Sunday, April 10

Well, I finally got some responses from my group members this morning. We originally planned to meet this afternoon to discuss our presentation, but since two girls couldn’t meet at all today, we basically decided to scrap it. So I spent the morning doing some research in Stef’s room for my end of the project, before finally getting ready by noon for the day. It’s funny, because I was expecting today to totally suck, since I was dreading meeting with those kids from English, and it actually turned out to be pretty fantastic. Stef’s dad has season tickets to the Tigers, and he had two extras that he wasn’t going to use today, so we decided to tag along with him and Justin. Now, I should explain here that I haven’t been to a Detroit Tigers baseball game since I was about 8 years old. To make a long story short, my dad and I basically swore off Major League Baseball after the ’94 strike in part because of how ridiculous it was, and also in part because we had 10 tickets to a September game that year on my 10th birthday, which of course ended up getting cancelled by the strike. So, I suppose it was appropriate to end 12 years of bitterness on my part after having seen a movie like “Fever Pitch” last night. It was an absolutely perfect weather day for the game—low 70s, sunny, and no wind. The Tigers lost, which should come as no surprise, but they actually played really well, and it was a pretty exciting baseball game on the whole. Stefy and I might’ve gotten a little burned from being out in the sun so long, but it was worth it. I mean honestly, can anyone remember it being THIS nice so CONSISTENTLY in APRIL in MICHIGAN? Man, no complaints here. Anyway, it was close to 5 by the time we made it back to the Spiros’, but everyone was pretty hungry by then, so we headed out for a nice dinner with Stef’s parents. The place they wanted to take us was closed today, so we ended up at this Chinese place instead. It was, quite honestly, some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. Teri even managed to talk me into trying some sushi—a first—and I REALLY liked it. So, it was a pretty fantastic day, to say the least. It was kind of a bummer then when reality set in, and I still had to drive an hour back home. I pretty much spent the rest of the night in my room finishing my Keynote presentation for my English group, but it actually all came together quite nicely. I’m not sure yet if I’ll go to Sociology tomorrow, but we’ll see how it goes.

Saturday, April 09

Okay, so the original plan for today was that Stefy was going to go to Ohio this morning to spend the rest of the weekend with her friend from high school, and I would also leave for Ohio to visit my mom and Dan. Well, I scratched the visit with the folks earlier in the week due to my mounting pile of homework, and this morning Stef decided to put her trip on hold as well, since her allergies were off the charts over the past several days. So, it basically turned into a normal weekend visit to Stef’s house: we slept in, took our time getting up and around, went out for a nice lunch, and saw a movie. Stef drove me to Royal Oak to eat at Pronto this afternoon. Of course, I’d eaten their food at practically every major party the Spiros have hosted (including Sean’s party from last night), but this was my first visit to the actual restaurant. We ordered a plate of what turned out to be probably the best humus I’ve ever had for an appetizer—who knew that pesto went so well with the chickpea? I also got a big-ass sammich for my main meal (a BLT), which really hit the spot. We went back to Stef’s house for a bit after our lunch, and I spent some time coordinating plans to meet with my English group for our presentation on Monday. After laying low for about an hour or so, we set out again to see “Fever Pitch” in Birmingham, but the movie was pretty much sold out by the time we got there. So, I bought tickets for a later show, and we killed an hour or so at Java Hutt. Stefy and I both really liked the movie though, and were definitely glad that we got a chance to see it this weekend. It was kinda late by the time we made it back to the house, so we settled in for tonight’s SNL, which wasn’t particularly funny (big shock). Stef passed out about 15min into the show, so we finally called it a day shortly after Weekend Update.

Friday, April 08

It was a pretty typical Friday today. I had about 3 or 4 deposits to work on, some filing, and some more tweaks to the website. I rolled out of here at 3:30 or so, and made it to Stef’s shortly before 5. We were already getting close to go-time for her brother Sean’s surprise 30th birthday party, so we had to do some stuff to help her mom get everything ready for the big event. People started rolling in at around 6:30, and our job was to keep a lookout for the birthday boy, and tell people where to park. The closer we got to Sean’s arrival though, the more Stef’s mom started to worry that all the cars lined up on the street would tip him off to the surprise. So, Teri came up with the idea of Stef and I taking Sean aside as soon as he walked in the door (everyone was hiding downstairs), and tell him that we had a “big announcement” to make, but we wanted to talk it over with him in the basement first. It was a clever idea, and Stef even put on a big ring to make it look like there was some obvious “news” to tell, but Sean didn’t buy it for a second. He was pretty much just like, “No way. I’ve seen that ring before.” So, the rouse didn’t exactly work out the way we planned, but we did manage to talk his little boy Colin into going downstairs “to play”, and then everyone jumped out and yelled “Surprise!” Sean actually was really surprised, because his wife Marina had invited about a million of his old buddies from high school and college for the party, so I think he was pretty excited. Stef and I both had a lot of fun at the party too—there was TONS of yummy food from Pronto, and Stefy was particularly excited about having a DJ there with karaoke for the night. Of course, I managed to stay away from the microphone the whole time, but Stef got up there a bunch of times, and was rocking out to about a million songs. What was even funnier was watching some of Stef’s relatives getting up there to sing, because they were all people I wouldn’t expect—her parents, her brother Justin and his girlfriend, her grandma, and Marina. Some of the singers were obviously better than others, but everyone seemed to have a really great time, and if nothing else it was a lot of fun for me to watch and laugh at. Anyway, it was close to 1 by the time everyone emptied out of the Spiro compound tonight, and I was thoroughly exhausted by then. I think Stefy thought I didn’t have any fun because I wasn’t singing tonight, but I was just really glad to be there and soak up the atmosphere—it was a really cool party.

