Reasons I have not been posting

 

1. Florida Football

 

My weekends are generally consumed in a rage of drunkenness and screaming at a television set. This is usually followed by hangovers and trying to get ready for the week ahead by having a few beers watching Minnesota Viking football. However, the Vikings usually just make me vomit, not the beer, just the play calling. On top of giving at least my weekends to my alma mater I also have been spending a ridiculous amount of time reading articles and scouring message boards in excitement for upcoming games. I am actually already planning my Baton Rouge tailgate for Oct. 6.

 

2. Jewish Holidays

 

I should have so much to say about these but for the life of me can not put them down into words. Spending Rosh Hashana with my Mom and sisters was great as it was the first time my mother has ever made that particular meal. And who complains about apples and honey? No one. Plus the challah was fantastic. Yom Kippur this year was a pretty hard fast for me, normally I go my 24+ hours without anything crossing my lips with ease but this time I had hunger pangs by 9 pm and by late the next afternoon my headache was terrible. Of course as soon as I broke fast I felt sick from eating. Go figure.

 

3. Video Games

 

Most people already know I am a huge nerd. They already know I play way too many video games but what many do not know, is that over the summer during a crazy storm the power cord on my XBOX blew out. Microsoft sent me a free replacement; however that replacement took two weeks to get here. And in that time NCAA 08 came out, being a practical consumer not one known for making rash purchases I used the broken power cord excuse to buy an XBOX 360 with NCAA. I was not enamored with the game and actually have not even opened the case in weeks. Instead I have been playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion nearly non stop in my free time. I am addicted, I plan it into my day and I have actually gotten to the point where I am extending the game instead of pushing forward to beat it. Though, today may start something wholly different as it is Halo 3 day and my copy is waiting for me now. I did not call in Halo sick as some others so I will have to wait.

 

4. TV shows

 

The new seasons are back starting this week and to be prepared I spent my time not doing the other things on this list by catching up on shows DVDs so I would be ready. Particularly, I watched all three seasons of the Office. I had really doubted this show based on season 1 but it is an amazing show and I can not wait for Thursday night. As a matter of fact the take over of my DVR has already begun with Family, Chuck and Heroes. All shows looked pretty good in their openers which gives hope to a solid season to follow from shows like House, Smallville and Friday Night Lights.

 

So, there you have it, I could add a fifth item to this list but I really don’t want to talk about work. I will just say my new position has me busier than I have been in a while and I still have no idea what I am doing. Hopefully that will change or someone will notice, at this point I would take either but so far everyone seems to think I know exactly what I am talking about while I feel like I don’t have a clue. Oh well, better get back to work.

Haven’t done this in a while

A couple of years ago I was working on the road over St. Patrick’s Day, when it also happened to be the opening weekend of March Madness. At the time I was alone in a hotel room watching games and had a lot of things I wanted to write about but nothing longer than a paragraph or two, so I just wrote about all of them in one monster post. Since, I have not been posting very regularly anyway; I figured why not try that again. So here goes. Feel free to skip to something you like.

 

 

On A Somber Note

I didn’t even realize it until I woke up this morning but it is the 6^th anniversary of 9/11. Granted I have taken a pessimistic view on the subject since day one but it has changed the country and it has resonated for some people for a long time. I prefer to listen to Colin Powell on the subject when he says that terrorism is not the biggest threat we face as a nation because acts of terror will not in themselves change the American way of life. Only we can do that, and hopefully we are strong enough to not let outside stimuli force us into giving up the tenets that we live by. Still, I doubt I will ever forget where I was that day, the way I felt and how the rest of that week unfolded. The mood that day in Gainesville is one that I have felt on very few occasions and it will stick with me for a long time.

 

On a lighter note

September is still my favorite month of the year and 1/3 of the way into it September is living up to the hype. After going for months without much activity in the DC area I have spent plenty of time going out, not making it home at the end of the night and just doing my usual drinking partying that comes with football season. Unfortunately, the Gator bar makes it really hard for me to watch games at all; I mostly just sit around drinking and talking to people until I lose my voice. After Labor Day weekend my voice was completely gone, after the Viking game on Sunday it was only half gone, thankfully the NFL is not all that exciting or I would have been done for.

