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Team dinner at Candle 79 - May 18, 2007 |
by Josh |
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Last night's farewell dinner for Jonathan, before his summer away, started out so innocently
with the delectable gastronomy at our sponsor restaurant, Candle 79.
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Our appetizers were phenomenal. I was particularly fond of the
grilled seitan. For an entrée, I had
the seitan piccata, of which J.J. would classify as "Dy-no-mite!"
Dessert was also fantastic, with my warm rhubarb tart and dulce de
leche ice cream orchestrating a symphony of sweetness on my palate to
culminate the evening's culinary indulgence.
The restaurant custom
made our prix-fixe menus with the Organic Athlete logo on them, quite a
nice touch. All in all the food and atmosphere was great, I'm sure
I'll go back.
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After a heated and rousing discussion of the current Floyd Landis
debacle (what I like to call "The Pepperdine Predicament"), it was
time to get down to business.
Doug was endowed with the coveted and
prestigious first annual Team Organic Athlete New York Winter Training
Award, for… well, it's kinda self-evident from the title.
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Then
Jonathan gave back to Brian "The Hammer" Gatens the very shoes in
which Brian ran the Chicago marathon. Those shoes were displayed in an
elegant genuine plexiglass shoe display box, with Brian's marathon
time engraved on the front.
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| The speeches and stories that went around
the table were heartfelt, and really made me glad that I'm part of a
team consisting of truly upstanding people. |
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After dinner, the remaining organic athletes, which included, Jack,
Alex, Pam, Brian, Jim, Jonathan, Doug and myself decided to find out
if any of the bars on 2nd Ave would serve us Guinness in a sports
bottle.
The thing to remember of course was that while we all looked
like a normal group of people out on Friday night, Brian was walking
around with a giant plexiglass display case containing a pair of
sneakers.
Incidentally, in addition to many other "interesting"
things, I learned that walking into a bar with a trophy case
(specifically one that has your nickname as "The Hammer" engraved into
it) is a great way to start a conversation with girls. |
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| With the promise of a pool table in the back room and drinks served in
hollowed out pineapples festooned with tiny paper umbrellas, we
waltzed into Mo's Caribbean Bar, and waltzed out just as quickly to
look for someplace else, where one could actually hear the person next
to them and not feel like a sardine in a can. We walked further down
2nd, past a karaoke bar and all joked that we should go in. Then Doug
asked, "Why don't we?" So we did. |
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As it was thanks to Doug's that we were even in the place to begin
with, he had the honors of getting up to sing first, no easy task
especially thanks to the fact that singers performing before him were
really good.
Doug got the place hopping with a stellar rendition of "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" that would have made Randy Bachman
jealous.
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Up next was Pam who drove the crowd wild as she busted out
her moves to Donna Summer's classic disco anthem, "Hot Stuff." The
best part of her performance was the fact that she was dancing up on
stage in clunky rubber rain boots that didn't slow her down one bit.
With all the seitan/Satan confusion at dinner, Jim decided to take on
the role of the Dark Prince and wow us all with his Ozzy Osbourne
impression.
As for myself, I figured the best thing for me to do as
the new guy on the team, was to sing "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough"
and bring out my very best Michael Jackson impression, complete with
falsetto, "sham-on's," moonwalking and crotch grabbing. |
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| But Brian…oh
Brian… he brought down the house. It was one of those "you had to be
there" things, but suffice to say it ended with a loud, "Thank you and
goodnight!" before being draped in an American flag and carried
offstage. I try not to pass judgment, but all I'm saying is that I'm
pretty sure Kid Rock's lawyers will be sending "The Hammer" a nasty
little letter asking him to never sing "Cowboy" again. |
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| Leaving the bar and reflecting on the evening I came to two
conclusions. First, the pictures from last night are just another on
a long list of reasons of why I can never run for public office. And
second, I definitely picked the right team to join. I'd like to see
those other guys even try to sing "Hot Stuff." We
ride hard, we play hard. |
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