a couple weeks ago my company had a free health screening, i had to give blood...which is gross, they make you squeeze your fist...for those that know me, this is ironic as it's the exact thing i have trouble with when i think about that red life fluid. so they took a test tube full of my insides and spun it in a centrofuge to see what's wrong with me. the results are not surprising.

they say i don't get enough sleep, they even go as far to say as i might have sleep apnea, but i just think that's the latest craze...i think i just stay up too late and get up too early. i mean i get distacted by shiny things and somedays can't concentrate very well, i don't think i have ADD, i think i can multi-task.

so blood is made up of a lot of stuff, and they listed much of it out for me, with numbers next to them, then another column with the range to see if i'm "normal." surprisingly i am pretty normal. i have a little high blood pressure, they call it prehypertension, potentially caused by stress. again, maybe the latest buzzword in the medical industry. but this is for certain...my colon is fine, and that makes me happy, cause i know where that is.

it's been a season of music lately, i saw my friend's band vessel at subterranean on monday. i'm just glad to be able to say they're my friends, because they really play good and interesting music. i mean, yeah, i'd still support them if they sucked, i mean, lord knows my friends did. but it's real nice to say that i enjoy their stuff. big fan.

next time you should go.

dun dun dun dunda dun dunda dun....

today the new star wars movie comes out, too bad i won't be able to go see it. but i will soon, i hope it's great. it's explosion will be large.

i forgot to post about this last week, but i went to go see bruce springsteen at the rosemont theater and it was one of the most incredible shows i had ever seen. second (in my book) only to the smashing pumpkins farewell concert.

i always thought of springsteen as torn jeans, bandana, singing "born in the usa", which is fine...for my dad, but this was my first concert of his, and i must say not only how impressive he is as a songwriter, but as a performer. the whole show was just him, no one else, incredible. he did this one song by just stomping his foot, playing his harmonica, and singing through a distorted microphone, the sound was amazing. anyway, i just would say that if you ever have a chance to see him in concert, especially in a solo acoustic performance (which is rare) do it, see it, go get tickets the day of, even if it's sold out, i think it'll be worth it.

went to see u2 last night at the united center. it was definitely big. there's plenty of reviews out there. but i haven't read any of them.

the show started off kind of bumpy, i thought, they weren't together...the biggest band in the world wasn't together (leaves room for hope) but i don't know if they knew they didn't play it well the first time, but they revisited Vertigo at the end and it was well worth it, i thought they nailed it the second time.

from a technology standpoint i thought it was fantastic, they had cool effects that didn't take away from the concert, and even had a time were you could text message your name and it might appear on the jumbo(esque)-trons. and the stage was really cool, they had concentric circles that were outlined with bands of light, which they at one point ran random bits of light through that looked like tadpoles of light and were randomly moving at different speeds...small detail, but interesting i thought. they also were able to tap into the united center's house lights, which added even more circles to the whole thing, so almost like you on a high stage with the band. pretty neat stuff.

they are such a big band, it's hard not to be impressed, but although i very much enjoyed everything, the concert really didn't seem too much different from their last tour. sure, they played well, played the ones everyone loves, played some cool new ones too. i haven't been to a big rockstar concert like that in a long time, and it was cool to see, but i think i still like the club scene...a little more home-grown, down to earth. although if bono asked me to play "party girl" with him, i'd probably do it...and break a string.

mother's Day was a unique one this year. my brother and his wife went into labor and at 6:15am on monday, may 9, 2005 we had a new entry into the family. Cora Grace Dudey weighed 7lbs. 12oz. and was 21 inches long...maybe that means something to you, but to me, it just means she was tiny, and fragile and completely perfect.

i think she'll be model. she came out with long fingers and toes, and daggers as nails...like she had a manicure during her 9 month stay in Hotel Laura. so i am an uncle again, this time with a girl, i won't be able to woo her with my geekish ability to play video games. it's all okay though, i'm up for the challenge.

i saw her yesterday when she was 14 hours old, how awesome is that, it was a good night, lots to be thankful for. happy birthday cora, you are lovely.