The Streak is Over? Yes Please!

On Thursday October 13th, 2016 I finished laundry at my parents after having fallen asleep the night before. I headed to work and had lunch at this new place called Patelli's. I got the double cheeseburger. I basically equate it to a smaller Portillos, quick, simple, and pretty good food! On the drive home I held my phone and did some timelapsing, I really should invest in a phone holder. Once at home, Torie and Alex were over hanging with Rach, so I joined them in some very weird videos about pimples and stuff. I then ate a couple slices of frozen pizza for dinner and enjoyed their visit until they headed out. That night I had this crazy dream that I was hanging out with Ian from Deer Tick. He was talking to me about finger picking and then he began to play my friend Christine's (John's sister) tin whistle. Ian then had me snapchat him throwing the tin whistle into a pool. Dreams are sweet.

Song of the Week: Glycerine off of Bush's 1994 debut album Sixteen Stone.

The next day Friday October 14th, I worked from home and did a lot of work with my new editing program, FCPX. I watched an episode of AHS season 6 and then headed out to the burbs around 3pm. It took me only 90 minutes to get to North Central College where I would be filming some lacrosse for my former coach and current head coach there, Jay. After filming some campus views, a weight room session, and other random things, Jay and I walked over to the train and picked up Rachel. She had taken it from the city and was going to hang out on campus while I filmed the lax. On our walk back we got Potbelly for dinner and then headed over to the stadium to film. This campus is awesome! Super close to downtown Naperville, tons of places to eat, beautiful buildings and scenery, and that small D3 feel. I would totally would go here if they had a team back when I was looking at colleges to play for. And maybe if it wasn't in the town I grew up in, but you know what I mean. It's hard to believe after living in Naperville over 20 years, I have never been on campus, besides in the stadium to play Chicago Select back in the day.

The scrimmage went from 7-9ish and I captured all of it on video, excited to get through the footage and put together a little edit. The team looked real solid for a first year program, hoping to catch a few games of theirs this year. After the scrimmage, Rachel and I headed to Sean and Ashely's to have a few drinks and check out their new house. Great location in downtown napes with a corner lot (I think it was dark!) They had this super cool vintage basement with a shuffle board table. After some drinks and chatting, we eventually we ordered some delicious pizza. Rachel and I headed out after a few hours and got back to my parents around 1:30a. Fun night.

The next morning, October 15th Saturday, I coached my team and picked Rachel up on our way down to visit her Granpda in Kankakee. We had a very nice lunch visit and then headed back toward the city. On our way we stopped at my grandmas. Our cousin Rita was in from Germany, so we spent some time there with her, grandma, auntie wanda, my parents, Aunt Ruth and my bro and his family. We had a little bit of dinner, and also spent some time playing with my little niece and nephews. They are just too adorable (check the vlog). I also one hand held my new baby nephew Leo. I think that means I am ready for parenting. Pure strength. Rachel and I stopped at Jewel on our way back to the city to do some grocery shopping and we stocked up on meats, thanks to those sales. Once back at our place in Chicago, Rachel cooked us up a pretty darn good Blue Apron spicy chicken meal. After dinner we threw on SNL, laughed at some political jokes, and I fell asleep by midnight once again. Just can't hang anymore.

On Sunday October 16th I woke up and did absolutely nothing for a few hours. Then after only 4 weeks of going cold turkey, my McDonald-less streak was over. We picked up a McChicken and McDouble for lunch with a few fries for lunch and man do I love McDonalds. I missed you! Rachel was at Yoga a little bit later and I was feeling like I needed to work off my McD's so I downloaded some running app called MapMyRun and took out on a little jog. I ended up running 5 miles in 36 minutes at a 7:13 pace, which honestly is pretty decent for not having run in months. Also I am not a person who ever times my runs, but I think this may help me stay more on target and do it consistently if I am tracking it. Follow me on the App or whatever you do if you use it! I watched some football that afternoon and Rachel made another Blue Apron meal for us for dinner. This time some pork sandwiches with cucumber. 

