A Christmas Miracle

December 30, 2014

On Tuesday December 23rd, I worked and then played some lax after, the first time playing lacrosse in a long while since I moved to the city and don't have time to stay and play anymore. Fun stuff. I drove back to Chicago that night and hung out with Rachel for a bit before bed.

Grandma with her Grandkids & Great Grandkids

Wednesday December 24th was the first Christmas Eve Rachel and I were to have together. I spent the morning slaving over some scrumptious chocolate covered pretzels, and Rachel made a delicious breakfast casserole. We did these things while having some mimosas of course! We packed our car full of presents, oh how I wish I was a kid again, getting awesome toys and gadgets, and headed out across town. We had Christmas Eve at my Grandma's as usual which was a lovely time for the family to be together. We then headed back to Naperville. On the way there I finished The Shining by Stephen King on tape. A great novel and actually way way better than the movie. We then opened Christmas presents with Beth and my parents. Once the presents were open and we watched a few family videos, we headed to New Lenox for my first Midnight Mass. What an experience. Got to love Church at midnight. It helped that there was an awesome choir providing the music for the evening. Afterwards we hung out with Rachel's family and then I got to experience a Hyma sibling tradition where they put on Lethal Weapon and wrap Christmas presents. Since we got a late start, we ended up being up until 4 am. Santa is on his way, get on your Santa Hat! Hard to believe this was 7 years ago. Freshman year of College on break.

December 25th, Christmas Day 2014 was here. We headed to Rachel's grandparents and had a great Christmas Day Dinner. I headed home by myself after the party was over since I had to work the next day. I watched the movie Rush with my parents and Beth. A great inspirational sports movie about formula 1 racing. I highly suggest all those to watch! I then watched a few Walking Dead episodes that night. Emma and Anna can't believe it's Christmas! 4 Years ago!

I spent Friday December 26th at my parents after work and had some of my Mom's chili. Yum. Then I watched a bunch of Walking Dead episodes and fell asleep late into the night. Oh, I also got gas for under $2.00. A Christmas Miracle for us adults. I think this is the lowest gas has ever been since I have been driving, circa 2005? Or at least since I've been filling up with gas since 2011... ha

Saturday December 27th was another long day at work, and I also successfully changed my windshield wiper blades, with some help from a co-worker. He had to get the blades off for me, as they proved to be more difficult than I thought they would. With new wipers installed, that are a bit too large for my windshield, I will welcome rain/snow with open arms (still hasn't happened). Rachel and I watched The Shining that evening which had a way different and worse ending compared to the book. I sound like such a book nerd.

Rachel and I finally cashed in all of our Jewel stickers on Sunday December 28th, and ended up getting a nice 12" non-stick skillet, a 12" every day pot, and a 13.5" lasagna pan. A $160 all for free! Well, actually we had to spend $4,100 to get these 3 pots, but luckily we didn't spend all of it, our parents and some other relatives did as well. Thanks everyone for chipping in! Now we get to cook with these new pans! We got some Wendy's for dinner, and as I received my food, a nice gentleman with dreadlocks said, "You have a great night, OH, and Nice hat too." I smiled and replied, "Thanks, Go Titans!" When I got home I attempted to change our kitchen faucet out. After about 3 hours of working, I finally was successful at getting the old sink faucet out and the new one in. Then I came to the conclusion that somehow the cold faucet ended up getting clogged because only the hot water works, but it works great! Yahoo!!

On Monday December 29th, I ended up having to work late which I wasn't happy about, so I picked up 3 Buffalo McChickens on the way home. I finished Mystic River, on tape by Dennis Lehane. It was so strikingly similar to the movie, there were really no differences at all. So it was solid and great, just like the film. That night I ended up watched a lot more Walking Dead episodes before falling asleep late.

Oh for Christmas this year I was very satisfied with many wool socks, warm gloves, lovely sweaters, power drill, car shovel, whiskey, gift cards, a wine rack, an awesome calender, & a Titans Hat for Johnson from Management. Go Titans.

Get ready for my year in review for next week! As well as my top lists of 2014!

Josh

Long Way Down, Spider Friend, & Lego Sprinkles

July 29, 2014

On the 22nd of July, after work I headed over to my cousins house to hang out. I arrived around 5:30p and jumped in the pool with Beth, Emma, & Anna and a couple of their friends. After having some water fights, doing some cannon balls, and starting a whirlpool, I got out. I was the last in and first out by the way... oo I am getting old. We had some homemade spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, along with some bread that we dipped in some olive oil dish, quite a tasty meal! Thanks Aunt Jan! We had saved a little room for dessert, so I drove Anna & my aunt over to Andy's to get some frozen custard. While looking at the menu, I saw a custard that involved putting any type of topping in the middle of your custard. Okay I am just going to call it ice cream because custard sounds weird and it tastes like ice cream anyway. So I had the brilliant idea to jam pack the middle of my ice cream concrete with sprinkles. A dream come true for a young lad like myself. Once I decided on having sprinkles, I then decided on what ice cream I would have around my sprinkles, with the help of my Aunt I chose cookies & cream. A great choice. While eating our Andy's we played a little bit of Wheel of Fortune on the Wii. Afterwards, we loaded in The Lego Movie. I had only heard great things about this movie so I was excited to watch. Laying in between all of Anna & Emma's legos, Anna and I got comfy and began to watch with a bag of popcorn on hand. The movie was fantastic as expected. I came to the conclusion that I, just like the main character, was just an ordinary lame boy who followed the directions as a child. I was no "Master Builder." The movie also made me realize that it is okay to let go of some things, and not have them be "perfect" forever. Things that we buy or use are intended to be used and worn, they can't stay new forever and we shouldn't stress over that.

After the movie, and a little bit longer of hanging out, I headed home. As I was driving I realized that there was a spider web on my side mirror. As I picked up speed, I realized there was a spider clinging on for life, I slowed down a little and he was able reestablish himself behind the mirror, safe and sound for the night.

Wednesday the 23rd of July, my parents wedding anniversary, started the same way the previous night ended, me observing my spider friend who survived the ride home and was busy spinning a web together. For work, I created an amazing goalie save video from earlier in the year. The save is pretty awesome, partially luck, partially skill, and a whole lot of awesome. It got some internet traction, so check it out! That evening I continued to go through some old items in my room, getting rid of some stuff and boxing other things up. Preparing for the move and being inspired a little by the Lego Movie, some things just have to go!

Spider on the move while I am on the move

Thursday July 24th, 2014 was the best day of spider activity so far. As I was driving to work, the spider had successfully spun up a great web. You know when you pull up to a stop sign or a light and all those gnats fly around your side mirrors? BAM. My spider friend had pulled off the perfect execution. At least 6 gnats flew right into his web. I was actually in awe as it was happening and stayed stopped at the stop sign for a good minute. Watching him quickly crawl across his web from gnat to gnat, spinning a web around each of them, securing them into place. I was witnessing natural murder, and it was incredible. This spider had really impressed me the last few days just by staying on my side mirror, but now he was doing work. As I picked up speed going down the road, getting to 50 mph, one or two of the gnats flew off, but the rest of them stayed nice and snug. A tasty meal for my spider friend. As sad as it sounds, I was becoming attached to this spider and thought of him as my pet. I enjoyed seeing him in my mirror and look forward to seeing him day in and day out.

When I left work that afternoon, all of his food had been eaten and he was still there, just sitting in his web. What a bro. After work I took a few photos of some pretty flowers in my yard, and watched a handful of episodes of The Long Way Down. Part 2 of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's travels. This time they are going from the top of Scotland and traveling south to the bottom tip of South Africa. Oh and all on motor bike, just like last time. I also played in men's league that night as well.

On Friday July 25th, I headed into work and was greeted with a donut. Then I had some little caeser's pizza for lunch. A pretty solid day so far. When I got home from work around 5pm I had some Jack's pizza, pizza for lunch, pizza for dinner. I then began to put some work in on my Prague photobook. I am making a photobook for each of my cities I visited in Europe, this is my 5th of 9 book I am doing. They are full of great pictures and great memories. I am only making them when I have free photobook coupons, but should get ahead and do some prior when I have the time. That night I got a fire going in the back yard, started it with some lint. Man does that stuff burn up quickly. I barely hit one spark from a sparkler to it and it went up in flames, should be good starter material when in Colorado. John came over to hang out by the fire, and we put in my 2nd failed bag board, and burned it right up. After our fire we went inside for a bit and found my old gas mask I had bought from some reason a long time ago. It will be a great addition to the Colorado trip. Ya never know?!

