My Action Packed Weekend In Pictures

I hate to be that guy saying "I need a weekend from my weekend," but it's true!  We had many success stories over our weekend.  

Friday night, Awesome Girlfriend Megan and I kicked off the weekend by entertaining at my place.  You may know this gives me an enormous amount of anxiety.  I'm always stressed about whether or not my friends will have fun, whether or not I'll set fire to my kitchen and deck attempting cooking, etc.  Fortunately Meg comes through in the clutch during these frightening situations, keeping me calm and having a fire extinguisher ready at all times.  Meg also took care of stromboli, while I brought back my popular Seared Ahi Tuna Slices!  Our morning guy Steve Andrews always pokes fun at me, because I struggle with scrambled eggs, yet nail seared ahi tuna slices.  I'm not good nor comfortable having large groups of friends over yet, so our magic number tends to be approximately 4 total.  My besties Jasen, Carrie, Janice and Jamie all had a wonderful time as we were enjoying the near 80 degree weather on my deck.  No grilling on my deck, just chilling.  Jamie has never had tuna in her life until Friday night, and she's now a diehard fan.  I'll be sharing my recipe with her in the near future.  Look at me go!  The only casualty was my screen door, so we will put that in the win column.  We had a great Friday night with friends, and I survived the scary task of entertaining.

Saturday, Meg and I went to the Outlets in search of new shoes.  Since I wear brown shoes/sneakers 80-90% of the time, my black dress shoes and sneakers are still in decent shape but my brown shoes/sneakers are literally falling apart.  Such a guy thing, not buying new shoes until they're literally falling apart on you, right?  While we were at the Outlets, the deals weren't overly exciting.  Meg actually pulled up her phone and found better value deals, so we will continue our search.  Of course all footwear is usually buy one get one half off ---- so when you only need one you're basically out of luck.  We then went to a nearby chain restaurant for some decent brunch necessities, hot wings and pretzel sticks with some delicious beers.  That New England IPA was tasty, and made this Boston boy feel right at home during Marathon Weekend.  (Best wishes to my friends and everyone else running in the Boston Marathon today, 5th anniversary of the bombings.  We are all Boston Strong.)

Saturday night, I continued my streak of the Mets losing on me.  I'm 0-4!  While the Mets have been winless in my Citi Field visits, they have always entertained me and tried at least.  Meg and I met up with our besties Nate and Jake at the new brewery Citi Field just opened and we recommend it!  Right before the game started, my besty Nate, lifelong diehard Met fan predicted "okay.  We're long overdue for a Mets loss, a Harvey implosion, and an injury."  Our besty Jake then followed up with "well, we are already on our 3rd catcher, that has to count for something."  As a baseball fan, is it the irish in me, or am I the only one who dreads going to a game when your team is on a long winning streak?  You know it has to end sooner or later, right?  One of the beautiful things about America's Pastime, is being able to relax enjoying the flow of your game while catching up with your friends.  You may remember I was a groomsman in Nate's wedding this past November enjoying and crying while he wedded Lauren.  To think we met almost 15 years ago working at a radio station in Boston, both working our way up together at the same time, and we're still best friends to this day.  #Blessed #lgm

Sunday Funday!  Meg and I then were able to have a few delicious craft beers in Sparta by Lake Mohawk together with our besties Doug, Sally, and Mark.  These three are not only some of our most amazing, best friends, they're also hilarious.  After the insane traffic Meg and I had going into the city, and not getting home until after 1 in the morning due to more insane traffic and construction, we needed laughs.  Our friends gave us many laughs, and hugs, whilst enjoying delicious beers.

Another weekend where I'm reminded how lucky I am, to have my family and friends at home in Boston, and our friends here in Jersey.  As they say, it's all about relationships.