casual ultimate » 2006 » December

well it seems we’ve been away a long time so we need to play catch up. the other night the cu staff celebrated christmas and surviving the holidays with the BRs and bg. heres a picture of us all pre food coma at scoozi. it was a lively event since we hadnt seen bjorn in like a month. it only got more crazy when the boys thought up an office themed strip club which miss casual dubbed ‘the screwbicle’. with nerdy but flirty i.t. staff, a dominatrix boss, a vip lounge called the break room, and a list of names for the different screwbicles (the spreadsheet, etc.) the place just needs a financial backer. anyone anyone?

after that madness we wound up at piece. ahh piece… it was like summer time again when you could just show up there in the evening and run into everyone you know. billy bought us some heavenly festivus and pfil, dp, and monica (the newest piece employee) were posted up at the bar when we got there. the boss is always brining his a-game and becky showed up along with our roll call from dinner so it was like homecoming. the basset hound cookies were bananas and even though the casual staff had just eaten at piece the night before the pizza was tempting.

we’re back on track here at cu headquarters. the manor is churning with ideas for the new years party that is sure to bring down paulina and maybe all of the double deuce. a team of elves is working on decorations and libations. you know how we roll. parties and cu go together like cocaine and waffles.

with everyone leaving their desks for the holidays we figured this would be as good a time as any to say happy holidays to our c.u. peeps. it’s been a fun year. we’ll be corresponding from vacationland next week (miss casual is taking the whole week off of work, she just doesn’t know it yet), but until then we wish you safe travels, visions of sugar-plums, and plenty of eggnog. last but not least, anyone who solves this hanukkah maze and brings it to the new years party gets a special prize.

it’s possible that this will only be funny if you went to oberlin, but i really think albino squirrels are universally amusing. i, along with the rest of the alumni, received the following “important message from oberlin college” this morning. kudos to the kids (connies?) who masterminded this scheme. it’s enough to make me want to cut a check to the OC.

Dear Alumni:

Curiosity. Critical reasoning. Creativity. They, like ‘cookie,’ start with ‘C’ but that is not important right now. These three terms are but a few of the hallmarks of an Oberlin education. Today we proudly continue these traditions with a new institution, a center that explores some of the ins and outs of our campus and community through an unconventional lens: the Oberlin College Center for Albino Squirrel Research. Please visit us at www.oberlin.edu/squirrel/ at your convenience.

We realize many of you are itching to lend a hand but lack the background in genetics, pigment analysis or small mammal tracking to aid directly in our research. It is therefore fortuitous that the OCCASR is sponsored by the offices of Alumni Affairs and Development, both of which are working to better connect our alumni with the many goings on at Oberlin. Consider some of these alternate ways to stay involved with Oberlin and help the Center in its mission:

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Admissions recruiters interview prospective students and represent Oberlin at college fairs in their area, bringing the joy of squirrel sightings to a new generation of Obies annually. To join, just email arn@oberlin.edu

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Students are continually on the lookout for internships, summer jobs, temporary housing, help with interviews, and career advice and mentoring. If you can offer any of these things, Career Services would love to hear from you at career.services@oberlin.edu

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Support for Oberlin’s many activities, including the Center and its love for small, furry critters, comes in part from alumni. Consider making a gift - even a small one - via our primary sponsor, The Oberlin Fund. Visit oberlin.edu/squirrel/donate/ for more information.

Whatever your current connection with Oberlin, we hope you will take advantage of the Center and our related organizations. Please explore our site, view the photo gallery, ask questions, and feel free to get in touch. We will be in touch again after the New Year with updates on our research.

With warm, furry wishes,

yall might remember how difficult a time casual ultimate had breaking out and making new friends but this weekend proved to be an exception. after making new architecture friends on thursday, miss casual went on a bike ride with some more new friendlies on saturday. after biking up to loyola with ben bonecrusher, miss casual was introduced to a bunch of new peeps from chifg who not only have sweet bikes but are as nice as can be. heres ben and naz getting ready for our ride up to evanston.

once we made it to evanston, we were headed for ethiopian food but the restaurant didnt open for half an hour. so with time on our hands the group went to the pet store to pet kittens, get scared by spiders, and make goo goo noises at the bunnies. then we went to the bike shop down the street before eating our weight in heavenly meat and spongey bread. is there a more perfect convergence of all things casual? sweet bikes, puppies, and cardamom? miss casual thinks not. so cheers to all you chifggers and i hope therell be lots more rides in our future and that casual ultimate gets to celebrate with you at new years…

well maybe we are living up to our reputation casue last night got a little out of hand. going out with architects on school nights is always dangerous but when rob shows up things escalate quickly.

we made some new friends at rodan first. heres ms. ultimate trying to convince one of them to make us a shot luge for our new years party. eventually he agreed. and by ‘agreed’ i mean relented after us asking a million times just to get us out of his face. but thats what pro-dejiners do isnt it? make stuff? wed have to ask rob since hes the pro-dejiner. heres a holaroid he took of the cu staff later on in the evening when the group dwindled down to just the three of us and we changed location. i think this is right before we drunk dialed bjorn and after we invited the bartender to new years but i cant be sure.

