IMPORTANT POST: Everybody wins when cancer loses

Did you know that every 3 minutes, someone in the US is diagnosed with a blood cancer?  And that every 9 minutes, someone in the US dies of a blood cancer?

When I was approached early last summer by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) about being nominated for the 2017 Man & Woman of the Year campaign, I was both honored (I was the first male nominee!) and intimidated (2015’s Man of the Year was only the host of CNBC’s Fast Money).  But ultimately, I knew I wanted to do whatever I could to help and accepting this nomination was the first step – through programs like Man & Woman of the Year, LLS has invested more than $1 billion in research to advance breakthrough therapies that have doubled, tripled, and in some cases quadrupled the survival rate for some blood cancers.  And as a team member of last year’s campaign, I got a glimpse of the individuals and families that have been impacted by this terrible disease.  It was heartbreaking, but also inspiring.

And with that, meet Shauna:

She’s a 12-year-old survivor of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and the LLS Girl of the Year.  In her own words, “I was diagnosed with ALL in June 2009.  I received intense chemo treatments but am happy to say I am cured of cancer and granted my happily ever after!”  I had the pleasure of meeting Shauna in February and her story is truly moving.  As a Man of the Year nominee, it is my privilege to compete in her honor during this campaign and it is my goal to raise over $50,000 for those battling blood cancers all around the world.

As a tribute to those who have gone through this ordeal, I will be competing in this campaign under the “Team Strength” banner – working with an incredible team.  Over the next 10 weeks (beginning today and concluding June 15), we will be hosting many great events, sharing fun projects and doing what we can to help raise awareness.  I know that raising $50,000 in 10 weeks will not be easy, but I truly believe we can do it!

There are so many ways you can help:

• Please visit http://www.mwoy.org/pages/nj/nnj17/mbasilo to make your generous donation to support this journey.  Trust me when I say that ANY donation helps, as every dollar raised counts as one vote and the titles are awarded to the man and woman with the most votes at the end of the campaign.

• You can also mail a check payable to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society with the name “Matt Basilo” in the memo line.  Email me for address information.

• “Like” our Facebook page to stay up-to-date and excited on our progress at www.facebook.com/LLSMWOTY.  Be the first to know about our events, raffles and auctions!

• There are incredible sponsorship opportunities available for this nation-wide campaign as well.  Please reach out to me for more information!

     Through your generosity and assistance, I am confident that we can surpass my goal of $50,000 and that we can come one step closer to curing leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma.  And until then, we can help to improve the quality of life of patients and their family.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is currently funding hundreds of researchers in over 15 countries. I want to make that number grow. My goal is to raise over $50,000 to support additional research. We invite you to believe by supporting our campaign.  Remember:  Everybody wins when cancer loses.

Thank you in advance for all of your support,

Matt

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Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

Hello there, bloggers (or is it "bloggees"?)

For the second year in a row, I will be participating in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on October 19.  Rest assured, I will be pinkified out there.

If you're feeling generous, please consider making a donation to my page.  This is the only time this year that I will be soliciting donations.

Thanks in advance!

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/mattbasilo

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REPOST: September 11

The following was originally posted on September 11, 2009, and then posted again on the 10 year anniversary of the attack.  It's important to remember what happened that day, so I decided to repost it once again:

It's often said that the attacks on September 11, 2001 is our generation's JFK assassination. As in, you'll never forget where you were that day when you received the news. And in my case, that's true.

I was a sophomore at Rutgers and I went to class that morning just like any other day. As I was walking through the halls, I faintly overheard two teachers discussing the World Trade Center, and an attack. I didn't think much of it. I obliviously assumed that it was the anniversary of the 1993 bombing.

Class progressed as usual, until one student came in late -- probably more than halfway into the period. He reported the news that the South Tower had collapsed. Everybody was naturally shocked. After all, the Twin Towers is an American landmark -- just about as recognizable to New York City as the Empire State Building.

At the time I didn't have a computer in my dorm room, so I immediately rushed to the computer lab to find out what in the world was going on. It was still early in the morning -- before the North Tower collapsed -- so phones and Internet access hadn't yet flooded. As I sat there constantly refreshing the news page, I would quickly discover that the second tower had fallen. I was inundated with IM's (remember those?) as I read people's worried and depressing away messages.

