Schindler's List was almost 20 years ago.
That's when most of us first saw Liam Neeson in his Oscar nominated role as Oskar Schindler. His acting career began more than 20 years prior and he's been working nearly nonstop the entire time (Neeson's impressive IMDB page).
Lately, he's been one of the best Hollywood kicking ass badasses. Some may have realized how awesome he is when he was wielding a light saber, or beginning Batman, but for me it was his throat-punching tour de force Taken. It was quickly followed up by a similar role in Unknown and yesterday The Gray opened in theaters. [I really wish "the" would've been dropped from the title - I wanted the starkly titled single word trilogy to have been completed].
Just when I thought my opinion of Liam Neeson couldn't have gotten any better, I saw the below embedded video. In my mind, he's a triple threat - with the ability to make others cry from an emotional monologue, cry from a painful beating, and now cry in laughter.
January 24, 2012 is my birthday. As an American, I'm allowed to be totally self absorbed and selfish on this day. Therefore, I'm using this opportunity to write an extremely long brag. Please note that I did not write this for you - it's entirely for me: A document to upload to the Internet that I will be able to look back at for years to follow. This is my birthday present to myself.
Dear Facebook, not everything has to be "like"-able
2006 was the best year of my life. I knew it while the year was ending. It wasn't in the morbid, "well, it's all downhill from here" sense - it was a warm feeling of accomplishment. That year I finally told my parents that they were ready to live on their own when I bought my condo and was also the year I won a free weekend in Vegas thanks to a lavish charity poker tournament held on Northerly Island. In January of that year I started blogging and by the end I had accomplished a resolution of finishing 12 books in 12 months (a feat I have yet to equal again). Life was sweet, life was comfortable, life was happy. The following years were slight builds featuring more sweetness, comfort and happiness - but I knew it was all set in motion by 2006.
2006 was the best year of my life - past tense. 2011 is the new highpoint. Again, I don't feel like 2012 is going to be horrid (Ancient Mayans, I'm looking in your direction). Barring something insanely crazy like getting brainwashed into a marriage or fatherhood - it will probably be more than 5 years when it gets topped, if ever. [Although it might be a slight cheat - I'm going to modify by "best year" to the 365 days between my 32nd birthday and my 33rd. There are a couple events from an already stellar January that I want to include in this post.]
The little things: my sporting year
Obviously, you're not a golfer
Even though I started golfing a few years ago, 2011 was really the year I became a golfer. At the start of the season, I openly worried with friends that it might be the last season for me - that if I wasn't happy with my progress I wasn't going to continue. As much as I don't like to admit it, I don't think I truly took the game seriously when I started - seemingly more interested in wearing stupid straw hats or making a damn fool of myself in outbursts of rage. My first time out in 2011, one of my friends said that he didn't recognize me in my new "golf hat" (a modest white Titleist cap). My last time out I hit my preset goal for the year (and also saw a friend bury an eagle from about 190 yards away). But it's not the quantitative scoring improvement of 2011 that earns its place in this post - it was the network of about 6 different people that was willing to spend a few hours with me nearly every Saturday this summer that made it the best.
My home on Wednesday nights
The first sport I loved, basketball, earns an honorable mention here. I took over the low-maintenance coordination duties of a weekly open gym. Pick up basketball is often young men at their worst: hard fouls, harder personalities, and massive amounts of others' shirtless sweat - however, not when I'm in charge. It's more difficult than you'd think to gather ten people who aren't pricks and can remember the four other people on their team. Another reason that makes my basketball group great: we donate a ton of food to a local food pantry.
We made shirts
And now I bowl. It's not the first bowling league I've been a part of - but it's the first bowling team that has ever found its way to first place. If I am honest with my most egotistical self - it's not the team's success which is making me happy (it should be noted, my average is the worse of the team named StrongMenAlsoCry). I'm getting out of work on a usually boring Tuesday night to roll with a couple friends. We all laugh together and regularly tease each other. The only thing that I love more than the others' toleration of my non stop Lebowski quoting is the creation of the below video. It will keep me smiling for many years:
What was heard: my year in music
Jim James of My Morning Jacket
Arcade Fire winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2011 was a moment of huge joy for me. Was it my favorite album of theirs? - no. Was it in my opinion the best album of that year? - not even close... But when a band you like - that a lot of people were vocal about never knowing existed - wins an award like that it's like having your small school win the National Championship.