One of the fun things about having our own website is spying on the websurfing habits of strangers. Most of what our statcounter reports is pretty boring, but every now and then someone ends up on casualultimate (likely accidentally) as a result of an interesting search. Some of the gems include:

“strapless terry cloth mini dress”
“the ultimate three in one after wax lotion”
“cho bathrobe”
“studebagels south bend business hours”
“inconvenient truth drinking game”
“dane cook nothing happens when you die”

And, we couldn’t make this up if we tried, #1 google hit for:

“best happy hour wicker park”

at 830 am saturday morning tbrizzle called miss casual to go to an old furniture factory on the south side where they were selling off everything by the pound. after figuring out what day it was and that it was indeed the crack of dawn, she threw something on, they picked up russell and they were off. it was an adventure filled with pieces of chairs, drill presses, and mountains of foam. it resurrected the disussion of the loft casual ultimate needs to get in humboldt park. itll be like hansel’s loft in zoolander (’we’re so hot right now’) with small living pods for each of the occupants. miss casual and ms. ultimate would live in a lucite lincoln log structure called the ‘blog cabin’, while tbrizzle would inhabit a ship like pod called ‘floatoshop’ and cbr would live in the ‘maison d’etre.’

after the morning festivities, the BR boys, slider and miss casual got back in their jammies to head to RWIP. with a lifesize snow globe and every imaginable warm spiked holiday beverage, it was quite comfy. pajama king and queen go to hellyer in her blue fuzzy onesie and bk in his santa boxers. vijay made quite the play for runner up in david-inspired bicycle shorts. at least it wasnt the real thing this time but youll have to see the photos in the vip gallery album becuase of the parents. the br boys gave the cu staff their holiday gifts early - matching t-shirts that say ‘im blogging this.’ amazingly they werent custom but we cherish them anyway. there was an isolated effort towards serious partying with the cu staff shotgunning beers with the ferrari brothers and bk and akira. akira lost.

as the party drew to a close the cu staff attempted to get something going as an after party with pfil and dp but we quickly realized that it was in fact 730 and nothing fun had started yet outside the house. in defeat the cu staff stopped at our favorite bar, lemmings, on the way back to paulina in our jammies for a beer before our 930 bed time. its tough partying like this all the time but we do it for the blog, natch.

xoxo
c and u

the other night the cu staff along with angela from ccx and cbr went to hear ms. ultimate’s boss speak at the mca about climate change. ms. ultimate asked a very pointed and intelligent question which lead to a debate on the role of imagery in influencing changes in behavior in the general public towards progress in responsible practices for the conservation of energy and natual resources. all that social consciousness made us hungry so we did what any redblooded american tourists would do and went to cheescake factory for mounds of black pepper shrimp and carrot cake. the pic at left is a train town in the hancock building that has a store named after ms. ulty’s family. coincidence??

ms. ultimate was wearing her brand new marc jacobs sweater with little owls on it and carlo made a comment along the lines of ‘looking at ms. ulty’s chest makes me think of how much i love hooters.’ good times. he also later referred to the sweater in question as ‘TDF’ in an email… ‘to die for’. who knew boys thought of sweaters as TDF? you heard it here first.

and speaking of ‘tdf’ clothing options this saturday the cu staff will be posted up in our jammies at the real world irving park house for their afternoon holiday pajamma party. if you’re skeptical, check out the overwhelming argument in favor of midafternoon mayhem on the forum. you wanna be there. trust us. if you need info holler at us at casualultimate@gmail.com. i was thinking of coming in my ‘post-ice cream coma passout sleepover at claires on the futon’ sleepwear which consists of : cookies and cream still stuck to my face, the imprint of the button of the futon cushion on my cheek, a big knot in my hair, and mascara all smeared under my eyes with a black sweater, jeans and heels but i think im gonna get super casual and just roll up like an american apparel ad in all fleece and shower sandals.

