Spring Break Recap!

Alright, now I'd like to really welcome myself back to the blogging world with an official Lu-type blog which was promised early this morning in the blog about SIU. So let's get it.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Let's start with the happy moments. It was nice to get off the train and be in Chicago and not be relegated to a quick late night meal followed by an immediate bed time because of 6-hours of train nothingness. Saturday was pretty sweet, I'll admit it. I got my hair cut (for the first time since January), got some new clothes (including a spiffy outfit for the JT concert) and then I had an awesome drinking night with my guys. It was really nice cuz there was a guy that I hadn't seen in forever and it was nice to see him again. Those guys didn't leave 'til 5 a.m.

Sunday was cool because it was Selection Sunday. SIU got a nice seed (#4) and it even set up a potential match-up with the University of Illinois....but U of I choked it up in the end.

Tuesday was the big day, the day of the Justin Timberlake concert. I was upset because I didn't succeed in my goal of landing a true date for the concert but I put it past me when it came to the concert. JT is climbing his way up the ladder of becoming my idol. His concert was absolutely amazing, and that's putting it in the mildest of terms. He can sing, dance, play the electric and acoustic guitar, the keyboard thingy that looks like a guitar and the piano. His back-up dancers (the female ones of course) were absolutely drop dead gorgeous, one wore a bustier and needless to say she was breathtaking with her looks and the stripper-esque way that she moved. Favorite songs from the show: My Love (which he did the first verse in acapella ), Gone (which he did while playing the piano), What Goes Around Comes Around and Cry Me A River. Timbaland also made a guest appearance singing with JT on my favorite track Chop Me Up and on the closing song Sexy Back. He also played the music video for the collaboration between he, JT and Nelly Furtado--a song called Give It To Me--where Timbo disses Scott Storch (calling him just a piano man) and JT boasting "If sexy never left then why's everybody on my shit---don't hate on me just because you didn't come up with it." He also did "freestyle beats" on a synthesizer while on stage over several songs---highlights included "remixed" beats for Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone and The Fray's Over My Head. Oh, and did I mention that Justin performed with a full band and a real microphone--no earpiece mic. Justin deserves all the credit in the world. He's an excellent performer who has come a long way from his days as a member of 'N Sync. The one downer about the show was that sometimes the booming bass drowned out JT's falsetto and that was kinda whack (i.e. during Chop Me Up) oh and he didn't do Dick In A Box because there were too many damn lil' kids there. Shit, it was past their bed time anyway. That was my disappointment.

Thursday and Friday my mind was on the NCAA Tourney though I spent those two days making money and that makes me feel pretty good about things. I was happy to see my two favorite teams, UNC and SIU advance to the Sweet 16.

Saturday I spent my day doing laundry and I actually got into my first over-21 bar in Chicago which was nice cuz it was another night with the homies.

Oooh, I also got to see the Cubs play a few Spring Training games. Oooh, and I also got to listen to the DreX show. It was great being able to listen to DreX live and all new!

LOWLIGHTS:

An hour and a half before the show my mother and I had a big blowout argument that prompted her to give up her ticket to the concert. Things are good between us now, but then things were bad. She brought up a sore subject, basically picking a fight with me on that topic and then blamed me for not doing something she didn't give me the proper information to do. But it's all good now. My cousin Tony ended up going with me at the last minute. He was nice enough to pay for parking, Wendy's afterwards and he bought me a JT shirt.

Waking up Sunday morning for my 9 a.m. train ride after only 3 hours of sleep after a night of heavy drinking and spending $30 at the bar.....it just wasn't pretty. And I missed the first half of the SIU game.

A LESSON LEARNED:

Well, that's deserving of a blog of its own. That will come tomorrow. It's worth reading, it really is. Well, i twill be worth reading once it's written.


That was my Spring Break in a nutshell.

Winter Vacation Round-Up

There is nothing like killing time by blogging, I'll tell ya that right now! Since there's nothing better to do and there's no one at the apartment, what better time than now than to blog about my Winter Vacation.

