Sunday, December 26, 2010
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Blizzard Warning
Here's what the channels are forecasting for Monday as of Christmas night Saturday:
WNYW, 10 p.m.:
WPIX, 10 p.m.:
WCBS, 11 p.m.:
WNBC, 11 p.m.:
WABC, 11 p.m.:
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
I finally drove to Brant Lake
Wednesday was a big day. A possible new opportunity presented itself just before I left to meet with an advisor at Hofstra. That meeting went well and I was on the road by around 12:15. Lots to think about but I had to focus on the big trip. I got to Nick's grandma's in Nassau at around 3:10, said hello to his mom and grandma, and we were off! We stopped at Subway in Glens Falls for food, Stewart's in Chestertown for my skim milk, and got to the trailer by around 5:45. Pretty cool... I did it!
We settled in, chatted with my grandparents for a bit, then headed down to the beach to hang out with Cody, Victoria, Abigail, Jessica, Justin and Cori. They were playing ladder golf so we joined in and it was fun. But then dark clouds appeared and the wind picked up. We heard loud thunder and then it poured. Everyone headed inside and Nick and I had the longest walk/run back. It soon began to hail and Nick decided to stick his soda cup outside. "Free ice!" I think we started a game of Monopoly, then headed back to the beach and sat by Cody's fire. Thursday was Cody's 17th birthday so we counted down to midnight and Nick gave him 18 birthday punches before we all hugged Cody.
I had trouble sleeping that night. It poured for most of the night and then I was up at 4:45. I realized I couldn't get back to sleep. I looked out the window and it looked clear so I headed down to the beach at 5 with my camera and snapped away. It was so peaceful and I watched the fog over the water drift toward the beach, then back over the lake a few minutes later. I made it back to the trailer for a bit and slept until around 8. That's when an obnoxious bird woke Nick and me up. I saw other birds hanging out on the feeder so I put the zoom lens on my camera and took more shots. Nick and I watched the hummingbird do its thing and then six birds eventually got on one of the other feeders. After a bagel breakfast on the porch, we headed over to Cody's trailer at around 9 and got his grandmother's permission to wake him up. We slowly walked inside and then Nick woke him up violently. It was pretty fun. We took him out on my boat for a birthday morning boat ride down to the next cove and hung out there until it got warm enough to go swimming. I think we were out for almost two hours but somehow it felt more like twenty minutes. Then we hung out by the beach a lot with the kids. For dinner, Grandma had me call down to Luna Pizza in Chestertown, about 25 minutes away, so Nick and I went for a little ride around the lake. We brought the pizza back and it was very good. Then we hung out in the trailer chatting with my grandparents for a bit before hanging out in the boat at the dock. Nick played with my camera and it was a fun time. When the other kids got back from Saratoga (they saw a cover band for Cody's birthday), we proposed walking to the cemetery. Cody, Victoria and Abigail agreed to join Nick and me and I eventually talked Justin into coming, too. I think it was going to be the first time for everyone (except for me -- it was always a scary walk but fun as well). Justin ended up chickening out by the mailboxes, pretty much two minutes into the 25-minute walk there. Oh well. Abby let us know that she was pretty nervous so we put her in the middle of our five-person hand-holding chain. Those of us on the ends would be eaten first. We told some creepy stories along the way and pretended to hear some strange sounds... and sometimes we didn't even need to pretend. I'll admit to getting nervous but I knew it was all in my head and I had to be confident for my kids. Anyway, we made it there and I showed them the interesting points, like the graves for who I believe to be the stillborns from the late 1800s and my grandma's cousin's spot. Oh, and Cody gave me a good scare by going on the ground and suddenly grabbing my ankles from behind. So glad I didn't scream. We made it back about an hour later, then decided that we needed Johnny to tell us the tale of the Three Brothers as Cody made us a fire. We hung out there until a little past 1, then Nick and I called it a night (and I had to answer to Grandma again, who was worried, even though I checked in with her at midnight after the cemetery and told her where I'd be).
Friday was Nick's last day at the lake and it was a rainy mess. I think we played a second game of Monopoly and also a round of Othello before heading down to the beach to see what was up. Not much. We decided we'd leave for our 8:00 concert in Saratoga early and stop in Lake George, often the rainy day backup plan, along the way. Hard to believe that Nick had been going to Brant Lake since he was a baby and never once went to Lake George. We put in enough coins to park for an hour and checked out the shops. Nick bought a few things and we had a good time. Back on the road by 5:45, stopped at the Glens Falls Subway again for dinner, then drove into Saratoga Springs (Nick took lots and lots of pictures with my camera) and parked for $10. I wasn't allowed to bring my DSLR in so I brought I back to the car and just used my phone's camera. We met a guy who drove thre hours from New Jersey to see his 27th Rush concert. Wow. I got my "Brant Lake in the house!" text message on the projection screen before the concert.
