Holidays of Thunder

Life continues to be excellent. Thanksgiving in Boston was a treat, literally. The Brothers Cohen-Leadholm (and honorary fourth brother Miller) decided to deep-fry some pastries, which absolutely blew my mind. We're talking imitation twinkies, ho hos, zebra cakes, honey buns, cream chocolate cupcakes, chocolate wafers, bananas, the works. Was it a bad idea to stuff myself with deep-fried desserts the night before Thanksgiving? Perhaps. And yet I regret nothing.
Thanksgiving itself was lovely, and my broccoli casserole killed, as usual.

My niece and nephew are a handful, in a good way. Addie shows me the proper way to savor one's breakfast.

And Jackson works on the perfect grip for his spitball.

Spending quality time with the rest of my family was much needed. Then I got to see many of my closest friends from college and high school, wandering around Boston and stopping by some old haunts.
Things at my school are going really well, I love being around really cool, passionate teachers and students. My coworker and I are developing GCE's summer program almost from scratch. And we still get weekly trainings from Public Allies on all sorts of business and nonprofit topics. But wait, there's more: for our midyear retreat they're taking us to DC for the Inauguration! We're all hopping on a bus and riding 11 hours to spend the weekend in Maryland and hang out on the mall as Obama gets super-sworn-in! It's gonna be insane.
Staci got a new job, which she's psyched about. She works as a nurse at Loyola University Medical Center, so of course we had to celebrate the only way we know how: karaoke in Chinatown.

Christmas was sweet, I decided to stay in Chicago and take care of animals like the good old days. I got to see some of my favorite cats and dogs, and the weather was nice, too. I went down to the burbs on Christmas Eve to hang with Ross and his girlfriend's family, followed by some excellent karaoke at the Rusty Nail. On Christmas day I was hanging with Staci and my friends Nick and Brett, we decided to be completely unoriginal and eat Chinese food, which was a great decision.
I got to see one of my favorite bands play recently, Duke of Uke and his Novelty Orchestra. They're a large funky/soul ensemble with unique instrumentation and beautiful voices, they rock. Hard.
New Years was another unforgettable time, my good friends Zane and Will from Butler were in town. We played some Mario Galaxy 2, watched Jesus Christ Superstar and Down By Law, ate some pizza, went to a couple sweet beercades and of course attended a crowded New Years party in a loft. What more could you ask for???
I continue to play gigs with my friend Wes, check out this video we put together a while back.
And Bricklayers Foundation is still working on our album, we uploaded some tracks to our soundcloud and are trying to put together some shows. Unfortunately our singer moved to California, so we're still figuring out what we're gonna do without her. C'est la vie!
I really enjoyed Michael Ian Black's book You're Not Doing It Right, he's a hilarious comedian but this book also gets pretty heavy. I like when writers can mix the insecure and serious with the funny.
But I am currently reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, holy moley. Now there's a book! I wish we had read parts of it in high school, it really gives you a new perspective on everything.
And on that note, smell ya later!