I definitely traveled much less this weekend than recent weekends, and that is totally fine with me! This weekend I basically had as much fun that weather permitted me to do so. We will start my Epic Weekend In Pictures with Thursday night at Minerals Moonshine Tiki Bar. Every month we have our monthly Minerals Sports Club Member Mixer Social. We had a huge, successful turnout with our mixer. Tons of people. Our bartender friends Kevin and Kat both were fantastic despite having to handle a huge crowd. I joked that those poor two were outnumbered by well over 100 people. Everyone was having a great time in good spirits. It was a wonderful summer night running into tons of friends. It was one of those fun, loud intense parties where you unfortunately weren't able to converse with your friends that much or for too long. All good. It was fun to see so many smiling faces everywhere. We all had a great time, that's for sure. I was one of the early departures at 8:30pm and people were still filing into the party. Friday was a rather hectic day at the office, I was definitely ready for the weekend by 5pm for sure! Bestie Jasen invited me over for just a quiet night at his place, and after my fun, loud Thursday night, that was just what the doctor ordered. We had fun talking about his nieces who are like nieces to me too, and I can't believe they have now known me for over ten years. I'm still pinching myself that little Jayden is now going away to college soon. Uncle Steve is definitely proud of her!
Saturday morning I was able to get some sleep and errands done before heading over to my Heaven On Earth Happy Place as I call it, Crystal Springs Vista 180 Pool. I love it there so much! We all went in knowing that the decent weather wasn't going to last forever, but to enjoy every minute that we could. I was able to meet up with and hang with besties Shawn from work, Maria, Ruby, and Artie. We were a little sad that Kenny Chesney ticket prices skyrocketed and we couldn't find any decent deals. Poor Artie goes every year just like my sister Zannie does up in New England. I almost saw Kenny, we planned to, but that was in 2020 when they cancelled all shows. This year we planned, and it just wasn't in the cards. All good. I'm on to next year, No Shoes Nation! We're in that time of year where artists will play at MetLife Stadium one weekend, then Gillette Stadium the next weekend or vice versa. This means given that I grew up near Gillette Stadium, and have been here in Jersey for the past ten years, back to back weeks all I see on my social media feeds are so many friends having fun at these concerts. LOL. All good.
We had a great time at the Crystal Springs pool, and I stayed there a good 30-40 minutes after all of my besties left. It was cloudy but totally comfortable. I enjoyed my first beer there all summer! With the way our weather has been, it's always way too hot for me to enjoy an ice cold beer at the pool in sunshine. I simply wouldn't have been able to drink it fast enough before getting warm. With Saturday being so cloudy before the rain started and temperatures only in the high 70s, the circumstance was just about right. Bestie Artie bought me a Modelo draft beer, and it was terrific.
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Saturday after Crystal Springs I went straight to The Cottage. It's funny, when bestie Shawn was leaving she was apologizing for not inviting me over to her place because they were in girls night in mode. I laughed and said "Shawn, all good. I'm very rarely bored!" I could have gone home, but I was happy to relax at the pool later, enjoy the quiet and then venture over to The Irish Cottage Inn. There seeing several besties, it was definitely relaxing, and anything but quiet! It was a case of best friends just busting on each other laughing all night, the way life should be. I received an Instagram direct message the next morning from a friend Joanne saying that she saw me at The Cottage having a great time with friends but didn't want to interrupt. I told her all good! We were all laughing and having fun at each other's expenses with Artie, Marky, Paul Marino, Donna Marino tending bar for us, Buckeye Paul, Roy and Denise. I was definitely busting on poor Roy over a couple of recent lost bets among other hilarious situations we have found ourselves together in recently. Great times.
I was then happy to have just a quiet, Saturday night in. I was napping to NFL preseason games on NFL Network more or less.
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Sunday morning I was able to accomplish a goal I've been working on for the past few days. I went to Minerals Sports Club and hopped on the treadmill for my first time since April. I definitely want to get back into running and in better shape. It definitely wasn't pretty, nor did I expect it to be with my first attempt at running in 4 months. I barely ran a mile, and my time wasn't impressive at all. I ended up barely running one mile, then walking another basically 30 total minutes on the treadmill. Like they say, even a bad run is better than no run at all. I was proud to jump back on the treadmill, and hopefully will continue to do so.
After that morning run, I was definitely a little hungry. I was craving protein, probably a bacon burger. Apparently I wasn't the only one with dining out late Sunday morning idea. Every restaurant around here in Sussex County was packed! I'm happy to see that of course. I ended up venturing over to Middletown, NY. I went to TGI Friday's first right after 12. It was rather dark and I couldn't even see any employees working there. After a few minutes, I left and walked over to nearby Outback Steakhouse. I was able to get a delicious bacon burger there, even if it was cooked medium instead of the medium rare way I ordered it. They were apologetic and understanding, even gave me 10% off of it.
I was then able to visit Pennings Farm in Warwick, NY. It's apparently been far too long since I've been to Penning's. I had a great time first at their Cidery, then their beer garden. They were packed! It was nice to enjoy live music with besties Sally, Douglioso, Gio, and Holly. Even our friends Kobi and Al were playing up at the Cidery sounding great as always. Success. Yet again, I saw the skies get very dark. I drove home right at the perfect time. I beat the rain, and my whole drive home all you could see were nonstop flashes and lightning bolts coming down everywhere. I'm very happy to have left when I did.
With my old school DirecTV out due to inclement weather, I fired up Netflix for my first time in months. Unsure of what to watch, all of the sudden this Nickelback Documentary kept popping up. Their lead singer Chad Kroeger was one of the nicest celebrities I have met in my 21 year radio career. While Nickelback might not be one of my personal favorite bands, I'll always root for Chad and his bandmates to have great success. Chad has always been so down to Earth and friendly. He's even on my radio bedroom wall as you can see.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend, where I'll be at Space Farms Zoo & Museum on Saturday for National Teddy Bear Day. Me, surrounded by tons of bears everywhere! #WhatCanPossiblyGoWrong!