Roi.

Tuesday night at 11:44pm I learned that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist of the Dave Matthews Band, passed away.  I couldn't believe what I had heard.  The emotion I felt about a man I never met was a bit overwhelming.  It's amazing what kind of connection you can feel to someone you've never even spoken with.

I started listening to the Dave Matthews Band about 10 years ago while still in high school.  My first show was May 11, 1999 and since then I have seen the band perform 13 other times.  I went through what I jokingly call a "healthy obsession" my freshman and sophomore years of college.  I was really into collecting live shows on CD and would trade people on-line for shows they had and I wanted, and in return I'd send them something that I had in my collection that they were interested in.  I have  compiled well over 100 DMB CDs over the years and I can imagine that some people think that's a little nuts.  It really was just a hobby though.  For the record, yes, I have listened to every CD at least once.  My obsession slowly dwindled but I have continued to keep up-to-date with what's going on with the band.  Now defunct www.nancies.org, and the still flourishing www.antsmarching.org are fan sites that I check pretty regularly to see what songs that band has been playing in concert, what other projects the band members may be working on, and updates on the band's studio recordings.  Although I spend a lot less of my free time consumed by DMB I can say with certainty that the Charlottesville quintet has had a profound impact on my musical taste.

The thing I think I love most about the band is that they are a band in every true sense of the word.  Although their name prominently places Dave at the forefront I'm know every member of the group believes their strength is found in their unity.  The Dave Matthews Band is not the Dave Matthews Band without Dave, just like they're not the Dave Matthews Band without Stephan, Boyd, Carter, or LeRoi.  Each member provides such a distinct and vital facet of the bands unique sound that it's difficult to imagine them any other way than how I've known them the past 10 years.  I truly can't imagine the band going forward together from here, but they chose to play Tuesday night even after they learned of the terrible news.  

I have so many distinct memories of listening to the band's music.  The first time I intently listened to Under The Table And Dreaming and laid there in awe, the first time I heard "Big Eyed Fish", going to the post office on campus and picking up new shows that had just arrived in the mail, the often told "tracking down Bo and giving up the shirt on my back to receive front row tickets in Saratoga" story, anticipating new albums, playing "Say Goodbye" on the Branch jukebox every weekend in college, and of course the absolutely unbelievable 14 shows I've seen.          

My most recent show was on June 28, 2008 here in Virginia.  Little did we all know that night that it would be the last time LeRoi Moore would ever perform.  He was in an ATV accident the following day at his home in Charlottesville, VA.  He punctured his lung and was out indefinitely. The only real details that I have read are posted on the band's official website.  This is what was written:

08/19/2008

We are deeply saddened that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.

It is two nights later and I'm still in shock. I have chosen to mourn LeRoi's death by celebrating his music. I am dusting off some of those old CDs I haven't listened to in a while (now in digital form on my computer and iPod of course) and listening especially close for his parts on each of the songs. Here are a few photos from what nobody expected to be LeRoi's final show:

Greatest tailgating spot... EVER

Julie, Micah, Me, Amanda... Progress Baby!

LeRoi Moore, doing his thing

There is no doubt LeRoi Moore will be missed by many.  My thoughts go out to his family and the Dave Matthews Band.

Brian and Melissa.

This past weekend Amanda and traveled to New Jersey for Brian and Melissa's wedding.  Brian was my roommate senior year of college and is most certainly one of the greatest guys I know. Him and Melissa are so perfect together and the whole weekend was incredible.  Here are the highlights...

After picking up Brian's life long friend Steve in Baltimore on the way up to NJ, we crashed at Nick and Paul's place Friday night.  We caught up for a while and heard the story of Nick and Paul's car crash earlier in the day.  Luckily everyone is okay, however Nick's Sentra was totaled. Everyone turned in pretty early but I just couldn't help staying up until 2am to watch Manny's first game as a Dodger.