Shortly thereafter classes were canceled and I returned to my room, where everybody continued to be in a state of shock. We would spend the next couple of days glued to the TV watching the news. Believe it or not, my freshman year roommate -- who lived on the fourth floor of our dorm building -- could see the billows of smoke coming from the city.

It's been eight years, and while I remember that day so vividly, it also feels like a lifetime ago.

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Ice Bucket Challenge #IceBucketChallenge

You may have heard a thing or two about this Ice Bucket Challenge trend.  Basically, somebody nominates you to either pour a bucket of ice cold water on your head within 24 hours of the challenge, or you donate $100 to the Pete Frates #3 Fund.  The intent is to raise money and awareness for the fight against ALS.  Well, anyway, yesterday I get a Facebook notification that I've been challenged by one of my co-workers.  Did I accept?  Check out the video to find out:



And for more information on the fight against ALS and the Ice Bucket Challenge, please visit:
Pete Frates #3 Fund
Ice Bucket Challenge goes Viral (ESPN.com)

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Summer of Excitement: Independence Weekend - [a case of the summer]

As one might expect, the aforementioned excitement that occurred last week centered mostly around the activities of July 4th weekend.  I actually took off July 3rd (Thursday), although not for exciting reasons.  I had a dentist appointment at 10:00 (which I incorrectly thought was at 10:30, so I was a half hour late.  Oops), then dropped by my parents' house to do some laundry, and then finally went to the barber to get a haircut.  That evening I also decided to grab a few more things for the apartment (including a TWO TIER fruit bowl!) at which point it started to absolutely pour out.  Like, blankets of water falling from the sky.  Within minutes streets and parking lots were literally flooding.  I don't think I've ever gotten THAT drenched in such a short amount of time from just being outside for less than a minute at a time.  It was ridiculous.  Unfortunately, I was so massively uncomfortable that I couldn't meet a few friends later, so that ended up being a relatively tame night.  But that's okay, because there would be more fun later.

On Friday, my friend had people over for an intended BBQ.  However, since it was raining, we ended up having everybody inside (using the toaster oven in place of the BBQ), which was just fine.  However, when I walked in, I noticed three of my guy friends all wearing the USA World Cup Jersey with matching shorts, in addition to American Flag bandannas.  They explained that they went to the dollar store down the street and, on a whim, talked the guy down to $24 and got everything.  Not to be left out, I went to the very same dollar store and did the same.  He even remembered my friends, which meant I got the same discount.  And so we spent the whole afternoon wearing our matching outfits, and then went to the bar doing the same.  Somehow, we managed to pull it off and had a great time.

Saturday was our yearly tradition of taking my nephew and nieces to the boardwalk in Point Pleasant.  It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun, but holy hell was it crowded.  And I was exhausted, too.  Plus we didn't even eat until, like, 3:00, and I don't like to be kept from food.  But, of course, it was nice to have a beautiful day.

Sunday was a beautiful day as well, as we went to my aunt's house for a BBQ.  A day in the pool with lots of food (see, told you I like food) and family.  Oh, Margaritas too (those are American, right?)  A very nice time.  It was certainly a long, tiring weekend, though, and I didn't feel especially good on Monday!

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Summer of Excitement: Special Olympics - [a case of the summer]

Well, as you can see, I've been slagging off already.  I actually did have a Summer of Excitement post to report last week, but it was insanely busy and I didn't have an opportunity to do so.  Therefore, this post really refers to the week of June 22nd.  And as this Summer of Excitement feature is in an evolution process, I've decided to not "force things" even further.  If I have nothing to write, I won't.  If I write it late, so be it.  Maybe I should rename this the Summer of Relaxation?  Anyway, this week I'll discuss the excitement that was my volunteering at the Special Olympics games!

My workplace was one of the many sponsors of this year's Special Olympics (along with a little company known as WWE) and as a result, we were encouraged to volunteer if your schedule permitted.  I, along with the rest of the marketing team, devoted our day to the Flag Football competition.  Yes, it was rewarding.  And definitely a once in a lifetime experience, but man....was it grueling!

