Home for Christmas

BILLY'S HOME!!!!

Reporting for Duty

My brother, Bill, has joined the National Guard and has flown down to Fort Benning in Georgia for his basic training. He will be down there for training until Christmas. Here are a couple pictures of him in his uniform before he left. I want a picture of him with his shaved head and dogtags but I probably won't get that picture until I see him for the holidays.

Bill, Baxter and a Grill

Bill and Baxter enjoying a cook-out on Memorial Day.

Tick-Tock

I bought Baxter the coolest dog toy at Target a few days ago - a stuffed crocodile Bill proceeded to name Tick-Tock after the crocodile from Peter Pan. During Bill's stay over Memorial Day weekend, both he and Baxter were constantly playing with the toy. I might have to buy Bill his own stuffed crocodile for his birthday.

World Spins Madly On

Man, I am loving this four-day work week. Tomorrow is Friday and then it's the weekend again. Montgomery came into town tonight to stay with me for the next couple days and we're going to Purdue Cal. tonight to check out their View Purdue night. I'm thinking about maybe taking a criminology class or perhaps another English Lit. class. Marquette totally sucked at giving their students the chance to take classes they actually wanted to take instead of classes they needed to take so maybe I could take advantage of literally living five minutes away from a college campus and sign up for a night class. We'll see though. I'm not exactly the academic type. Just check out my high school/college transcripts.

It was so good to see Bill this past Memorial Day weekend. He came in late Friday night and left Sunday afternoon and the time in between was a blast. I really do miss him though I will never admit such a thing to his face. With the two of us together, we were wishing Chrissy was there with us but she's coming for the Fourth of July so the three of us can hang out together then. I miss my family. Bill and me were talking about how different the two of us would be if I hadn't gone to Marquette. There are five years between us and I was only thirteen when he left home. If I hadn't gone to live in Milwaukee for college, we both doubted that we would be as close and have as much in common as we do.

On June 15th, Linda and I are going to a concert in Chicago to see four bands: Godsmack, Finger Eleven, Buckcherry and Taproot. It's going to be crazy - especially since there's a Cubs baseball game in the city that same night. I'm glad Linda is going to be the one driving. The next day, while my parents babysit Baxter for the weekend, I'm driving up to Milwaukee to spend the weekend with Melissa, Annie, Brandon and of course, Dan. Because what trip up to Milwaukee would be complete without seeing Dan the Man?

Home For Mom's Day

Good God. It has been a while. Do you remember when I used to update three, sometimes four, posts a day? Sorry for totally slacking on The Mixed Tape but as I have mentioned in earlier posts, I have been bitten by the writing bug once again and when that happens, I am completely consumed and all I can do is write story after story until I burn myself out again. And unfortunately, when the bug decides to bite me, everything else seems to take a back seat, including blog updates. I apologize to this blog's five readers though. I promise to try to keep it more up to date - especially since I graduated from college almost a year ago already, meaning that my first official year in the real world is coming to a close.

I am in Ohio for a three-day weekend and though it is only 2:45 as I write this, I have been quite busy today. I went to the dentist this morning, came to see my mom at work and bug my friend, Jeff, before heading over to get my hair cut and waved. I'm now back in my mom's office, finally updating The Mixed Tape and enjoying the rest of the day off. Tomorrow, I'll probably run some errands with my mom before hanging out with Adam and Jon tomorrow night. Adam just got an apartment downtown and he's excited to show it off so me and Jon are going to probably head there tomorrow night for some beers and a cookout. I'm so excited to see them. I miss Brittnay though. I wish she could be here too. The group seems rather incomplete without her.

Sunday is Mother's Day and though I think my driving five and a half hours to be here this weekend is present enough, I'm going to get her something else. It feels like the right thing to do considering she had a hand in creating me and all. Maxwell, once again, has aged about a hundred years since Baxter has invaded his home but I'm sorry Maxwell. I love being home. I'm already dreading having to go back on Sunday and then back to work on Monday. One year later and my thoughts are still the same. The real world, and being an adult, completely sucks ass.

Maxwell

My parents and Chrissy are going to be spending Easter with me and then they will be heading down to Arkansas for a few days to see my mom's mother. I'm not going because I don't want to take off work and I have no desire to go down there so I am in charge of babysitting Maxwell for the week! It should be disasterous on so many levels but nonetheless, I am excited. Baxter will be ecstatic for the playmate and Maxwell is a good dog that sleeps all day and night. Hopefully, the three of us will come out of this still alive.

