80s Night

I went to 80s night at a local bar on Friday with a coworker, Rebecca. She and her husband and their friends all remember the 80s. I was born then.

Rebecca introduced me to a friend of hers (Chris or Dave, but it doesn't matter, for the story, I'll call him, Chris). We went through the awkward introductory questions. I tried to make myself sound older; he is 35. But he is short, so I felt older. When I told him I'm originally from rural Pennsylvania, he said, "Oh, so you had a farm?"
"No."
"But you had a lot of farms around your house?"
"No. We had woods. You could hunt there if you want. But I lived in a neighborhood. We actually had sewers installed when I was in high school." I said this to be funny (even though it's true), but he took it seriously.
"So, is your family really religious then?"
What the hell? Where did that come from? And who asks that within the first five questions of meeting someone? And it's entirely too subjective. I don't think I'm very religious, but some people might. And on the other hand, most zealots would caterogize me in the "heathen" column. But it's none of your (Chris's) business anyway. So, for a strange question, I gave a strange answer:
"We're a blue state."
This ended the conversation. Well, it brought on some awkward silence and then one of us walked away. But later I found out that he's fron Osh Kosh. Osh Kosh! Who are you to be judging rural PA? You're from Osh Kosh.

They did not play "Livin' on a Prayer" or "Like a Prayer".

Library Story

I'm going to combine two events that happened to me this weekend because it makes the story much better. The sum is more than the pieces.

I went to the library. I had two goals - read my Actuarial Mathematics book for at least 3 hours and to read the rental copy of Half-Blood Prince so that I won't have to buy a copy nor pay the $1 to rent it for the week. The library that had a copy of Prince is about 12 blocks away. It's a great distance to ride my bike - too far to walk comfortably with my text book but too close to rationalize using my car. So, I took my bike: I fought traffic, I used hand signals, I rode uphill in the blazing sun without sunglasses. I arrived at the library in about 15 minutes (I hit a number of red lights.) but when I went to lock my bike to the rack I realized that I had forgotten the key to my bike lock. Curses! I stood and stared at the rack for 5 minutes willing the key to appear even though I could picture it on my shelf at home. When I finally accepted the fact that "apparating" is impossible, I got back on my bike and rode home. Somehow, I rode uphill again, though this time the sun was behind me.

I arrived at home a sweaty mess. I decided that this time I would walk to the library. My biking enthusiasm was quashed and I didn't like the idea of dripping perspiration on my textbook. I dropped my helmet, lock, and tire pump on my table, laced up my sneakers, and set out on my return trip to the library. Thirty minutes later I arrived at the library. I walked past the bike rack to the front door. But it was locked. The Milwaukee Public Library is closed on Sundays in the summer.

A Dash of Mortality

In a recent conversation with my mom she told me that she quit her job. This isn't too big of a deal. She worked at the front desk of a local supermarket. She did it more to get out of the house than for the money. Actually I think it cost our family more to have her work 20 hours each week than if she were at home. She had gone back to work when I went into high school so it's not as if she's not going to know what to do with her time either. I have a feeling that her yard is going to finally get some long-needed attention. She says she quit because she was tired of dealing with the management; there had been some changes in the last two years. And also, her peers that she counted as friends had already quit as well.

What bothers me about this though, is that when she told me she quit and I asked her what she's going to do now, she said, "I guess I'll retire." She then laughed so I didn't take her seriously. But still for a brief moment I was reminded that my parents are not going to remain the same forever. I've been so caught up in the changes that I've gone through in the last 10 years, I forgot that the rest of my family is living their lives as well.

My family is still pretty much the same as they were a decade ago, except everyone is older. The youngest member is about 11 years old, though we still call her "the baby." All four of my grandparents are alive and so are my great aunt and uncle. They don't drive as much as they used to, and they don't golf anymore, and they talk more often about their doctors than their grandchildren. But in a lot of ways, they're still the same. Grampa Dicko (seriously, that's what we call him) still goes to the VFW for a beer directly after church. Dad's mom still looks like she could spit fire whenever Hilary Clinton is brought up in conversation. And Uncle Harry still sends every dish back to the kitchen when we eat out. They still tell the same stories and laugh at the same jokes.

