This was definitely a memorable weekend that I'll never forget. We knew going in that our Backpack Snacks For Kids food drive was going to be challenging due to the inclement weather during our final day. Even though many will complain about how often meteorologists may be with their weather forecasts, they were all 100% correct with this one. 3 inches of rain. If this rain was snow, we would have had 31 inches! That weather is definitely a major setback for a food drive of any sort, especially when it's not during the holidays.
This weekend started with so much fun, delicious food at Industry Kitchen & Bar in Sparta. It was my friend Carrie's birthday, and we came up with a plan a couple of weeks ago taking her out to dinner at Industry. Clearly my friends have been hearing my commercials with Industry/Mohawk House's Chef Carmine too often in addition to all of the fun times we've had there together. We ended up having a fun party of 9! It was great hanging with besties Jasen, Brendan, Christine, Chris, Deb, Mack, Brendan, and the birthday girl herself, Carrie. I ended up having their Ribeye. It was definitely a juicy and tender steak. Everyone had terrific meals. Success!
Friday night I had a quiet night in over at Jasen and Brendan's. We won't be able to catch up in person for the next couple of weeks, so it was great to catch up with them over a glass of Josh Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a new "Hearth," kind of Josh red wine I hadn't seen before and it was definitely decent and good value too.
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Saturday morning here we go! Backpack Snacks For Kids finale happens today! Backpack Snacks For Kids is one of my favorite things that we do with our radio stations all year long. While we get a much larger total across the board for our annual November Stuff The Bus food drive, helping many families with the 30 plus thousand pounds of food, and thousands of dollars, it is definitely rewarding. I'll admit that while these food drives are desperately needed and special, they're also replicated in most markets all across America, many do food drives the weekend before Thanksgiving. This spring food drive we do every year is to me unique, and special.
We'll get totals from our friends at The Sussex County Division Of Social Services Food Pantry soon, but in the meantime, I'm so beyond proud of what we were able to do. I'm so grateful for you and so many others in our community who wanted to go above and beyond helping others, despite 3 inches of rain. I think everyone was beyond miserable through that 3 inches of nonstop, cold rain all throughout the day. Fortunately we were inside Weis Markets in Franklin, Steve Andrews from 10am-12pm, me from 12pm-3pm, and Borasio from 103.7 NNJ and 106.3 The Bear was at Weis in Newton from 11am-1pm. We noticed normally the busiest hours at a grocery store tend to be Saturdays from 9am-12pm, in this case we believe the rain basically pushed many things back a couple of hours. By late Saturday, I'm betting the only ones who ventured out to the grocery stores were those who really needed to do so. As always happening during our food drive events, I had a great time both meeting new friends and running into old ones as well. Everything that we collected stays local, benefitting kids and their families right here all across Sussex County, New Jersey. I learned years ago that every town here has families below the poverty line, and too many kids end up going hungry on the weekends. While there are programs that can help prevent them from starving during the week, by the weekends those programs have run out of food. This food drive we did is to help them get through the weekends. We did well with cash, I know that! I always stress the fact that because the food pantry buys in bulk through the state food bank, every one dollar we collect that can buy 5 POUNDS of food! HUGE!
Saturday night I was wiped out. A few friends who were caring warned me that I looked "really tired and worn down." I thanked them for telling me and their concern, also admitting that I was tired. Saturday night I had a quiet night in, watching a Netflix series "I Think You Should Leave." It was a series of quick, sketch comedy bits basically almost similar to a Saturday Night Live, only more of a regular cast of characters that slightly resembled a sitcom style. You can see more about that by clicking here. At times they missed the mark, but other times they did make me crack up. Either way, the only thing I wanted to watch was comedy!
Sunday morning I watched a recommendation from my friend Susie "The Good Place," starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. This one honestly cracked me up much more. The Netflix series starts with Ted Danson informing Kristen Bell that she died in a hilariously embarrassing fashion, and that she was now in "The Good Place." Without trying to spoil too much, she was actually meant for The Bad Place! There was an accident in their system and they mistook not her name, but everything else with her identity and life history. You can see more about that by clicking here.
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Sunday afternoon my neck and shoulders were really stiff and sore, so I went to get a quick 30 minute massage at Rockaway Mall. Their chairs are located in the middle of Rockaway, just a few steps away from where Eleventh Hour Rescue is located. I felt better after them, and 11th Hour was having a pet adoption event at the same time. Even though I was hearing puppies barking nonstop during the massage, I didn't care at all. It was great seeing them, and I felt better.
Sunday night I ran into some friends at The Cottage in Franklin, then had an early, quiet night in watching Bar Rescue on Paramount. I swear, every time I try watching March Madness basketball this year the games have all been boring blowouts. I just can't get into it this year - yet that is. They usually get me hooked every year. I never do brackets for March Madness. It's one of the few times I'm watching sports without a vested interest at all, and it's kind of a nice, relaxing break. At least I yell at my TV less. There's one victory.
Thank you for reading my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend!