CoNventioneering.
Well, as an aside to a previously written post, the summer took a turn for the better thanks to this weekend. Well, really thanks to this Saturday. Let's hit it from the beginning, shall we?
FRIDAY
First half of the day was just preparing for the roadtrip while simultaneously picking up my messy apartment. I slept until noon, so I actually didn't have a lot of time before I went into Target at 4:00. I'm just about ready to kill Denise, too. She's our HR manager and scheduler. And she keeps fucking up the GSTL schedules leaving no one on duty for closing. I realize there are only three right now (yet their are 8 LOD's. What's up with that?), but sheesh. Tony and Casey were both scheduled for the same shift, a 9 to 5:30 mid-shift. The only person really qualified to fill in for the closing role was Chrisanne (I am too, technically, but seniority rules). I like giving her a hardtime, so today was naturally a bigger opportunity to mess with her. It was an amusing shift.
Right after the store closed, I got in my car and hightailed it up north to Littleton. I didn't even have time to change, so I was rocking out the red polo and khakis all night. I pull into L-Town at 11:30 and grab Bopha from her residence, as she agreed to roadtrip with me. Then it got interesting. I pulled into the Irvings gas station by the highway. Completely randomly, Tuity comes out of the convenient store and walks in front of me. As he throws something in the trash, he finally sees me and does the greatest "What the hell" motion ever. He walks over and gives me a hug and whispers in my ear "I'm completely utterly drunk and I'm not even 21." We laugh, talk it up for awhile, he departs back to the Eastgate where apparently his drunkfest was taking place. After gassing up and getting some snackages, we hit the highway. Pretty uneventful driving. At one point, we pop Dane Cook into the CD Player and have a field day quoting it (at that point and throughout the weekend). It's about 2:30 when we hit the last exit into Marlboro, Mass. And, well, it happened. No good roadtrip can do without getting lost at least once. Mapquest lied to me. It clearly said "Turn right onto Main Street". Except that Main Street was more on the left. Soup swears I still would've wound up on the right road had I stayed on it, but I don't believe him. After calling him and waking his ass up to give me directions a couple of times, we finally arrive.
SATURDAY
No sleep required. I was still buzzed from a Mountain Dew Livewire and half a Vault Zero (which I repeatedly claimed tasted more like Mop-and-Glo). We hang out and converse for a little while before shipping off to Denny's for a 4:00 AM food frenzy. We were pretty nonplussed with the food, between Soup's ill-fated pancakes and Bopha's stale brownie sundae (I still devoured my burger and fries though, I didn't care). But the company was good. Afterward, we had a 5:00 AM tour of the town before going back to Soup's to watch some corny 90's kids movies on cable, such classics as Cop and a Half and the shitty make of Lassie, as well as old-school Legends of the Hidden Temple (Silver Snakes would've won if that girl wasn't such a slow bitch). We set sail for New York at 8:00.
Soup did all the driving, despite my offers to share the wheel (not that I was complaining). We rocked out some music, more Dane Cook which we all enjoyed. Radiohead, which I know Soup loves. Bope was asleep nearly immediately. Conversation was random and sparsed. We arrived in New York timely at 11:30. Didn't exactly hit Dobb's Ferry until more near 12:30 though. And again, we sort of lost our way, driving past Josh's building a couple times. At one point, we turned around in this supermarket plaza where these "demonstrators" were preparing for a "demonstration". And by "demonstrators", I mean 4 old people. And by "demonstration", I mean unfurling a big yellow sign that says "Get US out of Iraq". I proceeded to flip them off. Look, you can't do shit by sitting in the sun and having people drive by and hope to give a shit.
We finally find Josh (A.)'s complex and find him awaiting our arrival. We head up and get a tour of his apartment (nice) and meet the infamous Angie. We pile into Josh's Corolla and drive into the city. Our first mission was to find Elyse and drop Angie off, both were accomplished at Grand Central Station. Though it was nearly Mission Impossible as Elyse was MIA when I walked in. It took several phone calls to locate her. Coming out of Grand Central, we had lost Josh. He called saying that he was on the street, but we were unable to locate him until we realized he was right in front of us. Blind.
Next order of business: lunch. Josh finds a parking garage and stows his vehicle. We walk around for awhile before heading to this weird organic marketplace. Bope and I opted for a bowl of soup. We found the others and checked out. As Bope and I went for soup spoons, we found the other three had vanished. Searching for them in the eating area, we found no trace. I whipped out my cell and gave Soup a call to find out they had gone upstairs. We get up there and head across the street to the fountain square where we enjoyed our lunch in the scorching sun. Bad day for soup, but whatever. Afterward, we wandered around Central Park for the majority. We opted to kick some little kids off the swings and steal them for ourselves for awhile. Bope and I had some sick wipeouts as we leapt from the swings at the highest reach. After that, we walked further in and saw the carousel. Continuing our back in the day mantra, we rode it to our inner child's content.
