My friend Vanessa just started blogging to help facilitate conversations with other people working with people with special needs.  This field is really important to her... as her dad was diagnosed with MS over 25 years ago.   If anyone has any tips for other bloggers in this field she should connect with or how to approach this kind of a blog, please leave a comment on her site.   Good luck, Vanessa!  Its obviously a very worthwhile endeavor.

I'm not going to post about last night without explaining why there were 30 of my friends at Bar 515 celebrating.  While I can't say yet where I'm going (not until Monday anyway), the big news is that Friday, February 11, 2005 will be my last day at General Motors Asset Management.  After a little over eight years, I will be moving on for a really fantastic opportunity.  It has been a great experience, which I will write lots about when I make my official announcement on Monday.  For now, I'll just be concentrating on the party last night. 

I think Tim really captured the significance of the occasion when he asked, "What else have you done in your life for eight years so far?  Nothing."  He was totally right.  GM had been the longest continuous association/presense I've ever had.  Talk about an era.  Anyway...  more on Monday.  On to the party.

First of all, the turnout was amazing.  I really didn't expect so many people to show.  One of Dorean's friends said to me, "Wow, you have a lot of friends."   I guess I do.  I just don't like losing touch with people, especially when I've met quality people.  My life, in spite of the fact that it hasn't taken me too far geographically, has taken me through a lot of different groups of people and so I've met a lot of people that I would like to keep around.  Last night, people from so many different parts of my life were represented.  It was a little overwhelming to see them all there at once, and to feel like you're responsible for them having a good time.  I suppose that's what the alcohol is there for... its like a babysitter.  "Mr. Beer, could you watch Brian for a little while while I go greet some guests?"  Anyway, there were people from home, from Genesis, Regis/Marymount days, Fordham, GM, kayaking, baseball.  I thought it would be interesting to plot the entrance of selected people into my life on a timeline. 

No, I'm serious, I actually did it:

It will be interesting to see how that plays out over time.  Maybe I'll do another one for my grad school going away party.  :)

Anyway, I know you're all dying to see the pictures.  To be honest, I didn't get as many people as I would have liked to.  I was pretty busy hanging out with everyone, but I did get a few.  Perhaps I should have deputized some people at the bar with the Powershot.  That always seems to get the volume up and the quality down.

Today was a major breakthrough in terms of my photography skills.  Jeff the Intern, put this photo in your pipe and smoke it:

The funny thing is, this butterfly wasn't even that impressive in person.  He (or she... I didn't check) wasn't even that big--maybe about an inch and a half across.  But, I got the camera right up in his grille and snapped one off.  I'd say it is probably the best photo I've ever taken.  I guess you just have to take a lot to get a good one.  I just bought a new memory card for the camera, so be prepared for a lot more.  I'm going to start posting all the originals on a site.  I've seen Ofoto.  Valarie Cooper suggested Snapfish.  Does anyone else have any suggestions?

So, yesterday, we basically tooled around the city.  I think it was just as much an excuse for me to take lots of new photos as it was to explore the city.  One thing I'm realizing about taking pictures...   it gives the best moments of your life a longer shelf life.  We all have boring or sad times in our lives, but when you flip back through the pictures you took of the best parts, it tends to dwarf the times you'd rather forget.

First stop of the day was the Haight-Ashbury district... SF's equivilent to the Village I suppose.  I only took this picture to show that I was there, but I didn't feel comfortable snapping off a lot of pics like a tourist in and around the tattoo shops and used clothing stores.  I felt like they could smell my recent vote cast for the red team and didn't want to get the scarlet "R" branded on me.  (Although, if I wanted an R branded on me, there's a shop there that would do it.)

These pictures are from Buena Vista park.  The church is St. Ignatius Church at USF.  Gotta get the Jesuit stuff in somehow.  The first pic was a close second I think for the pic of the day.

So, as we're leaving the park, I spot this random mound thing.  I was curious, so we went over there for a closer look.

There's a sign that labels this thing as the "Randall Museum."  I'm not sure I understand exactly how this is a museum, but it was fascinating nonetheless.

I took pictures from the top of the "Randall Museum".  These were difficult to take, because I'm pretty damn scared of heights.  The good thing is, I'm better with looking out  than I am with down.  This is where I took the butterfly pic.

This is the Palace of Fine Arts...  the architecture is impressive, but the turtles proved equally as interesting...  for 10 minutes, Carrie my patient tour guide and I watched one the closest turtle to us in this pic get a worm off his  back leg.  For you and I, a worm on our leg isn't a big issue, but imagine if you were a turtle.  You can't reach your leg with any other part of your body and you can't really shake it out too quickly to dislodge the little critter.  It took a while, but he finally kicked the worm off. 

I have more pics, but its taking too long to upload.  Note to Six Apart...    you should let people post multiple pictures at a time.  The interface is really good and it lets you cut and paste very quickly once its uploaded, so I wouldn't mind being able to just upload the whole group of pics I plan to post at once upfront.  For now, I'll finish with this one.  I don't know who these people are, but they were sitting by the water in Sausalito and I thought it made a good Hallmark moment--certainly picture worthy.  Sigh.

If you're an entrepreneur, one of the best ways to get me using something is to give me a service I can run on my blog.  :)    Now I'm obsessed with Castpost.

Powered by Castpost.

I went to junior high school with Cara...   After reading the article below, I think I'm going to start sending cookies around instead of flowers, which are generally overpriced and pretty wilted most of the time.  If you're sending something to anyone in Brooklyn, try her shop.  The number is 718-680-6680.

Newsday photos

Cara Macksoud left her job as a specialist on the New York Stock Exchange floor to run a franchise of Cookies In Bloom.

Link: Journal Gazette | 06/06/2005 | Trading stocks for cookies.

NEW YORK – Two years ago Cara Macksoud was trading Spiders, Diamonds and other sophisticated investments on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She’s now taking orders for chocolate turtles and S’mores at her Cookies in Bloom franchise in New York.

So yesterday I went to lunch with Suzie.  I was starving, and I generally eat a lot of sushi when I go out, but the relative difference in what we ordered was hilarious, so I took a picture of it.

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So a funny thing happened today...  A while back, I posted an IM conversation that Brian and I had about people from Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Well, some of the people we mentioned were Googling themselves or other people on the list and found my site.  All of the sudden, four people I went to elementary school with and probably haven't spoken to in between 5-15 years commented on the page, adding more names on the list.  Quite a blast from the past. 

I think its an interesting way to find people.  Just blog a list of people you'd like to get in touch with.  I think everyone Googles themselves at least once in a while.  I'll bet that before you know it, these people will find your "People I'd like to get in touch with" list.  Classmates.com...   so much for your business model. 

Last night was yet another Fordham Young Alumni Third Thursday Happy Hour.  This one was a benefit organized by the Young Alumni Committee (see left) for Toys for Tots.  We didn't get the same kind of turnout we did last year, but it was still a blast.  I think a lot of people don't show because they don't know who else might be coming, but for the people that went, we were at O'Flahertys from about 6:30 to midnight.  Some of us partied harder than others...   I think the highlight of the night was introducing Jillian to Kristin Naz.  They're both going to be in the same teaching in Hungary program next year, and they hit it off tremendously.  Its funny, because Amanda was upset that the turnout was less than expected, but I think that seeing just this one connection was worth everyone's participation for the entire night.  Its about the quality, not the quantity.  Plus, I was glad to see Kristin there, because I hadn't seen her in a while and her work schedule is usually pretty ridiculous.

Me, Samara, Trevor and Ryan shot some rounds of pool as well. 

And, better late than never, Kat Bride graced us with her presence after work.  I think this is an interesting shot...  perhaps its the combo of the colors and the art behind her...

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So after I walked out of the Starbucks this morning, I walked down this street with a sign to "Coit Tower".  There was a long set of steep stairs up this hill and a spire at the top of the hill... looked like an interesting place to go, plus I wondered with the view might look like from up there.

The sun kind of washed out the second and third level of stairs above this....  its such a curious setup, right up from the end of this side street.

At the top of this set of stairs, halfway up the hill, there's a really great view.  PS... this post is now a race against my laptop battery.  Can't find a plug in this Starbucks.

Odd pink castle up the hill...

You gotta be kiddin' me...   

"Hey, where do these stairs go?

They go up..."   

- Ghostbusters  (One of the most well written comedies ever.)

Who says people in California are strange?  This woman appears to be completely normal.  Of course, I'm not sure I can say the same thing for the owner of this house.

Well, maybe I do have some photographic talent.  Although, a untrained monkey probably could have taken a good shot from this spot given this fantastic scenery.  Obviously, that's the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.  Perhaps New York should start painting some of its bridges.  How about painting the Verrazano bridge yellow?

I'm here.... literally.  The little black asterisk on the top left of the map marks my spot...   but I'm also right there in the reflection.  Cool, no?  My tat my reflect my inner badass, but this picture definately reflects the inner dork.  Check out the panorama of photos at the top of this hill by the Coit Tower below...

Sweet.

You know what, I'm not even going to include a picture of the tower itself, because its not nearly as cool as the view.

But you know what is cool?  This guy's door...

I took that on the walk back down the hill.

The rest of the day I spent mostly driving.  I drove down to Palo Alto to have lunch with Valarie from CM Capital at Zibbibo.  I had a puttenesca pizza... good stuff. 

I did visit Stanford, but I didn't take any pictures.  I don't want to jinx it, because then I'll feel like a goofball.  After Stanford, I drove around University Avenue...  there are some great houses down on the other end.  I love looking at houses.  I took an architecture course in Regis and every time I look at an interesting design, I mentally add it to the list of stuff I'd like in my own house one day.  I think it would be great to design my own house--with someone special of course. 

A really special architect.  ;)

Oh, Holian will appreciate this.  On the drive back into the city, I snapped off a quick photo on the highway..

   How sweet is that Vette?  Its like a '70 or so.  I also saw a new Mustang at Stanford.  I can't decide whether or not I want a new Mustang or an older car like this.  I guess it depends on whether or not I'll be driving to Greenwich everyday.

These photos are from a week and a half ago... Holian came up for the Fordham football game, and coincidently, Brian and Tim, along with their Brooklyn crew came out to the same bar that night. Claire, Suzie, Carlie, and Kathleen came, too. It was more people that I knew at one place than I think I've ever had before.

Carla Allocca is getting married. Carla and I dated in the eighth grade. We were thirteen. Clinton had just been elected and the S&P 500 was at 422. The Nasdaq? 634. Google did not exist, and Jay Leno replaced Carson. The Real World made its debut. The Mets would trade David Cone to the Jays for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson. It feels like yesterday. Bizzare.

They're going to start dropping like flies now. Rachel and Vanessa will probably be next, although I'm pretty sure at this point I won't be invited to those weddings. Who else? Ryan maybe? Jen Bailey?

I spent the day in Breezy Point. For those of you who don't know where or what that is, I looked it up:

">A neighborhood in southwestern Queens, Breezy Point lies at the western tip of the Rockaway Peninsula; it includes Rockaway Point and Roxbury. The area remained undeveloped until the early twentieth century, when the Rockaway Point Company rented tent sites for about $20 a summer to visitors, most of whom were Irish. By the 1920s, a colony of residents owned bungalows on rented land. In 1961, the firm of Northern Properties bought for $17.5 million all the land west of Jacob Riis Park (except for Fort Tilden) to erect a high-rise development for a population of 220,000.
Residents formed the Breezy Point Cooperative and paid $11.5 million for the land. Construction began on two fourteen-story apartment buildings but ceased when the city announced plans to acquire the peninsula for parkland in 1963; the unfinished apartments were demolished in 1978. The city's plans to condemn the entire neighborhood were opposed with particular vehemence by residents who had taken pains to make their cottages habitable year round, and a compromise permitted all to remain. Land owned by the city was incorporated into the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1972, and property of the Breezy Point Cooperative was excluded from it. In the mid-1990s, the community had about 2,800 houses, with an estimated population of five thousand year round, and twelve thousand during the summer.

