Working Stiff

The time has come for me to start working again. After over a year off from work I have gained employment again. It has just started to get warm and I was begining to get used to fishing or golfing everyday. The fun must end sometime.
I will be moving to Milwaukee on the 9th of June and will be working for an airline in which I will recieve free flights to where ever they fly. They fly to quite a few different places in the U.S. so I will be visiting my far away friends hopefully often.
This should be an adventure. I've been locked up in my parents basement living in a town with a population of 3,000 and now am jumping staight into a city of more people than I can count.
Keep it real.

Fun in Chi-City

The small town feel good story of the week:

About 3 years ago I was in Bartlett, Illinois dining with my parents at our local deep dish pizza joint called Village Pizza. This is the place where every little league team goes after Saturday's games and a every Bartlett Park District soccer team reserves for its end of the year banquet. Village Pizza sponsors a team in every sport at every age level and they have the team photos on the wall and the trophies behind the cash register to prove it. Although the ownership has changed a few times over the last 26 years Village pizza still maintains its close ties to Bartlett sports. The waitress, a middle aged woman who has worked at the Village for twenty years or so turned to me and asked, "Now that you live on the east coast, what do you miss most about Chicago?" After giving it a little thought i responded by saying, "I miss the Cubs." It was and still is true. I miss being able to go to Wrigley on a weekday and catching the 1:20 game. I miss drinking Old Style with my friends and watching drunk guys in the bleachers heckle the opposing teams' outfielders. I miss the organ. I miss the ivy. I miss the "We Got Wood" t-shirts.

Well, as it turns out that waitress' day job is the personal secretary to some big dawg in the Chicago Tribune Company, the very same company that owns the Chicago Cubs. She gave me her card and told me that whenever I am in town to shoot her an email and she will get me tickets to the game. For the last couple of years my Dad and I have been in touch with her about getting us tickets and she has come through every time including last weekend. Last weekend I flew back to Chicago to catch a Cubs game, a Bogacki family Mother's Day tradition. This year our seats were front row on the third base line right behind the Cubs bullpen. Best seats I have ever had at Wrigley. Eventhough Mike Piazza hit a game winning three run bomb we were still able to fun in the friendly confines. Here are some pics of our afternoon.

On a side note, the "We Got Wood" t-shirts have transformed into "The Cardinals take it in the Pujols" t-shirts.

Breakfast with Steve Largent

This morning I had breakfast with current NFL Hall of Famer, former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma and current president of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) Steve Largent! He is actually the former roomate and committee colleague of one of my clients and hosted a small breakfast for him.

We were all pretty young when he was playing but I definitely still remember him. He was the Tom Waddle of the 80's, small and slow but willing to run routes across the middle.

Totally nice guy but at breakfast all we talked about was "net neutrality" and some other stuff only Bobbo would understand. All I wanted to do was say, "Hold up, before we go any further, Steve, you are going to have to answer some questions:

1. How many jerseys is each player issued per season? How often do you get a new one?
2. Do you carry your own luggage or do pro teams have people that do that for you?
3. If you could have played for one team other than the Seahawks would it have been the Bears?
4. Is the reason you did not go to Iowa because Hayden Fry did not recruit you?
5. Have you ever done blow with Lawrence Taylor?
6. Do players get new helmets every year or to you maintain the same one from year to year?
7. I respect the fact that you wore the small 2 bar kicker's facemask but why not just go for the one bar Kevin Butler look?
8. When Oklahoma recruited you did they take you to strip clubs and get you hookers?
9. Who shot Tupac?
10. Will you autograph my calf?"