11 posts tagged “december”
As I enjoy the bottom half of my first ever Sam Adams Black Lager, I'm finally relaxing after what has been a ridiculous past five weeks. I spent pretty much every waking moment of my 23rd December in my office and by the time the 22nd arrived, I couldn't wait to get in my car and get out of Miami for a while. My thoughts and feelings about this city are cyclical and extreme. As much as I love new experiences, it is really tough for me to not be home. I guess I go through these periods where the romanticism of leaving everything behind wears thin. There's dozens of factors I think about each day, but at the end of each day I am 100% committed to making this Miami era of my life one I'll look back on and point to many good things in my life as a result of it. That's not to say I won't be happy trying to rock out on every experience. After all I am 23. Regardless of my age, I imagine always being a hopeless romantic when it comes to road trip. That said, it should come as no shock I chose to drive home and for the most part had a blast doing it. Now Miami to Bayonne is supposed to be roughly 20 hours, so when I departed at 9:37 p.m. Monday and arrived 6:20 Tuesday night, I know I'd really just kicked the shit out of the east coast. After getting onto 95 north in Miami just after 9:45, I didn't stop (besides for gas) to sleep until 6:30 in the morning Tuesday in South Carolina. I woke up and shook off my shivers (it was 33 degrees when I woke up in my passenger seat) and got right back on the road. From there I stopped to grab breakfast at 10 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina at this legit Jersey-style diner called the Highway Diner right off 95.
"Nobody likes you when you're 23" - Blink 182, - "What's My Age Again?"
It took me a while to get some of these photos together because I only took a handful of them myself. So a December blog in January? Sure. The countdown is at five! Here's some stories and pictures from last month.
Alissa and I spent a wet cold day in New York City together right before Christmas. We took the PATH into the World Trade Center and we took a walk over to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was cold and a little breezy but undeniably pleasant. Most of these pictures I stole from Alissa.
We walked into beautiful Brooklyn Heights as kids were just getting out of school. We grabbed lunch at this restaurant where we both got delicious burgers before Alissa started talking Greek to our waiter. It was really good. We walked along the park on the top of the BQE before eventually making our way back across the long Brooklyn Bridge span. Once back on the busy streets of Manhattan we caught a #4 train up to Union Square and checked out the holiday vendors in the park before making our way down through the East Village. We both bought awesome winter hats on Saint Mark's which we both needed because it was raining and getting colder. We entered on 3rd Avenue cold and wet and by the time we popped out on 2nd Avenue we both had stylish new hats, an umbrella and Alissa had a new pair of ear-plug-piercing-things...I know nothing about piercings.
Despite having our feet cold and soaking wet, we were determined to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. We did that just before taking a nice warm 6 train downtown back to the BK Bridge. After a short walk back to World Trade, we were back in Jersey. I had a blast despite being freezing and soaked the entire day, I knew in the back of my mind it'd probably be the last day I fully dedicated to New York City before moving, I'm stoked we did that...
I kept it local this New Year's Eve. This was the first time in four years where I didn't have to work on either New Year's Eve or New Year's Day so I took advantage. Sal was nice enough to have us over to all hang out and that was a really great time...definitely one of the best New Year's I've ever had...
I look like Head-Floating Doctor in this picture...
2007 was the best of my life and this was the perfect way to bring in a new year...
So it's been a while since I've written what I consider to be a real entry. I'm sorry, I'm online and a few beers deep fully intent on rectifying this situation. Things for me have been pretty weird and crazy the last two or three weeks. My countdown to moving currently stands at a mere ten days! I'm really right up against it so to say. I'm excited to move and exponentially more excited to start school. Me moving from New Jersey to North Carolina to race is like a punk moving from Kansas to the Lower East Side, you're just dropping yourself in the epicenter. I'm stoked. That being said, the people I'm going to miss the most have stepped up to spend time with me which I appreciate beyond words. Alissa and I have been spending a lot of time together which has been a blast for me. We've always been really close friends despite living forty minutes apart. When you see someone once in a while you usually see one side of a person, but when you start seeing them more often you see their different moods and actions, you hear their thoughts and observations. A lot of my friendships have hit walls in this situation, I'm stoked this one won't. In fact the past two weeks or so have left my mind in this referendum of my friendships. I'm not going to get into it, some parts are messy, the ones that aren't messy, well, those people know it. In other words: my friends know who they are. Nobody wants to part ways on bad terms so people that know I'm leaving have been nicer to me which is a plus. That said, I wonder where my life would be without NBA doubleheaders and sitcoms in syndication because a large amount of people I've known my whole life have seemingly fallen off the face of the planet in the past year. Again, for the most part things around me are good, I'm speaking mostly about the people I work with and how I'm really cool with 95% of my coworkers. Some people at this age find themself doing something they love, I'm not one of those people. After I stop delivering I don't want to hear the words pepperoni or crust for at least three weeks.
