The Benefits of Eating Healthy

Every summer during college, John & I would have one goal. Become jacked and tan. It never happened, ever. With the start of the 2018, I come with the same mission, become jacked and tan. Minus the tan part and more of just get back in shape instead of jacked, but you get the point. Now before we start, be sure to check out the Vlog from January!

After our Snowy New Year, Rachel and I headed back to Chicago with some new years goals. Rachel somehow convinced me to do the Whole30 diet again with her this year. This time we are going all in. No alcohol for January, and only healthy, all natural foods.

Before we dive into it, I would like to add to my jacked and tan story from late high school/college. I'll have it known that John and I were working out two, sometimes three times a day. And we were tanning in between those workout sessions.  So despite consistently working out, we never seemed to have a lot of muscle growth. I am going to say that we failed our mission because of one thing, our diet. I now realize the root of the issue was our food intake. I would slam candy (as I was the king of candy) and not eating all that healthy. My diet was made up of burgers, pasta, fried chicken patties, pizza, ramen, pretzels, chips, candy and other foods relatively low in protein, high in sugar, fat, and carbohydrates.

Fast forward 10ish years and here we are, January 2018. I am working out about 500% less, but my diet is 500% better. So what is the Whole30 diet all about you ask? Let me quickly go over what we can and cannot have. The quickest and simplest rule is that we can pretty much eat anything that is real and natural. Read up:

Things we CAN eat

• Meats (unprocessed of course)

• Fruits (in moderation, watch yo natural sugars)

• Veggies (includes potatoes, yum)

• Nuts & Seeds (no peanuts tho)

• Eggs (lots of eggs)

• Seafood (still not a huge fan, but gotta dive in)

• Coffee (black with no additives, luckily I don't personally drink coffee anyway)

Things we CANNOT eat

• Dairy (no milk, butter, or cheese)

• Grains (no rice, quinoa, corn, or wheat)

• Alcohol (ya booze ya lose)

• Legumes (can't eat beans unfortunately)

• Added Sugar (no honey, maple syrup, stevia, etc)

• Processed foods (check the label, don't recognize it? don't have it)

• Junk foods (don't recreate bad foods out of good foods, ex: cauliflour pizza)

On top of this healthy diet which has really turned me around, we have started to workout. Every Friday after work, Rachel and I have been attending Orange Theory Fitness. These hour long classes involve 25 minutes of treadmill (cardio) and 25 minutes of free weights combined with rowing. Plus 10 minutes of warmup/stretching. I usually try to push myself pretty hard in these classes and enjoy the set up of the workout. If you are not motivated or capable of making your own circuit workout plan, these classes are great! And if you care about tracking your heart rate, they do a fantastic job as well. I'm not too concerned about knowing if I am in the "orange zone" by working hard. I either am going hard or I am not. One of my complaints about Orange Theory is their lockers are at the main entrance, so you can't really change unless you go into the bathrooms which are just bathrooms. Kind of a weird setup. My only other complaint is the price, but it is pretty standard for a group type of class I guess. Depending on your plan it is either $25 or $20 per class. Great workouts that really get me working out my legs more than ever before. Good start to the January weekends.

The next morning on Saturdays, we have been getting beat down at Alana's Sculpt class at Corepower Yoga with Torie. (I have been doing these classes since late 2015 in prep for the Wedding). This is by far the hardest workout I have ever done. I think mostly because of the heat. It is so hot in the room, must be 90+, pushing 100 degrees I'll say, that sometimes my lungs feel restricted and it is super hard to breathe. This along with the constant movements and no "breaks" that Alana "gives" is a recipe for a beatdown. I sweat an insane amount, soaked through my shirt & dripping from my arms, often shaking in my boots from the exercises (updogs, downdogs, squats, pushups, curls, shoulder press, kickbacks, lunges, abs & more!). Rachel, Torie & I usually post up at the front of the class, which is nice because I get to look directly at myself in the mirror, but also a pressure since everyone can watch me.  I am one of the few males in the class, which can often be embarrassing when I am laying on the ground in pain as everyone else continues to workout (this only happened a few times I swear). Again my complaint is the price, depending on your plan it is either $25 or $20 per class. After class I often bond with the other males in the locker room since there are only a few of us and we talk about how grueling the class is. I've run into other lax bros too many times. 

The combo of eating healthy (Whole30) and working out on Friday (Orange Theory) and Saturday (Core Power) has resulted in some amazing changes and advantages in my life throughout the month of January. 

Josh's Benefits of Eating Healthy & Working Out

• Better overall health (immune system)

• Woke up feeling good with plenty of energy

• Able to focus and get more stuff done throughout the day

• Better poops. You heard that right. Poop!

• Lost 10 lbs somehow

• Tighter muscles and body with less fat

• Strongest leg muscles since college

• Saved dat $$ by not drinking or going out to eat (Hundreds of $)

Rach's Key Benefits from Eating Healthy

• Handled stress better

• Less tired, more consistent energy levels

• Never feeling bloated

Now I am not going to lie and say this diet (lifestyle change) wasn't hard at times. Whether it was wanting to eat some pizza, having to spend a ton more time on grocery shopping and cooking, or feeling tired and weak by being deprived of sugar throughout the first two weeks. We battled through the challenges and made it the entire 30 days without cheating once. Winners! My final tip is that you need to eat A LOT more than you think you do when doing this diet. You'll eat more than you normally do, and more often during the day because all this healthy food does not fill you up as quickly as the junk food we normally eat. If you don't eat enough (which I didn't plenty of times) you will lack energy and feel tired. You need to eat fat and a good amount of it for energy. Bacon was key for me on this diet. Mmm bacon. We hope to continue this lifestyle for a majority of our weeks ahead. Let's say maybe 5/7 days to start? 

Meanwhile, here are some other notable events that took place in January.

Wednesday January 3rd, 2018 I went to Mariano's for the first time ever with Beth. It was an alright grocery.

Saturday January 6 - Yoga and Ashley's bday in Lockport (we managed to not drink at a bar!)

Sunday January 7th - Lunch with Grandpa Bob, Mom, Dad, & Beth at Lou Malnatis in Chicago (we managed to not eat pizza at a pizza place!)

Wednesday January 10th - Company Holiday lunch at Capri Sogno in Plainfield (I managed not to get pasta at an Italian pasta place!)

Saturday January 13th - Play settlers of catan at Torie and Tim’s with Rachel, Torie, Tim, Brian, & Megan (Torie was sweet enough to get us berries & grapes for dessert!)

Friday January 19th - I attended a concert at Lincoln Hall and saw Ron Gallo, Yoko and Oh Noes, & Dianne Coffee (managed not to drink)

Monday January 22nd - Orange Theory on my own, I walked to and from, checking out Rach's old apartment in Old Town on the walk home

Wednesday January 24th - The iconic Rock and Roll McDoanld's on Ontario is being torn down! A symbolism of McDonalds in my life? I haven't had McDonald's in all of January and February in 2018. Go ahead and see the Last time I was at this McDonalds it was a stop on a Trolley

Friday January 26th - My last Orange theory fitness class - Beth comes over and we watch Lonely island videos all night.

Saturday January 27th - Core power Sculpt with Rach & Torie again. Did a face mask thing. That night Rachel and I go out to eat at Prime Bar. Then see Beautiful: Carole King the Musical at the Cadillac Palace. Fantastic show about an amazing woman who wrote so many famous songs like The Loco-Motion and Some Kind of Wonderful.

On Wednesday January 31st I wokeup at 530a to photograph the Super Blue Blood Moon and Lunar Eclipse. This was the first time this has happened since 1866. Unfortunately we didn't get the blood part since it’s too bright out in Chicago. I was able to see the blood moon part via NASA satellite. See the mornings events in photos below.

Thursday February 1st was the last day of the diet. The Whole 30 diet is over and Rachel was sweet enough to get me some whisky and we celebrated with tacos. Basically Whole30 compliant still!