whatever youre sleepwear choice weve got a nice little saturday planned. its gonna be like an ultimate frisbee j crew ad with people in long johns and pajammas and white teeth and merlot colored sweaters with hot chocolate and cho in a bathrobe. maybe we’ll all smile lightheartedly and throw snowballs in the yard. i dont know… i dont know if well have time.

see ya there…
xo
c and u

oh, notre dame. so you know when you don’t really want to go out but your friends drag you to a party and proceed to get completely wasted while you sulk in a corner, sober, because you agreed to be the DD and/or have to wake up and be at your grandma’s house at 8 am the next day, and what should be an awesome party becomes sickening and you think to yourself, am i like this when i’m drunk? that is how i felt at work today reading dube’s description of the party weekend in south bend, also known as part a. you threw up in a pitcher and then boots spilled it? you sealed your eyes shut with wax? you made fergilicious your ringtone?!?! keep it together people! anyway, thanks to dubes for the info and to roadhouse for the pics. i am totally down for part b in double oh seven.
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Friday: Work stunk it took all day. At lunch time i discovered that most people were bailing out on friday night, actually everyone bailed on friday night except Ryan. So I get home after a tiresome day at work and drink a beer while figuring out my plans for the evening. My friend Leia comes over and we play on youtube looking up music videos to sweet songs such as money maker (which is coincidently now my backring tone) and fergilicious. Ryan arrives bringing with him beer (always a plus). Mini gets his butt over to my house also bringing beer, however the beer he brought was like no other I have ever seen. It’s name is Cooks. it has a genuine beer flavor and promotes saving the world. No alcoholic percentage could be found anywhere, but there was a surgeon general’s warning that pregnant women should not drink alcholoic beverages, we assumed this to mean that it was in fact alcoholic.

After a couple beers we went over to Mini’s house to play Wii and then drinking games. After a rocky start that included pounding a couple Cooks, I began to dominate, despite what Ryan may or may not say. after that we went to an engineering grad school party (mini is still in grad school and i have my degree in engineering, so we felt we were justified in attending the party). It wasn’t quite as exciting as we had hoped, so Ryan and I decide we’re going to clear off a table to play drinking games. on this table are several candle, you know the floaty liquid kind. Thinking it would be safer to blow them out rather than move them lite, i attempt to blwo them out, but instead blow wax all over my face. yes, total embarrassment. Wax even sealed my eyes shut because it got caught in my eyelashes. Ryan led me to the bathroom and helped me remove most of the wax. fortunately i was still drunk and the embarrassment didn’t seem so great. After that we went back to Mini’s and devoured some pizza we ordered from papa johns, hoffman met us there too and i started to fall asleep and then we went home to rest up for the next day.

Saturday: I wokeup around 8am with a huge head ache, i popped some pills, drank some tea and stayed in the fetal position in mybed till about 9 when i got antsy and waited for everyone else to wakeup to go to breakfast. Finally Ryan and mini and our friend Alan got up and we went to Studebagels, a lovely little breakfast place in south bend. a little later after georgia and rob arrived we went disc golfing on campus while also giving a mini tour (read as me mostly talking about buildings while everyone else ignored me).

Then we got a call from Niki saying that she and steve and her friends jello and shot arrived. We went back to my house to meet them. upon entry into the house i discovered that the tv was on. Now this might seem like a strange observation, but my roommates (butler and Kreece) and I were under the impression that we didn’t receive tv. Steve rodell made an antenna out of tin foil and got us a signal. Shocking none the less. Promptly following this discovery, i realized i had lost my wallet while disc golfing. so i head back to campus with everyone in tow (cause niki and steve had yet to walk around yet) and look for my wallet. Shortly after parking i received a phone call from my dad asking me if i had lost my wallet. apparently someone found it and called him, amazing. i met up with the guy and he gave it back. I am very lucky. anyway after that we went to mini;s and played some more Wii. lots of fun. Dan benjamen and tom carter showed up at that time.

then we all went out to dinner. at the very end of dinner pfil and shultz showed up wearing “hick” clothes, aka tight ass jeans and overalls and flannel shirts. They then gave me my christmas present: a lynyrd skynyrd shirt, a leopard print thong, and bachelorette dice. After dinner we went back to my house for fun and games and dancing. Jello and shot got around very quickly. The first big game that was played was flip cup. Tall people versus the shorties. It was hilarious. The shorties dominated until the tallies started cheating. Then shultz i believe, decided we should wager on the game. if the shorties won, the tallies would all drop their pants (there were no women on the tall team). If the tallies won I had to wear the outfit shultz and pfil brought me. I did not like this idea, but my team agreed for me. It wa sa hardofught battle, considering the tall team kept cheating, but in th end we lost and i had to wear the stupid outfit. It was pretty funny though.

