Catherine has already invited everybody to Beer Day. Let me add my voice to that invitation: come get drunk with us. It's really a fantastic, transcendently dumb holiday.

But there are other things you should come to as well. First: who wants to go to the Arlington Cinema & Draft House tonight to see Starsky & Hutch? That's right: you do. Tickets are cheap, the place is cool, and the movie sounds solidly mediocre. You know you wanna.

Second: BBQ this Saturday. Since we've decided not to renew our lease, I am determined to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment possible out of my complacent suburban lifestyle. So yard utilization needs to skyrocket. 5PM sound good to everybody?

Third: the first can't-miss Fort Reno show of the year (according to me) is next Thursday. We'll have a picnic, listen to some Ted Leo, and try to have fun without alcohol. Sure to be a Sisyphean good time!

Well, I’m back. For those of you who couldn’t distinguish the past five days from my usual regimen of non-posting, I’ve been away in Vermont, a land so primitive and strange that cellphones don’t work and the internet runs through wires. It’s good to be back in Arlington, where instant personal communication is ubiquitous and the internet can go back to chirping merrily through the air and into my laptop’s transceiver, like a happy carcinogenic bird perched centimeters from my reproductive organs.

But if I pretend for a moment that life is worthwhile without omnipresent technology, I’ve got to admit that Vermont is pretty nice. It’s a state that gets brutally hard winters; when summer rolls around it’s like nature realizes it has to make amends. Everything is leafy, green, sunny and comfortable. The people are nice, Burlington’s cool, and the living is easy.

all bow down to mrs. gray, otherwise known as charles' mom, who yesterday donated $100 to my marine corps marathon fundraiser for the lombardi center.

of course, this sort of generosity wasn't unexpected from the grays, who let me tag along with their family and tommy when they rented a big old villa in tuscany last year. they're rather awesome.

so this brings my total up to around $250! which is great, because i haven't even hit up my grandparents, my parents, my parents' friends or other innocent, unsuspecting parties yet (besides you all, of course).

training continues; ten miles will be run this saturday am. but in lieu of running today, i have opted to do some cross-training and take a kickboxing class. since i lack any sort of coordination (or muscles, really, despite running), i'm fearful that the entire experience might end up something like this rather hysterical account. but forza! forza catherine. yes, that rallying cry of forza didn't get the azzurri very far before they got kicked out of euro 2004 (the sweden-denmark match was TOTALLY FIXED), but whatever. forza!

update: ah, italians. this is more like it: "Disgruntled Italy fans hurled eggs at the Danish consulate in Milan in protest at their team's early exit from Euro 2004. "

let's all get drunk!

an open invitation from jon (and charles, and tommy, and all the other beermeisters):

Nobody really needs a written invitation to come to Beer Day; if you have a stomach and a strong resolve for awesomeness then your invitation is the global mandate which God bestowed on every man woman and child when they entered this world. All the same, I thought i would send this out so that everyone knows the address.

Beer Day 2k4, the wolf-raised child of Beer Day 2k3, will ascend from the crisped ashes of its sire and stalk this corporeal dome for a brief period of destruction and sweetness on Saturday, July 3rd 2004 at 5726 N. 15th St. Arlington, VA 22205

If you dont know much about Beer Day you can probably extrapolate the details but we have an interweb site to help you out: www.beerday.net

Also, if anybody would like to wax poetic about Beer Day I invite them to record that sacred text on the Beer Day 2004 Forum at www.beerday.net/forum

yours truly,
Jonathan Robert Zuckerman

p.s. i sent this to all of you because i think that you could each make beer day a better day for everyone, i encourage you to forward this message or craft your own to invite any one else who shares these same qualities of badassedness

personally, this will be my fourth beer day. the first one i attended was at tommy's house in charlottesville, where i arrived late at 9pm and worked my way up to 12 beers in three hours or something ridiculous in order to catch up with the guys. we went out to the corner to go to some bars, and got stopped by a policewoman along the way who thought the large group of guys was in the process of kidnapping me. my second beer day was at chris's house, where i got very drunk and chris sexually harassed me (which is by now a common and expected theme). the third beer day was out on a farm in virginia, and because i had an early morning committment the next day, i unfortunately did not get into the spirit and drove home that same night sober, not having participated in the 300 foot long slip n' slide. but this year -- this year, i am READY. bring on the beer, and the kiddie pool, and the slip and slide; bring on the beer can chicken and the massive dehydration; bring on the drunk antics and embarrassing moments; bring on naked chris -- i am ready for it all.

and you all should be too. beer day 2004. be there or be sober.