Yes, I’ve been slacking in posts again. Workload and life-living to blame. But then again, some things are worth the wait:

Friday:
Friday started off on about as wrong of a foot as it could have. Granted I have a slanted schedule when it comes to arriving at the office, usually leaving my house at 9:30 to be in SoHo just before noon (you may now all be jealous), but instead of my alarm clock bringing me into a state of consciousness, I was jolted awake by a telemarketer’s phone call around 11:15.

A steady stream of profanities soon followed as I rushed around the condo to get my act together and get up to NYC (think Carlin’s seven dirty words routine muttered at high speeds and you get the idea of the sound that filled my home).

To make things seemingly worse, I had planned on being in the office earlier than usual (read 10 am) to finish up the mock-up PowerPoint report document proposal from hell (patent pending) that had consumed a good portion of my energy the past two days at work. I was ready to sign away my weekend, burning as much midnight oil as needed to get the mountain of corrections I was expecting done by the deadline.

But the funny thing was that preverbal mountain turned out to be a real molehill after all. I had everything all wrapped up in a few hours, keeping my relaxation plans intact.

Phew!

And speaking of relaxation plans, that came friday night as my sister Shannon and cousin Erin came into the city for dinner and drinking. After some “god” decided to give us a parking spot in the East Village and lots of walking trying to find a restaurant that would agree with my sister’s finicky pallet, we settled into a nice little Thai place on 7th Ave.

I’ll have to try and dig up the restaurant name for my faithful readership, because the cuisine was very above-decent. I even went so far as to sample some of the muscles there (very spicy, and very good). This speaks highly of the place considering my usual reluctance towards seafood.

After super-yummy mealtime was completed, we moved on to phase two: heavy drinking. Our tour of Village bars included McSorleys (where sawdust covered the floor and beer comes in only two varieties — light and dark), Cafe Creole (where I got a nice dose of Hamond-organ powered jazz by the in-house trio) and The Slaughtered Lamb (with its own dungeon — complete with skeletons and a foosball table).

Of course, there was a few distraction along the way. We hit some kind of pop-culture antique shop, full to the ceiling with all manor of outrageous clothing, head wear, antique toys and other such novelties. At one point, a rubber brain and some very poor one liners were being tossed back and forth between myself and the man behind the counter. My wallet barely escaped intact as the urge to make an impulse purchase was very strong.

But the urge didn’t subside when we left the store.

On the way to McSorleys, we passed a hat shop that for some strange reason I had to direct our group into (hell, I wasn’t even drunk at this point, so I can’t use that as an excuse). We tried on every manor of hat from corny, absurd, oversized, out of style and back again…and then Shannon handed me a Dick Tracy style fedora that just happened to fit just right, even with my massive white man’s hippie ‘fro.

Sold. ^_^

At least I wasn’t the only one who made an impulse purchase that night. Erin also succumb to the urge, purchasing a hat that will be perfect if/when she goes back to the land down under. Somehow my sister survived the ordeal intact. Guess she was just saving her money for the next night, when she and a friends met Erin in NYC for more drunken debauchery, but that’s her story — not mine.

The trip home was relaxing, if not long. I got to finish watching “One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest” in one of NJ Transit’s newest coaches and there was no traffic on any of the highways. My head didn’t hit soft and soothing pillow until sometime after 4:20 in the morning, but boy did it ever feel good.

Saturday:
Just the usual wake up late, wander over to friends house, play music video games and then get chinese food routine. I managed to miss watching the Yankees bow out of the playoffs, which is probably for the best otherwise it would have really ruined my day.

That evening I was going to go camp out in the middle of the woods with friends, but my plans Sunday called for visiting my Dad and I wanted to be ready to go considering we’ve been trying to get together for over a month now, so I graciously excused myself from the event (and by graciously I mean with foot-in-mouth — I was about as smooth as 20 grit sandpaper). Of course I was told afterwards that they ran into another group of people (at least 15 of which were girls — go figure) and had a smashing good time, but then again it’s not like I just sat home and sulked all night.

Instead of bonfires and stars, Sue and I went out and had a nice night of drinks, exploration and discussion, hitting the Dublin House and hoofing it around Red Bank for a while before driving around the outskirts of Farmingdale, Jackson and then back to Point Pleasant. This late night dirving thing is somewhat of a hobby of mine — refered to for the first time this night as the “Saturday Night Explorer’s Club”. All in all, a night well spent in my not-so-humble opinion.

Sunday:
I got out of bed at a decent hour, showered, dressed and called my Dad, checking to make sure our plans were still on for the day. Unfortunately, he was feeling under the weather, so the plans were scuttled yet again. *Sigh* Oh well, guess it’s try, try again.

I took some solice in the fact I got to see my Giants top the Cowboys — still a little rough, but win is a win after all. I still find it hard to believe that they’re tied for the top of the NFC East. Of course, I’m under no delusions that they’re as good as their record right now, but there is something to be said for luck in the NFL.

I also managed to start work on the new promised section of Fischler.org that I made mention of earlier this week, which is coming along rather nicely and should be out and about in a couple of days (this may just wind up being step one in the total redesign of the site — we’ll see).

Monday:
The mock-up PowerPoint report document proposal from hell (patent pending) lives!!! Argh!!! I was met by yet another batch of corrections when I got to the office, forcing me to once again soil my hands in the evil program known as PowerPoint. Just as a footnote, I used said evil program about three times more in this project that I had ever used it before IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!

And I now know how to use it really well. I feel dirty….

Tuesday:
A late night at the office, but it worked out for the best. It seems as thought there was some kind of signal outage just around the start of rush hour. Much aggravation was bestowed upon the commuters, but with my head buried in design work I didn’t have to worry toomuch about it. By the time I stopped in at Penn Station, things were all cleared up and back to normal.

Thank god, because I really wasn’t looking forward to the bus ride home. Then again, I was looking forward to sleeping in the office, sans morning shower, much less.

OK, that about does it for the recap. Satisfied Don? ^_^

Tags: Personal

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