More important for me, 2011 was a record setting year in both concerts attended and people who went to concerts with me. After years of trying to convince friends to check out this band, or having the same friends ask me to check out that band - we finally saw'em all when they came to Chicago. Or, as was the case with my favorite show of the year, go up to Milwaukee (My Morning Jacket at Riverside Theater) to catch a better performance. Even though MMJ was the best show, my strongest memory from the past year might be how I got myself to see Foster the People for free. (and then also, by the same reward, see Girls) Yes, I made a chart to fully detail just how many great shows I saw with many great people:
Other people's joy: my year of being included in something bigger
Doug & Rachel
Not too long ago, if you would tell me that I would not blink twice at missing Fatboy Slim performing in Chicago or a hometown Lebowski Fest I would not have believed you. Those two events seem to be right up my selfish alley, but 2011 presented me with better options that reminded me there are other people I care about more than myself.
The wedding of Rachel & Doug was not the first wedding in which I viewed both halves of the union as a friend. It was also not the first time I was an usher in a ceremony. It felt different because Rachel & Doug are not lifelong friends I've known since childhood. I always knew of them as a couple and they always knew of me as a beaten up romantic cynic.
Me n'Matthew
Then there's Matthew: my Godson. Again, it's not the first instance of a friend having a kid - and not the first instance of watching a child grow before my eyes that I've had a sincere connection and love. Matthew is my first Godson (his parents = crazy?). The title definitely changes things - and I'm already loving my front seat to the rest of his life. I'm dreaming of living vicariously through his accomplishments and bragging about him without having any of the time and pressure responsibilties his parents have.
The separate incidents of Rachel & Doug's wedding and Matthew's Baptism does not make me want to start a family any sooner - but I'm happy everyone involved in those events felt different.
Passion Affinity Infinity: the year of #mubb (and its role in my Las Vegas success)
Ring out ahoya
There's nothing more I can say about my time in Las Vegas during March 2011 that hasn't already been blogged with an incredible amount of detail. Those five days in Nevada was the greatest time I had [domestically] in 2011 - with a large part courtesy of the NCAA results of my beloved alma mater. Even with the Vegas Geographical piece aside Marquette Basketball deserves its own block in this post. Once again I had purchased a 5 game ticket plan and was able to take a few more people to their first Marquette game. The team is a personal source of pride and I love being able to share it with others - to have them experience just how many students go to the game and to know that a smaller private school can sell out an arena built for an NBA franchise. For example, I was finally able to take MySister to a game. She had bought a "Beat Syracuse" button in the Spirit Shop before the game after I told her that Syracuse was the only team MU has yet to beat since joining the Big East. The button worked, and more importantly MySister wore that button the next time they played: The 2nd Round of the NCAA Tournament - when I literally ran a victory lap around the Sports Book at Treasure Island and bought many people celebratory beers.
With a MU rah-rah
I've already been to 3 games this year - and Marquette has won all three! Keeping the family vibe going, I took my Dad (MU class of 1960) to the game and even though he seems to cheer louder at the Kiss Cam - it always fills my heart when I'm able to take him there. It's a great arrangement / tradition we have: I buy the tickets, he buys the celebratory Culvers meal on ride home.
(FYI: #mubb is the Twitter hashtag that links all "Marquette University Basketball" tweets -it's a fun community and culture that I'm slowly becoming more entrenched)
Sri Lanka: the year I happened to go to the other side of the world
MySister & I in Sri Lanka
Still can't believe I did that. My head may never wrap around my choice to join MySister in Sri Lanka for two full weeks. I didn't even have a passport when I made the decision.
It's the highlight of my life. Pure and simple the largest endeavor I undertook causing the best result I ever could have imagined. I wrote many posts soon after my return about it. The experience almost killed this blog - for there seemed nothing in my humble life blogworthy anymore.
Negombo Cricket Club: 2011 Fantasy Baseball Champions
Every aspect of my life seemed to be positively influenced by it - from the crazy awesome winning streak I experience at the poker tables (funding my plane ticket) to my appropriately named Fantasy Baseball team winning a Championship.
