Saturday, February 16, 2013

Those Friday night blues, they get in your shoes.

It's already 12:06 and I can't even imagine going to sleep yet. This hasn't been my best or worst day, but it's been filled with a lot of different emotions and thoughts.

1) For the first time in five weeks, I set my alarm to wake me up at 6 am. I wolfed down an oatmeal raisin cookie harvest Power bar and drove 45 minutes north to Algonquin to do an Insanity workout with Natalie. I got through it a little easier than two weeks ago. Doesn't mean it was easy by any means though. Twenty minutes in, I was drenched with sweat. If I had wrung out my navy blue sleeveless t-shirt, I think sweat would have dripped out of it like a sponge. Then after that, we did a 20-minute Jillian Michaels workout. I think that would have been easier if we had did it first. It would have served as a warmup for Insanity. But I met her brother and sister, which was cool. And her poodle, Domino, can't get enough of me. I was get lots of lickings and eventually, he tried humping my left arm. Enough said. She also showed me some old photos of her of when she was at a lower weight and I left her place around 10:30, later than I intended.

2) I got home, showered, and Mom and I headed down to Aurora. After making several wrong turns in downtown, we purchased tickets for the Bee Gees tribute show at the Paramount Theater, which will be happening in late March. Sadly, with Robin and Maurice gone, this will probably the closest I'll ever see to watching the Bee Gees perform a live concert. I've seen the Staying Alive band perform on Youtube. And those guys' vocals remind me very much of the Brothers Gibb so I'm confident it's going to be an excellent show

3) Then, we headed over to Randall Road in Geneva to take advantage of our Buy 1, Get 1 Free coupon for Chipotle. We ordered two bowls along with chips and salsa. In my bowl, I had brown rice, pinto beans, carnitas, salsa verde, corn salsa, cheese, and guacamole. But here's what bugged me. I asked for lime wedges, they said okay, and then they didn't give me any. I asked again politely and they gave me one stinking lime wedge. Newsflash. Wedges means plural. That means more than one! Three wedges would have been great. Two for the bowl, one for the Coke. So instead, I added a splash of Sprite to my Coke. We planned to sit, but school was out, and by 12:45, there wasn't a single table to be had. It took five minutes to get a table, but it was worth it, our lunch tasted excellent.

4) Costco was our next stop. We planned to just get salmon, but there's really no way to get one item in Costco. We walked out with salmon filets, strawberries, bell peppers, a pineapple, Skinny Pop popcorn, sliced turkey, and Mom spent $59.00 to renew her membership! I think our total came to around $135.00. By the way, it wasn't a great day for samples. I had wheat toast, steelhead trout, and a Special K breakfast sandwich. Nothing else, like pound cake, chocolate protein bars, yogurt, V8 fusion, etc. really appealed to me.

5) Our last stop was the Gorecki auto repair shop in downtown Geneva. I paid almost $300 for the work done on my brakes. And after being without it for six weeks, I finally got my spare key back. Mom has been having a ton of trouble steering her car; even I have trouble with it. So we added some power steering fluid and hopefully, it'll do the job for a while.

6) I was so ready to get home at that point. I chatted with J-Sea in Springfield for an hour and played some audio clips. I admit this was the second straight day I did not apply for a job. I think my focus is on this upcoming phone interview on Monday with the American Physician Institute. They are interested in hiring me as an editor, I would be happy if that worked out. We'll find out soon enough. I also ordered three tickets for the Mets vs. Marlins game on April 6. With their Valentine's Day special, I got the three tickets for $35.00. Dad and I will be going, I have no idea who will be getting the third though.

7) Then, after making some leftover spinach deep dish pizza, I left around 6:20 for Game Works. I saw Jason, Chris, Hart, Matthew, Budi, Paul, Andrea, Natalie, Jennifer "no private conversations allowed" G, Natasha, Kim, Luke, and some really cute girl that he brought along. She's probably nothing more than the latest one he found to flirt with. I got dominated in Dance revolution, basketball, billiards, and the motorcycle racing game. Eventually, I went on my own and found this tennis simulation game with real pros and real courts and real tournaments. I played as Roger Federer and actually won my first match against Tim Henman. Then, the game matched me against James Blake, who hit every shot 120 mph. I lost two straight games and that was the end.

8) But I remember two highlights. I watched two different couples play Deal or No Deal and they stunk the joint up. I think they never walked out with more than 30 tickets. So I decided to go for it. I swiped my card and chose Case #11. I lost a lot of the better cases like 100 tickets and 50 tickets in my first two rounds. But I kept holding onto the 200 tickets, the top prize on the board. Eventually, I was down to two cases, mine and the one I had not eliminated, I believe it was #6. And I believe the two amounts remaining were 200 tickets and 10 tickets. The banker offered me 52 tickets. Even though Paul Rim said I should take the deal, I declined. I was going all the way. They opened Case #11 and there it was. 200 tickets! I had won the game! I pumped my fist, I was just so happy. I spent the next three minutes watching my tickets slowly dispense out of the bottom of the machine. I actually wore them around my neck like a long necklace for a few minutes before turning them in and getting them credited to my card. There was nothing really worth buying for 200 tickets. I could have gotten a tiny stuffed football, but it wasn't enough for me.

9) The other highlight was playing Mario Kart and finishing first as Mario in the race. It felt like I was a junior in college again when my roommates and I would play almost every week. I would have been a whole lot happier if I had beaten my friends out, but they were off doing their own things by this point.

10) By 10 pm, I decided to turn on Blueshirt Underground radio and hear Jim and Eddie vent over the Rangers. Chris Kreider getting sent down, the horrible power play, John Tortorella is a moron, that entertained me. After all, I had already spent 20 bucks on refilling my Game Works card and I'd really had enough of the place at that point. So I headed home.

11) I would have liked a very stiff drink when I came home tonight. Maybe some Jack Daniels or some sweet tea vodka. But it's Lent and I've decided to stay away from alcohol through March. So instead, I devoured some chips and Frontera salsa, and guzzled down a Mexican Coke. Glass bottle + sugar = proper Coke!

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