On the Hill

Alright, so this is waaay late, and most likely not many people will still be checking the blogs, but here it goes.

After finals are finished, us graduating seniors have a period of time known as Senior Week,commencement on Memorial Day Weekend. This is sort of the pinnacle of our social lives at Cornell and one last time to cut loose before we depart Ithaca. No responsibilities, in fact none even on the horizon (as opposed to orientation week http://web.cornell.edu/studentblogs/ben/?p=26

So this was the first year that I have been an active member of the support staff for the NROTC orientation week. It was a long week and pretty tiring but actually quite rewarding and I am glad that I had the opportunity to finally take part in it. I really felt like I was giving a little back to the unit (Cornell NROTC) and I think that if I had some small part in making the new fourth class’ (freshmen) experience better then it was a success on my part. Most days consisted of waking up at 5:15 AM and meeting at the unit (Barton Hall) before heading over to Schoellkopf field (the football field) for PT (physical training). PT was not very physically demanding after getting back from Officer Candidates School, but it was quite a challenge for most of the fourth class. Typically we would start by warming up with stretching exercises and then calisthenics called the “daily 7.” After that we would go on runs, either for a mile and a half around campus or Indian runs for twenty minutes in the stadium. On the final day, Friday, we all ran up and down Libe slope, which was probably the most physically demanding thing we did all week.

After PT, I typically went home and was able to take a shower and change out of my PT shirt and shorts and into my cammies, which were my uniform for each day. I would normally go back to the unit and help out where I was needed whether that be cooking meals for the fourth class or standing watch of the unit while the fourth class was in academic periods of instruction. On Thursday I gave the fourth class an official campus tour and let them loosen up a bit before I turned them back over to their squad leaders and platoon sergeant (who do most of the yelling at them). In general, orientation week had calmed down a lot since when I went through it. This is mostly due to the natural changeover of officer and enlisted staff at the unit and our newer staff has revamped the program quite a bit. When I went through orientation week most of the things we did were run by the upperclassmen and they were given pretty free reign to essentially haze us. Although I don’t think that what I went through was necessarily a bad thing – hazing, of sorts, takes place in the military and serves a purpose – but it probably does not belong at this level of training (i.e. first exposure to military life for most of them). Our new orientation week has much less yelling, and everything we have the fourth class do serves some sort of purpose. They get a full eight hours of sleep a night and in general there is just a lot less stress placed on them. That is not to say what the fourth class just went through is easy, many of them struggled through most of the week and all of them should feel proud that they completed something harder than most civilians will ever be exposed to.

The fourth class graduate on Friday morning and then the entire unit comes together at Cass Park in downtown Ithaca and we have a barbeque. It gives everyone a chance to relax and for the fourth class to see that all of the people who had been yelling at them all week were actually just normal college students and probably their friends in the future. A lot of them had questions for me since they were quite confused about what my rank was (I was the only midshipman who wore the new MARPAT “digi-cams” with my name and US Marines embroidered on them – for reference, see my picture page) and I explained that midshipmen that have completed OCS have the privilege of wearing that uniform at the unit during their senior year. After the barbeque I got a cell phone call from some guys at Psi U who informed me to take out some money since they had just rented a stretch Hummer limo which we were going to be taking to Syracuse to pick up a fellow fraternity brother, Robby, from the airport. At this point, my brain immediately registered that temporarily my military life would be turned off for a week and Cornell orientation week was about to begin…

Cornell orientation week is undisputedly one of the best weeks of college. There is no work to do since classes have not yet started and most students come back for the entire week to relax and catch up with their friends. In addition, this is a great week for freshmen since they have just arrived on campus and it really gives them a chance to get to know each other and experience the social life of Cornell right away. Typically, the place to be during the week is Collegetown and what happens is that all of the upperclassmen who rent houses open them up and let the freshmen socialize and congregate on their lawns, porches, etc. I hesitate to compare it to Mardi Gras but it is an interesting phenomenon to see literally thousands of people crammed into the houses lining College Avenue. As the week just started last night and I went to sleep right after returning from Syracuse (I hadn’t taken a nap and been awake since 5 AM!) I will right more about the festivities as the week progresses.

