What a Weekend

So, I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was great. Ever notice, though, that the more fun you have during the weekend, the harder it is to get back to the grind on Monday morning? My morning wasn't even that hard, I simply had a class visit to Georges Island, which one of Boston's harbor islands. Yet it was still nearly impossible to get out of bed at 7:40 this morning.

So let's start off my weekend recap with Friday night; it was pretty quiet. I don't even remember what I had for dinner, but I know I capped the night off with getting The Dilemma at the Redbox. Pretty funny movie.

Saturday is when the fun started. I went with Allison to her friend's lake house in Natick, celebrating his 21st birthday. We got there and had some lunch, followed by going out on the boat and doing some tubing. After an hour or so, being tired from holding on to the tube, sitting on the boat and watching others tube became more fun than actually tubing. After a short break, we went back out on the boat, but this time we brought a wake board along. The wake boarding was fun, but there was like 10 or so people, none of us had actually wake boarded before, so each person only got like 5 or 6 tries at it before moving on to the next turn. It took me a while to stand up on the board. "Knees to your chest, arms straight, butt down," was the only coaching anyone got. I stood up for a little bit on the 4th or so try, but was quickly down in the water. The next attempt I got up, and stayed up for quite a while. Before long, I was trying to get fancy and ended up going down on that before passing the board on to the next person. The thing that really surprised me about wake boarding is how hard it is to hold on to the tow rope. I kept thinking that any time my momentum would catch up to the boat and holding on would be easy. No such luck. As of today, my chest and arms are quite sore from holding on to that rope. That night we rented Hall Pass from Redbox, which was funny too.

Sunday I went down to Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA with Allison and her roommate Laura. We got lucky and sneaked into one of the last spots in the $7 parking lot and avoided paying $20 to park. Hard to not be pumped about that. The water was freezing cold, of course, but on a 92 degree day, it felt really good to jump in and cool off every hour or so.

 

 

Panorama of Nantasket Beach

That night we got a slice of pizza at Sal's and then went to the theater to see Bad Teacher. Funny how when you have no air conditioner in the summer, going to the movie theater to sit in the cool air for a couple of hours sounds really good.

This morning my water weekend continued. My Boston: the City and the Sea class, which I talked about in my first post, took the ferry to Georges Island for a site visit. It was cool to see the city skyline from the east, which is pretty hard to do for Boston. The day was cloudy, but thankfully it didn't rain. It was probably better that the clouds were out, since I got plenty sunburned on Saturday and Sunday; plus sunshine would've made it too hot. The island has a fort from the Revolutionary War period, so it was fun to explore some of the extremely dark and creepy tunnels. My friend Casey kept me company on the exploration. If it weren't for her, I probably would've chickened out on going down some of the fort's corridors. Here's another panoramic shot I took. If you can't tell, I recently downloaded a panorama app for my iPhone.

View from the Georges Island Pier

Song of the Day

Happy Friday y'all. Today's song is The General by Dispatch.

The Dreaded Hover Hand

Notice the hover hand.

We've all seen it. A guy asks an attractive girl--usually a professional cheerleader, or model, or something along those lines--for a picture. Of course, she agrees because it would make whatever organization she's supporting look bad if she declined (and let's be honest, she probably loves the attention), but one simple move makes it obvious that the guy is terrified of her: the dreaded hover hand.

The hover hand is when a guy poses with his arm around a girl, but he doesn't wrap his hand around her. It simply hovers in the air showing that he is afraid to actually touch her. What I don't get is this: you obviously had the guts to ask her for a picture, so why not touch her with the palm of your hand? It's not that hard.

Grow up, grow a pair, whatever analogy you prefer, and just rest your hand on the girl. She'll respect you more for it. If you want to see more hilarious hover hand photos, check them out here. That site is where I got the hover hand image above from. Below are some examples of how to properly take a photo with an attractive girl. Step up and be in her league. At least act like it anyway.

Age 15. No hover hand. But I bet the
kid in the back right is a hoverer.

Age 19. Still no hover.

Song of the Day

Today's song is Bama Breeze by Jimmy Buffet.

The Prep Guide to Bumper Stickers

An inappropriate amount of bumper stickers.

Something that I've been noticing for quite a while that needs to be addressed is the number of cars that I see on the road with an absurd amount of bumper stickers. The funny thing is, that while the Californian whose car is pictured here doesn't even have that many stickers compared to some cars I've seen. Let's be real though, if other drivers (I mean passengers, for safety's sake) can't quickly read the stickers on the back of your car as they pass you, you have too many damn stickers on your car!

