The day after Thanksgiving, the biggest day of the year for shopping deals, Black Friday, November 25th, 2016. I spent 0 minutes of it doing just that. Instead of doing that lame stuff we drove down to Kankakee with Rachel's parents and Phil to visit Grandpa for lunch. We brought some tasty sandwiches and had an enjoyable afternoon chatting with Grandpa, Rob, Aunt Kathy, and Uncle Mike. Afterwards Rachel and I drove home back to Chicago and headed to a yoga class at 6p for a C2 class. After yoga we ordered some Lou Malnati's pizza for dinner and watched two episodes of the Showtime show Shameless. Pretty funny show about a broken Chicago family and how they do life. We headed to bed around 11p, we are so crazy.
The next day Saturday November 26th I headed to Napes to coach a practice. After practice I headed back to the city and hung out with Rachel for a little bit before we took the red line down to the loop. Then walked over to meet up with Rob, Katie, and Rachel's parents for dinner and drinks at The Scout. It was a pretty cool restaurant bar that is known for it's foot long grilled cheese, so that's what we got. That's right, you heard it correctly, foot long grilled cheese. We shared 3 of them amongst us and it was pretty good. Around 6:30 or so we headed on a short walk over to Fox in A Box, to do an escape room. I had never done one of these escape rooms before, but it is a pretty cool concept where there a bunch of different scenarios and then you have to solve your way out of the situation.. We picked the cold war bunker, which was an army bunker that we were stuck in until we solved a series of clues to stop the nuclear launch from happening. We did it with just over 2 minutes to spare. We saved the world! I felt like I did very little the whole time, but still had fun. Everyone else is so smart! I probably wouldn't have gotten very far if I was doing it myself, although now that I know the concept and things to look for, I may do alright.
After the escape room, Rachel and I jumped on the blue line and took it over to Subterranean to see the Palmer Squares and Wax show. We got there just after 9p and had to stand in line for about 15 minutes or so to get in. Once we finally got in we were surprised how crowded it was, but finally found a spot maybe 5 rows back from the stage or so. The first rap group that opened up was decent and included a variety of performers. They went by the name Free Sole and had the crowd chanting their name. Then there was a second group that was alright as well. Maybe it was Ace '94 or Psych Finito, can't be too sure. Finally around 10:15 or so the Palmer Squares took the stage. The hometown boys got the people bumping. Wax got on around 11 and had an awesome show. He played my favorite song Music and Liquor right near the start of his set and I was super pumped. After awhile Rach and I moved to the upstairs as Wax sang his song New Crack. We eventually started to walk back down the stairs and Wax was walking up the stairs rapping right at us! I gave him a slap on the back and told him "You the man Wax" or something of those sorts, as he continued to rap all around the venue. Pretty dope. Once he finished up we headed out of there and got an Uber home. Getting back home a little bit after midnight.
The next morning, Sunday November 27th I had to be out the door by 6:30ish to go coach a tournament. The team didn't do so hot in the tournament but they had fun so that's good. Once back in the city that afternoon and evening I relaxed until the Walking Dead came on that night. Only an episode or two left.
On Monday November 28th I got scammed into buying $100 worth of Windy City Quality Foods meats. It seemed like a decent deal but then I looked up the reviews later and they were all 1 stars. Agh. Rach cooked us up some pasta and shrimp for dinner that night which was pretty tasty.
Tuesday November 29th was pretty much nothing but work. I had a double 69 moment as I was driving 69 and my mileage was 69. Quite the day eh?
The last day of December, Wednesday the 30th involved a long day at work, then a fun night at my parents place. I picked up some Coors Banquet beers from walgreens, then helped my mom rake the leaves in the front yard. I did my laundry and had some browns chicken for dinner compliments of my parents. Thanks guys! Beth and I then watched the Michael Che standup on Netflix which was pretty funny. Check it out if you got an hour to spare and like laughing. Finally around 10 or so I told Beth we were going outside to start a bonfire. She agreed. The last bonfire of November, first bonfire of December, and last bonfire of 2016 was about to go down.
And that about sums it up. It was lit? Thursday morning on December first, I watched a couple episodes of 11/22/63, a great Stephen King book I had read earlier this year and watched a couple episodes on our flight back from Iceland. Before heading to work I watched the city pick up all the leaves on the street with this shredding machine. Quite the process. On my way to work, I picked up our first Christmas tree from BB&B. I then stopped at Disc Replay and picked up the Godfather and Indiana Jones movie series. Solid pickups I would say. Haven't seen these movies in forever, if ever all the way through? Guess we will find out in the coming weeks. After work, I drove Beth back to her place in the city and hung out with her for a little bit before heading home to call it a night.
On Friday December 2nd I worked from home, watched a bunch of Christmas movies while I worked and edited some videos. I set up our first Christmas tree. Rachel, Beth and I got Korean Street BBQ for dinner. As we were leaving the apartment, Rachel saw the holiday bus and sprinted to catch it. What an amazing girl! Beth had also road the holiday "L" train on the way to our place. It was quite the holiday spirit night. After dinner we went and saw the movie Trolls. It is an animated JT and Anna Kendrick film that was cute and touching about how the life of one troll changes history for the trolls. We stocked up on a variety of candies for the evenings film. After the movie, we dropped Beth off and hung at her place with Grace and her coworker for hot second before heading back to our place and calling it a sleepy night.
The next day Saturday December 3rd started with some work and more video editing. Later in the day I went to Target and this crazy lady told me to buy a lotto ticket with numbers 666 after she told me about her 70 year old menstruation issues. Still considering buying that ticket. City life! Later that night I drove over to Rob's and hung out with Rachel and Rob, watching some Simpsons episodes as they are playing all 600 of them straight on FXX and talked life. I drove Rachel and I home around 1 am as we hit the hay.
Josh
