...fine line between insanity and genius

We booked flights direct to amsterdam. We're just spending one night in milan.

12:30 genova-italy. We're fucked. We missed the bus to the airport, so we'll likely miss our 1:20pm flight.

Walked cinque terre today. Google it. I'm beat to shit, and drunk on cheap wine. We're all going back to london, then dan and i will be in

2:00pm genoa, italy. Heading to train station for train to cinque terre. Meeting with beth... Hopefully.

We're at the airport, boarding for our flight to genoa, italy.

it was a much more relaxed day today, but that's not to say that we didn't do anything. the clouds and rain didn't stop today and it was a little bit colder, but that's london for you. baker street - for brunch... nothing crazy. i had a ham and egg salad sandwich . dave bought at mario's german bratwurst , and brought it into the restaurant to join us. madam tussaud's wax museum - highlight - brittany spears' chest pulsating. unnecessary. dave's highlight - chamber of horrors, or whores as some of us kept screaming as we walked down the stairs... it was like a haunted house and some jackass hanging from the ceiling, scared the shit out of dave. london eye - a large observation ferris wheel, with beautiful views of central london. it was our meeting point to add jim and phuc to the crew. i was a little messed up from some starbuck's coffee and began screaming like a... i can't think of a good analogy, but ask the others, they experienced it...

after spending two hours in customs, thirty minutes getting a tube ticket, and about an hour riding the tube with 3 transfers, we arrived at chris's flat . we exchanged pleasantries and dan and i took showers after traveling for over 20 hours. here's an excerpt of our schedule, with details to follow. DLR to Tower Gateway Tower of London Walk towards Tower Bridge Tower Bridge Experience and Power Room Anchors Pub Walk west on South Bank Get starbucks Southwark Cathedral Walk to Tate Modern - art interpretation Tate Modern to Millennium Bridge St. Pauls Big Ben / Parliament Westminster Abby Westminster Cathedral Buckingham Palace Chinese Food Platform 9 3/4 Bar 333 (empty) Mothers 333 x 2 Back to Limehouse Mothers 333 Kebabs Cab search

2:00 montreal. Leaving airport to downtown. Only 1 hour to play. Then back to airport! we were able to convince the security guard to let us leave, despite his being very reluctant and sure that there was no way for us to get back in time. we actually were able to go to the notre dam church, china town , some gentlemen's club district , and a nice area with a lot of al fresco restaurants. we got back to the airport with time to spare, and ate a late lunch. the highlight? poutine . it's french fries with cheese curds, covered in gravy. i'll have to show you a picture sometime. one adventure, one country, one flight... done.

i ended up doing other shit , like pre-scheduling bills for the next month, and worrying myself silly about all kinds of things for the trip. dan set the alarm for 5:45am , so i should probably get at least 2 hours sleep before we shove off. this should be my last u.s. posting... from here 'til i get back, it will be short bursts from my cell phone, and maybe some short snippets if i can get on a computer. be safe, kids... keep on keepin' on... i'll see you on the flipside.

it's 12:20am and pops is gonna drop me off at danny's place. i can't effing fall asleep because i'm so damn antsy. i still need to blog about what i did last night, so i'll do that until i fall asleep.

Stitch.

thought i should explain the text below... " richard walkers ". it is not important that i ate there this morning, or that i had the biscuit and gravy skillet , or that the coffee was shite. what is important, is that i sent a text message that read "richard walkers", and that text message appeared on my blog! so what does that mean? it means that this nerd can blog from anywhere in the world , as long as he can text from his cell phone! btw. i will have my cell phone in europe, so feel free to text me, since phone calls are $0.99 a minute.

Richard walkers

this europe trip has been a logistical nightmare. danny and i took three hours to find an available hostel in amsterdam and dublin . tomorrow, we have to get some accomodations for warsaw , vienna , and prague . thankfully beth is planning the greece portion of the trip. danny and i ate sushi at china palace ... which now serves thai food !?!?! i know, it's a shocker to me too. we then went to barnes and noble to pick up some travel books. while there, danny noticed a nice pair of legs and knee high boots with a short skirt. she was a goth chick, which is not usually something i concern myself with... but goth chicks need love too, and she was a cutie. we then stopped at 4 stores before finding a reasonably priced plug set for european countries. who knew that it would be so hard to find such a thing... during the summer... when everyone goes on vacation... huh?

i got up early today (like 7:00am and 9:00am ), but i kept going back to sleep. my whole body was sore from the damn golf outing. hands, arms, back, stomach... i'm a fucking mess. pops and i took a trip to chicago to pick up my passport. it was a quick pick-up, only taking about 5 min in the building, so we decided on lunch in chinatown . we ate at seven treasures , where we both had noodles with won tons , but he had his with beef stew and i had mine with shrimp dumplings . we also had a side of chinese broccoli . fucking delicious . at 3:30pm , we left the city and got stuck in a 2 hour commute back home. i tried to catch up with some shit, but danny and i had to go to sports authority to buy some gear for the europe trip . then, while out, aymeei calls because her chindo dog , named chindo , died today. so guess what? danny and i had to go to her house to wrap up the dog to take it to the vet for disposal. it would've been fine if the dog were in view, but we had to...

