Thanksgiving 2012

Hello internet,

As Thanksgiving rolls around today, I find that I have many, many things to be thankful for.  I typically just create a list, but I think I'd like to write a bit more this year.  So, I'll keep the list, but make it a bit shorter and expand a bit.  I hope everyone takes some time today to think about the things they are thankful for.

 

1 - I am very thankful for my fiance Kate.  She is smarter than me, better looking than me, and generally more pleasant to be around.  I love her very much, and am eagerly anticipating Thanksgiving 2013, when instead of a "fiance," she will be a "wife."

2 - I am also very thankful for my family - my mom, dad, aunt, uncle, cousins and assorted other relatives.  They are continually supportive of me as I enter adulthood, and are ready to tell me the right thing to do, even if its not what I want to hear.

3 - I'm thankful for my five brothers - Benjamin, Michael, and Kris (the manboys), and Scott and Josh.  I will be very honored to have all five present at my wedding in October as groomspeople, and am looking forward to many good times both before and after.  They are not just friends, they are family.

4 - I am thankful for the new house Kate and I own in South Minneapolis.  It is beautiful, with a quaint backyard (note - perfect for summer parties...), more than enough space, a Dylan themed kitchen dining area, and an ugly ass Miami Vice wolf hanging over a bar.  Doesn't get much better than that.

5 - I'm thankful for Basil, our new greyhound.  He is incredibly nosy, very needy, and unkempt.  He has taken all my money to pay for his licenses, multiple giant dog beds, toys, food, and treats, not to mention the Bissel "Spotbot Pet" cleaning robot to clean up the piss he deposited on my beautiful mod rug (I could have had a robot that made me a gin and tonic - instead I have this...).  He wakes me up at 5:30 for no particular reason, steals my shoes, and barfs on the floor.  Love him anyways. 

6 - I'm thankful that I still have the opportunity to play the trombone.  Although it is not as much as I may like, I get the same joy out of it that I did at Luther College.

7 - I am thankful for having a job as an attorney.  Sometimes it is difficult to remember, but I am leaning a lot and developing the skills that I will need in whatever comes in the future.

8 - I'm thankful to live in a city that values alternative, healthy transportation, and makes it easy and fun to get around by bike.  Work seems so much better when I know I can ride to and from on the Midtown Greenway.  I'm thankful that due to this great cycling infrastructure, I have biked nearly 1,000 miles so far this year.

9 - I'm thankful for my good health.

10 - I'm thankful for hot summer days and nights spent watching my beloved Twins at beautiful Target Field with good friends, a Surly Bandwagon in one hand and a polish sausage in the other.  I would be even more thankful if the Twins could add some starting pitching...

11 - Speaking of, I'm thankful for good beer enjoyed amongst friend.  What a perfect simple pleasure.

12 - I'm thankful for my new family members - Kate's parents, sister, brother in law, and then too many random other relatives to count.  I felt very fortunate to have been invited on their summer trip to Yellowstone, and I very much enjoyed seeing the natural wonders and getting to know them all a little bit more.  I'm thankful that Kate's dad always makes steak for every meal, because I'm typically too cheap to buy it otherwise.

13 - I'm thankful for having been able to see Bob Dylan perform in person.  Through whatever else, the power of his words and music are unchanging.

14 - I'm thankful for the continued community at Christus Victor Lutheran Church, and the ability to serve as a council member/trombonist for hire.  The folks there have supported me since I was very young, and they even supported me as I struck out to end to the 2012 God Squad fall softball season.

15 - I'm thankful for the time Kate and I spend at Timberwolves games.  It has been fun becoming basketball fans together, and I'm thankful for how nice and pleasant the Timberwolves staff has been to us.  I'm also thankful that Kevin Love is returned from his hand injury...

16 - I'm thankful that the marriage and voter ID amendments were defeated in Minnesota.  I will be even more thankful when all my friends will enjoy the same civil rights as I do.

17 - I'm thankful for all my friends, be they from high school, Luther, Hamline Law, or elsewhere.

