July 2, 2005

• Man, what a day. I had a half day at work today, so I didn’t start ’til
  noon. For some reason, there was a lot of traffic on Rt 59. Normally,
  at 8:30 in the AM, I can make that drive in 30, maybe 35 minutes. Today
  it was almost 45. This doesn’t make sense. Its not like it was rush
  hour. Anywho, work was quick but busy. At the end of the day, about 5
  minutes before I left, I was on a call when some really pissed off guy
  called asking to talk to me, as I was looking something up for him, but
  did not have an answer. I was leaving after I got off the current call
  I was on and he refused to get off the line until I talked to him. Long
  story short, I got another call real quick and wasn’t able to take his
  call. What didn’t make sense was that this dumbass was actually on his
  way to our office and would be there within 10 minutes. Needless to
  say, I didn’t stick around for him. We will see how this plays out when
  I get back to work Tuesday. What can I say. I had to be in fucking
  Lincoln Park and had to drive it during rush hour. And, I could not
  help this guy, I didn’t have anymore info for him. And once I’m off the
  clock, I’m off the clock. I’m not making excuses and will fully accept
  any punishment (if I am to be disaplined for this) that they want to
  dish out. All I knew is that I wasn’t going to get stuck on the phone
  with this fucker for 20 minutes when I had to beat traffic. I’m good at
  my job and a pretty damn loyal employee, but I have never been the type
  to stay any later then I need to, especially when I’ve got to be
  somewhere. Work has never been that important to me where I’m going to
  let it ruin plans I have. Sure, this might be the wrong attitude, but
  its the way I feel. I will otherwise bendover backwards for a company I
  work for, but when its time to go, its time to go.

  Suprisingly, the drive there was not too bad. Traffic was bad for a
  time on 290, but after a while it opened up and it was smooth sailing.
  I made it there in about an hour and 15 minutes, which was not too much
  longer then the 50 minute time Mapquest had given me. Normally, every
  other time I have been on 290 it has been a disaster. This time,
  though, I got lucky. I arrived at Christie’s condo and went right up.
  She finished a few things up and we were on our way to the El to meet
  Dave and Kelli downtown.

  On our walk, we talked a lot about what everybody is talking about (at
  least among our friends) which was the Scooty engagement. Its amazing,
  we all agree: his fiance is a money grubbing bitch, and yet, there is
  nothing we can do about it. We even briefly discussed having an
  intervention for him, but realized that it would only make him resent
  us and probably affect the friendship, which is exactly what Chris (his
  fiance) wants, and I REFUSE to let her win.

  I love riding the El. Always so many interesting people. Chicago is
  filled with scary, interesting and hot people all at once. Its amazing.

  I stuck my money in the machine for a pass on the El and mistakenly put
  $20 on my card, instead of only $5. Christie actually bought the card
  from me, since she would ride it more often then I. The train ride was
  pretty quick, but we spent so much time talking like a couple of
  girlfriends that I hardly noticed anything. That sorta sucks. I like
  being observant while riding the train, as there is so much to see.
  Those of you that have been on the EL know what I mean.

  We arrived and said we would meet Dave and Kelli near the Eli’s
  Cheescake booth, as they were relaxing on the grass behind it. It was
  actually pretty easy to find them, considering there was a mass sea of
  people. Much to my suprise, Don was with them, which was cool. Its
  always great to see Don. He works downtown, so they called him and
  invited him to join us.

  Dave had bought $60 in tickets, so I was able to buy some off of him. I
  dove right into eating, starting with………….shit, what did I
  start with? Ohhhh, some sort of beef on a stick. It was pretty damn
  good. Early on, I was eating lots of different foods, and most of them
  were taste portions, so it wasn’t costing much. And, of course, we were
  all sharing our food, so I really got a taste of a lot of stuff. 
  And I really had a wide range of food. Pizza. Mexican. Pakastani (for
  the first time ever……….it was actually pretty good). Some other
  stuff I have never heard of, but I think it was from India. As usual,
  I’m always willing to try new things. If I don’t like it, so be it. And
  in this instance, the stuff I got from the Indian place was not good at
  all. Actually, it sorta sucked. Come to think of it, there was no sorta
  about it, it did suck.

  What didn’t suck was the always reliable Eli’s Cheesecake. I got some
  cheesecake with chocolate crust and strawberries. Kelli and Christie
  got whats known as a “cruncher” which is a piece of chocolate chip
  cheesecake frozen and then dipped in some sort of chocolate. I have
  always said Eli’s Chocolate chip cheesecake is pound for pound the best
  desert on the planet. This, however, was out of this fucking world. It
  was so good, it was almost orgasmic. They loved it, but couldn’t finish
  it, so Christie gave me the rest of her’s. Man, if there was just one
  thing you have to have if you go to the Taste, this would be it. I
  couldn’t get enough of it.

  There was also some very good garlic bread that another place had. This
  stuff was soooo soft and the cheese was soooo gooey. It was to die for
  and easily the second best thing I ate today.

  Every year, there are always the bible freaks standing out there doing
  their thing. The funny part, is that they think what they do is the
  right thing and they are saving souls. And, they don’t even realize how
  pathetic they look, or how they look like they are part of a cult. I
  told Don we should just kiss right in front of them just for shock
  value. Of course, Don is not gay and I’m not attracted to Don at all,
  but it would be funny.

  The US Army was there to try to recruit kids. Now, I don’t want to
  start anything, but it was blatantly obvious who they were going after:
  young black kids. I don’t want to stereotype, but this was their lure:
  they had a basketball hoop, a souped up hummer and a stereo system
  playing some bouncin’ hip hop. Now, I LOVE baseketball and don’t mind
  hip hop, so I’m not complaining about that, per-say. It was just
  obvious their target. In fact, each time we walked by, there was a
  large group of black guys hanging out there. Why do they always recruit
  the lower class? To quote System of a Down, “why do they always send
  the poor?” I know that for many of these people, the military is the
  best option for them, but the military doesn’t even seem to attempt to
  attract the upper class. I don’t want to say its racism, because that
  might be the wrong word and too strong of a word. But, its still
  disturbing how they go after a certain class of people. The Army’s
  recruiting numbers have been down recently. Of course, maybe they
  wouldn’t have such a hard time getting people if they let open gays
  join, but who am I to say that its hypocritical to claim to defend
  freedom and then not allow a certain class of people to freely serve?

  • 1:25 am
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