Vacation

I’m leaving for the shore today and then returning on Sat for a wedding. After the wedding I’m heading back down again that night and then staying there all week. It’ll be nice not having to work for a week. My goal is to balance getting wasted and staying in running shape but the former usually hinders the latter.

Also we played Monopoly last night and I want to give the in’s and out’s to certain deals. I was able to obtain 2 red’s and 200 dollars for my 1 purple. Granted if gave the opponent a monopoly but it also gave me a red monopoly. This deal has to be so heavily favored in my direction it’s ridiculous. However, he was able to put instant hotels on his properties and they turned into magnets. I landed on them once and next thing you know I’m cash strapped with an expensive monopoly that I can’t build on. Once again Evan and I got properties each other needed and once again we are both to stubborn to trade with each other. I had both yellows and park place and he had one yellow and boardwalk. I wanted the yellow and he wanted to trade straight up yellow for park place. Considering I already had a monopoly and he didn’t I wasn’t doing it. I wanted him to throw in a specified amount of money. Well naturally he wanted me to throw in a specified amount of money for the deal. My argument is that bw and pp are the best properties in the game and his argument is that i’m getting 3 spaces and he will only have 2. So naturally we sit there turn after turn unable to come to anything until it’s too late and both of us go bk. Just as I ended my scattergories career i’m considering the same with Monopoly. I think the trading aspect of the game is fun but the luck portion makes it tough to win sometimes.

That’s it on my end.

By |2010-01-27T19:28:05-05:00June 18th, 2009|My Life|1 Comment

Monday Morning

I’ll write a post to give people something to do for a few minutes on the worst day of the week.

I went Mad River on Friday with hopes of scoring the bartenders number. If you’ve read anything I wrote before I told her last Sunday I’d take her out on Wednesday. I put her number in my phone wrong and didn’t contact her. So I go in on Friday trying to get her to fix the number in my phone. So I see her, tell her I’m sorry I stood her up but I had her number in my phone wrong. She looks at the number says something like “so close” and then tells me to try back later. Obviously realizing she now holds all power of the digits and decides to play hard to get. She’s at the bar and I’m at a table so the best time to talk to her is after finishing my drink. So one time I go up and say I’d like a rum and coke and also a date tomorrow night. My friend told me the line and it seemed pretty good. She thought it was funny but wouldn’t give in. Then my other friend, trying to be smooth, goes up and asks her “is Tom creeping you out?” This genius is my wingman? After such a moronic question I have to call him out in this post. Even after the retarded question she replies no which was at a fine answer for a potential disastrous question. To make a long story short I didn’t get her number because she was being difficult. She ended up giving us some free shots so it’s not like things went badly, they just didn’t end with a great success like advertised. So I’ll be down the shore starting on Thursday so I won’t get another opportunity but I think that’s probably a good thing. This girl is literally a dime or at least and nickel and 4 pennies so a challenge is probably necessary.

In other news, our Oreland team won a game. We were up 21-7 at one point. They narrowed the lead to 4 or 5 and we ended up winning by 10 or so. I didn’t play too well but anytime your team wins and an individual doesn’t do well you just say “it’s a team game.” We play again tonight at 9 with hopes of another w.

A final thought. I’ve been wearing contacts for 10+ years now and I still can’t figure out which side is the right way to put them in. Most mornings I just randomly look at the contact and just put it in. Lately they have been scratching my eyes when I put them in and I have to keep taking them out and putting them in time after time. I’m considering Lasik but honestly having a laser beam in my eye doesn’t seem like something I’m willing to chance. Summer vacation is starting soon.

By |2010-01-27T19:29:38-05:00June 15th, 2009|My Life, Sports|0 Comments

Friday

Yesterday I ran a 59 quarter, followed by a slow lap, then a 5:20 mile, lap, then a 2:35 half, then 7:30 minutes on the stadium stairs, and then a 65 quarter to top it off. I think I can do the quarter a couple of seconds faster if I had someone running with me. I was pretty pleased with my mile time which I think I can nick 5 minutes fresh. And I missed my goal on the half by 5 seconds at the point of the workout. Today I ran 60 minutes straight at about 6:45 to 7 minute pace and I felt pretty good.

After yesterday’s post, 17 people are wondering why I’m posting today. I decided that I’m not going to try to post things that I think everyone will want to read. I’m going to write whatever I want to write about and if you don’t like it then you don’t have to read it. If you don’t like track writing, fan fucking tastic, I don’t care.

Today will be attempt two at asking this bartender out. I put her number in my phone wrong the first time after I told her I would take her out last wednesday which I obviously blew off. So now I have to say sorry and try again. I don’t really do dates but this girl I believe is out of my league so I’d be a fool not to try. I bet this girl gets hit on all the time so I’m not guaranteeing great success but if she tried giving me her number once, hopefully it’ll work again. However to quote the Piano man:

“I’ve gotta get it right the first time
That’s the main thing
I can’t afford to let it pass
You get it right the next time that’s not the same thing
Gonna have to make the first time last.”

By |2010-01-27T19:30:31-05:00June 12th, 2009|My Life, Sports|0 Comments

Monday Morning

Wow. I am hurting. That was just a 3 day, stay drunk the entire time. I started drinking after work on Friday. Open bar at Mad river. Club Risque on Friday night. Woke up Saturday and started drinking again. Mini golf then a poker session. Passed out at 6pm and rewoke up at 9. Started drinking again. Went to the brew pub. Woke up on Sunday where I told this bartender I would meet her at 9 and we would do a shot. Got there at 12ish. Did the shot. Amazingly got her number which I put in my phone incorrectly. Got back at 5 where I passed out till 9. Lost in Monopoly and finally went to sleep at midnight where I woke up at 8 today. I have the shakes and my head and body are yelling at me. This is an overview of what I did and there are many more specifics in this weekend but I’m not sure going into them is a good idea. I can’t wait for this day to end so I can get back to normal tomorrow.

By |2010-01-26T22:27:40-05:00June 8th, 2009|My Life|0 Comments

Haircut

Simple service, abnormal experience.  I have a usual barber, Gerry from Mario’s, who always cuts my hair.  Problem is he’s back where my parents live and I didn’t feel like driving out there.  So I decided to get it local.  I only have had one local experience with getting my hair cut.  I went into this mom and pop barber and a 70 year old man with a ridiculous comb-over did a subpar job.  He only used scissors the entire time.  The person who used to cut my hair the best was in Pittsburgh and he would use the razor for 90 percent of the time.  He used to cut hair for the Navy and that was probably the reason overuse of the razor.  Plus he had all these skin mags lying around which made it a real man’s barber shop.

Anyway back to the present.  I see the Barber symbol, the parlor sign with rotating red, white, and blue lines on Ridge Ave.  Why not, let’s give it a try.  I open the door and then there is another front doorish door.  This is odd but ok let’s see what’s behind door# 2.  I open it up and there are 2 bros and chick and I can tell that this is not my ordinary barber shop.  The guys both look like Guy Fieri, the chef from the TGIF commercials with the blonde, spiky, gelled hair.  Plus as I walk in one bro is telling a story and I can tell he’s a fruit.  Then the head guy starts talking queerish, telling me a lot of people just walk in looking for a regular hair cut (yeah right).  So i’m like what the fuck lets just do this.  So he sets me up with a woman in her 30’s-40’s probably, Chrissy.  Chrissy asks me “What do I want to DO with my hair” implying that I must want some fresh style.  I don’t know any hair styles plus I don’t DO anything with my hair.  I just give her my usual haircut, #2 blade on the sides and make the top shorter.  So she’s goes to work .  I get the feeling she doesn’t cut a lot of straight guys hair.  She starts by using the razor and gives me a mushroom cut that was popular in the mid 90’s.  I don’t say anything hoping it’s going to get better.  We literally sat in silence for the full 20 minutes she spent cutting it.  It wasn’t as awkward as I expected and every time she hunched over in front of me I got a peek of her rack.  She finished up by putting some sticky spray in my hair which I would never use.  The bro says something like “Wow Chrissy that’s a great haircut.”   You be the judge.

phpw8lw3vpm

It was 15 bucks and I gave her a 20 for not fucking it up so bad.  She gave me a card for 25% off my next visit but we’ll see.

By |2010-01-25T23:15:12-05:00May 29th, 2009|My Life|3 Comments

Comment

There was a comment left that read this; “Thanks for posting, I very much enjoyed reading your most recent post. I think you should post more frequently, you evidently have talent for blogging!”

Yes I just did use a semi colon which was probably completely out of context.  The person’s name was My amazing weight loss story.  I’m thinking, “wow that was a really nice comment.”  Naturally the person’s name was a link to a website that I clicked on it and my antivirus starts spazzing out.  So wishful thinking.

I watched Pineapple Express yesterday.  The crew that makes up their movies is funny.  I’m not necessarily getting tired of them but it’s a bit unusual to see the same people make up different roles in a lot of different movies.  James Franco is good and Seth Rogan seems to always make up a good role.  The movie was good but not great.  Mostly entertaining with a few laughs.  I don’t know where they were going with the girlfriend subplot, that just seemed out of place.  I just ordered it from comcast for 5 bucks and I really have to commend them on the convenience of getting a movie to you.  I’m pretty lazy and would never go to a video store so the chances of me seeing this movie before it makes it to premium channels (probably soon anyhow) was slim.

It is Friday though and the week was short and hopefully the weather will become nicer.  Let’s get drunk.  Some people would probably put an exclamation mark at the end of that last sentence but I really have a problem with them.

A final thought, if Adam or Evan read this I just want you guys to imagine me as Will Ferrel in Step Brothers at the wedding and me saying “this GAME is horseshit” referring to Acey Deucy.  Evan you won’t see that money in your lifetime and I refuse to play any card games with the Cohens.

OOOH look at the bird.

I wonder where it’s going to land.

By |2016-11-03T15:22:10-04:00May 29th, 2009|My Life|1 Comment

Activities

I haven’t really been running much since the broad street run due to just taking some time off.  However, this is the first week I’ve been getting back into exercising regularly with good workouts.  After playing 3v3 bball on Sunday my back was killing me for some unexplained reason.  I used this excuse for why I wasn’t able to bowl well but as it turned out it actually made me better as I sported a 174 avg for 4 games.  Plus the bowling shoes gave me a heel spur which was a nagging pain.

Nevertheless I went up to the track on Tuesday and did a workout.  I ran a 2:32 800 to start, then a 75 400, then a 68, then a 69.  Then I did 6 minutes of constant stairs and then ran another 3 400’s at about 70 pace.  Yesterday I did a long 12 mile run at about 7 minute pace which I thought was pretty good considering it was my first long run since broad street.  I’m not really training for anything other than to get into dynamite shape.  Phil’s 5k is in July and I’ll be ready to own some high school speds who have lofty aspirations of taking me down.  Last year I time trialed myself in a 4, 8 and the mile.  I think I was about 58 seconds in the 4, 2:13 in the 8, and 5:01 in the mile.  I think I can take a couple of seconds off of each one of those times because I started training earlier in the season.

I’ll play some golf this weekend and possibly a shore trip even though I’m not really down for gambling because I’ve been blowing through cash like a wild man.  I paid for a new car, new car insurance and I’ll have to pay for the damages to my old car.  When that much cash goes from the account it’s never a good feeling.  I haven’t made a sports bet since march madness so thats a plus.  I haven’t played pokerstars in a couple of weeks either but I’m making it a point to get back into it to generate some supplemental income hopefully.  Tomorrow I’ll put a link on facebook which triples my usual visits so I’ll have to come up with a good post.  Look forward to tomorrow.

By |2011-05-18T22:53:56-04:00May 21st, 2009|My Life|0 Comments

Thank You

I want to take this post and throw some shout outs to a few various people who have affected my life tremendously.  I made it easier to comment now which is the main reason no one has done so. (right…)

Laura, my sister.  Thank your for peeling my EZ pass off of my windshield.  After I got it back from you it never stuck to the windshield again.  I now have to put it on my dashboard and any time I make a sharp turn it slides across the dashboard and falls on the ground.  Every time it falls off I think of you.

I want to thank Bill Murtha.  Freshmen year of college I lent him my Playstation2.  After a couple of days I come in to see the Ps2 barely sitting on the corner of the bureau.  Not surprisingly it fell off and the 2nd controller port never worked again thus causing me to use my multitap to play against multiple people.  This was a telling sign of your clumsiness but you put up with my drunken shit for 4 years so I can let this minor incident slide.

