My 4 Week Vacation

It's been almost a month since I've updated. Summer usually extends me beyond my means, and this year isn't far off. Winters in Chicago make summers in Chicago feel like the greatest time of our lives every year, and so my workout schedule dwindles, my weekends fill up, Mondays are spent recovering from the weekend, Wednesday has been spent playing softball, Tuesdays and Thursdays are spent either doing laundry or making more plans. I've never had this much on my plate at work. I've been starting later and leaving later. Sunset around 8pm means I don't feel like I'm losing a day if I leave work at 6. Short story short, it's been a challenge to harvest ideas and explore them with the depth that I require. Solution: Well, I'm just going to touch on a bunch of things that have happened and I've thought about over the last 4 weeks, limiting my response length, but maximizing my reach.

Chicago Fire vs Man U

Some friends and I tailgated outside Soldier Field before wholeheartedly cheering on our beloved Chicago Fire playing a 'friendly' against the epically talented Manchester United. The day was suspect, wavering between overcast and rainy for most of the afternoon, but it’s hard for weather to impact the fun of diehard soccer fans, of which I am not. The backdrop of Chicago is always amazing. I took an extra hour to traverse to the stadium, meandering through parts of the loop, Millennium Park, and south through the museum campus to take pictures and take my time. It's amazing how different my opinion of traveling when the time frame is relaxed. Next time you have to use public transit to get somewhere, in the city or in the burbs, try leaving an hour early, stopping short, and treating yourself to a walking tour of town. Unless the weather sucks, you'd be surprised how nice non-rushed commuting feels. As for the game, Man U fans dominated, but that was to be expected. The match was entertaining. The goals were as to be expected, and so was the outcome. Conclusion: Doing something different and being with friends at an event that doesn't happen too often makes you appreciate the circumstances. Definitely worth the price of admission.

My Brother Turns 30

Only four years separate my brother and I, but he's the closest person I know to cross the bridge into the abyss of the 30s. I feel like the 30s have such a negative connotation, but I also feel like this line of thinking originated years ago when the average age of marriage was 23 for males, 20 for females (1960). Now it's 28 for males, 26 for females, and that 5-6 year jump is significant. The number thirty has three different immediate questions. If you're married: kids? If you're in a relationship: marriage? If you're single: are you going to be a crazy cat-person? It's the nature of the beast. But as more and more of my generation turns 30, the less and less this number will scare us. I've never thought of age as something tangible, and overreacting to someone finally entering a new decade of their life is useless. I'm pretty sure my brother doesn't feel a whole lot different now as opposed to a month ago, besides having to tell people his age. Based on our shenanigans in the 3 weeks since he's turned, I'm pretty sure it means nothing. If you're single, stop freaking out about growing up. I swear, every movie/TV show I see has some reasonably successful 30-something falling in love. And if I've learned anything from movies, they're 100% true. Conclusion: Age is just a number, live your life the way you want and nothing should bring you down.

Bachelor Party

One of my best guy friends became the first to take the wedding plunge, but we got to celebrate his last weekend of bachelorhood before that happened. First of all, if you haven't had a chance to do a trolley in Chicago, do yourself a favor. More fun than I've had on a Friday night in as long as I can remember. We only made two stops, but that's the point. In Chicago, when you see a group of people on a trolley, you yell at them, and they yell at you. It's a celebration, and it's worth it. Were we obnoxious, 100%. But my god, being with 15 or so of my closest guy friends, celebrating on a trolley, driving around the city like we owned it, it doesn't get a whole lot better. Three of the best spent hours of recent memory. Getting out of the city to 'camp' the next night probably could have been subbed out for something a little more... unorganized, but I consider the weekend a success and I'm glad we had a chance to celebrate as a group. It won't be the last time, but the first to fall was definitely a time to cherish. Conclusion: Can't wait for more of my friends to walk down the aisle if it means we get to party like we did, as a group, for a truly positive reason.

