My Solo Single Epic Easter Weekend In Pictures

This weekend was a wonderful holiday weekend for me. I hope you had a great holiday weekend too. Tough to believe I've been living here in Jersey for 8 years now. I'll never forget my first Easter Sunday here. I drove up to New England to surprise my family. While it was great to see them that Saturday night, the next day was painful. Without traffic, the drive from Mansfield, Ma to Vernon, NJ is approximately 4 hours. That day it took me 7 hours to get home. It was so painful and defeating. Lots of driving for one day. I called my Mom Madre almost in tears saying "I love you all, but I can't do this again." Now on Easter weekends I'm basically a single solo free agent. As much as I love getting to see my family back home up in New England, it's also fun to have a blank canvas for your weekend.

"Normal / conventional," Easter dinners are a ton of ham, I'm sure. I wanted to do something against the grain and be a little different.

Friday afternoon I had a big, important job to do. My besties Jasen and Brendan were taking their nieces to Six Flags for the day. Talk about great timing with a beautiful Good Friday weather day! They asked if I could walk Spot and take him out. When I went into their place, you could tell I kinda woke Spot up by going over. I took Spot out, and he groggily peed for a few minutes. Seriously, it was a few minutes LOL. Then he looked up at me and just seemed tired. We only walked for a few minutes, and you could tell he was ready to just go back inside possibly back to bed. Normally when I walk Spot, it's 40 minutes of him dragging me all around Campus showing off. I was happy with this! It felt like I was granted an additional 30 minutes of spare time LOL. Success. I then went over to Hef's Hut by Great Gorge Golf course. JG, Steve, Kevin and I had a blast. So many laughs among friends and the weather was absolutely fantastic. It's plenty of fun being able to have a drink, while overlooking a golf course. By night time, we enjoyed the gorgeous moon pictures we were able to take. Mine was honestly week, and needed filtering help from JG. We then ventured back to Campus. We enjoyed a fun drink with bartender Kimberly, who is also an excellent baker. She made cupcakes for a friend's birthday and had one of the leftovers. WOW. It was a fantastic cupcake that had us all impressed.

Saturday morning my big job was trying on my groomsmen outfit. While it may sound basic, khaki shorts and a white dress shirt, I really wanted to make sure it fit with all of the inventory shortages / delays that we tend to face these days. I texted besties Jasen and Brendan asking if it was okay for me to post how I looked in it, they supported immediately. While enjoying our text thread for the bridal party, apparently I missed a very important detail / link while ordering my clothes online. The third component of my groomsmen getup is suspenders. No big deal, right?

Believe it or not, at the tender young age of 40, I have never purchased suspenders. Apparently these devices have sizes to them too. Who knew? I went out for a walk at Maple Grange and had a successful catch up call with my mom Madre. I then ventured over to The Cottage in Franklin to order my suspenders online. Yes, I wanted a beer and moral support from my friends while doing something that I had never done before in my life. I then received a pleasant surprise when I arrived. My bar manager friend Shannon was glowing when I went to the bar. She happily announced that she had something for me. I then opened it, my Amazing Aunty Donna and Uncle Leisure Paul gave me a gift card to the Irish Cottage Inn for Easter! They know it's my favorite place. I was so psyched. I was planning on calling them to say Happy Easter and that I love them on Sunday anyway, now I can thank them too.

Saturday night was an early night in for me. I was totally okay with that.

Sunday I was an Easter free agent. I had a plan in mind. I went to Rails Steakhouse in Towaco. It's 45-55 minutes from me in Vernon on Campus. I wanted to have a great steak and was too lazy to clean off my grill. That reminds me I still need to sweep my deck soon due to the annoying birdseed from upstairs neighbors that results in bears going on my deck. Grrrrrr. I was able to walk right into Rails without a reservation for my party of 1. Even though they were packed, I was still able to get in quickly. I'm totally fine and at peace going out to lunch / dinner by myself solo. I was always single, and even the past 5 years was an only every other weekend deal anyway. According to my phone the ex must've accidentally called me when I was sleeping yesterday. I definitely didn't need to see her name yesterday, but ah well.

I was happy to be at Rails. I wanted a medium rare filet mignon and they delivered. There was comedy gold involved though. One waiter looked at me and said "Oh are you waiting for someone else?" I said "no, I'm good." He then repeated "so you're here by yourself, nobody else is showing up?" I said "Yep, I'm good!" He then took away the silverware across the table from me. I'm very happy I'm fine going out solo, because if I wasn't, that wouldn't have helped! I then ordered my filet mignon medium rare, and ordered a Magnify Vine Shine IPA. The waitress did a double take "are you sure you just want a filet mignon? It's a la carte, so you'll just be getting beef on a plate..." I replied with yes, that's exactly what I want! All I wanted was a steak and a beer. I reminded them "I'm easy!" I love crispy brussels sprouts, but not for $12 when I all I really want is a steak anyway.

After a successful lunch / dinner, I was able to call my family. It was so much fun thanks to FaceTime getting to see all of them. I'm a very lucky person. They're amazing.

I then enjoyed a beer at The Cottage running into several of my regular buddies. Artie & Margie, Buckeye Paul, Kelly and more. It was great to see B-Rad as well. Ironically, we discovered later that my friends were more around than I expected and would've gone with me to Rails if they knew. We all agreed we must make a return there together someday soon. It was also fun to see my Boston Celtics beat the Brooklyn Nets in a dramatic last second victory as time expired. I was definitely that guy loud yelling at the TV. I'm sorry, it's the playoffs though!

Overall I had a wonderful weekend. I hope you did too. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend, all psyched for our annual Home & Garden Show at The Fairgrounds Saturday. Let's go!