Where, Oh Where Has My Summer Gone?

I’m not sure if it occurred to anyone else yet, but this summer easily was the quickest in recent memory, despite having an additional month off. Yeah, sure, your parents and other elders tell you this stuff about time flying, but honestly, if feels like I just got home. Now before I look forward to sophomore year of college, and somehow find a way to post a Venn Diagram on here (Katie, you’re a whore), I want to reflect back on the last few months.

When anyone asked me how my summer was going, I usually replied “Eh, pretty good.” I didn’t really feel like I was having that great of a time. Looking back, though, I did really well for myself. Some of the highlights...

Memorial Day Weekend in Erie/Niagara: Impromptu, Friday afternoon decision to visit Andy Mack for the weekend as opposed to hanging out at home and being bored (turns out I missed a killer party at Laura’s, with all sorts of random hook-ups and cell phone calls, so that almost makes me disappointed, but not quite). After renting the original Longest Yard (still haven’t seen the remake), we cruised up to Casino Fallsview and Casino Niagara Saturday afternoon and had a blast. I cleaned up at the Blackjack tables, Mack learned not to mess with slots and we both felt pretty good about the whole experience.

Sadly, thanks to Andy’s retarded pizza job, that was the last time the two of us would venture to Niagara together. I place the blame entirely and completely on him.

Taking My Sister To Look At ND…and some other stuff: To be fair, this was Tina’s trip for about three hours, but we did listen to the Wicked CD about three times on the way out. Susan, Chad and I gave her a rousing tour of Our Lady’s University, and then I got my Euchre and CornHole fix at some random lakehouse party. Saturday, with the assist of the delightful Miss Annie Thomas, DK, Chad, Tina and I surprised Christina up in Northbrook for lunch, then saw Barry Zito pitch against Mark Buehrle in the scariest baseball park and surrounding neighborhood in the country. Good times had by all.

Hittin’ Up The Dux: A fantastic time. Dill, Mack, Barcus and I rolled into Connecticut where we dropped off the latter two for an OAR concert in Long Island with Rob. Dill and I continued up to Duxbury, enjoying a quick meal at Brendan’s before heading into Boston for the Yankees/Red Sox game. After considering all the offers, we blew 375 bucks on tickets and had a blast. The next day, Rob, Barcus and Mack rejoined us for some drunken boating, followed by Awkward Donahue Family Dinner Two and a party at some random kid with an eye-patch’s house. Despite the rough start, and nearly getting into a fight with the entire party, an absolutely fantastic time.

Root Root Root For Your Home Town Team: I went to eleven Buccos game this season, replacing “Going to Every Oliver Perez Home Start” with “Going to Every Zach Duke Home Start”. I got two bobblehead dolls, two hats and was shushed by the lady sitting next to me only once. The Buccos had a record of 5-6 in games I attended, and if it wasn’t for the stupid doubleheader against the Astros, they would have finished with their heads above water. Just wait until next season….

Niagara, Round Two: Replaced Andy MacKrell with Andy Dill, same results: I win money at the blackjack tables, the Andy I’m with loses money at both blackjack and slots. Bonus fun for spending the night at Mack’s house and his dad making us breakfast in the morning.

Canton’s Calling: Got me all ready for football season, and was like the first Dolphin home game I ever attended. Any time I feel down or sad, I’ll be watching the last few minutes of Marino’s induction speech and get the good goosebumps. My dad met Sally Wiggins, I bought tickets off a guy in a Mike Nugent jersey and my father and I didn’t kill each other. As successful as a trip could be.

Cinemagical: I attended over a dozen movie screenings this summer, and that’s with me totally flaming out at the end and not seeing March of the Penguins or Hustle & Flow. I’m going to attempt to remember them all, but the memory is dicey at this point in time: Batman Begins, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Fantastic Four, Crash, Layer Cake, War of the Worlds, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and of course, Wedding Crashers, which leads us to my favorite part of summer and the next post, the ranking I’ve wanted to do for a while now….