The group that organized the build, the team I joined, recently created a video I hope you all watch. I'm in it briefly, but MySister is the exclamation point at the end. Thank you Be The Change Volunteers:
BONUS MENTION: Bowling Pin continues - highlighted by a new best effort in St. Louis
Bowling Pin has now been photographed in seven states
The “Share with All Friends” Album of the Year: Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Girls)
Runner up: Kaput (Destroyer)
Top 25 tracks of 2011 (NOTE: not listed in order of rank)
The “If Everyone Could Be Like This” Concert of the Year: My Morning Jacket (Riverside)
Runner up: the dual experience of Foster the People / Girls (both Lincoln Hall)
The “Phoenix” Becoming Too Big To Not Easily See Again: Foster the People
Runner up: M83
The “Franz Ferdinand” Must Now See Every Time They’re In Town: Foals
Runner up: Fitz & The Tantrums
The (newly named) “Bon Iver” Regret of the Year: Passing on seeing Bon Iver live at Chicago Theater
Runner up: Passing on seeing Bon Iver live at UIC Pavilion
The “Medulla” Most Disappointing Album: Zonoscope (Cut Copy)
Runner up: King of Limbs (Radiohead)
The “Should I Quit You” Most Disappointing Concert: Feist (The Riveria)
Runner up: Delorean (Lincoln Hall)
The “Shadenfradue” Guilty Pleasure Track of the Year: Party Rock Anthem (LMFAO)
Runner up: Barbara Streisand (Duck Sauce)
The "Buy an iPod stereo for the car" Best Decision I made in 2011: Cancelling my weekly basketball game in order to catch Broken Social Scene perform a free concert outside of Wrigley Field
Runner up: Creating an account on Spotify.
2011: A record setting year in venues attended. And more importantly, people who joined in the fun.
Thankfully a coworker bought a current contest by National Geographic to my attention and suggested I enter with pictures from my recent trip to Sri Lanka. Below are my submissions to Stories Without Words (The caption notes each submission's category for consideration).
I've embraced TQ has my preferred nomenclature because of how common "Tom" is - especially in my extended family. It's the name of my Grandfather, two Uncles, two uncles, and more friends. It's no surprise that when I travel to the other side of the world, that I'm put into a room with someone also named Tom.
The above picture is one of my favorite pictures I took while in Sri Lanka. It beautifully illustrates the connection my roommate Tom made with the young students at the school. He was certainly a favorite of them - and you felt like they were all genuine favorites of him.
Our team in Sri Lanka in was 13 people strong. Each was obviously worthy of their own post, but there are just a few I want to publicly mention. For example our Team Leader 'Nique.
And when you mention 'Nique, you best mention her sister Mary-Lourdes as well. As one who likes to assign nicknames, I was quick to refer to the two The SAS. SAS stands for many things, such as high quality sanding standards and bags of wine - but it literally stands for South African Siblings. Initially it stood for South African Sisters, until I met their brother at the tail end of the trip.
South African Sisters
Recently 'Nique has been transplanted to Boston, but her sister Mary-Lourdes is still keeping it real in Capetown. Both, on multiple occasions, suggested I visit Capetown someday - and that I'll have a place to crash there if I do. There are many things that I hope will happen one day for me - showing up in Capetown to see these characters is no doubt one of them.
Their brother, Manny, who I only met briefly at the tail end of my trip when Team India merged with our Team for our last weekend of R&R is also a character with character - but he won't be stealing his sisters' thunder here.
Before the trip, I (as politely as I could) hassled 'Nique about many trip details. She was very quick to reply, which in other words meant she was very quick to settle my anxiety. Once on the scene in Sri Lanka - she was on top of it. What do I mean by "it?" I mean everything. The fact that I never had any worry the entire two weeks is directly associated with her tireless preparation.
Mary-Lourdes is as cool as cucumbers come. Being more reserved than her sister - there was nobody else on the team I wanted to make laugh or smile more. MySister usually laughs at my jokes regardless of their quality (and often - regardless of her comprehension of them), but when M-L laughs at a joke - it was earned.
These two better realize that they haven't seen the last of me.