Saturday was the rehearsal dinner up in Hackensack, NJ where Brian and Melissa live.  We got to check out the location and meet all the bridesmaids, most of whom I had met at least a couple times in the past.  Bri's Aunt Nancy walked us through the ceremony and we all had it down in no time.  We were off to the dinner part of the evening next.  We went to a nice italian place and had our own private room upstairs.  The 4 1/2 hour dinner was incredible.  They just kept brining us more food.  Every time we thought they were done they'd bring something else!  Hors d'oeuvres, pasta, chicken marsala, fresh fruit, ice cream, and of course... open bar dude! 

Me, Brian, Kohler, Nick, Hugo

Amanda and I at Dinner

Brian and Melissa receiving their wedding gift from THE Chris Berman

No one circles the wagons like... Melissa and Brian!!  Congrats!!

After an incredible dinner we headed back to the hotel and hung out late.  We just shot the shit, drank some brews, and reminisced about the good ol' days.  We also tried to make Bri as nervous as we could about what was going to happen in a few short hours but he didn't waiver.  He may have been the most excited dude I've ever known when it came to getting married.

The wedding on Sunday wasn't until 5pm so we had plenty of time to recover from the night before.  At around 3pm we traveled in style to the wedding and the fun began.

Chrysler 300 limo - sick

The groomsmen and the wedding singer before the festivities

Amanda arrived shortly after me, looking beautiful of course

Here we are just moments before Bri takes the plunge

A little explanation is going to be needed before this next photo.  So it was beautiful the whole weekend.  Well, except for 5 minutes at the beginning of the ceremony (of course).  Although the sun was shining, the rain decided to make an appearance.  It rained lightly for about 5 minutes and although everyone kept their cool you could see Melissa and the mothers of the bride and groom shooting looks every which way praying for the rain to stop.  Someone decided to shield Melissa and Brian with an umbrella (hence the photo), it worked wonderfully.  Brian asked me several weeks ago to do a reading from The Old Testament during the ceremony.  I was happy to do it and it ended up being much more appropriate than anyone could have imagined.  Literally SECONDS before the following line was read the rain cleared... "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone."  It elicited quite a bit of laughter and many sighs of relief.  They say rain on your wedding day is good luck and I have no doubt that someone was sending Brian and Melissa their wishes for lifetime of happiness.   

After a beautiful ceremony by the Rabbi and Priest we headed inside for one of the greatest parties ever.

Ice luge at the martini station - damn cool

I can't even say enough about the food.  No amount of racking my brain could begin to get me to remember everything that was served during the cocktail hour.  Check out Amanda's blog for a list of SOME of the cuisine.

A very, very, very small part of the spread

One of several ice sculptures

Damn good looking groomsmen ready to get their party on

Mr. and Mrs. Herzbrun being introduced for the first time

Cutting the cake

Okay, so I said I couldn't really write about all the wonderful food, but I HAVE to mention the desserts.  We headed back to the room where the cocktail hour took place and it was transformed into dessert heaven.  There were millions of tiny delicious treats everywhere.  Eclairs, fruit, pastries, chocolate mousse, an ice cream scooper man, a chocolate fountain, and of course wedding cake.  If you know me at all you know I made the best of it. 

Nick, Paul, and I housing our chocolate drenched treats

Uncle Steve at the fountain

All the groomsmen ready to take shots with the groom after dessert

The crazy Elmira College crew, Paul going commando in more than one way

At this point the open bar is making everyone as fun as possible

Nick and Amanda cuttin' a rug

Amanda fell in love with Hugo and all his "Latin beauty"

These Long Island ice teas did us very well after the wedding back at the hotel bar

The photos end there but the fun certainly did not.  A huge group of us, including Brian for a short time, headed down to the hotel pool and had a blast.  Hotel security wasn't wild about us finding a way into the pool at 1am, but Brian's mom sweet talked them into giving us a solid 45 minutes to enjoy ourselves.  It was a damn fun way to end the greatest wedding ever.  Congrats Brian and Melissa, you guys are the best!