18 - I'm thankful for coffee - what a delicious beverage.

19 - I'm thankful for the cold weather.  I'll be more thankful once the snow falls, and I can (hopefully) get some more skiing in this year.

20 - I'm thankful that I got to fulfill a long time dream to spend a few days in Fort Myers at Twins spring training.  We had a great time doing nothing at the beach, watching baseball, and eating and drinking together.

21 - I'm thankful for the memory of my grandma, who passed away this past March.  I always remember her kindness and humbleness.  Her last words to me were asking if the Twins won.

22 - I'm thankful for tacos.

23 - I'm thankful for long drives with the windows down, and the radio turned up.

24 - I am thankful to live in Minnesota, which is such a great community with so many enriching things to do and see.

25 - On that note, I'm thankful to have spent a day this past June with two of my favourite people at Rock the Garden, enjoying being alive.

So, there you have it.  Certainly not an exhaustative list, but I think I hit the big points.

Hope everyone has a very nice day - happy Thanksgiving.

Business Trip

Friends, I was spoiled just a bit when my first business trip as a REAL ATTORNEY just happened to be ten days in Stockholm, Sweden.  There were delightful little kanelbulle each morning, highlighted by fresh yogurt accented by lingonberry jam.  A short train ride down a majestic avenue lit for Christmas to the harbor area of Strandvägen, where a prestigious conference center had been reserved for the arbitration hearing, replete with freshly cut flowers.  Sure, it was hard work, but it was tempered somewhat by the thought of an expense account fueled dinner of reindeer steak and a glass of red wine at a fine restaurant, with perhaps chocolate torte for dessert.  A stack of Swedish pancakes - freshly caught salmon?  Sure, I'll bite.

Or perhaps a tram ride to Gamla Stan, the eminently walkable old town?

Contrast that experience with my latest 36 hours.

 What should have been a straightforward out and back trip to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for a routine motion hearing became an odyssey through the hermetically sealed airports of the midwest.  You knew nothing good was going to happen when at the Minneapolis airport, I got the first of three notices that our flight to Pennsylvania was delayed.  Even more thrilling, in Detroit, we learned that Delta had conveniently cancelled our flight to Wilkes-Barre, with no possibility of getting on a later flight.  After my boss successfully convinced Delta that, why yes indeed, his business associate had to accompany him, we successfully got on a flight back west to Chicago, where we would then go east again to Wilkes-Barre.

Naturally, as we reached the gate, there was no plane.  And when the plane showed up - a half hour late - the cockpit was occupied not by pilots, but by mechanics trying to figure out what was wrong with the landing gear.  Comforting.

Anyways, I spent 10 minutes in Chicago O'Hare inhaling a freeze dried, microwaved "Uno personal deep dish pizza," which I immediately regretted.  Note to all travelers - whatever claim Uno makes to authentic Chicago style deep dish, especially in the context of some high school student hawking them at an airport - they are utterly and completely false.

Finally, we reached Wilkes-Barre, only to realize we had to wait 30 minutes for a taxi to pick us up for the 20 minute ride to the hotel.  So, an estimated ETA of 6:00 or so turned into an actual arrival of 11:00 PM.

The hotel was your standard Ramada in a third tier city in a depressed area of northeastern Pennsylvania - dirty, covered in a sheen of grime, and possessing seemingly the only public toilets in downtown Wilkes-Barre.  I was especially amused, when, as I sat in my suit waiting to walk to the courthouse, some kid walked out of the bathroom with a BMX bike in tow.

That night, I desperately wanted to grab a beer before retiring, but I had a task for work to complete first.  I figured it would be easy to simply print a few powerpoints.  No, no, I underestimated that.  The Ramada "business center" consisted of three computers - two of which were apparently reserved for students from a local business college.  Of course, which computer did the business students choose to use that night?  They politely informed me that they were taking a timed online exam, so no, they could not let me just print a few things. 

I would mention the microwaved home fries included in the "breakfast special," or the rubbery eggs, but that would seem like I was piling it on.

