I love this movie. 

Pedro and I drove to Ann Arbor to see it and all I can say is everyone must go see it. 

I can not emphasis how well done it is.

"I hate the constant expectation to be doing something extravagant and huge, which comes with New Years Eve."   - Lavange

I am spending my New Years working until 9:00 at the Museum.  Who comes to the Museum on New Years Eve?  Well exactly two people.  Good thing there are currently four of us here to watch them. 

Annette, my boss, came in tonight to deliver my Christmas present.   I loved it! (Although it does pose some interesting questions when your boss buys you a large basket of alcohol for a Christmas gift) 

Seriously it was one of the sweeter gifts I have received.  Last night we all went out for Kathryn’s going away party at Old Peninsula, where I ordered a black and tan, Annette noticed the layered drink and questioned me about it.  This is an important part of the story only because her gift basket of alcohol is comprised of the ingredients to make a black and tan, including large pilsner glasses that I have wanted for so long now.  I love Annette. 

Hope you all have a Great New Year.    

                                                                   

                                                          

 

 

 

Yes, Martha is free at last. 

•"Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is."
-Albert Camus

•Accept your genius and say what you think."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

•"We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses."
-Carl Gustav Jung,

•"The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely."
-Carl Gustav Jung

•Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harms we do, we do to ourselves.
Mitch Albom

•"Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses - especially learn how to see. Realise that everything connects to everything else."
-Leonardo DaVinci

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
-William H. Murray, The Scottish Expedition

•"Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right."
-Henry Ford

•"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun."
-Pablo Picasso

•"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work."
-Emile Zola

•"Top 10 Creative Rules of Thumb: 1. The best way to get great ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away. 2. Create ideas that are 15 minutes ahead of their time...not light years ahead. 3. Always look for a second right answer. 4. If at first you don't succeed, take a break. 5. Write down your ideas before you forget them. 6. If everyone says you are wrong, you're one step ahead. If everyone laughs at you, you're two steps ahead. 7. The answer to your problem "pre-exists." You need to ask the right question to reveal the answer. 8. When you ask a dumb question, you get a smart answer. 9. Never solve a problem from its original perspective. 10. Visualize your problem as solved before solving it."
Charles Chic Thompson

•We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities, and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
-C.S. Lewis

•"If you love somebody, let them go. If they return, they were always yours. If they don't, they never were."

•"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, it's what you are expected to give -- which is everything."

•"Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never."
-Charles Caleb Colton

•"You should examine yourself daily. If you find faults, you should correct them. When you find none, you should try even harder."
-Israel Zangwill, Children of the Ghetto [Book II, Chapter


"You can not reach the end without taking the journey."

OK so it had been two days since my surgery and I am kind of up and walking around. It hurts. My side is very sore and my once scar free stomach will now have a slight scar on it. I am a disappointed with this fact but I guess it is better then my guts falling out of my body. I also cannot see the computer screen to well right now, it seems slightly blurry. They took me off of my vicadin because it was causing me to have extreme boughts of nausea that resulted in my vision blacking out for about 15 min at a time.

Today I took off my bandages to look at the freshly cut line in my flesh. It was a line in my flesh. I found it to be very gross but everyone else who sees it thinks it looks very well. I attribute this to it being on my body and not theirs. I don't look at it much now because it seems to make it hurt when I see it. Every once in a while I will try to touch it and scare myself like Ramona Quimby did with her Halloween mask of a witch.

I have a Tuxedo fitting tonight at 6:00 and then I am going to try to come home to Kalamazoo tonight. Come visit me. Thank you to everyone who has sent flowers, care pachages, cards, and support it helps alot. I love you all.

Surgery advice:

• "When you wake up, remember to tell yourself, 'It's OK, I wasn't hit by a bus, and I just had surgery.'"
• "Shave down there yourself, because you can use a Mach Three, they'll just use some cheap ass disposable"
• "Just don't watch Trains, Planes, and Automobiles.  It doesn't mix well with hernias."
• "Bring a pillow for holding and a bag for puking"
• "After your feeling better, maybe do a little playing around down there just to make sure they didn't hit a nerve or anything and everything still works well."

 

Thanks for all your advice and support.  Tomorrows the big day, ooops, I mean "My Special Day"  Wish me luck.

 

 

Category XII - The Friends'
Friend

You usually tag along with one or another of your
friends, constantly meeting new people, but
rarely cementing new frienships. What's up
with that?


What Type of Social Entity are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

We sat there, Mark and I, laughing at the comedic styling of Lilly Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda, when it happened. I first heard the noise or rather thought I had heard a noise, as it was so unusual I assumed I had imagined it. But it came again. I stood and leaned into the hallway. Again I heard the noise, a sing-songy sort of below/chant in some sort of foreign, made up language, from the bottom of the stairs.
"Aaaah Geeeba tooe wewwweee a chow?"

