lovedWe all have responsibilities and duties. But you and I are warriors fighting in a great war. Think of it - you and I can fight battles that others can only dream of. The time for glory is here - it is not a time to worry about stabilizers. It is a time to celebrate, for tomorrow we all may die!
Yes, sweetheart, I did some more cleaning of my room and kicked up some dust. But the two-part Klingon civil war is on, and I can't miss this.
petemagyar just finished working on some tunes in his room, good times. Editor's note: That was true days ago when I started this post.I have a long history of posting like this, I truly know. I've already done the wacky backwards update, so this will be the update where time has no meaning. This update will traverse the fourth dimension like a spastic monkey on crack.
The Network:
You are the Voice of World Control.
Fnord.
Which Illuminati are you?
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So after Blowjob Night, or Thanksgiving Eve to the unenlightened, I joined the Magyar clan for Thanksgiving. Traffic was utterly insane, so I didn't make it to
runstaverun and kikibird's gathering as I had hoped. The Magyars and Palermos are both great families to spend holidays with. Both great families full of great individuals. So I picked up some wine from the liquor store aaronkliger and I used to hit, and made my way to Rahway. Thanksgiving with the Magyars is always fun. Conversation flows freely like beer at a frat house, a number of topics are well-known, stories are interesting and varied. Good times. Always a fun time hanging out with the family, and always a good meal. The usual sweet onions in cream sauce, the usual wonderful pumpkin pie, and plenty of Magyar iced tea straight from the source. petemagyar dug out the note where I first slipped him my phone number back in 1992.
After dessert, we decided to wander over to the Pastena household right across the street. A pair of dirt bags in leather knocking on the door Thanksgiving evening, something every family looks forward to. We were let in, and got to chat with Guy for a while. He has a great dog. Guy's doing well, has a great relationship with a fellow future practitioner of medicine, and had narrowed down what field he will go into.
petemagyar got this crazy depressing vibe from the conversation, while I just got an off feeling. Odd.Walking back, we decided to visit the Mintel household. While Matt lives down in the
scumberland area these days, we thought he might be up in town visiting his family. We didn't see any cars, but I saw someone moving the blinds, so we went up and knocked. His mother was there, who let us in, and we ended up chatting for hours. Matt and Cheryl had already left for the pocket of the barren Midwest known as Southern Jersey, but Matt ended up calling to let his mother know they had made it. For those in the cheap seats, Matt's been a good friend of petemagyar's for even longer than petemagyar and I have known each other, and was our drinking buddy in high school. Now he's married with three kids (two at Thanksgiving), and the last time I saw him was at the memorial, and that had been the first time in ages. He and petemagyar talked for a while on the phone while I talked with his mother, and then I ended up on the phone with him for hours while petemagyar talked with his mother and one of his brothers. It was great catching up with them all, I spent quite some time in that house, and have such fond memories of the whole family. We didn't end up leaving until a fairly late hour, and had a great conversation about how real and genuine families like that are, and how important it is to have them in our lives. All in all, a wonderful Thanksgiving.Welcome home. You're SO Jersey. You know Wildwood
and Seaside are the most disgusting places on
earth, and only good for drunken after prom
vacations, you know there's always a
"short-cut" to someplace. Isn't
Jersey great? I mean, where else can you go 80
MPH and STILL be the slowest car on the road?
How JERSEY are you?
