So I thought that I would write a blog when I was home, but hanging out with friends and family seemed to trump that idea. Then I was going to once I got back into town, but again, sleep, football, and my couch trumped that as well. So that brings us to now. Finally home after my first long day at the new job, and I have a moment to write. (more…)

What up peoples! I feel like I haven’t really written a blog in forever. I had wanted to for the past couple of days, but free time has not been on my side this weekend, but for good reasons. Momma Philly was in town for the weekend to visit me and my sister, and damn we were all over the place.

I went to meet them up at the hotel right after work on Friday and we went to eat at this place called Magnolia’s. It’s like this soul food place that was quite mediocre. I got the salmon and the shit sucked. It looked like 5 chicken fingers that they put on my plate. Now I can’t say that it tasted bad, but it was easily the worst salmon I ever ate. So I think it’s fair to say that I’ll never be eating there again, they lost my business.

Saturday morning didn’t exactly start off the way I wanted to. I woke up so that I could go work out and stroll over to Meijer, so I walk out the door only to realize that I don’t have my keys. I was not happy about this. It was like 9 a.m., my phone battery was low, and the front office of my apartment complex doesn’t open until 10. The gym was too far to walk to, so I just walked to Meijer. Luckily it isn’t that far, maybe a 15/20 minute walk. So I go there to kill some time, buy something for breakfast, and then walk back. I was a little behind the schedule I had for my morning, so I didn’t get back into my apartment until almost 11. Then I grabbed my keys and sped to the gym to blow off steam because I was a little frustrated at this point.

So anyways, my sister and mom were scheduled to look at this apartment in Canton at 2:30, and I was supposed to meet them there. I got back home from the gym around 1, and I had to scramble to make a breakfast, shower, and then meet them there at 2:30. This also failed pretty damn badly. I didn’t leave til about 2:15, and ended up getting lost because the bullshit directions that Google gave me screwed me over. They basically put an extra street in there, that didn’t need to be in there, which of course was the one I took. At this point, it’s like almost 3, and my sister calls and says to just meet them at the new Ikea.

This is where the day gets better. First off, Ikea is a sweet ass store. They have everything, and I am pretty certain that the next time I get a new apartment/condo, I am going to bend Ikea over backwards and spend major coin in there. They have everything you could possibly want for where ever it is that you live. And it was pure madness in there too, people everywhere, and I can’t imagine the amount of money they bring in on any given weekend. We spent about 3 hours in there looking at stuff, and that’s not from backtracking, that was a nice brisk walkthrough looking at any and everything. So if you haven’t been to that Ikea yet, go there, it’s worth it even if you just look around.

After Ikea, we drove back to the RO so that my mom could see my apartment. So of course I had it extra clean and smelling like a fresh spring morning……………..maybe not that good, but it was clean, and my mom liked my place a lot. We had easily worked up an appetite, so we headed over to the mall. But before we ate, we stopped by the Apple store. You’re probably wondering what the hell I got huh? Well I jumped on the bandwagon and got an iPod nano, courtesy of momma Philly. Yes I know I’m spoiled, it’s no secret, get over it. I didn’t get the super expensive one though because I really don’t need a billion songs on my iPod just for the gym. I finally have a reason to use one though, so it will accompany me on when I’m at the gym. I conveniently named it “iPhilly.” My name is just so versitile!

After the Apple store we went to P.F. Chang’s, but we had to get carry out because I don’t know what sane person would want to wait an hour and 45 minutes to eat. So we went back to my place to eat, and we watched Hitch. It was more of me watching Hitch, because my mom and sister both fell asleep.

This morning, I woke up early to meet them at the hotel downtown, so that we could go to breakfast and then church. Yes, I went to church, which I usually do when I have time and I’m with my mom and sister. It was good to go again though because I haven’t been in forever, and I was long overdue for a visit. The pastor was a guy that used to go to the church I went to growing up so he’s an old friend of the fam. This guy is also a baller. To give a quick idea, his wife had this 5 kt. diamond on her finger. Now, I’m not a ring person, and diamonds don’t really move me, but I couldn’t stop looking at the size of this thing. It was huge.

So anyways after church we were invited, from the pastor, to go to dinner at P.F. Changs once again. I didn’t mind at all though for two reasons: for one, the food is damn good and I could always order something different; and two, I wasn’t going to have to pay for yet another meal for the weekend, so who am I to care where the hell we eat. The only thing that bothered me was the day was that I felt like I was being pressured into going to church, and I felt guilty for not going more. So that got under my skin a bit, but I won’t go into all fo that.

