"I just think that everything is cool"

Well less than 12 hours from now, I'll walk into a Consulting company in Indianapolis and hopefully blow their socks off. I appreciate your prayers, people. I really haven't been feeling "it" the last couple of days, but I'm growing more confident by the minute. It's going to be a great morning.

What isn't great is the way that I've been playing basketball recently. I've been getting worse everyday. Let's hope that turns around before the Rainbow Warriors start playing hard teams. I'm in the midst of a busy week, but if tomorrow goes well, it will be a superb week. If not, then that's okay too. I'll end up where God wants me to be.

I often ask myself: "Why does God bless you so much? Why does he put you where he wants you even when you don't obey / develop a relationship etc.?" The answer my friends is in that favorite Proverb. "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." Well, let it be known that I believe that God has a calling on my life. He will put me where he wants me, when he wants me. I rest in his arms and he will direct me. I'm a crappy Christian, but I rest in the idea that God will take my crappiness and work with it.

Goodnight, and good luck.

"Thank God for blessed life"

In 32 hours, I'll be having a job interview, hopefully in Indianapolis. Hopefully, it will go well. There have been no other recent developments in the life of Berg, so I will not waste anyone's time. As you go about your day today, think of the good that you can do.

"Knock knock, are you alone?"

This has to be one of the most unproductive days in recent memory. Fortunately, I did manage to get something done. Unfortunately, I didn't get something else done that I planned on doing. There's still 3 hours of daytime left. We'll see if anything changes.

I did also burn a disc of Current Music for the month of January. It includes music by Imogen Heap, Ben Folds, Aqualung, The Fray, Ryan Adams, and Damien Rice. Should be a good mix.

It was a long, lonely, unproductive day. I had an intense desire to watch Arrested Development with Rogers most of the day. Yes, Intense. I'm not sure that's a good thing, but it's the truth. Unfortunately, I didn't get to do that. But I did get to beat Phil in Tecmo Bowl a couple more times. The Apprentice is now The Master.

And so a weekend that was superior to all the rest comes to a close on a down note. What would life be without balance, anyway?

"Hit me baby one more time"

Ever known Berg to be a bowler? Me neither - but tonight for about 10 minutes I was unstoppable - See below: My first 8 frames were Strike - Spare - 5 Strikes - Spare. Unfortunately, the last two I couldn't finish off. It was quite a hot streak. Wilbe was having a killer game to as Shan A Sharp. Interestingly enough, I was wearing my Turkey Fest Shirt. It truly was a Turkey Fest at 5 strikes in a row. Up until this 216, my highest score ever was the game before: 156. Basically, this pretty good score came from nowhere.
Needless to say, I was pretty happy. We had a good old time. Overall for these last two games, I had only one frame that wasn't a 9, spare, or strike.

In other news, Lisa and I were good consumers today, helping the US economy by spending money on clothes, food, CDs, and coffee (as well as bowling). So that's the Weekend Update.

FLL #1: After a septic tank commercial said this product will even break down paper - "Why would paper go into the toilet?"

FLL #2: On the subject of Silent Night - "First everybody sings those lines way off pitch, then I can never figure out how to say 'Round Yong Virgin.'"
Berg: "It's Round Yon Virgin."
Rogers: "Oh, I thought it was always Young like Round Young Virgin."

"These foolish games"

Perhaps one of the best nights I've had for quite some time. I literally laughed to the point of tears twice - although tears only came once. I also had a great deal more good belly laughs, which is good because I ate a whole bunch of food including Coldstone. Just a superb night thanks to the Naming of Moneybags, which took place this cold January evening and Telephone Pictionary, which brought out the funniest in everybody.

I wrote the words:
"Squatch shaves his beard!"
The Interpretations through pictures drawn became (in this order):

"Trent Palmer shaves all body hair and turns into a hairless wolverine."
"When Trent shaves his chest he becomes a vampire, and Becca doesn't approve."
"A gay vampire that has to shave his stomache. His wife thinks it is gross."
"Becca wants Trent to shave his chest."
"Girls like boys with shaved chests."
"Woman loves a man who is sweating while singing."

---- So really we were pretty close up until Shannon interpreted Lisa's picture of Trent's hair falling to the ground as sweat and the razor as a microphone ----

Anyway, if you saw the drawings that brought on such descriptions you would see Trent (and Becca's assumed and rumored distaste for his hair) through the eyes of his friends.

Just one of many great funny events this evening that made me laugh my head off. It just really was one of those great days - one that will stand out in my mind when I think back to these good old Friday nights. Our new Friday night slogan by the way is: "Next Friday - Every Friday!"

"You could look inside and see what's on my mind"

The day was a good one. I'm hoping that the movie tonight is good enough to keep me awake. It was a productive day though. I wore a new tie and got multiple complements on it. Also, I had two basketball games, as I mentioned yesterday, and while the first didn't go so well, the second went very well. I was pumped to be in the pro league and although I didn't do much, I certainly played decently. No real mistakes until the very end and we won 68 - 36, I think.

The wierd thing is that what seems like some of the most relaxing times in the dorms were at the very beginning of my freshman year and then at the end of both years - the times when our loft was not up and we simply slept on our beds. There was even a few days at the end of sophomore year when I slept angled towards the wall because we didn't have our frames.

I still remember that first week of school - watching the Royal Tenenbaums with R.H.C. II and turning off at Midnight to go to sleep on our non-lofted dorm beds and watch the rest later. Back when Midnight seemed late. That lasted about 1 month - maybe 2. Life in the dorm just seemed simpler when the lofts weren't up. I suppose I would feel the same way in this house with no loft. I guess that's the bottom line: Life is just more complicated when you're resting 7 feet off the ground.

Tomorrow night is Friday night. 6:00 at the Lounge - we're going out for dinner. I look forward to it every week. I hope you can make it. Seriously.

"Alltogether wonderful to me"

My new computer that I've had for about two weeks, seems to be ill, which is very discouraging. Hopefully, it can easily be fixed - The problem? It is turning off automatically after approximately 15 minutes of use. Not a good thing.

Luckily the ol' laptop is still going strong.

That being said, I've got a very early / long day tomorrow that will consist of 7:00 a.m. meeting, two basketball games (church and intramurals) and a late night movie. A very long day indeed. Goodnight.

"Porcelain doll"

I'm not sure exactly how it started. I guess it was freshman year of college. Lisa was living in the old apartment (a duplex, just across university) and I would visit her often. Somehow or someday we began getting Papa John's pizzas on Thursday nights. Her mom bought one for us each week in the early days. She was on 3rd shift at the time, I think and would eat with us sometimes before leaving for work. We would eat our pizza and watch Friends...and then before long we were watching Scrubs after Friends. I hadn't watched either much prior to this, but I quickly grew to love both. Combining your best friend (and mostly platonic lover) with pizza and a good TV show or two makes for a good way to spend a few hours once a week.

So we kept up the tradition. Ordering a Papa John's pizza - half sausage, half mushroom - each week with our trusty coupons from the Andersonian. The total came to $7.47. It was the 2nd Season of Scrubs at the time.

Today the show aired its 100 Episodes. I estimated that we've sat down to watch it together full on pizza for at least 60 of those shows. We rarely miss. Over the years, the location has changed (Lisa moved to the house), the food has changed occassionally (Chinese mall food for a bit last year and now Stuffed Crust Pizza Hut most weeks), the day has changed (Thursday to Tuesday), and even Friends was canceled.

But what hasn't changed is us singing the theme song to Scrubs together before a small peck on the cheek and cuddling up for another episode of our favorite show - the pizza still settling in our full stomaches.

It's just one of those things. The little things that are actually big things. Perhaps, the things that matter most in relationships.

"Cheap anecdotes to pain"

My Dad taught me to play Risk when I was a pretty little kid...I would imagine that I was younger than when most of my friends learned to play. We used to play with the neutral army. They were always Blue in our games. They couldn't attack, but we still had to role to take their land. Later I would take Risk with me and my friends to Colorado, Myrtle Beach, and even the Bahamas, where Josh and Brett and I played nearly every night.

I imagine that I will teach my children games while they are young.

