What I’ve Been Up to Since the Last Post

Friends, enemies, frenemies, welcome. I’ve been a-slacking on my posting of my life so here’s what I’ve been up to, summed up in a word: fun. There’s been no shortage of laughter and friends. I’ll sum it up even further with a few short snippets of life:

FIREFLY ROUND 2

The Killers just killed it. As did Paul McCartney. Saw Clean Bandit, Phoebe Ryan, Jon Bellion, The Griswolds, Bastille, Tycho, Steve Aoki, Zedd, Kygo, to name a few. I think Laura and I died of heatwave and exhaustion at one point, and we were always thoroughly hydrated and we had a great group. FOUR OUT OF FOUR STARS

THE JERSEY SHORE, THE PLACE, NOT THE SHOW

Went with the fam + the NY fam. A full week of glorious nothingness, accented with a trip to a brewery, plenty of alcohol, games and cuddles. I worked half days and we had a pool! Pools are great for holding water! FOUR OUT OF FOUR STARS!

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE BALL

My kickball team, the Fellowship of the Ball, quite frankly PWNED LIFE for the 8 weeks we were in session. Our jerseys were baby blue, to match the color of Frodo’s eyes, and we won EVERY SINGLE GAME. Except one. Best moment: during a flip cup match, a remix of Shake it Off by TayTay came on, and in unison, with no forewarning, the whole team burst into dance. One of those cheesy “omg I love life and friends and unicorns” moments. You have them, DON’T LIE. 4/4

POKEMON SYMPHONY

A lovely group descended upon Wolf Trap to sing and cry along to the Pokemon soundtrack over the years. We made pokemon themed food, wore pokemon shirts, and our pal Mike even dressed up as Professor Oak. Singing the theme song along with 7,000 people under the age of 12 is a dream come true for me. 3.89/4 BECAUSE THE WHOLE THING ENDED WITH SOME STUPID SLOW SONG INSTEAD OF THE THEME SONG. GOOD RIDDENCE.

GPA’s 90^th SURPRISE BDAY PARTY

This was rather special. My grandpa Clark turned 90 in June, and we held a huge surprise party for the guy. My cousins came in from California and he got to meet his great grandson, Golden. (Who, by the way, is the cuddliest, bubbliest, loveliest little chub that ever graced this planet). Grandpa shed a tear or two and I scurried around taking pictures. 4/4

IMPROMPTU NIGHT WITH PALS, 1

One Friday, I went to happy hour with my friends Kyle and Dane, which turned into dinner, which turned into going to the liquor store and getting tequila, which turned into pregaming, which turned into dancing on their coffee table singing Jordin Sparks, which turned into being up on stage at Tropicalia, whipping my hair back and forth amongst throngs of grinding 21 year olds. People still grind? News to me. Anyway, it was one of the greatest nights out of the summer. 5/4

IMPROMPTU NIGHT WITH PALS, 2

Another great night occurred the night before I went to the beach. Shannon and I held a pregame at our apartment. Typical drinking games transformed into playing manhunt for 2 hours in the pitch black. Annelyse somehow made her way under my sink and no one found her. Good for you, Hammy!! We dragged ourselves out of the house to go to Admo, danced at Brass Monkey, and ended up getting a 1:15 am reservation for karaoke at Muzette. God bless that place.  6/4

IMPROV

I took an improv class over the summer! I’ve been asked “Huh, why?” and there are a variety of reasons. 1. I thought it would be fun and challenging. 2. I love games, LOVE GAMES! I don’t play them enough, and improve is ALL games. 3. I’ve felt lately that my creativity has been sliding, and I thought maybe this would present me a fresh way of looking at the world. And so it has! 4. I wanted to gain some confidence in front of a crowd and to not be afraid to look stupid. Not that I ever really was afraid, but after growing up with a stutter and basically being silent in group, classroom settings, shedding that feeling of “I must be quiet, always, so people don’t know I stutter” is tough. I think I got better as the class went on and I’m going to partake again! Some classes, I never thought I’d laughed as hard. It was so, so fun and I’ve made some pretty cool friends through it!  4/4

NATS GAME – PLAY BALL

One day, I was perusing Twitter and I stumbled upon this Nats All Star Team design contest. They wanted fan made posters of the boys they could use for the All Star game. Lo and behold, I created a ton of posters 2 years ago (shhhh…) and I dug them up and submitted. I WON! The grand prize was getting to say “Play ball!” at a game, and so I did. Complete with a squeak at the end and everything.  4/4

NYC ARTSY RUNNING TRIP

Two months after my black eye, I was scheduled to run a half marathon in Brooklyn. I barely trained at all, due to the doctor telling me to basically do no physical activity for 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS. I was dying. But also it was super chill and fun and stress free. Anywho, I was feeling okay at week 7, so I went out and did a 9 mile run, just to see if I could. I did, I felt great, and I decided to go through with the half. Emma and I moseyed up to Brooklyn via Megabus…stayed in the oddest Airbnb that could possibly exist, and ran the whole dang thing. Despite a lack of training and 3 concussions in a 2 month time, I PRed and felt muy muy incredible. I attribute this feeling to the lack of brain cells after all my accidents.

Afterwards, we had a delicious brunch and walked about 10 miles, through a seriously Orthodox neighborhood,  to meet up with my graphic design friend Hillary for dinner and drinks. Emma left super early the next day, and I went into Manhattan to meet up with Kafren, Grace, Devon, Hillary, and my BFF4E Jon. We had brunch in the East Village, went to the Sex Museum, where we bounced around in a boob moon bounce, then had drinks on a rooftop overlooking the Empire State Building. Soon enough, I boarded a bus and waddled back down 95 to come home. Great, awesome weekend. One day I will live in you, NYC, one day. 4/4

So, that’s it. I’ve seen a bunch of movies lately, a few concerts, made some really good new friends, saw the family a bunch, chopped off 6 inches of hair, had a weekend of girlfriends and giggles at Katy's river house, and even have a big trip planned for the winter. I’ll mention that here once I’ve told my parents, which I haven’t done yet…woops! ALSO! I have a new job! At my same company, but new job! Exciting! Changes! Yay!!

Thanks for reading. Love u, probably.

Alex