Captivating

Augustus? August-you!

I know it’s been a while since I wrapped at ya, but August, despite what Eliot says, is the cruelest month of them all.

And by cruel I mean chock-full of events…

Over Saturday the 2nd, heather had her big Frisbee tourney, which tragically ended with a lightning storm, quite ironically the big bangs of electricity ending her Frisbee season with not a bang but a whimper. The games had to be called off, and we drove home in the rain…

That night heather had a bachelorette party to go to in the city, which I drove her to happily, as I love driving in the city and took that opportunity to give a call to Yovvy to see what he was up to. ‘well,’ he said, ‘my girlfriend is also at a bachelorette party.’ So we decided to hang out, drank a few beers and went to a UCB show after which we used his iPhone as a homing beacon to drive around Manhattan in search of late night Indian food.

We had no such luck and settled upon an all-night diner, and discussed how small the world is, how no matter how large it may seem, sometimes you run into people who you have a connection to, and it freaked us both out. After eating we walked back to my parked car where we found that a limousine had parked in front of us, and who’s limousine was it? The bachelorette party that Yovvy’s girlfriend, liz, was attending. Not 5 minutes earlier they had parked in front of my car on 2nd avenue in search for late night fries. Small world.

The weekend after that heather and I road-tripped it up to Lake George, where we spent the weekend betting on the ponies in Saratoga, relaxing, and meeting my friend Ken’s girlfriend. Ken seems really happy, which is good, though I am sure he would have been happier if he had won any money at all at the track. I had no luck, either, and as we drove back home Sunday afternoon, I vowed to change my betting strategy for next year.

The following week Radiohead played in Boston on a fucking Wednesday, which meant that I couldn’t go. Thanks, tards. I spent that weekend playing house and getting ready for yet another roadtrip, this time to cape cod.

Yes, I just got back from cape cod yesterday, having driven there to perform the wedding of Louis & Terri. Cape cod was a wonderful place to visit, though a bit of a drive, I am not sure how Liz and Seamus do it all the time. The wedding itself was beautiful and I got a lot of kudos for the ceremony I wrote. Not a dry eye in the house! I was a tad stressed out because of the friction between their families’ seeming need for the ceremony to be religious and my obvious paganism, but it was all smoothed out after I offered to only sacrifice one goat, not a blasphemous two.

And that’s August. Here and there I filled time with ill-advisedly reformatting my laptop, UCB improv, Olympic fever, harvesting my tomatoes and cucumbers, getting a raise and enjoying my first month as the newest copywriter for GHG.

Fall is quickly approaching, as evidenced by the cool mornings we’ve been having. I love autumn, and look forward to it, though i will remember summer 2008 as my first married summer when I was (*cough*) young and new to married life, and heather and I were learning about the world and shining our gold medals. Didn’t I tell you? Our nation of two won gold in Greco-roman kissing.

In a Station of the Metro

I got on the 6 train this morning, turned to face the platform, and I immediately was treated to the spectacle of a man dropping his large suitcase, spilling his papers, in hot pursuit of a kid who had evidently walked away with his other briefcase. The man calmly reclaimed it, and it seemed like a fight was about to ensue when the train car doors closed and we headed downtown. I looked to the guy next to me who gave me shrug and said, 'Guess he stole his briefcase.'

I like those moments in life when something happens and a complete stranger becomes a fellow audience member and critic. This happens a lot to me in the city, where spectacles happen spontaneously, and just as quickly melt back into the flow of crowd.

Been to paradise, but I've never been to ME

But I haven't told you yet about our trip to Maine, which was a first for me and Heather, and what is tantamount to our first road trip in our new car together. We took off last Thursday after work and drove to Boston to stay the night with Louis and Terri, who have a brilliant new apartment, sans crazy roomate, which is complete with 2 rooms, office, den, dining room, breakfast nook, backyard, and mahogany paneling. I'm pretty jealous. I am not jealous, however, of the location. Boston is a cesspool of uncoordinated government and terrible infrastructure. Google maps sent us up I-95 with glee and we were driving with no problems whatsoever UNTIL WE HIT BOSTON. It was a miracle of wrong turns that led us to Louis' house, and we cursed the city planners as we fell asleep. The next morning I took us all out to breakfast, which was delicious lox & bagels.

After breakfast Heather and I meandered to Maine, by way of New Hampshire. We took a little walk and had a sandwich in Portsmouth, then finished our road trip to Portland, wherein we had a nice talk and then took a little tour of some lighthouses, went to lobster dinner (Bryan and I split the dinner for two) at which Bryan showed the insides of his lobster, called the tomalley to his wife, Jill. Jill promptly became nauseated and had to get up from our table and take a moment for herself. I found this peculiar but figured maybe she didn't like the fishy, green goo that some people love to suck from the carcass of a freshly cooked lobster.


When she sat down again, Bryan said, 'Me likey bouncy.'
He was so nonchalant about it, such wondrous news, that Heather and I had to do an aural double-take, but realizing that he was being serious, there was much celebration at the table, and if our waitress was worth a damn, we would have ordered some desert. I'm very happy for Jill and Bryan, they'll be the first of my friends to likey bouncy, and I marvel at their adventure.


Later that evening the McDowells, the O'Connors, and the Moynihans played a personal question game, wherein you had to guess who answered what. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I was the only one to go five or five during my turn...

The next day was filled lighthouse visiting, and also meeting new friends and getting together to play a spirited homerun derby, which sucked for me because when I was up there was nary a dinger to be found.

In the evening we had a BBQ comeplete with burgers, dogs, salads, and even more LOBSTER! I was the one who had to drop them into the pot, and everyone wanted to know if I could hear them screaming as they entered the hot hot heat. No, I said, I couldn't hear them screaming over my own laughter. Muahahah.
We ended the night playing more games, this one called celebrity. It was quite awesome and I hope to add it to my repertoire... Maine was just a really, really laidback place, and I enjoyed the memories of this road trip, including tidepooling, guitar sing-alongs, breakfast sandwiches, baseball games, stats, and taking in the Shipyard Brewery.

We left on Sunday night and arrived in Boston after driving down the freeway at 20mph because of the wall of water falling from the sky. Stephanie came over to Louis' for dinner and we supped on the choicest meats and potatoes. I love roadtrips, I love seeing old friends and partaking in their happiness, but most of all I love the fact that there are more to come!