Graduating Squid

My sister, the little squid is a college graduate. But first... let's breeze through the boring stuff.

Tuesday May 13th I finished another lax highlight video. I also finished one on Monday May 19th. Both are posted below. The second involved the best lacrosse I've seen all year. Enjoy

On Wednesday the 14th of May I threw on my old pads and practiced with my 8th grade lax team, showing them a thing or two. Felt good to be back out there. This was also the date of the flower moon, the 5th full moon of the year... unfortunately it was too cloudy and rainy to see when I was still awake, so I missed it. I'll get the next one! First moon miss of the year, disappointing to all my moon gazers, I know.

On Thursday, my parents and I headed out on our 6 hour drive to Mizzou for the last time to see Beth graduate. I packed my trusty game boy color and collective games including SuperMarioLand, NinjaTurtles, Donkey Kong, BrickBlast, & Pokemon Red to provide me some entertainment for the trip. Also started to read The Shining and am about 50 pages in, quality read so far!

Once we arrived, we were ready to get the party started. As we headed out, Paige needed to pop her tiger cherry, Squid & I did some time ago, so we headed over to the tiger and took a ride. Around 9:30p my parents dropped Beth, Paige, & I off at some club named Roxy's for a night of $5 bottomless double well drinks. I went with the whisky coke, Beth and Paige went with some type of lemonade or sprite and vodka. The night was full of dancing and drinking on the dance floor. As I looked at the clock and saw it was 11:55pm and the free drinks were ending at mindnight, I headed over to the bar one last time. I aquired 2 whisky cokes, 2 vodka lemonades and headed bakc through a mass of people to find Squid and Paige and some other of their friends. As I was walking, drinkings filled to the brim, held above peoples heads, I surely spilled on quite a few people, apologizing throughout. The best was when I was right where Beth and Paige were and someone back into me, and I spilt a helping of drink on this girl behind us who then said, "Oh no you didn't, you spilt on my weave!" I apologized kinldy and gave her one of my whisky cokes, which she took a couple of sips out of and threw out promptly. We finsihed what we could of our drinks and then headed over to hotbox cookies to get some tasty cookies before taking some magical bus home. 

On the bus, I chatted with the some others who were going to graduate and found out Jen and Kim? were also headed to a similar area on the bus, striking. Beth wanted me to sit down for a majority of the ride, but I insisted on standing. Finally we arrived at our stop and I tipped that friendly bus driver man $2. He tried to refuse, but I didn't let him. 

Once in Beth's apartment we found her other roommate Allison sleeping, but not for long. She had to write some paper, so we woke her up and got her to work, or something like that. Around 3am the night came to end, with me snoring on the couch, and Beth getting ready for her final at 10AM.

On Friday, after our night out, Beth took her final and got a 157/160 or something crazy like that. It pays to study hard kids! Most of Friday was spent preparing for graduation that evening and going around and taking pictures. Here are a bunch of pictures of Beth / Paige / families from Friday afternoon around Mizzou's beautiful campus.

For dinner, we met up with the rest of the fam: Grandma, Aunt Ruth, Jan, & Lillian at AppleBee's, One of Beth's favorite places to eat. After dinner, we headed over to Mizzou basketball arena, for the Journalism school graduation! 

We made it about an hour early, but got some prime parking and prime seats, thanks dad. Here are a bunch of pics from the graduation. So happy and proud of Beth for graduating! What a squid! The ceremony ended with the most pathetic cap toss I have ever seen. You may or may not be able to tell, but there is a picture of it.

Friday night we had a little celebration at Beth's apartment with our family and Paige's. Here is a lovely snapchat beth sent out of me after we had already celebrated with the champagne and were onto those ever so tasty Summer Shandies. Can this photo be true if I was the only one drinking? I finished off the 12 pack of shandies as the night faded away and we were again, up until about 3am. College.

Saturday the 17th of May called for an early rise, around 7am because Beth and Paige had to go and be smart during college, so they were graduating with honors and headed to the honors graduation ceremony. My extended family, grandma and aunts, were just going to stay until Beth's name was called and then head out since they had places to go. With this in mind, Beth and Paige arrived late to the ceremony and were given the honor of last row for the ceremony. We only had to wait about 1000 names before theirs were called. You can tell in the pics how happy the fans were, and how awake Beth and Paige were. The nice thing was they were right next to each other and got to enjoy the 2 hour ceremony. Here are some shots from that day. Squid standing up to receive honors for being a nerd. Then she grabs her medal.

