I had company in town this weekend to celebrate Halloween.  There were five visitors in total and, for weeks leading up to the big weekend, we had been brainstorming what kind of group costume we could be.  I threw out that we should be The Royal Tenenbaums.  Unfortunately, that got shot down pretty quickly, and everyone decided to go with a Wizard of Oz theme instead.  There was a catch, though:  They all wanted me to dress up as Dorothy.  I wasn’t exactly crazy about the idea at first but, knowing that the group was set on me wearing a dress all night, I decided to rise to the challenge.  After changing into my odd-fitting dress and stuffing socks in the chest for boobs, I was ready to go.

The foursome of yellow brick road-walkers consisted of Josh, Jon, myself, and their friend Lana.  We all got our costumes off of a website, and we all had to deal with our suits being a tag too snug.  This wasn’t a problem for Lana, but Josh had to wear a pair of my shorts on top of his Tin Man outfit to prevent everyone from basically seeing his nuts and bolts.

The girls had just come back from the So You Think You Can Dance shindig at the Sprint Center so we didn’t get to Martini Corner until around midnight.  This was a problem because we got there just after the buses had dropped off all of the Terror at the Train Station people so there were mobs of people outside of the bars.  I was honestly really surprised at how unorganized the bars at Martini Corner were for the crowds.  Instead of having roped off areas for people to stand in line, everyone just mobbed around the doors and were pushing each other to get inside.  Those that tried to form a line just got cut in front of so they stopped.  We tried to meet up with friends at Velvet Dog but instead opted to go with the shorter line at Tower Tavern.  I was fully expecting people to be grossed out by me in a girl’s outfit and knew my chances were zero to none that any girl would even talk to me.  For some reason, people at the bar loved the getup, though.

We ended up crossing the street to check out the renovations that had been done at The Velvet Dog, and I was pretty impressed with what they did to the place.  The top floor is much bigger, and they even have two small Ski Ball games in one corner.  Very cool.  I ended up running into my friends Rachel and Bridgette, and we each gave a sexy pose while I flashed my sexy legs.

There were some hilarious costumes, as expected.  I think my favorite has to be the Mangino costumes that people wore.

The funny thing about the costume is that some KU fans were really mad that someone would make fun of their coach.  Moments after taking this photo, the girl in this picture got yelled at by some KU fans about how KU is going to kill MU this year at Arrowhead.  The girl just looked at them and said, “Ummm…I went to KU.  I’m a Jayhawk fan.  Lighten up.”  It was awesome.  There were also a lot of Brett Michaels and Amy Winehouse costumes, as well.  I completely didn’t recognize my coworker Brian as Brett Michaels until someone pointed him out to me.

When we all got back to my place, Jenny (Glenda, the Good Witch) peer-pressured me into switching costumes with Lana (the lion).  For some reason, whenever I’m around Jenny she asks me to do ridiculous things…and I do them just because I know she’ll laugh.  This was one of those times.

All in all, the night was an absolute blast.  The others said they had a lot of fun, too, which is always good.  Halloween is often like New Years in that it’s so built up a head of time that it’s often hard to have as much fun as expected.  This was an exception, and it was one of the more fun Halloweens I’ve had in a while.

It’s funny how I was thinking I wouldn’t know what to do with myself this week while spending time not working.  Pretty much all of my friends are working during the day, but I’ve still managed to stay busy.  I had a going-away lunch yesterday with my old coworkers, and it was great to see such a large turnout.  I believe there ended up being around 12-15 people that showed up.  Part of me wonders if some of the reason they came was because it was a free lunch, but I’m just going to say that it was really because they were going to really, really miss me and my awesomeness.  I also went golfing with my buddy Josh in the afternoon.  It worked out well because he had time off, the weather was great, and he happened to have free passes to golf at a course in the area.  I haven’t been able to get out and golf nearly as much as I’d like, but I’m hoping that being in Kansas City full time will be able to change that next year.  As for my outing yesterday, it’s a good thing the round was free or I’d be pretty irritated with how I played.  Still, it was good to get out and about on such a nice fall day.

As for today, I ridiculous amount of time was spent playing the new Guitar Hero 3 on Playstation 2.  I’ve been hooked on the past couple of editions of the game, and I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve played the fake axe so much today that my forearms, wrists, and hands have been sore at various times throughout the day.  At this pace, I’ll likely develop carpel tunnel by the end of the week.

I’ve been meaning to post a recap of my Saturday night of Halloween partying, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  Tomorrow, though, I will.  Promise.