All that rambling being rambled, the past few weeks have been awesome. Going back about three weeks Sarah and I took a ride to Camden, New Jersey to check out the State Aquariam. She told me a story I found hilarious about asking for driving directions one time she was in Camden. I should mention that Camden is often pointed at as being the most dangerous, violent city in the entire United States. She pulled into a store to ask for directions and the conversation went like this:
Sarah: Hi, could you tell me how to get to the Electric Factory in Philly?
Employee: Get back in your car right now and get out of this neighborhood.
I found that hilarious.
We made our way into Camden and drove through it's old yet charming streets before paying an outrageous $8 to park at the aquariam. We did see some pretty sweet aquatic life, here's some of my favorite pictures.
These are two hippos, one is hiding...
This is a jellyfish tank. It's lit with this neon-ish blue light that really let's you see all the intracacies of the jellyfish.
This is a crazy huge crab that I'm pretty sure could take off a human toe with no problem...
These are nurse sharks...I want to swim with them.
Things that live in the sea are almost alien, you would just be amazed at the life that exists under the sea.
A lot of these pictures are of creatures that are in this one huge oceanic tank which is the largest on the continent.
The aquariam is pretty cool and it's something I really wanted to do before I moved. It's absolutely huge and just when you think you've seen the weirdest thing something else catches your eye. If you live in New Jersey or eastern Pennsylvania I think it's worth a day of your time. It was $19 to get in which is pretty pricey, $15 would have been a little bit more suitable. The aquariam is the center piece of the project to revitalize the waterfront of Camden. Driving from Philly into Camden and to the aquariam is really easy and you don't really go through any rough parts of the city. Be prepared for the $8 in parking fees which is insanely ridiculous. All in all Sarah and I had a really great time. I kind of felt like a little kid on a field trip all over again.
Look at these crazy lobsters! They have these sharp two-foot long antenna which they use to joust. Crazy.
They have petting tanks for sand sharks, jellyfish and stingrays. Sticking half your arm into a tank of water filled with any kind of carniverous aquamarine life is the most unnerving thing to do as a human being and it goes against every innate notion you have.
The coolest part of the aquariam is this crocodile. This is hopefully the closest I ever come to one.
Oh, and here's some penguins that were hanging outside in the windy cold Jersey day.
At least two more Voxes coming before the big move...
Hey everyone. It's a snowy Sunday morning here in north-eastern New Jersey and when I woke up I couldn't help but be happy to see some white. Something about the winter and about Christmas-time gives me a sense of innocence. I think innocence is one of those things that you don't realize you miss until five or six years after it's gone and you become jaded with life's more cynical realities. All in all something about this time of year makes me feel not-so-blase about the world around me.
It was an up and down week for me. After work last Sunday night I wound up getting dinner with Sarah at the diner in Bayonne before feeling like taking a drive. Despite the bone-numbing cold wind and pouring rain I felt like seeing the ocean and when it's the week of your birthday you can coax anyone into doing anything for you. We got in my car and took a ride down to Eatontown where we got some really great coffee at this cool place Emma told me about called the Inkwell. It was cool, a really nice place to have a conversation. As I enjoyed my french vanilla hot chocolate I was wearing an Ergs shirt and our server Andy told us they were playing an unannounced show down at Asbury Lanes that night. Thank you, Andy! We got back into the Pimpala and drove my favorite stretch of Ocean Boulevard down to Fourth Avenue and sure enough, there was a birthday party and the Ergs were playing. After talking down the price of a lane Sarah and I started to bowl.
Here's how to spend a perfect night at Asbury Lanes:
$5 cover to see three bands.
$2 for a half-tray of totz!
