Spring Broke (Or, Say "Cheese")
Mama mia! Sorry I haven't posted in so long, but I was on Spring Break last week and had nary an opportunity to access my computer (in case of future incidences in which I don't post for a week or more, all readers are advised to listen to Welcome to Florida CDs on repeat and read my old blog entries in order to avoid potentially dangerous withdrawals). I was out of the office for over a week for the first time since I've been working here, and accordingly I scheduled as much friend visitation time as possible (I haven't had to actually schedule visitation time since I did six months in the Kingston General Penitentiary for calling Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding a bumbaclot).
Things kicked off the Thursday before last when I headed down to New York to attend a gathering for alumni of my high school, Lawrence Academy (Spartan shout-out). Interestingly, event host Tim Armstrong '93 is an alum and trustee of both of Lawrence and Conn, so he and I had plenty to talk about! Since he's a VP at Google, the event took place at Google's NYC HQ (FYI, there isn't an actual search "engine" anywhere in the office; turns out they just use a bunch of servers, not the 80-foot-tall mountain of piston-pumping, smoke-spewing, churning, turning, undulating metal that I had expected). Simply put, it was a great event, except that now I've been lassoed into being an alumni volunteer for Lawrence, which means that during the free time I have outside of work not raising money or planning events for Conn, I'll be raising money and planning events for Lawrence. Fun! I don't really mind, but if someone at Lawrence asks me to start blogging for their website I'll probably have to draw the line there....
....After the party, I headed across town to meet up with Kim Carron '03 and Lauren Kellersman '03, with whom I've been working on their upcoming 5th Reunion. We met at a pretty cool Mexican place called Vamos! for dinner and then went over to a bar called Rodeo for a couple beers (we hadn't intended to give the evening a Tex-Mex theme, but that's just the way it worked out. Que Suerte!). At Rodeo, I was delighted to see that they serve cans of Tecate, which is a really cheap Mexican beer; I was significantly less delighted, however, to learn that they cost $6 apiece (for those of you unfamiliar with this particular potable, paying $6 for a Tecate is like leasing a dented Huffy for $200 a month).
The next morning, I had a meeting with Dan Cayer '04, whom I hadn't known as a student but with whom it turns out I have many friends in common. Fortunately, Dan is a really interesting guy and had a lot to talk about, because the food at the restaurant we went to was so good that if I had been meeting with a boring person I probably would have just said "Oh my God, this French toast is DELICIOUS!" over and over until the check came. After that meeting, I was officially on SPRING BREAK!!! WOOO!!! CANCUN!!! Oh sorry, sometimes I can't control my inner frat guy (I wonder if frat guys have inner mature, level-headed guys).
The following day, I had a lovely brunch with Alyssa Tartaglione '07 at Max Brennar's, a restaurant that manages to smother every inch of their cuisine in chocolate (it's similar to the concept I had for a restaurant called Queso Volcano, where everything would be covered in molten nacho cheese). One of the things that I like about hanging out with Alyssa is that she's very pretty, so I get a lot of eye contact cred from other dudes on the street who assume we're dating, but since we're not dating I can talk to her about all of the other attractive women around us without ending up in the doghouse! Oh yeah, and I guess I also like hanging out with her because she's a kind and intelligent person and I highly value our friendship, blah, blah, blah....
I spent the next four days in Boston chilling with various non-Conn people and eating several burritos (awesome). Despite being in a famously Irish city, my St. Patrick's Day was pretty mellow, mostly due to the fact that the people I was staying with are so cheap that the only way we were going out was if I funded the entire expedition; needless to say, we stayed in and split a case of canned beer. I used Thursday as my one opportunity to veg out on the couch in New London and get caught up on my rest and chores. The amount of laundry that I did was matched only by the number of episodes of The Office that I watched. Very productive!
On Friday I cruised down to Philadelphia to visit fellow blog hog and jazz band alumnus Sam Garner '07, who showed me all around the city, where he currently is pursuing a Master's at UPenn (I had never heard of the school, but I guess it's part of some club of colleges that really like ivy or something. Hey, if it's not NESCAC then I don't really care!). I hadn't been there before, so I definitely wanted to hit up at least a few essential tourist activities. Since I had less than 24 hours to work with, however, I had to prioritize. After Sam gave me a tour of the UPenn campus, we headed to Old City, home to things like Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the Hooters where Ben Franklin met his first mistress (legend has it that their first kiss was as sweet and spicy as a chicken wing). Unfortunately, Independence Hall closes at 5:00, and the Liberty Bell Visitation Center was under renovation, so the City of Brotherly Love's history went unviewed by these eyes. Disappointed but still determined, we checked out the recently-completed Comcast Tower, now the tallest building in the skyline. Despite its height, it doesn't have an observation deck, and only employees are allowed on the elevators; the lobby was nice, though! By that time it was dinner o'clock, so we headed over to a pub called Fado, where I decided to order a cheesesteak. Upon its arrival, however, Sam informed me that real Phillyphiles (my pun, not his) dress their shaved beef in Velveeta-style cheese sauce, not the melted shredded cheese that adorned the sandwich before me. With yet another Philadelphia staple slipping just barely out of my grasp, I resigned myself to just drinking a bunch of Yuenglings and hanging out with Sam's UPenn's friends. That was Philly enough for me!
The next morning I got back in the car and headed down to DC for Welcome to Florida's first show in our nation's capitol. I got there early to squeeze in a lunch with Alex Fiorillo '03, whom I met up with at a bookshop/cafe/bar/restaurant called Kramerbooks. The food was good, but our waiter looked like he was having a tough shift, so like the humanitarian I am, I brightened his day by adding a dollar to his tip despite his less than sparkling service. Does my generosity know no bounds? The show itself was a lot of fun, and Alex was nice enough to show up and bring a bunch of people along! Also in attendance were Wilson Stiner '08 and Libby Levine '07, so there was a decent Conn representation in the crowd. Afterwards, pretty much everybody who came to see us got together for a little afterparty, and by the time I got to bed it was almost 5:00am! This wouldn't have been a problem, except that I was looking at about 7 hours of driving back to New London the next day (a significant portion of which was driving through New Jersey, so it felt more like 15 hours). I made it back safe and sound, however, and all told is was a great Spring Break! I had so much fun, in fact, that I am now officially out of money. If anyone out there has any bread crusts or banana peels that they're not going to eat, please send them my way because my next pay check doesn't come for about 3 more weeks.
Blog at ya later!