Steve Allan

Steve Allan

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My Epic Weekend In Pictures: Mother's Day Flower Deliveries

This weekend was a little less memorable than some recent ones, but we still tried to make our time count whenever possible. Even though it was the good other where I got to see Awesome Girlfriend Megan for a little bit, our time was cut short. Meg had to help future middle stepdaughter Hailey with one of her Rutgers University final exams. I get how many think that an online test might be easier and simpler. In some ways yes, but in other ways not necessarily. As many of us have learned while working from home at times over the past year and a half, sometimes technical glitches can happen. Technical glitches can be very stressful, especially when stakes are so high as it's one of your final college exams. Even though it was tough to not to get to spend time with Meg, I totally supported her being home on Mother's Day to assist in case any technical difficulties happened. By the way, as much as I love Rutgers, and am rocking their hoody as I write this, did they have to schedule a final exam on Mother's Day?

Friday night Meg and I met up at The Cottage in Franklin. Friday was a big day in Jersey, first time in almost a year and a half we were able to enjoy a drink at the bar! WOW! It's been so long. Bars are usually where I prefer to be. Unless Meg is with me, I'm used to being solo. Over the past many years, I've always felt much more comfortable at a bar alone, as opposed to being alone at a table by myself. Many of my amazing friends in Jersey I met at a bar just by running into each other and meeting. My bestie here in Jersey, Jasen, first friend I ever met here? I met him at Kite's bar in Vernon, the night before my interview here.

How was it? Well, honestly there was good and bad. With everyone back at the bar, it felt weird now having your back to the rest of the restaurant, which we always had done pre pandemic. Now it felt different. Then our friends Chris and Christine showed up. It was wonderful to see them. They're both rock stars. The tough part? The bar was full, so they had to sit at a table right near the bar. I was talking with them, but couldn't engage in the conversations that were happening at the bar. If we were at a bigger table, we all could have been included, but with the bar back, that wasn't happening. I think Friday night reminded me that there are so many positives and negatives in many life situations, even something like being able to sit at a bar again.

We then ventured from there to see our besties Jasen and Brendan at their place on Campus. Per usual, we had laughs and busted on each other. The way life should be.

Saturday morning was a meh kind of day. The weather here in Jersey was just that cold rain. Ironically, Friday was the 5 year Facebook Friendversary with Meg happened. They put together some decent throwback pictures of us, they were mainly just whenever we were dressed up for special occasions over the past 5 years. All good. I reminded Meg that the cold rainy weather was very similar to the weather we had when I ran my first ever 5K for our friends at OSCAR. That 5K was a special day, not only did I run it in 26:12, but that is the same day Meg and I reconnected. We had first met during my Pet Of The Week months earlier, then joked with each other how mean those cats turned out to be.

Saturday afternoon I had to take Meg out for our farewell beer. It was tough having the farewell beer on Saturday instead of Sunday, but I totally understood the reasons.

Saturday afternoon the weather was still cold and rainy. I gave Steve Andrews homework to watch The Departed movie. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Based on Whitey Bulger the late mob boss in Boston, this movie won several Academy Awards and grossed over $200 million in theaters worldwide. I love watching it and seeing all of the Boston landmarks. Plus with an A List cast including Matt Damon, Leo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and more? You can't go wrong.

That being said, I should've given Awesome Girlfriend Megan more warning before I made her watch it with me over the past year. I should have told her that a mob movie is similar to a Shakespeare play where most end up dying. I swear it was ten straight minutes of Meg yelling at me "WHAT? THEY KILLED HIM TOO? NOOOO! BUT I LIKE HIM!" LOL. That one was my bad.

Once that movie came back on my brain, I figured if I'm asking Steve Andrews to spend his Saturday night watching it, I might as well too. Low key Saturday night, watching The Departed and drinking a Sam Adams Cold Snap.

Sunday morning, Happy Mother's Day. Time to continue my tradition. I always miss not being able to see my Mom, Grammy and Awesome Aunt's on Mother's Day. I tried going back my first year here 7 years ago Easter Sunday, but it took me 7 hours to get back here in Jersey from New England instead of 4-5. We agreed I just can't do that to myself anymore.

6 years ago, I woke up on Mother's Day feeling rather lonely, missing so many important women in my world. A light bulb clicked in my head. If I can't see them and make them smile, then why not try to pull that off for friends I have here in Jersey? The Steve World Tour continued. I go to the grocery store, then drive around surprising my single Mom friends with flowers. It's one of my favorite things to do every year.

My first stop: Hackettstown. Normally I try to take Meg out somewhere fun for Mother's Day, but because of this college final exam we couldn't be together. I drove the 54 minute way from Vernon to Hackettstown to surprise her with flowers. I then made my way back towards Campus in Vernon, seeing one of my nearest and dearest friends, Ty. I haven't seen her in person in many months. Goodness I can't wait to seeing friends more, and more often. I got to meet her gorgeous 8 month old 95 pound puppy, and see her kids for the first time in so long.

I was then able to surprise my bestie Carrie with flowers too. She's another one I haven't seen in quite some time. It feels great knowing that I'm 10 days after my Johnson & Johnson Covid Vaccine shot, and can count myself as fully vaccinated.

After surprising my friends with flowers, I decided to treat myself for a fancy drink at Crystal Tavern in Crystal Springs. My goal was to have a nice, quiet whiskey drink by their beautiful fireplace. Fireplaces always have a way of relaxing me for some reason. The old fashioned drink was delicious. My hope for quiet? Not so much. On Mother's Day they were slamming (which was of course great to see.) Whenever families showed up early for their reservation, where did they go? Sitting by me at the fireplace. I got to hear about all of their drama. Three families. Yippy.

Sunday afternoon then I relaxed on my deck with a good cigar, and called my family back home, getting to speak to all of them. 7 years in we have our routine where I call my Dad, and then they all pass the phone from one to another to say hi to me. Then shortly after, a gorgeous cardinal flew and landed on my deck. For some reason, I think it was my late Grammy Allan in Florida saying Hi to me. It was beautiful.

Sunday night, I stayed in watching these A&E WWE Biography specials. Between Stone Cold, Roddy Piper, Macho Man and Booker T, Steve got to relive his childhood. Success.

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Thank you for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend!


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