Man, this week has been interesting.  Since it mostly involves work, I am going to refrain from going into too much detail, but I will say that I’m pretty pleased with how everything has gone.  I put in my two weeks at work a week ago and, after a couple of things that I don’t feel I should go into, found out that I’m able to just take the next week off and still get paid.  Score!  Everything was left on a positive note with my employer which always helps, as well.  The only downside is that I was supposed to be in Boston this week and was planning on hanging out by Fenway during the World Series, and I had a ticket to see the Comedians of Comedy tour with Patton Oswalt.  Still, it’s hard to complain with the time off.

I was definitely not expecting to have this much free time so I really have no plans for this upcoming week.  That’s perfectly fine by me, though.  I’m really looking forward to taking it easy before I get started at my new job. 

I took a trip out to Ames this weekend for Iowa State’s homecoming.  My schedule seems to be kind of hectic this fall so I haven’t been able to make it up for a game yet this season.  Granted, my Cyclones are pretty awful this year so I’m really not missing much but that’s besides the point.  Unlike the past few years, not a whole lot of my close buddies from college were making the trip back, but I was really looking forward to making it back to my alma mater.

I stayed at my buddy Austin’s place who was also hosting our friend Geoff, as well.  We hung out at his place for a while just catching up before Austin took Geoff and I to the bar to meet up with people that were in town.  Our old stomping ground, People’s, closed down in the past year, and it seems like the new place to go is Cy’s Roost.  After mingling and running into old friends, I soon found that, with the exception of Geoff, I was possibly the oldest person in the bar.  Still, it was great hanging out with some old (er, young) friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

The next morning, we all got up around 6:30 to get ready for the tailgating festivities.  Because I got in town later than expected the night before, I wasn’t able to meet the newest member of the household until this time.  Austin and his wife, Mel, have a baby named Harper, and it was the first time I got to see the little guy in person.  It’s still somewhat new for me to have friends with kids, and I’ll be honest, it’s still bizarre to see miniature versions of my college friends.  Harper, though, is one cute kid.  In fact, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a baby smile as much as he does.  Sadly, I couldn’t get any good ones of him smiling, though.  I think it’s because he always knew the flash was coming.

Anyway, we headed to the tailgate amidst the chilly weather and set up shop. We got a tent, a bunch of chairs, and flags set up to mark our territory in the grass.  Austin immediately began cooking breakfast for our small group while we cracked open a beer and waited for the others to arrive.

My good friend Ryan called a couple days earlier to tell me he was going to make the trip from Nashville, as well.  I haven’t seen Ryan since he passed through out of town on his way there so it was a great surprise.  Love that kid.

Time passed quickly and, before long, the cyclone sirens were going off, signaling that kickoff was coming soon.  I got a ticket from my friend Brad, and we walked into the stadium.  On our way in, we saw some kid holding a sign for “Free Hugs”.  Now, the idea is kind of funny when you think about it, but the dude just seemed like a weirdo.

As for the game itself, I was pleasantly surprised at how well ISU played.  After getting beat by 53 points the previous week against Texas, I was honestly expecting a 60 point blowout by Oklahoma.  Instead, we hung with the Sooners through most of the game and were actually leading going into halftime.  The final score ended up being 17-7, leaving the ‘Clones with still just one win on the season so far.  It was a moral victory in a way, though, and the game was fun to watch.

The weather was amazing so a handful of us just sat around in our grassy tailgating spot and just chatted for the rest of the afternoon.  It was awesome.  I then went out later that night to try to meet up with people.  What followed was an insanely random mix of old friends I’ve seen since being out of college.  Like I said earlier, not a lot of my close friends make the trip back this year so there were just a lot of faces I hadn’t seen in forever that I got to chat with throughout the night.  I even got to see Kyle, the only other person I knew who lives in Tennessee, at the bar.  Like I said, random.

At the end of the night, it’s become almost a tradition when I come back to go get a gyro at the gyro stand with my good friend Hiawatha.  He was out of town doing a comedy show and drove back to campustown once he heard I was around.  It was awesome of him to do that.  As you can probably tell by the picture, the gyros weren’t too shabby, either.

Being back with old friends in Ames this year was not only fun, but in a way, it kind of reinforced my decision to stay in the Midwest.  I’m sure that as the years go on less and less friends will make it back for games, but it’s still great to watch some football and kick it with old buddies.  Cheesy, I know, but it’s true.

Well, I officially put in my two-weeks notice at work today.  It’s still kind of strange to think about.  I’ve been traveling pretty much non-stop for the past two and a half years and became awfully burned out with everything.  Plus, throw in the fact that there really isn’t much of a career path in my position, and I knew it was time to move on. 

