So thus far today, my packing has been this successful: I threw shit out from my desk (that I don’t even need to go through) and packed both my U.S. and British editions of Harry Potter and my Lord of the Rings books. Yeah, this is not good lol. I can’t really do anything outside of the house before 3:30pm each day because I’m on doggie nurse duty for Strider - 13 pills a day, including diuretics which means he has to be taken outside to go to the bathroom at least once every 1.5-2 hours. My dad does the pills but it’s a huge ordeal because some are so large that they have to be literally shoved down his throat. I feel badly because the dog will unintentionally bite down on his hand at least 4 times each session & this morning he drew blood.
My birthday parties were fun. I gotta admit that on Friday, I was just totally not feeling doing anything birthday-related. It took longer to pick Strider up from the doggie cardiologist than I thought it would and I missed the train into Manhattan, so I just drove in to Astoria and took the subway to Hi-Fi to meet up with the BTR crew. Annie made me FUNFETTI CUPCAKES, which I think I had 4 of. It was fun and nice to see everyone who could make it.
Also on Friday, I had a surprise. Jay couldn’t make it this weekend and knew how disappointed I was so he sent me beautiful flowers to make up for it :) Aren’t they purdy?
So, Saturday was the big party at Stout in Herald’s Square. I didn’t end up going to New York Comic Con because I was just drained from the previous 2 days and needed to try to chill before the all-nighter. Katelyn and her friends Kelly & Eddie came in with me at 7pm so we could get a lot of seats for everyone at the bar.
Everyone tricked in from around 7:30pm-10:30pm. I was so excited to see everyone and even more excited to accept multiple birthday drinks. In fact, at around 12:50am, Randy & Claudio got me a double shot of Tequlia and for some reason, I then thought that it would be a good idea for Katelyn & Eddie to take the last “early” train home at 1:12am without me and I’d just take one at like 3am and get a cab for the 25 minute ride back. Yeah, I don’t know either. Sooooo around 1:30am, I wanted to go home and was “stuck.” So what did I do? My grandparents were staying at the Marriott Downtown for a conference that night & I decided to go drunkely visit them. Then I slept over in their hotel room. Yeah. Don’t even say a word.
We did a family party yesterday but it was quieter. My mom’s been sick the last few days and we wanted to keep it low-key so the dog didn’t have a heart attack, but it was cool. Still lots of good food. My aunt & uncle told me that I should enjoy 25 because everything beyond is just “early 30.”
So yeah, that’s my birthday story. Also, I know that this could come across wrong, but I’m just sorta “woah” to have seen this:
In 2 years podcasting, I’ve never ever been on any iTunes featured list or top something. It’s in the Audio Podcast list of the TV/Film category. Jay & I started the ChuckCast as a joke but then decided we liked doing because it took a total of 1 hour a week with recording and editing (knock on wood) and seemed like fun we should keep having! :) I’m actually not going to look at any reviews because I remember the last time that I did something that was more in Jay’s “territory” and 75% of the people who commented hated me. I wasn’t trying to come off poorly but damnit that sucked hardcore and I’d rather just say “screw it” and be kept in the dark this time.
Anyways, I have a bunch of pictures from my birthday party, but I’m putting them after the jump because there are quite a few (I’ll put more up on Facebook when I feel like it). My camera’s crazy ass flash makes me look like I haven’t been out in sunlight in 3 years and I also look drunk basically from an hour in (I think it was more like 2.5 hours in though…). I’m also aware I’m in desperate need of a haircut & am getting on on Friday. Much thanks to everyone who came out and who left me messages on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, message boards, etc.
Hooray for 3 day weekends. After the weekly trip to Shiro’s with Uncle Lou last Friday (holler hibachi), I went back to Ridge. On Saturday, I picked up Ian-face & Claudio and off we went to Hartford to visit Brian for his 23rd birthday. After enduring 3 hours of “Colleen’s a bad driver, we’re going to die” taunts from the boys, we finally got there. Because Brian’s the greatest friend ever, he had 2lbs of wings, fries & onion rings waiting for us. Ian-face, also the greatest friend ever, had purchased 2 cases (yes, cases) of Sam Adams Boston Lager for the celebration.
We hung around Brian’s kick ass apartment for a while & dicked around. I managed to get the boys to reprise their rendition of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” which was hysterical. At our senior prom back in high school days, Bri, C-dawg, & Ian had gone up to a teacher that Brian had a crush on and sung it to her in the middle of the party hall. It was so funny; I felt that after 5 years, it needed to be busted out again. I took a video of part of it. Despite their severe “this is NOT going to appear on the Internet or your blog” warnings, I’m putting it up anyway. I miss the good old days when this was the shit we did every single day.
