Recent Exposures

Finally got to Ride with Mark from downstairs on the SMBA trails behind Skidmore this morning.  I think he was suprised at my ability.  I certainly don’t have the technical skills he does but I was able to make it over a lot of the terrain that he did.  We did a cool loop that ended on the "shoots and ladders" trail I like that has large rock formations that the trail follows and a drop at the end.  When we got to the drop Mark said he didn’t want to tackle it with his cross country bike but I just pointed it and dropped it in a classic "dead sailor" position almost crashing when I touched down… haha.  It was a great ride and I look forward to riding with him in the mornings before he has to go to work all summer long.  Hopefully by the end of the summer I’ll be able to follow him over anything that is back there.

Yesterday I went golfing at the Queensbury golf course with Emily.  I met Emily over a month ago and we have been seeing a lot of each other and enjoy each other’s company.  She’s a lot of fun to hang out with and she is new to the area so it will be fun to play tour guide with her all summer :).  Anyway.. back to golf… I suck at it.. and I warned her.  We got to the golf course at around 6pm
and were Teeing off (is that even what it’s called?) shortly after for 9 holes of golf.  I immediately wacked my ball into a swampy area…  When I went down and swung at the damn white baine of my existance I heard a loud CRAAAACK and quickly looked up to see where my ball had flown to.  Wow.. I must have really plugged it because I couldn’t even see where it had flown to.  I was so proud of myself until I looked down and saw a 6 inch deep hole blasted into the ground with my ball deep at the bottom of it!  Shit…. oh well.  I freed the ball from the muck and played on. 
    I soon became aware that I was good at hitting with the ‘woods’.  I could drive the ball very far but oddly I had to face at a 90 degree angle from where the flag was because the darn things hooked so badly.  All in all Emily was far better at her short game and the irons and wedges than I was but I was able to barely keep up with her because I could drive the ball a long ways down the green.  Neither of
us played at the top of our game and by the time we had reached the 9th hole the sun was quickly setting and we could barely see.  We had only lost 4 balls which I thought was amazing because last time I played with my ENSR buddies 3 years ago I had lost about 20 myself!  Emily and I were lacking one essential item though… beer… next time we’ll have a twelve pack to help us along. 
    After golf we had a delicious meal at the Ripe Tomato restuarant at the corner of Bay Road and 149.  My buddy Aaron Freidman manages there and my other friend Kate works behind the bar.  He gave us a couple free drinks and chatted with us a bit.  He’s a great guy.  The golf was fun and the food was terrific.  Great night!

This year Ryan Burns brought his girlfriend’s little brother James up to L.G.  I met them out last night in the village around 10:15pm and we headed to Christies for drinks.  James was having a blast at Americade despite the weather.  Ryans friend Seth also returned this year with Ryan.  I called up all the people I could (all the girls I could) for James…. Jen and Keturah from work showed up, Lindy and Jacquelin were there and Kerri showed up with her new boyfriend as well.  We had a great time
and James got pretty drunk that night but Ryan of course looked after him.  The boys took off around 2am and I followed shortly after.  While we were catching up over drinks we had a laugh about all the bikers who get so drunk that they dump their bikes in the street when they try to ride home… haha.  When I was walking back to my truck I saw exactly what they were talking about.. Check out the pic.  It was great to see them again and I hope they get the time to make another trip up here this summer. 

    After my long hike up Katahdin on Tuesday I drove down to Portland, ME to visit my buddy Ethan.  I haven’t seen him in nearly two years so it was really good to visit.  He called and told me that he and his roomate Colin (also a Bowdoin Grad) were planning to see "The Omen" that night on 6-6-06… (666) so I was definitely down and hit the gas to 90mph down I-95 so I could make it to the theatre in Portland for the 7:15 show.  The three of us showed up at around 7pm but found the show to be sold out so we decided to watch X-Men 3 instead which was fantastic.  At the end of the movie Colin realized that the 10pm Omen showing was in the same theatre so we just stayed in our seats and watched the double feature… haha.  "The Omen" turned out to be a really great film and was scary as hell (I think any movie where a child is evil is pretty freaky). 
    After the movie we headed back to Ethan’s place and I crashed for the night on the floor of his room on a cushion.  It was nice to catch up with him about each other’s lives.  He was a great roomate at college and remains a great friend.  He told me that my other roomate Ned had recently made the news when he fell into a volcanic vent on Mt. Shasta in California so I’ll have to email him about that…. (the same kid who almost died in an avalanche on Mt. Washington our Junior Year. 