After dinner we came back here to relax for a last few moments that my mom was going to spend on this visit. Then iPhilly and I scrambled to the gym to get in a power workout before it closed! It was a very good weekend, yet very busy and tiring, and I’m hella sick of driving right now. I’ve been driving so much this weekend that I am thrilled to just sit for awhile. So I’ll be spending the rest of my evening eating, watching Entourage, and sitting on my ass. Hope you all had a good weekend, I’ll catch you on the flip side.

peace

The mini-vacation would have been perfect with just one more day, but oh well, the days had back home were alot of fun, and relaxing. Me and Kell left early Saturday to scoop up my sister, and start the trek south-west. Traffic was fine up until we got off the Skyway, then it was a mess because of construction………shit was hellish. I then realized that I will be driving home even less often than I do because the drive is another hour tacked on from what I was used to driving from E.L.

We eventually made it, although it seemed like we spent the whole day driving. Of course we had to get our grub on when we got in town. There’s no need for me to even say what was eaten first, because it’s the same everytime I go home, and if you don’t know, you either just started reading this blog or you don’t know me…………sad. After food, we just relaxed and layed around all day until my brother and his wife came over with the kids. That was alot of fun, and my niece is the shit. She doesn’t cry much and she’s just real chill, so we spent some quality time hanging out!

That night we headed into the city to one of Kell’s friends place to sip on some juices and hang out with everyone. That was good times as well, although we didn’t get crazy or anything. Everyone was extra faded when we got there so we basically had to play a little catch-up. JJ met us there too and stayed for a few drinks, but then went to go meet some other people. After a few hours there, people just started to get more and more faded, so we didn’t think they were going to go out, so me and Kell just bounced and went to this place Union Station in Lincoln Park. If, at that point, I wasn’t so damn exhausted, I would have felt the place a little more, but I basically felt like dead weight holding a beer. We were only there for a little bit before we went back and passed out at the place we started at. Luckily one of the girls that brough this air mattress ended up leaving, so we didn’t have to sleep on a bogus floor.

Sunday was spent laying around. I helped papa Philly prepare some of his signature bbq, and damn did we max. The food hit the spot like no other, although my stomach thought otherwise. My stomach did not take a liking to the bbq at all, which sucks, but a small price to pay for the good food. I hadn’t eaten my dads bbq since last 4th of July, which is easily the longest I’ve went without it.

After the grub, we just let the food simmer and watched a few movies, one of which I was shocked that it was going to be a good movie. And that movie is called Running Scared, starring Paul Walker, hahaha. No joke, this movie was extra hot. It was intense the whole time, had hella twists and turns, and the best part, mad action. If you know me, you know that I love mass amounts of action. My dad had bought the movie, so of course I stole it, with his permission, and added it to my small movie collection.

We didn’t do anything Sunday night, due to the mix of being tired from lack of good sleep, and full from eating. So we kept it chill and just watched movies and tv. Monday, we had wanted to go to the Taste of Chicago to grub, but it was raining in the morning, and the forecast said it was supposed to be thunderstorms all day, so we just went out to the mall to ensure that we would stay dry for the day. The mall, well, was the mall. Bought a few articles of clothing, nothing big. Of course when we leave the mall, it’s all sunny out like there wasn’t a hint of rain at all so we actually could have gone down there…….oh well.

After the mall we went to max on leftover bbq, and while looking through old family picture books, I found my motivation! There was a picture of me and my brother in my backyard, and I was kinda swole looking! No lie, my chest looked quite bigger than it does now, not that that’s saying much, but I looked quite in shape. I think the picture was the spring of Haslett Arms because that is when I worked out 4-5 times a week. Well my friends, that was all I needed to see to motivate me, because on the next paycheck I will be paying Powerhouse a visit because I need to get back in shape and back to swole status. It’s simple as that. I liked the way I looked in that pic, and I am jealous of myself a few years ago! So it’s time to get back in the gym. My eating habits are well and on track, so once I get back into working out, maybe I can finally gain some frickin weight.

So anyways, that Monday night, me and Kell went onto Northwesterns campus right on the lake front to watch Chicago and Wilmette’s fireworks. We couldn’t see Chicago’s that great, but we had a great view of Wilmette’s, which is the neighboring city north of Evanston. They were pretty good too. After fireworks, we decided to hit up Prairie Moon in the downtown E. We didn’t want to head into the city because we had to leave early the next day and we didn’t want to deal with the hassle of coming back to the E on the late night. So we had a few drinks at Prairie Moon, and later on Steve met up with us and some other random ass people came with him. It was good to catch up with Steve though, who seems to be doing well, always good to know the homies are doing good.

