Well the day is finally here! Okay so technically, it is late Tuesday night when I’m typing this, but by the time I post it, the clock be past midnight and the day that we leave for New York City will be upon us. Originally the plan was to fly, but long story short, we missed our chance to get good rates to fly, so we are driving. As fortunes would have it, flying might have been made more complicated by the two feet of snow that New York got. While things should be taken care of by the time we would have been flying into New York (Thursday morning, the 30th) I’m not entirely convinced that it would have been as so far over 10,000 flights have been canceled due to the blizzard that hit the east coast. Sure, not all of those flights involved NYC, but one can’t expect them to be all caught up within a day. According to an article I’m reading right now on CNN.com, they expect it to take a few days before things are back to normal. It looks like driving is actually our best option.

So as of right now, the plan is for one of my friends to pick me up and then we head into Chicago to pick up our other friend at around 8 in the pm Wednesday night. It is about a 13  hour drive to our hotel in NYC and that does not account for the hour that we will lose due to the time change. I expect that we should be at our hotel by between 5 and 6pm on Thursday the 30th.

As for what is on our agenda once we get there, I’m pretty wide open. My only must do’s are Times Square on New Year’s Eve and having authentic New York style pizza as to compare it with Chicago pizza. There has long been a war among pizza coinsurers as to which town has the better pizza. Obviously I’m heavily biased to Chicago pizza, but I have every intention on settling the debate once and for all…………….as least as far as I go.

I’m a huge Green Day fan and being that there is a Broadway musical based on the Green Day album American Idiot, I really want to see it, even though I’m not into musicals. And being that Green Day’s lead singer will be performing with the cast on Saturday January 1, I want to see it even more. But, if I don’t get to see it, that would be okay because as it turns out, the cast will be performing three songs in Times Square on New Year’s Eve! I was so excited to find that out this morning. Also performing, among others, will be Rick Springfield (meh, I guess Jessie’s Girl is good) Ke$ha (I’ve heard of her, but don’t know a single song), Taio Cruz (who? Seriously, who the fuck is that) and a combo of the Backstreet Boys and the New Kids On The Block (seriously, what the fuck? They suck…………probably each other too!)

I also would like to go to the Carnegie Deli just so that I can send a text to my friends with a line from Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song in which he sings “guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli?” Also we will probably hit up Rockefeller Center and the Statue of Liberty.

As for the weather, it turns out that it is actually supposed to be nice, even up into the 40s on Friday and Saturday. Wish me luck, I will have lots to post assuming I survive.

I guess now would be the time that I should be asking everybody how their Christmas was, but let’s face it, I really don’t give a shit about anybody else’s Christmas but myself. There. I said it.

Okay, fine, how was your Christmas?

Christmas Eve meant breakfast at Bob Evans with 21 other people. Bob Evans doesn’t take reservations, so I called the morning of (like they told me to do) to let them know that I was going to be having a rather large party coming in. The lady that answered said they were slow, but things must have changed by the time I got there a half hour later because while it wasn’t packed, they weren’t exactly empty either. Unfortunately, our party got spread out over four booths and 2 tables.

Some of you might remember my post from last month about the friend I had who has an issue with gays. Well, as you know, I have not spoken to him since the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Christmas Eve was the first time I saw him since then. I had no intention of ignoring him and I did include him in the conversation with everybody else. While I was talking he gave me a huge hug. I guess that was his way of apologizing. Although I hugged him back, that didn’t mean everything was all good. I still feel the same way; for me, it was a hollow hug, after all, as far as I know his opinion and thoughts have not changed. What a pity.

Christmas Eve night was at my cousin’s house. Every year I play Santa for all the kids there. What, you think because I’m 135 soaking wet that I’m too thin to be Santa? Well, let’s just say I’m Santa after the gastrobypass surgery. So anywho, I got all dressed up in the basement and came up stairs making a grand entrance. As soon as my three year old niece saw me she said “that’s Mike.” She told her mom later that she recognized by hands. Well great, looks like I need to start wearing gloves.