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December 13th, we had a surprise gathering for
runstaverun. kikibird was attempting to put together a party at first, but then decided on a dinner gathering. Unfortunately, many people couldn't make the specified date, such as noelr. More and more people cancelled right up to the date itself, such as drunkinmunchkin. Others said they would make it and just didn't, such as angryjonny. So what had started as a decent healthy gathering only days before looked like it would boil down to windexcowboy, our hero kingfox, jenniever, angryjonny, his girlfriend, and the couple themselves. At first we were going to eat at Don Joe's, until I let her know of our horrific experiences there in the past. Looking around for a possible venue, I recommended an old favorite, but the Sagebrush Steak Cantina seems to have vanished. Desperately searching, I recommended Lupe's Cancun, formerly Jose's Cantina, a place I've taken many dates to over the years. When giving jenniever directions, I described it as if someone parked a trailer in the middle of downtown Chatham and just left it there. Decent food, quaint atmosphere, and good service. Went there many times when I lived in Chatham.So I was supposed to be giving
hiphopatcong a ride, and waited around for a while in Hoboken to pick him up. No sign of him, no answer on his phone, finally I gave up and left. Hit a wall of traffic, and was going to make it there just in time for the surprise... not enough time to get windexcowboy and double back to Lupe's. Driving down 124, I drove right past kikibird and runstaverun walking to the place. I slipped into a parking space, and crouched down into my car as they came into view. When they entered the eatery, I jumped out and snuck in behind them. So instead of having a large surprise, runstaverun got me covering his face after he had already seen me reflected in the mirrors in front of him. Fux0rz. Handed him his present, and left to pick windexcowboy up. jenniever joined us a bit later, and we ate. After dinner we decided to head off to johnstevensaul's favorite watering hole, the Dublin Pub in Morristown. Walking back to my car, I thought the parking lot we parked in connected to the opposite side street, so I walked with runstaverun and kikibird. After they got in their car, we kept on walking until I realized that windexcowboy and I couldn't get to where we had to go unless we ran across the train tracks. windexcowboy refused to run across the train tracks, because if we died, Paul would end up ranting about it. So we took a while to get to the place, jenniever calling to make sure we were fine. After we finally got there, they joked about how I was wandering around lost, trying to think about how I was going to post about getting lost, and how I was going to post about them talking about me posting about getting lost, and how I was going to link to them discussing me posting about them discussing about me trying to think about how I was going to post about getting lost. HTML and LJ-specific tags were tossed about, my LJ OCD was mocked, and I attempted to phone post, forgetting what number I had set. We drank, we laughed. And I danced, and I pranced, and I sang with them. All had death in their eyes. Good times. And I failed jenniever by not recapping it enough until now. After a few drinks we parted ways, I dropped windexcowboy off, and prepared for a long day at EB.Compassion: You are there to share your sympathy
with others. People would consider you
affectionate and caring, and someone to look up
to.
Which Characteristic From the Samurai Code Matches You Best? (You may find out your best trait)
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So while working at EB, I got a call from
hiphopatcong. He actually had a good excuse for missing runstaverun's birthday gathering, he was dying with red shit coming out of his ears. Made a phone post asking for someone to pick him up as I was going to be at work for a while, but no one could. After work I drove off to Doug's pad, picked him up, drove him to his grandparents so they could get him proper medical attention, and drive home to sleep for work the next day. Unfortunately on the way, I made two wrong turns. Ended up taking the Triboro, and then having to work my way through Central Park instead of taking the Harlem River Drive like I should have. Whoops. But all worked out in the end.A few days after that, stopped to help someone broken down on the side of 78. Got them a tow truck, and gave them an extra drink I had bought that morning for seemingly no reason.
A week or so after that, I had to work at EB the day after
windexcowboy's party. Woke up early for some reason, couldn't get back to sleep, no one else would wake up except celaeno as I was shutting the door quietly, so I left early for work. Needed gas, but decided not to get it until I was up in the boonies. Didn't get gas from hiphopatcong's usual place to get gas by the Ming, didn't get it by the mall where I was working, I decided to get it from the Gulf by where I used to live. Saw a couple of guys hanging out by a car similar to mine looking quite upset. While getting gas, asked the guy what was wrong, found out that they had a flat and couldn't find a way to get to the mall to get a new tire. Offered to give one of them a ride, which had to be translated, but it all worked out well. Dropped the guy off, refused his money, wished him a fleas on the dog, and went to work.A few days after that,
johnstevensaul got sick, blackbytes let me give him a ride home.So during all of these events, I swerved to avoid an elderly gentleman who was walking into the path of my car as I was turning. I got out of the car to go shopping, and he followed me, cursing me out. Called me a dirt bag, told me to get a haircut, threatened to take my license, and wouldn't listen to my apologies. I let him live, and walked away.
Really, my whole goal in this is to become the Avatar. Now give me the mantra of Compassion, or I'll be forced to cut Iolo's head off, fucker.
