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2025: The Year In Live Performances

After a slow 2024, things rebounded a bit in 2025 for live performances, including a comedy show, a play, a live podcast taping, and a concert.

I kicked off the year on Valentine’s Day, heading downtown to the Chicago Theatre to see comedian Taylor Tomlinson’s Save Me tour.  I became a fan thanks to her gig hosting the revived @fter Midnight on CBS and was thrilled to see her perform live, my first comedy show since 2023.  After two opening acts, Tomlinson came out and commanded the stage.  Once she wrapped things up, she came back out with her openers and did a round of crowd confessions, where they riffed on stories the crowd had texted in earlier.  During the show, a snowstorm started to roll through town, which made getting out of the theater and getting home dry and in one piece a bit tricky.

In March, I made my first visit to Texas in 20 years to take Michael to see the stage version of Clue. He was sick when Angelina, Danny, and I saw it in Chicago back in 2022, so the experience was a new one for him.  We travelled from his dorm in Dallas to the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth on a Saturday afternoon to enjoy the show based on the movie.  Sadly, that was pretty much the total of our interaction, as he kept mostly to his dorm room the remainder of our visit.

I returned to the Chicago Theatre in September for a live taping of the Inside Jeopardy! podcast.  Following the podcast taping, featuring Celebrity Jeopardy! champion W. Kamu Bell and Jeopardy Masters finalist Juveria Zaheer, Ken Jennings came out to play an interactive round of Jeopardy with the audience.  Sadly, a limited signal prevented me from playing along on my phone, but it was still a good time.

My final live performance of the year came in late September when Garbage performed at the Salt Shed, which was my first ever visit to the new-ish venue.  Proclaiming that this was likely to be their final headlining tour of North America, the group put on a great performance that left the audience begging for more.  They have some European dates on the schedule for this summer that I would absolutely attend had I won the billion-dollar Powerball, but this might have been the end of the road for me seeing my favorite band.

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2025: The Year In Travel

As we ring in the new year, it’s time to take a look back at the few trips out of Illinois that I took last year.  Things got off to a quick start in early February when I made my second ever trip to the state of Iowa to take in the Purdue men’s basketball team take on the Hawkeyes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.  It was an easy win for the Boilermakers, who topped their conference rival 90-81.  After a night in Davenport, I returned home early the next morning.

My next trip came at the end of March, when I headed down to Texas for the first time since 2005 to visit Michael at school.  After getting a tour of his dorm on Friday, we travelled to Fort Worth on Saturday to see a live production based on the movie Clue.  That night, he rested while we picked up groceries and brought him dinner and his laundry.

My final trip of the year came in October, as I made my annual visit to Boston to celebrate birthdays with Angelina.  She got out of work early, so we met up at my hotel and caught up before heading to dinner.  Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, where she gathered her belongings, and her gifts, before heading back to her apartment.

And that’s it.  Here’s hoping 2026 has a little more adventure throughout the year.

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Fitbit XI – Week 19

A great week, as I posted my highest total since my trip to Amsterdam last summer and my highest total in the US in over a year, since Angelina’s graduation last May.   The week got off to a good start on Sunday, garnering 5600 steps while preparing for a garage sale the following weekend.  A trip to Wrigley Field, where I got to hold the big giant flag on the field for Memorial Day, helped Monday finish well over my daily goal, coming 27 steps shy of 8400.  Tuesday saw a big drop-off, finishing with 3900 steps.  More garage sale prep on Wednesday left me a single step away from 5400.  Thursday was the first day of the garage sale, which I visited while working, racking up 4700 steps.  Things were slower on Friday, which dropped my back down to 3900 steps.  The final day of the garage sale, plus a trip to the Museum of Science & Industry to see a new Spider-Man exhibit, wrapped up the week on a high note, falling just 23 steps shy of 7300.

Total steps: 39,229

Daily average: 5604.1