So last night, when I was sleeping, I woke up from this loud rumbling. I thought to myself, “here comes the storm.” But I didn’t here anything else. I thought it was really weird but just went back to bed. Then this morning I find out that in southeastern IL there was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake. I knew that there was a fault line across the United States there, but never even thought that I would hear/feel something like that. It was pretty amazing and cool that I survived the earthquake 08.

Another amazing thing that has been going on is the return of the Office. Yesterday’s offisode was amazing, and reaffirmed why I love Jim so much. I do not want to ruin anything, but you should really check out the latest episode from NBC website. This was the second offisode since the hiatus. The first one, I thought, was sub-par and I was thinking that if that continued, then I would have to abandon the show all together. This second one, grabbed me back.

My last thought today is to let you know that this summer I am going to go to a John Mayer concert. I am not looking for opinions on Johnny-boy, but I just am interested in what other concerts you have all gone to. My favorite so far was a Weezer/Foo Fighters concert. My roommate and I decided to go that day and drove to Allstate Arena and it was amazing. So let me know. See-you-bye…

So I have been soooo busy the last couple of weeks. This weekend is my birthday…. thank-you, thank-you. I will get to see so many of my friends this weekend because several of them are coming from home. Now I know you really didn’t think I had any friends, but I have to disappoint you. Not only that, but my parents are coming on Sunday to buy me a birthday lunch!

As much as I do not like to promote my birthday, I do love having them. Except sometimes. You know those days, when it is your birthday but something bigger than that happens. You feel like a jerk. It is like that one Offisode when its Michael’s birthday but the entire office is waiting to hear about Kevin’s skin cancer.

Like I said this week has been crazy. Wednesday night I went to the Sox game, only to see them lose horribly to the Twins. That should not have happened. It was freezing cold, and they lost. One of the only awesome parts was when everyone left at the 5th inning. We already had good seats but we got to make them even better. We got to walk down 30 rows to the 2nd row! Then we really got to “see” the game… and heckle the twins’ players.

Anyways I have to get going to class, but my last little inquiry of the post is for everyone to think about either their best birthday ever or their worst. My best was one year when I had my party at Discovery Zone. You know that place with the tunnels, the ball pits, and then the arcade games! I’m sure I invited everyone from class and got tons of presents (none of which I remember) but its the thought that counts, and a lot of people where thinking of me! Just let me know how yours went. See-you-bye…

It is FINALLY HERE!  My last term here at NCC.  A lot of people have been pointing it out to me, asking, “can you believe its your last term?”  To be completely honest, it hasn’t hit me yet.  I think about week 6 it will.  Maybe even after this first weekend.

Although we have started taking classes and everything, I have not been fully engaged yet.  This Thursday - Sunday I am working the Shamrock Shuffle Expo in the city for Running Unlimited.  Its very exciting.  I am leaving here tomorrow and won’t be back until Sunday and that makes it very hard to get very involved yet.  I think once this is done, I will be able to settle a little bit.

I have also starting running….. again.  This time since the start of spring break I have run everyday except two over break.  I have been feeling good so far, and want to run a fast 5k in the spring.  I did a mile time trial just to see where I was at.  I ran a 5:06.  I wanted to break 5 but for only two weeks of some 30-45 min runs, I think thats respectable.  Besides my pacing was all off.  I wanted to run 75-75 for a 2:30 half and if I felt like I could move the second half I would.  That is not how it went at all.  I ran a 71 first 400 and I think that made the rest of the mile a mess.  I was still 2:30 at the half but dying rather than coming on.  Oh well… one more month and I will blow that time out of the water.

I need to say goodbye to my friend, Josh Hendricks, who left us here at NCC to move onto bigger and better things.  He was the sports information director here, and has gone to pursue another part of his career.  Good luck, buddy.  I hope to see you around.

Well I think that is it for now, Ill report back later and hopefully there will more to write about once this term gets going.

You know, my real last thought is about my childhood.  For the longest time, my dad would sing me some songs before I went to bed.  We would say a prayer, he would give me a glass of water and he would sing me two songs.  I could remember the first one very easily but the second one eluded me, until Easter.  I finally found out what it was.  I started to think how I looked forward to having this nightly ritual and was a little sad that he doesn’t do that anymore (yeah some of my friends made fun of me for that).  It also made me think about all the fun, innocent things I did in my youth ( so long ago, right?) But now that I am graduating college I really think about how innocent and fun it really was.  I want people to let me know something that they remember from their childhood.  Like walking to school with their brother everyday, or building forts by the creek with friends or living at the pool during the summer break.  I want to know what innocence you are missing.  See-you-bye…

So today I got a Zune. For those of you who do not know what that is, you should. The ipod era might be coming to an end. The Zune is a portable music device just like the ipod except way better. With my Zune I can connect with other Zunes to send and receive music, pictures or other files (kind of like bluetooth). The Zune also is constantly updated when it is connected to the computer so that it is always up to date with the latest firmware and software. I did not like my ipod at all because I always had problems with it. I am definitely excited about my new purchase.

