Warning: Big Update...
As promised, here is my update on the past few days in my life here at home. Tanya's graduation was on Saturday, and I ended up crying towards the end because my mom started crying. Damn you Mrs. Lichorat for talking to my mom and getting her all upset because she has "beautiful and talented children...etc..." Tanya sure did make me proud. She won a few scholarships, which she totally deserved, and behaved very dignified as opposed to the behavior of the majority of her classmates there. She graduated with a NYS Regent's Diploma with Honors, just a step below the diploma that I graduated with. No matter, there's never been competition between us, and I know that she is doing excellent.
The party was nowhere near what I had anticipated and expected it to be. Within the hour after graduation before I left to go up to Steve's to finish preparations for the party, nearly 30 people had called and left messages or talked to one of us telling us that they suddenly couldn't attend the party because of other engagements. Hum...sounds familiar. Turns out next to none of my friends could come as well. They all had respectable reasons, and it just sucked not having everyone there like I had planned. At least Amy showed up to brighten my spirits for the day. Despite the lack of people, we all had a great time, and Tanya seemed to be really pleased with the outcome of her big day. Colleges across the states better beware: after partying with these kids the other night, I wonder if this year's Freshman class is going to be really out of control. These kids already know how to play several drinking games at a rather skilled level, I was astounded. I just hope that they don't plan on making this an all too often event.
There's Tanya and I. She's happy but dying to get out of her gown, it was so damn hot that whole day.
Here's Josh and I. Josh is Jaek's little brother who is going to be a Freshman at Bonaventure in the Fall. Hopefully he'll be a nice addition to the group. People have a tendency to say that we look like we're related...and I guess I can see why...
Here's Tanya with her best-friend (and nearly my third-sister) Jenn. I've watched these two girls grow up and it just amazes me to see where they are now. Good job you two!
Amy and I chatted for most of the evening, having a few drinks here and there and after she left, I just cut loose with my mom and had a wonderful time. Al, Rob, and Matt ended up coming way later, and it was good to hang with those kids again. We'll be spending more time together as the summer goes on I'm sure. Pretty much no one in my extended family had met Amy in the past, so everyone started pulling us aside asking if we were dating. Ha. Much to their disappointment, I'm still single and Amy is just a good friend. We both thought that whole ordeal was pretty funny.
The party dragged on late into the night with my mom getting really shitty and power puking all over her cabin. I was up until around 5 making sure that all of the kids were ok and behaving themselves, and I eventually just went to sleep outside next to the fire. I woke up a few hours later to take a few kids home who needed to get ready for work and stuff, and spent most of Sunday relaxing and recovering from the party the night before. Tanya opened up her cards from everyone who came to the party, and she made over $2,000.00 already! She did better than I did, which is great for her because she really needs the money. My cousin Jan came over to say goodbye to us because she had to go back to Cleveland, and she's always a riot. I guess my mom and I are going to make a trip out to see her house sometime over the summer. Sounds like a plan to me, there's so much to do in Cleveland.
Sunday night Tanya and I went to go see George A. Romero's Land of the Dead. Unfortunately, the movie was not everything that I had expected it to be. Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie, but a total break between Romero's earlier work. Fellow friends of mine who are bigger Romero fans than I am will most likely be disappointed. Parts of the movie felt like a total rehasing of the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead which upset me. I don't understand why Romero would take a similar approach to his film based on a remake of his own movie. I think it was over produced and a far higher-budgeted film than his other three zombie movies, and maybe that was one of the problems. There's so much that I had problems with in the movie, and I'm not going to go into it for the sake of letting my other friends see it first. I read a review on www.upcominghorrormovies.com that summarized my own attitudes toward the film rather nicely. Here's the link:
http://www.upcominghorrormovies.com/reviews/landofthedead.php
There were some good things about the movie, but the cons outweighed the pros in my mind. I'm going to have to give this movie another go-around, but most likely not until after it hits DVD.
Monday I had a shitty night at work, and that's all I'm going to say about that. I worked everyday up until today and I went to Bonaventure today to get rid of my ROTC equipment, but turns out Karena wasn't there to give it to. I visited Kristie for a bit, and then tried calling Townie Paul a few times to get him to hang out, but his sister must have never given him my message. I left around 2:45 and just got home a bit ago. It looks like I'm going to sit around playing guitar for most of the night, and drinking a few Yuenglings since I had my mom pick some up for me yesterday. The weekend's going to suck, working everyday and most likely the 4th, but I won't know until tomorrow for sure. In other news, Courtney is gone for the next few weeks, she's visiting a friend in South Carolina, and the house is much quieter without her around. I miss her, but the break from the everyday annoyance and animosity between her and the rest of the family is nice.
I just found out a kid that I grew up with is dead. I've heard several different stories, and I guess he killed himself. I don't know why or how, but I'm really upset about that. I had know him since we were little and in the Boy Scouts where his dad was our Scoutmaster for a number of years. The really scary thing is that he was just in Quality last week bullshitting with me while I was working. I just saw his father in there on Tuesday, and now his son is dead. My heart goes out to his family for their loss, and I plan on attending the funeral or at least the wake when arrangements are made. I just can't believe it, one day you're talking to someone, and the next day they're dead. We were pretty good friends as kids, and we slowly grew apart as we got older. It makes me feel bad knowing that we lost touch, and that if we hadn't there might have been something that I could have known about to maybe prevent this. He was a good guy with a big heart and immense amounts of physical talent. He was doing very well, at least to my knowledge and it truly is a tragedy that he is dead. Rest in peace buddy, and my prayers are with both you and your family.