Rush opened with "Spirit of the Radio" and mentioned something about the show going on for three hours. So that would be 11, then an hour south to drop Nick off at his mom's best friend's house in Kinderhook, then two hours back to Brant Lake... Getting in at 2... Plus I already had a terrible headache. I asked Nick if he could ask him mom if I could spend the night. She said that was fine and that was a relief. The rest of the concert was great and we headed up during the last song to beat the rush out. Nick declared it "the best concert I've ever seen." I really enjoyed it as well despite not even having Rush on my iPod until earlier that week. Our ears were ringing for the rest of the night.
We hopped in the car and drove down to Kinderhook, with my Rush CD continuing to be worn out. The end of the ride was very dark and Nick wanted me to use the high beams and that ended up being a good call. We pulled into Nick's mom's friend(Nick calls her his aunt)'s house at 12 and I hung out in the back for a bit with the parents before going back inside to chat with Nick and his "cousin" Christina, who was having a high school graduation party the next day. Christina has a Husky named Kiva and Nick's family has a German Shepard named Harley and a ten-week-old Pug named Brandy. I was rubbing my head to try to make the headache go away when Christina's mother Christine asked me to show her where my headache was. She then got behind me on the couch and started rubbing my head and neck. This is weird, I thought, but it feels good so I'll go along with this. "I'm actually allowed to do this," Christine said, who told me that she was actually a massage therapist. Then she did my back and it felt really good. I felt much more relaxed and my headache was almost gone. I kept asking questions about massage therapy and Christine answered them all. Very interesting stuff. She found some "knots" in my back and pressed on them to make them go away. Then she worked on Nick, who had a huge smile on the whole time. Nick and I slept on their big couch, probably getting to sleep at around 2.
I think I got up sometime before 8 and started helping Christine get set up for the graduation party in the backyard. There were a lot of heavy blocks that needed to be moved and I felt disgusting still wearing the same clothes I had worn the day before and slept in, the lack of sleep, the lack of a shower and the heat and the humidity outside. I felt like I had to earn my stay a little. Nick's mom made breakfast (bacon, eggs and a biscuit) and that was great. Then it was a little after 10 and time to say goodbye and head back to the lake.
Hanging out with Nick was really cool. I first met him three years ago when he was 12 and trying to catch a chipmunk near his trailer. Such a little kid. Then we sort of bonded over a week in the summer of 2008 when I was up there with just my grandparents and we met every morning at 10:30 to take the boat out and hung out all day and watched the stars at night. Then his parents sold his place and he didn't make it up last year. We were Facebooking/IMing and he mentioned that his parents were upset because he was doing so poorly in math. I ended up helping him out a little over AIM and the phone and he definitely improved before he stopped coming to me, then was kicked off the baseball team. But we still chatted and Nick called me from time to time to just chat. It's pretty cool when someone looks up to you. And after these three nights, I felt like Nick, who's nearly 16 now and much more mature, was my younger brother and we were just having a fun time hanging out. I was responsible for him, whether it was finding dinner on the way up, or on my boat, or making sure his couch was comfortable at night, or at the concert, or just making sure that he got back to his mom... It's just a cool feeling that I can't explain.
Nothing else too much of note happened at the lake. Bobby K took us tubing on Saturday and that was a great time. I went for the first time this year and got thrown off on the first ride (it's not worth tubing if you're going to stay on!) and hung on for the second ride. Took lots of pictures as usual. And just the usual hanging out with the kids and stuff.
Saturday night, Grandpa was making hamburgers and I was trying to make myself useful despite not being good in the kitchen (I mean, I can make cereal and peanut butter sandwiches -- not together). Grandma wanted a slice of onion on hers so I offered to cut it for her. Grandpa let me use his sharp nice. "Just don't cut yourself on it," he warned. I went to cut it, had some issues, did it sideways and... yup, I'm and idiot and cut my left pointer finger. The bleeding actually didn't stop for a few hours but I kept wrapping a paper towel around it and hid it from them. (Grandma looked slightly suspicious of me clutching a paper towel a few hours later but didn't say anything... Maybe I imagined it.) My lesson: Stick to cereal and peanut butter sandwiches.
The big accomplishment came Sunday. I was bored, feeling sleepy (sitting in the trailer does that) and even went to go take a nap on the couch. Then I decided to ask Grandma if she wanted to come down to the beach. She's not really good with her legs, always needing a walker or a wheelchair. I knew chances were very slim but it was later in the afternoon and it was cloudy so she wouldn't have to worry about sitting in the sun. She said no and told Grandpa to come with me. I kept asking nicely and she ended up saying yes. In the few seconds it took for me to run and get my shoes, she had already changed her mind. Oh well. Grandpa walked down with me and we enjoyed sitting at the beach. The sun even started to come out for us. I kept thinking how nice it would be for Grandma to get out and see and hear the kids playing and just overall be outside. I asked Grandpa if he thought I had a shot of getting her down. No way, he said. The challenge was on! I ran back up there, asked Grandma twice more and she finally said, "OK, since you asked so nicely." I helped slip on her socks and shoes, then turned my car around while she used to walked to get to the other side of the trailer. Then I helped her down the steps (which was actually easier than I expected) and helped back her into the passenger seat of my car, then drove her down. Success! And you know what? I think she enjoyed it. She definitely did. She was outside in the sun (but sitting in the shade) and watching the kids play on the beach and football behind us. The sound of kids playing is really nice, especially when you've been stuck inside a dark trailer for days. Oh, and no sooner did she get there than did people start coming over to her to say hello and catch up. "I didn't know you were up here," one said, because Grandma never gets outside! It was great knowing that I got Grandma to hang out by the beach for about an hour but even greater seeing her enjoy it. (I'm actually tearing up reliving this right now.)
