It's Monday, and the weekend is over. This past weekend being the only weekend that I have off for the rest of the month, I certainly enjoyed it. The company was excellent too! MP arrived on Friday afternoon, earlier than I expected. The drive turned out to be a couple hours shorter for him than what the friendly Mapquest site had calculated. No complaints here about that, though.
We met at a local coffee shop, one for which the vanilla iced chai is to die for in my opinion. We chatted at a table in the back while he ate an "everything" bagel with plenty of cream cheese and coffee, black. I hadn't really had much in mind for our evening. I planned on letting him just relax. It turned out that I ended up keeping him up to the point where he was tired every night this weekend, though.
After leaving the coffee shop, we went for a walk toward the largest of the city's parks. We walked along the levy above the river and into the park. After walking a little way toward the center of the park, we took the steps down into park. He wanted to swing. It's something I haven't done in ages, literally. It's probably been ten or fifteen years since I've swung like that. It was exhilirating in an "I-don't-have-a-care-in-the-world" way. He swung much higher than I did, setting the swing out of it's natural arc several times. I thought at one point that he might try to jump out of the swing, but his foot attire (sandals) probably wouldn't have made for the easiest or safest landing.
We walked back to where we had parked our cars, and I took him back to my house. He was greeted by the three crazy dogs and my mom, nearly all at once. After he had the 5 cent tour of the house, we decided to head out for dinner. I definitely wanted to have sushi with him while he was here. We discovered that not only did we both enjoy sushi, but that yellowtail was our favorite. It was a kind of random thing, but definitely a positive thing. I picked a small restaurant that was sort of out of the way compared to all the major chain restaurants on the other side of town. He introduced to me hot saki, which I enjoyed after the first little bit. It had a different, to say the least, taste. He had sashimi, while I prefered sushi. The food was excellent. It's the first time that I've ate in at this particular restaurant. Usually, when I have a craving for sushi, I just get it to go, take it home, and sit cross-legged in my living room with chopsticks while my family looks on in amazement.
We spent the next hour or so after dinner at Wal-Mart. He needed a few things that he had forgotten, and I needed to get the ingredients for Sunday's dinner. I learned that due to his Italian background, he says a couple things a little differently than I do. It was really adorable, actually. I say "manicotti" just like it looks - with a "c" that sounds like "cat." He says what sounds like "manigut." Same with ricotta cheese. I like his way much better, actually. We picked up a couple things that he likes too including grapes (which are apparently much better in the freezer) and apple cider. Today, the remaining grapes whent home with him, as did the cider. I don't think I've ever had apple cider, but I'll have to buy some more to try it.
MP and I came back to the house briefly just to drop off the stuff that needed refrigeration. Earlier in the day, we'd decided that we would go out to the Brewery, a local bar/club/whatever you want to call it. We each had a drink on the patio, but neither of us was very impressed with the joint. The people were different. The music was wretched, ranging from hip-hop to whiny country. We finished one drink, and decided to move on to greener pastures. We walked a few blocks to Dunnigan's, an Irish pub/restaurant. I was surprised at the number of families with kids that were there. We both had a beer on the patio after opting to leave the inside were there were baseball games being shown. As we were sitting there, I could tell him was getting sleepy. He was quite strong and awake for being up so long already coupled with a nearly 9 hour drive earlier in the day.
After we returned, it wasn't long before we said goodnight to each other. I went downstairs and read just a bit before going to bed myself. Saturday was going to be an exceptionally exciting day, too. I did have to work for two hours, but it was only two hours. By the time I got there, I'd almost be ready to leave again. The morning was spent just around the house. My mom and I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast, which seemed to be an okay choice for everyone. College pre-game stuff took up the morning. I changed into scrubs just before one, while MP changed into running clothes. He took off on a run, and I went to work.
In just two hours, you wouldn't think I could get myself into too much trouble at work. Only about 45 minutes into it, though, I was bleeding on the x-ray table. Not hemorrhaging or anything, but nonetheless, bleeding. One of the doctors had ordered chest films on a cat who was in heart failure and having difficulty breathing. If I couldn't breathe, I wouldn't want to be held down to a table either. The other technician who was holding the cat let the back feet up before I could get my hands out of the way. The cat scrambled to get free, but I didn't move my hands fast enough out of her way. I have four scratches of varying lengths across the back of my left hand now - three new ones, and the fading fourth one from a couple weeks ago and a different cat. On the back of my left forearm, the dog's scratch line is fading too. I really have to look into long sleeved scrubs. This is getting ridiculous.