 

Summer, what happened to you?

I don’t mean that in the sense of where did it go, it was definitely here, it was definitely hot and I did get to enjoy parts of it. No, my question is more about how summer has gone from my favorite time of year to my least. My childhood ranking system looked like this:

1. Summer
2. Summer
3. Summer
4. Summer

 

Adult ranking system

1. Fall
2. Spring
3. Winter
4. Summer

 

How the heck did this happen? I have two theories on the subject. The first being that as I grew up a Floridian the only seasons I knew of were Hot, Hotter, Hurricane and rain at 4. The second theory is what I like to call Summer Camp syndrome. To this day I will bump into people who will bust straight into summer camp talk. It happened on Saturday, it happens all the time, and the conversations are always the same, people talk about what camp they attended and what cabins they were in and then begin playing the name game. But, that has nothing to do with my theory, at least not directly, no; Summer time without summer camp is simply hot, rainy and bad TV. But Summer time with summer camp is the outdoors, new friends, lakes and kickball and if you go on to be a camp counselor it also means remote locations and drunken nights. Every June I seriously consider quitting my job to go work at sleep away camp, but every time I realize its not the best idea and decide to suffer through another boring summer with bad TV, bad weather and bad movies.

 

I am a bit of an introvert

I think I have always known that to be true, though I am not sure people who know me understand. So if you care, read this little article that I stumbled upon. I am not as bad as the description it gives but there are some definite similarities. I don’t consider myself anti-social as I do need social interaction as well as time alone but I definitely get that feeling sometimes of being overwhelmed by too much face time. This summer when I spent 5 of 6 weekends out of town either visiting family or working I was constantly with people. When I finally got back to being home for a while all I wanted to do was decompress and spend some time alone. So, I did that until September started.

 

I could keep doing these short things all day but I will stop here

I am going home tomorrow for Rosh Hashana. I have not been back to Florida in six months and I am really looking forward to my trip home. My mom ordered challah and is making homemade chicken soup and brisket and I just can not wait. It has been far too long since she has made me a home cooked meal, so I will forgive her for making me cook as well. I am also really happy that the holiday lines up perfectly with the UF-UT weekend so that my cousin and I can drive up and see our beloved Gators in person. It is sort of becoming a family tradition as we attended the game last year in Knoxville.

 

 

And on that note I am out, maybe I will put up some pictures after the game or something, it has been a long time since I have posted pics. I actually do not think I have put up any pics of myself, maybe I will. I can guarantee that if we barbecue you will see pics of what we eat and probably a bottle of Jim Beam.

It is Finally Back

Nine long months of waiting came to an end last night when the college football season officially began. Thus we are entering my favorite time of year, September, when fall is approaching and Saturdays are all for the Gators. It is the time of year when Orange and Blue are the only colors that really matter, when vacations mean taking a long weekend to a road game or heading back to Gainesville. I have already begun my preparations for tomorrow’s kickoff and have begun looking even further down the road. Flights are booked for Tennessee, rides to the game are being finalized and tickets are being searched for. Emails have actually been circulating for weeks amongst my friends in preparation for the season; we are already planning our tailgate on the first weekend of October. Some of us have flights booked to New Orleans for the UF-LSU game while others like me have made arrangements for Tennessee and FSU, but am waiting on a friend before finalizing my road game.

 

So what does a Saturday look like for me?

 