Alright, so now that that's out of the way, I was there because I got an invite from James Pastore. Sometimes, I forget his first name is James or Jim or whatever, because he's always been Pastore to me. He went to Regis with me, and he was my counterpart goalie in our class in the hockey club. He was better than I was, but we had some good games when we faced each other, and when we played against each other in gym. Anyway, we didn't really hang out much when we were in school, until we got together to sit at the same table with Pagano and V at the Prom, with our respective dates. Anyway, since then, we've tried to keep in touch, especially after we graduated college. He went to Stanford Law and I saw him in SF when I went out there with Charles, and now he'll be back in the city. Anyway.. that's who Pastore is.

So, as for Breezy today... its a really interesting place. A lot of Pastore's friends are living in the city or not in Breezy anymore, but they seem to come back to the beach for the weekends. The beach has basically kept this group together, and captured the best parts of what growing up in Brooklyn or Queens, wherever Breezy technically is. Its just a very down to earth kind of atmosphere, maybe not blue collar, but civil servicey, anyway. Its a small world, and Manhatten seems thousands of miles away, just the way it felt growing up in Bensonhurst before I went to Regis. Yet, that atmosphere is gone from where I grew up.... nothing kept us all together, and so we're scattered all over the place. There's no reason to go back, although I will try to make it to the 18th Avenue Feast tomorrow night. (I just finished yet another jar of peanut butter... can't get enough of this stuff.) Anyway, we basically spent a few hours by ourselves on the beach throwing a ball around and not doing much of anything, and then we bumped into some of his friends, a few of which turned out to be people I knew. Jeff Kein was there from Fordham, as was Jamie Jordan, who I know going all the way back to when we were in high school. I couldn't place Jeff at first, because he was so out of context for me at the time. I have to say, talking to Jamie was interesting. I mean, my memories of her are from pretty much when she was about 14/15, and now she's going into a PhD program at NYU for Communications on her way to becoming a college professor. She seemed much more mature and went out of her way to sit down and talk to me about what I was up to, even though I'd hardly spoken to her in the interim. Its odd to think of all of these people from across my life becoming adults, finding themselves--especially someone like Jamie who I always thought was kind of immature. It was nice to see that I was wrong, at least for a few minutes today anyway.
I also bumped into this girl who went to one of my career talks at Fordham. Funny enough, I was kind of eyeing her when her and her friends were playing volleyball. Come on.. its bathing suit time at the beach and, well, I'm a guy... can't help it. Anyway.... me, Pastore and his friends went to go play with them and she said she recognized me and asked me if I worked for some random company. I told her I didn't... I had no idea who she was... and then she placed me from one of these sessions. REALLY small world. She said I was a good speaker, but who knows.
So, after that, I bumped into yet another Fordham person... Danielle Albanese. She at least said hello to me... usually she's pretty snotty to me because I wrote her up one time when I was an RA. It was her own fault... she had like a 50 person party in her suite in Martyrs and I definately gave her like 18 warnings. I think that was the last suite I ever wrote up, too.
On a random note, Pagano is moving in with Vina. Now, that's an amazing story... and I still, to this day, take the credit for setting them up. I know when we went out, Patti used to say it was her idea, but that would be kind of hard since I was the only one to know both Andrew and Vina at the time. :) Either way, even if I only get half credit for the setup, that's a windfall as far as setup track records.
Anyway, I'm glad Pastore's back in the city, or will be come October. I think he'd get along with Holian really well. They're both big college football fans, and they like their beers of the world--and they travel a lot, too. If they were gay, they'd probably be another great setup. I suppose I can just set them up as friends anyway. :)

Alright... I'm off to bed. Kayaking tomorrow, and dinner at Gino's for my parent's anniversary. They'll be married 43 years on 9/2. I wonder when I'll get married...

Yes, I'm alive. And now, because of my delay, I know have lots of stuff to post.