Mayhem Fest

Most people reading this don't listen to heavy metal, but this fest is taking over the void that Ozzfest left. The bands, the stages, the people, the environment, all of it is amazing. My brother and I got there around 1:00 on a Friday and didn't leave until almost 10. It's hard for outsiders to understand the solidarity of a subculture at an event like this. A sea of people that, at some point, have dealt with the social judgments of listening to a genre of music so completely misunderstood by the general public. This has to be the largest crowd of like-minded metal heads that convene every year, and it feels pretty special to be a part of it. From getting bounced around in the pit to screaming my lungs out to my favorite songs, from barely audible two man bands to grossly popular radio artists, from lead singers doing double duty (Jamey Jasta fronting both Hatebreed and Kingdom of Sorrow) to female lead singers out-metaling the men, the show had everything a withering heavy metal listener such as myself would enjoy. If you picked through my most recent downloads and purchases, if you took out the CDs from my car, and if you heard the songs that get stuck in my head, you would know that my musical focus has shifted over the last few years, but there will always be a place in my life for the music that defined such a large portion of it. Conclusion: Small concerts are fun, intimate, and charming, but large scale shows make you feel like one of thousands, and sometimes, that's the best feeling of all.

Weddings

In case you were worried that the bachelor party didn't lead to an actual wedding, it did. The ceremony was short and beautiful, the cocktail hour was a great idea, the dinner was surprisingly delicious (and I wasn't drunk yet), the reception was as fun as I've been to, and the Sunday festivities at Arlington Park racetrack were a great way to end the weekend. For the same reason that the bachelor party was so memorable, this was the first of many weddings in which my entire close group of friends were in attendance. Aside from some limited drama, the wedding went off without a hitch, which, if you know my group of friends, deserves a pat on the back. I can't help but to get a little emotional at weddings, but for varying reasons. This time, the best man and the maid of honor were both siblings. This made the speeches tough to sit through. Not because they were bad, but because I am going to be a wreck if I ever have to stand up and give a speech at my brother's wedding. I joked with my date, who feels the same way, that we'll have to give speeches at our sibling's weddings because we won't be able to keep it together. The whole wedding screamed of family; welcoming, dancing, drinking, everything. It was a pleasure to be a part of, and for the first of many among this group of friends, it went as well as expected. Conclusion: I know I'll probably get sick of them, but I still get crazy excited for weddings, to be a part of the celebration, which, despite the flippant nature of young adults, is something important.

Fox Lake Boating

I've managed to make it to my parents' lake house three times this season, with a possible fourth coming soon. Usually we hope for a bright sky, a high sun, boiling temps, and flowing drinks. This past weekend was not that. After the first hour of fun, successful sandbar partying, tied up to about a dozen boats, the pending doom of high wind storms loomed just out of sight. As we hunkered under canopies and grabbed an extra drink or two, the winds and the rains came, and were not to be trifled with. The first wave (pun intended) was manageable, with only a few people required to weather the rain to reset an anchor. But when the nasty stuff hit, when the swirling winds and hail like rain pelted our backs and thrusted our boats toward each other, bodies were flying into the water like they hadn't peed in days. There's a sort of bond that lake-goers share. When someone's boat is in danger, it's all hands on deck to save it. You might not care for the people on the other side of the line, or even the ones tied up right next to you, but when the situation turns dire, favoritism and elitism should fly out the window. The whole ordeal lasted about 30 minutes, no boat damage was incurred, and the drinks were definitely flowing for the 'survivors' of the storm. The rest of the day and night went on with only minor damage (knee is still bruised), but for a weekend that was looking like early signs of the apocalypse, sometimes it turns out to be just what the doctor ordered. Conclusion: When shit hits the fan, take care of each other, you'll never know what the result might be, or when the same will happen to you.

Inspiration

There's a website that I check relatively frequently, and recently they've posted two galleries that have internet-y pictures related to inspiration. The same way that it seems silly to pull life lessons from movie quotes or fictional plots, it seems silly to do the same from some photoshopped picture or graffitied wall, but it happens. I find myself scrolling through these galleries and actually letting a few sink in. "You do what you love and fuck the rest." "If you do not go after what you want, you'll never have it." "We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public." It is a risk to love. What if it doesn't work out? Ah, but what if it does?" "Without money, we'd all be rich." "Don't make decisions when you're angry. Don't make promises when you're happy." It's that last one that sticks with me. Something so simple, but something so true. Just a picture of chalk written out on a sidewalk. It nearly incomprehensible how small something can be to change you way you live. I honestly hope that some of these famous or anonymous quotes in varying degrees of real life or photoshop will stick with me in the future, because in a very small sample size, they've already made my life a slightly better place to be. It's no wonder the name of the gallery is "A Little Inspiration Goes a Long Way." Conclusion: It takes nothing to be inspired, start looking for it, and when you find it, embrace it.