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.

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.

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 ?

Weather today had lovely signs of fall. That perfect Chicagoland fall where you can where long sleeves and be outside and be comfortable, or do athletic activity like caddying and not prespire at all. Enjoyed the evening aspect at the North Coast Music Festival watching the Chemical Brothers with Jay and some of his boys. Show started incredibly with lots of energy for everybody, then slowed it down and seemed like it was building up to something, which kinda came at the end, but not really. Worthwhile experience, but as Jay noted, it was weak they didn’t do an encore.

And, for the first time in a while on a weekend post, here’s an uploaded lesson plan, part of the resource I’m building.

Up late Wednesday night blogging and applying for a writing opportunity, so I was out of bed even later than yesterday, around six forty. Went through my routine, hit the road and got to the course about twenty minutes before eight. Had to be careful, because the front brakes on the bike I’m using are busted, but it went fine.

Soon after arrival the rains came hard. Socialized for a bit, did some more reading of Infinite Jest, doodled around on my computer, then took a nap. By the time I woke up a couple of hours later it was still raining, but petering down. Around one pm, standing outside chatting it went from black skies and drizzling to sunny day in the course of about five minutes, which was really strange. Had a fun time caddying on the course, aside from when I tried to hustle over a rope about six inches high and failed, landing instead with my face on the grass.

Following work, had a delicious burger eating dinner with Mom and Pop, watching the Bears lose to the Browns. Jay Cutler coyly didn’t play, which was annoying, but nice as it gave a chance to see Todd Collins in action. He did pretty well and I would love to be the one to start the city wide movement for Mr. Collins to unseat Cutler as the Bears starting QB. Power to Todd!

To close, I uploaded another lesson plan to the resource I am creating, this one is part two of a two part series … Mr. Brown & Mr. Danoff’s Halloween Lesson 2. Come back soon for part 1 … da da dum!

Out of bed late today around six. Went through my washing and writing morning routines, when I noticed a repetetive pitter patter coming from what seemed like the windows. I kept listening and sure enough, painstruck I lived (sans the intense bf-gf jazz) Eminem’s line:

Now you get to watch her leave out the window
Guess that’s why they call it window pane

It was raining outside, good for Chicagoland’s depleted vegitation, bad for Chicagoland caddies hoping to work. Agitated I tried going back to sleep, but after a few minutes in bed I decided I really do need to be earning cash right now and there’s a chance the rain might let up. Got on my bike and started riding, when I soon heard another repetetive sound. Stopped my bike and discovered my bike tire had gone flat. Even more agitated I rode back to pump up the tire, which proved more difficult than I imagined. Tried again to ride out, tire again gave through and by then I’d had enough. Got home and went back to sleep.

Woken up by Pop around 9:30 who then offered to transport me to Higher Gear, a local bike shop. Gentleman in there diagnosed the problem as relating to the tube, switched out and got me back riding in Tour-de-France-speed. Didn’t need it at the moment ’cause Dad dropped me off at the course, but following one and a half loops it was much appreciated as I effortlessly rode home.

And, after an unfortunate absence, the return of updates on building my lesson plan resource with: Mr. Danoff’s FWE 7B Lesson 2.

Fell asleep on the couch watching TV last night, which usually leads to a slow start the following morning, and today was the same. Hit the snooze quite a few times after my planned rise of about five-thirty. Woke up earlier in the evening around 3 AM, and had trouble getting back to sleep. Thought back to a story I heard from an old professor about this physicist who, when he woke up in the middle of the night with an idea, would take a shower, put on a suit and get to work. When asked why later he said, “For physics.”

I had ambitions of using that spirit to write or something, best I did was read a bit out of “Infinite Jest” a famous novel a friend recently loaned to me.

Despite my poor start I managed to get to the course in time for a morning loop, and then, luckily, an afternoon one as well. Was fatigued at the end, part of it was the loop, and part was the last few update-less days where I’ve saw a bunch of old friends and lost at beiruit on Friday night, went paintballing and saw the Bears play on Saturday, ate Peking duck Sunday and got a thumbs up from my gum doctor on Monday. Of course, no excuse to complain about being tired, many others are too, including the stars of “Teen Mom” a dangerously addictive new MTV show I discovered this evening.

Paintballing was quite enjoyable. My first game I decided not to follow my group going left, instead taking a solo path through the thicket. Less than a click later I came upon another human. Dazed and surprised I looked to see if he was friend or foe. In the interim he saw me, and started shooting, confused and excited to be really going I shot back, but too late as one of his balls had hit me and “killed” me for that round.

Worked with Mom at the Evanston Art Center today, and part of my responsibilities included assisting with an afternoon art class for elementary schoolers. Talking with the children, two comments about the changing times really struck me:

“My parents restrict what I can see on YouTube.”

For my generation it was cable TV.

A charming girl who made a small lion-dog asked me “Do you think its OK for a four year old to say OMG?”

今天早上我有工作。

我的工作是高尔夫球球童。

工作很有意思！

然后我和爸爸妈妈吃饭！ 然后我和朋喝酒。

现在我很累！

但是我的老学生要美国的音乐所以我给他 。。。 这个

Diary
August 26th, 2010

Jīntiān zǎoshang wǒ yǒu gōngzuò.
This morning I had work.

Wǒ de gōngzuò shì gāoěrfū qiú qiú tóng.
My work was as a golf caddy.

Gōngzuò hěn yǒuyìsi!
The job is very interesting!

Ránhòu wǒ hé bà ba māmā chīfàn. Ránhòu wǒ hé péng hē jiǔ.
Then my Dad and Mom and I ate dinner. Then I drank with a friend.

Xiànzài wǒ hěn lèi!
Now I am very tired!

Dànshì wǒ de lǎo xuéshēng yào měiguó de yīnyuè suǒyǐ wǒ gěi tā … zhège
But, one of my old students wanted some American music so I gave her … this

p.s. today’s lesson plan: Mr. Danoff’s FWE 7B & 8B Lesson 16 [context]

For the first time in a year I caddied today. I caddied full-time in the summers of 2006 and 2007, and it was awesome to get back out on the course today. Top-ten play nominee came when standing across a bunker from a colleague. He needed the rake on my side. I was going to walk it around the bunker to him (can’t walk through the sand), instead he indicated to toss it, which I did about five feet and he caught.

It was interesting meeting people and doing things I had not done for so long, but which came back to me really naturally. People I had not thought about in some time, their names popped into my head, as well as different things about their history.

On another level it was odd, because I spent a lot of time last year writing “A Caddy Story”, a fictional short story about caddying, that was published in Issue 4 of The Uncertainty Principle (read it here starting on page 11). Doing things or observing things I wrote about fictionally was , yeah strange.

Closed the night out with a couple of beers with Jay who was passing through on an epic journey South to see his favorite band Ween. Riding my bike home from the “L” I though about how one of my favorite things to do is chat with people whom I share a history with and releate things we know about from the past to the present in a way using them as a metaphor to explain something happening now (Hopefully I’ll be able to elucidate this idea better later).

To Mariano-Rivera the post here’s today’s uploaded lesson plan (context).