• 22 – movies seen in the theater: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, The Dark Knight, Doubt, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Gran Torino, The Great Debaters, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Iron Man, Last Chance Harvey, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, No Country for Old Men, Pineapple Express, Quantum of Solace, Rachel Getting Married, Slumdog Millionaire, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Taxi to the Dark Side, WALL·E, The Wrestler, The Zen of Bobby V.
• 2 – Broadway show seen: Phantom of the Opera, Spring Awakening.
• 10 – concerts attended: Barenaked Ladies, Cold War Kids, The Decemberists, The Hold Steady (2x), The National, Sia, Stars, The Verve, Rachael Yamagata.
• 21 – Mets games attended, plus 2 in Philadelphia.
• 4 – Mets postseason games I had tickets for but didn’t get to go to, thanks to their late-season collapse… again.
• 5 – non-Mets baseball games attended, including 2 in Oakland, 2 in San Francisco, and 1 in Washington.
• 6 – beer festivals attended.
• 2 – trips to the San Francisco Bay Area.
• 1 – iPhone bought. Huzzah!
• 1 – iPhone stolen. Nuts.

May and June was spent just spending time outside in the sun before it would get too humid in July.

• I started my summer of right by seeing the Mets win in walk-off fashion against the Marlins just a few days after Memorial Day. The highlight of the game was Endy Chavez’ first career pinch-hit home run to tie the game in the ninth before Fernando Tatis sent the fans home happy with a two-run double in the twelth.
• Justin and Jon came down from Boston for the Big Apple BBQ Block Party and we managed to sneak in some time at the Blind Tiger and at Spuyten-Duyvil’s Brett Fest.
• The day after the Big Apple BBQ Block Party, I had an early flight for San Francisco so I could attend this year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.
• While out in San Francisco for WWDC, I went to another Oakland Athletics game where they absolutely killed the Yankees. Surprisingly enough (note the sarcasm), there are a lot of Yankees fans in Oakland. I also took in a game at AT&T Park where the Athletics beat the San Francisco Giants to take the first game of the Bay Bridge Series. As far as interleague rivalries go, this one is pretty lame. I took a morning off from WWDC to further explore the absolutely gorgeous AT&T Park.
• The week wasn’t all WWDC and baseball. I managed to hit up the annual Haight-Ashbury Street Fair which has got to be the largest celebration of all things hippie in the continental United States. There were also parties – Ars Technica and Gizmodo combined to throw one early in the week and Apple had their annual bash to close out WWDC. They key to both parties? The open bar, of course! Finally, I ended my week in San Francisco with a tour of local brewery Speakeasy Ales & Lagers.
• I can’t even begin to describe how awful the flight was from SFO to JFK. All you need to know is that I never made it to JFK. Also, a six hour flight somehow turned into a twelve hour adventure that saw me get home just before 5am. I’d have a serious hate-on for JetBlue if they hadn’t compensated me the way they did. Let’s just call it even.
• Hours after getting home, I somehow managed to get to Shea Stadium to see the Mets and Rangers clash. I should have just stayed home and bagged some more shut-eye.
• The next weekend was the American Craft Beer Fest in Boston.
• I can say that I saw the first grand slam by an American League pitcher since the implementation of the designated hitter. What a way for Jerry Manuel to start his managerial stint at Shea.
• Kenny and I saw the Cold War Kids in Prospect Park – this was our seventh time seeing them in less than two years. You could say we’re fans of their work.
• Two days later, Dave and I went to see The Hold Steady at McCarren Park Pool – this was my seventh time seeing them is less than two years. Do you see a theme developing here?

July was an interesting month – the highs and lows of that month would rival that of a person with manic depression.

