Heavy

I got a call from my manager at work today while I was in class. I didn't have a chance to kcheck the message until around 5:15 when I was done with school for the day. I assumed (of course) that I was in some sort of trouble, and was relieved when my manager's message merely said to call her when I could because something had happened. Shortly after calling her, I wished that my original assumption had been correct. My co-worker Andy, a really smart, nice kid who I'd gotten to know since I started working at Proto's, died last night in a car wreck. He had recently turned 20. Alcohol was involved. I'm sitting here right now at my manager's house with a bunch of my coworkers, sipping Andy's favorite types of wine and trying to help each other through this ordeal. Personally, I am okay. I am sad, yes, but I didn't know Andy beyond a work level as many of my other coworkers/friends did. I mainly feel sad because I know what these people are feeling.

Fuck.

I love you guys, and I love the fact that I don't have to worry about any of you ending up in a similar situation to Andy's. I hope you know that you don't have to worry about me either.
Today helped me realize that the people I work with are also my friends (regardless of how much I complain), and I am very happy to have that kind of support. I felt that I needed to come to the blog first because you guys are my very first line of support, and I thank my lucky stars to be blessed with the Louds as my family. I'm sorry to bring the mood down in here, but obviously I needed to share this with you all. Take a second to acknowledge the existence of Andy Given if you can sometime. I love you all.

Last Friday was March 9th, and we all know what that means...

it means that we undoubtedly all spent the day in quiet remembrance and celebration of the life of Christopher Wallace AKA Biggie Smalls, the rapper from the south Bronx who was tragically murdered on march 9th in 1997....yeah right. It means that our dad/husband/self (depending on who is reading this) finally turned 50, and as is the custom here in America, the last-born son put on a rap show for his father. Possibly the funnest (and most fun) show I've ever done. Wish I could've stayed longer......
Pops- happy birthday man. I hope you had as much fun as I did. I love you.
Mom- the groceries are incredible, you're a peach. I love you
Elly- you and I are conversing via text message as I write this about my bumbling of the domain-name purchase. You JUST texted me: "Yeah. Without it, you have no webpage, just a domain name." I'm about to tell you to go ahead and upgrade. I love you.
Cody- It was great to talk to you the other night. I hate it that cell phone convos can be awkward sometimes. I really want to come out and visit you soon. Johnny has a friend that works at Rhymesayers (Atmosphere's label in Minny), one of like 8 paid employees that the company has. If nothing else, that's an excuse to come out there, right? I love you.

Getting on here almost always brings tears into my eyes. I just wish that we could all be together all the time. Everyone is doing great things though....why the hell is speedskating outlawed on the durango rink? That's messed up mom, you should just ignore that rule. Vegas sounded like a good time code. I'm going there on the 25th, but only for a night or two to help skep move. Regardless, I'm excited! I hope the casinos didn't clean you out too bad, because my birthday is this month and you owe me a few years' worth of presents if I remember right (by the way, I'll get you those presents I owe you this year too, don't worry). I'm exhausted from bursting into tears around the beginning of this paragraph. I didn't even know it was MS week. I miss you all.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Dad. Ok, Ok, so it's a day late, just so long as the truck full of presents arrived on time! I understand that there may have been a performance by the Grizz? Looking forward to the details. I hope it was a happy one for you man.

So, I sent off my autition tape to The Great American Melodrama yesterday. I learned that it's pretty easy to overthink an audition that you're taping yourself. I borrowed Nate's digital movie camera and gave myself a crash-course in simple computer editing. The disc that I sent off has 3 parts-a monologue (Bottom's speech from "A midsummer night's dream", a musical selection (performed-where else-in my shower), and an interview with myself where I shot the first half of it bearded, then shot the responses fresh-faced. It was fun to put together . . . and we'll see what happens. I expect to hear from them mid-to late next week. I tried to upload one of the video clips to the blog, but after 9 hours of loading (whilst I slept), I gave up on it. Sorry kids. For those of you who haven't heard about this project-if I get cast by the greatamericanmelodrama, I'd probably be working in Durango for the summer. Word.

Aside from that, it's been general busy work. Scott has a friend coming in from Arizona today, so we've got an intensive house-cleaning party planned. I've got a bag of grain sitting in the kitchen, just waiting to be turned into delicious butter beer. There are a couple of half-finished projects in the basement that have survived the winter and are now awaiting completion. There's monologues to be brushed up before NYC. Taxes aren't done yet. You know. General time consumption. Oh yeah-Skylar hooked us up with tickets to the Lakers/Timberwolves a couple of nights ago. They were amazing tickets . . . floor level, maybe twenty rows back from the court. Kobe v. Garnette. It was awesome. The 'Wolves ended up winning in Double OT (we split at the end of regulation), and Kobe committed a heinous foul for which he was later suspended a game. Punk. Too Cool.

