Reunited and it feels so good

So this blog has now become somewhat of a chore. Sadly. It was supposed to be fun, and now it is one of the many things on my mind that I feel I must attend to. "Gotta update my blog" has now joined the ranks of "gotta clean up", "gotta pay bills", and my new friend "gotta work on my resume". Such a shame. But I will try to remedy this.

Part of the problem is that nothing major has been happening. Nothing funny to report. Nothing annoying to wittily complain about. Just moving along, working during the week, relaxing on the weekends.

This past weekend was pretty good. Girlfriend came to NYC. (Yes, I am now using the name Girlfriend for her, as opposed to always writing "my girlfriend". Seems more familiar, while respectfully maintaining anonymity.) We went over to a friend's place on Friday night to watch the Red Sox embarrass the Yankees. Pitiful game. And sadly the Sox fans at our friend's place outnumbered the Yankees fans, making it all the more sour. Girlfriend made some brie en crut (sp?) with puff pastry dough, and with chopped almonds inside. She did the prep work and cooking at our friend's place, which was fun, and everyone lapped up the cheese. I enjoyed it thoroughly. After the game we were all tired, and just went our separate ways home.

Saturday was beautiful in NYC. We bummed around the apartment for a bit, then got up off our asses and went to Central Park. Plopped ourselves down on a blanket, near the Great Lawn (but not on it) and relaxed. Did some people watching, read a bit, and tried to soak up a little sun. Then we decided to walk around, and we bumped into two separate people from the neighborhood where I grew up.

One of them is the son of one of my mother's closest friends. (Got that? ;-) He and I were actually best friends from 3rd grade until 7th grade. Then he became somewhat popular, and left me out in the cold with no friends. Tragic in 7th grade. How sad for me, I know. I can make light of it now, because I am a grown up with a decent crowd of friends, but believe me it sucked ass back then. Anyway, we forgive and forget. Especially when the person's family is still close to yours. Definitely when there mother is the saint that his mom is, and is like an aunt to you. So it was nice to see him, and to meet his girlfriend finally.

The other guy we ran into used to be my next door neighbor growing up. He is a few years younger than me. Nice guy. I actually used to babysit for him and his brother. His parents moved away from there last year, and are actually living in the city now. He was on his way to see them, actually, making a detour through the park. I like that whole family a lot. Good people.

Small world huh?

Saturday night Girlfriend and I went to see Kill Bill Volume II. It was good, though not as good as Volume I. And one of the speakers near us was out, and static-y as hell all through the movie. But I decided to suck it up, rather than get stressed out about it, and walk out in the middle to complain and get another ticket. Stress sucks. Though one of the reasons I see movies in the theater is for the killer sound. So I was bummed about that. (But not stressed, remember....) Anyway, the movie was enjoyable. I feel as if I was laughing more at the first one, though, or maybe more surprised by the first one. Maybe it's because there had not been a new Tarantino film in years when I saw Vol. I. Or maybe I need to see Vol II. again...

Sunday nice, but busy. My aunt and my mom came into the city to meet us for lunch. My brother also came along, which was cool. We went to a diner in our neighborhood, and then back to our apartment to talk for a bit. Had to kick everyone out around 4:00 though, because Girlfriend had to hit the road, and I had to go to my college fraternity's initiation ceremony. My chapter actually folded a couple of years ago. The chapter really went to shit a couple of years after I graduated. Wrong type of guys, wrong reasons for joining. Lack of motivation and interest caused it to dissolve. The National office liked having a presence on our campus, though, so they are trying to start it up again. They sent some advisors to school to rush a new group, and they re-founded the chapter. Relations between the alumni of my chapter as we knew it, and the new chapter, have not gotten off to the best start. So the new chapter wisely decided to hold the initiation of their first pledge class in NYC, where lots of alums are concentrated. This would be fun for them, and easy for us, and we could all share the experience together.

Anyway, the initiation was held in my friend's basement apartment. A lot of alums showed up, which was nice. Then we all went out to dinner at a coal oven pizza joint. I actually did the work to arrange the dinner, which was a pain in the ass. Last minute dinner for 40 can suck. But when all was said and done, everyone was happy, and the eight alums that made it to the dinner were all able to kick in enough dough to cover the whole cost. That felt really good, and was a nice gift/gesture to the undergrads.

All in all a good weekend. But see, if you are not me, this can't have been too interesting a read....

Maybe I need to start making up some blog-worthy shit. Yeah, that's the ticket.