Intramurals starts this week. I am quite excited. I've been invited to play on a pro team this year, which will be nice. I am certainly capable, yet I'm not nearly the player I was in my prime. I show hints of it here and there when I play these days, but generally that player is nowhere to be found.

I was always good at basketball growing up. Somehow it came naturally to me. A lot of my points as a kid came just because I was taller and more developed than the competition. I remember one YMCA game where I had I think 44 points and 1 assist. Our team ended up losing 60+ to 46. In YMCA games, you could only play 3 quarters. I came in when our team was down 26 to 0 if I remember correctly, and managed to outscore the other team the rest of the game. Later in High School I scored I think 2200+ points for my career. But we never one the big games, unfortunately. Although the points were great, I was always more proud of assists. Only once did I have a Triple-Double. I had 13 assists that game. I think there were about 6 or 7 other games where I was 2 or 3 stats away from a Triple-Double. For my career, I think I ended with over 400 assists out of 100 games played. Not definate on that. Our team was 75 and 25 in High School. I think we only lost about 5 games at home though during that span. I had roughly 900 rebounds...I really don't remember, but I'm about 90% sure it was between 800 and 950.

Why write all this? So that I have it in a journal for future's sake. Although, I guess if I go back to my highschool journal I could look at it game by game. I journaled nearly every night from the summer of 8th grade until I went to college.

I beat Phil in Tecmo Bowl again today, but only 23 to 20 because he ran back a kickoff to score as time ran out...so basically that touchdown didn't matter.

"Heroes in a half-shell"

That's right. It was not Titanic. Nor was it any other normal "Good" movie (like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars). The only movie that I specifically recall seeing 3 times in the movie theater was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (part 1). It was 1990.

I still remember my first TMNT action figure. I received it from the Dorff's as a Christmas present. It was Michaelangelo and he had a rubber head that could be squeezed. This feature later led me to believe that I got into the Turtles earlier than most others because all later turtles had hard heads made out of the same plastic as their bodies. I also had / have the first two episodes on VHS, which I received at the same time as Michaelangelo. Later I received the first comic.

In other news, I've now beaten Philip in Tecmo Bowl 3 of the last 4 times we've played. Including victories with scores like 27 - 0 and 20 - 7. My only loss of the four, was a 14 - 13 knockout, dragout 10-yard fight. In summary, of the last four games I've had to outscore him by an average of over 10 points.

A list of countries I've visited: Aruba, Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, England, France, Latvia, Lithuania, and Mexico.

If I could visit any country in the world (and I can), it would be (will be) Italy. If the places I visit in Italy are half as beautiful as I imagine them, I will be in for a grand treat.

"Smile, smile, smile, smile"

It was a good day. And now it comes to a close, as all good days do in due time. do in due.

As far as I can remember, there has only been one movie that I have seen three times in the theater. Maybe two, but I think only one. Any guesses as to what it was? I'll give one hint: it was not in the past 5 years.

"This is the last time"

"You should say, tonight was one of the best nights of my life," said Eileen Mason over dinner at Johnny Carinos. The conversation over dinner took as many twists and turns as the Vortex in its heyday including topics such as naming parts of the human anatomy and a variety of issues about impending weddings.

The group of five dwindled to two upon return to Anderson Nate Deardorff and Andy Berg treked to the Wellness Center to partake in the 2006 season of Dodgeball, which consisted of roughly 4 minutes of playing time for both of us. Our team thirst for the championship was quenched with the vinegar of defeat. Soon we turned on each other and played intrateam dodgeball for about one hour. (Editor's Note: while Berg was on the dodgeball field he received two missed calls from dear friends. Friends he certainly would have talked to had his phone been with him.)

Later that night, the whole team returned to the Lounge to play Halo and eventually break into smaller squads of hookah smokers and Bomberman players. An overwhelmingly fun time was had by all.

Soon Berg was left alone and his thoughts returned to yesteryear where they have been trapped in time recently. Specifically, he reminisced upon reminiscing earlier in the evening with Ricky about the time he...well let's just let him tell the story.

