"Put your soul in the water and join me for a swim tonight"

Barring some unforseen incident I should begin working with Mercer Human Resource Consulting in either Detroit or Chicago in early July! After an extensive job search process, it looks as though things are winding down. I've been hoping and trying to get in with the company since December or January since I first started talking with my contact there, and everything is looking good.

Lisa and I are going to visit Detroit probably next week to see what the city looks like. Then we'll go from there. Saw X-Men III tonight, and I would say it's the best of the three, but I'm not an X-Men fan much at all so I don't know anything outside of the movies...

"Are just memories of a different life, some that made us laugh, some that made us cry"

Congratulations to Mr. Josh Campbell and Ms. Keri Trout engaged this Memorial Day 2006! That rocks!! I haven't got the d-l yet, but I'll have to give him a call tomorrow and see what's up.

Memorial Day was very nice. About 15 people piled onto the Hell Hole Porch and sweated, socialized, relaxed, ate burgers and almost hit Shannon with a football. It was a good way to spend a few hours with good friends.

Hopefully tomorrow I will hear something from the company that I am interviewing with. We'll see what happens. Also, my future dog, Grace Rogers, is getting Spayed, which decreases the liklihood of me having 10 puppies by next year. So that's good.

"The sky's alive with a burning light"

Happy Memorial Day. It's been a nice weekend. Yesterday's cookout / suicide kings movietime was very nice. Today I spent the day relaxing with Rogers and booking our honeymoon stuff. We're staying in a darn nice hotel.

So other things seem to be going well. Tomorrow's a cookout that should be very nice. Maybe I'll see V for Vendetta in the afternoon.

"Come on and we'll sing, like we were free"

Hello friends,

I'm pleased to report that this was a good Friday, although I missed my fiance who decided to remain at home in a state of hunger due to her stinkin mouth piece that doesn't allow her to chew.

The other parts of the Friday were pretty good. I purchased an XBox game for the second time ever today. The first was Halo 2, which was certainly worth the money. The second is Destroy All Humans. I'll play it a bit after I finish this season of 24. I wanted it when it first came out so now that it's $20, I decided to take the plunge.

Also had a nice time with friends at Haciend - Ritters - and Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture edition.

Tomorrow night is looking to shape up as another night out. Let's hope Phil gets back in time! I turn 23 one week from today...

"Mr. Cab Driver reads too many story books"

Hello friends. It's been too long. And a busy week. As I mentioned the interviews went very well. I should hear good news (hopefully) tomorrow. So that's good.

SIFE Nationals was okay. We ended up in the Top 60, which was failry disappointing since we were in the Top 12 last year. We hoped to return to the Top 20, so we were disappointed. However, we did have a great year in SIFE. We were better than last year, so I'm not sure what else you can do. The experience wasn't superb because I also got sick on Monday night for the first time in awhile. I had chills and a soar throat and did not sleep well at all.

So I'm back in town, and if I get an offer, it looks as though I might not start until after the wedding, which will help us, as we will have time to find an apartment and get settled a bit.

So a brief no-nonsense update.

"I remember it well"

Well the job interviews in Chicago went very well. I feel pretty confident. I should know within the next week where Lisa and I will be starting our married life. xoxo

"For a stranger peace is hard to hard to come by extra ordinary thing"

In a few hours I'll wake-up and head to Chicago if everything goes as planned. While in Chicago, I'll participate in a final-round of interviews that in many ways will help determine where Lisa and I will begin our lives together. I'm excited. Very excited. Confident. Excited.

I have a peace. A few weeks ago, I just got a peace. Not to worry. If I get the job? Great. If I don't get the job? Great. When will I start? It'll work out okay. What apartment will we get? It will be great.

So that's that. I'll let ya'll know how it goes hopefully on Saturday before I head to Kansas City for my final National competition.

"To bear the weight and push into the sky"