MP showed up at the emergency clinic at 4, almost on the dot. I was changing when he arrived. One of the receptionist's brought him back to the treatment area to wait on me. He came dressed in cut-up shorts and long-sleeved t-shirt, with a bandana on his head. He looked much better than I did in scrubs. I came out to meet him, and he smartly pulled out the antibiotic/HC ointment that I had called home to ask for after the scratch incident. I don't think he knew right away what it was for, but all I had to do was show him the back of my hand, and he figured it out.
Later that evening, we headed south to The Underground. It was a surprise for him. I had brought along directions on how to get there, but that was all. I had made sure not to tell him where we were going or why. I just wanted to get there in time for the event. He read the directions, and I sped quite a bit to get there on time. As we got closer, I could see the building from the interstate. I said, "Well, that's where we're going." I asked him if he wanted to know now, or wait until we got into the parking lot to know where we were going. He said "now." So, inside one of the books that I had in the car, I had placed a sticker for the band "Roper." It's a spin-off band of Five Iron Frenzy, with Reese Roper as the lead singer. Both of us liking FIF, and liking what we heard on the website for Roper, I had a feeling that he would really enjoy this show. It was kind of random that I even knew they were going to be in the area. A chance email and a chance viewing of the band's website, and voila, instant idea! :-)
He was definitely surprised!! What we heard of the opening bands was pretty cool. Within about 20 minutes of arriving, Roper took the stage, and played for probably about 45 minutes. The show was AWESOME!! MP saw "Jeff the Girl" there - making true the prediction that he would see someone he knew while he was here. A couple years ago, he gave "Jeff the Girl" a sock puppet named Delilah (a dragon). "Jeff the Girl" remembered. Abby, of course, is one of the other sock puppets that MP's made, and she's mine. She sits on my TV downstairs and watches over Elly the cat.
After the show, MP found Reese, and convinced him to leave a voicemail message on his brother's phone. That was awesome. Oddly enough though, for whatever reason, Reese will not sign autographs of anything. While we were there, he turned down three people that we saw, and probably many others that we did not see.
Sunday came, and my time with MP was half over already. We went to church with my family on Sunday morning. The service was really good, I thought. There seemed to be more people there than normal. After church, the cooking for lunch/dinner began. It was my goal to prove to MP and my family that I can cook. There's so many family jokes about my inability to do so, but alas, I am a fine cook, thank you very much. Before church, I'd made the filling for the "manigut." I boiled the tubes of pasta, and figured out a way to get them out of the boiling water without killing my hands. Cold water worked, even if that's not what you're supposed to do. MP cut up fresh garlic and mixed it in with the sauce on the bottom of the pans. That little act made my family keep teasing me about him "helping" with the lunch. I maintain that I cooked lunch. I stuffed the tubes of pasta, and only had problems with maybe one or two that split during the process.
An hour later, we had lunch. Garlic bread, salad, and "manigut." I heard everyone say it was "very good," so I'll take that as a success. After lunch, we went to a local jersey dairy that also has mini-golf. It was my family and MP, which was just a blast. The course ended up owing MP a couple more holes-in-one, but he did well, finishing just behind my dad. I finished two points above him. As competitive as I am, it was okay to lose to him. We had homemade ice cream afterwards, which is truly probably some of the best ice cream I've ever tasted.
I had one last place I wanted to show him before he left to go home. There is a covered bridge not far from where I live. It's old, it's kind of cool, and well, I just felt like going there. So, for the first time through the weekend, I asked him to drive. I hadn't been in his Mustang yet, and I wanted to see how it felt. My Jeep may be able to go fast, but it's not really designed to be sleek and sporty. It's big and boxy, just like Jeeps should be. Anyway, it was a nice ride, and once we arrived, it was just a short walk down and back. We talked, and checked out the part of the river flowing underneath the bridge.
The last thing I had planned for the evening was to watch one of his favorite movies, "Big Fish," directed by Tim Burton, who happens to be a distant relative of mine (bet he doesn't read this blog though). It turned out to be a very good movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it.
When it ended, we took a walk around my neighborhood, just to talk, or sometimes just to be silent. Spending those last few moments together meant a lot to me. Our friendship has definitely progressed, and I am happy to be a part of its continued development. This morning, he left. It's about a nine hour drive back to where he lives. And I spent a lazy Monday at home, reading and writing this post. I have a lot of memories of this weekend...all very positive. Tomorrow, it's back to work...hopefully something interesting will happen.
That post wasn't long enough. Just kiddin'. Glad you enjoyed your weekend.
Posted by: Jon | October 13, 2004 at 08:08 PM