Jan 31, 2017

This single photos sums up my day more or less. I worked at Wallace middle school in Vineland for a Math class. The teacher left 5 problems for an 80-minute class. They were a bit of a challenge, but I didn't care too much since their teacher didn't put any effort in. The day went by pretty quickly and I headed back to Becca's alone for the night while she was in Delaware. I got a few little things done here and there, but mostly I just chilled and watched six episodes of Insecure. It's a good show. I got in the big bed alone pretty early too. Nice lazy night.

Jan 30, 2017

I worked at Vineland Memorial in the morning after clearing the little bit of snow off my car. It was an easy day in the advanced English class. I got some work done and read more articles that angered me than I should have. I met Ryan at Becca's to play Mario Kart Wii and unlock all the courses finally. It was more fun than I expected. I watched some Netflix until Becca got home and we watched Sleepwalk with Me now that she knows Mike Birbiglia. She liked it, and it was nice to watch again. We got to bed nice and early after the movie.

Jan 29, 2017

We slept in a little at our hotel before heading to Keney Park DGC. It was a little chilly out but sunny. The course was fun and the holes were varied. Some were hard to find because there were no signs or proper teepads, but we only missed one on the whole course. There were some fun shots off the top of a hill and a nice little view of Hartford from an open area.

Since everything seems to be closed on Sundays we went to Claire's Corner Copia in New Haven since they are always open. We got burgers which were great but a little hard to fit in our mouths. We sat in the car and ate since the place was busy and we were ready to be on our way.

Next stop was Two Roads for a single flight. We tried the two new beers they didn't have last month and added on our other favorites. The new ones were good, but the pilsner and the session IPA are still my favorite. We got some cans to go. We have so much beer at home.

We went back to Park City DGC for another quick round. It was a beautiful day so we didn't want to get back inside just yet. Afterward we headed to Half Full Brewery because they were actually open this time! We got our glasses and started handing in tickets for beer samples. There was a couple next to us who wanted to play Jenga so we ended up playing and having a great time. They were fun and the game was tense. I know I didn't knock the tower down. We also kept getting samples of beer and our bartender was being more generous as we went, pouring more in each time. It was a great time.

We decided to go into New York since we had time and we were already up there. After so much disc golf and beer we were ready for dinner and Champs sounded perfect. I got a buffalo chik'n sandwich and Becca got a mac n cheese bowl. Everything was great. I went around the corner and picked up a couple of doughnuts from Dun-Well before they closed.

I had the idea to go to Upright Citizen's Brigade for the Sunday stand-up showcase. It ended up being an amazing lineup. Jo Firestone hosted, then Hadiyah Robinson opened the show and was hilarious. Kendra Cunningham was pretty funny, then David Angelo was really great as well, but Myk Kaplan was up next and he was my favorite. He made fun of David's jokes and also did an anagram. (It's grim, man for immigrants.) Erik Bergstrom and Rob Cantrell closed the show and they were not my favorites, but they were both funny. It was an awesome night of comedy for $7 a ticket. Can't beat that. We had a nice, quick drive home even though we were tired after an amazing weekend.

Jan 28, 2017

Becca and I got up nice and early and got on the road just after 6am on our way to Connecticut. We watched the sunrise behind the power lines on the Jersey Turnpike. It was a beautiful sky as we passed quickly through the state, not stopping until we got to New Haven and Edge of the Woods Market. We got 3 Reubens to go and ate half in the car on our short drive from there.

Our first real stop was at the New Britain Museum of American Art. It was a great little museum with a lot of great pieces and interesting things like that security guard that I definitely thought was real. It's been a while since I've been to a museum so it was great.

We went to Page Park to play a round of disc golf next. It was a little muddy and a little snowy, but it was a fun round. Lots of ups and downs on the course and Becca got better at throwing sidearm shots. The towel got a workout at this place.

We went to Hooker Brewing where this sign made me laugh repeatedly while we sampled beers. They gave us a bracelet with tabs to pull off for each sample. 10 for $5 which is great, and we ended up getting like 15 each anyway. They had a lot of really good stuff, but the #nofilter IPA was probably my favorite. One of the brewers was walking around and chatting with us a lot as we sampled. He was super nice and a big reason why the place was so enjoyable.