After the graduation ceremony number 2, we went out to eat at Glenn's Cafe in downtown Columbia. I had a tasty burger, and also went to a candy store before hand and picked up some delicious candy legos, fruity sticks, & my favorite, fruit slices. After lunch we headed back to Beth's apartment to quickly pack up the cars (I'll be driving baby blue home) and then drive 6 hours back... not. Beth had not packed anything yet, so 5 hours later, at 5pm we finally got on the road. I drove baby blue home all by myself, and was jamming out to the radio for the whole trip. Some quality stations around St Louis, including one that was playing 90s alternative for awhile. As we reached later into the night and were nearing home, Night Prowler by AC/DC came on the radio. A song that Nolan and I used to jam to late at night in my college days back at Adrian. Oh the memories.

The trip was a great success, I am so happy and proud of Beth for graduating, but cannot believe college is already over for her as well. How the time flies. Enjoy every moment, and I know she did with thousands of great memories from school.

On Sunday, May 18th, I slept until 11am after going to sleep right when I got home from Mizzou, giving me about 11 hours of sleep. Then I headed over to Danny & Sarah's current residnence for a birthday party for their 1 year old Sophia! The party was a hit, and the weather was perfect. I had to leave a little early to head to a lax game, but here are some pics while I was there!

What a great weekend it was indeed. Beth graduates, Sophia turns 1, & everyone has a grand old time. With the weather being warmer and the moods heightening, I am excited for summer which is right around the corner!

And before I end this lovely family blog post, I will add a few things about lacrosse. The Thompson brothers, Miles & Lyle, of Albany became the first teammates in D1 history to have over 100 points in the same season. They both broke the single season record for points as well, Miles with 119 and brother Lyle with 128. It was disappointing to hear they got bumped out of the playoffs by Notre Dame in OT. On the other side of lacrosse in the D3 world, Tufts teammates John Upgren, Cole Bailey, & Beau Wood become the first 3 way teammates in history to have over 100 points with 120, 107, & 102 respectively. That is some serious point production from all 5 of these guys. 

Also the new Apache jersey's came in, only 6 months late, but they are awesome. CandyMan baby!

I leave you with this great lacrosse video produced by a former college/mll player. Band Together or Go Home. Lacrosse is a team game, live it, love it.

Yaboy, Proud Brother & Maluta Family Member

Josh

Lacrosse and Spring (Summer) Weather

This past week involved pretty much nothing but lacrosse.

On tuesday May 6, 2014 I headed over to Indian Plains HS to film Waubonsie and Bartlett. It was a pretty sloppy game, but I will make it look sweet.  I also finished a video for a game from last week. Naperville Central vs Naperville North. View it below!

I also finally finished editing a game from over a month ago. Benedictine vs Augustana. Check it out below.

On Wednesday May 7th, I was hoping to go to watch Adrian play Aurora in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Adrian, but my team was poop over the weekned so practice was more important. I streamed most of the Adrian game online at work, and they got whooped. They ened up losing by 10 or so. Darn. At practice for my eighth grade team, we pumped out 200 pushups b/c of the no swear policy I put in place, you swear, the team does 100 pushups. 

Thursday May 8th, I filmed Waubonsie play Geneva over at Indian Plains HS again. A couple guys I coached back in 8th grade for Fox Valley were on Geneva, Waubonsie pulled out the win by 1. Right after this game, I drove over to Naperville Central to watch them play Wheaton North. I talked to the Wheaton North coach (who I know) and he said he used my games I filmed as scouts for playing Central. Pretty cool my videos are getting around and people are watching them. MalutaVision is becoming a household name around here! Check out this sweet behind the back dodge to a goal from the game I put up on 1223.