After a rousing game of darts (no poker for once), we kicked around the idea of driving to either Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun (casinos in Connecticut), as Ian-face really wanted to go. We decided to hit up Brian’s favorite bar first since the rest of us were ambivalent about going. Because I’d drank the least, I wasn’t going to drink at the bar in case we decided to go, as I’d (of course) end up having to be the driver. We met up with one of Bri’s friends from work. This is the bar (Vegas) that’s famous for having liters (yes, liters) of beer. At one point, I walked with Brian to a gas station so he could buy cigarettes. We were still debating going to a casino, despite it being midnight at this point, but the big issue was whether or not they could go the hour it would take to get to either one without drinking. So Brian decides to call the Hartford police station & ask the desk sergeant if there’s an open container law in Connecticut (you can’t have open containers of alcohol in a car in NY at all). He was on hold for roughly 23 minutes, but we got our answer: Nope. As long as the driver wasn’t drinking, the passengers could be.
In typical Brian fashion, he thanks the officer (O’Brien) and goes, “Thanks, man. We want to be as irresponsible as possible, without being illegal.”
Yes, that is a direct quote. He even repeated it when the cop went, “Um, WHAT?!”
I love my friends.
We didn’t end up going to the casino because at this point, it was 1am and I was tired of not being able to drink. We walked back to Brian’s apartment & chilled there. And by “chilled” I mean, “Claudio passed out almost immediately while Bri, Ian & Brian’s friend Mike D. did shots of cheap orange vodka that Colleen knew better not to touch because cheap orange vodka means trouble.” Naturally, we had to fuck with C-dawg while he was sleeping, hehe. The night got better when we put on Arrested Development & I totally dorked out. I’ve been stressed out because of work stuff and moving preparations & couldn’t sleep at all, so I ended up doing the 3 weeks’ worth of dishes that had built up in Brian’s sink. It took me over an hour, til almost 5am. Claudio had passed out in the most inconvenient way possible on the couch & Ian-face had fallen asleep on the bathroom floor (cheap orange vodka always means trouble) soooo I ended up sleeping for an hour & a half on the most uncomfortable chair ever. But it was all good.
We were celebrating Uncle Lou’s birthday on Sunday, so I got the boys up early, dropped them off at the ferry so they could get to Port Jefferson & headed to Syosset for bday weekend, round 2. On the way back, I was starting to think about work/moving shit & making lists of everything I have to do this week in my head. I totally wasn’t paying attention and ended up getting pulled over for speeding (74 in a 50, go me) right before I crossed the Throg’s Neck bridge. Now, honestly, I’ve been pulled over like 6 times before. Thank heavens for Uncle Lou’s PBA card, which has gotten me out of all of them. I figured that this time, my luck was out, it would just be fitting with everything lately that I’d get a ticket and have to worry about going to court and getting points off my license and paying a zillion dollars and giving up a day to taking a defensive driving class to make up the points, etc. I was so distracted, so exhausted that when the cop came to the window, I was literally shaking. Then fate stepped in (again).
Cop: Why are you shaking? Me: I’m nervous. Cop: Why are you nervous? Because you’re a Yankees fan (I was wearing my Mariano Rivera shirt) and they’re losing? Me:(nervous laugh) Yeah, I was at the game on Tues. It was awful. Cop: Tuesday? So was I! Me: Didn’t you just want to cry after that first inning Manny home run? Cop: Tell me about it. Tell you what. You stay put. Whose card is this? Me: My uncle’s. (Goes to his car & gets on the phone, as I wait.) Cop: I called the number and the guy said he didn’t know you! Me:(Look of horror) WHAT?! I live with him! His badge number is [###]! Cop:(Laughing) I’m just kidding. You can stop shaking, it’s okay. It was just speeding, that’s all! Unless you have any weapons of mass destruction in here that I should know about. (At this point, I’m PRAYING that the boys didn’t leave any beer in my car.) Me: Umm, I just have a lighter… Cop: You were just speeding. Go home, relax, stop shaking. It’s fine. Have a good weekend. Let’s go Yankees!
ANYWAY, Monday, I hit up Smith’s Point Beach with Ian-face, Claudio & Frankie, which was awesome. Okay this never-ending post is finally over. It really wasn’t that bad of a way to spend the last 15 minutes…
