Piano Man

Last night at Andrew Lee's, somebody started playing "Piano Man" by Billy Joel on the piano and we had a spontaneous sing-a-long. By the time we got to the chorus, basically everyone from the kitchen poured in the room to join in. And upon singing "they're sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone," everyone joined together and held up their drinks. It was so perfect. That moment will be branded in my memory forever.

Jim O'Brien pulled my aside after the sing-a-long to tell me about a piano bar in NYC, which is perfect because I really, really want to go. I know Chris and some other people were interested, so let's go one of these days!

In other news, I'm going to Canada tomorrow! Montreal, to be exact. So psyched.

I should brush up on my french. And my drinking.

Old World United

For the first time in a while, my entire family was home for dinner tonight. That's something that is hard to come by, considering my twin brother is almost never home, my dad typically gets home late from work, my mom goes out to dinner with work friends about once a week, and I'm usually not home about half the time. Believe it or not, my family has been a source of some negativity in my life recently (absense of my brother and stress from my parents), so a nice meal together was just what I needed to transform my vision of my family back the way it once was.

My parents had wine with dinner, Andrew had Yuengling, and I had Blue Point (even though I'm almost 23, it still feels weird when we all drink together... but I like it). Jeopardy was on TV as usual, but we didn't pay any attention to it (usually when Yolanda Vega comes on during a Jeopardy commerical break to announce the daily lottery winners, we all shout out what we think the numbers will be before they pop up, as my mom continuously attempts to impersonate Yolanda Vega's accent... but not even that happened tonight) - we were too busy talking about whatever was going on with our lives these days and finding opportunities to poke fun at my mom that resulted in everyone laughing. It reminded me of old times. It was refreshing.

Things aren't quite the same on the friends front. Not to say that things are bad... but there are some some individuals I haven't really spoken to and I would like that to change. Furthermore, there seems to be this sort of generally unspoken tension I'm sensing from various people in regards to differing perspectives on friendship trajectories.

This probably doesn't make any sense.

Turn Into Something

I went to the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania this weekend for Alan's wedding and it really was a great time. The actual wedding part was entertaining, as there were references to Apple and Star Wars during the wedding ceremony, and Brian, Mark, Mike, Shawn, and I clearly were the life of the wedding reception. The rest of the weekend was enjoyable too. The roadtrip there with Michelle and Andrew involved constant laughter and stealing a GPS and the game of Twister from a car in a Lowes parking lot (apparently everyone else had exciting trips as well, whether it involved traveling down creepy 3-mile dirt roads or getting attacked by random dogs). We also got drunk in the hotel every night and got to go to an amusement park and eat tons of food and ride the italian trapeze for free too (we were easily the youngest and most obnoxious people on that ride). Essentially, the weekend was a testament to the idea that it doesn't matter where you are or what's around you because all you need is a few good friends to have a memorable time (alcohol and free hotel rooms help too). Furthermore, someone needs to get married soon because weddings are a blast.

So yeah, Alan and Christine got married this weekend. Crazy! I'm really happy for them. I personally can't imagine getting married any time soon though, if at all. Don't get me wrong... I would like to have a family of my own some day. But at this point in time, the idea of marriage is truly horrifying. I can barely keep commitments to myself so I can't even imagine making a commitment of that magnitude.

Today was my first day at Fort Monmouth that I had to work without my friends (all of the other interns have moved on). Judging how work went today, the next 7 weeks are going to be pretty painful (I got an extension, so now my last day is September 30th). Meanwhile, I'm still struggling to find a new job in New Jersey, still stressed due to parents giving me a hard time about my priorities, and still juggling the idea of moving to Maryland to continue working with the government. I don't want to move to Maryland in all honesty, but considering pressure from my parents and the fact that nobody wants to hire me here, I'd feel lots of regret if I pass on this opportunity. Most days I am totally against moving, and other days I start to consider it realistically. After all, the government offers excellent benefits and would help me find a place to live. But the location isn't that great and the job might not be what I really want to do (then again, who really knows what they want to do?). And how could I ever manage to live so far away from all of my friends? I guess that's growing up?

Days Of Our Lives

A little over a week ago, I went to New York with Nicole, Emily, and Frankie to see a free concert at Pier 54. Despite arriving late, parking very far from the venue, and a dead generator that put the concert on a 30-minute hiatus, the evening was still a success. The walk through Hudson River Park on our way to the concert was awesome, and if you've never been there before then you definitely need to go. The stage was literally on the pier over the ocean. I'm pretty sure everyone at the show was there for the headlining act, The Antlers, making us the only ones who were solely there for the opening act, Dinosaur Feathers. This was made obvious when we were the only ones shouting the lyrics to "Family Waves" as the band performed the song at a lower volume due to a backup generator. There's no doubt in my mind that everyone on that pier heard us screaming the lyrics.

The next day, I went to Philadelphia to visit my friend Sam. Considering I haven't seen him in a while, it was a well-needed trip that ended up being an entire weekend adventure. It was a beautiful weekend for exploring the streets of Philly, eating cheesesteaks, chilling in the apartment, bar-hopping, listening to crazy Jazz music in the park, tailgating a Phillies game but then realizing we bought tickets for the wrong day, and just being generally fucked up 24/7. And the drunken 4-hour train ride back with Dan was equally as entertaining.

A few days later, I met up with Nicole and Tehila for some buffalo chicken pizza, which was followed by us bumming around in the parking lot for a while. It might sound boring, but we were laughing and having lots of fun. After that, I went to Jenks in Pt. Pleasant with Chris, Amanda, Justine, and Lauren. They had ridiculously good specials there, and we got to play beer pong and have drinks on the oceanfront deck too. And considering that most drunken nights end with McDonalds, this one was thankfully no exception.

This weekend, Alan, Brian, Mark, Shawn, Alan's best man, and I went to Atlantic City for Alan's bachelor party (if only Mike could've gone too!). We got all dressed up, got trashed in the hotel room, gambled in the casino, etc. Mark and I wandered the boardwalk for a while and had some really good discussions too. We went to Ocean City for pizza the next day and when we got back to my house, we all passed out and laid in the grass for a while. After everyone left, me and Brian went to the mall and then drove around aimlessly for a while. It really was a lot of fun.

So yeah, the last week and a half of my life has been pretty eventful and enjoyable. And for those of you who are missing from my life as of lately, that needs to change, yes?