The Best of 2015

January 4, 2016

2015 was another fantastic year of life! Although my last blog was on June 9th, I had blogged for a year and a half, eventually going on a little bit of a hiatus. Good news my people, The Blog is back in 2016! It will read a little different than last years, but I hope you enjoy it just as much.

In 2015, Rachel and Josh attended amazing concerts, went on a handful of vacations, witnessed friends get married (Adam & Brandy / Gio & Kelly), coached a bunch of lacrosse, watched a lot of TV, helped a lot of people move homes, enjoyed fantastic times with friends and families, and continued to plan their 2016 wedding. Now here are a handful of "best" lists, events, and things that happened in my 2015 life!

Best Music Album: Cosmetics - Diamond Rugs

Best 10 Songs: All songs released in 2015, put in order of bestness

Best YouTube Video: Also was a top 10 song, based on my life and bringing Rachel and I great joys. Also leading to other great Lil Dicky videos and songs. Check him out!

Best TV Shows: Bloodline / Master of None / Better Call Saul / Mr. Robot - I suggest everyone watches these 4 new TV shows that are currently only one season long. Added two bonus shows, The Killing / The walking Dead, that I also watched this year and really enjoyed.

Best Jcubed Video: The only one that was filmed in 2015 and included all 3 members of Jcubed.

Best Jcubed Video Honorable mention: Road to Rado (watch the series), filmed in 2014.

Best Lacrosse Video: A tie between a HS rivalry game from 2015 and a gopro video filmed in 2014!

Best original movie: Found this 2014 gem this year and it helped me rediscover my love for old video games which led to me playing them way too much and even watching people play them.

Best Movie: 007: Spectre? Didn't see too many movies that came out this year, can probably count them on one hand.

Best Moment: John McCauley at City Winery on August 11th, 2015. John McCauley at city Winery! Amazing! Vanessa Carlton makes appearance. After the show, we had a chance to meet the man himself. I am wearing my red LSD Tick shirt and John smiles at me as I approach him. He points to my shirt and goes, you know what that is? I said yup, LSD. After that we just ask him to sign our poster and for a picture with him. I think I told him like 10 times how it was such a great show. When we met him for a second time awkwardly later, I ask him how the new album was coming with Deer Tick and he said they have just been dicking around a lot. I need to have stuff to ask people when I meet them. I had so many ideas before and after, just nervous I guess. But he was super chill and a humble guy. Really nice and he is only 29.

Best Sports Moment: Blackhawks win their third Stanley Cup in 6 years on Monday June 15. After watching the boys bring us the cup at Rachel and Josh's apartment, the gang below heads to Wrigley after the big win, but get turned around by the police and end up bar hopping our way back to the Wiener Circle.

Best books I read in 2015:

Leading with the Heart (book) by Coach K and Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy.

Best Concerts: By far the greatest year of concerts as a whole, even though Deer Tick didn't play in 2015.

Diamond Rugs x2, New Madrid x2, Justin Collins, Dawes, Delta Buds, Delta Spirit, T. Hardy Morris, Lucky Boys Confusion, Samantha Crain, John McCauley, Lady Lamb, Tallest Man on Earth x2, Vanessa Carlton

Best Vacation: Bahamas and Smoky Mountains

Fri Oct 9 - Head out for the Smoky Mountains / 11 mile hike over 5 1/2 hours in rain / Charlie's Bunyon & The jump off, fog rolled in / Newton's bald and clingman's dome / Stop at Buffalo Trace Distillery on way home

Other Notable Events in 2015 while the Blog was away

Sat June 13 - Brew to be wild that night. Hawks win!

Wed June 17 - Go out on boat with Scott, navy pier fireworks

Thu June 18 - Hawks Rally, Rachel and I meet up with Beth and Emily

Wed July 1 - Go to Jazzing at the Shed with Rachel and her parents. See fish, big otters, a beluga whale's penis, which was the size of a penguin. Beautiful evening view of the skyline with some jazz music playing.

Sat July 18 - Hit up the farmers market across from Old Town. We walk through Rachel's old apartment and see it being renovated. We struggle to travel about with the L being closed at parts. We make it to Yoga class with Torie and Nikki just in time. My first yoga class hooray.

Fri Aug 7 - I find out I got the NV Head Varsity Job.

Sat Aug 8 - Agreed with Torie the night before to run 16 miles with her. So I wake up at 7:30a and meet up with her and end up running 15 miles. A new personal record, thought I was gonna die. We head to a family party for Rachel's extended family. I hit a bunny with my car on the way home, first road kill.

Fri Sept 11 - White sox game with Emma and Anna, Beth, Aunt Jan and Uncle Gary, Rachel and friends meet us there a few innings in. I miss a t shirt thrown right at me. Fireworks after the game!

