Sunday, September 26, 2010

Growing Old

So I haven't written in a while.  I'm sorry, I've just been really busy helping my great aunt hana move.  My grandma and great uncle Johnny were there but they are so old now that its hard for them to lift anything heavy so I did almost all the heavy lifting down 4 flights of stairs was quite interesting...

Anyways, I'm so glad we got everything moved out.  Wow, i guess i have to go back to Thursday where I went to the museum of art in chicago.  AMAZING!  truly amazing.  They're art insititute demolishes ours.  They have renoir, monet, manet, van goh, munch, jackson pollock, picasso, el grecco, just so many amazing paintings there and all of them were pretty famous ones and they have a modern wing which is incredible too.  And i went on a free night!  i took pictures imitating the ferris buehler moment where the camera slowly zooms in on that little girl in the pointilism picture then back on his friend then back to the picture but unfortunately they got deleted since i got a new phone today.  It's a touch screen, pretty nice, I'm happy I got it and it's still pretty small and convenient.

I got to spend the night by myself in Auntie Hana's old place last night which was really fun just being in the city by myself.  Also after moving Hana in to her new place I went downtown to Columbia College and saw some of their dance recitals.  They were incredible!

I usually don't appreciate dance that much cuz I think sometimes its really pointless and random, but they combined good dancing with creative choreography which made for both a humorous and intriguing dance routine.  I loved it though and it was nice to see dance can be so much more interesting than i thought.  And the people there are crazy with half their head shaved and spiked dyed hair on the other.  Piercings everywhere.  All that jazz.  It was pretty awesome.

It's been a really long and tiring weekend I'm pretty tired.  I'm so glad God brought me here to be able to help because no one else really helped hana out besides the other old people, and no one could really lift heavy things.  I love the city so much and am going to miss it!  But I hate eating out and can't wait to get some real homeade food in princeton instead of eating out all the time.

Oh i forgot there was this crazy guy on one of the buses who everyone was wierded out by so they all like moved away from him but i didn't really care so i was sitting next to him.  He was saying something about Jesus and goats with grass or something.  He made me recite some random sentences and then told me there was a movie coming out about him with "Harry Potter" (Daniel Radcliffe) starring in it.  He said none of it was true though so not to believe what the movie said.  I said I wouldn't.  The guy was really nice, though, and I talked to him about screenwriting because I'm reading about screenwriting.

So, now I'm at a hotel in Addison with my dad who came in today.  I'm exausted and so tired and ready to just sit back and watch some glee, fringe, project runway, 30 rock, the office, and all of my favorite shows.

Love you all and hope you're having an amazing semester.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Dave Matthews and Terrorists

SOrry I haven't written in a while, I've been a bit busy.  Anyways, a few days ago I went into the city to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform.  It was an amazing performance.  And millenium park is so beautiful and there concert hall is like 100x better than the Orange County one.  Anyways there had to be at least 15,000 people there standing up sitting and everything.  After the performance they shot up fireworks all around the arena where we were listening.  This little girl about 5 or something next to me started laughing and jumping up and down, it was really cute, it's something Rachel would have done as a child haha.

Tonight I'm heading to Navy Pier to see Romeo and Juliet in the SHakespeare Theatre that is shaped exactly like the globe (Shakespeare's theatre for all you non-English majors).  That should be pretty fun.  Oh I forgot to tell everyone that I've moved downtown for the week to my Aunti Hana's so I can help her move and pack up and everything.  So today I'm going to hang out in the city for a while.  Hana and my grandma are funny since they're sisters, they act just like sisters would lol.

When I first got to my Aunti Hana's (My Aunt lives right next to Wrigley field fyi) Dave Matthews was performing and the concert was sold out.  YOu could hear the music from her apartment.  Anyways, it was pretty amusing because the FBI had given this terrorist a fake bomb to plant, and he planted it at 52nd and Clark which is like right across the street from the my Aunti Hana's.  And after he planted it they arrested him and so now I guess he's going to the jail.  So I almost got blown up by Terrorists!!!  haha luckily the FBI got to him first so it never really was a threat.

I hope you all are doing great.  I'm not really homesick, but I do miss hanging out with you guys.  Pray for me.  Mornings are the worst but by the afternoon I'm usually okay.  Some days are good some are bad.  But life goes on.