May 9th, a Friday at work involved a lot of testing tarps. We just ripped as hard as we could all day at these new tarps to see what will be most consistent and durable. I ended up breaking my record for fastest shot, hitting 89 mph and find the net. It was pretty funny since Gio hit 88 to break his record and tie mine, literally 2 minutes before I 1-uped him! Sorry bro! I actually later hit 90, but missed the goal, so we won't count it! After practice, where I pumped out another 200 pushups with the team, I went home, showered, and headed to downtown Naperville to meet up with Rachel and her work friends. We hopped around between a couple of bars, and had some fun dancing and such. I only had a drink since I was to drive home, but it was an overall fun time! I drover Rachel and her friend Becca home, and we stopped at taco bell to pick up some food, which we ate at Becca's house, before driving back home to mine to pass out. Fun night!

Saturday morning, I didn't have any games until 3pm so Rachel and I loaded up some Crash Bandicoot 2 on the PlayStation and played that for about an hour. I forgot how fun and awesome that game is. I will have to figure out how to have it save to a memory card so I can try to beat it, don't think I ever did back in the day. I had 2 lax games at 3p and 5p that afternoon, and the weather was beautiful, high 70s or low 80s and my team played with fire and passion. Despite losing both games, the competition was tough and we were playing A teams as a B team, I was proud of the guys and confident we would win on Sunday. I headed over to Rachel's brothers out in Joliet for a couple of drinks and some delicious pinwheels. Steak layered with bacon and spinach, then wrapped up into a succulent roll. How tasty.

Sunday, the 11th of May, Mother's Day! I was waken by my Mother at 7:35 AM and she asked me when my game was. Well my game wasn't until 8, but I told the kids to be there at 7 to warmup, looks like Coach was late again (we will tell the other story another time). In the rush to leave I forgot to tell my Mom Happy Mother's Day, but made it to the field with 10 minutes to spare before game time. We played 3 hard fought games, and won all 3, going 3-2 in the tournament. The weather was beautiful again,  I got some nasty sunburn, but I'll be tan in no time! After, I grilled up steaks & italian sausage for my parents for Mother's Day. I also made a homemade vinaigrette sauce for the pasta I cooked up. It was all pretty darn delicious. Chef Masta over here! My brother's daughter Sophia was over all day, while Danny and Sarah were moving out. When they came to get Sophia, we found out they still had a lot to move out to a storage unit, so my Dad and I went over to his house in YorkVille and helped him load up the remaining items and deliviered over to the storage unit. Once at the unit, I felt like I was on the show Storage Wars, just going through all the junk, looking for gold. Ah, just in, I don't know how I could have forgot, my dad was holding a rather large box and going to place it in the storage unit when he missed the little step going into it. He tripped over his feet and face planted right into some of the other boxes stacked as high as the ceiling. It was quite hilarious, and he was okay, the box just had an imprint of his face.

On our drive home we stopped at a gas station and ran into our cousin Joey who just got off his shift as a paramedic. Good to catch up with him real quick!

Monday May 12th saw me meet up with a parent at Rancheros where I then had 6 beef tacos and felt super stuffed for the rest of the day. My friend Jeff Ulfig came to visit and rip around at work since he was in town visiting his girlfriend. It was good to catch up with and play some lax. The night ended with the Master's Open, where I actually played this week and felt super exhausted after. I think it is a combination of me being out of shape and feeling a little sick. Oh well. 

This awesome video filmed on a GoPro. I want to travel everywhere!

I leave you with 2 great Deer Tick songs recorded back in 2006 when Deer Tick was just John McCauley

Until Next week.

Josh

Beautiful South Bend

A busy week revolving around lacrosse, like always.

Tuesday April 29, 2014 saw a little practice takeover, where at work, we went and worked with a Frosh team at NC and coached their practice. Fun little session, reminding me that high school freshman are just as childish as 8th graders.  Later that evening I went and filmed the Naperville North vs Naperville Central lacrosse game for the lacrosse cup. The sky was looking pretty awesome during the beginning of the game, picture to the side, video highlights can be found below.

On Wednesday the 30th of April, I worked, then drove out to Aurora to catch the MLC semi final game between Aurora and Augustana. Aurora dominated the game and ended up winning the MLC and will face off against Adrian in the NCAA tournament tomorrow. Wish I was going, but can't miss practice after my team's weekend, more later. After the game,  I headed back to work and had an indoor practice with my Fox team, lots of defensive work. Video highlight from this game will be found below.