An acceptable amount of bumper stickers.

That being said, here's a quick guide to bumper sticker appropriateness. The rule is easy: no more than four. The car pictured left (my old Jeep), actually has four stickers, but you can't see the fourth, which is a window cling, due to the tinted glass. Another guideline to follow that it's only acceptable to have one political sticker on your car. Anything more than that is just plain superfluous. Also, if your candidate loses the election, you should take their sticker off of your vehicle within six months of the election. No one else brags about losing.

If you're wondering what some good, acceptable stickers are to have on your car, here's a good place to start.

1. School Sticker: let everyone know which college or prep school you attended by having the name of your school on your back window. The most prep are the stickers that simply say the school name in one line. There is no need to remove these stickers within six months of graduation.

2. Oval Abbrv. Sticker: these stickers have really gotten popular lately. Every vacation destination, such as the MV sticker on the Jeep, is getting a 2-4 letter abbreviation and putting it on an oval sticker. If you have a vacation home somewhere, or frequently visit a certain place, let everyone know where you like to hang out with one of these stickers.

3. Sports: show support by putting your favorite team's logo on your car, or show everyone what sport you play with one of those newly popular silhouette sticker.

4. Brand: here's a chance to tell everyone about your style. I have a Vineyard Vines sticker on my car, but there are many others. The most prep choices are a favorite clothing company, or your favorite brand of boat, or fishing company.

5. Beach Permits: this is perhaps the most prep choice of bumper sticker of all. It shows everyone that you love the beach, a very preppy place, and it shows them where you like to go based on the location of the beach you're going to. Again, no need to remove these after they expire, but the back of your car also shouldn't like a history of what beach permits look like for the past twenty years.

The main thing with bumper stickers is too simply not overdue it. It's okay to let your car be an expression of its driver, but it should never be a distraction to other drivers on the road.

Song of the Day

Today's song is Memorial Day by the Dropkick Murphy's.

Man's Best Friend

Abby & Me in 2006

It's long been said that dogs are man's best friend. And why not? Dogs are great. Whenever you come home, they're there to greet you and are always more than excited to see you. Dogs do whatever they can to protect you when they feel you are in danger, and whatever they can to help you in you've been physically or emotionally hurt. There's that old joke, as well: Why do men love dogs more than women? If you lock a woman and a dog in the trunk of a car for a few hours, which one is excited to see you?

My family adopted Abby from the Humain Society in the summer of 2006, when she was just eight weeks old. She instantly became part of the family, and it really has been a blessing having her around. Now, at age five, she is still a bundle of energy and a crazy dog. Crazy in a good way.

Dogs make great companions. They are an added member to the family and I believe that they can even help sustain a marriage. Every night, weather permitting, my parents walk our yellow lab/vizsla mix, Abby, around the block. Not only are they walking the dog, but they are walking with each other. Our subdivision has a loop that is a little over a mile long, so that's 25 minutes every night that my parents spend with each other outside of the house.

Here's why I really think that dogs are man's best friend: dogs epitomize what a man wants to be. This may sound silly at first, but think about it. A dog is full of energy and can be truly happy. After a long day at work, men just want to sit down on the couch and unwind from a stressful day. During this time, things like salary, bills, and family issues are probably running through his mind. A dog can be fully happy and contempt with a full stomach and chasing a ball in the backyard. To a dog, that's as good as it gets, and as good as it can be.

Dogs also have the ability to love unconditionally. They hold no records of wrong for more than a few minutes, and are excited to meet anyone new. As men, and as humans, it's only natural to withhold entire forgiveness and not to be able to forget wrong-doings. I believe that men really wish they could love someone to the level that a dog can and be bonded for life. Just like Dug (from Disney's Up) says, "Hi, my name is Dug. I have just met you and I love you!"

What guy doesn't want to be a hero? Movies have always portrayed the knight in shining armor, and it is something that men aspire to be. A dog has the ability to scare of criminals, or pull their owner from a river just by following their instincts. Human intuition would cause us to hesitate or assess the risk involved. None of that ever even occurs to a dog.

The bottom line is, dogs are great. Even petting them helps relieve stress. Some of my favorite breeds are: labs, golden retrievers, huskies, basset hounds, and Burmese mountain dogs. If you don't have a dog at home, I feel bad for you.

"No home is complete with the the pitter-patter of dog feet."

Also, I do have three cats at home, and they're great, too.