12.30.2007

(I apologize in advance if you take the time to read this. It is way to early in the morning and the whole thing is prolly a grammatical and coherent mess. Thanks for taking the time though, I hope you find enjoyment or entertainment in it. PS, if you had a top moment of your year with me, feel free to comment this note and let me know. I may have forgotten all about it when it should be on this list.)

As I sit here on my laptop Stalkbooking the night away, I have finally come to the tremendously frightening conclusion that the year 2007 will be gone in a mere 48 hours. And what better time to come up with a top 10 list of my year's events than now? Besides, if I want to get my list out before Bud makes his, I got to get a jump on this shit.

I'm going to try to put the events in order of relative importance, 10 to 1. However, I am sure that half-way through writing this that I will think if a new event and my order will be all screwed up. I am also sure that I will forget some major happenings, so forgive me and just remind me of them if you think I should have added it.

Here is a list of honorable mentions. They will be mentioned by name only and without a summary. If they are confusing because you don't understand the inside joke, I apologize. Make up the story for it in your mind.

* World Series Champion (In the most important World Series)

* Trip to the Wrong Beach

* Sam Haanpaa, 10-12

* Rule Interpretation by Leia.

* Stomping Goodbye, Mike Lucien

* Off Constantly

* He Threw Up, Right There::point::

* Leitz - "It's A SNOW DAY" Everyone else - "STFU dude, it is 7AM"

* Man Voice

* Kissing the Knuckles

* Inspector 34

* DOWN GOES SOTHMAN!!! DOWN GOES SOTHMAN!!!

* You're YouTube? Seriously? You are YouTube?

* It's Heckler!

* Is that a guy or a girl? Is that Tila Tequilla? What are we watching?

* Are you going to tape me drinking hot sauce, or what?

* She fell over, I didn't know what to do! I went in for the kiss and she fell

* She knocked my tooth out. I tried to get it back in, but I couldn't.

* You two both owe me 10 bucks

* Laps of Victory

* "Hey Girl! Nice ___"

10. FC Lank FTW PT DOS

To some people, it is only intramural soccer. To others, it is fucking intramural soccer. After an undefeated season and the championship in my freshman year, anything less in 2007 would be a complete disappointment. After taking the regular season in convincing fashion, the playoffs would prove to be a slightly bigger challenge. The final game against the law school was an instant classic and the game winning goal by Julian was world-class. Last year, you could say it was luck. This year, we made a statement. I loved every minute of game time with you guys and can't wait till next year. Definitely keep an eye out for that undefeated streak to continue well into the next year.

9. The Nights at Augusta National

When Megan Lee invited me mini-golfing on a late August evening, she told me we would be in for a battle. After some amazing shots and that fucking guitar-shaped hole, we came out in 2nd place. A second place finish in itself isn't really worth writing home about, especially when only three teams took the field for competition. But that night wasn't only about golf, it was about life lessons, friendships, and learning to be tender. Zao Island would be home to tons of other great moments as well this summer and fall. What were the odds that we would see her there? Why is this band covering U2? And who the hell is Dillhole? Oh Zao, 2008 is so far away.

8. That night was A-MAE-ZING

I never saw myself joining the management staff at WVUR. Hell, I didn't see myself doing a lot of the amazing things which happened to me in 2007. But after an application and interview, I found myself tacking the title of news director onto my e-mail signatures and the Evening Source and NewsCenter95 became two words which are now in my Firefox auto complete list as of RIGHT NOW. Since, I have fallen fell in love, engaged, and married WVUR and it was the best decision of my life(if that sounds manly?). With the job came some sweet perks; less sleep, the ability to juggle fruit, my choice of either Nick Kovatch or Katie Coxey as the desktop backgrounds, and the chance to meet Mae. They were really sweet guys who definitely knew how to be clutch like Bryce Drew.

7. Welcome to Sun Prairie, WI

As we pulled into the O'Hare oasis for my second or third pit stop, I didn't really think my stomach(or more specifically, it's contents) would hold out for the day long trip. We were stuck in traffic, learned a great lesson in karma, and I managed to get asked by Bud roughly 284 times why we had to take a detour to a blip in the map, Sun Prairie, which some unfortunately call home. By the end of the day, we got a sweet parking spot, I ate cheese fries out of a helmet, we saw a running chorizo, and 4 months later I am still getting yelled at about those fucking mini oreo cookies. PS Emily, we never got to see the midget hall of fame.

6. Taylor Fucking Twellman

Talk about an up and down season. The Fire started off undefeated through their first handful, sucked through the late spring and early summer, and then were lead on a memorable playoff run on the feet of Rolfey, Conde, and Blanco. One game away from the MLS Cup, Tom and I would watch and cry in our Jimmy Johns colas as Taylor Twellman scored maybe what will go down as one of the greatest goals in MLS playoff history. Here is a link, take a look about 50 seconds in and see what you think for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKOeZBh1dzU&feature=related

Even though it ended on a sour note, the 2007 Fire season was a great one. Got to see Jason, Teom, and Cait DuBois get into the Fire spirit, which was great. I also got my season tickets for next year, so I got to be pumped as ever for the 08 campaign.

5. Slice That Cheese Romantically (for it will help save the children of the world)

Spot 5 on this list may contain more backstory, drama, hateful txt mssgs, and lackluster cooking than this Facebook note has room for. To summarize, Bud likes girl, girl is bitch to Bud, Bud tries everything including chicken parm, girl is still a bitch. This love story had it's moments, including a hell of a lot of pizza hut, questionable railcat attendance motives, and the saving of babies from death by car. As bitter as it was for you Bud, I don't think any other night that the one you, Jason, and I spent could have capped off the summer any more perfectly. PS, don't worry. No one could ever have made use of those items as well as you could have sir. You are and always will be my badass pimp of a friend who laid it all on the line for love. You sir, are the things of which legends are made.

4. FEILHABER!!!!!

Between working 40 hours a week (about 55-60 if you include lunch and drive time), I didn't have the free time I really wanted to spend with friends. However, if my friends and I found a connection through anything this summer, it was soccer. Jason, Av, Bud, and I followed pretty much every Gold Cup game at my house with viewing parties powered by Chipotle and Jimmy Johns. To cap it off, we added Ple to our party and hit up the Gold Cup final in Chicago. It was the second US national team game of my life and first of two for the summer. It definitely won't be a day I will forget for a long time to come, mostly due to a US win in arguably the best sporting event I will event attend live. Why was it the best? One word: Feilhaber. Just check it out and place yourself live. 60,000 people (about 50,000 of which were cheering for the visiting Mexican side), time running out, your team just suffers and injury, and you see this unfold right before your eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcGA2W4d5_E

3. New York times

When I got an e-mail about a lady from a PR firm on Thursday evening about the hazards brought forth by the Nintendo Wii game console, I didn't see myself in New York by Monday. During three days (with about 30ish hours in the car and about 6 in the actual city), I got to learn a lot about what myself and my friends are capable of, how to take advantage of what life throws your way, and that if you really reach for the sky, anything is within your reach. I definitely got to take the trip of my life and the experience of visiting and interviewing Eric Rhey of PC Magazine definitely will be etched in my mind for years to come. As will that hotel room, three damn blue shirts, not snatching, Rockafeller Center, the sweet Apple cube, New Jersey pizza, and that $2.99 pop-up map which got us home when we were destined to drive around the big Apple for hours. Sometimes I look back and wonder really how that trip happened and what really made us consider the journey? Then I realize that sometimes the journey is greater than the destination. Dillon and Jason, I hope you guys enjoyed it as well.

2. New York Times

I really don't know if I will ever have another moment in life as cool as this one was. I guess it may be kinda depressing to think that your capstone moment came at 19, but hell if this is it I am happy. Back in early January I got bored during Christmas break and started a smaller Blogger site to post about Apple and Nintendo (yeah, typical nerd stuff). One story about OS X and a Digg.com front page later, my blog was mentioned in the New York Times. Sure it is one paragraph with a paraphrase and a link, but to me it was the world. Running to Barnes and Noble to grab the print copy of this may have just been the greatest moment of euphoria I have ever had. Here is the online version, again not much, but enough to make my number 2 event of the year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/business/06online.html?pagewanted=all

1. The Break-Up

So here I am, the number one event of my year. The list has been pretty positive so far (besides for Taylor Fucking Twellman) and you would think that I would keep up the trend as I move on to spot numero uno. Ah, but alas you are wrong my good friend. Sadly enough, this event is more somber, more life altering. Definitely for me, the most monumental event of my year was breaking up with girlfriend of four years, Jessica. It was just real hard to get over losing the emotional attachment to someone who was your best friend for a greater part of your over-dramatic teenage years. She was the only girl I ever took to a high school dance, the one who would talk to me for hours when my mom was in the hospital, the one who baked me cookies for my birthday, spent countless hours watching me play soccer just because she knew it was important to me for her to be there, made spaghetti dinner for me and her before new episodes of Growing Up Gotti, and worked through the struggles of our first year apart while I was at college with me. She was the girl who I figured would be sharing stuff like this with me forever, even if I made the mistake of never telling her that. Yeah, I prolly am making too big of a deal about it. Yeah, it was just a teen-year girlfriend. Yeah, I should never get upset over girls, dudes before hoes, don't tase me bros, and all those nonsensical rhymes. Whether I (or you, or anyone else I guess) likes it or not, this event definitely meant more to me and made more of an impact than any other single event of the year. Am I over it totally? Prolly not. Will I ever be? Hopefully, at least I feel like I am moving toward that point, even though it is months later. While this moment may be a depressing way to cap off my 07 list, it is(well, technically was) me and I really can't change that, only build off it and live with it.

Thnks fr th mmrs 2007. I hope 2008 tastes like you, only sweeter.

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