Thanksgiving
So, Thanksgiving... was an interesting time. Matt & I drove to Rockford Thursday morning to head to my dad's house for Thanksgiving (he hosts it every year). We ended up getting there pretty early (earlier than normal, as my dad serves lunch at 12 sharp on Thanksgiving)... hung out with my odd family, ate some good food,& watched some football. A funny part in the day came during lunch, sitting at the dinner table when Matt starts talking football with my cousin. They start talking about the new surfaces being used for fields in the NFL. Matt says, "yeah, a lot of places are using that astroglide surface now" D'oh.
Thanksgiving evening, Matt headed to the burbs to hang out with his family, while I stayed back to hang out with my mom & younger brother. It's an annual tradition to go play Bingo on Thanksgiving evening, so my mom, her boyfriend & my brother headed to the old fogey filled Bingo hall. As usual, I didn't win a dang thing (unless you count winning a raffle prize of '5 bingo dollars to be spent at your next Wednesday or Thursday night bingo!' as winning, and also as usual, it infuriated me to no end. Bingo ended up going until fairly late, my mom dropped me off at my dad's, I went to bed, preparing for my 10 year high school reunion the next evening.
Now, I know, who goes to stupid reunions? I only decided to go once my friend Megan convinced me to. Matt drove back to Rockford for the night, picked me up, and we headed to the hotel we'd be staying at (the hotel was in the same parking lot as the reunion locale, so no driving would be needed after a night of heavy drinking). Prior to heading over to Stephanie's parents house (where we always used to meet before dances) Matt drove me back toward my dad's place, mentioning that he needed to pick something up. Intrigued, I kept trying to figure out what it was, and only once we were very close did I figure it out. He ended up jokingly getting me a corsage for my reunion. I guess his request didnt go over so well with the florist, as he went in, asked, "I'm looking for something gaughty, do you have anything?" The florist wasnt amused, but before she could say something, Matt pointed to something and said, "That will work" -- anyway, so I had an awesome corsage for my 10 year HS reunion.
The reunion itself was pretty stupid. Hanging out with Steph & Brandon and Megan & Beth was pretty fun. It's good to see old friends, I wish we did more often. Also got to see Megan's brother Alex and his girlfriend Kate... the following morning, Matt & I went couch shopping very quickly & then he headed over to my mom's house to meet her, my brother, and my 2 neices & 1 nephew. We hung out at her house for a while, but had to head back to Chicago to get to a Wilco concert that night (which ended up being pretty cool).
Phoenix
This past weekend (November 30th-December 3rd) a bunch of us headed out to Phoenix, Arizona to watch the Illini take on Arizona. Illinois ended up losing, both to the Wildcats & the refs, but I'll leave it at that.
My old roommate Sean also lives out in Phoenix and was teh gracious host to roughly 7-9 of us depending on the evening. He had plenty of aerobeds, blankets, towels, etc... he's all growns up now, out there in Phoenix (although I think his mom has a lot to do with that). Anyway, 7 of us got to Phoenix late Thursday night, just in time to miss the snow in Chicago that ended up cancelling a lot of flights. I guess we were one of the last flighst allowed to leave O'Hare. Anyway, Sean picked us all up at the airport, we headed back to get ready to go out for the evening. Spent some time in downtown Tempe, which didnt leave a good impression on me after the first night... we first stopped at a brewery that claimed to close at 1AM on Thursdays. We get there around 11:30, they claim the kitchen is closed and the bar is on last call. What? So what do we do? We sit down and order a round of beers. We headed to one other bar that night, but soon called it an evening, as we were all tired.
Friday morning we all get up, Sean & Teri's boyfriend Kieffer headed out early for golf while Matt & Ben cook breakfast for the rest of us. The plan for Friday was hiking at Piestawa Peak, but there was more to the plan than Teri knew. Kieffer didnt actually go golf, but rather, he headed up to the trail we planned to hike. He found a spot on teh trail that was out of sight, and waited for us to walk by so he could propose to Teri. Hoooray, she said yes!
We finished hiking, stopped at an In N' Out burger (first timer), and headed home to rest before dinner. We ate at a really great Japanese choppy place where they cook your meal in front of you on the table. It was tasty. We then headed out in Scottsdale for the evening, had many drinks, eventually made it home.
Saturday was game day... we headed downtown around 11 to go to the bar where an Illini pregame was being held. That wasn't all that fun, so we eventually made our way into the arena for game 1 featuring Gonzaga vs. Texas. We ran into our fair share of douchebag Arizona fans, claiming they should have won in 2005 to head to the final four... it was nice to not have to respond to them, but rather point to the Final Four shirts some of our friends were wearing. We ended up in awesome seats, 18 rows behind the Illinois bench, I only wish a better outcome had occurred.
Saturday night we headed out in downtown Tempe. We were able to score a table at a pretty cool (and cheap due to the idiot waitress who underchared us for drinks) bar, where we spent most of the night. We did attempt to venture over to another bar, only to be bonged because the only identification I have is my Illinois State ID. Apparently some bars in Phoenix will not accept out of state IDs as identification (not to mention the person in front of us got in on their UPS employee ID). Phoenix sucks for that, sorry.
Sunday we found a place to watch the Bears game (after checking many bars in downtown Tempe, even Pizzaria Uno - which claims to be a Chicago bar)...watched the game, walked through the Art Fair that was taking place on the streets, bought a few souveneirs, and eventually made our way back to Sean's to get packed for the airport.
Overall, a really fun trip which I'm glad we made. It was nice to see Sean, as well as our out of town friends Jamie and Lee from California. Illini trips usually end up being a good time, despite the outcomes of the games. The part that wasn't so fun - returning to 20 degree weather with snow. Yuck.
All the rest
Nothing much else to report... Matt & I purchased a Christmas tree earlier this week & now it's all decorated. Steve tends to leave it alone, which is an awesome relief. I'm likely headed to his family's Christmas Eve celebration in Oak Park, and then we're heading to my family's Christmas celebration in Rockford. I havent done a lick of Christmas shopping yet, probably should get started on that... Matt & I are also currently shopping for a couch, which will end up being our Christmas gift to each other... we've also been looking at plasma/LCD televisions, but likely further down the line. I'm taking time off shortly to head to St Louis for the Illinois/Mizzou Braggin' Rights game, as well to Cincinnati for the Illinois/Xavier game at the end of the month.
That's all for now. Have a great holiday season!