    In the morning I woke up early and gave my old Professor Ed Laine a call to see if he wanted to do lunch.  Luckily he was there and was delighted to hear from me.  Ed is pretty much my inspiration for going back to Graduate school for my PhD.  I would like to essentially have the life he has in the future as a college professor, skier, and all around good guy.  We had a great lunch at the Sea Dog Brewery in Brunswick, ME.  It was great to be able to go there again and have their delicious microbrews.  He gave me a lot of great advice and he seemed genuinely happy about my choice to attend OSU in the fall.  I definitely plan on keeping in touch with Ed while I’m at OSU.  His background was in Oceanography as well and I’m sure he really wants to see me succeed. 
    So, in the 3 days that I was in Maine I finished the mountains I needed, visited old friends, and was able take my favorite professor and mentor from Bowdoin out for Lunch.  Everything worked out great!

For the past month and a half now it seems there has been nothing but rain in the Northeast (except for the beautiful weather over Memorial Day Weekend) and I’ve had a hard time finding good weather to hike in.  Wheatfields was scheduled to close this week for a few days for renovations to the kitchen so I decided to look up the weather for Baxter State Park in Maine and saw that there was a good window for weather on Monday afternoon and Tuesday to head up there and get the last of my Maine peaks including the high point of the state - Mt. Katahdin.  I checked the weather all weekend before and decided to stay over at my parents on Sunday night before heading north.
    I got an early start on Monday morning around 5am because, according to Mapquest, it was going to take 9 hours to get to the gatehouse of the park.  I ended up driving the same route I used to take to get to Bowdoin while in college there, through northern Vermont and New Hampshire to the Maine coast.  It rained the entire drive and when I got to the Maine coast heading towards Bangor I entered a sea of fog and low lying clouds that I thought were going to screw me over.  After filling my dads Ford Taurus up for the 2nd time I finally arrived at the southern gatehouse of the park at around 1:45.  I showed up with $11.50 and it was a $12 per car fee to enter the park but the nice old man at the gate said it was cool and not to worry.  He did looked concerned at the fact that I was arriving at 2pm and was planning to climb over two high summits in the park on a 10 mile hike before dark.  I assured him that I knew what I was doing, showed him my maps, my 46er patch, and told him I have climbed all over the world.  He replied, "well, looks like you definitely know what you’re doing then" with a smile. 
    Not only was it still very foggy and drizzly but when I pulled into the gatehouse I noticed something I had hoped that I could have avoided…. swarms of black flies.  The people in front of me were out of their cars wearing nets over their heads and desperately swatting the buggers off their arms and legs… I had stopped at L.L. Bean on the way through Freeport, Me and picked up some DEET repellent but then noticed in my mountaineering book that it said it would have very little effect on biting flies like Maine black flies… whoops.  Regardless I decided to continue on to the trailhead without a protective net and see what would happen which became another 40 minute drive. 
    When I got to the Marston/Slide Dam trailhead I parked and decided to get fully dressed inside the car before exiting into the black flies.  I put on my boots, my gaitors, packed my bag, filled my camelbak with gatorade I picked up at the store, and plugged my headphones into my ipod in my pocket.  I then grabbed my hiking poles popped out of the car into flies and ran about 15 feet into the woods where I had to quickly sign into the register.  From then on I only stopped for about 3 minutes the entire rest of the day.  I found that the flies were smart enough to know where hikers go but to lazy to try to keep up with them, or atleast keep up with my fast pace.  After about 45 minutes of hiking the sun suddenly appeared and almost instantaneously evaporated all of the fog and clouds.  By the time I had climbed up the steep flanks of North Brother to the ridge the sky was
completely clear of clouds - I was happily amazed.  On the other hand the trails were literally streams of running water off the mountain that I had to slosh through and they appeared very eroded as well (see pic).  I ended up at the bare summit of North Brother at 4:30, just two hours after I had left the car, 5 miles later and 3,200 feet higher.  I then climbed back down North Brother to the notch and quickly ran up South Brother by 5:15.  By this point I was thoroughly exhuasted after the 9.5 hour drive to the trailhead and the hike so I decided not to do the loop over
Mt. Coe and simply returned back down the steep trail I had climbed up to the car which proved to be very wearing on my knees.  After a very fast drive out down the dirt tote road of the park I made it into the town of Millinocket by 8pm and got a room at the local Econo Lodge.   I had a  large dinner of  chowder,  pork ribs, and chicken parmesian over pasta at a local diner before returning back to my room.  I was dead asleep by 10:45pm.
