WOW. Talk about a weekend that will be impossible for me to forget. My all time favorite player Tom Brady returning to Foxborough, Massachusetts, Gillette Stadium. Gillette Stadium is 12 minutes away from where my parents live and I grew up. The past 20 years have been an amazing time to be Patriots fans. Fun side note, because of where my parents live, we are often in the direct path of flyovers. If you're watching a Patriots game on television and see a flyover, those amazing fighter jets likely just sped over my parent's house just seconds earlier. We always knew when a flyover would be happening during the national anthem before anyone else because we were on their direct path. With flyovers, everything has to be timed out to the exact second. You don't want a flyover to happen during the middle of our National Anthem, for example. There have been times when you could tell they were a few seconds too early with their flyover, and sometimes they would basically fly in a circle over my parent's house to help stall their entrance. It is a very cool, patriotic experience. We hear the jets, my parent's house starts shaking, and my family all yells to each other "FLY OVER FLY OVER!!!!" Then no matter where we are, we all would run out into the backyard and watch with such pride. I'm sorry if that side note makes me and my family sound like a bunch of whackos, LOL.
We will start this Epic Weekend In Pictures on Thursday with my cute puppy Adopt A Pet Of The Week, Idiressa. Odd name? Sure. Still, she's one of the cutest puppies we've ever had on my radio show. She is an absolute rock star, who kissed everyone nonstop. You basically had to restrain Idiressa to get her to stop kissing you. Annnnnnd she only accidentally peed in our radio station studio once, so there's another plus. She was excited, lol. Once she's potty trained, Idiressa will be somehow even better.
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Friday afternoon was definitely a chill low key vibe kind of day. I did a Terrapin IPA at Crystal Tavern with Crystal Springs Resort. Even though I didn't know anyone there, it was just nice after the past couple of years we've had to see folks smiling, talking and laughing together at the bar. With a few of my besties out of town, I figured it was just easier to have a quiet Friday night in on my couch. Success.
Saturday morning I did various basic house cleaning chores before going back to work, and I knew my office view was going to be absolutely gorgeous. We did our annual Facebook Live video at J&G Farms Blackburn Growers. When you're working in the middle of 10,000 mums, it's a good day! The weather was a perfect Fall Jersey day. Since I successfully grew a sunflower this summer that grew to be five feet tall before dying right before Labor Day (not gonna lie, I'm still bitter, thought they all lasted through September,) my friend Greg Blackburn thought that I'm ready to graduate and try to grow a mum successfully. I picked out one of the prettiest, colorful red mums they had. We will see how this experiment / process goes.
Saturday afternoon I went home, and enjoyed watching college football. My congratulations to friends who love Cincy, and condolences to those who love Notre Dame.
Saturday night, believe it or not I was in bed by 7pm. In between watching college football and a nice cigar on my deck, I was wiped out. Is it possible for cigars to dehydrate you? I'll have to start researching that a little more.
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Sunday, oh boy. Not gonna lie it was a very emotional day, with Tom Brady coming back to New England his first time as an opponent. I get why we've been arguably the most hated / tired of team the past twenty years. I always say this has still been like an out of body experience honestly. I'm going to turn 40 on Thanksgiving Day, and the first half of my life, we were used to the Patriots honestly being one of the NFL laughingstocks. Then we get Belichick and Brady, are miracle underdog winners in February 2002 against the Rams. Everyone loves us. Just months after 9/11, our owner Robert Kraft says "tonight we are ALL Patriots." Then I didn't understand until I moved here in Jersey almost 8 years ago, it's a mix of folks hating or merely being tired of us. I totally get it. I would always get tired of seeing the same team win or almost win all the time too.
I always say if you're a Patriots fan but younger than 30 years old, don't talk to me. You don't know loss!
Needless to say I was glued to my TV for much of Sunday. Every NFL pregame show had presence at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, 12 minutes from where I grew up. It was very surreal. I have to give former Jets/Bills Head Coach now current ESPN analyst Rex Ryan credit. He had one of the best lines I heard all day. He looked at the throngs of cheering, screaming Patriots fans and said "I've had my tail handed to me many times over the years. What I want to say to all of you Patriot fans is guess what, now YOU get to try and face Tom Brady!"
The game would've been easier to watch if we got blown out like I thought we would. Instead, we SHOULD HAVE WOULD HAVE COULD HAVE WON. UGH. At the end of the day, I think Pats fans handled it perfectly, just like Brady and Belichick did. Everyone was classy. My friends at the game and Pats fans all cheered loudly whenever Tom was on the field before the game. The second the game started, we booed like we do to our opponents.
The key is to be grateful for the 20 years of fun Kraft / Belichick / Brady had together. It's amazing they had the run we did, and that the duration will likely never be duplicated either.
Overall it was a rather quiet weekend, and that's okay. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures recap. Time to start planning next weekend! Great Pumpkin Festival at Heaven Hill Farms, and celebrating the new gas station at Weis in Newton. LET'S GO!