• I made my first trip ever down to Philadelphia to see the Mets beats the Phillies in comeback fashion. That’s how you start the month off right.
• Days later, I’d hit a very deep low as I suffered a setback at work. Lots of drinking and bitching occurred.
• I went up with the rest of the Yips to visit Ki and Aaron, who were having a barbecue at their home. I love grilled rib eye steaks.
• The next night was the most satisfying Mets game of the season as Mike Pelfrey dominated and a Mets win was never in doubt. Their 8-0 win over the Rockies extended their winning streak to nine as they went into the All-Star break.
• A little less than a week after its debut, I caved in and bought an Apple iPhone 3G. The decision was pretty easy once I figured I wouldn’t have my work Treo for much longer.
• Hunka Hunka was the next weekend – all of the next weekend. Lots of good food, good beer, and good friends. What more do you want out of life, right?
• Oh, we started off the Hunka Hunka weekend with a screening of The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience. Easily the best movie of the year so far.
• After the bullpen blew a ninth inning lead against the Phillies the night before – this would become a central theme to the Mets’ season – we saw them bounce back into a tie for first place.
• Andy and I saw Johan Santana absolutely dominate the Cardinals for the Mets’ first complete game of the season. Hearing the syncopated chants of “JO-HAN! clap clap JO-HAN!” was an absolute thrill.

Amazingly, August was a relatively mild, dry month. Not many days saw the thermometer hit 90 and it was never really all that sticky. We’re totally gonna pay for that in September.

• The first weekend in August was spent in Boston, seeing the Futures at Fenway minor league doubleheader. It may not have been the Red Sox playing but it’s always worth the price of admission to see a game in Fenway.
• Mid-August – and early September, it seems – is a long birthday extravaganza for myself. I’ll need this in two years when I turn 30. Thanks to everyone for celebrating with me!
• On back to back nights, I saw the Mets beat the Braves. The first night was a comeback affair with the Mets scoring five runs in the eighth for a 7-3 win. The second was a complete game effort from Mike Pelfrey that took him only 108 pitches and finished in just over two hours.
• The first time was a success so why not another one? Dave and I made another trip to Philly to see the Mets play and, lo and behold, they came back again in the eighth to take the 6-3 win.
• Labor Day weekend was spent in Maine and Boston. The original plan was to camp overnight in Maine next to Ebener’s Pub but Justin and I met encountered some really nice folks from Boston who had an extra room in their rental house and offered it to us. Thank again, Mark and Talisa!

So that’s it for summer. It may have looked busy and it certainly was busy but not nearly as much as it looks. I’m looking forward to a fall of October baseball for the Mets and watching the Giants begin the defense of their Super Bowl title. I’ve got another trip to Boston coming up and a trip to Denver a little bit afterwards.

Spring 2008 can definitely go into the plus-plus column. Lots of time spent with friends and lots of time spent seeing baseball games with friends. Add in a few trips outside of New York City and you’ve got a winner of a season.

The remainder of March was spent waiting for spring to actually begin. It never really made an appearance.

• Justin came down and we hit up the 1st Manhattan Cask Ale Festival. Nice idea but the execution was flawed, thanks in part to the British casks that didn’t make it across the pond.
• Aaron and I made a trip down to Washington, DC to catch the first ever game at Nationals Park.

April was a pretty insane month as I crammed a lot of stuff into my calendar and it was all around a trip out to San Francisco.

• Susan and I went to the Gothamist-Slice Pizza Party in Williamsburg. My stomach hated me hours later that night.
• On a whim, I called up the Mets ticket number and got a single, scattered seat for the home opener. That brought my Mets home opener streak to six seasons in a row. Hopefully, I’ll be able to extend that streak into Citi Field next season. [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ]
• While out in San Francisco, Justin and I checked off Toronado and Russian River Brewing Company from the bar crawl list.
• No trip to San Francisco would be complete without going to a game at AT&T Park and, to a much lesser extent, at McAfee Coliseum.
• Jess turned 26 this year and we had a couple of beers at Drop Off Service to celebrate.
• While at Jess’ birthday party, Lucy and I found out that The Verve MSG show had its ticket prices reduced to 50%. Hell yeah we went!
• Total number of baseball games in April: 6 (4 Mets, 1 Giants, 1 Athletics).

May was a quiet month where, with the exception of baseball games and the weekends, I didn’t really go out much. Some of it was about saving money but, really, I was just feeling like a homebody. Gotta conserve energy (and money) for the summer, ya know.

• Aaron had a barbecue to celebrate turning 28. It’ll be a funeral pyre when he turns 30.
• I went up to Pleasantville to check out Captain Lawrence’s 2nd Anniversary Party with Aaron and Jeremy.
• Masaru quit his job and we had to celebrate the end of a long era at 1020.
• Total number of baseball games in May (up to Memorial Day weekend): 3 (all Mets).

