What a weekend!

I can think of one word to sum up this past weekend, AWESOME! I have a fantastic time with several MMB trumpet friends last weekend, some of whom I have not seen in a long time. Here's a recap of the exciting events:

Tailgating - Tailgating for a night game is quite the experience, especially since it was sunny and 65 on Saturday afternoon. I wish Michigan would play night games at home every now and then because the atmosphere is sweet (when it is not too cold). There are several large and free parking lots on Northwestern's campus. We set up our tailgate about 4 hours before kickoff and started drinking. I bought a bottle of Boone's for old times sake. How did I ever drink that crap in the past? It must have been because it was the easiest way to get drunk for less than $5.

Some of us decided to make up a new game called "Beerball". Essentially, it's like touch football except that you must hold a beer at all times. Dropped your beer is a far worse infraction than dropping a pass. It was a fun tailgating game! We should get the creators of "Baseketball" to make a sequel with this game!!

Game - We had front row seats in the corner of the end zone where most of the touchdowns were scored. Since the first row of seats was 6 feet off the ground, the seats were SWEET! We made a lot of noise and came up with some creative yet clean taunts for the Northwestern mascot that kept coming over to us (who names their mascot "Willie"...seriously). Oddly, their mascot stopped coming to our area of the stadium once it was clear that Michigan was going to win. About 30-40% of the stadium was rooting for Michigan. It was nice to see us represent so well on the road.

There's something about watching a football game with the old hockey band crew (The Bright "twins", TheJSB, Turk, etc) that brings out the best in me at a sporting event. I haven't been that crazy at a sporting event in way too long. I can't be that obnoxious/insane watching a game here in Connecticut since none of my friends share the same passion for their school.

Post-game - We were staying in a hotel about 30 minutes from downtown, so by the time we got back to the hotel and changed into our Halloween costumes, it was midnight. Thankfully, the bars in downtown Chicago close at 4AM AND since it was daylight savings, they really closed at 5AM. I revived my "Where's Waldo" costume from last year (sans glasses since I lost them). It was a hit around the bars and attracted some funny comments from random strangers. I didn't really drink at the bars since I was pretty beat from a long afternoon of drinking, but I still managed to have a good time (and even dance a little ). I'm not a 4AM type of partier, but I don't get to see my trumpet friends that often, so it was a lot of fun for one night.

Mouse and Mo did drunk dial me like they "threatened" in the Friday comments. I wish I had heard my phone ring because I'm sure it would have been a fun conversation. Something tells me I'll be hearing from them again some other time after 2AM...just a hunch.

Sunday - I watched the Lions-Bears game with The FraudPolice on Sunday. Damn the Lions are just a crappy team. Spending a lifetime rooting for a perpetually crappy team sucks. I feel really bad for Lions fans that also like Michigan State! :)

After getting back really late last night and getting little sleep on Saturday, I was dragging today. Today's exhaustion was worth it since the weekend was so much fun.

I'll post a couple good pictures once I have them. Yes, I know I need to buy a digital camera. It's on my list of holiday gifts for myself, so I will have one soon. In the meantime, I'll wait patiently for TheJSB to send me some of the awesome pictures she took last weekend.

Weekend preview

I'm off to Chicago tomorrow afternoon for the UM-Northwestern football game. A bunch of the MMB trumpets of yesteryear are gathering in the windy city, and I am pumped. It'll be nice to the TheJSB and crew and get away from exam central for a few days. I think "Roomie" needs some space away from me as crunch time approaches for her exam. My laziness around the apartment probably annoyes her more than normal these days.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up with the FraudPolice and maybe even Gary1 as well while in Chicago (I'm not very good at this whole nickname thing). This is going to be a SWEET weekend!! I hope we beat the Wildcats. They have purple pants for crying out loud!! GO BLUE!

Iowa weekend review

So last weekend I went to visit Mpls Ju in MN. Most of the weekend was spent in Iowa since were drove down there for the Michigan-Iowa football game. WHAT A GAME! We won in overtime and (sort of) rushed the field afterwards. Iowa is a great place to watch a football game. Of course they have their fans who talk shit and yell at you because you are wearing enemy colors, but many of the fans were really nice. One group even invited Mpls Ju and I to their tailgate for a beer and chatted with us (two random strangers) for half an hour.

Of course it was fun to hang out with Mpls Ju as well. The long car ride down to Iowa City was fun since Mpls Ju is good company, as long as you "pay attention to her" (sorry Ju, but that is your #1 quote in my book). I don't get to see her more than a couple times a year anymore, so it's always nice to visit for a weekend. I feel bad that I was too tired to have fun at the bar at the end of the night when we got back to Minneapolis. It was a long day and I am just plain weak.

It was nice to get out of town for a weekend. Life here is pretty boring since all my friends are studying for SOA exams in the next couple weeks. My nightly options are a) stay in or b) run errands/go shopping or c) leave town. I have done plenty of all three options this fall.

Here is a cool picture of me and Ju after the game. Note the wonderful scoreboard in the background! :)

I'm a Full of Shit Actuary (FSA)!

Today was a great day! At precisely 9:12AM, I received an e-mail from the Society of Actuaries informing me that my executed professional development plan has been approved and that I am eligible to attend the Fellowship Admissions Course in March. That means that once I attend a two day seminar in a wonderful warm city next winter (on my company's dime), I will officially be an F.S.A. (Fellow of the Society of Actuaries). After six years of taking actuarial exams, attending "professional development" seminars, doing an extensive research project, and even writing papers, I am DONE! The FSA exam process was incredibly difficult. All you non-actuaries probably remember the ridiculous studying I did for these exams in past years. It feels SO GOOD to be done (even though I have not had to take a brutal exam in nearly two years). I should have been finished with my final requirements a few months ago if I didn't procrastinate the last couple requirements, but who cares. I'm done now! :)

They just don't know

So my roommate has been trying to convince me to watch the movie Drumline for a long time now. "Roomie" was so insistent I watch this movie that she rented it from Blockbuster and told me that she would not return it until I watched it. Well, that was two weeks ago. Finally she said that if I didn't watch it tonight she was going to take it back. My friends out here think that Drumline is an accurate reflection of what my marching band experience must have been like in high school and college.

The movie SUCKED! I would call it a waste of two hours of my life except that I laughed so hard at the really dumb parts. I am a cynical person in general, but I couldn't believe how over-the-top and stupid it was. I got a kick out of everytime my roommate and my other friend "Hawkeye" who was over asked me if some event from the movie happened to me in marching band. There were many looks of disapproval in response to those questions.

Other than that, I had the regular Wednesday happy hour after work. All the poor saps taking SOA exams get together weekly for a happy hour. Since exams are like 1-2 weeks away, they went to a coffee bar near the library, so I had hot chocolate instead of beer. It was cold out today, so I didn't mind. I can't wait for exams to be over so that I can have fun around here again. It's been a slow couple months around here with the exams. I need to leave town to have fun.

Welcome!

So I'm bored and decided to start a blog. This should be fun. We'll see if I actually use this much going forward.