It started off with my trip to Dallas to see my Brother, Sister (-in-law), and Niece for a weekend full of fun and family. We went to the park, to Downtown McKinney, to Downtown Dallas, and to a few other various places around town.

Once I got home, I adopted Brutus.

I took Red for many, many excursions around town.

I went camping in June, July, and September, each time at a different Illinois State Park.

I celebrated the birthdays of a few friends.

I went to Chicago a couple of times and Indianapolis once.

I helped J & J repaint the inside of their home.

I started rehearsing with the Philharmonic Chorale again.

Somewhere in there I found time to relandscape an area at the front of my house, but seriously only mowed the lawn about 6 times over the 3 months of summer.

This was probably one of the most exciting summers I’ve had in a REALLY long time, and I loved it. It was fun to be able to see so many friends and relatives in various places. However, I’m also glad that the majority of my travels have come to an end for a few months. There are a few day- and weeekend-trips planned, but nothing too major.

Along with being in town a bit more, I think I might have a bit more time to blog. I am going to try to blog once a week for a while, and then hopefully I can get back to a higher frequency.

A couple of friends of mine wanted to go to Chicago to see their Chinese New Year celebration. One of the guys is from Taiwan, and even though it’s not technically China, he seems to be involved in a large portion of that culture anyway.

Since we were going to make the trek to the big city, we decided to make a whole weekend out of it. And since the New Year parade wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, there was plenty of time for us to fill.

We left town on Saturday morning and drove up to Aurora, which is about an hour west of downtown Chicago. There is a gianormous outlet mall there, so we capitalized on the opportunity to get expensive products (mostly clothing) at largely discounted prices. It was quite interesting, though – some stores would have everything marked down with an additional 60-70% off the lowest price on the tag. But then there were name-brand places, like Sony, Nike, and Adidas to name a few, that only had a small selection of clearance items, with everything else marked at a normal (expensive) price. Anyway, I found enough bargains to keep me satisfied and enjoyed all of the people-watching that I was able to do. And when I say there was plenty of people-watching, I mean that there were TONS of interesting things to see and joke about. People are REALLY weird…

We were supposed to only be at the mall for a couple of hours, but that didn’t happen. We got there just before Noon and didn’t end up leaving until about 5pm. From the mall, we raced into downtown to check in to our hotel, but really got stuck in some nasty traffic. We started to get concerned – checking in to a hotel after 6pm is considered “late,” and some hotels will go ahead and give your room to someone else if you don’t make special effort to have them hold onto it for you. PLUS, we had somewhere to be at 8 and need to clean up and eat dinner beforehand.

Needless to say, we eventually made it to the hotel, the Westin Chicago River North (Amazing!), got checked in extremely quickly (Thank you, online reservations!), did a quick costume change, and headed into the Theater district, to the Bank of America Theater, to be exact. We scored discounted tickets to see “Jersey Boys,” an Off-Broadway production that tells the story of the band The Four Seasons.

I could probably post an ENTIRE blog (not just a post, but a whole blog) about this show. It was simply amazing. I want to point out some of the highlights, though, and I will preface my comments by saying that I was extremely disappointed and the way-too-frequent use of the “F-bomb”.

The BOA Theater is a classic-style theater in an old, old building. It’s extremely gilt, with ornate reliefs and woodwork all throughout the theater. The room itself is about 1.5 times taller than it is wide or deep, so it felt like we were sitting on top of the people in front of us. While this helps to ensure that there aren’t any heads blocking your view, it means that the top row(s) of the top balcony are WAY up there. As this is where our cheap seats were located, I was concerned that I might get a nose-bleed. Even though we were in the way-back, I thought that my view/seat was absolutely stellar.

The set design was impeccable. It was very versatile in the ways that they were able to use the same main set to create every scene. With only minor furniture-type items being move on and off set, they were able to create a street corner, a stage, a television studio, a recording studio, a bar/nightclub, an apartment,… and without much verbal explanation it was easily possible to know what the setting was. The ways that they used lights and shadows was dumbfounding. One in particular was a type of background they used a few times – there were two versions, but it was basically the silhouette of a cityscape with an ever-changing sunset illuminating it from behind. But it didn’t look tacky – it REALLY looked like a progressing sunset. Amazing.

I can’t say that I expected anything short of awesome in the acting department, but they definitely didn’t disappoint. These people are professional stage performers, so I anticipated that they would be one-cue and in-character throughout the show, and they were. While I am not familiar with the current line-up of Broadway performers, it seemed like the casting was perfect. The parts were very well done.

The music was extraordinary. There was a live pit, but they weren’t always in a “pit” – they were part of the show at various times, so they were as much of the cast as any others. And when I say the music was amazing, I am 100% including the vocals. I caught the lead off-pitch once. Once. In the whole show. It was a 2.5 hour-long show. Amazing. The Four Seasons was similar to a boy-band in the sense that they performed with four-part harmonies in a large majority of their songs. On stage, these were incredible. You may be familiar with some of their songs – “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “Walk Like a Man”, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, and the list goes on and on. If you can recall any of these, you may note that the lead singer had a very high-pitched, very distinct voice. Well, the lead on stage was just as distinct and absolutely awesome. His range was out of this world, and it didn’t come across as hokey or “faked” in any way. The other singers were just as amazing, though, and I don’t want to down-play their performances in any way… but the lead really did make the show.

One of my friends grew up with this music, and at intermission he was telling me about how he can remember hearing some of the songs played on the radio as “new” while he sat and talked with his sisters at home when he was in high school. Yes, that dates him rather accurately, but that made the show even better in his eyes. I was SO incredibly glad that I had the chance to see the show – I hesitated when it was first proposed as part of our trip, mainly because I had never heard of it, but I can’t imagine passing it up now that I know how awesome it is. I still cringe when I think about the foul language, but yeah… Wow. Amazing.

