Seems weird to say it…but, although exhausted both physically and mentally, this move has gone incredibly smoothly. Given my exhaustion right now, something tells me this recap won't flow quite as smoothly.

Tuesday, September 3rd:
After about three days in a row of staying up until 6 a.m., things were relatively ready for the moving personnel. The packers were to come at 8:00 to pack the dishes and art and they were right on time. They didn't have too much to do and were out of there in less than an hour. I knew I overtipped the guy when he exclaimed "WHOAAA…thanks!" It's probably a mistake I would make 2 more times in the next week…but I suppose it's better to be safe and keep these folks on your good side.

They arrived and were very nice. Pedro, the crew chief, was a super cool guy. As they were assessing the place, Dave jokingly asked "Need any help?" as he went up the stairs. Pedro looked at me and asked <insert Puerto Rican accent> "Is he serious? I'll pay him." <end PR accent> I said I didn't know and would ask. Dave conferred with the jefe and was offered the king's ransom of $10 to do about 3 hours worth of heavy manual labor. He agreed! Humor and a good story were the influential variables. Didn't matter to me. I was happy to have a (somewhat) trustworthy pair of eyes on all my stuff as it went into the truck. By midnight or so, they were done. It was far too late for me to get on the road safely (remember, I had been sleeping about 2 hours/night for the past 4 days) so I decided to get some sleep and take off in the a.m.

Wednesday, September 4th:
The sky was blue and the sun was out on this monumental day of days. Like he led the Jews out of bondage in Egypt, God would lead me on a somewhat shorter journey out of CNY. After a good breakfast with Dave at the Little Gem Diner, we said our goodbyes and I was off. The plan for the trip to Atlanta was to take it slow and arrive in a relaxing three days. Day one's journey would end in Wilmington, DE so I could spend a day with the family. I got into town around 2:00, went shopping (tax free!) and took the parents out to dinner for the first time. Felt nice. Expense accounts are pretty cool (if you are a superior at work reading, my mother is a potential client so this is justifiable as marketing…right? Maybe?). Got home and watched the American Idol finale and even placed a few calls to some friends' AI party in Syracuse when I had opinions that just had to be spoken. Went to bed early which was a cool change.

Thursday September 5th:
After an early morning breakfast as the grandparents' place, I was on the road. Day two would take me to Durham, N.C. where I could meet up with a good friend who I hadn't seen in a couple years, Greg Kapp. Greg is getting a doctorate from Duke and I've been lucky enough to visit him a few times previously and go to Duke basketball games. I was pretty excited about this drive. No time limits. Very relaxing. Also, I've never driven South of D.C. (been in cars when I was much younger, but never driven), so I was excited to see new things. New territory always makes driving more exciting. Passed by Richmond which looks very nice from the highway. Also neat seeing the RJ Reynolds tobacco headquarters, which I had toured as a youth. Not sure if they still give tours or not. I even had my parents buy me a pen with all the different cigarette logos on it. I'm guessing that sort of thing isn't for sale anymore. Anyway, excuse the tangent. The segment of the drive from Richmond to Durham would have been less than riveting if it had not been for one fact - there was a NASCAR race in Richmond the next day. All along the leg, Beautifully painted tractor trailers belonging to individual drivers were passing me going the other direction towards Richmond. Probably saw fifteen different ones. My new interest in NASCAR would also serve to make the drive more interesting by allowing me to correctly identify the dirver's #'s that were stickered onto about every car. Wonder if the old Sunfire will be sporting a #48 anytime soon?

I arrived in Durham around 4:00 and Greg met me at my hotel at about 5:00. We went to a somewhat fancy, snooty place just because it would be something different for both of us, and neither of us have the opportunity to do that often (again, work people - we're talking a Duke Phd here…big pharm $$$ down the road!!! He's actually agreed to this. No problemo on the expense account, right?) . After dinner, we headed out for dessert and some beers. Was great catching up with Greg and trading what few stories we knew about what our high school friends are up to. I thoroughly enjoyed my time down there. The drive was serving its purpose of relaxing me.

Friday, September 6th:
Today was the day. Last leg of the journey. Durham to Atlanta, my new home. I wonder if Sherman took the same path I did? Anyway…I actually had somewhat of a schedule to keep this day, as I had an appointment to sign my lease and get my keys at 4:00 (and then, of course, go check into a Marriott since my stuff wasn't going to be in town for up to a week!). I was making fair time on the trip but couldn't pass up making a stop. I noticed on the map (I was looking at a map while driving…while talking on the phone…while typing into my text pager!) that Kannapolis, NC was right on my route. Kannapolis, for you NASCAR novices, is the birthplace and everlasting resting place of #3 Dale Earnhardt. True, this was all a big joke to me and I knew I was getting my first day in the South off to a blasphemous start, but I couldn't pass it up. I needed to see what nonsense tribute was in the town. I needed to walk the streets that #3 walked. Kannapolis is about 30 miles north of Charlotte. After exiting the freeway onto Dale Earnhardt Blvd., I proceeded to follow the signs to the "official" memorial. I rolled into the "town" part of town, parked, and walked around. I quickly came upon the memorial. It was a big tombstone looking thing with lots of praise on it and lots of flowers planted all around and a few notes that people had left. I'm not sure if he's buried there or if it's just a memorial. I suppose if I were a real fan, I'd know. The lot attached to the memorial is all dirt and there were lots of construction trucks. I'm guessing something rather extravagant is in the works for D.E.. Next time I'm driving through Kannapolis, I'll have to check it out. After a Pizza Hut lunch there, I had to rush to get on the road.