So, I was taught a little lesson during my conversation with Mom. Things will change. And I can't do anything to stop them. But my money's on the fact that I'm going to be taught that lesson again. And then probably a few more times.

Sausage Race

Last night I was out dancing until 2 am with a coworker and her friends - 80s night. I was teased a good deal for the fact that I was born in the 80s.

This morning I still managed to wake up for the 5K Sausage Race at Miller Park. I had registered weeks ago and had already paid my entry fee. Karen was supposed to run with me but she wimped out. But that's ok. She still, kept me company, and cheered me on. We also met a coworker of mine, Mike. Mike ran the race in 23 minutes. I ran it in 30. So we didn't see each other for the whole race.

My favorite part of the race was the fact that the famous Racing Sausages, ran along side of us. I'm disappointed in my self, though because the Bratwurst and the Polish Sausage both had better times than I had. But at least I beat the Hot Dog and Italian Sausage.

After the race, all of the runners received either a free bratwurst or hot dog. The idea of eating that after the run didn't sound appealing but surprisingly it was great.

Sexual Harassment

Today we didn't do work at the office. We all went to the Brewers game instead. We had a lot of bear. We ate brats, chips and dip, and cheese balls. And someone baked cookies too. We finally went into the stadium at the 5th inning. That was because we ran out of beer in the parking lot and some of us had to use the restrooms.

After the game, some people decided to go out for drinks. I wish I hadn't gone, because I feel that too much information was shared tonight, and I may be called to speak to a human resource manager. Especially because we just had our "Respect at Work" meeting last week. Anyway, Mike tried to hook up with a new hire, even though an ex-girlfriends was at the bar. I think she was trying to hook up with me, though I'm pretty sure the intern grabbed her a few times. I know that she punched him; she also punched one of my bosses, though I'm not sure why. Some of our topics tonight were "who shaves what", "frequency of masturbation", and "lesbians". I seriously thought we were going to have a girl-fight on our hands at one time.

A sexual harassment suit could be possible after tonight's actions. And unfortunately, I may have been the only one sober enough to know what was going on.

Golden Girls

Today is Estelle Getty's birthday. She turned 82.

Did you know that Betty White was originally asked to play the part of Blanche Devereaux and Rue McClanahan was supposed to play Rose Nylund? However, Bea Arthur felt that those characters would be too close to previous characters that they had played on other TV shows. White had been the sexpot, Sue Ann, on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and McClanahan had played the sweet Vivian on Maude (with Bea Arthur). It's tough to imagine those roles reversed.

I actually got out of bed to make this entry. You had better appreciate it, Adina.

totem

We have a New Hire at work. I'm no longer the bottom of the totem pole. And the two guys above me have quit. So there's a huge gap between me and the next least seniority. The difference is about 5 years of experience. I'm really happy about getting a new guy. Huzzah.

Alaska

I can't summarize my trip in an entry. It was two weeks long. I traveled by bus, commercial jet, ferry, van, raft, legs, small engine plane, shuttle bus, and subway. I met a range of people. I went through states and provinces. And really, how could I fit mountains, rivers, and glaciers into a blog post?

We had five guides on the trip. One was violinist and played for us after dinner some nights. She played Eine Kleine Nachtmusic, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Pachelbel's Canon, Summertime, and so much more. Another guide was a podiatrist. I suppose he likes to do these types of things on his vacations.

There were seven passengers. They included a police officer and veterinarian (husband & wife), a financial consultant who had been on trips with this outfitter 13 other times, my father - a lumber store owner, a teacher and an insurance actuary (wife & husband), and me - an actuary-in-training. I can't believe there were 2 actuaries on the trip. And he was so boring. And he didn't stop talking. I eventually had to ask him to stop talking about math and the exams.

This was the type of trip where something would happen and afterwards I would think to myself, "That could have killed me." Some of the rapids were intense the first day. The weather was certainly cold on some days. We climbed on glaciers and tried to avoid the cracks in the ice. We rafted around ice bergs and watched them roll over. We saw a bear but that was about a mile away. We did see a lot of bear shit though.

I saw many bald eagles. And I was "attacked" by terns one morning. We saw moose tracks (and droppings). We saw whales when we were on the ferry and seals in the bay near the ocean. I saw ptarmigans and marmots. And we're not sure if we saw a mountain goat or a rock. I think it was a rock, but those with binoculars swear a goat.

