The Mountains of the Moon

Yeah, so tomorrow I leave for Chicago. I think this is pretty cool because I've never been there before. I like going where I've never been before. It won't be great being away from the family for this long, I don't come home till Friday, but I plan on enjoying myself anyway. Yeah, I'll force myself.

I've already looked up the best pizza places and several are within walking distance from the hotel. Giordano's, Gino's East and Pizano's are all within 3-5 blocks from my hotel. I never heard of them, but apparently they are three of the top 10 pizza places in Chicago. I, of course, am looking forward to some deep dish pizza. Hopefully that's what I'll be eating Tuesday night.

Wednesday and Thursday I have a full itinerary, Wednesday starting at 8 AM and going till 6 PM and Thursday starting at 6 AM and going till 5 PM. The weather looks like it will be COLD! Tuesday has a forecast high of 51º, but Wednesday's high is 43º and Thursday and Friday are looking like mid 30s! Brrrr! Eh, I don't mind the cold so much, but a little warmer wouldn't be bad.

Thursday night I'm meeting a friend that lives in Chicago. She worked with my wife and we stayed with her for a week when we visited London and she was on a year's rotation there. My wife told me not to get drunk. Supposedly she has slept with married men in the past. I'm not interested, so it ain't happening. And getting drunk sure wouldn't help!

Anyway, if you have any ideas of what else I should do while I'm there, feel free to post here. See you in a week!

Rakes and Implements of Destruction

Hey everyone.  Want to wish you all a fantastic Turkey Day!  Not much interesting on the Washington DC trip, but this project is keeping me crazy busy.  I was working on it past 10 PM last night.  Going to Chicago next week, so if you want me to visit you, send me an email. (Ha!)

So, anyway, to keep you entertained, enjoy this:

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

See you next week!

Brian

Coming to a Theatre Near You!

So, I'm on this new project at work.  It's keeping me extraordinarily busy.  We're just in the planning stages, but every NYC newspaper ran a story on it yesterday.  Sigh...talk about the cart before the horse.  Of course that only puts more pressure on getting it done.

We're doing site visits, so I'll be travelling a lot over the next few months.  I'm going to Washington DC tomorrow.

I took this picture on my last trip to DC with the family.  I particularly like the lines in this photo.

As I said, this is just the first trip in a line of several.  We'll probably be visiting Chicago, San Francisco and London!  Yay!  I LOVE London.  I told my wife about that.  She was jealous.  She shouted back, "you suck!"  When I'm there I'll have a pint and think of her.  I promise I will!

I'll try to keep you posted on my adventures.  This one should be pretty pedestrian.  We're driving in the early morning hours down to DC, staying over one night and driving back Friday night.

See you in your town soon!

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Kitty made an interesting point in her comment on my last post.  I am, at times, intentionally vague in comments that I post.  Often times I am not intentionally vague, but it does come out that way.

Let me start out by explaining why I am this way.  Often times when I read a blog post, a funny or quippy comment crosses my mind.  These are often the comments I make on the blogs I read.  I have to admit that sometimes I go back to the blog and read the comment and think, "what the hell did I mean there?"  However, whenever I re-read the blog post I can always figure out what I was talking about.  That doesn't mean I always think that the other people reading the comment, or the blog author, will be able to figure out what I'm talking about.  I realize that.

Often times I will be reading a blog entry and it will make me think of a song.  Sometimes I will write some lyrics from that song.  Will the author understand what I meant?  I sincerely hope so!

It makes me sad to be misunderstood.  It makes me feel isolated.  It makes me feel like my brain works differently than the rest of the world.  Does it?  Does my brain work differently?  Sometimes I really think it does.

I realize that I have hurt others in my comments here and there.  That was never my intention.  I also realize that some may say, "that guy is TOO WIERD!"  And they may feel they need to stay away from me.  I don't know if that's true, but I do get that feeling sometimes.  Again, not my intention.

This is a regret of mine.  I think about my regrets often.  Very often in the shower.  Do you think about your regrets in the shower?

Baby, sometimes I'm so carefree

With a joy that's hard to hide
And sometimes it seems that all I have do is worry
Then you're bound to see my other side

But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

- The Animals

Ego much?

Let me preface this post by saying that I've been married for 18 years.  I've never physically cheated on my wife in that time plus at least 2-3 years before that.  So I've only been with one person in 20+ years.

I was at a conference a couple of years ago, an industry trade show.  I knew a good number of people attending, at least 30, maybe more.  Most people at this conference were men, but there was a decent smattering of women too.  The ratio was probably 4:1.  After the first day of the conference everyone was going out.  The conference was in Austin, so there were plenty of bars in walking distance.  If you've ever been there you know that Austin is a very lively place.  Every place had lots of people in them with bands playing and dance floors.  Most were partially open to the sky.  I can see why it's considered a pretty good place to party.

I went into this one place and there was a Tex-Mex band playing.  [Apparently called Tejano, I just looked it up.]  Not really my style, but I was with a big group.  After a while one of the women, a salesperson from a company I do business with, asks me to dance.  I hesitate since I don't really love to dance, the embarrassment factor, and I'm not loving the music (an excuse of course).  However, I quickly decided that I would.  I was kind of flattered to be asked.  The woman doing the asking was pretty attractive and I figured most of the guys would be impressed that I had the balls to get out there and do it.  Yes, guys think this way.  I had to wonder, why did this woman ask me out of all the guys that were there?  Does she find me attractive?  Maybe she just finds me safe?  Would this go anywhere?  Did I want it to?  Well, as I indicated above, it went nowhere.

Anyway, interestingly I'm having a meeting with this woman today.  We haven't seen each other in some time, around one year, and when I thought of this meeting I thought of the time we danced in Austin.  That's what this blog is all about, the things I think about well after they happen.  (See description above.)

So, to the women out in my blogging audience, I ask you what you think.  Was this a method of flirting?  Was it innocent?  Can I assume that she finds me attractive?  I mean, would she do me if she had the chance?

Yes, as a matter of fact I AM asking you to stroke my ego!

Field Trip

I went to Ellis Island this weekend with my son.  I forgot my camera, but I did have my cell phone.  I took some nice pics of the Statue of Liberty.

And of my son too.

TGIF?

I notice that lots of blogs do things on Fridays.  Kate, por ejemplo, has her Happy Feet Friday.  My buddy at Dougintology has his Friday Links.

I'd like to do something special on Fridays.  Any ideas?  And don't say boxer shorts.

If you build it, they will come

Blogging is a very nebulous thing.  You start writing and you hope someone is reading.  I mean, why bother writing if no one is reading, right?  It takes some time for old friends to find you and hopefully you'll make some new friends along the way.

But, what if no one comes to read?  Should you bother to keep writing?