TV Show of the Month: Black Mirror Season 4 (available on Netflix). Quality show that requires no previous episodes to be seen.

Song of the Month: Vince Staples, Big Fish - Great beat with some poppin' lyrics - It's rap

Before I head out I want to let everyone know I watched 16 of Emma Stone's movies in January and wrote a blog about it. I think everyone should go read that blog and attempt to eat healthy at some point this year. Even if it just for the week days, anything will help with your overall health.  I am excited for the upcoming months and lacrosse season. See ya there!

Josh

The M's - Moon, Movies, Music, & Marathon

Tuesday October 7th, 2014. Happy Birthday Mom! After work, I drove Beth and Paige to Chicago, and we went out to eat for dinner at The Edge. A pretty tasty restaurant bar that reminded me more of a Denny's than a Chicago bar. That night, we watched a couple episodes of Freaks and Geeks while Beth & Paige enjoyed another of Molly's Cupcakes.

On the morning of Wednesday October 8th, I woke up at 4:15 AM to catch the Full Hunter Blood Moon. I stayed up for 2 hours taking pictures of the moon and watching Freaks and Geeks. I tried not to make too much noise as Rachel was asleep behind me, as I leaned out the window snapping photos of the moon. The rest of the day is a blur as I was pretty tired from being up from 4-6AM that morning.

Thursday October 9th I had my parents take my squeaky car in to the shop, ended up being a break issue... again. Luckily part of it was covered by warranty. Still an expense I didn't want. That night Rachel and I made bacon wrapped steak for dinner, with a side of sliced potatoes. We had some garlic bread as an app while cooking. The meal was so delicious, even though the bacon might have been slightly undercooked. Next time, I precook the bacon in the microwave to get it slightly started. While dining on this tasty meal and having a bit of wine, we watched the final episode of Freaks and Geeks, a solid show that I can officially say I have watched every season.. even if it was only 1.

On my way to work Friday October 10th, I was pondering semi-truck driver blind spots as I was passing a truck. I was looking right at him in one of his mirrors when he started to merge over toward me. As my car bumped over the safety rumble strips on the side of the road, I drove on the shoulder for at least 10 seconds until I fully passed the truck. I guess they do have blind spots! Yikes! That evening at work I was treated by a lax mom to some starbucks hot chocolate (she asked if I wanted coffee, I said hot chocolate) and treated to a lax dad to a couple drinks and some apps after work. On my way home from work, I had to stop halfway at a gas station to pee, and then had to pee really bad right when I got home. I also peed right before I left work, man do I have a small bladder.

Once I got home, I threw on some nicer clothes and headed for the bus to meet out with Brian, Adam, Rachel, & her brothers at Bench Mark in Old Town. The bus was taking forever, so I ran to Bench Mark. Not too bad of a jog. I had a couple of drinks with my friends, enjoyed chatting, & then Rachel and I headed out for the bus. The bus again, took forever, so we ended up walking home. On our walk home, we stopped at Angelas Burritos and Rachel got a quesadilla. When we got into our apartment I went right to bed and she stayed up to enjoy her meal and watch a show. A couple of hours later, she came in and told me she fell asleep with a quesadilla in her lap. Oh how I love her!

Saturday October 11th began with me finding some pictures from our Spartan Run. Check em out!

For lunch I ate a whole loaf of garlic bread by myself, how depressing... then headed to Lagunitas Brewery with Brian and Adam. The brewery was pretty awesome, starting with Willy Wonka music as you enter. The place was huge, 300,000 square feet, largest brewery in Illinois and one of the largest in the USA. I had a flight of a few different beers and then we went on a tour. The tour guide was hilarious and we learned a little bit about the history of Lagunitas. Brian had insider info (he had been there before) and told me to ask how the first logo (a dog) came about. I did and the story was absolutely hilarious, I will not spoil it here, just ask if you go! I still do not know the difference between any beers, I just drink them.

My flight of beers. Kronic, Maximus, Sux, Red.

Picture made entirely out of bottle caps

Brian and Adam listening to Willy Wonka Music.

Beer

Once I was back at my place, Rachel and I got ready and headed out around 4pm to go to Joliet for the concert that night at MoJoes. We got to her brother Phil's place and had a few drinks while watching some How I met Your Mother. We then headed out to MoJoes, found a parking spot in a shady parking garage, and went into the show. Couldn't find a fourth to go with us, so I had to eat a ticket, but not a big deal, I have wanted to see Zebrahead since freshman year of college now. Once we got into MoJoes, we noticed that there were 3 rules, and only 3 rules, posted about 10 feet in the air off to the side of the venue. A very odd location, regardless, they were as follows:
1. No Moshing.
2. No Stage Diving.
3. No Crowd Surfing.

A pretty funny collection of rules, that were all broken, but we saw more of a stage walk by the lead singer of Zebrahead as he walked into the front rows, rather than a stage dive. We caught the end of Survay Says, then Allister (the hometown Chicago based band) performed and they put on a solid show. Zebrahead came out next to the Team America theme song. As they took the stage, the rapper singer introduced themselves, "We Are MF Zebrahead B!t#h. Zebrahead put on a fun, loud show. It didn't really sound like the CD, and I'm not sure if that is the sound they go for, but they were having fun, messing around, and even brought people on stage to chug beers. It seemed like a super loud, big party on the stage. I wish Zebrahead played more off of their MFZB album, but played Hello Tomorrow, Rescue Me, and Falling Apart, so I was pretty pumped for those. Although, they didn't play my all time favorite Zebrahead song, Strength, one of the guitarists had an awesome walrus mustache. Bonus points to him. The guitarists of Zebrahead also threw a ton of guitar picks into the crowd throughout the whole show. I thought this was pretty cool, a nice souveneir for fans. After Zebrahead, MXPX came out and finished off the night. They played a bunch of songs and the lead singer gave a great message throughout the show about sharing music with everyone, not giving up on your dreams, and doing what you love. They have been around for 22 years now, and still aren't that big, but keep at it. I like that. They played Chick Magnet and ended with Responsibility. My 2 fav songs by them. Great show. Listen to a couple of these bands songs while looking at some pics from the show.

On the way home from the concert, we picked up some Wendy's (I had 3 chicken sandwiches) and listened to Zebrahead the whole way home to Chicago. Great night. I would rank this concert in the middle of concerts I have seen. It wasn't top material, as all of the artists are wayyy past their prime, but it was a good show and I am glad I got to see Zebrahead live. Successful night.

The next day, Sunday October 12th, was the day of the Chicago Marathon. We woke up, and cheered on our friend Tori, running around to 4 different spots along the race route to cheer her on. The race went right by our apartment which was pretty cool to see. Around mile 25.2, the last time we saw Tori running, Rachel ran with her for a bit to give her some motivation. We knew a handful of other friends running the race, but didn't see them. I think we were pretty luck to see Tori so many times and time it up so perfect. It was very hard to try and find someone you knew as hundreds of people ran past you every minute. Later, we met up with John near Millennium Park and congratulated Mr. O on his 5th marathon. Perhaps I will run the marathon next year. It was my first one watching even, and it was a very cool atmosphere where everyone is positive and cheering each other on. Enjoy these photos from the day. Including some shots from around the city.

Once Rachel and I got home that evening, we invited Adam over. I finished hanging up the photos around our map, which turned out to look pretty amazing. Thinking about adding a second layer around the outside for more photos! I also deleted over 1500 country songs from my computer. Country music just doesn't do it for me anymore. Sorry fans of country music, ain't my bag of tricks no more. Gonna try to trim down my itunes even more in the coming weeks, as it still sits at 46,563 songs. We watched the Bears get the W with Adam, then Rachel cooked up a tasty Alfredo chicken pea pasta for dinner. So tasty to go along with our fancy fruity drinks with sugar coated glass rims. After dinner, Rachel, Adam, and I watched Dallas Buyer's Club, a touching and riveting true story movie about AIDS. Fantastic film that made me dislike the FDA and other government agencies for how they treated people with HIV and basically used them as guinea pigs, testing chemicals out on them. It made me think a lot about the food I eat and how many chemical preservatives are in them as well. I need to start eating fresher, healthier foods.

