Holy Matrimony and Half-Court Shots

On Friday Brig and I headed up to Saratoga Springs, NY for our friends’ wedding. I know it’s what every best man/maid of honor says in their speech but it’s true: at some point it stopped being our friend’s wedding and instead became our friends’ wedding.*

The wedding and reception were in the same place. I think everyone preferred not having to drive anywhere else but that meant when the wedding area wasn’t sufficiently cooled down that the reception area also wouldn’t be nicely AC’d. It was a pretty big wedding and what really surprised us was just how young the crowed was. It almost seemed like there were little to no family members present and instead it was all friends. Which they have a lot of. That culminated in a packed dance floor, though, which is always more fun. The DJ played some “parents’ songs” during dinner but then it was all more modern music from there on out. We tossed on our favors (sunglasses that said Alvin <3 Becky on the side) and rocked out.

Seated at our table were some of our old friends from AVID. There were 10 of us at the table and 6 worked there at one point in time. Only 2 are still there (plus the bride) but we all picked up right where we left off; which was ridiculous when we were in the workplace sober so you can imagine drunk at a wedding. At one point the girls went to the bar to get drinks for the table and apparently the bartenders were taking a break or something so they grabbed double the number of beers we needed and a full bottle of wine which we hid under the table.

The next morning was a mess. I was hurting from mixing alcohol all night (What’s the saying? Beer before liquor makes you sicker and then if you add wine too you’re an idiot?) and apparently somewhere along the way Brig lost her car keys. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so paralyzed in my life. They weren’t in the room; they weren’t in the car; they hadn’t been returned to the motel lost & found. We literally didn’t know what to do. Even if we called a locksmith to get us in the car we still wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere. We were far away from home and had to check out of the hotel in a couple hours. There was a lot going on in our heads. Brig tried calling her parents (because we were supposed to meet them later that day) but they were already on the road and had their phone turned off. Her next call was to AAA because they always seem like the right choice when you’re in a bind. While she was getting transferred to the right person she walked over to her bed (our room had 2 full beds for some reason) to shake out the sheets again. This time we heard a rattle. She had slept with her keys! Some princess she is.

Thankfully we were on our way and made it to Springfield, MA soon after her parents arrived. We had a nice picnic lunch looking out on the Connecticut River and then headed into the Basketball Hall of Fame. This is Brig and mine’s third HoF visit after baseball and tennis. At first blush it seemed pretty small but of course basketball has only a fraction of the history that baseball does. But it ended up being a really in depth look at the sport’s past and I think everyone was really happy with what we were able to see.

What really set them apart though was their interactive areas. At one spot you could play a “virtual” game using your shadow against a video game player. Another spot measured your vertical leap and the most fun one was to see how high you could get to bring down a rebound. There was this basketball attached to a mechanized contraption and the guy running it would raise it 2 inches each time. I managed to get all the way up to 9’4” and bring the ball down before retiring after 1 try at 9’6”. I could still touch it but there was no way I was getting 2 hands around it and pulling it down. It was a great workout though. Then there was a booth where you could be the play-by-play announcer for a sports clip and record your own commentary. Brig did a great call of “Havlicek stole the ball!” In another area you could do a SportsCenter type thing on camera and watch it on playback.

Our last stop was the basketball court that was the center of the complex. No one’s allowed to play 1-on-1 (even if you’re not causing trouble, like the girl told us when she pulled us aside, whoops) but there is a full court. Then there are like 6 different styled hoops off to one side starting with the original peach basket (FYI there was no backboard. I tried a layup before realizing it was impossible) and moving up to today’s current basket. Then there was another section of 4 different sized hoops purely for dunking. I slammed it home on the 3^rd basket but couldn’t manage to get it on the full-sized hoop. I always hit the rim but just can’t quite get it over the cylinder.

On the drive home we got caught in some of the worst rain I’ve ever had to deal with on the road. I put it in my top 3 all time. But we survived. And since we survived, we finished watching season 2 of The Walking Dead which not everyone on the show survived. I’m glad we got into this show because it’s really cool. Can’t wait for Season 3 in October!

*Even though the groom’s a Giants fan.

Untitled

I was looking for something to post today and came across this quote I’ve held onto for a while:

fuck the poets of the past, my friends.
there are no beautiful suicides
just cold corpses with shit in their pants
& the end of the gifts.

I have no idea who said it but I saw it on a PostSecret way back in the early days. Seeing it today made me think of our dearly departed Lane Pryce. Don told him to come up with “an elegant exit” presumably for his resignation but which Lane took literally.

He was gifted with numbers and certainly didn’t get the respect for A) creating SCDP (in what’s still the best season finale of the show) and B) keeping them afloat after Lucky Strike left. Yet the poem is right… Lane was scared (shitless) of what would happen to him. But whether he did it in the Jaguar, in his office, with Pete’s rifle or down the elevator shaft, death is nothing if not gruesome. They teased it out of us by showing Joan trying to get in his door, then showing Pete’s reaction to looking over the divider, and eventually we all wanted to see. Well, we got our wish.

Mad Men

I have to talk about this… Mad Men is getting crazy. Like really crazy. Last week Joan become a SCDP partner by whoring herself out for the company to win the Jaguar account. Don gave a rousing speech the week before explaining how their agency would be defined by their first car and yet he seemed unhappy after finding out they won the account. It’s all about the chase with him.

