We were thinking about going to church street today, which was a popular open air market in Burlington. But since it was raining, we instead decided to go hit up local businesses to find more prizes for the silent auction. But in any event we didn’t have much to do today so Dave and I slept in. I got up around 9:30 am. Ahh, it felt so nice to sleep in. I finally got out of bed when I heard Hardy and Bonnie making pancakes in the kitchen for breakfast. Very good stuff. Homemade Vermont maple syrup too. Yum.

Hardy worked on writing up some letters to give local businesses that introduce NYRA so we can hand those out today. And he made up a cover letter for the fundraiser invitation he was sending to local bar and liquor store owners. The more people we can get there the better.

Hardy uploaded the pictures I’ve took throughout the week to his website. The USB port on my computer was occupied. So after he had them all uploaded, and saved, I went through my old blog entries for the week and added picture links. Dave entered in more of the UVM folks we got on Friday. I chatted with a bunch of folks about a bunch of things, and got done with my blog entry for Friday.

It was getting late though, between sleeping in and breakfast and working late, we needed to get on out of the house before the day was a total waste. So Dave and I left around 12:30 or so. We got to Jay’s house around 1pm ish. Jonathan and Jay got in the car and we headed out to lunch at Al’s French Fries. Its a Vermont tradition or so I hear. Jay figured we’d get some lunch and try to hit up the owner, but the place was absolutely packed. Too busy to try to hit them up for a donation. We did get some good food though.

After groaning from high prices throughout the state, and a lack of fast food, I was pleased to see how incredibly cheap this place was. Hot dogs, burgers, fries, and all sorts of greasy, life-span reducing fare was all reasonably priced and pretty good tasting as well.

We all ordered, then Jay went to find a table while the rest of us waited in line to get the food. After a bit he came back and said something. I didn’t hear what he said, but I already asked him twice to repeat it, so I just guessed it was something about asking the owner for a donation, nodded, and he sat down. They made the food in front of us. When Jay’s chili dog came up they asked what I/he wanted on it. I called over to Jay, and he said something. I couldn’t hear him, and I’m bad at reading lips, so I guessed he said “everything”, which I ordered. But turns out it was “nothing” and that’s actually what he came over to tell me earlier. Oops. I messed up his lunch.

I definitely want to come back to this place. It was good and cheap. We talked for a while, the four of us. Just on random stuff. Jay is real cool, so I’m hoping he made Jonathan feel at home with us crazy NYRAnians. We then went off to businesses up and down Route 2. I forget how many we stopped into. Ten to twenty. No one gave us anything on the spot. We had some great letters that Hardy wrote up earlier, and we dropped those off with all the businesses we spoke with. Most of the businesses Jay and Jonathan went while Dave and I waited in the car. I felt bad otherwise that Jonathan came all the way out to Vermont for the day and we didn’t have much going on. So at least he got some experience with attempting to get donations from businesses. Although I need some experience with that too. Jay had the best experience of us all with that. …and I call myself a national President. Sheesh.

We went around for like two to three hours only. Then we dropped off a few invitations for the fundraiser to Jay’s neighbors. Jonathan was leaving at 4, so we had to get back to Jay’s house for his pick up. I still feel bad. He made buttons for an hour, and went around to businesses for like two, and that was it. Well at least he got a chance to meet me, and Jay, and Hardy. So perhaps he’ll be more interested in getting things going in his state, which would be awesome.

Jay and his brother had like every video game system ever made. We fired up their N64, and put in Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Dave watched while Jay, his brother and I knifed, incinerated, shot, and beheaded each other in a bloody melee of cute forest creatures. Jay’s brother kicked our ass. I wasn’t totally terrible though. It was my first time playing it of course. We played it for a while. Then I suggested Goldeneye, but the game was busted. They have Starfox though, and we put that in. Ah, a game I actually was familiar with and own (back at my parents house) though I haven’t played it in a while. Once I shook off the rust I started kicking some Vermonter ass. No one could outdo me in a dog fight. It was just those bombs I got iced with.

We didn’t have anywhere to really go, so we just hung out the rest of the evening. I dunno if Dave was very entertained, but it was oh so nice for me to just hang out after a week of frenzied work. Their mom made us some tasty tacos. The five of us hung out talking for a while. About school, and local politics, and the campaign, and school some more. Jay’s mom is pretty cool, and definitely open to youth rights. She respects her kids and treats them as people. This makes for a far more open, honest, and genuine relationship between all of them. What is so hard about this to figure out for the rest of the world?

Their mom has a lot of connections too. She knows everyone in town. She is damn near a professional fundraiser. Even as we were there she had a fundraiser letter for the UVM Hillel out there on the table ready to be stuffed and sent out. Plus on Friday, of course, is the fundraiser dinner she is hosting for the campaign. She left to do…something. Then the four of us kept talking about sports. Jay was once a really good baseball player, and even went down to Nicaragua and for a brief period was a celebrity down there for his performance (batting 11 for 12) at some Little League tournament down there. But he blew out his knees (as catcher) and hasn’t played much since then. He also played football, and hockey, and tennis, and no doubt others I’m forgetting. I just have a football credit to my name.

Jay and his brother are definitely cool. And talented. It was nice just hanging out, talking, playing video games and doing nothing for half the day. We left around 9 - 9:30. I felt bad about staying the whole day, so we had some time to at least get some work done that night. Hardy was gone for the evening at a surprise 50th birthday party for one of his relatives, so Dave and I had the house to ourselves.

Dave entered in the rest of the UVM people, and then checked my blog and his e-mail, and was surfing the net. I really wanted a sec to reflect on the death of the Pope and tried to get away from everyone IMing me (like always as soon as I get online), so I could have some time to read through all the articles on him the Washington Post had. I wish I had cable, or wasn’t so busy that I’d have time to watch more coverage on him. I know when Reagan died I saturated myself with all sorts of biographies and such on the man. But I’m going to miss out on everything regarding the Pope now.

I wrote up an entry about the Pope’s passing, and then Cathy called me. We talked for quite a while, maybe two hours or more. I think Dave was annoyed by it. I do admit, with Hardy gone, I may have allowed myself to be excessively cutesy. Ack, I’m such a sap. I talked to her till late, and then went to bed.

Ahhh, sleeping in, playing video games, hanging out with Jay, and talking with Cathy. What a great day.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 2nd, 2005 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Personal, Youth Rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.