Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who is impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. It seems like everyone is being negatively impacted by this, some more than others. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone on the front lines trying to help. Normally my Epic Weekend In Pictures have me out and about everywhere I can go, but now it's important to try and respect the stay in home orders. We want to do our part to achieve balance and help protect not just ourselves, but so many others. At the same time, I still take seriously my responsibilities at our radio stations keeping you informed and sometimes entertained. I still want to continue supporting our local economy in any way we possibly can. This weekend was definitely different, but we still made the most of it every step of the way.
Friday, I was at our radio station from 7:30am until 6:45pm. I was beat. I was happy to swing by The Irish Cottage Inn and get a growler of Perpetual IPA to go. Just what the doctor ordered! I then brought it over to Jasen and Brendan's where we enjoyed a fun night with our bestie Spooner. We did take seriously the social distancing guidelines I must say. They were surprised to see me show up with a Growler of beer instead of a typical bottle of wine. I explained to them my motivations, supporting local, while enjoying a yummy craft beer. Win-win! Per usual they made a feast that I didn't eat. I don't eat much at night. I'm a freak. I can wolf down anything for breakfast pretty much, and lunch, then by dinner I'm not hungry. I apparently have been doing "Intermittent fasting," for many years way before it was cool to do. Even though what I do might be trendy, I'm still not cool anyway. LOL. It was a relatively early night, I ended it watching Blue Bloods on CBS at home. Blue Bloods has been one of my favorite shows for many years, and they still always manage to hit the mark in my view.
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Saturday morning, off to work at our radio stations. Today we start a nationwide iHeartRadio contest where you have 12 chances every weekday to win one thousand dollars. Pretty solid timing, right? Behind the scenes it takes me a few hours to put everything together on our radio stations to make the contest happen and sound great, worth every minute. Hopefully we can help many people with this contest. Our economy needs it, that's for sure.
I was waiting on Governor Phil Murphy's afternoon press conference, watching President Donald Trump's press conference while monitoring Governor Murphy's Twitter account. By Friday night, there were so many rumors and panicking that liquor stores were going to be shut down. Awesome Girlfriend Megan called to help me Friday afternoon saying "I'm hearing rumors, you better stock up in case they close!" Even though they closed them in Pa, I was confident they wouldn't close down liquor stores. I was happy Governor Murphy made his stay at home order, while maintaining that food sources, grocery stores, bars and restaurants would not have to shut down any more than they already have. Hopefully that gives us a new temporary sense of normalcy, so now folks don't have to hoard at grocery and liquor stores.
One thing that had me annoyed Saturday morning on my way to work. It took me longer to take a right hand turn out of Dunkin Donuts in Franklin Saturday morning due to traffic on Route 23, then it had every single weekday last week. We need to try and take this stay at home order so much more seriously. We need to do everything we can to flatten this curve. Hopefully the sooner we can flatten this curve, the sooner we can get back to life as normal.
Saturday night I went to our bestie Carrie for her birthday. It was definitely more subdued and low key than a typical Saturday night. We were practicing social distancing while celebrating her birthday. Many of our friends made the right move in staying home. I just didn't want one of my best friends to be all alone on her birthday, despite the circumstances. We're trying hard to maintain balances of following orders in everyone's best interests. By 9pm, I was almost falling asleep on my feet from working so much lately. I went home and was in bed by 10pm easy. American Idol put me to bed by 10pm easy.
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Sunday morning, Awesome Girlfriend Megan and I were trying to adjust to this temporary new lifestyle. Normally on the every other weekend when Meg has the girls, I try to meet up with her somewhere in between Hackettstown where she lives and Vernon where I live. We tend to try somewhere in the Sparta area, that tends to be halfway in between us. I love taking Meg out for a quick drink and / or lunch. Now with that not being an option, I had to be creative. There's a park I've driven by the past few months in Sparta on my way to Trinity Rehab, and it's been looking so nice. Apparently it's White Lake Park in Sparta. I had Meg meet me there and we went for a beautiful walk for 45 minutes or so. Meg got her steps in and was very happy with that. The park was relatively empty and quiet, and whenever we did see people we definitely kept our social distance of at least 6 feet. Meg was scared to do a selfie with me, she didn't want to see me get criticized for being within 6 feet of her. I assured her that the stay in home orders still allow romantic partners to be within 6 feet of each other. It was our low key Sunday Weekend In Pictures effort.
Sunday afternoon, swung by The Cottage to get my Buffalo Chicken Pizza to go and I was happy with that. I then had tea with my dear friend Gary in Vernon on Campus, right down the street from me. We absolutely kept our social distance the whole time, trying to help the problem. Then I returned home to watch Tom Brady highlights on ESPN and just kept on crying. This still can't be real, right?
I was happy the special ended, and I switched over to Bar Rescue reruns while texting my friends. I had so much fun texting my besties JG, Brad and Steve while watching Bar Rescue. During normal times, we have fun at Kite's on Sunday night Happy Hours. It's like we were having a virtual happy hour together.
Overall we had as wonderful a weekend as possible. I hope your weekend was happy and healthy and that you're surviving the stay in home order. Time to start planning next weekend when I can get Meg back. I think there might be some more grilling in our future!
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