Unfortunately, even though I brought my camera, I took not one picture. Why? I have no idea, or any excuse, I just didn’t take any pictures. Oh well. So that was the mini vacation in the Chi. It was much needed, and I’m glad that I got Monday off so that I could go home. It was very good to see the fam as well. I still love Chicago.

This coming Saturday come over and kick it at the pool all day and make use of this summer weather. The only definites I have right now are Paulie, Darko, and Jenn. If you are interested, hit me up, because if you aren’t doing anything, then you should come chill. We need more of those times where a bunch of us hang out because before you know it, summer will be over. So I’m looking forward to it, then the next weekend is Sarah’s up north somewhere, which I’m really looking forward to. So there’s a possibility of 3 bomb ass weekends in a row. We’ll see though.

I will be spending the remainder of this week and if needed, some of the weekend, working on Paulie D’s blog. We’re going to try and put it up next week sometime so you will be notified when that is done. Looking forward to it though.

Ok I’m outro……

peace

Ok so in my last blog I had mentioned some stuff along the lines of my grandpa passing away, and that I would unfold some of the thoughts that I was having with regards to the whole thing. Well even though I said that I wanted to write about the thoughts, I’m changing up the gameplan. I’m doing this because my mental state from the events of the weekend turned out a little differently than I had originally thought, and I’ll get to that later. So I’m going another route…..

My grandpa had been battling cancer for the past few years, and survived about 3 years longer than most doctors had said he would. He was a trooper, and fought hard though this all as best as possible. Even though the whole family knew that he could go any day, you still can never prepare yourself for the feelings that you get when it actually happens. That was one of the hardest parts to cope with, and I don’t know how many times my mom said that this weekend. Funerals suck, and there’s nothing fun about having to go to them. One of the hardest times in my life was the year my dad’s sister, and father died, within a matter of a few months. Those two funerals were like the most emotionally draining experiences ever. It takes alot out of you. That’s how I felt this weekend with the funeral. It is literally exhausting.

Aside from dealing with the dead of a family member, another really hard part was seeing the manly figures of the family be emotionally broken down. My Uncle Mike, Uncle Glenn, and my brother are like the three strongest people that I know, and to see them cry was almost too much to bare. And then there’s my mom who was very emotional too, and it SUCKS seeing your mom cry.

Apart from the bad, I can only just carry on the memories of my grandfather, and two jump out more than others. Everytime I think of my grandpa now, I picture me waking up at 5 a.m. to see him waiting outside for me to go fishing. Aside from family, I think fishing was the one thing he loved the most. So it was nice to be able to do that with him. We’d sit on the river all damn day, and have a great time, even if we came up empty handed. The second memory I have is of all the toys he bought for his house, just for the kids. He had some of the coolest race car tracks and remote controlled cars that he kept and broke them out when I used to come over. I guess that was how he’d suck us in………and it worked!

I hope you’re not picking up a sad tone in my writing, but I’m not sitting here sad at all. Yes it sucks that my grandpa passed, but life goes on, and there are the small things that make getting through hard times alot easier. What made my weekend was the kids. I think they played a huge roll in brightening up the mood, and I had so much fun playing with them this weekend. They were the ones that physically exhausted me!! And it was all worth it. The kids just went through the weekend completely naive (because they ARE kids) about what was going on, so they just carried about like any other day, and it was really easy to absorb that positive energy that they gave off. And that is why my emotional mind state was at ease by the end of the weekend.

As I said, life goes on……………and vacation is hours away! With all that has been going on lately, this vacation is going to clear my mind for the things that are going to go on in the next few weeks. I’m very excited. I more than likely will not be blogging from NY because there’s too much to do. It’s gonna be bomb as hell. I started packing for it today, got all my errands out the way, so I’m ready to party and shop. I told Travis that me and Kell are gonna walk around with “I Love NY” t-shirts and pouches, haha. That was of course sarcastic but I’m sure we will look like quite the tourists walking around…………oh well. So you better believe that there will be an extra long blog suming up the NY visit……………so until then.

peace

What up peeps?! I woke up extra early this morning cause I couldn’t sleep last night cause of who knows why. So I decided to put down some text. I was going to blog yesterday but just never got around to it. I hope you alls Christmas was good, because I think I had the best Christmas ever…………..minus back in the day when I was getting Ninja Turtles, nothing will top that. So your prolly wondering what I got huh? Well, my biggest gift was this graphic design tablet. I LOVE this thing, which is why I might be retiring the use of a mouse. Anyways, then I got this printer/scanner/copier/fax, which was much needed, because I always printed shit I needed at work. I also got a digital camera. So now I have 2 digital cameras. The new one i’ll use when I go out, which will be rare in E.L., and the other one will be for more photographic stuff. Then I got a new robe, like 2 sport blazers, a hot shirt, and a bunch of gift certificates. I have to say, that at this point, I have everything that I need. I haven’t said that in a long time, but I honestly don’t think there is shit else that I need. My home office just got the major upgrade, as well as my wardrobe!