Christmas Day we had breakfast at my house with my siblings and nieces and nephew. Christmas afternoon and evening was spent at my sister in law’s parents house. Every Christmas at their house I get drunk on red wine and for some reason, it turns my lips purple. This year was no different.

Yesterday I had what can only be described as a date with a guy I’ve been chatting with online. We went for dinner at the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder which is a really tiny pizza place that is located in an old house right across the street from where the Valentine’s Day massacre occurred in 1929. You may have seen this place on the Travel Channel, they are known for their pizza pot pies, pretty much pizza but in pot pie form. I’ve long wanted to try it being a big pizza lover. It was good, but probably not worth the hour long wait for a table and the crammed quarters.

Although I’ve never been one to do the whole dinner and a movie cliched date, we decided to see a movie afterward. We wound up seeing the King’s Speech, which was very good and actually a lot funnier than I thought it would be.

I hope you all had a good Christmas. See, just because I don’t give a shit about your Christmas, doesn’t mean I wished it was bad!

T-minus 2 days and 6 hours until we leave for New York City.

Normally I don’t do shit like this because its so cliched, but what can I say, I’ve got nothing to write about. As the year rapidly comes to an end, I’ve thought about the best of in 2010. I always hate when people do their whole year in review before the year is actually over, but when it comes to entertainment, you can pretty much do a recap now. So, here are my favorites for the year:

Favorite new t.v. show: Boardwalk Empire- I’m probably biased here because I love gangster movies and shows, I love Steve Buscemi, I love Martin Scorsese, and I’ve always been fascinated with the 1920s. I don’t generally watch a lot of t.v. shows, preferring instead to watch sports or late night shows like David Letterman and The Daily Show, but I was very excited when I first heard of Boardwalk and was not disappointed in the least. If you have HBO, you should check it out.

Favorite movie: Shutter Island- So it probably was not the best movie of the year, but I don’t see a lot of movies. And among movies released in 2010, this one was the best one I saw. Oh sure, I saw better movies in 2010, but those were movies that were released in previous years.

Favorite book: Earth (The Book)- Again, I’m biased because I love Jon Stewart, but the book was every bit as funny as The Daily Show, except the book had cursing.

Favorite song:meh, I dunno. There were two songs that I really got hooked on this year, Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind” and “Uprising” by Muse. Now, both of those songs were released in 2009, but I didn’t discover them until this 2010. Gosh I’m so lame.

So that is just a brief list. Sometime early on in the new year, I will recap my own personal year………….ooooooo, I bet you can’t wait for that!!

This year is going to be the shortest year of my life. How is that you ask? Let me explain.

You might remember from my January 13, 2010 post that I made three things I wanted to accomplish before the decade was over; I called them decade resolutions. Allow me to revisit briefly here. One was to go to The Kentucky Derby, another was to go to Mardi Gras and the other was to be in Times Square to ring in the new year. I knew that all three were kind of a pipe dream, but I’ve always wanted to do all three and I had 10 full years not to accomplish those goals. Well, I’m proud and very excited to say that if all goes to plan, next week I will be crossing one of those off the list: I’M GOING TO NEW YORK CITY, FUCKERS!!!

There was another post on April 19 in which I professed my desire to go back to New York. In September I mentioned the NYE Times Square idea to my best friend and his girlfriend. They were interested at first, but then realized how much money it would cost and decided that it was not something they could do at this time. So I thought my shot of going this year was totally dead. That was, until Saturday, December 4th.

I mentioned it to a couple of other friends of mine while we were at a party. They thought it was a great idea and said they wanted to go. So we instantly checked airline rates and they were pretty good and they wanted to go. The next day I called them just to make sure it wasn’t just a bunch of crazy party talk, but as it turned out, they were both very serious about going. My brother was interested in going too, but he was unsure because he needed to have his car worked on. Unfortunately, we were unable to get anything locked down by the middle of the week. I called one of my friends the following Thursday and she said she was still interested but we had not heard from our other friend. That was the last I had heard from either of them. Although I had sent an email to them on Sunday the 12th, I still had not heard back. Once again, my dream was teetering on being dead. That was, until…………….