Did I mention the cigarette scent permeating the air - everywhere?

The return journey was no less uneventful - the highlight was surely the dash through the Detroit airport to catch our plane back to Minneapolis after (surprise) the plane didn't show up at the Wilkes-Barre airport until 50 minutes after the scheduled departure.

Can't wait for the next one...

Bikes

Well friends, I have taken it upon myself to renovate the above - a 1956 Raleigh Sports bicycle.  It was my great-uncle's, who presumably rode it around Seattle (the bike license is a good clue... plus the fact he lived in Seattle).  It then appeared in my mom's garage, from which I plucked it out of obscurity a few weeks ago.  After taking up space in my apartment, I took it out this weekend and cleaned it up some. 

As you can see, there is nearly 56 years of gunk caked upon this vehicle, and slowly, with many a steel wool pad and copious amounts of my mom's degreaser, it is being shed.

Now, it should be noted that I did very little in terms of mechanical improvement, aside from putting on new brake pads and new tires.  I did not touch the incredibly confusing looking three speed hub, with this silly cable connected by a pulley to the handlebar.  I figured, "eh, what the hell? - it worked fine around the block."  Of course, the logical conclusion is to jump from around the block to my 20 mile round trip commute to work.

Which I did.

My first indication of a problem should have been less than a mile from my apartment, when as I was going down the road, the gear gave out (similar to the chain falling off), which of course caused me to nearly fall of the bike, which in turn, caused me to bash my knee on the handlebars.  The thought crossed my mind to go home and ride my other bike.  But I am not a quitter.

Nine miles later, as I finally sputtered into work with aching knees and in constant fear of the gear self imploding - needless to say, I rethought my original decision. 

I'm happy to say the ride home was slightly better.  I got the thing up to a fairly high speed - I'd guess about 18 mph, which I think is pretty good for a 56 year old bike.  The hub also started making a horrendous squeaking noise, similar to what I'd imagine an engine sounds right before it explodes for lack of oil.  So, there's that - and the constant fear of having the gear give out.

But hey, that can be fixed, right?  I can figure that out. 

Softball - Game 1

For the second time in my adult life, I have resurrected my baseball career cut short in 5th grade.  The first was in 2006, when I played center field for the Nottingham Thieves of the British University League.  I classified myself in more of the "moneyball" category of player - my value was not so much measured in batting average (.000), RBI total (0), or hits (0), but rather in walks and runs scored, as well as what Ron Gardenhire would classify as "battling my tail off."  I also ranked highly in what I'll refer to as "defensive perseverance," i.e., when the ball skips off my glove and hits me in the chest, leaving a black and blue welt, I quickly picked said ball up and relayed it to the infield.

The Notts team was fun to play with; a random assortment of international students from baseball playing countries studying abroad and British cricketeers turned ballplayers.  Although the post-practice pub stop was always a primary goal, everyone was excited about playing the game, and trying hard.  Although I was not very skilled, I went to every practice, and tried very hard.  My spur of the moment decision to join the far more competitive baseball team over the less competitive softball team was a great one, and it turned out to be one of the things I remember most about Notts.

Anyways, last night I played center field for the Christus Victor Lutheran Church "God Squad" in the Apple Valley rec softball league: bronze division.  It was an, ah, slightly different experience. 

Imagine, if you will, a group of approximately 18 people, of which I would estimate 2/3 are middle aged men and women, in various states of fitness, most of which probably haven't picked up a ball or swung a bat in 20 years.  There was a lot of light jogging to get fly balls skipping to the fence in the outfield, a lot of grounders through the legs, etc.  I probably shouldn't judge - I dropped a fly ball that popped in and out of my glove - I'm going to blame it on the fact that my glove isn't completely broken in yet. 

One woman literally didn't realize that you play softball while wearing a glove, and wasn't aware that as the catcher, she was supposed to cover home plate if a runner was coming in to score...