We have friends visiting DC for the holiday weekend but that hardly changes my weekly gameday routine. I plan on getting up early Saturday morning so hopefully tonight will not be too crazy. I will have my breakfast and drink my coffee out of my blue Gator mug. I actually used to have two mugs, one orange for away games and one blue for home games but the orange one broke. I also used this method at times when deciding on which Gator shirt to go with, but have since changed to going with the HOT shirt, so I will wear the same shirt to every game until we lose, then switch to another one. I am still unsure of which shirt I will be wearing when we kick off tomorrow. I could go with my grey Gator football shirt, that’s what I was wearing in the desert for the National Championship. It will just come down to feel and of course in two weeks when I am in Gainesville I will have to make a stop at the campus bookstore to purchase more gear, maybe a MNC T or a new coffee mug or a sweatshirt, heck I will probably buy one of each. You can never have enough Gator gear. Back to the topic, after I have finished eating I will probably hit the gym, I get too antsy before games and usually like to do something to keep my mind off it. Since the game tomorrow is early, 1230 kick, I will rush home from the gym, shower and throw on the chosen gameday outfit and head out for the Gator bar. Once at Baileys in Ballston I will order the greatest chicken fingers and extra honey mustard ever served followed by numerous buckets of beer. We will eat, drink, the Gators will win and then we will celebrate. Because its an early game most people will head home to relax after and then go out later. If it were a night game or a later start there is a good possibility we all head out in gameday apparel and annoy the rest of DC in our blatant obnoxiousness that comes with being Gators. We are after all the champs at just about everything. So, there you have it, a typical Saturday not spent in the Swamp.

 

Here is what I am looking forward to during my favorite time of year:

 

9-1: Kickoff of the 2007 season enjoyed with great friends

9-8: A relaxing tune up before the SEC season starts.

9-15: My first trip to the Swamp in over a year, tailgates, family and Jim Beam

9-22: No watching, no eating, no drinking, its Yom Kippur and some things are actually more important than football

9-29: Round out the great month watching UF get revenge on Auburn (hopefully)

 

And then one week later we kick off October in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. This fall is going to be great and it all starts tomorrow.

A Name Change

Coming off of last weekend when I was surrounded by my entire family they still linger on my mind this weekend. Specifically, I have been thinking about my last name which I could care less about and the last name of my grandfather which is really important to me. My father’s last name might be the one I have had all my life but little else about my father has been part of my life. On the other hand, my grandfather was a huge part of my life, living near me from the time I was born until I moved away. He was also the only survivor of his family. When he got married he had three girls and one boy, I am sure he was relieved to know that his name would carry on for one more generation. But, then his son only had one child, a girl, so that means his name is pretty much done. My other cousins have last names they don’t intend on leaving behind and fathers that deserve that. I do not. For many years now I have discussed changing my name, I have been thinking about it for probably ten years now. Though, I have always figured I would just rid myself of my last name, not take a new one. And now, with some urging from my family, no one really pushing me but suggesting that I take my grandfathers. They say it will become clearer to me or more important once I decide to have a family and that may be true however right now all I know is that the name I have is not going to work for me. So, the decision comes down to taking his last name and continuing that tradition or making my own and starting anew.

Survivors

It has been a little over a week since my last post and I have been trying to write since I got back from Minnesota on Monday but I have found it rather difficult. The truth of the matter is that no matter how hard I try to put down my thoughts and feelings from the trip I get blocked. Since I was in Minnesota for my Grandma’s unveiling and since this past week was the anniversary of both of my Grandparents passing that may be why. But, its not that I am sad because of their death, no death doesn’t bother me, at least not when it comes to people who have lived long full lives. My mom of course wishes she had her mother for longer, we all wish we could have the people we love for longer but in the end I think both my grandparents were ready and now I fully believe they watch over us in our everyday lives. So, if it wasn’t death that bothered me, what was making it hard to write this? What is making it hard to write right now? It is honor, I am not sure I am living my life in a way that would honor them and because of that I am having a hard time putting down in words what they mean to me.

 

Here is what I wrote last year on my old blog:

My Grandparents

This week has been a comedy of errors that hasn’t really allowed me to get to writing something about my Grandparents. And now that it is a really slow day at work I still am not sure what to write. Something that the Rabbi said at the funeral has stuck with me though as I look through photos and that is how important the future was to my Grandparents. There past was ripped from them, so rebuilding and creating a family became very important and remained that way for their whole lives. Even on some of my latest visits when my Grandmas health was clearly fading she would ask if I had enough money to take girls on dates. She was hilarious like that. They were both hilarious in there own ways, although it was hard to see there humor from outside. After all they didn’t tell jokes; it was more just how they were. I doubt many people would describe them as funny but I remember countless times laughing in their presence.

One thing everyone will say is that they were both beautiful. They met in a DP camp in Germany and as the story goes my Grandpa was the stud of the camp, a sometime professional soccer player who never much cared for shirts, and he took a liking to my blonde haired green eyed Grandma. When my Grandma introduced my Grandpa to her sister she supposedly broke the pencil that was in her hand. I just heard that story for the first time last week; I wish I had heard more. I know they both have interviews on tape for a Stephen Spielberg project that I don’t think ever happened; I will have to get a hand on those. And while I don’t know as much as I like about my grandparents I do know they have left quite a legacy, something that I think they are proud of.

My family is extremely large, my Grandma had 3 sisters and a brother, and they have spawned a family that is in the 100s now. Of that family we are considered the good looking ones. Not that the others aren’t but we are a very good looking family. But more than that we are close and we are growing once again. We are friends, we occasionally take vacations together, we do things together, and we take part in each others lives. And now that our cousins are having kids and we have more cousins we get to watch them grow up and continue on a great legacy. A legacy that I think my Grandparents can look down on in pride.

All of those things still hold true this year. I still have not seen the tapes and I have a sneaking suspicion that my aunt does not want me to. She is a bit overprotective but I think I will get a hold of them eventually. My family has not grown more, though there seem to be more extended family than before, the babies running around Minnesota can be overwhelming. But, what I love most about my grandma and her family is how the things that were important to her are the very same that are important to her remaining siblings. There are three of them left, two sisters and a brother, and they look so much alike. Talking to them is like talking to her, it’s always the same questions and the same topics of conversation. Are you dating anyone? Why aren’t you a lawyer? When are you going to have kids? It isn’t their fault of course, it’s in our genes. In a round about way the Shoah transformed them, became part of their children and continues to affect the further generations to this day. Some wonder if we will ever be free from what happened, really free from it. I am not sure; I think survival will always be what’s most important to us. I once told someone that just being alive was enough, but that’s not true, to honor them fully we can not just survive but thrive, family is important, being successful is too, but being a success is only a precondition to creating further generations. I think that the Rabbi was right; our grandparents loved us for who we were and for what we represent. The Hope.

 

When I was a baby, just born my grandma was in the hospital with my mom, I of course threw up on her and she told me that story for the rest of her life. My grandfather played soccer with me; he drove me to baseball camp. He once got into a fight with my mom over my little sister. They never hesitated to help, because even though their youth was stolen from them they wanted nothing more than for ours to be great. And our lives were great, partially thanks to them. Often times I will be driving around town and I will think of them. We have gone so much further than they ever could have dreamed and yet we have so much further to go. We gave them hope, we gave them a future where there was no past and now as the numbers thin it becomes more important for us to continue providing that hope, continue making a future for them, for ourselves and for all the generations yet to come.

Pack, unpack and repeat

It seems that’s all I have been doing lately. I pack my bags, leave town, return, unpack them and then a few days later I am packing again. Of course, I also get to do laundry in between. At this point, after 6 weeks of this I am really ready to have an extended period of time where I don’t have to pack a suitcase. I doubt that will be possible for more than two weeks though. Anyway, last weekend I drove up to Atlantic City for a good friend, they were having a memorial of sorts for her Grandfather who passed away earlier this year. And since I am such a good friend and I got to spend a lot of time with her grandpa during my trips to Florida I felt like it was the right thing to do. I also had never been to AC, so I had to see what all the fuss was about.

 

I left last Friday around 1pm and arrived close to 5 pm. The drive was not bad but the hotel was an absolute dump. As you would expect of a summer weekend in the Northeast most hotels rooms were booked as people leave the cities for the beach. On Friday night we headed out to dinner and checked out the Casinos with my friend and her sister. The casinos were alright, though a big disappointment compared to Vegas. But, what really compares to Vegas? That is actually a pretty unfair comparison so I will overlook it, both Friday and Saturday night we did manage to have a good time at the places we went and I even won some money. Granted it wasn’t a lot but winning is always a lot better than losing. That and getting absolutely wasted on Saturday night after the memorial service Saturday afternoon. My friend and I basically drank all day, so I was a mess when I finally sat down at the tables around 10 to play; I am a bit shocked that I won at all. And after a long day of drinking that did not end until at least 4 am I decided it would be a good idea to leave AC to head back home at 8 am.