On Monday October 13th, Rachel and I both had the day off so we walked over to a local movie theater to see the movie Gone Girl. The movie was super creepy, and really good.  I highly suggest it to all those looking for a good mystery thriller. The movie theater also had the most amazing seats ever. They were individual, reclining leather seats, with drink holders and food tables. Incredibly comfortable, especially for a 2 1/2 hour film. The theater had "combo" deals for popcorn and a drink, that were the same exact price as if you bought them separately. Stupid, but I am sure people fall for it all the time, ordering more thinking they are getting a deal. Smart move movie theater, smart move. Keep giving out those popcorn/drink "deals"!

The rest of our Monday was spent watching House of Cards. We finished season 1 and are on season 2. Season 2 started off with a bang, the show is getting really good! I cleaned up some around the apartment, organizing drawers and I also found the missing jewel stamps. Thank goodness!

See ya next week friends. Looking to finish Devil in the White City this week. It has been a great book so far, excited to see how it ends up.

Josh

The Yankee Clipper From Hell

On Tuesday July 8th, I finished editing the video I took from The National concert back in April. It was an awesome concert as I wrote about, read about it here, and now you can watch 25 minutes of it!

As the night wore on, and it was about midnight, I saw LaxAllStars was having a stick trick competition. (LINK to the contest with my entry at the bottom) I decided to put in some effort and nail the required combo. It took me more tries than I wanted to, but I finished the trick nonetheless and edited it into a video by 2 am. Officially entered for the contest. My entry is below:

July 9th, Wednesday, let's skip ahead to around 8pm when women's league was starting for lax at work. There were only 4 of them, and there was no goalie, so I threw on some box goalie skirt for a cup and jumped in net. It was not as terrifying as I remember it being when I was in highschool, but I am older, and these girls are better, so I didn't have to worry about getting hit on my body as much. It was fun and on the way home, Beth and I stopped at this place near our house called The Wing Stop. We ordered up 10 boneless wings, 5 lemon pepper and 5 parmesan garlic. I'm not sure if it was because I was so hungry, or just simply because they were, but these wings were absolutely delicious. Way better than anything from BWW. We topped off our boneless wings with some fries and a drink. Great night.

On Thursday July 10th, after I got home from work I cracked my final Man-O-Awe beer from Three Floyd's and drank it down while enjoying some taco dip my mom just made. We used some chips from Whole Foods that I had received a month back from a team party I was at. What was astonishing was that this bag of tortilla chips cost over $9. Who in their right mind would pay $9 for a bag of chips? I couldn't believe it, but the chips were a bit old, so we threw them in the over to make them hot chips to have with our taco dip. Delicious.

Friday July 11th, Happy 7/11. After the day at work I headed to the bank to deposit some checks. When I got near the bank, I noticed a handful of fire engines and police cars, parts of the road blocked off, and the smell of gas in the air. To my luck, the bank was closed because of some gas leak at the lot next door. Not being able to deposit my checks, I then headed to my next stop, the dentist. Turns out I need another gold tooth, so I stopped by and set up my appointment for next week. Afterwards, I was tired of having these checks, so I drove across town to another bank and made my deposit. On the way home I stopped at Best Buy in hope of finding a new sound system or soundbar, but nobody there was of any help and all I got asked about was my cable provider and told how I can lower my payments. Thanks Best Buy... not. This is why retailers across America suck and have terrible service now. They don't pay their employees enough, and then they don't care about them, so if there are any questions or arguments about pay, they can just replace that person with some other incompetent person who knows nothing about what they are selling. I went to Best Buy a few weeks ago and asked about camera lenses. All the guy working in the area told me was, "Uh... yea a lot of people buy this one, it's pretty popular," AKA you have no idea what you are talking about. Thanks for nothing. Now I know there are some people who know the product and are specialists, but this number seems to be declining every day as companies could care less about their employees. 