Then came our trip to the NBA Store, a place Josh frequents, what with working for the NBA. Nice place. If I had the funds, I would've loaded up on Kings and Celtics paraphinalia. But we reached the downstairs portion where there are TVs and couches and such. There was also a table for youngins (or oldins, whoever) to draw their favorite NBA player. Josh proposes to me "I'll give you a buck if you color the entire page brown and label it 'Shaquille O'Neal'." This was a dare I couldn't pace up. I grab a brown crayon thing and have at it, leaving a small white smiley face. Around halfway through me drawing it, a NBA store employee comes over. Security guard, in charge of the "draw your NBA player" contest, I don't know. But he came over in smiles, but seemed pretty nonplussed with me. I sign it "Gabe Flores" (our favorite Mexican). Give it to Josh, and we're off before I can get assimilated by the angry black man.
We meet up with Angie back in Central Park where all of us seem like the sleep deprivation has caught up with us. We walk to Starbucks before heading back to the garage. Elyse parted early, heading back to the station. We get back to Josh's place and hang for a couple of minutes. Soup shows us some of his "bar tricks", like getting water into a glass from a saucer without touching it by using a coin and a match. Weird. Josh and Angie offered us to join them for dinner, but we were thinking of just heading out. The ride home was uneventful as I slept a good portion of it. We got back to Marlboro and quickly depart. I was too tired to bring Bope all the way back to L-Town, so we stopped at my place for some sleep.
SUNDAY
Downer. Had to get up at 9:00 and bring Bope back up to L-Town before she had to work. I came back to Concord and got a call from my mom saying she was in town and thought about doing lunch. I can never say no to a free meal, so I said yes. We first stopped at 99, but seeing it too overloaded, settled on Friendly's.
Also got asked to stay later at work. I was (and still am) exhausted from all the travel, but I begrudgingly said yes. "It's only another hour and a half" I say to myself. In hindsight, I would've said "Yes" again, it's just the fact that it was a horrible work day. Dumb customers, shitty mood, not a lot of cool co-workers on the schedule, getting nothing when we're overmanned and slammed when we're undermanned. Oh well. Tomorrow's another day. And an 8 hour shift. HUZZAH!
Here are some pics that made it out of this weekend:
Obligatory group shot. (Josh, Elyse, myself, Bope, Soup)
Swinging, while some poor kids are crying. Take that, you snots!
Bopha, equestrian?
Elyse, jockey?
Josh loves the pole while Soup looks intrigued.
A scan of the NBA image in question. Offensive? YOU decide
Edit: This has to be the first time someone has ever used the word "nonplussed" twice in the same entry ever.
Edit again: That'd now make it three times.
FRIDAY
First half of the day was just preparing for the roadtrip while simultaneously picking up my messy apartment. I slept until noon, so I actually didn't have a lot of time before I went into Target at 4:00. I'm just about ready to kill Denise, too. She's our HR manager and scheduler. And she keeps fucking up the GSTL schedules leaving no one on duty for closing. I realize there are only three right now (yet their are 8 LOD's. What's up with that?), but sheesh. Tony and Casey were both scheduled for the same shift, a 9 to 5:30 mid-shift. The only person really qualified to fill in for the closing role was Chrisanne (I am too, technically, but seniority rules). I like giving her a hardtime, so today was naturally a bigger opportunity to mess with her. It was an amusing shift.
Right after the store closed, I got in my car and hightailed it up north to Littleton. I didn't even have time to change, so I was rocking out the red polo and khakis all night. I pull into L-Town at 11:30 and grab Bopha from her residence, as she agreed to roadtrip with me. Then it got interesting. I pulled into the Irvings gas station by the highway. Completely randomly, Tuity comes out of the convenient store and walks in front of me. As he throws something in the trash, he finally sees me and does the greatest "What the hell" motion ever. He walks over and gives me a hug and whispers in my ear "I'm completely utterly drunk and I'm not even 21." We laugh, talk it up for awhile, he departs back to the Eastgate where apparently his drunkfest was taking place. After gassing up and getting some snackages, we hit the highway. Pretty uneventful driving. At one point, we pop Dane Cook into the CD Player and have a field day quoting it (at that point and throughout the weekend). It's about 2:30 when we hit the last exit into Marlboro, Mass. And, well, it happened. No good roadtrip can do without getting lost at least once. Mapquest lied to me. It clearly said "Turn right onto Main Street". Except that Main Street was more on the left. Soup swears I still would've wound up on the right road had I stayed on it, but I don't believe him. After calling him and waking his ass up to give me directions a couple of times, we finally arrive.
SATURDAY
No sleep required. I was still buzzed from a Mountain Dew Livewire and half a Vault Zero (which I repeatedly claimed tasted more like Mop-and-Glo). We hang out and converse for a little while before shipping off to Denny's for a 4:00 AM food frenzy. We were pretty nonplussed with the food, between Soup's ill-fated pancakes and Bopha's stale brownie sundae (I still devoured my burger and fries though, I didn't care). But the company was good. Afterward, we had a 5:00 AM tour of the town before going back to Soup's to watch some corny 90's kids movies on cable, such classics as Cop and a Half and the shitty make of Lassie, as well as old-school Legends of the Hidden Temple (Silver Snakes would've won if that girl wasn't such a slow bitch). We set sail for New York at 8:00.