My Bro

Today at work was a pretty slow day. I helped Linda put buy prices together for this horrible job we are trying to get but it's already such a horrendous ordeal and we don't even have the job yet. It's going to be more than a million dollars so it would be nice if we got it though. Linda has been working on putting together a buy package for the past five straight days and I just hope that if we do get this job, it will go more smoothly.

My brother Bill arrived this afternoon while I was still at work so he was lounged out on the couch, watching television, when I got home. After changing, we went to an all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant before coming back and watching some horrible vampire movie starring Vincent Price called The Last Man on Earth. Bill has always loved B-grade horror movies like this. I'm excited for my weekend with him. Tomorrow, we're probably going to go see a movie, either Zodiac or 3oo. I'll let him choose since technically he is on vacation. I'm glad he's here. I'm not sure what we'll wind up doing until he leaves Monday morning but we'll think of something. Bill and I like the same kinds of things so no matter what happens, we'll hopefully have fun.

Moustache Monday

My sister Chrissy is completely random just like me and for some reason, she gave a different theme to each day of the week. And today is Moustache Monday. I just happen to have a couple pictures of Chrissy and Jim sporting moustaches that they made - courtesy of Play-Doh of course. I'm not entirely sure but I think Tuesday might be Crazy Burrito Tuesday. I'm going to have to double check on that one.

Chrissy's Visit

When I got home Friday after work, Chrissy informed me that we would be going out to dinner since I ate nothing but things that came out of cans. I wasn't going to argue and after thinking of places to eat, I decided that I just wanted pizza so we went to Eduardo's, this pizza place I hadn't been to since I was a little kid going there for a birthday party. After eating a delicious veggie pizza, we went across the street to Dollar Junction since Chrissy wanted to get a few things. Target is right next door and since it's one of my favorite stores, I wanted to go in. Chrissy convinced me to buy a 24 pack of Play-Doh though she really didn't have to convince me that much. Play-Doh is one of those great things from childhood that can be loved even years later.

Jim and Heidi came over later and Baxter was completely insane but that was too be expected and for some reason, Baxter became quite attached to Jim. Heidi took pictures of my letter and giftbox from author Chuck Palahniuk since both she and her husband Dan are fans and then the four of us proceeded to sit at my kitchen table and play with the Play-Doh for most of the night. Trust me. It's a lot more fun than it probably sounds. Pictures of that will be posted tomorrow. Jim is amazing with Play-Doh. We couldn't believe the things he was able to make. It's always fun to hang out with them. I know that I'll always have a good time when I'm with them.

Chrissy left this afternoon to go into Chicago since this whole weekend was a work related trip but she promised that she will either be back in late March or early April. I'm glad. It was a nice visit even if it seemed too short.

Chrissy's Here

Yea! Chrissy's here! She called me last night around 7:26 and told me that her plane had landed and she was waiting to get her baggage. She had rented a car so she had to go get that too before she could start her drive from the airport to my house. I honestly wasn't expecting here until 9:30 or 10 so I was so excited and surprised when she rang my doorbell around 8:30. She said the drive had only been about forty-five minutes and that's a good thing because driving from either of the Chicago airports to my house is no joyride.

After Baxter went completely insane, and ripped her tights, and we finished watching the last 15 minutes of The O.C., I drove her to the grocery store because there's nothing in my house that would satisfy a slighty-healthy, watching her sugar intake vegetarian. It's great having her here and I look forward to the next couple of days until she has to leave. And on the huge plus side, at the store she bought me pears, raspberries and blueberries - the three fruits where if I could live on fruits alone, these are the ones I would be eating.

Saturday Night Special

Chrissy is flying into Chicago Thursday night and will be staying with me until Saturday evening when she has to go back into the city for work. I am excited to be having her visiting and since all of my family seems to be coming to stay with me, I can only wonder when Bill will get his ass down here.

And it seems that I am also the last one to know that Chrissy has invited our friends over Friday night for a small party. I had to find out from my mother who found out from my sister's MySpace page. I'm a little ticked off that Chrissy didn't even tell me that she was inviting everyone over to my house. I don't care if they come but I would have kind of liked to know about it from her before she started planning a party at my house. Sigh. Typical Chrissy. Since I get up earlier than I used to and I work later than I used to, would it be considered rude if I went to sleep in my bedroom while everyone else was still out in the living room? I'm clearly not the hostess of this party. I'm just being used for my house afterall. But then again, I will have a good time with these friends without question. I always have a good time with them.

Congrats Bill

Congratulations to my brother Bill who was named Employee of the Year by his news station. He is now officially one of the best news reporters in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and trust me. That's no small feat to accomplish. Live it up Bill. Fame doesn't last forever.