Minor Holidays

Life has been busy here in Chicago lately, and our diligence (aka- my diligence) in updating this blog has clearly fallen to the wayside. What have we been doing? Well, let me share...

About a week and a half ago was Pi Day. For those of you who passed Algebra 2 in high school by cheating off the nearest Asian kid, Pi is 3.14, so March 14th is reserved to celebrate all thing Pi. To be honest, I don't even like math. (You know how many math classes it takes to get an English degree? One. And not even a hard one. My midterm for the class was writing a paper about examples of math in "The Simpsons." Seriously.) Also, I really don't even know that much about pi. (It has something to do with circles, right?) I just use Pi Day as an excuse to eat lots of pie. (I'm like those jerks who think Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Santa Claus.) It all started back in 2007, when I literally went door-to-door unannounced to my friend's houses, offering them free pie. Over the past couple of years, the celebration has died down a bit, so this year I decided to invite some people to our apartment for pie. Around 8pm, our tiny studio was cramped with about 8 people, half of whom were sitting on the floor because we don't have any chairs. Though it was a little uncomfortable, people are willing to endure a little discomfort for free pie.

After that, on Friday, I went on a prayer walk with our church. One of the exciting things that will be happening soon here in Chicago is the development of our community garden. Apparently, last year CCC Edgewater joined up with some people already doing some community gardening here, but this year an additional abandoned lot is being converted to vegetable plots. So we spent some time walking around the lot and the surrounding neighborhood, asking for God's guidance and blessing. Then, like the good Chicagoans we are, we all went and ate lots of pizza.

Cary Anne has been super busy lately. The show she's been volunteering with recently opened, so her life has become consumed by her 9-to-5 job then a full evening of rehearsal/shows, which means she usually doesn't get home until after 11:30pm. The night before St. Patrick's Day, she walked in after midnight and found me on the phone. Our friend Alexandria from college had recently written me a one sentence message on Facebook that simply said, "I'm in Chicago." 

Who are you talking to?" CA asked.

"Listen to this. Al's in Wrigleyville!"

"What the [expletive]?!" Cary Anne yelled, throwing her keys to the floor.

That's how we ended up at a tiny Mexican joint in Wrigleyville, eating overpriced nachos at 1am. At first, we had tried a bar, but the revelry of St. Paddy's day was already in full swing and we could barely hear each other over the screams of half drunk girls singing slurred renditions of the Backstreet Boys song streaming from the PA. The reunion with Al was great since we hadn't seen her since Christmas, and even then our time was fleeting. She told us all about her recent Spring Break trip to Portland, and we told her about our life in Chicago. Then we wandered the streets, took pictures, and said things like, "I'm gonna tweet this shit."

The next day, I had another reunion. My friend Hannah, whom I've known since middle school but hadn't seen in over a year and a half, was in town for St. Patrick's Day. Earlier, she had texted me to ask if we could grab lunch. Of course I said yes, and I went a step further and invited our friend Dan along. Hannah and I know Dan because we were all involved in theater in high school, but Hannah hadn't seen Dan in probably 7 years. I had dinner with Dan when I came apartment shopping for CA and I back in October, but before then I hadn't seen him in probably 6 years (and hadn't seen him since). I made the mistake of saying we should meet at a diner in Wrigleyville because it was a good mid-point, not realizing a street lined with bars on St. Paddy's is a recipe for disaster. The streets were swarming with every type of person I had ever met and hated during my college years, and to make matters worse Hannah got confused and got off at the wrong train stop. However, once we all arrived in the same place, we had a good time catching up and reminiscing. Hopefully it won't be years before I see those guys again.

And hopefully it won't be too long before I update this blog again.
Wish me luck.