Oh, and the title of this post has nothing to do with the calendar length of spring. We went from temperatures in the 50s one week and straight to the upper 70s without much of a stop in the mid 60s. Spring in New York City really never lasts more than a few weeks.

It sure as fuck doesn’t feel like spring yet. I want my mid-50s temperatures, dammit.

This was definitely a busier winter than the previous one – of course, that was the winter where I came down with the flu i mid-December and never seemingly recovered until March. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a bout of sickness. In fact, on consecutive weekends at the end of December, I came down with the norovirus and a 101° fever. Suffice to say, it was an unpleasant one-two punch but still preferable to the flu.

December was a strange month as I wasn’t really all too busy but I remember being very tired. That could just be a product of the holiday crush though.

• The first weekend of December was spent on a Philadelphia-area bar crawl with Aaron, Gordon, and Justin. [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ]
• We celebrated the holidays at Applewood Estate.
• Rachael and I saw an amazing college basketball game between Pittsburgh and Duke with Pitt forcing overtime and ultimately winning.
• We had a quaint Christmas Eve dinner at Linda and KK’s place.
• It’s quickly becoming tradition but New Year’s Eve was spent at Dori and Justin’s. We even managed to sneak in a Trappist tasting the night before the party.

January was spent laying low, recovering from the busy last few weeks of December.

• Andy and I took our dad to see the Houston Rockets and Yao Ming destroy the New York Knicks. We sat next to the Yao cheering section though it’s not as though there was much of Knicks cheering section.
• Rachael and Lucy had a much-belated birthday party.
• After an aborted attempt, Susan and I finally got together for dinner at Momofuku.
• Dori and Justin came down to NYC for a weekend of just bumming around the city.
• I took Susan to see The Phantom of the Opera for her birthday.

See, I wasn’t kidding when I said that I laid low during January. Why over-exert myself and come down with some nasty again?

February, despite it being the shortest month of the year, managed to be a very busy month. Any mention of February has to start with my beloved New York Giants winning the Super Bowl. They went on one of the greatest runs in NFL playoffs history and we, the fans, are blessed to have witnessed it. This almost makes up for the Mets’ historic collapse – almost.

• I took the morning off and went to the Giants Super Bowl Championship parade. It was well worth fighting through the crowds to be able to see this happen live.
• Not quite having my fill of parades, I also checked out the Chinese New Year parade.
• Along with Aaron, Justin, and Gordon, I attended the Extreme Beer Fest as well as its Night of the Barrels.
• I took Rachael to see Spring Awakening for her birthday.
• I attended a cask ale festival in Brooklyn.
• I finally got to see The National live – this one was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
• Susan and I went out to Fette Sau in Williamsburg for the borough’s best BBQ by far.

The first few weeks of March haven’t been too busy but it’s the lull before the busy spring and summer months.

• I saw Sia for the third time and as much as I love seeing her sing, I don’t know if I could ever see her again at Webster Hall.
• We got together at Applewood Estate to brew some beers for Hunka Hunka.

So I had a fairly busy winter by my standards. Can spring top it? There’s a lot less time in my definition of spring than in winter so it could prove to be difficult. I’m up for the challenge.

• 22 – movies seen in the theater: American Gangster, An Unreasonable Man, The Bourne Ultimatum, Children of Men, Dreamgirls, Eastern Promises, Enchanted, The Golden Compass, Gone Baby Gone, Happy Feet, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Juno, Knocked Up, The Last King of Scotland, Live Free or Die Hard, Michael Clayton, Ocean’s Thirteen, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Ratatouille, Sicko, Spider-Man 3, Superbad.
• 3 – Broadway shows seen: The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Spring Awakening.
• 7 – concerts attended: Beirut, Cold War Kids (3x), The Hold Steady (2x), The New Pornographers.
• 19 – Mets games attended, plus one in Washington.
• 2 – Mets postseason games I had tickets for but didn’t get to go to, thanks to their late-season collapse.
• 7 – non-Mets baseball games attended.
• 8 – places visited on Beer Advocate’s list of the Top 50 Places to Have a Beer in America.
• 2 – couples I know got engaged: Dori and Justin, Jess and Dave.
• 2 – couples I know got married: Dori and Justin, Cindy and Won.

