from Happy Birthday to Happy, The End

Day 604, Session 112:
When/Where: Thursday February 14th - In the air between Chicago and Nashville.
First song: Happy Birthday by Clem Snide
Last full song: Happy, The End by The Innocence Mission
Progress: 1786-1796 of 5773
Total Songs Heard: 1418

It was time for my biannual trip to Nashville. (BTW, did you know that biannual and semiannual mean the same thing? You did? Oh. I had to look it up. As far as I know the prefix 'bi-' means 2 and the prefix 'semi-' means 1/2, so how can biannual and semiannual mean the same thing? English man... just one more reason to move to Finland and learn to speak Finnish.) There's about 40 minutes of usable air time between Chicago and Nashville and most of that time was spent hearing songs about different types of happy birthdays.

Seeing as how I am just 2 weeks removed from a birthday and then I hit this particular run of songs I took the time on the flight to order a jack and coke and reflect on birthdays past. Here are the ones I remember:

1978 - I turned 2. I don't actually remember this birthday, but according to photographic evidence I made a real mess of myself while enjoying some chocolate cake. Guests included my parents, Great-Great Grandmother and next door neighbors.

1981 - I turned 5 and we had a party at my house. Using the power of static electricity (and probably tape) my name was up on the dining room wall constructed entirely of balloons. I thought this was pretty much the coolest thing ever. Also, somewhere my parents found gigantic balloon. I spent a lot of the party wrestling the balloon with Zach Hafer playing the role of my tag team partner. Other guests included Mike Vardaro and Eddie Atkinson.

1984 - I turned 8 and we watched Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo in the basement of my house. This was a big deal because at the time, my family didn't own a VCR. We actually had to rent one (along with the movie) from the local West Coast Video (why West Coast Video was a big chain on the East Coast I still don't understand.) This was a big deal at the time. Guests included Mike again and the girl I had a crush on at the time Alanna. At least I'm pretty sure that's her name (Mike will confirm once he reads this.)

1987 - I turned 11 and a few of the guys came over for a sleep over. At this point we owned a VCR so I'm sure some type of movie was watched. If I had to guess I'd say there's also a pretty good chance we spent part of that overnight watching the Playboy Channel which came in scrambled (but not very well) on channel 19. What can I say, even at age 11 boobs were fascinating. Guests included Mike, and Brendan Roan.

1992 - I turned 16 and my parents through my one and only surprised party. The surprise totally worked. I had no idea. My dad told me he needed my help moving some boxes at his office and offered to pay me for my time. Since I didn't actually have any Friday night plans (yep, I was a winner back then too) I agreed. I had just had my hair buzzed almost entirely off, and it turned out that under all that hair, I had a very tiny head. Any time I think about getting my hair cut extremely short I think back to the pictures taken at this party. Guests included Mike, Brian McIntire and my cadre of K-named girl friends Kristin, Kerstin, Kierstin, and Kate.

1995 - I turned 19 at college. We played Twister in Joey and Ryno's room. We also played the very dangerous game of "how many people can we fit on the top bunk of that bunk bed?" (The answer was 14.) To the best of my knowledge, no alcohol was served this night. This would be the last time that would happen. Mike was not there, Joey, Ryno, Missy, and Mary were.

1996 - 20, still at college. This year we had 21-year old connections. We filled the mini fridge with beer and played Revolution (a more genteel version of Asshole.) Guests included Joey, Ryno, Jay, and Becky.

1997 - 21. I became the 21-year old connection as I was the first one in our house to hit the milestone. I celebrated my birthday proper by walking into the UDF at 12:03 am and buying two 40s. Which Joey and I then enjoyed on the porch of our house on the dark side. Later that day I bought my first keg. The house was full of people all party long and any time anyone saw me with less than half a beer, they poured some out of their glass into mine. Eventually I was drunk to the point where I knew I had to stop drinking, so I wandered upstairs and put myself to bed. The party went on for a few more hours without me. Guests included lots of people I didn't know, but who seemed to know me.

1999 - 23. Went to a Fruvous concert where the guys proceeded to play a multiple song encore dedicated to my birthday (this track will be posted when we hit the 'M's.) I think this is my favorite birthday. Guests included Joey, Sarah, Betsy.

2005 - 29. My sisters both came to visit for the weekend. We ordered deep dish pizza and they baked me a cake. A few days later we watched the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Even though it was my birthday, they refused to win. Except for the losing Super Bowl part, this birthday was pretty good too. Guests included The Wife, Kate, Alicia, and Potsie.

As you can see, I got a lot of remembering done during the very short flight. I saw recently there's going to be a game show where you're quizzed on things that happened in the course of your own life. I think I would be pretty good at it. (As long as they don't quiz me on too many things that happened this past weekend. I often come back from Nashville a little foggy.)

Happy Birthday - Clem Snide
Happy Birthday - Sufjan Stevens
Happy Birthday - Weird Al Yankovic

Tuesday October 24th

Day 124, Session 47:
Location: The train, the desk, the first hour at work
First song: Change In Speak by De La Soul
Last full song: Chinese Baby by Clem Snide
Progress: 614-632 of 4508
Total Songs Heard: 546

Two different versions of Chicago by Sufjan Stevens was the big song of the day. Normally having two versions of the same song on the same cd would seem like a waste of time to me. Not in this case. The two songs are different enough that it's justified. Chicago...

I've been in Chicago for 5 and a half years now. I did not arrive in Chicago under the best of circumstances. I had been fired from a job I loved. I had been unemployed for 4 months. Chicago wasn't really on my radar of places to go next except for that one minor point... it's where the girl was. I spent 4 more months unemployed once I moved here, so while I was free for an entire summer in a great city, I was also broke which meant not a whole lot of actually being able to do anything. And nothing I did! I had a standing date with the television every day for 4 or 5 hours.

I tried to jump into the improv scene in town, but I found a few problems... 1) I had never done any improv before and there was no improv at UD so 2) I wasn't very good and 3) I wasn't very good at meeting new people. So while the folks I was in class with either had A) preexisting bonds from past improv experience or college, or B) were able to mesh by being good on stage together or at the very least C) had basic people skills, I didn't have any of those things. It left me feeling like an outsider among the group I was with. The only thing better than being an outsider among people you're hanging out with semi-regularly is paying (a lot) for the privilege (when you're already kind of broke.)

(I should note here for the record that as far as I remember, no one actively rejected me or anything. I just wasn't able to make it work. It's possible that people actually didn't like me, but no one ever said so to my face.)

To recap for the first few months in town I had no job, no new real friends and an expensive new hobby that I wasn't very good at.

Eventually I did get a job (which kind of sucked) and then another job (which didn't suck at first, but eventually, unless you're doing something you really love, all jobs suck.) Eventually I made some new friends, but still no one all that close. (Which raises the question of whether it's even possible to make new friends after a certain age.) Eventually I even became not terrible at the whole improv/theater thing. Luckily, the whole reason for moving here (the girl) worked out in the end.

But still... looking back, I'm pretty sure I still haven't gotten over the way I arrived and the first year in this city.

I'm not sure Chicago and I will ever feel good about each other, but now I'm stuck here. Married home owners can not just up and leave any time they feel like it.

So maybe Chicago and I need to reevaluate our relationship. Maybe it's time to (finally) move past the rough start.

I made a lot of mistakes in my mind, in my mind