May is here! Already! Crazy! May 1st, Thursday we drove over to Lemont and did another practice takeover for work, this time with a varsity team. Good group of guys, hopefully will bring us some more players to work. That evening I went to the Benet vs Neuqua lacrosse game at BenU and stood in the rain under an umbrella and filmed. Again, video highlight is down below.

Friday May 2nd, Gio picked me up from my house around 2:30p and we drove with his girlfriend Kelly out to South Bend for the Rip the Duck tournament. After we got there we met up with some of his friends at Wings Etc. A restaurant in the area. I ordered 10 wings, half parmesian garlic, half hot bbq. Both were delicious! The best wings I had that day! I ordred a coors light on tap, mistake, should have gotten something worthwhile. Around 8:50p we left our hotel and drove across South Bend through some super shady areas to the South Bend Amtrack train station to pick up Rachel. My lovely girlfirend took the train from Chicago and met us out in South Bend! Her train ended up being about 30 minutes late, and her first Amtrack ride was once to forget. Not exactly what she had expected! Oh public transportation. Once we picked her up we headed over to Gio's friends place and had a couple of beers while watching the Hawks get the win. His friends were going to the Kentucky Derby the next day so we didn't get too rowdy. We got back to the hotel around midnight and Rachel and I split a bottle of soveign blanc wine before passing out!

May 3rd, the first day of Rip the Duck was here. This tournament is usually full of rain, cold weather, and lax. Luckily the rain stayed away this year, but the other two, not so much. After losing our first game, Rachel and I went over to my team mom's house that her and some other families were renting. This is when we were introduced to Beautiful South Bend. Most of South Bend is meh, but just look at these pictures below and tell me it was not gorgeous!

While we were there, we had some grilled chicken sandwhiches with fruit, & veggies. After an hour or so, everyone was going to go watch the Army Notre Dame lacrosse game, but Rachel and I were not attending. The families were nice enough to let us stay at the house and nap. I put on lacrosse, and watched the Thompsons for Albany tie and set the single season record for points. Lyle now as 114, and Miles has 108. Incredible for two teammates. Watching them play is something out of this world, considering almost all of their shots are behind the back, and they awlways go in. Two of the best players I have ever seen, along with guys like Mikey Powell. Exciting to watch! The Notre Dame Army game was on after and although I slept through most of it, it ended up being a 18 to 17 thriller of a finish. A crazy high scoring game for two teams who are known for their defenses.

After we headed back the fields, where my team lost a nail biter of a game by a score of 7 to 6. Disappointing, but what can you do. We drove back to hotel with a parent, then headed back over to that amazing house for some flank steak, mac 'n cheese, IPA beers, and ice cream and cake to celebrate some children's birthdays. Oh how I love travel lax. This time Gio and Kelly went over with us and we had a great time chatting with the parents. Again though, check out the amazing view above. Love the sunset/clouds in this one on the lake. Everyone had a lovely time as we celebrated birthdays and watched Loyola (IL) win the National Championship for men's volleyball on tv.

After this party, we headed back to the hotel, where we met up with some more lax parents, who happened to buy us a couple more beers as we talked lax strategy. Rachel was a happy girl!

May the Fourth be with you! May 4th, we lost both games we had on this day, to end our tournament with an 0-4 record, pretty disappointing. This is the main reason I will be staying home this Wednesday and going to practice instead of heading out to watch Adrian take on Aurora tomorrow. We had another easy two hour drive, this time home. After taking a little nap, Rachel, my parents, and I ordered some barbecue chicken pizza from jets, tasty. At around 7pm I then drove Rachel home to Chicago, where we ended up asleep by 9:30pm. A long weekend ending with an early nights sleep. Fantastic.

Monday May 5th, Cinco de Mayo. I drove home from Chicago back to Naperville in the morning, headed to work, and then watched the old men play in their league that evening. A typical monday. Nothing compared to the Cinco de Mayo from 2012. 

In other news, I am starting to get a lot of looks and questions about recruiting film and just recently completed my first highlight tape for a customer. Good looks for the future.

A busy week with another tournament this upcoming weekend ahead. TONS of editing to do, hopefully I can finish some.

Peace out!

Josh