Who knew hell could be so fun? Read on...

Intolerant people, General asshats, U of I's Preacher Dan or his Modern-Day equivalent
Circle I Limbo

Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson, and other famously stupid bimbos, John Kerry, Greens, Harry Reid
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind

Chicago Suburbanites walking around in their North Face and Popped Collars
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow

The Boston Red Sox, Militant Vegans, The Chicago Cubs, The entire UNC basketball team
Circle IV Rolling Weights

Women who can actually eat and remain under a Size 8 , PETA Members, Parents who bring squalling brats to R-rated movies
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled

River Styx

Democrats who work for the Blagojevich administration, The entire College Democrat organization at UIUC
Circle VI Buried for Eternity

River Phlegyas

People who bring squalling brats out, PERIOD, War Protesters who wear smelly K-Mart clothing, Boys who lie
Circle VII Burning Sands

Saddam Hussein, Sean May, Democrats who work for the Blagojevich administration and actually like their job/boss, Boys who are hopelessly hung up on ex-girlfriends and refuse to shut up about them
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement

Osama bin Laden, Ted Kennedy, Rod Blagojevich
Circle IX Frozen in Ice

Design your own hell

Update, update, update...

First and foremost, I have my NEW apartment. I signed the lease tonight, and I am SO EXCITED. My new apartment is fabulous, and the best part is...IT'S ALL MINE! (And, even though I don't have a washer/dryer INSIDE my apartment, I have the next best thing...it is RIGHT across the hall-and I'm on the first floor!) I am so excited of the prospect of living by myself for the first time since senior year. And senior year, I was living in B-E and working for housing, so it wasn't exactly like I was living ALONE alone. Now, I have an entire apartment to decorate exactly as I wish, and if I want to sit in my boyshorts and strappy tank tops and watch TV while doing crunches or leg lifts I don't have to feel weird about doing so! :D A party is definitely in the works, hopefully sometime around Halloween, but I'll DEFINITELY be having one after New Year's, in continuing the tradition of Amy Lynnette's Post New-Year's soiree. This year, it will be 3 years running! Although I must say, it will be difficult to top last year's festivities. :D If you were there you definitely know what I mean.

Next, my job at the Lincoln Museum is going quite well, for the most part. I'm still looking forward to finding something permanent, but until that time it's a nice place to work.

And....EXCITING NEWS! I have achieved the impossible-I have scored an interview with a state agency-the Illinois Department of Transportation, to be specific. I don't fancy the idea of working for the state for the rest of my life, but it would be a GREAT fresh-out-of-college job, and would certainly pay quite well. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray for me, EVERYONE!!!

In other news, I got a request via email to apply for a job with the American Dream Coalition, just another lovely interest group in our country. (527 for those of you who are politically savvy) The position is named Grassroots Coordinator, which basically means I would be traveling a great deal on behalf of the coalition in order to set up small local groups around the country in order to gather support and establish the coalition as a national political player. It sincerely sounds like a fabulous opportunity, as well as a lot of fun, and I look forward to finding out more information.

In other news, I'm going to CMS tomorrow (on my day off-never a day of rest ;o) ) in order to test for MORE state jobs that have been posted, in case the opportunities mentioned above don't pan out. Sigh. Again, keep your FINGERS CROSSED!!!

In more entertaining news, I actually went out (SHOCK!) on a Saturday night this past weekend, which is quite remarkable in that I have become a hermit lately, thanks to my lack of "real" job and abundance of part-time work and other less-than-entertaining things. I sincerely hope that my social life will revive itself this fall when many of my friends will return to school and the bliss of college life (ah, I miss it already).

Well, that's all that's happening at the moment. More details as they come!

It's official...I have an apartment for the next year. After touring several less-than-desirable places, I have decided to stay in the same apartment complex I'm currently living in. I'm moving to a one bedroom model. The following are things I need to do before I move:

-Find a piece of artwork for my wall (I'm thinking a copy of Van Gogh's Vase Avec Marguerites et Coquelicots-for all you non-French speakers, Vase with Poppies and Daisies). It has a bunch of really beautiful red colors in the painting, which will go quite well with my decor.

-Buy a lamp for my living room.

-Buy a vacuum cleaner

-Paint my dresser and replace the pulls (I have picked some out at Lowe's).

-Re-upholster my parents' old couch (They got all new furniture for the living room), which is coming with me to Springfield.

After I do these things I will have the perfect Springfield apartment...

Can I just say...having a job you like makes all the difference in the world. I love love love my new job. Granted, it's only until something related to my major comes along, but it's nice to be doing something that you find enjoyable. Working at the museum has been a blast so far! And I work with a great group of people. In addition, I found out some VERY exciting news today about the significant other of one of the folks I work with, but more on that later. Let's just say that the next few weeks should be very interesting!

The First Cut is the Deepest

About a week ago, I had a long conversation with a good friend of mine regarding the topic of first loves and the deeply broken hearts that ensue following a break-up with a first love. Both me and this individual have experienced what it feels like to care about someone so deeply and what a wonderful feeling it is to love openly and freely without abandon or the fear of having your heart broken. We also understand how exceedingly painful it is to endure a break-up with this person. It takes months, sometimes a year or two (or even longer) to get past it. Notice that I said get PAST it, because it's very hard to completely forget them once and for all. This type of person will always hold a small piece of your heart, or be etched in your memory in some way or another.