Meteorological observations aside, autumn was a busy season for me. Right off the top, I’ll address the lowest point of the season – the Mets’ historic collapse in September. It’s been talked about to death in the media and among my friends so I won’t rehash the vitriol and recriminations, choosing instead to say that it was awful but I’m over it. I know I said I was done with the Mets but, like any other shocking moment, you can’t take what’s said in the immediate aftermath at face value. It happened, it sucked, and I’ve moved on.

Even throughout the awful collapse that took place over the course of September, there were some things that kept me in good spirits.

• We had a stag weekend for Justin a few weeks before his wedding. We drank a lot – no surprise there.
• I went with Susan to a beer festival at South Street Seaport – it kinda sucked.
• Rachael had another one of her awesome awards show parties for the Emmys.
• One of my best friends got married to the perfect woman for him – congrats to Dori and Justin.
• Dave turned 28 and we had a few drinks to celebrate. Too bad that was the night the Phillies caught the Mets in the division.

So when you really think about it, by the time September was over, I was too tired to care about the Mets’ collapse. Oh, does it sound like I’m still trying to convince myself that it didn’t hurt?

October was noteworthy for something I didn’t do – I decided not to make a return foray into the madness of the CMJ Music Marathon. There were some shows worth checking out but, ultimately, I just didn’t want to get sucked back into it the way I was last year.

• The Binghamton crew knocked another place off the Beer Advocate list.
• I visited Ki up in Bristol. We went bowling, toured ESPN, and made dinner together. Good times.
• Belgian Beer Fest’s Night of the Funk – need I say more?
• I made what will very likely be my last visit to the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village. I still remember when there was less people and it was a lot more fun. Now there’s a large police presence and it’s a bit too controlled – a lot less of the unrestrained fun that made it what it was.

November was quiet though that could have been a byproduct of it being the shortest amount of time possible between Halloween and Thanksgiving. There were, however, some highlights to be found.

• I had dinner at Perilla and I got to meet owner/chef and Top Chef Season 1 winner, Harold.
• I attended a Scrubs farewell event where I got to see the cast and meet the awesome TV Guide columnist, Michael Ausiello.
• I had way too many drinks and dinner with some Binghamton folks I don’t see too often. Beer plus shot is bad!
• A friend’s daughter had her first birthday party – as I told the father, only 17 years to go!
• I saw the balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade get inflated – the little kid in me squeed; the adult in me groaned from the massive crowds.
• Thanksgiving at the ‘rents – no turkey this year, only hot pot. I was very sad.
• Dinner at Cee’s the next night where I think I finished off a bottle of wine all on my own.

So that was my autumn – winter tends to be a slow season for me but we’ll see how it turns out when I write the recap in March.

As always, a recap of the summer in list form:

• The summer began on a high note on Memorial Day weekend as I sat in Yankee Stadium and witnessed a spectacular meltdown by Scott Proctor in the 7th, walking in the tying and go-ahead run in an eventual 4-3 loss to the Angels.
• The next day, I got a call from Justin to tell me that he had proposed to Dori over the weekend and would be getting married later this summer. I can’t begin to describe how happy I was to hear the news. Congratulations!
• The good news train continued later on that week as I was officially promoted to my current position. I had been a little worried that I wasn’t going to get it but, after being officially informed, it really did seem like there was never any doubt that I would get it. The lesson to take out of this? To not worry so much and let things happen the way they’re supposed to. Let’s see how long I can live by that philosophy.
• When the Mets played the Phillies on June 7th, I witnessed the Mets go yard back to back to back and take a 3-2 lead in the 6th. The euphoria wouldn’t last as Billy Wagner gave up a game-tying home run to Met-killer Pat Burrell. The night came to a sickening end when human gasoline can, Scott Schoeneweis, gave up three runs in the 10th for a 6-3 loss. Bleh.
• Justin came down here the next night for the weekend where we proceeded to hit the Big Apple BBQ Block Party, Rachael’s party at the Beer Garden, and bought an insane amount of beer to get some free bags from Crumpler.
• That was followed up the next weekend with free beer and a glass from Harpoon Brewery, my second Red Sox game ever at Fenway, and drinking way too much at Beer Advocate’s American Beer Fest.
• For the first time in an eternity (ok, it was six weeks but it felt a lot longer), I went to a game where the Mets on when Shawn Green hit a walk-off homer in the 10th to beat the dirty Cardinals.
• I added to the list of baseball stadiums I’ve seen a game at by watching the Brooklyn Cyclones lose to the Hudson Valley Renegades at Dutchess Stadium.
• We celebrated Jeremy’s birthday at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Afterwards, Aaron crashed overnight at my apartment…
• …so we could wake up early the next morning to get to Nintendo World at 7.15am and [finally] get the Wii!
• Hours later, Hunka-Hunka 4, which has officially become an all-weekend extravaganza, was officially underway. Justin and I pushed for a Korean BBQ theme and got it, which meant we got to spearhead the prep work and grilling. As always, it was a weekend of food, beer, and recreation – this year being the best one yet.
• I suffered through yet another rain-induced fiasco on the Queens Boulevard line.
• I saw The Hold Steady for the sixth time!
• Aaron and Jeremy took me out to Blue Smoke for my birthday – maybe next year, I’ll choose a place that isn’t barbecue… riiiiight.
• Rachael, Jess, and Dave celebrated with me at the Beer Garden. All I’ll say is that a tremendous amount of beer followed by sugary cupcakes is a very bad idea.
• I saw The New Pornographers for the fourth time – my first time seeing them with Neko Case!
• Cee and Susan took me out to dinner and The Lion King for my birthday.

