Always be improving.
Now that I’m out of school, my life is very different. My time outside of 9-5 is mine; there’s no homework, no external obligations. Work doesn’t run my life like college did. You’ve got to find valuable things to fill the free time with. There’s no ‘end’ to your worklife, so you can’t say “I’ll just screw around until it matters that I don’t”, it doesn’t exist anymore.
I’ve found this very motivating. If you’re not changing and constantly improving yourself, what are you doing? I hate the concept of being stagnant for very long… I have to be doing something, working on a project, learning something new. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy relaxing on the couch and watching 24 with Paul until 3:30 in the morning (more on that later), but on the larger scale, I have to be working on something. That something could be web design (you probably noticed the brand new look of g27, and I’ve got a few more surprises in the works), photography (a new wing of the g27 facility should be opening pretty soon), standup comedy, weight training, or singing, but in the end, the project is me. Onto the news.
Jake, Paul and I went to a club called Lipgloss last week. It’s become a semi-regular spot for us; it’s a dance club for crazy indie rocker kids. The music could be a little bit more my taste, as the amount of old-skool punk outweighs the amount of dancey funk and hip hop, but the atmosphere is unmatched. It’s like drowning in a sea of hip. The most hippiest hipsters everywhere. Kids with backpacks and scarves on, guys with girl jeans, and of course, the goth kids. OH the goth kids. I swear, some of these kids look like vampire hunters. I swear, one of them had a silver-tipped crossbow. No foolin’. Anyway, Bob met us at the club and brought a girlfriend of his. Her name was Jessie and she immediately caught my attention. Really cute, lots of energy, but what got me was her spark. She was in my face, being silly, making a fool of herself on the dance floor, and being an all-around smartass.
Swoon.
This girl was an effing dreamboat. She was playful and fun and smart and witty… it was, dare I say, refreshing to interact with a girl like that. Of course, she’s also engaged. To a bigshot movie producer or something. Just my luck! But, in my unflinching optimistic nature, I have decided to chalk up our little encounter to serve as a restoration of my faith that there are dreamgirls out there. It was a nice reminder to not ever give up on that. Thanks, Jessie. Now where is this gaggle of cute friends of yours that Bob tells me about?
You may have heard that we here in Denver got a touch of snow. Yup, about two feet last Wednesday-Thursday. We’re expected to get another foot or so tonight. It’s been snowing since early this afternoon. You know, because we didn’t have enough to begin with. Oh well, it made the riding that Paul and I did at Winter Park lots of fun. When every possible business, club, and restaurant closed, Jake, Paul, Ethan and I stayed in my warm apartment and watched all of 24 Season 2 on my new 37″ LCD HDTV. You won’t hear me complain about that.
You know when you meet your friend’s girlfriend/boyfriend and they are just absolutely dreamy,
and you can’t stop thinking about them? That’s what standup comedy has done to me. Life introduced us, and I don’t know what I was doing before I met her. I’ve been going to The Squire every Tuesday with brand new original material – and I’ve been killing! I had two bad weeks, but overall I’ve been doing just as well as the really experienced regulars who have been doing this for years. I’m working my way into gaining acceptance into their circle, and they’ve told me that they’re all very impressed with how polished and funny I am after only doing standup for a month. Weekly open mic performances have motivated me to write new material every week, and I haven’t done the same set of jokes twice. I’m gonna start trying other venues and see just how good I can get at this. If you live in Colorado, let me know if you’re interested in watching me make you laugh til you cry tears of hilarity.
Happy Thanksgiving, Gees. I hope you all had a lovely time with your family, friends, posse, running crew, chain gang, whatever your circle is made up of. I went home to Chicago last week and had a great time. It was nice to see my family a bunch, play with Auggie and I got to see some friends.I went downtown and hung out with Melissa and saw Little Miss Sunshine (which was far darker than I expected, and absolutely hilarious). I only know Melissa a little from my adventures at Notre Dame, but she was really fun to hang out with and a really smart girl. We sat in a little hole-in-the-wall burger place and talked about work and life until it closed. Then I slept at Colin’s phat apartment (can you believe that he saved one of the bottles of Orange Cream soda that I bought
last time I was at his place? what a guy), and hung out with an ex-girlfriend of mine, Katie. She and I hadn’t seen each other for, I’m gonna say… 30 or so years. We emailed back and forth on facebook for about 2 weeks, writing each other a novel each day, catching each other up on our lives. It was fun and a nice distraction on my lunch break at work, etc. It was really interesting to hang out with her after not seeing her for so many years. She has really grown up and changed for the better. Back in the day (which was a Wednesday, by the way) she was kind of shy and a little repressed (very conservative, religious parents), but she has grown into an adorable badass.
I also got to hang with Josh, who is currently living with his cousin Jason in a giant 4-bedroom house in Des Plaines, and none of those bedrooms are occupied. I kid you not. The two of them have their blankets and pillows on the living room couches and sleep there after they play video games at night. In a 4 bedroom house, they share one bathroom and 2 couches.
Fray-zer, not Fray-shher, did you know that?) plays the naive ignorant role very well, and come on….. Christopher Walken. The man cannot be stopped. He is scheduled to play Ozzy Osbourne in an upcoming movie about Motley Crue! It’s better than if baby Jesus comes to Earth. Walken and Ozzy, together at last!
In other news, I got a raise at work! I’m now up to $18/hour, and I’m going to be doing some freelance work at the same pay rate for my friend Conor’s roommate Kelsie’s company that teaches people the French language and culture. I went over there today on my lunch break to meet everyone, and it’s exactly what you think. The head guy is named Jean Francois and has a THICK accent. Hilarious.
Jake is back in town! After working and living on a boat in the Long Island Sound for five months, he has made his glorious return to Denver. He is homeless and jobless, and is therefore crashing on my (extremely comfy) couch. It’s awesome having him back in town – he and Paul and I have been hanging out a lot, going to Dazzle for live jazz, watching a near-unhealthy level of Entourage, and being boyishly handsome in general. We’re pretty good at that.