6 Degrees of Me or The Human Facebook

So I have been posting blogs of things I have done on a weekend or a vacation or the whatnot, but a not-so-new idea has come to my head and it is pretty practical in these high gas price days, I am talking about ride-share or car-pooling. So I have been posting ads on Craigslist to share a ride whenever I go to Boston for class but with no lick no one sane (or did not read my ad close enough) responded to my ad to either come with me to Boston or back to NYC. Again I posted an ad on Craigslist and it was a little more vague (I guess) and I had a few more responses. I know I can be wordy and long-winded in my writing, but I like LOTS of details, just so there are few questions. I weeded through the three or four responses and picked the best suited one for a ride share and what do you know GOOD PICK! Now before I start with my ride-share story I will say this, I know of LOTS of people (it seems,) and I almost always can find a connection to most people a whole lot of the time. Well this guy comes meets us up in the Bronx and we start talking, you know the small talk where yah from, what do you do for work, blah blah blah. So it turns out he is from NH...okay a nice New England guy, turns out he knows where Lewiston, ME is (he looked at Bates College,) okay fine lots of people look at Bates College right, but he didn't go (don't blame him,) and for the final coincidence, he went to a college where two (or more maybe) of my cousin's friends went to college, and he knows them. Alright so in this city of 7 million +/- I get the guy who knows people I know, and then he calls me the Human Facebook...hence the title of the blog in a weird long round-about way. AMAZING!

First ocean swim of the year, first ocean front concert, ever.

I must say anytime I have gone any other place swimming then the New England Coast (mainly Maine, New Hampshire and Mass) I have been pretty disappointed. Okay, let me rephrase that, when I go to the beach in NYC and Conn (Rocky Neck, Coney Island and Orchard Beach) I have been disappointed, so when we were going to Jones Beach on Long Island I was a little Skeptical, but let me tell you, HIGHLY recommended. The beach was clean, the water was clean, it wasn't too packed, and the water was on the warmer side. Jones Beach is such a good place, I must say there are the usual state park regulations such as no alcohol, but you can pay the almost 6 bucks for a beer at the concession stands, along with the Nathan's Hot Dog, Friendly's Ice Cream and so on. Oh the other cool thing is that there is a GREAT Music venue the Nikon Theatre.

We saw REM, Modest Mouse and The National there on Saturday. The greatest thing about this theatre is that the stage is actually in the water (on concrete of course). We of course paid for the cheap seats and sat all the way to the top of the theatre, well not the top top, but top enough. The National and Modest Mouse were good, unfortunately Modest Mouse was cut off at its last song due to, well the impending SEVERE thunderstorm. It turned out the 30% chance of of T-storms turned out to be a 100% chance and did storm, for over an hour. We saw some of the coolest cloud to cloud lightning during the REM set (and apparently the lightning did strike the theatre, sparks flew, but that has not been confirmed) and the greatest was when they came out singing "Have you ever seen the Rain," great choice for start. They also played Losing my Religion and It's the End of the World as We Know it. I personally was hoping for Shiny Happy People, but I know, there isn't a female voice, and since I know that the B-52's are on tour (since I saw them last week at Radio City), but I digress. I must say I was more enthralled by the closeness of the Lightning then the fact that Modest Mouse was playing in front of me. At one point I was told to stop focusing on the storm and pay attention to the band, oh well. I hope to go back sometime this year for a swim and maybe a concert too!

Brewery NYC Style

Yesterday was another leg of a Brewery Tour in the Northeast. I love beer and I love Microbrewed beer. I must say I was never fond of Brooklyn Brewery Beer, but my mind was changed yesterday when I went to the Brewery and went on the free "tour," and by tour I mean listening to a guy talk about beer, very disappointed about the fact that I DID NOT get to taste any of the beer for free, what is this???? I did have to pay $20 for 6 beers that I split with Jeremy. I recommend the Weiss and the Brooklyn Blast! The Brooklyn Blast was delicious and it was 8.5% alcohol really hoppy and delightful. While I was at the Brewery I was reminded of the bet between the Harpoon Brewery in Boston and the Brooklyn Brewery in NYC. The bet was that whosever team won the superbowl (Pats or the Giants) the losing team would have to put a tap of the winning teams in their brew pub. Here is the whole story so that it makes a little more sense. Anyway we all know the end of the story Giants won and so the Harpoon Brewery had a keg of the Brooklyn Lager. Well it was a really fun place, big beer hall lots of long tables, people playing cards (which led me to decide to always keep a deck of cards in my bag.)

