December 12, 2004
Okay, I think I'm back now.
I know this site has been dormant for some time, but I've been spending almost all of my time either in Manhattan working six-day weeks or shuttling back and forth to/from Jersey City (and I'm gonna have to do something about that little geographic inconvenience at some point, methinks). And since I have no online access at work any time I do get in front of my computer is spent checking e-mail or catching up on Achewood and seeing if anybody else has flagged my Craigslist "Casual Encounters" personal. But after working a full day yesterday and with a closet-full of laundry and another jam-packed week approaching, I figured I better stay inside today, where this here computer just happens to be.
Anyway. As befits this double-boxcars date I feel like two sacks of crap (and I never bet the Don't Pass line). I mean, I probably don't feel as bad as any NY quarterback or the guy who handles (handled?) layout for Esquire, who this month decided the best spot for a four-page, heavy-stock insert ad for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers was directly across from an article about biopics calling the HBO movie a "noxious example of preening mimicry" -- synergy in action! -- but pretty blah nonetheless. I think my body was confused by my efforts to sleep late this morning (okay, afternoon), and I moved right past rested and into groggy, a problem that for some reason never happened during my long period of unemployment. I mean, during those months I could knock off 12, 14 hours at a clip with no ill effects, and I'm a bit embarrassed at how far I've fallen.
So as long as I'm stuck inside, lemme give you some highlights from the last month!
- A little more than one year after I watched her win the 2003 Thanksgiving Meal Invitational, I was in attendance in Atlantic City to watch Sonya Thomas take down the Tropicana World Meatball-Eating Championship, with a winning mark of nearly six pounds of meatballs (a beef, pork and veal mixture, I found out later) in 12 minutes. Personal favorite Eric "Badlands" Booker did manage to take third place.
But while that was all pretty exciting, the real action came later on that evening as Gerard, my sister and I attempted to use the $75-a-night food-and-drink credits that came with our respective rooms (and big thanks to former "Monkeys, Donkeys and Junkies" writer and current IFOCE executive Nancy for that hook-up). I was doing my part by downing several single-malts and buying tequila for a dancing fat guy who was making me laugh. And fellow metro-area commuters will certainly appreciate just how great it is to get stinking drunk and merely have to go up an elevator to pass out, rather than negotiate the subway/PATH system.
So after all that it was oh-so-delightful to be asked how I wanted to pay for my bar bill since, didn't I know, the Irish Pub in the new Trop section wasn't eligible for the free food/drink offer. Still, we had had such a delightful time and were planning on continuing the fun at the Borgata, so we just laughed it off to experience and continued our fun-filled weekend.
Oh, wait. That's not what we did at all. We actually went on a near-psychotic quest to find someplace, anyplace where we could use up our vouchers, ultimately ending up at the carryout pizza place in the back of the coffee shop, where we proceeded to buy eight pizzas, two of which are still sitting in my refrigerator. Only then did we go to the Borgata (pizzas stinking up my car) where I raised with 4-6 offsuit on the button, was three-bet by some older rock holding pocket aces, then beat her with the nut straight on the river. Now that was fun!
- I had a multi-visit root canal, during which I learned that several of my roots have a fairly unusual and difficult-to-reach twists towards the back. That was not fun.
- I stopped by the newly reopened Museum of Modern Art on Friday night, the first chance I've had to visit. It was pretty crowded for free Friday night (a pretty big deal at a place with a double-sawbuck admission fee) and I only had about an hour to walk around, but I saw enough to concur with the general consensus that it is one classy joint. Not particularly innovative or architecturally far-reaching, but just a great place to see an amazing collection, not to mention all the swanky art-dames. Highly recommended, and I look forward to being able to spend more time there.
- Had I been blogging at the time, I certainly would have joined the rest of the blogging world in linking to Mike Whybark's fascinating, poignant, thoroughly researched "Hopkin Explained." If you haven't already, go check it out.
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