i really wish i had something fringe interesting to report. last weekend i was feeling very, very fatigued - in fact, i slept through my planned wake-up time four times in a five-day stretch [significantly, too...missing by an hour or more].

but, oddly, i've recovered somewhat during the 10-to-11 days of the baseball schedule, which is nice. i have been busy with extracurriculars lately - a treem visit monday, an extra-inning game tuesday, a beer with the visiting broadcaster wednesday, some intense tv watching [24 and idol - although i didn't know the idol finale was two hours, and therefore missed the exciting part], some alcohol-fueled small-group intern bonding, some alcohol-fueled large-group intern-bonding...

oddly, again, i feel somewhat well.

i'd say the highlight of the week was treem's visit. monday was a rough day - i slept through my alarm, and was annoyed. i got to my car, and realized that i had left a major component of my gear in the bus. i called the bus company, and was told 'we'll file a claim, but the cleaning people won't get here until 5.' 'i need it now, or soon.' and so i got in touch with a guy, and thought about driving out, but waited until tuesday morning when they transferred it to another bus.

i had a few additional major tasks in addition to the usual beginning-of-homestand stuff on monday - rick ankiel joined the club, and fergie jenkins was coming that night - and my intern wasn't scheduled to show up until mid-day.

plus, treem was coming in town. he was invited, and i wanted him here, but, at the same time, i also wanted sleep.

i got none of it, and it was wonderful. we drank a few pitchers, joined for one or two by super-co-worker greg. then we retreated to the rud pad [the smell was unbearable, but i got rid of it by wednesday] and just talked - mostly about how northwestern was the greatest school in the world.

by the time i headed to bed, still woozy, it was 4:50 and the alarm was set for 9:15. i can't believe i made it in. and i was miserable all day. and we went 12 innings and four hours. but monday was great and, by now, i've gotten back in a rhythm.

- - - - -

i spend too much time thinking about this stuff, but i think i'm gonna buy the malkmus record. i've bought a lot of music lately.

gang of four - entertainment! - oddly catchy and brings me back to my thinking about lyrics days. i don't do that anymore, really, because i don't think as much as i used to.

the mountain goats - the sunset tree - i really think that john darnielle is my favorite currently-working songwriter. this has some wonderfully intense words and images, and comes highly recommended if you don't mind music about being beaten as a child...["so i turn on my little record player / i guess this is what the volume knob is for" ]

architecture in helsinki - in case we die - i'm sensing i won't like this one. i listened to it on like friday morning, and it was too sugary for me. of course, i was listening casually and while at work.

- - - - - - - - -

due to next weekend's wedding, i'm driving on my road trip this week. i've never done it, and i hope the wedding is fun [owing to the company, it will be], but i really hope that it's all worth it. rather than sleeping during tuesday's 630 am - 1 pm bus ride, i'll be driving from 8 to 2. rather than sleeping during friday night's 10 pm to 2 am bus ride, i'll be driving from ft. wayne to glenview [driving time: 3:20.] rather than coming home from a game and enjoying sunday night baseball on sunday, i'll be meeting the team in grand rapids [driving time: 3 hours]. and most importantly, rather than sleeping during the 10:30-4 am bus ride home from grand rapids, i'll be driving back [about five hours.]

so, i've gone from no hours of driving and lots of hours of bus sleeping to about 17 hours in the car.

and, worst of all, i've given the intern a 62.5% cut of meal money (split down the middle when i'm there, 100 percent to him when i'm not at the game). he's fringe ungrateful, so i hope he realizes how great i treat him.

i'd just like to state that it would seem that the northwestern wildcats women's lacrosse team is on the verge of a national championship. lacrosse or not, it's pretty outstanding.

i welled up with pride when i had half-an-ear on the wnur sports' wall-to-wall coverage of softball's regional win over albany followed by the lacrosse team's win over dartmouth.

sadly, i won't be able to listen to the lacrosse game on saturday. 130 first draw [?], i'm on at 1:45. sigh.

help treem fight cancer here if you have the time/15 bucks to spare.

we like treem, and he's accomplished a lot in his young life. down with cancer, up with not cancer indeed.

