life wasted

okeh.. let me try to recap what has been a very eventful weekend in my travels to the midwest.. in no particular order, of course (i like to keep this recap abstract for the simple reason that i might forget something and add them in later, and because i can).. and a piece of traveling advice, book yourself into hotels that offer you free wireless internet access.. it makes your whole travel an experience!

• 05/26 - decided that i'm not gonna be frustrated and pissed off and turn back and fly home to denver after a terrible miscalculation on my part (driver license expired.. no rental car); woke up at 10am with a throbbing headache (a direct result of going to bed at 5am); looked at the option of taking the express bus from the union station in chicago to madison (the union station is a few blocks east from the hotel that i stayed in in chicago.. now in chicago terms, a block could mean 1/4 of a mile!; checked out the distance myself and there's no way i'd be hauling my luggage through almost a mile of chicago's crowd; and after about 1/2 hour of looking around for the bus stop, finally found it (it's at the union station canal st.; met the RPI contingent along the way, and said hi ( i think); my head was still throbbing and starving; took a cab with the intention of going for some lamb briani at devon; the cabbie, tony, convinced my to go to a persian restaurant (reza's off foster) instead.. well he was nice enough so we had lunch together (bought him lunch) and had a good chat; he's greco-lebanese and been in the states for about 20 years, and sounded so happy that he finally received his US citizenship (i'm understating this a bit.. he was ecstatic to get his citizenship!; then tony drove me back to the hotel for me to pick my stuff and dropped me off at the union station ( he didn't wanna take any fare but i gave him 20 bucks anyway.. the trip could've cost me well over 40 bucks); got onto the bus that took me to madison, wisconsin.. feels like the bus rides from jb to kl, only on a much nicer, cleaner, and better-smelling bus; got to the university's memorial union around 8.30pm, and got a ride on the hotel's shuttle to the hotel, checked in and settled down; then i went for a little stroll to the memorial union (3 miles) to cap off the night; it felt like it's gonna be a good weekend after all.. and my headache's receded.. nice!
  

• 05/27 - the day after.. naturally i woke up late after another late night (not because i became a year older the night before); missed the opening ceremony of the midwest games 2006 on purpose; walked to the randall center and met up with some new friends.. abg aziz and his family, khalifa and her family, and a few msd officers from chicago; found out that my first round match was at 10am, and not at 11.15am as was originally scheduled.. luckily for me, got a ride back to the hotel and to the nielsen tennis center from haya who was on her way there as well (big thanks!); met ima there too and she has been the nicest person; my first round match was against shamsul from george washington university (funny.. 2 years ago i beat his college buddy syed), second round i played anas from penn state university, and in the quarterfinal i played syed muaz from the university of southern california (or was he from stanford? can't remember.. sorry bud!); all in all a good day's of work; had dinner at a korean restaurant nearby the hotel and slept like a baby
  

• 05/28 - since my semifinal match won't be until noon, i figured i'd sleep in for a little bit, get ready and watch some soccer matches, then off to the tennis courts; did none of the predetermined plans because i was asked to umpire the men's doubles final match (i only did it because ima asked me); the semifinals took longer than they were scheduled, so we had to push back the doubles final, the singles semifinals and final to later times; when i finally took to the court, it was already 2.30pm (methinks), and i played shafiq from rpi; then almost right away, i played syed in the finals, the same guy i beat a coupla years back in purdue; i took the title after a hard fought match and capped off what had been a very nice weekend in madison.. a sense of an accomplishment after the 'failure' in purdue (and a nice birthday present too!); attended the performance night and the prize presentation ceremony at the UW union theater, and basked in my 2-minute of glory.. for the first time in a few days, it feels good to be 30

i've posted a few pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/crazycorpse. while i'm figuring out how to link the flickr site to my blog, do check it out k!