My Epic Weekend In Pictures: Making A Positive Difference.

This was definitely a week / weekend that I'll never forget. So many fun memories, from hosting a hugely successful fundraiser, to taking a selfie with The Easter Bunny, this was a great week. We'll start this weekend with Wednesday night (now that's Epic, lol.)

My dear friend Chris Hemmer, CEO of SCARC, asked me to again be their celebrity emcee for the SCARC Annual Honors Awards Dinner. Tough to believe two years ago, I was hosting the event virtually on my deck. It was so exciting to see the crowd of probably a couple hundred people, I started off the event saying to the crowd "HEY, HOW AWESOME IS IT THAT WE CAN ALL BE TOGETHER IN PERSON AGAIN?!? The crowd cheered. We've missed seeing so many of our friends in person the past couple of years. The night was a phenomenal success. It felt great when folks kept telling me I knocked it out of the park. We raised over $104,000!!! Biggest and best one yet. My friends at SCARC let me tell a personal story, and I couldn't have been prouder to brag about a special friend. Ironic timing now that we're into Autism Awareness Month.

I told them about my friend, Luke. He's a 17 year old boy with autism who is a next door neighbor to my parents where I grew up in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Luke's whole entire life, his favorite thing in the world are marching bands and parades. Like Luke's Mom and my friend Jill has said, Luke basically is a parade. He's one of the sweetest, most loving people you will ever meet. My family and I have had a front row seat to all the hard work many families go through every single day. Over 10 years ago, for his birthday in December, Luke asked if my family and I would join him in a marching parade down our neighborhood street. We immediately said yes, we'll march with him and don't care if anyone watches. We march with him every December for his birthday. Now the whole neighborhood joins for this march and it's quite the event. He'll assign all of us an instrument and each position in line Luke envisions us to be. Then, this past December happened. Disney World surprised Luke and had him lead their band as they marched through the Magic Kingdom! You can see the video all the way at the bottom of this post or by clicking here. I still watch this video multiple times (with teary eyes,) every single week. They aired this Christmas morning on ABC for their Disney Christmas special. The blue house is my parents house where I grew up, and we joked thank goodness we painted our house last summer, not knowing that it would end up on national TV. When I was on the phone with my Dad Padre about emceeing for SCARC, he said "gotta do it. Someone has to stand and speak up for them." I even quoted him with that quote when I was on stage.

Saturday afternoon I met up with my friend Cassie who works as a Promotional person for various alcohol companies. Cassie let me know that she had an appearance at Wine Country in Franklin and I was psyched to meet up with her. She was giving out free samples of flavored whiskey. While we were talking, she said "so you must run into people you know everywhere you go." I said "well not EVERYWHERE, but it is a rather frequent occurrence because our community is so amazing and close knit. Within 5 minutes my friend Sue walked by "hey fancy running into you, Steve!" LOL. We had a good laugh about that. Then 5 minutes later my friend Scott (who makes terrific hot sauce by the way,) ran into me. We had another great laugh about that. Cassie then took a quick selfie with me before I left and at that second a couple of customers joked "hey are you getting his autograph too?" COMPLETE COMEDY GOLD. I ran into those friends at The Cottage in Franklin and they were all having their fun busting on me. Full disclosure, I rocked my blue dress shirt Saturday for Autism Awareness Day. Even though I have several blue shirts that are usually for my New England Patriots, I knew a blue dress shirt on a Saturday would stand out more and gain more attention.

Saturday night I just watched The Final Four March Madness on my couch, staying in eating Cape Cod Cafe Pizza. Success, even though I fell asleep before the 2nd game started.

I'm currently loosely looking into getting some new dress shirts. Since I haven't had to wear them the past couple of years but now they're slightly coming back into my rotation, this made me aware it's a good time to upgrade and go newer. Most of these dress shirts I've had for many years. My friend turned me onto this site called "Tie Bar," and I like it. Due to inventory shortages seemingly just like with everything else in our world, I can't score on the deal I want to. I'll be checking the site for updates periodically and report back to you. That being said, I've always said for years it's important for me to always give brick and mortar stores a chance for my business. Even if you think national chains might not be "local," quite often their employees are. It's always so important to support local, whether it's an independent or national chain. I really learned that while working part time at Best Buy back in 2010 for a few months.

Sunday I went to Rockaway Mall on a whim. I read an article within the past few weeks talking about how suits are "dead." I won't go that far to say suits are dead, but WOW. Selection options for dress shirts at Rockaway Mall were almost nonexistent. I joked with one sales person and said "are slim fit shirts literally the only thing they make nowadays?" Between Woodbury Commons and Rockaway Mall, I've given the brick and mortar options a shot, believe me. I'll keep perusing online with my search.

Sunday afternoon, I was able to hang out with birthday friend Steve, Brad, and JG. We were busting on each other over a few drinks just like we used to do for Sunday happy hour before the pandemic. Lots of busting on each other, lots of laughs.

The only negative from the past week is that with so many friends being out who I haven't seen in a few months, it has led so many times to them bringing up or asking about my ex-fiance. Even though it's been a few months since early October, these moments are still extremely painful. Even though it's the best for me long term, it's still painful making folks sad when I have to tell them it ended in October. I hate making people sad. I like to make people smile and laugh. In due time, this too shall pass, like they say.

Overall I had a fantastic week / weekend. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend! Now if you'll excuse me, time to rewatch Luke's Disney surprise video and clear the dust from my eyes.