    My alarm woke me up on Tuesday at 6am to "baby got back" playing.. haha.  I ate a quick continental "shitty" breakfast at the hotel then booked it to the gatehouse so I would be able to get a parking spot at the very popular Roaring Brook campground to climb Katahdin.  Once again I found myself getting ready inside of the car before the hike and quickly outrunning the damn flies when I exited.  I headed up the Helen Taylor trail towards the knife edge and Mt. Baxter (the higher of the two summits of Mt. Katahdin).  It was a beautiful day and very warm so I found myself soaked in sweat after only 30 minutes of climbing.  After only 45 minutes of climbing I also found myself already above treeline on the ridge - Because Mt. Katahdin is so far north the treeline ends at about 3,300 feet whereas on Mt. Washington (much bigger mountain) in New Hampshire the treeline is at about 4,500 feet.  This means that visually Mt. Katahdin is a more massive mountain with more difficult terrain.  Once I went above treeline I didn’t return to treeline again until about 5 miles later.  There was very little breeze above treeline on the ridge and I found that the black flies were
able to catch up with me easier in the open air so I sprayed down with Deet and kept moving as fast as I could.  The trail quickly became a jumbled of boulders
without even a square foot of flat steeping ground (see picture of trail marked by blue slashes on left).  Everytime I put my boot down it was on an angled edge of a rock… not a good idea to be hiking alone in terrain like this.  I soon caught up to a nice fellow from Deleware who seemed the to be the only other person besides me climbing up this particular route (the harder route).  He had started an hour before me and was taking his time over the precarious terrain.  We snapped a few pics of each other climbing over the knife edge ridge towards Mt. Baxter before I continued on leaving him behind. 
    Let me take a minute and talk about the Knife Edge Ridge (click name for video). this thing was amazing.  As soon as I started climbing over it I felt as if I was back in Colorado climbing.  There were very steep drops on
either side of the ridge and one misplaced step or off balance jump could have resulted in a serious fall.  I’ve been climbing for years over terrain like this and with the help of my Leki hiking poles I’ve become an expert at foot placement so it was very easy for me and I felt confident.  There is no way in the world that I would have taken an inexperienced friend with me on this hike because it would not only pose a danger to both of us but I would have had to allow a lot more time.  Mt. Baxter
dominated the view and snow was easily seen on the steep flanks of the mountain
draining down into the beautifully blue Chimney Pond below.  I can easily say that the hike over the knife edge to Mt. Baxter was the most beautiful hike I have done East of the Mississippi and it ranks among the top 5 greates climbs I’ve ever done.  The only negative the entire day was the presence of black flies even above treeline which a strong breeze would have easily taken care of. 
    It felt so good to finally stand on the summit of Mt. Katahdin at 11:30am that day.  This was the starting point/end point (depending on the direction you hike) of the Appalachian Trial while also the high point of Maine at 5,267 feet.  This is nearly a thousand feet smaller than Mt. Washington but it
seemed so much more massive and impressive rising out of the land in the middle of maine much like the Ayers rock does in the middle of Australia.  It simply dominates the view.  There were a gathering of people at the summit when I arrived that had climbed up the easier route from their campgrounds at Chimney Pond that morning.  Everyone was very friendly and we all helped each other take pictures.  The aroma in the air was of about 10 different bug spray varieties.. haha.  I waited for a bit until the fellow from Deleware had caught up because I knew he had run out of film.  I took a few pics of him with my camera and gave him my email address so we could connect afterwards.  I quickly ate a turkey sandwich I had picked up that morning at a local store and decided to move on over the flat "table lands" towards Hamlin Peak which was next on my loop hike.  The North side of
Mt. Baxter was an easy slope down the the saddle between the two peaks and then a very gradual ascent to the top of Hamlin Peak.  I seemed to be the only one that day that cared to summit both peaks as everyone else just returned to camp or down the opposite slopes of Mt. Baxter.  Hamlin Peak was well worth the quick climb as it provided spectacular views of Mt. Baxter with Chimney Pond at it’s base.  The ridge walk down from Hamlin was very hard on my knees and I was happy when I finally
reached treeline again and the main Chimney Pond Trail that would ultimately lead me out.  But before heading down the trail I decided to run up the trail a quarter mile
to Chimney Pond Campground to check it out.  I figured that I wouldn’t be back here for a very time, if ever, so I wanted to get all the great views that I could and boy was I glad I did it.  From the pond Katahdin looms over head dominating the entire view.  I could easily see the knife edge where I had climbed up earlier that morning.  If it wasn’t for the black flies being out I would have definitely wanted to stay at the campground there.