"Feel the Illinoise"

Big things have been happening in Chicago lately. Last weekend, the city turned a whopping 175 years old, after officially becoming a town all the way back in 1837. Then, Monday was Chicago's annual Casimir Pulaski Day, where on the first Monday of March the school system shuts down so all the kids can stay home and listen to that depressing Sufjan Stevens song. (Actually, Pulaski was a hero of the American Revolution. Shame on you, if you were unaware.) So how did Cary Anne and I celebrate these momentous occasions? We splurged on the more expensive ice cream at the store. Seriously.

Actually, things in our life have been fairly busy. First, my level one improv class at iO came to an end. For 8 weeks, I had the opportunity to bond with about 20 of the kindest, funniest people I've ever met. My 3 hours with them every Wednesday night was easily one of the best parts of my week, and I already miss getting up on stage and playing with them regularly. (Luckily, I succeeded in getting everyone to sing Vitamin C's "Graduation Song" during our last class. It really wasn't hard after 8 weeks of of being told "Support your partner(s)" and "Look for the pattern and join in." Seriously, just go into an improv class and start singing anything. If they're any good, they'll join in.) The class was a great growing experience, and I can't wait to get some more money saved to sign up for level 2. Cary Anne also recently finished the first play she was volunteering with as a stage hand and immediately threw herself into another production, this time as an assistant Stage Manager. Though the work consumes a lot of her evenings, she says it's worth it to be back in the theatre world. However, I know she's ready to take a breather once this show comes to a close. 

With Cary Anne working a full time job while helping to put up a show and with my sporadic work schedule while trying to pursue some comedic endeavors, it's not always easy for us to spend quality time together. Luckily, last week, we both had Friday night off so we decided to plan a date night. I found a small, cheap bowling alley not far from us called Timber Lanes. I didn't realize just how cozy it would be until we walked in: 8 lanes and no computer system. Every ball in the joint was inscribed with a name. I used a shiny red one called "Rat Boy," and Cary Anne used a blue ball named "Penny." For about an hour we played, continually hoping our Wii bowling training would somehow come in handy, but it didn't really. Without a computer system, we had no idea what our score was, so we just wrote down the numbers and resolved to Google it when we got home. In the end, I think we only played slightly worse than the group of elementary schoolers who were using the lane beside us. (Though, in our defense, they were relying on the bumpers pretty heavily.) Overall, it was a lot of fun, and it was so nice to find a simple, old-fashioned alley tucked away into the glitz and noise of the big city. Cary Anne and I have already told multiple other couples about it, and they're all demanding a double date sometime in the near future. Though I'm not sure they can compete with our sweet 120 average.

Creativity & Cupid

Our friend Kelly recently landed her dream nursing job, but the program she got hired for doesn't start up until March, so she basically ended up with February as a month of vacation. After a week of sitting in her apartment and blowing through several seasons of Parks and Rec, she decided to actually get out in the city and do something. So she planned a day trip to The Art Institute of Chicago and invited all of us from church to come along. Luckily, it was on a day that I happened to have off, so a few weeks ago I met up with 5 others from church, and we took the Red Line into downtown.

The best part was the Institute was offering free admission for Illinois residence. Considering most of our church consists of 20-somethings working weird jobs to get by, that made us all happy. When we first arrived, we wandered downstairs through the miniatures exhibit and took in some photography. One of my favorite works was an entire wall of close-up photos of pennies in various states of corrosion. I came across one penny where Lincoln had a large divot in his temple and said "That seems insensitive." After that, we walked around the Renaissance wing, where the walls were lined with mammoth, colorful paintings. I like to think of myself as a person who enjoys and appreciates art, but some things are difficult not to mock. Sam and I would giggle like immature kids when we found something odd and amusing.

"Hey, look at this one, Sam. This guy was like, 'I want you to paint my portrait as I wear my bathrobe...but I also wanna be holding my big sword.'"
"Haha. Yeah, and look at this one. I think I'll paint two guys in a boat whispering while they look at woman trying to breast feed her child on the shore."
For some reason, the older curators stationed in each room kept giving us stern looks.

