Treasuring Life's Treasures

ROAD TRIPS

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:23:41 +0000

I just need to finish this

project and then I’m done for the week and I have a three-day weekend to go do whatever I want. I have nothing planned, but a few of my friends were planning on going on a road trip. I’m not really sure what kind of a road trip it will be, given we only have three days, but I suppose I have to commend their adventurous spirit. However, I am not wasting my first day off in ages on going to Wisconsin or Indiana. I could go to Wisconsin or Indiana any time I want. In fact, I could wake up one morning in Indiana or Wisconsin and not even wonder how I got there. I’m not altogether certain someone like me, who lives in Chicago, should be going to Wisconsin or Indiana. People from Wisconsin or Indiana should be coming to visit Chicago. I still think that Wisconsin and Indiana aren’t actually two states, but just two really huge suburbs of Chicago. Milwaukee and Indianapolis shouldn’t really get to count as cities as far as I’m concerned. I have no reason to go there except that my friends might be. I’ll still take a lot of convincing.

THE BUGLE

admin — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:44:00 +0000

I picked up the MLB tickets today from Father Rich but did not tell him my plan as I didn’t want him to worry. Joe will be happy to go to see the White Sox and doesn’t mind doing this bit of espionage for The Bugle. We went up to Joe’s Cottage last night but it didn’t seem like anything was happening there so we went home. We are going up there again tonight. When I was coming home from Father Rich’s house, I heard a loud meowing coming from the dumpster area. Low and behold but it was Mrs. Sparkles, my neighbor Paul’s cat! And she wasn’t alone - she had a litter of kittens with her. I called Paul who came right over to see his precious Mrs. Sparkles. He had no box to bring the mama and babies home in, but for some reason, my neighbor Mike has had an empty drawer on the grass for over a month. I gave Paul the drawer and we gently lifted Mrs. Sparkles and the litter of kittens into the box. Paul doesn’t know what he is going to do about the kittens but I suggested that Mrs. Murphy might take one. She has been very lonely lately, since her friend died at Wicked. A cat might cheer her up. And even with her failing eyesight and deafness, she might be able to make a good home for a kitten. When I went to deliver Mrs. Murphy her scotch, I asked her about the kitten and she said she would take one of them. She apparently got a call from my mom and invited my mom over for coffee.

GRADUATING COLLEGE

admin — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:53:41 +0000

I could have lived in any number of places right after I first graduated college. I could have lived in River North, in the River West Chicago neighborhood, Wicker Park, or even somewhere close to the Gold Coast. I could not afford and apartment in the Gold Coast. In fact, I could even afford a box to shelter under for the night in the Gold Coast. But I could have gotten an apartment that was relatively close. Instead, I got a place in Niles, which is a northern suburb that borders the city. I made a pretty irritating commute to the city every day for work, but rents are not nearly as high out in the suburbs as they are once you reach the city limits. In fact, nothing costs as much, especially gas, which is just going up to criminal heights. Eventually, I’ll move into the city, maybe after I get a raise here at my job. Until then, I’m saving all this money. It will probably be enough that if I lost my job, I wouldn’t have to worry for a long while and could take my time finding a new one. I might eventually end up with more money than I know what to do with, but that’s better than never having enough.

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:15:53 +0000

Grandpa is going to start teaching us how to carve figurines. We have found that people who have come into our shop to buy a birdhouse or feeder or even some of the things we have designed for sitting in a garden or on a landscape, have asked about the figurines that we have sitting on our shelves. We have decided to add them to our line. We will be busy I guess with this new project and will have to hire someone to do the paperwork. We are still exploring offsite data storage solutions, since we do not have the space or the equipment for all our documents and designs. Grandpa will be proud of us I’m sure. We are going to become adept at carving these figurines, but I do know that it will take much time and concentration to become nearly as good as Grandpa is at designing and carving these figurines. We are hoping he will let us put some of the many, many figurines he has in his workshop in our line to sell them. Of course he will be featured as the designer and may very well have to produce more of them.

SHOP CLASS

admin — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:20:44 +0000

Today should be a pretty fun day. I just picked up some new cut tools that I want to experiment with. I think after tinkering around with those I'm going to call up that girl from my night class. I've been wanting to call her ever since she first gave me her phone number, but I didn't want to seem too overeager. It's been a few days already, so I think it's been a good amount of time to wait. I really like her, so I hope she hasn't changed her mind since then! I'm going to call up some friends and run some ideas past them about where to take her. To be honest, I haven't taken a girl out in quite some time so I hope I'm not too rusty at it. We always seem to get along fairly well in class, but sometimes it's different when it's just the two of you, you know? That's why I haven't called her yet. Somehow it's just easier for me to get to know people when I'm surrounded by a bunch of other people. It's more comfortable for me. Well, I'm going to get started on my project now and try work up some nerve!

