West Coast Best Coast!

Hey friends! After a wonderful reunion with Bobby in Arizona last month, I have really been missing you guys.

Just a couple of kittens, out on the town!

Bobby was a wonderful host, as I'm sure surprises no one, and he was gracious enough to also be my chauffeur. I was in Scottsdale for a company-wide retreat, and we were staying in the wonderfully luxurious Phoenican Hotel. However, there were no bars within walking distance, so Bobby took me out and showed me around. He was also an excellent party crasher one night, and blended right into our lawn party and karaoke after party!

Also this. Surprisingly, my Mormon coworkers who were with us at the time didn't want a picture here...

Also in May, Jon and I took a fun weekend trip to New Orleans, where we heard echos of MOBB's riffs in every brass band on the streets.

Gotta protect that fair skin.

But I have a real reason for writing...I think most of you know this but I want to cover my bases and post it here. I am moving to Chicago! In one month. Which is crazy soon. My company opened an office in Chicago last November and it's still pretty small but they are looking to grow it. My office in Silicon Valley has 100 people, for comparison, and this office currently has 12 (I get to be lucky #13). I started talking to various people in April to find out if transferring might someday be a possibility, and then I hear that not only is it a possibility, but they like me and they're busy and how would I like to move in July??

So I am leaving California on July 4. I am going to miss beautiful, sunny, warm(ish) NorCal. But I am really excited about being closer to family, friends, and this blonde guy I've been crushing on (don't tell Jon). I've made some good friends out here, but there are so many more ND people in Chicago, and it will be exciting to be around that. Including so many of you guys! So let me know where you are and when we can hang out.

Love you all

uChicago: Where Fun Goes to Die

Hey Guys!

It's been a while since anyone posted so I just thought I'd try and get the ball rolling again. I miss hearing about your exciting lives!

As of right now, I am 2/3 of the way done with my Master's program at uChicago. It turns out that UC really is where fun goes to die, unless you're nerdy enough to consider what you study to fun. Which I do :) That being said, most of my time for the last six months has been spent like this:

There are only 3 music students (out of ~120) in my program, so I spend most of my time with a group of English majors. They're pretty awesome people, I just wish they didn't find my ND sports obsession so strange...

The rest of my time at UC will primarily focus on my thesis: "Wings for Wheels: Conceptual Blending and Escape in the songs of Schubert and Springsteen". Yes, I found a way to work Springsteen into my academic career.

Aside from school work, my time in Chicago has been pretty great. There's still a lot of things I need to see in the city, like the Art Institute, but we've found some cool restaurants and blues clubs and we even took some time off from final papers to experience a Chicago St. Patrick's Day last weekend.

I hope you all are doing well and I look forward to hearing from you!

Colorado Livin'

Eldora ski resort, where I have a season pass

GRAD SCHOOL
I survived my first semester! For some crazy reason, I thought it would be a good idea to give a talk about my research to a room full of around 100 8th graders...it was poor planning considering it was the morning after my last final (which was 7:30-10pm, what?). Oh, also, I had a final on a SATURDAY, come on CU. But back to the talk, it went pretty well, but 8th graders are a hard crowd, it was hard to tell if they were interested at all. I did pass around a rock sample and a petri dish with microorganisms growing on it, which they all freaked out when I showed it to them, so at least I got shock points! My adviser and I also went skiing together, proving once again how amazing she is.

BOULDER BREWERIES
I love the beer in Boulder! I went to Twisted Pine with some friends and got this delicious sampler, including a beer with 5 chilies in it! Fort Collins also has some good breweries, I have been to Odell's and have been meaning to get to New Belgium. Colorado has the best IPAs.

WINTER FUN

We tried to go snowshoeing this weekend, but the snow was too packed down, so it just turned into a hike, but it was still beautiful! 

I made a snow angel!

Lost Lake

Also, skiing on weekdays is the best. I went on a Thursday morning, and the slopes were so nice and empty. 

