Knock On Wood

 

So… I normally don’t do birthday “shout-out” posts on here—I  can only remember a scant few in the past year and most of those were for random already dead folk (see: Edison, Bach).  The reason? It sets an awful precedent to do one for aaaaaaallllllllllllllll you biscuits!!

That being said, though, as I was driving home from works tonight Amii (two i’s!!!) Stewart’s “Knock on Wood” came on the radio and I knew I had to make a HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMISON!!!! post.  We were out one night in Chicago and this music video came on at the bar and neither of us had ever seen it before.  As you will see, it’s unsurprising that we were simultaneously in awe and bewildered.  Behold the crazy:

 

Artist: Amii Stewart

Trouble is a Friend

 

Niagara falls, baybay!

 

Yesterday was my friend, Jennifer’s, twentywguskn-th birthday and I thought I would take this opportunity for a skip down memory lane if you will.  Oh, and YOU WILL!!

Jennifer and I met when we were freshmen at Baylor and shared a music theory class together.  Sometimes we’d even sit at football games together if I could find her. I always enjoyed finding someone I knew so I could just chat and joke around and not really have to pay attention to the game.  She remembers them a bit differently, though: “Yeah… did you know that I really didn’t know who you were when you used to sit by me? It was really awkward.”  I guess I revel in awkward, though, because I had no idea.  Or like the time when I asked for her phone number so we could hang out:

Me: (after getting her number) So your last name’s Whalen, right? How do you spell that?

Jennifer: W-H-A-L-E-N. Aaaaaaaaaaaand how is it that you spell yours again?

Me: Ummm, it’s Roberts.  You don’t even know my name, do you?

Jennifer: I knew your first name was Joseph, let’s just go from there.

And so a great friendship was born, like most of mine are, out of sheer determination and sticktoitiveness. Like when I met my friend Janai and said: “Yeah, you may not know this, but we WILL be good friends.”  I basically just wear people down until they can’t give up much of a fight any more—you may not like me in the beginning, but eventually you’ll learn it’s just easier in the long run to just nod and smile.  (Just like you’re probably doing right now).

At any rate… HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, JENNIFER!!!

Playing a rollicking round of “Catch My Leg”  Apparently I won that round. (Other favorite games include “One, Two, Three Pick-a-Note” and “Scrunch Your Face”, the latter of which she almost always wins. [She can’t help it, her face just looks that way.])

 

Weez be ejucaded!!!!!

 

In Chicago, after she drove up from Texas to Ann Arbor for the first time with the General

 

It’s kinda hard to look this cool in a McAlisters… but I’m pretty sure we’re the exception to the rule here

 

We’re not actually singing here, it’s all STAGED!

 

Artist: Lenka/ Album: Lenka

Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad

So what's better for a weary soul who has been trapsing all over Europe (I know, poor me) and watching seventy plus high school students:  A WEEKEND AT THE RITZ-CARLTON, BABY!  My dad, the past-president of the Texas Dental Association *tah dah*, has meetings at the American Dental Association headquarters and so I was lucky enough get to spend some time with him and hang out in Chi-town with my mom.

The view from our window

John Hancock building from the room

Water Tower Place, Hancock Building, and Ritz

The American Dental Association [obviously]

The Water Tower

Museum of Contemporary Art

Form Balance Joy

My granddaddy Dan was also in town with my parents and he took us up to the observatory deck of the John Hancock building.

Giant LEGO sculpture

Looking out on Lake Michigan

The Navy Pier

ADA building as seen from above.

Mom and Dad

Me and Granddaddy Dan

Just cleanin' some windows

The big talk around town--besides stateside return, of course-- was that Transformers 3 was filming on the Magnificent Mile.

Some guy keeping the people at bay. Unfortunately he couldn't keep director Michael Bay at bay.

The bridge partially drawn with cars strewn on top

wooo WRECKAGE

and CARNAGE

What's under the tarp... I MUST KNOW

Look at all those bullet shells in the box

One night mom, dad and I went out with some of the other dentist big wigs and then had some drinks in the current President's suite.  Luckily we happened to be up there just in time to catch the fireworks at the Navy Pier.

Get it little six year old Olympus camera

THE FAM

I also had to find some way back to the Blue Lake campgrounds because the general was parked there while I was in Europe.  Gloria, my friend Janai's mother, and one of her other daughters, Nikki, were brilliantly kind enough to take me the three and a half hour drive to the woods of Michigan.  THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Gloria proving to Stan that she was in the woods