Now, I don't want to give the impression that this was not fun - it was.  But, I've historically been a pretty serious person - I get serious about the things I'm interested in and passionate about.  In high school, it was mock trial, in college, it was trombone.  In law school - geez, it was probably just surviving law school.  Moral of the story - when I heard there was a church softball team, I immediately signed up, and got serious.  Perhaps too serious than bronze division beer league softball calls for...

I may or may not have purchased new baseball clothes.  I might have also acquired a brand new 12 and 3/4 inch Rawlings "Gold Glove Gamer" outfielders glove, model GG601G with the "trap-eze" pocket.  And it's also possible I've forced my girlfriend to play catch with me and throw me fly balls in Minnehaha Park.  There is the potential for a future trip to a batting cage to work on hitting.

Point being, it's hard for me to do something I'm excited about "just for fun."  It's just in my nature - I always wanted to be the best trombone player, to get the best grades, or be the best beer-league softball player.  Of course, that's not realistic - I'm not a very good softball player, but I want to be.  So, we will see how this season goes.  Hopefully we will get better, and hopefully I will get to play more (due to the size of the roster, I only got to bat twice in the course of two games last night).

In any event, it will be a lively summer of Friday night softball...  When you start out the season with back to back mercy rule losses, there's nowhere to go but up.

NLT Project, Week 1

My hopes of blogging every day were dashed - some of the highlights of week one.

- John Williams, Soundtrack to Star Wars: A New Hope
- Duke Ellington, The Carnegie Hall Concerts: 1943
- John McAndrew, Like We Were Made of Gold
- Sufjan Stevens, The Avalanche
- Keane, Hopes and Fears
- Led Zeppelin, Mothership
- Luciano Pavarotti & Berlin Philharmonic, Berlioz: Requiem
- Frederick Fennel & Eastman Wind Ensemble, Grainger, Persichetti, and Others
- The Who, The Ultimate Collection

NLT Project - Day 2

Day 2 is getting real folks. Check it. - Tears for Fears, Greatest Hits (feel like I'm in a John Hughes movie - or at least heading to 80's prom) - The Allman Brothers Band, Live at Stony Brook - Herbie Hancock, Head Hunters (of course I've heard "Chameleon," but never got much farther...) - Keane, Hopes and Fears (man, can't get enough - where have I been since 2004!)

The Never Listened To Project - Day 1

Hello internet,

I am embarking on a bold quest - a journey into the unknown. And no, I am not going to the northern Twin Cities suburbs. I am aiming to listen to all of the heretofore unlistened to music in my iTunes library. I was astonished to discovery the other day that my iTunes contains nearly 10 days worth of unlistened to material!

I'm trying to listen to at least one or two albums from the "unlistened" list per day, and I thought it would be fun if I documented what I listen to. So, to kick things off, here are some of a few nuggets from the past few days.

- Aretha Franklin, Greatest Hits
- John Mellencamp, Greatest Hits ("Hurts So Good" - excellent song)
- Keane, Under the Iron Sea
- Daft Punk, Homework
- Luther College Jazz Orchestra, 2006 Spring Concert (I forgot I had a solo on "Wyrgly," it actually is pretty good)
- Robert Johnson, Genius of the Blues
- Tallis Scholars, Lamenta (lamentations composed by Thomas Tallis and other medieval composers)
- Don Ellis, Live in India
- John Mayer, Room for Squares

Stay tuned for more sonic adventures - it could get explicit. I know there are a few Disney soundtracks hiding in there somewhere...

Opening Day 2012

"Great is baseball, the national tonic, the revival of hope, the restorer of confidence."

- The Sporting News, c. 1930's


Well Timberwolves, it's been a fun winter. I'll catch you again in the fall, ACL's all healed, energy back up, the anticipation higher still, floppy haired Spaniards a'leaping and my BFF hitting the treys. Looking forward to my new perch in section 236, row K.

Wild - sorry, I just don't care, but do me a favor - try not to depress my girlfriend so much next year.

Vikings - yeah, I really don't care.