Once I got home from running all my errands. I fired up the grill with my dad and he cooked some delicious ribs. I finished up with some lemon pepper chicken and a couple of brats for later. Grandpa Bob was coming over hence the fancy meal of Ribs with corn, salad, mashed potatoes, & bread. A fantastically scrumptious meal. We spent the entire evening with G Bob at the dinner table, first eating, then drinking some after dinner wine he brought from California, and then talking about anything and everything from natural disasters, global warming, that sweet lady mary jane, and hiking. With G Bob only coming out to Chicago twice a year, it was great to catch up and hear stories for the evening. The night was a bit disappointing as it was the full SUPER moon of July, the Full Buck Moon, but it was unfortunately very cloudy and stormy out, so no moon pics from this month.

Saturday July 12 started with me going to work for 5 hours, then coming home. The results were in, and since I was the only entry in the contest I won. The guy who ran it did have some nice words about me though. (LINK to article about me winning the contest). Here is what he had to say: 

"First off, last week we only had one legit entry for the Combo Contest, so I was a little disappointed, until I saw the video. Yaboysjcubed absolutely killed the combo adding his own style and a few things I’m not sure I can even do.

Well done yaboysjcubed, you made me feel like I officially have to step my game up while I am here in Denver."

After watching Brazil lose to the Netherlands aka Holland aka The Dutch (too many unique names), Beth and I packed up and headed out around 5pm. We drove over to Rachel's Uncle's place for another grad party in Burr Ridge. It was fun hanging out with Rachel's family and eating some delicious Mexican food, while watching Bo the giant Golden almost eat a young boy, who was so happy about eating fruit kabobs. It was also interesting introducing Beth to Rach's family and having her experience that. Thanks to Beth for going and Rachel for having us! At around 7 pm we decided to hop in the car and head out to Libertyville, for a sweet Hotel Extended Stay party John was having. We got there in about an hour and then saw John's diggs for the summer (he is living in a hotel for work). We just chatted for a bit, then loaded up Mario Kart 64 for some Drinking and Driving. After the game everyone was ready for bed, in preparation for the big day at Six Flags tomorrow! We packed 3 people in the Queen bed and John volunteered to sleep on the solid rock ground. 

Sunday July 13th began with a wake up and workout kinda day. John and I pumped out a quick circuit before heading out to Six Flags. On our way we stopped at Subway to get some breakfast (it was already 10:30 so it counts as lunch?). We picked up some tasty subs, thought about eating half and saving half for later, then ate the whole sub. Six Flags was just a stones throw away from John's hotel party pad, or as he would say, in his backyard, so we were there in no time. We came in the rear entrance, which ended up going under the American Eagle, the first time we have ever come in this way. We thought we would for sure get free parking since we found the secret entrance, but unfortunately it cost more, $25 for the day. We parked the car and then headed toward the park, excited to take on the new fastest, tallest wooden coaster, The Goliath.

Despite all of Rachel's talk about getting sick on coasters and what seemed like not wanting to go, it turns out she is a Six Flags expert, knowing the park forward and back. After we spoke with lame Kevin who's favorite ride is Raging Bull and works at Six Flags but has not rode Goliath, and got our season passes, which no longer require a picture ID, quite the let down, we started off our day at Six Flags. This was the first thing we decided we will write in our complaint letter to the Six Flags CEO... All employees need to have rode all the rides... mandatory.

To Rach's misfortune, we would have to do the park backwards, since we were on the side of the Viper, instead of Superman. She still knew the entire order and I even threw out a map I picked up right when she told me, "It's all up here" and pointed to her head. So in true Maluta fashion, we rode the Viper first, as we walked toward it, the line was out of the gates, we all couldn't believe the line could possibly be this long. As John, Rachel, and I stood in line, Beth walked forward about 20 feet, then waved us over. The long line was to get into the water park, and there was absolutely no line for The Viper... Ahh tricky! Quite the start, then we got up near the front of the Viper and talked to some guy who was working and told us to wait about 2 minutes, since some nerds decided to use their fast pass and we had to let them by... even though there was no line anyway, but he wasn't cool. Another thing to add to the complaint letter to the CEO.

