Probably more than anyone needs to know...

So much to say... so little time / energy...

1) P-Town update... so far behind... had a great week... need to post blow-by-blow

2) Pictures... lots of pictures uploaded... P-Town but there are others too that I have yet to post... search and you may find...

3) Musikfest... yay! love this festival

4) Volunteered at ticket booth tonight... met nice people and shared "knowledge" of fest with them... felt "knowledgeable" and/or "experienced" and/or "cool" hehehe :)

5) tonight -- festing followed by solo drinking and talking with strangers "who are my 'newest best friends'" -- at least for tonight... need to reconnect with them -- Steph (or SP) at the Trexlertown Applebees... and "Tom" the guy from Allentown with the boyfriend in Harrisburg that I flirted with at the ticket booth... and the bartender, Joel, walked me to the door to prove to the officer that there was water in my mug... and then Kevin, the other bartender, chasing after me to say "HEY you can't leave here with that" and then him looking at the police officer and him saying it's OK... Priceless

OH... and 6) buying round of 5 shots at the bar for complete strangers (except for my new best friend Steph [see above])... and more beers than I can count... and cashing out at the bar with $25 tab... and $15 tip that I add... $40... priceless... love it!

7) Drunken LJ postings that are long overdue.

8) MUSIKFEST... *L*O*V*E* it ... (did I say that yet?)

*phew*... *yawn*... *stretch*... What a weekend! Holy crap... I feel worn-out.

This weekend, a whole crew from Scranton area came... old Scouting friends and family... Sean, Jen, Morgan; Chris; Bob; Brenda, John, two friends; Marty, JoAnn; Helen, Les; Shawn, Delena, two friends; Dale, Ellie, Tiffany. And there were others too: David and his partner Gary came up from Florida. And then, I also hosted Robyn, Sean, Kim, and Carolyn at the house. And then there were tons of other misc friends and family out-and-about all weekend randomly meeting-up at the festival. It was quite a big weekend for me social and energizing and fun... But also I'm out of shape... and can't keep-up with the activity like I used to.

Friday night started with 18 of us (from the "Scranton Crew") eating at Bucca de Beppo... in the "Pope Room" :) So much fun. Helen brought a large bottle of Goldschlager and dixie-cups... LOL! Yes... we did our own shots around the table... jeez... so "sneaky" LOL! But so much fun...
After that I went out with friends at the Brew Works and closed the place... and hot-tubbed with Kim in a friend's backyard... and 20-piece McNuggets... at 3am... and up the next morning at 9 to party all day long... Well... I lasted about half the day before I needed a nap... and then continued the festing. Most everyone pooped-out early... including myself... so we got our nuggets early (1am) and just went to bed.

This morning I woke up early (9am) to join the "Scranton Crew" for breakfast at their hotel and then joined the remaining of them for lunch at the festival. Kim and I are now sitting here in the condo... enjoying the air conditioning, watching videos on TV and uTube... and just chatting. Reminiscing about "the good ol days" when Musikfest was a 10-day orgy of beer drinking and partying. Why is it that we can't last like we used to? Is it that we're getting old, we're out-of-practice, or is it the festival -- has it gotten commercialized and the bands aren't as fun? Or is it just a combination of a lot of things? I guess it's one of those things that time just changes... There's no going back... reminiscing is nice... but there's a point to which we've got to let them go to make room for new memories and fun.

So being a bit nostolgic right now... and sitting here relaxing... recovering from the weekend... taking a bit longer for me to recover anymore...
Yet...
I can't wait for Celtic Classic...
;)

But for right now... I also can't wait to take a nap. ;)

Barry and I took off Thursday and Friday last week... we decided that because we weren't going to Hershey on Thursday, we'd make a four day weekend out of it. Don't really know if we "should" have taken off... Barry has had so much to do at work and I'm sure taking the two days did not help much for that... but being with Barry for the two days was really nice... He said to me last week, "I don't care what we do, I just want to be with you." That was really sweet... and we did have a very enjoyable time.

I have to say that we "planned" to do a lot more than we actually were able to do... but never-the-less, we did get a lot accomplished and managed not to rush ourselves.