A little more about Syracuse though… So, I start walking over to the house after the barbeque and hear the pleasant sound of a group of Psi U guys shouting my name from none other than the fine establishment that is CollegeTown Bagels. It was a beautiful afternoon, perfect for relaxing at “CTB,” and we hung out for a couple hours having some food and drink while catching up with the guys who had just gotten into town that afternoon. Finally, we got a phone call that the Hummer was waiting outside Psi U and that we needed to walk back and prepare to embark. The Hummer was pretty amazing – strobe lights, sodas on ice, plasma TVs, etc. The best part was that no one had told Robby we were coming to pick him up, in fact we had informed him that a brother who was not even in our entourage was driving to meet him. You can imagine his surprise when 16 guys roll up in a limo with the limo driver holding a sign out the window with his name on it. Robby is an emotional guy and I am convinced a saw at least one tear slip out as we pulled up. After picking him up, we grabbed dinner at the Carousel Mall and probably the highlight of the evening was a couple asking me, “Why are you guys all dress in t-shirts, blazers, and mesh lacrosse shorts? Did you all lose a bet or are you a members of a sports team?” To which I replied, “Neither, we are in a fraternity.” The male member of the couple laughed and said, “That was my guess.”

It was a pretty fun evening and if it is any indication of what is to come this week and hopefully all next year I am sure this will be an entertaining year and thus an entertaining blog.

So Thursday was my last day of work at Ameriprise. After some tearful goodbyes to the folks at the office I hopped in my car and drove back to Brooklyn that evening. Got lost pretty bad on the way and the 2 and half hour trip turned into a four hour trip. Finally arrived and hit the sack soon after to rest up for my big weekend.

Friday morning I got on the subway and made my way over to JFK with plenty of time to spare for security (following warnings of three hour long waits due to the London terrorist plots). What I saw at the airport was pretty bizarre – longer lines than I have ever seen before at the check-in but shorter lines than I have ever seen at security. I was actually able to bypass the long lines by checking in with skycab outside, so that was nice. Since I had so much time to kill I sat down to lunch at Chilis in the terminal and read a little bit of the book I am currently reading, Gates of Fire (great book by the way – about the Spartans stand at Thermopylae against a much larger invading force of Persians). After that I got on the plane napped for about 30 minutes and then watched Thank you for Smoking on the little TV in the back of the headrest that allows you to get On-Demand movies for a simple swipe of the credit card. The movie was hilarious – if you haven’t seen it, see it. I got into Fort Lauderdale at about 4:30 PM and my buddies Ricky and Jon (both in Psi U with me) were waiting for me at the baggage claim.

It is quite hard to accurately portray through writing the craziness and fun that ensued for the next two days since nothing really notable even happened. We arrived at Ricky’s grandparents’ condo shortly after they picked me up and immediately started joking around, catching up on how are summers had been, and watching TV. The last member of our weekend festivities, Carlo, showed up about an hour later. He also is in Psi U, but transferred to Harvard last semester. We ordered a few pizzas and just sort of hung out for the rest of the evening. Apparently my buddy Jon had taken up a recent interest in cooking and baking and was dead set on us trying some crazy cookie recipe he had found. I do have to admit that they weren’t half bad either.

We woke up pretty early on Saturday since we had gone to sleep early the night before. We had breakfast at a local place called the Floridian which is I think where we started noticing the absurdity in how full time Florida residents dress. We joked that a typical Florida wardrobe probably consisted of twenty sleeveless shirts on hangars and then another twenty Hawaiian print shirts for the “nice occasions”. We also saw quite a few Bentleys on the way to breakfast which is when we started calling things “baller”, which would be a common theme for the entire trip. The baller reference is from a recent Chappelle’s show skit in which he mocks MTV cribs. Again if you haven’t seen it, see it. For the rest of the day on Saturday we walked down the main strip in Fort Lauderdale and hung out on the beach. When we got back to the condo we decided it would be interesting to see if we could launch a water balloon from our 17th story condo all the way across the street and try to land it in a pool at another hotel (which did not have any guests in it, in case you were wondering). We had one of those balloon sling shots and after a few attempts we realized it was futile since each balloon was exploding before it left the balcony. That evening we actually ended up getting separated from each other and Carlo and I ate at a restaurant pretty far down on the strip. The restaurant was pretty good, they had live music and some locals even came out to do some freestyle breakdancing across the street. Carlo decided it would be “baller” to order a $80 bottle of champagne, and it was, until the check came… The rest of the night was pretty fun, we went out to this trendy, somewhat sketchy night club which was interesting to say the least and then called it a night and went back to the condo. Throughout the evening we were very inquisitive of the other patrons we ran into, I think we all just wanted to soak in as much of the Fort Lauderdale culture as possible. Before going to sleep we also watched DMX: Soul of a Man which provided some unintentional high comedy for us – this is not a series I would say deserves TiVoing, but it is fun to run into while flipping the channels if you are bored.

Sunday I woke up quite early to catch my 9 A.M. flight. The flight again was pretty relaxing, no issues at security either. I got back to Brooklyn around two or so in the afternoon, packed up all my stuff, and drove to Ithaca. I am back now doing orientation week for the incoming Naval ROTC freshmen. I will update this in a few days to let you know how it is going.

So, as always, I had a great time going home and seeing all my friends from grade school and high school. This was the second weekend I have been back and probably the last time I will be able to this summer. On Friday I left work and picked up my Mom and my brothers who had taken the train from Brooklyn down to Poughkeepsie. We got in the car and drove all the way to Boston and made good enough time that I was able to get dropped off right in Brighton and meet up with some of my best friends: Bob, Matt, Jeff, and then later a different Matt, Derek, and Chris. The house that I met them at actually belongs to a group of 6 guys from BC High that went on to go to Boston College and happen to all live together. Although none of them came into the city that night with us they are close enough with us that they allow us to use the house to stay over at if we want to go out in the city. After I got there at around 10:30 we hung out for awhile at the house, watched some TV, played a few games, and then headed out to Cleveland Circle to a bar called Cityside. It was a pretty good time, we actually ran into a few other people we knew from high school and some girls that went to the Catholic girls school that was sort of our unofficial sister school. It also happened to be Matt’s birthday the night before so we celebrated that as well.

Saturday we woke up late, hung around for a little bit at the house and then made the drive back to Scituate. We stopped on the way at a place called Crow Point Pizzeria in Hingham that has far and away the best buffalo chicken calzone I have ever eaten. We dropped Bob off at his house on Hingham harbor and then I met up with my Mom to do some back to school shopping. After that I actually met up with my Dad, who has my brothers for the week (the purpose of my Mom making the trip to Boston) and we ate at one of my favorite restaurants, Joe’s American Bar and Grill in Hanover. I went back to Scituate and got dropped off at Jeff’s house which is where I usually stay when I am back home. We hung out for awhile with Jeff’s dad who proudly displayed his newly installed twin kegerator and Harpoon beers that he had on tap (http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/). After hanging out for a bit we met back up with Matt, Bob, Derek, and the other Matt along with a couple other kids from high school – Chris, John, Eric, and Dan. We all went out to TKO Malley’s a pretty popular local restaurant and bar (http://www.eattkomalleys.com). It was a beautiful night and we sat outside on the patio right on Scituate Harbor. We ran into quite a few Scituate people who went to Scituate High instead of BC High, but who we knew from middle and grade school. At one point, myself, Derek, and one of the Matts decided to leave TK’s and head over to a place called Pier 44 which used to be one of the nicer restaurants in town but had, to everyone’s surprise, been recently converted into a dance club. We had heard that a lot of people our age enjoyed the place (nicknamed “Club 44″) so we thought it would be a good idea to head over there for the end of the night. When we got there we realized that the huge group of 50’s aged adults who had been celebrating their high school reunion had invaded the club and taken over the dance floor. Suffice it to say it was not quite the scene we were looking for and we made an early exit. After getting back to Jeff’s house we turned on the hot tub, relaxed, told funny stories from high school, and then went to sleep. All in all, it was a great night and a perfect way to cap off my summer.

On Sunday I woke up, hung out for awhile with Jeff doing something that Jeff and his friends from college actually coined but all of us have adopted, “perching”. Perching is an activity only performed on Saturdays or Sundays and usually lasts from the late morning/early afternoon into sometimes the evening. To sufficiently be perched, one must be in a very comfortable location (lazy boys are great for this) and have full access to a television which is typically tuned into Sportscenter or cheesy old movies on TNT. So Jeff and I perched for quite awhile until my Mom finally showed up at his house and we drove back to Brooklyn. That evening we ate at a restaurant in my Mom’s neighborhood Park Slope, called Two Boots (http://www.twobootsbrooklyn.com/) which after only one meal already parallels Maxie’s Supper Club in Ithaca as my favorite Cajun cuisine.

