slick

Diary
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
My Room, Mom & Dad’s, Winnetka, IL, USA

Monday was a holiday and I had an invitation to go out Sunday evening, but I declined choosing to get some rest. Goal was to wake up quite early, get to the course and caddy two rounds on Labor Day. Physically moved myself out of bed about a half hour later than planned, but the goal came to pass. I got in two loops Monday.

Afterwards I ate dinner with Mom and Dad, unawares of the fact it was their thirtieth wedding anniversary. I gave thema  belated congrats today, following a reminder e-mail from Grandma. We ate at Crust and it was fantastic. Started with a antipasto appetizer, then split margharita and shroom pizzas. The shroom was tasty, but something was missing, while the margharita defined “less is more”.

Made plans to see Julia and her roommate after. I hung out at the apartment awaiting their call. Once they said they were driving downtown I collected my belongings from the roof, headed down to my parent’s place and changed, then walked to the ‘L’. I was finishing a delicious coffee from Dunkin when the train arrived. I stood up, threw it out, then noticed the cute girl brushing up with a make-up mirror. As I walked to the train I slipped

“You’re beautiful.”

in what I felt was an extremely smooth way. Only to turn and see the train doors shutting in front of me. I wasn’t so smooth then yelling “Come on!” and kicking the door in frustration as she scurried away to a different side of the platform.

Following two more ‘L’ mistakes I arrived at Julia’s stop and was deservedly chastised for arriving two hours after we’d chatted. Her roommate noted that was somewhat impressive. They gave me a tour of their beautiful apartment, accented with family paintings and some chique squares on the walls, then headed to the roof where we had a view of downtown Chicago one hundred and eighty degrees around us. Following a chat where I was taught many new things they went to bed and I headed out.

Mom bought me “Time Out Chicago” last week and its nightlife information was really helpful. I headed for the Debonair Social Club, even though the event sounded kinda lame, because the number for the place I wanted to go, the Green Dolphin, was disconnected. Social Club was closer to Julia’s too. Atmosphere and music of the Club were decent, best part was the bathroom attendant who didn’t hand you paper towels but spun them up in the air for you to catch. Luckily after party was at the Dolphin so I got there anyway. Save their lazy bathroom guy, spot was grooving exactly like I’d hoped.

Slept in late today, then took the rush hour ‘L’ home and met Mom and Dad for dinner. Laid down at home to watch the Sox lose badly to the Tigers, and later laughed literally out loud [llol] to Frasier, a formerly favorite show I haven’t watched in years, which oddly enough featured a visit Roz’s cousin, a jaded twenty-something heading to Asia who loved clubbing.

Frasier recounted to Niles a conversation they had:

“She said my radio show was bourgeois. I said anything that had mass appeal could be called bourgeois. She said my argument was bourgeois.”
“I find her very jejeune.”

I found her pessimism and entitlement annoying, but the episode was fantastic.

Closing out, after much eager anticipation from fans around the world following the recent announcement … here it is: Halloween Lesson 1. It’s part of the resource I’m making on Wikiversity taking all of my lesson plans I used last year teaching in Anqing, China for personal evaluation and so others can hopefully use and improve upon them.

news of two kinds

Diary
Sunday, September 5th, 2010
My Room, Mom and Dad’s Home, Winnetka, IL, USA

Woke up to a friend texting me if I wanted to hang out. Realized what time it was, then scrambled into the shower got my stuff together and jetted for the course, leaving the phone behind so I wasn’t able to text her back. Caddied for one round then came home and had dinner and drinks with Mom and Dad. Relaxed the rest of the evening watching a film.

Clearly not a very exciting day. What is exciting, is that Hannah, one of my junior high school students last year in China, has submitted a new article to me for publication: Why is it important to tell the truth.

fake fan meets real person

Diary
4 September 2010 (Written after midnight that evening, published the evening of the 5th)
Control Room, Mom & Pop’s Home, Winnetka, IL, USA

Following a delightful loop cart chasing[1] I took the ‘L’ South downtown to my buddy Pat’s pad. Huge place in Lincoln Park that is the top floor of a brownstone. Watched the Northwestern vs. Vanderbilt college football game. Pat and his friends were NU alums.I’ve been attending home football games since the age of eight, but I am more of a fake fan than the others, having studied at Colgate. Watching the game was fun, being around people who cared about Purple football and who were sophisticated in their analysis. Commenting not on bullshit calls by the ref, but on things like “that block was the key” referring to an offensive lineman stopping a defender in the backfield during the reverse part of a reverse.

Despite some poor kicking, they won the game. Dan Persa was awesome as the starting quarterback, with an absurdly high completion percentage and flashing faster speed than most other players on the field. Defense did alright, aside from tackling concerns criticized heavily by Pat’s friends.

Had a cute moment on the ride back North. Chatting with a gentleman about his bike, this woman in her mid 40’s bumps into him. She starts talking about something then stumbles off touching my bike as she did. Later she returned as he was looking at something and started to mount his bike.

In other news, here is today’s uploaded lesson plan: Mr. Danoff’s FWE 8A Lesson 12. I’m trying to put all the lessons I made teaching last year in China online so I can review them as a collective, and so others can use them and hopefully build and improve upon them. You can read more about it here.

Footnote

[1]
loop = A round of golf, used by caddies to refer to carrying bags for a round.
cart chasing = Loop, where the members ride carts so no bags are carried. The job is to assist them with everything else from finding their balls to cleaning clubs to reading greens to ?