After a week break, I have now returned and will be back on my regular schedule... or as some might say, “back on my BS”. From the 16th to the early morning of the 22nd, it was a dull stretch of time as mainly, I got prepared for my customary Christmas vacation; this time my parents & I would DRIVE to Kansas then Illinois before heading back to Florida, where I currently am now. It wasn't my decision to schedule it out that way but that is not a complaint, as I'll describe in a bit. Let me mention two things before the vacation:
Friday afternoon was me at The Rise of Skywalker. I am sure I have mentioned this before but as a kid I loved (honestly, I still love) the original movies; the prequel movies were not great although in hindsight at least they don't have some of the nonsense that I hate about Hollywood movies in general as of late, The Force Awakens and Rogue One were fun, The Last Jedi I now realize is pretty bad and Solo was amazingly meh. I was hoping Skywalker would be just OK and it was... although Star Wars should be better than just OK. When I saw it, I thought it was fine overall as while the first 90 or so minutes I had big problems with (including one of the things I hated the most about The Last Jedi, which was bad humor that made it feel like it was NOT Star Wars in any way) yet after that it mostly got serious and there were some entertaining moments. As I thought more about the movie in the hours and days having seeing it, though... the flaws became overwhelming and the whole experience did not seem as fine as they made many mistakes throughout the new trilogy, not to mention the obvious fact that before they made The Force Awakens, there was no clue as to how this new movie would end, which is just amazing to me. Eh... at least the original movies are still out there, AND I have nice copies of them before Lucas made all those awful changes to them.
Saturday I went to the soccer stadium in Orlando where their Major League Soccer team plays-finally it got a corporate name and it's Exploria Stadium-to see a college football bowl game between Georgia Southern and Liberty. The former uses an option offense, which can be fun to watch. The game started off slow but eventually became fun and Liberty won 23-16; it did not matter to me who won as I have no issue w/ either team. Oh, and as I found a cheap ticket, my seat was in the end zone... front row! That was pretty neat and I can't complain about there being occasional rain as it never became a deluge and the temperature was in the 70's. Plus, Georgia Southern is the eagles so they have a real life bird as a mascot and at one point a handler brought it right up to people in the front row so it was neat to see it so close. It is known as the Cure Bowl as the proceeds go to cancer research so I was happy to support such a cause.
Sunday the 22nd, the vacation began. We ended up in Conway, Arkansas-lunch was had at a Raising Cane's in Mississippi and even that has become a tradition... if only they had a location in Florida-and we ate at a place we only found out about recently: Colton's Steak House & Grill, a small chain that has various locations in a few states. If our orders would have been correct it'd have been better but the food itself tasted fine. As for the time spent in Kansas then Illinois, it was nice visiting both siblings; I'd rather say too little rather than too much... it was nice seeing them and all my little nephews; both sisters were hospitable hosts. For those reading this that know at least one of them, everyone in the family is doing fine. Dinner one night in Kansas was at a Kobe's and it's always nice eating at one of those restaurants; in general the weather was nice and I can't complain that it was unseasonably warm in those locations. Now, my time in Illinois was the first time I was there in a full decade; there was no time for me to sight-see or even drive around my old hometown of Belvidere. At least I saw parts of State Street and I was amused by what was different vs. what was the same as when I still lived up there.
One day featured lunch from Portillo's (of course, it is a Portillo's so it was busy) and dinner was had at the Olympic Tavern, a place I somehow had never been to before. Good food was had at both. Who knows when in the future I'll be back in Illinois, this time on my own. People I know have families of their own so they are busy with that but I'd still like to see some sights and discover more of what has changed from “back in my day.” Anyhow, all the time on the road featured plenty of rain, and if not that, either dark roads in the night or dreary overcast skies. There is the Midwestern weather I know and “love”. I am glad to be back home as it was an exhausting trip. Now, I can't believe 2020 is right around the corner either and while nothing is on the agenda as of yet, here's to hoping that '20 overall is better than '19.
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