Photos by:
Dana Roper
Ryan Matthew
Steve Medeiros
Molly Ruggeri
RYAN FAN CLUB MERCH
Exclusively from CafePress.com
September 5, 2007
Jeepers creepers! The summer is over. Holy cow, I have no idea where it all went either. It seems as I get older my summer vacation goes by quicker. But, as they say (whoever "they"a re), there's no rest for the wicked. So here's a little something I like to call:
THE HIGHLIGHTS OF SUMMER '07
Like I said, I'm getting older. This much is true. I just celebrated my 27th birthday on the thirteenth of August. It was very interesting. I have a tendancy to make my birthday last a couple of days. There are just so many darn people that love me.
Party #1 occured at my mom and dad's place. There was cake, beer, presents, and swimming. My sister cooked me a *perfect* steak. And I can't stress enough how excellent it was. I probably could've had two of them. My nephew didn't have any money to get me a present, and he really wanted to get me something, so he made me a card and gave me his Justice League toys he didn't want anymore. That's adorable.
Party #2 was the wildcard event. When I go to the bars for my birthday it's never really planned out all that much. I want to extend my deepest thanks to my friends that came out to celebrate (Dustin, Jacqueline, Bobbi-Jo, Jamie, Victoria, Jason) and shame on those who didn't make it. There was lots of drinks at The Toucan, The Brass, and Mybar that night, and we ended it all off with some McDonalds on the church steps. Check out the video below!
(Beautiful ladies sing me happy birthday... and Dustin too.)
Party #3 was just me and Dana. She took me out for dinner, followed by Starbucks. Yum! On the way to get my Venti Houseblend we bumped into Jon Browne at the Open Mic night, and he did a rendition of Aerosmith Rag Doll just for my birthday. Then Dana took me home, where I'm not allowed to tell you what we did to finish celebrating my birthday...
So on to the cottage weekend!
Every year we go up to Molly's cottage on Green Lake. It's gorgeous. It's so nice to spend a few days relaxing by the water and eating BBQ Thing-Dinks. (Note: a "Thing-Dink" is a large hot dog weiner; the name Thing-Dink was given to it by Bob Blaschuk III because there was a picture of The Fantastic Four's The Thing on the wrapper)
It may sound strange, but my favorite part of going to the cottage is chopping wood. It's a great way to relieve stress and frustration. And Everyone looks good wielding an axe. A family of ducks swam by and I fed them many of the buns I had purchased for my Thing-Dinks. This, in turn, left many of my Thing-Dinks to be bun-less. But I didn't mind. After all, those ducks are practically cousins of mine. The water was just right too. I did some swimming (well, more like laying on top of an inflatable donut) and cooled off. It was just so nice to get away from the city. Waking up at 8 in the morning and going out on the deck to have a coffee and play cards with Dana is just wonderful. But I am a city boy at heart, so I could never move to the country.
(Chopping Wood and Feeding Ducks... it's almost poetic... Fan Appreciation Day)
My buddy Blair must be obsessed with karaoke. I know he's a damn good Risk player, but I never knew that he enjoys embarassing himself in public as much as I do. Blair convinced me to go to karaoke at the Tir Nan Og. It didn't take much convincing. Victoria and Dana came along to cheer (read: laugh) us on and drink with us. It was such a good time that we did it again (and again). More recently though, we chose to do karaoke at Mybar because the drinks are cheaper and there tend to be more attractive women in the area. The disappointing part is that neither of the bars had any Hanson songs in their karaoke selection. I was all ready to sing some Mmmbop too. Our last karaoke adventure was twice the size too. More people, more songs, more booze. Blair and I recruited Dustin for some Sweet Child O' Mine and we were all later joined by Lindsay and Dominique for a rendition of Billie Jean. I'm sorry to say that the video of those didn't turn out so well.
(Ryan singing with Blair, - - - King of the Whopper... Ryan with Becky)
The end of summer also means the end of Road Hockey. Playing pick-up with the boys (and a few girls too) was one of my happiest moments of the summer. It was awesome for us all to get together and get some exercise while having fun. See, I don't ALWAYS have to drink to have a good time. Don't be surprized if we figure out how to do some indoor floor hockey over the winter. We just love playing that much.
The biggest disappointment of the summer was Fan Appreciation Day. Again, I'm sorry to everyone who showed up to the right place while I was in the wrong one. I'm working on rescheduling it for late September or early October.
So good-bye summer. I can't wait for you to come again next year. Mostly, so I can see more scantilly clad girls downtown.