Also I think it is official, I fixed (my new) editing program and found out how to make it operate without taking up all the hard drive space. Final Cut Pro ya'll. That night Rachel and I watched the movie Spotlight. Man was that a heavy film. Highly suggest watching the movie that won picture of the year at the Academy Awards this past year. A movie about a controversial topic involving the sex scandal within the Catholic Church primarily based in Boston.

The start of a new work week, Monday October 17th involved me going to work, then doing more work from home since I had a lot going on and figured out this editing program. I made Rachel and I a frozen pizza and salad for dinner as I watched Monday Night Football while working some more. Work Work Work. Oh, also Bush's album Sixteen Stone from 1994 is absolute fire. I suggest this work of art with songs like Machinehead and Glycerine. This was also their debut album. Yes!

The next day Tuesday October 18th involved me getting back on my video game, not like playing video games, but editing and making videos, game, and I started my vlog game.  I officially finished and published my first vlog, check it out here. I did another little timelapse while driving on my way home from work that night and literally ate 1/4 of a pie for dinner. Adulting.

Wednesday October 19th saw me finish Amy Poehler's Yes Please book on tape. Solid read, although I highly suggest you get the audio tape of it since Amy reads the book herself adding to the humor. After work I headed over to Gio's to hang out and watch the debate. Farrell was there and we drank some brews, ate some Chinese food, and watched what was the final debate (and actually seemed the most normal). Afterwards I headed home to my parents around 10:30p and fell asleep doing laundry again, man this is becoming a common theme of my Wednesday nights. I woke up at 3:30a with all the lights on and decided to finish my laundry, but couldn't fall back asleep until 5:30a. Weird sleeping patterns these days.

Thursday October 20th was a long day since my sleep was all messed up from the night before, and I worked 11 hours which didn't help. I had Patelli's for lunch again, this time a chicken sandwich which was mediocre. This chicken was super thin, but their fries were nice and crispy this time. Yum. Once I got home at 10p that night, I enjoyed a Blue Apron Salmon dinner that Rachel had made. It was delicious as always. I was super tired so called it an early night, if 11pm is early?

Video of the Week: Hey a second vlog! All about this week? Check it out! Many more timelapses. Woo!

Movie of the Week: Spotlight. There is a reason this won best picture for the 2016 Oscars. Watch it.

Book of the Week: Yes Please by Amy Poehler. A fantastic read, a better listen, as Amy tells her story of life.

I am trying to figure out what days to start and end my vlog/blog. Hopefully I will figure it out in the coming week or so! Maybe Tuesdays? Maybe Fridays? Who knows! Lots of videos in the queue as well. I am excited to start tackling this all.

Peace out!

Josh

Loyal Ladies

On Thursday October 6th of 2016 I finished Stranger Things by powering through the last 4 episodes before work. Phenomenal show, highly suggested you watch! It is on Netflix, about childhood, aliens, the 1980s, and only 8 episodes, so go watch now! I can't wait for season 2. That night for dinner we had leftovers and I worked on re-editing the lax highlight I made for a kid. Still trying to figure the ins and outs of this new program, FCPX.

Update as of 10/18 - Holy cow I am back! It feels so good to be editing videos again and I have definitley found my editing program. There will be a new piece to the blogs, and it is called a vlog. Videos of my life and events from the past week. I am not trying to make this a vlog where I just talk to the camera the entire time, in fact I don't really do that at all in this first one, but instead me telling a story of how my days are spent. This first week isn't great, but I will be working on my editing skills with each edit and hopefully it will get me to doing more videos (there is quite the stack of videos from the past 6 months to get through). Enjoy

Friday October 7th was a work from home. Some serious activity was going on outside of our apartment. Obama in the building? Or should I say alley? There were a plentiful amount of police in our alley, blocking off the streets, and eventually a long parade of police vehicles followed by 10 black SUVs with American flags on the front made its way down our back alley between the buildings. Police were monitoring the alley, turning people back and sending them from the direction the parade would be coming. They also took out all of our trash bins, I guess in case of any hidden explosives? With all of this and the helicopters overhead, I think it's safe to say that someone important, probably the president may be in town? Later in the day I found out he came back to do early voting. Thanks Obama!