With fall on the horizon, there’s plenty to look forward to. Justin and Dori will be getting married later this month – the guys will send him off in style with a spectacular stag weekend. There’s the promise of October baseball for my Mets and if that happens, it would only be the second time in team history they make consecutive post-season appearances. Things I might do include a visit to Binghamton for Homecoming Weekend to mark five years since I graduated, seeing Rent with the original Mark and Roger, and blowing through CMJ again. Maybe the fall recap will be as fun to write as this one was – I’ll certainly do all I can to make that happen.

I still don’t feel any compulsion to talk about it but I will anyway because

• it’s been five years and it seems like a good time as any to do so,
• I’ve got accompanying photos so it won’t be all talk, and
• as each year passes, I’m more likely to forget details about the day so it’s best to get it recorded for the sake of remembrance.

American flag hanging on 35th Avenue between 43rd and 44th Street in Astoria, NY.

It was the third week of classes in my last year at Binghamton University. I woke up that morning at 7:15am so I could shower and get to my 8:30am Operating Systems class on time. It was our first exam/quiz of the semester and I wanted to make sure I’d get there on time. Aaron noticed there was something wrong with our bathtub – there was an odor and black gunk coming up out of the drain. At this point, a shower was out of the question. We quietly – Justin will dispute that – debated whether to wake Justin or Jeremy at such an early hour to tell them about the drain problem. We ultimately left a note (I think?) for them, detailing the situation and jetted off to campus.

After quickly finishing the exam/quiz, Ben and I killed time in the Science Library, on their public computing stations. At some point, Ben tells me that a plane hit the World Trade Center. He and I both assumed that, with no further information available at the time from CNN.com, that some bozo had flown a prop plane into one of the towers. It’s not without precedence since this had already happened once before in 1945 when a B-25 bomber flown by Army Air Corps bomber pilot Lt. Colonel William Smith slammed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building amidst a heavy fog. Of course, it was a clear day this time but accidents can happen anytime.

A few minutes after 9:02am, we both knew this was no accident. Once that second plane hit the South Tower, we began a mad game of clicking Refresh/hitting F5 at the computer. There were other students around us at their own computers who had overheard our excited cries and had also started to visit the various news sites. Well, they must all have been trying to go to the heavy hitters – CNN.com and NYTimes.com – because we were repeatedly getting timeout errors. While we were debating whether or not to go to our Programming Languages class, we saw that the Pentagon had also been hit. We finally decided to go to our next class since there had been no official word of classes being cancelled.

When we got to our next class, a visibly shaken Professor Head talked about how this was our generation’s Pearl Harbor. She tried teaching but, finding it difficult to do so, ultimately let us out 20 minutes early. Classes were officially cancelled for the day, and the career/job fair – the first of the school year – was cancelled. With no idea of what had happened since 9:45am, Aaron and I drove back to the apartment. I think the radio was on in the car but I don’t remember what I heard during the ride.