All my memories of #3 taking the checkered flag had muddied my punctuality. I was gong to have to move it if I was to reach Atlanta on time. Move it, I did. Zipped through South Carolina pretty quickly. Only recall I have of SC are the higher speed limits and fireworks for sale at every exit. I got into the metro Atlanta area around 3:30 - plenty of time! WRONG! Welcome to ATL traffic. It took me about 29 minutes to get the last 3 miles or so and I rolled in for my 4:00 appointment at 3:59. While it was stressful cutting it so close (I can't stand being late for anything), I remain quite impressed with myself for maximizing efficiency and not wasting a minute of the journey.

So there I was…after three days of driving, ready to look over a lease with a fine tooth comb. I probably signed over numerous organs in that meeting. No matter. It was done and I had my keys. Now it was off to the purgatory that was the Marriot Lenox to wait an unknown number of days until Pedro got into town with my stuff (not a bad purgatory, mind you!).

Saturday, September 7th-Sunday September 22nd.
Can't say I've lived an overly exciting existence my first two weeks here. Spent three days in a hotel. The first two days, Saturday and Sunday, were spent blindly exploring the city and finding bars to watch the SU and Eagles games where I could meet people. Work started Monday (the fun had to end sometime!). I did get the news that day that my furniture would be arriving the next day. Beautiful! I had been told it might take up to Friday to get the stuff here. The move-in went smoothly. Nothing busted. Was nice that the same guy (Pedro) who led the crew in Syracuse was leading the crew in Atlanta. They had everything moved in by about 4:00…and I was left with a sea of boxes. Needless to say, my non-work existence since then has focused on getting my place in order. As of the time of finishing this memoirs entry (September, 22), I have the place in near complete order. Every room except the office/gameroom has been completely unpacked and fully set up and even that room is fairly close. Art is on the walls. A new tv has been delivered and cable and internet have been installed. Even the big fish tank is set up and ready to be stocked. Been able to do a bit more exploring of the city, too. Found the Hispanic and Asian sections of town, which are both a few miles North of the city. Somewhat odd to have these ethnic enclaves on the outskirts of the city versus in a more urban setting. No matter. Still nice to know where to get some good food and specialty groceries. Had a good laugh when I was browsing in a giant Asian groceries store filled with…Asians…and a message came over the loudspeaker for "Mr. Lee to report to the warehouse." 150 people probably went to the warehouse to see why they were needed.

So I'm here. Life is great. Next focusing of my energy will be on meeting people. Should be fun! Hopefully, some of you will be visiting, too!

So here I am, in Atlanta…months later. Good thing I take notes on every trip! For the sake of brevity (and to compensate for my shabby notes), I'll try to keep this as succinct as possible. All of a sudden, I've got a lot of higher priority things to get on this site. The DC story deserves to be here, though.

It had been a while since I'd been anywhere, 4th of July was coming up so I was getting a day off, and some of my vacation time was about to expire so I had to find a way to use at least a day of it. My friend Andy was up for it so we commenced to set plans.

Turns out we had three nights to work with. That's an eternity! We figured we could get two cities in. He hadn't been to D.C. in many years and it had been about a year for me, so that was an easy choice. I was also excited about going during the 4th weekend when there was lots of terrorism fears. Not only does it add some extra excitement, it lowers the hotel rates! For the second city, we thought it would be fun to see a baseball game in a new stadium, so we decided to go to Pittsburgh for a day and see the Pirates/Astros game.

We set out early for the drive to Washington. I hadn't ever driven from Syracuse so part of the drive would be new territory for me which is always fun. Things I found interesting on the trip were the bridges and skyline of Harrisburg and the Weightlifting Hall of Fame in York, PA (right next door to the York Barbell factory…wonder if Weider-sponsored weightlifters have a tougher time getting into the hall?)

We got into the city mid afternoon and, after falling prey to the awful and confusing circles in the District, we finally found our hotel, the Embassy Suites near Dupont Circle (thanks to hotwire.com…another great hotel in the middle of a city for under $100/night).