We were running late, but we went over to the Wadsworth Art Museum anyway for the last 30 minutes they were open. It seemed like a really great gallery and I wish we had more time there, but the staff were rushing us out and locking up before it was even 5, so we had to go.

After going to the wrong hotel and then finding the right hotel a good distance out of the way from where we went we dropped off our stuff and left for the main attraction of the night. The Funny Bone Hartford is a comedy club inside a mall. It's not as bad as it sounds, but we had to get there over an hour early to get a seat that was basically in the back of the room. In any case, it was fine because it was a small room. There were two openers: Chris Something was really funny and a good host. The next comic was good, but didn't really do it for us. Mike was hilarious as always and had a lot of good material for his next special. It was cool to see him working on jokes and being a little more loose with everything.

Becca didn't know what to expect, but she ended up liking it a lot so I was glad it was a good Christmas present. We went back to our hotel, which was weirdly adorned with knickknacks and an Elvis statue. We thought about going to the pinball arcade, but we didn't. We also didn't go to the gym. We did eat our Thai takeout food in the bed and then go to bed at some point. It was a good day of well-rounded travel.

Jan 27, 2017

I didn't end up getting a job; that is to say I didn't take a job. The morning came and none of the jobs that were left were anything I wanted to deal with. Gym classes mostly in Vineland. Of course by that time I wished I had taken any of the jobs I saw yesterday that would have been fine just so I could work. I spent the morning transferring files and going through my old computer to clean it off. Becca suggested disc golf so I was in. We played a good round at South Vineland Park though it was a little chilly. It was good to get outside a little. I did a little more work on my computers and then headed over to her house for an early bedtime/research session.

Jan 26, 2017

I had some easy CST meetings in the morning at Mt. Pleasant followed by a nice break to go home and eat. I had to go to Wood School in the afternoon which was a complete fucking nightmare. It started with Kindergarteners being terrible and then fourth graders being even worse. One kid slammed a chair and said he hates substitutes. Totally worth the money. Even though we didn't have much time Becca came over for a much-needed run after that day. I felt better after that.

I went to my first physical therapy appointment for my thumb where the doctor was funny and confused about what could be wrong. After the initial evaluation he had me put my hand in paraffin wax and let it sit for 15 minutes. It felt really nice. I had to do some exercises with putty and then I got the electrodes. All in all it wasn't so bad, but I don't have high hopes and the doctor didn't seem to either.

I came home and decided to stay in for the night. I watched some things and went through some stuff to throw out in preparation for moving. I got my last tax documents so I went ahead and got that out of the way on TurboTax. It felt nice to just get it done. I got to bed late with no job yet for tomorrow. 

Jan 25, 2017

I had a pretty easy day at Silver Run covering meetings. Didn't get a lot of work done because their break room sucks, but I got a long lunch and found out I was done when I went back after. It was pretty nice out so I went out to the sheds and got rid of some of my stuff that I've been holding onto for too long. I still have a lot of shirts that I'll probably throw away eventually. It's weird that it's so hard to let go of clothing sometimes.

I met Becca at Parvin and we ran together on the muddy and branch-covered Black Oak trail. After the wind storm the other day there was a lot of debris and a tree had fallen across the path. I stopped at 4 miles, but Becca pushed me to go for 5, which we had discussed earlier and I was happy we did it. We came home and cooked veggies and quinoa and finished watching season one of Love.

Jan 24, 2017

This is how I spent most of my day. I got up and didn't find any jobs that I wanted to take; not too many even came up anyway. Once I accepted that I got into my day of relaxing and doing work. It was a pretty even mix of editing and watching shows on Netflix. I watched a great comedy special by Neal Brennan. I finally went and got my oil changed and picked up a new external hard drive. The night was more of the same. I watched House and edited photos. 'Twas a nice day in.

Jan 23, 2017

I subbed for the computer class at Memorial and spent the day going through photos and editing again, so it was good and productive. Becca's case for the evening was canceled so I rescheduled my doctor and oil change so we could get to Philly a little earlier and go to Memphis Taproom for food and happy hour. We got spaghetti sandwiches, delicious as always, and they had Two Hands Hop Hands on tap. During this time I "realized" that I locked my keys in my car where I left it at Barnes & Noble in Deptford.