Saturday July 26th started with an early morning so I could work on and finish my Prague, Czech Republic photobook. I then headed to work and then drove to Rachel's after work. Once in the city, I was craving some soup, so cooked up some Mrs. Grass soup for lunch. Despite Rachel criticizing me for wanting to have soup in the summer, she also had a bowl and was far from disappointed, as she went back for more. Told ya so! We pretty much decided to have a lazy Saturday by watching an episode of Breaking Bad, a few episodes into season 4 now, and The Long Way Down. We rolled through a few episodes of Long Way Down and took a quick nap. After our nap for about an hour, we drove over to jewel to get some ingredients for our dinner, which was going to be..... Buffalo Chicken Dip. I had to shred some chickens, and the dip turned out to be delicious and we enjoyed it with chips and celery. See the steps and cooking process to the dip in the photos below. During dinner, we streamed some music through youtube and played Taboo with Sarah and Colin.

On Sunday, July 27th, we woke up and watched a couple of episodes of The Long Way Down, just leaving one left. In the afternoon Rachel and I met up with her friend Becca to play some volleyball at the beach. Brian ended up coming as well and we had some fun playing beach vball. Reminds me of senior year of highschool when we played at commissioner's almost every day of the summer. After volleyball Brian and I took a dip in the water, which was actually not too cold, and then we headed home. On the walk home, we came across a chair that sat probably 20 feet high. I stared at it and wondered, hmmm, is this art? or is this a challenge? I got about halfway up before I decided it was probably best to go back down. Some friends came over and we had a little BBQ, while we were outside, the apparent founder of Goose Island Brewery leaned over the fence and gave us a 6 pack of Endless IPA. This guy has lived next door for almost 10 months, and now decides to give us a 6 pack and "welcome" us to the neighborhood? I can't figure out if this guy was genuine or him and his wife would think it was funny to tell us this small white lie. Anyway, it was the talk of the BBQ. After downing a couple of hot dogs, I headed over to the softball fields with Rachel and the rest of Aly's team. Rachel isn't usually on the team, but was filling in. I had the benefit of not having to play, so dipped into a few more drinks that I probably should have for a Sunday, but what the heck. I was getting into the UMP a little bit, trying to get calls to go our way, but was unsuccessful as the team fell by 8 runs or something. After the game, which flew by, we headed home and planned on watching the last episode of Long Way Down, but instead I fell asleep almost instantly.

Monday, July 28th I woke up and drove home, then ordered my Prague photobook and headed to work. After work, I was tricked into attending one of our Speed & Agility classes, and boy was it tough. I am so out of shape and it was a great workout, especially for my hip flexors. I feel like I have always had weak hips, so I kind of wish I had this type of speed training back in high school or college. Guess I wouldn't have paid for it though... so whatever. After work I finished up The Long Way Down, what another great series and successful trip for those guys. Pretty awesome, gave me a great perspective of Africa and gives me the desire to travel, I love it! Thanks to Phil K for the original suggestion of Long Way Round & to Netflix for having Long Way Down as well and hipping me to it.

I also put a bunch of movies on hold from the library for the weekend coming up. A few Star Wars movies, some Christian Bale movies, and some others. Next week should be a good one that will end with a trip to Michigan and a hangout with Nolan.

See ya next week!

Josh

Flying Solo, Together

April 8, 2014

Woo. April is here. Bring on the rain showers. Another fantastic week in the books, or I guess in the movies since I seem to watch way more movies than reading of books. Slow reading problems.

In case you missed it. Here are two videos I finished last Tuesday. One a little dancing with Rachel, Squid, & my cousins. The other a lax highlight.

Wednesday April 2nd I had a solid, early day of work, running some spring break camps that started at 7am. Later that evening I headed over to BenU and hoped on a bus with them and headed to Elmhurst for an away game under the lights. Filming the game went well, although entering the fourth quarter the heavens began to drizzle some rain drops down on us, luckily I brought an umbrella to protect my camera. I am about halfway through the editing process, hopefully the highlight will be out by Thursday.

After the game, which BenU pulled out, we headed to Chipotle for a team dinner, luckily for me, the camera man was included in this sweet deal. I picked up my usual, steak burrito, black beans, brown rice, corn salsa, mild salsa, a dash of sour cream & lettuce. Deliciousness, especially after having such a long day. But the greateness did not end there... When we were leaving, Chipotle gave us all free chips since they had about 100 extra bags and were just going to throw them out. So I picked up two free bags and ate on the way home & to Rachel's advice, saved the other one for the next day. I crawled into bed and turned on The Fast & the Furious, Paul Walker's finest film. Day over.