It came again and paused as if I was expected to respond.

I did not.

Again slightly loader and more questioning

"Gee boobooe bow bow toeoawa wee?"

Another pause.

At this point it seemed smartest to not respond. After all was I supposed to be responding? I don’t know. If this were in fact a call and response would it not be wise for the caller to at the very least use the English language when they would like something. I feel answering to random unintelligible shouts at the bottom of your stairs will only encourage further behavior. Something I am not in support of.
So I stuck with my plan, ignore the weird noises and focus on Lilly Tomlin stealing a dead body from a hospital.

So this is what it feels like to be obsessed. I can not get enough of the Olympics.

I have decided to buy a computer.
Sounds simple enough right? Not so much. I have begun doing research and talking to different computer techs at the college and now my head is a spinning mess of gigs, mega bites, and other words I don’t understand. I really just need a tech to sit there while I tell them what I want my computer to look like and what I will be using it for. Then they will say this is the one for you, (But not like a salesman does when he or she says “this is the one for you.”) while producing shiny, sparkling, sleek, new computer.
So problem number one I don’t know a lot of the nitty gritty technical stuff when it comes to computers.
Problem two, I discovered this morning while shopping online. I go in thinking I know what I want, then I look and see all these new beautiful computers and amazing wide flat screen monitors that are 3000 dollars just for themselves. Then of course I want the beautiful new monitors and the super this and power that and then I have spent 10 times the amount I had planned or needed to.
So lesson learned today, computer shopping is fun and exciting but also very frustrating and potentially incredibly expensive.

I sit at the desk. I greet people, ask them how they are doing and pretend that I care what their response is. I want to seem compassionate. But then why bother when you make change for people that you have met and had conversations with in the past who don’t seem to remember you?
I spent last night catching up with old friends, and driving. I made it up to my old camp grounds but drove past and decided to just cruise the area. It’s odd to travel through paths and past houses that only a few years ago were such an incredible part of your life. I stopped driving when I reached Marve’s house. (Formally Marve’s Motel.) I walked in, greeted the dog, and yelled “is anyone here?” The formality of standing outside and knocking never seems to get you far, nor proves too necessary there. Marve and I talked for close to an hour, and I thought how there are those rare people in your life that you can go for months without seeing and pick up with like you had never left. And rarer still those people that you can feel truly comfortable and safe from judgment with, as though they have always been in you life.
I arrived at Camp; of course Matt was not there yet. Typical Matt. But I used the time to walk around and revisit some of my favorite places. It’s always odd/exciting to see changes and improvements. Conveniently as I finished my walk Matt arrived with 3 cases of Beer. Apologizing profusely he shoved a beer into my hand and showed me his newest find, a pink and blue stripped polo he got for a dollar. With a quick lesson in popping a beer top off on the corner of a counter we set off, beers in hand, to do all the things we always wanted to do at camp but couldn’t due to the influx of children. I wish I could have stayed longer but I had plans with Kimmy, Kyle, and Jane in Kalamazoo.
I meet up with the three and we set off for Scott and Pete’s.
We had fun there. Scott and Pete had there staple supply of Jell-O shots and the new treat of rum soaked watermelon. (A piece of this ended up flying up Kimmy’s skirt.) I got to see Joy and Rudy. I haven’t seen either of them since West Side Story, which was before Rudy’s surgery. (He’s down to one now guys. The other didn’t take and after it swelled to the size of a grapefruit they removed it.) The party was fun and resulted in many interesting, unusual, and taxing conversations, as well as me staying out far too late to work at 8:45 the next morning. Not to mention to drive four hours later that next evening; too late to fix it now. I’ll sleep in tomorrow.

Yesterday was so exciting! First off I met and spoke with Chita Rivera! She was so nice and had this slight accent when she spoke.
I also got to see the woman that played Frans, Mom on the TV show The Nanny. But I did not talk to her because she looked scary.
They were both at the civic yesterday using the dressing rooms and later in the day filmed on the stage I guess.
It was super exciting to see Chita using the dressing rooms at the civic, and then on top of that get to talk to her! It definitely made my day.

After that I decided to go out to the lake with my cousin. We decide to take the boat out rather then swiming right away due to the coldness of the lake. After about 15 minutes of cruising around the lake we decide to go to the middle and go swimming. We did this for 20 min or so and in the process the boat drifted from the middle of the lake to the east shore. (My cousin lives on the west shore.) Not a problem though when you own a 15ft speed boat. Oh wait, it is when you start the thing back up and the prop will no longer spin. Long story short, I spent a good hour of yesterday swimming about 2 miles into shore with a large motor boat strapped to me.

For a relaxing Sunday, it was oddly unsettling.

