<b>January 11th:</b> Took Mom and Dad to the Naperville AMC on a cold Sunday night after spending the previous two in a hockey rink watching JP split the series with Aurora. Bears beat the Packers in the playoffs. Typing this from Jury Duty 😩. There was a child watching videos on full volume for a little bit during the screening, right as I was leaving the theater to complain a buff AMC employee came in and took care of it. I love Avatar! Parents seemed to like it too.

<b>January 15th:</b> Back at the Naperville AMC on a cold night. This time with Luke, Michael and their two regular plus ones. (You would think I might be referring to Tahbata and Kenzie but no! Gabe and Zach!) Legitimately thought I was going to faint in the first 5 minutes of the movies from a severed artery scene, first time I ever remember feeling like that from a movie. Liked this more than I thought I would. Got a sick Loak Avatar poster, took a picture with it in front of the Project Hail Mary cardboard promotional thing. God I hope that movies good.

<b>January 16th:</b> Naperville AMC with Carson. Have had the pleasure of seeing this 3 times in theaters, all pretty spread out due to CIFF and the early IMAX screening. Pretty much a full-ish crowd every time too. We were originally supposed to watch JP’s game on stream but some paperwork issue lead to the series being cancelled, weird!

<b>January 24th:</b> Snowing on the way into the theater tonight (AMC Naperville). Was -9 yesterday when I went into work yesterday. Parents have been in Iowa for Jp’s games so Carson and I have had the house to ourselves. Carson decided to come to the movies kind of last minute-ish, the row was already full so I changed my ticket and we sat in the row below Luke, Michael and Tahbata. Fun time, really great theater movie. While we were in there Iva Jovic bageled Putintseva and then breadsticked her in the second set to reach her first Slam quarterfinal. Crazy. I think she’s gonna be a superstar.

<b>January 25th:</b> Very snowy outside! Parents drove back from Iowa this morning after attending JP’s games and my Mom joined Carson and I at the theater. There was a special virtual Q&A with the 4 main cast members after that was added on to the end. Everyone looked hot. Mom liked the movie, we went and picked my dad up from enterprise on the way home after he dropped off the rental car they took to Iowa. Love this movie, I would see its million more times in theaters if I could. <b>March 2nd:</b> Headed over to downtown Downers Grove after I got off work and met up with Kyle at Sushi House, which ended up being so good. I got a few pieces of sushi and dan dan noodles. Made our way to the theater and grabbed our tickets, some twizzlers and a fountain drink. This was an After Hours Film Society screening but had like 10 times the people as the last one I had been to. The people yearn for Sentimental Value. Right before the lights went down they also announced they would be showing The Love That Remains here in a bout a month. Hooray!

<b>February 6th:</b> Left work 30ish minutes early on a Friday night, came home to an empty house, everybody was out and about. We got our Hummus Fit box but it looks like someone tried eating it. Turns out my parents saved it from the fate of a hungry squirrel. Had one of the protein rice krispies and headed over to pick up Austin. Back at the Naperville AMC per usual. Came home and watched the 4th episode of the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, holy shit was that good.

<b>February 14th:</b> Saw at the State Theater in Ann Arbor on a trip to Michigan with Uncle Mike and JP! Really fun weekend. Woke up, JP and I drove over to Uncle Mike’s, hopped in the Mini and set off to the fast station to get fountain drinks for the road. Had like 4-5 pee breaks in a 4 hour drive so not very efficient. Arrived at the hotel, very nice, cool lobby. Walked around checked out the pool and fitness area and stuff and then headed downtown to meet up with Uncle Rick and Jordan for lunch at Slurping Turtle, which is apparently Jordan’s favorite restaurant in Ann Arbor. We parked in a garage that was below street level then walked over. There was a 45 min wait so we pivoted to a secondary noodle place, got Pho. Delicious. Walked right to Yost from lunch, about a mile and a half, stopped to get my camera out of the car on the way. Arrived at Yost about twenty minutes before the game, got our seats, took some cool photos with the light from the windows reflecting off of the ice. There was this one dude in me and JP’s eyeliner that had some kind of club seats and must have gotten dapped up by like 400 separate people over the course of the game. Michigan won 6-3, Gavin McKenna scored one that kinda tipped off a defender in front of the net but still cool. This was his first game after being arrested for knockin a dude out.  After the game me and JP walked around the arena a bit and while we were in the hallway with all the plaques Adam Fantilli came walking out of the  administrative office. Was there to watch his brother during the NHL break. Crazy.  After the game the plan was to walk back towards downtown and kill time before we went to the theater. Turns out Rallyhouse (formerly known as the MDen) was still open and we went and shopped around there for like an hour. I got a really nice (really expensive) Lulu hoodie. Uncle Mike was feeling tired and was going to head back to the car alone while JP and I went to the movie but decided last minute to see it with us. Really cool theater, if I was a student at Michigan I would be there so often. Got a small popcorn that was so good too. JP liked it so much he ate all of his and went and got another before the movie even started.  Once the movie was finished, we finally started our walk back to the car. There was this club that had a massive line spanning a few blocks and was very rowdy, seemed miserable. Then a Volkswagen bug pulled up with 4 girls scream singing at the top of their lungs, a few homeless men were sharing confessions about lost love and a couple of kids were yelling go green. Uncle Mike said he was glad he was old. We stopped at the gas station on the way back to the hotel, got snacks. I got a Vernors Zero, I really wish we had those more available in Illinois. Got back, called Carson, watched some Olympics, Uncle Mike housed a small pint of ice cream, an we went to bed.  Woke up, headed over to the Law quad to take some more photos, really happy with the photos I got on this trip. Walked around a bit more and went back to Rallyhouse so Uncle Mike could get the sweater he had his eye on the day before. Back to the car, then over to see the Big House before we left for home.  Good trip, great memories.