First off, some current notes:

1) The sneakers I bought in Tampa are amazingly comfortable. They're bouncy and nicely snug and very quiet, too. Its such a pleasure to walk in them. They're New Balance I think.

2) The GM finished its season with a win, finally. We won 16-6 tonight, making our final record 7-5. We could have done better, but obviously, this is a big improvement from 2-10.

3) I went to the Fordham Young Alumni Happy Hour tonight, which was highlighted by the exposure of huge fake boobs. Some trashy blonde chick just decided to kneel up on the bar and flash everyone, prompting chants of "one more time" from the whole bar when she left. She did not comply however. Do you think people like that realize how little they've made of themselves at some point, or do they just continue bottom dwelling?

Anyway, let's recap on what I need to post about. First off, last Thursday, Brian and I had dinner at Ben Benson's. The feeling about the food was that the appetizer and the desert were excellent, while the steak was above the bar, but not great. If we could have combined the tail ends of the meal with a Del Frisco's steak (and waitress), it would have been perfect. Peter Lugars is kind of a different animal, so that's not really comparable.

We've been making a semi-tradition out of these steak meals, and we agreed to make it more of a regular thing. We should probably make it quarterly or something. $400 of steak a year with Brian is definately worth it. One thing we talked about extensively was the sense that, at this point in our lives, things, specifically people, were coming up short in our view. Its kind of a difficult time, I think, to be 25. There's a book on the "Quarter Life Crisis" out there that focuses more on people who took directionless jobs or jobs for the wrong reasons and now they're realizing the life they created for themselves sucks. I don't think that's really the case with us... I think we're as close to the path we want to be on as we can, but to some extent, that's part of the problem. I think our good fortune to this point has, to some extent, let our expectations get ahead of us. Things that are probably non-issues to other people are now splinters in the back of our minds--other people that can't seem to figure themselves out or who get caught up in the small things become really frustrating, and no longer challenging. We also acknowledged that we need to be better at making time to see each other, too, because its too easy to get caught up in responsibilities. The one thing I do like, though, is that its never taken personally... that there's always this mutual underlying understanding that there's a continuing friendship there no matter what circumstances bring, which is probably why we've been friends for as long as we have. Its solid. The trick is maintaining this stability of quality in our own respective lives on a pace that maintains reasonable growth.

On Saturday, I kayaked down the Bronx River. That was quite an adventure. Victor invited me, and as soon as I figure out how to post pics up, I'll put some of them up. First of all, for 3/4 of the trip, you'd have no idea that you would even be in the Bronx in the first place. We put in at 215th Street, where the river is like 12 feet wide and 2 feet deep. It goes all the way through the Bronx, into the Botanical Gardens and the Bronx Zoo, and empties out later into Hunt's Point, which isn't so nice. In fact, its full of trash at that point, which is a real shame. However, the trip for the most part was beautiful. Trees form a canopy over the river in the early going, and its really kind of surreal. I'll bet you it would make a really spooky night trip.

The other thing I want to mention this week is that I learned something. Time spent does not mean emotional investment. That's one thing I've always done--easily confused the two. If I think back, there have been many times in my life where I've failed to really go out of my way to show someone an effort on my part, even though I may have been putting in time. Maybe its forgetting birthdays or seeing disinterested, or whatever... Its all a matter of focus. Admittedly, there are many things to be focused on during the day, but we should make it a point to focus, even if it might not mean commit time, on someoene else for a few moments a day.

So its 7:30A.M. and I'm at work.  I had to come in and finish a memo so it could be on the CEO and COO's desks when they walked in.  I don't really mind coming in early.  I miss my gym routine, but I'll go after work now.  I would never go in the middle of the day and shower there, because, for some reason, you never really quite stop sweating even after you take a shower at the gym... then you get that weird watery sweat that trickles down your forehead when you think you're done.  Trust me, I know this stuff... I'm half Italian.  As a nationality, we sweat second to none.  Now, I have a few moments, so I'll just chat here for a bit.