I got a phone call from one of them on Saturday. Turned out, she still wanted to go. I heard from the other friend on Sunday and she still wanted to go. My brother……………ehhhhh, not so much. While airline rates are ridiculous, we are only a reasonable 13 hour drive from NYC.  I found a hotel on line that was reasonably priced, at least for NYC over New Year’s and booked a few nights. So it was settled, we would drive to NYC next week!

As for the hotel, it seems really nice, it is the Roosevelt and it is located in midtown, only about 6 blocks from Times Square and right across the street from Grand Central Station. Here is a link to the hotel so you can check it out:

www.theroosevelthotel.com

I’ve only been to NYC once, and my two friends who are going have never been there, so if you have any suggestions or ideas about anything, please let me know. I do know this much, I want to try some New York pizza.

Oh, and why is this the shortest year of my life? Well because I’m in the central time zone and NYC is in the east. Since we will leave in 2010 and not return until 2011, we will lose that hour and it will be the shortest year of my life. That being said, 2011 should be the longest year of my life since we get that hour back.

As you all know by now, the United States Senate actually accomplished something yesterday. And not just anything, but probably the most historic thing they have done in 50 years: they worked on a Saturday!

Oh, wait, I’m being told that they worked on a weekend just earlier this year. Turns out that they did something even more extraordinary and historic: they repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. This by far and away the biggest piece of gay rights legislation that has ever been passed by the Senate. But before I get too far into this amazing day, it is important to remember a couple of things.

While President Obama and Congress will be out there taking all the credit for this victory, you need to remember that just a couple of months ago a judge threw out the policy stating it was unconstitutional and had Obama’s justice department not appealed the ruling, the policy would have ended right then and gays would have been able to start serving immediately. I won’t ever forget this. But I can forgive because they did actually get it done, in spite of their incompetence of trying to attach the repeal to the defense bill instead of a straight up and down vote.

Also, Obama could have ended the policy by signing an executive order the same way President Harry Truman ended blacks ban from the military in the 1940s. I don’t fault Obama for this one though; he had the support to have it removed through Congress and executive orders are always politically dangerous.

But, this day is not about complaining about how it should have been done sooner or about what the opposition had to say about the repeal. It is about celebrating justice for gay Americans, for the military, and for the country itself. I will never forget how I found out and where I was. I had to put in a few hours a work yesterday morning and new there was a vote coming up on repeal. I caught a little bit of CNN around 10am to see if the vote had taken place, but it had not. I checked my email on my phone about 11:20 or so to find the good news: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was no more.

It was one of those moments where you are happily stunned; you can’t believe what you have been wanting to happen for such a long time finally happened. I compare it to when I was in Grant Park the night Obama got elected president. I’m failing miserably to come up with other things to compare it to. A short while later I was driving home from work and I checked my email on my phone while at a stop light and got more email alerts stating it was over which filled me with pride and happiness.

I thought back to a rather heated debate I got into earlier this year with a so called friend of mine. Also present was my friend Tom who used to be in the Marines and who is now, I believe, a captain in the Air Force. Tom is married and not gay. But, that night, he expressed his support for the repeal and for gays in the military. It was a conversation I had with him on multiple occasions so it was no big shock to me that he was against the law. At the start of the year, Obama asked for a study to be done to show how repeal would affect the military. The report came back on 11/30 that 70% of people in the military supported repeal of the ban, and it was thanks to open minded people like Tom that this bill passed.

On this day, I am about as proud to be an American as ever.

Once again we have gotten to that time of year when conservative Christians whine and bitch about how the liberals are having a war on Christmas. One of my friends is among those conservatives and as I hear from her and so many like her is that she doesn’t care what may offend anybody else; she will say Merry Christmas instead of happy holidays no matter what. Another thing I hear is that companies and communities and others have to change it to Happy Holidays because they might offend somebody. Honestly, have you ever heard of anybody getting offended or raising a big stink people somebody wishes them a Merry Christmas? I’ve never heard somebody get  upset over that. Ever. I’ve never heard stories about it. Ever. And being an Atheist myself, I don’t get offended when people wish me a Merry Christmas. Hell, sometimes I even say it right back.

So what is the problem with these conservatives? It’s like they can’t understand or refuse to accept that oh, not everybody celebrates Christmas. They don’t make the connection that wishing Merry Christmas to a Jew or Muslim doesn’t make the least bit of sense. It’s like they say “Oh, there goes Louis Farrakhan, let me go wish him a Merry Christmas!” Shit, could you imagine if every day during Ramadan Muslims wished them a Happy Ramadan or whatever it is that they say to each other during Ramadan.

Also, they fail to realize that this time of year, Christmas is everyfuckingwhere. Every where you turn, there is Christmas, smacking you in the face. On the radio, on the tv, driving down the street, at work, in stores, hospitals, shit pretty much literally everywhere. But yet they get pissed when they hear the term Happy Holidays, you know, almost as if somebody is telling them to go fuck their mother. I don’t know about you, but ever since I was a kid the term Happy Holidays has been around. And I mean going back like 30 years or more. But yet, for some reason, this means that there has been a war declared on Christmas.

If you ask me, the only one who should be declaring a war on Christmas is Thanksgiving, every year Thanksgiving loses out more and more to Christmas. So on behalf of Thanksgiving, here is a fair and fond “Fuck You” to Christmas.

I went to a Christmas party at my brother’s house last night. I was introduced to his wife’s friend Meg and we did it on the pool table! Twice! In three minutes! Wait………….no we didn’t.

So after I found out her name I asked her if she was related to Chris Griffin. She looked at me with a serious and possibly offended look. She asked me if somebody put me up to asking her that question, of course, nobody did. She told me that it is an inside joke with her friends because they say her dad kinda looks like Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Fortunately she had a really good sense of humor about it. She also kinda looks like Mila Kunis the lady who does Meg Griffin’s voice on Family Guy.

After working 60 hours this week and probably another 60 hours this coming week, I pretty much didn’t do jack shit today. Well, I guess I did somethings, I did venture outside to clear the driveway of snow, but honestly, there wasn’t much to plow. Oh, and I wrote this lame post. Now I have to go because I’ve got to get up really fucking early tomorrow! Damn I hate work, I wish I were retired.

After two months of stress and going back and forth having to get all sorts of different shit and emails and phone calls, I have finally closed on the refinancing of my house. The notary lady just left minutes ago. This is huge relief to finally have this done as the whole process was kinda stressful and tedious. I must have signed a gazillion papers tonight. It is all good in the end though, as I wound up getting a great rate and the mortgage will be paid off a lot sooner.

And now I should celebrate. Well, maybe not, I do still have to work 12 hours tomorrow.

I had Friday off work so that meant I got to sleep in. Friday morning at 6:42A.M. I got a text from a friend of mine saying that Ron Santo had died. Who is Ron Santo you ask? Well he used to play 3rd base for my favorite baseball team, the Chicago Cubs. Although he retired before I was even born, he is a Cubs legend. Even though I was not a huge fan, I certainly felt a little down on Friday after learning of his death.

 He has been their radio color commentator ever since 1990. For a baseball fan, the team’s broadcasters are important and almost like a friend you watch the game with. With Santo, it was even more pronounced than a typical broadcaster simply because of his love of the Cubs. Truth be told, he was a horrible color commentator. In fact, he brought little if any insight to the game. Most of his commentary revolved around him getting excited when something actually went well for the Cubs or him moaning and groaning when things went bad. Still, he was entertaining because he would always do something funny like when he accidentally caught his hairpiece on fire in the booth one cold afternoon in New York. Or the time last year when he cut his upper lip shaving and had a band aid across his entire upper lip. By the middle of the game, he had gotten rid of part of the band aid and it looked like a Hitler mustache in band aid form. The Cubs tv announcers then put band aids across their lips to kind of make fun of him. He was always a good sport about it though.