We are about to enter into our finals week. I don’t know how but I made it through this term. My finals schedule is actually going to be very easy because most of my classes required a project or presentation instead of a final test. I definitely like that way better because I have no problem with presentations and I am way better at that than written tests.

Last night I went to the Concert Winds. It was a production performed by the North Central Concert Band. It was awesome! That was actually the first time I have been to a musical production here at NCC. I should have been going the whole time I was here. I guess I thought that I would be bored or something, but the music kept me engaged.

I also had a chance to finally go and see Jesus Christ Superstar, which was the senior musical this year. I thought it was great! I loved it because I look at the production and see that it was my classmates that put it together. They put in so much hard work and time into that and I think it paid off. Congratulations to my friends involved in that.

Well with that in mind I think I am going to get out of here. I have one more project that needs to get done by Tuesday. I have some time but not much. Once I am done with that it is SPRING BREAK, and then on to my last term. That makes me think of one very important question: is it still considered spring break if its not even spring yet? Think about it. See-you-bye…

I feel like it has been a while since I posted last. I’m sure that there are a lot of updates to inform you all about my personal life, but I will have to choose the most important. Here it goes:

After two years I finally got my DVD of Mr. NCC the year I was in it. IT was a blast doing that and my talent was awesome. I got three of my friends together and we performed the OK GO dance for A Million Ways. Here is a link of the video of the actual dance. It was awesome and my guys nailed it. Here is a picture of us at one of my favorite parts:

That is the matrix scene. Behind me are Monk and Collin Bourdage. Fighting me is Scotty Bush. That was amazing. If you want to see the video let me know so I can show you sometime.

Also in my life, I am making it through my second to last term of Senior year. My 12 credits are kicking my butt, but I’ll make it and then hopefully be able to coast a little next term. I am definitely excited for next year. I want to continue working at Running Unlimited, an independently owned running store in Palatine, where I am from. It looks as though that will happen! I have tried to stay connected by working select weekends and over breaks. Coming up in the next month I will be able to work the Shamrock Shuffle Expo for the store. That is always so fun. There are so many people, athletes, vendors and other stores. Plus it is in the city and I love the city! It is great experience for networking and for representing the store.

Moving on, I finally made my way to Mongolian Grill in Downtown Naperville. Last week was the experience. It was high energy and busy, just how I like it. The food was delicious! I ended up staying there from 6:30 to about 9:30. The company I was with was amazing and the atmosphere was very inviting. I definitely suggest making a lunch or dinner there sometime. You are able to make your own stir-fry dish. It was awesome!

Thursday night I have an etiquette night to go to. It is run by a few business organizations on campus. We are going to a superb restaurant, called Raffi’s. The meal is priced at about 30 bucks and we will be trained on professional and proper etiquette for dining and interviewing. It will only cost me $10! I am very excited, because of what I might learn and the sweet food we will be getting. Dr. Ernst, one of my business professors said that this should almost be a requirement for all business and management majors. I will try to let you all know how the experience goes.

Well those are the important/cool things that have been going on the last few weeks, but you all know that now is the time for the most important part of my blog, my deep thoughts…

I have this one friend who is obsessed with playing Tetris online.  I have another friend who can’t stop playing Snood.  Another, plays nothing but bubble shooter.  Although I have dabbled in certain games there is not one that I find so entertaining that I need to play it everyday for hours.  Why are these games so entertaining and why can’t I find a game that eats away at my life?  Those are two questions I constantly ponder.  So my challenge is to everyone tell me about an online game that you play all the time.  Rate the game (on a scale of 1-10) and then tell me why you like it so much… it may be my life’s next major endeavor…  See-you-bye…

I would like to say something in regards to the shooting that went on at NIU yesterday. My heart and my thoughts go out to all those affected and especially to my friends that were on campus yesterday. Please know that I am here if you need anything.   I will do all I can for you.  I also encourage everyone to comment on my blog and voice a prayer, or some thoughtful words so that we know that together we are thinking of and caring for those involved.

Again for those who have read this blog please support those who have been hurt by posting a small message to them. Thank -you.