Rachel and I rode the Viper together, our first coaster together! After challenging the viper, we headed over to Raging Bull. This wait was significantly longer than the Viper, probably a little under an hour. We asked some young lady to snap some photos of us waiting in line, of course, like she said, the shadow was pretty bad, so we have a dark person in each photo effort, turned out pretty decent anyway.

Once near the top of Raging Bull, we all decided to wait the extra 10 minutes for the front row! Despite not getting the teal car like we wanted, we all were pretty stoked to ride front row, even Rachel who initially said she was not going to go no hands, until we were at the very top of the drop and began to go down slightly, she immediately grabbed my hand in the air and yelled out! Front row on Raging Bull was amazing and awesome. Flying threw the air so gracefully.

Once off Raging Bull we continued our walk around the park and stumbled upon a mystery coaster none of us had ever seen before. It had some loops and was red, but none of us were sure what it was. We finally found the entrance to this new coaster called X-Flight. Turns out they built it in 2012. It was a pretty cool concept, a kind of mix between superman and batman, where the cars are actually to the side of the track, versus above it. Very interesting to see and ride from the side compared to the usual on top of the track. The ride was actually thrilling and quite enjoyable. Definitely the surprise gem of the trip!

From X-Flight we headed over to the All-American American Eagle. The best ride in the park in my opinion. Classic wooden coaster that I like to call "Ole Rickety" There was absolutely no wait for this ride, so we just had to take the 5 minute walk where people used to wait in line in the 1970s to get to the Red/Blue split. We first headed toward red and rode in the back seats to get more rattle, more shake, and a more of your car is flying off the track feeling. After riding red, Rachel was getting a bit of headache so she took a break while Beth, John, and I jumped a gate and headed back to ride blue. We each had our own seat for the blue, I sat in the very last seat. Blue was just as fun and shaky as red, what a fun ride. Both times we rode it, our color train won (2 trains go at the same time and go on different tracks).

After American Eagle we headed over to wait in line for the new beauty of the park, The Goliath. We waited for about 90 minutes, in which the whole regular time of the World Cup took place, and then finally got onto the new wooden coaster. Although there was plenty of steel on this wooden beast, we hopped into the coaster. The lap belt was the tightest and most secure I have ever felt, along with a shin belt. The crazy part was that there was no shoulder harness or belt, but this coaster goes upside down! Insane! The Goliath starts off with an 85 degree drop that goes straight down. Again Rachel did not have her hands up initially, but right when the drop started, snagged my mid air and began to scream out with joy! The Goliath started off with a bang and did not disappoint throughout, it was a series of twists, drops, turns, and loops that we all wished did not end. Instantly became our favorite coaster from the day, living up to the hype, unlike the Dark Knight poop ride from years prior.

After Goliath we headed back to the car to have some lunch. Brats cooked from the day before that I had brought, some water, and chips. We listened to the first overtime of the World Cup while eating lunch as well, but still no score. It was around 4:20 when we headed back into the park. We were all pretty hot so we decided to start off with some water rides. The first was Roaring Rapids, the giant raft ride that gets you wet with water hoses and sprayers, not the waterfalls that they don't let you go under. It was only about a 30 minute wait and we cooled off so it was worth it. Feeling the water fever, we decided to wait for what we thought was the log ride, the Yankee Clipper. This ever so promising great ride turned into a dreadful 45 minute wait, where we saw a guy wearing gold grills, an african american man who seemed to be homeless, and was defintiely alone, try to squeeze his way onto the ride with 2 little girls and their mom, and a very creepy "dad" who was brushing his son's long hair in a very creepy manner. Even with all of this strange stuff happneing, it would not have been so bad until....enter The Yankee Clipper From Hell.

