This Epic Weekend In Pictures is going to have to be a bit shorter due to my computer at work crashing on me. Ugh. Happy Monday!
This past weekend I didn't have Awesome Girlfriend Megan up with me, which is always a tough time. Fortunately I had several wonderful friends help me have fun and cheer up. Thursday night we went to Rails Steakhouse in Towaco and had awesome porterhouse steaks. Friday night I went over to besties Jasen and Brendan's to wolf down the rest of the leftovers. After wolfing down the leftovers and going into food coma mode back to back nights, the boys brought out a new game. The Queer Agenda. I'm not big into card games, and this isn't for the faint of heart, but we had fun, laughed and enjoyed. This is basically a gay version of the card game Cards Against Humanity. Friday night after all that fun, I went home and turned on my television to NFL Network. They started airing a documentary on the 1990s Buffalo Bills, who famously went to the Super Bowl four times in a row and lost each time. This documentary was absolutely fascinating to me. As a kid growing up, if you were a New England fan, the Buffalo Bills were the bane of your existence. They always crushed us every year and went to the Super Bowl up until the mid 90s. Patriots fans back then were wildly jealous of them. I was hooked and stayed up until 1:30am watching it! Then I fell asleep, only probably taking about half of the documentary in. If you're a football fan I would recommend it though, this show had fun behind the scenes stories.
Saturday morning I woke up in slow motion. Late nights hurt me more than anything else it seems. By late Saturday morning, onto my somewhat normal routine. I called my Mom to check in like I do every Saturday morning. I then ventured to ShopRite Of Sparta for routine grocery shopping to refill my freezer. I was surprised to see it PACKED. I only accomplished half of my grocery shopping because the lines were so long, there were people with grocery carriages in line past the frozen food section. I didn't have the courage to walk up to someone and say "Hi, excuse me, could you please move your carriage back a couple feet so I can jump in and grab my frozen pizzas for the week?" Nope, I just didn't have that courage in me. I did half of my grocery shopping and hit the road. By the time I packed up my car, and put away the grocery shopping carriage, that cold wind just kept hitting me no matter which direction I was walking in. I had planned to go to the neighboring ShopRite Liquor store, but quickly lost ambition after all that cold wind. I wanted to warm up in my car a few minutes. I figured to just leave instead of wasting time to warm up, just hit a different spot instead.
After two grocery store visits, I was ready to hit The Cottage for an ice cold beer. Yep, I'm that guy who goes grocery store, and then hits the local restaurant after grocery shopping. I know what you're thinking, "how lucky is Awesome Girlfriend Megan," right?
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It was great to run into some of my friends. The elephant in the room of course was my old quarterback Tom Brady playing in the NFC Championship Game the following day. Some people make fun of me, but I'll always root for The Patriots, and I'll always root for Tom Brady. They all have give me so much over the past 20+ years. Well, the conversation quickly turned to Deflategate a few years ago. My friend said Brady had been suspended for cheating. I corrected him that Brady was suspended for not cooperating with the investigation. Friends ask me all the time how can I not say it's shady that he destroyed his phone. Brady switched over to a new iPhone that year. The investigators of the NFL had told Tom Brady that he could destroy his phone no problem at all, because they subpoenaed Verizon for all of his text messages and phone calls. Why would Brady want to destroy his phone? I've always explained to my friends, if you're Tom Brady, you likely have very valuable and private things on your phone. Between banking apps connected to millions of dollars, to probably private pictures of Gisele that would be worth millions, I totally understand why he would not want to risk anyone accessing his phone. That's my defense for that Deflategate scandal, along with the scientists who did defend us.
Going into Saturday morning, I admitted to Awesome Girlfriend Megan "this is our first Saturday since August without any football whatsoever, what the bleep will we watch on television tonight?" My bestie Carrie and I fed Jasen and Brendan's kitty Ally, and then I came up with the plan. The Wedding Crashers movie from 2005 was on Comedy Central. I was on cloud nine. Wedding Crashers is absolutely one of my favorite comedic movies of all time and I basically know every word. Especially when Will Ferrell screams, "MOM, THE MEATLOAF, WE WANT IT NOW!" Carrie and I were laughing all night watching it. I warned them ahead of time I would be that annoying guy quoting the movie as it was happening, and I was definitely that guy. Great, chill Saturday night.
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Sunday afternoon I took Awesome Girlfriend Megan and the kids out to lunch at The Irish Cottage Inn. This tradition has run strong for either two or three years. Years ago I figured that instead of buying the kids Christmas presents that they may or may not need, I would much rather simply take them all out to lunch together. My dear friend Damian joked when I made the reservation that knowing I was buying, he was going to change the menu and jack up all of the prices on me so they could take me to the cleaners. Complete comedy gold. It was great to spend time with Awesome Girlfriend Megan and the kids. We had fun seeing our friends show up as we were leaving. I made it home just in time to see kickoff for Tampa Bay against Green Bay.
I have so many friends who are Packer fans, I was rooting for their happiness and Tom Brady. After the first half I was winded cheering for both teams. First time in 20 years I said out loud, I'm okay if Tom Brady loses, because I have so many friends who will be happy. I was happier to see Tom Brady win and go to his 10th Super Bowl coming up in two weeks.
That game was so exciting. The Kansas City vs Buffalo Bills game just couldn't match that excitement for me.
Overall, we had a terrific weekend seeing friends. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend!