The R.A.N III Experience

Christmas in Troy

Last Saturday I woke up at 4 AM and headed out the door to Salt Lake City International Airport for my first trip back to Michigan since I left for Utah in late September for the holidays.  After a long day of airports and delays I finally arrived at Detroit Metro around 7 PM EST time to see my equally excited-to-see-me sister, Laura and my mother.  I can’t believe it had been 3 months since I’d seen them last.  After many hugs we headed to the baggage claim and waited for my bags to come up the carousel while I told them about my adventurous day of drinking beer in Chicago with a girl I met at the bar from Ohio.  Finally, after about 10-15 minutes, my bags were in hand and we headed outside where my dad was waiting in the van for us.  On the drive home from Metro we talked about Utah and how different it is from Michigan (IE. no gambling, Mormons, alcohol, etc.) and what it’s like living in the mountains (always colder).  Back home in Troy, Amy had just arrived in from Chicago so I got a chance to see her before I went out for my first night back in the mitten. 

After all the welcome home greetings had concluded I headed out to see Megan and Kelly for a brief time before making my exit to the Troy Sports Arena to try and catch the end of the AHS vs. THS hockey game that Tony was coaching.  There I ran into Spagz, in which that was the only time I saw him all break and Tony, Charlie, and Megan.  We (Charlie, Megan, Tony, and Erika) were heading out to Detroit for a free hip hop show featuring Guilty Simpson, Royce, Slum Village, Trick Trick, and a few others.  This ended up being a fantastic show, one of the best I’ve been to and it was a great time with all the friends.

The next evening I switched gears a little and went to hang out with my married friend, Kathy and her husband, Andy at their new place along with Megan and Kelly.  It was a fun evening, a little low key, some beer, some board games, some more flirting between Kelly and I, the usual, nothing ridiculous.

On Christmas Eve I went to church with the fam per usual and then afterwards ended up just hanging out low key style with Dave.  The next day, the family headed over to Aunt Katie’s house for Christmas morning/lunch, it was great to see the fam again, obviously.  We had an Italian style Christmas dinner, lasagna, spaghetti, chicken, and of course everyone’s favorite, greenbean bundles.  After AK’s I headed home to get ready for Kelly’s Holiday Hammered III party.  I ended up getting over there about 11 PM with Solei who was going with me.  The previous day I bought a lot of booze so we could make Johnny Vegas shots that were quite tasty, complete with 1800 Tequilla.  The night was pretty fun, I saw many people who I missed greatly, like Mark, Devynn, Solei, Justin, Katie, etc. and many shots were consumed which added fuel to the fire (Pictures are in the gallery). 

On December 26th, my last day in Troy, I decided to go to Joe Kools for the going away (Part II) party.  I was quite surprised by how many people showed up, hell, even Kim came around.  The highlight of that portion of the night was actually finding out my brotha from another motha, Ryan, proposed to Erika on Christmas Eve in downtown Rochester!  Congratulations to them.  Anyway, we ended up with about 20 people there until around 11-1130 or so at that point most people either went home or transferred venues to the GP.  So obviously I decided to go to the GP as well.  The GP was packed, I mean this place was rockin with AHS alumni’s (the 01′ cross country reunion was going on), THS alum, and just random people all around. 

This trip (or vacation as we working people call it) was so needed and really helped to recharge the ol’ batteries in terms of moral from being 2000 miles away from the friends and family.  Seeing everyone again was such a great time and I had an absolute blast.  I also found out the parents and sisters may be coming here during Memorial Day to visit and see Park City and I guess Utah in general so that is the next event to look forward to.

Tonight is New Years Eve and tickets to HarryO’s party (with QuestLove DJing) are sold out … Oh well, it looks like BT and I will be paying a ten dollar cover to StarBar (instead of 60 for HarryO’s) which is probably better.  This is our opportunity to branch out a little from HO’s and see what else PC has to offer, hopefully it will be a good NYE, obviously pictures and blog post to come. 

Moving Around Is Overrated

This past weekend was a filled with fun and excitment for the dynamic duo.  On Saturday Billy and myself headed to my work Christmas party at an amazing 5-star hotel called The Grand America Hotel.  This place was quite a sight; chandeliers from Murano and Milan, French cherry wood furniture, English wool carpets, green Italian marble bathrooms, and an amazing courtyard.  We arrived fashionably late, as usual, around 6:40, there wasn’t too many people there from my group so we retreated to the open, yes, open bar and ordered the usual Heinekin for Billy while I decided on the less usual, chardonnay, we then took a seat near the middle back.  After a few minutes (and probably a few drinks) it was time for the buffet line to start, this wasn’t just any buffet, this was 5-star buffet.  Great food, fantastic even, mashed potatoes, some great stuffing, cranberry sauce turkey slices, Atlantic Salmon, New York Strips, vegetables, I mean they were really on point.  After dinner we had the pleasure of being entertained by dueling pianoists from a bar in Salt Lake who were quite entertaining, it was pretty much just like JD’s Key Club in Pontiac, Michigan.  After the party was over (roughly around 11:30 most people were gone) Billy and I decided to crash some other work Christmas parties that were in other ballrooms.  This ended up being a great idea.  I was Billy’s lawyer and apparently I get him out of a lot of binds and I am now 2-0 in court cases for him.  People really buy whatever you tell them, it was a great time.

