Vacation Time!

So I fully intended to do an in-depth and informative post, as you will always receive here on afoui (*snort*), regaling you of vacations of days past and a preview of what is to come this week. Unfortunately work kicked my ass all week, resulting in long hours and most evenings spent falling asleep in front of the TV - I am turning into my father. So seeing as it's past midnight and we're getting up at 7am in order to hit the road early, a scant paragraph or two is just gonna have to do.

Saturday: Cleveland
Sunday/Monday: Niagara Falls/Buffalo
Tuesday-Thursday: Toronto
Friday: Detroit
Saturday: HOME!

We don't have too much planned for certain. We're doing the Rock and Roll HOF in Cleveland, Niagara Falls of course, and the Hockey HOF in Toronto - I've already bought my tickets for that bitches! Expect a lot of photos of old signs and the other off beat shit I like to take pictures of. I predict I will get at least two blisters, sun burnt once and probably eat something that won't agree with me. But I don't care - I love vacations, and I am increasingly loving going on road trips - there's just so many cool and strange things to see when you drive.

I'll attempt to make a post or two on here during our time on the road, but I will be tweeting and probably throwing pictures on flickr too. So if you're so inclined, check out the links on the right.

Later!

I Am Sheeple, Hear Me Bleat

When the iPhones came out several years ago, Amy and I took great delight in mocking those who rushed right out to get one. "Fucking Hipsters," we'd sneer. Like sheep, folks flocked to Apple Stores every time a upgrade happened, and then they'd seemingly gloat they were cool enough to own one as they'd fiddle with it on the train, walking down the street, in the public bathroom.

Two years ago, it was time for Amy and I to get our phone upgrades as the contract was up.  Scoffing at the thought of needing a smart phone, I settled for a simple flip top model, seen above. We lovingly named it my Jitterbug. Amy opted for a Motorola, which was a cheap imitation of a Blackberry (she hates Blackberries). I was content with it for a time, but as I got more and more involved with social media, I longed for a smart phone. I'd use Amy's when I could, but the web browser was slow, and most webpages looked horrible on it. I'd sit at Hawks games this season and wish I had a phone I could check other scores on, and look at the Twitter feeds of fellow fans.

[self portrait using the Hipstamatic app - I'm a tad obsessed with this at the moment]

Finally our contracts were up again. Both of us ate a little crow. Amy got her iPhone 4 a week after they came out. I got mine last night - I had to wait an extra month due to some bullshit AT&T policy.

I spent most of last night playing with it and downloading (mostly) free apps and putting some music on it. I'm like a kid in a candy store - a nerdy one of course. So let me just say it: I have an iPhone. And I am not ashamed.

My Personal Academy Award

I rarely talk about work on here, for several reasons - a) I try not to give away too much information about my real life persona, even though I'm sure almost everyone who reads this knows me personally anyway, b) blogging about work can be tricky - I would never say anything remotely controversial about my workplace, knowing I could could get in trouble if I did. Which I have issues with in general, but that's not a topic for here nor there, c) I know I bore everyone enough as it is, so I don't need to wax poetic about the place I spend 50 hours a week at.

That being said, something important today that I should share - not to brag or boast, but more to put my memories and feelings down before the moment has passed. But first, I feel the need to tell everyone about all the jobs I've worked. So if you're sleepy, this should work better than an Ambien.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

If I could accomplish even half of what I set out to do, I think I'd be quite pleased with myself. Unfortunately life tends to get in my way - work takes out a significant portion of my time during the week: I leave my apartment at 6:30 every morning, and get home between 6 and 7 at night (depending on traffic and when I can pry my ass out of my office chair). So by the time I settle in and eat, it's usually close to 8pm which leaves me about 2 hours or so of free time. I think I may be slightly manic as I tend to have short intense bursts of inspiration and desire to work on my aspirations. Unfortunately, those bursts tend to happen at inappropriate times - like when I'm at work, or at 10:30pm on a weeknight when I really need to go to bed. On the weekends I tend to try to squeeze in all the errands I was too lazy/didn't have time for in the week (i.e. laundry, grocery shopping, naps) which leaves me only sporadic blocks of time of which to work with. Add what I think is a slight case of ADD (I swear I would have been medicated as a kid had I been born twenty years later) which I'm noticing is getting worse as I get older, and I'm shocked I can finish any kind of artistic endeavor.

AnyWAY, the point of this post was not to bitch about how I don't have time to do the things I want, but to tell you what those things are. Like the essay you'd always be stuck writing that first week back to grammar school in the fall ("This summer I wrote my bike to White Hen for Slush Puppies every day and bought baseball cards from Roadway Pharmacy" [this is seriously what I did]), here's a list of what I hope I can accomplish this summer. Please note I am a realist and know there's no way I can get all of this done. I will put these in order of what I feel is doable, and also because ordering lists soothes me. Hey, I can't help that - I'm anal retentive.

Pride, Sports & Getting Sunburnt for the Gay

I am missing Chicago's 41st Gay Pride Parade, which should step off by the time I finish this post. Honestly, I'm not too torn up about about that - with one exception which I'll get to later.

A Thousand Words

 I cannot yet believe I got to do this today. More later, I may just die of happiness in the meantime!

Calgon Take Me Away!

I know I should be writing two Hawks recaps (have I mentioned how much I hate back-to-backs?) but I am way too grouchy and out of sorts to put forth the effort. So you'll have to wait - I'm sure everyone is just waiting with bated breath.

Work has just been too much this week. Not anything particulary *bad* has happened, but I am in no mood for bullshit and annoyance and I've been getting extra helpings of both since Monday. I haven't been sleeping well (or much) this week either, so I basically feel like a sack of potatoes that's been sat on by a sumo wrestler.

I'm trying to be productive at home by doing the dishes and four loads of laundry so I can go out and "play" this weekend. At this point, my ideal would be lying in bed with covers on watching DVDs on Saturday and Sunday, but I'm going to make an effort to be social.

OK, enough bitching - here's something amusing I found on YouTube recently (it repeats itself so you don't have to watch the whole thing). I have to go fold some more goddamn clothes.

Blast From the Past: the Apples of My Eye

I just got my computer back from the shop (I have a Mac Mini) where I finally got more memory installed. Thank Jebus because attempting to run Firefox, iTunes and iPhoto simultaneously was slowing it down so badly I could walk around the block before all the programs would load. Which means I might be able to write a blog post in under a half hour now. Whee!

This got me to thinking about the computers I've had. For the record I have only owned Macs my entire life. If that makes me an art snob so be it, but I hate Windoze - it's bad enough I have to use it at work. My earliest computer memories are of the Apple IIe in grammar school. With that, anyone of a certain age should enjoy this:

Why “The Mel”?

I'm sure some folks (maybe all two of you) wonder why I go by the moniker “The Mel.” It’s really not because I’m conceited – honestly for those who have met me in real life, you should know I have the self esteem of a fruit fly. But because I’m long winded about everything here, of course I must now tell you a story.