    After the snapping a few pics to fill up my memory card of my camera I headed down the trail for the last easy 3 miles following the river the entire way.  I ran out of water about halfway down which
was fine because I was nearly out of the woods anyway.  I got back to my car at around 2:45pm, 7.5 hours after I had started, and about 13 miles later over extremely rough terrain.  It was a perfect day and I had managed to avoid the black flies fairly well throughout the day.  I am now officially done with all the peaks in Maine that I need to climb.  Hooray!!! No more 6-9 hour drives!!! I headed back into town and jumped into the hot tub of the Econo Lodge for 20 minutes to relax.  My knees were very sore and the skin on the back of my left heel had been completely torn off - about half the size of a dollar bill so I put some moleskin on it.  I then headed out of Millinocket at 4pm headed to Portland to meet up with my old roomate Ethan Bullard for the night.  What a great two days of beautiful weather and beautiful mountains - I really lucked out.

Martha’s Vineyard 2006 was a blast!!!  This year we had Jael (the host of course), Eric and his girlfriend  Nikki, Ryan and his girlfriend Erin, Leigh and his girlfriend Lindsay, Katie and Nat, and of
course myself.  We went shopping in the morning on Friday at BJ’s near Marlborough, MA and bought wayyyyy too much food!  We ended up with two of the giant BJ’s carts full of food that we then loaded into the cars and the back of my truck (See pic).  After grabbing the three kegs of Molson Ice, Sam Adams Summer Ale and Harpoon Pale Ale for the back of the truck we picked up a few sandwiches and headed back to Nat and Katie’s place to finish up packing.  We took off around 4pm to make the 7pm Ferry from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard.  We ended up driving down in pouring rain the entire way on 495.  Luckily we had thought to wrap up the food in garbage bags in the back of my truck but my bike got drenched.  We hit construction and crawling traffic most of the way but got there by 6:30.  We had forgot to grab Nat’s speaker wire for his speakers so Eric, Nikki, and I made a side trip to a Radio Shack to save the day and suprise Nat who we met up with at the restaurant near the ferry for a few drinks on Nat’s tab (what a great guy).  We then loaded our cars onto the ferry.  Nat and Katie ended up on the big ferry but Jael (who drove from Nat’s with Erin and Ryan) ended up with us on the small ferry (short bus ferry).  Lindsay and Leigh ended up on our ferry as well.  Eric and I had picked up two six packs of microbrews at a gas station on the way down (road soda’s) for the ferry ride to the island and we were crackin’ them open the entire way and eating glazed cookies we had picked up at BJ’s.  A woman in her late 30’s or early 40’s knocked on our window and informed us that people on the ferry were inquiring about the kegs in the back of my truck and were wondering if we could tap them and share the wealth.  She even said we could charge
about 10 bucks a cup… unfortunately both the cups and the taps were in Nat’s car on a ferry about a mile away from us in stormy weather at sea… haha.  The woman had a bottle of vodka which she was sharing with two older men in suites who had to take the ferry across because their plane was grounded due to weather so we gave her an empty diet coke bottle to use… haha.  Great people.
    When we got to the vineyard we pulled into a grocery store parking lot to meet up with Nat and get some ice for the kegs.  While we were sitting there a young cop walked towards us and I quietly handed the "road soda’s" back to Nikki in the back and rolled down the window a little freaked out.  He asked, "where’s the party?".  I lied and said, "Oaks Bluffs" to which he replied, "cool man, I’m following you guys tonight!" with a big grin on his face.  Island cops - gotta love ‘em.  We took off and encountered one more cop on the drive to Jael’s cottage but my radar detector let me know and I slowed down to below the speed limit until he turned onto another road… probably just checking out the kegs in the back of the truck… Glad he didn’t know about the other 6 handles of booze back there as well.. haha.  We made it to J’s camp around 10:00pm. 
