This was definitely an Epic Weekend In Pictures I won't be forgetting anytime soon. I was able to pack plenty of summer fun into the weekend. This weekend we will start Friday night when after an action packed day at work, I ended up with success grilling both garlic shrimp and Cape Cod Cafe Pepperoni Pizza. I do give myself a 95 on the pizza, because one slice I honestly burnt too much trying to make it perfectly well done. Overall another fun Friday night grilling adventure for me.
Saturday morning I was able to swing by and fuel up for our fun work event at Granny's on 23 in Hamburg. I stuck to the basics, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast. I skipped the homefries because I didn't want to get too filled up and feel like a blimp running around at our Summer Stuff The Bus. When I got there we knew it was going to be hot outside. The volunteers were all in terrific spirits despite the hot weather. ShopRite Of Sussex was definitely getting a strong response. Steve Andrews was fantastic kicking our event off first thing Saturday morning. It was great to see street teamers Brendan and Tati, plus 103.7 NNJ Morning Host and 106.3 The Bear afternoon host Borasio. We then received a nice donation and even better surprise seeing our morning Traffic Reporter Bob Williams. It was so much fun running into old friends and meeting several new ones too. We don't have totals yet, but we filled at least 8 grocery carriages and raised a few hundred dollars. As I proudly say on the radio, because The Sussex County Division Of Social Services Food Pantry buys in bulk through food banks, for every one dollar we collect they can purchase at least 5 pounds of food! When we say every little bit helps, we mean that literally! We know hunger never takes a vacation. Our summer Stuff The Bus local food drive helps families right here in Sussex County, which is especially important once school is out for summer and kids lose those food program sources that help them not starve during the school year. I know our summer totals won't be as many thousands of pounds we collect during our November annual Stuff The Bus, but this is still very important. Every March we do our Backpack Snacks For Kids so kids who rely on these school programs for food don't go hungry on weekends while their parents are hard at work.
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Saturday afternoon after we wrapped up our Summer Stuff The Bus at ShopRite Of Sussex, I went over to Tire King in Sussex saying hi to our friend Justin. They've been proud partners with our food drives over the past several years. They were actively asking how we were doing at our Sussex and Franklin ShopRite locations. I went from there to see our friends in Franklin at ShopRite. They were filling up several grocery carriages too!
I then was able to meet up with besties Spooner, Ashley, and Jared at Alias in Vernon for a little bit. I had some time to kill before meeting up with some besties at Minerals Moonshine Tiki Bar. The weather was comfortable for us outside under the covered Tiki Bar thank goodness.
It was great seeing besties Jasen, Steve, Tory & Kyle, Brad, Ed and more! I then was introduced by my friend Ken to new friends Scott and Lauren. Once I found out they live and grew up in Vernon, I had to introduce myself and before I even got done, they both yelled "IT IS YOU ISN'T IT!?" They recognized me immediately when I started having a conversation with them. After hitting it off so well, they then asked if they could get a picture with me. I cracked up and said "are you kidding me? I'm the Weekend In Picture guy doing selfies constantly, of course!" They cracked up over making their debut in my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Saturday night was definitely fun.
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Sunday was a low key around the house staying in vibe of a day. Last weekend was amazing getting to see my wonderful family. Given the hard, trying nature of it with beautiful tributes to my late sister Zannie, I think they everything just kind of wore me down emotionally and physically by Sunday. Wednesday I was back in the office trying to catch up from being off out of office Monday and Tuesday, plus trying to cram everything into one day to be off on Thursday Juneteenth. I was wiped out on Thursday for sure. Then on Friday one of her good friends from college Mike just saw the message on Facebook I sent him in January after she passed away. He was apologetic feeling awful for just seeing it now, and asked what happened. I told him, then after that it made me kinda relive it all again unfortunately. I felt awful knowing how heartbroken he and my sister Zannie's other buddies from UNH were all feeling Friday afternoon when they found out about what happened. I tried to reach out to as many people as possible during that nightmare weekend with the few phone numbers we did have. I know that's why I didn't sleep too much Friday night into Saturday morning. It hit me Sunday too like a ton of bricks.
Overall there were some highlights during the weekend. Thank you so much for helping our Summer Stuff The Bus food drive!