Thursday we spent the day sleeping-in and then went shopping. We went looking for ideas for some statues to place around our campsite and on the new deck... we shopped for a table and chairs for the deck... and we also started looking into ideas for our "water-feature" that we want to create around the tree on our deck. Had massages that evening, and slept in on Friday... Friday, we did our grocery shopping and jetted up to camp... Really enjoyed our day and evening.

Saturday afternoon, my friends Sean & Jen had a big BBQ and pool party at their house in Scranton. We went there and I really had a great time. These are all the people that I just came out to a few days ago. They all basically knew already and all were SO supportive of me. I told Barry, these people are my second family. And seriously, they are... I grew up at Sean's house almost as much as my own house. The kids all have grown so much and don't recognize me... I mean, I haven't seen them in almost three years I think. It really hit me a little hard when this one kid (who's like 11 or 12 now) didn't remember who I was. I've been away from them all for far too long... hiding from them afraid to come out... and there was no reason too. Some of them even grumbled that I should have come out sooner because they missed me. I really look forward to regaining friendships with them... They are all coming down for Musikfest in two weeks... I CAN'T WAIT!

We left the party a little early, but that allowed us to get back to camp before dark and we even threw together some costumes for the "Masquerade Ball" that evening... Barry actually put on a dress!! Too fun! Another friend, Tom, was trying drag for the first time, and with his encouragement, Barry threw on a dress too... and Heidi Ho came out as "Betty Jo Ho, her cousin from Idaho". (I'm hoping for a picture that someone took...)

Barry got wasted... I felt bad for him the next morning... we didn't wake up until 1pm. And therefore missed our opportunity to return some lumber to Homo Depot (by borrowing Joe's truck)... but I think it will all work-out anyway... we're going to keep the big lumber for when we build our guest house next year... not to mention, who knows what else we may build. :)

OK... that's the recap... now it's 1pm on Monday... and I've done basically nothing all day. I've caught-up on LJ postings... and checked my work email... and had lunch... but now I've GOT to get some real work done!

After recovering Friday from Thursday night's debauchery, I wasn't very much in the mood to party Friday night... but I trudged along to Musikfest anyway -- I mean it is only once a year... and it's is always a good time... And it did not disappoint! Amy has been just amazing with her hospitality -- her apartment being central to Musikfest (literally open the front door and you are in the middle of the festival) -- it has been just wonderful.

Friday evening we kicked it all off with a Theo's Gyro... then I had a Buckeye Tavern Steak Sandwich (called Sean and Jen while eating it just to rub it in a little... and more-so to let them know that I was thinking of them and missing them... [they went on a cruise, so don't feel too bad for them]). Then I got some Smirnoff Ice to wash it all down with. We listened to a good celtic rock band... then I was feeling a bit over-fed and excessively tired... so I left around 10pm and came home... Barry had gone to camp for the weekend, so the house was empty... I put on the flannel sheets... I slept so soundly and so comfortably in the flannel... I think it was the best sleep I've had in months. I felt so refreshed on Saturday, which was perfect for a long afternoon of festing.

Caught an Arrogant Worms show. Amy, Meredith, Brian, Chris & Marea, Chris' parents and aunt... I drank a lot of beer... (a six-pack while waiting for everyone to arrive before lunch -- had a taco to wash it down with)... continued my buzz all afternoon -- just like a good fest-day should be. That evening I hung out with some friends and also caught the Red Elvises concert. I switched to "Southern Comfort Hurricanes" at that point... and they were yummy... and we started comparing "Steps to the Perfect Blow-Job" between Sarah, Jane, and I... using our straws to help demonstrate as needed. Amy, Emily, Mere, and I were going to close the bar at Brew Works... but there was A LINE TO GET DOWNSTAIRS! Holy crap... I couldn't believe it... well, we took one look at the line, then a double-take, then said "Screw that!" and went to the Hotel Bethlehem for some cocktails and sitting in the nice lobby there sipping cocktails with all the (relatively speaking) nice & quiet people.

