fantastic blowout banter tonight.

i started talking - really excitedly - about nate robinson being a first round selection. i mean, woof! and we talked nba draft and things like that. but the highlight came in the eighth inning.

i'm talking about one of our relief pitchers, a native of charlotte, michigan. i explain that it's pronounced "shar-LOT" and not "SHAR-lit," as most would pronounce it. eventually, we get the comment partner... "have you ever met somebody from ellinois that pronounces it elli-noise." to which i respond "i've never understood how somebody from illinois could pronounce it ellinois, but i guess it happens."

that wasn't the funny part. the funny part came post-game, when i checked my email:
'you are correct in the pronunciation of charlotte, michigan. [pitcher] takes great pride in his hometown. thanks for the wonderful announcing. we listen every night in charlotte, michigan. [pitcher's] mom.'

how cool is that?

- - - - -

i mean, it's not particularly enlightening, but it's pretty fun. flax is running a 'tournament,' culled from some rolling stone list, of the greatest songs ever. it's the ultimate in geeky websites [i mean that as a nice thing], and fun to join in. rock the vote, friends.

well, i messed up the template somehow. perhaps i'll fix it, or perhaps you'll have to scroll to the bottom of my interminable archives to get new material. or perhaps you can tell me what the heck i messed up and then i can fix it. sigh.

now, i tend to be compulsive and i tend to get into cd-buying fits. 2 or 3 at a time, maybe three times a month. but i've been pretty good this season...i stayed away from things i sort of wanted, like the beck record and the malkmus record and the sleater-kinney album and things of that nature.

related: on the road, especially when the bus is late in the afternoon, there's down town. i wandered around appleton today, ate my burrito at panchero's, and then proceeded into some used game/music store, pre-played.

bonanza.

the haul:
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year - $4.99
R.E.M. - Green - $3.99
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers - $5.99 (might as well get some Stones at some point, right. This one has "Wild Horses," which GbV covered at some point. Yes, that's my standard. [And, yes, I know 'the ones to get,' just haven't - and probably never won't - gotten aroudn to it.])

and then...

...

Stephen Malkmus - Face the Truth - $4.99

Total price, with tax: $20.96

You can say I wasted my money. I'll tell you I got CDs that I should, as a frequent music listener, own. And now I do.

Maybe those people who download stuff have it figured it out. They probably just have "Brown Sugar" on their hard drive.

- - - -

Face the Truth truly is pretty wicked. I decided against the latest Brian Wilson (good choice, I read later), and against The Replacements' All Shook Down, which is good. I couldn't find and Belle and Sebastian or any Jesus and Mary Chain or any My Bloody Valentine or any Public Enemy or any De La Soul (I'm devouring that Spin 20th anniversary '100 Best Records of the last 20 years' because I'm a sucker.

I should sleep.

well, since the comments bar seems to be bustling with excitement, i'd like to tell you a story, "rud goes to des moines."

it starts Monday, 10:00 a.m.

10 - Rud wakes up, immediately does laundry
1045 - with clothing in the dryer, Rud goes for a walk
1140 - Rud gets stuff out of the dryer, and folds
1230 - Rud eats some beef and beans and rice and tabasco
1245 - Rud begins to pack, both for the trip to Des Moines and for the trip to Appleton (where I currently report from)
120 - Rud considers the three-hour drive to Des Moines, and considers that check-in time is at 3:00, and considers that he'll see nobody important tonight at all on Monday night, and considers that PTI starts at 420, and Rud decides to leave without showering

418 - Rud arrives in Des Moines. Fills up the tank. Gets the car washed. (Might as well.) Price tag - $33. Rud checks in...and misses the first segment of PTI. Sigh.
500 - Rud reads USA Today (pronounced OO-sa-TAH-dy) because he loves getting stupider at hotels.
630 - Rud begins studying, using wireless internet, the local pizza places. He has decided not to eat at the hotel restaurant - too pricey. He calls a local chain - Paul Revere's - and orders a pepperoni (sp?) and pineapple pizza. Later, Rud will be unimpressed with the pizza - not enough sauce.
700 - Rud listens to the radio broadcast, while 'scoring at home.' The thought is that this will help Rud tomorrow. It won't. Rud also 'scores at home' the entire previous series.
1030 - Rud does some ironing, and that's about it. Rud sleeps at 1230 or so.

Because this was neither funny nor interesting, I'll summarize Tuesday and Wednesday in sentence form.