Last night I went to the Philharmonic's Concert on the Great Lawn.  I have to say, there are very few things in this city I enjoy more.  Its really something to be laying down on a blanket in the middle of the lawn, surrounded by thousands of other quiet people, under the stars, listening to classical music.  People bring wine, cheese, cookie pies... all sorts of stuff.  I brought two pizzas and wound up sharing the leftovers with some of the concertgoers around us.  I couldn't believe how excited this old lady was next to us over a slice of pepperoni.  People love free stuff. 

So it was me, Deirg, Jeff the Intern, and basically a group of Jeanne's friends.  (I always go to call her "Jean", but she pronounces it "Jeannie".)  Jeanne did the mentoring program and now she plays on the GM softball team.  I had a lot of fun, and it was really good to have Deirg out with me.  I'm always cautious there, because I don't tend to mix worlds with Deirg.  Its not that I don't want people mixing with her... she's a lovely person.  I love her...  in fact, everyone loves her.  My family loves her more than they love me, I think, which is ironic, because they think she saved my life when I had lyme.  She's my best female friend and she's never even met half of the people I hang out with.  I actually wish she met more of my friends, but she's... well, kinda shy or intimidated around new people.  She's just more content to hang out with her closer friends than make idle chit chat with new people, and to a certain extent, I can appreciate that.  It just makes it hard when I'm more of an idle chit chat guy and all the people I know are randomly dispersed.

So, I said the funniest thing yesterday about Martha Stewart:

"Its only a matter of time before she stabs someone in the shower with a pinecone shiv."

I'm seriously considering putting some material together to do some amateur standup.  I think I have some great material.

A few routines:

--New Yorkers needing to step in front of the furthest person out when they wait at a streetcorner.  By the time the tenth person gets there, they're three quarters of the way across the street already. 

--Confirmation numbers:  No one on the face of the earth has ever actually needed to use a confirmation number for anything.  Why?  Because whatever system they have that uses a confirm number, it also has your NAME!

I don't really have more on Martha, but I think that pinecone shiv thing is good enough to build around.  :)

The phrase of the night:  The "Rack Pack".    That's what Samara and her friend Lisa call each other.   Gotta love it.

So tonight was the Fordham Young Alumni Softball Game...    It was a blast. We got great turnout, and a lot of people who don't normally show up to these sorts of things.  Even more importantly, Team GM maybe have signed two new females.  Who knew Alexis Kramer was a softball juggernaut?   The girl has a cannon and she can hit.  Nice late season acquisitions for the stretch playoff run.... very exciting.

I had the most amusing bus driver on the way home from the Gin Mill.  When we hit 2nd Ave, he announced, "Next stop, Atlantic City."    When we hit East End, he announced, "Manhattan Riviera."   Its the little things that keep us going, you know.

Anyway, there's a story about last weekend waiting to be told, but you know what, I'm over it.  Its not worth harping on... and the best part about it, I've had some really great times with fun people this week, so last weekend is a distant memory.... except of course for the time I spent with my family, which was great.  My mom and Nana went down to Tampa, and I came down for the second time this summer to see my brother and his family.  My nieces are wonderful... such smart kids, maybe a little silly, but they're 6 and 10, so who can blame 'em.  :)    Anyway...  I may have future stories for you...  we'll see how things go.

So I'm in Tampa right now visiting my brother...    Well, technically, its Brandon, FL, about 30 min east of Tampa.  He lives in one of those fake neighborhoods...  errr.. "Developments."    Every house is the same, and they have a Welcome Center and a pool.  There are lots of families and little kids.  No one goes out of the house between 10 and 4, because its 96 degrees and the sun is like 62 feet from the earth in Florida, so it feels like you're sitting in a chicken incubator.  And, because its all familes, no one goes out after dark either...   making it oh so fun for a 24 year old single guy.  Its nice seeing my brother though, and my nieces, but its 9:30, and I'm bored senseless.  I've already made 3 moves in my fantasy team today, and I've made some new blog add-ons.   I now have a Guestbook and a little comment thingy on the side...

So the foreign girl at the counter at DTUT has a boyfriend...   some greasy looking guy... sort of takes something out of our little exchanges when I get my green tea.  Oh well.