i had a dream about you this morning. you had just gotten your face pierced... it was eye , or nose , or lip . it kept changing, because after all, it was a dream. anyways, i gave you a kiss hello. and i just kept staring at your face. but we didn't speak, because we don't speak... and i think i've forgotten your voice. and then something happens where all of a sudden, we're in some other location, and you're crying because i didn't pay enough attention to you. then i'm trying so hard to let you know that i really do like you, and then all of a sudden, you're scarlett johansson . ...and then i start crying, because i was dating scarlett johansson and i didn't give her enough attention. wtf? i love dreams.

golf was a sport of wealthy businessmen taking friday's off and smoking cigars. think men in plaid. think private resorts and scotch. then tiger woods changed the scene and everyone is playing golf. i see kids as young as 8 playing golf behind my house! wtf! maybe it's the norm now, even though its expensive ... try $56 for 18 holes on a weekend and anywhere from $300 to +$1000 for equipment (clubs, shoes, bag, etc). that being said, i played today. it was in itasca , a place called eaglewood resort . emer and christabel had their wedding reception there. $56 gave us a golf cart and 18 holes, at a tee time of 8:00am ! the previous day's events left me little rest in order to make it out, but i forced myself up to join the guys. it was a good day of learning, as it was only my third time playing... ever. par for this course was 72 and i shot a 71 ... over . that's right ladies and gentlemen, a total score of 143 ! not bad they say, for being a third outing. but n...

usually, especially working or at school, getting a case of the mondays is a regular routine. since i am in a sort of limbo situation, i do not have the mondays. after eating a delicious brunch with my father, including dungenous crab , fried tilapia , and scrambled eggs , we made an appointment online for eye exams for the both of us at america's best . have you seen these commercials? they claim that it's $69.95 for two pairs of glasses. bullshit . after sitting through the exam, i come to find out that if i want lenses less than 2 inches thick, i have to pay an extra sixty bucks . add other miscellaneous costs, and my total ends up just over $200 . fucking bait and switch bastards. i bought the two pairs anyways, as i have had the same frames since 1999 . tonight ended at houlihan's , with a couple of drinks with aymeei , dan , and chuck . aymeei even bought us a round of soco lime shots to take the edge off. i'm drunk and ready to pass out to x-files , like the...

at around 6:00pm , danny and i stopped in blue fin on north, to dine on fresh sushi . most notably, was the appetizer known as the heart attack ... a dish that danny dare not taste. picture two fresh jalepaños stuffed with spicy tuna and cream cheese, cut into slivers and topped with spicy mayo and other peppery secret ingredients... i was sweating after the first little taste. the fish was very fresh, and it was decently priced. it's been such a long time since i've eaten there, but it won't be long til the next time. after stuffing ourselves, it was now time for some alcohol . having been a beautiful morning/afternoon, we thought that al fresco drinking would be in order, however it was freezing out. we found a couple seats at the bar in northside and slowly down a couple drinks while watching the spurs vs. suns game. al and chuck showed up to eat their dinner and catch up with us. some time close to 9:00pm we made our way to plan b . plan b is such a bad name for...

i had some opportunities to go do something social all day today, but instead, i decided to stay in and watch x-files . boring? for you maybe. for me... it was just what i needed. on a good note, danny , chuck , and dave had splendid times with splendid ladies. i'm not at liberty to discuss any more. just kidding. but really, they had a good night with their respective dates. so that's good.

let's just cut to the chase. since i didn't get to sleep until after 5:00am last night, most of the day was spent drifting in and out of sleep. i was able to catch breakfast or lunch at some point, i guess. all you need to know about today is that we went to rei to buy some gear for europe 2007 , and then ended up at reza's for a mediterranean dinner. at reza's, they have belly dancers on thursdays, so we were able to get a good show... i also volunteered to join the show and show off my moves with the belly dancers. fortunately, there were various pictures taken to commemorate the occasion, so if you are interested, i will gladly show them to you.

chuck woke up at the ass crack of dawn to begin emptying the fish tank. by the time i woke up, everyone had packed up the car for one more trip to the storage place and left without me. it was about 8:00am . i probably should've went back to sleep, however, robyn's boss kept calling the damn phone because he couldn't find some sort of important document at work... for fuck's sake. i did my best to fall back asleep, but everyone came back and began packing for the trip home. we made a stop at panera before heading back at about 12:30pm . chuck led the whole way, without a hitch. we stopped to get gas and a bite to eat at sonic , but they didn't have a bathroom, so we went across the street to a quizno's instead... exciting. at about 11:00pm , we were all the way up to indianapolis , but chuck needed a power nap before we continued. we were only about 3 hours away, but better safe than sorry. trouble is, we didn't get up until 2:30am ! we slept for almost...

