"Fireworks and Lightning in Bizarro World" - June 21, 2008

Fireworks and lightning, to me, are very thought-provoking. Mystical, majestic explosions of light in the evening sky. How does that not make you think about things? It should make one think about life, love, good times, the future, among other lesser important things. People are afraid of lightning, I find it to be stunning, like art unfolding right in front of your very eyes. Which may explain why I have such an appreciation for each. I'm always very "zoned in," if you will, during a display of each.

It's been a month and a few days since I last gave a full update on life, and wow, it's been a roller coaster since then. For a change, mostly positive things. I mean, how can one complain? School's finished, summer's here, my Cubs are STILL winning, I've accomplished a lot. Things have just been solid lately. Might as well start from the beginning, which as I reflect, seems like SO long ago!

On May 24th, my father and I took a trip to Peoria to see the Chiefs (Cubs A affiliate). Nice little metropolitan town, no doubt. The hotel we stayed in was shit, though, very poor decision. The game was fun, nice stadium, can't complain. Except security (typical Cubs security) who, as always, wouldn't seem to follow their own rules with getting a Ryne Sandberg autograph, thus causing disappointment in many fans there, including myself. Ah well, shit happens, right?

Regardless of that, the game was cool, nice weather, no complaints. Nice win by the team and a cool fireworks display at the end. Next day we came home, and I guess the breakfast at the hotel gave me food poisoning. Sweet, right? I was sick all night (Marcella would know, since I was on the phone with her). It was just miserable. Tried to sleep, didn't get much of it. Luckily, next day was Memorial Day and I had off of school, so I had a day to recover. But it was just an awful night.

So we did the last couple days of school (see my blog reflecting Sophomore year for highlights), and it was such a relief on the 28th to just get the hell out of there and relax for a change. On that weekend, I went to Laura's 16th birthday party, which was a lot of fun and a very nice getaway for an evening. Then my sister's graduation dinner was the next day, and I actually got a nice surprise from my uncle that day. He gave me baseball tickets to the Cubs game on June 10th, Brewers games on July 25th and 26th, and to the Chiefs / Cougars game at Wrigley on July 29th. Definitely excited for all of those.

The next week was more of a relaxing period for me. Spent a lot of time sleeping, playing video games, stuff that calmed me down. And stuff that I needed, no less. I was basically free to rest until that Saturday (June 7th), and I took advantage of that time, 100%.

On that Saturday, the weather was nuts. Rainy, tornado warnings all over Fox (missed Seinfeld, thanks a lot, Mark Strehl). Though surprisingly, Lockport didn't seem to be a huge target for that. Regardless, it was strange, but this was the day I'd leave for Dale's and spend a week in Chicago! So after some Burger King and some Simpsons on DVD, I waited outside for about a half hour and was finally picked up. Dale, his family, and I listened to the Sox destroy Minnesota on the radio and pulled up into his house. A stay I had planned for five months had finally arrived!

That night, we didn't do much. He was exhausted, as was I, it was hot as Hell in his house. Not much inspiration to do much. We basically unpacked, watched Family Guy, and went to sleep. The next day, I woke up early because Dale was sleeping like a sick horse, moving around and making noises and all that crazy bullshit. I was up at 6:30, he wouldn't get up until 9. So I went on his computer awhile. We filmed breakfast (which we'd been dying to do for a long time, don't ask why), made some thrusting videos, went to Arby's and came back. Speaking of Bizarro World, funny thing happened on the way back. We were walking down Archer, and the first old friend of mine I run into to is, ironically, Lauren Cross, who just so happens to go to Lockport, for those who don't know. Of all the people I end up seeing, it's someone who doesn't even live there anymore, casually walking into Obbie's. Funny, and strange. Bizarre.