As I remember stories from the trip, I will try to post them.

the Poor Man's Cruise

My father and I took a ferry from Juneau to Haines along the Alaska Marine Highway System in the Inner Passage. It only took 4 hours. However, we talked to other passengers who were taking the whole trip from Seattle to Skagway, which is over 80 hours long. The ship doesn't sail that whole time; sometimes it is docked overnight.

The cool thing about this is that you can either rent a cheap room on board or you can pitch a tent on the Solarium deck, which has heating lamps. Also, the movie theater becomes "the reclining room" at night so that people can sleep there if they like. There is a restaurant on board and a cafeteria. There are bathrooms and showers. Plus, there's ranger on board who gives talks about glaciers and whales and lighthouses and other things that you see along the trip. This seems like it would be a much cooler way to see the Alaskan coast than a posh cruise ship. Also, because a ferry comes every few days it makes sense that one would be able to get off the boat, visit a city for a while, and catch another ferry later.

ice ice baby

On Friday I woke up overlooking a lake filled with ice bergs. I wore 6 layers that day. I'm now sweating while sitting at my table. Things change so quickly.

Rush

I was going to have a nice "catch-up" entry about my whirlwind week, but I'm 9 hours from my flight, 7 hours from my bus departure, and 5 hours from my alarm. And my stuff is still unpacked on my bed.

Some highlights from my week:

Being told numerous times how much I'd be missed from work. Mostly by the people that will now have noone to push around.

Getting a crew cut. I look like Bartoletti from high school - if any high school friends read this. I keep feeling my fuzzy head.

Passing my actuarial exam. This really hasn't hit me yet. Perhaps when I receive the bonus and pay raise, I'll finally be excited about this event.

Seeing a BJ being performed on a guy who was driving a car. This was at a stop light. Sure maybe the girl was picking up something from the floor around his feet, but he seemed to be enjoying it, a lot.

Receiving my Wisconsin State Tax Refund. Finally.

Packing and shopping for this Alaskan adventure. I don't know how many grizzly-mauling stories I've heard this week. I started to tune them out.

friends

Garrison Keillor this weekend said, "One doesn't find friends; one makes friends."

Huge Gym Bag Sale

Without a comma, this sign at my gym is indecipherable. What's huge? The gym? The bag? The Sale? Confusion reigns with signs like this posted around town.

Last night, at SummerFest I saw Howie Day and Moby. I didn't spend much time listening to Howie Day. I was the only person there that was drinking legally and Howie was mostly playing his new music. I did hear Ghost and Secret but the latter was interupted by an ambulance coming through the crowd.

From my building I have been watching fireworks going off through the whole city. There have been about 50 different displays going off throughout the city and suburbs in the past hour. None are too close, but it's a great sight to see. I whistled You're a Grand Ol' Flag while I watched them for a while, but eventually my lips got too dry. And the blog called.

Half-way through the year.

My client meeting went well today. I had put together the agenda and was the driving force to get through it. Even though it was the consultant that did most of the talking and answered a good number of questions, I'm beginning to speak up more and take a bigger role in our processes. This is certainly appropriate as people are leaving the office and others will have to step up and fill their roles.

For lunch the office workers went out to say farewell to the "people manager" who is getting a job that will allow her more time to spend with her children. While I never really had to work with my boss, I will miss the attitude that she set in the office. People were more serious with her around and I always felt more confident knowing that she was in charge. I have no idea who's going to take on her role. I really think the title of "people manager" is stupid.

Fireworks are exploding around the city. SummerFest has begun. But I spent this evening at the office.

The stars have come into alignment and my checkbook has balanced. This has me concerned because I'm assuming that I've somehow made enough mistakes that they've all cancelled out.