Manny Being Mustache.

It's official, the Dodgers landed the big prize in this year's trade deadline craziness.  Manny Ramirez is the new left fielder in LA!  All we had to give up was a major league ready 3rd baseman in Andy LaRoche and a low-A pitcher that I've never heard of.  If we were going to rent a player for the last couple months of the season this is certainly the way to do it.  I predict the Dodgers go on to win 90 games and take 1st place in the National League Worst... uh, I mean West.

On another note, I grew a child molester mustache.  I grew it for LOTS of reasons and I think it's pretty awesome.  I've only had it for a couple days and it's brought all kinds of good luck.  Like Hoof Hearted (my softball team) finally won a game.  Not only did we win, but we did it in convincing fashion.  I went 4-5 with a double and a triple, 4 runs scored, and 2 RBIs from the lead-off spot while beating the other team like a rented mule 20-3.  And then today we get Manny.  My run of good luck can be attributed to nothing other than...

THE POWER OF THE 'STACHE!

iRun.

You gotta give the people what they want, and what they want is more blogging by Matt.  I have had numerous people ask me to update my blog and I know I've been a real slacker with this thing.  So here goes.  A nice short post just to get the ball rolling.  Just like in baseball, the first one's the hardest...

So I ran a quick 4 miles today and one of the programs I use on my computer to track and analyze my runs told me that I have been using the program for exactly 1 year.  In the past year I have logged a total of 457 miles.  Since I started training for the marathon on May 6 I have pounded out 268 miles.  Training is going great.  I'm keeping up with my runs and I am still healthy and injury free (knock on wood).

My summer hasn't been completely consumed with running though.  I've been basically going non-stop with each weekend bringing something else new and exciting.  If you check out Amanda's blog you'll see in great detail a lot of the fun things I've done.  Since my last post I have been to New York City for a Dodgers/Mets game, Philadelphia and Atlantic City for Herzbrun's kick ass bachelor party, DC with Micah and Julie for a great DMB show, Ohio for a crazy family reunion, and North Carolina and Tennessee for an incredible summer camp.  I have also completely finished my master's degree with George Mason University and made a fairly major life decision that will undoubtedly impact my future.  More to come on my "life decision" in a later post.  Again, if you want details on any of my recent adventures, check out Amanda's blog!

That's all for now.  Honestly this time, I'm going to update more frequently.  Stay tuned!

  

Boston.

I've been to Boston three other times in my life, and all of those times my trip centered around beer and baseball.  Not that there is anything wrong with beer and baseball, I love them both dearly, but my most recent trip had a much more worthwhile purpose.  Amanda and I went to Boston for Memorial Day weekend to watch her sister Steph graduate from New England School of Law.  Pretty impressive, I must say.  Steph is a pretty impressive girl, so I wouldn't expect anything less, but let me start off this ridiculously long blog by saying congrats on your well deserved accomplishment.  Okay, now on to the highlights of the trip (with a very minimal focus on alcohol and/or sports)...

Amanda and I lucked out with our selection of hotel.  We stayed at the Westin Copley which was right in the heart of Boston and central to just about everything you could imagine.  The room was incredible and the view from the 17th floor was pretty killer.  Here is me loving "The Heavenly Sleep System" and a view from our window:

We got into town Thursday night and things were pretty uneventful.  We hit up one of Steph's favorite bars and got something to eat but turned in pretty early.  Friday morning was the graduation and Amanda and I woke up early so she could stop by the Apple store and pick up Steph's graduation present before the ceremony.  I was in heaven.  This is the biggest Apple Store in the country, and the second biggest in the world.  If you know me, you know why three floors of Apple makes me happy.  Here's me in front of the Mecca:  

After an hour or so of drooling over white, plastic, shiny things we headed to the Wang Theater for the NESL graduation.  The venue was incredible!  I imagine it was quite an honor to graduate here.  Larry Lucchino was the guest speaker, so that was pretty cool.  I guess I didn't really expect to go a full two hours in Boston without some reference to the Red Sox or their rivalry with the Yankees, and graduation certainly was not a haven from this.  The moment belonged to the graduates though, and here are a couple more photos from the paparazzi (a.k.a Amanda):

