Author: briancollapsing

a class that only offers a single section, which runs once a week from 6:30 to 9:50pm? that sounds impossible, and if not then at least just plain awful. but yes, i have that unique pleasure. of being in school until 10 on thursdays. what was i thinking? “oh, i should take this, i’ll learn some useful stuff…”

well all i have to say is that this class faces even more pressure than a regular one does to deliver some sort of usable or interesting content. i’m giving up most of my evening for this “introduction to advertising” it proposes to give me. i demand quality here. of course, i should consider the fact that maybe it’s at night because the professor works during the day at some advertising job and could maybe be a good person to get to know as far as a career move…

god i hate having to think about “networking”. i don’t think my people skills are what they should be if i’m going to shmooze my way into a well-paid business career. i would be better suited to reviewing books or something, where i almost never have to rely on personal skills for success. i guess that’s what i’m here for though: to learn!

let’s practice:

“yes sir, that was a good joke, how about a raise?”

“can i get you more coffee sir? how about a promotion?”

“please don’t lay me off because i’m the new guy, i have to pay for my college loans, sir. shall i assume the position?”

haha… just don’t let me get away with posting dilbert jokes. if this happens, please force a cyanide pill down my throat.

so far today i’ve read some origin of species (for class) and some love in the time of cholera (for fun). i’ll tell you one sure is more fun to read (guess which), but sure doesn’t allow you to learn quite as much useless information about pigeons as the other (guess again).

quick question: i really want to quit my current job to maybe look for another one or just to have more time during the day to read for school and do other things. i was only there for an hour and a half today, and time was going by slow as molasses. my business class went faster than that (which is a huge statement), and i even had headphones playing good music while i was at work. but to the question — is it wrong of me to not quit yet because i want to get the phone number of a certain coworker i haven’t seen yet since the semester began? does that make me creepy?

if that doesn’t, do you think it would if i got some of those white contact lenses? or maybe the black ones, like that neat guy in limp bizkit? boy, he sure is neat. so, should i get ’em? so i could be creepy and neat? whadda ya think?

yeah, i don’t really know why i said that either. i’m a fool.

song link didn’t work/wasn’t up for a bit because blogger was down. fixed it just now.

probably the most exciting musical news of the year 2000, for me, was that the impossibles were reforming, putting out a new album, and going on a reunion tour. i know for a fact that the show i caught that summer at fitzgerald’s in houston — with a capacity crowd of texan kids who adored this band, knew every word and were as excited as i was, plus great opening sets from the rx bandits and slow gherkin — was the best concert that year, hands down, and would for sure be in the running for best show i’ve ever seen. ever since then they’ve been my favorite live band because they are rock when they’re onstage, and they make you feel the rock when you see them up there.

because of this, i was shocked and saddened when i read that they are breaking up again. this time i feel like it’ll be for good. not only will i miss them (at least i caught them twice back in september and videotaped one of the two shows), but it’s making me feel old that now one more of my favorite bands is defunct. not that i hold it against them personally for moving on — you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do — but i’m still allowed to mourn the loss.

i wish them luck in whatever they pursue next, and as a salute i’ve got some of the recent and maybe best impossibles songs up there for song of the week. first is disintegration (is the best album, ever) off their recent and final ep. as a bonus are two more good ones. honestly though, out of the few dozen songs they’ve put out, i think they’re all great except maybe two or three, tops. it’s possible i just don’t know what i’m talking about, but i encourage checking out all of their stuff.

so much behind the scenes action! i’ve been watching special features all day and i still can’t get through it all. the phantom menace is making me its bitch.

classes were a-okay, but first days don’t usually tell you much. once the edumacation starts, then we’ll have a verdict. at least i got to see lots of girls on campus looking pretty sweet . . . since it’s about 70 degrees here in the afternoon, everyone’s still showing abs and shoulders and wearing tanktops and all that. it’s nutso. i feel like i’m outside of reality–it’s the january, for christ’s sake!

(yes, the word “the” is there intentionally. extraneous words=humor.)

back to school, back to school, to show my dad i’m not a fool…

yes i know that is probably an overused reference and i apologize. here’s one i’m sure none of you will get: “my spoon is too big!… my spoon is TOO BIG!”

anyway, i’m off to work and classes and all that soon, and the break is officially over. it was nice though. we wrapped it up pretty well yesterday with a second viewing of the royal tenenbaums (still love it upon re-viewing), plus a trip to the new huge-as-anything independent record store in town, amoeba records, which was ENORMOUS and totally excellent. i bought two new cds that i can never find, both for 10.98 each. definitely going back there soon. then we went to in-n-out for dinner, came home and watched my new phantom menace dvd. sure, it’s a dumb movie, and i realize that, but i still love it.

so there. wish me luck at another semester of this “learning” stuff.

oh my god, i can’t believe i forgot to include this yesterday…

the most excellent part of my whole winter vacation that made having a flight delayed for three hours worthwhile:

i’m walking through LAX on the way to claim my baggage and go home to see shannon, strolling along casually and at least a little bit glad to be “home”, as this city has sort of come to be called. who do i see walking distinctively (no one else has a similar walk that i can think of) a little ways ahead of me? george bush? heidi klum? brad pitt? big bird? justin timberlake? no, no, far better than any other dignitary, supermodel, superstar, pop icon or any of those things. i saw the one and only SINBAD! that’s right, he was standing right there, in all his red-dyed hair, weird-goatee having, rambling, track-suit wearing glory.

i mean, i like my friends and all, but it’s sort of sad that this moment, which will probably be the best of 2002, had to come so early. now i feel like i have nothing to look forward to.

ha.