After getting settled, we took a metro to the mall and walked its length. I really love doing that. The monuments and sites are exceptional and always seem even more interesting as I get older. Next time, though…I'm not going to walk the whole mall in sandals. Both of us had bloody feet by the end. Oh well. After dinner at a Thai place off Dupont Circle, we went to a bar called the Brikskellar. This place is damn cool. They have something like 700 different beers from all over the world on their menu. So, while Andy and I planned out our upcoming European trip, I drank beers from Kenya, Peru, Thailand, Israel, Croatia, and Bulgaria. The highlight of the night was a toast - me with an Israeli beer and Andy with a Lebanese beer (only Middle Eastern beer on the menu). It was our little attempt to achieve some small level of Middle East peace, through sarcasm and trivialization of the major issues!

The second day started off great, with a second-to-none breakfast buffet (ok, it was probably second to the one Andy and I paid $60 for at a Cleveland Indians game the year prior…but this was free). We then headed to the zoo and proceeded to do a rapid-fire, cliff notes-esque viewing, as we were scheduled to meet a friend of Andy's and were running late. I had seen the pandas the year before and was excited to see them again. Damn cool creatures. Most animals were pretty lame because it was disgustingly hot out. They just hung out in water if they had it, or laid in the shade and didn't move an inch.

Next we met his friend for lunch and then all of us met up with my friend Michelle and we went to Georgetown to wander around. Had a great time looking around there, as always, and it was nice having a couple different people on board for a while. One highlight was taking a few steps in Rock Creek Park (this was not long after the "Chandra Levy remains" stuff was big news.).

The girls took off and Andy and I went to dinner downtown at a Mongolian Barbeque place that I had been to the year before. Truly outstanding. I need to see whether Atlanta has a similar place. From there, we went to a club where one of Andy's friends is a waitress (that SU diploma ain't worth what it used to be, I suppose.). She got us in for free so we settled in there for a while. Was a decent club. Nothing great, but big and busy. Andy's charm must have been at an unusually high level, as he was approached by likely the prettiest girl in the place. My guess is that she was just smelling the "Utica broadcaster cash" and trying to get herself some.

We were up super early the next morning. The game in Pittsburgh was at 12:30 and we had a 4-5 hour drive in front of us. After an easy drive, we arrived in Pittsburgh about an hour before gametime. We were both pretty exhausted at this point but still excited to be there. The new stadium, PNC Park, is magnificent. Not flashy or fancy…just underplayed and full of character, much like the city as a whole. The planners did a superb job with this place, the sight lines are perfect. Seats allow fans to look across the river with its numerous yellow bridges onto the beautiful city skyline. You're right on top of it and it almost looks like it was painted on the sky. The game was fun. We had a chance to sample Iron City beer, which I certainly won't go out of my way to have again. Also made friends with some of the people around us and got some recommendations on where we should go out that night.

By the end of the game, we weren't in the best of shape (no, not because of the Iron City). We were exhausted, horribly sunburned, and Andy was limping around like he had half of his foot taken off from a landmine. It was also Monday and not too much was going on. We decided to keep it a lowkey evening. Following a recommendation, we headed to the strip district. No not THAT kind of strip district. It was an old warehousing section of town that was getting revamped with bars, restaurants, etc. We went to a place called Primanti Brothers that we were told was a popular and unique Pittsburgh experience. That it was. I'd never had a sandwich like this before. In addition to your normal meats and cheese, they throw fries and coleslaw into the sandwich. Weird and not something I would have on my own, but it was unique to Pittsburgh and interesting. We went to a sports bar after that and played Super Chexx hockey and other games for awhile before heading back to the hotel. Andy had to actually be at work in Utica at 1:00 the next day, so we had to be up and out of there early. There was nothing too exciting on the drive back from Pittsburgh. Must've missed the glorious skyline of Erie.

So there it was, another successful adventure and my last one before I learned I'd be moving to Atlanta. 2 great cities in 3 days.

After a fun car ride (2 cars, the 3 guys rode together), we checked into the hotel and decided to walk around and get acclimated a bit. My first impression as we started walking down Ste. Catherine St. was how pretty the city was in a dichotomous way. It pulls off being both modern and traditional equally well. New and old architecture blends oddly but comfortably. I'd been to Montreal before but that was in March when it was about -15 degrees (Celsius, of course) and ultra-windy. No doubt that environment impacted my appreciations for some of the subtleties now so eminently noticeable throughout the city. Blah blah blah. Enough of that stuff…let's get to the partying.

So after walking around for a while (and braving the onslaught of weird fly/moth-type bugs that completely inundated Ste. Catherine's…they were burrowing in the females' hair!), we decided to head back and get ready for the night.

Fast forward through a bunch of drinking in the room and a great dinner with a few bottles of wine at a nice French restaurant overlooking the street scene…and we were off to find the club.

We went to a club called Le Dome that Erin had heard about and that we had read up ona bit. Pretty cool place. Nothing mind-blowing but nice light show, good music, raised stages…and cages! We were having a great time dancing there. After all, this is one of the main things we wanted to do…it's something you really can't do in Syracuse because there just isn't anywhere like this. Julie seemed to be the star of the show and the object of affection of an endless line of Montreal's finest bachelors. It was hilarious watching one after the next work there way up to her and commence to grope away. There should have been an on-deck circle for these guys to limber up and get their hands in shape for their attempt to gain our friends' affection through vigorous touching and grabbing. When one Swiss dude who actually seemed damn normal compared to most of her suitors eventually blew it with the now famous question "Will you turn around?", Julie did me the honor of accompanying me into the up-and-down moving cage for a somewhat extended period of tasteful oscillation. All the fancy words aside, this was f'n fun! Ah, teambuilding! Why can't the KS&R strategic planning retreat have activities like this? There had been half-serious cage dancing jokes and predictions floating around for weeks and we pretty much fulfilled all of 'em. The fun had to end, though, as the place closed at 3:00. We had an interesting walk through a downpour back to our hotel. I trust everybody went to bed happy, though (at least everyone who knew where they were at that point).

The plan for the next day was to relax and find some fun stuff to do. We all had our rollerblades and wanted to do some skating but it was rainy and pretty windy. We decided to check out an Expos/Phillies baseball game. So the six of us saw a professional baseball game for a total of…$6 Canadian. $1 per ticket (63 cents USD). Are you kidding me?!?!?! $1 seats and they still didn't even get 20K on a Sunday afternoon. Combine that and their dump of a stadium and it's no wonder the team is leaving town after this year. The game was a good time, though. Jason made lotsa friends with his random "You suck" yells at Phillies players. Kristy tried to work it with Youppi the Expos odd and sexually ambiguous mascot. Josh and I drank a bunch. Julie just sat there and daydreamed about being back in that cage.

Next we took a walk through Old Montreal. Real neat section of town, right next to a port on the St. Lawrence River. Was fun walking around looking at the old architecture and seeing the old churches. There was a street fair going on, with vendors and bands playing. You really get a sense of the multiculturalism of the city walking through it. French is the primary language and English is a real close second (I haven't run into anyone in Montreal either time I've gone who didn't speak at least pretty good, if not prefect, English). The Chinatown, while not as prevalent as Toronto or San Francisco, is definitely notable. Also, walking the streets, you pass restaurants and shops representing just about every ethnicity, nationality, and culture you can think of. I even saw a Swiss restaurant. Don't think I'd ever seen such a thing. Guess I always imagined their cuisine to center around fondue and Toblerone.

We spent our last night eating dinner at a not so quaint, but good Irish pub…and then drank pretty heavily. Why ruin a good thing? Tons of laughing and reminiscing over a trip that only started a day before. In my four years of professional life, I've never been privileged to have such good, fun friends at, or outside of, work.

So we left Montreal the next morning, still not knowing exactly what stories could be public…what pictures could be shown. Guess I'm kind of creating the baseline.

Trip #2:
It all started as a joke. Mike's a tough guy. He fishes, hunts, has loads of tattoos, and is in the military. As is a prerequisite for white tough guys from non-major metropolitan areas, Mike is a giant racing fan. Hell, he's even built and driven some sort of dirt modified something or other in recent years. I remember distinctly how this all started. I was making fun of NASCAR one day to everyone around the lunch table when it hit me - I may have to enter into a conversation with a patron at a Hooters someday and I wouldn't want to feel lost. I needed to raise (or at least acquire) my NASCAR IQ. So, Mike agreed to tutor me and Josh on some of the ins and outs of NASCAR. Everyday, he would teach us drivers and sponsors and we would do our best to memorize the basics until we were good enough to wake up yelling "COORS LIGHT!" if someone were to whisper "Sterling Marlin" in our ear while sleeping. It was fun. I was learning about something new and that's always good. When you didn't know the answer to a NASCAR question, an exuberant response of "Dick Trickle" or "Buckshot Jones" was sure to get laughter from everyone in the room.

Next step was innocent enough, too. Mike signed the four of us up for a fantasy NASCAR league. We all love to bet…and we're a pretty competitive lot. You don't just sign up for something and then let yourself fail at it. Being in the league entailed putting at least a modicum of effort into learning about drivers and figuring out who to start every week. So the interest was slowly growing…like a virus.

One day we were sitting around the lunch table talking about our teams' respective successes and failures, trading jokes about Dick Trickle and other funny names…when someone threw out the idea of actually going to a race and seeing what the hell this whole thing was about. I've never heard Josh say no to any idea so he was in. Jason has declared this summer the "Summer of Jason" where after three years of going to school while working and having to say "no" to too many interesting ideas, he was going to say "yes" to everything. He was in. Me? I saw this as a safari-like experience. To roam with the beast, maybe even well enough to blend in. Have yet to hear about an adventure that I wasn't interested in. Yeah. We were gonna do it.

Logistically, Dover on June, 2nd for the MBNA Platinum 400 made all kinds of sense. It was easily drivable and nearby a bigger city that we could visit on Saturday (70 miles from Philly). Also, I was happy to be able to stop and see my parents on the way in Wilmington, DE. We ordered tickets about two months in advance and commenced to plan.

Obviously, our interest in the activity increased. Not only did we follow the drivers and the races online, but we started to watch a bit. The conversations started becoming downright intelligent, not just Mike teaching us as had been the extent of our talks previously. We started to get embarrassed when we found ourselves rattling off facts that nobody who makes fun of NASCAR should ever be able to do. Still, I think the three of us see it on a bit of a different level than most fans. I still giggle at funny names like Hut Strickland and Hermie Sadler and laugh out loud at seeing big tough guys with #3 stickers all over their trucks. Puh-lease. Yeah…we were down with the NASCAR to some degree but we weren't about to start taking this stuff seriously.

We set out for Philly on Saturday morning and arrived around 3:00. We knew we'd have to be up around 6:00 a.m. on Sunday to head to the weekend's main event so I think we were all set on some low-key fun on Saturday. We wandered the city for hours, passing through Chinatown, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, City Hall, old cobblestone streets and rowhouses and eventually South Street. Very interesting and fun. We walked up and down South Street, going into a bunch of shops and doing some people watching (from what we observed, 7 out of 10 Philadelphians wears a sports jersey around). We stopped into a bar for a while and played a few tournaments of Super Chexx bubble hockey (I'd really love one of those things but they're about $2K). Then we went to dinner at a place that claims to be the birthplace of Larry Fine of the 3 Stooges. After dinner, Josh picked up a batting helmet that held two beers (for the next day's race). We looked around for a while trying to find a bar that was showing the Holyfield/Rahman fight. When that didn't work out, we walked back to the hotel and attempted to get some rest for the next day.

We woke up early and modeled the NASCAR gear we'd be wearing (we'd been planning our goofy outfits for weeks). Mike with his Coed Naked Auto Racing shirt, me with my denim KS&R shirt with sleeves ripped off, and Jason with his shirt of Calvin pissing on #24 (Jeff Gordon), Richard Petty belt buckle, and "boob inspector" hat. Josh forgot his Bobby LaBonte belt buckle and decided against wearing his #6 (Mark Martin) mesh hat. So be it. Josh looking normal would only serve to make the rest of us look goofier.

After battling through traffic, we arrived in Dover about 1.5 hours before race time and laid our eyes on the largest camper parking lot I'd ever seen. Campers with flags flying from the top as far as the eye could see. Any worries that our group wouldn't fit in and look more ready for Halloween than NASCAR were quickly dismissed. We were downright normal. What a display of humanity. BIG people with no shirts. 6 year old kids carrying coolers of beer. Mesh hats. Mullets. It's all there. Just as advertised. Right away, we knew we were gonna have a good time, though. You get a laid back, happy feeling just walking into the throngs of good 'ol boys sporting the gear of their favorite driver. Anything goes. Wanna curse? Curse! Wanna wear a "Boob Inspector" hat with two big foam boobs on it? Do it! As long as you want to have fun, it would be hard NOT to have a good time.

After spending some time looking through the maze of souvenir trailers (where all of us would drop some serious change as the day progressed), we waited through the long line and arrived at our seats minutes before the race was to begin. It doesn't take long to really appreciate the environment, both in the stands and on the track. Not an empty seat in the 150,000 seat raceway. We had great seats, with a tremendous view of the whole track from turn 3. The cars are…um…damn fast (and pretty loud, too). There's no way to appreciate the speed on TV. A car would zip by you and get around the mile-long oval in 29 or 30 seconds. Every crash happened either entering or coming around our corner...which was definitely cool. The intricacies of passing, drafting, going into the pit, etc. are all much easier to follow in person. The intricacies of lots of shirtless fat guys drinking cheap beer were also pretty evident all day.

The event was everything we hoped it would be. Fun, wild, sociologically interesting. Jimmie Johnson won in the #48 Lowes Chevy. I suppose he's officially my favorite driver now. Done well for me all year in the fantasy league and drove real well in Dover. Josh chose Ryan Newman. I guess this makes us real fans now. I'll definitely go to another race sometime and would recommend anyone looking for a good time on a Sunday do the same thing. Traffic home was nightmarish. By midnight, just about every car we were on the road with heading North had also come from the race. We rolled into Syracuse around 3:30. Work was fun the next day.

"Why Cleveland?"

That's the question I'd heard for about 2 weeks straight before my weekend trip to the Ohio city, about five-and-a-half hours from Syracuse. Put simply, I hadn't taken a trip in about 3 months and Cleveland is the biggest city within a reasonable drive to which I'd never been. I had planned to go alone but threw the idea by Andy and he was up for it. So at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, we were on the road.

The ride in was pretty easy and inconsequential, with the exception of one take-away. The roads in Ohio are terrible! I thought I was driving around Yugoslavia after the bombings, but no...this was Ohio. I found it interesting that there are no tolls on the main interstate through the state. Perhaps they need some. I have to believe the cost of occasional tolls are less than the cost of new shocks. We were dodging roadkill the whole way, too (perhaps another Yugoslavia analogy could be used here, but I'll take the high road).

So we were in town checked in at our glamorous Econo Lodge and ready to get going by 1:30. We parked and took a quick look around. First impression is that the city is much more modern-looking than I anticipated. Buildings are steel and glass and there are lots of statues and modern art around the city. I guess this makes sense since the city was pretty much reborn in the 90's. Most of the investment and building took place then. Three major sporting venues are also downtown - Cleveland Browns Stadium, Jacobs Field, and Gund Arena are all very nice looking buildings. After a quick lunch, the first major stop was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I will be eternally thankful to the people I spoke with before going that told me my idea of skipping this museum was a terrible idea. What a well put together display of an integral aspect of history. Brought back lots of memories and prompted some new ideas. The displays of archived memorabilia are fantastic and put together beautifully. Until September, there is a special John Lennon exhibit. This was three floors of truly spectacular stuff. The most interesting to me were the original handwritten lyrics of many of his songs. I suppose if there is one negative to the place, it is that photographs are prohibited. I imagine this is due to most of the items being borrowed and copyrighted.

After the Hall, we headed back to the ivory, marble and gold that is the North Olmstead Econo Lodge to rest for a bit and get ready for the evening. Yikes, what a dump. We headed back out to the Flats, an old warehousing district that has been redone as the center of bar and club life in Cleveland. We hoped to get some dinner but had some problems. We weren't quite dressed for a lot of the places in that area (including one place where we saw Derek Jeter and some other Yankees eating through the window), the few casual restaurants we saw had 2-hour waits, and it started to pour as we searched the city in short sleeve shirts. Urgency and frustration led us to eat at a bar that had a grill going. Sandwiches were actually very good...and the money saved was to come in handy before we left town. After a beer there, we went to a real nice Irish bar called Fado where a pretty good U2 cover band was performing. After some time there, we figured it was time to find a club. The fact that most clubs had tiny or no lines, and one called the Beach Club had a giant one made us want to go to...the Beach Club. So we waited and the line went fast. Had a good time in there. Nothing mind-blowing but good music and dancing.

Nearing 2 o'clock, we headed back to the hotel. One other take-away from the first day was the total and complete proliferation of Cleveland Indians clothes. Everybody wears Indians stuff. I had never seen anything like it. Baseball obviously has a foothold in the city like I'd never seen. Even at clubs...some people had typical club clothes and some had Indians stuff on. I'm guessing proper attire for work and funerals are either suits or Indians clothes. All this said, I don't think I'll ever get used to the absurdly racist mascot.

Sunday, we woke up amazingly early given the pace of that first day. There was an Indians game that started at 1:00 and we wanted to look into getting some scalped seats (all Indians game sell out and tickets to this Sunday afternoon game against the Yankees would be tough to come by). Since it was raining and the game might be canceled, we didn't want to pay too much. The backup plan was to just take another walk around the city, get something to eat, and head home.

We got to the Jacobs Field area by about 11:00. Andy succeeded in deftly negotiating the first scalper we spoke with down to $20/ticket for upper level seats. We now had a sense of market value. Not bad...but it was still early. We thought holding off would be the best bet. As we were walking around, two men noticed us and out of the blue asked us if we were looking for seats. We said "yes" and they proceeded to offer us great 300 level seats for the same $20 price. Also, they would throw in a couple passes to the Terrace Club, an exclusive restaurant for season ticket holders that overlooked the ballpark. Since we were looking for a place to eat and we were freezing, this was great. We snatched up the tickets and headed in for a gourmet brunch buffet unlike I'd ever had. Good thing we didn't spend anything on food the previous day, because this brunch cost us over $30 each!!! Obviously, we were going to get our money's worth. Let me put it this way - I didn't eat for 24 hours after that meal!!

After brunch, we headed to our seats which were in the second row of the mezzanine overlooking left field. Very nice view of everything. Had a great time, despite the on and off rain and chilly temperatures (I think I was the only person in the park without a jacket, much less a long sleeve shirt!!). The game may have even done enough to get my interest back into baseball. I haven't really followed the sport since the strike in '94. This was great, though.

After the game, we got in the car and headed home. A mere 5 hours, 15 mintues later...we were safely in CNY. I think we did as much as we physically could in the 1.5 days we were in Cleveland. The objective to see new things, learn, and have fun was certainly achieved. I'm already looking forward to the next adventure.