~Dale

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Hancock State of Mind

I heard that Glee is doing Empire State of Mind on the season opener and I got to hear a clip this morning so ya I was a little excited, hence the punned title.

Anyways, I got dropped off at the field museum this morning and walked around the whole museum.  It's freakin huge too, not like a California Museum but actually, legitimately HUGE!  It took me a really long time.  I saw this awesome exhibit that was of all the different gemstones.  They had like huge diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, ruby's, the whole shabang in there.  It may sound gay that I was excited about this display, but if you saw all the massively huge gems they had in there you would have gotten dollar signs in your eyes too lol.  I never knew though that like Ruby's can be blue, red, green, white, and so can all the other gems.  I always thought emerald meant green and sapphire meant blue, but they don't.  Shows how much of a boy I am.

Also I got in free to the Field Museum along with the Observatory, which was pretty sweet.  So after I walked all over them I went into downtown Chicago and just walked around, bought some stuff from urban outfitters, and tried to sneak into the Sears Tower... but it's impossible.  Afterwards I walked to Navy Pier and rested at the end and continued reading my book Why Mars and Venus Collide.  It's such a good book written by a guy who has stayed married to the same woman his whole life, so I guess he knows what he's talking about, and I feel like I'm learning so much about things I noticed but never really understood before. 

So basically I've walked at least 5 miles today and I'm super tired.  I haven't really eaten that much except some cereal this morning and part of a sandwich.  I took the metro to DePaul University where Bob's writing up a news report on the women's soccer game, so I'm just sitting in the office hanging out until he's ready to go, which probably won't be for a while even though its basically 8 here! 

I love being free and hanging out on my own, but I also really really miss hanging out with people I know and love.  It's nice being alone and able to ponder my thoughts but sometimes I get sick of hearing myself talk to myself...

Thanks a bunch for listening and I hope you all have wonderful and God-filled and blessed days.

Love always,

Dale

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Superbia...

I'm getting a little bored sitting around in Super Suberbia.  It's like farmland basically out here and even though I work out and walk a few miles every day I need more stuff to do.  I think I'm going to be buying a 30-day pass for the train and buses and just travel the hell out of this place.  It's going to be funny getting lost, ya i probably will be out some nights all night because I won't know how to get back haha.

So, I'm excited to be heading to Tampa eventually, I probably won't have a place to stay so I'm going to see if i can stay in a hostel for $23 a day!  How freakin sweet is that?  Then I'll probably check out all the beaches in Tampa and see how far I can get around Florida lol... I'll try to stay safe ;) but don't worry I never carry any money on me anyway so the worst thing that could happen is i get a little bruised and lose my clothes or somethin, haha.

I've been reading this book Why Mars and Venus Collide.  It's an awesome book and it's helped me so much understand myself and understand her.

Wisconsin was all right we got back a day or somethin ago.  I can't wait til I'm 21!  I'm not usually excited about birthdays, but now I can sit down at bars and stuff haha!  I guess Tampa's going to be really awesome ;) Then I get to hit up Boulder and hang out with Johnny and go to some sweet halloween parties and such, I'm super excited for that...

Anyways the present is a little boring right now so I'm kinda looking ahead to the future... anyways I'm going to see if I can go get that Chicago bus/train month pass so I can just roam around whenever I want, definitely going to get lost so much, and take the wrong trains, and probably be out all night not knowing where i am haha.

Love you all and talk to you when something exciting happens!

~Dale

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Uncle George - aka Superman

So I'm in Wisconsin right now for all you people.  Peyton has this hilarious uncle named uncle George (i think it's actually his great uncle he's like 60).  Anyways I've hung out with him just as much if not more than peyton cuz he's hilarious.

He is like addicted to smoking its so funny and he says these crazy things.  IN the car the first time we were with him he was convincing peyton he was superman (he used to be a policeman and once found these people who had tin foiled all the electronics in their house so the aliens couldnt get him.  Anyways he went on to say how he was an alien and in 2012 they were coming back for him and how they could control the weather and how this was how al gore got 100 million dollars.

