Holes to Heaven: Random Update (6.9.13)

Friday (31st): Arrived in Philly with Mitch, and Sam picked us up and took us to a philly cheesesteak place. However, Sam couldn't parallel park, so I had to parallel park for him. The place we went to was a curious one. The owner put a sign on his front window covered in patriotic colors that says "This is America. When you order, speak English." I was informed it made quite a splash in the local media a few years ago. Despite the bad press , it remains to this day. We arrived at Sam's house and dropped off our bags in the basement about an hour later. Sam lives in New Jersey, but his house is only 10-15 minutes outside of Philadelphia. The rest of the day we helped set up for Sam's party.

Matt and Sam #2 on the right.

Toasting the graduates.

Saturday (1st): Sam had a bunch of family and friends over to his house, including Matt, whose house I'm at now. The party was a blast. Matt and I played cornhole (a game where you toss small beanbags into a hole from a distance) with El and Judy, Sam's grandmother and her friend, respectively. It was a little hot, but it got perfect by evening. That night Matt and Sam's other friend Sam #2 slept with Mitchell and me in the basement.

Sunday (2nd): Party cleanup and a sleeping bag purchase from Target. Sam, Mitch and I got really bored Sunday night, so we hacked the system. And by hacked the system, I mean Sam and I both got on C-SPAN (he called in, I tweeted at them and it was put on television).

Lolz

Monday (3rd): Got up and went to see Sam's high school and a nearby town called Haddonfield. We all got lunch and bummed around, among the highlights being this dinosaur.

Tuesday (4th): Sam's Dad took all of us out to go tubing down the shore (read: go tubing down on the New Jersey shore). We stopped at WaWa, a sort of convenience store, on the way home. Mitchell loves WaWa.

Wednesday (5th): Sam and I had our CPR/First-Aid class downtown in Philadelphia. Mitchell brought a book for the few hours he waited. Oddly enough, during the class, a building collapsed about a block away from the Red Cross building we were in. We decided never to leave Mitchell alone again, for the safety of the city. That afternoon, we went to visit the Department of Labor (da DOL) where Sam's Dad works. We all went to get pizza for lunch together. After lunch, the three of us went to the Franklin Institute, got some dinner, and then drove to the Philadelphia Union game. It was a great game. The Union won 3-0.

da DOL

First half kickoff.

Second half kickoff.

Thursday (6th): Travel day. Mitchell flew home, and I was dropped off at the train station to get to North Jersey to stay at Matt's house a few days. I learned the Septa/NJ Transit system a little bit. I did get some reading done on the ride, which was nice (A Thread of Grace). At night, Matt, two of his friends and I went out to watch game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Friday (7th): Spent the day hanging with Christine. It was really rainy, so we spent it indoors (originally we were going to the beach). I got Matt's family some nice chocolate, and I got me a new pair of sunglasses. At night, Matt, Connor and I went bowling and injured ourselves. Matt bowled a turkey (woo). Connor is a friend from Duchesne (freshman dorm) who went to Matt's high school.

Saturday (8th): Played some pickup soccer at the 'cage' nearby. The 'cage' is an enclosed but not indoor soccer field. Matt and I played with Connor, Connor's sister, and a handful of other people randomly there. Benjamin was the star. He was only 12 years old, and everyone else was at least a senior in high school. He scored the winning goal. It was hot out. After soccer, I got to see Christine again for a few hours. When I got dropped off at Matt's house later that evening, Sam and Conor (not to be confused with Connor with two n's) had arrived. We all sat outside and played a new game called "you take band names and make the opposite of them." For example, Vampire Weekend becomes Werewolf Workday, The Avett Brothers become The Thedocc Sisters, and Neil Young becomes Stand Old. After far too long, we left for the city (read: New York City). We met up with some of Sam's friends, as well as another friend Arjun from our Appalachia trip my freshman year. We ended up going to about 6 or 7 different bars, eventually driving home around 2:30 AM! One bar in particular was amazing. There was a circle of Irish musicians playing folk Irish music. Then they started playing "Hard Sun" by Eddie Vedder. It was really good. I recognized it from the movie Into the Wild which I saw a few weeks ago at home. We invented hypothetical ice-breaker one-liners throughout the night. These included "Are those reusable shoes?" and "Are you a pig wrestler?" (these are inside jokes and not supposed to be understood or enjoyed by the reader). Oh, and I was the designated driver for the evening. Who says driving in NYC is hard?

Holy crepe.

Sunday (9th, today): Got up and drove with Matt, Sam, and Conor (not to be confused with Connor with two n's) to Randall's Island for the Governor's Ball music festival. It was a mucking good time.