today was rather familiar to just being at home, in that we pretty much just did errands . we brought the rx to the lexus dealer to get an oil change , stopped at a bunch of stores to assist in the packing and storing of chuck's shit, and met up with robyn at zaxby's for lunch. zaxby's is known for it's chicken fingers, and hot damn if it ain't the best that i've had! good chicken, good breading, good fries, and a piece of toast to round it out. we came back to the apartment where chuck and his mom packed and organized everything, while i took a little nap . chuck and i then went onto the base to get some military issue army t-shirts. you know, the gray ones that say ARMY in bold black letters? i found out that you can't buy the official military issued one unless you have a military id! i guess it has something to do with impersonating a soldier, but it's not like i wanted to get some dress blues or full fatigues. oh well. for dinner we ate at th...

i wanted to recap the events of the last couple of days on one blog... however, i realized that it would end up being the longest, single day blog, ever. so instead, i have decided to update previous posts on each given day. so, last night, chuck , his mom, and i, jumped in the rx and drove down to augusta, georgia , to help robyn pack her stuff for the end of the school semester. we're also moving a bunch of chuck's stuff to storage place, because he's getting out of his lease until he gets back from iraq in january . it was nice riding down in the rx because they have a gps system and the gps lady has a sexy voice. it only took us about 12 hours , which sounds long as hell, but i slept most of the way... oops. today, we had lunch at chick-fil-a , a southern fast food staple, and dinner at sticky fingers , a rib joint (you perverts). that's pretty much all i did. i think robyn spent most of the day playing her ds , chuck caught up on old episodes of naruto , and t...

congratulations to jim and phuc on their marriage yesterday. there were a lot of interesting "developments" , most of which i cannot post on this blog. i will write about what i can, when i can, but tonight i'm leaving for atlanta/augusta to help chuck and robyn move their shit. highlights to come... meson sebika , star wars wedding video, drunken gay pictures... what?!?!

i'm trashed , but coherent enough to log on and blog. wtf! all i remember is that we were at lucky's and then houndstooth . but that's about it. i think i sent some drunk texts. shit. that's all. update it was a rough friday night. we were supposed to go to the rehearsal dinner. chris was in charge of the second reading, while roy , dave , and i were ushers . out of the four of us, none of us made it. chuck , tim , roy, and chris all went to the cubs game earlier in the day. i went to meet them before the rehearsal, so that we could all ride down together. on my way down, chuck got kicked out of wrigleycorn . tim, roy, and chris all took turns giving me a drunken recap of the day's events. by the time i met up, everyone was lit up, so i proceeded to lucky's to down two shots of maker's mark and a miller lite . i began to feel the beginnings of a buzz, so i continue to down lite after lite, until at some point, we realize that there is no way that any of...

it's 4:40am ... and i'm exhausted from the day's preceedings. i need to blog about it later. i just wanted to say thanks to kristin , who kept me sane, while i paced around century mall . update so today i was a big nervous mess. i wanted to go to the city early so that i could purchase the movie tickets for everyone in advance. i hit up century mall around 4:30pm and went upstairs to the ticket booth. on my way up the escalators, i peeked into express women and got a quick glimpse of sarah webs , but i was so antsy that i decided to get the tickets first. on the second floor, i passed express men and as i got on the next escalator, i saw kristin , so i yelled her name and shouted that i'd be back in a sec. she saw me, flashed a smile and gave a big wave. at the ticket booth, ira found me and told me that tickets were being sold around the corner, at a folding table with 48 hour film project posters haphazardly taped around it. he was surprised that i was there so ...

man rule #97 : do not talk to women about going to the ballet . now, i'm not actually ' talking ' to any women about this, per se, however there is high probability that women are reading or will read this, so i guess i'm breaking rule #97. but i have to, because it was just such a good time. well, probably it was one of those times where '...you just had to be there' , but i'll write about it anyway. as it happens every time, you won't be surprised to know that some of us fell in love. s ometimes, o ne n ight j ust a in't enough, but one night will have to do, because i just don't have the cash flow. but that's not the main story anyway. the main story (which would be much better told, live) is about this dancer from the czech republic . i can't remember her name, but she came up to me with something i like to call the 'direct pitch' . this is where the formalities are thrown out and a simple, 'voud you like a dans?' com...

chuck is back home, and so begins a couple weeks of insanity before he heads back to iraq . first, we've got the mim premiere thursday night, a rehearsal dinner on friday, and jim and phuc's wedding on saturday. i've got so much shit to take care of before the europe 2007 trip, but i can't concentrate until we show the damn film already.

it's so hard to wait until thursday . please join us for the show! who : meat is murder productions what : screening of 48 hour film projects where : landmark's century cinema, 2828 n. clark street, chicago when : thursday, may 3 @ 9:00pm why : to support our work and to see what we put together! how : click here for google maps cost is $8 and the show will sell out ! so we need you to let us know asap if you are coming, so we can reserve tickets.