That’s all for now, I probably will not update during this final week at work unless something monumental happens but I am sure I will have some good stories to tell after my “last hurrah of the summer” trip to Fort Lauderdale this coming weekend…

So, the tour of the winery on Friday was a pretty good time. Two of the three other interns came and we basically toured the winery, learned how the wine was made through each step of the process, and then sat down to a Tuscan lunch of antipasto and cold cuts on Italian bread. Of course the beverage of choice during the lunch was wine – mostly red wine, Syrah and blends of Syrah and Zinfandel. It was the first time I really enjoyed red wine and that was a good thing since there was plenty to go around. We had a few bottles to go with lunch and then got caught in a terrible rain storm so we didn’t want to drive home and the only answer for a way to kill the time was to uncork another bottle…

So this is actually my third week of work. Not that anyone cares that much, but I’ll give you a little rundown of what I have been up to.

I have been organizing a baseball game for clients – it’s the Hudson Valley Renegades – I think they’re like class A ball and they are in the Devil Rays farm system. Apparently they are quite popular though, like the second largest draw after the Buffalo Bisons in the country. So I have been coordinating the 400 people that we are inviting – putting together goodie bags of free stuff that companies like Fidelity and Van Kampen send us and doing a bunch of other little things.

Also, the other big news today was that other than them ordering us all a pizza for lunch, I managed to convince my Uncle’s father (who also works for us) to take the other interns and myself to his winery which is about 10 miles from the office, on Friday for lunch. It should be a pretty good time he makes Italian wines with grapes he imports from Napa Valley. Hopefully we can turn the lunch into a full day excursion and miss coming back to work in time to do anything…

I’ll keep you posted.

So, I had a pretty good weekend.

To give a little background, since I got back from OCS I have been living with my Aunt and Uncle in Poughkeepsie, NY which is in the Hudson Valley about 2 hours outside of New York City. My mom, brothers, and sister currently live in an apartment on Park Slope in Brooklyn – essentially my parents have gone through the process of a divorce in the past year and my father stayed in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Anyway, I live with my Uncle since I work for him during the week. He is an Ameriprise Financial Advisor so I get to sit in on his meetings during the day, talk to him about writing financial plans and allocating people’s money and then do a bunch of data entry during the evening. It has been going pretty well and he has been paying me well also

So, back to my weekend. The president of our house, Chris, was having a 22^nd birthday celebration on Friday night at a bar called Joshua Tree in Manhattan. I drove home after work on Friday, ate dinner with my Mom and then took the subway over to Manhattan. It was a pretty good time – mostly just for the fact that I hadn’t seen any of the guys from my house all summer. I would say about 20 or so guys showed up, so that was nice. In addition, I got to see some of the recent alums who live in Manhattan that came out to see everyone as well. As I have said before, we are a pretty tight knit group so pretty much any time a bunch of Psi U guys get together in the city it ends up being 20-30 guys stretching a span of 7 or so years of graduation. After Joshua Tree a bunch of guys who are interning at investment banks went home since they work on Saturdays and I split off with a smaller group of guys. We actually ended up at an 80’s party, which was somewhat bizarre, but the highlight of the night was running into a buddy of mine John, who attended the same camp as the one I did for ten years (http://www.camppathfinder.com). I hadn’t seen him in nearly four years so that was really cool. I am not a big fan of Manhattan, or NYC in general for numerous reasons, but I have to admit it seems like every time I am there I run into someone unexpected.

I drove back to Poughkeepsie Saturday morning for my Uncle’s annual clam bake. He has been throwing this party for I think 6 years now and it is a combination of family, friends, and clients from work. Basically, he gets a lot of good food including three bushels of freshly dug clams and we sit around all afternoon and cook. Unfortunately, the weather was not good, lots of rain, so it put a bit of a damper on the day. It was still great seeing all of my cousins, aunts, and uncles. I got to hang out with my cousin Sam quite a bit, and he is an incoming Cornell freshman, so we talked Cornell stuff most of the day. I gave him my customized, inside guide to Orientation Week as well.

Sunday we pretty much just cleaned up after the party, and said our goodbyes to everyone. All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend.