Jack

The trip to Ohio for Christmas was incredible. I was overwhelmed with the welcome I received from the Carter family. This being my first Christmas away from home, it was a wonderful treat to be with such incredible folks. We also imposed a little more than expected on their hospitality. Here's how it happened:

On the 22nd, Tiff and I were watching a movie at home. She was checking out dogs on web sites and stumbled, like you do online, into an area she wasn't trying to. She found a site where they gave a countdown to euthanasia. I know, horrible, right? Somehow she found Jack, Jack Frost. He is a Lab/Scottie mix and was scheduled to be put down on Christmas Eve. He was part of a pair from the same litter. He and his sister, Candy Cane were not going to see Christmas. We had discussed getting a dog when the time was right. This was not that time, but we also were having trouble letting this one go.

I went to work on the 23rd and Tiff was going to look into the dog's fate. By the time I got home, he was here. We agreed to support each other's decisions, as they would potentially need to be made quickly. We brought home Jack and promptly took him to Ohio. The little guy didn't know which way was up for a few days for sure.

On to the dilemna before us now. We have a lease that says no pets without written permission. We contacted our landlord and requested said permission. We were denied and rudely so. The conversation went so badly from their end, that I was all but sworn at. My intent was to keep the conversation civil and seek to find a solution. The two options I was given were the dog goes or we go. He would discuss it no further.

Tiff and I have been exploring both of those options over the last day or so. We have a couple folks that are interested in Jack. We have even more options on new apartments. We would be responsible for subletting our place through the end of April when our lease is up. There absolutely no intent to stay here beyond that point, even without Jack. There had been some issues here wqe were unhappy about, but we also had wanted a place to call home for a couple years too. This stint of rudeness (and hypocracy, they have a yappy dog themselves upstairs) has us ready to go.

So here we are. As the clash said, "should we stay or should we go now?" Tiff and I await a clear sign.

Just for laughs...

http://fuckyoupenguin.blogspot.com/

Colorado on the Quick

This year will be the first year I am not going back to Denver for Christmas. Ohio is where I will wait for Santa and I am pretty excited to spend it with Tiff's family. It has been a difficult reality to swallow though, not seeing my own family. Ergo, when the sagging business of the Cafe prompted them to scale back hours and they gave me three days off in a row, I contacted my friend Frontier Airlines to see if they had a reasonable flight. Success.





I flew out on Sunday night after the Ramble and was shocked to leave 40 degree Chicago for -15 degree Denver. My folks picked me up and we headed back to the house for some homemade potato soup. Delicious! I hopped up early with the sole objective to return to Chicago as tired as possible on Wed. Dad and I headed to Lucille's (Denver) for some amazing cajun breakfast! Seriously one of my favorite restaurants ever!

He took me a few blocks to Scott's house where we set out on a mission to get a scanned photo for him. That resulted in much time spent waiting, but hey waiting with a good friend isn't so bad. We caught up on several subjects with the quick jumping topic nature that happens when you are just enjoying talking a lot. After success there we grabbed some coffee and he tried to take me home only to discover the key pad to let me in was dead. In a high school like flashback, I got dropped off at the mall (Best Buy) till my Mom picked me up. Very surreal.

I was actually picked up by another friend now living in Denver, Emily. She and I hit one of my new favorite cafe's. Solid Grounds is a great spot, should you find yourself in the Denver area. My Mom swung by and we had fantastic coffee and veggie burritos. On the home front, we had Dad's mexican dish. So far tons of good food and friends. An excellent first day. Except I could not wait till the next day to see my awesome niece and nephew. They were bigger and cuter.

On the second day, I ran out to meet Scotty at his place first thing in the morning. He took me to his audition and I was able to crash it. Not only that, but we were able to go in together. That was super fun and hopefully it works out that I would have to call my friends Frontier again in Jan. We boogied around west Denver a while till it was time to meet my friend Mereth for lunch. I wanted to introduce Scott and Mereth and discovered introducing two friends from different area of my life just meant I was going to get ragged on from two different eras of my life. Yeah.

Scotty then took us over to Jason Knauf's place and we chatted for a bit before I split to head home. I had Sydney and Lincoln's gifts from Tiff and I to wrap. I also needed to weed through the diminishing stack of thing in the basement to see what I could take back to Chi. Mom brought tons of lasagna home and Jen brought the tribe over. That was super fun as the pictures indicate. My evening was shorter than usual though as I had to get up at 3:30am to catch my 6am flight home.

By 12pm I was at work once again... whew!

Rudolph Ramble

Not only did I not fall down, I did 7 min and 49 second miles! Definitely felt the difference between smoking and non on this one. I have never done both before, so it was eye opening. Quit date is coming very soon!

Ugliest Shirt Ever

I am running the Rudolph Ramble this weekend and am getting more and more concerned about the cold and running on ice. As prep I have been keeping to my regular routes outdoors. I will welcome the track at my gym after this weekend considerably more often. I decided to try out the technical shirt from the Turkey Trot to see how much warmth it provided. Not bad, but I still think I will be wearing my UnderArmor long sleeve as well as my North Face vest. I was walking Clark St. home from the gym as I just missed a bus and feeling a little wussy that the chill was getting to me. That was at least until I saw a temperature reading of 16 degrees.

This and That

It cracked me up recently to discover I was voted most likely to drink the most on a Facebook survey by "friends." I am not discounting the folks that voted for me versus whoever else was up on the "Compare Me" option, but it did serve as a reminder that Facebook, like every other networking/friend site is a little detached from who I actually am. Don't get me wrong, it has given me an opportunity to keep in touch with some folks that are valued friends, just not in frequent communication.

I was recently treated to seeing some live friends with our friend Jason's sudden visit to Chicago. I kid you not, I had just read on MySpace that he was here for just a short visit and would likely not see all of us when a knock came at the door. There was our traveling Baron right there. We had breakfast at Salt and Pepper and played Halo 2 for a while. It felt like old times for a bit here in Chicago, when Ft. Collins faces were always around.

I have been auditioning again, with a passion. Last week I was able to get out on 3 of them. That helped a lot as far as knocking some of the rust. There was some moments of goodness and some moments of blundering. All in all though, for those 10 minutes or so I was up before people, it was a lot of friggin' fun.

My Meisner class has also been fun for getting a chance to get up in front of people. I have mentioned that I am understanding it to be a tool to use in lieu of Stanisavski's approach. It seems to be based on being true to the moment and following emotioanal truths. All this is well and good, but the effort to implement it has been repetitions thus far and we are just getting into imaginary circumstances. Mostly I am enjoying being active, but I am starting to see where my weaknesses are. Oddly, I can take a direct attack but compliments are like Kryptonite. I also have trouble making a comment that might be offensive and not getting in my head.

Also being in my head lately, my not smoking campaign has taken a minor set back. It has been a week or so since I began having the occasional smoke. Part of me wants to feel good that it has been so minor, but I also know that is irrelevant, it's like They Might Be Giants said, "can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding." In effort to stay honest I wanted to let you all know. I have my quit gear ready to go, stay tuned for a new quit date very soon. Partially I want to get quit again because I have developed a considerable interest in running. I and have invested in gear to keep running and try and improve some. My goal is still to do the Chicago Marathon next year. I have the Rudolph Ramble this Sunday, another 8K. If my 4 mile run today is any indicator, it will be considerably more difficult if it rains or there is any ice on the ground.

That is about enough for now of this.