OLD FISHING POLE

admin — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:29:32 +0000

My lawyer was telling me about the Austin bankruptcy laws. He was outlining my choices. I wasn't listening. I was just listening to the voice in my head screaming that I shouldn't do it, shouldn't file. I know that sometimes people have no choice. I was at that point. My rational brain knew that, but the fighter in me didn't. When my lawyer finished, I just nodded and said that I had to go home and think about a few things. I didn't go home. I stopped at the house and packed a few things and headed north. I was going home home. I was going home to go fishing. I needed some time to think. I dug out my old fishing pole and tossed it in the trunk. Then I started to drive. It was a full day before I got home. I left the interstate, went up the two lane and then into town. I was shocked. I hadn't been home in ten years or better. Whole blocks were gone. But a lot of familiar things were there. I saw some people I knew. I pulled over and started talking. At once I felt I knew what I should do. I was too long gone from what I knew best. I had to decide what to do, and then I had to get back to what I knew.

PLAYING VIDEO GAMES

admin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:28:54 +0000

Back in college, my typical day went like this. I’d wake up early, but not too early. Maybe around 9:30. Then I’d take the train to school and attend 2 or maybe 3 classes. It depended on what day it was. Sometimes, on the way home from school, I’d stop by a temporary staffing agency to see if they had any work for me. If they did, I fit it in between classes and everything else. If not, I went home and played video games for a while. I’d make a few calls to my friends, saw how they were doing or if they were doing anything later. We’d make plans and then I’d start on my homework. Whenever I got done, I’d eat dinner and watch TV for a while. I know it wasn’t the most exciting life, but I enjoyed it for the most part. I had more free time on my hands than I did in high school and much more than I would once I graduated and went out into the real world. I still lived with my parents, which wasn’t the greatest thing in the world, but I didn’t have to pay for rent or groceries or anything like that. I saved up a lot of money. Video games didn’t grow on trees after all.

PILES OF PHOTOGRAPHS

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:17:59 +0000

Today I was looking around at these piles of photographs I have and it seems pretty obvious that I need to think of some type of data storage solution. As it stands right now I have everything piled into shoeboxes. Some of the images are already starting to fade. I don't want what happened to my mom's photographs to happen to mine. She has all these pictures of us as kids and they're all separated from the envelopes with the negatives. There is no way she's going to sit there going through every single frame of negatives if I want a duplicate of something. There are better ways. I think what I'm going to do either later tonight or tomorrow is scan everything and upload it to my computer. I've been wanting to put everything together on a web site and that way it will be easier to keep things organized. Everyone is always asking why I don't just put everything into albums but I've been wanting to do something different. I always was the different one in the family! I think after I take care of my own photographs I'm going to surprise my mom and do the same thing for her.

MINI GOLFING

admin — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:39:57 +0000

I went mini-golfing with a friend of mine I knew from college the other day. She got married a month ago and I have not seen her since she left for her honeymoon. I am so proud of her for finally getting married; she and her new husband have been dating forever. We had a running joke about her marrying her husband for the longest and I remember telling her that if I got married before she did we could not be friends. I consider her one of my best friends and we have been for a long time so I feel almost as proud as her parents. So it did not matter that I am horrible at mini-golf, and if you do not think that is possible, watch me play. She told me she was going to buy one of those golf aid books for me for my birthday because I take forever at every hole. But I figure, it gives us more time to talk anyway, and she does not mind either, just makes fun of me. This last time we went at night so that was even worse. The fact that I am horrible at it in the first place, coupled with not concentrating on the game as much as our conversation and the night made for an especially long game. I lost quite a few balls. Sure there were lights on the course but again, this is me so it did not make too much of a difference. I did feel proud however when I got the ball in the hole on the first try of the eighteenth hole. I got treated to coffee afterward for my amazing accomplishment. I am happy to see that marriage has not changed her sense of humor.

THREADING TREND

admin — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:10:22 +0000

I was never really a big fan of waxing or plucking and I’m sure as heck not going to sit through electrolysis treatments, so I was super excited to find out that one of the salons in my neighborhood is going to start offering threading. I had heard that threading was becoming very popular in the city, that it was quickly becoming the Chicago hair remover of choice, so I’m glad to see that it’s branching out into the suburbs so I can see what all the fuss is about. From what I understand it’s a techniques that takes months to perfect, where a cosmetologist uses a twisted cotton thread to remove unwanted hair. It’s supposed to be relatively painless and a lot better for your skin than waxing. I really hope that threading is effective because it would be nice to have a procedure to remove hair that doesn’t require boiling hot wax or harsh chemicals to be applied to the skin. I don’t know exactly what my local salon is going to charge, but I’ve heard that in most places the treatments are cheaper than waxing as well, so I’ll probably be saving money by switching, which is also a good thing.