Living vicariously through myself

I got the apartment! It's pretty sweet. Here's the floorplan:

http://www.alexanapts.com/va_center/contact/index.php

According to the ad and the current renter, it has the following:
Outdoor Swimming pool
24-hour Fitness center
Indoor basketball court
Game room
Golf simulator
Media room

It's also right across the street from the Metro stop, down the street from a couple grocery stores, and down the street from a high school with tennis courts. My roommate is apparently a Harvard grad. Should be an adventure, that's for sure.

Last weekend was pretty fun. Saturday was the mirror of Moon Pie at Iowa. The team just played bad overall. We went 4-6, but it was about the suckiest 4-6 we could have mustered. We lost 2-3 matches by less than 30 points, so we could easilt have been 7-3 if we'd played a little better. Sunday was a little better. We went 5-5, but again probably should have gone about 7-3. I finished first in scoring, which made me happy. It was a little fraudulent, though, as they didn't count Matt Larson's stats, as he played on the Iowa house team. Still, 43.5 ppg made me happy. Just for a lark:

Saturday's correct answers: Igor Stravinsky, the 12th Amendment, B.F. Skinner, Voltaire, Vladimir Lenin, The Open Boat, Paul Bremer, Laura Esquivel, Marge Schott, Gustav Holst, Sonnet, Bob Keeshin, Photoelectric Effect, Lorraine Hansberry, Spontaneous Generation, Hull House, Mt. Ranier, Donatello, Octavio Paz, Fannie Flagg, Einstein on the Beach, Joe Morgan, Daniel Dafoe, Bleachers, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Samuel Coleridge, Antoine Lavoisier, Gabriela Mistral, Belisarius, On The Road, Friedrich Schiller, Middlemarch, Werner Heisenberg, John Maynard Keynes, Butane, Lagrangian Energy, Wilhelm Wundt, Billy Budd

Negs: Man in the Iron Mask for Count of Monte Cristo, Phoneme for Morpheme, Mariah Carey for Amy Grant, Gypsies for Hebrews, Edmund Fitzgerald for U.S.S. Pueblo

Sunday's Correct Answers: Campbell's Chunky Soup, Tony Kornheiser, Bill Walton, Shakira, Marian Gaborik, Shopgirl, Walter Payton, Rick Nash, Donyell Marshall, Dances With Wolves, Krispy Kreme, Dead Man's Hand, Cell Phones, Famous Last Words, Laura Schlessinger, Hootie and the Blowfish, Alan Hale, Jr., Bob, Tattoos, Celebrity Poker Showdown, Dead Like Me, Mr. Whipple, Martin St. Louis, Quizno's, 21, Stuart Scott, Sweet Tea, House, Detroit Tigers, Singin' In The Rain, John Daly, Bob Knight, Benjamin Spock, Russ Meyer, A.J. Foyt, Billy Corgan, Queensreich (sic), Stimpmeter, Martin Brodeur, Arby's Oven Mitt, Julius Erving, Allison LaPlaca, Clive Anderson, Ashley Harkleroad

Negs: Hula Hoop for Yo-Yo, Nike for Adidas, Ricky Nelson for Chuck Woolery, Benjamin Sisko for Stanley Wojo (sic), Braves for Devil Rays, Miami of Ohio for Northwestern, Fuel for R.E.M.


In other news, after two failed attempts, I think I've finally found an apartment in Washington for the summer. More to come on that when everything is finalized.

A couple fun quotes from Medill, more better posting to come later today (after golf):

Kat De Maria on Stan's ability to memorize a script for live shots and then deliver it:
"Stan could recite the phone book and not blink."

Joseph Pleasant on Stan not wanting to buy clothes to go out and party:
“But you know, club clothes can be an investment if you take care of them..."

Today's example of the aforementioned phrase:

I woke up this morning to hear on the radio that the commuter train I take into the city was not running, due to a freight train derailment along the line. So I drove about 12 miles south to Geneva and got on a train there -- even in enough time to make it into the city in time for the beginning of my 8 am class.

I didn't really need to go in today. I was not scheduled to do anything but spend some time on the AVID non-linear digital editing machine, which I eventually did. However, Kelley Vick had her story fall through and decided to do a story on Loyola hiring a new basketball coach. She's not much of a sports fan, so I helped her however I could. I answered questions she had, helped her figure out how to dub between VHS and DVC Pro format tape, and ran to Fox Sports Chicago for her to pick up a tape (where I ran across another DPU buddy, Ryan McGuffey, whom I broadcast sports with from time to time). So when I left, Kelley had her b-roll, had some statistics to use in her stand-up and was well on her way to making a 4 pm deadline. When I got back to Geneva, what was there to greet me? A parking ticket.

However, there was also a check in the mail from my grandparents for $500. Truth be told, I'm not sure what to do with this. The note in the card said they were very proud of me, but it always feels a little bit like I'm being bought. I'm pretty sure that's not my grandmother's intent, but she knows people very well and is very sharp. I suppose I don't have a good reason to turn the money down. Maybe I'll use it to finally invest, we'll see.

Anchored my first newscast for Chicagoland last night. The first two-thirds of the show went almost flawlessly, but then after the second commercial break, the producer decided to start missing cues because she was trying too hard to see how much time we'd have left. So we hit some bumps, but we got through it. They missed two of my cues in a row, and I was fairly livid on the set. Fortunately, they went back and did some of the third part of the show again, otherwise I would have been really mad when I got home. That's the thing about being picked to do the first show of the quarter -- everyone else is not quite ready to do their job, so they pick you to hopefully minimize the technical damage caused in the control room. We were like the bomb squad of anchors, more or less. Anyway, in three weeks I should be on again -- 6:30 on WYCC, Channel 20 throughout most of Chicagoland.

Next week should, mercifully, be fairly easy. My Monday schedule is not nearly as hectic as it was this week, where I had to rush down to Chicago from my afternoon class to try to finish a story for Tuesday (all while doing my night class and trying to make the train by 9:40). Instead, it's just the two classes with nothing due -- I just have to be present for discussion. I don't have to file any stories for broadcast this week, either. One day I have to be a cameraman, one day is singled out for training on the AVID digitial editor (which might not happen because the prof who teaches it is out of town at a conference), and one day I have to be a producer for a 10 minute segment that's basically people cutting upp CNN news feeds or doing other readers. Friday I have off (an extremely rare chance to sleep in), and Amanda comes up for the weekend so we can go see the Cubs mercilessly thrash and mangle the hapless Reds on Sunday. They're giving away 100 jerseys that day that are replicas of the Cubs 1906 jerseys (with the cute bear cub holding a bat on them). If she wins one of those (like she won a baseball signed by Fergie Jenkins the LAST time we went), I promise I will scream. Hopefully it will warm up a little bit by then. I've been to games there in June and July that have required sweaters and blankets.