<b>February 21st:</b> Laid back Saturday. Carson and I got haircuts, JP was home for the weekend and ran ten mile prepping for his marathon. Mom and Dad ran errands. Watch Jess win Dubai an Carlos win Doha, great tennis day. Headed over to AMC, real busy. Enjoyed the movie, grabbed Panda on the way home. Watched a Killdozer video while we ate. Played broadcast mode NHL with JP and laughed a lot. Everyone’s waking up at 7 am tomorrow for the gold medal game.

<b>February 28th:</b> Traveled down to Blono around noon with Carson. Listened to the first Mistborn audiobook on the way there and back. Excited to finally show it to Carson.  Picked up JP from his apartment when we got down there and went to CoreLife for lunch, really wish we had one of those by us. Got a Steakhouse bowl, had some of Carson’s sweet potato bites, incredible. Headed back to JP’s apartment to get the tour for the first time. Way bigger room than any I had living alone in college. Finally went over to Marcus Bloomington around 3 and saw the movie. Nice to be back, hadn’t seen something there since Carson’s senior year at ISU when we were still freshly dating. Wish we could have seen something in the IMAX theater because they have such a nice one but the only two things playing there were the Elvis concert film and Scream7, not really interested in either. Afterwords we went back to JP’s place and watched a little bit of the Hawks game before my parents and Elise arrived. To finish the night we went to the venue hosting Quincy’s accapella competition, 10 groups, 10 min sets. Quincy’s group got 3rd! There was ISU’s improv group doing stuff in between sets and while we waited for the judges to decide on the scoring. They were…. a rough watch. On the way home Carson and I stopped at Wally’s and got dinner. Fun day.

<b>March 1st:</b> The first of me and Luke’s double feature at Siskel. Very cute film, had a tall boy Diet Coke during and we grabbed lunch at the new Panera right next door to the theater. Got a Spicy Steak Asiago Bagel Stack that was delicious.

<b>March 1st:</b> 2nd of me and Luke’s double feature at Siskel. So happy to finally see this again, had been waiting since October, constantly checking showtimes at different theaters hoping it would pop up. Also really happy Luke loved it. Finally got to talk it out with someone as we drove home. <b>March 3rd:</b> Carson met me at work at 6, hopped in the trusty Venue and drove downtown to Siskel. Very little traffic, which means when we got there we had more than enough time to chill in the lobby. Ended up sitting on the couches they have there and watched some of the Hawks game on my phone, split AirPod style. We got popcorn and a Diet Coke, they upgraded our small to a large for free. I love this movie, happy I got to show it to Carson.

<b>March 8th:</b> Spent most of the day chilling at home other than a brief 45 minute stint of me and JP attempting to play tennis in 33 mph winds. Hilarious, that shit did not work. Carson and I made the trip to Emagine Batavia for the first time since it was the closest theater showing this other than Hollywood Boulevard, and I didn't really wanna do all that. Glad we made that decision, theater was extremely nice. Huge food menu, got cheddar popcorn, a pretzel and Nutella snack pack, these little 60 calorie candies and a large Coke Zero. These theaters actually had three different seating options. Loungers all the way in the back, I actually don’t really know what was special about these. Regular recliners in the middle portion, and cuddle chairs all the way in front. We just did the regular recliners, which were very nice. There was even a self playing piano in the lobby.

<b>March 14th:</b> Woke up, read a little bit of Strength of the Few, went and got a haircut, and then Carson and I headed over to Michael’s to watch 2 great Game of Throne’s Episodes (Episodes 3 and 4 of season 7). We got to watch on the nice TV with the nice soundbar in the family room cuz his parents were out of town lol. Snowed mid watch with these massive snowflakes but nothing stuck. After we finished we went to Half Price Books and looked around for a little before seeing this at the Naperville AMC. Came home, ate Jersey Mikes and finished the night off by watching the Hawks lose 4-0 to Vegas.

<b>March 16th:</b> Left work at 6 and met Carson at Yummi Wraps, this greek restaurant by Cinemark Seven Bridges. The food was great but made me feel a bit nauseous for some reason. We went in, I got a Rocky “popcorn bucket”, and we took our seats. It was my first time in Seven Bridges IMAX, way bigger screen than I expected but way smaller theater seating wise. Michael showed up, ate his pizza, then ate some of our massive XL popcorn I got with the Rocky “bucket”. Grabbed Kyle his own Rocky on our way out. Venezuela beat Italy in the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic while we were in the movie. Javier’s happy, final tomorrow night vs USA!