25 Years Ago Today.... (Or, A Camel's Jump)
First order of bidness: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MITCH! He turned 25 yesterday (gross). On Saturday we had a really fun party for him, and a lot of our fellow Conn staff members came over to celebrate. One of my coworkers, Liz, is married to one of Mitch's coworkers, Tim, so they were there and even brought their 5-year-old twins along. Dan, another one of Mitch's coworkers brought his 3-year-old, so there was a quite a contingent of people under 4 feet tall. I was actually a little nervous about having the kids there, not because I thought they would break anything (the net value of everything in our living room is about $11) but rather because people under 17 seldom find me funny (once you strip away the humor from my personality, there really isn't a lot of substance left). I ended up watching the kids for most of the party, which was a lot of fun! I even got several compliments on my child-handling ability (I'm very nurturing).
All told, the weekend was a good one....
....On Friday night, I headed over to the Bank Street Cafe in New Londy for a concert by The Rivergods, which is a local band fronted by Ben "There, Done That" Parent, who works in the College Relations department here in Becker House. I had heard them on CD already, but live they were about 10 times more kickin'! Everyone in the band was talented, but the person who grabbed my attention the most was their mandolin/lead guitar player, who looked exactly like a gold prospector from the 1800s (I thought about writing a pickax pun about using a pick on his ax, but you are too sophisticated an audience for something that obvious). I was definitely impressed by his guitar playing, but at one point it occurred to me that he's probably had 60 years of practice, so that kind of diluted my admiration a little bit. The best thing about the concert was that it was only from about 6:00-8:30, so I still had plenty of time afterwards to have a full Friday night. I decided to hit the bars with Mitch and our friend Laurel "Not Laura" Mitchell. Since she just turned 21 last month, she had never been to the bars in New London before, so we did a little tour of all of the more noteworthy establishments. I was sad to learn that Adagio's, New London's only jazz club, has gone out of business; in its place is a bar called Rouge. We decided to give it a shot (or rather, have it give us a couple shots), but when we went inside there was only a bartender, a DJ, and one patron; we all looked at each other for a second and wordlessly, unanimously agreed to get the hell out of there before it got awkward. I'm actually not surprised that Adagio's closed and that no one was in Rouge; the location is in the basement of an otherwise vacant building on a side street, so you'd never know it was there unless you were already aware of it (that kind of subtlety and secrecy is often lost on drunk people). Fortunately, there were plenty of other places to visit, so we had a good time.
During the day on Saturday, Mitch and I cleaned every inch of the apartment, which we hadn't done since moving in on June 1st. Needless to say, there were a lot of dusty corners, but it was nothing that a couple Swiffers couldn't handle. Swiffer works so well that it occupies the same place in my mind as Google: both are so great that I'm worried there must be some horrible secret about them, like that prolonged Swiffer use causes rabies or that Google is secretly Skynet from Terminator 2 (Eddie Furlong shout-out).
On Sunday, I met up with a guy from New London who, like me, plays upright bass. An alumni couple had put me in touch with him when I visited them in DC recently. He's a cool guy and fun to talk to, but the strange part about it was that he's 45, yet he looks and talks like he's about 30. Is it weird for me to have a buddy who is twice my age? I'd be interested to hear if anyone out there has had a similar situation (I know that Sam's best friend is his grandma, but that's not really the same thing).
Just now I got a mass e-mail from the College saying that the gym will be closed tomorrow through Monday so that they can install some new equipment. I'm happy we're getting an upgrade, but I'm a little bummed that I won't get to get my work out on for a couple days. After all, Mitch and I made a New Year's resolution to be able to alley-oop and dunk by the end of the year, so I really need to start spending some quality time with my Jumpsoles (our dream of making it onto the And 1 Tour will come true someday...).
I'll be in New York this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday doing some alumni visits for the College, so if anyone out there reads this and wants me to stop by and chat about the College, just let me know! I'll do another post when I get back to update y'all on whether anything wacky or hilarious happens (as it usually does while I am on the road). Until then, stay gold!