I joke that I definitely feel mislead about what I was getting in for.  My assignment was "ball retriever," which meant -- as I was told -- if the ball was overthrown I would have to run to get it so that they could begin the next play.  Unfortunately, that is NOT what it was.  Instead, I had to run to go grab the ball EVERY SINGLE PLAY and, once again, EVERY SINGLE PLAY I would have to run a fresh ball over to the line of scrimmage.  And if the line of scrimmage changed, I would have to reset it.  So I was running out into the center of the field every single play of every single game.  It was absolutely exhausting.  Not to mention that it was 100 degrees out (SLIGHT exaggeration) and I wore pants since I didn't know I'd be doing THAT much activity.  There's a girl I was working with who is about 100 times more active with fitness than I am, who didn't run as much as me, who was absolutely exhausted as well.  Imagine how I felt!

Finally, for the last two games, we had to switch with the people who were announcing because we felt so dead.  So there I was -- the guy who knows absolutely nothing about sports -- doing announcing on the loud speaker for a flag football game at the Special Olympics.  And I only got yelled at twice to stick to the script!

It was definitely an interesting experience.

Oh yeah, check back at 7:30-ish for my Money in the Bank LIVE thoughts!

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Summer of Excitement: New Apartment! - [a case of the summer]

Well this post is about a week late, and for that I apologize.  Yet the topic of the post is actually a big reason why I haven't been updating as frequently as I would like.  That's right folks.....I moved into a new apartment!  This whole process was actually very quick and relatively painless -- just a whole lot of work.  And, while the frame of time was relatively small, the commitment it took seemed to eat up all of that time.  But, the place is about 95% of where I want it to be at, so I'm happy.

Basically, I have been telling myself that I want to move for years now.  But there was always a reason to not do it.  For a long time, it was because I didn't see myself staying at my job for the long term, so I didn't want to move someplace only to get a new job, and suddenly the place I had chosen was really inconvenient.  Then when my position changed last year, I knew that I DID want to stay at my job for the long term.  The next excuse was that there was never a good time to do the research or check the place out.  Finally I decided, "let's just do this!" and from there, the ball got rolling.

The timetable is a bit fuzzy, as this all went down about a month ago, but basically I did an Internet search on a Monday, had visited the place by Wednesday, had committed to it by that Friday, signed the lease the next Tuesday, and began moving things in the week after that.  Because of a work trip and the fact that I really didn't have any of my own furniture, I did need to pay for the place for about two weeks without actually living there, but I've now been living here for a week (with practically all new furniture, which I love!) and have now gotten moving on hanging things up on the wall.  I'm really happy with how it's all coming together.

Funny side story:  I have basically been buying and saving things to use for my eventual apartment since college.  And now that I have a place that is 100% all mine, I can finally hang it up.  Problem is, a lot of it is very collegey type stuff (like tin signs that say "Beer Pong Champ") and I can't help but wonder where the line is.  I'm 32 now, hanging some of these things up kinda makes me feel like a douche.  The exceptions, for me, are if I actually made the thing I want to hang up (which is the case with a few items) or if I really like how it  works.  But I think the Beer Pong Champ sign might get cut from the line up.

Anyway, this is a really exciting move for me and I'm HOPING that I'll bring my percentage from 95 to 98 after this weekend (I'll have hung up all the stuff I brought, leaving me to decide what to do with the empty wall space).  I'll try to do a blog video to show all of you what the place looks like.

Oh, and once I'm more "moved in," I'll really work on updating the blog more.  I owe you all some season finale thoughts!

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Summer of Excitement: Memorial Day Weekend - [a case of the summer]

As promised, for the third year in a row, I'll be doing my Summer of Excitement installment!  I thought the first year was a huge success and the second year was a bit lame.  So how can I fix that?  Well, I'm basically just going to talk about the most exciting thing that week, instead of actively trying to do something and having it fall short.  Which is ironic, because the intent of the Summer of Excitement WAS to actively try to do things.