So I've had a really great Memorial Day Weekend so far.  Friday night was a long overdue cleaning of my apartment.  I threw out five big garbage bags of...  just random crap.  I seriously have issues about holding on to stuff.  When I moved out of Fordham, my desk alone produced about three for four garbage bags of stuff, which is difficult to comprehend given the mass of the desk and the known and accepted laws of phyisics.

On Saturday, I was back at the Boathouse.  The water was choppy and the wind was whipping up pretty good, but a handful of brave souls still came to kayak.  One girl took a nice flop into the water by the dock, and I pulled her out by her lifejacket like I was one of those shipping cargo cranes... up, over, and down.  Mary came down...  I don't think I mentioned Mary and Andy.   Mary is this english woman who came down last weekend for the first time.  We started talking and it turns out she works for a publishing company.  She's going to take a look at my book and everything... how do you like that for dumb luck.  Kayaking:  fun AND productive.  Anyway... she gave me her e-mail address and number.  Then, later on, another woman comes down and tells me her friend just called her and told her how much fun she had, so she had to go.  It turns out that it was Mary, and so this girl Andy and I started chatting it up.  She was incredibly cool, and after she kayaked, she actually hung out to volunteer almost the whole day.  I think she's be a lot of fun to hang out with, but I'll wait until Mary looks at my book before I make any move that might be perceived as sketchy.  You never know and can't be too careful.

Anyway, from kayaking, I went to the Big East Baseball Finals in Bridgewater, NJ.  Brian and Rich met me at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, and I drove out to Jersey.  They had the game in an Atlantic League ballpark, which is one of those Independent minor league teams.  I'll tell you.. it was such an enjoyable experience--$8 tickets, $2 for parking.  I'd easily go back again.  Brian's brother Jimmy was there with his wife.  I swear, Jimmy makes me laugh more than any other person I've ever met.  Something about the dryness and deadpan delivery I just find endlessly amusing.  His wife asks him where the bathrooms are... and its a dinky little stadium where everything is like two feet away, and he goes, "Its on the Concourse Level."   Hysterical.

Anyway, after the game, I hung out with Anna...   everyone else pretty much left for the weekend, so Anna and I were left to chill Saturday night and Sunday.  Saturday night we... painted.  It was bizzare.   She doesn't have any brushes or canvas, so she just paints on cardboard.  She can be so weird sometimes, but I guess it was cool.  We had nice conversation and it was just good company.  I left and came back the next morning for a random roadtrip.  We just decided we were going to go on a driving adventure, and somehow, that turned out to be a search for my grandmother's old country house in Greenwood Lake.  I drove up 17, and somehow I found it.  It was really strange being up there, because everything seemed so much smaller than I remember it--meaning I was obviously pretty small the last time I was up there.  Two different people had occupied the house since we sold it about ten years ago, but it was kept up very well.  When I got up there, I called my grandmother to tell her were I was and she got a little choked up.  Still, she was really glad to hear that the house had been kept in such good condition.

What was really disappointing, though, was when we walked down to the beach on the lake.  There was this little pier that they built about 20 years ago when I was younger and they put in sand behind it.  It was small but cute.  As we walked down the stairs to get there, it was obvious that they hadn't been kept up, but I wasn't prepared for how bad the beach was.  It was in total disrepair, like it hadn't been touched in that long.  The deck and pier is collapsing into the water, and all the sand is gone, with weeds overgrowing the concrete.  It was really sad to see...   makes me wonder what happened.  The raft we used to swim out to was gone, and it looked like part of it was sunken on the far side of the deck.  Anna took some pictures, but I don't think I'll be showing them to my grandmother.  I'm curious to figure out what happened and when.

Anyway, before we hit the house, we stopped at a marina.  Turns out that a pontoon boat rental is only like $150 for three hours...   The whole time we were there, we were thinking that it would be cool to come up here for a few days with a group of people, and it wouldn't cost that much money. 