The wicked theater

The Sauer Fam

After graduation on Friday we had some lunch and then hung out in the hotel room for a while.  Steph opened her new MacBook from Amanda... welcome to the team Steph!  We headed to Quincy Market in the evening.  We did some walking, a little shopping, some more photo taking, and had dinner at Cheers.  After the parental units turned in for the night we headed to Jake Ivory's, a dueling piano bar next to Fenway.  After a couple drinks there we headed to some other bar that Steph frequents.  Here are a few pics from our good times on Friday night:

Me and Steph

Amanda, Steph, Steph's BFF Katie (and Katie's brother Tim making an appearance)

Saturday started off with an attempt at the ever-popular "Duck Tour."  When we tried to buy tickets around 11am were all pretty disappointed to discover it was sold out for the day.  I guess if you snooze, you lose.  Plan B was to take the T to Harvard Square instead, see the University, and grab some lunch.  It was a beautiful day and the back-up plan was a lot of fun.  Here are a couple more pics:     

Steph and I with John Harvard

The Girls and Me on some rocks

Okay, so I am going to end this incredibly long post with a story.  I've told this story a dozen times or so since I've returned from my trip, but for those of you that haven't heard it, it's pretty good.  Here goes... So on Saturday afternoon Amanda was napping in the hotel and I was wandering around the city by myself.  I ran across some half price tickets to see The Blue Man group's 10pm performance and I couldn't pass them up.  Amanda and I were super excited and the theater was even walking distance from our hotel.  We got to the show about a half hour early and were very surprised to see how small the theater was.  We had balcony seats that were probably the furthest possible seats from the stage, but still really close due to the small size of the theater.  Let me just say, if you haven't seen The Blue Man group, do it! The show was absolutely incredible.  Here's the cool part though.  I'm going to give you the abridged version, if you want to hear it with all the exciting details you'll have to call me or talk to me in person.  So about 3/4 of the way through the show one of the Blue Men appears on the balcony about 30 feet from where Amanda and I were sitting.  The two other Blue Men were on the stage with huge spotlights shining on the 3rd guy on the balcony with us.  The creepy looking dude covered in blue paint stared at me, locked eyes, and came toward me.  He put his hand out to me, and pulled me out of my seat.  He brought my down the stairs and up onto the stage.  While on stage with the Blue Men they put me into a white coverall suit that completely covered all of my clothes, my arms, and my legs.  Then one of the Men locked eyes with me for what felt like an eternity, but was probably about 5 seconds in reality.  He put his thumb on my left cheek and a blue thumb print remained on my face.  They then put a black helmet with a blacked out visor over my head and I was completely blinded.  At this point they led me off stage into what seemed like the basement of the theater, and covered my white suit with blue paint.  They then tied my ankles together and hung me upside down.  They then proceeded to swing me into a canvas and create a painting out of me.  When we finished making our work of art they helped me into a cart that had a gigantic Jell-O mold on top of it.  I climbed INTO the cart and stuck my head up into the oversized Jell-O structure.  They finished this bit by rolling me back out onto the stage, jiggled the Jell-O to the beat of some music, and clawed into it so my head was then exposed to the crowd.  They helped me climb out of the cart, handed me a huge clump of Jell-O and led me off stage.  That was it.  Every word is mostly true.  Unfortunately they are rabid about not allowing pictures to be taken, so although Amanda took a couple great ones, they literally stood over her shoulder and made sure she deleted them.  Here is Amanda and I outside the theater after the show with the only amount of proof I have: 

The Blue Man touched my face

So that's our trip in a nut shell.  I can't imagine ever posting a blog this long again, but it was such a great time I wanted to at least share some pictures, share my Blue Man story, and say congrats to Steph.  Stay tuned for an update after this coming weekend when Amanda, Jeff, Michele, and I head up to NYC to see the Mets and Dodgers play at Shea!