And the summer, of course, starts with Memorial Day Weekend!  And, despite each day being absolutely exhausting, I CAN say that I went out each night, with drastically different people, doing drastically different things.  And in fact, it ended up being a reverse journey through my life.  Friday night focused on the current stage of my life, as I spontaneously ended up meeting up with a work friend of mine and her sister.  This was pretty significant as I had woken up at four in the morning to travel home from Texas.  But I still made the trek to meet up and it ended up being a really enjoyable time.

Saturday night I ended up going to Rutgers to meet up with a college friend (the portion of my life prior to my work life) for some dinner and some drinks.  We even ended up going to our old hang out spot, and the manager of the bar remembered us!  Very cool, especially since it's been ten years.  Along with that, the bar has a skeeball now, and we totally got roped into playing the bartender and his friend, and we got absolutely killed.  That cost us four shots.  And, again, this was a pretty significant thing since I had a marathon shopping session that morning (not for fun reasons).  Five hours at the mall is NOT a good time.

Sunday night, I hung out with a high school friend (my life before college) and his girlfriend, along with their friends, and we traveled all around New York.  We originally went to Brooklyn in an attempt to go to a Mister Sunday party, but the line was so long that we opted against it.  Instead, we went to the pier and enjoyed a couple drinks as the sun set.  We then returned to Manhattan, where we went out for some more dinner and drinks (and got in trouble for doing a Saki bomb, not realizing that it wasn't allowed) before meeting up with a few others people he knows.  My friend and I ended up having to go separate buses home, as we were going in different directions.  Well, his bus came pretty much right away.  I, on the other hand, had to go all the way downstairs since our bus was actually going to an entirely different gate.  Then I had to wait nearly an hour for it to arrive.  And during that time, there were several REALLY drunk marines who made complete asses of themselves.  They were arguing, cursing, and physically fighting with each other.  It was REALLY unfortunate to watch.  And they were also EXTREMELY obnoxious when people told them to calm down.  And, of course, they ended up getting off at the stop right before mine.  And one was so drunk that he literally had to be carried off of the bus.  I appreciate their service, I truly do.  But that doesn't excuse disrespectful and obnoxious behavior.

And finally, on Monday I spent the day with my family -- the part of my life before high school, college, or work was even a thing!  We went to my aunt's house for a BBQ/pool party (although nobody went in the pool) and it was a really great time.

And honorable mention goes to my work trip to Austin, Texas!  I can't count it as a Summer of Excitement activity because it happened before summer officially started, but it was awesome!  I went with one of my favorite co-workers, and practically every second of the trip was full of SOMETHING fun and exciting.  An incredible time.....just awfully tiring.  The trip began Tuesday at 4:00 AM and ended on Friday at 4:00 AM.  Terribly, terribly exhausting.

Okay, now just check back in a minute or two for my LIVE Payback thoughts...

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The Ultimate Warrior

I'm a little late discussing this, but the Ultimate Warrior shockingly passed away last week, just a day after appearing on Monday Night Raw.  It's funny, I can remember exactly how I found out about each of the recent major wrestling deaths.  For Owen Hart, I was following the results on AOL and remember hearing that he had injured himself.  I sent an instant message to somebody I had known through some wrestling e-fed, and she quite painfully told me that he had died.  I was shocked.  For Eddie Guerrero, I remember waking up and checking my e-mail.  I was astonished to see the headline of the Bagpipe Report, reporting the news that Eddie Guerrero had died.  For Chris Benoit, I checked WWE.com and saw the headline "Benoit Found Dead."  I had to go to my aunt's house for dinner, and I kept sneaking off to the computer to see if anything new had been reported.

I received the news of Warrior's death from, of all people, Zack Ryder.  I woke up Wednesday morning and checked my phone to check my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.  I was scrolling through Instagram when I saw a post from Zack Ryder.  It was a classic studio shot of the Warrior (in black and white) and just said "#RIPUltimateWarrior."  Warrior had just appeared on the Hall of Fame on Saturday, WrestleMania on Sunday, and Raw on Monday.  It took me a moment to notice that hashtag.  I thought maybe Ryder was just paying tribute to an iconic character.  Then I noticed the caption and was naturally shocked.  I quickly looked at the comments and immediately saw one that verified the news, saying that it's been confirmed by WWE.com.  I took to Twitter to see if I could find any other info, and was inundated with comments from current and classic Superstars, as well as fans, all posting photos of the Warrior symbol.