We got Becca's mom and Christie to team up and leave the spare key under my car tire. It was really nice of them. Since that was figured out we went on to Manny Brown's and had one more beer to kill some time.

We got to the TLA with plenty of time to spare before Dashboard came on. I hadn't been there in so long I kind of forgot what it was like. We squeezed in and made our way to the middle area of the crowd, causing a few people to be annoyed that I was in front of them.

Dashboard played a good set even though the crowd barely nodded their heads at most of the songs. That didn't stop them from Snapchatting the songs anyway. It ended up being fun anyway, even if it wasn't as good as the Taste of Chaos set. Chris invited the guy from Sorority Noise to play one of his songs in the middle which was cool. I need to listen to them more. We went back to my car and definitely didn't realize the keys were in Becca's car the whole time.

Jan 22, 2017

After sleeping late, but not really sleeping in since we went to bed at 3am, we got up wanting pancakes. We found a quick and easy recipe and (mostly Becca) cooked up some blueberry flapjacks. I cut the perfect square of butter for the photo so I helped. It was just what I wanted for breakfast while we watched some Love. Becca had to go to a child's birthday party so I worked on photos and just hung out.

Even though it was dreary and misty out all day we decided to go for a run at Parvin. It ended up being great. We ran a little over 4 miles, partially in mud, but if it wasn't for the darkness and other obligations we would have run farther. I felt great. When we got back I devised a way to record Becca's class so she could do it later. I spent time editing and she studied for a while. We watched another episode of Love and then I headed home to do laundry and get to bed.

Jan 21, 2017

We started the day with yoga at Heart Beet Kitchen. April was our instructor and we did a great flow class with some poses I couldn't quite hold, but I enjoyed it all. I was feeling the squats immediately afterward, and after smelling the delicious food the whole time we finally got to the real reason we got up at 7:30am on a Saturday to drive an hour: the BLT. And it was worth it.

We came home and spent the rainy afternoon working on our respective things at home. Becca studied and worked on flash cards while I went through photos and did a lot of editing. The cats helped by sitting on us randomly.

I picked up Chuck and we headed to Cape May Brewery where Tracy and Mike and met us a short time later. We did a couple flights to try the handful of beers we hadn't had before. The Erosion sour was pretty good, but not as tart as the Corrosion. The Snag & Drop double IPA was really good, and there was a mixed berry pale ale that we all agreed tasted like Fruity Pebbles.

We went to drinking pints because we never do that and we know what we like now. We alternated getting the Three Plows IPA and the Corrosion. It's a really interesting story; just ask Chuck. We discussed our differing definitions of ski trail difficulty while we tried to come up with a plan to go skiing soon. After one last beer the place was closing down so we headed out.

We made a quick stop at the liquor store for Chuck to pick up a 6-pack of the Cape May King Stomp Porter that he was enjoying at the brewery and then headed back to Becca's to play Wii for a bit. We started playing Mario 1 on the emulator, but we quickly decided to move to Super Mario World.

It became clear that we were getting through the game tonight by playing all the levels. Chuck and I debated the point of the game, where I believe it's to spend time and enjoy it, he kept saying he could just use the warp to get to the end faster. It was a good semi-drunk discussion. There were some levels that seemed much harder than they should have. By the time we were done it was really late so I took him home and came back to get to bed.

Jan 20, 2017

I woke up feeling surprisingly good, but I hit construction and got behind a school bus on my way to work at Vineland Memorial so I got there a little late. Luckily I was still very early for the meetings and I had a very easy day where I got a lot of file organization done on my hard drive. The worst part was when I was in for the gym teacher. The classes were huge and incredibly loud.

After being home for a bit and stopping at Becca's for a short time I headed to the Fillmore again for Frank Turner. He started the set with his new song "Sand in the Gears" which is about standing up for what you believe in and fighting back even more for the next four years under the new president who was inaugurated today. It was a perfect day to see Frank and hear that. "Let's be the sand in the gears for the next four years."

The rest of the set was perfect as The Sleeping Souls joined him. As always it was energetic, hilarious, and heartfelt. I was closer to the back of the crowd for the show and halfway through Staci found me so we got to hang out and dance with the one other person in that area that was dancing around having a good time. I always feel great after leaving a Frank Turner show.

