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!

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

Retro Gaming

Tuesday October 21, I watched a South Korean filmed titled Old Boy. Pretty disturbing with the twist at the end, but a great movie that I highly suggest if you want a thrilling psychological film about a man who is kept captive for over 15 years. That night Rachel and I watched some House of Cards.

On Wednesday October 22, I learned some important life facts. Salad and Spinach only have a lifespan of 3-5 days. Salad turns brown when bad, spinach turns black and smelled like poop. Later in the day I watched Cinema Paradiso, an Italian film about a movie theater back in the day running on film. The movie ended with this solid quote, "Life isn't like the movies. Life is much harder." I like this quote because it is true. Often we see movies and get an unrealistic perception of what life is or should be. Most often than not, we have to fight through tough times and it doesn't all work out the exact way we want. However, on the flip side, life is easier than movies a lot of times as well. The movie actually ended with the greatest kissing compilation of all time, since the priest wouldn't let them be shown during the actual movies, the film guy cut the clips out and made a compilation, which was way more complicated to do back then.

Thursday October 23, Rachel and I headed to Triva in Wrigley at Vines with Brian, Adam, Becca, & Jamie. The first round of trivia was solid for us, but it went downhill after that. I got the Vines Burger for dinner with curly fries. Fried HotDog on the burger, Yum. I realized that I have difficulties talking to people and ordering food. Ahh.

Friday morning of October 24th, I watched A Nightmare Before Christmas. I think I had seen it before, but only as a child when it scared me. It was a creepy but solid claymation film. I worked out and then followed up this workout with a triple steakburger from Steak N Shake before work. That evening, John came by my work, and I drove him to Chicago. We had some drinks with Rachel once we got back and then headed out to HeadQuarters to meet up with Adam, Brian, Phil, & Ryan. A beercade that is full of arcade games for free. Difficulty is finding one that is open, but luckily a VIP party ended after about 45 minutes and we were able to jump on all their free games they weren't playing. We played some Shinobi fighting game for awhile, and then some Rampage. As I was destroying buildings, Rachel was playing Space Invaders. Her first time ever playing this game which amazed me! After a while at HQ, we headed home and got some sleep. Check out the gallery from the night of Retro Gaming!

On Saturday October 25, it was the day of Adam's bachelor party. John and I had a couple of gummies before we headed out on an adventure. We first walked 1.5 miles to Patagonia and checked out their selection, then we headed over to Whirlyball but still had to time to kill, so we stopped at Moose Jaw and played a game of pingpong in the back. They have a ping pong table set up for customers to play and I edged John out in a headed match. The butcher stayed at home for the day. Barnes and Noble was next door so we went in and browsed around. On our way out, we stopped at the new samsung tabs. I loaded up some angry birds, and John loaded up Jcubed's 1000 pushups. He put it on high volume and we walked out of their giggling like little boys. Because honestly, it was hilarious. We then thought of some young child, or old lady walking up and seeing this:

After we left Barnes and Nobles cracking up, we were feeling pretty hungry and had a taste for 20 nugs, so we searched for a McDs. I swear we walked another 1.4 miles down Clybourne until we finally found a McDonalds right before Whirlyball. We were blessed with 40 nuggets, 3 cookies, 2 apple pies, and 6 buffalo sauces for 12 bucks. What a tasty deal. We ate up, then walked the rest of the way to meet up with the bros for some Whirlyball action. Whirlyball is an awesome game that is a combination of bumper cars, lacrosse, & basketball. I am not gonna say that I dominated, because I was really bad at passing and shooting, but I dominated handling the wiffle ball, driving around like a mad man, picking up ground balls, and blindsiding my opponents with every chance I could. We had 2 hours of fun and then played a couple more games that required tokens before heading out. Shot some hoops, played some air hockey, some foozeball, some retro gaming. 

John and I were able to get a ride back to my place from Brian and then we headed over to Brian's for the evening celebrations to begin. For dinner we got some deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's. I ended up eating 6 pieces, 2 short of a large pizza and felt pretty darn full. We played some drinking games, and hung out for a long while, then headed out to some bars to close out the night. 

When we got back to my apartment around 3, Rachel had left us a little present. Two glasses of water and some ibuprofen. Seriously, what an amazing girlfriend I have! I am so lucky!

On Sunday October 26th, we had a family party at my Aunt Jan's. Before getting there I had to drop off John at the train, then picked up my grandma on the way there. We had tacos for dinner, which was a first in our family parties. They were very delicious though! After the party, Rachel and I shopped at a super inexpensive market near my grandma and got some great prices on fresh fruit and lunchmeat. That evening I began to watch American Horror Story season 1. Watched the first 2 episodes that night.