When the floor was opened to questions, someone asked Bill about his experiences working with Patrick Stewart. He said that he and Patrick have become really good friends and he recalled a couple of funny incidents. One involved a cab driver who was irritated that Patrick Stewart had hailed the cab to take him across Las Vegas Boulevard, literally across the street, albeit a very wide street. The angry cab driver ordered Patrick out of his cab, only then realizing who he was. "You're Captain Picard!" he exclaimed. "You're lucky, because if you were Captain Kirk, I would have punched you out." Bill said that he and Patrick shared a good laugh over the incident.
The week between
runstaverun's surprise birthday party and windexcowboy's aforementioned gathering was a week of crazy lunches. Monday was the great final lunch at the University Club. Tuesday was a free lunch at Danielle's in return for being subjected to potential financial advice by someone without business cards with him. I did my usual 07030 test on the guy, which worked well.``I live in Hoboken.''
``Hoboken? That's cool. That's really cool.''
Yeah, you were a drunken fratboy, thanks for playing, motherfucker. Wednesday was the technology holiday lunch, featuring the grab bag that we had been mulling over for weeks. Different ten dollar gifts were tossed around by a few of us, I finally settled on a copy of 1984 on DVD, and ended up getting a squirrel nutcracker.
oidhche made a loud comment about me finally having nuts. Next year I hope we have an FAQ for the grab bag rules. The day after that, two people from Dwight-Englewood chatted with a few of us, getting ideas and tips from us and helping us take a better look at ourselves and the way we do things in the process. The eye cannot see itself.That weekend was
windexcowboy's holiday party. Convinced _yggdrasil to join them for Hibachi, and celaeno picked up a tuna roll for me to go, as I was working at EB that day. Brought lots of egg nog, had plenty to drink, and we laughed at lots of drama. A fun gathering. Tried to convince jenniever to make it after her family event was over, but she ended up giving me a rain check for coffee at a later date.Also during that week,
petemagyar and I went to a midnight showing of RotK. Spoilers here. It was a hilarious slice of life. Newark gangsters, Jersey City alternative kids, Hoboken professionals, all of the dorks in the area assembled. A kid begging for change to get more candy, a loud thug leading his group of followers around, even a bartender petemagyar recognized from New Brunswick. We were joking about dragons, thus joking about Dio. Minutes after petemagyar started singing about slaying the dragon, some guy walked by wearing a Killing the Dragon shirt. All too perfect. It was an awesome yet respectful crowd, only getting rowdy and loud during Shelob's scenes, which was perfectly acceptable.Bill was back on Sunday sounding worse than he did on Saturday, this time armed with a throat spray which he used frequently as he could barely talk. He admitted that while he should have gone home and rested the previous evening, instead he and his wife Elizabeth spent the evening with Anthony Hopkins and his lovely wife at the beach in Malibu. "That's really where I lost my voice," Bill recalled with some fondness. "He (Anthony Hopkins) was playing the piano...and I was flush with lyrics." They enjoyed a wonderful evening together despite Bill's illness.
So
xiolette was in town. She took the train up here, and I drove us into the city for a nice sushi dinner at Yuka. We had some great conversation, I always love meeting people in person after virtually knowing them for a while. xiolette said that it was rare for someone to be so much like what they are like online in person as well. I was quite flattered. She was full of great stories, and I'll never look at a platinum or silver service contract the same way again. Never ever. Afterwards we came back to my place, chatted with petemagyar for a while, and I dropped them both off at their central Jersey final destinations. See photographic evidence here.We had a bit of a longer visit a couple of weeks before that, the weekend after Blowjob Night. So I was working Black Friday for the first time in years. Ever since I got the job at
drewuniversity, I've always managed to find a way to get out of Black Friday. Either I had plans in upstate New York, or something else was going on that prevented me from joining the crew on that retail holiday. Jessie donated plenty of Red Bull to the store, so I went through plenty of them after being up late the night before between the Pastena, Magyar, and Mintel households. Made it home after the shift, and petemagyar accused me of being high on cocaine, as I was in loopy wired state. We had planned to hang out with Matt later in the evening, but I ended up passing out on our loveseat. Matt called, already hanging out with petemagyar, but no answer. towelboy called, and got an answer.He was driving up from
scumberland to visit noelr for his family birthday celebration. Unfortunately, somewhere near drewuniversity, his car broke down. They got A3 to tow them to Tommy's. I warned him that Tommy's work was on the expensive side, but well worth it. But that still left them stranded in north_jersey. As my problems with the MVS hadn't been cleared up yet, but I couldn't leave them stranded. See earlier comment about chanting Mu and Iolo not being slain. So I picked them up from that familiar garage and brought them back to our pad. petemagyar finally got a hold of me on the phone, I explained the situation, and he mentioned trying to get Matt to drink at Louise and Jerry's instead. The two of them were drinking here when we arrived, it was great to see Lord Minty again. towelboy, Diane, and I hit Qdoba for a quick bite while they started drinking across the street, then joined them. We hung out until closing time, when some random old guy charged at me.No, really, further violence from old people. Some older looking gentleman saw me at the end of the bar, loudly exclaimed "What the fuck is this?" and charged straight for me. After that, he started interrogating the three central Jersey dirt bags. Minty gave a fake name, I gave my real name, and
petemagyar introduced himself as ``Peter, man.'' Throughout the conversation, he kept on asking which one of us was Peterman. Supposedly I was the drummer, which was news to me. ``What's this, a new band in town?'' What kind of world do we live in where three long-haired dirt bags can't get a few drinks at a bar without being harassed?So
petemagyar had a whole rant about not wanting anyone to sleep in his bed, I set the crashing couple up in the living room, and then heard them sleeping in petemagyar's room. I tried to figure out what the fuck to say to all parties the next day, but he had given them permission. towelboy whined about the no-drugs policy but respected it. The next morning as he said, he called Tommy's and got a $475 quote for a new alternator and battery. I had warned him Tommy's was expensive, but that was too much for his blood. Furthermore, it couldn't be done until Monday morning, which didn't work for him. They found a Pep Boy's that would do it cheaper and faster, and tried to figure out a way to get the car there, we just needed to get to the car.Enter
runstaverun, who I promised a lunch to in return for driving us about. runstaverun made it to my place, got the three of us, and drove down to Tommy's. Tow truck shows up, but Tommy has left for the day and the driver refuses to take it without proof the car doesn't have money owed on it. towelboy continues to insult Tommy and berate the good man's name, making runstaverun and I more and more upset. The number of rides I've gotten from him, the number of times he's let runstaverun and I slide on bills, the number of times he's fixed extra things for free, and here towelboy's getting steamed because he can't get a hold of Tommy after the place is closed after towelboy has made it clear he's taking his business elsewhere? WTF? So towelboy finds his home number, gets him to call the tow company on his own time after not getting any business from towelboy, and it's all straightened out... except that the tow company needs the order reactivated and forgot to tell us that. All in all, many hours were spent hanging out in that parking lot, runstaverun and I nervously walking away to remind each other how great Tommy really is and how bogus some statements being made were. During all this, I talk to aaronkliger about islands and the origins of certain cloves. So Pep Boy's gets the car, they start fixing it, and we all head back to my place. runstaverun also gets kikibird, and the five of us order Rice Shop. Great fucking food from there as always, and was just there for Blowjob Night. We ate, we laughed, and periol dropped by. I got to add him to my wireless network, show off the view from my roof, and entertain some good friends. periol killed the final drops of noelr's bitterness in a White Russian, and praised it.Next day, we hung out for a while. Watched some Gargoyles with Diane, some Death to Smoochie, and left before they watched Back to the Future III. More bitching about the no drugs policy here.