Thursday the 3rd of April was a busy day of editing videos, including the Trine BenU game seen above, a little chest camera action from a tournament in December, as well as the game I had filmed the previous night. I took a break about midday to go get my oil changed. I make it a habit to walk over to Disc Replay and browse for any movies I may need while I wait for my oil to be changed. I picked up Airplane & the original & only good Saw movie. You can see my entire movie collection by click here! For an afternoon snack, aka my lunch, I used my brilliant mind and created a full tray of nachos, using the Chipotle chips from last night. I topped them with some cheddar cheese, cut up some steak and layered it across the top and put it in the over at 420 degrees, nah only like 300. While this was cooking in the oven, I brewed up some mexican rice and completed my nachos by dumping the rice over the nachos. Mmm, I am quite the chef.

Friday, the start to the weekend! I headed down to Chicago around 4pm. Once arrived, I met Rachel at the train and we walked over to the bar Benchmark for spinach artichoke dip & a couple of drinks. I had a strongbow cider, tasted like apple juice. Oh and I was also wearing black swishy pants, so fancy, but hey can't help my work attire. On our walk back to Rachel's place we stopped at a liquor store and picked up two bottles of wine, one being "Flying Solo". Funny thing about it is, as Rachel put it, we were "flying solo, together!" Once we got back we started to cook up dinner. We made a tasty talapia, another fish filled with cheese, asparagus, & rice dish, not too bad! I had picked up a redbox earlier that day, so we put on American Hustle. I thought the movie was pretty good, but lacked something to make it a great movie. Or I just need to watch it again to really appreciate it, I'm not sure! We threw on a couple episodes of Workaholics, but somehow before the second one even ended, I was asleep on the couch to the right & Rachel was asleep on the couch we started on. Party animals!

On Saturday morning, I drove back to Lisle to film BenU play Augustana. I picked up some Jewel chicken on the way for lunch. It was a beautiful day out, so filming was much more enjoyable as I didn't freeze! I'll be editing the game this week and hopefully have it done by next week. I headed back to the city and arrived back at Rachel's, who was busy working out while I was gone! We watched a few episodes of Breaking Bad before her brothers came over. Then around 6:30 we headed to a local bar to grab some food, but Brian and Tori were going to be coming over around 7, so I left early and picked up some Jimmy Johns for dinner instead. Club Lulu #16, classic. All the friends came back shortly after, Rachel so kindly brought me 3/4 of the burger she did not eat, so I ate that too! Ahh how am I not super fat? Grant came over later as well and then we all played Cards Against Humanity. Had a drink called Old Brown Dog Ale & thought of Andy Mewbs and the real brown dog, as well as our trip to Georgia back in 2008 (pics below).

Brian, Grant, & I stayed for a few more drinks while everyone else headed out. We then met them out a little later a bar down the street. Rachel & I took off for home, but of course, had to pick up some McDonalds that was conveniently on the way home. Here is how the order went:

Josh, "Yes, can we have 2 McDoubles & 2 McChickens?"
Guy, "Is that all?"
Rachel, "And one barbecue sauce please!"
Josh, "Ok I guess".

And that is how Saturday night ended.

Chilling after John got his teeth knocked out (Story for another day)

Swamp Guinea! Where everything is deep fried!

Sunday

Frozen Jack's pizza to start it off while watching some more of season 3 Breaking Bad. I did a little budgeting in my preparation to potentially move out of the parent's house as well. Then I jogged a mile over to Grant's place in Lincoln Park and played some ping pong. I'm a little rusty. Had a hamburger from some polish place maybe? Wasn't sure of the language, but the burger was delicious. I then jogged back to Rachel's place. I need to start working out...

Rachel and I then walked over to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Many of the animals were still inside, but a handful of them were out and looking oh so happy, syke! Zoos are pretty sad places when you are older and understand what is going on as the animals walk in circles, imprisoned and drugged out of their minds.

We got back from the zoo and cooked up some pasta with italian sausage & veggies. We topped it off with a balsamic vinaigrette sauce. Just love cooking up meals with Rach! So fun and so tasty!

As the night was closing, we wanted to watch a movie, but also had a craving for ice cream. We walked over to Walgreen's and picked up a pint of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked. As we also walked we pondered how crazy it is how walking at 9pm in the city of Chicago seems so much more dangerous than out in the suburbs. It is very interesting how the darkness and night can create such an eerie mood.

As we settled down on the couch with our Half Baked ice cream, we loaded up the movie Turbo. A film about a snail who has always wanted to race and go fast. He ends up being magically induced with some serious speed and then ends up becoming a professional race car driver. I won't ruin the movie for you all, but let's just say it is top notch, provided many laughs, and is even suitable for the kids!

Oh, speaking of kids. These are two hilarious texts I got from my sister about things my cousins Emma & Anna said while at the Art Museum. So funny.