Chicago 2012 (Part 2) - Hotel and 312

from left to right (Ferida, Ashley, Lida)

So we got to Allegro Hotel, it's a pretty nice trendy looking place with odd shaped furniture and retro wallpaper. I was in a room 2 of my female friends, Lida and Ferida and was expecting to have two queen sized beds but that didn't happen they got us in a 1 king size bed but they were "nice" enough to send a cot... The room was pretty tiny and our view out the window was parking garage but if you look past it, you can see parts of the city. I wasn't aware but another female cousin of theirs, Ashley is also coming down and joining in our fun. I've met her before so I didn't mind that but it would make for a much tighter spot for us in the room. We settled in the room a bit relaxing with a few drinks and shots we slowly got ready for dinner. One of the sisters went to concierge to find out a place to eat nearby and suggested the restaurant 312 that was attached to the hotel.

The restaurant 312 in my opinion wouldn't be the place I would have picked to go to. It was chain restaurant quality disguising itself as upscale. The food wasn't terrible by all means just for the price of it I can probably find the same quality for less, and the waitress we had wasn't too catering to us. She would come around every once in a while but not enough to fill my water or ask if I needed another glass of wine. She did read us the specials which I went ahead and got the NY strip. Ferida and Elma also got the same thing but they ordered their steak well done. Okay, me being kind of a foodie was so appalled that anyone would order their steak well done. I mean that's all the flavor you're cooking up and all the natural juices. Sounding like a food snob I automatically judged them for not ordering a steak correctly; funny thing is my medium rare steak was sickly looking to them. Once we were finished with our meal we went back to the hotel and try to figure out what to do afterwards. We later got a call from Bruce that he'll be on his way to hang out and take out in the city.

Chicago 2012 (Part 1) - Leaving

I have to say I'm pretty good at preparing for packing day and would make a list of what to bring and make sure I'm ready to leave at the time I've been given. I hate people waiting on me for something that would mess up an entire schedule. I actually washed all my clothes and packed the night before so all I had left were my daily routines and head out out the door. We were all to meet at my friend, Ferida's house around 9 but I didn't want to leave my car over there during the entire weekend so I had my cousin, Rosie pick me up so we can have a quick breakfast and drop me off at the house.

While we got our breakfast at McDonalds' drive thru and ate in the car I arrived at the house with no one there at all. I called Ferida on my phone and she was actually just taking her dog for a walk and she'll be back in a few. That's fine a little wait wouldn't matter to me I thought but where is everyone else? I decided to wait til she gets back to question about that. I was told later that they're still packing and getting ready and she still had a dog so still had the errand of dropping off her dog at her cousin's house. When we got back to the meeting place, the others still have not arrived which I guess worked because she hasn't started packing in the first place. So I just hung out and watched TV until another sister arrived.

We finally found out that we'll need to pick the last sister, Elma at the house so once we're all packed and ready to go we loaded up in the car and drove to the last sister's house. Luckily there wasn't a lot of waiting on that part as she was already packed and ready to go. So after all of that morning madness we were finally on our way to Chicago. Seems like no one else had a chance to eat so we ended up at another's McDonald's where it was no lunch time. The drive wasn't so bad but traveling with a little 8 year old can be well... well another form of birth control as I would never want one in the nearby future. Because of our late departure of the day we ended up being stuck in traffic for a while. As fast as they drove we ended up getting there around 5:00 so just right at the start of rush hour so we spent a couple hours stuck behind miles of cars. I'll continue on the next entry.

I Voted for Barack Obama

It’s a day right before election day and the president himself, Barack Obama was going to be here before heading home to Chicago to get us to the Polls and just have one last talk with us Iowans. I was so determined to try to get there early so we can get a good view of all of who was going to be there. Unfortunately getting there around 6:00pm was not early enough and ended up still being too far to see Bruce Springsteen, Michelle Obama and Barack himself. 

image from CNN

Either way I really loved my experience at the rally. The way these people talked really does make me feel like they’re all working for me and making a better future for all of us. Sounds corny and all but just listening to the President speak about his stories before becoming president or his views for America really had me inspired and feel really good about my country I live in and what we’ve accomplished in these past years. I’m not going too deep into the whole political thing and what i believe in but obviously I am a Democrat and I do stand behind my president. I am voting tomorrow and after tonight it really makes me even more excited to vote for Barack Obama.