$5 to bowl all night (with shoe rental).
$3 Yuenglings all night long.
The Ergs were great as usual. They were playing the movie Dirty Work on the screen behind the stage and the band would just say lines from the movie in between songs, it was hilarious. After the show was over Sarah and I walked down Fifth Avenue to the ocean because I was determined to feel the ocean for my birthday. Needless to say, the ocean was cold but it was 100% worth it!
I woke up the morning of my birthday feeling pretty stoked but yet admittedly apathetic about activity. I went to dinner in Fairfield with my Mom at Jose Tejas. Upon writing that, I will now refer to the Tejas in Fairfield "Jose Tejas North". After filling myself with blackened chicken fingers, chicken enchilidas and some Sols, I got back to the house and passed out! I wound up waking up and going out for a few drinks with Billy and friends. It was cool. I woke up the next day (Tuesday) with a toothache that has been bothering me on and off for the last few weeks. Long story short, I walked into a dentist office for the first time in five years (I take really good care of my teeth) and an hour later I had two less teeth in my mouth. I had to have two left-side wisdom teeth pulled. The operation wasn't bad but the next two days would really suck, Vicoden and sleep became my two best friends and it turns out, one leads to the other. I called out of work Thursday and suffered through a short shift on Friday. All in all it took about seven full days for things to get back to normal with my mouth. The reason I'm buzzing through this week is because anyone that really knows me knows that the human mouth really grosses me out, it just does...one of those things...salivary glands make me puke.
It's been a crazy month!
On Friday the 7th; Josh, Hal, Nick, Evan & Ed threw another great party. The theme was underwear and lingerie...
I love waking up in a house with the aura of the party still in the air the next morning... (Kinda like in Fight Club when Edward Norton talks about the floors of buildings still wet with the sweat from fights the night before...)
You wake up completely out of it...
You step across a person sleeping on the floor in the hall on the way to the bathroom...
You walk down the stairs and are hit with the aroma of stale, warm beer and half-eaten food...
On Saturday the 5th, Nora and I went to the Izod Center to see the Nets play the Knicks and I had the largest man sitting right infront of me;
Yea pretty much...the Nets lost too.
On Saturday the 15th Ashley Campanaro suprised me with a basketball game at the Garden: Knicks vs. Nets!
The Nets lost again but afterward we walked through a snowy New York City and got coffees, it was good.
Lastly on Saturday the 1st I got to check out Chris McLaughlin of the Lawrence Arms and Chuck Ragan formerly of Hot Water Music play a show together at Knitting Factory in NYC. Chris was awesome, he played a few Lawrence Arms songs. Chuck was good too, I just didn't know all that much of his solo stuff.
Merry Christmas everybody!
Part II coming soon...
So for the first time I actually am feeling a little aged. Albeit, it's 22...and I'm not even there yet. Next Monday is my 22nd birthday and I have no idea what I'm doing. I do know that this might be the first time I've flipped a calendar to December and not gotten really stoked about my birthday. Maybe I'm getting old and maturing (yea ok) but I think it's because January 15th is the date I'm really focusing on. I'm moving and I'm pretty anxious. Calling for apartments for some reason makes me nervous, I don't know.
The past few days have been good for me. I know I've been slacking on my Voxing but I've been keeping busy. It's been absolutely freezing here which I guess is a given but it somehow caught me off guard. Despite the freezing cold Dan and I are still pulling off all-night basketball games like we did Saturday and again last night. It's a good time, especially when we involve current kite racers Rick and Alex. It's good to hang around those two guys again lately. And as for Dan, the only time he ever agitates me (very slightly even) is playing basketball which I find to be actually fun anyway so it works out. I went through a long stretch of time thinking "if for some odd reason I were to find myself getting married this weekend, who'd be my best man?", and it's good to know I've got someone solid now.
Speaking of marriage I got to hang with a slightly under the weather yet still lovely Alissa Stampoulos last night at the Americana. She's one of the people I will really miss so much it'll hurt. Before I drove to the Americana I also got to hang out with Emma in Long Branch where we practiced our fatness eating twice in the course of less than an hour. Regardless, she's 'babely' and it's ok. Yesterday was a good day.