What made the news particularly surreal is that he was JUST on television after being away for two decades.  And his final appearance had him seemingly at peace, eerily talking about his own mortality.  And after being such an "out there" character for his entire career, we saw an especially human Warrior over those past three days.  He showed emotion.  We saw that he had a wife.  And kids.  And they're now without a husband and father.

To be honest, while I always liked Warrior, I was a full blown Hulkamaniac when I was growing up.  I always supported the Hulkster above all else.  I even remember hearing the report on WWE Superstars of Wrestling that Ultimate Warrior had defeated Hulk Hogan, and I told my brother, "no, that's just what they think is going to happen" because I didn't want anybody to know that Hogan had been beaten.  Yet, while in grade school, I did dress up as the Ultimate Warrior one year for Halloween.  I've posted that photo below, in remembrance of the wrestling icon.  I'm glad a man found peace, and that a performer got to say good bye to his audience.

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Matt vs. the bus company

Man oh man, I'm probably going to be banned from the bus company after today (name of said company removed to protect the innocent).  I had to work in the city today, and just like last time, it was an adventure!  I arrived at the bus stop in my hometown and jumped on the waiting bus.  I was one of the first people to get on, so he didn't have change for my $20.  I sat down right in the front and told him I'd pay once he had enough money.  Well, as luck would have it, 95% of the people paid with a pass, so he NEVER ended up getting enough change.  I probably could have snuck right off, but I decided to be honest.  So when we got to the bus terminal in New York City, I asked if he had change and he said no.  So I got a free bus ride into the city!  Not too shabby.

However, like last time, I realized that going home would be a lot rougher.  I got to the bus terminal and I bought myself a ticket (while you can buy a ticket on the bus to go to the city, you need to buy a ticket prior to getting on the bus to go home) and went towards my gate.  No exaggeration, but the line for my bus went down the stairs and wrapped around three hallways.  If I had gotten on the back of that line, I likely would have waited a minimum of a couple hours.  It was THAT long.  I decided to text my friend (who works nearby) to see if he wanted to meet up with drinks.  Before he even responded, I noticed that there was another doorway to my gate and it was SIGNIFICANTLY shorter.  Like, probably 1/16th the length.  I checked the sign and it looked like it goes to my stop, so I jumped on the back of that line.  I ended up waiting maybe 20 or so minutes, instead of two days.

I finally get on the bus, and the driver looks at my ticket and asks what stop I'm going to.  I tell him, and he tells me THIS bus doesn't go there, but to just go to the front of the line for the other bus because that one does.  So I get off the bus and I do what I'm told, essentially jumping to the front of that very same line that went down three hallways.  AND it was an express bus AND there were seats!

All things considered, could it have been a more fortuitous commute?

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Barber Shop Window: Hulk Smash

Some big things have happened with Barber Shop Window since my last purchase -- most significantly, they've been purchased by Chicago-based One Hour Tees.  What does this mean?  Most beneficially, it means that their shipping methods have improved substantially, as they now claim that the shirts will be shipped within 5 business days of the purchase, with the potential for taking an extra 2-3 business days.  That's way better than their old promise that it would take 10-14 business days for your shirt to be shipped.  Since this shirt was ordered for me for Christmas, I don't know how long it actually took....but I did find there to be a big improvement.  Another benefit is that their website is much sleeker and easier to share.  For example, I ordered the Smash Hulk shirt -- and I can now direct you to the ordering page of that specific shirt (something that didn't exist on their prior website).

The other difference -- neither good nor bad, necessarily -- is that the quality of the shirts seem to be different.  The upside:  The shirt itself is nicer.  The company previously used "Anvil" t-shirts, which were rather durable but not necessarily soft (not uncomfortable, though).  They now use "Canvas" shirts, which do feel a bit softer.  The downside is the actual printing of the graphic.  One thing I liked about Barbershop Window vs. Turnbuckle Tees is that the image was silk screened right onto the shirt.  That is to say, you couldn't "feel" the image on the shirt.  Now, you can.

