Month: November 2002

One Time At Thanksgiving

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Back when We Were A Family, it was Thanksgiving tradition to go to Longuyland to visit my cousins and aunt and uncle. They were a bit poor, I think maybe even bankrupt, but my cousins always seemed to get the latest, hottest and most expensive toys. So did my uncle come to think of it; every year my uncle had a bigger television and a louder stereo system. Neither he nor my aunt had a steady job. (He booked musicians for performances at weddings and such, she was a musician who performed at weddings and such.)

In any case, we always went to their house for the day which included the turkey meal and football on the huge television. One year we had Chinese food instead of turkey.

That’s it. That’s my story. Chinese food. On Thanksgiving.

Weather Update

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The Weather Channel has upgraded tonight’s snow forecast from less than one inch of accumulation to one to three inches. Not nearly as much as I would like. It will also be too warm for any of the snow to stay around the entire day. For some reason I’m in the mood for a storm along the lines of the “Blizzard of ’96.”

Back in the winter of early 1996, I was home from college and I found my self stuck at a high school friend’s house during the blizzard. She wasn’t a particularly good friend, but she was a friend nonetheless. A bunch of people were stuck there and with nothing else to do (Xbox Live had not yet been invented) we started doing things like confiding in each other and being honest.

Mix It Up

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Question. What do you get when you mix a “family” of four roommates with weird personalities, a married couple, and a (dead) chicken? Answer. Hilarity ensuing.

While the references to Duraflame® have finally died down to an ember, last night’s Early Thanksgiving meal was still far from being what one could call a “family show.” Note to myself: Just stop eating stuff containing melted cheddar cheese—especially that cheesy macaroni stuff.

This Is A Dream Sequence

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Are elevators standard dream symbols? They seem to appear often in my dreams, and I don’t understand why they do. I’m never stuck in these elevators; they’re usually part of a quest, mission or task of some sort. There is usually more than one set of elevators, and they aren’t always consistent between floors. Anyone have any thoughts on their meanings?

Also, in my dream last night, I had had (heh) a baby with my former Jersey City roommate. Very odd.

Saturdays With Blue Man

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A couple of Denise’s friends from Texas, Stephanie and Christian, are staying in New York for a while, so we met up with them. We decided to head somewhere that Denise had wanted to go for a while: Lucky Cheng’s.

This is an Asian bar and restaurant. The place’s particular hook is the fact that almost all the “waitresses” are dressed in drag. I think there were some actual women, but I guess you can’t always be sure. There were four bachelorette parties going on while we were there. While you could pay $50 for someone at your table to receive a complete drag makeover, we decided not to do this since our night was not yet over.

Following dinner, we wasted time in Starbucks until the doors to Blue Man Group were ready to open. Well, I shouldn’t say we “wasted time” since we talked quite a bit and got to know each other. And of course, the hot chocolate and coffee-like products warmed us up on an otherwise chilly, windy night.

Blue Man Group was wonderful. The audience participation bits were very funny and the music was fabulous. All around, it was just plain fun. At first I was disappointed our seats were in the back, but this gave us a slight advantage after the show. Some of the “art” that was created during the performance was for sale following the performance. Since Denise purchased my ticket to the show for Hanukkah, I bought her the painting the Blue Man created in one of the first segments. That is where our back-row seats gave us the advantage — we were the first to the merchandise counter, therefore the claim to the art was ours (once I gave them my debit card).

Speaking of buying things, the two of us also picked up new cellular phones yesterday. I finally upgraded from a phone that was being discontinued when I bought it over two years ago to a very new Motorola T720. Denise finally got rid of her pathetic Sprint PCS service to join me on Verizon Wireless with the same phone. The best part is neither of us should be paying more than what we used to pay.

Looking Back

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A year ago I was thinking about war, on my way out of a job, getting myself into all sorts of trouble, and apparently generating lots of comments on this site.

Two years ago I was in the midst of working hard, partying just as hard, and missing They Might Be Giants concerts.

Three years ago I was getting over hang-ups I had growing up in New Jersey and loving my job.

Four years ago I was finishing up my student teaching, not quite ready to head out into the world. It was a rough semester. I was living alone in Delaware, working hard, and hardly talking with my girlfriend. We had a few months that fall we didn’t talk at all, except for what was necessary for her position as the University of Delaware Marching Band manager and mine as the band’s woodwinds music coordinator. It’s amazing for me to think about now. Four years ago I was student-teaching in a middle school, being an assitant band director at a high school, teaching a little at the University, running several websites, and volunteering with a drum and bugle corps.

Weekend Update, A Little Late

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I missed the Leonids last night. Sleep came to me at about 10:00 pm and I just didn’t want to fight with it. I was tired from a long, three-day weekend of funeral wakes and a burial. Denise‘s grandmother passed away last week, so Denise and I, along with tons of her family, headed up to Paramus. I met countless family members for the first time this weekend, as well as many others for the second or third time. I guess you could say I had a fun weekend—as much fun as one could have at a funeral.

Unfortunately, I did miss the Leonids meteor shower last night. I was just too exhausted to go out after getting home.