"The only way that flight would have been worse is if the plane had crashed." ~ MySister
My last day in Sri Lanka was Sunday August 14. I had woken up at 5 am in Kandy, taken a 90 minute bus ride to Columbo, waited* in the Colombo airport for 5 hours, flown four hours to New Delhi, and waited** 8 hours for our plane home to Chicago to board. This story is about that plane home from Chicago. It was a 17 hour flight - but it felt longer.
*There was another group flying out of Colombo earlier than us, it made more sense to wait the extra time at the airport instead of going back to the hotel and making another run to the airport. **The layover in Delhi was relatively painless, we experienced a grand shopping mall that existed inside an airport and experienced McDonald's without beef as an option.
But by the time we had boarded Air India Flight 127, it was 1 AM. I had been awake for 20 straight hours and still had another hour before the flight would takeoff. That was the longest hour of my life.
The Boeing 777 jet was packed. MySister & I were unable to change our seats, which we desperately wanted because we were separated on the flight. The plane has a window-middle-aisle-()-aisle-middle-aisle-()-aisle-middle-window configuration: MySister was in one of the "side-middle" seats and I was stuck in a "middle-middle" arrangement. Same row, but just far enough away that we couldn't easily communicate with each other: we were both on our own.
The four seats to my left were for a family of four: the two parents, a 4 year old daughter, and an infant son. It was the second row of the economy (coach) section, and of the 18 passengers total in the first two rows, six of the passengers were crying babies... at 1 AM. But none of those six crying babies were my biggest problem. Immediately to my left was the patriarch of that family of four. I'm not happy to admit this, but I've never wanted to punch a man in the face more than him. The following are his offenses:
Instantly removing his shoes and socks after seating
Playing with the tray table as if he didn't know how it worked before takeoff
Deciding to lean entirely on the armrest between us (instead of the other one on the aisle, that was shared with no one)
Leaning his face clearly over the invisible border between us to read the book I was attempting to read
Dancing feet, row seat shaking dancing feet (he was not listening to music)
Punching his leg, violently, which he had placed on top of his tray table
Yes, he put his leg on the tray table. And yes, all of these offenses were occurring in the initial hour after I had boarded - before takeoff. While his leg was propped up on the tray table, he began punching it - hard. He wouldn't go 3 seconds before the next rabbit punch to his leg. I've re-enacted this scene to a few people, and each time I stress that I'm not hitting my leg as hard as he was his. The only one more bothered than me by this was the poor man in the seat ahead of him. Thank God nobody behind me had lifted their leg to lay on a table and begin rocking the hell out of it through calf violence.
It was only though a more bizarre act that I was saved on this flight. After we had taken off and the seatbelt light went off, that man moved away from me. He spent most of the flight making the rounds of the airplane and guarding watch over his family. Why would his family need a guard? Because his wife was sleeping ON THE FLOOR OF THE PLANE! Meanwhile, his infant son was sprawled out along two seats and his daughter was standing on the third seat. If only I was an artist - I would illustrate how a mother could squeeze between two rows of seats in the fetal position under a tiny airline blanket.
Life Saver
My saving grace were my large over the ear headphones and my fully charged iPod. Specific thanks to the comic duo (and twin brothers) Randy & Jason Sklar. Their podcast helped me through that long journey. I had written them an e-mail of thanks after my arrival - and they replied in appreciation. I will repeat my sentiment in early December when I see them perform live (they usually sell merch themselves after shows).
Sadly, MySister was not as fortunate. The headphones she had brought were not as loud as mine - not louder than the many crying babies. Worse for her, she was flanked on both sides by less than positively fragrant men in a perpetual lean invading her personal comfort. The quote at the the post is very real - it was uttered before we even exited the jet-way at the terminal.
The entire situation left me more delirious than exhausted. I didn't sleep at all. All food was refused (note: if you think airplane food is bad, try adding curry to it). Did I get up once? NO. That's right - I freakin' locked myself into that "middle-middle," dialed my headphones up to volume 11 and RODE THAT FREAKIN' PLANE - RODE IT G.D. HARD.
You ran a marathon? Good for you. You swam a large body of water? Beautiful. I've had my endurance test - it was Air India Flight 127.