- - - - - - - - -

i had a great, great night on wednesday at the yard. got to meet a guy now in triple-a who also has the sickness. he was scheduled to be at the iowa cubs on thursday but, triple-a travel being what it is (oddly-timed commercial flights with multiple connections), he wanted to come to the state on his off day; it's more leisurely to fly at 10 a.m. on the off day than to leave at 4:30 a.m., connect once, cab to the ballpark, and be on the air until 10.

so being that he has the sickness, he came to our game.

i'm generally scheduled to let ben the intern do the middle three innings, during which i'm on color. on wednesday night, however, the opposing broadcaster (one of my favorite people in the league, and in the world) was taking the night off (a coworker had come up to try to get the club out of a slump, or something) and we had our triple-a visitor in town, and i got into conversation with both. and we talked, for innings and innings. about people that had been through the league. travel horror stories. tales of awful-to-deal-with managers, and of the absurdly large bank accounts that players tend to have.

it was really fascinating...a upper-40's guy (opposing), a mid-30's guy, and a mid-20's guy (me) just shooting the breeze. similar experiences, different perspectives. as interesting as a conversation among three upper-middle-class college-educated white dudes watching baseball for a living can be, i guess.

the highlight comes, of course, at the end of the night. triple-a guy says nice things, then gives me his phone numbers (XXX-XXX-XXXX: cell, and XXX-XXX-XXXX: cell - who doesn't love the 21st century?) and an email address, with instructions to 'call me if you ever need anything,' and really means it. a lot of nice people in the business, it seems. supportive, at least when you're not competing with them for a job.

and the bigger highlight comes, of course, the next day. i've received several email photographs, some of the stadium, some of triple-a and the stadium, and one of triple-a and darth vader (star wars night on wednesday, for obvious reasons.)

- - - - - - - - - - -

opponent broadcaster guy interviewed triple-a guy for his pregame show, and i caught one question and answer:
"i think what a lot of people respect about you is that you haven't traded on your (famous broadcaster dad)'s name to get a major league job. what is it about the minor leagues that makes you so excited?"
"i'm not gonna lie to you. if someone had offered a major league job, i'd've taken it."

that's all.

conversation with adler tonight. because he sometimes reads this, we'll refrain from the well-earned nickname.

conversation turned to medill, and i relayed a story i had meant to relay in this space before: i received a letter a few weeks ago from a soon-to-be medill alum, writing in his pre-college-graduation exuberance about phrases like "The Real World" and "Unparalleled Medill Experience" and "Amazing Classmates and Professors" and "Please Make a Donation."

i don't know if i learned much from my medill experience that wasn't common sense or basic grammar. i learned to spell the words 'judgment' and 'benefiting' and i learned that the word 'over' refers to physical space; in the instances where you are referring to quantity, you should use 'more than.' (as in, 'ben has offended more than 15 wnur coworkers in his time there.' [and not 'ben has offended over 15 coworkers since joining wnur.']) [medill probably emphasized that one should not overuse parentheticals. i skipped class that day.]

so, yes, other than the 'trade school'-type work of (non-digital) video editing, all i retained i learned from getting my b- in basic writing.

apparently, however, the bright-eyed youngster soliciting money from my insufficient funds didn't even learn a thing from basic, as he opined that 'a Northwestern tuition covers just over half of the cost of a student's education,' or something to that effect. but he did definitely write 'over,' and not 'more than.' [note: i never met her, but i'd imagine that mango would have beaten the crap out of this dude.]

so the question becomes, what is the proper way to respond to this little bit of irony? adler came up with the answer...

"get out the red pen, circle the word 'over,' and mark a big 'F' at the top of the letter. return that in the solicitation envelope."

sadly, however, i didn't come up with that idea and have since thrown out the letter. sigh.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

i received a great piece of mail on thursday, but i now realize that i missed the deadline to act on it. the national letter carriers association of america (or something) hosted a food drive on saturday. drop canned foods in your box, and they'll bring it to a food bank. what an idea! sadly, i forgot to do this. i guess i can bring my green beans by myself.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

so there's a bestseller out called on bullshit, written by a princeton (i believe) philosophy professor. it's mostly about advertising and "pundits" and the 24-hour cable "news" cycle. i do not think it's about using phrases like "from that perspective" and "moving forward," which are the key phrases of bullshit that my boss uses. morley safer told me about it tonight. i don't think i'll buy the book, although i'm sure unstadt's found one on kazaa. i should call that bastard soon.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

i've always loved the "amazon super saver" program, but i'm getting a bit annoyed by the length of time on my most recent order. it seems like about a week has been the genral time for me to receive a product, but i'm coming up on two weeks for my most recent order, and still receiving the "not yet shipped" message when i check out my account. i'd really like to hear that mountain goats album, because i lurve the mountain goats. i should also buy john darnielle's pre-4ad records, because that mofo can write some songs.