I left the trailer just before 11:00 Monday morning, seriously close to crying, stopped for pizza and gas in Clifton Park, and pretty much disobeyed my GPS most of the way and got home right at 4:00.
We settled in, chatted with my grandparents for a bit, then headed down to the beach to hang out with Cody, Victoria, Abigail, Jessica, Justin and Cori. They were playing ladder golf so we joined in and it was fun. But then dark clouds appeared and the wind picked up. We heard loud thunder and then it poured. Everyone headed inside and Nick and I had the longest walk/run back. It soon began to hail and Nick decided to stick his soda cup outside. "Free ice!" I think we started a game of Monopoly, then headed back to the beach and sat by Cody's fire. Thursday was Cody's 17th birthday so we counted down to midnight and Nick gave him 18 birthday punches before we all hugged Cody.
I had trouble sleeping that night. It poured for most of the night and then I was up at 4:45. I realized I couldn't get back to sleep. I looked out the window and it looked clear so I headed down to the beach at 5 with my camera and snapped away. It was so peaceful and I watched the fog over the water drift toward the beach, then back over the lake a few minutes later. I made it back to the trailer for a bit and slept until around 8. That's when an obnoxious bird woke Nick and me up. I saw other birds hanging out on the feeder so I put the zoom lens on my camera and took more shots. Nick and I watched the hummingbird do its thing and then six birds eventually got on one of the other feeders. After a bagel breakfast on the porch, we headed over to Cody's trailer at around 9 and got his grandmother's permission to wake him up. We slowly walked inside and then Nick woke him up violently. It was pretty fun. We took him out on my boat for a birthday morning boat ride down to the next cove and hung out there until it got warm enough to go swimming. I think we were out for almost two hours but somehow it felt more like twenty minutes. Then we hung out by the beach a lot with the kids. For dinner, Grandma had me call down to Luna Pizza in Chestertown, about 25 minutes away, so Nick and I went for a little ride around the lake. We brought the pizza back and it was very good. Then we hung out in the trailer chatting with my grandparents for a bit before hanging out in the boat at the dock. Nick played with my camera and it was a fun time. When the other kids got back from Saratoga (they saw a cover band for Cody's birthday), we proposed walking to the cemetery. Cody, Victoria and Abigail agreed to join Nick and me and I eventually talked Justin into coming, too. I think it was going to be the first time for everyone (except for me -- it was always a scary walk but fun as well). Justin ended up chickening out by the mailboxes, pretty much two minutes into the 25-minute walk there. Oh well. Abby let us know that she was pretty nervous so we put her in the middle of our five-person hand-holding chain. Those of us on the ends would be eaten first. We told some creepy stories along the way and pretended to hear some strange sounds... and sometimes we didn't even need to pretend. I'll admit to getting nervous but I knew it was all in my head and I had to be confident for my kids. Anyway, we made it there and I showed them the interesting points, like the graves for who I believe to be the stillborns from the late 1800s and my grandma's cousin's spot. Oh, and Cody gave me a good scare by going on the ground and suddenly grabbing my ankles from behind. So glad I didn't scream. We made it back about an hour later, then decided that we needed Johnny to tell us the tale of the Three Brothers as Cody made us a fire. We hung out there until a little past 1, then Nick and I called it a night (and I had to answer to Grandma again, who was worried, even though I checked in with her at midnight after the cemetery and told her where I'd be).
Friday was Nick's last day at the lake and it was a rainy mess. I think we played a second game of Monopoly and also a round of Othello before heading down to the beach to see what was up. Not much. We decided we'd leave for our 8:00 concert in Saratoga early and stop in Lake George, often the rainy day backup plan, along the way. Hard to believe that Nick had been going to Brant Lake since he was a baby and never once went to Lake George. We put in enough coins to park for an hour and checked out the shops. Nick bought a few things and we had a good time. Back on the road by 5:45, stopped at the Glens Falls Subway again for dinner, then drove into Saratoga Springs (Nick took lots and lots of pictures with my camera) and parked for $10. I wasn't allowed to bring my DSLR in so I brought I back to the car and just used my phone's camera. We met a guy who drove thre hours from New Jersey to see his 27th Rush concert. Wow. I got my "Brant Lake in the house!" text message on the projection screen before the concert.