We'll Miss You.

Mike Piazza called it quits today after 16 seasons.  He was one my first "favorite players" as a kid.  I always thought it was so cool that he was taken in the 62nd round of the amateur draft.  As a kid just learning the sport, knowing that the only reason he was drafted by the Dodgers was due to his relationship with Tommy Lasorda and that it was done as a favor, always gave you hope.  I always thought that if Piazza could do it, anyone could do it.  I'll never forget the day I came home from school to find out Piazza had been traded to the Marlins for Gary Sheffield.  It crushed me.  I couldn't believe the heart and sole of my favorite team was gone.  Even though he wasn't a Dodger anymore, and even after his career started to slow down, he was still one of those guys whose stats I couldn't help but check in on every now and then.   

When I was 10 years old he was the second of five consecutive Dodgers to win Rookie Of The Year honors when he won the award in 1992.  He was the NL Silver Slugger 10 years in a row from 1993-2002 and was selected to 12 consecutive All-Star games.  The most home runs for a catcher in the history of the sport, and a certain first ballot Hall of Famer in my opinion.  Although it seems like he'll be wearing a Mets cap when he's inducted into the HOF, he'll always be a Dodger in my eyes.  I'll most certainly miss you Mike...

Portfolio.

A huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders today.  After a year and a half and close to 400 hours of work, my internship portfolio is complete... almost.  I have 9 more elementary school hours to complete, and I'm waiting on my principal to finish an assessment of my work, but other that that it's DONE!  I'm meeting with my advisor tomorrow to hand in the (almost) finished product, and 3:00pm can't come soon enough.  When that thing is out of my hands, my fate is in hers.  I mean, I still have two more classes to finish up this summer but the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter than ever.

On another note, I smoked another 4 mile run after work today.  I finished in just over 31 minutes which worked out to about 7:47 miles.  I'm pretty happy with that.  Also, How I Met Your Mother (best sit com on TV) was incredible tonight.  Time for the Dodgers and Reds now.  Tim, hate to say it, but your boys are going down...

A Nice Little Saturday.

I had a great Saturday!  Really busy, but lots of fun.  Here's a re-cap...

It started with an 8am run.  It was a quick 4 miles but it was good to have it out of the way for the day.  The marathon training is going great so far.  I've had to make some sacrifices here and there, but I haven't missed a run yet and I'm up to about 48 miles in the past 2 weeks.  My legs have begged me to stop a few times however I've run through the pleas and the runs are starting to get easier as the days go by.  THREE rest days next week.  I think Amanda and I are going to feel like slackers!

After the run Amanda and I were off to take part in an Arthritis Foundation walk.  This is our second year in a row raising money for the cause.  I figure with all this running I'm doing I'll probably benefit from the money being raised and the resulting research.  We were part of "The Skeleton Crew" this year.  There were about 50 or so people on our "team" and we dominated in the fundraising department.  Overall, the walk raised over $44,000 this year alone!  I'd call that a success!  Here is Amanda and I after the walk:

After the walk I had to head straight over to school to help with free sports physicals for the middle schoolers.  Simply put, this was pure torture.  The idea with free sports physicals is that any student planning on taking part in athletics the next year can come on this designated Saturday, take a school bus to the hospital, and stand on line for many hours to receive a sports physical.  All coaches are requires to tag along and supervise the kids.  This is the most disorganized and inefficiently run afternoon in the history of all things organized.  It ate me up inside that I had to literally stand on a line with 13 year olds, for 3 and a half hours, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon when all I really wanted to do was play disc golf!  Nonetheless, 4:30pm rolled around, all the kids had their jewels checked, and I got to leave.  On to disc golf...

