On Wednesday August 24th, 2016 I worked from home and finished the Office Season 2. I know I know. I am way behind in the times of watching it all the way through, but I am doing it. That evening I walked over to Rachel's work, about 2.5 miles, and then we took an Uber of a deal, only $4.12 to anywhere in the 312 (would have been $3.12 but 2 passengers upped the price a whole dollar). We took the uber to the Shedd Aquarium, as we were going to be enjoying a night of Jazzin' at the Shedd with Rach's family. We had attended this event on my birthday a little over a year ago and even though it was like 50 degrees last year we decided it was worthwhile to do again. Rachel and I walked around and saw some pretty amazing stuff while waiting for the rest of her family to arrive. Dolphins, beluga whales, and some loud sea lions (not seals as we were told by some employee who we foolishly asked where the seals were). We enjoyed drinks and a lovely night out on the patio. This trip was less jazz and shedd, but more fantastic weather with a beautiful view. Check out some of the photos while listening to a jam by an artist I saw live the next day.
After the event ended at 10pm we hopped in another $4.12 uber, our driver this time was Alejandro and he was a super nice man who we (rach) chatted with the whole ride home. We had Alejandro drop us off at Frank's. Once inside Frank's we grabbed a couple of beverages from the bartender who was super friendly. We ended up meeting a lady who was sitting next to us and claimed she wasn't a regular (although I would see her again the next night...), Jazzelin, or at least that is how I imagine her name to be spelled. Rach got her digits, you go girl! We were there for a couple of drinks until midnight. To our dismay, we had not eaten dinner that night, and had only had drinks, so we thought stopping at Angelas burritos would be a good way to close out the night. I got a steak burrito, and Rachel got a chicken burrito. Unfortunately for Rachel when we got back in the apartment she fell asleep. I was kinda being stubborn and thought she should definitely be up to eat this burrito we just paid for. Without thinking it was possible to save the burrito for later, I ate my steak burrito, then ate Rachel's chicken burrito with rice. Two burritos woah! Dinner after midnight is never a good idea. Goodnight Chicago.
On Thursday August 25th, I worked a working man's day and then picked up Johnny from his house around 8:45pm on my way home. We hung out at my apartment with John, Melissa, Rachel, and Jmon until about 10:15pm and thought we should head to the Ryley Walker show at Empty Bottle. It was his record release show for his new album, "Golden Signs That Have Been Sung" and it started at 9pm. If you remember last time, the first band didn't come on until 10pm so I thought we were safe. Only John, Jmon, and I got in my car and headed to the show, the ladies decided to stay home. Once we found parking close to the venue and got inside, we found out we were safe. Well kind of. We grabbed a couple of Old Styles each and walked through the crowd to the front. The first band (actually second band since we missed the first) was super loud. In fact it was the loudest I had ever heard music and it hurt my ears. I have been to a good amount of shows, often times near the front, and my ears have never hurt like this. After that band finished up we noticed Ryley was setting up on stage. We had only been there about 20 minutes, perfect timing! The last time we had seen Ryley play was in April when we saw him open up for Deer Tick at The Old Town School of Folk Music. If you aren't already listening to that show, click play up above there.
Ryley Walker killed it at his record release party. He played some amazing songs, probably only 6 or 7, but he played for an hour. We initially were stage right and in the perfect spot to be right in front of Ryley, but moved over to stage left during the first band we saw because they were so loud. At first we thought this was a mistake, but then we were blessed with the keyboardist right in front of us who had some of the most unique and hilarious facial expressions the whole show. These guys just feel and live the music, you can tell by how they jam on stage. Eyes closed, nodding their heads, smiling, looking as if they are having happy dreams sleeping. John gave Ryley Walker's band a nickname, The Professors. All of these guys looked like they could be college profs, and it was true. Ryley Walker and The Professors got on right around 11pm and played until midnight. Our favorite song by him is The Roundabout, check out the 16 minute version of it farther along in the blog. After the show, I waited in line for his vinyl, but it sold out literally 2 people in front of me... damn. Great show Ryley. Chicago's son! Check out some pics from the evening.
Hey look, there I am front and center either filming a song or sipping on my beer. Cheers!
When we got home from the show, we decided to walk over to Frank's. 2nd night in a row, dang! After a few PBRs there and our Deer Tick songs finally coming on the Jukebox, I did what was thought no man could do, went to Angelas again and got ANOTHER burrito. Steak Fajita this time and boy did it taste good. After I finished my third burrito in 24 hours I thought to myself, how could I have possible eaten 2 the night before. The boys called it a night with a sleepover on a weeknight. Scandalous!
The next morning, Friday August 26th, I dropped Johnny off at home and got Jimmy John's before work. I ended up working late and slept at my parents. Pretty tired but was still up too late, past midnight again.
On Saturday August 27th, we had a tryout for the team we formed at work. After the tryout around 11:30am I headed out on a 90 min drive to Michigan City to Torie's parents lakehouse. Torie was kind enough to allow me to join on this girls weekend. Initially I was going to go up to The Trailer with Nolan, but that fell through last minute. To my luck most of the girls were not able to go on this trip, so there was room for me. I arrived to their place, which was right on the beach, we chilled on the deck enjoying a drink, and headed out to lunch pretty soon after. It was a super cool house with a literal one minute walk to the beach. We had lunch at the Tree House. A local spot with a pretty nifty sand area set up in the back for volleyball and wiffleball, it kind of looked like someones backyard with toys thrown about. We ate lunch out on the deck and while we were eating a stick bug crawled up to our table. Check him out in the pic below, friendly little guy. After I ate my "manwich" as it was labeled, I mean I had to do something to feel manly on this girls weekend, we headed back to Torie's place. Oh, this girls weekend included Rachel, Alex, Nikki, and Torie of course. Torie's sister Melissa joined later on in the day. Oh also how could I forget Torie's golden Ranger and Melissa's goldendoodle Ruxin. After a drink we headed to the beach where I swam and then skipped some stones while the girls relaxed soaking up some rays. At one point a beach cop rolled up on his ATV and asked if we had our beach passes... please man, get out of here.
Look at Ranger looking at himself up above. What a pup! I think I had a few more beers than I originally thought from lunch to the time we ended up leaving for dinner. At this point there were 6 of us and we drove about 20 minutes over to the distillery in Three Oaks Michigan. Dinner and a tour would be at Journeyman's Distillery that night at 7:15pm. The tour started without us while we were getting a drink (whiskey for me), thanks friends, but luckily we caught up only after a couple of minutes. The tour really wasn't all that great as they showed you the back room and the tour guide, Tim?, was literally whispering so it was tough to hear. After spending about 10 minutes in the back room with all the barrels and machinery, we headed to the tasting room. This is where the tour takes a turn for the better.
So now we were in the tasting room, where we were going to sample over 10 different types of liquors they make. We were in this room for about 30 or 40 minutes I would say, sampling all their whisky, rum, vodka, gin, and pretty much everything except tequila. At the moment it seemed like a good idea to try them all, well no it really never did. On top of having all of these different tastings, Nikki wasn't going to drink hers, so I thought it would be good to double up. Mistake. The tour guide was nice but we couldn't really hear him as I said before. After all of the tastings and partially hearing some interesting stories from the tour guide, we headed out to have dinner. It was around 9pm or so. I ordered a burger and maybe ate half of it since at this point all of those liquors were rumbling about in my stomach. Not to mention the 6, or 8? beers I had prior to coming here. Now granted that was over a period of like 5 hours, but it was still all in my system with only that manwich from before. I ended up having to leave the dinner a little early to catch my breathe and relieve myself outside. Oh man. Journeyman Distillery! I suggest the tour, I don't suggest getting a drink before hand, and I also suggest the burger for dinner. Check it out peeps! Also is it spelled whisky or whiskey?
Needless to say, I was asleep when we got back to Torie's that night, maybe around 10:30pm? Early night at least! The next day, Sunday August 28th, we had a tasty breakfast thanks to Torie's parents. They were very welcoming and super nice and caring. Thanks for hosting friends! I of course need to give a final shoutout to the cute pups Ranger and Ruxin. Rachel and I headed back home after breakfast around 11am, just a quick 24 hour trip for us. The rest of the day we ended up getting some things done around the apartment, relaxed, and ate a frozen pizza for dinner. Mr. Robot Episode 8 of season 2 was also watched that evening.
The next week was here, Monday August 29th, after a day of work, Rach and I cooked stir fry together and watched 8 episodes of season 3 of the office. Productivity my friends.
Tuesday the 30th of August started with me driving Rachel to work for the second straight day. I got to work around 10am and had a pretty long day getting home a little after 10pm. While at work however, Beth and I went on a little trip to find a practice field and stumbled upon the largest playground ever. I mean this thing had everything including a wheelchair accessible ramp. There were slides, swings, monkey bars, and bridges galore. This place would be paradise as a child. As we were leaving I chased down and caught a gorgeous grasshopper. Back to my bug catching days just as John and I did in childhood. That night when I was home, I ended up cooking a quick buttered noodles dinner for myself. Sleep time.
Wednesday was the last day of August and I drove Rach to work for a third straight day! What is this magic? After being at work for a half day I took off to work from home the rest of the day. I stopped at Target to get some things for our place and some goods for our upcoming trip. I watched a fair amount of YouTube videos and then Rachel and I made a delicious marinara Italian sausage, pepper, and onion pasta sauce for our pasta dinner. It was succulent and we gobbled it up while watching Mr. Robot Episode 9 of Season 2. Man this show is good. I have said it before and I'll say it again, if you aren't watching yet, be sure to do so. A small amount of packing was done this night. Progress.
Oh you didn't know? We are taking off for foreign lands in a couple of days,
Next stop, Iceland.
See ya in a couple of weeks.
Josh
PS: I still owe you blogs about the wedding and the honeymoon. I haven't forgot.