To do before Friday, July 8

1. Reserve a wet suit.
2. Acquire proper footwear and rain gear.
3. Finagle my finances.
4. Pay my bills.
5. Deposit the check.
6. Wonder where my state taxes refund is.
7. Compile a list of furniture I own and what I plan to bring to the new apartment.
8. Email that list to new roommate.
9. Organize and help run client meeting. (half-checked)
10. An entire pension valuation for a 5,000 participant plan.
11. May batch calculations.
12. Write to Sharon Lee.
13. Buy Dad a birthday gift.
14. Read Middlemarch.
15. Make plans to go to Philadelphia for training at the end of July.
16. Read Everything is Illuminated.
17. Clean bathroom.
18. Laundry (including linen).
19. Cook the meat and vegetables in my fridge before they go bad.
20. Make a list of "100 Things to do Before I Die" so that I can cross off "See Alaska".
21. Go to Summerfest. Sing along to Pat McGurdy.
22. Sober up.
23. See Howie Day at Summerfest. Roll eyes at anyone who didn't know him before 2001.
24. Use 3-day Summerfest Pass one more time. Count mullets at the Styx show.
25. Register for the sausage race. (I get a free brat at the end of the race.)
26. Finish puzzle.
27. Watch the Indian Jones Boxed Set and return to coworker.
28. Recycle.

This one's for Tom (Gerry)

When I arrived back in Milwaukee - at my car in the airport's remort parking lot - I found a giant pick-up truck had been parked along side of it. This truck clearly had been parked in the time that I was in Boston, because I never would have tried to park so close to another vehicle. I would not have been able to get out of the car with only a foot of space between my driver's side door and the passenger side of the pick-up. For a brief second I thought about entering my car through my passenger side. But then I thought to myself, "It's late. I'm tired. And why should I inconvenience myself because this arrogant jerk, who spent too much money on a mode of transportation and who has no appreciation of the energy crisis we are going through, can't take the time to park in a decent spot? Specifically one with no other cars around?"

So, I went and opened my driver's side door. As far as the truck - and then a little more. And then I closed it. And then I put my luggage in the trunk. And then I opened my door again. And then I made sure the door was open as far as I could get it, as I squeezed into my seat. (I am embarrassed to say that I then hit the truck with my door again.) As I sat in my car, looking for my parking ticket, I began to feel remorse for what I had done. But then I noticed how shiny the pick-up was. It clearly wasn't used for hauling anything - just carting the owner and his small feet around the city. I also noticed that the scratch I put in the paint was only as high as the truck's wheels. If the pick-up had been older and used for an actual truck purpose, I would have gone out of my way to protect its paint. If the truck were smaller - even an F-150, I would have avoided damaging it. But the lumbering hulk just made me so angry with all that it stood for. Perhaps if the driver wants to ride in something with a lot of power, he should take the bus. He'll save money. He could put that money towards his kids' college fund.


On a similar vein, an ER doctor on NPR the other morning talked about his experience over the years. He mentioned how smog and asthma have increased since he began practicing medicine. He talked about how people came to the ER with children and the elderly suffering from asthma and asking the doctors for help. He said that the look in their eyes conveyed a plea for help that would mean doing anything to help their loved ones breathe again. The doctor then pointed out that most of these families drove to the ER in their giant trucks and SUVs.

Any day in which you can get a tan at work is a good day at work.

This title was a quotation of mine from earlier today.

Today was my company's golf outing. We spent all day on the links. 18 holes. Beautiful weather. Good lunch. Comp'ed drinks from the beverage cart. Good dinner.

Luckily my four-some was not too competitive. We were playing "scramble" which means that the whole team takes their shots from the position of the best lay of the previous shot. This is a great way to keep less experienced golfers from being frustrated. I don't really have any good stories from today. I think golf makes for bad blog material. However, the consultant, the two client representatives on my team, and I had a great time. We laughed a lot. Mostly they laughed at me. I spent most of my day looking for my balls in the brush and the woods and on other fairways. But this was some great practice and maybe some incentive to go out again this summer.

Also, my team one a prize. For highest score. It's a good prize, though, I don't mind winning it at all.

And, after golf I went to the Brewers-Cubs game. Brewers won. Great day, but back to the grindstone tomorrow.

Hold my Hand

I heard an uncommonly large amount of Hootie & the Blowfish this weekend while I was in NEPA. Most of this was while cruising in my mom's white LaSabre.

The trip was nice. Three days is the perfect amount of time to visit home. I saw all of my family and enough of my friends. I got a little drunk. A couple of times. Everyone was nice to each other and we didn't run out of things to talk about.

The wedding was nice. Patty and Bird. A cute couple. High school sweethearts and now husband and wife. I still have Bird's little league baseball card of him when he was in third grade. It's cute. The men in the wedding party all wore cowboy boots and hats. When I was in the mens' room at one point of the evening, a man from another ballroom broke the "no talking at the urinal rule" and asked me if we were from Texas. "No, Thornhurst" and I left it at that and he asked no further questions.