Anyways last night we were at thie restaurant and he was talking to our Bulgarin waiter telling her how she should hook his nephew (who is about 19 and was sitting next to me) up with her or one of her friends.  He got him to write down his phone number for her.  He told her that he was too old for her and the only way they could be together is if he had a 100 million dollars then it would be ok.  It was really funny and he makes rediculous comments all the time.  I was sitting next to him at the musical we saw and there was an old guy in a play and the old guy in the play said something and Uncle George yells out "haha thats me!"

He's pretty hilarious, but anyways he's been my main source of entertainment the week long.  I walked to church this morning and a guy from the church saw i was kinda stranded and gave me a lift back to the hotel.

Marlo sometimes acts down to peyton's age which can be kinda annoying because she doesn't punish him very much and because of this whenever i try to get him to go to the pool with me or walk along the beach with me or something he doesn't want to if his mom isn't there...
Just a few gripes and complaints but I've been having fun just chilling out and hanging out with Marlo's family, i think i spend more time with them than she does, for some reason she doesn't like them very much.  Last night there were two tables for dinner and I sat with all the adults by myself while Marlo and Peyton sat at the kids table, it was interesting, but i had fun.

Oh and the musical was called guys and does and was pretty funny it was a very regional play.  I've really been enjoying being able to walk or swim every day, it really makes you feel fresher every day and less gross like sitting on the couch all day does.  I miss you all a ton and would love to be able to hang out with every single one of you.

I've been talking to Marlo about church and stuff and she said she went for three years but then the church kinda fell apart when the pastor cheated on his wife and the church became divided.  I told her about our church and how it kinda fell apart, she told me she was into some meditation thing now.  I guess you could pray for her that God would show her the way... it frustrates me so much sometimes how much us as human beings mess up churches and drive people away, i know it almost drove me away...

Oh and pray for me because my Cousin Johnny is getting really sick and I'm supposed to be going to FLorida at the beginning of next month so I don't know how that will turn out, maybe God wants me to be there and help out but maybe not.

Love,

Dale

Friday, September 10, 2010

The Open Door...

So right now I'm in Wisconsin in Door County.  Apparently we went here as children, but ya don't remember.  It's a little boring up here but hey i get free wifi WOOT!  There are some beautiful sights around here though so I'll probably go running tomorrow to look at them.  The waterfront scenery is really beautiful.

Anyways, one of payton's uncles on Marlo's side is super funny.  He's like old and he talks and acts like this guy from the office.  Ok so the episode is Phyllisus's wedding and Dwight kicks out this old guy who has altheimerz cuz he thinks he is a wedding crasher.  Anyway this guy talks about aliens and how he can contact them and how they can control the weather like Al Gore who made 100 million dollars off his ability to control the weather.  He's really funny and he thinks California is a "jungle" even when I said I was from ORange County he's like ya that's a horrible place with tons of crime hahaha...

The past few days have been a little rough... I hardly sleep at night anymore partly because my dreams are so bad and intense sometimes I really find it hard to distinguish whether or not I was dreaming or not, it's kinda crazy i always thought that was the only flaw in inception, but after the insanely scary/real dreams I've had I can totally understand I have to convince myself they're fake, it's probably just because I'm super emotional right now, but hopefully they will fade away.  I really don't think I'll ever sleep an 8 hour night again though a good night now is 6 hours I don't really count anymore like I used to...

We went to this random movie/mystery play tonight that won a bunch of awards but wasn't really that good.  Marlo hated it lol and thought it was the worst thing she'd ever seen and Payton fell asleep.  Anyways the hotel is pretty nice and is a 1-bedroom place for only $89 a night which is really freakin good for a 1-room place.

I miss all you guys so much!  I'm going to see if Jeff will take me skydiving with him when I'm in Sanfran... don't tell my grandmother or she might have a heart attack knowing two of her loved ones could die at one time lol.

God Bless you and I love every single one of you!

~Dale

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

O - C - D

I was walking to Barnes and Nobles today and realized Dear God I have so bad OCD.  And I'm not like just saying that as some people say you know but I really do.