A Few Facts You Might Not Know about

Andrew D. Rosenberg's Past & History

1. When I was a child I was best friends with ex-Dativus President Colin Trent. We were born within one week of each other and will now get married within one week of each other.
2. The sports I like to watch are all Indianapolis Colts games, Cubs & Pacer playoff games, March Madness and any other game that is close in the waning minutes.
3. I have problems with e-mail. A) I'm addicted to it. B) I'm bad at keeping my inbox organized (I currently have over 1600 e-mails in my inbox).
4. If I have to be one or the other, I am an extrovert. I am energized from being around people, but I definately enjoy watching a good movie by myself. I'd describe myself as fairly balanced in that I don't have to be with people to be happy.
5. I recently decided that Tom Cruise is one of my favorite actors. Tom Hanks has been #1 for a few years after taking Harrison Ford's place. Although Tom Cruise's over-exposure makes him seem wierd and annoying, I enjoyed both M.I. 3 & War of the Worlds a great deal and he can obviously act (Jerry Maguire). Please note, I generally pick favorite actors by the level of which I enjoy their movies (not necessarily talent).
6. Today I've been dating Lisa Rogers for exactly 90 months and exactly 7.5 years (do the math they're the same thing).
7. I went to pre-school for two years. 1) Because I was a bit immature. 2) My birthday was at a wierd time so I missed the cutoff.
8. The last 5 DVDs I have purchased were: The Weatherman, Collateral, Matchstick Men, Snake Eyes, & In America all from Dave's Video for a total price of $28 minus $17 from trade-ins and coupons (I'm on a Nic Cage kick).
9. On Friday & Saturday I will participate in final interviews with a company that I hope to work for in Chicago. I began talking with a contact there in December. It culminates on Saturday.
10. My favorite TV shows that are still on the air are as follows: 24, Scrubs, Lost, Sopranos. I watch Lost and 24 and most of the Sopranos on DVD, but I've watched Scrubs nearly every week with Lisa since Season 2.

"I think I need a new town"

Well I am officially and completely moved out of The Lounge. The room seemed a bit smaller without all of the stuff in it. Which means I am officially and completely moved back to my childhood home. In between times, I packed a ton of boxes and threw away about 6 bags of trash, which means that I had a lot of trash in my room. It was amazing to see how much stuff I had in my room.

So I started reading a book for pleasure / education last night. The Wayward Bus by Steinbeck. It's been awhile since I've read a classic. We'll see if I stick with it.

"Take me to your leader, I sure could use a laugh"

Well my room of 21 months is nearly empty. All that remains is a desk, a floorfull of junk still needing picked up and a lot of dust. A lot. I wasn't very good at keeping the room clean, and this has led to a great deal of dust everywhere. Tomorrow I shall vacuum a lot.

Thanks goes out to Ricker, Philip, Josh, & George my wonderful roommates and Lisa Ann, without whom I'd still be reading through my Nintendo Power magazines with a room full of stuff rather than being nearly finished moving out.

"Listen for the sound of cars"

Most of today was spent packing up my room with the wonderful assistance of Lisa. What's left is a huge mess, but under the mess there isn't much of anything. We packed up all my clothes, videogames, music, and movies. The magazines are ready to be thrown away and my bookbag has been emptied out. I am getting rid of a big box of clothes that I haven't worn / won't wear again. It did occur to me that it really would be liberating to not have so many things. If I had 10 things in my closet instead of 50, I would feel that much lighter. Life would be simpler. I'd be free'r. If I had an iPod and not 250 cds... If I didn't have over 150 videogames for 5 different systems...

So for the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be livin la vida loca out of my childhood home. I'll be back in the old room with bright green walls for one last stand. I should be out by the second week of June at the absolute latest. Could be a week or two before that even. The cycle will be complete. Grow up leave home, move to dorm, move to The Lounge with guys, move back home.

"They told us how to feel, but we just feel numb"

A good day. A day that was much different than expected. I went to a funeral of a 96 year old man who was the greater at my church since long before I was born. He greated everyone. And knew everyone by name. The story goes that when he was first asked to be greater and head usher, he worried that he wasn't good with names. He prayed about it and that was no longer a problem. Obe Foley. In recent years he always asked me about baseball during the summer even though I didn't play anymore. I may have mentioned once or twice that I didn't play, but normally I just said that no I hadn't hit any homers yet.

After that I took Dr. Doyle Lucas out to lunch - to Hacienda actually. I decided in the last couple of weeks that I wanted to take 3 professors out to lunch, my treat as a thank-you. The first two were very nice. Good conversations. Good friends.

Then, instead of going to work, I stayed around the School of Business for a couple of hours and did work there, before heading to Lisa's in the late afternoon. While I thought I was going to Greek's Pizza in the evening with some of my B-Friends (B. for Business), Jared had to back out and Dave failed to answer his phone so I decided I didn't really want to pursue it too much, and ended up spending the evening with Lisa eating ice cream and watching a movie. It was great. The movie was Must Love Dogs starring John Cusack playing Jake - yes pretty much the same Jake he played in Say Anything. The script probably called for John Cusack playing Jake Lloyd. The ice cream was Ritters. The company was Lisa Ann Rogers, my wonderful and beautiful fiance.

