Wake Up!

Arcade Fire @ The Mann Center tonight. They were really solid. Thanks, Alex.

Another one bites the dust

By that I mean - turns 22.

Board games are ice breakers

Put a group of people together who know some but not everyone in the room and ask them to socialize. I guarantee you that same group of people will be bonded and having more fun 10x faster if you have them play a vocal board game. Take tonight for example - two groups of friends who through apples to apples - a few hours later would appear as if they had known each other and spent time together.

It definitely helps when it is a fun game. Apples to Apples in a large group is definitely just that.

Early morning for breakfast tomorrow. Early is relative though - Ill be getting almost 4 more hours of sleep versus if I would be getting up for work tomorrow.

Go Birds!

Happy Birthday!

Who knew waking up at 530 am after crashing at 230 am would be pretty easy. Easy enough that I actually stayed up until 7 am, when my sister came downstairs to go to work, to make her pancakes too. And in between I caught up on Fringe. I continue to amaze myself at how much I can do/accomplish on such little sleep.

I got back in bed at 730 am feeling pretty awake even though I kept myself from having a coffee. All of a sudden it was 2:40 pm. I am not sure if I was actually rested (I would hope so) or if I was just in pure shock of the time but I popped right out of bed.

After screwing around online for about an hour it was time to get ready for dinner because I had to pick up my little sister from college before heading to meet my family for a nice Italian meal.

Looking forward to one of this tomorrow:

The Rain Won't Stop Us

And it didn't. Today was a great day, after a great weekend. When I woke up today I didn't think I had enough energy in me to get through the day. Last night's party was a lot of work. It is not easy to have a 25 person party in your apartment - the organizing and prep work, cooking ,etc. Luckily everyone was awesome. I had a lot of help from Claire (especially as the party wrapped up.)

When all was said and done things could not have gone better. We had so much extra food and for an apartment that has been ordering/buying every meal out of having no time to go food shopping - that's nice. Having 10 of your best friends dancing around your room with christmas music playing - everyone doing their best charlie brown moves and such is just amazing. Ill have some pictures soon.

Today we had our gift exchange and I was really impressed at how creative, thoughtful, or interesting the gifts were. Headed into the city while some friends and my roommates lunched on some of the left overs. Met up with my sisters and grabbed food at Max Brenners. If you have not been there - you should change that. Order everything.

Made it Rockefeller with them and Alex and took some pictures with the tree despite the rain. Also, a brave male proposed on the ice. He must really have had a good feeling about that one to subject his future wife to the cold rain for it. There must have been a good inch or more of water on the ice that he knelt in, too. It was great - everyone watching cheered. What it must feel like to get engaged in that setting or any where you have a slew of people applauding/cheering for you.

We finally headed home on the 7 pm bus following the eagles game via gamecast, car radio, and then tv when I got home.

Tomorrow is my dad's birthday. He turns 51. This is why i am home. It is also why, in a few hours I am waking up to make him pancakes. He doesn't know this. Nor did he know I was coming home tonight. If you know me, you know I like surprises/big gestures. So I sneak home, show up - and make him an actual meal to eat before he heads to work on his birthday before most of the world is even awake.

Night everyone.

things are different on the other side

(above picture is my picture-of-the-day. one of the many barn buildings on the farm property that i work at. this place is just a horror movie set in waiting)

so after work today i headed home for a bit before going into the city to a (dive) bar to see a good friend of mine's band play a show. Rare chance since they are out of Boston and are not big enough to say them coming to philly is no big deal. I had seen them before but that was 2 years ago, and theyve definitely gotten their shit together in their performance, which i imagine is partially due to the lineup changes bringing in more enthusiastic/talented people. Above picture is of the opening band made up of 3 people, two men one woman, two keyboards, a mac laptop, alot of sythnesizers and beats and programmed loops, and the a dude with a drawn on (literally) moustache playing bass and guitar (not at once - he switched depending on the song). They were alot of fun.

My aunt bought me a carpet for my apt for my birthday which was unexpected (i shwed her one i liked while with her looking for a carpet for our office - i work for my aunt - and she said 'happy birthday).

Also, someone turned 22 today. Welcome to the club. Laugh now all you lot who are still young. Youll be here soon.

5 days until Cedar Point

cumpleanos

thanks, everyone, for the texts/calls/facebook messages/ims. without you guys it wouldnt have really felt like a birthday.