Go Cats

On Tuesday December 9th I did a bunch of car stuff, like get the wrong headlights for my car because I thought it was older than it was, and got my tires rotated. I also finished the book I have been reading, Tell No One, by Harlan Coben. A really good mystery thriller that kept me wanting to read more, highly suggested to mystery fans.

In the morning of Wednesday December 10th I hung up the mirror we got on black friday finally and spent over 90 minutes trying to make it straight without drilling a new hole, I think the floor/wall is crooked, I gave up. But it's not too bad, Rachel didn't notice, or was just being nice, so yay! That evening I hit up Tommy Nevins with Beth for some dinner, I got a tasty burger and she got some Spinach Artichoke Dip. Luckily we got in at around 9:50 and the kitchen was closing at 10. They were also out of all the beers I wanted, but besides that the burger was delicious. I watched some more of American Horror Story Season 3 that night in bed.

On Thursday December 11th I finally got around to changing my headlight bulb and did so with a slight struggle. I was doing really well, I just couldn't get the headlight to go back in, but with the help of my dad and a little bit of a push, I got it popped back in and successfully did something on my car, call me a mechanic. That night Rachel and I watched Mad Men while eating a scrumptious tort and nachos from Angela's Burrito just down the street. After a filling meal we watched even more Mad Men!

Friday December 12th was a standard day with more Mad Men and American Horror Story season 4 in the morning, and then a slumber party for Aly's birthday in the evening. Rachel and I wore our matching Deer Tick sweaters and I wore some Mario pajama pants as we hung out with friends and played some drinking card games. Here is what the night looked like: Pinky's Out

On Saturday December 13th I hung up 4 new photos I printed from our trip to Colorado. Here is my favorite from the set I printed. I hit up the local Best Buy and ran into an old friend/neighbor, Jordan, from the high school lax scene and we chatted for about 10 minutes. After an hour of browsing around Best Buy's non-organized DVD section, I departed with Alfred Hitchcock's essentials which includes 5 of his best films. I highly suggest coming over and watching these classic 1960s films with me. Ladies, Gents.

I did some more things around the apartment, had 3 hot dogs for dinner, and then John and Johnny came over around 8pm. Of course, with our great location, they couldn't find parking, so Rachel and I had to come out and help them try to find a spot, which we luckily did right after we got in the car. Parking in the city is so lucky in most places, just depends if someone is leaving as you are pulling up. It can take less than a minute to find parking, or over 30 minutes.

Once in our apartment, Jmon's first time, welcome Jmon, we started to play some 3 Man. Then the most incredible round of 3 man occurred. It started off with some doubles from Josh, then John and Rachel rolled doubles together, then doubles again, then again, and again. Each time doubles were rolled we cheered louder and louder with more excitement. Finally, after 7 doubles had been rolled in a row, doubles were failed to be rolled by John and Rachel. What an incredible round! We listened to some Deer Tick and The Doors on vinyl as we continued our game full of 3 man the hard way's and a plentiful amount of sloppy jaloppies.

After about an hour or so, we visited around the world with a variety of shot glasses from each person's homeland and headed over to Becca's for a party. We thought we would only be there a short time, so didn't come properly equipped. Brian was also going to meet us there as he was coming from a different party.

Once inside, it came apparent that at least half of the party not only went to our highschool, but who's older brothers were good friends with my brother back in the day. This was a fantastic thing for one reason and one reason only, Go Cats. After commandeering some brews, basically every 5 minutes or so, maybe 2 minutes, I would yell "Go Cats" and the crowd would respond with "Go Cats" or "Rawr" and we would then follow with a drink. We were chatting it up, going down the ice luge, playing some BP, and other games throughout the night. After raiding some chips and dip and being at this party for a few hours, great party Becca!, we headed out to a local bar.

Once at this cash only bar, I heard from others the next day that Rachel ordered us some drinks, but didn't have any cash so had to head to an ATM, after awhile we eventually walked home. The walk home was a dark dark blur to me, but luckily, Brian saved the day by snapping out our entire walk home, which was a pleasant and hilarious scene as I filled the streets with "OBAMA!" and "GO CATS!" and other simple phrases like that. Brian, John, & Rachel got some Wiener Circle and Jmon and I headed back to the apartment. Night Over! Check the pics.

 

Sunday December 14th was a rough day for me, but I survived it, as I am writing this blog. Rachel drove us out to Naperville to see Meson Sabika for a wedding venue. After seeing the venue and approving, I slept in the car while lunch was had and then we headed home. Oh we put a down payment on the place as well, so we will see you all at Meson Sabika in June of 2016! Once we were home from our trip out that day we watched some Mad Men and finished season 2. I keep thinking the show is going to break out into some incredible action, but never does, which is fine, just kind of disappointing.