Take for example when I'm walking on sidewalks.  I always walk with two steps or three depending on the distance between each crack between the slabs and I have to have it evenly distributed so that one foot never exceeds the other in the ammount of times it goes first and last.  When  I was a kid I used to have to step on the tiles in my house in a specific order and touch certain ones so that everything would be evened out.  WHen I sit down in a room like the one I'm in now, the first thing I notice is how many tables there are and whether they are evenly distributed across the room.  I always count the ceiling tials in any room and figure out the distance between the lights and tiles to see if they are even or not.  WIthout even thinking (Usually when I'm bored).

WIthout thinking I always line up things on my desk and if a book is on the corner of a desk I can't take it sticking out and if I'm by it I will always line it up with the edges.

I was watching criminal minds thinking that would be a perfect job for me, I love noticing patterns in everything I do.  For example in music I've noticed that all of the good musicals/ones i like always have a love triangle going on.  Look at Wicked you have Alfaba and Glenda going for Fierro, in Phantom its the Phantom and Raul for Christine, in Oklahoma its Judd and the main guy going for the girl, in Miss Saigon its Miss Saigon and the other girl he married after the guys heart, in Les Mis its eponine and cosette for the guy, Jekyll and Hyde its both girls in love with the same man but in different forms of jekyll and hyde respectively.  I could go on honestly forever.  And then I could tell you about music how the V-IV and V-V is an extremely popular chord in musicals and how modulating to the bVI and the bIII is extremely powerful in musicals and sounds nice, and that's why most songs use it.

If you could imagine how annoying my own mind is because of this you would understand why I have to just shut it off sometimes or else it literally drives me crazy.

Anyways, sorry for the huge spiel, I feel like this has been more of an essay than anything, but it's just waht I'm thinking about right now.  Oh btw if anyone wants to get me a birthday gift I would really like to have the piano and vocal book for Jekyll and Hyde, Miss Saigon, and the best of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

haha love all you guys and hope you're having an awesome time in good old california.

~Dale

P.S.  I'm going to Wisconsin this weekend to the mountains, it's going to be like Yosemite out there whoohoo!  I'm excited it should be fun just being away from civilization... I'll probably bring my computer though anyways lol.  I miss you guys all a ton trust me its fun but kinda sucks not being able to hang out with any of you.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The search beings...

... for WiFi connection

Long story short, I have to travel in this uber suburbia town to the nearest starbucks/barnes & Nobles store to find wifi constantly because there's like none by the houses and the ones that are are super protected because in suburbs families are very paranoid, and this is super-suburbia.  I think I should come up with a sweet name for it like superbia.  It's like almost farms out here everything is so spread out but then not really.

Anyways, I'm writing like crazy recently.  I've finished another chapter.  And I'm working my ass off on adapting a book into a musical.  Any guesses?  :)  I have like 15 songs halfway done, I'll probably end up writing something around 50 then using like 20.  God has really been preparing me to write with a ton of dialogue in my book and musical.  I read like 10 plays over the summer and took a theatre class where everything is based upon dialogue.

I'm so excited I'm really seeing my writing style develop and learning the show rather than tell concept of writing... I guess only English major's would really know about that so sorry if that doesn't make any sense.

Yesterday we went to a folk music festibal... LOL... that's about all I have to say about that.  I'm picking up Payton from the bus stop today then watching him.  Pray for me.  Just kidding.  But seriously that kid has a rediculous memory.  My memory is based like entirely on like photographic memory while his is like memorising facts and data.  We are completely opposite, but we have fun playing harry potter on his ds and getting our butts kicked on MLB 2K10, ya the computer owns on that game its rediculous i think we won once...

I kind of just go through the day not knowing anything about tomorrow or the next day or anything.  I bought a ticket for Miami but my cousin got sick so I don't know if i'll even be able to stay there lol.  It's kinda rediculous, but I'm learning to let complete go of control and have trust in God, have trust in others.  I know things will come through somehow and life will work out in some crazy freakin way, even if I have to be alone my whole life or something (I just realized both my uncles who are the middle children are the only one's in the family who aren't married) I guess it's just my destiny haha.  But it's really ok I'm fine with it, God knows what's best for me when I'm just sitting here having absolutely no idea what is going on.

