Events:
In addition to the normally-fun weekends of partying and hanging out, there were, of course, those "special" weekends, or entire weeks, where we all partied like mofo's. End of the year, beginning of the year, homecomings, halloween, valentine's day, and even flag day. :) Likewise, some spring breaks were spent away from the fun and excitement of the Newark shopping center. :)
Below is a brief description of whatever the event was. Links to the pictures for
all of these events can now be found here.
cinco de mayo:
God only knows if I spelled that Spanish holiday correctly or not. Well, as far as we're concerned it wasn't a Spanish holiday. It was an excuse to go to the Deer Park and drink Corona's.
The celebration of May 5th in 1997, was ah, how shall I say, "interesting"? To make a really long story much shorter, Judy, a bartender at the Deer Park through Anish and Qbert out of the bar for being too drink. The bar was completely packed, and as they were getting thrown out the back door, they said "I'm gonna sue you!" (point to Judy) "and I'm gonna sue you!" (point to a bouncer). Etc. So, they got thrown out the back door and Kristen and I followed them out. So we're walking back near the railroad tracks, and Anish decided to spit. He spit in the direction of this passing car, but it was no wear near landing on it. So, 4 guys get out of the car and start kicking Qbert and Anish's assess. They weren't in the shape to walk, let along fight anyone. And I wasn't about to take on 4 guys, so I got the owner of the Deer Park to call the cops. On my way out, one of the assholes who was fighting Qbert and Anish pushes some random guys girlfriend. Now he gets into the fight, and he was pretty pissed. He did ok. The guys finally scrambled off and the cops came. End of story.
This year, we just happen to be friends with a kid from France, Benoit. Everyone here in America was celebrating the 5th of May. He didn't like the idea. Why? Well, let's recap what Cinco de Mayo means for Mexico. It was in in the mid 1800's where France and Mexico had some little conflict, and France lost. Hence, Benoit doesn't celebrate this holiday. But, I think he came to the bars anyway. :)
fires:
(Names have been changed to protect the innocent). Yeah, there were some fires. Dumpsters, chairs, coffee tables, porch furniture. We have no clue who started them. :) One great story happened in March. "CJ", "bottle recycler man", and "Crackhouse" went to the Deer Park one night. They decided to light one of Bill's porch chairs on fire. The best part about it was Brendon, a roomate of Billy's had been jumped the night before and he thought this was the guys coming back to kick his ass! haha The next night, these same people repeated their actions. Finally, they made the paper.
graduation, 1999
We had several graduates in May of 1999. We had Anish, most of the girls from 104 and 102, all of 110, 23 Cleveland, and some others I can't remember. It was nice to see most graduate, but it's tough to see everyone leave. We tried to go out with a bang so to speak, so here are some pictures during the last days of May 1999.
graduation, 2000
Well, Bryan graduated. 1 shot of Jeagermeister for every semester. Double digits?...YOU Decide!
As for graduates, we'll have Bryan this coming January followed by Billy and the rest of the Wilbur Street company, as well as a few others scattered around Newark.
Good luck guys, and try to get your degree as quick as possible. Remember, I spent 5.5 years at UD - do as I say, not as I do. The grades themselves don't matter all that much, just as long as you have a degree from the school which says you passed. I only had one interview where I was asked my GPA. As a general rule, don't put your GPA on your resume unless it's 2.7/2.8 or higher. Get a little bit of computer knowledge into you, have some common sense, hit the books at least 1, at most 4 nights a week, and you'll be fine. If you plan your cards right, you can take all necessary credits during the regular fall and spring semesters, which leaves the 5 "winter session" weeks, of which it is quite easy to become lethargic, a late sleeper, a heavy drinker, and a general slacker. My "friend", and he shall remain nameless, did that several winter sessions, and managed at times, to do it quite well during the fall semester's as well.
Ah anyway, there is some of my advice for you. Take it for what it's worth. How does that saying go?..."be careful who's advice you buy, but be patient with those that supply it."
We'll none of us made it down to the actual graduation ceremony, but between 5000 extra cars in Newark, 15000 extra people and the Memorial Day Holiday, traffic on the NJ TPKE and traffic in Newark would have been worse than the depths of Hell itself. A bunch of us did manage to get down the weekend before, so that was good. :)
See ya at Homecoming!
halloween 1997
Unfortunately, I have no pictures online right now from Halloween of 1997. I'm almost positive I have the physical pictures someplace, but I don't have time to go around scanning stuff right now. The only thing I remember from this Halloween is that I dressed up as Anish. And, pretty damn convincingly I should say as, especially from behind, I was mistaken for Anish several times.
halloween 1998
Here is some information and pictures from Halloween 1998. We all had a blast. As for costumes, we had a chef, a priest, a warewolf, Wayne Gretzky, Ragity Andy, a witch. We had a whole bunch. Ah, instead of me rambling on, just check out the pictures.
homecoming 1997
Unfortunately, I have no pictures online right now from 1997's Homecoming at UD. I'm almost positive I have the physical pictures someplace, but I don't have time to go around scanning stuff right now.
