Although this weekend seemed to fly by, it was definitely packed with lots of activities and I don’t feel as exhausted as I have in previous weekends.
Despite the fact that Adam and I live together, we realized that we really don’t spend a lot of time together, especially now that our weekends are consumed with going down the shore and being around everyone else. So on Friday we decided that instead of rushing down the shore to get drunk with everyone else, we’d stick around North Jersey and have dinner, just the two of us. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory where our eyes were WAY bigger than our stomach. We started by splitting a salad. Adam ordered the meatloaf, which is known for being one of the largest meals they have to offer. I ordered the Fish and Chips after seeing someone else order it. Neither of us came close to even finishing half of our meal, but we saved a little room for cheesecake of course! We ordered chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake with extra whipped cream. After dinner we both had such a bad food coma that we were both asleep by 9:00pm. It felt good, and I’m sure neither of us had gone to bed so early on a Friday in a long time.
Luckily we were able to leave our house by 9:00am and didn’t get caught in any traffic on our way down the shore. On our way down we stopped by Wegman’s and Costco to get food for tailgating at the Huey Lewis and News/Chicago concert that night. After arriving in Manasquan, we quickly threw on our suits and went to the beach. The water was incredibly clear and very refreshing at 66 degrees.
After the beach we all got ready for the concert. Lauren’s friend, Michelle, arrived just in time, after being stuck in traffic for over 5 hours…guess it was a good thing we left so early. We arrived at PNC around 4:45pm and fired up the grill. Adam used his MSU helmet grill that he got from his parents for his Birthday last year, for the 1st time. About a ½ hour before the concert began an older couple approached our group and asked where the Spartans were. Adam, Kory and I all introduced ourselves and found out that they had moved to NJ a year ago after living in Kalamazoo for over 30 years. They didn’t go to MSU, but they were long time fans of Spartan athletics, which is great considering the other 80% of the state are bandwagon U of M fans. We spent the next 2 ½ hours eating and drinking without much relief from the sun or humidity.
We met up with Lindsay and Erin while waiting in line to get in. Huey Lewis was pretty good (what I remember of it) and they played a lot of their greatest hits. I wish I could say the same for Chicago. After realizing that much of the crowd was there to see Chicago, and not recognizing any of their first 4 songs, we decided to head back to the house.
Lindsay and Erin had spent the night on Saturday, and Lindsay was able to stick around on Sunday to go to the beach with me. The water was 1 degree warmer, but the heat and humidity were so unbearable that we spent much of our time running from our blankets to the water. After lying out we came back to the house, showered and packed up. Lindsay drove back with us because Erin had to go home early to study. We stopped at J.J. Bittings for dinner on the way home, and then Wegman’s. After dropping Lindsay off at home, Adam and I came home and again made it to bed pretty early. It felt good to have such a packed weekend that didn’t make us sacrifice any sleep.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Weekend with Kendra and Sunday in the city
I think my weekend can best be described in Kendra's post from this weekend.
On Sunday I took the train into NYC with Kendra and John and then took a cab over to my Aunt and Uncles hotel. My Aunt Jennie decided suprise her daughter, Blair (my cousin), for her 16th Birthday with a trip to NYC. Neither my Aunt, Uncle or cousin had ever been to the city before and I offered to play "tour guide" for a day. I was actually quite suprised at how well they had gotten around on Saturday on their own, and all the things they had already seen. When I arrived all of them were ready to go...not only was it my family, but 6 of Blairs friends from High School.
Once I arrived I offered some suggestions on things to see/do. They immediately decided on Canal Street in Chinatown to get the fake purses. Once we got off the subway everyone realized why it's called "Chinatown" and were quickly questioned by 100's "You want pocketbook? Chanel, Gucci?" After going through about 5 different places and spending over $1,000.00 total they were ready to leave. They probably could have spent all day there, however, they still had Monday to shop on 5th Ave. and not much money left.
After Canal St. we went to the World Trade Center, then Century 21, and finally the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.
After our South Manhattan tour was complete they went back to the hotel to relax and drop off their treasures. I was exhausted because I had been up since 6:00am (in order to catch the 7:00am train from Port Jefferson) and I just wanted to head back to Jersey. After saying goodbye to my family, I took a cab to the PATH station, where I took the PATH to Hoboken where Adam was waiting for me. That night I cooked dinner, took a shower and was in bed by 9:00pm.
This weekend was a nice break from going down the shore. This weekend a group of us are going to see Huey Lewis and Chicago in concert down the shore. It should be fun and I hope the rain holds out so I can make up some of the lost sun time from this past weekend.
On Sunday I took the train into NYC with Kendra and John and then took a cab over to my Aunt and Uncles hotel. My Aunt Jennie decided suprise her daughter, Blair (my cousin), for her 16th Birthday with a trip to NYC. Neither my Aunt, Uncle or cousin had ever been to the city before and I offered to play "tour guide" for a day. I was actually quite suprised at how well they had gotten around on Saturday on their own, and all the things they had already seen. When I arrived all of them were ready to go...not only was it my family, but 6 of Blairs friends from High School.
Once I arrived I offered some suggestions on things to see/do. They immediately decided on Canal Street in Chinatown to get the fake purses. Once we got off the subway everyone realized why it's called "Chinatown" and were quickly questioned by 100's "You want pocketbook? Chanel, Gucci?" After going through about 5 different places and spending over $1,000.00 total they were ready to leave. They probably could have spent all day there, however, they still had Monday to shop on 5th Ave. and not much money left.
After Canal St. we went to the World Trade Center, then Century 21, and finally the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.
After our South Manhattan tour was complete they went back to the hotel to relax and drop off their treasures. I was exhausted because I had been up since 6:00am (in order to catch the 7:00am train from Port Jefferson) and I just wanted to head back to Jersey. After saying goodbye to my family, I took a cab to the PATH station, where I took the PATH to Hoboken where Adam was waiting for me. That night I cooked dinner, took a shower and was in bed by 9:00pm.
This weekend was a nice break from going down the shore. This weekend a group of us are going to see Huey Lewis and Chicago in concert down the shore. It should be fun and I hope the rain holds out so I can make up some of the lost sun time from this past weekend.
Monday, July 17, 2006
A nice change of scenery
This weekend was a nice break from the usual “Manasquan” routine.
Saturday Walt, Jim, Mike, Adam and I went down to Lindsay’s (ex co-worker from Acme) shore house in Manahawkin. Manahawkin is about an hour South of Manasquan and is right across the bay from Long Beach Island (LBI). It was a nice change of scenery and definitely a nice change of surroundings.
We arrived to her house just in time for dinner. Lindsay provided quite the spread of food with hot & sweet Italian sausage, boneless chicken breasts, hot dogs, and burgers. She also had potato and pasta salad, cole slaw, baked beans and french fries. After dinner we all just hung out, drank some beers and some of us went for a midnight dip in the lagoon behind her house. At about 2:30am Adam I decided to go to bed, while everyone else stayed up until after 4:00am.
Going to bed late didn’t stop us from getting up at 9:00am. Mason made everyone breakfast while Adam, Erin and I went to get the innertube filled up with air for tubing later in the day. After a couple setbacks and a trip to Walmart, a water fight and some swimming, we were ready to go tubing. Mason, Kevin, Erin, Lindsay and I went tubing first while the guys stayed back, got some lunch, and did some “crabbing”.
After we got back, Mason and Kevin took off for home, and the rest of us went out tubing again. Adam had never been tubing before but he wasn’t shy. Lindsay was no where near as gentle on Adam and Walt as she was on Erin and I. I went tubing again and got thrown off the tube twice. When I went flying off, so did my bathing suit bottoms but both times I was lucky enough to cross my legs so my bathing suit didn’t float to the bottom of the ocean.
After taking a quick swim in the bay we were headed back to Lindsay’s. We helped clean up and packed up the Durango. We still had to go back to Manasquan! We ended up getting caught in some traffic on our way back to Manasquan, but took an alternate route to North Jersey to avoid any further delays. After getting home at 9:00pm, showering and cranking the air conditioning up, I was fast asleep by 10:00pm, but soooo NOT ready for work the next day!!!
Friday, July 07, 2006
Friday's here already!?
It’s crazy to think that it’s Friday again! This week flew by since I didn’t go back to work until Wednesday.
Wednesday night Adam, Mark and I went to the Mets game. The forecast was for more rain, but we chanced it anyways and it turned out to be a gorgeous night. It would have been nice to take Mark to a Yankee game, but there aren’t any home games while he’s in town.
Yesterday Mark and Adam went down to Atlantic City. Adam was lucky enough to be in NYC for the transit worker strike, and now he’ll also be able to say he was in Atlantic City when the casinos were closed. Because NJ doesn’t have enough money to pay their state employees all the state parks, beaches and casinos were forced to close. I guess the casinos aren’t able to operate without a state inspector overseeing financial operations at all times.
Last night after work I met up with some of the guys at Greenhouse Café in Wayne. I headed home early so I could get some laundry done and pack up the car in order to head down the shore right after work. I didn’t get home until 9:30pm but I managed to get 3 loads of laundry done, took the trash out, packed and did dishes.
On a rather sad note the cable company must have figured out that I was getting HBO and Encore for free because the channels no longer come in. I’ll be ok for now, but once the final 7 episodes of Sopranos air I better have a place to watch each and every one of them!!!
Wednesday night Adam, Mark and I went to the Mets game. The forecast was for more rain, but we chanced it anyways and it turned out to be a gorgeous night. It would have been nice to take Mark to a Yankee game, but there aren’t any home games while he’s in town.
Yesterday Mark and Adam went down to Atlantic City. Adam was lucky enough to be in NYC for the transit worker strike, and now he’ll also be able to say he was in Atlantic City when the casinos were closed. Because NJ doesn’t have enough money to pay their state employees all the state parks, beaches and casinos were forced to close. I guess the casinos aren’t able to operate without a state inspector overseeing financial operations at all times.
Last night after work I met up with some of the guys at Greenhouse Café in Wayne. I headed home early so I could get some laundry done and pack up the car in order to head down the shore right after work. I didn’t get home until 9:30pm but I managed to get 3 loads of laundry done, took the trash out, packed and did dishes.
On a rather sad note the cable company must have figured out that I was getting HBO and Encore for free because the channels no longer come in. I’ll be ok for now, but once the final 7 episodes of Sopranos air I better have a place to watch each and every one of them!!!
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
My 4 day weekend has come and gone...
Well my 4 day holiday weekend is officially over. I had a great time down the shore with everyone. Although our annual 4th of July weekend party didn’t have a huge turnout, we had a packed house for the entire 4 day weekend!
Friday after work I went to baby-sit. Kendra was driving in from Long Island and met me at the house I was babysitting at. We got back to my house at about 11:30 and did laundry and cooked until 1:30am. Although we were tired we knew we had to get up early to beat the traffic and get food together for the party. So Saturday morning we showered, shaved and were in the car by 8:30am (quite impressive considering that during the week I can’t even get up before 7:00am). After stops at Costco, Wegmans, and Wal-mart we arrived down the shore at 11:30am. Adam unloaded the car while Kendra and I quickly put our bathing suits on in order to not miss quality sun/swim time.
Once Kendra had enough “color” on her back, we decided to go back to prepare for the party. Keith and Bathsheba arrived with not 1, but 2 cakes, and 3 trays of Buffalo wings and boneless Buffalo wings. While munching on the goodies they brought I prepared the other food. We had chips and dip, cupcakes, deviled eggs, pasta salad, mac salad, potato salad, pickles, a veggie tray, strawberries and fruit dip, hot dogs, hamburgers, and of course plenty beer! By 10:00pm Kendra and I were asleep. Between getting up early, the sun, and getting everything together, I’m surprised we made it that late!!
On Sunday we hit up the beach again so Kendra could equally color both sides of her body. The water on Sunday was much cooler than Saturday, but the weather was so hot and humid that I had to jump in and out throughout the day to stay cool. On Sunday night we had one of the worst thunderstorms I’ve ever experienced down the shore canceling the scheduled fireworks display. We all stayed on the porch watching the lightning and rain. The thunderstorm quickly passed and within an hour we were ready to hit the bar. We all went to the Osprey where Kendra brought the Zach Morris cell phone and proceeded to approach anyone and everyone insisting that A.C. Slater was on the phone wanting to meet them at the Max. I’ve never seen Kendra so drunk, or so outgoing! We had a great time at the bar and Adam even had what he says was “the best fajita of the year” as tears poured down his face from the extra, extra hot sauce he insisted on.
Monday started out as another beach day. This time I was sure to check the temperature to see how cold the water was. Turned out the thunderstorm had brought in some cooler waters from the north and the water temperature was 58 degrees. This of course didn’t stop us from going in, as the temperature outside was well above 90 degrees. After getting out last rays in for the weekend, we headed home to relax and enjoy our final night of the holiday weekend. My friend Lindsay from work made an appearance at our house along with her friend Erin. They stuck around for dinner and some drinks before heading home. Lindsay’s last day was Friday, so maybe now that she won’t see me daily at work, I can get her to come down to Manasquan more often! Also, our friend from Michigan, Manore arrived at about 6:00pm! Dave and San also stopped by later that night, just in time to come with us to Bar A (actually Dave stayed back at the house, but San came).