I kept my options open to move to another city, but I was offered a position with another company that will have me staying put for a while in KC.  As fun as it could have been to live in another place in the U.S., it just wasn’t in the cards and I’m totally cool with that.  In fact, the more I thought about it the more it made sense for me not to move somewhere else.  It seems like a lot of people who move away do so with the mentality that they want to check out the area for a few years and then possibly move back or try another place.  I feel almost as if I did that only I got to sample a lot of cities over that time period instead.  I think I was half expecting to find that there were a lot of places where I’d like to live, but I found that there really aren’t that many places that really do it for me.  For the time-being Kansas City is a place I’m going to call home, and I’m really happy to say that.  The job is a good one and with a good company, too, so that helps.

Putting my two-weeks in today came with a wide range of thoughts and emotions, though.  I really liked everyone I worked with, and I’ll miss seeing all those guys on a regular basis.  I’ve also had some of the most amazing experiences of my life so far being able to experience so many places and do so many things.  Of course, it’s also saddening to know I won’t be seeing my friends sprinkled throughout the country all that much anymore.  It really has been a blast, and I’m really going to miss hanging out with them.  Constantly being on the road, though, left me feeling like I was just a temporary visitor everywhere I was, even in Kansas City.  It’s been so long since I felt like I had roots somewhere, and I’m really looking forward to all the things that come with it (i.e. developing friendships, being able to date, sleeping in my own bed, not living out of a suitcase, being involved locally, playing in sports leagues with friends, etc.).  So yeah, my life won’t be as hectic as it’s been, but I’ll still be living it up.  The only difference is it’ll be in one place instead of many. 

I’ve been meaning to post about this for probably close to a month now.  I love when USA Today writes articles every six months that might as well be titled, “What’s wrong with today’s young adults?! Why are they not like us!?!”  They make me laugh because each one of their studies totally makes sense yet they try to skew the story as if people my age are somehow responsible for the downfall of society.

I’ve gotten back in touch with a couple of old acquaintances recently and both of them, when it was my turn to talk about what all has been new with me, said the same thing: I figured you’d be married with kids by now.  First off, that’s never usually a good thing to say to anyone because chances are either the other person is bummed that they aren’t hitched or they are someone who could almost be insulted that someone would think they’d be ready to settle at such a young age.  You could consider me to be among the latter of those people.  In fact, the thought of marriage is so beyond my realm of thought that I honestly can’t grasp what it would be like.  To me, it is akin to trying to think about what life on another planet in another galaxy that hasn’t been discovered yet would be like.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for relationships and whatnot.  I just don’t feel like there is any sort of pressure to get take the plunge.

One of the things that I’ve always found odd about the Midwest is how anxious everyone seems to be to get married.  I really don’t get it.  In fact, I have friends who have their Myspace picture showing just their hand and a diamond ring as if getting proposed to is some sort of an accomplishment.  I’m sorry, but getting married is not an accomplishment for the simple fact that ANYONE can get married.  Winning a gold medal or landing a good promotion is an accomplishment.  There are two different people I work with who have gotten engaged this past year to men they’ve known for less than 6 months.  That blows my mind. What’s the rush?  Is there a deadline people feel they have to meet?  Are people afraid their significant other is going to leave them so they want to “lock them in” before it happens? 

I don’t mean to dump on people I know that are married by any means.  That’s their choice, and I’m very happy for them, obviously.  I will admit that there are some times when I look around at a lot of my friends and wonder if maybe I’m some sort of weirdo for not caring about that.  Thankfully, the USA Today article assured me that I am actually in the majority (thank you, non-Midwesterners!).  According to the study, a whopping 73% of men in their 20s said they’ve never been married, which is up 9% in just the past 6 years.  The article also mentions that the trend is unlikely to reverse, and couples who live together before marriage is up to 70%. 

What I would love to see is a study showing a correlation between the percentage of married people in their 20s and whether or not their parents are still married.  I would imagine the correlation would be quite strong.  I believe a large reason for the increase of non-married twentysomethings is because so many of us have experienced divorce in our lifetimes and we don’t want to have the same thing happen to us.  Granted, there are probably a variety of different factors that contribute to it, but I would bet that the divorce thing is one of the main reasons.

It will be interesting to see exactly what kind of an impact this shift will eventually cause.  The positive result in all of this would likely be a decrease in divorce and an increase in overall quality of life.  The downside could be that, as couples decide to have kids at later ages, they may not even develop very long relationships with their grandparents.  It’s also entirely possible that using Social Security and retirement savings to help pay for kids’ college tuition could become the norm.  It’s definitely interesting to think about.

I had something really, really random happen to me last week on my flight from Kansas City to Philadelphia.  I was walking off the plane when I saw the cockpit door open.  The person that emerged looked familiar and we both looked at each other for a second before we realized who we were.  It ended up being my friend Tom from college who is now a pilot.  How crazy is that?  I still can’t believe that one of my friends from college actually flew me in a plane! 

I went to see Wilco this past Saturday at The Crossroads with my buddy Andy who was traveling through town on his way to San Francisco. Since college, Wilco has remained one of my favorite bands, and I was really glad to hear they were going to be playing at the new outdoor venue in town.  As if that wasn’t enough, Andrew Bird was added to the bill to open for them, making the show a definite must-see.  Of course, we mostly went because we like Residence Inns and Volkswagens.

Mr. Bird walked out at 8:00 and proceeded to put on a great performance.  I have seen him a few times before with a backing band, but he played completely solo this time around and the result was pretty amazing.  My buddy and I talked of how Andrew Bird himself could be a headliner, and I was shocked at how few people in the audience knew of him.  I overheard probably half a dozen people around us say something along the lines of “This guy is really good” throughout his set.  I think it’s safe to say he earned himself quite a few fans.

I first got into Wilco about six years ago and this was my fifth time seeing them live.  It’s kind of funny to think that I’ve been able to see them on an average of almost once a year since I first started listening to them regularly.  I will say that, even though their new album is probably my least favorite Wilco album, the band put on the best show I have yet to see of them. Nels Cline was a great addition to the band on guitar and even their old songs are given a facelift with him in the mix.  They played a mixed bag of (very) old and new material and never let up once throughout the night.

It’s strange to think that Jeff Tweedy, someone whom I consider to be among the legendary musicians of my generation, used to have a reputation of being somewhat of a jerk.  He seems completely happy with the talent in the band as well as the success the band has achieved after many years of struggling to make it big.  As always, he threw out a lot of funny lines throughout the night, many of which involved Elton John who was playing at the opening of the Sprint Center not far away.  At one point, Tweedy told the audience that they were the best crowd they’ve had on tour and then noted, “I bet that Elton John guy has all the jerks…and all the money.”  About halfway through the set, fireworks could be seen across from the stage coming from where the Sprint Center is located.  Tweedy commented, “Oh yeah, we have those, too.”  The audience laughed at his self-deprecating humor.  Little did we know, he wasn’t kidding.  As they closed with “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” a fireworks display shot out over the crowd as the band paused before closing out the song.  Afterwards, Tweedy yelled, “Take that, Elton!” 

I took a couple of videos during the night.  The first one I took was during “A Shot in the Arm”.  Here’s how it turned out:

I also took a video of them playing “Hummingbird”, one of my favorite songs off of A Ghost is Born that has become a crowd favorite thanks to Jeff Tweedy’s running man routine at the end of the song.  He particularly hammed it up this time around, and I was glad to have gotten it on video.

To my surprise, I read Largehearted Boy this morning and saw that he linked to a Bittorrent download of the show in excellent quality.  I’m looking forward to listening to it to relive the night again. 

Poop.

Fart.

Pee. 

Butt.

What do the above words all have in common?  They are all words that my sister and I were forbidden to say while we were growing up.  I also remember being the only person I knew that had the same guidelines.  There was one kid who was mean to me when I was in kindergarten, and I told my parents about it.  I distinctly recall my mom giving me very specific advice: Call him a retard.  That’s right, I wasn’t allowed to say the word “butt” but calling a fellow 6 year old a “retard” was totally fine. 

Anyway, my mom has always been a very nice, wholesome woman.  In fact, each of her sisters still give her a hard time for having been always a goodie two shoes her whole life.  Keeping this in mind, I was absolutely shocked when I heard the question she asked me when I talked to her the other night:

Have you ever heard of a Hot Carl?

I thought for sure my phone reception had crossed paths with someone else’s conversation.  It turns out it really was my mom on the other end.  I told her I had heard of it but wasn’t sure exactly which one of those nasty sex acts it was. 

So she proceeded to tell me…

Never in my life would have have ever dreamed that someday I’d hear my mom explain how a woman puts ceran wrap around her mouth while a man defecates in it.  Apparently my mother was hanging out with my aunt and her cousins and one of them brought all those terms up, leaving all of them laughing to the point of crying.  My mom thought they were hilarious and asked me, “Do you think there’s really a guy named Carl that they named it after?”  I don’t know, mom.  Maybe he’s a retard.