That night for dinner Rachel made a succulent crockpot dinner with chicken and cream of mushroom stew.

I was awaken at 6:30AM on Monday December 15th to the alarmingly loud chants of "NO THIS, NO THAT, MIKE BROWN." The protesters had finally reached our parts of town and the sound was actually super loud they must have been right in the alleyway or in our hallway even!? Not really our hallway, but you get the point. After this event I had some crazy dreams about the world ending and being trapped in my apartment, pretty cool.

That night we set up our Christmas Tree at my parents house and then I spent the evening stringing 2 lax sticks while watching the Bears suck at John's house.

Also watched some more American Horror Story season 3.

 

Thanks to everyone for the wild weekend and I will see you all next week, G Bob is coming to town and we are looking to have another great week!


Josh

Give Thanks

Tuesday November 25th, I finished my latest audio book, Catch 22. A classic novel that invented the phrase That's a Catch 22. The book was pretty good, about airplane pilots and their struggle to complete all the necessary missions without being crazy, taking place during World War II. When I got home from work I realized I forgot my parking pass, had to end up writing a note in my window and praying my car would still be there in the morning.

Wednesday November 26th, short lived anticipation, my car was there. After a free lax day at work, I picked up some Beck's Black Sapphire Beers and celebrated Black Wednesday with my friends in Brian's basement. The idea was proposed that we go to DT napes like we did the year prior, but I vetoed the idea and explained how after 5 minutes of being out amongst the crowds we left for a friends basement, so why not just cut out that middle step? We played some ping pong & cards against humanity. Brian's dad was kind enough to bring us down chips and dip, popcorn, and other treats. Thank you Keith, but no thanks to you Brian, JK thanks for having us over. Check out the funniest card of the night in my opinion.

Thursday November 27th was here. Thanksgiving. Rachel and I spent our first Thanksgiving together, and ended up doing the double Thanksgiving which I was not disappointed in since I got double meals. It was wonderful spending time with both sides of our family, although it felt a little strange having to either leave early or arrive late, but was a pleasant day overall. I guess I can say what I am thankful for as well. I am thankful for the most wonderful woman in the world, my fiance Rachel, my family, friends, and enjoying every minute of this wonderful life that I have been blessed with. After the meals, we went out and got some black friday shopping deals. Most of the crowds were gone by 9 pm and all them dvds we wanted were still around, so it was a success hitting up Walmart, Target, & Meijer. Also we picked up a sweet mirror, some tupperware, and a whole bunch of frames. Wow am I becoming more and more adult every day or what?

On Friday November 28th, I went to work and then hit up some Black Friday Shopping Deals again, stopping at Disc Replay and Target. Picked up 9 movies for $19 bucks so that was solid, even though the more and more I buy, I think how my collection will soon be obsolete with all these streaming options and digital movies. But I guess some people did the same with VHS and still watch those so... long live the DVD! Everyone at my parents house seemed a bit under the weather, so I cooked up some soup for dinner and then Beth and I watched Despicable Me 2. I ended up falling asleep on the couch around 8 and eventually made my way to my own bed and slept many hours.

Saturday November 29th was a big day for Rachel and I as we checked out our first wedding venues with my mom and both her parents. We then had lunch at the Morton Arboretum, I picked up that Caribbean Jerk Chicken Sandwich. The cafeteria style restaurant reminded me of good old Richie Marketplace and even came equipped with lunch trays. Lovely.  Rachel and I did some more wedding planning once back at the rents house and then realized I couldn't go get the pizza we had ordered since I had one too many wines, so my dad drove. Rosati's pizza for dinner. Around 8 pm I headed over to Phil's for some Halo action. After a couple of games, and a couple of drinks, Rachel finally agreed to play and we had fun playing halo until about 1:30am. Rachel and I had some pretty awesome names, guess which ones they were below! We then played some fusion frenzy and ended with drinking games and got back to my place around 3:30a.

On the last day of November Rachel and I celebrated the end of the month with a trip to McDonalds, 2 mcchickens and a mcdouble for yaboy. We took care of some things around our place and then had a tasty chili chicken dinner over rice. We then entertained ourselves with 4 episodes of Mad Men. Nearing the end of season 1.

On the first day of December, I added to my photo collection with some new frames I got on black friday.

I ended the first day of December decorating my sister's room with a plethora of Christmas lights. Photos here!


A semi-relaxing week ahead!? Snow Mounds nearing completion!