After that, Sam, Josh, and I split off from the girls to check out some of the more modern art. We found ourselves in a room with over half a dozen completely black framed photos on the wall. Upon reading the description of the work, we learned that the artist had used one of the most powerful telescopes in the world to look out into space, and instead of photographing anything interesting, decided to capture images of the deepest darkness. "She probably just forgot to the lens cap off and didn't want to admit it," someone said. So we headed back to the Eastern art room, where the artifact were much more interesting than black photos.

Intrigued gentlemen

Sadly, Cary Anne had to work during our trip to the museum, but luckily the Art Institute is only about 3 blocks from her office, so we were all able to get lunch together.

A week later, Valentine's Day was upon us. I generally have Tuesdays off, so I was able to take the day and plan things for when Cary Anne got home. Since we're on a relatively tights budget, I thought I'd make dinner for us, which is kind of a scary idea considering up until about year and half ago heating up frozen mozzarella sticks was basically the height of my culinary skills. I settled on a menu of grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and salad, which I figured would be pretty hard to screw up. But then I remembered another obstacle. When we made the move to Chicago, we sold our dining room table set since we knew we wouldn't have room here in our new place. I ended up pulling our desk to the center of our apartment and throwing a bed sheet over it. We only have one desk chair so I had to borrow a folding chair from our church pastors, Rich and Dori. When I picked it up, Rich and I laughed about how it was one of those classic newlywed Valentine's Day that you look back on with nostalgia in a few years, "Remember when we didn't have any chairs...?"

Luckily, I was able to mask the less-then-classy table accommodations by placing tea candles all over our apartment. While it provided it a nice ambience, it certainly made cooking more of an adventure. All-in-all, I was able to successfully surprise Cary Anne with an intimate meal when she got home, and I managed not to catch anything on fire (including the food). Earlier, we had decided that our Valentine's gifts to one another wouldn't be the traditional flowers or candy, but Cubs gear instead to make us feel like true Chicagoans. Don't we look great?

What comes before Part B?

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been doing plenty of partying here in the Windy City. The festivities kicked off a couple of weeks ago when Ben invited a bunch of people to Dave and Buster's to celebrate his 28th birthday. Ben is a friend of ours from church whom I've hit it off with particularly well thanks to our mutual love of writing and comedy. (In fact, we've already been working on stuff together.)

If you don't know, Dave and Buster's is like a Chuck E. Cheese for adults, where you binge on unhealthy food and then spend too much money on arcade games. Only Dave and Buster's is better than Chuck E. Cheese because D&B serves alcohol, and it's always fun to watch somebody try to have the coordination to master air hockey or skeeball after they have a few drinks in them. In fact, those two games we're quite popular amongst our friends, probably because they're good group games with smack talk potential. Although, in retrospect, skeeball smack talk sounds pretty stupid. (ie- "Oooh, you see that? I got my ball in the 50 hole! I know how to roll a ball up a ramp more accurately than you!") After skeeball, a small air hockey tournament broke out. Kelly succeeded in taking down Josh and Cary Anne before I came along and knocked her off her high horse. Air hockey is another one where smack talk is a bit weird (ie- "Yeah, I know Geometry, bitch!") But air hockey wasn't the only game I dominated; I also took everyone down in Pop-a-Shot, which shows you just how unathletic our Chicago friends are, when I'm the one dominating basketball.

After basketball, Ben took me down a peg by challenging me to a Nascar race on a simulator. After a fierce 4 laps of crashes and wall slams, Ben succeeded in beating me by .01 seconds! (Of course, I just let him win. I mean, it was his birthday after all.) Shooting games were also popular among our friends. Whether we were busting a cap in some aliens or foiling the plot of international terrorists, everyone seemed to have fun killing other living things. In the end, we all had fun and got to enjoy some chocolate cake after we sang to Ben and watched him blow out his candles. Cary Anne and I got him a Spider-Man bobble head as a gift because...well, what else could a 28-year-old want?