"One time, I was playing dodgeball in class. I stuck with my usual 'no mercy' rule that guides my competitive spirit and through a dodgeball rather quickly towards a female. Fortunately it hit her, which was the goal of my throw. Unfortunately, it hit her in the face, knocking her glasses to the floor. The dodgeball apparently caused her face pain because she started crying. Interestingly, this was no Elementary School accident, this was my junior year of college in Jog/Walk class that I had with Ricky."

"Champage supernova in the sky"

I still remember being in fourth grade and having a crush on Kyla D. Believe it or not, I was going to ask her to be my girlfriend. Really my first girlfriend, because I don't think you can count girlfriends before 1st grade. So Ricky Lehman was all set to introduce me, if I remember correctly. He walked over to her on the playground and said something along the lines of "Andrew wants to ask you something." Having mistimed the approach, I sort of ran at her with my arms open saying, "Will you go out with me," kind of loudly. To which she replied, "No." Well I was embarrassed so I tried to play it off by being cool, so I went for the first thing that was near me, the bars. * I jumped and grabbed on and swung for a few seconds probably before retreating back to my normal recess activities. Oh well, it would only be a few months until Anna S. and I started going out.

*If I remember correctly, these are the same bars that Joshua Campbell fell from, damaging his face and causing blood clots and stuff in second grade. Ask Josh to confirm this.

Meanwhile, Lisa was watching me, slowly determining when she would make her first move. We were in the same split class after all. 2/3 third graders and 1/3 fourth graders. Man we ruled the classroom that year.

"The place that I'm from"

My first day of my first business class I slipped into a blue cushioned seat in the second row of Hardacre Hall 232, the same room I would come to call the SIFE room, if I had to name it. Doyle Lucas was teaching my Business as a Profession class. The first of four classes I would go on to have with Dr. Lucas. I slipped into the seat next to Jason Clodfelder whom I had seen before, but didn't know. He recognized me from Myers and introduced himself. He seemed friendly. That was that. We probably didn't talk all that much the first year of school. As Wilbs pointed out in yesterday's comments, I didn't talk much to a lot of the Myers Hall folks. Brian Roberson - didn't know his name. Trent Palmer, just another guy. Andy Eck - the RA that had all the cool people on his side, that we didn't know.

So Ricky Lehman, Josh Campbell, RHC II and I holed up in our little Myers suite most of the semester. We hung out with Rogers some on the weekends, generally the four or five of us going out. I don't think we really made friends with the other guys in the dorm too much until a couple of months into school. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I walked down the hall and heard a comotion in Jason's room. I walked in and people were shooting and killing eachother in what I would later come to know as Chill Out in Halo. I'd played the game once or twice more to see what the XBox could do than to actually play. But these folks were having a blast. It wouldn't be long before we would start joining in these games - eventually putting James Bond aside for good and picking up Halo. Ricky however, having to work many times while we played decided it best to utilize the James Bond controls on Halo. Something that would cause us to restart occasionally in those first years as we could never remember his settings.

I never got into Hoop Warrior. I still don't know how I ever started hanging out with Brian Roberson! But many of the guys that I would come to know as friends, I met through their Halo names. We'd talk about the games in the hallway. We'd pick teams in the hallway. As the years went by the four or five Liberty Christian alums who went out on Fridays started returning to the dorms to hang out with all the guys.

"I have bit off all my fingernails"

I still remember moving into the Myers Hall dormitory for the first time. Me and my roommate at the time (R.H.C. II) moved in on the same day. If I remember correctly, I beat him to the room and picked out what side I wanted to be on. Both of our families helped us in moving in all of our stuff and getting organized. I think we were listening to the Michael W. Smith worship CD at the time. I still remember hearing Brett Stewart's Better Than Ezra music floating into our room from across the hall.

At some point during the day we decided that we needed a little couch for our room. The couch was blue was made of foam stuff I guess. It was really small and soft and unfolded into a bed of sorts that people could sleep on. We went to Big Lots and bought it for $40.