Nevertheless, I'm very happy with this shirt and I've already ordered another shirt from Barbershop Window.  And for those wondering, I went with the Hulk Smash shirt because I thought it was a rather charming and amusing combination of the wrestler and comic character -- and a shirt that pretty much everyone would "get" and appreciate, even if they're not wrestling/comic book fans.

Be sure to visit their new site -- they're posting new designs pretty frequently.

Barbershop Window's website 
Follow Barbershop Window on Twitter

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 14 Years in the Making...

So as indicated on my Twitter account last night, yesterday was an exciting and fortuitous day for me.  And it involved me FINALLY achieving something I had been trying to do for nearly 14 years -- getting my photo taken with one of the Rutgers Scarlet Knight mascots.  And actually, I got both of them!  Get the whole story by viewing the video below:

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You know you work in an office when....

I came across this on Facebook and damned if I'm not guilty of about 75% of these habits!  This thing is spot-on and rather hilarious, especially if you've worked in an office.  Check it out...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinlarosa/things-that-inevitably-happen-when-you-work-in-an-office

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Pinstripe Bowl -- an update!

I'm going!!

But it wasn't without a little effort.  After receiving the news that our ticket requests would not be honored (again, despite our credit card already being charged), I took to Twitter and saw that there were many people that had experienced the same thing.  And they were pissed as well.  I decided to reach out to my friends and co-workers, to see if they had any extra tickets, but unfortunately none of them did.

We then discovered that they were still selling tickets on Ticket Master.  Of course, these tickets were both more expensive and less desirable than the ones we originally had.  My group -- which had shrunk from one person, who decided he no longer wanted to go because he was so annoyed with the way Rutgers handled the situation -- decided to just go for it.  We're paying for the unique experience and, personally, I don't often get to see Notre Dame play.  Plus, I had an awesome time last time we went.

So we ended up ordering tickets that cost over $100 (including fees) and we're in the nosebleeds.  Nonetheless, I'm psyched.

Oh, and Merry Christmas Eve, everybody!!

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The RU Screw

Back when I went to Rutgers, there was something known as the "RU Screw."  The premise was that, whether it had to do with housing or scheduling or financial matters, Rutgers would find a way to screw you over.  My friends even had RU Screw t-shirts made, which I still occasionally wear to a great reaction.

I've been out of college for nearly ten years now but the Screw is still getting me.  My friends and I purchased tickets to the Pinstripe Bowl -- the game uniquely played at Yankee Stadium, featuring Rutgers against the popular Notre Dame -- the day the tickets went on sale.  My friend's credit card was even charged for the purchase.  Well today -- just one week before the game -- my friend gets an e-mail from Rutgers Athletics saying that they oversold their capabilities and that they will not be able to honor our "request" for a ticket.

On top of being really, really annoyed, I'm also terribly disappointed.  We went to the Pinstripe Bowl in 2011 (shown above) and it was an awesome time.  Bars in New York City were Rutgers-ified, adorned in red and selling Fat Sandwiches.  And watching a game at Yankee Stadium was a neat experience.  And as far as this year goes, a lot of friends from work are separately going to the game as well.  I had even bought a shirt from the new Heritage Collection to wear to the game.  So right now, my friends and I are scrambling to find out if anybody has tickets that they're trying to get rid of, or if they're LEGITIMATELY available anywhere else.

So, yeah, if you have any tickets you're looking to get rid of, let me know!  And damn, Rutgers, you make it so hard to defend you sometimes....

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Proud High School Alum!

I hope everybody has had an enjoyable and filling Thanksgiving!

As many of you know, the firm I work at does an annual video where we loosen our ties and have a little fun.  Three years ago (our first video), we did a continuous shot of our staff lip syncing to the Black Eyed Peas' "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night."  The following year, we did a flash mob in New York City.  And last year, we did a mish mash of several different songs and office locations.  We're actually filming our fourth installment next week (which I'm very excited about), but it seems like my old high school is getting in on the fun.