The morning after Josh’s wedding, I hopped in my car and drove to Cedar Rapids for Katie’s wedding.  It just so happened that my parents and littlest sister were in Des Moines for the weekend so I was able to meet up with them for a quick lunch.  It was good to hang out with them even though it was only for about an hour.  It also happened to be just a couple of days before my dad had to go in for double hernia surgery (it actually took place today).  After hearing him describe it, I’m going to officially begin praying every night that the doctor was wrong in saying hernias are hereditary.  I will spare the details of what all is involved.  If anyone wants to know, feel free to Google it yourself. 

This was a unique wedding for me in that it is the first I’ve been to that involved a serious ex-girlfriend.  Katie and I dated my Sophomore and Junior years of college and, despite going through a rough patch after the breakup, have remained close friends to this day.  The fact that Katie was getting married didn’t weird me out at all, and I know her husband, Tanner, and think he’s an awesome guy.  I went solo to this wedding which I felt a little awkward about, I’ll admit.  I guess I was a little self-conscious about her friends and family thinking it would be a big deal to me even though it really wasn’t.  Plus, it seems like all of Katie’s friends that I became close with all have different last names through marriages of their own while I’ve never even come close to even thinking about marriage all these years.

Like with the previous night, the wedding ceremony was totally unique and completely kept my interest.  It had a much more personal touch to it and avoided all of the typical wedding cliche’s. The reception was a really good time, too, as I was able to hang out with a ton of old friends and joke around all evening.  I will admit, there were some moments during the night that were kind of strange for me in a way and a little – to use a totally wussy word — bittersweet.  For example, they played a slideshow during the reception that had quite a few college pictures of Katie and her friends.  A lot of them were from the time that Katie and I dated so it definitely brought back some good memories.  Also, a theme throughout the night was the music of Mason Jennings, a folk singer/songwriter who Katie and Tanner went to see on their first date together.  It was odd to think about that because I introduced Mason Jennings to Katie back in the day, and we went to see him for the first time together.  Some might be bothered by that somehow, but I actually thought it was pretty cool to know something that seemed so insignificant at the time resulted in a pretty monumental event in her life.

As for the family part, both of Katie’s parents individually made a point to come over and catch up during the evening.  It was really nice of them, with everything going on that night, to actually take time aside to chat for about ten minutes or so.  The friends aspect was amazing, I must say.  We were all joking around like no time had passed.  In college, Katie had three other roommates that I had gotten to be good friends with.  One was Christen whom I sat by and talked with a lot during the evening.  I was able to chat with her boyfriend she brought with her and by the end of the night we were talking about how we needed to make sure we hung out again soon (Christen, if you even read this site, I definitely approve).  another roommate was Stacy who was not only her usual, fun-loving self, but also happened to be 3 1/2 months pregnant.  The other roommate was Melissa who I’ve always felt missed her calling as an actress.  She’s a total ham and had me rolling all night.  Here’s a picture with Melissa.  Can you guess why she’s smiling so much?

I think this picture pretty much explains it:

Another guy I got to hang out with all night was Todd, Melissa’s husband.  We always had a blast hanging out together back in the day and there were multiple times throughout the night when the two of us were at the brink of crying from laughing so hard at each other.  Whether it was when we were sliding around on the dance floor in the remains of someone’s spilled beer or telling other people different stores about our gay love for each other, I think it’s safe to say Todd and I would hang out a ton if we lived in the same city (sidenote: I noticed that in all of the pictures I took I’m just giving the same generic smile pose.  Sorry about that.  It’s pretty lame).

Something really random happened later on in the night that I’m still pretty blown away about.  I was able to meet Katie’s friend Heather’s husband for the first time at the wedding.  Upon meeting him, he said, “I actually already know who you are.”  I shot him a really confused look.  He said he’d actually seen me a couple of times — once when we played basketball against each other in junior high (he went to Iowa City High and I went to Pleasant Valley) and another time in high school when our student government’s did a school exchange.  I was completely shocked.  By his own admission, he has an insane memory for things so he wasn’t surprised at all that I didn’t ever remember meeting him.  I got a picture with him and Heather so I could make sure to remember him this time around.

While a lot of mingling took place, the dance floor was where it was at by the end of the night as evidenced by this picture of Melissa and Katie’s sister, Becca.

Katie, the bride, was also having some fun of her own.

Michael and Tanner’s sister Abby cut a rug, as well.

All in all, I can’t imagine the night going any better than it did.  I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time talking with the bride, but I could tell she had a blast.  I’m really glad to have been able to be a part of such a big day.