So last year I was running a lab demonstration at Harris and one of the professors half jokingly said “Hey Mike ya know if you’re ever looking to pursue a PhD let me know!” and I said “Actually I’ve been looking around at schools.”  One thing led to another and I was given the opportunity to do my PhD at Northwestern. 

I informed work in late November and my last day was in the week before Christmas.  My last week was phenomenal and I am currently writing this three months after all of these events so I miss these people and times very much.  

In December I took a few days off to fly up to Chicago so that I could move my furniture in and get adapted to the labs before January when classes started.  My mover’s guaranteed me that they’d be at my apartment in a 5 day window between December 17th and 22nd… They never showed…  I Borrowed an air mattress from a fellow Duke alumn (thanks so much Matea!).  The air mattress had a tiny hole so I woke up around 3AM on a hard fake wood floor every morning to reinflate it.  Commuting up to Evanston everyday on the Red/Purple line was enjoyable, learning from the current researchers was amazing, and getting to see Will and Ellary and others was incredible :-)  Then, with a bare apartment, it was time for me to go home.  I flew back to Florida to finish up time at work. 

WORK:  At work a project lead asked me if I would stay on the books for a month or two while I lived in Chicago so that I could help write up the final reports.  Having felt like an integral part of the experimental process I was honored at the request and offered as much remote work as was required to make the report as inclusive as possible.  The department head on the other hand saw it differently… after various engineers and programs heads requested I stay on the project HR and the department head decided that wouldn’t be necessary.  This turned me off and although I tried to not take it personally it was somewhat hard to.  I was also not given Christmas vacation pay even though it was Christmas time…  Talk about treating “valued” employees well… After more sentiments were revealed I feel like it was more the department head’s attempt to get back at the program rather then at me since it was through this program that I met my PhD adviser.

Now to Daytona!!!  In Daytona I spent days and nights with friends and family.  Spent a good amount of time with Nicole Smith and her bf Brad.  Attended what is known as “Reindeer Games” with the mixed Nicole/Brad friends and family!  Was great fun!  Need to thank Nicole for hosting me over so much since the Crestview house was kind of crazy.  

Christmas Day was spent with family at my Grandmas new house with Sister, Jimmy, Nicky, and Sterling.  Very pleasant meal, exchange of gifts, and my car was driven over to the Beach St. house.  Then over at the Fernandez’s house there happened to be family in town so there was Flor, Jorge, Rod, Becca, Danny, Zenei, Tio Miguel, his wife, two cousisn, and another lady who I can’t remember the relation.  Then there was me :-)  I helped put Zenei’s bike together and in the last few days I was there spent time helping her practice riding around.  Can;t wait to do that with Sterling.

Took Rodrigo and Danny out to Takeya for their birthday presents (along with my going away dinner) and had charafe’s of saki.  We offered some to the people across the hibachi grill and one man replied “how can I give up the opportunity to take a shot with Taylor Lautner!”  referencing Danny’s looks.  Clearly not being the first time he has heard this he still blushed and laughed pleasantly.  We celebrated Danny’s 21st Birthday by holding a pre-party at the Crestview House and then out to some local bars on Seabreeze Ave.  I finally got to meet some of Danny;s best friends from high school. Pretty cool guys.  

My last day in town was the next day.  I flew out from the Orlando International Airport (MCO).  Flew in to O’Hare and spent the next few days trying to organize my void of an apartment and insistently calling the movers to no avail…

