2005 - The Year in Review ... Part II

April

April began with a bachelor party for my friend Jon. It was off to the Mohegan Sun for dinner, gambling and other celebratory activities. The weekend was concluded with a group gathering for WrestleMania 21 – a longstanding tradition.

from my blog entry of April 5...
A great time was had at the bachelor party. The bachelor enjoyed it and that was the most important thing. It was fun to hang out and spend time with the rest of the wedding party in advance of the big shin-dig next month. The party was then followed by an nVo tradition - WrestleMania. Although a competing Yankee game and a dying car thinned our numbers, the tradition remained alive! Hopefully we'll be watching WrestleMania when we're 90.

It was then time to get down to the serious business of packing and moving. On April 10, I moved into my new apartment!

from my blog entry of April 13...
During my week-long absence from blogland, I packed up all of my belongings, moved, and then (mostly) unpacked said belongings. And I am now officially a new apartment dweller. Woo hoo! So yeah, this past week has been quite busy. Busier than any week that I've had in recent memory. I did intensive packing on Friday night and Saturday. Boxes and packing tape are my good friends. I then made the big move on Sunday morning and although I was nervous about how it would go, there was no need as the moving company that I hired was remarkably efficient. They loaded all of my stuff into their truck in a half-hour and then it only took them an hour to get everything into the new apartment. And everything arrived in the same condition it was when they loaded it so no worries. Then on Monday I had to exchange an entertainment unit that arrived in the wrong color (!) But I was proud to then successfully assemble it myself that night. Yesterday I got my cable, phone and internet connected (the most important parts) and today I continued unpacking and assembling various items.

For the rest of the month, there was little on my mind except making the apartment nice and hospitable. When I felt the need to actually leave the apartment, it included going to Chris’ birthday party, seeing a WWE show at MSG, and hanging out in Astoria with Ben and Tracey. The sad part about April was learning of the passing of a guy my age who grew up near me.

May

May began with my attending the funeral of Eric (the guy my age who died). Then two days later, my dad had a serious eye operation but thankfully it went well. Dad did a good job in the recuperation process.

The apartment continued coming together as my couch and loveseat were finally delivered. It only took them about seven weeks!

Thanks to Jess, I discovered a very cool place in Williamsburg called Barcade.

from my blog post of May 14...
I also want to mention that I went to this amazing bar last night. It's called Barcade and it's in Williamsburg. They have every classic 80s arcade game under the sun! Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, Frogger, Punch Out, Centipede, Q-Bert (well actually Q-Bert was broken). It was paradise. And while I was there I made sure to get lots of quarters for my laundry.

A birthday party was held at Sarah’s apartment and I hosted Tuesday Night Trivia for the second time... this time with Caren as co-host. I also made arrangements to see “Star Wars : Episode III” on its opening day, as I have done with each of the Star Wars films.

from my blog post of May 20...
Well done, Mr. Lucas, well done. I was very satisfied with "Star Wars : Episode III." This could have been the entire prequel. Who needed the first two episodes? All they were was backstory for this movie and if you want to see the setup for the classic trilogy, it ALL goes down in this movie... There are criticisms of course but none of which should cause irreperable harm to the film, like they did the first two. For instance, Anakin’s ultimate descent into darkness could have been illustrated better by Hayden Christensen. And the dialogue between him and Natalie Portman was literally laughable. But what can ya do.

But the best part of May was flying to New Hampshire for Jon and Emily’s wedding. As a groomsman, it was my first time in a wedding party. Pictures of the wedding can be found in my May Archives.

June

June may have arrived but my mind was still in May, on a post-wedding high and for the month’s first couple of days I engaged in an e-mail thread with four of the other groomsmen that wound up exceeding 100 back and forth e-mails.

from my blog entry of June 3...
It's been a short four-day work week with my mind still in vacation mode. The wedding in New Hampshire was fantastic. Flew up in a tiny plane that had a 35-person capacity. Going up, only 13 people were on board so the stewardess asked us to change our seats around so the plane would be more balanced. Yeah, that was interesting. An hour later I was there to meet up with Briar, Bartow, Lisa and Alvin. And the 48-hour party began, culminating in a game of mini-golf on Monday.

Now that my apartment was furnished, it was time to throw a housewarming party. On June 11, I welcomed about 25 of my friends to my new place. Plenty of food and drinks were provided and it was a very enjoyable time. Pictures can be seen in the Archives for June 12th.

By now summer had arrived, which meant a new season at Coney Island. On the day that I received a nice raise at work, I was also invited to sit in my company’s luxury box at KeySpan Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones.

from my blog entry of June 22...
Yesterday was a great day. In the morning I learned of a highly beneficial financial transaction that will help me out alot. Then in the afternoon I was offered a seat in the Parks Dept. luxury box for opening night of the Brooklyn Cyclones. There was a free buffet dinner for all the VIPs including hot dogs, chicken, pasta, fried calamari and plenty of beer, wine and soda. But the best part was that sitting right next to me in the adjacent box, were Omar Minaya (Mets general manager) and Jeff Wilpon (son of Mets owner Fred Wilpon). I tried to overhear their conversation and get some good Mets gossip but alas was not able to decipher much. I did notice that they had a TV on in their box and were closely following the Mets game in Philadelphia. Fortunately, both the Mets and Cyclones won last night... a good day for the organization.

Finally, I’m sure that you have noticed that I do not talk about my dating life on this blog. However, I had one first-date experience at the end of June that is just too unique not to mention.

from my blog entry of June 27...
...on Sunday I returned to Queens for the second day in a row. No, it wasn't to see Billy Graham, it was to count trees for the ongoing Tree Census. Last week I met someone who had signed up to volunteer for the census and what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than exploring the streets of Woodside? And this is no simple count of "One tree, two trees, ah ah ah." There was a long form with multiple questions that had to be answered about each tree, such as what kind it is, what it's diameter is, are there any obstructions, is the soil level, etc. And we met lots of Woodside locals who were probably wondering why we were lingering in front of their property.

And there you have it! The first half of 2005. Stay tuned tomorrow for July, August and September.