Later that evening Beth and Grace made their way over. I met them halfway from the L, oh Beth has been blogging it up. Read here! After chatting for a bit, I picked us up some Wing Stop to enjoy with Rach before heading out for the evening. Gotta love Wing Stop wings, they had some new korean spice flavor, solid. After we ate, we headed out to DOC wine bar. Our first time here despite being within 100 feet of the place on Clark. It was pretty chill. The song above (Loyal) played when we were there, and immediately became the theme to the night. After sampling the wine flights named Ferris Bueller (reds) and Risky Business (whites), we walked over to Headquarters, the beercade. In the meantime, the Cubs won game 1 of the first round of the playoffs. Once we got to HQ we were super satisfied as there were not that many people there. We immediately made our way to Q*Bert to shatter the record board, then played a ton of other games including but not limited to: Pacman, Ninja Turtles, Pinball, & Skiball. After a drink or two we headed out and started walking back home. Before getting home, we made a pit stop at AliveOne bar on Halsted. A fun little bar with a small dance room in the back with a live DJ. Yo DJ, spin that track. Grace dominated the dance floor and then we walked back home to call it a night.

Rise and shine. I woke up early the next morning on Saturday October 8th at 7:15am and drove back to Napes to coach the squad. After a 2 hour practice I made it back to the city around noon. I jogged a quick mile over to the farmer's market to meet up with Rach, Beth, and Grace. We walked about the zoo, saw some animals, including a crazy tongue flicking cow, ate a large popcorn, I jumped over a table, and we enjoyed a lovely sunny fall day. I know I say it every time I go to a zoo now that I am an adult, but some of these animals look so darn sad. Especially the large Lions and Jaguars that just pace back and forth looking out at the humans. Poor guys.

After a beautiful walk back, we were at our apartment where I took a quick power nap then woke up and made some delicious burgers for dinner. Sure I cut the onion entirely too large, but it was still delicious. Rachel made this amazing Apple strudel pie thing in the crockpot for dessert. It was honestly so tasty served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, I had like 3 bowls of it before we headed out. We surely need to make it for the next party we attend. Yum. Beth and Grace are still here despite saying they may leave. Around 8 we Ubered it over to Brian's new place. My second Uber (from my phone) ever. His place was pretty dope! The ceilings were like 10 feet high and his kitchen sink was huge. Megan was out of town, so it was just Brian and their dog Crede. The gummy I had earlier was starting to kick in as SNL came on. It was a pretty funny episode providing laughs for us all as we indulged in a few select brews. I guess it wasn't funny enough though since Rach, Grace, Beth, and I were all asleep on the couch by the end of the show. Thanks to Brian for the lovely photo. We cabbed it home and went to bed. Fun night.

The morning of Sunday October 9th started with some Marathon watching. It was the 2016 Chicago Marathon, and our friends Aly and Torie were running this year. I went out early and saw the leaders of the marathon pacing at that 5 minute mile. Crazy fast. Rach and Beth joined me to cheer on Aly and Torie. Both were doing amazing and kicked butt that day. Torie's 7th marathon, finishing in 4:54:01 and Aly's 2nd, finishing in 4:17:52. Awesome work ladies. Maybe I'll try to enter the lottery and run next year? Always gets me in the mood after watching friends and strangers putting in work. Props to Beth for getting this great shot of Torie seeing Rachel.