As a player, there is much debate about how good he actually was. Many people believe he is the best player not in the Hall of Fame and that he deserves to be there. I’m not so certain that he does deserve to be in the Hall. If there was a Hall of Fame for courage an inspiration, he would be in on the first ballot.

See, Santo played his entire career with diabetes. Sure there are some athletes nowadays who play with diabetes such as Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, but keep in mind this was 50 years ago when it wasn’t nearly as easy to keep it under control and when it wasn’t as common of a disease.  He kept it hidden from the team for his first few years of his career. It never hindered his play though, making the All Star team nine times in his 15 year career.

He had his right leg amputated below the knee in 2001 and his left leg remove in 2002. He still went on though, continuing to broadcast Cubs games even as his health declined. His son, Jeff, made a documentary called “This Old Cub” which told the story of his struggle with diabetes and his ever positive outlook. I suggest watching it even if you are not a baseball fan.

I did get a chance to meet him briefly once about eight years go. I also saw him in the concourse before a Cubs game about 18 years ago talking to some excited fans. I passed by him on the way to getting a hot dog. 10 minutes later I walked past him and he was still talking to the same fans, the parents still excited to be talking to him while the kid more than a little annoyed. It was pretty funny, I mean how often does the fan get sick of the celeb before the celeb gets sick of the fan.

Even though he will surely be replaced by somebody who can do a better job on the radio, I will still miss his crazy antics.

It’s been a great two and a half weeks but my run of days off is ending and once again the madness of 12 and half hour work days will be starting. But that’s okay because I’ve got shit I have to pay for. But first, a attempted brief review of the past few days.

Thursday night was the World of Chocolate AIDS fundraiser. This was the second year in a row I’ve gone. This time though I had the foresight to take the next day off because last year the next day I was tired as hell because my sugar buzz had worn off. This year I got dressed up all nice and looked fucking hot if I must say. I was wearing a black suit with a black shirt and a black tie with a few large red spots that kinda looked like planets. While I thought I looked hot and a few other people thought I looked hot, I also looked kinda like I was in the mafia and definitely not like a gay guy. Perhaps not the best idea I’ve had.

The fundraiser started at 6 in the pm and it was at the Hilton in downtown Chicago. We left much earlier then we needed, right around 4, but hey rush hour traffic in Chicago can be a hassle so better to give us more than enough time than not enough to get there. By the time we go there, got the car parked coats checked and whatnot, we were sitting at a bar in the hotel by shortly after 5.

Inside the hotel there was a giant, edible gingerbread house that was so big you could walk into it, which we did but my friend was the one who took pictures and I don’t have them. As a matter of fact, I don’t have any of the pictures and I didn’t take any at all. Well fuck me, I could have posted pictures.

We got into the fundraiser pretty much right at 6 and there was already a lot of people there. We were starving and pretty much went right for the food. There was a small buffet of food and then the regular booths of chocolate after chocolate after chocolate. Of course there were candies and cookies and stuff like that but also things you might find disgusting as well. There was caviar mixed with chocolate which was okay. Also they had pulled pork with a chocolate barbecue sauce and sweet potatoes. There was a Tab float, which was pretty much a root beer float but with Tab instead of root beer. They also had these hot, young guys wearing nothing but their underwear promoting another AIDS fundraiser. You could get your picture taken with them.

At one point we were right near the entrance when one of my friends noticed that the governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn had walked in. I was literally only a few feet away from him. I guess one of the reasons he was there was because of the passing of the civil union bill the previous day. Also, it turns out that he goes just about every year as well. What was funny was that the guys in their underwear later had their picture taken with the Gov which made for a funny scene to say the least.

The night seemed to fly by though but it was a great time and I can’t wait to go next year.

Shit, this was a long post and I still have more to write. Meh, I’ve got shit to do, I can write more later.