A post on lucky 12/12/12

Well I know it’s been a while since I posted anything here, and to remind you how long ago it was I was on here, I'll start with a few words about my marathon!

That was way back at the beginning of October, and it was a pretty incredible weekend. It was the weekend of the Miami game at Soldier Field. The part I think you all would be most proud of is how Jon and I spent our Saturday, the day before I ran 26.2 miles. We went to the marathon expo, of course, to get my packet and try all kinds of nutrition bars and goos and sports drinks. Then we went to Union Station to check out something at least as exciting: BEER!

The marathon went even better than I'd hoped. My goal time was 9 min miles, and I ended up averaging 8:40/mile. The weather was cooler than the weather I trained in, but I was really hesitant to wear too many layers, meaning I was a bit cold until the race was almost over. But everything about it was worth it. It was so awesome to get to about mile 20, and look at my watch, and realize that I was on track and that I was going to stay on track, and I was going to actually do this. 

Less than a mile to go at this point! (photo credit to Jon)

After the race, with (L to R) my mom's college roommate, my mom, my godmother, and my sister Alison, who came from Chicago's west suburbs, St. Louis, and Peoria to watch me run.

The sign Jon made to cheer me on. Reading the signs along the way was very entertaining.

So, an awesome experience. Thanks for listening. :)

Since then, I've stayed on the west coast. Gone to some concerts, some holiday parties, and yoga twice a week. I'll be going home to St. Louis for about ten days around Christmas, but until them I'm staying in a pleasant, temperate climate. Jon came out here for Thanksgiving, and we succeeded in cooking a whole Thanksgiving dinner without burning any food or my apartment. We watched the USC game from a downtown SF bar with other ND alums, and we had a great time yelling and cheering and making fun of Lane Kiffin for calling that timeout. It's still unbelievable to me that we are actually undefeated. We all had to sit through two years of football before we saw 12 wins. I tried looking at flights to Miami, then I realized that San Francisco is really far away from Florida. 

Work is going well. I think I'm getting better at my job, which is exciting. But you guys have heard a little about my job already...I want to hear more about you all! Anyone have any trips planned over Christmas time? Will you all still be where you are now in six months? 

Or, if you don't know what to say just answer this question for now: where will everyone watch the national championship?

Ok wtf?

Seriously? The football team doesn't lose a single game the year we graduate? Sure there is still that pesky team from the depths of hell BUT even if they choke at this point they will still go to a BCS bowl (which lets be real is pretty amazing from what we all witnessed last year). I've been very excited for the team to do this well and to mentally say "suck it" every time Mark May says something but I just cant get over why it had to be the very year we graduated. Seeing the highlights from Ireland, Oklahoma, and soon to be highlights from the Rosebowl or the National Championship game makes me wish that I was still in the band. I know I'm not alone in this feeling with you guys. However, I will say that seeing my bank account fill with money despite my best efforts to spend it takes the edge off that feeling (Sorry to those of you still in school....at least you're not 55k in the hole). Here's to all the alumni....

tl;dr I'm jealous that the football team is amazing and having a season with no heatbreak and only awesome but being an adult has its perks.

Jimmy "I am the "Notre Dame guy" at work, come January I'm going to be the "Crazy Notre Dame guy"" Johns

Law School and Fun with Numbers!

Law School in One Number: 15,000 => The approximate word count of the notes that I have taken in the past week

Some numbers for comparison:

455,125 – The Lord of the Rings

47,094 – The Great Gatsby

24,476 – All of the blog posts I wrote while in London

13,082 – My senior thesis combined with my Independent Study project

7,924 – My senior thesis alone

If you convert between photos and words at a rate of 1000 words/photo, I arguably saved myself 480,000 words while studying abroad by switching from blogging to posting pictures to Facebook. Sadly, that option is not available in Law School.

Joel "I spend a lot of time at my computer." Graczyk