Grillbeasts
Alright, so, before I forget, I'm first going to finish the tales of my trip to New Jersey.
We went to sleep Friday night after Ozzfest completely exhausted. Satisfied, but exhausted. The next morning we slept in late and helped prepare for the barbecue later that day, that was being held so that everyone could meet me, but also as a sendoff to Matthias' cousin Phillip who was going off to college soon. I sat down at the breakfast table and was promptly offered food, so I ate cheerios per my usual style, without anything on them. When Matthias' family saw that I was eating my cereal dry, they then and there decided that Matthias and I must have been made for each other. I guess it's a weirder thing to do than I had thought.
Anyway, we had our breakfast and then we went over to Matthias' house (remember, we stayed with Ann?). We bummed around with Ted and Will and Matthias' dad for a bit, and then they left to head over to Ann's. We sat around the house for a little while, and then James - Matthias' best friend - stopped by to pick us up and take us out for a drive. So I got the quick tour of the neighborhood, and then it was back to Ann's for the barbecue.
I have to admit, I was a bit nervous, but mostly everybody was incredibly nice. Matthias' father's parents came by, which was frightening, as I'd been warned against his grandmother and told horror stories of her ferocious and nasty tendencies by just about everyone in the family. But she was quite nice to me (I think Matthias almost died of shock) and I frankly thought she was pretty funny. Her husband, Grandpa Joe, was awesome. He came running into the kitchen at one point, after he'd heard that I was an Egyptologist, and shouted, "Say something in hieroglyphics!" He sat outside with all the teenage kids and chatted with us. I met one of Matthias' other good friends, Virian. She was incredibly sweet and seemed to think that Matthias and I were the cutest couple ever. She, James, Matthias, Phillip and I all took a walk out to the park a little later, after we had eaten, to give us all a chance to chat and escape the adults for a while. When we got back, things were winding down, so we decided we'd head out for Italian ice and a walk along the boardwalk. The shore there is so beautiful. Unfortunately, all kinds of yuppie developments are springing up along the beach and taking over the old Victorian neighborhoods (and kicking a lot of Matthias' less well-off friends out of their homes), but when we got down to the old section, it was really nice. After mosying around for a bit, we went back to Matthias' house to play some Monopoly, and I got to hear him jam with his brother and Anton up in the studio. It was a lot of fun listening to them, and really makes me want to get better at bass pretty badly. The fourth member of the Long Branch Quintet, Katy, showed up also, and played some monopoly with us for a while.
Will and Ted decided a little later that they wanted to go set off some (illegal) fireworks that they had procured. Nobody apart from me had ever set off explosives before, so we all piled in cars with myself as "lead technician" and headed for an open field. Unfortunately, Jersey is incredibly densely populated, and truly open fields don't seem to exist. The best place we could find was behind a public school, where apparently fireworks get set off on a semi-regular basis. I was just there in functional capacity, so when everybody got in a fight over whether we should actually do this, I picked up the fireworks and walked back to the car. We returned home without having committed any crimes, but I did promise Ted and Will that if we ever went someplace a little more secluded, I'd help them.
The cap to this lovely evening was a drive around in James' car (during which Matthias promptly fell asleep). We went on the "scary roads tour" of Long Branch, which included three dimly lit, backwoods roads with gnarled trees, scary barns, and ghost stories attached. It was amazing amounts of fun, and deliciously scary. Perhaps best, though, that Matthias was asleep, as scary things are not his forte. ;-) James and I had a chance to chat, which was nice, as he would be taking me to Mass bright and early the next morning.
Due to slight tardiness by the one with the car, James and I were a little late to Mass, but we made it. After chatting about our mutual love of techno, and especially classical music remixes, on the way back, we accompanied Matthias and his family to Lutheran services. Let me tell you, my friends, it is VERY STRANGE INDEED to watch a woman consecrate the Eucharist. Lutheran tradition is very close to Catholic, and it was far more of a system shock than I expected to watch a woman filling the priestly role. Apart from that, I'm not really sure what I made of the service. It was different, that's for sure. A lot of things about being bound by/into sin that I wasn't really a fan of, but otherwise it was nice. Very Protestant music.
After that, it was lunch out at Chili's with the whole family, and then another driving tour with James. We made our way up a hill to Twin Lights, an amazing lighthouse and apparently a very old one. It's one of those places that's a typical stop for elementary school field trips, but the views from the top of the north tower were beautiful. I really enjoyed it there. And James knows so much of the history of the area that he made an excellent tour guide, not just for Twin Lights, but the whole trip.
After that, we meandered down to the beach for a bit, and found one of James' favorite secluded spots. It was nice, after a fairly intense weekend, to just sit for a while and listen to the waves. After a short time, we had to run back to Ann's, get our things packed, and head back to Chicago. But all in all, it was a great trip.
So there you have it. The story of my trip to the magical land of New Jersey. I mostly was writing it now to kill time until Christian's Grillbeast, which, for those of you uninitiated, is a meat-filled cookout followed by a bad sci-fi or horror movie. Tonight's feature is Godzilla versus King Kong, which will undoubtedly prove to be a classic. Reviews and more, here on MEGAN'S LIVEJOURNAL!
