Operation Rolling Thunder

Of course it is still June. It is Sunday, June 10 and I am updating my blog on cue. I am not at all writing this at a later date and pretending it is timely.

Right after writing my last entry, I had to meet up with Tom to get my cell phone charger (I left it at his place). He was downtown running his high school’s prom, and looked quite cute in his tux. Then I went up to the Bronx. I needed to spend the night at the apartment of a coworker, Rebecca. You see, Thursday (June 7) was a clerical day, and my employers (in their infinite wisdom) decided to hold it at a hotel in Long Island, which is very far away. Rebecca offered me a ride.

Rebecca is an awesome girl. We have so much in common (especially a love of musical theater and old-fashioned hat—of which she has a collection I covet), and I wish we’d hung out more. It was mostly a matter of timing and geography. Our lunches and preps were different periods. Her room was at one end of the building and mine was at the other. She lives way up in the Bronx and hangs out on City Island on the weekend. I live in Harlem and hang out in Manhattan (especially the Village). So not so much with the hanging out. Anyway, we chatted and had a glass of wine and watched How to Marry a Millionaire before we turned in.

The next day we zoomed off to a long day of curriculum mapping. That’s when you schedule all the major stuff you’ll teach in a year. I found it incredibly frustrating, because they made us spend a ton of time on mapping last year and then didn’t let us follow the maps. So I grinned and bore it. After work I went to Tom’s and we went our for Mexican food at a rooftop restaurant. It was delicious and rooftoppy.

Friday I…did stuff? I went to work and then met up with my friends at Valhalla. I showed my camera off to Laura, Madrid, Jenny and Irene. Then I met up with Tom. Saturday was the first Bocce game for Tom and his friends. They’ve joined a league. Their team name is Rolling Thunder, and they’re pretty good.

Oh, first I should explain Bocce. It is a bowling-ish game traditionally played outdoors by old Italian men. In this case it is played in a bar (Union Hall) by twenty- and thirty- somethings on indoor lanes (made of clay, I think?). The game requires one small white ball; and eight larger, heavier balls (four of one color, four of another). Someone rolls the white ball, the paulino. Then the two teams take turns trying to roll their colored balls as close to the paulino as possible. The team that has the closest ball counts how many balls they have closer than the other team’s balls. As many rounds as necessary are played until one team gets seven total points. The team that gets seven wins the game, and there are three games in a match. Ta-da! I hope that’s not too confusing.

Here’s a roll-call of the members of team Rolling Thunder (I’ve mentioned a lot of these people before, but I don’t think I’ve ever broken it down like this):

Dom went to high school with Tom and is currently in law school at NYU. He is a fierce competitor at darts, bocce, Trivial Pursuit…everything really. He is a stickler for the rules. See the photo at left where he is measuring to see which team's ball is closer. Why no, I did not PhotoShop in extra hair at his request. Why do you ask? Dom is married to Tori.

Tori does something having to do with advertising for MTV. She got in to the group because she used to be roomies with Tom’s BFF, Debra, who also went to Stuyvesant High School with Dom and Tom. She is an awesome singer and is so cool that I want to be her when I grow up.

Becker (technically Adam, but he swears even his mother calls him Becker) has a financial-type job at Wachovia. Becker is a truly hilarious young man. He owns a cat name Uncle Walter, and a family crest tattooed on his thigh. Becker went to high school with Mike.

Mike does something…e-mailish? for the New York Times. He is married to Britt. He got in the group because he and Dom were roomies.

Britt is originally from Iowa, and although she does not mind her home state, she does not have the same level of affection for the place that I do. She met Mike when they were in college at Penn State.

Afton, Britt’s sister, doesn’t seem to love Iowa as much as I do, either. She does something…education-y with children. Yeah, I think I should ask her about that next time I see her. Afton and Britt have such and awesome sisterly relationship that I once amused them by involuntarily exclaiming, “No fair. I want a sister!” (No offense, honorary sisters.)

Chris also does…something at the Times. That’s how he met Mike and joined the group. He has an incredibly full and lustrous beard. I first met him at a Halloween party where he was doing a really convincing (though very tall) impersonation of a lawn gnome.

Chris was roomies with Danno. Danno used to be a bartender, but his friends helped him get a job with the Times and he seems so much happier.

Okay, I think that’s everyone. There are so many team members so the team can keep going even if someone has Saturday plans. They won their first match, and I had fun cheering them on.