I had an important experience Saturday night at the Harvest Moon Brewery in New Brunswick, NJ though I have only anecdotal evidence. The Harvest Moon is a nice bar with lots of good beer and a nice mix of people. It is by no means a college bar despite it's proximity to Rutgers but I have met a number of grad and med students there. Saturday night was not about the future doctors (M.D. or Ph.D.) present. No, Saturday night I experienced/witnessed the exact moment when I stopped living in the Sober World of rules and laws and I entered The Bear Fight Zone...
For the uninformed a Bearfight, aside from being a bad idea, is a Jagerbomb followed by an Irish Car Bomb. It's origin is shrouded in mystery and I have yet to find an excellent description as to where the name came from. Here's a good reference regarding the Bearfight's mysterious past. Pics of Me in Front of Stuff has described multiple events involving misadventures that ensued at least partially due to a Bearfight. There has even been an ode to the drink titled The Summer of the Bearfight. But never in the two plus years of consuming them has the exact moment in which that door opened and Rod Sirling started talking about imagination and shit happened like it did in New Brunswick, NJ at the Harvest Moon Brewery last Saturday.
To assess the figure above, consider you have to be a less than sober to even consider doing a Bearfight. No one walks into a bar and immediately plunks down the large sum of cash required to buy both of those drinks for one fast consumption. No one ever should. Proper lubrication is required. I consumed most of a 10-beer sampler of the beer brewed on-premises. Usually the time post-Bearfight is a slow descent into darkness which has some common characteristics like disappeance (I am looking at you Mets Fan even though you never read this) or finding themselves making out with women of questionable attractiveness (No need to mention names, we've all been there at least once in our lives).
Some Bearfight related evenings have gone so far as to end in hospitalizations which are not funny until you you pick up one of your friends sitting on a bench outside in a hospital gown. I have even publicly apologized due to the effects of a Bearfight. Regardless of how far the evening goes, it is usually over time. There is usually no point in the night where the sober switch is turned off. The graph above shows there was no drunken gradient for yours truly Saturday night. Saturday night I found the switch. The Bartner who was the D.D. was a witness.
This Guy, the usual Bearfight instigator was also present.
The exact time was not recorded, but in the middle of a conversation I stopped speaking, made a funny face, and then continued on with the conversation. It was almost like a mini-stroke without the brain damage. Well...that might not be true, but I do have full use of both sides of my body. Maybe it was a brain fart. Maybe it was my brain trying to tell me to stop and go home. Whatever it was I kept plowing forward shortly afterward. The brain just received too much alcohol and needed a minute to reboot.
Anyone else remember the show Reboot?
Supposedly, This Guy laughed at me until the bears went ahead and took a bite out of him, too. After that point everything is rather blurry. There are no pictures which might be a good thing. I have vague recollections of very short women. Pretty sure there were no pygmies involved, but who knows for sure. The most important thing is everyone involved got home safely If I offended any tiny women at the Harvest Moon Brewery, I apologize. It was not me talking, I was in The Bearfight Zone!
I really thought I was done with the period of my life where it seems I am always going to weddings. Most people go through this time shortly after college when all of your friends have realized they have found the love of their life and decide to marry him/her. College came and went over 5 years ago now and save for the occasional matriomonial, I assumed the period of non-stop wedding attendance was done for me. Most of my friends from college got married while I was in grad school. I gave them the best gift I could afford, but I figured I had avoided spending large sums of money on wedding gifts due to my graduate school based poverty during the non-stop weddimg extravaganza following college. However, there seems to be a recent increase in my wedding attendance featuring at least four this year with a fifth scheduled for next summer, none of them featuring me as the groom. The first wedding occured in the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day making it difficult to surpass as a unique event though it featured limited in personal emotional investment for me. The most recent wedding, while lacking the exciting location made up for it with both friends and an open bar not to mention a thrilling Villanova victory over Pitt in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
That shot prompted what has become the standard celebration for big sporting event moments here at Pics of Me in Front of Stuff - a Bearfight. Gabe, a Pitt fan, was the unfortunate co-drinker, or my new term 'bartner'(bar + partner), in this instance.
Scottie Reynold's One Shining Moment aside, the second wedding, which will henceforth be known as Kate's Wedding since I work with Kate aka the bride, was an excellent time and that was not just from the open bar. The weather allowed for the ceremony to occur outside and Kate looked resplendent in her wedding dress. However, the most memorable event of the ceremony was Mark, the groom, stated his vows via song which he accompanied with a guitar. Reportedly, many people in his family are skilled musicians and must be in his DNA because Mark was no exception. His original song was a wonderfully unique way to declare his love for Kate. Throw in his business and invention and Mark seems like excellent husband material. I kind of wanted to marry the guy after his performance though it would not be recognized in most states. My impromptu homosexual urges aside, I hope Mark and Kate had a wonderful wedding day and enjoyed their honeymoon in Hawaii. The rest of the ceremony and the reception were the standard wedding fare with the usual dancing and drinking that comes with these events. The reception was followed by an after-party at the hotel bar of the wedding party. At that point, the events get more blurry. At some point I was called the 'epicenter of debonair'! Though the memories are hazy, from the pictures I do not remember taking I am sure everyone had a fantastic time!
