While I'm bored at work...
Poor LiveJournal getting ignored in favor of the running blog. In all honesty that stuff is starting to rule my life anyway. I have to be the most dedicated fat runner in a 60 mile radius by far. Yesterday's run actually had me baffled at my improvement on the short 5K distance, but it shouldn't have, given I just blew away my best 8K time by about 3 minutes (with half of it in the snow). Anyway, enough of that, because I've already thrown the link for it up here.
In other athletic news, I'm really getting disenchanted with sports here. All the public money going into them has pissed me off. I've pretty much pulled myself away from attending MSU basketball and hockey because they're killing me. I'm just donating the money to the International Studies Program for their study abroad in Cuba. Anything to make relations with them better so I can get some cigars has more in it for me than going to those games right now. I've cut out a ton of watching hours lately, and if I'm paying any attention at all, it's on radio while doing something else. Other than English Premiere League Football, I'm starting to really lose interest and I have better things to do.
We also had our annual FVD celebration after designing our shirts for this year (a broken heart in each hand of the Spirit of Detroit made into a motivational poster...pic later maybe) while watching the movie Pervert! Basically, if you're looking for a good sexploitation flick with a former California gubernatorial candidate and a claymation penis, it's surely for you. We did Detroit again this year for Nick's sake. Usually it rotates back and forth, but he's in grad school and it was during the week, so we could cater to him. Detroit was dead on the 14th. The lovebirds were sparse everywhere, other than the casino.
We went to Nikki's (best pizza and greek food in Detroit) with our matching shirts and nobody was there. There were 2 people other than the 7 of us before we got there and only 2 couples showed afterward. It was bizarre, but maybe everyone escaped to the fancy suburbs. I really don't know. I do think, though, that we have the holiday right. I mean, sure it was birthed out of a cynicism of me being lonely and Valentine's Day being the date my father died, and just a general hatred of the day, and one year, where I just said "fuck this, I'm sick of feeling sorry for myself," but despite it being birthed out of being distraught over an exclusionary holiday we've never used it to take it out on couples that are enjoying it as such. We're not out to ruin other people's V-Days. We've just modified it, and even though some of us are with people, we've decided it's still better to have a holiday where we get together with all friends, single or in relationships, to enjoy the night. I didn't abandon it because I got a girlfriend. I just think it's horrible to force people to feel like some sort of freak because they're alone that day. What we do is better than the holiday, and it grows every year.
We followed up Nikki's with a trip to the old Shillelagh, which I haven't been to since I was 21, because it's elbow-to-elbow at all times. We walk in and there was nobody there but a 4 seat string of Woo Girls dressed up looking for a Valentine (or some dopes to buy them drinks all night). We burned through several pitchers of Sierra Nevada, Strongbow, Noble Pills, and a few other odds and ends, enjoying the night. Illy Mack, a local Detroit artist, ended up sitting in a corner with a budweiser sketching people at our table and we kindly gave him a donation for his work. He's like a local celebrity and until last night we've never had the pleasure of running into him. It makes us a little more legit as city-goers down there.
As the night wound down, the girls at the bar eventually cursed out our table on their way out for not buying them drinks, to which Mike replied "We're Not Interested!" Jessi and Jen went to the restroom after them, and apparently one of them shit a belt, because there was one in the toilet. This left us alone with the bartender, and while the Gipsy Kings version of "Hotel California" played, Joe and Mike pantomimed "The Jesus" wiping down his bowling ball. He stopped the music, and said, "I always play this song until I see someone do that, and then I gotta shut it off and tell them to stop." That led to pretty much the entire Big Lebowski being quoted as we were wrapping up the night there.
After, we headed out through Greektown Casino, a song that we used to close down our nights with at Karaoke/Bowling wednesdays played through the casino speakers as we went to the elevators to leave (Journey "Don't Stop Believin"...yes, we are lame caucasian stereotypes). Sometimes you have moments that let you know you're right where you belong at that time, and I think that was one of them for all of us, especially Mike.
Can't believe I wrote all this without something coming up at work. I have some big things going here, but everything is on someone else right now. I cleared my plate Thursday, and today's been dead except for a few non-haz soil shipments and a few invoice entries. I'm in the 2nd month of my new contract and if my current suggestion is implemented, it will mean the end of our #1 hazardous waste stream, and an estimated $30K savings (that's being super-conservative to the point of insanity, but I don't promise more than I can deliver). That would completely take care of the savings I'm supposed to give over the next 3 years and then some (not to mention I've already set in place two, for sure, $13K reductions already this year). There's no way it will get rejected, it's just too good for cost and a huge reduction in environmental impact and future liability to not send the stuff out for reclaim. Who says being green costs too much? Recyclers for almost everything are popping up all the time, and a lot of them will give you money for things these days. Most of them depend on industrial and commercial business to get the bulk of their materials anyway, and they're not that hard to find here anymore, especially with a tier 1 supplier that helps me find them.
Only 15 more minutes sitting around listening to the radio until I can leave and go get some Fish and Chips with Jessi and her dad. Maria and the Swiss Kicks tonight, and a return to Churchill's after at least a 6 month absence (pretty sure I haven't been there since Back to the Bricks).