Later that evening we would see Marcella (who was so nice to see after such a long time), had Obbie's for dinner (another ironic, bizarre coincidence), sat outside and listened to Rush's A Show of Hands album amidst the lightning of the evening, went inside and Dale tells me he had to go to bed early because of band at 6:30 in the morning. So that left the house all to myself, and considering it isn't even mine, I was clutching at straws to find something to do. I found myself playing Nintendo 64 and watching a Rush DVD before I finally called it a night.

The next day, June 9th, was the day of the Rush concert with Ray! It was FINALLY here, after nine months of waiting. That day was interesting, I was able to sleep until 10:30 because the sick horse had to wake up early and wasn't home to keep me up (haha). I ate pancakes for breakfast, played Super Mario 64 for about an hour until he got home. From there, we walked to Burger King in the rain (or approaching rain, whatever), which was a shit-ton of fun. After that, we returned to his house, the rain picked up, but we did some yardwork and mowed the lawn in the rain. Fun stuff, actually. From there, all we had to do was sit and wait for Ray to come get us and we were on our way to the Rush show!

There's a blog on the show itself, I'm not gonna rehash everything. I will say, however, that it was the best show I'd ever seen in my life. Bar none. Want to know more? Read the other damn blog :)

The trip home was fun, crankin' Different Stages out, windows open, singing all the songs as loud as we could on the outskirts of a dangerous Chicago neighborhood. Fun stuff! Regardless, we returned home at 11:45, I had a cool shirt and a program, said goodbye to Ray, went back in the house, Band Boy had to go to sleep at 1, so I spent about an hour and a half on the phone with Emma that night while I was alone, which was nice. I went to sleep about 3 in the morning, ending possibly the best day of the whole damn week, perhaps the whole year so far.

Next morning I woke up at 10:30 again, went on the computer, typed my Rush blog, packed. Dale came home, and sadly we just had a little time for goodbyes because I left at 2, was going to the Cubs game later that evening with Sean and my uncle. So my stay at Dale's ended at 2:00 on June 10th, and it was awesome! After a quick stop at my uncle's house, us three were on our way to Wrigley Field.

The game was outstanding, Cubs won over the Braves 10-5. Ted Lilly pitched well (only mistake was a three-run homer in the first off former White Sox Third Baseman Greg Norton, which was so laughable). The Cubs offense touched up Tom Glavine early, and he left due to a shoulder injury. Bob Howry almost blew a 6-3 Cubs lead in the 8th by allowing two runs to bring Atlanta within one. The booing on him was outstanding! But nothing to worry about, as the next inning Geovany Soto hit a three-run shot into left field to put us ahead 10-5, and it was up to the bullpen to hold it down. What a game that was, the atmosphere there is absolutely unreal. I took a South Side Sox fan to the game and even HE was getting caught up in it. So much fun. I even bought one of those badass "Horry Kow!" shirts with Fukudome's name on the back. That'll be worth something in a few years!

Anyway, we returned back home around midnight, I showered and slept like a baby that night. My uncle woke me up at 8:30 the next morning, which is the norm from him, and we did breakfast followed by some yardwork (which gave me some nice pay in the end). Then we went out, did some stuff, and would return home for dinner, which would be Obbie's (again), then we'd watch the Cubs game and relax the rest of the evening. I went to sleep, woke up the next morning after one of the strangest dreams I'd ever had along with a splitting headache. I got over that, watched the Cubs throwback game with my grandma, just kinda relaxed the rest of the evening. When my uncle got home we watched Game 4 of the NBA Finals, which my Lakers pathetically lost. I went to bed, and the next morning was another transitional day.

After packing, I got Genesis' new "When In Rome" DVD finally, which I had a chance to watch Sunday and is absolutely brilliant. I made a few phone calls, and some Law & Order, Sean picked me up, as I would spend the weekend there. I dropped stuff off at his casa, we chilled, and got tickets to the Sox game against the Rockies that evening. The Sox ended up pulling out a victory, though the atmosphere was totally different. The same excitement just wasn't there, it was very different. And the booing of Scott Podsednik as a pinch runner was disgraceful, I thought. It's not like he WANTED to leave. Ah well, can't change people. Regardless, they won, Jenks closed it out, and there was a cool fireworks show at the end of the game. Very nice evening. When we returned back to his place, we played some Mario Kart 64 and basically went straight into bed, though spoke about life and such for about three hours before actually getting sleep.