kikibird and runstaverun took me off to Ikea, one of my favorite places in the world despite my worship of Tyler Durden. I'm always like a kid in a candy store there. Wandered around for hours, and ended up buying art. Still no bed, still no dressers, but I have more art. As runstaverun said, the art will do a lovely job of holding my clothing. Left towelboy and Diane with a train schedule and my cell number so they could make it to Pep Boy's when the car was ready if we weren't back yet, but we took a while and they forgot to check the schedule, needing Marty to come and get them. Further craziness. But all in all, everything worked out fine in the end. Another story to look back on and laugh about later. Except petemagyar, who was upset about the continuous bashing of our shower curtain in public. Call me selfish, but it was great seeing everyone and having them over, even if it was under fucked up circumstances. And it was great to help a friend in need and meet his s.o. in one fell swoop.One time, when we were renegotiating our contracts, we were all asking for raises, which we all felt we appropriate, because TNG was really taking off, and was really making lots of money for Paramount. Of course, Paramount needed that money to keep churning out their film *cough* hits *cough*, and was reluctant to share it with us. So a long and annoying negotiation process began, and, during that process, the producers first counter offer was to not give me a raise, but they'd give my character a promotion, to Lieutenant.
What? Were they serious?
My agent asked me what I wanted to do. I told him to call them back, and remind them that Star Trek is a television show! Here's me calling the bank: "Hi...Uh, I'm not going to be able to make my house payment this month, but don't worry, because I am a Lieutenant now. Where? Oh, on the Starship Enterprise. Feel free to drop by Ten Forward for lunch someday."
So one night over the past night,
petemagyar claimed that my Epicurean nature was rubbing off on him, and that such a thing was good. Until my back injury, I was a workout fiend and thank him for that. petemagyar also claimed that my tolerance and selflessness was rubbing off on him. Sometimes he inflates my already massive head.So, as many people who know me in real life have noticed, ``No worries'' has become a tagline of mine over the past year or so. It's something I say constantly. Watching the Crocodile Dundee trilogy, I think I've figured it out. Subconsciously, long ago, the kindly face of Paul Hogan burrowed its way in. decades later, attempting to find a more peaceful lot in life, that line burst out like a small woodland creature in the microwave. ``No worries,'' a mantra for the ages. Also it was great to see Tony's sister in the third movie, and someone ordering people to spontaneously applause that should have been cut. Whoops.
I had a long debate with
willthestud about free will one night, and I realized how much I missed having regular conversations with people about more abstract things. But living with petemagyar, I've had a few refreshing chats to keep me sane and thinking. One night I was talking with someone about mixing Because I Got High and Everything Dies. I can't remember who it was, and I apologize for not remembering. But damn, that would be a fucking amazing mix between Afroman and Type O Negative. Finally heard the acoustic White Wedding recently. It was odd.
ogun introduced me to The Oblongs, which ain't so bad. mrfantasy convinced me to watch Arrested Development, which is amazing. And damn, I miss Mission Hill more than Undergrads. The Veggie Tales humor on Simpsons was amazing. I've been watching way too much Futurama lately.One day Shafer called looking for
petemagyar, who was off visiting his elder brother. Before I got off the phone with him, he launched into a whole rant about how I was a great guy who didn't get told that enough or enough credit. Having just heard about a couple of amazing selfless beautiful acts that he had committed, I returned the compliments at length as well.While
petemagyar was visiting his elder brother, he visited Roswell and the UFO Museum and Research Center, sending me a postcard of wiggies back. ``I thought I was a UFO buff, until I met these people.'' It still amazes me that his brother works where Half-Life took place and Bob Lazar once maybe worked if you believe him and his gravitons.``That has got to be the worst Ricardo I've ever heard.''