Now, the rest of the trip was just as fun, but it really wasn’t as exciting as the first part. We did a LOT of window shopping through various parts of the city, we went to an Asian food market (oh – my – gosh – there is some WEIRD food out there…), we sat and talked for hours over meals, etc. Oh yeah, and there was also the Chinese New Year parade – the whole reason for the trip!

One of the aforementioned meals went a bit long, and then we had to wait for the train, and then we had to walk to the parade route… and so we actually only saw the last minute or two of the parade. We were all a bit disappointed, but by the time we actually got there we knew that we weren’t going to see much. So, since we were in Chinatown, we went ahead and perused that part of the city. This meant more people watching for me, and I did go ahead and snap a few pictures as well. Peoria doesn’t exactly have a lot of Asian-inspired architecture, so I was fascinated by some of the buildings. I’m sure there are more ornate and intricate buildings in Asia itself, but I still enjoyed looking at it.

I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned this before (and it will surely become its own post if it’s not here already…), but I really, really enjoy good conversation. This trip was jam-packed full of good conversation, so there wasn’t really a chance for me to get bored or for me to want to come home. I had an amazing time throughout the weekend, and I’m so glad that I have friends that I don’t get tired of talking to. Thanks a million, guys!

Christmas has always  been family time for me. There have only been two Christmas days that I didn’t get to spend with my parents and most of my siblings. However, as we’ve all grown older, our “typical” celebration has evolved a bit. On Christmas Eve, we have a candle-lit lasagna dinner that my mom always pulls off impeccably. This meal is preceded and followed with chit-chat, laughter, games, and nacho dip. Us boys rally around the crock pot to prepare our post-lasagna feast with excitement and then settle in for the evening with a bag of chips and many bowls of dip. Christmas morning used to be VERY early, but now we casually have a delicious breakfast of Mom’s homemade biscuits and gravy and the most amazing cinamon rolls in the world. After we’re filled to the brim, we move on to the presents and more laughter/chit chat. The rest of Christmas day is very relaxed – if there are friends to visit, we split off to make our rounds; if there is extended family in town, they may stop by for a visit; otherwise, we just sit around in our PJs all day and do whatever the heck we want.

This year, for me at least, had a few new twists. While I would normally just spend the night at Mom and Dad’s on Christmas Eve, I decided to attend a Christmas Eve worship service with some friends, one of which was singing as part of the service. This program began at the early hour of 11pm and lasted until about midnight. While it was VERY different that the types of services that I normally attend, it was very neat to participate in that type of formal activity on Christmas Eve. Instead of just being lazy and having fun with my siblings, I was focusing on a different meaning of the holiday. But that wasn’t the part that was the most profound. Aside from my family, there are a handful of people that may as well be adopted into my family, as far as I’m concerned. But since they “have their own families”, or some other such nonsense, I don’t normally get to actually SHARE these holidays with them. Well, three of these folks were in attendance at this service, and I got to ring in the first few minutes of Christmas with them. I didn’t realize how much I would deeply enjoy that experience, and I would never have anticipated it, but I truly enjoyed being able to lean over to some of my closest friends and just say “Merry Christmas.” It was really special.

And while that was even a bit sappy for my taste, there was still one more heart-warming event that fits right in. First, some history: I have never really known my dad to have “friends”. He doesn’t “hang out” with anyone other than family, he doesn’t go to the ball games or bars or clubs, and, heck, he doesn’t even go out very frequently with Mom. He goes to work, wears himself out entirely, and then comes home and relaxes for the evening. This evening, though, his side of the family was over for our typical extended family feast, and then he all-of-a-sudden had to leave to “go pick up a friend”. But that’s all that was said as he walked out the door. About an hour later, well after the food had been consumed, I cornered Mom and asked her where Dad had really gone. She then quietly explained that Dad had received a phone call from an old friend from grade school who was having a tough time. He was recently released from jail, but had no place to go on the day after Christmas. He was in downtown Peoria and had nothing. At all. On the day after Christmas. So, without hesitation, Dad had left to go get this guy to bring him into OUR place for heat, warm food, and celebration. I was absolutely impressed at the way that Dad brought the guy into his home, introduced him to everyone, fixed him a plate of food, and then made absolutely certain that the guy felt welcome and loved by all. I’ve never, ever, witnessed that type of outreach, and it has really left an impression on me.

Now that I’ve rambled on and on waaay more than intended, I’ll stop. But, I’ll always remember how much better Christmas is when it is shared. I’ve always made it a point to spend it with family, but, while I don’t want that part to change, I want to be sure to share it with as many people as possible. I have been given SOO much and have enjoyed that for myself – it’s my turn to share.

We live about 3.5 hours from Six Flags, so we don’t get there too frequently. It’s probably been three years since I had been there, so I was pretty excited to go back.

In the fall, most theme parks are only open on the weekend, and this park was no exception. So, instead of going up on Halloween itself, we ended up going on the day after.

Six Flags hosts “FrightFest” each year, and I think they do it at each of their fifteen parks. As part of this, they decorate the park all spooky-like, they rename rides and attractions with creepy names, and after dark they have people, dressed in freakish costumes, lurk in the darker areas to jump out and startle people. It’s quite interesting, really.

And while that may sound really awesome to some, I was more interested in riding roller coasters and getting exhilaration in that way. We actually avoided a lot of the Halloween festivities by spending the daytime there, but I think we all had a really fun time.

I’m really glad to have good friends that put up with my nonsense, craziness, and erratic driving so that I can enjoy a day of their company.

-We purchased season passes for next year, which means you’ll have to sift through many more posts about theme parks when spring/summer comes. Or, if you’d rather, you’ll just have to plan to come along! Either one works for me .