On Tuesday, I arrived 9ish, to see that my contact was not yet there. He showed up at about 915, and we went on the tour. I met several people, including the GM and owner, and confirmed that there would not be a quiz at the end. By 1030, after a stadium tour, I was in the radio booth with nothing to do. So I did some studying and reading and things of that nature, not really understanding that reading and studying is really no way to learn about a team. (There's really no way, it turns out.) Number one guy arrived at about 330 - it had been a long travel day, beginning at 7 am and ending when they arrived at about 200 - and he was not unpleasant, but certainly was also not happy to see me. We made some unsubstantial small talk, and he quickly disappeared to do other things. I remained in the booth, doing some studying [I had only recently realized that the ICubs and Oklahomas had met earlier, so I was updating myself on that series], until he arrived back in the booth at 6. Did you get anything to eat? Nope. Oh, it's outside. Again, not cold, but not pleasant or helpful. But, then again, maybe I wasn't eager enough.

The broadcast itself left me a bit unfulfilled. I did starting lineups in the pregame, did some commercial reads, did some color during the first three and the last three, and did play by play during the middle three. I was not knowledgable, and didn't feel like I could really help out. Worse, number one didn't really want to educate or make small talk or anything, so it was a struggle.

Still, my dad called afterwards and said he was proud of me. I thanked him, said it went "okay, not great," and moved along.

The highlight was postgame, when I had beers with a former coworker and his wife. We talked shop, and i was impressed with his new life [making actual money, and things of that nature].

- - - - - - - - -

As I am a dramatist, I'm sure you've anticipated that Wednesday was much better.

Although it had a rocky start...Tuesday's game had not been properly recorded, owing to the fact that I couldn't get a proper output from the at-ballpark board. That meant that I had to do some traveling on Wednesday - first to a Wal-Mart (yeah Midwest) to get cassettes for air-check purposes and then to the radio station, about 30 minutes away from downtown Des Moines. Expected Round Trip time - about 58 minutes. Actual Rud time - About 2 hours. Hey - I couldn't find the interstate...although my tribulations helped me find the interstate after the game.

Anyway, I returned to the hotel - after all, I would only study at the ballpark - and did some cleaning up and repacking and things of that nature. I returned to the ballpark about 1215, shortly after check-out time.

number one broadcaster arrived about 2. (he's a salesman in the offseason, and basically a radio guy only in-season.) i got to ask broadcast- and career history-related questions of him. he was happier to talk to me, although we still weren't best buddies. i stopped by to say hello to the visiting number one broadcaster, and we got in an oddly long conversation. about his history [i had studied his bio - knew he was a chicago-based youngster who started his career calling horse races...i prepared my somewhat-falsified arlington park stories in anticipation of this small talk] and his equipment and his ballclub and things like that. probably 25 minutes worth.

then i joined number one to go do his interview. [i studied his techniques and watched and those things.] met the great ben grieve, who had walked-off the previous night. then we returned to the press box, where the food was...sonic cheeseburgers. just about the worst press box food ever.

broadcast was very very good. there was some chemistry there. he was happy to discuss his techniques on pitch counts and things like that. we talked about some of the terminology he uses. i think he liked me a bit more wednesday than tuesday. [the only downside? when i asked what i could work on, he said... "well, i think you do a nice job. you say the score a lot. that's what really matters." that's the worst, but most common, piece of constructive criticism a broadcaster can get.] and, more importantly, there was some chemistry. [however, late in the game, i brought up a good piece of uniform-related silliness, and he didn't pick up the joke and run with it.]

my play by play was also good. i nailed a ben grieve home run call. i did fairly well on a calvin murray [!] home run call. generally, the play by play was good.

in my final inning, the team's owner came into the booth for what would become a long, long [seven-run] side of the sixth. the owner, who i had met briefly before, is a fairly influential iowan and also a certified good [and an extremely nice man]. i made at least two jokes, and my parents thought i nailed 'em both. the first one, based on the clothing being worn by mr. owner, got a strong response when i sarcastically said he 'immediately becomes the best-dressed man in the booth.' came out better on-air.

the second one, the main cubs guy was talking about the owner [name withheld to avoid looking silly if he googles himself and comes across this drivel]. and he was talking about his statewide influence. and then number one says, "i'm sure you've read about [name withheld] and seen his picture plenty of times in the papers in the quad cities..." and i responded "not nearly enough." ba-boom!

as the postgame was beginning [i had only a minute role in the postgame], i saw the owner heading off for the night. i jumped out to the booth to shake his hand and say thank you. it was really a nice conversation...he said, "you're very good. come back any time."

[i was thinking that i've only twice heard my current boss say that i'm very good, and it's both times followed by the words, "but we just don't have it in the budget for this year..."]

long story short [failed already]: i left happy. i left without a job offer. but with an invitation to return. and, again, pretty happy.

i also left with at least one more new contact [visiting radio guy] with whom i had a bit of friendly chemistry and who has already indicated that he'd like to bring out a number two. that means two potential openings down the line. and, more importantly, two openings for which i'd have the 'inside track.'