Upon entering the apartment, Justin and Jeremy, who had been watching the continuing coverage on CNN, updated us on what transpired. I recall being in a state of utter disbelief when told that the towers had collapsed. To this point, I had not seen any images of the events, only descriptions from CNN.com’s breaking news banner. I immediately glued myself to the television and that’s when I saw, or I should say didn’t see, the towers. Still in shock, I didn’t even realize that there was a plumber in our bathroom working on our tub until he came out to tell us that it was fixed. I thanked him in a rather perfunctory manner but I was barely paying him any attention as my gaze was fixed to the television. We didn’t have our cable modem installed yet so I tried to get online with my brother’s AOL account only to encounter what everyone else surely ran into – busy signals.

With no way to get online and the prospect of watching even more television coverage as the alternative, the four of us decided to drive out into town. We didn’t really have too much to do – a few errands, maybe lunch, and a trip to Wal-Mart – but just getting away from the continuing media coverage was welcome. We couldn’t avoid it entirely since, everywhere we went, there was a radio with the news playing, or, in the case of Wal-Mart, a giant bank of televisions showing CNN.

Later in the afternoon, I was able to finally check in with my family back in New York City to see if they were all ok. None of my friends worked in the WTC complex so I didn’t have to make those calls immediately to check on them though, ultimately, I would discover a few acquaintances I knew had died in the attack.

Now, five years later, after finally putting this all down on paper – or bytes, as it were – I’m not going to talk about it ever again. When I’m older and begin to forget some of the minute details of the day, I’ll go back to this post and re-read it and I’m sure the memories will surge forward.

I’ll end this post with photos of the Tribute in Light, taken from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

Two things became major time-sucks for me – one has been a calendar-filler since my teenage years but the other became a strong presence in my life this summer.

The new passion that managed to fill up a lot of my time is live music. I’d always enjoyed going to concerts but this summer saw that ratcheted up to a new level. From Memorial Day weekend to this weekend, I’ve been to 32 shows – before this year, I’d never accumlated such a total in the entirety of my life. As a corollary to the live music love, I purchased a DSLR camera, which I’ve since taken to every show I’ve been to. The new camera only bolstered the frequency of shows I was attending and it’s also gotten me press access to quite a few shows/series’ this summer – JellyNYC’s Pool Parties and the Seaport Music Festival, just to name a few. With the end of summer, the number of shows I go to will taper but next summer is less than nine months away.

The other time-waster is, of course, the New York Mets. Though the summer may be over, my attendance at Shea Stadium won’t be ending anytime soon as the Amazin’s have just run away with their division and are poised to make a run deep into October. I hope I’ll be writing my end of fall post during Thanksgiving weekend and remarking on what a truly amazin’ run the ‘06 Mets made to the world championship.

Back to the DSLR – purchasing a new camera has gotten me off my ass to put up some new blogs, this time utilizing the photos I take with the camera to tell the story. One of those blogs is this one obviously; the others are a photoblog and a musicblog.

A summer recap in list form:

• I had a good time attending a lot of concerts but that gets discussed on my musicblog, The Wong Way.
• I sat on my ass through five movies in Red Bank, NJ but it was worth it because the fifth movie was Clerks II.
• I gorged myself on some of the finest BBQ this country has to offer for two consecutive days.
• I saw one of my best friends get married and I had the privilege of taking photos at her wedding reception two months later.
• Thanks to the aforementioned wedding, I stayed in South Carolina for the first time in my life and discovered that sticking out like a sore thumb – being the only Asian at a local food festival – means different things in a small town.
• I saw “Superman Returns” before it opened and got some nice Superman-related swag courtesy of AOL (thanks to Won for the hook-up). I liked it the first time and then promptly disliked the film when I saw it a second time.
• I saw several co-workers leave for greener pastures – NYU for one and Hawaii for another – while another moved onto better things at my current workplace.
• I realized that my emerging passion for indie music became a full-blown love affair.
• I visited Boston but, this time, it was without my college buddies and I still managed to have a good time. A bonus – I got to see Jens Lekman live!
• I attended many BBQs [1 2] this summer.
• I was there when Mike Piazza returned to Shea.
• I celebrated my 26th birthday.
• I only ate at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que twice this summer – a shock, I know.
• I spent way too much time at McCarren Park Pool this summer. The same goes for South Street Seaport.

Au revoir, summer of 2006! I’ll miss you terribly as I muddle my way through the dropping temperatures.