    Jael’s camp is called Bratta Hlid and was given that name back when her grandparents first started visiting the island in 1925.  Before the trip Kate and Jael had found a guy to design a label for us and stitch it into clothing so we all ordered vests and hoodies and shirts with the logo stitched into it for the weekend.
    What ensued the first night for me was a complete shit show.  I had already downed a 6-pack since the ferry ride and then began slamming down Summer Ale from the keg that Eric had tapped
(Eric is a brewmaster from Dragonmeade brewery just outside of Detroit and we had managed to get a CO2 canister hookup from the liqour store to properly and professionally hook up the kegs with the guidance of Eric).  I’m not even sure what happened the first night but it involved a bit of rapping "I got a man", "busta move" and other shinanigans… such as trying to institute the "double 3 clear card" rule in asshole to no avail…   I vaguely remember running out the back door because I couldn’t put the children to sleep (I puked). 

    I woke up on Sat and was told that I was a complete mess which made me smile because it meant the beginning of a great weekend.  I also woke up with cookies next to my head… apparently I had randomly become the cookie monster on Friday night and had gorged myself on frosted cookies.  It
was a beautiful day on Sat and we didn’t see rain again the entire trip until we got off the ferry on
the way back to Nat’s.  Ryan of course became the weekend Chef which we all owe him a big for.  He cooked literally all the meals!  He also provided the laptop which we used in combination with my portable media drive to DJ all weekend with great music.  Saturday was a day of relaxation and I
took a quick drive down to the beach to check out the surfers who were riding pretty big breaks that day.  Sat night after a great dinner of kabobs that Ryan cooked up we went into town to meet up with J’s friends at a bar.  We had a few $6.50 drinks.. (yeah, you read it right) and then decided to head back to
the cottage where we had much more booze and continue to drink.  I let Nikki drive my truck that night because I was too shitfaced to do anything.  When we got back I taught everyone the dangerous card game "Bullshit Pyramid" which got everyone very hammered.
    Sunday was once again a day of relaxation.  I took Nat and Katie down to the beach so they could kayak around the bay that J’s cottage overlooks.  I then went back and picked up Leigh and Eric with the girls and returned to the beach.  Nikki and Erin decided they needed to buy a bathing suit so they took off with my truck and promised to be back in 30 mins…. 3 hours later they came back with my truck and told us a story about having to walk 5 miles to a shop because they thought a woman said it was 5 minutes away by foot but really meant by car.. .haha.  While they were gone Leigh took a walk down the beach and Eric and I got to watch Ospreys dive bombing into the water for fish over and over again.  I was so sunburned after about an hour and half that the ocean felt warm to me although it was only about 50 degrees and I was the only fool swimming in it!  Eric and I started tossing the ball around and a young kid with a better arm than both of us joined and made an ass out of Eric and I!  haha.  Finally when the girls returned and Nat and Katie showed up we packed up the Kayaks in the truck and went back to the cottage for a late lunch and chilled there for the rest of the evening.  Nikki, Katie and Lindsay meticulously (took about an hour it seemed)
set up a croquet course on the lawn and the lovers all teamed up with
me by myself (being single I felt it appropriate to take the blue ball… haha).  I don’t want it rub it in too hard but… I AM THE KING
OF CROQUET,
HERE ME ROAR.  hahahaha… maybe I’ve found my lame hidden
talent? (See pic above).   This night again
turned into a complete shit show for me but this time there were multiple videos taken of me and I apparently decided that it would be a great idea to eat a blue marker…. maybe I thought it was a cookie..
who knows!?  I must have been drunk by dinner time because I don’t even remember ripping apart the grilled chicken that was given to me with my bare hands without a plate. 
    Monday was yet another beautiful day and we all basically just stayed at the Bratta Hlid (the cottage) for the day and hung out.  We spent a lot of that day up on the roof of the cottage which is accessible via a window on the 2nd floor.  Last year I got so drunk up there that I was afraid to climb down… this year I was so drunk that I decided to climb down the chimney instead of go back in threw the window… haha.  Jael had gone into town for a bit to visit some friends and while she was gone a bit of drama unfolded but I chilled us all out with a nice game of pantless football (we had all
seen enough "brains" and "lobster claws" all weekend but when Leigh had to drop his drawers and revealed that he was going commando that day.. it pretty much took the cake).  Leigh and Lindsay had to leave on monday night because they both had
work in the morning so Jael brought them back to the ferry. We ended up having lasagna and veggies for dinner which was fantastic along with watching "40-Year Old Virgin" which someone had brought for the tv (first time it was turned on all weekend).