Here is a hilarious spoof of Breaking Bad I found the other day as well:

The morning of Monday October 27, I watched 2 more episodes of American Horror Story, went to work, then came home and had Jet's pizza and watched 5 more episodes of American Horror Story. I guess I am in the Halloween mood and like this spooky stuff right now?

The big 3 years coming up this next week. Woo Woo

Josh

Shut it Down, Eat Some Pizza

On Tuesday October 14th, I picked up a free Nancy's Deep Dish Sausage Pizza and ate it for dinner while watching house of cards with Rachel. Cost $1.65. Thanks Rachel and the Ditka Dash!

Wednesday October 15th. I finished Devil in the White City on tape, a great book. It was cool to read about Chicago in the past, the World's Fair, and even the serial killer HH Holmes. I plan to do a little more research on the history of Chicago, and I am starting by reading (listening) to The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. That evening I started to watch the show Dexter as well. Had some Nancy's Pizza for dinner. No surprise there.

A day later, on Thursday October 16th, I went to the dentist and had no cavities, but braces? Really Doc, come on man. You know it's quality of my current teeth that allows me to get all the ladies, and makes me known in the film industry. It's Ya Boy and he ain't ever getting braces, not even invisaline son. Went shopping for groceries and found out that there are 2 different kinds of tuna, west coast and east coast. Bumblebee is from the west coast and starkiss is form the east coast. Thanks for the knowledge kind Jewel Osco lady.

I also found out why Zebrahead sounded a bit different at the concert. Their lead singer changed in 2005 and almost all of the songs I like are from before 2005. It starts to make sense now why it sounded different and they played more of their new stuff. Check out this video from their show at House of Blues (Cali) back in 2003. I wish I was there for that. Amazing.

That day at work, I had pizza again, this time Jet's Pizza for lunch. Hit up the store for fresh food on the way home and got a good workout in. Rachel and Becca got home from their work outing and we ordered pizza, once again. Sarpino's this time. At least I am mixing up the pizza companies right? That is my last 5 meals of pizza.

On Friday October 17 I got a solid workout in the morning, then headed over to my brother's house to visit the family. The new baby boy was cute and sleepy, napping the whole time I held him. Although I did hear some grumbling down below if ya know what I mean. Sophia was crawling under couches in a diaper and running around the house. Wild child. To no one's surprise, I had left over Nancy's deep dish pizza for lunch yet again. A 6th straight pizza meal. A lax mom hooked me up with some hot chocolate again that evening. Different mom this time, but amazing. Thanks! That evening the family loaded up Jcubed videos to watch on the big tv with our latest Roku purchase. Oh so many great memories and videos. Good family time. One of my favorites and a classic from the night.

Saturday October 18th I went up to Michigan to close it up with my Aunt Ruth. We cleaned up some beds, blew water out of some pipes with an air compressor, and drank a handful of beers while grilling some chicken. The grill was pretty moldy so I also had to clean the grill off before and after the meal! We found a couple of mice living in the bonfire pit in a bag from earlier in the summer. Perhaps you can spot the mouse in the snapshot to the right. We grilled up barbecue chicken for dinner and I learned a little trip about chicken and indirect heat. Always indirect grill your chicken, it may take a little longer, but the chicken will not blacken and will be oh so juicy. Also get your chicken thighs, for they are the juiciest compared to a breast. We headed back home after dark, but I was able to snap a couple of quick photos while up there. One being of the trailer during the fall, which I am not sure I have ever seen. And the other photo was of the night sky. Quite the amount of stars! Not as many or as clear as Colorado, but a decent shot.

When I got home that night, I was pretty tired and fell asleep before midnight.

On Sunday October 19th, after a day of watching some football, editing some videos, and getting another workout in, Rachel and I made a delicious dinner. Grilled and breaded chicken covered with cooked apple slices and cooked onions. All simmered for about 15 minutes and then served over some butter noodles. Delicious. 

On Monday October 20th, I had a chest and back workout in the morning and went in to work. After work I had some hangout time with John, Squid, and Izzy. A little monday night football to end the week. Then John and I walked about the town, checking out a local graveyard, a bit spooky, but saw the graves of many forefathers in the area, including those that our elementary school was named after. When then walked across town like a couple of old people, and saw the best Halloween decorations the area has to offer, a yard full of hundreds and hundreds of fake graves, statues, ghosts, ghouls, dead people, pumpkins, and more. Awkwardly ran into a guy we went to high school with who lives in the house next door, but managed to avoid eye contact and say few words, and then quickly made our way home.

A week of parties ahead. See you then playas.

Josh.