In case you are unable to hear, I will type this blog post rather than just yell at the computer and hope someone on the other end hears it. Yelling would not work anyway because I am still hoarse from yelling at the television this Sunday. The television was really big and it was in Baltimore so if you were in Towson or Hagerstown or Atlanta, GA you may have been able to make out what I was saying. However, if you happen to be one of the deaf readers of picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com you likely missed it. Here is the transcript:
E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!!!
For those of you deaf and without any connection to the outside world, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New York Giants in the Meadowlands to advance to the conference championship game next weekend. To the right is a picture of Donovan McNabb booking a hotel room in Atlanta for his teammates and himself. Mac-5 likes to be prepared and wants the best for his teammates. Donovan probably got Brian Dawkins a nice suite in which he can relax and maybe get a massage or some fruit salad.
The night before the Eagles faced their nemesis, the NY Giants, Ben, Justin and I ventured into the city of Baltimore to join in on the festivites linked to the early playoff games. To the left you can see Ben guiding Justin through the exciting journey that was our evening. The most important to game to the locals featured the Ravens defeating the Tennessee Titans to advance and face their nemesis, the Pittsburgh Steelers. The most important game to me was the Arizona Cardinals, 9 point underdogs, challenging the Carolina Panthers in Carolina. Who can say what exactly happened to Jake Delhomme on his birthday as he threw 5 interceptions to the Cardinals? No idea. Who can say why I was so excited for a Cardinals victory? That is a question I can answer. If the Cardinals and Eagles both won, my father who lives in AZ would provide me with a ticket to the conference championship game in University of Phoenix Stadium. That's more than fair reason for me to be extra excited for the Eagles playoff victory over the Giants.
Since it does not take much reason for Ben, Justin, and I to celebrate, the playoff victories led to a celebratory toast...of Bearfights!
Now that the summer of 2008 is completely gone, it is time to reminisce and decipher what defined those fun-filled three months. There are really two things that are easiest to recall and neither of them relates to my momentous journey of the summer. Visiting the natural splendor of Alaska stands out among the 25 states I have visited so far and among the vacations of my entire life if due only to its scenic grandeur. I have over 400 pics from that week - you may be lucky enough to see them sometime. Regardless of my huge cache of Alaska pics, this summer can be summed up in two words: Phillies and bearfight!
I rant and rave and bitch and moan about the Fightin' Phils elsewhere so on picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com I will turn to the second option.
If you do not know what a bearfight is, you can go back and read my post about visiting St. Louis or read the following sentence. For those of you who continued, a bearfight is the explosiveness of a Jaegerbomb followed by the combustibility of a Car Bomb detonating in the close confined of ones stomach and quickly elevating to the brain.
A: This is the summer I was educated about the bearfight and its viciously destructive powers.
Plus when I started writing this I thought I had done bearfights in more places. Under further review, I was mistaken. Witnesses to Kyle battling the bear include the residents of:
St. Louis, MO.
Lewisburg, PA
Conshohocken, PA
Old City, Philadelphia, PA
Is there any wonder why the Phillies are the 2nd option?
Phils battling the Braves; Phils in first place. Reminds me of when the Fightin's should have been in first place to stay. It was June and I was in St. Louis knocking Missouri off the list. Matt and Ben and I were in town to enjoy beer, baseball, and the Arch - the Holy Trinity of St. Louis.
Justin was with us as well, to serve as fodder for our incessant Mets jokes.
This was a surprisingly easy picture to take on the Friday night we spent in St. Louis. Bearfights will do that to a man.
Bearfight = jaeger-bomb followed by car bomb followed by inebriation.
Not surprising, our load was basically shot following those poor decisions. I did manage to see the Arch, but the combination of the heat and the hangover killed any ambitions we may have had for drunken debauchery. Some of us were more affected than others.
Luckily, I accomplished my twin goals of enjoying a baseball game and seeing the Arch in St. Louis!
Hello! You probably know me, but imaybe not. I don't take sports as seriously as I ued to. I have goals and if I remember to write about them you'll see when I accomplish them.
Scottie Reynold's One Shining Moment aside, the second wedding, which will h