- - - - - -

i nearly missed the bus thursday morning. [i left the office at 3 a.m., repacked for the current road trip by 4, and woke up at 710 for my 730 bus. i'm usually on the bus by 715, and at the ballpark by 645.] i didn't shower, but i did make it. thursday was rough, especially because i had to watch - on about 3 hours of actual sleep - a nine-inning, 3:30, 16-15 game in which my club allowed six runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. today, friday, was also rough, but i made it through.

what's left for the des moines trip - i have to write and mail out thank you cards to the four people i met. i'm doing that when i'm done blogging. i also have to figure out a time to suggest that i should do it again...i've got a pair of off days in august, and they're home then, so i'll probably call at the beginning of auguest to try to make it happen.

- - - - - -

i've been listening to the streets - both records - a lot lately. that shit is really, really good. really good. and this is no cody chesnuTT - it's actually really really good, and i'm loving it with good reason. i'd highly recommend that you check it out, if you haven't. if you're a downloader, i'd strongly recommend "blinded by the lights," "dry your eyes," and "fit but you know it" from a grand don't come for free [which, it turns out, reached number 82 on the billboard 200], and "stay positive," [sort of] "the irony of it all," "don't mug yourself" and "geezers need excitement," among others, from originaly pirate material. totally badass stuff.

- - - - - - -
haaaaaahper has joined the blogosphere, which is fantastic. freakin' didi is the only e2er left. we'll get her soon.

- - - - - - - -
i'm not a caffeine addict, but i did eat my plain instant oatmeal with cinammon and water and coffee tonight. wow. i'm done.

it's been a very busy week, because that's sort of the nature of things. i can't think of anything significant that happened, except that my laptop magically started working again - i don't think that a week-on, week-off pattern is exactly ideal for functionality, but it's okay for the people at dell, based on the conversations we've had.

wednesday was super hero night, featuring the red ranger from the power rangers and superman. in addition, two odd gentlemen dressed up, one as duffman and another as...well, i couldn't quite tell. it appeared that he had a bulbous silver head. i thought maybe antennae. perhaps dressed entirely in aluminum foil. my broadcast partner and i had an in-depth conversation about this person. or at least, i talked about him.

i was heading out to turn off the scoreboard postgame, and i happened to see this man's reflection in the parking lot light. he seemed to be alone. i waved to him. he waved back. i said, "who are you?" he yelled "al;sdkjf!" i yelled "what?" he yelled, louder, "disco boy!" i was satisfied.

i was planning to stay overnight in peoria last night but, owing to the lack of confirmation from a former coworker, i wound up coming home after the game. [i hadn't packed for the overnight.] so then former coworker offered me the chance to eat dinner at his house tonight postgame. i accepted. a burger, some carrots, an actual omaha steak, some beans, some salt n' vinegar chips, a brownie, and hanging out with a 19-month-old kid...what a blast, and all it cost me was two two-liter bottles of soda...and a half-tank of gas.

i had an ultra-fierce scare that began friday, and worsened by this morning. friday night, as i returned from game two of the four-game series, my throat was sore. saturday, i woke up, and it was sore. postgame saturday, former coworker geoff said i sounded raspy. gadzooks! so i drank lots and lots and lots [probably eight large cups] of hot tea last night. still raspy this morning. i took that godawful gargle i bought in march. it was gag-tastic, and i still felt sore for the drive to peoria. but i got through the game okay, and i've drank some tea tonight, and we're hoping for the best.

i got back from former coworker's house at about 930 tonight, and went all 'ducks in a row' and wound up at the office tying up end-of-first-half loose ends until about 1:00.

tomorrow [monday], i plan to be out of the quad by about noon or so, allowing me to arrive in des moines by 3. before i leave, i've still got to do laundry. goal is to be up to do laundry by 9...get it in the washer, get it in the dryer, get out and about for a walk, finish the laundry by 11, get packed by noon, and be gone. one sticking point is that i forgot my texas rangers media guide at the ballpark...i'll have to dispatch an intern to get it [i live near the yard, and i sure don't want to show my face there, y'know...? i guess that's sort of sad but, alas, such is life...]

listen if you get the urge, a link posted here. i believe i'm scheduled to be on-air for the duration of tuesday's game and the duration of wednesday's game, although my likely play-by-play time is about 7:45-9:00ish range.

