Dec 20, 2016

My day working at Vineland Memorial was uneventful and boring. Child Study Team meetings, breaks, and leaving early. I was also falling asleep there after being up late last night. When I came home I watched some of the new season of The Man in the High Castle and then cooked up the Brussel Sprouts by tossing them in oil, salt, pepper, and onion powder before putting them in the oven for about an hour. They turned out really good.

I went to get Becca and headed to my mom's. She made broccoli cheddar soup with the vegan cheddar I brought over. It was more watery than I expected, but once I got used to that it was really good. The bread and oil dip was great too. Overall it was a really good meal. We had some wine and decided to play Rummikub after dinner. It was really fun. I won twice out of three games and Becca said I was competitive. I dropped her off and headed home to get to bed early for once.

Dec 19, 2016

I woke up at some point in the night and went back to bed thinking, "I won't be getting out of bed before 10!" Somehow I forgot that I had work, and I was enjoying my long and restful sleep. I actually did wake up at a perfect time for work to not have to rush or anything, and it was nice to have gotten 8 hours for once. I worked at Silver Run for Child Study Team and it was an easy day. Meetings were short, lunch was long, and the last meeting was canceled so I left early. The perfect CST day.

I was unproductive after work, but it wasn't long before I went to Ryan's to finish Super Metroid. I thought it would only be an hour or so, but I had a lot left. It took me maybe another 2-2.5 hours to do it. And I started using the online maps to get around easier so that probably knocked some time off. Ryan played some Zelda then switched to Super Mario World while I struggled along. It's amusing to me how the final boss isn't really difficult at all compared to the other ones getting there. It's a fun game, but I don't want to play it again anytime soon.

On my way home I went to Shop Rite and got ingredients to cook quinoa with spinach, kale, and chickpeas with asparagus. I ran home and cooked it all quickly to great success. I was really happy with the results and I took it over to Becca's for when she got home from her long day. I brought my computer over with the intention of doing some work on it, but I wanted to mod the Wii first to play SNES games. What ended up happening was I spent the next 3 hours looking at videos and reading things about how to get it working. I finally did it! Except there's a lag from the controller to the screen. I decided to save that for another day.

Dec 18, 2016

We woke up earlier than planned, but it was nice to just lie around for a while in bed and not have anything to do right away. We got up and cooked a tofu scramble and sweet potatoes. It was delicious. We watched another episode of Planet Earth while we ate which just made me want to travel more and learn how to do the ridiculous camera work they do.

We decided to go for a run because it was super warm out. We parked near my house and ran down the trail near the river. We went out and back and I was loving it, but Becca started to feel lightheaded so we stopped about halfway through the planned run. It was still nice to get out there. On our walk back there was a guy on the trail who pointed our attention to two giant bald eagles on a tree across the water. They were beautiful! I went and grabbed my camera and managed to catch a few shots of them despite not having an empty memory card or a tripod easily accessible.

We had to go get ready and go up to Cherry Hill for the Escape Room. Ryan, Shannon, Chuck, Alex, Tracy, Christie, and Becca's friend Jennell met us there. We chose The Illusionist as our theme, so it was a magician's room with tricks and cards all around. It was fun, but it wasn't nearly as interesting as the one we did last year. We didn't manage to escape, but we all agreed it was a little bit bullshit. There was one clue that we understood totally and we kept trying it without it working. They gave us the answer, but it didn't make sense. Anyway, we moved on, but it seemed like we couldn't split up and do things; we had to all work on one thing, which felt like a waste and poorly planned.

We went to Iron Hill Brewery after the game and sat at a long table in the bar. Becca and I got a flight that included a tart sour that was aged for 6 years. It was a surprise, and it was really good. I got a hummus and veggie wrap and stole some of Becca's fries. It was fun to hang out for a while when we weren't searching for clues and also to complain about the couple of things that didn't really make sense at the room.

Becca and I headed off to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's for ingredients for upcoming meals this week as well as some trip snacks for next week. We stopped at REI so Becca could look for new hiking boots and we could both look at day packs. I really do need to get one. My old high school bag isn't cutting it anymore. I'm tempted to just wait and hope I can make it to the REI Garage Sale on New Year's Eve. It was getting late (or it felt late) so we ended the shopping there and went home. After hanging out for a little while I decided to come home and call it a night to attempt getting more than six hours of sleep.

Dec 17, 2016

I woke up pretty early for a Saturday and scraped the ice off my car to go over to Ryan's. Since he has a second TV set up we played through Zelda and Super Metroid side by side. Metroid takes a lot longer than I remember and there is a lot of searching around with seemingly not much happening. We took a break for Moe's in the middle, and even after playing for about 6 hours when Ryan finished Zelda I still wasn't done. I'll finish later.

Becca and I headed to pick up Tracy and Christie and then met Chuck at Barnes and Noble before going into the city to get dinner at The Abbaye. We had some good beers and really good food as usual. There was an Evil Genius guava IPA that I really liked and the Brew Works Rude Elf that I forgot was candy delicious.

We headed to Prohibition Taproom for a couple more beers after that. Chuck and I got a cask beer from Yards called Hoppy Lil' Hudson that was really good. They were playing Jimmy Eat World on the stereo and we were teasing Christie about not knowing who it was even though we saw them last night.

It was a slightly icy and very foggy two-block walk to Union Transfer, but the church in the fog looked awesome. This reminds me I really need to go out in fog, rain, and other "bad" weather to get the interesting photos I desire.

We got inside in time to use the restroom before The Starting Line came on. The crowd was a little thin, but it was perfect for the room. No one was moving around at first, but I had had enough drinks to not care about pushing forward. Once things got started it was an amazing show and a great set. We all had a lot of fun. There were a couple of guys in the pit who were being assholes. Under Armour guy was just being annoying, but sweater guy was being a real dick so I went and got security (I wasn't even alone; some other guy was already telling them) and the guy got kicked out so that felt nice. We could enjoy the rest of the show in peace.

Dec 16, 2016

Another bitter cold day starting out with my alarm going off and not enough sleep. I was in for an English teacher at Memorial, and her first class really got me started off right. It was a small group and they sat silently working for the entire class. It was kind of incredible. I had an early break which was nice because I was hungry anyway. I saw Aiden because he was home sick and then I went back in for the second part of the day. The next class was loud but mostly working. The final class was mostly quiet and working, but I had to write one girl up for being an asshole about not doing her work and then disrupting other people. So it goes.

I came home and had some Gardein chick'n strips after work and then tried to take a nap. I guess I slept a little bit, but I've been bad at naps lately. Tracy and Christie were supposed to pick me up at 6:30, but they were running late. They ended up being over a half hour late, but that's not really unusual for them. We drove up the Parkway to the Stone Pony in time to park, walk a few blocks in the cold, and get inside the venue to a definitely over-capacity crowd where we had to shuffle sideways to get across the room. We didn't have to wait long for Jimmy Eat World to come on.

While the band was incredible and played an amazing set, the crowd was beyond shitty. It was packed in tight, but almost everyone was literally just standing there during their heavier and more upbeat songs. Like not even nodding their heads to the beat. I honestly do not understand why those people were there or how they were enjoying themselves. I completely understand not wanting/needing to jump around at a show, but how can you stand totally still? Doesn't music generally move people to dance a little bit? I always feel bad for the band too because they're rocking their hearts out on stage and getting no response.

I ended up really wishing I had not sold my Taking Back Sunday tickets because you know damn well that crowd would have been insane as always. Live and learn. It's just a bummer that the shows had to be on the same night. Our drive home was long, but Tracy and I chatted a lot about travel and where we'd like to end up living so that was nice. I don't get to have a lot of one on one chats with her these days. I was definitely ready for bed when I got home

Dec 15, 2016

I woke up to unexpected snow outside my windows, meaning I'd need to do some scraping before driving to work since the snow was light and icy, not fun and powdery. It was only a minimal delay before I got to Memorial and accepted my special ed job with coverage for a full block since a ton of teachers were out for a workshop. Still somehow they can't fill all the positions even with that notice. The day wasn't really bad, but it was long and I was tired. I co-taught with another sub, Lauren, during one class who seems pretty cool and wants to go skiing sometime. I got some Amazon Christmas shopping done during my last block.

Once my long day had ended I decided to go get at least one gift taken care of so I ran over to Bellview Winery to pick up a bottle for Becca. Hopefully she doesn't stumble across this blog before I give it to her. I got another bottle for Christie too. I feel like I'm making progress with gifts, but at the same time I still feel very behind. I ordered glass coasters online that I can insert photos into and they look like Polaroids. I wish I had come across them sooner, but with Amazon Prime I'm hoping I'll get them quickly and can find out if they'll be suitable to give to a bunch of people.

I decided to skip going to another store and went home for a nap instead. Of course it took me quite a while to actually get to the napping, but it was really nice once I did. I kind of wanted to just stay in bed after that, but I went to Becca's and we grappled over where to go to Through Being Cool or not. I was just feeling too tired for the drive to Philly and back so we ended up talking about future travel plans and mapped out a basic skeleton of what it might look like.

We spent a couple of hours going through the logistics of everything we'd (more like she'd) have to do before we left, including selling or renting her house out. We looked through the US, Europe, and gazed around the whole map to see places we would want to go. As always, my desire to just get on the road and keep going was prevalent, but I also know it was nice having a place of my own in Oregon. I really think I'd like to live there again.

Dec 14, 2016

A while ago I decided I should stop taking Child Study Team jobs at Memorial because I end up being in classrooms longer than I would if I took a normal job, which is the opposite of why I liked taking them to begin with. Today was no exception, and it reminded me why I shouldn't. I had class coverage all day with a 45 minute lunch as opposed to the (normally) 30 minute lunch in addition to the hour and a half I'd have off for my break period. Sometimes it's nice to stay busy and help the day go by faster, but I'd rather have the break most days.

After work I went to Parvin for a run since I know it's getting cold tomorrow. The weather was good for a run once I got started. I was running fast and looking forward to seeing my actual pace when I took out my phone 2.5 miles in to check it and as soon as I turned it on it shut off. My shitty iPhone has been doing this any time it's below like 60 degrees. I was out one day when it was 55 and it shut off at 30% battery. That's unacceptable. Anyway, my pace up to that point was 8:04 and I continued to the end of the 3 mile loop at, I think, the same pace. Time for a new phone.

Becca got some bad news that she failed her certification test, so I picked up Thai food and sushi to take over along with wine and beer to cheer her up. We spent the night watching Planet Earth while we ate and drank, then we tried to play a game of Scrabble that was forfeited pretty early on because the letters and the board were not being good to us. We went back to playing Mario Wii, making some progress and drinking the Rogue Cold Brew IPA that I brought over (it was supposed to be a Christmas present for someone else, shhhh!) It was a nice night and I was able to make her smile so mission accomplished.