I just remember that it was one of those tradition Homecomings at UD where it rained and man was it ever muddy. Everyone was caked in mud, from head to toe. I remember there were even illnesses because people had so much damn dirt on them, they had bacteria of some kind in their system. How disgusting is that?
I know those that went to that Homecoming had a blast. I remember Zer hurt his ankle when he fell, so that sucked.
But everyone had a great time with the food and the beer, and especially the mud.
homecoming 1998
Homecoming 1998 at UD was a good time also. Not quite as much fun as the year before, but still good. It was sunny this year, and instead of going to the Frat and Sororiety tents to get free food, we hung out in the parking lot and tailgated with about 30,000 other people. That was a real good time too.
Again, instead of me blabbering, just check out the pics.
homecoming 1999
Well, Homecoming in October (15-17) 1999 was a bit different than the past homecomings. For one thing, the only people that were in Newark were Neil, Dan, Anish, and Bryan. A bunch of us planned to go down to Delaware for the homecoming weekend, and most of us made it. Zer, Jon, myself, Anish, Bryan, and Dank hung out for the most part, with each of us doing slightly different things with other people along the way.
We managed to meet up with Neil, Marc and Karen at the Deer Park a few times. We saw some of the girls from 102 and 104 from last year. We even managed to find Dan from 110 at the homecoming festivities.
Despite being removed from the parking lot by Newark police at half time, we had a pretty decent party. Cops this year came on horseback, which was a interesting idea. If a riot had insued, I doubt the horses would have been much help. It was an interesting site at halftime to see a bunch of drunks petting horses, and then a second later, other cops are breaking down and smashing one ice block luge, which resulted in a bellowing howl of "BOOOOOs" from the crowd.
While this homecoming wasn't quite as good as the last few for us, it was definatly nice to come back into Newark for the event, and to see some people we hadn't seen in a few months. Sorry to those of you that we missed seeing, but we'll catch you on the rebound at some point.
I'm sure you'll all want to hear some stories about this year's homecoming. Well, this year the stories were somewhat few and far between, but there were a few good ones.
Zer arrived in Delaware around 3 in the afternoon, and I came by a few hours later. We got a few beers, as Bryan had to work. We headed off to Jeanette's house on North street to see her, Junior, Jen, and Katie. From there, I believe Lindsay and I went to the Deer Park. Although it is at this time, where my brain becomes slightly fuzzy and my recolection of the weekend might be slightly askew from reality. Lindsay and I finally met up with Anish, Dank, Bryan and Jon at the Deer Park. From there, we went back to North street to a party there. Since I don't really drink that much anymore (compared to what I used to), I was utterly wasted at this party. I know we were there for about 2hrs, and it seems like 10 minutes to me. So, I was pretty much done. I think we were all pretty much wasted, because the next thing I remember after leaving the party was going back to Bryan's on New street to pass out, at which time we all realized we had lost Lindsay somehow. It was at this time, when the quote of the weekend was said by yours truly. Bryan had asked "Where's Lindsay?", and as I briefly awoke from my alcohol-induced coma, I mumbled out, "Lindsay's... DEAD." And I fell back to sleep. The next site we all see was absolutely perfect. 8am, we're all waking up and Lindsay comes in with a box full of Champagne and OJ. Leave it to Lindsay to bring in the goods when the time comes. Oh, in case you were wondering, Lindsay had passed out on the lawn of the house we were partying at, and slept there the majority of the evening. Apparently, quite comfortably I might add. That is the reason we seemed to have lost Lindsay when we left the party. He wasn't dead at all. :)
Yawn. Eyes open, wide awake.
So, it's now Saturday morning. No shower or anything, just a nice wholesome breakfast of Beast and Mamosa's. Nothing like alcohol to get your day started. Somehow, I mustered up what strength I had left and got up and drank some OJ and champagne. Contrary to the popular belief, I think I'm really getting too old for this - the drinking stuff...I can't really drink like I used to. At any rate, we all made our way to Homecoming with some beers and whatnot. Like last year, we hung around George and his buddies who had the ice block all set up. It really is amusing year after year, to see alumni of all ages do shots. However, we still look like students, not "traditional alumni" in my mind.
We went to eat dinner at the Deer Park afterwards with a few pitchers of beer. After that, I went to visit a few friends, and the rest of the guys passed out. I eventually met up with them later, and we went for round two at the Deer Park. We should have made it elsewhere, but Kate's was packed, and I didn't have the energy for, and wasn't in the right mindset to head to the atmosphere of the Balloon.
On Sunday afternoon, we all left. The weekend overall was cool. I wish I saw a few more people I knew, but I'll be back down again. Don't forget, we all have to be there in early January for Bryan's graduation celebration.