For our seating arrangement, we decided to appoint Beth as the captain, and she sat alone in the front seat. Then in the back it was led by Rachel, with me behind her, and John bringing up the rear. Now this is canoe style seating, so we didn't really have seats, but instead were sitting in each others laps. The ride started off smooth and we took a smooth ride out in the water. Then as we approached the steep incline up, the gates in front of us closed and horn sounded. There was a boat stuck on the incline above us, and then our boat headed straight for the closed gate. As we shouted out, "Brace for impact," we did just that as we crashed into the barrier with a bang. Then we looked behind us as another boat, oh these were boats, not logs, but we saw logs passing us the other direction....was headed right for us. Again we had to brace for impact as this boat crashed into us. Then a worker came running down from the top of the incline and shouted toward us, "I cannot come any closer so listen up, there is a delay in the ride, please remain calm and do not move, we will do our best to get you all out safely and as quick as possible, Thank you." Must have been ride protocol, since we were all laughing at how terrible this ride has been so far. In the meantime the logs kept floating past us from the opposite direction and another boat crashed into us. Finally after about 15 minutes of sitting comfortably in between John's thighs, the gates opened and we headed up toward what we would hope be the rest of the great ride. Instead at the very top, we turned, then took a drop down, where Beth was hit with all of the water right in the face, and bam, the ride was over. What a waste of time. Thanks a lot Kevin of Great America. And that was The Yankee Clipper From Hell. This will be going in our complaint letter.

After that piss poor experience, we headed over to Batman to wait in only about a 45 minute line. Batman has by far the best waiting experience, with the classic cop car into the fire hydrant, little children screaming, and that dush dush noise in the tunnel and up the stairs. The ride was fast and exciting, lasting about 40 seconds, 10 seconds more than I had predicted. After Batman it was already getting pretty late, so we decided to get a funnel cake, Maluta tradition again. Originally we were going to just get the funnel cake, but then it came to my attention that I could get a funnel cake with a pound of ice cream on top of it for just 50 cents more? How could I not go that route. Unfortunately, the woman in front of me with her 4 kids felt the need to have each of them pay separately for their OWN funnel cakes and drinks, so it took 4 times the time it should have. First of all, why are each of your 10 year old kids getting their own funnel cake. Second, why do they all need to pay separately? I understand building character and teaching lessons, but at Six Flags? Come on lady. Put it in the complaint letter.

While we were waiting for the cake, John of course claimed he wasn't going to have any. Good thing we got 4 sporks because we all devoured it once we set it down on the table. Delicious!

The final ride of the day was upon us. Superman. The wait was the second longest, taking just about an hour, but it was a great ride to end the day with. We wished that it could have released us at the peak of one of the hills and just parachuted us to our car, but instead we all vowed to take the ride in silence, with praying mantis hands up. For the photo, we all had our eyes closed and despite trying to look serious and sleeping, we had cracked smiles, but maybe it was just the G's pulling our face skin back.

Finally the day was over, we walked back to the car, drove back to John's hotel, then drove back to Rachel's apartment. After spending an hour or two there, Beth and I drove back home to our house.

A great & successful Six Flags Great America trip!

On Monday July 14th, I went to get my oil changed at Meineke. I stood there for about 20 minutes, waiting for someone to come help me at the front desk. Finally when someone did, it was just to tell me that their computers were down and I should come back in about an hour.... Thanks for nothing, another day without the oil changed, and another day of bad service. This place seems to always let us down. I was a bit frustrated so I headed over to Best Buy and bought a new Vizio 5.1 Soundbar system. Since no one had helped me earlier in the week, I did some research online and decided to go with the highly rated Vizio system. I am excited to set it up and use it in the new apartment with Rach's TV. Should be a great combo and really increase the sound quality for the place! Afterwards I came home and did a bit of cleaning before heading to work. After work I watched some of the home run derby. Luckily it was delayed enough from rain so I was able to watch. But wow, what a terrible home run derby. One of the guys who made it to the finals had only hit 2 home runs in the first round and some how advanced....Luckily the Cespidas guy can hit some out of the park and put on quite the show for the second straight year. He still hasn't learned to speak english though... which isn't terrible, but for a professional player, somewhat expected?  

After the derby and an eventful weekend at Six Flags, I cashed it in and headed to bed.

YaBoy is out

Josh