Top Chef & Friends

Here's a candid pic of Raekwon the Chef. Notice the ziploc bags and baking soda. I think he's about to cook up some crack cocaine and a customer is following him because he wants to get a fresh batch. The cereals are for snacks. Snaps on snacks, son!

Yesterday, after work, I stopped by the Barnes & Noble at the north end of union square. I was looking for a particular book on marathon training a friend had recommended to me.

While there, I noticed that Jhumpa Lahiri was giving a reading from her new collection of short stories. She has a bookworm's posture and reads with a mildly despondent voice. She read a passage from the back end of the book. I think she has remarkable accuracy in describing the immigrant or first-generation experience. It'll be interesting to see if that accuracy metabolizes into more personal commentary later in her career.

Anyway, I tipped out of there after a brief time because too many people were sneezing and coughing around me. I don't want to tempt the pork flu. I stopped by a magazine shop nearby and bought a megamillion lottery ticket, quickpick.

The Bengali cashier took my dollar and wished me, "Good luck."

"Thanks, man," I replied as I began wondering how long I would wait before claiming the winning ticket.

I haven't written on this blog in a while. It's nice to stretch the old writing legs. My prime blog posting time is during work and work's been busy.

Last weekend, I went to the Poconos in Pennsylvania for a bachelor party weekend. Four of us rented a car and camped at a state park and then played paintball all day at this ridiculous paintballing compound. Vietnam vets and rabid kids with a taste for blood. Both of these groups had ridiculous automatic guns in common.

When I first popped out from behind a bunker, after a night of fitful sleep and a day of eating poorly, only to have multiple paintballs slap into my bellyfat, leg, and across my visor, only then, did I think we should have planned something more relaxing. After that experience, it was pretty fun. Adrenaline does a good job of muffling pain.

Rob starting to put together the tent we rented from EMS. We asked for the biggest tent they have, and they did not disappoint.

One beverage option. I didn't drink too much of this though.

Another beverage option. I had this in lieu of morning coffee.
Carl made Velveeta mac & cheese from a box for breakfast. He made a good comment that there's something about camping that makes people want to eat crappy stuff that they normally would not eat in real life. The night before I saw him put away an entire package of hot dogs. I thought I smelled nitrates on him the next day.

All in all, it was a fun trip. Lots of conversations about klan members, the movie roadhouse with patrick swayze, past girlfriends, black magic, and staring at campfires.