Again, like previous homecoming's I have listed here, the following are pictures from this year's homecoming. This is where I'm going to need some help from you all. Please send me ANY PICTURES YOU FEEL LIKE SENDING ME. As usual, my pictures absolutely suck, so I'm looking for anything from anyone. E-mail me, I'll give you my address, you send me the pics, I scan the pics, I send the pics back to you within a few days. It's as easy as that. So if you want to be on this page, just e-mail me. I'll honor 99% of the requests. :)
homecoming 2000
Let's hopefully have a good turn out. I'm taking Friday 27th off from work and I'll head down to Delaware that day with whomever. I do have a hotel room to crash in for Sat. night if anyone is interested in it with us. I can't take everyone, but you know the drill. It's at the Embassy Suites across 896 from the stadium.
Well, Homecoming 2000 came and went. I left for Delaware on Friday afternoon, and got to Bryans to get ready for the loop. The loop was pretty damn cool. We stayed at the Logan House basically the entire night. I usually bug out slightly in crowds, but since everyone was in costume that added such a huge level to the "bug out factor" that it had sort of a negating effect, and I was alright. Hard to explain, but I'm sure some of you will know what I mean.
There were a lot of great costumes; from girls dressed as hookers, to Howard Stern, and our own Bdog who was a rather good looking Incredible Hulk.
One of Bryan's friend's from home lost his wallet. There are unconfirmed reports of him hooking up with what we think was a girl, but again, these are unconfirmed stories.
Saturday morning was interesting - trying to wake up. Zer showed up at Bryan's in Wilmington, and after a shit load of traffic on I95 toward Newark, we finally got to Homecoming at about 11:30AM, only to be kicked off by 12:15. So, we walked down to the East End to get some lunch. I didn't know it at the time because I was so damn hungry and thirsty for anything non-alcoholic, but we saw Ally, one of the girls who used to live at 108. Bryan told me later he was talking to her for a bit, but I was so consumed with drinking some Pepsi and water along with some vitamin B, I didn't notice.
Then back to the Hotel. We stayed at the Embassy Suites on 896 across from the Stadium. I decided that I personally needed a place to crash and that it would be cool if we got a bunch of us to stay there. Not knowing anything about the hotel other than the fact that it exists, I booked 1 hotel room. They told me on the phone it was a non-smoking room with a king size bed. Thrilled that they had something left on such a crowded weekend, I took it. When we got there it was like a friggin castle. The room/suite was huge, and the hotel itself was fantastic.
Well the non smoking room turned into a smoking room within the first 5 minutes. That night after the visit to the bars on Main St., we pilled 12 people into that room. Dank, Neil, Robbie, Bryan, Dennis, Angel, Josh, Zer, myself, Cristen, Anish and a 12th person who I can't remember at the moment. Ah well, it will come to me. A non smoking room with 12 people - 11 of whom smoked. The only one who doesn't smoke is me - go figure. Checking out of the hotel in the AM was a great priority since I wanted to get the F out of there before they started asking a lot of questions. God knows we caused enough trouble in that place - I'm still waiting to see a final charge on my credit card - that should be interesting to get that bill in the mail. When cleaning up the very next morning, everyone agreed with my statement about the status of the room...it looked like Pearl Jam had stayed there.
We went to the Deer Park on Saturday night. There, we saw the rest of the gang: Yanks, Marc and his g/f, Eric, Goldy, etc. We all wound up seeing quite a few people, but we all know we missed quite a few people too.
If anyone has any pictures they want on here, either scan them in and e-mail them to me, or e-mail me and I'll give you my address so you can send the actual pictures to me. I'll scan them, and send you the pictures back the next day.
Here are the only pictures I took at Homecoming. There's only a few, but they are pretty good.
spring break 1997; canada
Anish, Cristen, Bryan and myself decided not to do the tradition "spring break" trip south to the warmth. Instead, we went to Canada to hang out and go skiing. I don't have too many pictures from this trip online, but to see what I have, click below.
spring break 1998; orlando, fl
On April 2nd, 1998, 7 friends of mine from school and myself left Newark, Delaware for "fun in the sun" in Orlando, Florida. We stayed in a place called Vistana Resorts, which is located on Route 535 in Kissimmee about 1 mile from Route 4. Vistana is located about 5 miles from Disney's Magic Kingdom, 3 miles from Epcot and about 2 miles from Pleasure Island.
We had rented two 1998 Dodge Stratus's from SpallCo and we were all set. We left on April 2nd at 11:00pm. We planned on driving non-stop, with the exception of stopping for food and bathroom breaks. Around 9:30am on April 3rd, we arrived at a McDonalds in South Carolina about 20 miles North of Savannah, Georiga. Here we switched drivers, and got something to eat. To make a long story short, we made the almost 1000 mile journey in 15 hours. Not too shabby.
In Florida, we were able to check out the Magic Kingom, EPCOT, and Pleasure Island. One day, we also went to Daytona Beach. Overall, the whole trip was a lot of fun, and we all didn't spend too much money which was good. By the time the trip was over and we we back in Newark, I had put a lot of miles on our rental car. We had the Stratus for 10 days. We got the car with 9,432 miles, and returned it with 11,841. Wow.