independence day weekend
Today is the first day of work after the long, eventful holiday weekend.
It actually started out on a somber note, when on Friday morning, Kristie and I attended the funeral of my dad’s Uncle Pete in Middletown. Although I didn’t know him well personally, it was sad to see all the aunts and uncles so choked up, and I felt good about Kristie and myself attending to show our support. After the burial and the gathering back at Uncle Ted’s house, it was 3 in the afternoon when I finally made it into lab. It was a very short stay, because Kristie and I had happy hour plans with Kevin and his girlfriend Sam, so at 5:45, I biked downtown to Pacifico to get us a table. We had such a good time hanging out and downing half price beers and mojitos that when the specials ended, we decided to all get dinner and more drinks together at Cask Republic. It turned out to be a really fun Friday evening.
On Saturday morning, I went for just my fourth run of the summer, then I played pickup ultimate in the midday heat. Later on, Kristie brought me to West Haven to buy ice hockey equipment (more on that tomorrow!), then we headed up 95 in the other direction to continue our shopping trip at the Clinton Crossing outlets, where I bought some new clothes. Back in New Haven, we went out to dinner at Thai Taste, then just had a relaxing evening at home and fell asleep early.
Most of Sunday was equally low key. Kristie and I spent the morning unpacking our apartment and cooking crab macaroni & cheese for lunch. In the afternoon, I had another good run and watched the Red Sox game on tv. The excitement picked up in the evening. Kristie’s musical obsession, Ryan Cabrera, was playing a concert at Mohegan Sun, so of course we had to go. Evidencing just how far he’s fallen since his pop star days, the show was actually free, and we didn’t even have to get tickets for it. We just showed up at the "Wolf Den" a few minutes early and were ushered to our table. The bar/amphitheater was very lupine-themed, with fake boulders rimming the periphery and stuffed wolves perched high over the seats atop wooden pillars. Our seats were across the table from a few college-age girls, who were probably even older than the targeted Ryan Cabrera fanbase. Although, it’s been so long since "On The Way Down" that his original bubblegum fans are completely grown up by now (for example, kristie). Aside from the concert, we took advantage of some of Mohegan Sun’s other offerings. We had eaten dinner before the show at the Michael Jordan Sportcafe, and afterwards we got milkshakes from Bobby Flay’s Burger Palace, then finished up by carrying out donuts from Krispy Kreme (as usual).
Yesterday was the real holiday, so I took the day off from work. In fact, Jon Miller was hosting a 4th of July BBQ at his parent’s house in Greenwich, and many of the other Schepartz lab members also took the day off to be there. Rebecca and her husband, Matt, gave Kristie and me a ride there, and the partiers also included Kevin and Sam, Mike and Melissa, Seth and Carla, Justin, and Amy, as well as many of Jon’s college and NYC friends. We all hung out, enjoying summery food and drinks while Jon manned the grill. After lunch, the party shifted into the pool, and then to the separate pool house for his famous homemade ice cream. As Kristie and I were thinking about heading out, I got a text from PJ that he was coming through CT on his way back to Boston from NJ, so I told him to meet us in New Haven. Matt and Rebecca drove us back home at 8 pm, just in time for PJ’s arrival. We got take-out dinner from the Noodle House, then hurried to the IKEA parking lot to try to watch the New Haven fireworks. Unfortunately, I hadn’t done my due diligence, so I unwittingly guided us to an obsolete location. It turns out that this was the first year that the fireworks show shifted from the harbor to the top of East Rock, which is on the complete opposite side of town, and consequently we had a pretty poor view. We kind of realized something was amiss when the IKEA lot was totally empty, then we saw fireworks going off in the distance, and we eventually realized that they were the official spectacle and not just some backyard pyrotechnics. Whoops, my bad… We did at least get to watch the Boston and New York fireworks on tv when we got back to Crown Court, then finally PJ had to finish driving back home.