Of course, Peggy didn’t care about the Jaguar win either because she wasn’t assigned to it. This led to her taking job interviews and pulling Don aside to give her resignation(!). How could Peggy leave SCDP? Is she leaving the show entirely or will we follow her new life? The show started with Peggy joining SterlingCooper so how could she not continue in at least some part? Of course, we’ve seen many people come and go from the show and we’ve never followed anyone after they left the company so even though Peggy has been one of the central characters since Day 1, I don’t foresee any more movie theater handjobs.

Then this week we got the death that’s been hinted at all season: Lane(!). First, there was the mention early on that Pete kept a rifle at the office. Then, there was the time Don pushed for the elevator and it opened up to an empty shaft. Clear indicators that someone was going to expire at the office, Miss Blankenship-style.

Of course, we knew Lane had embezzled from the company and something was likely* going to happen but when Don forced his resignation I thought that would be the end of it. Instead, Lane jumped into the new Jaguar his wife bought him (with money they don’t have) and tried to kill himself. Ironically, the car they all know is shitty and still want to represent and sell to other people of course won’t start and Lane can’t even go out the way he wants. Instead, he heads to the office over the weekend and we see him typing a letter (Resignation letter? Suicide note?). Monday morning he’s late and Joan goes to unlock his office but there’s a desk in the way. She goes to Pete’s office right next door and tells him she thinks something is wrong. Pete hops on his couch to look over the divider and sees Lane hanging from a noose.

What’s really shocking about all this action is that there’s still one more episode left in the season. Either of the past two weeks could have been a season finale so I’m really expecting something huge to happen next Sunday. Everything is on the table and nobody is safe.

*I say “likely” because Mad Men doesn’t always go anywhere with their plot lines. Remember when Lane found that guy’s wallet and took the picture out of that girl? That never went anywhere. Then the season premiere where SCDP became an equal opportunity employer and hired Dawn who had exactly 1 episode (with Peggy) and hasn’t garnered any time since?

Au Revoir, Regis

No explanation necessary, right? There is only one Regis. Tomorrow he is retiring and will complete his last episode of Live with Regis & Kelly. Big deal? Yes and no. Everyone loves Regis but who actually watches his show? Most people are at work. And if you're home sick, well, you're probably watching The Price is Right.

When I think of Regis I think of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, one of the landmark game shows of our generation. It's hard to forget just how popular that show became. Phoning a friend, asking the audience, using a 50/50 -- I remember the life lines even now. And it was all capped off with "Is that your final answer?" Regis was on every TV in every home of the country.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so the networks cooked up The Weakest Link, Greed and countless others trying to match the success of ABC's tent pole. But none of them had Regis.

My sincere hope is that he continues doing something in front of the camera. Whether that's commercials like the TD Bank spots or if he gets his own New Years Eve show. He is a year younger than Dick Clark, you know ;)

Duck, duck, duck, duck, goose

You know the old adage "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile"? That's how I felt missing Friday's post. I gave myself an inch and I took a mile.

Let me explain. When I find a cool, new thing I enjoy I will immerse myself in it 100%. It will take over my life. For example, January 2010 I spent watching the first 5 seasons of Lost. I had never watched it before but Hulu was streaming the whole series before the final season began in February. I dove in and before long I was addicted. Every night after work I would watch 2-3 episodes. I would spend the weekend doing nothing but crushing another 20 episodes. I'll admit it was ridiculous. At some point between seasons 3-4 I gave myself a break. It was just a day to relax and focus on something else. Problem was, the next day I didn't want to go back to it. Or the next day. It snowballed so that I wasted a perfectly good week without watching a single episode. I was disappointed in myself that I let it happen. Then I had to scramble to watch the last couple seasons before the final season opener began. I made it but it all felt forced after that week off.

The same can be said about my old music blog, The Tracklist. I was really into it for about 2 years and then I started slacking on listening to new albums. Now I can't even convince myself that I ever have 45 minutes available. I think the only albums I listened to cover to cover this year were Death Cab for Cutie, Radiohead and The Lonely Island. I listened to 40+ albums last year!

So, you can see why I was nervous after missing Friday's post. Really, it shouldn't be that big a deal but I have a history with these things. Do I actually intend on posting 5 days a week for the foreseeable future? No, but I do like updating with some regularly. Let me know in the comments what you would recommend as a more comfortable blogging schedule.

Modern Family

I spent all weekend watching Season 2 of Modern Family. This is a show I was a little late to but am so glad I found. I knew they had a couple Emmys under their belt but I never actually tuned in to watch. I don’t watch very much TV so I never got around to it. Anyway, my girlfriend had recently picked it up and I started joining her. It is one of the funniest shows I have ever watched.

For those of you who don’t know the show revolves around three related families who share a patriarch. Featuring a top notch cast including Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell (2011 Emmy winner), Eric Stonestreet (2010 Emmy winner) and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Kudos go out to the clearly fantastic writers who come up with the premises and jokes for each episode. I have yet to see a bad one.

The character Phil Dunphy is my absolute favorite. He’s a classic 21st century man who still thinks (and acts) like a kid, is more in touch with hfee sensitive side and has no problem taking a spa day. Seeing his choices and lifestyle in comparison to his father-in-law’s is comedy gold. Especially since he strives so hard to win his approval.

This is a show that has something for everyone. The characters are so diverse that it is impossible to not be drawn into at least one person’s story. It’s an amazing example of what America’s melting pot was supposed to become, cleverly disguised with humor.