Mark's Friday

Kate was generous and gave me a Friday, so as you will see, my day included more shenanigans than your average weekday, but at least the before-5 part of the day was pretty normal.

Unlike most of you--I am a morning person.  I generally wake up in quite a good mood, though I do have a hard time getting out of bed since it is my favorite place in the world.  This morning my computer decided to wake me up to Journey and Daft Punk, so morning dancing ensued in the bedroom, and I took this shortly after before showering/shaving (that's more than a week of stubble there).

Probably my favorite thing about my neighborhood (other than proximity to friends) is my commute, and since it was a beautiful day I walked the scenic route--though I usually only go this way when I bike.

This is where I destroy client value while attempting to foil the financial system for my company's short-term gain so I can make giant bonuses (only partially true).  Those are 2 of my favorite co-workers Sean (left) and Jason (right).  You can also see my Wall of Great Americans; which is a thing I do when we are slow (pick great Americans out of a 'hat' on the other side of my cube and tell everybody trivial information concerning their Greatness and Americanness).  Also--note the computer background.

It was really nice out and slow at work, so everybody went out to Market Square for lunch.  The city apparently didn't think it was important to put the tables and chairs out yet though, so we just ate standing/sitting around.

I stopped by my favorite bakery (the hottest guy on Earth wasn't there) and the library on my way back to the office.

The afternoon was pretty slow, so there was much desk-sitting and chatting.  I didn't choose a Great American, but I did take out the Bernanke Face; which I use when talking about economics.  There is a Krugman photo on the other side of my cube, but I don't have one big enough to make a face for him or I would use him often instead.

After work happy hour drinks at Sammy's downtown.

Walked home, checked emails and such,  tried to take a quick nap but failed.  This is my room--it's far messier than usual since every room it touches was recently under minor construction.

Then I met up with Rick at the Round Corner Cantina.  This was not usual since I usually only see Rick for lunch (usually ~3 times a week) but since we hang in different circles and live in different neighborhoods we don't hang out much outside of that.

I got pator tacos; they had fresh cilantro and radish slices in them--amazing.  Also a very good ginger-rum mixed drink.

Then we headed to the Warhol, which is why I was really hanging out with Rick.

They had a local Garage Pop Revue show that I wanted to go to and I knew Rick would too.  Also, he just got his tonsils out and I haven't seen him in a bit.  The show was neat, there were weird dancers and a lively host and the bands would each play a couple songs and switch to another band and so on.  At the end they even all played together.  It was very neat and I enjoyed it greatly; Rick complained about the fact that we were seated.

This is out of order, but I just thought the city looked better at night.  I work in the building with a green sign near the middle of the photo.  This was just a block from the Warhol and almost on the walk back to the car, so we stopped for a photo.

Afterwards; I wanted to go out in the East End (Rick's stomping grounds) because I don't often get to.  We went to a bar called Kelly's that was too stuffed to fit in well so we headed to another neighborhood and checked out a gay bar that looked super lame and instead got beers at a place next door called Remedy.  

This is something we also have never done, so it's not usual at all--but we decided to check out a gay bar in Shadyside (read: that place where preppy suburban people go to live in the city) since we are each pretty much the only gay people we know in the city and we don't often go out together.  We ended up at a place called Infinity I believe.  It was actually really nice, pretty much just a regular Shadyside bar.  Of course Rick didn't like that since it meant they didn't have PBR and beers were ~$4, but I thought it was nice.

This is also completely unrelated and I took it this morning--but as a shout out to Eric/Noopur and their home brewing I thought I would include this.  I'm just brewing hard cider and this is my first batch, but I'm pretty excited for it.

Anyway, that was Friday.  Not terribly usual, but not ridiculously unusual.  Hope you all are well, and can't wait to see the rest of your posts.

-Mark