Every day holds new promise. Time to go to sleep and get ready for tomorrow's promise.

"An icy loop around me"

In the spirit of Philip's graduation picture caption contest here's the Berg version. Please understand that this contest was from the brain of Philip and is therefore intellectual property that I am crediting to him.

Whoever posts the best caption wins...well Philip did an ice cream treat, so I'll do the same. If his captions are as good as mine, maybe we'll go out for ice cream together!

"Every minute from this minute now"

Today was a day of Scrubs and a day of driving and a day of conversing.

1) I watched 6 Episodes of one of my favorite TV shows Scrubs: 1 from Season 2, 2 from Season 5, and 3 from Season 3.

2) I drove to Huntington to pick up nearly 3,000 copies of the Falls Report magazine.

3) Lisa and I had a nice good talk...after Scrubs actually. Which brings me back to the beginning.

"Water through my hands"

The first Monday of my first week as a college graduate was spent well. I worked. I played. I relaxed. Lisa even made me lunch and dinner, which was awesome. Thanks, babe.

So life just keeps on ticking. Tonight I saw Mission Impossible III, which in my opinion is the best of the 3 MI movies. I enjoyed it very much. If you like JJ Abrams stuff (Alias - Lost) or like the other MI's, you'll probably enjoy this as well.

Marraige Counseling today went well, and was pretty enjoyable. Only a few more week! Exciting!

"In the Tower above the earth"

It's 12:43 and I feel exhausted. I don't like this. I suppose I should go to sleep, but I feel like I'm wasting precious have-fun time because you have no homework. The first day spent as a College grad was with Rogers and family and Sharp. It was a joyous occasion. I even ran into Pres. Edwards at Mancino's lunch. I had ordered a beer and P-Eddy said something about now being a grad. It was awkward and sort of funny in hindsight. The last three sentences (not including this one) are complete fabrications by the way. None of that happened except for the sentence that reads "I even ran into Pres. Edwards at Mancino's lunch." That really did happen. Those other 3 sentences didn't happen at all. The ones that read "I had ordered a beer...funny in hindsight." Those are the parts that I made up because I thought it would make this post more interesting. Those 3 specifically. So now I'm going to bed. I'm going to marraige counseling tomorrow. That should be enticing. Exciting.

"Here's to goodbye, tomorrow's gonna come to soon"

So about 10 hours ago now, a group of my good friends, my fiance Lisa and I walked through a line of faculty members shaking hands and giving out hugs and entered the Kardatzke Wellness Center and began the graduation ceremony. While I thought graduating would sink in today, it didn't really.

It was a great day. It started at 9:00 a.m. with Bachalloreate, which is a wierd word for pre-graduation chapel-type of service. After the service, which was pretty nice, Lisa and I went to Hacienda to enjoy a good pre-graduation meal and then took a quick nap at her house.

There were some very explicit pre-graduation instructions at 1:30 p.m. Then graduation. Going through it with about 10 good friends was a cool thing. Seeing your peers and friends earn that degree that you've worked for together over the past 4 years was a cool thing. Standing up and realizing that this is it was a cool thing. Seeing the love of your life receive her diploma about 30 seconds before you get your was a cool thing. Seeing your best friend since 3rd grade get the same thing about 10 min. before was a cool thing. The service was 2 hours, which was surprising to my "it'll be 3 hours at least mindset."

After a marvelous photoshoot with friends Lisa and I went back to my childhood home where we had a cookout with family and a few family friends.

I don't really know when it will sink in. I do know that despite it all, this has been a good year. I do know that I will miss my friends someday soon. I do know that I'm very very grateful to have at least a few weeks before any major changes begin. Without those few weeks this moment would be much harder.

Congratulations readers who graduated. I love you guys. You totally are awesome and it was an honor to walk with you. Let's see while hoping not to miss anyone, you reader / grads are: Nate P. Ricker, Jason, Eileen, Phil, and of course, Lisa Ann.

You guys rock. ConGRADulations!

"Can I graduate?"

Well it looks as though I'll walk to the stage and pick up my diploma about 30 seconds after my fiance Miss Lisa Ann on Saturday afternoon. The results are in and we both are graduating! I ended up doubling my A- count this semester putting up two more A- after a 4 semester 4.0 streak. But that's okay. After 19 years of schooling I shall graduate without ever getting anything in the B range that affected my GPA. Everything that counted was in the A-Range. That's nice.

