I’ve been tying up loose ends here in Boston for a few days, which explains why I haven’t yet posted about my trip to Rochester. I left here around 10:30am on Friday and after a very uneventful trip arrived in Rochester around 5pm. I stopped up by CIS to see if anyone was floating around there and ran into Ol’ Man Bodie. We chatted it up for awhile and then he had a phone call so i left him and returned to my car. I drove over to Scoot’s for the Barbeque.
I arrived a bit early, so I helped out setting up the tablecloths. This involved lots of taping and retaping, but eventually everything was relatively windproofed. The barbeque was great, it was awesome getting to catch up with so many friends… It seems that it has gotten to the point where I only see most of these people once a year, so I really look forward to the barbeque each year. Oh yeah, that and the food. The food was completely outrageous, as always… I wish I had a big back yard so I could get a smoker and make pulled pork for every meal. I hung out at the barbeque until like 10:30pm, when I got really tired, so I left and went over Jared, Paul, and Joel’s house (Joel was MIA) to crash. Pictures of the Barbeque are here
I got over Jared’s and really didn’t do much crashing. We stayed up talking until 4am, which should have been expected since I hadn’t seen him in ages and hadn’t really had a good “catching up” session in much longer. I crashed on his super-comfy couch and slept until around noon on Saturday. The two of us went to DiBella’s for lunch and then we walked around the RIT campus. If you ignore the ugly-ass 60’ sculpture, the campus is becoming downright attractive. The school has done tons of landscaping and prettyifing, stuff I wish they had done while I was still attending the damn place. When this work is done perhaps the school will be a bit more enjoyable to attend.
We returned to Jared’s and he wasn’t feeling well, with a stomach ache and all, so we just kind of blobbed around chit-chatting for a few hours. He layed down in his room for awhile and I watched some television. While Jared was laying down I talked to Paul for awhile, which reaffirmed my notion that I should have hung out with him more when he lived on floor. I left for Jan’s party around 9pm, and had a ball there too. It was a pimps and ho’s party, so everyone was in costume. I aimed for a Harvey Keitel “Taxi Driver” pimp, but was a bit off due to being poor and not being able to afford all the costume I wanted. Another night of catching up with old friends was alot of fun, and I ended up leaving the party around 4am. Pictures here
When I got back to the apartment I was supposed to call Jared so he could let me in. I called and there was no answer, so I knocked on his bedroom window. Once again, no answer. I walked up to the front door and saw a note from Paul saying he took Jared to the emergency room at 3:30am! I called Paul and he said they were still waiting in the ER to be seen, and told me where a key was hidden. I let myself in and tried to sleep knowing Jared was in the hospital.
I woke up to an alarm around 9am and showered, shaved, etc. Paul was home but Jared wasn’t. At ~6am Paul left the hospital and Jared hadn’t been seen yet. I left Rochester without knowing if Jared was OK, which really sucked. I stopped by Syracuse on the way back to visit for a few hours. We grabbed lunch at Weggies and she showed me around her house which is finally looking like she lives there. I left Syracuse around 2pm and made it back in Boston at 7:20pm, just in the nick of time for the SNFC meeting which was at 7:30pm! We saw The Weather Underground which was really enjoyable. It’s hard for me to believe that such a significant radical group, one that detonated bombs in federal buildings, was completely ignored by my education to date.
I came home from the club meeting and the apartment was a mess, but I somewhat expected this as the boys went to Foxwoods to play some Poker. I really wish I had a job so i could have joined them, but so it goes.. They came back around midnight and they mostly had a good night. Matt was with them, and I ended up staying up with him until 3-4am because he is moving to Baltimore next weekend. I’m really going to miss him…
Update: I’m a shitbag for forgetting to mention this, but Jared is recovering nicely now after having his appendix removed. He is back in his apartment and healing up.
When was the last time you laughed?
A few hours ago when
Corinna was here. :)
Who was the last person you had an argument with?
I insisted
to Corinna that Jamie-Lee Curtis showed the dirty pillows in Halloween, and
she disagreed. According to the CNDB I
was wrong on that one.