Jan 19, 2017

I lay in bed for a while in the morning after waking up early enjoying the morning and watching some shows before finally accepting a job around 9am. I worked at Bacon School in a resource room, and it was an easy day. Dave came over, we picked up Tracy and Christie then met Chuck at Barnes & Noble to head to Barcade. We got some good beers before Tracy and Christie headed to the Fillmore for Anti-Flag.

Dave, Chuck, and I stuck around and played some games and had some more beers. We played Mortal Kombat and Double Dragon, and I played a little Ms. Pac-Man. I drank a couple more beers quickly before leaving and I was feeling good for the Reel Big Fish.

We got into the Fillmore just as the Fish were playing their first song and we headed up front. They played a few songs before getting into playing Turn the Radio Off in its entirety.

Dave and I had a good time dancing for most of the show. I went over and danced with Chuck a little bit on the fringe of the pit. It was an appropriately long set and it was a ton of fun. I really like that they put the full album in the middle of two other little sets.

Jan 18, 2017

I worked CST meetings at Memorial for the first part of the day. I was in the gym for Kessler for the whole time. Adrian was subbing also and we got to talk during one class which helped it go by quickly. There was a lot of little off time, but I went home at noon since Kessler had off afterward. I went to get my thumb x-ray at CDI later and had to sit and wait for a while. I watched Obama's last press conference in the waiting room.

I met Becca at Parvin for a run since the rain had stopped and it was relatively warm. I ran in shorts and t-shirt and I felt really good the whole time. I ran an 8:14 pace which made me happy. I want to get back into running longer and faster.

We got showered and headed to The Abbaye for Sterling Pig's U Buy the Glass Night. We started with the Shoat Pilsner and Pata Negra, both of which were really good. The Simcoe IPA, Saison du Cochon, and Piggy Stardust tripel were all good as well. Our waiter was awkward, but nice, and he kept commenting on the fact that we didn't want whichever beer he brought over in the pitcher. Becca and I shared the wings and a cheesesteak, both as good as always. It was nice sharing it and not feeling like I had to finish the sandwich or pick one of the two. The best part of the evening was Jorge walking by at the end with a pitcher, pointed at Becca's glass then to her, raised his eyebrows, then made the cut off sign with his hand across his neck. It was silently hilarious.

Jan 17, 2017

I took my computer and hard drive to work and spent the day editing photos from the weekend. The Spanish teacher I was in for didn't leave anything for the students to do so I didn't bother putting in any effort either. I let them do whatever they wanted while I did what I wanted.

I went to the doctor after work for my thumb. It was the total opposite of last time. I got in really quickly. I met my mom for dinner at Kawa and had some delicious yellow curry then went next door to Yogo for some dessert. I went home and relaxed and got to bed early again.

Jan 16, 2017

We got up and made our way to Cornell University for sunrise. It's a gorgeous campus with historic buildings and great views of the town. We wandered around for the better part of an hour checking out the architecture and admiring the light as it appeared on the brick facade of the tower. Another nice start to a day and a good walk on the hilly grounds.

We had about two hours of driving down to Ricketts Glen State Park in PA. The trail was immediately icy, but this time there was a lot of snow to go along with it. The gorge trail was marked to stay off unless we had proper gear like crampons and axes, but we felt like we would be fine and could make the decision to turn back if it seemed dangerous.

The waterfalls were insanely beautiful covered in snow and ice. I can't believe I've never come here in winter before. This is another example of a place I didn't think could get any more beautiful, but here I am proved wrong again. We spent a lot of time at each set of falls admiring and photographing them from different angles.

The trail did end up getting a little precarious at times, but we both made it without incident. I am impressed even more with the Yaktrax after this. We decided to do the whole loop, which probably made it about 6 miles total, but it definitely didn't feel that long with so much to see.

Toward the end we were able to get behind this waterfall that was almost totally frozen over. The view from behind the ice looking down on the glen was so amazingly unique. We couldn't have been happier to get to see all of this.

Sadly we had to leave eventually, but some cake batter/chocolate twist from Vegan Treats cheered us up. We sat there eating the ice cream that the guy "poured too high" which we both agreed wasn't possible and no one would ever care. It was delicious and we each picked up another little treat for later. The drive home seemed super long in traffic and we stopped at Trader Joe's in Philly for groceries before heading back home. Just grocery shopping on the weekend like average people.