Then, just a couple of days ago was the Super Bowl, of course. Because of the big game, church got pushed to earlier in the afternoon, and after the service everyone headed just down the block to a bar called Norse. That's where I met up with Cary Anne and the rest of the gang since I had to work that afternoon. Norse provided everything one could hope for for the Super Bowl, which is mainly junk food and big screen TVs. Not only was there a free nacho bar, but they also allowed us to bring in our own chicken wings and cookies. The whole thing was pretty relaxed, with the two bar tenders coming out from behind the bar and sitting in stools for most of the game, only walking around occasionally to see if anyone needed another drink.

Like pretty much every Super Bowl party I've ever been to, the whole thing was more of a social event than a "let's play close attention to the game" event. No one seemed particularly passionate about either team with most of the "Who are you rooting for?"s being met with "Eh...no one, really." One of my favorite parts of the evening was watching our friend Kelly trying to convince us she knew something about football by sprinkling her sentences with the one or two football terms she knew, like "Ah yes. That quarterback really tossed the ol' pig skin good on that...drive?" Of course, all eyes were on the screen for the spectacle of Madonna's half time performance which somehow shifted from a Ancient Greece theme to a modern day Gospel choir theme in the middle. It made me think that somewhere out there an old man was having an awkward conversation with his army buddies...

"Hey guys, did you see my son in the Super Bowl?"

"Your son played in the Super Bowl? You must be so proud!"

"Well, he didn't play football. But he did play a fake harp while he was dressed like a Trojan soldier, dancing behind Madonna."

In the final moments Cary Anne pretended to be a passionate Patriots fan since our friend Zach was rooting for the Giants. For a few fleeting minutes, they exchanged some fiery smack talk before the Patriots came up short, and Cary Anne was left crushed as the team she put all her hopes in for less than a quarter of the game let her down.

So far it's been great year for fun and community, and hopefully that trend will continue on into the coming months.

Winter's Arrival

Back at the end of 2011, Cary Anne started telling me she needed new rain boots. She would go to her closet, pull out her boots, and yell "Look! Look at how cracked these are! They don't even keep water out!" Soon, she came home from work talking about how she found the perfect pair of rain boots at a shop downtown for a mere $125. Of course, after our big move to Chicago, we couldn't exactly rush out and spend that kind of money, but CA insisted she wouldn't be able to survive the sleet and snow of winter without reliable boots.

"All you need is a big pair of galoshes," I insisted.
"That's all I want, but they're harder to find than you think!"
"We just need to go to Walmart."

In Lexington, Walmart was a 5 minute drive down the road. Here, we have to make a 20-minute cruise out to the suburbs. I was under the impression that all Walmarts are basically carbon copies, but when we walked through the doors, I realized the Lexington Walmart was actually a "nice" Walmart. The Walmart here is cramped and dingy, and the width of the aisles can make you feel claustrophobic. When we finally made it to the boots, we discovered that organization is apparently optional at this Walmart. The boots were basically in a large pile which you had to sift through to find your appropriate size. After about 15 minutes of digging, Cary Anne had 3 boots, and though they were all the right size, they were all also for her left foot. For every boot of the wrong size we found, we tried to place them back on the shelf in an understandable order, but I told CA she could probably throw every one as far as she could in separate directions and no one would notice. Eventually, we did find a full pair of boots for Cary Anne, and I bought myself a box of Skittles as a reward for only spending $23, rather than $125.

It was a good thing Cary Anne got new boots, because we recently received two substantial snow storms here in the Windy City. When we first started telling people we were moving to Chicago at the start of November, all people seemed to talk about was the weather. They reacted as if we were Napoleon telling them we were going to invade Russia at the start of winter. However, despite all the talk, up until last week, winter had been freakishly mild here, with most days lingering in the mid-40s. (I was not expecting to still be riding the Vespa around town at the start of January.) Then, about 10 days ago, roughly 8-inches of snow accumulated over about 18 hours of straight snowfall. Now I feel like we're getting a taste of the Chicago winter I was expecting to experience. Here are a couple photos I took of the lake during a more recent snow storm that dumped about 4-5 inches...

