I think I'm finally recovered from last Saturday and as I type this, we're on Thursday. I woke up at 6:30 am and spent three hours working on my 5 page paper for grad school. I wrote about the contingency theory of leadership and how it applies in a global setting. I'm sure that makes for thrilling dinner conversation. I included topics such as the expansion of the Willow Creek Church Global Leadership Summit and the international growth of the National Football League. Don't know my grade yet, but I hope it turns out well.
I left around 11:30 for the gym and ran 5 miles in around 39:30. My speed is picking up. But I still haven't ran outside yet. Sorry, but I have no plans to start running outside until we hit 50 degrees. I hung in the sauna for maybe 20 minutes and headed home. I made a new shake with peanut butter, banana, and kale. It could have fooled me, I could hardly taste anything in that drink except the kale. I know it's super healthy, but my goodness, kale is not one of the best tasting foods I've ever had.
I took off around 2 pm and drove 45 minutes to Cumberland. I took the blue line to Clark/Lake and transferred over to the brown line. Little did I know what an adventure that would be. I only had to go four stops north to Armitage. Unfortunately, the tracks were being worked on so I wound up waiting 16 minutes in 35 degree weather. I found myself staring at the monitor, just waiting for that countdown to say "Train Due." Finally it came. I noticed we were moving very slowly, maybe a couple of miles per hour. After we reached the third station, the train suddenly stopped. The conductor said we had to go back south so another train could pass. That only held us up a couple of minutes, but I started thinking I should have just walked from Clark/Lake to Armitage!
But we got to Armitage and I went to Burger and the Butcher, voted the manliest burger place in the country by Maxim magazine. I was intrigued because they have eight burger options (Grass fed beef, pork, turkey, shrimp, salmon, etc.) as well as nine house made spice rubs (Chicago steak, coconut-curry, Sonora desert chili, cajun, etc). I ordered a grass fed burger with fries and a Mexican Coke. Gotta love any place that serves Coke with real sugar in it. The Kennebec fries were fresh cut and very thick. They tasted crispy and tender, just as fried should be. Since I'm not a ketchup fan, I would have liked a few more sauce options. I also god one of their homemade garlic dill pickles. Little did I expect to get a carving board four huge spears. They were a little sour, but incredibly crisp and flavorful. The taste of the burger was quite good. One problem: I asked for it to be cooked medium and the inside was definitely not cooked through. For $20, that was pretty disappointing.
From there, I walked around 1.5 miles to the Squared Circle. I ordered a 5 Rabbit beer and waited to take the party bus from downtown to Chicago Ridge, where Ring of Honor was running that night. I also met Nick and Matt Jackson, the Young Bucks, who were riding the bus with us before fighting Red Dragon for the ROH tag team titles. The 20 or so of us on the bus all got special t-shorts for the occasion. On the 45 minute ride, we watched Night of Hoopla, one of the craziest but most fun ROH shows ever.
At the autograph signing before the show, I met Chris Hero as well as Red Dragon, Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish. I got autographed pictures and took pictures with them, which was very cool. The show itself was very good. The Bucks won the tag team titles in what was definitely the best match of the night. I did not expect them to win, so it was a cool surprise. Kevin Steen vs Cedric Alexander was a really good match too. Adam Cole vs. Chris Hero for the world title was good, but it never hit that extra gear that I think we all wanted it to hit.
The show ended at 11. We waited rather impatiently for the bus to pick us up and take us back downtown. Unfortunately, the driver thought the show was ending at midnight. So he came back 45 minutes late. We picked up some PBR for the bus and I drank my first one on the ride back. It wasn't horrible, but I don't think I would buy one for myself. I met up with Q, Mangold, and Jerome at the Squared Circle and I settled in. I hadn't eaten since the burger, so despite it being 12:30 am, I ordered a slobberknocker pizza which has fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and JR's hot BBQ sauce. And maybe a couple of carbs to boot. It was awesome!
Q drove me the Logan Square station and I took the subway 30 minutes back to Cumberland. After 45 more minutes of driving, I settled in bed at 3 am. Except that it wasn't really 3 a.m. Since DST was taking effect that night, I really wasn't asleep until 4 a.m. Somehow I slept till 10 a.m. and I'm glad I had the option to go to church at 11:15 on Sunday morning.
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