We went to sleep Friday night after Ozzfest completely exhausted. Satisfied, but exhausted. The next morning we slept in late and helped prepare for the barbecue later that day, that was being held so that everyone could meet me, but also as a sendoff to Matthias' cousin Phillip who was going off to college soon. I sat down at the breakfast table and was promptly offered food, so I ate cheerios per my usual style, without anything on them. When Matthias' family saw that I was eating my cereal dry, they then and there decided that Matthias and I must have been made for each other. I guess it's a weirder thing to do than I had thought.
Anyway, we had our breakfast and then we went over to Matthias' house (remember, we stayed with Ann?). We bummed around with Ted and Will and Matthias' dad for a bit, and then they left to head over to Ann's. We sat around the house for a little while, and then James - Matthias' best friend - stopped by to pick us up and take us out for a drive. So I got the quick tour of the neighborhood, and then it was back to Ann's for the barbecue.
I have to admit, I was a bit nervous, but mostly everybody was incredibly nice. Matthias' father's parents came by, which was frightening, as I'd been warned against his grandmother and told horror stories of her ferocious and nasty tendencies by just about everyone in the family. But she was quite nice to me (I think Matthias almost died of shock) and I frankly thought she was pretty funny. Her husband, Grandpa Joe, was awesome. He came running into the kitchen at one point, after he'd heard that I was an Egyptologist, and shouted, "Say something in hieroglyphics!" He sat outside with all the teenage kids and chatted with us. I met one of Matthias' other good friends, Virian. She was incredibly sweet and seemed to think that Matthias and I were the cutest couple ever. She, James, Matthias, Phillip and I all took a walk out to the park a little later, after we had eaten, to give us all a chance to chat and escape the adults for a while. When we got back, things were winding down, so we decided we'd head out for Italian ice and a walk along the boardwalk. The shore there is so beautiful. Unfortunately, all kinds of yuppie developments are springing up along the beach and taking over the old Victorian neighborhoods (and kicking a lot of Matthias' less well-off friends out of their homes), but when we got down to the old section, it was really nice. After mosying around for a bit, we went back to Matthias' house to play some Monopoly, and I got to hear him jam with his brother and Anton up in the studio. It was a lot of fun listening to them, and really makes me want to get better at bass pretty badly. The fourth member of the Long Branch Quintet, Katy, showed up also, and played some monopoly with us for a while.
Will and Ted decided a little later that they wanted to go set off some (illegal) fireworks that they had procured. Nobody apart from me had ever set off explosives before, so we all piled in cars with myself as "lead technician" and headed for an open field. Unfortunately, Jersey is incredibly densely populated, and truly open fields don't seem to exist. The best place we could find was behind a public school, where apparently fireworks get set off on a semi-regular basis. I was just there in functional capacity, so when everybody got in a fight over whether we should actually do this, I picked up the fireworks and walked back to the car. We returned home without having committed any crimes, but I did promise Ted and Will that if we ever went someplace a little more secluded, I'd help them.
The cap to this lovely evening was a drive around in James' car (during which Matthias promptly fell asleep). We went on the "scary roads tour" of Long Branch, which included three dimly lit, backwoods roads with gnarled trees, scary barns, and ghost stories attached. It was amazing amounts of fun, and deliciously scary. Perhaps best, though, that Matthias was asleep, as scary things are not his forte. ;-) James and I had a chance to chat, which was nice, as he would be taking me to Mass bright and early the next morning.
Due to slight tardiness by the one with the car, James and I were a little late to Mass, but we made it. After chatting about our mutual love of techno, and especially classical music remixes, on the way back, we accompanied Matthias and his family to Lutheran services. Let me tell you, my friends, it is VERY STRANGE INDEED to watch a woman consecrate the Eucharist. Lutheran tradition is very close to Catholic, and it was far more of a system shock than I expected to watch a woman filling the priestly role. Apart from that, I'm not really sure what I made of the service. It was different, that's for sure. A lot of things about being bound by/into sin that I wasn't really a fan of, but otherwise it was nice. Very Protestant music.
After that, it was lunch out at Chili's with the whole family, and then another driving tour with James. We made our way up a hill to Twin Lights, an amazing lighthouse and apparently a very old one. It's one of those places that's a typical stop for elementary school field trips, but the views from the top of the north tower were beautiful. I really enjoyed it there. And James knows so much of the history of the area that he made an excellent tour guide, not just for Twin Lights, but the whole trip.
After that, we meandered down to the beach for a bit, and found one of James' favorite secluded spots. It was nice, after a fairly intense weekend, to just sit for a while and listen to the waves. After a short time, we had to run back to Ann's, get our things packed, and head back to Chicago. But all in all, it was a great trip.
So there you have it. The story of my trip to the magical land of New Jersey. I mostly was writing it now to kill time until Christian's Grillbeast, which, for those of you uninitiated, is a meat-filled cookout followed by a bad sci-fi or horror movie. Tonight's feature is Godzilla versus King Kong, which will undoubtedly prove to be a classic. Reviews and more, here on MEGAN'S LIVEJOURNAL!