When it came time for watching Spiderman out in the valley and eating ice cream, we headed that way. Somehow I ended up talking to Philip and our conversation revolved around both croquet and the original Nintendo system - two things that we immediately had in common. Later that night we went to Meijers for the late-night shopping thing, and I remember laughing a lot at Philip. I think he may have even pulled out his trademark roll of $2 bills. It was around this time that Philip was reportedly thinking, "These are going to be my new best friends."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TV Shows I watched this Evening:
2 Episodes of Arrested Development
2 Episodes of Scrubs
1 Episode of Room Raiders
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"As I'm leaving"

This is a short post just to say that Ryan Adams' "Love is Hell" album is a darn good album. I also wanted to mention that some of my fellow Anderson University alum currently have a #1 movie...that brought in over 16.5 million in its first weekend. That's got to be a good thing.

Other than that, I'm tired and have a class in 7 hours, so I'm heading to sleep.

"Backbeat the word is on the street"

When I sign-up for work, I think I will breathe a sigh of relief. Although I know there is a job out there for me, it is one of those things that I'd like to find sooner than later. Until then, there seems to be no end in the applications I could fill out or company websites I could scour searching for openings.

I will graduate in early May with a large group of my friends including my fiance Lisa Ann Rogers. We will marry in late June. From that point forward I feel that it will be a great comfort to not be alone all night. To know that my love is sleeping next to me or in the other room if I'm up late doing work will be a wonderful feeling. It is already when I stay late at her house doing homework. That is perhaps one of the things I look forward to most about marraige.

I wonder how much of my life will be determined by the work that I will do. Will I be identified by the work I do? Probably.

Well this rambling will lead to boredom, so let's switch gears for a bit.

I think it was my Grandpa Martin that taught me that a shower shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. I was maybe 10 at the time, and while the details are sketchy, I think besides wasting the hot water, part of the problem was my loud, repeating rendition of the National Anthem that was traveling through the bathroom walls that led to this lesson on short showering. Since that time, I have made a name for myself in the annals of quick showering. My shower methodology is decent, if not perfect. It has kept me mostly clean for many years now. I can't imagine what people are doing in the shower if they take more than 5 minutes...especially men. Women have more hair to clean. Really though, you wash your hair and body. It takes about 6 seconds to wash your hands. Why 10 minutes for the body? The surface area ratio if calculated from hands to body at 6 seconds to x equals 270 seconds or 4.5 minutes.

Soon I'll be 23.

"Seek up an emotion"

Today the Colts enter the playoffs with their best team in a long time. Let's hope they win. Today I will do all the homework that I neglected to do today. Let's hope it goes well.
Today I will call Lisa to see if she wants to eat lunch at Hacienda with me. Let's hope she says yes.
Today I will go to sleep for the next few hours. Let's hope I have good dreams.

I very well skip church for no very good reason except that I was up late so I need some sleep. But there was no good reason for me to be up late. So now I'm going to sleep.

Your Friend - Berg

Quote of the Day: "I have no money, I spent it all on alcohol." -by an unknown quoter so as not to engage in libel. Although I'm not sure if its libel if its accurate or true. Maybe.

"I miss that town, I miss their faces"

Three days of school down for the semester. Maybe 70 left. It's wierd to countdown to something that seems like a good thing, but will really only be a sad thing to think that it's all over. Make em count, Berg. That's what I tell myself. Today I made them count by hanging out with my friends. While our activities weren't all that exciting we had a good time.

There are a variety of things that I will use to entertain myself this weekend: Hoodwinked the movie, Colts in the playoffs, lots of homework. I just realized a bit ago that I won't get to see Rogers all that much this weekend, which is never a good thing.

Frankly, I think my well of blogging is running dry recently. So I will go to bed and sleep on it.

"Last time La Luna"

Funny things that happened today:

• I heard Micah say, "That's what she said," at a very appropriate time to another girl, which seemed uncommon. The context involved a girl not being able to stop the cereal from _________ out of those cereal holders in the Marketplace and verbally stating that problem.
• Lisa laughed her tale off when I said, "It takes two to tickle," and she said, "Then don't participate." So as not to participate I just stared at her while she laughed.
• One of my Profs decided that the best way to divide into groups was to do it the old school way: have Captains pick teams. I went in the mid-Second round, which I thought was pretty good. Dr. Haskett your a genius. And for once, the fat kid didn't get picked last.
• Josh decided that he is going to go to bed early this semester. It should now become our #1 priority to keep Josh up until at least 2 on most nights.
• P. Edwards awkwardly interviewed his children for a full 30 minutes in Chapel. The content was good. The interview was awkwardly funny and enjoyable.