I want to thank Bud Schmidt for saving my life.  He was driving a golf cart down the 15th, i think, hole at Twining valley and he put the cart in neutral to make it go faster down the hill.  Bud was always trying to make the cart go faster.  Anyway his hat flew off his head and instead of riding down to the end of the hill he decided to make a hard left trying to go back for the hat (genius).  I can’t remember exactly but I think the force flew him out of the cart and I held on for dear life hoping that the cart wouldn’t flip.  Fortunately it didn’t but I won’t forget Bud’s attempt on my life and then his courageous act of saving my life.

Next up is Gene Dooley.  Gene actually did save my life, and his own, as I wasn’t paying attention driving and we were heading off the road and he rightfully put his hand on the wheel from the passenger side and steered us back to safety.  Dooley may be one of the best beer pong players I’ve met although I’m sure he doesn’t need you to tell him that because he already knows.  I will however out drink the party boy under the table even though he’s too embarrassed to admit it.

And just a few shout outs.  I’ll thank Bill Gates for making me aware that I never want to play RuneScape due to the fact that he probably spent hundreds of hours clicking his mouse mining for ore.  It still makes me crack up laughing every time I think about it.  Although you were a beast a Quake 3 with that fucking rail gun.  BG is always looking to hack or scam someone to put the odds in his favor.

I’ll thank my brother for starting a blog and making us look like 2 blogging dbags from the same family.  (His link is on the right side of my blog)  But just to point something out, there is no such thing as heavy traffic near the Dreshertown shopping center.  Try sitting on 76 for an hour and moving 1 foot.  People will hate on the blog but the easiest comeback is “if you don’t like it, don’t read it.”

And finally Jess Baker for being one of the only people who actually read this thing.   Without positive feedback I may have lost hope and this masterpiece of a blog may never have come to exist.  There you go, there’s your shout out.

On a serious note.  I would like to thank Brian Gallagher for introducing me to classic rock.  I would never have found my deep appreciation of Bruce, Billy, the Eagles, Elton John… the list goes on.  I lost touch with you a couple years ago, through fault of my own, and even though I don’t know the events that occurred, I know you were too young to pass on.  Everytime I hear I’ve just seen a face by the beatles, summer highland falls by Billy, or that shitty song Moonlight Shadow by Mike Oldfield you’ll come to mind.  He liked listening to songs on repeat which drove me nuts.  He also introduced me to  MD 20/20 aka Mad Dog.  This led to me drinking 3 mad dogs which made me pass out standing up next to a 20 gallon fish tank.  I put my arm through the tank getting water everywhere and leaking into the room below.  In my drunk stupor I was covered with water and had this brilliant idea to unplug it.  After making an attempt Bill Gates yelled at me and called me a fucking idiot because I was trying to electrocute myself.  Even though I’m not a firm believer in god there have been times in my life where someone was watching over me.  Brian was a good guy and good friend through my college years and my thoughts are with his family through this tough time.

By |2011-05-18T22:37:21-04:00May 8th, 2009|My Life|4 Comments

Decision Making

This is the problem with the majority of people today.  When someone asks you a question, a good answer is never “I don’t know”.  Forming opinions and making decisions is essential to being successful.  For instance, if someone asks you what you want to eat and you answer I don’t know than I have to think to myself, “well if you don’t know what you want how am I supposed to know.”

I’m in the process of purchasing a new vehicle.  My first car purchase I was a rook and pretty much was just getting my feet wet.  Now i’m going in prepared although my situation is a bit different than some and I feel a bit strung up in my options but as the buyer I still have negotiating power.  My car has some dings and dangs due to some reckless driving in unusual circumstances.  This puts me in a bad spot when turning in my car because there is a cost to damage and will hinder my options potentially.  Ideally, the dealership will buy the car back from the financing company (damage and all) and then sell me a brand spanking new 09′ TL for similar payments which I’m making now.  I will pit the 2 dealerships against each other and I’m considering adding a 3rd.  I have 5 months to do this which will give me plenty of negotiating time.  The dealerships will work with me as long as I’m willing to purchase a new car from them so I won’t really be looking at anything but Acura’s.