A few days after that first big snow, my parents returned for another short visit thanks to my dad's job. On Tuesday, I gave mom a tour of all the places Cary Anne and I go on a regular basis, since the first time she visited we had just moved to town and had yet to develop any sort of routine. The tour ended with us seeing Skygate (aka- "The Bean") and picking up CA from work. That night, after Pops finished up with training, he headed into town and helped me change the headlight in mine and Cary Anne's car (meaning he changed the light while I held the flashlight). Then, we all headed down to The Pony for dinner. The Pony is Chicago's bar of choice for UK alum, so they show all the sports games. That night, we got to enjoy the men's basketball team demolish Arkansas. During commercial breaks, there was a trivia contest. While we could answer some of the more basic questions about Kentucky on our own, I often texted my brother when it came to the more detailed sports questions. In the end, Jon led us to a 1st place victory, and a $30 gift card prize. It was a great evening all around. Now if we could only get more people than just my parents to visit.

"Each new year brings hope and meaning..." - Paper Route, "Sing You to Sleep"

Happy New Year! 2012 has been great so far here in Chicago. We kicked off the new year with a party at our friend Kevin's apartment. He had the whole church over, which isn't that large of a feat when the whole church is only, like, 25 people.

Since we're pretty far from the heart of the city, driving isn't a terrible ordeal and it's how we usually get around when we're both going to the same place (Cary Anne isn't as keen about driving the Vespa around when the wind chill is in the teens as I am). But one of the great things about New Year's in Chicago is that the trains and buses are free from the evening of the 31st through early morning on the 1st in an attempt to discourage drunk driving (though I guess it could have a negative back lash because if a drunk driver happens to hit a bus it will most likely be filled with more people than normal). So we decided to take the L down to the party, but even without riding the Vespa, we still had to endure the chill of standing on an elevated platform waiting for our ride. Luckily, most stops have heat lamps, which Cary Anne thoroughly enjoys sunning under.


The party was everything you'd expect at a New Year's party for sensible 20-somethings, half of which are married. While there was no drunken debauchery, I was happy to see things were a bit more lively than all of us sitting around a table enjoying a rousing game of "Apples to Apples" (Actually, I think that's how Cary Anne and I spent New Year's last year...). As expected, there was plenty of junk food, alcohol, and loud conversation, and in the end, we actually did play a game, but after about 40 minutes it just broke down into a living room full of people laughing and yelling at each other. And at midnight, we all cheered and drank as Coldplay played on TV, and my new friend Nate made inappropriate resolutions like, "Here's to finally tellin' 'em what I did with Natalie Holloway's body in 2012!" A good night, overall.

The start of the new year also brought with it the start of my first class at Improv Olympic. Originally, we weren't sure how long it would take for us to be financially stable enough for me to start taking classes, but thanks to God's grace and some unexpected generosity, things fell into place rather quickly. So far, I've only had one class, but it was a lot fun, and I'm already getting to know some of my very nice and funny classmates. I think I will really enjoy spending 3 hours a week dedicated to improv. Also, Cary Anne recently got hooked up with a theater company through a friend so it looks like she'll be doing some back stage work over the coming weekends. Since CA hasn't done any work on a show since her last semester at Cumberland in the spring of 2010, you can imagine how excited she is.

During our first small group of 2012, our leaders, Rich and Dori, told us to think back to where we were at the start of 2011, both physically and emotionally. Then, they asked us to examine how we've changed over the course of the last 12 months, and ultimately asked us to boil our entire 2011 to a single word. For me, the word that came to mind for CA and I was "longing." Longing for better jobs. Longing to leave Lexington. Longing to pursue our passions. It's so remarkable to think about how God has answered nearly all of our longings in one way or another in such a short time. We can't wait to see how He moves over the next 12 months.