That night we again played Bullshit Pyramid but Eric was too drunk and passed out early.  This left Jael and Nikki to challenge the master in drinking (now remember I had been a sloppy mess for 3 nights in a row now….).  About an hour into the game Jael was almost passed out face down on the table and no one could remember what cards they had in front of them!  I ended up helping Jael into bed and passing out next to her in my sleeping bag for the night. 
    Tuesday we woke up to find Jael a little hungover and Nikki VERY hungover AND sick.  We decided to head down to town for a bit to walk around and to go to Menemsha for some Lobster and

steamers… mmm mmmm… if anyone has seen me eat a lobster they can attest to my addiction for the delicious little critters.  When we got back to the cottage the satellite tv guys were they installing the dish network and Ryan was trying to cook up the rest of the sausages and other food for us and the cable guys who of course were hours late…  After a few hours of cleaning we said our sad goodbyes to Jael and headed off to the ferry without any car accidents this year… hahahaha (I had to say it Nat..).  Both Nat’s car and mine were on the 7pm ferry across to Woods Hole and we had an uneventful yet
rainy ride back to Nat and Katies that night.  As you can see from the pictures we had a lot of trash  left over from the weekend.  I ended up taking home about 40 hamburger patties, rolls, OJ, meat and a full keg of Harpoon :).  We ended up watching Anchorman and a bit of Sin City from my Ipod over Nat’s tv while Eric, Ryan and Nat dumped the media from my hard drive on to their computers.  After about 3 hours of sleep Katie and I woke up and drove the two couples to Logan Airport at 4am so they could make their 6am flight.  After that I drove home barely awake.
    It was another great year on the Vineyard with perfect weather!  Everyone that goes on the trip are wonderful people and we all owe Jael a lot for allowing us the privelage of spending the holiday weekend at her family getaway.    We all have busy lives and some of us have had a very rough year but for those 5 days of drunken bliss we can forget about everything.  While I was there I literally turned off my phone ( I had no reception anyway.. haha) and just forgot about the rest of the world.
  I know that I really needed the break from it all and I’m sure everyone else did.
The pictures below are the view from the porch of
the cottage over the ocean and the other is a view of the cottage from
the bay that Nat and katie took while kayaking.  It will be hard for me to find time during my graduate work in Oregon next spring to go on the trip but I will try my best to get out there again, even if it means not having my truck.  I had a great time and I met a lot of great people that I hope to stay in contact with.  Miss all you guys already!  Whhhaat!!! Yeeeaaahhh!

Once again I made the annual trip to Martha’s Vineyard with my friends from Boston for the Memorial Day weekend.  I found out that I had thursday night off from Wheatfields so I decided to go a day early and see my old co-workers from the Stack Testing Group at ENSR, catch a Sox game with my little Brother from Big Brother Chris Menchin, and hang out with Megan Baxter who now lives in Sommerville. 
    I got to Harvard, MA at around 11:45am and had a bbq with my friends Ryan Burns, Bobbie Secard, Henry Chow, Kenny Cobb, Frank Tringali, and the new hire James (Ryans girlfriends little bro).  It took a while for us to find a grill with gas in it but we got the burgers cooked eventually.  I went down the road and picked up some Corona’s for the crew.  It was nice to see those guys again.  Ryan and James and a couple other of his friends that I met last year (Seth I think) are coming to Americade in a couple weeks so I’ll be able to hang with them again but I probably won’t see the other guys again before I head out west unless they get a job near here and want to meet up.   They are a great group of guys and I wish I could take them with me to every job I get.  ENSR has apparently gone through some management changes as well and I hope the Air Group survives the changes.
    At around 2pm I headed over to the Westford main office to say hi to Doug Roeck, Pat Ford, Paul Taverna, Arthur Carpentino, Pat Shea, Justin Mosquera, and Jim Morris.   Doug had called me earlier in the week to meet up and I wasn’t able to make it because of work so I was really happy to get to say hi to him at the office.  Doug and I think exactly alike politically and about the environment.  He’s much more knowlegeable than I so I always had a great time talking to him about both topics.  It was great to see Jimmy again.  He was my direct boss while I was stack testing and no matter how bad the conditions were at the jobs we went to (below freezing 400 feet up in the air, or 140 degrees in a wood press with a gas mask on) he always made any situation bearable with his humor and good nature.  I have told so many people about my crazy boss that we called "the captain" that I believe he may have achieved celebrity status at this point.  Justin promised me that after he graduates with his masters that he’ll go downhill mountain biking with me… we’ll see.  Katie took the time to lead me to all their new offices.   