What I am about to say is something very rare coming from my mouth. But I am fucking sick of malls right now! I was at a mall the first 5/6 days I was here. Im burned out. I can’t do it anymore! I am mentally and physically tired!!! I got some good shopping done though, I got myself two more blazers, couple polos, and a hot pair of Kenneth Cole shoes. My new years outfit is just about complete. Its lookin good! But yeah im not going shopping for hella long, although I do still have gift certificates………….SHIT!

So I went out Christmas night with my brother and Dan. I know, who goes out on Christmas? Well, my parents were spent, as well as my sister, therefore, I was like the only one up. Now the night had its ups and downs, more downs than ups, but overall the night was fun, minus the downs. I almost confused myself. Ok i’ll start with the ups. First, I got to chill with my brother other than family functions. Free time is very scarce for him when im home because, well, he has two kids, and his son alone feels like 3 kids. So he obviously does lots of family shit. So it was cool chillin with him for the night and just talkin and whatnot. Another upper on the night was the music. The dj line-up played some sweet ass house all night. The music was really chill and tight, and no it wasn’t techno, there is a huge difference for all you music-retarded people. And yes I was kickin it to shit other than hip hop……I expand my horizons!! But anyways the music was really good, I was watching the dj’s for awhile to see how different house dj’s were than hip hop dj’s, and I was impressed. I’ve never watched a house dj, but I have a few respect for them. They are constantly turning knobs and using effects and all kinda shit. It was interesting.

Ok so now for the downs. First downer, my ass almost passed out. It was not fun for the 45 minutes that I felt more spent and wanted to kill myself. I don’t know what brought it about, but it wasn’t fun. I got all hot all of a sudden and broke into a bogus sweat, and that is when the mass chugging of water started. The shit sucked, Dan was all tryin to be funny about it, no no, shits not funny. If you haven’t never passed out before, then you have no idea how much it sucks, therefore, I don’t find it humorous when people decide to joke about it. So after the 45 minutes of feeling spent, I started feel ok again, all the sweat dried (yuck!), and I felt safe actually walking again, and thats not sarcasm. So then I joined my brother and Dan again, because I had left to sit at a chair with a back to it, and they were at the bar. So the rest of my night was spent drinking water. Im suprised that I actually ended up having a good time bein all extra sober. The other downer was extra bogus. Now I don’t know if Sunday nights are, um, “special” nights, but damn there were hella dykes and gay people there. Now, before you pass judgement, this place is not a gay bar. BUT, it also isn’t far from Boystown. So yeah there were mad gay people, im like what the fuck kinda place did we come to. My brother, who’s recommendation it was to go there, only cause this one dj was there, thought the same thing. Everywhere you turned, you were bound to see either two chicks that were quite fond of each other, or outfits on guys that looked like they were at a metro-sexual convention. And i’ve been to this place once before, and all was straight (literally). Then the bouncers looked like they were pure skin heads. I swear, they had the jean outfits, skinned heads, and the extra-medium Wrangler jeans rolled up to the top of their combat boots. I was waitin to see a patch that said KKK on it. Ok thats not that funny, but seriously thats what it looked like. So yeah, gay people, lots of them. Luckily im not homophobic or anything, cause it didn’t really bother me, but it was weird.

So the night was fun overall, and of course, goin out with my brother I didn’t get home til 4:30. His ass said all night that he wasn’t tryin to kickin til 4, but I told him not to kid himself. One day my brother will be the 32 year old that everyone thinks he is.

Its been so nice being home, ive had a bomb ass time with the family and friends. I took mad pictures on Christmas with the fam. Im going to add a photo gallery to this site in the near future, but I need new pics before I can do that.

New years is a matter of days away, and I cant wait. I just gotta make sure my shit is hydrated, cause I dont need any threatening pass out episodes. And hopefully Dan will be able to walk by the end of the night, unlike last Thursday night. I think im gonna write a blog about this year, kinda like a 2005 in review, then mix in my predictions for 2006. Not sure about the predictions one, but im def. gonna write one about this past year.

So until next time…..

peace