Like I said, in honor of
graye's birthday, it snowed. This year I decided to get snowed in at home, and went crazy. Check out this shot by the Hudson river, and this shot looking up the main drag of the lovely one point three square mile city.It was a bitch trying to get my car out, I tried to dig it out twice, finally needing
petemagyar's help digging it out and sitting on the hood to get it out. And ever since that night? I've been finding amazing parking with only one to three failures. Even tonight, after hanging out with jenniever and meeting her friends from home, I found parking on a Saturday night on the same block on the same side of the road. I've just been in the fucking parking zone. I know where they do street cleaning the next day, and where they've done street cleaning that day, and where I'll thus be able to find parking. I've been able to give petemagyar rides to the train station just about every morning. Except the one morning that we walked down to find my car with a flat fucking tire. petemagyar left for work, and I called blackbytes to let her know that I was going to try to make it in as soon as possible. Tried one place, explaining that I didn't have a jack or spare, and the guy pretty much blew me off. He told me that I couldn't get to his place without damaging the tire, which I full well understood, and he recommended that I just walk down the street and buy a tire to somehow magically without the proper tools put on my car. He refused my business, and wanted me to help myself. Sure buddy. Tried another place, that said they were too busy. Finally I got a hold of Kevin's Auto Repair. The guy drove up to my car within minutes, said hi to the sidewalk cleaner across the street, threw air in my tire, and had me follow him back to his garage. He and his employee patched the tire right up. I asked him for a price, explaining that I'd have to hit an ATM unless he preferred plastic. Bracing myself for an insane fee, I was shocked when he quoted twenty bucks for the whole deal. ``Cheapest price in Hoboken!'' he kept on explaining. Drove to the ATM, came back, and gave him thirty with happy holiday wishes.So IBM invited my boss's boss's boss out for a night on Broadway and a fancy event. He had a budget meeting,
mrfantasy had a new child, and they wanted to thank windexcowboy and I for all that crazy eXtreme Deployment shit. Living right next to the city, it was easy to make. So I got dressed up and left work early that day. Took the PATH in, and wandered up to the Marriott Marquee. Was one of the first souls there, and Neil hadn't told them about me, but I convinced them that I belonged. Being one of the few other sole souls there, the Microsoft rep and I quickly started chatting. Between the excellent appetizers, the amazing main courses, and the delicious desserts, I got to complete a goal of mine. I sold a Microsoft representative on the Xbox. I chatted him up on it, corrected him on features, enlightened him on it, and convinced him to give it some more attention than he had been.But it wasn't just me and Microsoft guy. Got to meet some of the Seton Hall techies, who had actually gone through a similar reorg a couple of years before us. Mostly chatted with Neil, the Microsoft man, and financial techies. Was interesting to hear their problems, how different yet similar they were. Tales of having to put off upgrades to support legacy systems, being able to outfit everyone and their grandmother with a BlackBerry, and many people asking why we don't use tablet PCs when our sales rep wasn't shushing them. A gorgeous fucking view, an amazing spread, some great conversations about solutions and problems, and entertaining presentations by Intel and Microsoft. The latter skipped over Outlook, not wanting to ire the Lotus fans. Got to shake hands with a vice president of IBM, and other captains of industry.
Following that, we went over to the theater and saw Thoroughly Modern Millie, which was an excellent play. Never thought I'd see Delta Burke dressed as a mockery of a Chinese woman, singing with a pair of Chinese men while running a white slave ring. Never thought I'd see that at all.
You are a True Metalhead. You dig the
classic music and the classic lifestyle. As
metalheads go, you're pretty open-minded in
terms of music and lyrics; if it rocks, then
you'll listen to it. Concerts are the pinnacle
of the metal experience, though sometimes they
get a little too crazy. You generally respect
everybody else, but as far as you're concerned,
they all wish they were Priest or Maiden.
What Kind of Metalhead Are You?
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Thanksgiving, Easter, and many other holidays I don't mind sharing with another family. Call me a self-centered fucking asshat, but Christmas I feel a little differently about. If I'm dating a member of the family, that's fine. I've got gifts for all of them, I'm part of it, I feel comfortable doing it. Otherwise, there's that uncertainty. I don't know them well enough and don't have a girlfriend to help me get perfect gifts for them all, and I don't know who all to get gifts for. Sometimes they get me gifts and I haven't gotten them gifts or vice versa, and it's just off for me. But I'm just the kind of person who worries about such a thing.