Rush opened with "Spirit of the Radio" and mentioned something about the show going on for three hours. So that would be 11, then an hour south to drop Nick off at his mom's best friend's house in Kinderhook, then two hours back to Brant Lake... Getting in at 2... Plus I already had a terrible headache. I asked Nick if he could ask him mom if I could spend the night. She said that was fine and that was a relief. The rest of the concert was great and we headed up during the last song to beat the rush out. Nick declared it "the best concert I've ever seen." I really enjoyed it as well despite not even having Rush on my iPod until earlier that week. Our ears were ringing for the rest of the night.
We hopped in the car and drove down to Kinderhook, with my Rush CD continuing to be worn out. The end of the ride was very dark and Nick wanted me to use the high beams and that ended up being a good call. We pulled into Nick's mom's friend(Nick calls her his aunt)'s house at 12 and I hung out in the back for a bit with the parents before going back inside to chat with Nick and his "cousin" Christina, who was having a high school graduation party the next day. Christina has a Husky named Kiva and Nick's family has a German Shepard named Harley and a ten-week-old Pug named Brandy. I was rubbing my head to try to make the headache go away when Christina's mother Christine asked me to show her where my headache was. She then got behind me on the couch and started rubbing my head and neck. This is weird, I thought, but it feels good so I'll go along with this. "I'm actually allowed to do this," Christine said, who told me that she was actually a massage therapist. Then she did my back and it felt really good. I felt much more relaxed and my headache was almost gone. I kept asking questions about massage therapy and Christine answered them all. Very interesting stuff. She found some "knots" in my back and pressed on them to make them go away. Then she worked on Nick, who had a huge smile on the whole time. Nick and I slept on their big couch, probably getting to sleep at around 2.
I think I got up sometime before 8 and started helping Christine get set up for the graduation party in the backyard. There were a lot of heavy blocks that needed to be moved and I felt disgusting still wearing the same clothes I had worn the day before and slept in, the lack of sleep, the lack of a shower and the heat and the humidity outside. I felt like I had to earn my stay a little. Nick's mom made breakfast (bacon, eggs and a biscuit) and that was great. Then it was a little after 10 and time to say goodbye and head back to the lake.
Hanging out with Nick was really cool. I first met him three years ago when he was 12 and trying to catch a chipmunk near his trailer. Such a little kid. Then we sort of bonded over a week in the summer of 2008 when I was up there with just my grandparents and we met every morning at 10:30 to take the boat out and hung out all day and watched the stars at night. Then his parents sold his place and he didn't make it up last year. We were Facebooking/IMing and he mentioned that his parents were upset because he was doing so poorly in math. I ended up helping him out a little over AIM and the phone and he definitely improved before he stopped coming to me, then was kicked off the baseball team. But we still chatted and Nick called me from time to time to just chat. It's pretty cool when someone looks up to you. And after these three nights, I felt like Nick, who's nearly 16 now and much more mature, was my younger brother and we were just having a fun time hanging out. I was responsible for him, whether it was finding dinner on the way up, or on my boat, or making sure his couch was comfortable at night, or at the concert, or just making sure that he got back to his mom... It's just a cool feeling that I can't explain.
Nothing else too much of note happened at the lake. Bobby K took us tubing on Saturday and that was a great time. I went for the first time this year and got thrown off on the first ride (it's not worth tubing if you're going to stay on!) and hung on for the second ride. Took lots of pictures as usual. And just the usual hanging out with the kids and stuff.
Saturday night, Grandpa was making hamburgers and I was trying to make myself useful despite not being good in the kitchen (I mean, I can make cereal and peanut butter sandwiches -- not together). Grandma wanted a slice of onion on hers so I offered to cut it for her. Grandpa let me use his sharp nice. "Just don't cut yourself on it," he warned. I went to cut it, had some issues, did it sideways and... yup, I'm and idiot and cut my left pointer finger. The bleeding actually didn't stop for a few hours but I kept wrapping a paper towel around it and hid it from them. (Grandma looked slightly suspicious of me clutching a paper towel a few hours later but didn't say anything... Maybe I imagined it.) My lesson: Stick to cereal and peanut butter sandwiches.
The big accomplishment came Sunday. I was bored, feeling sleepy (sitting in the trailer does that) and even went to go take a nap on the couch. Then I decided to ask Grandma if she wanted to come down to the beach. She's not really good with her legs, always needing a walker or a wheelchair. I knew chances were very slim but it was later in the afternoon and it was cloudy so she wouldn't have to worry about sitting in the sun. She said no and told Grandpa to come with me. I kept asking nicely and she ended up saying yes. In the few seconds it took for me to run and get my shoes, she had already changed her mind. Oh well. Grandpa walked down with me and we enjoyed sitting at the beach. The sun even started to come out for us. I kept thinking how nice it would be for Grandma to get out and see and hear the kids playing and just overall be outside. I asked Grandpa if he thought I had a shot of getting her down. No way, he said. The challenge was on! I ran back up there, asked Grandma twice more and she finally said, "OK, since you asked so nicely." I helped slip on her socks and shoes, then turned my car around while she used to walked to get to the other side of the trailer. Then I helped her down the steps (which was actually easier than I expected) and helped back her into the passenger seat of my car, then drove her down. Success! And you know what? I think she enjoyed it. She definitely did. She was outside in the sun (but sitting in the shade) and watching the kids play on the beach and football behind us. The sound of kids playing is really nice, especially when you've been stuck inside a dark trailer for days. Oh, and no sooner did she get there than did people start coming over to her to say hello and catch up. "I didn't know you were up here," one said, because Grandma never gets outside! It was great knowing that I got Grandma to hang out by the beach for about an hour but even greater seeing her enjoy it. (I'm actually tearing up reliving this right now.)
I left the trailer just before 11:00 Monday morning, seriously close to crying, stopped for pizza and gas in Clifton Park, and pretty much disobeyed my GPS most of the way and got home right at 4:00.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Fun weekend at UMD and in D.C.
I'm on a Bolt Bus heading back to Manhattan after a really fun "weekend" (for me, anyway) in the D.C. area.
Monday night I suddenly got the idea that I wanted to visit my friend Matt at the University of Maryland. I was working Wednesday until 5 and then again Saturday afternoon. I first looked at nationals.com to see if the team would be in town. Sure enough, they were hosting the Braves. I had recently heard about Bolt Bus so I checked their schedule and fares. Everything was lining up. All I had to do was ask Matt if he could spare two days and nights of his last full week of classes. He said yes and I bought my Bolt Bus and Nationals tickets right away.
I was anxious all day Wednesday for the trip. I get nervous about traveling, especially when doing something different, just because I want everything to go as smoothly as possible. And obviously I was very excited about my last-minute getaway. I left work a little after 5 and found my Bolt Bus pick-up location on 33rd by 7th in front of a Sbarro (after briefly getting upset about misplacing my jacket and then thinking I didn't leave enough time to walk so I subwayed it instead). Bus came, we left a little after 6:15, made one quick rest stop along the way, let people off in Baltimore, and arrived in Greenbelt just before 11. I hopped on the Metro, took it one stop to College Park, and was happy to see Matt waiting for me.
Matt pointed out a bunch of things on our walk to his apartment. I dropped my bags off there, then we went to Yogi Berry, a frozen yogurt place that everyone seems to be obsessed with down there. Unfortunately it closed at 11 but we walked by the bars and saw tons of college kids there (it was Cinco de Mayo).
Thursday was the big day. We went to Potbelly for lunch and then Matt showed me around the campus, which looked pretty cool. Then we took the bus to the Metro and took that to D.C. to meet up with Matt's friend Foster and go to the Newseum.
I had been to the Newseum when I was 11 but it moved to a new location a few years ago and is basically a brand new museum. And now I could appreciate it even more having studied journalism and communications in school and having worked in the business. It's a pretty cool museum but $20 seems a bit pricey and it seems to lose its focus a little bit. I know journalism has an important role over the course of history but sometimes the Newseum thinks it's a general history museum instead of a museum that's supposed to be centered around the news coverage of history. One of their prized exhibits has a section from the Berlin Wall and they even let you touch a piece. Cool stuff but I think it overshadows the stuff about the coverage of its fall. Also, there seems to be a bit too much attention given to Stephen Colbert and John Stewart (though those clips did seem to be among the more popular parts -- I will admit to being glued to the screens myself). The "4-D" movie was interesting but a bit on the cheesy side. Their 9/11 exhibit is very good, including a piece from tangled up TV transmitter from atop the WTC. They also have a very big (wide and tall) wall dedicated to the front pages of newspapers from 9/12. You can definitely sense a different mood in there from the crowd as people silently reflect on that day and softly point things out to others. My other favorite exhibit was the recreation of Tim Russert's office. I'm curious to know how much was authentic and if any creative liberties were taken with it but I enjoyed looking at his desk and the books behind it. I noticed pictures of his son Luke from when he was much younger and a copy of "Big Russ and Me" among the books on the shelves. (It brought back memories of me breaking down the weekend after his sudden Friday death in the summer of 2008 -- I was upstate with my Uncle Eric and was suddenly overcome with emotion during a board game... Somehow thoughts of Russert combined with some others and just overwhelmed me.)