In a previous post I had some anxiety about the wedding. Some of my concern regarded my circle of friends who are growing apart - mostly because some of us have moved away and others haven't. But we were all gracious (or at least drunk) and had a good time. No cash bar - the Yuengling flowed freely. We pushed aside our differences and spent most of our time reminiscing.

My much bigger anxiety regarded Bird. He recently began treatment for some sort of cancer. I can pronounce the type of cancer but I'm surely not going to try to spell it. I was worried that the wedding would be very sad, but it wasn't. We celebrated and had a great time. In our Polish tradition, we paid a dollar to dance with the bride and then surrounded her so that the groom couldn't steal her away. In our honky-tonk tradition, we line danced. And despite our homophobic tradition, we did the "YMCA." I was selected to wear the headdress.

I caught up on my gossip. The 9th grade English teacher is having an affair with my geometry teacher who is getting a divorce. My high school principal, who's a moron, is finally retiring. He was married to the 10th grade English teacher but divorced her to marry my 8th grade English teacher. She previously had been married to the physics teacher, who currently is married to the librarian. I do have the dirt on other small-town politics but that's not nearly as interesting as who's sleeping with whom.

Back to the wedding: the best man ended up sleeping with one of the bridesmaids. Neither of them came out to the bar with us after the recepetion. Neither did my 2nd grade teacher, whom Palmer tried to convince that she should come out drinking with her previous students. Yes, "Wreckin' Ball" Palmer was in prime condition. Her stories made even less sense than normal and she kept offering our nachos to the band. And then they actually took them. (On a side note, Wreckin' Ball was given her drinking name by our 11th grade English teacher, who went with us to Greece. He also dubbed Patty's drunken alter ego - "Danger Girl". As far as I know, he has not slept with any other teachers from my school.)

As Patty commented, it was a great way to end a wedding - surrounded by old friends, drinking beer and eating nachos, and listening to Greatful Dead Covers.

From Moscow

I just sat down at my sister's virus-laden computer to give a brief update of my weekend in Moscow, PA. But my mom just called because she's ready to give me instructions on the yardwork that I'm supposed to do. I suggested yardwork so that she and I can spend some quality time together. However, I don't think she understood my goal because I'm going to do "yardwork" while she does "housework". So, this brief update is extremely brief. The rhododendrons are calling.

it's a nice day...to start again.

I'm going home this weekend for a wedding. This will be first wedding of high school friends. Patty and Bird. They dated in high school and now they're finally getting hitched. I've known Patty for a long time; she was my semi-formal date in 11th grade. But there are no hard feelings. Bird was my best friend in 3rd grade. Back then I called him Jason. Because that is his name.

Part of me is extremely excited to go home and see my friends and family. But then most of me is not. Some of this feeling is due to the "Class Reunion" atmosphere that this wedding will have. Also, the fact that I'm one of the only people who will be coming in from out of town Everyone else sees each other all the time, so I'm the odd-man out. Also, a good number of these people and I parted ways a few years ago, after a difference of opinion in London. The opinion was that since moving away for college, I had become a pompous ass. You can probably guess which side of the opinion I fell on. Anyway, this wasn't going to ruin the good time for, but it would provide some awkward situations - but nothing a keg of Yuengling couldn't smooth over, however.

The real reason I don't want to go to the wedding is because of something I learned this week about my friends. I don't feel that this is the best forum to discuss it - perhaps after the wedding. And it's not something shameful, so don't start the rumormill. But it's had me thinking.

Today, at work I was thinking about this a lot. And my trip home. And some other up-coming trips that I have. And then I didn't respond to some clients that I should have. And tomorrow the consultant will find out that I didn't. And then she'll find out that I haven't fully prepared the data for the valuation yet. And then she'll find out that I'm leaving early and won't be in on Monday. I also thought about the fact that just when I thought I had found a good roommate, I found out that there are no other 2 bedroom places available in my building. So, I was stressed out today at work. And my computer wouldn't print correctly. That's the real kicker.

But stressful days make for excellent after-work evening runs. And I did have a great run. And then I went back to the office.