The world of sports for me has been hanging on one word that Curt Schilling titled a blog after perfectly: Santana? That's right, I am insanely intrigued by what the Red Sox do in this situation. I absolutely love Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Bucholz and Jon Lester as a fan and can't imagine what it's like to be shopped around as players are. This is how I think about this trade; there is one starter in the American League who I could see going pitch for pitch with Josh Beckett and it's Johan Santana. If you have the chance to assemble possibly the best five-man pitching rotation in the history of baseball (Beckett, Santana, Matsuzaka, Schilling, Bucholz/Lester) than I think you have to do it. I won't lose sleep with Coco Crisp as the Red Sox CF next season because he is my #1 defensive CF in all of baseball. When it comes to being a rabid baseball fan, I don't lose sleep anymore because Theo Epstein is the best GM in baseball and I know if this trade leaves a minute hole somewhere in the Sox organization, he has a plan to effectively fill it.
Nora and I are going to see the Nets play the Knicks tomorrow in what be my first trip to the 'new' Izod Center. I haven't been to a Nets game this year so I'm pretty excited. It's a big game for both teams, maybe the Knicks beating us in our house will get that taste of 45-point-ass-whooping-at-the-hands-of-Boston taste out of their mouths. I hope not. Richard Jefferson of the Nets is having a career year which is important because if we find ourselves completely out of the playoffs in the East come the deadline, we'll get a lot in return for any of the Big 3.
I currently rank the teams in the East like this:
1) Boston (Garnett may be MVP, they're in their own world right now)
2) Orlando (Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy is laughing at Pat Riley)
3) Detroit (see Perrenial)
4) Toronto (if Ford, Bargnani and Bosh can heal up they can play with anyone except Boston)
5) Cleveland (getting back LeBron and Varajeo is key)
6) New Jersey (Richard Jefferson career year, Sean Williams making impacts, VC and Kidd need to stay healthy)
7) Chicago (Hinrich what is happening?)
8) New York (better than Indiana, Atlanta, a Gilbert-less Washington, Wade-less Miami. Randolph and Curry; strong)
Is anyone else day-dreaming of a Boston/San Antonio series?
Is anyone else day-dreaming of a Beckett/Santana-led rotation?
Will the Steelers beat the Pats?
As a Jets fan I'm happy we escaped the possibility of being the only team Miami beats this year.
I couldn't tell you a thing about the NHL this season.
Is it Speedweeks yet?
Has anyone ever coined the phrase "self-conquest"? If nobody has I wish to because for some reason I've felt so much weight lift off my shoulders. I don't know what happened to me this year, I mean I can think of about six or seven reasons of why my year sucked but I feel right now. I feel like I went twelve rounds with the toughest battle I've ever met head on and won. I'm just sick of feeling like I'm not in control of my own life. Some things you can't control but conquest comes with understanding, rationality and that stiff upper lip. That ability to take anything on the chin and think "that's all you've got..?" I feel like I've woken up from a nightmare. Life has been haunting me for the past fourteen months. When you've let things like money, bills, work, heartache, loss, jealousy, distrust, narcicism and hate into your heart and soul they will tear you apart from the inside out, trust me. I don't mean this to come off as some redundant victory speech about my experiences but I feel free for the first time in so long. I'm sick of my regrets and I've learned my lessons, one of them being that if some people don't want to be in your life than fuck 'em. I've learned I've made mistakes, taken people for granted, been selfish, been over-expectant, too proud, too annoying, too forceful, too reliant...fuck that... And I've changed for what I believe is the better and I feel centered again. I'm not all over the place like I've been, I can see who and what is here for me in one way or the other. I keep wanting to branch out and I've noticed when I'm with or talking to some people that I'm not searching anymore, that's right where I am is where I want to be. I think that that is the best thing one person can say to another, and from now on shall be my highest compliment.
Tonight I had to work at the Apple. It poured and it was busy all night and being that it is a holiday night, I didn't make as much as I thought I deserved. Find another person that bitches at $22 an hour... Tomorrow is the Christmas party, I'm looking forward to it. I really like some of the people I work with, some. There are some people that are that "Hysterical Blindness" representation of this town. Tonight after work I came home and showered before going to The Rock for Dave's birthday. It was pretty cool, that place is so loud and gets so packed that Matt and I left at like 12:40 for the diner. It was cool to hang with Mags, Matt, Dave and Sal for most of the night. This girl Leigh Ann I had the only crush on in grammar and high school was there which was cool. I wonder if she remembers me...we used to be friends years and years ago but just grew apart. I just see a crowd of people that I can't ever fit in with when I go out here, I don't know. And I'm not speaking about my friends just people that I don't know even though I recognized them from living in this town forever. The music in the bar was horrible and so loud but it was alright because the last song the DJ played as Matt and I split was "Show Me What You Got" by Jay-Z which has been my only jam this week. P.S. I'm the whitest dude ever. Last minute shopping tomorrow, Sal's, B.A. party...
"I am the Mike Jordan of recording" - Jay
I wish I had the ability to show some people how grateful I am for them. It's the way that good friends always come through for each other, and you might not realize it at that immediate moment but hours or months later you realize you've taken away a lesson. I wish for the health and happiness of my friends and that I was able to contribute an ounce of myself to their lives in a positive sense. Friendship through these years are really difficult sometimes. And if you deny it you're wrong, you know it. I just think that you can try out all of the sides of yourself that you want in your late teen years into your early twenties. Some people change, be it for better or for worse, temporarily, momentarily or permanently. I guess you just have to trust that the core of a person never changes and if they're important to you, than in one way or another that that good will always find a way to shine through.
There's other things I'd like for Christmas such as an uncut version of Garden State. And yes I know, that's twice in two days I've mentioned that movie but I've watched it twice this week and today was the first time I watched the deleted scenes. One scene I wish had made the movie is where Andrew and his father are talking in the room where Andrew's mother drowned. It's all dialogue but the acting is amazing, so much so I stopped moving and was just hanging on the next line. If you have the movie on DVD, watch it with the commentary on and then off. Does anyone have any movie suggestions? Among other things one thing I want to do in 2007 is see history's great movies. Something I never really had a huge interest in and any girl I've ever dated can attest that it took a lot to get me to go see a movie.
I'm a little under the weather and really don't feel like working tonight. The more I do my job the more I see the nonrelevance of it to anything I want to do outside of the money aspect.
Yesterday a board in Brooklyn approved the Atlantic Yards development of a new Nets' arena. Complete with an arena, office towers and apartments by 2009. Apartments, eh? It'll be the first professional sports team in Brooklyn since the Dodgers left in 1957. I guess I'm stoked about it. If you go to Continental Airlines one night and go to The Garden the next the difference is immeasurable. I'm excited about the idea of possibly having a home in Brooklyn at some point in my life. I guess I just salivate at the thought of living somewhere so alive. As for today, working in the rain, brilliant...
A week in review...with a birthday thrown in the middle...
The past seven days and nights have been pretty fun. Most of my friends have been in turmoil stressing over finals and deadlines, and being that I'll be in that same personal academic hell starting again next semester I decided to use this week to it's fullest. December has been beautiful. It's had it's cold streaks and rainy nights but for the most part it's been unseasonably warm and sunny. I'll start this with last Wednesday. My uncle Lawrence and I took a trip over to midtown Manhattan because he wanted to do something for my birthday. We went to see "The Wedding Singer" right off Broadway on 43rd Street. Going to a play/musical was probably the last thing I had envisioned myself doing, just didn't seem like my thing. Well, the play is set in Ridgefield, New Jersey and it actually deviates a lot from the movie, especially in the second act. I really enjoyed it and Stephen Lynch was hilarious as the lead. It was good, one of those things where I was proved wrong. I need to trust people more than I do...
After we left the theater we took a walk over to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and say a quick prayer at Saint Vincent's. I took some pictures...
After we left The Rock we walked down Fifth Avenue talking about The City and the history of the General Electric building. If you look at the GE at the top of the building, that's the only time that GE ever used that logo. That script logo that's on all their products now is the only logo that they've ever used. I found that interesting. As we turned down Fourtieth I was telling my uncle about how when I'm in Manhattan I feel more comfortable than I do in Bayonne, or anywhere else around here. A place that finally matches my speed. We checked out the Christmas shops in Bryant Park as well as the ice rink, then we picked up the car. We drove down Seventh Avenue to Houston and decided to grab dinner at Katz's. A chocolate egg cream, steak fries and a pastrami on rye with mustard equals heaven...
