This weekend could possibly be viewed as an Epic Weekend In Pictures. Now that I'm fully vaccinated up, let's GO! As I'm going through the pictures on my phone, this weekend involved probably a cajillion (give or take) miles more than this past year and a half. We will start my Epic Weekend In Pictures with Friday night.
By mid week, I asked Awesome Girlfriend Megan if I could see her Friday night. Friday marked the first day I could consider myself officially fully vaccinated thanks to the Johnson & Johnson Covid Vaccine shot I received on Friday April 30th at Rite Aid in Hamburg. Over the past year and a half, while I have had Awesome Girlfriend Megan visit me in Vernon on Campus (as I call it,) I haven't visited her in Hackettstown. My radio career and life has me out and about often, almost no matter what. You could call it silly, but I haven't wanted to see Meg and the kids in Hackettstown and put them at risk. Have I taken them out to lunch a few times over the past year? Absolutely. I just didn't want to be stationery at their home in Hackettstown the past year and put them at risk. Just one of those things where I still saw them, but was trying to kind of minimize risk a little bit.
I asked Meg if I could see her, and she said "oh I'm sorry Steve, I promised my Mom that I would go see her." I responded with, "GREAT! LET'S GO! I'm fully vaccinated as of Friday and would LOVE to hug MOM!"
I drove to Hackettstown, then Meg drove us to see her Mom and Pop in PA. Lots of corn fields, but always so well worth it. Getting to hug my future Mommy In Law was simply amazing. This also made me so excited for when I can go back to New England and hug the bleep out of all my family, especially my Grammy, aka Captain Chaos.
I think we can all agree, it's been a long year and a half basically, right?
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Saturday morning, it was time to see my favorite massage therapist, Elaine. She is the BEST massage therapist I have ever had, with her medical massage style. Her number is 973-534-7478. If you call her up, please be sure to tell her I sent you. Over the past two weeks I've been battling a strained right shoulder (I'm guessing,) then by the weekend my left shoulder was useless because I was sleeping on that instead and overcompensating. My right shoulder is on the way back, and my left shoulder can now function again, thanks to Elaine. Game changer. Clutch.
Saturday afternoon, I was ready to a nice ice cold Guinness at The Cottage. I wasn't there for long, but it was great to see friends while I was there.
Saturday night, I heard earlier in the week from my buddy Bartender Sam that Tiki at Kite's / Minerals Sports Club would be open! WOOHOO! It was a gorgeous night with a slight threat of rain, but I knew we would be covered no matter what. I was able to meet up with my bestie Steve, and his kids Tory and fiance Kyle. We always have so much fun whenever they visit us on Campus.
Later Saturday night, a gentleman spotted me by recognizing my voice. It was our friend, Jersey Johnny. He's a good dude. I ran into him at a radio station live broadcast at Audi Newton a couple of years ago, and he remembered me from both the radio and Kite's, LOL. Jersey Johnny confided to me that this was his first time going out in over 6 months, since his sweetheart wife Brigitte passed away. When I saw the news posted on social media last December, it was honestly one of those things that you read online, it makes you so sad, you basically hope it isn't true and try to block it out of your mind. They're both so sweet.
Now that with our pandemic situation improving and hopefully in positive directions, now there are more opportunities to not only see our friends, but also running into each other by chance. How much did I miss that? Apparently I really missed that.
I invited Johnny to join our group with Steve, Tory and Kyle. We had a great time. There was a bachelorette party nearby, taking pictures of themselves. I gave them tips on where to go for the best selfies on Campus. They called it a Pro Tip from me. I called it a Local Tip. We in Sussex County all are experts on taking gorgeous sunset pictures at this point, Am I Right?
We had a great time with Jersey Johnny. The next morning on Facebook I realized that Saturday was his wedding anniversary with Brigitte. I'm very grateful that we ran into each other Saturday night when we did.
Then Jasen and Brendan showed up with my nephew Spot. Great times, then it was time for bed.
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Sunday was time for a big adventure. My future middle stepdaughter Hailey was graduating from Rutgers University. Even though Rutgers at first cancelled the graduation, pivoted to virtual, they then announced that there will be a graduation ceremony in October. Meg and I agreed several weeks ago no matter what, we were going to treat this as a freakin graduation.
We went to New Brunswick to enjoy the campus scene at Rutgers University. I showed up to Meg's and accomplished my goal. I handed Meg a scarlet red rose, and then proceeded to say "Meg, here's a scarlet red rose for my Rutgers graduate, Cait here's a scarlet red rose for my Rutgers graduate, Hailey, here's a scarlet red rose for my Rutgers graduate, Amanda, here's a scarlet red rose for our future Rutgers graduate." I don't come off as smooth very often, but I think that one went okay. I can't take full credit for this idea. I basically ripped off when Fox Sports and the NFL surprised former coach Jimmy Johnson with inducting into the NFL Hall Of Fame. It was one of my favorite surprises I have ever seen on live TV. Even though I'm a diehard rabid Patriots fan, I've always been a fan of coaches. If anything, I'm probably a bigger nerd fan of coaches than the athletes (even though I have great respect for them too of course.) Part of the reason I always wanted to be a Program Director for radio stations is because I love to coach and help people. I also ran into my dear friend Teresa at Stop & Shop while I was buying the roses for the girls. Great to run into her. It took us a minute to recognize each other while all masked up, but things were great when we did.
Awesome Girlfriend Megan took me to "The Puddle," at Rutgers. I'm told by her and others that this is never to be referred to as a lake or pond, it's "The Puddle." Fair enough. We had a great time with the pictures.
I continued my tradition of taking Meg and the kids out to lunch to celebrate their graduation, even though due to a longer than expected time taking pictures (we weren't the only ones with this idea,) it turned into dinner. My bacon burger at Long Valley Brew Pub was decent. It didn't come out medium rare, but you could tell they at least tried.
Overall, we had a terrific weekend. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. I hope you had a wonderful weekend too. Time to start planning next weekend!