Do You Remember When.......

On Sunday I ran into an old friend from elementary school, Jamie Fried. The first thing that Jamie says to me wasn't, 'hey, how are you?' or 'how's it going?' or 'how's it been?'. But rather the very first thing she says to me is, 'I remember the time in second grade when you gave Stacey Rothstein a mood ring.'

That would have been funny in of itself but later that same day, my mom was at my cousin's wedding and ran into Stacey's mom who said to my mom, "Stacey still remembers the time that Craig gave her a mood ring in second grade."

Whoa! What are the odds of me and my mom being told the exact same thing at the exact same time by different people in different locations? I must have really left an impression with that mood ring. So to all you second graders out there: the key to a girl's heart and to a lifetime of humiliation that you will never live down is giving her a mood ring. Remember that you heard it here first.

Later on, Jamie also told me that I looked exactly the same from the last time she saw me in sixth grade. In return, I said, 'um, you too.' What I meant to say, "no trust me, I'm a lot hairer now.'

Here are some other random thoughts from the weekend festivities.....

Why doesn't Russell Martello have his own reality show? We were hanging out in Billy's backyard on Saturday night, and afterwards while cleaning up, Billy hesitated to spill out his beers in his mom's vegetable garden. To which Russell replied, "it's okay Billy. It's been a long week, they deserve to have a little fun."

Isn't running into people you kind of know the most akward experience in the whole world? I was at the beach on Saturday and just a few people ahead of me were my cousins on Mark's side that I've only met a few times. I was in the akward position of having to say hello even though they probably wouldn't remember my name since I had only met them a few times. So, I picked my spot and went up to them when they were in the water, asking, 'so, how's the water?' They look over at me and said it's not too bad. Not recognizing me they slowly drifted away. It could have been the rip tide but I think it was them slowly moving away from the random freak who just asked them about the water.

Saturday night I went to a fireworks show at Eisenhower Park. They had some really cool fireworks in particular some that turned into hearts. It would have been romantic but I looked over to my right and Russell was picking bugs off his shirt and throwing them at Brian.

Friday night I saw the War of the Worlds. The science fiction movie with Tom Cruise in it and not the documentary about the red states versus the blue states in the last presidential election. I read that the amount of money it grossed for it's five day opening was the second largest sum ever. Which begs the question: why do they track movie sales by dollar amounts? With ticket prices going up every year, each movie that comes out is going to become the best selling ever. Shouldn't they instead track it by # of tickets sold?

I still can't get over how good the movie was. I told Billy that I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. To which he replied, "me too, but that was because I couldn't wait to leave."

Sunday night I went on a quadruple date with Jen Goldberg, Brian, Joanne, Billy, Kristen and drum roll please.....my long lost love, Heather Rauch and her boyfriend. After seeing Heather for the first time in 11 years, I'll either be able to finally move on with my life or have something else to obsess about for the next 11 years. Only time will tell.

At the bar on Sunday night I saw Rob's car which he has pimped out to include three tvs. His summer goal is to get at least 4 more in there, including two in the back of his car, facing outward, so that people that pull up behind him at a red light can watch and then also one in his gas tank lid so that he can watch tv while he pumps gas. Sure Rob has a cool car but he now has to live in it because he can't afford to pay rent anymore.

Looking at the bright side though he now has a great built in pick up line, "hey baby, do you want to come back and check out my five inch." On second thought, that's not such a great line. Accurate. But not great.

All in all, after seeing Jen Goldberg, Jamie Fried, Jason Mitnick, Heather Rauch and Andrew Prusack again on Sunday it has officially been dubbed Baldwin Reunion Day. Expect to find Russell wearing the official Baldwin Reunion Day t-shirt out to a bar in a few years.