I Suck At Zombie Outbreaks

For Karen, our baby daughter (Briana) and I, yesterday was our usual night to get together and hang out with some of our friends. After all, yesterday was Wednesday and Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti night. So joining in on the fun last night were our friends (Marc, Kelley, and Andrea) and my BFF (Kerry).

It has been a while since Kerry came down and joined us on a weekday. Luckily for us, she happened to be in the neighborhood due to an emergency training exercise. As much as it would have been cool, the emergency exercise was not for the possible outbreak of zombies. Consequently, if Massachusetts should ever experience a zombie outbreak... the Commonwealth is apparently in trouble as the state would be very ill-prepared.

Now, I suck at zombie outbreaks. Okay, perhaps not. I've seen my share of zombie horror movies. Heck, I've played my fair share of zombie video games. So I actually think I'd be pretty good should a zombie outbreak happen in Massachusetts.

Zombies aside, it was good to see Kerry again. As an interesting side note, before meeting up with all of our friends, Karen, Briana and I took a quick trip to the public library in Hingham. For Karen, Briana, and I, it was our first trip ever to the Hingham Public Library and I must say... the Hingham Public Library is very nice. The place is huge in comparison to our local library. I was actually surprised to see a bunch of teenagers at the library, because I didn't think teenagers did that anymore. Granted, they were probably just there to hang out, but it was interesting.

I would probably say that Quincy and Hingham are the top two libraries on the South Shore. Of course, I have only been to three libraries on the South Shore, but the Hingham and Quincy facilities are without a doubt the best that I have been to thus far. Norwell, by the way, still has the best librarians in my opinion and I'm not just saying that because my favorite librarian happens to be in Norwell. For anyone curious, my favorite librarian jokingly referred to Hingham's library as a palace... and apparently she was correct. Hingham's Public Library is very nice.

Regardless, on a whole the Norwell librarians are a much friendlier bunch. It is actually for that reason that Karen's grandmother goes to the Norwell Library instead of the one in her own town of Hanover.

Anyway, after being in awe of the Hingham Public Library, Karen, Briana and I met up with everyone at Marc and Kelley's. Prior to our arrival, Marc, Kelley and Kerry went out for dinner at Firefly's in Quincy after Kerry recent discovery of the exotic meal known as pulled pork. Needless to say, it was a fun time at Marc and Kelley's. I think having all of us there also provided them with a little distraction as they recently had to put down one of their cats. And for anyone curious, Marc and Kelley's cats are like their family.

I remember having similar feelings when my son (Braden) passed away. There were times where I wondered what I could have done differently. There were times I blamed myself for the causing the passing or failing to do something beforehand. After a while, a person can go insane with all these rationalizations. After thinking so much about Braden, there were times where I just simply did not want to think anymore and I think Marc and Kelley similarly wanted a little break from thinking about their cat's passing. By no means am I comparing Braden to a pet. I'm just saying I understand their need for a distraction during their grieving.

And of course, when it comes to making people feel happy, there is no better solution than ice cream! With Frozen Freddie's in Quincy still open for the season, a bunch of us drove down to pick up some ice cream. Truth be told, I was disappointed with my ice cream selection of the apple crisp flavor. There were apples in the ice cream... just no crisp. False advertising if I do say so myself.

Nevertheless, it was ice cream! Anyway, all of us just hung out, ate ice cream, and watched some episodes of Man Vs. Food. It was a good time. And apparently plans got set into motion very quickly last night for the upcoming month. What turned out as possible plans to celebrate Karen's birthday in November (instead of October) became a possible trip to the Cape in a matter of minutes. Of course, the plans were dependent on Andrea's move as her closing date got delayed due to her realtor. So we'll see.