After the Lake, we headed out towards Warwick, but on our way, we passed Wawayanda, which is this state park that has a beach.  I went with my grandparents a few times and I have pretty vivid memories of it.  We ate lunch at the beach and then we rented a rowboat.  I don't know if she just timed the current wrong or what, but Anna had quite a struggle with the rowing.  :)   

From Wawayanda, we went to a Farmer's Market in Warwick.  They had good icecream, and we stopped to watch the farm animals they had in their corral.  They had a goat and some sheep, and some baby goats as well.  I think that might have been the highlight of our trip.  Anna's got some good pictures, but I don't know how to post them.  If I figure it out, I'll put them up. 

Anyway, after we headed home at about 3...  but made a stop off at the Cross County Mall.  I went 4 for 4 on things I had to buy...  swim shorts, nice sandles, work shoes, and those wet sock things that you wear in the water. When I got home, I went for a run and to the gym... putzed around...   and now, I'm at DTUT, procrastinating on writing up some more material for my Tuesday lunch with Mary the publishing woman.

Its one thing to find yourself in a place where you don't really know anyone.  Its another to find yourself in a place where you difinitively dislike a good number of the people around you. 

When I walked out the door tonight, I felt good...  Tony Robbins good.  It was close to 40, and this winter, that's borderline shorts weather.  Things got very cold the moment I walked into the bar party I went to tonight--when my high school girlfriend takes one look at me and turns her back to me to talk to someone else, as I say hello the girl she was just talking to.  Just say hello and smile...   is that too hard to ask for two years of my life?  I never did anything to her to warrent that kind of treatment, and while she may be uncomfortable around me, I can't imagine its more uncomfortable than purposely avoiding someone.  I mean, seriously... how old are we?  Get over it.  I thought maybe I could buy her a drink, to bury the hatchet once and for all.  How silly do I feel now to think that was even a remote possibility.

It turned out to be foreshadowing for the whole night.  This is a group that acknowledges your presence only out of necessity.  I felt like going around to all of these people and reminding them of whatever connected me to them in the first place, and reiterating what should be the normal rules of human being operating behavior.

"Hey, by the way...  do you remember bumping into me in the park when we were both running?  I seem to recall discovering that we worked only a few blocks from each other and exchanging e-mail addresses.  I e-mailed you and asked you if you wanted to do lunch... you never responded.  Would it have killed you to go to lunch?"

"And you...  weren't we in the business student mentoring program together that summer...  the three representatives from our school?  I also seem to remember making dinner for you once to catch up.  Now, you don't even make eye contact."

"And you... you live on my damn street!  YOU came up to ME in the laundrymat once... we talked.  Then, one day you decided that saying hello when you saw me coming back from the gym in the morning was too much effort.  WTF is that?"

"And you...  You're not really in this group, and I don't mind you being here anyway, b/c you're pretty hot and its cool to see you with another chick, but I bought you a slice of pizza in Pugsley's the first time I ever met you and to this day, I feel like I have to reintroduce myself to you everytime I see you.  I think I want that buck fifty back."

Sometimes I wonder if its me and my perspective... that if there's something systematic about the way I've encountered them that makes them seem superficial.  Are they superficial to each other?  Countrast that with Sue Yoo's friends, who are wonderful everytime I meet them.  It doesn't matter if they're new people or not, but they're just so willing to share their good time with the people around them... its a pleasurable experience.  Tonight was far from pleasurable. 

Deirg and I almost got into another argument... this time about some kid cutting into our conversation, and her just leaving me out to dry and letting it happen.  She didn't want to start an argument between us and just left well enough alone...  and this point is sort of at the core of why we fight...  I've never met anyone who handles things so differently than I do.  I can't sit by and let anything go idling by... maybe to my own detriment.  Who knows?  Point is... there are times I'd like to be stood up for that I don't feel like I get from her. There many amzing things she's done for me everyday that we've been friends... but active verbal support... I dunno.. maybe I have outsized expectations.   Still, she's my best friend and I'll always love her.

I don't think there were any lessons learned here...  tonight just sucked.

PS...   Big ups to Linds...    the girl who never gets dressed up looked like a fox tonight.  wooooooo   ;)