I headed out to Concordia Chicago around 11 to watch my Cats go 3-0 in a fallball tournament. The boys looked good, almost mid season form. Excited to see what the spring holds. I drove back to the city and hung out with Rachel at home. Beth and Grace had headed back to the burbs via train at this point. Rachel made us a salad for lunch and then a bit later made us a super tasty apple and chicken pasta dish for dinner. We put up our two couches on the list of craigs. Kinda tired of leather, if anyone is interested holla at yaboy before they're gone! That night we watched the second presidential debate which in my opinion was extremely boring. I am tired of watching the two argue and Trump never answering any questions. Like the entire internet says though, Ken Bone, the man in the red sweater who asked one of the final audience questions, won the debate.

Monday October 10th was a rough one. I kept waking up in the middle of the night, having to use the bathroom. I didn't feel well at all so I took a sick day and watched a few episodes of the show The Sixties on netflix. Highly recommend for anyone interested in the history of big events in the 1960s. Tom Hanks is a director or producer or whatever as well, well produced sir! This made me think that I want to start learning more about our Nation's recent history. I feel like they don't teach it at all in high school and I really have no idea. Who's with me!?

The next day on October 11th, Tuesday I drove to the burbs after dropping Rachel off at work and did laundry at my parents. Later I had 18 kids at cats fall ball (the most yet), a kid hurdled a box net, and I worked late. I got home around 10 and had fish and rice for dinner made by Rachel. She really is the best always making nice meals for us. Love you Rachie! The Cubs also pulled off a miraculous 6-5 win that night to advance to the national league finals. Chicago! Our neighbors put up a great little sign.

Wednesday October 12th was a simple day that involved me finishing the book 11.22.63 by Stephen King. I had finally gotten through all 30 discs of this book on tape and really enjoyed it. I am going to go ahead and say this is the longest book I have listened to. It is about the assassination of JFK, time travel, and what would have happened if it didn't happen. Exciting story that I would recommend you all to read (or listen like I do). After I finished work I had a Cats meeting and then slept at my parents. I fell asleep in my childhood bedroom with the lights on while doing laundry. Must have been tired.

So If you didn't notice, I am trying out this whole Vlog thing. I am still doing my blog in entirety at this point, but maybe will make the transition. Anyone like a video aspect instead of all the text and photos? I am not comfortable at all talking to the camera yet, so maybe I will make it a double duty type of thing for now.

Video of the Week: Awesome timelapse all about Chicago. I hope to make something similar some day. Would be neat.

TV Show of the Week: Stranger Things - Like I said up above, if you haven't watched this new series yet. Catch the first season on Netflix right now. Aliens.

Book of the Week: 11.22.63 by Stephen King. The final day for JFK. Plus you can't go wrong with Stephen King. Read it!

See ya next week.

Josh

Happily Etter After

On Thursday September 29th, 2016 I took a half day, then got ready for Mary and Jeff's wedding rehearsal dinner. They would be getting married the next day and Rachel is standing up in their wedding. For once working in the burbs was a good thing as I was the only significant other to actually make it to the rehearsal dinner.  I headed to the Tap House in Oswego around 5pm. Right as I pulled up, Rachel and Sarah were walking from their car so I headed in with them.  The dinner was served buffet style and was delicious. I paired my food with a few craft brews and was glad to be there to celebrate Mary and Jeff, even though they weren't able to sit next to each other at dinner. Ha! Check out some of the pics from the evening below.

The next morning was Wedding Day for the kids, Friday September 30th. I woke up at Rachel's parents and worked for a little bit on my laptop. At 11am I ran some errands in the area and grabbed some potbelly for lunch. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the bride and her bridesmaids as I was designated bag man for the day. After successfully picking up the bags, I got ready at Rach's parents and looked out the bathroom window and couldn't believe my eyes. The swimming pool was gone! I was glad to be apart of the last official swim earlier in the summer. Despite only swimming in the pool 3 times a year, it will be missed.