i didn't like the spoon record upon first listen...i was hoping for more of the manic pace of "small stakes" and "the way we get by," as i really really loved kill the moonlight. however, by listen four or five, i'm really really into it. they're really just a simple pop band, and the songs are melodic and simple, and, it turns out, really really good. that's all.

top records of 2005, at this point:
bloc party - silent alarm
bright eyes - i'm wide awake it's morning
spoon - gimme fiction
decemberists - picaresque
hot hot heat - elevator
kings of leon - aha shake heartbreak
trail of dead - worlds apart

the trail of dead is the record among these that i don't like that much.

eagerly anticipating:
robert pollard - from a compound eye double CD
probably other ones, too.

sleater-kinney is such an odd band to me, because they're so good and so established and they aren't all aggro so that i'm not going to like them and their one beat album was so well-received and presumably envelope-pushing, but i've never gotten into them. i really liked the 25 seconds of all hands on the bad one that we played at gurs' a month ago, but then i decided i'd rather hear graham smith's ponyoak. i'd really like to get his final battle album, which is largely unavailable and came out last summer.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

speaking of graham smith, i wonder how my friend chuck is doing. i sent him some more cds to lesotho in january. [i had previously sent some the previous march, and then received a 'you are the greatest person in the world letter' - it was fabulous - the following september.] i hope he's received them. he may be returning to this side of the pond soon...that'd be awesome.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

this was long. however, i prefer the 'one long post about many topics' method to the 'several posts on the same day on multiple topics' approach. i don't know why. neither way is better or worse. i'd be better off asleep, or reading, right now.

i'd like to follow up on my vulgar post from earlier this week...not the vulgarity, but the interesting-ish part at the bottom.

received an email from my former colleague, now at triple-a, today:
"You're in if you want. Probably the middle 3 innings PBP [ed: play-by-play] and assorted color [ed: "color" commentary = analyst = ron santo] other times. Let me know if you want in for sure, and what the dates are.

so i'll be heading out there for a couple of days mid-june...this is triple-a, featuring a host of former big leaguers, as well as a great spot on the resume [or at least the cover letter]...i'm hoping to parlay this into something full-time.

best-case scenario: full-time starting late june
mid-case scenario: full-time starting in october
lower-mid-case scenario: full-time starting in march
worst-case scenario: still here
mega-worst-case scenario: canned

of course, i still like what i'm doing...no matter the bad stuff, you still get to watch a game on a nightly basis, and that's really pretty amazing.

that's pretty much all i've got for tonight, but i'm pretty excited. we had a game rained out tonight despite the fact that it didn't rain - but for about 12 minutes of sprinkling - after 10 a.m. such is the life, or something...

productive off day.

9:00 - awake

9:15 - out of house

9:30-10:45 - blood donation

10:45-11:45 - "bought a suit"

11:45-12:30 - aimless driving, radio listening

12:30-1:30 - lunch with coworkers

1:30-2 - radio station to pick up gear / return home

2:00-2:45 - a bit of apt. cleaning

2:45-3:45 - enjoy the weather

3:45-5:00 - sit

5:00-6:00 - some more cleaning/phone calls to work

6:00-9:30 - watch tv, including the cubbies gameours of the cubs; eat rud wings during this time

9:30-10:15 - watch american idol on tape

10:15-12:30 - various media notes for tomorrow; letterman; conan (featuring fall out boy...ha!)

now: bed

notes: suits are expensive, although mine looks bitchin'.

i was joined by elliott smith's either/or for the duration of my walk this afternoon. the weather was 80 degrees. the path was packed. those are really nice walks...

it occurred to me that elliott's either/or is absolutely phenomenal, and also 8 years old. and then it occurred to me that i was in college for roughly 42 months (9/98-3/02) and now i've been a working stiff for roughly 35 months (3/02-5/05)...it's staggering, in some way, right?

or maybe you're just like, duh.

i watched just about every pitch of the cubs, and it was absolutely great to watch maddux. 10 k's. sweet. the only down side is that he couldn't get out of the seventh inning, even with his dominant stuff. with the bullpen as it is, that is a bad sign.

i don't like len kasper (kaspar?) and i doubt i ever will, but it should be noted that he plugged bob odenkirk and mr. show during the course of his interview with seventh inning stretch singer george wendt. i've only seen about 45 minutes worth of mr. show, but it sure was good.

is the love fest with jim hendry officially over?