 

I made it back home around noon on Sunday and was able to settle into my house for a few days before having to pack up again. And that is where I sit now, getting ready to leave town tomorrow for Minnesota. I am both looking forward to it and dreading it, which is what happens with the bittersweet times I go to Minnesota.  This time we are going for my Grandmas unveiling, last summer it was for her funeral, before that it was my Grandpas unveiling and before that his funeral. So, on the one hand the occasion is somber but on the other I enjoy seeing my family and spending time with them. After this weekend I hope the next occasion we get together will be for a strictly happy one. I have actually spent this entire week in a bit of a funk because of the prospects of this weekend with this nagging feeling of regret that I never got to know my grandparents well enough. I have found myself looking for books to answer all the questions I never asked about their holocaust experiences that they never volunteered to me. I am sure I could have had 100 years with them and still felt there was more I wanted to know and that is something that the living will always have to harbor about the dead. So, we move on and live our lives, we try to honor their memory and I can not help but feeling that somewhere, somehow they really do watch over us. Unfortunately, all they get to see me doing lately is packing or unpacking my suitcase.

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

Yesterday during rush hour a bridge collapsed in Minnesota. It was the 35W that crosses the Mississippi river and it has been all over the news since last night when it collapsed during rush hour. It also happens to be the bridge, that as my mom so quickly reminded me, where I learned how to spell Mississippi. The bridge goes through downtown Minneapolis and is the main path to St. Paul. As a kid we took that bridge a lot and even though I have not lived in Minnesota in over 20 years now I was horrified when I started hearing about this bridges collapse. As of now there are 7 dead and searching the river continues as I type this. I called my mom of course to make sure all of our family was ok and thankfully they are. Most of my family members live and work in Minneapolis and do not use 35W regularly. My thoughts go out to the people of Minnesota and the families of those who were on the bridge. For as long as I have been away and as little time as I spend there now Minnesota still holds a very powerful place in my life.

 

To this day when people ask me where I am from (no one is actually from DC) I usually answer with Minnesota. I do follow up the Minnesota comment with a story about Florida as most of my life was spent in Florida. Still, when I go to family things outside of my immediate family, it is always Minnesota where I go. That is where we celebrated 40 years of liberation (it has been over 50 now), where my cousins weddings were held and where my grandparents are buried. It is where I will be in 8 days, seeing my mom and sisters for the first time in 5 months and many of my other family members for the first time in almost a year. So, while I was lamenting the poor state of my favorite sports teams from the Twin Cities over the past couple of days this bridge collapse reminded me that there is so much more to worry about than whether or not your favorite team can afford to keep the star player. I was sad to see two former Minnesota stars hugging in Boston last night but it has been much worse knowing that for the next few years as I go to visit there will be a looming reminder of the tragedy that occurred last night.

Is it the sunshine or the rain?

As the spring time weather is flowing on towards summer I find myself feeling extremely nostalgic for Florida. Odd that this weather would be what makes me miss Florida since summer was usually my least favorite season down there. At least as far as weather goes. But, here I am lying out in my yard in the suburbs wanting to be on the beach with my sister or at the pool with friends. Even when I am at work I find myself looking out the windows at stormy weather and looking back fondly on how it used to rain everyday in the summer. Of course when I was there the two hours of afternoon rain was just a huge pain. Being in Virginia however I can’t think of anything more enticing than an afternoon rain storm and the way the streets seem to steam up once the rains stop.

 

Considering the rain and the heat are the first things I will complain about the next time I am in Florida it is probably more than just the weather that I am missing. My mom and my sisters are all back in the same area for the first time since I went to college and I feel a little disconnected from them being the only one out of state. And while I am making arrangements to move even further away I find myself second guessing this decision. Maybe I should be going down the coast instead of up it. Perhaps I am just not ready to say goodbye to these southern skies just yet. The idea of a return to Florida, even for a short time, seems pretty enticing right now. I can see my family whenever I want instead of constantly having to research flights and plan ahead. I can shop at Publix, see old friends and of course enjoy the sunshine and the rain.