i don't know if you're weirded out by the ultra-religious [i think most are], but i sometimes am. a former intern of ours - a good kid who worked directly under me two years ago - is now doing the media relations for a collegiate baseball team [like the cape cod league] that is affiliated with the christian organization athletes in action. he's from a religious family - both parents are 'officers' [i feel bad putting it in quotes, but i'd feel odder if it weren't in quotes, y'know?] in the salvation army. he was telling me about the schedule for the ballclub he's working for, explaining that there's a mandatory discipleship meeting every day for all players and staff members. we were speaking on the phone with each other during last monday's off day, and he said... "i hope this doesn't make you uncomfortable... [never a good sign] ... but would you mind if we prayed for you?" it's flattering, i guess, but also a little uncomfortable, right? or does that make me a bad person?

i've plateaued/plateaud/leveled off/levelled off in the weight-loss game. the initial goal was to 1) stay on the plan and then 2) lose some weight before the season began and then 3) maintain a constant weight through the season. well, i cruised, dropping 35 pounds before opening day [about 90 days on the plan]. and then the season hit, and i kept going. by 56 days [rough math] into the year, i had dropped 50 total pounds, or a rate slightly slower but very similar to the preseason plan. so i changed my expectations. and now i've failed. since the wedding [i was down 50 heading to that weekend, and expected to gain some through the trip and the booze], i've not returned to the 50-pound mark. hovering between 48.5 and 45 for the most part, which is good.

but i think i've done all that i can do with the 'do some walking and avoid actual exercise' plan. perhaps some running? maybe, although doubtful, captain.

productive, productive off day...started just before ten this morning, which meant a full 8 1/2 hours of sleep, or so.

got a walk in this morning. bought some needed things. went to the library. ate lunch. had a brief phone conversation with the i-cubs radio guy. got only one mid-day disturbance from work. vacuumed and swept and scrubbed floors. connected with des moines-based former coworker for get-together possibilities next week. made a high-quality dinner. listened to the i-cubs. watched the c-cubs. visited with the down-the-hall intern. studied fantasy baseball trading possibilities. [i need an infielder due to the injury to barmes. trying to get ensberg. i've got a surplus of outfielders - patterson, wily mo, berkman, pierre, mench - and i don't want to give up feliz. i'm starting uribe and feliz at 3B/SS this week, and my only other IF option is dallas macpherson. kent's locked in at 2B. this parenthetical is far too long.]

it was the typical off day - lots of errand-y things, but in a restful way. my first scheduled off day since 5/10, although i did get last weekend in [a busy one, to be sure, but a pretty restful one].

i don't read so much, although i should. i picked up this seemingly-fascinating book, a fan's notes, by frederick exley, this afternoon. i probably won't finish it, because i finish about 20 percent of the books i start, but i've got four days worth of two 90-minute bus trips a day coming up. [i read digital fortress, a not-very-good dan brown book, over this time last year. i'm not embarrassed to admit it.]

so anyway, a fan's notes reads like bukowski on sports. drunk man likes the new york football giants.

from the second page of the book:

"Each weekend I traveled the fifty-odd miles from Glacial Falls to Watertown, where I spent Friday night and all day Saturday in some sustained whisky drinking, tapering off Sundays with a few bottles of beer at The Parrot, eyes fixed on the television screen, cheering for my team. Cheering is a paltry description. The Giants were my delight, my folly, my anodyne, my intellecual stimulation. With Huff I 'stunted' up and down the room among the bar stools, preparing to 'shoot the gap' ... [more active football verb descriptions] ... All this I did amidst an unceasing, pedantic commentary I issued on the character of the game, a commentary issued with the patronizing air of one who assumed those other patrons incapable of assessing what was taking place before their eyes. Never did I stop moving or talking. Certainly I drove a good many customers away. Most of those who remained had seen the show before and had come back for more, bringing with them the morbid fascination which compels one to stare at a madman."

reminiscent of "I sat down at the bar. 'The name's Bukowski. Whisky on the rocks,'" no?

three days after my return, we'll call the weekend worth it. i've begun peeling due to the overexposure to the sun (three hours + no sunscreen = red rud), which is oddly joyful to me...

i was surprisingly not so tired on wednesday. [after the final game of the trip on tuesday, i left grand rapids at 920 CDT, made my first wrong turn at 921 CDT, immediately knew what i had done and turned around, chatted up nemo, a fellow radio guy, gurs, mom, dad, and the boy over the next four hours, rolled down the windows and turned up the mountain goats when it was time for the boy to go, arrived in the quad at 230 CDT, and i was at work by 10 am. of course, i didn't go to sleep immediately - i had to catch up on sports illustrated and unpack a bit and things of that nature - so i was asleep by 4 or so.]