A Bluegrass Christmas (less banjos than you might think)

Several weeks ago, Cary Anne and I began getting in the holiday spirit by decorating our place. Despite the fact that our apartment is already cramped, we decided to lose a little more square footage by putting up a tree. Last year, after Christmas, we bought a star on sale, and this year we learned that the thing is just a bit to heavy for our hand-me-down artificial tree, so it's almost constantly leaning at a 45 degree angle.

Originally, we were hoping to get to spend Christmas in Virginia this year considering we haven't been back there since our wedding last year and we haven't seen Cary Anne's parents in over 6 months. Sadly, with our limited time off and limited income, a quick weekend trip down to Lexington became a much more practical plan.

So last Friday, the 23rd, I drove downtown to pick CA up from work around 4pm. It was my first time driving the car into the heart of the city. It was rush hour, and it was not a pretty sight. I quickly learned you basically need to have zero value for your fellow human beings in order to get anywhere. You know, real holiday spirit stuff.

Chris and I aren't as great at posing for
pictures as Cary Anne and Hannah.

We arrived in Lexington shortly after midnight and immediately headed to bed since we had made plans to meet our friends Chris and Hannah for coffee at 9am the next morning. Nothing says vacation like waking up at 8am. Over lattes, Chris and Cary Anne exchanged stories about working at a law office while Hannah and I pretended to be interested. (Click their names for a link to their blog. They haven't updated in 6 months so feel free to leave them a nasty comment.)

After coffee, we headed out to Paris, Kentucky, to my "Cousin" Judy's horse farm. (She is technically my father's cousin. Not sure what that makes her in relation to me...?) We've started a bit of a tradition of sharing brunch out there around Christmas time, and it was great to see everyone since CA and I had to miss out on the annual Thanksgiving get-together last month.

Of course, the only thing better than a delicious, filling meal shared with family is the glorious nap time that follows. After dozing for a couple of hours, Cary Anne and I headed out to Southland Christian, the church we used to attend in Lexington, where we met up with our friend Al and her family for the candle light Christmas Eve service. As expected, it was a beautiful event.

The next morning we got up and went to the church I was raised in during my teenage years and the church my parents still attend, Rosemont Baptist. Like Christmas brunch, it was a time filled with hugs and "Good to see you"s and "How's Chicago?"s. It's always fun to go back there and see the things that have changed and the things that never will.

After church, we threw some logs on the fire and my uncle Bob came over for present opening time. There was a chorus of "Ooohhs" and "Yaays" and "Don't worry, I saved the receipt," and overall, everyone came away with some great presents. Cary Anne and I got new covers from basically everyone since we recently moved to an icy tundra (though at this point in winter, Lexington has accumulated more snow than Chicago.) Later, in true Hall family fashion, my dad changed the oil in our car. Apparently, that guy can't even catch a break from mechanical work on Jesus' birthday.

After that, Cary Anne and I hopped around town a bit to visit some more friends. First, we stopped in at the Kelly's, where we got to catch up with Kate as she shared stories from her first semester working for Teach for America on a Native American reservation in South Dakota. We also got to play with puppy she rescued/adopted during her time on the reservation. Then, we hopped over to Waffle House for a late night snack with our friend Sharonda, and we all stuffed ourselves on greasy breakfast food as she shared the latest antics from her job.

The next day, our small vacation came to an end as we journeyed home. However, on the way, we were fortunate enough to get to stop in Cincinnati to meet some friends from Cumberland, Laura and Allison, for lunch. For some reason, Allison decided that meeting at a restaurant attached to a mall the day after Christmas was a smart idea, but we managed to fight the crowds. Allison shared her adventures from her first semester as a teacher in Winston-Salem, and Laura filled us in on all the latest Cumberland gossip.

Overall, it was a great Christmas weekend.