C-Town Rocks!

Something somewhere downtown. Not important.

One of my best friends in the world got married this weekend. Please join me in congratulating the newlyweds, Caitlin and David Abarbanel!

Give him time to get acclimated to being called Mr. Abarbanel.

And further congratulations are due as Dave got matched for residency, one day before his wedding, no less, at his first choice of hospital: the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN! He is now a doctor (or at least will be at his official graduation in two months). He will use his M.D. to hunt unicorns.

Proud sisters and dad

I was privileged to have front row viewing at the wedding as best man. As my speech attested, Dave was my first very close friend at Tufts and, after living together sophomore year, our friendship never let up. I can't say enough about him. Clearly a smart dude, we have assembled a personal language of communication that borders on ESP. I have long known that Dave is superleet, and I have more recently learned Caitlin is, too; they will be great for each other. The wedding as a whole was arranged superbly and proceeded to perfection. I even got to teach my pals how to stomp the ground in time with Copperhead Road.

Beautiful people, especially that guy in the back-center, slightly left. Hair getting a little long though.

On this particular trip, everything revolved around the wedding, but I had been to the Rock and Roll Capital of the World a couple times before to visit Dave. Cleveland isn't my type of city, but that's OK, as long as Dave found the love of his life there. I will continue to be a fan of the Indians. I've rooted for the Indians for as long as I can remember, partially because I was a front-running child (some friends will argue I'm still a front-runner) and partially because I thought they had the best uniforms and logo. I wrote a letter once to their organization, bragging about how I memorized their roster. I colored my bands around my braces in accordance with the team colors; the orthodontist thought the red, blue, and white was for patriotism.... I literally cried during their losses in the '95 and '97 World Series, once calling my dad at work to be consoled. Thanks Mesa, thanks Nagy. I don't think I cried after their heartbreaking defeat in the most recent 2016 World Series, but it wasn't much easier to take.

Indians-Cubs 2016 World Series viewing party

Cleveland's clear-cut highlight is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You should go out of your way to visit if you are ever anywhere near Cleveland, if you have any interest in any type of music whatsoever. You could get there the minute they open and still run out of time when they kick you out at closing. From history to memorabilia to the actual autographed Wall of Fame, they've got it all.

RnR HoF

Next up: Pittsburgh, March 19-24?

Foreseeable: Philadelphia, Niagara, Charleston

I feel I must postpone Niagara until I offload most of my carload at a friend's house in Jersey, so that I don't get stopped by the US/Canada border patrol. Now I need to figure out if I head north or south immediately after NJ.

A couple postscript notes: 

I have been telling people you can subscribe for email updates when I post. I swear it is true, but I don't think the entry field is visible in the mobile version. Please use the regular web version to see that option. If you are already using the regular version and still can't find it, you might be a lost cause.

I changed the format for all of you to comment on my posts ∴ existing comments went away. Shouldn't happen again. I no longer require a G+ profile of you. I didn't anticipate the number of people who would be interested in following my journey, so I don't want to restrict comments to just holders of G+ accounts.

Heroic difficulty

What a fascinating guy!