Well, sorry for packing so much random insight with no real stories... I love you all so much thanks for being great friends/family.  God loves you and has plans for all of you and you're all pretty cool, you must be to know me ;) just kiddin

God Bless you and Keep you and make His face shine upon you always.

Love,

Dale

Sunday, September 5, 2010

If at first you don't suceed...

     While walking the corridors of DePaul today I read a little sign.  It was a picture of Abraham Lincoln.  I guess most of you know history and know how many times Abraham Lincoln failed.  He lost county elections,  state elections, federal elections, pretty much failed at everything, but eventually came on to be the greatest president our nation has ever known.
  
     I know it's kinda corny but it was a big encouragement for me to read that and see that despite all my failure in life, friendships, love, that God is still watching out for me.  Instead of just looking at a circumstance as simply "bad" now, I'm trying to see that although it is bad there is a lesson to be learned from everything, and in order to fix those "bad" things, I need to learn my lesson before they can become good again.  Sorry if that seemed a little befuddled, my mind is kinda befudled.

You know what's really cool though!  Yesterday I passed over 10,000 pages in writing my book!  It's kinda crazy.

Anyways, I am in Chicago in case you didn't know and I've been to see my Auntie Hana a couple of times which has been really nice.  She is so funny and old I love just hanging out with her to see what she does next.  Auntie Marlo and I are going to help her move tomorrow, while you are probably all at the beach or on vacation on your day off haha.  I keep on forgetting since I'm not in school, it's kinda wierd.  I've enjoyed hanging out with Payton and Bob as well.  In fact I'm at DePaul right now watching women and men's soccer.  I kinda left the women's soccer cuz it was a little boring (no offense anyone, but men's soccer is a lot more interesting to watch, sorry)  Anyways, the men won 1-0 in a great game.  This one guy lobbed in an awesome hooking shot and with three defenders the captain jumped up and headed the ball right into the corner.  It was like a picture perfect play.

Sorry, I love getting into sports and I get to watch from the press box which is pretty cool I have a great view of the entire field.  I really love and miss you all and think about you guys all the time wanting to hang out with you.  I hope that whatever you all are doing you are having a great time.  And I know God has plans for my life, your life, and our lives, so may the Lord bless you and keep you always.

Love,
Dale

Friday, September 3, 2010

20,000 feet

Sorry it took me so long to write a new blog, I've been out of internet for a little while folks.
Anyways I'm now in Chicago with Bob, Marlo, and Payton.   Last night I got to see my Auntie Hana who I hadn't seen it at least 7 years.  It was pretty cool and fun.  I also got a little tour around DePaul (Where my uncle works) it looked pretty nice and cool around there.

Two days ago back when I was in Boston we tried to hack the subway system (Steve's roomate is a computer hacking expert) anyways we failed, but whatever.  We played some awesome soccer at MIT on a astroturf field ewwwwww.  I slid so many times my left leg is cut up pretty badly, I think it may have gotten infected but I've been washing it out.  Sorry about the gross details.

Anyway, my last night in Boston me,  Steph, and Steve, went to an Italian restaurant, I bought them dinner for letting me stay with them.  It was in the North End which is the nice end of Boston.  Boston is like different in every single part from the Back Bay to the North Side.  I had soo much fun just walking around and talking with them, it kinda felt like old times when we all used to hang out a ton.  I missed them both so much. 

We saw these two people on a super awkward date where the girl was just sitting back and smoking and he was trying to do some lasso trick with this string and lasso her, it was pretty amusing.  Stephanie is so funny.  She wants to find a boyfriend so desperately, I guess Steve sorta does also.  They are both pretty sick of the city, and I don't blame them.  So many people, but it's still really lonely there, no one wants to be serious they just want hook-ups and such.  It's kind of a sad thing to see.

I had tons of fun in Boston, though, and loved staying there and hanging out at MIT.  I'm at a really emotional part of my book, sometimes I hate writing it, but it's actually really good for me to get it out on paper. 

Anyways I'm doing well at Bob and Marlo's unfortunately they have pretty limited internet access :(.  I love you all though and God Bless you.

Love,
Dale

Upcoming:  Tonight seeing a soccer game at DePaul.  Next weekend, I'm going camping with Peyton and Marlo, do some kayaking and such :)

Future:  Well, I have no idea.