Sunday I had to go up to Goose Pond Scout Reservation to take photos of the Troops as they arrived. Normally my friend Sean does this every Sunday... It's a great money maker and easy work... But since he's on the cruise this week, he couldn't make it, so I said I would do it. (We used to do it together, but the trip became too much for me [living 1.5hrs from the camp] so I just let him take over by himself.) It was odd putting my Scout uniform on... I haven't worn it in over a year. (PS: I think it shrunk... or I gained weight, but I'm going with the "it shrunk from non-use".) I felt odd -- like I shouldn't be wearing it... because I have basically renounced all my Scout-ness and repressed all the good from Scouting because of their anti-gay policy... I got to camp and WOW did it feel strange being there... Not bad strange... just strange... My first time setting foot in any Scouting function for a very long time... I felt a little bit like "a sheep in wolf's clothing"... like "IF THEY ONLY KNEW"... shaking hands with Scout leaders, and telling the Scouts to stand here and turn this way and smile, walking around camp eating some Combos and a soda purchased in the Camp trading post, watching the swimming tests, walking past the cafeteria, thinking about what it was like the first time I came to camp as a little boy, feeling old when one of the little tykes called me sir. It was just a real hodge-podge of emotions. (Thankfully no tears. And I guess in reality I won't ever really get tearful about it anymore -- I've cried my tears and there's nothing left but good feelings and bad feelings... the sad feelings are gone.) All-in-all I had a good time and a successful time (made some $$)... I just have to pick up the enlargements on Wednesday and bring them up and drop them off. (Fingers crossed that the pictures come out OK... that's the worst part... not knowing what's on the negatives and just hoping that you did OK. One reason why being a wedding photographer is so nerve-wracking.)

Barry was home, but didn't want to eat with me or anything, so I headed off to the festival to get dinner and close the first weekend... the NET was working the Beer tent at Volkesplatz that evening and the Red Elvises were playing... it was a fun time... and finally got to spend some time with Kim at the Fest. Had some Bratwurst and AwwShucks Corn and a waffle with Ice Cream... (ugh, what bad eating habits, but oh so good)...

Was feeling very tired, so I tried to head out as soon as I could... but kept bumping into people... Speaking of which... bumped into this guy John, and he said "Oh yeah, we met before -- a long time ago -- I remember you were telling us about something you bought on eBay, a wrestling singlet or something, and how excited you were because you were wearing it that night." For the record... I looked up my entry from that night (link)... it was back in November... and this guy, who I haven't seen since, remembered... Wow... I was a little shocked... and strangely flattered... and little turned-on.

Then, I went up to help Amy fix her Air Conditioning unit (we took it out of the window and put it back in leaning more "out" so that the condensation water will hopefully fall out instead of into her apartment). Then headed home around 9:30... after going back out for milk, I laid down and fell right to sleep.

Long day of work in front of me I fear, but I haven't yet begun... I'll be off to shower and head in to work shortly.

Barry and I felt bad leaving my parent's house in such a shambles... We started the process of taking the wallpaper down in the dining room... and it went horribly wrong.

The old wallpaper in the room was this gold paper with fuzzy patterns on it. I actually kind of liked it, but my retro-fancy-love did not win out... in-fact, everyone else hated it (except my 10-yr-old nephew, god love him)... well, anyway, we started peeling it off, then went out and bought a steamer. We quickly found out that it was not going to cooperate coming down... Apparently, this wallpaper was put up on the unprimed/unpainted drywall (so it's "original" 40-yr-old-paper) and being unprimed, we were basically ripping down the drywall covering along with the paper. Ugh! What a mess...

Barry and I had our flight home on Monday evening with my sister at 7:00pm... so we could only work on it for about 6 hours or so... and we only got about a third of the room done... not to mention all the sanding and re-plastering that is going to be necessary. I feel like we left a huge mess for my dad to do. :( Hopefully he'll take his time with it and it will come out OK... and hopefully we'll be able to come back down to help them with it.

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The flights down were so great, I should have known karma would do-us-in for the flights back home -- the one flight we didn't even get soda! Ugh... way to leave a bad taste in my mouth. Oh well... overall I'm still impressed with the service United provided us in all... and the flights were pretty direct and connection in DC were so easy (since all the flights were at the same terminal).

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This week at work, it feels like I was gone for a week... why is it that if I take 1-day or 10-days, it doesn't feel any different when I get back to the office? Everything goes "wrong" when I'm not there?

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Very excited about this coming week... MUSIKFEST is about to begin... OMG I cannot wait!!

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Tonight, Barry and I are joining some friends to go to a Cuban restaurant... should be interesting... and fun.