It was a good vacation, nothing spectacular though. There were no road trips or kisses under the mistletoe and my first kiss of the New Year is still to be determined, but I'll say that this was a fun vacation. Granted, my parents and I spent a majority of my vacation at odds with each other for one reason or another, but hey it happens, right?

The highlights of my vacation included the Christmas and New Years Eve parties. Sure, the Bears stunk it up on the field, but that didn't stop us from having fun in the basement and partying 'til beyond 5 A.M. Christmas was awesome, as usual. I got a lot of nice things including some jerseys (Rex Grossman and Ben Gordon), a new razor that will hopefully provide me a closer shave, a really cool Cubs hoodie, a couple of video games and a whole bunch of movies!!! And what I didn't get for Christmas, I budgeted any gift cards and money and bought. I got myself an Alfonso Soriano Cubs jersey which was a must have in my mind! I also picked up the following DVDs: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile, Accepted, Dogma, Just Friends, The Negotiator and SNAKES ON A PLANE!!!!! I also picked up Nas' CD Hip-Hop Is Dead, a great one if you ask me. Beyond the materialistic good of Christmas I was able to spend time with Grandma, my aunt and my cousins which was totally awesome!!!

The most underrated part of my vacation has to be my Friday nights. My Friday nights in Carbondale were a complete albatross (save the weekend Tony and the gang came down for Christmas) so it should be a surprise to hear that I had 'Happy Friday's' during my vacation. I have Tony and the boys to thank again. Though they feel terrible that I can't go to Merkle's bar with them, they came to my house each Friday after their time at Merkle's and drank with me. It was great! We played pool, Madden and made some drunk phone calls. But they weren't your typical drunk dials, they were drunk singing dials. I'm thinking we shoulda made a greatest hits of songs we sang while we were drunk which included: What Hurts The Most, How I'm Doing, You Ain't Much Fun Since I Quit Drinking, I Got Friends In Low Places, Nobody Knows It But Me and numerous hits from artists like 'N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men, Barry White and of course Justin Timberlake. Speaking of which, I will be seeing JT in concert in March during spring break which I'm totally lookin' forward to. I'll be looking for a date (more to come in another blog.) Oh yeah, I got JT tix for X-mas too, how was that overlooked? Ooh and a bottle of Hennessey (also not to be overlooked.)

To recap winter break, it's quite simple: Family, Friends, Holidays, Drinking, Partying. Sounds like the recipe for quite a holiday season. ;-)

Vacation Recap

Well this was an interesting week of vacation. Nothing special or out of the ordinary happened. Nothing worth a press conference or anything. LOL. But I must say I enjoyed my time at home.

Monday I spent half the day in C-Dale and didn't get home til abut 10 pm. It was great to be back even though I missed What About Brian/Lu? I wasn't sure about staying the extra two days in C-Dale over the weekend cuz it was dead, but the pool and the drinky and the Winston's was worth it.

Tuesday wasn't terrible. Got to see grandma again, and she got to cook me breakfast. Gotta love family that loves to cook for you. I also got to drive mom to work, I'm sure that's the reason she misses me most, she misses her chauffer. Oh and I got my nails done (yes again) cuz really my nails were messed up, but I must say since I've gotten them done twice I've quit one of my worst habits, which was chewing my nails.

Wednesday and Friday weren't really worth anything.

Thursday, Thanksgiving was amazing (minus the SIU loss to Arkansas!) Of course the highlights included deep fried turkey, mom's mac & cheese, grandma's Puerto Rican rice, mashed potatoes and corn, apple-peach cobbler and cheesecake!!!! And Thursday night was great cuz I got to see my cousins and aunt and I got to chill with Tony and the gang.

Saturday was getaway day and I helped mom decorate for Christmas and stuff and before I knew it I was on my train back to Carbondale.So, here I am, back in Carbondale until December 18th when I'm home for 21 days for X-Mas break.

I hope everyone had a good break, now it's time to close this semester strong!