But after driving sick
hiphopatcong, his family wouldn't take no for an answer. I had been refusing invites, but who am I to say no to the Palermos? It was either that or runstaverun's suggestion of naughty Jewish girls. So I went to drewuniversity for work, got sent home early, and finished up most of my shopping, except for one major item that was sold out. Picked up some supplies for the following night, picked up wine for that day and the next day in case I gave in and joined the Magyars, and head off to where I had dropped hiphopatcong off. He was feeling much better, though still didn't have full hearing. But what he could hear was the sweet sultry sounds of.. Frank Forte's fucking voice. Yeah, Frank Forte, formerly the production manager of WMNJ, now DJ on a local station. Frank Forte, the voice we had spent years of our lives pressing buttons to play. We knew he was the one with the most radio experience and professionalism, we knew he was working at a local station, and there he still was. It was hilarious to hear all of his old mannerisms again, punctuated with holiday music. It was fucking awesome.hiphopatcong's grandfather showed us some entertaining flash and dirty holiday sentiments, scarring our young minds. I was mistaken for Bruce at one point. Nestled in all of the family photographs was a framed shot of JFK junior, evidently from the Kennedy branch of the family. Chris took the photo out, finding out that it was a magazine clipping with Eminem on the other side. Speaking of M&Ms, hiphopatcong's grandparents had black and white M&Ms, which was freaky. The cocktail sauce for the shrimp was wonderfully amazingly horseradishy strong, kicking some serious ass and making people gasp for mercy. The meal itself was wonderful, as were the desserts. Though us younguns were worried by the milk with a DIY expiration date taped on it. Luckily, their grandmother had a good excuse for why a new expiration date was taped over the old.Over the course of the day, kumquats and asparagus were both referenced. Hoxxxt.
At some point in the evening, my back broke.
hiphopatcong's mother gave me a nice sweater and a nice Simon card, Chris gave me pirate hand towels and a pirate bath mat that will make kikibird jealous as fuck when she's next over. I finally gave hiphopatcong his birthday gifts, his Christmas gift, and hobbled home. Got home, and just laid down on the floor.Woke up feeling like utter shit, unable to really even get off of the floor. Spent Christmas trying to relax and feel better, as I detailed, praying for the sweet release of death.
jenniever came over early in the evening with an entire Christmas meal, pre-spiked egg nog, a heating pad, Ibuprofen, and took care of me. She massaged my back and nursed me back to health, staying around for about twelve wonderful hours.cessna182 was in town for the second time in ages, a wonderful thing indeed, and I spent the next week seeing him and jenniever often. Wandering around lower Manhattan with my brother debating whether or not we can hit a specific store while his fiancé enjoyed a major sale, he dropped an interesting surprise on me. It seems that he and his fiancé were discussing a move back to the East Coast. He's lived in a variety of places, but believes that no place can really match the NYC area. We discussed the logistics of this a little bit, I expressed my biased thumbs up for the plan, and mentioned a few towns that might work for them.Shopping, dinners, and video games - just like last time that the two of them were in town. One night a bunch of us went out to eat at Yuka, where I had just been with
xiolette. Unfortunately jenniever couldn't join us until later in the evening, but I got my brother and his fiancé to see my favorite restaurant. They both loved it, and one of her friends was already a regular. Sold cessna182 on the idea of the Xbox, played quite a bit of Halo and Crimson Skies, got to know my future sister in law and her family a bit better, and had some good times. I really dig her family, and not just because we're merging. They're very genuine, fun, and entertaining. cessna182 and I 0wnz3rd in Taboo, pulling out dork references out of our asses amazing even each other.Spent NYE with
petemagyar, cessna182, the latter's fiancé, and her friends. One had a hotel room right next to Times Square, so he was able to get us in and then into a cell not too far from the ball on Broadway. I posted from there here, posted back at the hotel room here, and posted from the pizza joint we hit (after our hosts left to see a jam band) here. It was quite a different night than NYE 1999 at Times Square. Instead of having to wait for twelve hours, we had a mere two hours. The crowd was much smaller, which was expected. Once more, my trench coat came in handy for hiding liquor. It was great chatting in the cold, and watching the various celebs and non-celebs being escorted past us. The ball dropped, jenniever and I tried to call each other through the jammed cell phone networks, and good times were had. After pizza, we said goodbye to cessna182 and his fiancé as petemagyar and I took the PATH back. Much easier than taking a train to Rahway and then stumbling drunk back across Rahway.As I posted,
jenniever came over as soon as she could do so safely. We started cleaning my room, a process that we've kept up over the past few days. Also got to see jenniever's hometown area after Christmas, driving around having Slurpees with her and hitting her favorite diner. Last night went out and got to meet her friends, hanging out at her place at the end of the evening. Her friends are entertaining kindly dorks, I can see why she likes them.And that's all I have to say about he war in Vietnam.