The basics:
-Participants: Marc Harwitz, Matt Pothier, Andy Jenks…friends from Syracuse. Met playing/teaching drums at SU.
-The trip: 6 days in Prague, 1 day in Berlin, 2 days in London
-The agenda: none

Saturday 6 January

Today was our first foray into the public transit system. There are above ground trams and an underground metro that were both quite easy to navigate. We headed to the historical section to do some obligatory touristy sightseeing. This area is also in/around the main Prague business and commercial sectors so it’s an interesting mix of tourists and real people taking care of their business. The first main section we saw was Old Town Square, which bustles with tourists and people selling things to the tourists. Neat cobblestones walkways and big churches, etc. Musicians play in the center and draw crowds and vendors are set up all over the place. On the side of one of the churches is a famous astronomical clock. We found a bench and played drums (we all had our sticks and pads). It was great to watch people watch us. We made the video cameras of many a tourist.

Tuesday 9 January

The three of us agreed that we were too close to too many great places not to spend a day and explore something. Being a WWII buff, I pushed for Berlin over some of the other options (Vienna, Budapest). This was agreed upon, we learned where and when to get the train, and we were off. The train was pretty nice. About a 5 hour trip. Only real question along the way was whether the seats we were sitting in were reserved for other people or not…we couldn’t understand the signs on them and were a little worried that someone would wake us up yelling. Frankly, I think anyone going to Berlin named Harwitz should be able to sit in whatever damn seat he wants. Ok…so we got there without much trouble (although we really weren’t sure if we were getting off at the correct stop). We essentially threw ourselves on the city blindly. After some guesses via the U (subway), a lot of walking, and eventually a cab ride, we found our way to the famous Reichstag (parliament building). It’s quite an impressive building that was rebuilt and the view from the roof shows a great look over all sides of the city. Outside the Reichstag is where the Berlin Wall stood and nearby is the Brandenburg Gate. The gate marks the beginning of Unter Den Linden, a long street with lots of museums and statues. It’s famous for the many dubious marches to walk its length over the years. We ate dinner and walked around braving the cold to see some historical and interesting sites. After hearing some American students speaking English on the U, which quickly jumped on the opportunity to ask for a recommendation of where to go out for the night. Frankly, there we learned their ain’t much happening in Berlin on Tuesday nights (at least where we were and according to everyone we were able to ask). We found a cool bar with a lot of young people and sat back and played cards through the night, marveling out loud continually that we were in Berlin!

Wednesday 10 January

Our trip home was not without drama. We were scheduled to stop and switch trains in Dresden but the train out of Berlin was late and we missed our connection. What this meant was a few hours in the open air, freezing cold Dresden station (having been awake for about 27 hours at that point). Eventually, we did leave Germany and rolled into Prague by about 1:00. We went to sleep for many hours and went to our favorite pizzeria for dinner. Matt took the night off to rest his f’d up leg so Andy and I decided to check out some clubs. We read that a place named Musicpark was pretty hot and also a meeting place for lots of hookers. Intrigued with the notion of taking a look at some international hookers, this was an easy selection. While the place had a great look to it with a dance floor and lightshow, etc…we were disappointed to find that there were about 10 people in the whole place (hookers included, by the way…not disappointed there!). We took off from there after about an hour of hoping it would pick up and headed back to Radost FX, the club from a few nights before. We quickly noticed a trend that Wednesday nights stunk everywhere. There were some people there so we danced for a while but it was pretty lame considering the standards that were set our first night there. About 3:00, we took off and headed back to the hotel.

Greg took me around the region, named the Research Triangle. The area is growing rapidly, replete with tons of high tech businesses and an incredible backbone of higher education establishments. Duke, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State all lie within about a fifteen minute drive of one another. It's quite obvious that the region is really going to burst onto the national scene soon (even more than it already has). Growth there is huge. Comparisons are drawn between this area and Silicon Valley, California now renowned for its high tech businesses and growth. It was quite an impressive area. It seems the perfect time to get in the door down there.

Ok...so three paragraphs and no mention of sports yet?!? Well...I won't disappoint. As any basketball fan knows, Duke basketball at Cameron Indoor Stadium is known as the most exciting, raucous place to watch a game in the world. Greg procured me a ticket and we were to go to a Duke/NC State game that evening. This made my trip into a full-fledged pilgrimage. For one night, I was going to be a part of the Cameron Crazies!! WOW!!! We went out for lunch that day at a local place. Nothing fancy. Nothing fancy other than one of the clientele, that is! As we walked in, we noticed a small buzz in the air. Well, this was due to the fact that Duke grad and NBA superstar Grant Hill was sitting there eating lunch with his wife. HOLY SHIT! I have a good time telling people that I ate lunch "with" Grant Hill. I actually had my camera with me, and was tempted to ask for a picture. I took my lead from the other patrons, though, who were simply leaving the two to eat in a likely rare peace. The story will have to suffice.

Wearing our orange shirts, we were treated to some jeers from the patrons but nothing out of the ordinary from a college town with a big game in a few hours. Next, we decided to walk to campus. It didn't take long to see how the WVU intelligentsia prepared for the big occasion-by drinking alcohol in huge gatherings all over campus! Now, I have no problem with this. I don't think that Heaven and alcohol contradict one another. Within five minutes of being on campus, though, I do understand why West Virginia is "Nearly" heaven and not quite there yet. In heaven, I would imagine that one would greet their friendly rival by offering him a beer to drink. In West Virginia, I was greeted by having a beer thrown on my head and the welcoming phrase "You're not in Kansas anymore, you fucking asshole!" Getting the sense that the hundreds of screaming men were not interested in a lecture on the actual geographic region from which I traveled, we exchanged some pleasantries and finger gestures as I moved along towards the pearly gates of the stadium.

The scene in the stadium was a bit more accepting of outsiders-mind you, this is likely due to the WVU student section being moved to the upper deck because of their refusal to stop throwing things (e.g. Fruit, bags of urine, and other "nearly" heavenly items) onto the field from the former student section. Now they only throw golf balls. I found the hillbilly clientele (I never knew that hillbilly's, as depicted in movies and sit-coms actually existed!) most cordial in a pseudo-English, not-enough-teeth kind of way.

Maybe it was a blessing (very fitting for "nearly heaven") that WVU won the game because most of the student section was too busy getting pepper-sprayed on the field to be harassing the visitors of the town. Still, there were some who found their way outside and treated us to more witty chidings of "Fuck Syracuse." When across the street from this group, I nicely explained that they've already "fucked their higher education, fucked their earning potential, and fucked any chance of making it in civilized society." And so it continued until we made it to our car...

As I crossed the State border and continued on my journey home, I could only think to myself how on-target the name "nearly heaven" is for West Virginia; for it allowed me to see that in the proper context, all other places, even Central New York, are 100% heavenly in comparison.

While I still have separate stories to tell of my adventures in purgatory ("nearly heaven"), I will do so by request on a one-on-one basis for the sake of all of our schedules. Thank you all for allowing me to tell my tale; for the experience was quite cathartic.

-Marc

1-An underdog basketball team will make the final four
2-This will happen during the same four years I am at that school
3-It will take place in an accessible location
4-We would miss the mob that rushed straight to the Dome for tickets, and still come up with some at face value

The odds of all of these lining up is minimal. That's what made this so special. As soon as we beat Kansas to gain entry into the final four, we went to the Dome to check on how to get tickets. All the people there were told that they would go on sale the next day, that details would be made public that evening, and that we were not allowed to wait there. So, we left and planned to return at about 4 a.m. to get in line. At some point, we were informed that the crowd at the Dome had grown so unruly, that bracelets were given out and that these people could return the next day to get tickets. We were seemingly out of luck.

Well, we decided that an egregious error had been done to us and that we weren't going to stand for it. The next day, we went to the Dome and stood at the end of the line of bracelet-wearers (with a few others thinking the same way) to see if there might somehow be some tickets leftovers. Security, and eventually the police, tried to get us to leave, but we weren't doing anything wrong so they let us be, laughing at us every once in a while for wasting our time. After all, there were no tickets. During the course of the day, we figured something out. People had to meet certain criteria to be eligible for tickets. Most importantly, you had to be a paying season ticket holder. We were and we guessed that some of the folks ahead of us were not. We also learned during our time there that student athletes could not be sold Final Four tickets (they don't pay for their season tickets!). We counted the number of athletes that we could recognize in front of us and also the number of people that came out of the box office cursing and bitching. OK...we KNEW there would be tickets left over.

When the last people in front of us had their tickets, the lights were quickly turned off and the doors locked. All the workers left. WAIT A MINUTE-THEY WERE TRYING TO SCREW US! Our group had been there all day and was not planning on leaving without a straight answer regarding what was going to happen to those extra tickets. We all went down to the Dome security area which is open 24 hours and basically stormed in. The guard (Chester-I knew him from band and was a bit embarrassed to be causing any problems for him) got pretty flustered and eventually called down the Dome Manager, Pat Campbell. We had a serious debate with him, pressing the point that we knew that all tickets were not sold. He contended that there were none, but he would take our names, confirm that we met the criteria for purchasing tickets, and give us a call if he could get us some. This at least got our foot in the door. My friend Jeff and I strategized on how to seal this deal and get our hands on some tickets. We both peppered Pat Campbell's office with phone calls checking on the status and verifying that he knew who we were, etc. Jeff even paid a visit to the Chancellors office to explain the situation and to see if he could get some heavy weight on our side.

A few days later, Jeff was told that he'd get an answer that morning. I had a class. I told him to come interrupt and get me out if there was any news. Sure enough, right in the middle of class, he came in and got me. He told me that he was assured his ticket and that I should go right home and make some real assertive phone calls. I did this and the secretary told me in a low secretive voice "We have a ticket for you. You are not to tell anyone else about this. Pick it up at the box office at 9 a.m." I'm assuming the statute of limitations is now over!