The rest of the long weekend

So the last time I left you, I was about ready to drop the keyboard and pick up the pencil and start drawing. I was detoured by an opportunity. I went to SOSH and found that there was a thread on a secret number to call for Sox/Yanks tickets ... which includes Opening Day.

I've been wanting to go to this game since Keith Foluke flipped the ball to Eye Chart (I can't spell Mienkevitch) for the last out of Game Four. Especially since it's the Yanks. So, I spent about 15 minutes trying to get seats and on my last try (which is a stupid thing to say, because why would I try again) I got tickets. There probably the worst seats in the house, but I don't care. I got four duckets for April 11. I can not wait to go.

However, giving away those seats is hard. Well, the first two weren't, they went to Ryan and Skaus. The last one was a bit more tricky. I was thinking about giving it to Aly, but she's a Yankee fan and it's going to be in April and she would not like to be there. So, I called up my mother to tell her that I got some seats. All of a sudden she said, "Sure, I'll go!" I was like, "Uh, what?" So I guess she's going.

Originally, I was thinking of Nick or Brownie or Jay, but my mom is going. In one way I'm glad, because she was the person who introduced me to baseball and she was one of the happiest people I spoke to last October. On the other hand, I'm going to be in the bleachers with two of my buddies and my mom. I told her what was going to happen that day, probably drink beers at my place, then go out to a few bars, watch the game and then go out after. I asked her if she really wanted to do this, she told me she'd think about it.

Her friend Joanne may get better seats, so hopefully that'll pan out.

Saturday night Aly and I went out with Reddish and the Connollys (that would be a pretty cool name for a band, BTW). We went to the Village Smoke House. The food was awesome, I got the Texas-sized baby back ribs, but the service was terrible. Beyond poor. The waitress was arrogant, forgot to bring us food and when we told her about it, she ignored us. So we left her 10% for a tip. A complete slap in the face, but she was awful.

After that we made our way over to Matt Murphy's Pub. I love that place, such an authentic Irish bar. Anyway, it was packed. We had a couple of beers than left. Jim and Sara left before that, so Reddish, Aly and I went back to Aly's place and drank some more. Jim offered to borrow his brother's truck on Saturday to help us move, which is going to be a huge help.

We got back to Al's around 11:00 or so and we drank just about everything in the apartment. It was great because Reddish is one of the easiest people to talk to mainly because he has his opinion, but doesn't knock you over the head with it also he doesn't make you feel like crap for spouting off your opinion. And another thing that's pretty cool about him (besides being a loyal 19Thoughts reader)is that he gets a lot of the stuff that I'm into, especially television and pop culture, so it's not a chore to talk to him about stuff.

The one problem that has happened over the past few years is that I've been losing contact with some of my college friends. Because of work obligations and other things, I haven't been talking with Reddish as much as I used to and it sucks ... I'm pretty bummed about it. He said he was thinking about getting a place in Brookline, which would be awesome. We could hang out a bit more.

Sunday we woke up and I was busted. I felt like complete shit, cotton mouthed, logey, slow, unresponsive ... yup, I was hungover. Aly and I hung out in Brookline for a bit, but we had to go to Franklin to watch Murphy. By the time I got to her folk's house, I was feeling even worse, so I puked and felt much better. We just kicked around for the rest of the day and went out to dinner around 5:00.

For one of the first times in my life, I couldn't eat. I ordered dinner, but I had them pack it up as a leftover, though I'm not sure that's what you could call it, since I had one bite. Then we went to the movies where we saw, "Sideways". Great flick.

Paul Giamati and Thomas Hayden Church (the guy who played Lowell on "Wings") were a couple of buddies who go on a white tour of central California. There they realize a bunch of stuff and a lesson or two is learned. It's really much better than this, but I hate giving away too much in the movie.

The way I looked at it was this: it's a great buddy/road trip picture that isn't too slapstick. There are a ton of funny stuff and a bunch of well written, well acted and well shot scenes. Do yourself a favor and see this movie, it's truly one of the better flicks of the last year or so.

Monday we spent most of the day packing stuff for our imminent move to Brookline on Saturday. We have a lot of crap to bring to our new place ... it's going to suck moving. I absolutely hate moving. I am trying to think myself past it, but it's going to be a lot of work.

Monday evening we went to Lauren and Bob's place for dinner. We had a pork roast, some potatoes and DelMonte peas (my favorite). It was great. I like hanging out with Bob and Lauren, we always have a good time. Lauren had to listen to us crab about the grocery store (another thing I hate) and suggested that we start using Pea Pod, which is a grocery delivery service. I think we may have to do just that.

BTW, if you've been reading the tabloids, you're undoubtedly aware that Paris Hilton got her Blackberry hacked into and there were a lot of celebrities' phone numbers available. From SoSH, here is that link:

Be a star fucker!

Also, in other SoSH news, a poster over there by the name of Eric Van has been hired by the Red Sox as a stat guy. Though I've had a couple of arguments with him in the past year or so and I find his way of boiling everything into numbers a way of dragging the fun out of baseball, I have to hand it to the guy. He's living the dream. Congratulations to him.