So, how was everyone's MS Week? I celebrated by wearing a blond wig and studying Architechture for the week. Of course, I kid, but I was wondering if anyone did manage to participate somehow? I talked a bigger game than I walked about it.

I'm sure folks have some spring breaks comming up! Any plans worth sharing? Hope everyone is doing great, and I look forward to talking with you guys soon!

Vegas, Baby!

The picture says it all.

Well, it was a whirlwind weekend, beginning with a check-in with Olivia, and ending in a smooth 6-hour car ride. Scott and I departed Minny on Wednesday-at 5pm. Brilliant. The first hour on the road was spent in stop-and-go Minneapolis/St. Paul Rush-hour traffic. Awesome. Despite a smoking engine and a couple of white-out snow flurries, we made it down to Chi-town before midnight. Already, we were gambling and winning. That night, we got into a little Halo with Noah and Jason, and sacked out.

Thursday: I was able to make a quick trip to the Lakeview YMCA in Chicago. Last chance for some cardio before the desert! I ran into my old roomie Laurel schroeder at the gym! She was in the middle of a 3-hour run . . . trying to make us all look bad. After some sweat time and phone time, I borrowed scott's car and headed downtown to pop in on the lymans. Aunt Jo was in town (Uncle Ken was too, but he was stuck in Northbrook for the night), and the 5 of us had a nice dinner-resplendant with some homebrew!

I'm happy to report that Olivia is fattening up, and should be ready to cook by my birthday. Mmmm. . .

That night, I headed back up to Noah and Jason's place for a Chicago-based gathering surrounding Scott's birthday. It was a nice time . . . laid-back, casual, and slightly influenced by more homebrew.

Friday: Got a lift to O'hare in Noah Besser's Rumble Bus . . . it's a gigantic van (remember the daycare van?) that he uses for his work. Nice of that cat to give us a lift. The security line at O'hare was the most ridiculous one I've been through . . . and this is like, my 9th or 10th airport of the year. It was run amok . . . but somehow we made it through without any serious problems. Appearantly, we were one of the last flights allowed to leave the airport before they started cancelling/delaying planes. There was a pretty light-but-consistant snow falling, and we were lucky to escape on-time. In usual style, I managed to sleep most of the flight.

Vegas. The land of misspent dimes and ambitions. I could feel the vaccuum on my wallet as soon as our plane touched down. I started off big-$8 on a penny machine, $16 on video poker, $45 on blackjack. As we gambled away our first afternoon, other members of the "vegas away" team trickled in. By dinner, we were nearly all met, and we found our way to some great italian place that Scott was keen on . . . healthy portions and all the wine you could drink. And so we did.

The rest of the weekend was more of the same. Wandering, losing some money here, some there. Checking out the prosthetic sights and nonstop sounds of Vegas. It was great to see everybody . . . good friends in that group, but I kept remembering my last trip to Vegas with Elly.

Remeber that sis?

On the whole, it was a blast of a weekend. Nobody lost too much, but I don't think anyone left "up" either. Three days, two nights, plenty of poolside action in warm weather. It was great.

I've got more to post, but I've got to run right now. Hope you all are great! E-That website looks great so far, looking forward to the changes! Dad-you've got a birthday coming up! If only Grizz could perform for you . . . And Ma, hope you keep getting that ice to yourself!

peace

Quick Update

Hey Famn Damily!!!! heeheeeeee.

I'll post more later, but for now, here's what consumed my weekend: Stephanie Williams' Website. Our wedding photographer. Tell me what you think. :)

TGIF

Hi everybody, geez I feel like I'm reaching out to majorly busy lives. And mine too, you know....I have a nice hot shower waiting in the wings. Then work.

Had a spot of trouble getting on here. Still not positive what I did, or if I'll be able to repeat the process to get back on, but Elly wrote good instructions so I just need to keep practising.

I've been a jury-trial widow all this week with Dad in Pagosa trying a very complicated gravel pit rights case. Give us a good ol'fashioned murder any day.

I had the freshly zambonied ice rink to myself yesterday the entire 90 minutes. Accompanied by ma's rockboxx, of course. I had sharpened the blades also. Did I tell you that I was advised upon leaving the ice rink at CU, after skating, that speed skates&skaters are NOT ALLOWED on that rink!!!So I may have to ignore that (bleep-bleep) rule in the future. I'll wear the invisibility cloak.

Durango Film Festival in town this week. We never paid much attention to this event in past years'. (This may be only 4th year.) Scheduling a bit hard to follow,but some look interesting.

Snow is sketchy in town, but ski areas are great. $25 lift tix @Purg on Sunday for local appreciation. Usually that means it'll be packed. I prefer Wolf Creek w/no lift lines....I am SUCH a snob!!!After my 2-whole times skiing this year! Brother...

Okay, whoops! Outta time. I sure do enjoy this space w/you guys. MuchoLovo mammo