Tomorrow will be a day of golf and a night out with friends. Should be a good day. Time to go to bed so I don't get behind and then sleep through graduation!

"Take a deep breath, take in all that you could want"

Walking to the downtown Rickers and to the park tonight with friends was very very nice. A night of doing things that I haven't done before. I enjoyed it much. One test to go, and that's all.

Goodnight. Tomorrow should be a good day of rest (and haircut).

"If I could offer you one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it"

I still remember the first day of 8th grade. Wearing my red Jars of Clay shiny shirt that I'd bought over the summer for $30 at their concert that my cool sister took me to. I remember being scared out of my mind by Mr. Roller and his insistance that we learn John 1: 1-5 word for word. One mistake and you got a zero. Had to know it by the next day perfectly. He ended up being awesome, but sucked that first day.

My first day of highschool I wore tan shorts and a striped shirt. Seemed pretty stylish. Every first day back to school at Liberty, I remember smiling. I couldn't help it.

I remember my first day of kindergarten because I missed the bus home and was stranded at my sister's elementary school 25th Street. Nobody told me that I had to switch busses or whatever. My mom came and picked me up. I don't remember if I cried out of fear.

So next week, I'll wake up on Monday and go do some work at the Flagship and have a good old time. Maybe it will dawn on me that school is actually over. Maybe it won't be until fall when something seems strangely different.

These are interesting (and I'll argue fun) times for us. I argue fun, because I am going to have fun. I usually do.

I realized today as George was moving out that I only have about one more week in The Lounge - my home for two years. That will be strange.

So I sit in my room. Alone. Feelings of joy and anticipation. Some fear. Not much worry. Surrealness. Nostalgia. Maybe I'll write a script next year. I've always wanted to. I need music. No music tonight though. It's movie time. Because I can. 3 Big Days - May 6, May 20, June 24. Wear sunscreen. Check out this link. Love or hate it. Remember it or not. The advice is interesting, if not awesome.
http://lyrics.astraweb.com/displayp.cgi?baz_luhrmann..something_for_everybody..everybodys_free_to_wear_sunscreen

"We all sing 'La, la, la, la, la...'"

Not to detract from my last post below, but here's something nice!

It's Baby Lisa...Why not one of Baby Berg too!

"Collapse into me, tired with joy"

Well...one test down. One more important one to go. I'm about to begin my last block of real studying for my undergraduate college career. My last important test is tomorrow at 7:40.

Will I rest easy tomorrow night? What will I feel like next week with no overriding obligations... I expect the next two weeks after this to be some of the best ever. I'll do a bit of work, but little else. I'm so glad I went through my College is Ending Crisis before now. I feel so good. I can't wait to get married, to move into an apartment with Rogers. We're going to have a blast.

On that note, I have a lingering feeling that our slideshow is going to be awesome. George W. is putting it together, and it's going to rock. Can't wait to see the results. Maybe some of you will see yourselves in some of the pics.

Well it's not an exciting update, but just wanted to say Hey before I start studying...ummm for the last time for awhile!

4 Songs that Currently Rock
Carry On - Elliott
Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
Genius - Duncan Sheik
Closer - Joshua Radin

"And the sun rised everywhere"

In the next 30 minutes, I'll finish studying and go to sleep. When I wake up, I'll be getting ready for my last Monday of school for several years at least, possibly forever. You never know?

I'll wake up to a song by Athenaeum - Suddenly.

Please wake me

I don't know if I'm still dreaming

Please wake me

I'm one side calm and one side screaming

If I remember correctly, fall of my freshman year, I woke up to this song all the time. Probably even my first day of college. Four years later. I can feel myself changing in several ways. Why changing now? I'm not sure. Is it natural to change along with change? Perhaps. This past week, several days I began the day consciously being happy rather than unconsciously being on autopilot. I started doing devotions this past week without some spiritual breakthrough. I feel ready to face the world. Ready to be done with school. Ready for whatever life throws at us. So this is it. It will end well. A chapter is ending.

The Soundtrack to this very important week will be Elliott's Song in the Air. A CD Nate D. let me borrow that he accurately describes as "atmospheric" and "sad." In light of this sadness, I realized that sad things make me extremely happy. My happiest moments come as a result of something that seems sad. Is that odd? The saddest part of a movie, makes me happy. A sad song makes me happy. Not happy in the smile and laughing sort of way, but happy in the emotionally joyful sense of the word.

The first of my last finals begins in six hours. Wish me luck. Goodnight. It's been a blast.