At JR’s suggestion, I’ve started adding notes to my road trip map with cities and people to visit. I KNOW I’ve forgotten people, so comment here, there, or on LJ if you notice omissions.
Obviously, East Coast Bike Tour 2006 isn’t going to happen in the next two weeks. But! I can plan for the coming year, can’t I? As such, I’ve made bigger and better and more awesome plans for next year’s road trip. This means, of course, that I need to find me a bike with saddle bags sometime in the next eight months or so, except I don’t have any money.
Donations always accepted, of course.
This past week marked the 25th birthday of the illustrious Mr. Lee, so he decided to have a weekend-long shindig down at his place near Raleigh. I almost didn’t make it - he called me Wednesday night about it, leaving me little time to make plans (bastard), but Schmitty, Aubri, Kidder and I drove down after work Friday. We met Rhubarb and Becky - and of course, Dan and Darrin - there, and had the bitchenest weekend I’ve had in…well, in two weeks (to be fair, the Meteor Shower Party was just last month, so it’s been a pretty good season already).
We didn’t get there until after 11, but we made up for it by drinking until about 5:30 in the morning. I had forgotten how incredibly ridiculous those guys can be, and I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed that much in one night. Saturday brought Raleigh-style garbage plates (so-so), some lounge-around recovery time, and then more people and beer pong around 6 in the evening.
I had been looking forward to a quiet, relaxing weekend, and almost didn’t go. I’d had a rough week at work (particularly Friday) and two eventful weekends before, so I was pretty run-down and pissy by the time we left Friday. I couldn’t have been more relaxed this morning, though - a weekend with those guys was just what I needed. Dan and Darrin are incredibly gracious hosts, and for some reason I kind of love their house (and sort of want to move there). We had an absolute blast, and no amount of relaxing at home would have been as refreshing. I don’t get that many opportunities for spur-of-the-moment weekend road trips anymore, but I’m convinced that they need to happen more often.
It was about this time last November that I was finishing up finals and wondering what exactly I was going to do after graduation. I had sent out about a dozen resumes and had a couple interviews, but not for anything that sounded very good. I HAD applied for a job that sounded perfect, and even answered a bunch of extra questions for the headhunter, but it had been a couple weeks since I had heard anything substantial.
Then I got the chance to do a phone interview, and the request to come to DC for a real interview. At that point, I was planning to spend the weekend in PA with the Grillbillies (as I’m planning to do again next weekend), so I just kept going south on Sunday instead of heading back to Rochester.
I really want to take a few extra days off next week and take a road trip up to Rochester or Buffalo or something. I know it’s going to be a great weekend - it always is, with the Grillbillies - but last year’s will be impossible to live up to. I had no plans, nowhere in particular to be, and as stressful as that was, it was just as relieving. Things were changing, my life was going in a new direction, everything was exciting.
I feel like I’m in a rut, and living out of a car for a week or so tends to spice things up a bit. If I could afford it - and get the time off - I’d probably do it all the time.
Friday 11 hour drive home. That was fun. Pittsburgh, as it turns out, isn’t the quickest way to Buffalo.
Saturday Wedding: wedding-y. Sharon looked all fancy. Reception: rowdy. My cousins are fun, and my parents have loosened up a lot since I moved out.
Sunday Finished fixing the parents’ computer. Visited Grandma. Had lunch at DiBella’s with BP and Lucas. Drive home from there only took 7 hours, thank goodness.
Then I got home to find that Matt moved all his stuff into our house, but there’s a couch on the balcony so it’s OK.
Tonight Laundry! (suck) Packing! (not-so-suck)
Friday Working my ass off till noon! (crap) Pick up rental car! (sweet!) Pay for rental car! (lame!) Drive! (fun!) It takes 9 hours! (ehhhh) Ride Dad’s motorcycle! (bliss!) Fix parents’ computer! (agony!)
Saturday Cousin’s wedding! (eh, if you’ve seen one Catholic wedding…) Reception! (whoo!) With my brother and cousins! (yeah!) And a bar! (”hey ya’all, watch this!”)
Sunday More motorcycle riding! (double bliss!) Drive home! (ohgodwhyisitsofar) Sleep through the rest of August and parts of March! (wait, what?)
Abbi’s 20th birthday was this weekend, so I made the trip up into PA for Abbipalooza. I was kind of surprised I made it - Malique has been in rough shape, and I was supposed to get an oil change a couple months ago (I hadn’t hit 3000 miles, so I wasn’t too worried), but she can still do 90 on the highway. Thankfully, we didn’t have any issues, and I got to enjoy a quiet(ish), laid-back weekend with some of my favorite people. It was a smaller, low-key party, which worked out really well because I had a chance to hang out with everyone. I love meeting new people, but it can be pretty draining (I’m more introverted than I seem). I did get to meet some of Abbi’s friends from school, but they fit in so well that it just didn’t matter. As I’ve told countless people before, it always takes a lot of energy to be outgoing and extroverted, so it was nice to just have a relaxing weekend with people I like without trying to forge new friendships at the same time.
…which isn’t to say it wasn’t exhausting, of course. I met the Grillbillies because FN told me I couldn’t keep up with them, and I accepted the challenge. I don’t know how they do what they do for so many weekends during the summer, because I feel like I need a week off after spending two days with them. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Also, pictures are on Flickr.
This weekend was CSH’s 30th Anniversary, so Dan, Rhubarb, Oompa and I drove up for a few days. As I’d hoped, it turned out way better than my last trip north. The ride up was a blast. BP threw a Friday-night party again, which was fantastic. I spent most of Saturday fighting a hangover, until the banquet at 6. The dinner was way better than any of us thought RIT capable, and we all danced for hours (or stripped). We did a lunch Sunday afternoon in GCCIS, then hung out on floor for a couple hours. My parents came out from Buffalo so we could do dinner (I finally took them to Mark’s), and then I just hung out with BP (and made pizza) until leaving Monday morning. The trip back was as uneventful as the ride up, and we stopped at Skeeters for lunch.