Bought Myself a MacBook Pro w/ Retina Display

So I’ve been looking online for a while and thinking of buying a new MacBook Pro. I already have one I got back in 2008 and recently it’s been moving kinda sluggish. Last weekend I went ahead and got one. I bought a 15” MacBook Pro with Retina display. Let’s say I spent a lot on it but I am one proud boy. This thing is a beast and super fast and the display is ridiculous! 

Money Progress

I really don't have much to write about these past weeks. I really haven't done all that much but work and hanging out with my cousins on the weekends playing Resident Evil 6. I guess my status of saving for Europe hasn't been the greatest. Obviously I've spent money on an iPhone that set me back around 500 bucks but I do plan on going in Spring of 2014 so I still have more than a year left to save as much as I can also noting that it would include some tax refunds as well.

I did just finish paying off my school loans and almost done with a credit card so that's some debt I can cross of my list. It feels really great to finally pay off a loan, I really felt like it would take me forever to finally get some of these cleared. I was an addict of retail and working for something like a long trip to Europe is actually helping me hold back on mass spending.

I've Been Journaling

I don't know why I'm saying this here but if the inevitable comes, I just want to tell you that all my files are on my Macbook and iCloud account. I started journaling a while now and have kept my older files on this computer but the transition to my hard drive to the iCloud have been quite annoying so I haven't uploaded them. From here on out though I have been writing my journals to the iCloud because it's much easier to just put them over there. Just wanted to inform you so if I ever go you can find some of my things there if you want to read about my not so thrilling life.

I guess I never know maybe someone will find it amusing.

I Got My iPhone 5!

Just this past Friday 9/21/12 was the release of the iPhone 5 and I woke up around 6am and got ready to wait in line at the Apple Store. I didn’t want to wait by myself so I had my cousin wait in line with me even though she did not get one herself. The doors at the Apple Store opens at 8am and we got there a little before 7 so we had an hour wait. I didn’t think we needed to get there that early because well, let’s face it I’m in Des Moines, IA and we’re not into all hype or the latest thing. We’re always a year behind until a fad or music gets to us anyway. 

It was like any release day of Apple products, they had workers there offering coffee, water, and cookies and made small chat with us. You may call me a fanboy or whatever but I swear I always get great customer service with Apple. They had a worker go through the line and giving us a card of the iPhone and carrier you’re getting so when you get one of those you’re sure to have one. Once the door opens the line went pretty smoothly with everyone’s purchase of the iPhone, it was such an exciting day for all of us.

I think the Apple worker that helped me was named, David but I made it pretty easy for him. I knew what I wanted and know how to go through all activation and iCloud so he kind of sat back and just charged my card. I really enjoy my purchase, the phone is really thin and light. I’m in love!

Waiting on iPhone 5

You know what I’m excited for this mid September, it’s all about the iPhone 5. It’s 9/9 right now and this week on Wednesday, Apple will be officially announce news and features of the latest iPhone. You can call me an Apple fanboy but I’ve had every iPhone that has been released from the first gen, 3g, 3gs, 4, and now the 4s.

So what I’m hearing before the news is obviously having support of 4g LTE and a bigger screen. Which hopefully they pull in some great internal stuff because I’ve been beta testing iOS 6 and have not been really impressed with the updates. Pictures and rumors also saying that they’ll be getting a whole new port as well. For me it’s kind of a bad thing since I have so many apple chargers and USB cords that I’ll now have to update all of my stuff to support the new phone.

Either way we’ll all know what’s up on Wednesday September 12. Hopefully there’s some surprise updates and not everything that I’m reading. Please give me a “one more thing.”