Memorial Day Weekend Recap

This weekend was one of the better weekends I've had in a while, especially in the 6 months that I've been unemployed. 


Friday I went out to Brooklyn to hang out at Nebs' place and catch the Yanks Phils game. It's really nice to have the luxury of a backyard, but I guess that's Brooklyn for ya. Unfortunately the Yanks couldn't pull out a win but it was definitely a good time. Nebs got me on a Bruce Springsteen kick, I really love movies and music from the 70's. I really appreciate the unpolished effects that they seem to have, compared to music and movies over the past 10-15 years. Not to mention that alot of the music that was made because the artists loved to make music and not because the labels were pushing them to put out album after album.

Saturday I went out to Fabrices for Paintball and a BBQ. Second time paintballing in a week and it really is a lot of fun. I guess the fact that I haven't really been shot up too many times definitely helps.

Sunday was a hangin out in Boken and yet another BBQ at Dara's, props to Dara for throwing together quite the spread of middle eastern fair.

Monday we hit up an awesome Mexican place called Charittos and then hung around the pool and watched the Cuse v Cornell lax game. What a game, I didn't catch the whole game but I did catch the last 4 minutes where Cuse' went on to score 3 goals to tie the game. The last goal coming with 4 seconds left. Widhalm and Day were ecstatic as they are Syracuse Alumni and I was pretty pumped since I have adopted them as one my college teams since Sarah graduated from there. Cuse then went on to win the game a minute into OT to complete the comeback.

Monday night I was persuaded to meet a couple of the guys and have some beers at Dukes, I was pretty exhausted but I was lured with the idea of a trivia night which wound up being cancelled. During any Yankee or Met game they have $1 beers or $4 pitchers which is awesome. We broke into quite a few songs and just had an awesome night overall.

I'm really looking forward to the Barca - Man Utd. Champions League final tomorrow.


Here comes summer

Unfortunately the weather outlook for this weekend doesn't look like beach weather. I've been trying to decide on what to do this weekend based on the weather and it looks as though I may partake in a round of golf and some paintball intermixed with alot of maxin and relaxin. 


I thought about going down to Sea Isle City but the trip is quite long, its over my budget and the bars are sure to be packed. Add to the fact that its not beach weather that idea was nixed pretty early.

Next up is beaching it in Point Pleasant New Jersey... This is a feasible option yet the whole weather and packed bars thing rears its ugly head again.

I think I'll take a trip to Central Park or Long Beach tomorrow for some fun in the sun and some much needed catching up on My Chuck Palahniuk Novel, Pygmy. As for the rest of the weekend I'm not utterly concerned about what I do, as long as I spend some time with my buddies I'm cool doin whatever.

2 weeks til im 25!

Cuse'

A good weekend overall. Went up to Syracuse to see Sarah graduate. Probably the last time I'll hang out with college aged kids. Johnny A came out to meet us at the bar Friday night and copious amounts of beer and tequila were consumed. I love the fact that 2 shots of tequila and a Guinness was $12. I inhaled a Jimmy Johns sub at 2 am which is standard protocol for any late night hangover helper and then passed out on the floor of our room at the Comfort Inn Suites because a cot had not been delivered to the room. Needless to say this was not the most comfortable slumber I've had in a while.

Vice President Joe Biden was the commencement speaker, he spoke for ~30 minutes and delivered a nice speech. Gotta give respect for the University of Delaware! In all seriousness though he had an inspiring speech. The gist of the speech was this generation is at an inflection point in history and that we can help to influence the direction we are going.

With two wars being fought across the globe, an economic crisis throughout the world and a greater responsibility for the survival of our planet our generation has the potential to be truly great. Not many times do you get to grab the wheel and alter the path we careening towards.

The end of the speech sounded more like it was coming from a politician however. He spoke of affordable health care,a college education for all of those who qualify and finished the speech with God Bless our Troops and God Bless America. I understand that he's the VP and that these are important issues to alot of Americans. However I highly doubt that this applies to the majority of the population at Syracuse. Tuition is around $40,000 a year and my sister noted that over the weekend she was counting the number of Range Rovers she saw. It's pretty easy to see if you've ever been to Syracuse University that these issues are not what the students of SU are worried about.

Today I went out to Mcann Memorial Golf Course in beautiful Poughkeepsie to play 18 holes for a steal of a deal at $20. A great day, I shot an 81 which easily could've been a 79. I shanked a 7 iron on my second shot on the par 5 17th hole and wound up scrambling under some trees and through a bunker to pull a bogey out of my ass instead of what would most likely have been a birdie. I Played my round in 4 hours and it easily could've been 3 if I didn't have 2 foursomes in front of me. The course was relatively empty and it was a nice relaxing round. My ball striking was pretty solid off the tee all day. I still have to work on my game from within 175 yards but its getting better. On the back 9 I only missed one fairway and that was on 17 where i was about 3 yards into the rough so all in all it was a promising round. 