The next game we palyed was survivor shoulders (see the pictures of people huddled together those would be the groups we basically divided into as such happens on survivor). With a botch on both my part and even more so Boozewench’s our sect lost and we were all voted off. Niki was eventually named the winner, even though she had been voted off. She played like a true champ, it was awesome. After that it was a lot of table dancing and boozing and other games. but mostly dancing from what i remember. Also during the shoulders game you ahd to take a shot if you botched, pfil and shultz took a ton of shots, whether they were deserved or not i dunno, but they drank a ton. Around midnight, i got sleepy, as tends to happen, and because my bed is on the first floor of my house i pretty much passed out in my bed with butler and leslie (roommate and friend–dont’ worry nothing scandalous happened).

Basically from what everyone told me the next day this is what happened later that night in a nutshell: they all went to pyster bar in downtown south bend. pfil spent the majority of the night leaning up against the wall and puking into pitchers, which boozewench some how managed to knock over. schultz was being ridiculous, and kept trying to get hoffman and jen (hoff’s gf) to go in on a three way kiss with him. schultz and pfil were hitting on niki. niki was trying to make sure pfil wasn’t dying. steve dropped to glasses and realized he might be a little drunk. ryan and boozewench just kept making out. mini enjoyed everyhting going on. candace was crazy as usual, and cheng took it all in. somehow they all made it to hoff’s alive.

Sunday: Schultz, pfil, candace and cheng all left before i got to see them in the morning. Georgia puked when niki and ryan were recapping the rest of the night to me. those of us remaining went to studebagels for breakfast. then we went to mini’s to watch the bears game on tv. everyone left after the game, thus ending the weekend.

i believe this is most of it. I’m sure i’ve left some stuff out and i apologize for that. there were several drunk dials etc that most of us don’t remember. I didn’t take any pictures, the only one who did was cheng, and i think she sent out all the ones she took. as i read back over this email, it really has nothing to do with briefacase at all, but i like to write chronologically as it happened to me.

with the frisbee season in deep freeze, c.u.’s thoughts turn to more weighty issues. really, they do. we’ll be having sober hour at the Museum of Contemporary Art tuesday night, watching ms. ulty’s boss speak on climate change and environmental finance along with his wife ellen, a very talented artiste, and bill kurtis. you might know bill kurtis as the narrator on anchorman, and he was quite the anchorman himself back in the day and now advocates sustainable cattle ranching practices out west. it’s all going down as part of the massive change ‘changemakers’ series, and the fun starts at 6:30 at the MCA, 220 E. Chicago Ave. right by water tower. if you’re more of a morning person, word has it al gore’s going to be on oprah, talking about an inconvenient truth.

sometime saturday the cu staff realized our weekends have a pattern. friday night happy hour turns into happy 6 opr 7 hours and then saturday night is ice cream and movies at headquarters so that sunday we can shop/write personal statements with a clear head. our wicker park weekends are still being tweaked of course but this weekend our system seemed to be firing on all cylinders.

friday night pre-happy hour mike d. and the cu ladies went by tbrizzles office for show and tell and some ping pong spectating. then it was off to lemmings to join pfil and bjorn for ameriCANs. jess and schultz joined us along with lauren, here holding it down pregnant lady style with a cold beer (non-alcoholic of course). hendude made an appearance to represent the now-defunct WPDT. then dinner at silver cloud had tim and katie plus vijay and carlo joining us for smor’tinis. cbr had to pay for ms. ulty’s chicken pot pie becuase he bet against her finishing it. silly carlo. we play to win.

here’s a staged pic of miss casual and vijay titled ‘reuinited and it feels so good’ taken by our master photographer pfil. the story we are acting out is that we were in love and then vijay went to iraq and we lost touch and when he came back we ran into each other ice skating and miss casual fell when her skate broke and he stopped to help her fix it. what a night.

after refusing to wait in line at map room (who put that place on metromix?) we ended up at dannys for some pbr before calling it a night. then saturday it was dane cook and cookies and cream on paulina. next time someone sneezes, go with the atheist response: ‘nothing happens when you die.’

right now we are chez br hoping miss casual’s lasagna is as good as it is heavy. well keep you posted natch. happy monday.

man, it is snowing outside. if you’ve missed the back and forth on the chat pages you might not know about happy hour at lemmings tonight. it’s still on, unless the taps freeze. which has happened before but only at darwins to my knowledge - yet another reason it’s now the worst bar/pub in chicago. anyways, if they don’t serve hot chocolate at lemmings carlo’s buying for everyone at cafe de luca.