it seems to me that the chicago cubs had one major weakness to address this offseason: the bullpen. it would seem to me that, despite the fact that they continue to gouge their customers and despite the fact that their minor league system is supposedly stocked with prospects, they couldn't get a thing. it's pathetic, and it'll cause what should be a 92-win team to finish with about 84 wins. an embarrassment, i'd say. what good is a great system if your manager is afraid to use it?

what an outpouring of support! pity support? or legitimate love?

because unstadt appreciated the phrase "dirty bird," i'd like to introduce other phrases that are used in the world of baseball (this list is far from exclusive):

"the ass" - short for "the red ass" - in human terms, it means that someone is angry...i.e. "the clubby didn't dry smith's uniform completely, and now smith's got the ass/the red ass"

"clubby" - clubhouse manager; the guy in charge of pregame spreads, laundry, etc. charges dues (i believe $30/players paycheck) and also receives handsome tips. our clubby made about $13,000 last summer.

"horseshit" - baseball's eternal word of complaint

"hangwiffem" - i think that's how it's spelled. it's baseballese for "hang with them," which is to say "perservere, friend." hawk harrelson uses it all the time. an example: smith: 'dammit...we're getting back from our road trip at 4 a.m., and we've got to be at the ballpark at 1:00 p.m.' johnson: 'tough league. hangwiffem.'

a previous trainer had a bad alternate version...he'd say, 'have you met my friend hank? yeah. hank-wiffem.' made no sense.

"bull" - my redneck manager's version of 'pal' or 'friend' or 'buddy' or 'jerkface' i.e. "how's it going, bull?" or "you got everything you need, bull?" or "hey bull...you got those stats?"

"bussy" - bus drivers don't have a name. they're simply 'bussy' or 'bussie' or 'the bussy' or 'the bussie'

i can't think of any others right now...perhaps i will at some point. "the ass" and "hangwiffem" are oddly universal.

oh, wait, i thought of another one...
[mom - look away at this one...i'm embarrassed by it, but it's a good one]

"team punching bag" - an awful, dirty, sleazy approximation of the term "groupie"

[mom - you can look again]

- - - - -

we had a game-winning grand slam in the top of the ninth on sunday...it was totally bitchin', though my call sort of sucked.

- - - - -

i'm trying to parlay a previous connection into some triple-a work for a few games later this summer. we've got the all-star break, and the triple-a club is home, and i know one of the triple-a front office staff people from my past in this league.

my instinct is that it will work out, and that i'll get to add 'triple-a' to my resume, which would be a big boost professionally and for my confidence. (not that i'm not confident...but a chance like that would be validation of some sort.)

the returned email from my past colleague said 'i think it will be a good deal for both of you [me and the triple-a main guy],' and the triple-a main guy has had a backup/'number two' in the past but not this year. i'm hopeful and optimistic a) that i'll get the chance and b) that they'll be impressed and c) that this opportunity will help me dirctly (i.e. full-time with them this or next season) or indirectly (i'll sufficiently impress someone else and they'll make a run at me...)

wish me luck (mid-june's when i'm looking)

- - - - -

i just got to listen to patandronapalooza on wgn...the cubs suck.

and now, one week after my last post, i shall attempt to recount significant recent events:

on wednesday, we had a day game. we were on the road. nemo was in the area (where he lives). nemo drove an hour to see me. then he brought me back to his home. then we made small talk. (we had also made small talk, and listened to automatic for the people, while driving.) then he went to work and, after spending some time speaking with carrie, i went for a walk. his area is beautiful, although perhaps to "suburban neighborhoody" for two early twentysomethings. but i really enjoyed my walk. then i read newsweek about cardinal ratziger, and then i fell asleep for a bit. and then i went to watch bulls-wizards game five at a bar with nemo and his daddy. and it was fun, not awkward at all (even before nemo arrived...i pretended to be well-informed about the derby, and told him about 'the life' that i live). and while i loved jannero pargo and hated gilbert arenas, i've gotten over the loss. (i haven't watched game six yet...that's my plan for sunday night...i do know what happened, however, and i still love that club. i hope they stay together.) i don't know if anything that actually happened for the rest of wednesday night (darts, beer, big buck hunter, the first four minutes of anchorman) was actually significant, but i've determined that nemo is one of the top three people i know, i think. but i already knew that. he drove me back thursday morning, but first made me eggs.

