Day 79 through 82, Saturday, September 3 through Friday, September 2, 2005

Friday I had dinner with Chris Tardy, Jason Hovis (both friends through volleyball) Tania White, Jeanette Schuler, and one of Chris Tardy’s friends. My ex-roommate, Jin Sim was supposed to show up but got pissed off that he’d misunderstood which pizzeria we were meeting at and didn’t come out.
Saturday I spent with John and Jen Nock. I mentioned them back on June 21st in this narrative. These two are as true as friends get and, like I said before, I really consider them as part of my close family rather than friends. We went out to the lake where John and his family are members of a waterskiing club. John’s dad, at 72(?) years old is still winning waterskiing competitions!!!!! The day couldn’t have been any nicer and was the first time I’ve been skiing in about 8 years. I hadn’t forgotten, but it took me a few tries to get up at first. Rusty but not rotten?
Sunday I went to a Jimmy Buffet concert in Wrigley Field with Darren Borrowski, Tania White, John Atchley, and a few hundred thousand other Buffet fans. Our seats were the absolute last row at the top of the right side of the stadium. The concert was great though I made the mistake of drinking too much, especially since I really haven’t drunk a thing since leaving Chicago.
Monday I went to brunch with a friend from Motorola, Yarko Tymciurack (sp?). I connected with Yarko at work because he had an R1100RT. Since I met him he’s upgraded to a K1200LT and is fully in love with his bike. Oh yeah. He just won a Honda Goldwing FOR FREE at a local fund raising event he attended. I wonder if he could lend me some of that luck?
Monday evening I got a ride over to Mindy Lauchle’s house out in one of Chicago’s South West suburbs. Mindy’s another of the people in Chicago I consider myself lucky to know. Anybody who knows me knows that my sense of humor can be a bit off kilter and tends toward a slightly off center perspective of obscure references. More than just about anybody I’ve ever met, Mindy understands my sense of humor. She constantly amazes me with her ability to "get" my humor and build on even the most obscure and tangential thoughts that would leave most other people thinking (and often sayin) "What the heck are you talking about and where the heck did that come from?" Often I can even throw out a partially thought out humorous observation and she’ll complete it. Friends like her are extremely hard to find. She’s also one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. She’s faced some seemingly overwhelming physical health hardships in her life, has taken them in stride, and has even found ways to use them in her work as a nurse. She’s definitely one of the people from Chicago that I’ll never lose track of.