On Sunday morning we awoke bright and early to head out for our first ski trip of the season and also the first ski trip since being in Utah.  We had passes to Park City Ski Resort just 2 miles down the road from us.  We arrived at about 10 AM and began getting ready in the parking lot bumping rap music (and probably angering older people with younger kids but whatever we’re trying to get hyped up for skiing).  Let me tell you, getting ready to go snowboarding is quite the ordeal.  First, you have to get the thick socks on, then the snowpants, then the boots, then tie the boots, then the jacket, etc. etc. etc., it probably took 15 minutes at least to get ready.  Finally, we head up to the “First Timers Hill” and get on the ski lift which is always a debacle with me.  My first time going down was surprisingly smooth, I seemed to retain a lot of that know-how from 4 years ago (the last time I snowboarded).  The beginner hill didn’t last long, before you knew it we were up at the summit going down the biggest hill, which was spectacular.  We got some great pictures as well (check out the photo album, you know the drill).  Of course, after this skiing adventure I am now more sore than I have been in probably ohhh 4 years (AKA the last time I snowboarded) and I can barely move.  I just hope my wrist stops hurting before the airport on Saturday. 

Whicih brings me to Saturday, ahh, yes Saturday.  Four days from now I’ll be in , Troy, MI, friends, family, partying, and great food, I cannot wait!

F-A-B-O-L-O-U-S… FABOLOUS

Yes, this past weekend was the weekend of fun activities in Salt Lake City (See the photo gallery for this weekend in pictures).  To start off our Saturday, Billy and I made the trek (about 28 miles) down to Salt Lake City to the Energy Solutions Arena (where the Jazz play) for the Michigan State vs. Brigham Young mens basketball game.  This was awesome, not only did we get a chance to consume a few drinks before the game (gotta be rowdy around the Mormons), but there were a ton of Michigan State fans there, it was nice to see so much green and white, makes me feel at home.  Michigan State came out playing very sloppy, giving up the ball numerous times, and missing shots.  This caused the Mormons to believe they would upset us; this upset me.   I can’t tell you how many times Billy had to give me the, “Eaaaaaaasy Robbo, eaaaaaasy” speech after all the trash talking comments I made.  But just as the sun rises in the east the Spartans came out the 2nd half and pretty much dominated.  The game stayed close but we ended up taking it down the stretch making shots and free throws.  After the game we exited the arena and went across the street to Dicks Sporting Goods to look for snow pants, all the while, trash talking still ensuing, now Billy has joined in, it was awesome.

After our afternoon basketball game we came back home and relaxed for a few hours and then around 7 or 8 we began to get ready for the Fabolous concert at HarryO’s.  We got on the bus to go to downtown Park City at about 9:55 pm and managed to be at HarryO’s at about 10:15 or so where we had to wait outside in the cold, with no jackets of course, for about 5-10 minutes.  Upon entering we went to our usual bartender, Nick, who fully knows us now and has drinks waiting for us when we walk up (no, seriously, he does).  Eventually 11 pm rolled around and there was no sign of F-A-B, only his DJ on stage.  So, we began to drink beers quickly because we figured he’d be on any minute and we wanted to make sure we had fresh beers in our hands when he started his set.  Well, this quickend pace of drinking beer did nothing except quicken the rate of intoxication, thus, quicken the rate of bathroom trips.  Finally, around 11:45, and 4 beers later, Fabolous came out and did his thing.  Homeboy only played for about 30-40 minutes which I thought was kinda weak, but he did do all the popular songs that we knew he’d do (“Keepin’ it Gangster”, “This is My Party”, “Baby Don’t Go”, and “Diamonds”) along with a few others (he opened with Don’t Stop, Won’t Stop off his album, “Real Talk”).  The video below is F-A-B while he is doing “Diamonds”.

So that was our weekend, it was a pretty great time!  This weekend we are finally going skiing/snowboarding at Park City Mountain Resort.  I finally got a new winter coat, snowpants, and gloves (thanks to the parents!) at Precision Mountain Wear, which had incredible deals (how about a winter coat with detachable fleece jacket inside marked down from 220 to 90 bucks).  After our ski trip we are going to my work Christmas party at the only 5 star hotel in SLC so that should be great.  Anyway, be sure to check back after this weekend as I’m sure some pictures will be taken on top of the mountain!