    I took off from Westford down Rte 93 to Medford to meet up with Chris for the night.  I hadn’t seen him since last summer when him and his mom visited and I took them out wakeboarding.  They had bought me a bunch of gifts, including a new wakeboarding tow rope because we had busted one when they visited last year. 
    Chris and I took off for Fenway around 5pm so that we would have time to buy some scalped tickets for the game.  We ended up lucking out with a parking space near BU just 2 blocks from Fenway with the meter already full of time!  When we got to Fenway we heard a few people
selling tickets for a hundred a piece which scared my broke ass a lot.  We finally found a guy that was selling them for 80 and we got two (still wayyyyy to much).  We then went to UNO’s for some dinner.  I was just sitting down when I got a call from Big Brother finally saying that they had donated tickets for us at the Premier Will Call box.  I guessed that they were probably good seats so I decided to scalp the tix we just bought to try to get our money back.  So there I was with my little bro who I’m supposed to be a good influence on, standing in front of the Fenway T exit asking everyone I saw if they needed illegally scalped tickets… hahaha, all the while
using Chris as my watchdog for cops!  A father and his 5 year old son came up the stairs and could see that Chris and I were not trying to scam people and bought the tickets from us for 60 each.  Chris and I of course took a 20$ hit each because we bought them form $80 but we hooked up a nice father and son and I was pretty sure the tickets we were about to get would be amazing…. and I was right!  2nd row behind home plate seats, 2 feet to the
left of the netting so we had an unobstructed view of all of Fenway!  When the players hit the ball we were so close that it felt as if we hit it.  We got a few glances from Big Pappi David Ortiz and the captain Veritek.  The Red Sox led the entire game against Tampa Bay and there were some amazing plays made, including one play where Ortiz dove into 3rd base - I
could almost feel the ground
tremble.  The Red Sox started off with Josh Beckett as lead off pitcher and then went to Keith Foulke and closed with my favorite Jonathan Papelbon who I also have on my fantasy team so his save helped me out there as well.  Chris ordered some peanuts from our personal premiere seats waitress and I got a Fenway Frank.  The game was probably the
last one that I would see at Fenway for a very long time and I could not have asked for a better scenario.  I only lived in Boston for two years and yet I was able to sit courtside at an epic Celtics game where they won on a buzzer beating shot and now I was able to sit in unbelievable seats at the 2nd oldest and most famous, historical ball park in the country (If you haven’t seen a game at Fenway GO.  The ballpark is so small that every seat is a great one.  It has even been declared a historical landmark).  The energy at Fenway that night was absolutely amazing.  The "wave" went around the stands 6 times at one point with
everyone standing up to do it.  At one point a crazy fan even jumped onto the field to run around and got slam tackled by security and dragged out (Megan called to make sure it wasn’t me - haha).  It was great to look at the AL East standings board and also see the Red Sox a game and half ahead of the Yankees in the standings!  When Chris and I left the ball park to return to our unbelievable parking spot I was still shaking with excitement.
    After dropping Chris off at his mom’s I headed over to meet up with Megan Baxter for a few drinks around 11:30.  We went to a chill bar in Davis Square for a few expensive beers… forgot how much beers in the city cost.  It was great to see Megan again and apparently I am the first one from upstate to visit her (remember that Meg).  She likes the city a lot and is already meeting a lot of new friends - big suprise… not :).  I could tell she misses home a little bit but
I’m really happy to see her out there exploring the world and starting over someplace new.  I’m sure she’ll fit right in the beautiful city of Boston.  At 1am we got kicked out of the bar (Davis Square closes early apparently) and we went back to her place where I passed out from an exhausting day watching a bit of The Goonies.  Before I got into her place she pointed out that I was a pididdle (headlight out) so I set my alarm for 7am to get down to my old Nissan Shop in Medford to get it fixed before meeting up with Nat and Katie to buy food.  I literally fell asleep with a smile on my face thinking of my last epic game at the unbelievable Fenway Park!  What a day!