Josh

The Proposal

On Tuesday October 28th, Rachel and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary.  I got off work a little early and headed home to make a tasty dinner of shredded chicken lettuce wraps with Rach. How lucky a guy I am to have met such a wonderful woman and have been able to share the last three years with her. Here's to many more!

That night I finished American Horror Story season 1. Spooky show!

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Wednesday October 29th, I started American Horror Story season 2: Asylum which seems to be a bit more creepy since it takes place in a psych ward. That evening the boss brought me a Portillo's Big Beef, saucy and scrumptious. I also finished the book The Jungle. It took a socialist turn in the last chapter, but the whole book really built up for it, so it makes sense. A sad, but inspirational story, and a good book. I suggest if you are into the history of the meat packing industry in Chicago and want to learn a bit about being over worked and underpaid.

Thursday October 30th, I left work a bit early and picked up something special. For the rest of the afternoon I walked around some shops, picked up 2 McChickens and 1 McDouble and ate them walking around. I felt somewhat bad eating them in front of a handful of homeless people that I walked by, but also noticed that everyone was staring at me as I ate my McDonalds and strolled about the streets. I picked up a pair of aviators for my Halloween costume and decided not to buy a long hair wig from the Halloween Store because who pays $25 for fake hair?

Rachel got home right around when I did at 7pm and she graced me with 5 Deer Tick Vinyls for our 3 year anniversary. Amazing! Can't wait to play them, too bad we don't have a record player here... yet!

Rachel was having some friends over for a girls wine night, so I headed over to Wrigley to hang out with Adam. He picked me up and we went over to his (Brian's) place and watched some TNF, which is one of the dumbest things I have heard of in awhile. For some reason the NFL feels the need to try and have a game every day of the week and then call it MNF, SNF, or now TNF. Lame. I said peace to Adam after he fell asleep on the couch, little did I know, for the last time in awhile, and ran my way home.

Friday October 31st, Halloween is here. Got out of work a bit early since all the kids are trick-or-treating and got ready for the night of costumes and parties. Rachel dressed up as Deer Tick and I dressed up as John McCauley aka The Bump. I had a cookie and a few beers and we headed out on the town. Ended up enjoying two parties that evening, unfortunately not making it the third I was planning on going to. But we ended the night by heading the Burwood Tap and enjoying free popcorn. Wow was that tasty.

The Big Day was finally here. Saturday November 1st, 2014. The best day of my life that I will forever remember. Myself and a few others have been waiting just under two weeks for this day, and it is finally here. Rachel and I planned to have a day date to celebrate our 3 year anniversary, and decided to go out to eat at MityNice in WaterTower Place.

I'll write the full story once we have told it to family and friends in person, but to make a long story short, Rachel and I decided to go up into the John Hancock when we were at lunch since neither of us had been up there. We took the elevator up, and it was on the 94th floor, after walking around and snapping some photos, we found the most perfect spot amongst the fresh air and sounds of the city below, that I asked the love of my life, Rachel to marry me. She said yes! and we are now engaged to be married. Exciting times in our lives! We didn't have to go take photos around Grant Park in the 30 degree weather as I had originally planned, which we were both thankful for! There have also been a few parts of my life left out of the blog the past two weeks for obvious reasons! Like visits to Rachel's Dad, best friend Sarah, picking out a ring, picking up a ring, and other minute details that Rachel couldn't know about. But, since I left these things out, Rachel was super surprised and shocked when I proposed. Lovely! I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with this amazing, inspiring, beautiful woman.

Check out a few pics from the day:

We walked home, probably 3 miles or so, calling family and friends and telling them the great news! That night I made cupcakes to celebrate our engagement along with some champagne. We watched a couple episodes of House of Cards as we informed many family members about the proposal.

On Sunday November 2nd, Rachel and I watched some House of Cards, she did a bit of wedding planning while I watched some Football, and we made a delicious pasta with sausage for lunch. That evening we went to Frontier Bar with Rob, Phil, & some of their friends to hangout and have some drinks. The bar had quite the menu which included full animals, and fresh alligator. Rachel and I split some wings. Yum.

Monday November 3rd, the record player that I had ordered over the weekend arrived and it is AMAZING. It came in a box inside of a box inside of a box to ensure its fine quality and protection. The first album I played on it was Black Dirt Sessions by Deer Tick and jammed out to Mange. Sounded so good and awesome. Check it out in the images below. Vintage, also has a axillary port for them ipods and a cd player for them cds. Oh and also a radio, solid pickup. Next week will be another busy week for us engaged folks! Stay tuned! I love you Rachel, my fiance!

Josh