Michael Silver sat awake at his computer on a late Sunday night, or was it an early Monday morning…  His evening was spent with Shinese buffets, ice cream, and friends at the movie theatre.  The past week had been spent on vacation from work and tonight Michael contemplated the amazing events that had occurred in the last 9 days.  Friday night Michael spent in Orlando with two newer friends helping to tow ones car and picking up his roommate at the airport.  Then 80’s night followed and Michael got back home at 4AM. The next morning he awoke at 8:30AM and drove 3.5 hours to Gainsville meeting up with Rodrigo, Danny, and others to go camping and rafting on Memorial Day weekend.  While camping he spent good time with Sarah Darden and her hilarious boyfriend Logan.  After rafting, shotgunning, and continuing to celebrate life he slept under the stars munching on chips with the astonishing Danny Fernandez.  Waking up under a clear morning sky Michael hopped onto the river again nearly sleeping the entire trip down.  Reflecting on life he decided to discuss his concept of just “existing” and amazement at how many organisms make up his being.  Riding back to UF allowed him to rest properly on a couch and wake up to spend the evening inside laughing with friends while watching Comedy Central.  On Memorial Day he spent time at the pool with the same crowd from camping and drank beers and made burgers on the grill as all true Americans should.  That night he drove with Danny to Orlando and spent the evening out with Jany, Steve, and Arlen in Downtown Orlando.  The next morning Mike woke Danny and they spent the day at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, simply the best.  Thinking about “his own personal heaven” Mike decided it must be something like that day.. theme parks with people he loves.  The next day he spent in Daytona hoping to go to the beach but the first real tropical weather hit that day causing heavy thunderstorms and lightning.  Needless to say his beach plans were foiled by Mother Nature.  Wednesday night was spent with Arlene and a new friend Rachel in Orlando at $1 drinks night at Chillers.   The next morning Michael pulled Jany out of his house to go to Daytona for a beach day.  They spent a lot of time discussing life and their aspirations and interests.  On the way back to Orlando, Michael’s car rebelled all of his driving by blossoming a beautiful flat tire.  After Jany changed his tire Mike decided he would just have fun for the night and figure it out in the morning.  An evening of debauchery left Michael ashamed and disappointed in himself due to his previous nights actions at Parliament House.  He drove to the car shop and spent hours waiting for his new tire and brakes to be worked on.  Returning to Palm Bay Michael retrieved his spare pair of glasses due to the fact that he lost his the night before.  Staying in for the night Michael realized he needed some down time.  The following day Michael spent going to the gym and cleaning up his car and house while waiting for Armando Torres.  He drove with Armando back to Orlando to spend the evening with Angie Huston, Dave Dekevich, Gabby Ciferni, and Rodrigo Fernandez.  After going to Hamburger Marys for dinner Michael went to some bars downtown with Jany Bacallao and Angie and had amazing fun.  Now on Sunday night/Monday Morning Michael is ready for bed after going to a Chinese Buffet, having some Marble Slab, and seeing Bridesmaids.  This was just the beginning of a good post and Michael plans on going into great detail soon.

I realize now that there are many every day activities and things that I just never learned.  Personally I say its because of my somewhat atypical upbringing.  I wasn;t raised by wolves or anything but growing up without a father and a slightly strange alcoholic depressive mother can really leave you clueless on a few things.  So now I’ll start my list with a brief eplanation of each.

1.  Shaving:  One seemingly obvious missing lesson for any person who grew up without a father during puberty is the art of shaving.  I remember as a little kid shaving with my plastic Ninja Turtles Razor.  I applied shaving cream from Michealangelos mouth and then scraped it clean with a dull plastic razor.  This was fun and all but taught me nothing about shaving.  I mean after a swipe or two I’d get bored and start attacking my brother with my T Shaped ninja stick covered in white make believe poison!  Now I still struggle with getting a nice clean shave and am still searching for that miracle after shave solution!  Any tips PLEASE feel free to send them to me.

2.  Keeping a car nice:  My mother never seemed to be able to keep a car well.  And this also translated over to sis whos car engine recently caught fire during Christmas dinner at Grandmas.  I have done my best to keep the oil clean and rotate and change tires but there is a lot of maintenance and its very expensive!  Mom went through over 5 cars before I turned 20!  This wasnt because she wanted a new car but NEEDED them or the car had simply broken down and she needed new transportation.  I remember one car that would always have this ticking noise come from the engine.  One day I looked at it and the battery was shooting electricity to a newby peice of metal… WTF MOM!  I think it mainly occured because of her lack of money but still it resulted in me not knowing how to keep a car in shape.