My new car coincides with my purchase of a new phone.  I’ve been haggling with Verizon to sell me a Blackberry but they are being stubborn.  So I’ve decided to throw AT&T into the mix and get an Iphone if Verizon doesn’t budge.  This means that I have to negotiate AT&T to picking up my cancellation fee from Verizon.  Problem is the Iphone doesn’t have insurance and looking at my past record and the fact I’ve been dropped by the phone insurance company, this poses a problem.

I’m actually having fun with these stupid life situations but it’s because I look at it as a game.  I don’t give a shit about the person on the other end of the line or the salesman across from me.  They mean nothing to me, just a person doing a job.  If you take that approach and don’t care if you are being a dick, you will get better deals in life.  I haven’t always taken this life philosophy but as I’ve gotten older and see how many pricks there are out there, it’s a dog eat dog society.  Everything is negotiable and the ability to make decisions is a priority.  Next time you think about answering a question with I don’t know, think again, at least think.

Ice T’s Wife.

img03

By |2011-05-18T22:34:51-04:00May 6th, 2009|My Life|0 Comments

My thoughts on Catcher in the Rye

In an unusual turn of events, I was updated to the fact the broad street run is this Sunday and not the next Sunday.  This means that I will remain sober throughout the weekend so that I can do well in the run.  My bib number is 1206, which means I should finish around that spot out of 26,000 people.  I put my time in at 65 minutes which would equate to 6:30 mile pace but I’m hoping to be closer to 60 minutes.

I went out to the bar last night after only 3 beers, normally i’ve drank 12+ before going out and it certainly is a different experience.  I notice people who are too drunk and it’s a real I opener to how I probably act 95% of the weekends a year.  Plus when I go to the bar now everyone seems really young.  I’m fairly certain that this will continue to occur as I  get older.  Another noticeable fact is that the majority of people aren’t very attractive.  Alcohol really does wonders to increase having a fun time on a weekend.   On a plus side I remembered everything that happened last night and I woke up today early and finished up Catcher in the Rye.

I started the book on Thursday and literally read it throughout the majority of my free time to finish it up this morning.  This was a really entertaining book and I’m glad I reread it.    I’m not sure how they can teach you this book in high school.  Time and time again I keep thinking the same thing about my school experience.  I wasn’t ready to really understand ideas being taught to me.  I felt this same way about college.  I think it’s funny too that Holden thought it was ok and interesting when people got sidetracked and digressed from the main topic which I feel i’m doing now.  What I mean is that they taught me about interest rates and how to calculate values of companies but I had no real world experience so I didn’t understand what I was learning.  Sure I could put numbers into formulas and figure out answers but that’s all they were, answers.  It’s the same thing with the Catcher in the Rye.  I read it in high school and did all the outlines and answered all their questions and learned the vocab, but at that point of my life it had no meaning.  It was just learning enough to get a passing mark, it had no meaning, there was no thought behind it.

That being said I want to write what I took out of the novel sitting here 10 years after reading it the first time.  I read the wikipedia page too after I finish the book so that I can see what other people have already thought.  This actually would make me a phony because I’m not coming up with my own thoughts but since I know this I think it’s acceptable.  The concept of him being the catcher in the rye and trying to save the innocent children from falling off the cliff into adulthood intrigues me.  How he only relates to young people and considers all adults phony is interesting as well.  His infatuation with Jane and his inability to talk to her is unusual, always waiting to be in the right mood.  He tries to act mature and thinks he’s mature even though he’s just a kid.  He presents himself as an adult yet I think he is doing everything in his power to stop from becoming one.  I like how he always describes people by telling you about their faults.  Everyone is phony.  I’m not sure how that correlates to life as I see it because even though I do think people have hidden agendas sometime and they may be putting up fronts to make you think about them differently, there are genuine people out there.  I try my best to be honest and candid and I think I display that a bit in some of these posts.  If people can’t trust you then they probably aren’t your friend.

If you’ve read this much more power to you because I feel like I just wrote a paper for school.  However, when I’m not hungover on a weekend and have plenty of free time I amuse myself by writing.  Tomorrow is the 10 mile run where I will beat 25,000+ people and give myself an ego boost.  It’s a good feeling going to the run and pointing out person after person and saying i’m faster than you, i’m faster than you…  Here’s to another sober night.

By |2011-05-18T22:26:48-04:00May 2nd, 2009|My Life|0 Comments

Categories