on friday, ben the intern joined me for what is a 'commuter' trip - we went to our opponents' yard and returned in the same day, owing to the fact that it's only 50 minutes away. ben called the middle three, then i let him do a fourth, then i blew the call on the game-winning homer for us in the top of the eighth. but it was okay. and then i was doing the post-game stuff - finishing the press release, updating the website with the appropriate things, and the like - and i asked ben to 'go check on how the bus was doing.' shortly after, he called: ' where's the bus usually? because it's now where it dropped us off.' me: 'it's not there? where it dropped us off?' he: 'no.' me: '[lots of f-words, as i called our trainer six times, then left a message on the seventh call.]'

then, after frequently using the phrases 'bush' and 'bush league' to the home team's radio guy and to ben the intern and to our award-winning beat writer, i asked the local (and award-winning) newspaper reporter if he wouldn't mind driving us back to the qca and, owing to the fact that his office is two blocks away from the yard, he said that he wouldn't mind.

then the trainer called back - from the pitching coach's phone: "we 'dirty-bird'-ed it back...i just realized that you weren't [in the seat] behind me." [note: they hadn't told me about their plans to leave immediately, and unshowered, post game.] me: "well, you've got to f***ing tell me. i don't mind. but you'd got to f***in' tell me. i can adjust, but you've got to f***in' tell me. just f***ing tell me. i don't care, but you've got to f***in' tell me." he: 'we just realized.' me: "f***in' tell me." he: "you've got a ride or something?" me: 'yeah. just f***ing tell me. [me hang up now.]

needless to say, i was pissed. and, because our coaching staff has developed a 'reputation' for being disrespectful and generally difficult, i also thought that the act was more malice than just flat stupidity.

saturday, of course, was the follow-up to friday night's "i get ditched at the yard" disaster. so i arrive. and i ask the bus driver what transpired. and he says that he thought it was absent-mindedness, and not a desire to screw me over. i wasn't convinced. i do my work, return to the bus. skipper arrives. "good to see you," with a laugh. i say "are you planning on leaving immediately today?" he says, "yeah. sorry about yesterday." i'm pissed and stern-faced: "that's fine, skip. just make sure you tell me." he says, "we'll make sure to do that." later on the ride up, he offers to pay me back for any cost i have incurred. the whole coaching staf seems legitimately contrite and apologetic.

i buy it.

sunday morning [early morning...extended saturday night], i'm out with ben the intern (who did not come on saturday...only got ditched friday) and his girlfriend wendy and, by pure happenstance, we run into skip and the trainer. skip does a fascinating magic trick in which he puts out his cigarette on the shirt of wendy (truly, just a dirty old man's ploy to see if the young girl has a pierced belly button...she does, and he's happy at learning about it). he leaves. later in the course of the evening (20 minutes before closing time), i confront: "skip, let's be honest...there was a small part of you that was a bit happy that you guys left me, wasn't there?"

he: "no. i like you, because i can tell you've got class."

and i think that's a nice way to end this vignette.

-- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -
there's a not-great-but-new-to-me article about joy division in the current issue of spin. i learned not much, but enough to make me want to listen to closer, which i bought shortly after interpol or some such band was mentioned as being a ripoff of closer, which i had never heard of. sadly, however, i unthinkingly left my backpack - with my ipod - in the car after the game. because my cd player is no longer good for anything but 'receiver,' i can't listen to the cd version. therefore, i'm listening to belle & sebastian's if you're feeling sinister in downloaded form on the old [non-broken] computer. it's tremendous.

on thursday morning, while the new computer was still functional in michigan, i ordered the new mountain goats record, as well as the ultra-positively-reviewed-by-pitchfork new record by architecture in helsinki. perhaps i'll later report back on both.

on a related note...flax: don't worry about negative reviews. what matters is your beautiful thoughts about the new record...enjoy it, and don't worry about what other say. they trashed the hot hot heat record...and we know that one's fabulous. they ejaculated over mia, and we all know that that's just annoying (i've not heard, i'm just assuming....)

and thus, we close the door on this too-long post.

p.s.: friends, please offer a word of response to this post. it's been done between 2:40 and 3:40 a.m. and i need to be at work by 11 a.m. on sunday. i'd appreciate the acknowledgement, you know?

i just 'ironed' four shirts by hanging them in a steaming shower. i'm never ironing again.

bus at 7:30...i's got packing to do.

- - - -

great pregame interview with a kid from maine on saturday afternoon:
'i been takin' crap from my family and friends for the last six months...here i been a sawx fan my whole life, and now i gotta cheer for the cahd-nals.'

it was a good interview, too, mostly because - when hearing him talk - i realized that there was much more to the story than just friday night's hit. and it was pretty funny, and he's a smart one.

he was generally upset to be cheering for the cahd-nals, but he knows who signs his checks. and he enjoyed it vicariously.