3. Moderation:  My mom loved to drink, have fun, be strict, cater, COOK, and make promises but nothing she did seemed to have any moderation.  If she was going to do it, she would go all the way with it.  This caused me to not know to stop eating when I was full or to hold back when enough was enough.  I feel that socially I have been able to tell when its too much and I can keep good social status but when it comes to hosting something or eating or drinking I have NO CLUE when enough is enough!  this results in a lot of good things for my friends but a lot of bad things for me!!!

4.  Manage Money:  To be honest I feel I have done very well with my money and every year I learn more and more about it!  This is not to say I have not made my, seemingly significant, mistakes.  Some are rather embarrassing which I won;t name here but lets just say I have wasted a LOT of hard earned money.  This is because I don;t know the proper way to keep money.  I have a mindset that if I have money it should be spent.  What good does money do you if it sits idly waiting to be spent…. Unless Im saving for a specific goal its very hard for me to save lump sums.  This definitely comes from my family not having a firm background in financial responsibility.  Honestly I feel that my two siblings have similar issues with money as well.

Well thats four things Im sure I will think of more as well and maybe have a second installation of “Common things Mike still just doesn’t know how to do….”

Thanks for reading!

I took the day before Christmas off from work and drove up to 

Daytona on Thursday evening.  That night I went to my friend Sarah Darden’s Birthday party!  This girl always had her Birthday party around Christmas and always brought our old group of friends together for somewhat of an annual reunion.  This was the first year though that she held this gathering that we were all 21!  So Sarah’s mom provided Margaritas and made a taco spread which was DE-LI-CIOUS!  

Around 9:30 Sarah started to get worried that people weren’t having fun and would leave early.  This was only because people were having a nice time chilling and talking and laughing but at this point I think Sarah was more used to the craziness of a college party so this seemed rather mundane.  After playing a game where we pass lifesavers across toothpicks held in our mouths, and rooling a ball using a squash in a stocking wrapped around our waste, we played Kings!  This was like a 20 person game though so it was a long fun game.  By the end of the night we all headed home pleased with the night.

Christmas Day came around and I had to go over to Rod’s house to get the presents I had bought for my family.  For my sister I got a card and told her I’d pay for her next months phone bill which is a 90 to 100 dollar present.  For Grandma I got her some of the Pitchfork CD’s she wanted and burned our most recent recording of the Christmas Concert as well.  For Jimmy I got him a PS3 game, Bioshock, which I highly recommend!

On returning to my house Grandma had arrived, Rod came over to hang, and Jimmy and his girlfriend hadn’t arrived yet.  Since Jimmy was running about 30 to 40 minutes late and didn’t have a cell phone, we started dinner.  Jimmy showed up about 10 minutes after we sat down so we changed the seats around the table to make room.  Jimmy introduced Rod to his girlfriend, “Hey Rod this is my fiancée Nicky”  At this point sis and I looked at each other briefly sharing a look of (fiancée?)  Now a week prior to this my sister called me crying about how she and Jimmy fought again and she called him white trash and he called her a liar and a thief.  This caused sis to tell me “Mike Im sorry but your in the middle of this.  You can either eat here with my or at Grandmas with Jimmy and his trash.”  I played the role of the adult and did my best to get everyone together.  It seemed to work out well but this fiancée thing was a surprise to us all.  Jimmy’s girlfriend had also just thought she was pregnant for about a week in the beginning of December.  Of course after three home pregnancy tests being positive she thought she was pregnant.  So they didn;t go to a doctor to be sure and they continued smoking and drinking which is a reasonable choice for child loving stable parents….  These things just make me shake my head in disbelief.  Needless to say she got her period but they went to the ER thinking she had some sort of miscarraige.  Whiole in the ER they said she was fine and she said “What about the baby?”  They were like “Uh… you were never pregnant.”  