Thursday, April 07

Well, it was back to reality with film classes today. I was pretty dozy during my History class this morning, so that probably didn’t look good (I sit kinda near the front of the room), but I just didn’t sleep very well last night. Work was short this afternoon, but I made a lot of progress on my mini website overhaul. Film Theory wasn’t too bad today, and I felt a little more with-it than I did this morning. We were picking up where we left off with “Stella Dallas” from last Tuesday, and I thought our discussion was actually pretty interesting (although I probably nodded off for a few minutes this afternoon too). I picked up my girl up on Grand River after class to take her back to get her car, so it was good to see her for a little bit before she took off for home. My evening was pretty boring—I pretty much just cooped up in my room for the night and plowed through about two and a half new pages of my Film Theory paper, which is due on Monday. I finally threw in the towel at around 9:30 and settled down for a late dinner with a real feel-good movie: “Reservoir Dogs”. Stefy called to chat at around 10:30, and by the time I got off the phone I just decided to cash in for the day. Of course, I had a tough time falling asleep again tonight, but what else is new.

Wednesday, April 06

Well, I haven’t gotten my grade back yet or anything, but I actually think I did pretty well on this morning’s Sociology exam. I really didn’t study that much for it last night, but I just thought the test seemed a lot easier than the other two we’ve taken so far. I’m crossing my fingers. Work was kinda busy this morning/afternoon, as I had some more tidying up on the website, and had to deal with our insurance situation for the loans for a couple hours. My English Lit class wasn’t too bad this afternoon. In fact, I actually got some good news—I don’t have to write a fourth reading response this week like I originally thought I would. I guess our prof just decided to give everyone a freebie. Anyway, we pretty much spent the entire class period discussing our final papers, which are due a week from Monday. He was making it sound like it was going to be this brain-busting essay, but it’s only 4-5 pages, so I’m not too worried about it at this point. He wanted us to break off into small groups for the last third or so of the class to brainstorm a thesis for our papers, but instead I met up with my other group to discuss our presentation next week. A couple of the kids I’m working with had an idea of making a short video clip to show during our presentation—which could be cool, if done well—but I think it could turn out to be a little time consuming. I don’t know. We finally split up the workload, and agreed to meet up on Sunday to put everything together. This assignment is pretty pointless quite frankly, but I’m just looking forward to getting it over with. I talked with the professor for a couple minutes after class to go over some ideas for our lecture, but kinda wanted to get out of there ASAP—the guy can be a little flaky. While I was waiting for Stefy’s class to let out for the afternoon I called my mom and chatted for a few minutes. I guess she finally got her U2 tickets, and sounded pretty excited about the show—even though she’s not seeing them until mid-December. It was good to catch up with her though. Stef finally came downstairs at around 4:45, so we went through our new routine of making a quick stop at the apartment on our way over to the tennis courts. It was a little bit cloudier today, but still very warm, so it was pretty perfect tennis weather. Still, I think our recent streak of court time was finally catching up with us, since we were both getting pretty pooped out after only about 45 min. We grabbed some Cosí on the way back to the pad, and settled in for our usual TV lineup. It was kind of a low-key evening again, but it’s definitely a good system to follow up our exercise with a night in front of the TV.

Tuesday, April 05

The weather just keeps getting better and better. Yep. It’s officially spring on campus, and that’s always a good thing. My film classes were cancelled today since Prof. Fay is still out of the country, so I spent most of the morning/early afternoon starting work on my “Rear Window” paper. I really only got about a page done over a four hour period, but I did manage to fully re-read the article we have to cover, and pick out the scene I want to discuss, so it was actually pretty productive. I also squeezed in a couple hours of study time for my third Sociology exam tomorrow, which wasn’t too bad. Stefy got out of her last class a little before 4 this afternoon, so I went and picked her up on Grand River before doubling back to the apartment on our way to the tennis courts (was that confusing enough?). It was a little windier outside today, but a LOT warmer, so we got tired quicker. Still, Stefy keeps getting better every time we play. Today we worked on hitting some overhead shots in an effort to get ready to do serves later in the week. If we keep playing this much I think we’ll be calling her Steffi Graf for real. Anyway, tonight was a lot like last night: a quiet, lazy night watching TV. We managed to catch most of the women’s championship game on ESPN, and man that was a bummer. I really thought they had a good shot at pulling off another comeback, but it wasn’t in the cards I guess. Oh well… at least I didn’t lose any money on THAT one.

Monday, April 04

Man, I was soooo close to just blowing off my Sociology class today. Oh well… we have an exam on Wednesday, so it wasn’t a total waste I guess. Work was kinda slow again today with Wanda still sick, but I managed to keep busy. It was so gorgeous out this afternoon, so Stefy and I decided to enjoy the weather with another tennis session over by Fee. She was playing even better this time around, although I think a nice new racquet might be in order sometime soon. And maybe a cute tennis skirt ;-) We were pretty pooped after playing for a good solid hour and a half, so we decided to treat ourselves to some more Jersey Giants for dinner. I forgot how addicting that place can be. Anyway, that was pretty much it for today. More Family Feud and Jeopardy on TV. I also watched the f*cking Illini piss away the championship (and the $40 I WOULD’VE won) tonight. What a let down that was.