Soup did all the driving, despite my offers to share the wheel (not that I was complaining). We rocked out some music, more Dane Cook which we all enjoyed. Radiohead, which I know Soup loves. Bope was asleep nearly immediately. Conversation was random and sparsed. We arrived in New York timely at 11:30. Didn't exactly hit Dobb's Ferry until more near 12:30 though. And again, we sort of lost our way, driving past Josh's building a couple times. At one point, we turned around in this supermarket plaza where these "demonstrators" were preparing for a "demonstration". And by "demonstrators", I mean 4 old people. And by "demonstration", I mean unfurling a big yellow sign that says "Get US out of Iraq". I proceeded to flip them off. Look, you can't do shit by sitting in the sun and having people drive by and hope to give a shit.
We finally find Josh (A.)'s complex and find him awaiting our arrival. We head up and get a tour of his apartment (nice) and meet the infamous Angie. We pile into Josh's Corolla and drive into the city. Our first mission was to find Elyse and drop Angie off, both were accomplished at Grand Central Station. Though it was nearly Mission Impossible as Elyse was MIA when I walked in. It took several phone calls to locate her. Coming out of Grand Central, we had lost Josh. He called saying that he was on the street, but we were unable to locate him until we realized he was right in front of us. Blind.
Next order of business: lunch. Josh finds a parking garage and stows his vehicle. We walk around for awhile before heading to this weird organic marketplace. Bope and I opted for a bowl of soup. We found the others and checked out. As Bope and I went for soup spoons, we found the other three had vanished. Searching for them in the eating area, we found no trace. I whipped out my cell and gave Soup a call to find out they had gone upstairs. We get up there and head across the street to the fountain square where we enjoyed our lunch in the scorching sun. Bad day for soup, but whatever. Afterward, we wandered around Central Park for the majority. We opted to kick some little kids off the swings and steal them for ourselves for awhile. Bope and I had some sick wipeouts as we leapt from the swings at the highest reach. After that, we walked further in and saw the carousel. Continuing our back in the day mantra, we rode it to our inner child's content.
Then came our trip to the NBA Store, a place Josh frequents, what with working for the NBA. Nice place. If I had the funds, I would've loaded up on Kings and Celtics paraphinalia. But we reached the downstairs portion where there are TVs and couches and such. There was also a table for youngins (or oldins, whoever) to draw their favorite NBA player. Josh proposes to me "I'll give you a buck if you color the entire page brown and label it 'Shaquille O'Neal'." This was a dare I couldn't pace up. I grab a brown crayon thing and have at it, leaving a small white smiley face. Around halfway through me drawing it, a NBA store employee comes over. Security guard, in charge of the "draw your NBA player" contest, I don't know. But he came over in smiles, but seemed pretty nonplussed with me. I sign it "Gabe Flores" (our favorite Mexican). Give it to Josh, and we're off before I can get assimilated by the angry black man.
We meet up with Angie back in Central Park where all of us seem like the sleep deprivation has caught up with us. We walk to Starbucks before heading back to the garage. Elyse parted early, heading back to the station. We get back to Josh's place and hang for a couple of minutes. Soup shows us some of his "bar tricks", like getting water into a glass from a saucer without touching it by using a coin and a match. Weird. Josh and Angie offered us to join them for dinner, but we were thinking of just heading out. The ride home was uneventful as I slept a good portion of it. We got back to Marlboro and quickly depart. I was too tired to bring Bope all the way back to L-Town, so we stopped at my place for some sleep.
SUNDAY
Downer. Had to get up at 9:00 and bring Bope back up to L-Town before she had to work. I came back to Concord and got a call from my mom saying she was in town and thought about doing lunch. I can never say no to a free meal, so I said yes. We first stopped at 99, but seeing it too overloaded, settled on Friendly's.
Also got asked to stay later at work. I was (and still am) exhausted from all the travel, but I begrudgingly said yes. "It's only another hour and a half" I say to myself. In hindsight, I would've said "Yes" again, it's just the fact that it was a horrible work day. Dumb customers, shitty mood, not a lot of cool co-workers on the schedule, getting nothing when we're overmanned and slammed when we're undermanned. Oh well. Tomorrow's another day. And an 8 hour shift. HUZZAH!
Here are some pics that made it out of this weekend:
Obligatory group shot. (Josh, Elyse, myself, Bope, Soup)
Swinging, while some poor kids are crying. Take that, you snots!
Bopha, equestrian?
Elyse, jockey?
Josh loves the pole while Soup looks intrigued.
A scan of the NBA image in question. Offensive? YOU decide
Edit: This has to be the first time someone has ever used the word "nonplussed" twice in the same entry ever.
Edit again: That'd now make it three times.