- damn -- he was fascinating.

I�m not the type to attend literary events (see yesterday�s entry on my take on English majors), but I�ll listen to him talk about the pimps and panty-sniffers he�s encountered in his days.

On Wednesday and Thursday I�m gonna hit up the film festival. I found something for both nights that looked like something I�d enjoy (and something for Saturday night, in case Benito was up for it). If they end up sold out or I don�t want to go during that time period, I�ll do a solo hit-up of Friday Night Lights since it�s on the to-watch list and Benito and his work people are taking off today at 4:30 to see it.

As for Friday, there�s a house party at Happy�s house. The stars have aligned, since both the 30-pack of Miller High Life and a large jug of sangria were on-sale this week. Gotta love that. We�ll end up out and about around Lincoln Park that night, but having a 30-pack of MHL indicates that it will probably be an early night for me. Hopefully it won�t involve Benito carrying me home, a la New Year�s Eve of last year.

If you�re in Chicago, you�re more than welcome to attend the pre-going-out house party. Hey, if I don�t know you and you�re crazy, you�ll just know where Happy lives! No harm, no foul, heh?

This weekend was a good one. On Friday I went to Happy�s house where we drank lots of Corona (a lime actually does makes that piss drinkable), ate pizza, and watched the debate.

I�d really like to set up a tag-team communications group for George W. to help with his horrible speaking abilities. A question on Iraq is asked, and ChicagoJo is tagged in to field it!

It�s hard to get a point across if there�s so much bumbling. Of course, Kerry did his fair share of speaking off topic and not adequately addressing points too.

They�re both chuckleheads. Bah.

[However, I am sending Kerry a sample of some eye cream. He looked droopy and under moisturized, and this would definitely help.]

That night (actually early that morning), I got a phone call from Benito asking if he could sleep over since he was already parked in my garage and didn�t want to drive home. Sure thing, sugarplum.

We lounged until the next afternoon, when our heads were without beers and the massive amounts of water and ibuprofen could take effect. We spent the rest of the day palling around town, doing the usual. We went into a bookstore near(ish) his house, and we walked away with a good amount of reading material.

Did I take any Pulitzer Prizes away with me to work toward reading them all? No. But perhaps one of the best seller books makes enough of an impression on the committee that they�ll deem it worthy or the award, and I�ll be one-up on the list. Muhahaha!

Whatever. I read fast enough that I can get through them all.

Right, Crowhihs, right?

[She's also working through the list.]

We had a fabulous dinner of pizza (I especially liked the pizza with black beans and tostada ingredients on it) and retired back to his house to watch the Tivoed episode of Lost.

Sunday was football day, although we did hit up the grocery store and take a nice walk around his neighborhood.

[The shopping center near his house has three plus-size stores. Three! Apparently health is not abundant in his neighborhood...]

Football was fun this week.

First off, I 100% predicted what would happen to Chris Simms in his first pro start. After screwing up terribly in the first quarter, he claimed injury. It was the same bull crap he did in the two years I watched him play ball in Austin.

And guess what will happen during the next game he starts? After making another fumble or throwing an interception, he�ll again be �hurt� and have to be taken out of the game.

No, Chris it�s not your fault. It never is. Your thumb hurts. Your back is sore. Someone hit you too hard. Boo-fucking-hoo. You play football. Now get over it.

Aside from that much-abbreviated rant, I�m also finally understanding what all goes into fantasy football. It�s more complicated than it seems, and every action indeed has several reactions that dictate positive and negative points all over the place.

For instance, a touchdown that is thrown in gets points for the quarterback, the receiver, and likely the kicker; but the defense also loses points on that play too. Now realize that everyone has these different players, and each affects the score in that way.

In one game, there was a hodgepodge of players where it looked like Benito�s opponent for the week would have a win-win situation, but I correctly identified the only play that wouldn�t benefit him. Lo and behold, all worked out since the team was apparently mind melded with me and ran that scenario, giving Benito�s opponent nothing.

Perhaps I�m a good luck charm for the fantasy football???

I can tell you exactly what I�m not, though. I�m nothing of a good luck charm for the Astros. It seems that whenever I pay attention, all shit breaks loose. I hope all goes well tonight and they finish up this crap with Atlanta. I promise I won�t watch.

If you caught Saturday�s game, you saw the soon-to-be-famous Kyle Keena make a great snag. There was some foul ball hit, and my brother jumped and caught it with a good amount of finesse (or so I�m told).

In baseball news this morning, a story reported Ken Caminiti�s death. It rounds out the trifecta of Rodney Dangerfield and Christopher Reeve.

Rodney Dangerfield was getting up in the years and Christopher Reeve couldn�t breathe without assistance, so those really didn�t shock me too much. It�s really just how things go -- not to lesson their families� losses in any way, of course.

But, man. Caminiti.

He was one of my very favorites when he played for both the Astros and the Rangers. And when he left baseball a few years back, I was very happy to see him saying that he was making amends with his family members who he had hurt in his years of ups and downs.

When he was caught in the hotel room with drugs soon afterward, I was quite upset. I�d dealt with drug addict friends before, and this showed me that he was truly an addict and not just some junkie looking for a high.

It�s so friggin� sad that some people can�t control whatever it is inside of them and break away from their pasts.

In all other known aspects, he was a stand-up guy. I just wish he would have overcome it. �



Miss something?

Moving Day - 2008-02-15
Working from Home is Glorious - 2008-02-13
Speaking in Tongues - 2008-02-07
I Have My Reasons - 2008-01-25
Got an Itch, Fix it, Shine it Up, Sing it Out - 2008-01-23

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