This being said, there are two types of people that endure these breakups. The first type of person is the kind that might go through a rebound relationship, (it's quite common) but following this rebound period comes to their senses and realizes, "Life is too long to spend unhappy and bitter about the first person who broke your heart." After all, how many people do you meet that actually END UP with their high school/college sweetheart? Not too many, my friends. Anyway, this "aha" moment usually occurs after meeting someone new, and realizing, in fact, that there are other wonderful people in the world who, perhaps, might be even better for you than this first love, and that maybe, just MAYBE, everything happens for a reason (even though that is one of my least favorite sayings, I'm starting to wonder if it's true, even occasionally).

Just the other night a hometown football game
My wife and I ran into my old high school flame
And as I introduced them the past came back to me
And I couldn't help but think of the way things used to be

She was the one that I'd wanted for all times
And each night I'd spend prayin' that God would make her mine
And if he'd only grant me this wish I wished back then
I'd never ask for anything again

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

She wasn't quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams
And I could tell that time had changed me
Inn her eyes too it seemed
We tried to talk about the old days
There wasn't much we could recall
I guess the Lord knows what he's doin' after all

And as she walked away and I looked at my wife
And then and there I thanked the good Lord
For the gifts in my life

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he may not answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

It's kind of like the song by Garth Brooks, which I always thought was kind of corny, but strangely enough it's got some truth behind the lyrics: So, I guess the moral of this story is, life is too short to make yourself miserable about events that you don't have control over. If you give your best in a relationship, and it still doesn't work out, you have to realize after awhile that it might not have been your fault, and there's no sense torturing yourself and making yourself unhappy. It took me a lot of time and a rebound or two before I realized that sometimes things DO happen for a reason and work out despite what you though you wanted/was best for you.

Never again will I allow myself to indulge my painful memories like I did in the past, and replay certain events over and over and OVER in my mind, when I could be spending the time with someone who appreciates and cares for me despite the things that might have led to the end of a previous relationship. If I learned one thing from that breakup, that would be it.

I'll leave you with the words of Rhett Butler to Scarlett from Gone with the WInd...
"There's a big world out there, and I shan't be lonely."

PEORIA

In my haste to finish my last post, I failed to discuss my recent trip to the lovely city of Peoria, Illinois. I definitely should have discussed it, because it has proved to be a fun place to be.

Things Peoria has that Springfield DOESN'T:

A real skyline...It's pretty fun to drive around at night and see all of the glittering lights and the view from the neighboring hilltops.

A river! Not only the river, but a bunch of really cute little bars lining the river. It actually reminds me a little of New Orleans, one of my all-time favorite cities.

Cold Stone Creamery...The best ice cream I've tasted north of the Mason-Dixon line...(Bluebell still wins) they mix the ice cream with your choice of ingredients. I departed from my health food kick briefly and ordered Boston cream pie ice cream, which consisted of the vanilla ice cream mixed by hand with yellow cake, chocolate, and other yummy stuff. It was well worth the extra miles I ran to make up for eating it.

A huge, outdoor mall! And yes, it has the biggest Dick's I've ever seen...(see Krissa's comment on the previous post) Dick's Sporting Goods, that is. I made the mistake of letting that comment slip out of my mouth...Krissa was positively rolling with laughter before I had realized what I said. SIGH...lol. And it doesn't have the random run-of-the-mill shops that can be found in Springfield...they've got the Bergner's to end all Bergner's (it's also huge), Sharper Image, Ann Taylor Loft, and a number of other stores I enjoy that cannot be found in the happy confines of Springfield Illinois.

Catepillar...Not that I really care if Springfield has a Catepillar or not, but Krissa took me on a driving tour of her new workplace, so I felt like I should mention it. It's HUGE! Apparently, it employs something like 80,000 people...very amazing.

So, all in all, Peoria was a fun place to visit, and I hope it works out well for Krissa. The best part about it is that for the first time in years, my best friend is only an hour away! Yay!

It's been awhile since my last post, so I'll update...

The job hunt continues...but there are some viable prospects on the horizon. I went to a fundraiser for State Representative Chapin Rose a couple of weeks ago, and he got me interested in applying for a position with HRO. This would involve moving to the depths of Southern Illinois, but if I was lucky enough to get this position, it would be the foot in the door that I needed in order to officially kick off my career in Illinois politics. That being said, I'm less than thrilled about the idea of leaving Springfield, for more than a few reasons:

1) All of my friends are here in Springfield, or reasonably close by. Many of them are an hour away, in Champaign, Bloomington, & Peoria. There are several more in Chicago, which is a mere 3 hour drive from here (not bad for weekend trips). Of course, I have a few friends that have left Illinois all together, and headed to exotic locales such as Arizona or Washington D.C., but there will always be a few friends like that.

2) Springfield is the place to be for Illinois politics. Period. End of story. I eventually want to end up back up here, until the day I find a job in D.C. I always thought I'd work here for a few years, build up my resume, then find a fabulous job on Capitol Hill. :o)

3) UIS is right here waiting for me as soon as I decide to start my Public Administration degree. Which is something that will probably happen in the very near future.

4) There is a fourth reason, but I'd rather not talk about it at the present time. It alone is not reason enough to stay here in Springfield, but it's certainly something that might make staying here seem worthwhile (along with all the other reasons I listed). However, it's ridiculous to consider staying merely for something that is uncertain at best. That's all I have to say about that.

In other news: not much. I've been working out, working, and visiting friends outside of Springfield. Last weekend I got to see a lot of my friends down in STL at FSL for the 4th of July, which was good times, as usual. This week we bid goodbye to Amanda, who is moving to Arizona for work-she got a fantastic job, and I know she's really excited and I'm extremely happy for her! That being said, she's going to be missed by all of us.

Not much else to report...more later! Hopefully I will have a REAL job to report on VERY SOON! :0)