After the Newseum, we split up from Foster and Matt took me to "the mall" to get some shots of the Capitol and Washington Monument. Then we took the Metro to the Chinatown area, got dinner at Ruby Tuesday, and then back on the Metro (on which some drugged out fool actually kicked Matt in the leg to get to get him to move away despite the train being very packed) to Nationals Park. My parents took me to a Nationals game in the summer of '07 but it was their third and final year in the old RFK Stadium, which was (and I believe still is) a big dump and I've been wanting to see the new ballpark. I was impressed right away. I guess most new parks are similar but the entrance is inviting and the concourses are very open. We walked around the whole stadium, checking out the concessions and I even bought a Nationals shirt (I liked the design and it was only $14, a sure steal compared to the $30 ones that I wasn't going to buy anyway). I was surprised at the number of Braves fans there but I guess it makes sense because people in that area who aren't Orioles fans likely picked the Braves before the Expos moved to DC and became the Nats in 2005. We made it to our front row seats in Section 142 (in right-center field) in time for the first pitch. The guy sitting next to us, a Braves fan, was from the Richmond area and said he had seen Larry Jones (the Mets fan in me won't call him "Chipper") play in the early/mid '90s back when the Braves had a minor league affiliate there. The game itself went by pretty quickly but didn't seem all that exciting until around the fifth inning when someone in our section said "no-no" out loud. The usual runs/hits/errors count was not visible from where we were sitting (the big screen was above us and partially obscured -- it was probably on the bottom of that) but sure enough Scott Olsen had not yet surrendered a hit to the Braves (which actually surprised me because the Braves had had some baserunners but those were al walks). Suddenly a game where I was loosly rooting for the home team but wouldn't care if the fifth place Braves won turned into a game where I was intently rooting to see something historic (because we all know the Mets are cursed and will never have a no hitter). I think my stomach even had some knots in it and I felt them whenever the Braves made contact and especially when they put the ball in play. The crowd, which seemed to be roughly 50/50 in terms of Nationals and Braves fans but where the Nats fans had been much quieter soon loudly cheered every out made against the Braves. It felt really special. The game was also made more fun with solo home runs from Pudge Rodriguez and Adam Dunn, though neither came close to ending up in Section 142. And some of the Braves fans in our section took to tormenting Nats center fielder Nyjer Morgan, who would eventually turn around and smile at them/us. Seven innings down and still no hits for the visitors. Unfortunately it did not last because David Ross broke it up with one out in the eighth. There was a nice standing ovation from the crowd for Olsen and that was pretty awesome. Even the Braves fans were cheering -- OK, for a different reason. I'm not sure if Olsen was rattled or if he was just out of gas but he quickly walked the bases loaded. Tyler Clippard was brought in to face the pinch hitter Jason Heyward. I was actually pretty disappointed that Heyward wasn't in the starting lineup (I think he was day-to-day because of a little injury) because I had been looking forward to seeing the rookie phenom in person so I was really excited to hear them announce him as a PH (though also nervous for "my" Nats). Sure enough, he singled in two runs to tie it, robbing Olsen of the W and putting him in danger of getting an L. They ended up getting out of the inning still tied. Anyway, bottom of the ninth, Peter Moylan intentionally walked pinch hitter Cristian Guzman to load the bases with nobody out for the pitcher's spot, which ended up being Willie Harris (didn't we hate him when the Nats came to Citi Field in April? -- that amazing game-ending catch, I think a first inning grand slam against Johan Santana and a benches-clearing confrontation with Frankie Rodriguez?) On a 1-0 count, Harris singled and the Nationals walked off with the 3-2 victory, putting them at 15-13 (tied with the Mets for second two games behind the Phillies) and the Braves at 12-16 (keeping them in fifth).
We took the Metro back to UMD, hung out in the apartment for a bit with the roommates and some of their friends, and then walked over to Cornerstone at around 12. It was senior bar crawl night and we were catching the end of it. It was insanely crowded but Matt did a good job of making sure I didn't get lost as we somehow navigated around for me to meet some of his friends. Loud and packed bars aren't usually my scene but I actually really enjoyed it. Then we went back to the apartment and hung out in the den with the roommates again, somehow ending up watching the end of Family Feud and a 2 a.m. episode of $100,000 Pyramid from the '80s. We all got really into it (but especially me, who probably ended up looking like a giant dork but it reminded me of my "childhood" back when GSN was Game Show Network and they showed the classics). It was just a fun way to wrap up an exciting day.
Then this morning, I walked with Matt over to his 11 a.m. Italian class and hung out at "the mall" (attention Maryland and D.C.: grassy fields are not malls) while he was being studious for the next 50 minutes. I even got to see Testudo, a statue of a turtle in front of McKeldin Library, whose nose Matt says gets rubbed by students for good luck. He even supposedly gets gifts during finals. I got to see more of the campus as we did some errands before having to say goodbye to Matt and my fun weekend.
I'm not generally known as a very spontaneous person but this was definitely on the spontaneous side for me and it was a pretty awesome time.
Oh yeah, and I took a few pictures.