Sun Sept 13 - Our engagement photos in Lincoln park!

Nov 2 - Buy tickets to iceland

Nov 15 - Auntie Wanda's 90th Birthday Party, go out in city with NC cousins, up until 330. Hit up Franks bar for first time.

Dec 13 - Watch 5 Harry potter movies in a day.

Dec 20 - Christkindl Market

Goals for 2016

Let things that do not matter go, we can't worry about every little issue that we come across.
Have a workout plan, stick to it, and get in shape for the wedding/honeymoon!
Put together a food plan in order to eat healthy, save money, and stay lean!
Learn how to play some general chords on guitar and perhaps be able to sing a song with it.
Maintain friendships and spend more time with those friends
Listen to more music and attend more concerts
Learn some basics of piano/keyboard
Edit more videos and film more videos (jcubed / lacrosse / music)
Try something new or stop doing something old each month - starting with no alcohol for January!
Return of the Blog on a weekly basis

I am very excited for what should be the best year of my life! Marriage, trips to Hawaii and Iceland, varsity coaching career, and more to come!

Josh

Movies & Yard Work

March 31, 2015

Song of the Week: To prepare for next weeks concert: Killin' Time by Diamond Rugs

Tuesday March 24th, practice was cancelled, so I was able to finish up my Free Ireland photobook from Shutterfly. Only Barcelona & Paris left to make! Not bad! Rachel made an amazing spaghetti dinner for us which was so tasty. Worth noting not only because I always talk about food, but because I usually don't like spaghetti, but this was delicious! We watched that weeks Better Call Saul and then I played some Call of Duty. Another note, this is COD MW2, old school, and for the computer. I was playing and recently prestiged for the second time when I landed in a hack server with people flying around. Needless to say, I was blessed by the hacker with an upgrade to level 70, all weapons, all accomplishments, all flair. Pretty awesome. I did some editing later that evening.

On Wednesday March 25 I had some leftovers for dinner and also had a late practice since the weather is still not cooperating. That night I watched the movie Mr. Nobody with Jared Leto. Interesting movie about the last mortal on earth who is recollecting the "multiple" lives he lived. Kind of confusing and weird, but provided me with this quote. "You have to make the right choice. As long as you don't choose, everything remains possible." Think about that and if you have an extra 2 hours, check out Mr. Nobody on Netflix, I give it a 6.5/10.

Thursday March 26th began with my usual pre-game meal, McDonalds. McChickens and McDoubles of course. We pulled off a nailbiter of a game against NC with a score of 7-6. It was an old but classic case of keep it in the box for the last two minutes of the game that my players, like always, seem to think means go out of the box. I have never screamed so much as I did in those last two minutes, but the goalie came up big and we got the W. 3-0 start! Once back at home that evening I did a good amount of editing and finished the NIU 2014 video. Check it out below!

Friday March 27th, after work, Beth and I started to watch James and Giant Peach. What a great movie. Watch it! My dad picked up Rachel from the train and then had some buttered noodles for dinner. That night Rachel and I went over to Gio and Kelly's and hung out with Gio for a couple of hours, enjoying Lou Malnati's thin crust pizza and salad, as well as having some beers. Later in the evening Kelly got home with a friend and we danced to some classic 80s jams. Party time.

Saturday March 28th I had to work and then headed over to Danny & Sarah's after to meet up with Beth & Rachel. We had some delicious grilled burgers and brats for dinner to go with some made potato fries that Sarah made. Tasty! Danny and I also started to work in their yard earlier in the evening before it got dark. It was great see Sophia, Nicky, & Buffy too. We finished the night off watching Night at the Museum 3. It was pretty good and Robin Williams last film! Rachel and I headed back to the city afterward.

On Sunday March 29th, I finally had a day off after pretty much having to coach every day for the past 4 weeks. I did some editing and enjoyed Mac n' cheese and pizza bites for lunch. Rachel and I then took a nap much longer than we wanted, perhaps 3 hours? After the nap we walked and got some Jimmy John's for dinner, I went Country Club (I think). Rachel put a little face mask thingy on me. We then watched The Walking Dead series finale. At least we thought it was the series finale, but just turned out to be the season finale. Which made a lot more sense since we didn't understand how a series would end like that. Great end to the SEASON though! After the Walking Dead we then loaded up Academy Award Nominee Foxcatcher. The movie was very slow and had a really good ending, considering it was a true story, but we did not enjoy the movie overall. Just too slow and boring I guess.

On Monday March 30th I was supposed to wake up and leave my apartment by 6 am to go work in my brothers yard again. Unfortunately I woke up way too late and got stuck in a ton of traffic, so I didn't get there until about 9:30am, giving me a solid 2 hours to work. Sarah made us a tasty breakfast casserole and then we started to dig and do some yard work while watching Sophia run around and eat dirt. Buffy also escaped at some point and we found her 3 houses down. I then headed to work and got Steak n' Shake for dinner after work. Doubled up on fries because I am a greedy boy! I headed back to Danny and Sarah's to spend the night with another morning of yard work headed our way! Beth also met up with me there and we called it an early night.

