I went to the football game last night. NU lost to a team that was ranked below us. I tried to start a chant "OVER-RATED" but it didn't pick up. I guess you don't do that to your own school. But I had a good time overall - I met up with Keith and Brian, who were my neighbors in Hinman-Lincoln freshman year. I hadn't seen either of them since Dillo Day, which was five months ago. I think I talked way too much, despite (or in spite of) the fact that I was sober at the game, and I could see they were at least thankful they didn't have to live with me anymore. I know I annoyed them quite a bit when we were freshmen, and I readily admitted that hanging out with them at the game was somewhat socially awkward. They invited me to their apartment on Ridge Avenue which looks like a tenement from the alley, like all the others, but was really neat on the inside with new wood cabinets and dishwasher. I mean it was still pretty messy as the apartments of college-age people usually are, but all nice and renovated. I had half a beer, then went downstairs to visit Tim, my roommate from freshman year. In September I ran into him near Kellogg and he invited me to his place - I guess it took me a month to accept his offer. Eric was getting ready for the Big Ten Media Day, which kicked off early today at the O'Hare Marriott. He went to sleep, then Brian came downstairs with that beer that I was drinking and I drank the half that was left. He made a comment about how he wouldn't let me get away with not finishing a beer. I guess either way something would be wasted - either me or the beer. It was some sort of German beer, Warstein I think it might have been called, so it was all very nice and proper. We had some fun with my camera (see photo above), they made homoerotic statements and gestures, I drank a Mexican beer, then they walked me to a block of my dorm. It was an evening full of nostalgia, all except the alcohol, because we didn't drink together freshman year except that one time I took Brian and Coh to a Russian party and we all became quite content.

That picture is now my facebook photo. I have noticed many facebook photos that have underage drinking in them, and at least one that has a firearm. I wonder if I'm the first to incorporate both elements into my photo. Probably not. What I should have done is also gotten a cigarette into the picture - I would have had the ATF on my ass (although they've also added explosives to their name and I don't have ready access to that). I should also make it clear that's not a handgun - rather it shoots very little balls that sting but don't puncture.

I've been doing a lot of facebooking during the last week. I even friended this girl that I had a crush on in eighth grade. I remember it as if it was just a few years ago. In fact, it was May 1999 in Québec. We had our French Club class trip to the part of Canada that speaks a bastardized version of Parisian. I was hanging out with her and thinking I really should let her know how I feel about her (FYI... this was before I really got into AIM...for an in-depth account of how I dealt with a similar situation last month, please see this entry here). We went into a restaurant, and I told her, "[name redacted], I have a crush on you." My heart was racing of course, but she thought it was a joke, and told the other people who were with us, "Guys, what did you make him do?" She might have thought my friends gave me money to say that to her. In any case, she rejected me, and later in the day said something along the likes of, "I'd rather be your friend than your girlfriend." It must have been a friendly way of saying "hell no you ugly pimple-faced dork loser who speaks with an accent and looks at me funny in homeroom." Which makes me wonder why I'm even typing this here since she confirmed me on facebook and can now access this site via my profile. But whatever, we've both moved on from that incident and now I just think of it as a silly fragment of my past. Never mind it left me scarred and afraid of women ever since. That's not her fault, just mine.