NYC...stupid buses

I love my job and all, and I love NYC don't get me wrong but the MTA (subways, buses, etc.) could be a little better. So my commute is long and I know it's long, it is about an hour and a half between walking, subways and buses. To be exact I take three different subways and one bus. The picture above is the distance between the subway in Brooklyn and my school. Usually there is a bus that I take to get there, but there has been a slight glitch (maybe) in the scheduling the last two days because I have arrived at the bus, and there has been no bus. There has been no bus and lots of people waiting, usually more people then could safely fit on one of these buses...they can fit it is just one of those things where if the bus was in an accident...no everyone would survive, sad but true. So anyway, I pay my $82 a month and take my subways and buses, but seriously I would like a nice bus waiting for me when I get to the subway station, it is a lot to ask but whatever. So my point, I have started to walk this mile to school, and its a quick walk (about 15 min) the sad part of my walk is that the bus usually shows up at the school just about the same time I do. It is kind of sad that I could either wait that time or do what I have been doing and walk. It's great though because I am getting that exercise I need.

Swimming in Maine in May

Spring in Maine can be a little difficult to explain. Sometimes it is the greatest time of the year, but most of the time, it is not. Spring usually consists of months of rain, and whatever remaining snow there might be, and because of the apparent heavy flow of snow this winter, there is still some left, but this never discourages me from jumping in a lake this time of year. I would rather do it on that great holiday Patriot's Day (not to be confused with Patriot Day a.k.a. Sept 11). Since only Maine and Massachusetts celebrates Patriot's Day, I didn't swim that day. This year I went on Saturday, May 3rd with some other crazies from Camp Mechuwana. It was suppose to be a big thing and others were going to jump in, but alas it wasn't. The water wasn't that bad, but it was pretty darn cold. We did take a short video of our "jump" into spring. Oh and I didn't mention that it was raining, not down pouring, just a light rain, but still enough to get you wet...although that didn't matter since I was wet already.

Free Beer...IN BOSTON!

Today Jeremy and I decided to go on a little excursion in Boston, and you know it always seems you need to spend money to have fun. Well we decided against the spending loads of money to have fun so we did.

<----This first picture is the over head view of the Harpoon Brewery.

What a great experience. The one thing we liked about this place was the tasting! Since they are a smaller brewery they couldn't give a tour of the actually brewery and instead just skip to the tasting and they talk about the different beer and Liz (the woman giving the tasting tour) was really nice. I highly recommend this when you visit Boston...only if your over 21!

The second Brewery we went to was the Sam Adams Brewery---->


I must admit I was a little iffy about this place because I am not a big fan of the Sam Adams, but of course beer tastes better right at the source, so it was pretty good. This place actually gave an hour long tour and we ate some barley, it was pretty good. We also got to try some Coffee Stout which is a beer in their test kitchen and not in the market. We even got to keep the tasting glass from Sam Adams...but not Harpoon, that was 3 dollars. Overall I was pretty impressed with these two.

Two fun things to do in Boston! Check the website for times and everything.

Here is my "lazy" run of the day, but hey it's the Bronx, and it was 8pm when I went out. I am starting to enjoy running again. The best part I have found is people will cheer you on when you need it most. Twice during this short 20 min (if that) run I got cheered on. One was an older man who I was crossing and he said "KEEP GOIN BOY!" (in a happy way), and the other were these three little girls on there stoop who kept saying "Go, Go, Go, Go" and I could hear them as I passed by and I could hear them as I turned the corner.
It is so nice when strangers just do it, it makes me feel good about the world and it makes me just always want to pass it on!