On Tuesday morning Kendra and I headed back to N. Jersey, while Adam and Manore stuck around Manasquan until this morning. Adam took the week off to show Manore around. After arriving home in record timing (surprisingly we didn’t hit any traffic) we went to see “The Devil Wears Prada” which was a great movie. I’m in the middle of reading the book (I was hoping to finish before the movie), which seems to be quite different, so I’m going to finish it anyways. After the movie we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant before Kendra headed home to Long Island.
After a long weekend, I needed some R&R. I fell asleep at 6:00pm, waking up only once at 9:30pm to get ready for bed and watch Entourage on HBO. I fell asleep for the night at 11:00pm, and slept soundly until 7:00 this morning.
After nearly 12 hours of sleep and 2 cups of coffee I’m ready for the week. It’s crazy to think that I’ll be back on the beach in 3 more days!! I’m already counting down…
Friday after work I went to baby-sit. Kendra was driving in from Long Island and met me at the house I was babysitting at. We got back to my house at about 11:30 and did laundry and cooked until 1:30am. Although we were tired we knew we had to get up early to beat the traffic and get food together for the party. So Saturday morning we showered, shaved and were in the car by 8:30am (quite impressive considering that during the week I can’t even get up before 7:00am). After stops at Costco, Wegmans, and Wal-mart we arrived down the shore at 11:30am. Adam unloaded the car while Kendra and I quickly put our bathing suits on in order to not miss quality sun/swim time.
Once Kendra had enough “color” on her back, we decided to go back to prepare for the party. Keith and Bathsheba arrived with not 1, but 2 cakes, and 3 trays of Buffalo wings and boneless Buffalo wings. While munching on the goodies they brought I prepared the other food. We had chips and dip, cupcakes, deviled eggs, pasta salad, mac salad, potato salad, pickles, a veggie tray, strawberries and fruit dip, hot dogs, hamburgers, and of course plenty beer! By 10:00pm Kendra and I were asleep. Between getting up early, the sun, and getting everything together, I’m surprised we made it that late!!
On Sunday we hit up the beach again so Kendra could equally color both sides of her body. The water on Sunday was much cooler than Saturday, but the weather was so hot and humid that I had to jump in and out throughout the day to stay cool. On Sunday night we had one of the worst thunderstorms I’ve ever experienced down the shore canceling the scheduled fireworks display. We all stayed on the porch watching the lightning and rain. The thunderstorm quickly passed and within an hour we were ready to hit the bar. We all went to the Osprey where Kendra brought the Zach Morris cell phone and proceeded to approach anyone and everyone insisting that A.C. Slater was on the phone wanting to meet them at the Max. I’ve never seen Kendra so drunk, or so outgoing! We had a great time at the bar and Adam even had what he says was “the best fajita of the year” as tears poured down his face from the extra, extra hot sauce he insisted on.
Monday started out as another beach day. This time I was sure to check the temperature to see how cold the water was. Turned out the thunderstorm had brought in some cooler waters from the north and the water temperature was 58 degrees. This of course didn’t stop us from going in, as the temperature outside was well above 90 degrees. After getting out last rays in for the weekend, we headed home to relax and enjoy our final night of the holiday weekend. My friend Lindsay from work made an appearance at our house along with her friend Erin. They stuck around for dinner and some drinks before heading home. Lindsay’s last day was Friday, so maybe now that she won’t see me daily at work, I can get her to come down to Manasquan more often! Also, our friend from Michigan, Manore arrived at about 6:00pm! Dave and San also stopped by later that night, just in time to come with us to Bar A (actually Dave stayed back at the house, but San came).
On Tuesday morning Kendra and I headed back to N. Jersey, while Adam and Manore stuck around Manasquan until this morning. Adam took the week off to show Manore around. After arriving home in record timing (surprisingly we didn’t hit any traffic) we went to see “The Devil Wears Prada” which was a great movie. I’m in the middle of reading the book (I was hoping to finish before the movie), which seems to be quite different, so I’m going to finish it anyways. After the movie we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant before Kendra headed home to Long Island.
After a long weekend, I needed some R&R. I fell asleep at 6:00pm, waking up only once at 9:30pm to get ready for bed and watch Entourage on HBO. I fell asleep for the night at 11:00pm, and slept soundly until 7:00 this morning.
After nearly 12 hours of sleep and 2 cups of coffee I’m ready for the week. It’s crazy to think that I’ll be back on the beach in 3 more days!! I’m already counting down…
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