My Halo is Held Up by my Horns...

I always say that Sam is my bad influence friend. We all have them and you're probably one to someone else. I'm not saying I don't do bad things when she's not around as LR's dad has always said her & I are "partners in crime" but generally, I was the mastermind behind any half baked ideas (toilet paper, cliff jumping, sneaking out, Pt Bob camping, hot tub parties, pjama drives and so and so on) However, I probably wouldn't have done half of the things we did if it wasn't for Sam. A strong factor was that she lived in Victoria for almost 10 years and there's something to be said for road trips.

Since leaving Victoria, Sammie has calmed down somewhat. She now works on a cruise ship in the caribbean & I really only see her a couple of times a year. Granted we keep in touch with weekly phone calls when she is in port but there is a certain calmness about her. I noticed it more when we were travelling through Europe. We had met a girl from Victoria when we were in Valencia and we all decided to fire it up one night. I said to watch out for Sam as she's the bad influence. At the end of the evening, Sandra whipped around & yelled "She's totally angelic; You're the devil!"

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interesting.

Although, I'm starting to wonder if there is a little truth behind that statement. You see Charlene has had a growing concern for my liver as of late and she revealed that she's passed this link along to a couple of her friends that also seem to think I'm crazy. As she pointed out what happened on my visit to Springfield (half way between Boston & NY), she agrees with Sandra.

I love this picture from that fateful night as you can see my halo. Albeit it is a beer sign which in my opinion makes it that much more appropriate.

Here we are on a Sunday evening in downtown Springfield looking for a pub to get a drink. Even though it was memorial day weekend, there very few pubs open on a Sunday night so Char, EJ and myself were stuck going to the same one we went to the night before except on this night, some lone strangler decided to join us.

Yes, some weird guy "travelling through town" asked if he could sit with us as he didn't know anyone. It didn't take much for us to let him sit with us as he kept buying rounds. But it was my eagerness to see NY that brought out what happened next. The following weekend, Charlene and I had planned to go to the city & play, but that was a whole week away in Leanne Years that's about 7 months. So not content to wait, I've now confiscated the stranger's car keys and took everyone hostage. Yes, I had been in Mass for almost 24 hours, it was about time for a road trip.

Why he was going to let me drive his car to NY, I'll never know (ok so it was a beer induced decision) Even though Charlene & EJ were trying to be covert & not let me leave town (saying "Well, if I'm going all the way to NY, I'm going to need my sweater & heading upstairs is a little transparent.) They're neighbors so they're both at home talking on the phone trying to figure out a way to make me stay.

No, Charlene convinced me that I didn't realize how long of a drive NY really was & that, and I quote, "need to act my age". I would act my age but seeing as I didn't go to NY when I was 21, I need to make up for lost time. I managed to coax them back into the car by promising we would only go as far as Hartford. So once I removed the propane tank in the back seat, we were off! Hey: safety first.

She's told me that when this picture was taken, he mind is racing & totally freaking out. A second strange guy had appeared from nowhere & almost wouldn't let Charlene go so I ran him over.

So we only went as far as Hartford, had some breakfast & came back. We dumped strange guy in a parking lot somewhere. I felt kind of bad that his propane tank wasn't where we left it but he was now snoring in the side seat so we left him & went home. I think EJ was officially scared of me but how bad was that? Considering everything, it could have been waaaaaaaay worse.

So despite what you all think about me, I think I'm a little angel! So I guess I need to step it up a notch if I want this summer to be one of the best!

OH! When we finally did make it to NY:

Char in Central park vs me in Central park (I need to cut back on the caffine)

And of course, if you're going to be in NY you gotta go to a Yankees game!!!

You can see Mr. Cranky Pants in the bottom left.