Monday, November 17, 2008
Catching up after a couple of weeks/The Chooch...
Sorry I haven't 'blogged' lately. I've attempted to add updates a couple times but never got around to pressing the 'publish post' button. We'll see if we get that far today!
I'm sorry to report that Abbey's team did not win the state championship in field hockey; they lost to the eventual state champ in the semi-finals. They had a tremendous run and with 18 0f the 22 girls returning next year I'd say the future looks bright for MND field hockey.
Aaron had a great experience at Kairos - he was very talkative afterwards and he even signed up to be a leader for the next session.
Judd turned 20 0n November 3 - we went up to Dayton and took him out for dinner, it was a whirlwind evening but it was good to see him.
This week is the big Ohio State/Michigan game. We plan to head up to Columbus for the game and given that the Wolverines are having their worst season in history; perhaps the tickets won't cost the $400 scalpers were asking two years ago.
As a result of my recent birthday party I've been able to get back in touch with an old friend from our days at the Cork 'n Cleaver. Kevin (or The Chooch) was/is one of the funniest, most witty individuals I've ever met. We used to sit around following our shifts at the Cork, drinking 50 cent (or in many instances - free) draft beers and laughing till we nearly pissed our pants. Most of our laughs were at the expense of our fellow employees - one of the biggest collection of misfits this side of Santa's island for misfit toys. I met Julie working at the Cork and with the exception of her and Kevin's wife, Susie or Swooz (who is literally one of the nicest persons I've ever met), I think we all could have been categorized as misfits.
Some of the more memorable characters included the cook who tried to ingest mass quantities of nutmeg because he read it would make you halucinate, a waitress who caught her husband having an affair and decided to get back at him by having an affair of her own with the biggest loser she could find (fortunately, working at the Cork she had many options), there was the hostess who got loaded one night after work and vomited all over my new Nike gym shoes and our assistant manager who we affectionately called POP, short for Pass Out Pearson - every night he would get so drunk that he'd pass out at the end of the bar. This is just the tip of the iceberg - there were so many others but it would take all day to list them. We had a manager who told a woman he had to fire her because our regional manager said she was ugly; the same manager got fired because he fudged our inventory in order to get a Christmas bonus with each month he had to fudge it even more and by April he was $6000 in the hole. Fortunately they closed the restaurant so he was going to lose his job anyway. I could go on and on and on. The point I'm trying to make is this, the Cork was pretty messed up place but Kevin made it fun; if he was working the same shift - we had a great time. And he and Swooz were awesome friends - I can remember hanging out with them, numerous times I spent the night at their house. I remember one night we were going 'home' and we stopped to get a late night snack at Taco Bell. Keep in mind that people who couldn't get a job at the Cork probably found employment working the overnight shift at Taco Bell. We went through the drive-thru and Swooz ordered a burrito with just a little lettuce - well we get our food and head on our way and Swooz starts laughing hysterically. She had opened her burritio and they had literally put just two strands of shredded lettuce on the burrito - Swooz and I were laughing hysterically but Kevin wanted to go back and find the idiot who made the burrito which Swooz wasn't about to let him do. As I sit and type this it sounds like a pretty stupid incident but Kevin was at his best during this kind of moment - just hysterical.
My brother, Rich, tried to get Kevin to come to my birthday party but unfortunately he had other plans. Had he been able to attend it would have been a wonderful surprise but just getting back in touch and thinking about some of the old Cork 'n Cleaver memories has been a lot of fun. Kevin wrote about me on his blog so I thought I'd give him equal time on mine. I'm not quite the writer he is and you could never get a grasp of who he truly is by what I've written here but Kevin and Susie were great friends at a time when I was trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do with my life. It's been great reconnecting with The Chooch.
I'm sorry to report that Abbey's team did not win the state championship in field hockey; they lost to the eventual state champ in the semi-finals. They had a tremendous run and with 18 0f the 22 girls returning next year I'd say the future looks bright for MND field hockey.
Aaron had a great experience at Kairos - he was very talkative afterwards and he even signed up to be a leader for the next session.
Judd turned 20 0n November 3 - we went up to Dayton and took him out for dinner, it was a whirlwind evening but it was good to see him.
This week is the big Ohio State/Michigan game. We plan to head up to Columbus for the game and given that the Wolverines are having their worst season in history; perhaps the tickets won't cost the $400 scalpers were asking two years ago.
As a result of my recent birthday party I've been able to get back in touch with an old friend from our days at the Cork 'n Cleaver. Kevin (or The Chooch) was/is one of the funniest, most witty individuals I've ever met. We used to sit around following our shifts at the Cork, drinking 50 cent (or in many instances - free) draft beers and laughing till we nearly pissed our pants. Most of our laughs were at the expense of our fellow employees - one of the biggest collection of misfits this side of Santa's island for misfit toys. I met Julie working at the Cork and with the exception of her and Kevin's wife, Susie or Swooz (who is literally one of the nicest persons I've ever met), I think we all could have been categorized as misfits.
Some of the more memorable characters included the cook who tried to ingest mass quantities of nutmeg because he read it would make you halucinate, a waitress who caught her husband having an affair and decided to get back at him by having an affair of her own with the biggest loser she could find (fortunately, working at the Cork she had many options), there was the hostess who got loaded one night after work and vomited all over my new Nike gym shoes and our assistant manager who we affectionately called POP, short for Pass Out Pearson - every night he would get so drunk that he'd pass out at the end of the bar. This is just the tip of the iceberg - there were so many others but it would take all day to list them. We had a manager who told a woman he had to fire her because our regional manager said she was ugly; the same manager got fired because he fudged our inventory in order to get a Christmas bonus with each month he had to fudge it even more and by April he was $6000 in the hole. Fortunately they closed the restaurant so he was going to lose his job anyway. I could go on and on and on. The point I'm trying to make is this, the Cork was pretty messed up place but Kevin made it fun; if he was working the same shift - we had a great time. And he and Swooz were awesome friends - I can remember hanging out with them, numerous times I spent the night at their house. I remember one night we were going 'home' and we stopped to get a late night snack at Taco Bell. Keep in mind that people who couldn't get a job at the Cork probably found employment working the overnight shift at Taco Bell. We went through the drive-thru and Swooz ordered a burrito with just a little lettuce - well we get our food and head on our way and Swooz starts laughing hysterically. She had opened her burritio and they had literally put just two strands of shredded lettuce on the burrito - Swooz and I were laughing hysterically but Kevin wanted to go back and find the idiot who made the burrito which Swooz wasn't about to let him do. As I sit and type this it sounds like a pretty stupid incident but Kevin was at his best during this kind of moment - just hysterical.
My brother, Rich, tried to get Kevin to come to my birthday party but unfortunately he had other plans. Had he been able to attend it would have been a wonderful surprise but just getting back in touch and thinking about some of the old Cork 'n Cleaver memories has been a lot of fun. Kevin wrote about me on his blog so I thought I'd give him equal time on mine. I'm not quite the writer he is and you could never get a grasp of who he truly is by what I've written here but Kevin and Susie were great friends at a time when I was trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do with my life. It's been great reconnecting with The Chooch.
# posted by Vince Hopkins @ 11:31 AM 