When you're a baseball fan, the seasons don't transition from summer to fall, winter to spring. They go from your team playing its last game, a period of anticipation, the first spring workout, and then tomorrow - opening day. It would be cliche to reference the old adage - this is our year, we're going to win the pennant for sure - but it's too accurate to pass up. Even for those teams with no hope of championship glory (quite realistically the 2012 Twins), opening day always references renewal.

No other sport, nay, no other social institution, embraces opening day with such conviction and meaning as baseball. Perhaps it is because, over the course of 162 games and over a century of tradition, baseball is woven into the fabric of our consciousness. For a baseball fan, opening day is more than a holiday, it's one of the best days of the year.

I find that the baseball fan, as pessimistic as one can be crunching sabermetrics or critiquing why the manager didn't put pull the starter in the 7th, the baseball fan is at heart an optimist. We always want to believe that the odds can be broken, that our team can put together a streak and do something special. And why not? There's no clock to inhibit the game, theoretically, if not for an arbitrarily fixed fence, the playing field goes on an infinite distance. Baseball lends itself to romanticism, to romantics.



Unquestionably, the best thing to do in Minneapolis in the summer is spend an afternoon or evening at Target Field, hotdog in one hand, beer in the other - even better now that the Twins have Surly and Fulton.... After all, as Humphrey Bogart wisely observed, a hot dog at the ballpark beats roast beef at the Ritz. I wholeheartedly agree. Sure, the modern ballpark has many wiles to distract you from the game (exhibit a - that acid trippy monstrosity in Miami and the electric green outfield walls), but the game never loses its fascination.

It may very well be a rough year - our pitching is terrifying, one of our two best players has been concussed for a year and a half - but that doesn't matter now. Right now, we're winning the World Series.

26

Hey people, I turn 26 tomorrow. It will feel much better to be an even number again - I typically blame all bad luck during a given "odd" year on that fact - the oddness. There's a particular reason the Twins lost 99 games - all I'm sayin.

Speaking of Twins, I report to spring training in 8 days! I'm happy to report that my ulnar collateral ligament feels good, I'm in the best shape of my life (BSOML), and I'm ready to "battle my tail off" in the pursuit of sun, ballpark hotdogs, the sweet scent of Joe Mauer in the springtime, and a beer at a ballgame! Nothing better.

So trust me folks, next Thursday cannot come soon enough. I've been working hard, sleeping little, and I am ready for six days of nothing except the gentlemanly life of leisure in a semi-tropical climate. Funny thing about graduating from school - it typically does not end your stress level, as you once imagined, but on certain days and weeks, actually will increase it. That, my friends, is lame. But it is alright as well.

Okay, I'm out. Everyone enjoy my birthday tomorrow - I will celebrate with a research memo on trademark infringement, a burrito, and a church council meeting. Ideally, Ricky Rubio and my bff Kevin Love will remember the special nature tomorrow, and gift me a victory over the Clippers in LA...

Where in the World...

This is awesome - my newest favourite Timberwolf.

Dynamism

People, I have had a yearlong case of blogger's block. For the life of me, I can't quite figure out what to write about.

Let me just say, that although I very much appreciate the lack of homework, working full time is also sort of consuming my fun time. That might be false, actually - I consume my fun time by doing things that perhaps only I would find fun. Coaching high school mock trial, hanging out at Hamline discussing the applicability of the New York Convention, etc. I have, begrudgingly at first, and now with arms wide open, become a Minnesota Timberwolves basketball fan - something I would never expect occurring in a billion years. But yet, here I am.

I've decided that 2012 is going to be a year of dynamism - a year to live a rounded, well balanced life, in as many aspects as I can. I'm helping my old high school, I joined the church council, I'm trying to go to the gym three times a week, and if I'm lucky here, I'll get my trombone out and play. As a result, the past few weeks, I've barely spent any time at home, but that's alright.

Anyways, that's really all I have. Maybe one of these days, my year of dynamism will reach these pages...

MLK Day

Should be required viewing today.