Monday night I suddenly got the idea that I wanted to visit my friend Matt at the University of Maryland. I was working Wednesday until 5 and then again Saturday afternoon. I first looked at nationals.com to see if the team would be in town. Sure enough, they were hosting the Braves. I had recently heard about Bolt Bus so I checked their schedule and fares. Everything was lining up. All I had to do was ask Matt if he could spare two days and nights of his last full week of classes. He said yes and I bought my Bolt Bus and Nationals tickets right away.
I was anxious all day Wednesday for the trip. I get nervous about traveling, especially when doing something different, just because I want everything to go as smoothly as possible. And obviously I was very excited about my last-minute getaway. I left work a little after 5 and found my Bolt Bus pick-up location on 33rd by 7th in front of a Sbarro (after briefly getting upset about misplacing my jacket and then thinking I didn't leave enough time to walk so I subwayed it instead). Bus came, we left a little after 6:15, made one quick rest stop along the way, let people off in Baltimore, and arrived in Greenbelt just before 11. I hopped on the Metro, took it one stop to College Park, and was happy to see Matt waiting for me.
Matt pointed out a bunch of things on our walk to his apartment. I dropped my bags off there, then we went to Yogi Berry, a frozen yogurt place that everyone seems to be obsessed with down there. Unfortunately it closed at 11 but we walked by the bars and saw tons of college kids there (it was Cinco de Mayo).
Thursday was the big day. We went to Potbelly for lunch and then Matt showed me around the campus, which looked pretty cool. Then we took the bus to the Metro and took that to D.C. to meet up with Matt's friend Foster and go to the Newseum.
I had been to the Newseum when I was 11 but it moved to a new location a few years ago and is basically a brand new museum. And now I could appreciate it even more having studied journalism and communications in school and having worked in the business. It's a pretty cool museum but $20 seems a bit pricey and it seems to lose its focus a little bit. I know journalism has an important role over the course of history but sometimes the Newseum thinks it's a general history museum instead of a museum that's supposed to be centered around the news coverage of history. One of their prized exhibits has a section from the Berlin Wall and they even let you touch a piece. Cool stuff but I think it overshadows the stuff about the coverage of its fall. Also, there seems to be a bit too much attention given to Stephen Colbert and John Stewart (though those clips did seem to be among the more popular parts -- I will admit to being glued to the screens myself). The "4-D" movie was interesting but a bit on the cheesy side. Their 9/11 exhibit is very good, including a piece from tangled up TV transmitter from atop the WTC. They also have a very big (wide and tall) wall dedicated to the front pages of newspapers from 9/12. You can definitely sense a different mood in there from the crowd as people silently reflect on that day and softly point things out to others. My other favorite exhibit was the recreation of Tim Russert's office. I'm curious to know how much was authentic and if any creative liberties were taken with it but I enjoyed looking at his desk and the books behind it. I noticed pictures of his son Luke from when he was much younger and a copy of "Big Russ and Me" among the books on the shelves. (It brought back memories of me breaking down the weekend after his sudden Friday death in the summer of 2008 -- I was upstate with my Uncle Eric and was suddenly overcome with emotion during a board game... Somehow thoughts of Russert combined with some others and just overwhelmed me.)
After the Newseum, we split up from Foster and Matt took me to "the mall" to get some shots of the Capitol and Washington Monument. Then we took the Metro to the Chinatown area, got dinner at Ruby Tuesday, and then back on the Metro (on which some drugged out fool actually kicked Matt in the leg to get to get him to move away despite the train being very packed) to Nationals Park. My parents took me to a Nationals game in the summer of '07 but it was their third and final year in the old RFK Stadium, which was (and I believe still is) a big dump and I've been wanting to see the new ballpark. I was impressed right away. I guess most new parks are similar but the entrance is inviting and the concourses are very open. We walked around the whole stadium, checking out the concessions and I even bought a Nationals shirt (I liked the design and it was only $14, a sure steal compared to the $30 ones that I wasn't going to buy anyway). I was surprised at the number of Braves fans there but I guess it makes sense because people in that area who aren't Orioles fans likely picked the Braves before the Expos moved to DC and became the Nats in 2005. We made it to our front row seats in Section 142 (in right-center field) in time for the first pitch. The guy sitting next to us, a Braves fan, was from the Richmond area and said he had seen Larry Jones (the Mets fan in me won't call him "Chipper") play in the early/mid '90s back when the Braves had a minor league affiliate there. The game itself went by pretty quickly but didn't seem all that exciting until around the fifth inning when someone in our section said "no-no" out loud. The usual runs/hits/errors count was not visible from where we were sitting (the big screen was above us and partially obscured -- it was probably on the bottom of that) but sure enough Scott Olsen had not yet surrendered a hit to the Braves (which actually surprised me because the Braves had had some baserunners but those were al walks). Suddenly a game where I was loosly rooting for the home team but wouldn't care if the fifth place Braves won turned into a game where I was intently rooting to see something historic (because we all know the Mets are