First off, I almost killed my best friend. A note to people who like to help put radiator fluid in cars for people; make sure you securely shut there hood when you are done. Although nothing happened and the unlatched hood was discovered before it went flying up, the idea of it doing so, shattering the windshield, and possibly causing a friend to hit something and die definitly makes you go "Woah I almost killed someone, that would have sucked."

Moving on, I believe I am under attack by the squirrels I once thought would be fun to befriend. This morning I opened the door to my deck and in front of me, on the railing, crouched as though to leap at my throat was a squirrel. I "Good Goded" and left the room only to find when I came back into the kitchen that the squirrel was now at the screen door with its paws pressed up against the screen peering into my kitchen. He looked at me. I could practically hear him say, "Hey, where is my food, bitch."
When I approached it, the squirrel backed away and leaped up to the railing again. When I moved to the glass window separating me from the beast it walked up to window as if to say "What ya' gonna do now you little pussy." Then he grabbed one of my grass heads and shredded it like he was threating me. Almost as though it was what he would do to my head if I did not comply with his squirrel demands. I scared him away but I worry about what may come. Has anyone seen Alfred Hitchcock's, The Birds? Could I be trapped in the middle of a modern day version? The Squirrels? Whatever the outcome, know this, I plan to go down fighting. I love you all and you'll be in my hearts as I head into battle.

I saw this movie called Spiderman 2. It looked like this.



I liked the movie but did not like Dr. Octopus’s Man boobs nor did I like his tentacles. (They were a little too much like snakes and as you know I am afraid of snakes.)
Also I am not a superhero but I think if I were I would not be so gung-ho about taking my mask off all the time. But hey that’s just me. I still wish I could swing from building to building though and do that thing with my wrist where I’m all couching and like bam!. . . tskew!. . . “Take that bitch,” “in your face” with the shooting of the web and stuff. That would be pretty sweet.

When I returned from the movie there were several people at my house. I demonstrated being Spiderman for a few of them. They made fun of me. So I went to bed.

Tonight I am going to see Seussical the Musical, at Comstock Auditorium. It looks like this.

Quick Update:

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers opened Wednesday. It is going well, aside from some random sound glitches and the crazy costumer, "Blatant misuse . . ." the show is going well. People have also been complimenting the set a lot so that is exciting. If you get a chance come see the show, it's free you know.

• Friday: 6:30 
• Saturday: 5:30 
• Sunday: 5:00

Next week I start work as an instructor for the Civic again. I really enjoyed this last summer so I am looking forward to it again.

I declared months ago this would be "The Summer of Nick", unfortunately due to the previous mentioned items plus EFA and The Museum I have had little time for that. I have had a couple opportunities I jumped at such as the two trips to South Haven and lake Michigan last week, but drastically less then I hoped for. But next week my schedule will open up much more and (insert fanfare) "The Summer of Nick" can truly commence. Hope all is well with everyone else.

Mexican Fiesta!

• Place: Nick's House
• Date: Sun.  June 27th
• Time: 5:00

Get drunk like a sleepy Mexican!  (Not so drunk you have to sleep on our piso... thats floor, you non-spanish speaking losers.)  There will be Coronas and Margaritas (but when we run out we run out so bring your own damn drinks you cheap Mexicans), as well as chicken fajitas, spanish rice, guacamole, chips, and other Mexican goodies (no burros).  Bring your laziest attitude and some sort of Mexican side. 

Invitation written by Jen, who everyone knows is racist against Mexicans and Cherokees.

Oh what time we have had. So in the large lapse in my updates much has happened.
A few headlines that stick out in my mind. . .

The Kalamazoo Valley Museum is turning into Déjà vu
With the arrival of the museum’s newest exhibit En Mi Familia, comes several exhibitionists from around the Kalamazoo area. Since its opening two weeks ago, on two occasions, children have been removed from the premises for removing their pants in front of the video kiosk. One such child responded in shock when asked to leave claiming “no one told me that was a rule.”

We need a little Christmas Now
On Saturday June 19th, I had the pleasure of attending Mame at the Wagon Wheel Theater in Warsaw, Indiana. I realize more each time I see that show how much I love it. Certain shows hold a special place in your heart. Mame is a perfect example of that for me. It’s always hard to watch a show that you were in but I thought all involved did a fine job.

Holda Hurries Home
Ken Holda makes a brief appearance in Kalamazoo, this weekend before heading back to Warsaw to dawn a black leotard and yak haired head piece. But prior to his departure we (Kenny, myself, Prescott and Jen) had a fun night of hanging out. Visit us again Kenny.

Cross the Border.
Future plans for a Mexican Fiesta have been made however exact dates and times have not been finalized. (It will occur sometime before Friday July 2.) All who are interested please let me know. We would love to have you join us for an evening of great food and Margaritas.