I don’t think I could have asked for a better weekend. I got to see all the people that didn’t make it up last time, met some alumni, and just spent the weekend relaxing and reminiscing with people I like. It’s nice to re-tell our stories and remember the good times; when you’ve only got a few days, it’s easy to forget the unpleasant aspects of day-to-day college life: the classes, the inevitable drama bred by close quarters, the abject poverty. It’s unfortunate that I can’t see these people more often, but it makes these weekends all the better.
Of course, the Monday after is always tough, but what can ya do?
You can look at photos, that’s what.
Way back on Friday, Casey, Schmitty and I drove up to RIT for F-ed Up Movie Night (censored for the easily offended) (that’s you, Mom). They say the trip is half the fun, but they’re pretty much always wrong. Once in a while, though, I get to take a long drive with people I really enjoy, so this was a good trip.
The weekend was good - not great, but good. I got to see a bunch of people I missed, but I also had to see a handful of people I had no interest in seeing ever again. I suppose that’ll happen, though. I never made it to Mark’s for a plate, but I did get to do Dibella’s and Dinosaur BBQ, so it worked out OK. The movie night featured a pretty good lineup - The Silent World, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, A Dirty Shame, and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - and ended quite a bit earlier than usual (a welcome change, with the 8-hour drive home the next morning).
I did a lot of thinking and soul-searching over the course of the weekend. Arriving back in Rochester wasn’t the homecoming I thought it would be. I realized that what I really miss is the Rochester of two or three years ago, before friends started graduating and leaving town. There are still a good number of friends there, but there are also a lot of new folks that I don’t know well, and the whole dynamic has changed. It’s actually sort of a relief, because I don’t feel like I’m missing much by being a few states away.
I also decided that I’m not as happy here in VA as I thought I was and have been claiming to be. I spent four years living with close friends, and it’s been tough adjusting to my own place. I’ve got several friends in the area, but they’re spread out enough that I don’t get to see much of them.
I don’t know who Casey was quoting when she said, “Don’t expect to find it here if you don’t bring it yourself,” and I couldn’t say it better. I certainly can’t blame anyone else for the fact that I spend so many of my evenings hanging out at home. We’ve been seeing movies at The Drafthouse almost every Monday, and doing dinner once in a while, and I always have a great time. I want to see if we can’t start doing coffee or something the same time every week, further north in DC or out west towards Tyson’s Corner, so that more people will be close enough to join us. I definitely want to see the sights and museums in the District, and I’m entertaining the idea of starting a local chapter of the Sunday Night Film Club. I’m happy when I’m with people, so I need to take the initiative and get them together.
There’s a lot to do in this city, and there’s no reason for me to be sitting around being bored. I’m not sure yet that I made the right choice in coming to DC, but I do know I made the right choice in leaving Rochester. Sooner or later, this will feel like home.
Oh, and the birthday bit - I started this blog a year ago today, under my account on the CSH server (actually, the “We done moved” page is still up). I never got around to re-doing the design, or writing all the things that I meant to, so maybe those will be some last-minute New Year’s resolutions.
This weekend will almost definitely edge out every other one I’ve ever had.
Sixteen years of education end Friday morning around 10 when I finish my Tech Transfer final. That afternoon, I’m heading to the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania to spend the weekend with the Grillbillies. Unfortunately, I have to miss the Dropkick Murphys show in Syracuse Sunday night, but that’s because I’m going to the capitol! Of America!
I’ve never been to DC, so I’m pretty excited. I’ll be staying with wxs and Michelle Sunday night, then I have an interview Monday morning with a company in Arlington. I’m hoping to catch up with the rest of the crew while I’m down there - maybe for dinner on Monday? - then I’ll probably head back that evening.
Many many many pictures to come.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life, or even what I’m doing next week, but I’ve got plans for next summer.
I intend to buy a bike and take a road trip up and down the east coast. This map is my rough plan.
I’m shooting for late June. Some people can take the summer off after college and travel Europe; I just want a week.
The more I think about it, the more I want to do it now. I feel like I need to get out of here for a week and see old friends and new places. If I could convince my dad to lend me his bike for a week and a half, I might try it at the end of this summer, but I doubt he’d be willing to do it.
Jym did a pretty good job of recapping our evening up in Toronto, so I won’t bother doing it again. Long and short of it is, it was fun to take a trip with the guys, and Toronto is a great city.
The only thing I’ll add is that Fonny WAS right. We were giving him shit a month or two ago, because he was going to a show at a skate park. He tried to explain how incredible it was to be in the middle of a big group of people that were totally into the band, singing along to every verse and just being completely into it. I finally got what he was talking about last night when Against Me! was on. I enjoyed watching the crowd more than the band (at least partly because my eyes are broke, so I can’t wear contacts, and I look absurd in glasses, so I wasn’t wearing them, so I couldn’t see the band anyway). Everyone there was shouting along with the singer. It made me wish I knew the songs better, because I felt like I was just standing on the outside of something really awesome. During the last song, a dozen people hopped on stage with them and sang along (pic sucks, we were far back). Before the show, some people up front started a sing-along. On the way back to the hotel, the people behind us did the same. It felt like no one there wanted to be anywhere else (except for Jym, once he found the pizza place across the street). It was pretty incredible.
Anyway, it was a great start to what will surely be a great summer. I’m looking forward to spending a quarter with these guys.
PS - pictures here.