cursed and will never have a no hitter). I think my stomach even had some knots in it and I felt them whenever the Braves made contact and especially when they put the ball in play. The crowd, which seemed to be roughly 50/50 in terms of Nationals and Braves fans but where the Nats fans had been much quieter soon loudly cheered every out made against the Braves. It felt really special. The game was also made more fun with solo home runs from Pudge Rodriguez and Adam Dunn, though neither came close to ending up in Section 142. And some of the Braves fans in our section took to tormenting Nats center fielder Nyjer Morgan, who would eventually turn around and smile at them/us. Seven innings down and still no hits for the visitors. Unfortunately it did not last because David Ross broke it up with one out in the eighth. There was a nice standing ovation from the crowd for Olsen and that was pretty awesome. Even the Braves fans were cheering -- OK, for a different reason. I'm not sure if Olsen was rattled or if he was just out of gas but he quickly walked the bases loaded. Tyler Clippard was brought in to face the pinch hitter Jason Heyward. I was actually pretty disappointed that Heyward wasn't in the starting lineup (I think he was day-to-day because of a little injury) because I had been looking forward to seeing the rookie phenom in person so I was really excited to hear them announce him as a PH (though also nervous for "my" Nats). Sure enough, he singled in two runs to tie it, robbing Olsen of the W and putting him in danger of getting an L. They ended up getting out of the inning still tied. Anyway, bottom of the ninth, Peter Moylan intentionally walked pinch hitter Cristian Guzman to load the bases with nobody out for the pitcher's spot, which ended up being Willie Harris (didn't we hate him when the Nats came to Citi Field in April? -- that amazing game-ending catch, I think a first inning grand slam against Johan Santana and a benches-clearing confrontation with Frankie Rodriguez?) On a 1-0 count, Harris singled and the Nationals walked off with the 3-2 victory, putting them at 15-13 (tied with the Mets for second two games behind the Phillies) and the Braves at 12-16 (keeping them in fifth).
We took the Metro back to UMD, hung out in the apartment for a bit with the roommates and some of their friends, and then walked over to Cornerstone at around 12. It was senior bar crawl night and we were catching the end of it. It was insanely crowded but Matt did a good job of making sure I didn't get lost as we somehow navigated around for me to meet some of his friends. Loud and packed bars aren't usually my scene but I actually really enjoyed it. Then we went back to the apartment and hung out in the den with the roommates again, somehow ending up watching the end of Family Feud and a 2 a.m. episode of $100,000 Pyramid from the '80s. We all got really into it (but especially me, who probably ended up looking like a giant dork but it reminded me of my "childhood" back when GSN was Game Show Network and they showed the classics). It was just a fun way to wrap up an exciting day.
Then this morning, I walked with Matt over to his 11 a.m. Italian class and hung out at "the mall" (attention Maryland and D.C.: grassy fields are not malls) while he was being studious for the next 50 minutes. I even got to see Testudo, a statue of a turtle in front of McKeldin Library, whose nose Matt says gets rubbed by students for good luck. He even supposedly gets gifts during finals. I got to see more of the campus as we did some errands before having to say goodbye to Matt and my fun weekend.
I'm not generally known as a very spontaneous person but this was definitely on the spontaneous side for me and it was a pretty awesome time.
Oh yeah, and I took a few pictures.
-- Sent from my Palm Pre
Sunday, May 2, 2010
My Letter to Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz
In response to the DWI arrest of new Hofstra Basketball coach Tim Welsh, on the job for less than a month when he was caught sleeping behind the wheel of his Lexus on Hempstead Turnpike at 1:00 Friday morning and was found to have a blood alcohol level of .18 two hours later:
Dear President Rabinowitz,I'm sure you know what you're doing but I just felt compelled to let you know that I along with many other Hofstra fans (alumni and current students) think this guy needs to be fired very quickly. I thought he was a great hire and was excited for the future of Hofstra Basketball but this cannot be tolerated. A coach needs to lead his young men by example and there's no amount of apologizing and community service that can undo what he did, at least not in the immediate future. Drunk driving may be a personal decision but he could have easily killed people in the community. We're just lucky that no one was hurt.I hope it's still possible to find another good coach. Best of luck.A very upset Hofstra Pride fan right now,Geoffrey SorensenClass of 2008
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Anyone out there need a copy editor? Part 7
FOX News Channel, February 20th:
WWOR, February 24th:
FOX News Channel, February 27th:
Anyone out there need a copy editor? Part 6
WCBS, January 31st:
CNN, February 15th:
WNBC, February 20th:
Anyone out there need a copy editor? Part 5
WCBS, November 17th:
CNN, December 9th:
HLN, December 22nd:
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
More Colorful Maps
WNBC's news won't start until after midnight so they miss the deadline. The maps all look pretty much the same.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Oh no, more snow
Here we go again... these totals are from the Wednesday night newscasts and are for the snow accumulation by Friday night. Looks like the numbers could shift dramatically if the storm track is slightly different.
Special thanks to Mr. G. for moving out of the way this time so that we can read all of the numbers.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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