john amato

went to chicago again this weekend. got to have fun sometime right. the deciding factor was a visit to see diesel and notre b on their birthday weekend. here is the rundown on everyone i ran into.

even though i have quite a few of my own friends from ND in chicago, the first stop i made was to sites’ humble abode. he has been a gracious host every time i’ve visited. this weekend he took me to murhpy’s for a burger, tots, and a goosehead ale. it was quite the feast. sulli, like sites, is one of nate’s college roommates. he is one of the very select who’s life will not end once he gets married (she’s one classy dame). he came over to participate in a little beer pong against sites and me. that was a bad idea. sites and i dismantled sulli and bart every game we played. so what if sites had to make all ten shots in the first game. we still consider pippen one of the greatest and all he did was ride jordan’s coattails. so there, get off my back. in two weeks sites is throwing a bash to celebrate surviving in chicago for a full year. hopefully i sell a bunch of shirts before then so i can join in the fun.

can you figure out what mr. david wong scored on his math SAT. mikey did. he got an 800. as many of you know, he is my favorite hispasian man. wong is famous for being a member of the illustrious kangs, attending ‘houn, and being flat topped by carney. this weekend he was gracious enough to hang out with us for one night. the other was alotted to his puerta rican princess, isa. can’t wait for that wedding. it’s going to be a show just like every night i visited him at wash u. renzy and i were practically siblings for a summer. then she went to ireland to “study” and left me behind with j-lo, lizzie, and annie. big mistake on her part. it had been a long time since i had seen renzy. she informed me that her sister and blade are getting married. i invited myself to both weddings as her date. the blades are going to love that one. as a side note, i think huron consulting is the only company i could ever actually work for since two people as special as wong and renzy are there. things will get even better next year when allison joins the team.

jdog and nugget are like bert and ernie, or paul and art. from what i hear, one doesn’t go out with the other. for those of you who don’t know nugget he made his first introduction to the amato fam sophomore year before a football game. he woke up a little dreary that saturday morning on the floor of the six man wearing a t-shirt and carney’s 5th grade sized celtics shorts to mikey, kt, and dr huddled above him. if that doesn’t scare you i don’t know what will. we’re not exactly sure where the nickname nugget came from, but we’re glad it stuck. carney is still a pretty boy and a bully. we wish he’d speak to people that weren’t at the bar.

diesel and beesman are like bert and ernie, or paul and art, or jdog and nugget. they’re always together. but that’s the way we like them. especially when late night denny’s runs, baked potatoes, or arby’s are involved. beesman is now fully occupied at depaul’s law school. he is still often found wearing his bears zubas, pounding jager, and emulating coach weis. once again this weekend, we learned what a real nap is. diesel didn’t emerge from his slumber on saturday until 3:30. he picked me up after, drove to evanston, and took another nap. and that, my friends, is why we call it a diesel nap. i’m still not sure how he’s figured out how to survive in a normal 9-5 job. he’s going to have to join me pretty soon.

on sunday i risked my life to visit my siblings in south bend. the weather was so horrible it took me 4 hours to get to the bend from chicago. that’s double the normal time. and that’s just how much i love them. they should just be lucky i survived. the indystar reported the accident that slowed me down. 17-car pileup. not bad. my favorite line from the article, “Werner said the accident closed the highway’s two eastbound lanes because the crashed vehicles, a mix of cars and tractor-trailers, were blocking traffic.” well no shit, they were blocking traffic. it actually gave me the opportunity to take a nice nap. things got dicey though when my gas light came on. after sitting around for an hour i found the nearest no u-turn lane and got off the turnpike and finished the trip on route 20. the video below will show just how death defying my drive was (so much so that i took videos and pictures, and sent textos half the time)

on saturday diesel was nice enough to drop me off at uncle jim’s on his way home to evanston. i last saw jim and his kids at the pants party. they all seem to be doing well. i stayed over long enough for a nice meal of food and to beat alex in basketball. for christmas the kids got a wii, which is pretty sweet. nicholas, for his birthday, had a clown make him a ballon car. how sweet would that be. he told me he’s holding out for bigger things next year. like a full scale version of wrigley.

these two are hands way down my favorite chicago couple. even more so than mcgarry and malone. on friday night, smeagol and jenny were being too cute and having a nice home cooked meal together. luckily for everyone else involved, they made a surprise visit to maxbar on saturday to see us. most experts believe that the pictures i took of them are their only recollection they have of seeing us. at least smeagol’s getting good use out of that trendy leather coat he bought in florence. i just wish jenny would wear the gift smeagol got her more often.

i met tess and eric last year in madrid. tess has the distinction of being joe pa’s sister. eric has the distinction of being permanently banned from notre dame. pretty impressive on both parts. as luck would have it, we randomly ran into eric at maxbar on friday. tess showed up shortly after in a kimono (the apron is being saved for st. pat’s). chaos ensued and a good time was had by all.

ZOTRE Z!!! this kid was half the reason i came to chicago. he was the one from college who never hung out with us since he was too busy having a girlfriend. that really paid off now didn’t it brian. he made up for some of it this weekend by taking his shirt off on command and standing the keg (he’s a natural). hopefully he’s fun in the future too.