So anyways, back to Christmas.  We all sit down and eat having good pleasant discussion  and it came to presents time.  I got two gift cards which I always love!  I do enjoy random money, always can help with life.  Sis gave me a book but it was one I already read.  Actually was my copy of it…  Thought that counts.  Jim gave me an old booz dispenser.  One of those shot rotating racks.  I mean it would be nice in certain circumstances but uhh…. I really have no use for it.

The next day we went to Grandmas for dinner and ten minutes after being there a neighbor called to say that one of the cars in my grandmas front yard was smoking.  My sister and I went to look and her car engine was on fire.  We called the fire department and they showed up and doused it but after about ten minutes.  By that time we had unlatched the hood and the chemical fire was rampant.  Pretty crappy for my sister, her car was ruined.  We continued to eat after Jimmy showed and I made sure to discuss the family financial situation.  Right now we are having issues with the property taxes (splitting it 3 ways) and figuring out what to do with it.  Then also the lawyer finishing up our moms paperwork costs another 1500 dollars.  I got everyone on the same page and left exhausted.

Overall my break was awesome!  Went to Universal and hung out with friends a lot!  Loved it!  But I will write more about that later.

So over the Christmas Holidays I met these two guys Jaime and Mike.  Jaime and I have a lot in common and he is a very attractive El Salvadorian guy.  Nice fun cool, so he came down and spent a weekend hanging out, going to friends parties and chilling.  Rodrigo and Colleen were also down for one of the two nights which was awesome!  I like Jaime and hes nice and attractive but I haven’t really felt liked I clicked with him.  Jaime is very focused on non-profits and starting his own in Sotuh America which is awesome and honorable.  He seemed like a superstar at FSU! His sense of humor is a bit different than mine which causes a meh feeling for me :-/   

Mike on the other hand was a more built guy who goes to school up north and was visiting family here.  We went and saw a movie and he seemed somewhat full of himself.  That was fun to work with because I love being sarcastic or witholding what the “oh so confident” people want :-)  Like a kiss or something.  

Anyways thats my recent love life.  Nothing too exciting… 

Last Friday I went to work for a few hours then went home to finishing packing up and moving my apartment.  I moved into a house with the house owner Brandon (22) and Tina(twenty something?) both very cool people who I feel I can trust.  Thank god I knew them before hand because I’d have been paranoid otherwise how trustworthy they were. 

After that I drove to Daytona where I met up with my family and MacKeznie at Olive Garden for me Birthday Dinner.  Jimmy had already ordered Cheese Sticks and Calamari when I arrived. yum yum yum!  After dinner he had also arranged for a cake which is cool too!  Overall a nice dinner.

On Saturday I picked up Rodrigo and Mackenzie and drove to Universal for the day.  We met up with Tiffany Bass and Jason (her BF) there.  First the Hulk, awesome.  then Dr. Dooms Death Drop, great view/not as scary as I expected.  Then Spider Man, way awesome.  Next was Dueling Dragons, thrilling fun.  Then food in Jurassic Park Visitor Center.  Now Harry Potters Forbidden journey.  Awesome fun technologically great ride.  I think everyone really loved it!  I sure did.  Then Butter beer, 11.50 for the souvenir cup but tasted like an angels beer (without the booze).  Thats the only complaint about butter beer I had was that in the books it has a little bit of alcohol in it but at Universal Studios it clearly did not.  Amazingly tastey though!  Then Popeye ride where rod and I got SOAKED!  Then home.  Next was meal time and getting ready for the evening. 

MacKenzie was going out as Snookie but Rod and I didn;t want to do the Jersey Shore thing so we stopped by Wal Mart on the way to her Kenzies house.  While perusing the costumes Rod said “Man, all the little kids get the best costumes.”  To which I agreed.  We found a ninja adult costume that was cool but saw that only XXXL were left.  Hmmm… that got us thinking.  Maybe only kids XXXL were left as well.  So we walked to the kids costumes and found transformer ones that were “Husky” sized and bought them. 

Once we got to MacKenzies we rushed into a bedroom and started changing.  Rod got his on first because I had troubles getting mine over my shoulders.  The second he stood straight up the seem went way up his buttcrack.  It looked so funny I couldn;t stop laughing.  He helped get mine over my shoulders and the same thing happened.  It hurt a little in the front so we stuffed socks down the front and left the back as an atomic wedgie.  Danny came as Ash Catchem and his GF as Pikachu.  Both creatively made costumes.  Allie went as the Redneck Vampire.  At first she was supposed to be a regular vampire but her teeth kept popping out so she decided she;d be redneck lol.

At the bar I started a tab and ended up chatting with some guy at the bar and his girlfriend.  We were just chilling and he said he lets do a shot together.  So I turned and told the bartender to put it on my tab.  He said “Youy dont have to do that” but I insisted which resulted in him saying “Hey Lisa, close this guys tab and make sure him and his friend drink free all night”  I looked at him with a confused look and he said “Im one of the owners here.  Just tip her well ok?”  So Rod and I drank free all night and we left her $40 in tip money.  Awesome evening!

Then, what better a way to end the weekend than go to the beach.  Relaxing and nice.  Back to Palm Bay sunday night for my first night in my new place.

This weekend I went up to Biketoberfest in Daytona.  I was mainly in Daytona for my Grandmothers raging Birthday Party on Friday evening but after a rousing game of checkers and eatings loads of KFC I hit the town with Mackenzie and Colleen.  We just chilled with low cost beer specials and chatted and laughed all night.  The next day one of my best friends Billy joined us at the beach with Mackenzie and James and we rocked out Daytona style.  A random chick was floating around us as we made some off colored jokes and I received a dirty look from her after I almost bumped into her.  She then continued to float around by us and Billy finally said “Woah we are gonna run into ya again” and she said (with a French accent) “You musta speak slowair, I do not speak engalish very well”  All of us then released an “ohhhhh” of understanding.  So she clearly hadn’t understood anything earlier but was just confused and that was the look she gave to me.  Anyways, she seemed kinda cool.  We all chatted and then met her roommate who was also there and we finally left.

After the beach we washed up while drinking some beers, and watching Jersey Shores.  Then we headed to Uno’s to see Nicole and we chilled some more.  After that we figured out the car situation and headed to beach side.  We parked in the main parking lot and walked over to main street.  It was PACKED with all kinds of people.  I expected it to be all bikers and then us but it seemed packed with 75 percent bikers and then others.  Bikes EVERYWHERE of all kinds!  With LED’s flat screens, traditional chrome, various brands, everything you could imagine on a motorcycle and more.  We bought some Four Loco and Tilt and started going into the different “Saloons” the first was awesome huge place under a giant activity tent.  They had a sweet DJ and were projecting videos on screens as well as the entire roof of the tarp activity tent!  WAY COOL!  

We left that bar and while walking Billy dropped something and when he bent down to pick it up he snapped upright and said… “Oh Crap. I just split my pants… and I mean bad” so he turned around and we saw that almost hie entire right cheek pocket was flapping in the wind showing his under-roos.  I laughed a lot but he shrugged it off since other people were in assless chaps, and twe moved to the next area and hung out in front of a big stage with a live band doing awesome hard rock covers.  I couldn’t hear anything at all except for the band, it was the loudest music I have ever heard in my life.  Seriously to talk we pressed ear to mouth and screamed as loud as possible.  While leaving the bar, James grabbed the flap of Jeans that was on Billy’s pants and it ripped them almost entirely down the leg.  At Colleens we ripped the rest of the jean and Billy was turned into a true Daytona Biker with cut off jeans and all.  

That pretty much ended the night but it was AWESOME!  Had so much fun with the group!  

Then Thursday I toured the University’s NYU and Columbia which were cool.  I liked them both so I’ll be applying to both.  Columbia seems to have an insanely intense physics program but no problems with that!

Friday I hung out with Yvonne and we got tickets to American Idiot the Green Day musical.  Morgan has one the lottery tickets every time she tries!  That means you go two hours before the show and put your name in a bucket outside.  Thirty minutes later they pull out about 20 names and give out tickets for $27 each.  If your name is pulled you choose between one or two tickets and then Yvonne bought a third from the rush line.  The show was amazing, then afterward we were surprised that the singer from Green Day Billy Joel was there with some of the actors and director answering questions.  The tweens in front of us were very annoying but we had second row tickets so it was awesome all the same.

That night Morgan and I went out to a Karaoke Bar where the music is provided by a live pianist.  We sang together, sang solos and pretty much is was just us two singing :-)  Everyone loved it!  

The next morning was my flight but I didnt get up for it because I forgot my phone alarm was set for week days… not weekends….  So I was a bit late but I got the next flight out :-)  Flights people have always been awesome to me!!!  

Well that ends the trip…  lots of fun!

Ok so now Im going to try and sum up the rest of the trip… 

Monday Kenzie and I don’t remember what we did during the day BUT that night we met up with Craig Campbell from Elon and we went out to some bars that had INSANE specials.  

Next day is Tuesday and Kenzie departed, I moved my stuff to Morgan’s after meeting up with her at the condo she babysits at.  Then off to meet Yvonne and her friend Dan?  I think thats his name?  Funny guy!  We went through a museum by Central PArk and looked at lots of cool stuff.  We started walking to get to the subway to go to Brooklyn for dinner and Yvonne’s meeting BUT Dilly (i think thats what she called him) brought us through Central Park… and we took a few wrong paths in getting there so it took a while lol.

I had my first Falafell which was very tasty and interesting.  Then off to Times Square to get tickets for Promises Promises.

It only cost 30 bucks to see the show and it was in an overly lavish theater with an awesome chandelier… and lots of other smaller chandeliers.  Christine Chenowith was awesome, so was the guy who played Jack in Will and Grace but the show itself was kinda ehh…. definitely not the first one id tell someone to go to.  Then I had dinner and met up with Craig and his bf for bars afterward.  

Then we went to karaoke and Craig said he’d sing a song if I did so I looked around for a girl to sing a duet with and so I asked a chick if she was singing cuz she was looking at the song book.  She said she wasnt but that her friend is really good and she pointed over to a person who was clearly a man in drag, but NYC drag so very convincing.  The drag queen came over and quickly started asking how she knew me…. and I said uhh…. I havent met any drag queens in NYC… she said “Did you grow up in North Carolina?”  I immediately thought ~awww crap this person does know me~  I said “No but I went to school there”  Then she said, Michael Silver.  And I said awww who is this?  She said David Aiden which is a guy from UNC that used to host a bunch of parties at his house.  How random is it that we randomly met on a random night at a random club in NYC!  WOW!  

So then Wednesday Yvonne and I hung out and walked around… went to Staten Island to check out the view from there and that was awesome.  Then went to Jennifer Scigliano’s for dinner.  She hosted a dinner to get some friends together and she cooked a good Long Island style meal and we had great conversations at dinner :-)  

Then out to meet up with Craig at a bar while we wait for his bf to get off work.  We saw a live talent show with a panel of judges and one of the performances was so bad that a judge said “No no no stop right now.  Listen 911 was bad enough, get off the stage”  I couldn’t believe he said that for many reasons but September 11th was literally four days prior.

On Sunday Mackenzie and I woke up early and road the tranist system all the way to New Jersey and to a restaurant where we met some of her ship mates from a  previous cruise.  After lunch and a beer or two we boarded her cruise ship and got visitor passes.  We walked to the broadcast room which was small and filled with equipment and wires, then to her friends on the activity staff who were very energetic cheer leaders for the ship it seemed like.  After that she showed me the theatre whichw as HUGE and had fly systems, wire system for air dancing, balcony’s, and everything!  Then was to the casino and banquet areas where I got ice cream!  (best part of the day)

After the ship it was raining somewhat so we used a cab van to get back to the train and rode back into the city.  We went back to thew hotel and I started checking out NYU and Columbia’s graduated admission tours while we prepared for the night.  That night we went out to a show at a bar which had 7 dollars for 10 beers, pretty sweet deal for an evening of beer!