In something I totally would have enjoyed doing, here's the faculty and students walking the halls of the school and outdoor campus lip syncing to Katy Perry's "ROAR!"  It's great and a lot of fun.  Give it a viewing:


THS ROARS! from THS-TV on Vimeo.

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Another adventurous bus ride from the city!

It's been a while since I've posted anything non-LIVE thoughts related, so I thought I'd give a little update on yesterday's adventure in New York City.  I went to the New York City Craft Beer Festival at the Lexington Armory with a couple of college friends and it was, as you might expect, a great time.  We had a lot of beer and, amazingly, everybody there was very well behaved.  After the festival we walked over to the Shake Shack and enjoyed some dinner while freezing our ass off sitting outside.  We capped off the evening by going to a nearby bar and having a couple of Angry Balls (ha!  No, but really....Angry Orchard hard cider mixed with Fireball cinnamon whiskey).  At about 7:00 I made my way back to the bus terminal to return to New Jersey.  And just like last time, it ended up being quite the adventure.

First and foremost, instead of pressing the "Stop Requested" button, people just started yelling out "STOP!" when they wanted to get off at the next stop.  And then, on top of that, the bus driver didn't even seen to know where half of the stops were.  He'd pass by them and people would have to yell (again) that they wanted to get off at the last stop, which he had just passed.  But perhaps the odd thing that happened was when this somewhat older gentleman -- probably in his 60's or so -- walked onto the bus.  He stood there on the stairs and just sorta stared at the bus driver.  He didn't really say anything and he certainly didn't look threatening.  He just stood there, as if he was going to say something.  Finally the driver said "can you please take a seat?"  The guy hesitated for a moment and then took a seat.  About two or so stops later he prepared to get off.  He once again stood near the bus driver and just stood there.  And finally, the driver asked if he was going to get off.  He again hesitated, and then got off the bus.  He then stood outside, on the curb, and stood by the door looking in.  He then put up his hand and waved as the doors closed.  It was extremely unusual.

So that was my adventurous ride home from the city.

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It's (sorta) Halloween Weekend!!

It's always awkward when Halloween falls in the middle of the week.  Do you celebrate the weekend before, or the weekend after?  On a Friday, or on a Saturday?  Well, my local pub has decided that tonight is the night.  So I'm about to get ready, and while I won't explicitly state what I'm going to be (just check out the altered banner), I will encourage you to check out my photos from prior years.  Still love Cap'n Crunch and Colonel Sanders...

http://s653.photobucket.com/albums/uu256/acaseoftheblog/Halloween%20costumes/

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The Case of This Blog

As you might have noticed, my blog activity has been rather lackluster lately.  And that's a bad thing, since this is typically my "active" season.  Do not fret, I'm not shutting down the blog -- I love this thing!  And I'm quite pleased with the amount of visitors that come check out my posts.  But I am going to take a little break from my television reviews.  That means that I won't formally be doing my Vampire Diaries recaps this season, although I may occasionally write about the show when I feel motivated.

And that's really the reason why I'm taking the break from the recaps.  They started to feel like an obligation instead of an outlet.  And since I was just doing those reviews for fun, it seemed a bit backwards to continue doing them under those conditions.  And so I'll continue updating the blog -- because that continues to be fun.

So what can you expect?  My frequent LIVE Raw thoughts.  And a Breaking Bad piece I've been imagining since the finale.  So keep checking, some great stuff is coming!

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Welcome to the world!

I know my blog activity has been sorta sparse lately (but I do have a lot planned), however I do have some exciting news.  As you may have noticed on my banner, there's a new birthstone graphic -- which means....there's a new addition to my family!  That's right, at about 3:00 in the morning, my sister gave birth to a girl (her third child, second daughter, and my third niece).  So please welcome to the world little Avery.

It's kinda funny, actually.  We all thought it would be a boy, and I was so convinced that I was actually a little shocked when I received the text from my mom in the middle of the night.  But hey, my other two nieces are beautiful so no complaints here.  And just like my first niece (Avery's cousin), she's got LOTS of hair!

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