For all of those golfers out there I highly suggest checking out oobgolf.com. I use Oob to input all of my scores and it allows you keep track of numerous statistics to get a better insight into how you're playing. After today my handicap is a 9.9 which I am happy with.

Rant


Today was a pretty damn good day. Started out the day with a very promising meeting that will no doubt help me in my professional development and eventually land me a job. There was no job offer but there was plenty of valuable information I took away from that meeting and it will no doubt help me going forward. 

On my way back from that meeting I noticed a chalkboard that said the Barcelona v Chelsea Semi Final Champions League Match that was to be televised @ 2:30. I made a mental note about that game the week before but I totally would have forgotten about it if it weren't for that chalkboard. I strolled into my apartment at 2:40 to catch the first minute of the game and saw a well fought match by both sides where it seemed as though Chelsea dominated Barcelona for much of the match. Michael Essien scored in the 12th minute on an incredible side volley knuckler that grazed the crossbar into the back of the net. (See Video Below) 

Valdes had absolutely no shot at stopping this goal and in all likelihood I don't think Essien could make that shot if he had 100 more tries. Barca played a very physical match and were quite aggressive in their own box. There were a couple slide tackles that could've ended up in a penalty kicks but they also got screwed on the red card given in the 60th minute that put them a man down. I'll call it a wash. 

In the 2nd half Barcelona had plenty of opportunities to put the ball in the net off of Free Kicks and Corners but they couldn't capitalize and it seemed as though Chelsea was destined to win. Fast forward to the 92nd minute and the current man of the match Essien whiffs on a clearance just inside of their box. The ball gets played out to Iniesta at the top of the 20 and he ripped a shot on the outside of his foot that bent perfectly away from the diving keeper to tie the game up 1-1 and all but secure their position in the finals in Rome.



For those of you who don't follow soccer, and I imagine that is the vast majority of you. I myself am a novice, yet I do love catching top notch futbol. In Champions League play there are two matches, each team gets a home game and the aggregate score for both matches ultimately decides the winner. The first game ended in a 0-0 tie, this game ended in a 1-1 tie. You may think they would go to penalty kicks, but that is not the case as away goals are weighed more heavily than home goals. Tie Breakers are decided on the away goal aggregate. So Barcelona's aggregate total was 1-0 over Chelsea.

I'll never forget the last time Barcelona was in the Champions League Final. It was the senior year at UD and the final day of classes for me. I had one class at 5 pm and it was a joke to say the least. For those of you who did not attend UD and even those who did and would like to reminisce. I caught the game at Grotto's which serves $2 24oz beers. I downed 10 of those bad boys in the 2 hours of soccer that was played. Even in my best drinking days that is alot. Needless to say I was quite stumbly and incoherent. I made it to my 5 oclock class drunk as a skunk and I can say that is the only time I've ever been in a college class wasted. 

Ahh yes, for those of you who don't know the end result of that game; Barcelona played Arsenal and they were down a goal going into the half. Barcelona went on to score 2 goals in the second half to take home the cup in an incredible match.

That was quite the tangent I just had. Applause for all of you who have made it this far. I rarely have that kind of patience for rambling. 

For a nightcap I got to meet one of the most venerable literary figures and by far my favorite author ever. Mr. Chuck Palahniuk. I've been a big Chuck fan for the past 7 years after I fell in love with Fight Club my Freshman Year of college. I've seen the movie over 500 times  and was lucky enough to write a paper on the movie in English 101. He has consistently written books that I love to read and have actually re-read Lullaby. I cannot say that about any other author, how many of you have read a fiction book twice? Exactly. 

Note the sweet mutton chops on Chuck here.

There is no author I can even put in the same ballpark. For the past 4 years I have been at the bookstore the first day to pick up his latest novel. I could never say that about anyone else. He is the author of one of the greatest novels of our generation and I was ecstatic to get a ticket early enough that I got VIP status where I got a picture with Chuck as well as a signed copy of his new book Pygmy. I also snagged a sweet blow up penguin that he was throwing out to members of the crowd. (For all of those people not fortunate enough to see or read Fight Club, it's his power animal. What is your power animal? )

Sliddeee

The reading was held at Webster Hall and this was the first time the Strand held any reading/signing at Webster Hall. It was a great experience and I intend on catching him in years to come on his book tours. There were no instances of people passing out or anything too crazy. I did see a few people dressed in German Beer maiden attire and one dude rocking a sombrero with a drug rug. Chuck fans are definitely an eccentric bunch and I'm happy to say I'm one of em. I'll save a Chuck rant for later as I'm sure this post is getting wayyy too long. 

Stay tuned for pictures from the Chuck reading...hopefully I don't look like too much of a jackass in the pictures. A nice high school student in line behind me was nice enough to take pictures of me and said he'd send over the photos.. 


Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Beinstein Rules!