I Love Don Week

CELEBRATING: So, it's day 4 of "I Love Don Week" and what have you done to show you care? For those unfamiliar with "I Love Don Week", its the 8-days leading up to my birthday. True. "I Love Don Week" has 8 days because 7 days are simply not enough days to adequately celebrate the day I came into the world. Care to sing along?

On the fourth day of "Don Week" my true love gave to meeeeeeee.
One can of Frito Lay Jalepeno Cheese Dip,
The Mad Men Season 1 DVD boxed set,
Eight socks from Costco,
And one round of golf, guilt freeeeeeeee.

I've petitioned Congress to officially recognize this newest Holiday and I'm hoping you'll support my efforts. I promise 3 extra days of vacation to all government and Union workers.

ADMIRING: Our military. We saw fighter jets practicing about 2 hours south of TC. Just two jets doing loops, spirals, skywriting, and dives. It was awfully impressive. We assumed it was part of something going on at Rothbury. Maybe they were practicing for the Cherry Fest, too. The hundreds of people on the beach and all the boaters all over the lake all stopped in awed wonder. Strangely, it felt incredibly patriotic. Or maybe that's exactly how yer supposed to feel when you see your country's unparalleled military excellence, machinery, and precision. America! F' yeah!

MORE CELEBRATING: The release of Mad Men Season 1 on DVD and my receipt of said DVDs. Its every bit as awesome as I had anticipated and I can't wait to dive into those bad boys all week long.

EATING: This past weekend was as wonderful a Fourth of July weekend as I can remember. Perfect weather, fireworks, family, swimming, golfing, and BBQing. However, I didn't have a single hot dog, but I had burgers. Does that count as All-American? I had a shish kabob, which I suppose one could argue means I support terrorism. I also had pizza. Holy crap. That's some hippie, commie eating behavior ...I'm hitting a coney island and gettin' some hot dogs and fries for lunch. Shame on me. Maybe I should have just cut a few hot dogs up and added them to the ends of the kabob.

LISTENING: To a new CD my sis recommended ...Charlotte Sometimes's Waves & the Both of Us. Damn those folky people ...I can't even understand the title so I suspect the lyrics will lose me completely. Also, I'm really enjoying The Black Keys as reviewed by young Kevin Miller on spunkybean. I only downloaded Attack & Release and Rubber Factory but I enjoy them both and have been listening during my running and biking. Good tunage.

BEGINNING: Reviewing my old journals. I have 3 spiral bound notebooks dating back to my college years where I wrote down ideas, cut and clipped articles, wrote the beginnings of short stories, poems, and other random stuff. I'm hoping there's some brilliant stuff in there. I'm also hoping to weed out the bona fide craziness so in the event, many years down the road, my children and grand children find these musings locked inside an old footlocker they come away with a fond look inside my head and what I thought when I was 20, 24, or 28 years old. I want to rip out the pages that paint me as a troubled youth who should've been locked up.

REVIEWING: Old journal entries, Part 1. Hey. It's a photo from my Senior Year All Night Party. Look at me. I'm wearing a hot pink hat that says "Chicago Bullshit" on it with a Chicago Bulls logo. I was allowed to wear that to a high school event? In 1991? The hot pink was so "hot" its entirely possible nobody could see the profanity on said hat over the glare. Apparently the theme of my Senior Year All Night Party was something beach related because I'm in a picture with 9 other people and there are beach balls and surf boards. Wow. 1 picture. Great memories.

Here's a copy of a toast I gave at my brother's wedding. Lotta words there ...maybe an entry for another day. I remember I got a lotta laughs.

OK, here we go. A movie premise. An exhcange of emails with my friend Darrin about said movie premise. A group of 30-something ex-frat brothers, tired of their ever increasing stagnant lifestyles, kick around some ideas for fun and adventure - New Orleans, Vegas, cattle rusting, or running with the bulls. All agree none of those things are really feasible but instead invent an eco-challenge for regular guys hoping to capitalize on environmentally conscious trends and meet some granola girls. Word of the event sweeps the nation and beer league softball teams, bowling teams, and Knights of Columbus guys from all over the country start signing up. What these ex-frat brothers thought would be a lark becomes a calling for every 30-something ex-athlete, ex-dreamer and the generally lethargic Gen X is born again and the younger generation begins to realize they can change the world.

Hmmm. Like Old School but with a "green" message and life lessons. I was so young and naive. And unmotivated, apparently, because that entire idea was spelled out in 5 email exchanges and then nothing was ever done.

Well that was fun. All that stuff can stay. I ripped the 5 pages of notes I took when I was taking a writing class at Second City because it wasn't really noteworthy. Just notes from a class. Ok ...well here's the "10 Rules of Writing" they taught us on the first day. And with that, I'll bid you 'good day.'

Rule #1: Remember you are writing for the stage.
Rule #2: Pick 30-minutes (the same 30-minutes) and write EVERY DAY! (he made us underline it thrice).
Rule #3: Don't worry about being funny.
Rule #4: Don't be afraid to fail.
Rule #5: Quanity, not quality at this point.
Rule #6: Listen to your excuses, then blow them off and ignore them.
Rule $7: Write ideas down during the day; keep a pen & paper near your bed; never let a thought escape.
Rule #8: Make a brainstorm list (ideas, pictures, etc)
Rule #9: Do your homework for this class; always type scripts; bring 3-copies
Rule #10: YOUR WORK IS NOT SHITTY! (kill your ferocious self-editor)

And here's the 3 rules to improv...

Rule #1: Yes, and ...always be in agreement, never argue; DON'T DENY
Rule #2: Don't ask question.
Rule #3: Stay in the moment