Who was the last person you emailed?
Some douche on a
mailing list.
When was the last time you bathed?
24 hours ago, but if you
ask me again in 15 minutes it will be 0 minutes ago.
I have to prepare the dish I am bringing to the big Barbeque in Rochester tomorrow. Should only take an hour, but I have to put it in the deep freeze so it will hopefully survive the 7 hour car trip in a car with no A/C. We will see how that works out for me. :)
As stated, I am heading into Rochester early tomorrow to go to the big barbeque at Scoot’s. Drop a line if you want to hang out (although the weekend is pretty well spoken for…).
Last night, Corinna opened my eyes to one of the most far-reaching conspiracies known to man. And now that I am awake, I feel that it is my obligation to not only spread the word, but lead the cause to end this crime against humanity.
Square boxes of tissues cost twice as much as rectangular boxes. Don’t believe me? Next time you are at the supermarket check it out. What is so special about square boxes that they cost twice as much? Are the two not made of cardboard? Do they not contain the same product? It’s incredible, and I am going to boycott square boxes of tissues (despite their desktop real-estate allure) until this situation is rectified. I hope you join me in this cause.
A few weeks ago I mentioned, in passing, a travel experience in a Friday Five post that Pat asked me to expand upon. It’s been quite awhile since this happened, so I’m sorry if the details are hazy.
A few years back, maybe five or six, I went to Virginia Beach for a week with the family… Chuck came along, and my sisters brought friends as well. We were in this really nice condo, way high up on the 12th floor or somesuch, overlooking the beach and the ocean, it was awesome. While the Virginia Beach area doesn’t have the hokey splendor of Seaside Heights, it was a nice relaxing time.
One night, we were out looking for something to eat, and people started getting impatient… We eventually agreed on this buffet place we saw earlier… I hadn’t been to a buffet restaurant since Sizzler as a kid, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I wish I could remember the name of this place, perhaps one of my family members will read this and post a comment here. Anyway, the place looked alright from the outside, but I remember walking in the door, and there was this really long stairway up to the restaurant. It was covered with really dark, spooky red carpeting, which in concert with the aqua-kitsch on the walls gave the place a distinct “Spooky David Lynch Movie Set” feel. I remember commenting to the family that I thought the place was completely unreal from the first minute we set foot inside.
We get to the top of the stairs, and the place is interestingly large, yet almost completely empty. There is a bar, with a bunch of really busted people sitting at it, all of which turned and kind of gave us a staredown as we got to the host podium. We are seated, and we are given flatware and plates to go start digging into the buffet. Larissa’s friend (who I notoriously didn’t get along with) had some nasty shit on her flatware, and the waitron seemed completely annoyed that she wanted it exchanged. We ordered our drinks and walked up to the buffet.
Now, based on the cavernous expanse that was this dining hall, I expected this buffet to be a bit more substantial, but it consisted of about 18-20 trays. I wasn’t big on fish at that point in my life, but even if I was, the fish plates (which accounted for the majority of the trays) were smelling extraordinarily fishy. Not just fishy, though, spoiled fish. In fact, it was at this moment that I noticed that the place smelled faintly of rotting fish. I went from tray to tray, and eventually decided to try some spaghetti-type-substance, some mac and cheese, and lots of bread. I went back to the table.
To add to the already surreal atmosphere, I sat down at the table and the entire party was just sitting at their seats staring at their plates. It was like everybody knew they SHOULD be eating, but were too disgusted to actually attempt the act. Slowly, people started to peck at their plates. I was confounded by how completely this restaurant screwed up both the spaghetti and the mac & cheese. It was completely revolting, in a way I never imagined macaroni could be. I must have turned green or something, because whoever was sitting across from me shot me a sympathetic glare. We were all reduced to kind of pushing food around on our plate.
My parents paid the bill, and on the way to the car my sisters noticed a McDonalds next door. They made a beeline there. I said I was too full, but I was really just sick to my stomach.