okay, to wrap up the backlog–thursday night i hung out with shannon, who had to fly away to italy at 8:30am friday. we went out to dinner with some of her other best friends (not the best–that would be me, of course) to the cheesecake factory, and that was fun. i recommend oscar’s barbeque chicken sandwich; man, that sandwich was a taste sensation. then the two of us came back here to just sort of spend a few hours together before going to bed at two, waking up at 4:45 to get to the airport the requisite three hours early for international travel. we saw her off around 7:30 i think, and it hurt. i came home and went back to sleep until noon.

i have to say, spending that time with her was both amazing and heartbreaking. it doesn’t seem right that someone that means so much to you should have to be completely kept from you for 4 whole months, and it was a very bittersweet evening, because it just felt so right to be around her…

i shouldn’t whine too much though because that helps nothing, and she is coming back in may. at least i hope she is–i guess there’s always the chance that some italian beau will whisk her away and that will be that. we’ll see, won’t we.

note: nothing cool has happened since then, really, except that all my roommate are back in town and we’re about to start classes on monday. that’s that for now; welcome to the finally-all-caught-up collapsing.

alright, i want to get caught up so i can talk about the present again, so here’s the last few days of the trip:

tuesday; new year’s day

waking around two, we headed over to my high school roommate’s apartment at u of i (yes, i went to a high school at which i lived. no, it wasn’t private school. yes, there were girls. for more info if you don’t understand, visit the site) to say goodbye to the whole crew. then gabe dropped me off in the town i grew up in–the illustrious bourbonnais, illinois–on the way back to his house in gurnee. i spent that night at my grandparents’ place, and it was really nice to see them. they’re so nice and i love them, and all that family sappy stuff…

wednesday, jan. 2

late morning, my pal emily came and picked me up to bring me to her place in glendale heights. we didn’t have much of an adventure, although we did have some delicious giordano’s deep dish pizza downtown for lunch. i felt kind of bad because i think i was a little burned out by this point and maybe i wasn’t the most fun companion for emily that day. however, emily is another one of those people where i don’t feel like i have to be having some sort of exciting escapade, necessarily. just being around her feels good. top tier friends like that are not easy to come by, and i think she’s the greatest along with most of the people i spent a night with this past week. we wanted to stay up all night since i had to wake up at 7 or something to get ready to head to o’hare, but we fell asleep around 2:30 because, well, we’re so cool it’s exhausting.

thursday, jan. 3

woke up, and went to the airport. sad to have spent so little time trying to cram so much quality time with friends into a week out of the year. can’t wait to graduate and be able to travel more often and visit everyone more regularly.

the day was fine and all, except that the flight was delayed three and a half hours, and i wanted to get back here to hang out with my california friend shannon who had to leave early friday for her semester in italy. that, however, will pretty much bring me back to the present since nothing noteworthy has happened since that sad goodbye friday morning, so i’ll save that last juicy little tidbit until tomorrow.

alright, i’m getting somewhere here:

monday; new year’s eve

after grabbing some lunch from senor tacos, a tasty place in matt’s neighborhood, and getting things ready to go, gabe and i took off for u of i in his car. matt and bill followed in another. a while later we were in gabe’s room in champaign, we’re at a bar he works at to eat dinner, then we’re going to the new year’s party full of old friends in the apartment of a nice girl who graduated with us. i have to say that in general i have never had an exciting new year’s eve. i’ve spent the majority of them in my life with family, a few with a small group of friends, but never gone to a party really. so it’s maybe not a huge statement but still holds weight when i say this was the best new years i’ve ever had. sure, i didn’t have anyone to kiss at midnight, but i hadn’t kissed anyone in months anyway so i guess i’m used to it by now. i did have a blast though. i saw a bunch of old friends, some of whom i hadn’t even expected to see, and loved it. we were all having such a good time we almost missed counting down when midnight came around.

this was also only my second experience with intoxication, but did not result in any vomiting or humiliation–well, unless you consider deciding with your friend’s girlfriend that it would be fun to trade pants for ten minutes and giving up your baggy cargo pants for some form-fitting chick pants (that were surprisingly flattering and fit a little too well) embarrassing, which i didn’t–it was all good. it was all about having fun and laughing with a room full of people that i love seeing. well, and an ex-girlfriend whom i’m sure is an agent of the devil, but whom i managed not to talk to at all, only point mean comments toward when talking to my friends. aah, give me a break, she’s a bad person, i didn’t feel bad making fun of her behind her back. it was funny. she’s evil.

we then left the party and went to gabe’s place around 3:30 after having a hell of a time (i’m pretty sure the cab driver thought we were asses thanks to gabe talking about his ex-girlfriend, “the fucking whore” and demanding the cabbie tell us a joke…haha). then we talked and drank a bit more there, and had one of those bonding conversations where you talk about girls you’ve dated in a level of detail only acceptable late at night with the closest of friends. by 5am we were beat and had had a great time so we all crashed hardcore. happy new year, started off right.

i like this. i’m sitting here eating beef taquitos, sipping an a&w, and remembering the great week i’ve had.

sunday, dec. 30

sunday gabe and i went to matt’s place in palatine. there was nothing remarkable about this night, to be honest. we ate stuff from their refrigerator. we played tony hawk 3 on ps2. we watched green day: behind the music. later on charlie and bill, two more high school friends, came over, and we played this weird board game called tri-bond. but i’ll be damned if that wasn’t just a great, great night. i think it’s miraculous how with some people, whom you haven’t seen in almost two years, things just click automatically once you’re all hanging out again. we were joking and laughing nonstop and having a ball doing really nothing. i love those guys. i miss them already.