Movie of the Week: Throwback to a great childhood book made movie: James and the Giant Peach

Video of the Week: New Disney Movie Trailer - Bambi

Thanks for reading.

HUGE concert coming up in a couple of days. Diamond Rugs at Lincoln Hall baby! If you're not there, I dunno where you are!

Josh

Back to the Cold

February 18, 2015

Song of the Week: Diamond Rugs new album Cosmetics <--Stream it!

Tuesday February 10th was my return from the Bahamas, read my previous blog yo!

Wednesday February 11th, 2015 was a day that brought me back to the reality of Chicago, cold winter weather! I took the L to downtown to the train station and then took the train to work. Rates keep going up and the trip cost me $10. Traveling is expensive no matter how you do it these days! On the train I finished the book Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. I had not read it since high school and although the ending was pretty good, still do not understand why it is considered one of the greatest books of that era. The Walking Dead returned, so I watched the first episode of this half of the last season, if that makes sense. After work I also watched the 30 for 30 about Bo Jackson called Bo Knows. I didn't realize he was such a natural, amazing athlete. Perhaps the greatest athlete of all time? Made myself some soup for dinner, as well as some chicken with hot sauce. Not a bad first day back from paradise, although the 20 degree weather is not as nice as 70s.

Thursday February 12th is a blur and I don't recall what I did, so we shall skip that day in this blog!

Friday the 13th of February was a record setting day for me. I shot 97mph with my right hand and 91mph with my left at work, both personal bests. Amazing how much whip will do for you and a little bit of shooting for speed practice considering my highest back in college was 83mph. A whopping 14mph swing! John stopped by my work and we drove back to the city together. First time seeing him since his trip to Nepal with Melissa. Can't wait for him to put together a little video to share with the masses.

Brian met us at our place and we headed over to a local shawarma shop. Unfortunately we got there after 9pm and they were out of lamb shawarma, so I ended up getting a Kaftka Kabob which was not bad, but no shawarma. We played some rounds of Mario Party 2 while sipping on some land sharks, and despite my winning ways, Brian pulled out the victory in the end. Then we headed over to the Wiener Circle. This was my first experience and it was pretty crazy, and funny at times. People were yelling things at each other and being mean (this is how it works when you order there), which really isn't my style, so I just floated in the back while Rachel, John, and Brian ordered up in the crowded little shop. I ended up getting a chardog and some fries which was very tasty! We watched some Always Sunny in Philadelphia while enjoying our food.

After about 3 hours of sleep, John and I awoke on Valentines Day and headed back to where we came from since I had to coach at 7am. After coaching and then working until 2pm, I stopped at Jewel to pick up some good for dinner that night. Back in Chicago, took a little nap (longer than planned) and then made a Valentines BBQ Chicken Bacon Onion Pizza with Rachel. It was very delicious! We had some wine as well while listening to music and chatting some. We also then began Better Call Saul the TV series that is based off the character Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad. Interesting show that shows where Saul started and how he is going to get to where he was in BB. I'm excited to watch this season live!

Sunday February 15th was a left over pizza kind of day, as well as a cleaning the apartment day. There was a significant amount of ice in my parking spot since people thought it would be good to pile it there. Luckily I remembered I had an axe with me so I axed the ice down and provided my car a nice little spot to back into. Rachel and I got Standard Market Grill for dinner and I had a steak sandwich and it was delicious! Covered with mushrooms and onions just melts in your mouth. We watched a second episode of Better Call Saul to be caught up and I then watched an episode of The Walking Dead.

President's Day was here! No work, but of course I have a lax tournament to go coach in like I do every year. My team performed well, going 3 and 0 in regular scheduled games. Squeaking out some wins against some pretty good teams. We then lost in the semi-finals to a competitive team. Overall a great tournament and I was proud of the guys, should be an awesome season! Johno then hit me up that the new Diamond Rugs' album Cosmetics was streaming. If you are not already streaming, go back up top and stream it!

Rach and I watched a third episode of Better Call Saul, this one on live TV once I got home. Watching on live TV is crazy now because almost everything is streamed where you watch episode after episode. Only one at a time now! Frustrates Rachel a bit I think! HA. We enjoyed a tasty sausage jambalaya dish while watching as well.

Video of the Week: Skate 2. Throwing it back to a Jcubed classic from 2007. Perhaps a skate 4 in the near future!?

Movie of the Week: Pay it Forward - Change how you treat people, and be nice to all! Incredibly uplifting film with a little boy's goal in life!