The next day was relaxing, basically just watching baseball and playing Nintendo all day, just like old times. Though we did get up early to help a family friend of their's take off the tarp on their pool, and played some beastly basketball on one of those kiddie hoops. That was awesome. When we got back to his house we did some swimming in his pool, very refreshing. Then we played the N64, some Goldeneye, NBA Courtside (he owned me, Brent Barry, at the time of the Heat had 42 points at half time, haha), I owned him in some All Star Baseball 2000 (Cubs were winning over the Sox 14-6 after 3 innings, Gary Gaetti had three homers :D), and then we dominated as Argentina in FIFA World Cup Soccer '98. Just like old times. We'd have a beastly dinner, go upstairs and play MLB 2K8 on his PS3, and then we went to sleep.

Next day (June 15th) would be my last. We woke up at 9:30, I started to pack whilst playing FIFA again (one of the most addicting sports games ever), we went downstairs, I had a donut, I showered, and before you knew it, my uncle had picked me up. After a quick handshake with Sean, we said goodbye and I moved on to my uncle's for a couple hours, watching the Cubs beat the Blue Jays in Toronto, very nice game. Around 2 we left for my house, and when we got there, it marked and end to what very well could be considered one of the best weeks of my life. Bar none.

So, how have things been since? Topsy-turvey if you will (if that's how it's even spelled!). I've been forced to wake up at six in the morning for behind the wheel, and I feel like I'm wasting my time because it's so damn easy! What a joke. Too lazy to handle it during the year so they ruin two weeks of mine and other's summers with this bullshit. So my sleep schedule has been screwy because of that. I've also been sick, still recovering. Should've gone to a bonfire tonight but still wanted to have the house to myself and have time to totally get better. Smart choice, I think.

So that's that, however there are other broader subjects that need to be handled, one that always interests people is seemingly my love life. Well, I'm confused as shit, to be honest. Has not bee going well lately and I've just been in the dark. I know what I like and they (most) know who they are. I'm just not getting anywhere with any of them, and it gets frustrating at times. But, what can ya do? Outside my love life, I've also been working on getting a personal domain for blogs, and other things I do with my life. Definitely looking forward to that. I also got back to messing around with my baseball cards again, organizing them and such, then doing inventory. I only have half my cards in books, and that totals about 4,000 of them. Some of the cards are worth hundreds of dollars, so I probably have about $7,000 worth of baseball cards, if my estimate is correct. And like I said, that's not even HALF of what I have. I still have a shit-ton of old ones that need to be archived, probably more valuable than what I've got now. It's fun stuff! Plus, half the ones I have archived are probably Cubs and Sox cards, anyways :D

So what's next for Zach? I have no idea. I have zero plans. I'd KILL to go to one of the next four Cubs / Sox games coming up, but I need a miracle on that one. I've been writing and may end up recording with a friend of mine soon, if he wants too, of course. I have hardly any plans lined up, so if you want to book Zach for a day, just give him a jingle. OH! I got tickets to Cruefest on the 16th of July! Seventh row from the stage, center, how beastly is that! It's gonna be a fucking blast! Then there's the trip with my uncle to Milwaukee in late July. But before July 16th I have absolutely no plans. Ah well, gotta roll with whatever happens.

Anyway, wow, I like this blog. Turned out pretty well, depicts my life since May 18th pretty solidly, I'd say. Whew, was a pain in the ass to type though, took me some time. Regardless, I'm happy with it. I don't know what kind of filler blogs I have coming up, but those just come to me. So we'll see what happens, but for now, I'll say goodbye. Next life update comes sometime in July, so be ready!

-Zach