ON SEVERAL DIFFERENT REASONS FOR JOY

Reason #1 - The Blackhawks won their series against the Vancouver Canucks last night. This is their first trip to a conference finals since 1995 - I was in high school, just finishing my junior year and more excited about that summer's trip to Indianapolis to see Bush, Sponge, and Weezer at the X-Fest than hockey. (Note: We left before Bush played). But this year has really peaked my interest in Chicago hockey again - it's a young, exciting team, and the future looks bright, even if we fall short in the conference finals.

Reason #2 - Pearl Jam is going to have a Rock Band game devoted to their live music! And what's more, fans get to vote on which versions of the songs are used! Personally, I'm going to try and write in the version of "Last Kiss" from the Vegas show I saw in which Eddie messed up the words. But still, a company decided that my favorite band is worth having a whole game - placing them solidly in the same category as Aerosmith and Metallica - two bands in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's nice to feel like I actually like something that is cool for once - I wonder when "Rock Band: Mitch Malloy" is coming out...

Reason #3 - Work is about to get much easier! After today's ice cream social (easy and delicious) and tonight's pizza-based staff meeting (delicious and easy), students will be moving out in drips and drops, with the deluge of departing students taking place next Tuesday and Wednesday (and then a few trickles the following Sunday and Monday). I often joke that this job would be so easy if not for the students, and during the summer I get to live that joke.

Reason #4 - Next week's season finale of How I Met Your Mother - I read somewhere that he is actually going to meet the mother, which brings a sort of closure to four years of storytelling (although last night's episode hinted at something that will happen near the end of NEXT season, and I'm a sucker for ambitious foreshadowing).

Reason #5 - I am currently reading my first Dean Koontz book, Odd Thomas. It's terrifying, in a good way. Even my nightmare based on the first hundred pages couldn't dampen my enthusiasm for it...another author whose works I can enjoy.