Day 1

Greetings and salutations to friends and family!

Today we woke at the crack of 9:00 am. We packed, cleaned our room, and loaded the car. We set Fink's odometer to 0 and drove four hours to his beautiful house in Chappaqua, NY. His street name was misleading, because there were no Random Farms anywhere. We ate some delicious chicken cutlet sandwiches from Lange's Deli. Nick and I had Skype interviews (nailed 'em) while Fink was getting his summer tires put on his car. Nick, Rizzo, and I sat outside in the beautiful weather (60 and sunny), read, and Nick killed a  NY Times crosswords (speaking of which, please help: 1. 'Desi of 'I Love Lucy'' _ON_ _; 2. Fanatics _ _ALO_S; thanks!). Then I smoked Nick in ping pong (21-19, 21-16) while listening to Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepson (thanks to Ben and Anna) on repeat. Then the three of us went for a walk around the neighborhood and met up with Fink at a local basketball court, where we hooped for a bit. The guys dunked and ally-ooped mostly while Rizzo made it rain, per se. Then we went back to Fink's and met his friend Zach, a sophomore at F & M (doesn't know Scott). Then we picked up some delicious Indian food and ate with his family when they got home from their trip to Texas. His family is hilarious. Also, Fink's mother, Beth, served me a mad strong coffee (part nespresso - yup, nespresso, not epresso - look it up), so I'm feeling pretty jacked about now (2:15 am). I played Bananagrams for the first time, and it was awesome, although I accidentally cheated a few times. Then Fink went to bed (noob) while Rizzo, Nick, and I played Settlers. Nick took the first game and I won the second. It's fair to say that Rizzo would've won the third. The three of us are now snuggling on the awesome couch-bed in Fink's basement. We get to sleep in tomorrow.

Other notables: We've seen 13 different state license plates so far, Rizzo learned how to play Momma Mess' solitaire, and we both learned a new magic trick. Fink drove, too. His new nickname is Sparky, thanks to Beth. Off to Philly in the morning.

Quotes of the day:
"I have such a small bladder, sometimes I wish I could just pee myself and keep going... but Depends sounds uncomfortable." -Rizzo
"His name's Zacharias. Yeah, I think it was Zacharias. Hey Stu, what was his name?" "Valecente." -Beth, Stu

<3 JDM