wednesday's game was fantastic - a comeback from a 6-1 deficit and a three-run homer to end the game - so perhaps that had something to do with it. in other news, chemistry between myself and my sometime-partner is getting better, and it was actually fringe difficult for me to do the wednesday game alone. but then i got back into it..."X, with an open stance, bats out of a deep crouch, his front foot towards third base. he's swinging a black bat with a light-colored handle while wearing white batting gloves with blue straps." ahhh, time-filling.

i'm in an odd situation here, and i'm not sure how it's happened. we've got 11 or 12 or 10 or a large number of interns this summer [in the past, it's been five or six.] as a baseline, let me tell you that i've forged a somewhat-lasting friendship with sort-of one previous intern [of 18]. the odd thing is this: i'm generally well-liked among this group, to the point that they're asking me to go out with them regularly. the problem is this: too much drinky.

the other problem is this: i like them all, because i generally like people, but they don't all like each other. therefore, i feel bad when group [a] bags on stuttering intern [x]. because, after all, the stuttering intern sort of rules.

the other problem is that one of the interns lives down the hall. i like him a lot, but it's too college for me. i'm supposed to go over and drink or play video games, and sometimes i just want to watch conan in my underwear.

- - - - - - -

i've got an off day on monday - my first in at least a month - i plan on cleaning and sleeping and enjoying humid 88-degree temperatures.

- - - - - - - - -

i'm going to work for the i-cubs a week from tuesday, then wednesday. they're covering my hotel [trade], which is just flat badass. i've got a former coworker who works in des moines, so i'll try to get in touch with him. i've got a former coworker who runs a restaurant there, so i'll try to convince coworker [a] and his wife that we should go to coworker [b]'s restaurant.

- - - - - - -

i like the white stripes record, particularly "my doorbell," which is infectious and way-infectious. i also like "take, take, take," which is about the only other song title i can remember. i just got xtc's skylarking - a surprise ebay winner with a $1.76 purchase price plus $1.50 shipping...i think they're fantastic.

weekend was a blast, an absolute blast. [was it worth the driving? i'll tell you after the anticipated 930CDT-230CDT drive on tuesday night-wednesday morning...or perhaps, after wednesday's game.]

unstadt gave me great company for the drive to glenview, and i don't think that there was any of the uncomfortable-ness that one might associate with attending an ex-girlfriend's wedding. bride's friends that i knew from previous [five years ago!] experiences were talkative and friendly and happy. and both parents were pleasant, and both sisters seemed happy to say hello. [in fact, the communication was better and more natural than those sentences indicate...it was highly good.] it should be noted that actual communication with the bride was highly limited - a hello hug and a goodbye hug and not much more. i didn't feel intrusive, which would have been a possibility.

and i think - think - that they, in some way, valued my presence. i could be wrong, but i don't really think so.

i also think that it was important that gurs and i were there, mostly because the greatest university in the world was highly-underrepresented. in fact, the entire bride's side of things was highly underrepresented, and so our presence was a benefit. better the nu class of 2002 than the XXHS class of 89, which ran the party. [groom's age...]

- - - - - -

of course, it was the ancillary things that made the night great. sharon's presence. the chance to meet the gurs-ette. the post-wedding drinkees with the wysock's. gurs' insistence on my having a full glass. whiskey-and-sierra mist, for the most part. realizing the greatness of "hotel yorba" at about 245 at the hungry brain.

the only downside? the phone was dead, so the boy and his pals never joined us. i forgot that i had planned to call them until this morning.

- - - - - -

today was even better. hanging out for hours. from 10 until 4. mostly not-hungover. mostly [noon-3?] on the roof of the gurs building. i've got the beautiful sunburn to prove it.

i don't know the last time i got the chance to just sit and talk to gurs. it's been far too long and, while i understand its difficult to find the spontaneous time to just talk about nothing and everything for hours, i hope it happens again sooner than later.

it was restful and humid and hot and i wore gurs' yellow pants rolled up so as to burn in the sun and i feel that, somehow, we caught up on each other a whole lot. philosophy on work and life and friendships and relationships and things. or maybe the sun was getting to me, but it was great to find that time.

i think that radio guys should be required to take a weekend off each season. really makes you think...

- - - - - -

about 2 1/2 hours at home capped the weekend. all but dave there, for at least 20 minutes or so. i got to see my sister's short film about skipping. i got to eat a badass dad-cooked steak. i got to wake up my mom [she said 'in 20 minutes,' but i accidentally waited almost an hour.]

and the drive to grapids was uneventful. perhaps tomorrow brings nemo, although that's as-yet-undetermined.

everything is pretty good at this point, which is nice.