What's this called, Cake?

"Hogwarts Does Jim Gaffigan" -- Someone put a segment of Gaffigan's Beyond the Pale vocals to various scenes from Harry Potter. It's hilarious!! Check it out.
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So this past Friday night I got to go see Jim Gaffigan over at Purdue. Hilarious. He used several of his most popular segments from his Beyond the Pale tour/DVD, but laced them together with some new material. A satisfying mix of new laughs (a lot about bacon), and cravings to see him do some of my favorite "skits" live.

For those Gaffigan fans -- most of the cake, crackhead, magic pepper wand, robe and holiday jokes made the cut. And of course, Hot Pockets.

-- Oh and lest I forget to tell you about the guy sitting next to the guy next to me that came in drunk, and puked all over about 10 minutes after Gaffigan came on stage. Ymmm.... it sure did smell yummy in there for the rest of the show. Sad ...

Today I got ...

... my first real-working-person paycheck.
It's pretty sweet : )

I Want Coffee

So, I'm sitting at Espresso. The one out here on Duncan and Windsor. Love it. Quiet, spacious, a lot of wood.

Well, I made it. I love coffee now. I'm not sure how I should feel about this though. On the one hand, I should be super-excited. After quite some time of hating the drink, but loving everything about it (the smell, the cups, the coffee-house atmosphere -- the Indy music, experimental art, soft lighting, the seemingly-justified-arrogance of those both behind the counter and in front), I committed to liking the drink itself. It took a while before it was more than just self-imposed-peer-pressure. But I did it. I love it. I crave it.

Which leads me to my other hand (what? I don't know; go with it). Addiction. So, this is something that I generally try to stay away from ... unless it somehow involves being addicted to church, or loving, or God, or some other nice-Christian-girl answer. Addiction. This is precisely the reason that I almost never take any medicine of any sort -- not wanting to be dependent. Or maybe my snobbery to addiction is just my way of being spontaneous, rebellious, a free spirit unconfined by beverage.

Which is another puzzlement -- if you can make yourself love something, can you make yourself unlove something? ah, but maybe I'm digressing to other parts of my life ....

Mmmmmmmmm.

Conclusions:

1. Yea for reaching a goal.
2. It's okay to crave things.
3. I'm not ready to start toting a mug to work every morning, even though I want to.
4. Maybe I could just like coffee without trying to analyze it. (sad. I really miss doing deep textual analysis in my undergrad English-major classes ... sigh)

7th Inning Stretch

This weekend, my family decided to be spontaneous and drive up to the new Miller Park in Milwaukee Sunday morning for the game that afternoon. The Brewers were hosting our beloved Pirates.

No, the Pirates didn't win, but it was a gorgeous day to nestle into the thick green plastic stadium seating and toss splintered peanut shells on the cluttered cement floor below. Checkerboard patterns in plush green grass, the National Anthem, nuclear families, players' bleached uniforms with socks pulled securely up to the knee. I love how fresh and patriotic it all seems, even just for a little while.

... and I actually like the fact that I have never been to a baseball game in which I was rooting for the home team. Watching my dad stand and cheer over the years, alone and unashamed, for every Pirate success, mild or major, is one of my very favorite parts.

And besides, no matter how much you love the sport, what is visiting a baseball stadium than a people-watching feast -- complete with a curiously intriguing assortment of fans? In addition to watching foul balls bounce towards us along left field, I'm pretty sure I mentally wrote about 30 people's life stories and diagnosed their problems.

Thanks Dad, I love you!