We took a lap down to Delancey and back up Ludlow to the car and headed back to Jersey. I wound up staying up at home until around 1 when I passed out after Scrubs. I woke up at 7:45 Thursday morning and went and grabbed breakfast up the block, it was beautiful out...
I did some laundry and straightened up the place a little bit but wound up taking a nap for two hours until 3:30 because I had to go to work. Friday was the same, I straightened up stuff with school and figuring out where I'm going to next semester, it looks like NJCU. The commute to Brooklyn every day would drive me crazy, plus if I had a huge gap in between classes I'd kill myself. So Saturday morning I woke up at 7 to get ready for my placement tests, which made NO sense to me being that I'd already completed more than 15 college credits but whatever. After that I came back to the house before Paula and I headed out to Hoboken. I cut all my hair off and I haven't shaved in two weeks, it's really different. So much so that in these past three days I haven't been id'd for drinking. We ate some McDonald's and came back to Bayonne around 3. I left for the Galaxy in South Plainfield at around 4:30 to see Racing Kites. It was the last night of their tour and I hadn't seen them in almost a month. Every band that played before them was horrible. One was a hardcore band with a guitarist, drummer and two keyboardists. OH MY GOD! It was really bad...
"This is torture, I feel like I'm in 'Saw'". - Dan Boyce
RK played really good, it was actually my first time seeing them play as a band, isn't that some shit...
We left the venue around 11 and headed to the Applebee's in Manalapan. We waited for company then got sat. Our boy Gary upon hearing that it was almost my birthday promptly bought Alex, Dan and I shots of Jack, Jim Beam and Johnnie Walker which almost killed us. It was a blast, thanks to everyone that called me after midnight I really appreciated that. We left a little after 1 in the morning and I was exhausted. I wound up grabbing a sleeping bag and a pillow out of the RK tour van and slept in the back seat of my car. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, my backseat is pretty comfortable. I woke up to the sun coming up at 7:20 Sunday morning before I got gas and headed back up to Bayonne. I got back and laid down for a bit but as soon as I closed my eyes Sal was calling me and I so I got up and got ready for the Jets' game. Megan picked me up and after we packed the car at Sal's we left for Giants' Stadium. We started cooking and drinking at about 10 a.m...
The game was awesome even though the Jets lost. There was a kid who wore a Patriots' hat and sweater and sat down five rows ahead of us, tisk tisk, buddy. After hearing it from the crowd for the first half of the first quarter some kid infront of us got up, walked down the isle and took his Pats hat right off his head and threw it over the mezzanine which drew a loud applause from the section. I hadn't been to an NFL game in probably two years, and Major League Baseball was the only thing I didn't go see live this year. All in all it was fun although they went a little overboard with the fireworks...
We left the stadium and headed back to the car and fired the grille back up while the parking lot slowly emptied out. That parking lot gets insane! As Sal, Meg and Tim were cleaning up I decided to start a fire...
We left the parking lot around 9 and came back to Bayonne. I stopped at the house to change and my parents gave me their gifts, it was pretty sweet. I got dressed and Matt and I left for the East Village to meet up with Spanish Rob at the Continental.
Thank you guys so much for coming out to have a few drinks and some Mexican food. Matt and I made our way down to Iggy's on Ludlow and had a PBR while we played some Bouncing Souls, Dropkick and the Smiths on the jukebox. We called it a night and came back to Bayonne. I finally slept more than five hours into Monday. I woke up and realized it was about sixty degrees outside. My mom and I went to lunch at Jose Tejas down in Woodbridge which was sweet. After we left we took a ride down to Sandy Hook and went for a walk on the beach because...well just look...
These next two are from Mount Mitchell in the Highlands...
When we got back to the house I made a call and Suzanne from the Nets got me really sweet seats for the game against Memphis that night so I made the drive out to East Rutherford to get my ticket and then to the arena for the game. It was cool, those games are the ultimate relaxation. Yesterday (being Wednesday) I made my spring schedule at NJCU. Every time I'm on that "campus" I can't wait to leave. Is that bad lol? I don't know, like I had wrote before I'm hoping that something more positive than I anticipate will happen. Life is weird. I know I'm also not looking forward to going to work tonight, nor tomorrow night. I'm pretty much really really really sick of working. But yea, whatever. Maybe I'll write again before the end of this week, I still have to send Sarah that package...fuck...