• What did you think was funny today?

"Wait for tomorrow, you'll be alright"

Wednesday January 11, 2006, was the first day of my last semester of college. A good day. A busy day. Between the hours of 10 and 5, I had classes, work, and meetings. Between the hours of 5 and now, I've ate dinner, watched the Hoosiers lose to Michigan State, ran at the Wellness Center and played Halo. Overall a fairly good mix of activities. Now I've got some reading to do for a class of mine.

Tomorrow begins at 8:30 and will go until 5. After that should be some running, hopefully some hanging out with Rogers and relaxing along with homework. Anyway, school is in full swing as far as I'm concerned. But the future is looking bright.

Tomorrow I have a class with my future wife, Lisa Ann Rogers. That will be nice. I don't think we've had a class together since Sophomore year. As freshmen we loaded up with 2 or 3 classes together. It will especially be nice since we won't be able to eat lunch together much again this semester. Something we had always done at least half the week freshmen through junior years of school. Which meant that I almost always ate in the Haven as Rogers refused to eat upstairs. So there are some pros and cons, but I suppose when it boils down to it, I'd rather eat with her than eat good food. That's what love and being whipped are all about, folks.

"Will you be my shoulder, when I'm gray and older?"

School begins again this week. Actually in about 31 hours for me. 31 hours that I will spend sleeping, in meetings, working, and relaxing, then sleeping some more. I guess I'm finally getting used to school - right before I finish. Used meaning, I don't really mind that it's starting. It just means I go to class for a couple of hours rather than whatever else I might do. The homework's still going to suck though.

Lisa and I finished watching the first season of Lost tonight. A darn good show. I guess it makes the cut of shows I love that are still on the air:

5. Sopranos
4. Lost
3. Arrested Development (watch on DVD and it's pretty much canceled)
2. 24 (watch on DVD)
1. Scrubs

Scrubs is my favorite only because it means pizza and singing the Superman song with Rogers. Otherwise, I'd have to admit that I enjoy 24 the best. That show's like crack.

So that's the bottom line. Welcome back to Anderson, everyone! It's going to be a great 4 months.

"You know I'm ready for the final surprise"

Today was a day of feasting. Texas Roadhouse for lunch. Hacienda for dinner. Well this is it. The first week of the last semester of my undergraduate career. The last semester of my fiance's formal education. Lucky.

I'm exhausted and I've got an early appointment, so adieu. Goodnight and Goodluck.

Two days left before the big finale begins. Let's make it the best folks. The best.

A Christmas present arrived today - A History of Violence orgininal theatrical poster from my friend, Ricky who happens to know that A H o V was my favorite movie of the year from reading this blog, undoubtedly. Perhaps he didn't notice how many times I wrote the words Paris Hilton. Maybe if I'm ever sick and get to Make a Wish, Paris Hilton will visit me.

In summary, a very nice surprise, and too nice of a surprise to throw on my wall with tacky. Looks like a new frame will be in order - and a nail to hang it with! Thanks, Ricker!!

"Opposite to the trains moving in"

My niece's second birthday party was today. When you have a ladybug themed Birthday party you come up with cakes that look like these:

So after the party, Rogers and I had a disagreement that led to not hanging out with Sharp & Wilbe but instead to hanging out with eachother, which was nice. One stuffed crust pizza and four episodes of Lost later, I'm updating my blog.

Since my Niece turned two today, I thought I would add a Birthday memory of my own. I specifically remember my 4th birthday party for a variety of reasons. First, the weather was terrible...in fact it was tornadic. There were tornado warnings so me and all of my friends had to pile into a little cubby-hole under the stairs. Unfortunately, while we were under there, one of my friends who was a bit younger so I guess he was 3, wet his pants, so I had to get him a pair of my underwear. They were probably superman underwear although they could have also been Thundercats. Meanwhile my Aunt Carol was busy giving birth to my eldest cousin, Alex. That's right - Grandsons #1 & #2 for Don and Donna Martin were both born on June 2.