Once ready, I headed out to the last known Kmart known to man. Just kidding I am sure there are others out there, but this one is still around, for now. They are having their final closing sale, everything must go. Still crazy that the BigK was still operating in New Lenox. After a little shopping, I headed to Oswego and checked in to the hotel around 2:30pm. Once the bags were delivered, I met up with Torie, Alex, and Tim and did some wedding pregaming. We headed downstairs and met up with more people in the lobby and waited for the shuttle, it came late. This was no ordinary shuttle though, this was a classic yellow school bus. Awesome. I road in the solo seat in the back left of the bus, just like the good ole days. Oh wait, even though I rode the bus all 4 years of high school (that's right people you heard me, ALL 4 years) I always sat near the front. What a nerd I was. The ride was a bit bumpy, especially when we hit the dirt road, which allowed us to get super high bounce in the back of the bus. Eventually, we made it to the barn wedding at Emerson Creek Pottery and Tearoom.

That first look, shocking.

I was the unofficial videographer for this event, so I have zero photos from the ceremony, but I do have a plentiful amount of videos! The ceremony was beautiful as the background was amazing, two people in love got married, and the rain held off.

When the ceremony ended, we walked over to the barn where the reception would be held. Old Fashion's were the drink of choice for the evening. Very classy. I loved the location of the wedding with an indoor and outdoor feel due to the barn. The speeches were good and funny, the food was delicious, and the first dance was incredible as Mary's sister sang I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons. The drinks were flowing and so were the bodies on the dance floor. During the dancing I frequented the candy bar, huge Ups to Mary and Jeff for including that. Mini stan's donuts as a cake hit the spot as the night wound down, and then we headed back to the hotel, where I immediately went to bed. A top notch wedding and perfect day for Mary and Jeff. Congratulations and Happy Etter After!

And then it was October. Wow October is here. I woke up in the hotel bed with a bit of a headache and got ready to head out with Rachel as we had a busy day ahead. After saying our goodbyes to the now husband and wife, we headed to my parents house for a hot second, ended up taking a 2 hour nap, then drove over to my bro and sister in laws for Nikolas's Wild Things 2nd Birthday. Hard to believe this little buddy is already 2. We met new baby Leo, who was born on September 12th and is the third human that gets to call me Uncle. During the party, the birthday boy was super funny and cute pushing his new lawnmower around, and Sophia put me to sleep with a song after playing "keep the balloon up." After the party, we picked up some Potbelly for dinner then headed to Bottom's Up for a Surprise 50th Bday party for Rach's Uncle. Fun times seeing family, and who knew this hopping bar was so close to my parent's place. After further investigation, I guess they took over the old Gino's East, which was my favorite pizza place. RIP tasty pizza.

The next day, Sunday October 2nd, Rachel and I helped Aunt Ruth move in to her new place in Lombard, goodbye Darien! The new place is dope! We had sandwiches for lunch thanks to Grandma and Auntie Wanda. While doing the heavy lifting from the garage to the house, I learned from Uncle Gary that it is very easy to take a door off. Rachel and I headed out a little after 2 to beat the Bears traffic. When we got back to our place in the city, Rach made us a delicious batch of Chili which would end up lasting me the whole week! Like I literally ate it for lunch 4 days straight. After dinner we watched Stranger Things Episode 3 and 4. Show is getting sooo good!

Monday October 3rd was a night of Portillo's chopped salads for dinner, and I put in some mad hours on final cut pro editing a players highlight video. Starting to get the hang of it, and I like it. I am 99% sure this will be my next editing program after all those editing issues for the past 6 months.

On Tuesday October 4th I worked and then got home around 9:30p. Rach made us some warm tasty panini's for dinner. I started getting an idea in my head that maybe I want to start vlogging, blogging with a video instead of text. I won't mention the soup overflow issue we had that evening ;)

The next day Wednesday October 5th, I stopped at the library after work and had a great DVD pickup including some top movies including Max Keeble's Big Move and The Revanant. For dinner Rachie made us fajitas and we talked some big plans for this website. Could be some big changes come all y'alls way! Also if you didn't catch it earlier, this blog may become a vlog... Be on the lookout for changes. Get pumped!

Josh out.