1st Quarter Report

The first 3 months of 07 have flown by already. So here is a statement on just how the first quarter has been treating me. It is really amazing how fast time flies. My year started with a whimper but has been catching momentum ever since. I spent New Years Eve in a very low key manner but just 5 days later I was on a flight to Vegas. And Vegas just happens to be my favorite place in the country, but this trip was not just about Vegas, Vegas was the appetizer to the Phoenix, AZ main course of college football’s National Championship game. Scott and I took a late flight that got us to Vegas around 11 pm, checked into our hotel, the lovely Hooters hotel and Casino, and wandered around for a bit, he and I were actually still out when our friends were boarding their flight the next morning back in DC. Since I am not much of a sleeper to begin with and since I was in Vegas I was still up to meet those same friends when they finally arrived later that day. I also had breakfast by myself, which would be sad if I didn’t do it all the time while traveling. Back on point, subtracting the first 5 days of the year and fast forwarding to the Vegas/Phoenix trip my year got started in the best way possible with drinking, partying, football, tailgates and of course victory. The high from that trip remained for the rest of January and very little else happened: I entered a weight loss competition at work for the simple reason that I thought I could win even with less weight to lose than everyone else, I celebrated a friends bachelor party in DC, re-watched the Championship game, and started growing out my hair.

(Speaking of hair, after growing it out for ten weeks, all I can say is that I find it very distracting. All it has really done has made my time to get ready longer, and I spend half the day rubbing my hands through my hair for the novelty of actually having enough to do that. Plus, the whole shampoo and conditioner thing is twice as long as the hop out of shower and shave thing, and now I am always late.)

 

February was a short, inactive month, which was too cold for me to enjoy. Still some big decisions were made for the future and another one of my good friends got married. I did start this new blog after leaving my old one and planned a two week trip to Florida in March. The wedding in the Keys was great but other than that there was little of significance that actually happened. Although, somewhere along the way I think I got a hernia that I still need to take care of. This brings us to March.

 

I spent March avoiding cold weather, stressing out with my family and spending time with enough females to fill my quota for the year. Mostly I just drove around a lot, spent two nights in an awesome hotel room and ate out a lot. Then finished the month by watching my Gators take home another championship in basketball, actually it ended April 2^nd but most of the tournament was played in March. So, looking forward to the next three months I wonder what’s on the agenda for me. As of right now it seems I will be having hernia surgery, getting the first haircut I have had in 5 years and settling in for a couple of months. I also hope to make it to NY for a weekend, plan on being fairly busy at work and possibly joining in on the Memorial Day trip to Dewey beach. But first this weekend is looking like an interesting one, with movies, music and the possibility for a lunch or coffee or something that is a seriously bad idea.

Nothing new under the (Florida) Sun

Today is my last day in Florida and I am really looking forward to going back home. The initial premise of this trip was two weeks of relaxation and great weather. The weather for the most part held up, the relaxation not as much. Just like I remember from when I grew up here there was a lot of driving. Everything is so spread out and I spent countless hours here in traffic. But, that was not all I did of course, I worked, I watched sports including my friends kickball game, and I ate at all of my favorite places, plus I got to shop at Publix almost everyday. And if you have not heard about my perhaps unnatural affection for Publix you have not talked to me very much. So, after two weeks here all I can really say is that except for a few differences this trip was like every other. It is hardly a new concept that things don’t really change all that much but even with all the growth and development of the place I grew up everything still feels the exact same to me. People go out to the same areas even if the names have changed, Las Olas is still beautiful, the beach is still the beach, the rain storms are just as scary and erratic as I remember and my friends are still as elusive and intriguing as they have always been.

 

I guess it is the people that make things feel the same despite all the change around them. My mom stresses me out, my sister makes me worry, Christine and her friends talk as if I am not around on topics most guys never get to hear, and Nicole and I will make plans to see some obscure movie that no one else would possibly go to with us. If DC and Florida were to be compared and contrasted as to what they represent in my life DC would be testosterone and Florida would be estrogen. It will always be that way, and even though women are often changing they still feel the same to me. Although, I really could use a few nights out with my guy friends now, all this girl stuff is driving me crazy, I mean, as has been true all my life, even the dogs are girls. See, nothing really changes.