"I hold you close in the back of my mind"

Break is pretty much officially over. Much faster than I saw it coming. The last break of our lives...unless we go on to be professors, which I certainly would be interested in in the long-term. So let's rephrase: the last break of our young lives.

You know what else is coming to an end. The life of ol' Junky, the name I have just now given my college computer, which really didn't become junky until the past year when the battery completely gave out and it started running incredibly slow. Josh has built a new computer for me. What will hopefully be a good computer. One I can hopefully name Smashing. As in the English version of smashing - "That's smashing good," said the Englishman.

So that will probalby be set up within the next 24 to 48 hours depending on when I actually get my desk cleaned off.

I attended the trial of Philip C. Patrie and Trent S. Palmer vs. Denzil J. Ward today. I'm happy to report that PCP and TSP walked away with a smashing victory. Literally the case may as well have been decided before it began. The judge had a lot of good things to say in their favor and warned the opposition that he had more important things to worry about like the Internal Revenue Service. My first time in court was very interesting. The judge even gave a good lesson like in the movies.

"Seven miles above the earth"

Today was one of the better days of my life. A day that I had been quite nervous about until it arrived. Fair Rogers and I traveled to Chicago yesterday as you well know. We arrived in due time and after driving way past our hotel and taking a slight tour of the town we found our hotel - two rooms mind you.

Yesterday we walked around and enjoyed the city, eating at the Italian Village - Rogers looking very beautiful in her city finest including her city shoes.

Anyway, this post is about today:

I awoke at 9:00 a.m. to prepare for my 11:00 a.m. visit to the Consulting company. I met my contact there and we chatted for a bit. Maybe after 30 min. or so we headed out to lunch. My contact was very friendly and easy going - he smiles a lot. He was my Mom's Cousin's Frat Brother. Lunch was spectacular as I met a Communications Consultant who does a lot of the same things that I do in my work at the School of Business, so that was very cool to see that I could naturally fit into one side of the business. She had me meet her boss and she showed me some of her work - both good signs of "we are interested in you."

So then I actually had an interview with a recruiter who had been looking around at Big Ten schools. I thought the interview went okay - from my point of view I felt like I made the weakest impression with the person that actually interviewed me, which I didn't think was good. Anyway, the way it ended was "We have a couple of offers out to some other students in Wisconsin, but depending on whether or not they accept you may be able to get into the pipeline...Communications does not have any openings right now, but both of our areas are growing and we could have needs come up anytime."

So I left with this impression, "Okay, I think I can actually land a job here, but there may not be openings for awhile, so I'll continue my job search and hopefully something will open up here."

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing with Rogers - we road the Elevated Train up to the Lincoln Park area where I led us back and forth down one street as we tried to decide where to go before heading back to the Loop. Ate at a superb Mexican restaurant and had a good time - even made it out of town without too much mishap. Too much.

So I check my messages and I get the following, "Hi Andrew, this is [my contact] and sometimes things happen quickly. Good news on two fronts. I spoke with [the guy who interviewed me] and he liked you and thought you were a strong candidate, but all of the things still apply that I mentioned. The good news is we exchanged voicemails with [...] who is the head of our Indianapolis office and he has an opening right now for an analyst and hasn't started the search yet. We've forwarded your resume to him and you should expect a call. I would encourage you to meet with him."

The ride home with Rogers was filled with good conversation. Very good conversation.

In summary, a day that began as a semi-ambiguous meeting with a company in Chicago that could be very interesting to work for, ended with a very tangible possibility in Indianapolis - both of which happen to be the two places I am seeking employment.

"Drove to Chicago"

The more I learn about the company I will be visiting come Thursday morning, the more excited I am and interested I become in working there. Which isn't necessarily a good thing, because that will make me more nervous. Anyway, I'm certain that life will work out for the best, whatever roads Rogers and I are meant to travel down, and that is comforting.

So tomorrow Rogers and I will travel to the great land of Chicago in hopes of discovering a wonderful windy city and using that foot I have in the door up there to swing it wide open. Today I discovered that there are usually three rounds of interviews with said company, which is helpful as it will calm my nerves to know that this isn't a make it or break it meeting - this mutual assessment mission I am on.

Scrabble with Philip tonight was very enjoyable. Scrubs tonight from 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. will also be very enjoyable. Goodnight. Until Thursday when I come back with hopefully a good report that is more than just "It went well," or "Well they were interested in me until they met me," which would be similar to my "Harvard recruited me for basketball until I sent them a game tape." Did you know that? Do you believe it? I actually did talk on the phone with one of their coaches. Believe it or not.

"They put a man on the moon"

Tonight was a good night to spend time with Rogers...or would it be better worded a good night of spending time with Rogers...or a good time spending the night with Rogers...well that wouldn't be accurate so I guess I'll just say: night time spent good with Rogers.

What a wonderful lady.

In other news, my room is slowly becoming clean. Half my desk is clean. It's only a matter of time before the other half joins the rest of the stuff I put away neatly.

Tomorrow I will interview the CEO of Community Hospital here in Anderson for a magazine article. Additionally, I will eat at Hacienda. Both will be good things.

"All is quiet on New Year's Day"

After 3.5 hours of sleep, ol' Bergie woke up and traveled to Plainfield to attend church and eat lunch with his family on New Years Day. I managed to stay awake during church after my dad bet me $5 I would fall asleep - I needed the money. So instead I slept most the rest of the day.

Things should be picking up this week as friends are coming back to town and Rogers and I leave town to visit Chi-Town. Additionally, I have quite a sizeable bit of work to tend to over the next couple of days such as interviewing one of our local hospital's CEO for work.

Tonight was clean-up-my-desk night.

So in short, it was a slow and quiet New Year's Day.

Something I've discovered about myself, is that I'm perfectly fine being alone all day long, but when the sun goes down, I like to socialize. I'm not a fan of sitting alone in the normal evening hours of 6 to 10. It must be built into me.

It's time for my favorite three ablums of the year 2005:

3. Twin Cinemas - The New Pornographers - a darn good album by a band that I best described as a mix between The Shins and The White Stripes with a little bit of an edge thrown in.

2. Before the Robots - Better Than Ezra - Now they are my favorite band so the data is skewed, but they also put together a darn good album - full of potential singles. I think I've heard about half of the album so far on either radio, television, or store / restaurant radiostations.

1. More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley - discovered after I found out they were on tour with Coldplay, I purchased their latest album and frankly love it. I think I will continue to listen to this album more than any other album I bought this year.

More than James Blunt, David Gray, Damien Rice's B-Sides and Death Cab for Cuties latest album.

"Maybe this year will be better than the last"

Well 2005 came and went. One year of Blogging later, I wonder what we've learned about ol' Bergie Boy.

• He is engaged to a wonderful woman named Rogers
• He loves House of Wax
• He doesn't generally have much to write about after 2:00 a.m.

I'd say that's one successful blogalicious year.

I rang in this New Year much like the last. A group of friends came over to the Lounge. This year, the dinner was catered by Chick-Fil-A, which was very nice. We played Scene It, twice and one round of Flux. We watched the Ball Drop and enjoyed the company of each other. We toasted sparkling Apple juice and grape juice and counted down outloud.

Then as the women-folk left and the party died down, Josh and I rang in the New Year the same way we did last year: Playing Halo 2 on XBox Live. That's right folks - Live is back and better than ever. Well maybe not better than ever, but really good since we've been without for so long.

Halo 2 may have died for some girl-chasing I now hate video games (except for Half-Life 2) people...but not for us.

How did I spend the last day of 2005 you ask? Well, I slept until nearly 12. Then I watched The Shining. Then I cleaned my room and vacumed the house. Finally I got dressed and took a shower, not in that order. Then the party. Then the Halo. Then I updated my blog and spelled vacumed wrong twice.

Happy New Year, friends. Happy New Year. You were missed tonight, if you weren't here. You know who you are. Yes, you.