Nobody has any idea how happy I was to see that I had three comments from last post AND all pertaining to my wonderful plant Tina. I thank everyone who said that I am not weird. You are probably lying but thats ok!

So my friend told me a sweet story the other day that I just have to share with you all. Let us call my friend…Fred. Fred has always wanted to jump on the hood of a car when it came running into him. He thought it would be like a 007 movie or something. Fred was walking across the street while going to class the other night. While he was in the middle of the cross walk a car came up but didn’t STOP! He got to jump on the hood of the person’s car. He said it was not as awesome as he thought it would be.

As soon as he jumped on the car hood he slipped and fell on the windshield and fell onto the street- don’t worry he is ok, no serious injuries but there is more to the story. The driver was a girl, we’ll call her Monica. Monica was freaking out, and was trying to make sure that Fred was ok. They started to converse in the middle of the street. People were going around them and honking while they were having a very intense conversation. Fred was a little flustered so he totally forgot to get this girls phone number and now he is kicking himself for not getting it. Now his search for the woman of his dreams continues on facebook and by word of mouth. He can’t find her. If you ask me, I think they are made for each other. If you hear anything, comment, and maybe we will be the century’s best matchmakers.

When I read that story above, I realized that it was much more exciting to hear than read, Fred just told the story so well. I posted a visual of the incident that happened. I apologize for it being pix-elated, but it is the only picture Fred’s sweet move.

I have a sweet-move story as well. One time I was at my friends house. They have a sprinkler that is motion sensored to keep raccoons and other animals from eating the fish and frogs in their pond. Before I knew this she told me to walk up to the pond to see the new fish. The sprinkler went off but didn’t get me. It didn’t get me because I tucked and rolled away from the blast. It was totally on reaction and I was so proud of my secret agent move.

I want anyone who reads this to write about a time that you made a sweet secret agent tuck and roll, or jump move… or any other cool reaction. I’m sure you all have something cool that you did out of reaction. If not, just write about your most embarrassing moment. That way we can laugh “with” you, instead of thinking you are cool. See-you-bye…

Well, I just found out that one of my good friends, Frank Martin, has a blog also. Not through the school, but he did link my blog in his so I will link his here. He is an English major so I’m sure that (<———–Frank ) his are much more interesting and detailed than mine, not to mention all my seplling mistakes. HaHa, I did that on purpose. Most of the time, it’s not. Click here for his blog.

I also am supposed to mention how much fun I had the other day at the Wrestling tournament, and that they won! My lil Brother, Ryan Carrigan, and I worked the tourney and we got to watch some great wrestlers, North Central is ranked 10th as a team and has some top-ranked individuals in the nation. Once again, at this tournament I got some sweet Lou Malnati’s pizza. That is my favorite place hands down. I usually get it once a week, and never get tired of it.

I just got a few new ringtones on my phone, both of which I made. The first is probably my favorite song ever. It is called The General by Dispatch. I love the beginning, and that is why it is my ringtone now. It goes as follows:

“He was a decorated general with a heart of gold, that likened him with all the stories he told, of past battles, won and lost, and legends of old, a seasoned veteran in his own time. On the battlefield he gained respectful fame, with medals of bravery and stripes to his name. He grew a beard as soon as he could to cover the scars on his face and always urged his men on…” (Ryan Carrigan (Lil Bro) ———->)

I absolutely love that song. I can just so vividly picture this great general, who is rough around the edges and so good at what he does
because he is so dedicated. Ye, he has a heart of gold. I guess I can’t explain it, but I hope that one day I can be a general, in my own life. If you want to hear this song, here is a video of Dispatch at a concert where they sang this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGlHeg7rybc

Either that or a pirate! Arrrrrr! I love pirates too. They can do whatever they want to, and have sweet songs also, like A Pirates Life For Me. As my last portion today, I ask everyone to comment and tell me what you would like to be. Maybe you want to be a doctor or a lawyer. Or maybe some of you want to be something cool ( doctors and lawyers are cool, kind of) like a knight, or samari. I can’t wait to see what you guys got for me. See-you-bye…

I guess I should start with an apology to my good friend Tim Brodeur. I did not mention him when I was telling my story about HS cross-country. He, his twin brother, Brian, and I were the three senior captains that year. We are all very proud.

My second shout out goes to Nick Guido, another NCC blogger, for telling my twister tourney story (if you don’t understand check his blog out). He deserves more than just a normal shout out because one late night when hunger took me over I went to Chipotle to find my friend behind the counter. He made me the best chicken burrito, with pinto beans, sour cream, cheese, mild salsa and, of course, GUACAMOLE! Thanks Nick! For those that wanted a visual to go with Nick’s blog here it is:

This is my last day at NCC for D-term (I will still be able to blog from my house). I am so happy that I will be able to go home finally. I miss my family and my friends from home. When we get together it is like we never were away. We just have fun doing stupid-fun things. Do not get me wrong, I love my friends here at school too, but it is always nice to get back to your roots.

This is going to be a very random blog because a lot has happened in the last week. So much that I haven’t even gotten to see my weekly installment of Heroes. I heard that it was unbelievable, and I am missing out for now. Don’t worry though because it is on my to do list for tonight.

One thing that will heighten that experience is the sweet hook-up I did with my computer and my TV. I figured out how to connect my computer monitor to the TV so that whatever is on my computer screen will now be on my TV. I do not have a DVD player, but I can play DVDs on my CPU. Now I have a DVD player…my computer. I am really happy so that now I don’t have to sit at my desk but rather on my sweet couch and actually be able to enjoy my movies.

As for my running, I got to run about 4 times last week. I think that was pretty good. It is not perfect but I have a long way to go before I get there. I think that I will get into some races come spring because that will provide for further motivation plus I think I still haven’t run my best yet.

Finally, I was just wondering if anyone else loved the fact that our first snow this year came on December 1st. I thought is was almost magical how we hit that day and we got some snow. Usually we have snow for Thanksgiving and then not at all for December… maybe we’ll actually have some for Christmas this year, that would be awesome! I love snow. For now. See-you-bye…

Well it is Wednesday again, and that means couple of different things. For one, that means that my finals are over! Its not that I get very stressed out about them to begin with but, its nice to know that I have a nice, long break ahead of me. A great time to see family and catch up with friends. Speaking of friends, again J-norts, thanks for your comment. Great job last weekend at the wrestling tournament. It being Wednesday also means that it is time for another delightful blog by yours truly. I have had a lot happen in the last week.

As an update, I would like to say that I made it through week #10 with ease. Although I had all those projects and papers, they seemed to take care of themselves and left me to enjoy turning them in.

It was also my first time working the Holiday Inn Tip Off Tournament for the men’s and women’s basketball teams. I worked eight games and had a blast. Both men’s and women’s won the tournament, and the men did it in exciting fashion. In a high-intensity game, the final decision came in the first overtime, after an assistant coach got ejected from the game and Mitch Raridon received six free throws. Congrats teams!

Personally, I dabbled a little bit in all the duties. The first one I did was the official score book. This is probably the most important job of them all. The time-outs, fouls, and score are all officially recorded. That means in discrepancies, they look to the book for answers. I was definitely nervous at first but definitely got the hang of it.

I also did what was called spotting. To take stats from the game it needs to be play by play typed into the computer. My job was to call the game, who shot and from where, and who got the rebound, who turned it over and stole it. That made it easier for the statistician to get the info correctly in the program. Considering I haven’t played b-ball in at least 10 years, I had to learn a lot about the rules and had to learn it quick because of the pace of the game.

Hopefully I will be able to work more games in the future because I enjoyed doing it at the tournament. Other jobs that I didn’t do this week included the shot clock, game clock and the announcing. For the men’s games we had the one and only Jim Godo as the announcer (there is your shot out ;))

Moving on to some of the finals I had. One of my classes was argumentation and debate. This class was awesome. Throughout the latter half of the term we partnered up and debated other pairs in class. Records were kept and on the last final day, the best two teams went head to head. I am proud to say that my team made it to the final round (where we lost horribly). But don’t worry, I learned a lot and the other team are thinking about trying the debate team this year. I also received a nice certificate, honoring my teammate and I as the second place debate team in class. It is definitely going to find a place on my fridge.

Well now that the first term is over, and we are going on an extended break, I want you to know that I will continue to blog over Thanksgiving and Winter Breaks. I’m sure that I will have plenty to talk about and you won’t be bored, so keep checking over the next month and a half.

My final question is more of a reflection. Laundry is not hard. I know how to do it, I have enough money to do it, yet I always find myself without underwear because I neglect to do my laundry. Instead of just getting up and doing it, I have decided to wear running shorts as underwear until I have more time to buy more underwear. I figure that if i am going to run out of anything it should not be underwear. Why is it that this seems easier than just doing my laundry? It is not going to do itself, and it just will keep building up. Until I do that though, do not judge me because I wear shorts as underwear for a week.

I guess I could pose a question from this… why is it that my Mountain Fresh scented detergent does not smell like mountains, and definitely not fresh mountains at that? Shouldn’t there be a clean clothes smell, like new car smell? Think about that.  See-you-bye!