Disc golf!  Folf!  I had played once before with my big bro about 5 or 6 years ago and it was a blast.  out of nowhere, earlier in the week, Jeff asked if I was interested in playing.  So I dug out the couple discs I have, bought a couple new ones, and looked forward to playing all week.  There is a pretty nice course right here in Winchester with some wide-open holes, and some more challenging ones through the woods.  I threw an 11 over, but beat Jeff by 3 holes.  It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to playing a lot more over the summer.  I wish I had some pictures of our game, but I didn't bring the camera.  Amanda had it while she went wine tasting with some friends.  I'm sure I'll take some pics this summer and I'll be sure to post them.

After disc golf Sean gave me a call and told me his buddy James was in town.  I met them out at dinner and hung for a couple hours, drank a few brews, and had great conversation.  We headed over to Jason and Nikki's house for some late night Sing Star and some more good times.  Sean and I rocked out to "The Reason" by Hoobastank as we usually do, and busted out our rendition of "Motownphilly" which is always sure to entertain.  Jeff hooked Sean and I up with "surprise" that's he's been waiting by the mail for all week.  Here's a few pics from the night.  Sean and I singing and of the 3 of us showing support for our boy:

Well, that brought my day to a close.  Great weather, great friends, and a lot of fun.  Now it's time to finish my cup of coffee and bust out my internship portfolio which is due on Tuesday.  Hope everyone else had a nice weekend!

Tests.

First - I'm excited about the Dodgers taking the series from the Brewers today with power from some surprising contributers.  Billingsly threw 7 innings and gave up 3 hits for his 3rd win in his last 4 starts.  Next we have our first freeway series of the season; should be some good games.

Second - I drove to Fairfax tonight for an SLLA (School Leadership Licensure Assessment) prep class.  This is the $500 test I have to take to prove I'm worthy of being a school administrator.  So I understand that tests like this are expensive to develop, and it's costly to pay current administrators to score these 6-hour writing exams.  I get that.  I'm not completely fine with, but whatever.  If it's a $500 exam that stands in my way of being an administrator I'll kick it's ass just like every other test I've ever taken in my life.  Here's the thing that really gets me though - As I was working through one of the hour long response questions tonight there was a glaring error on the test.  There was a document containing fictional standardized test scores for 3 subjects (reading, writing, and math) broken down into 3 categories; "past proficient", "proficient", and "not proficient."  Our main task with this question was to use this document, along with 7 or 8 others, to come to conclusions about what is wrong with this school.  The messed up thing is that the reading test scores on this document had 65% of the students in the category of "past proficient," 74% of students labeled "proficient," and 34% as "not proficient."  Um, that would account for 173% of the kids in the school.  Glad my $500 is going to good use.  I hope the people that score this thing aren't as bad at math as the people that created it.    

And third - Tomorrow is the culmination of 8 1/2 months of instruction, group work, tests, quizzes, homework, writing, projects, review, re-tests, remediation, tutoring, and hopefully a little bit of learning.  Our state standardized test for 6th grade math, called the SOL (Standards of Learning) will start around 9:45am.  Yes, it's really called the SOL test.  Across the state kids have bombed this test left and right the first two years they've given it.  We went from around a 50% pass rate the first year to somewhere in the low 60's the second year.  Scores have been bad.  I'm really bad.  Pathetic actually.  I have really busted my ass these last 8 months though, and I have to say that I feel much more confident in my kids than I have the last 2 years.  They've done really well on the review the last couple weeks and I think our hard work is really going to pay off.  I'm knocking on wood as I type this (just in case), but I have to say, I have a good feeling about this one.  I'm sure there will be more to come about the test when results come back in the middle of June.  Hopefully I'm not shit outta luck..

That's all for today.  Back to the season finale of The Office.  Jim is about to propose to Pam...

Hi.

I'm taking Barney's lead from "How I Met Your Mother" and starting a blog.  I've done this very infrequently on MySpace, but I'd really like to keep the world up-to-date on my thoughts, ideas, and happenings.  It may be slightly narcissistic to think that people actually have an interest in me beyond their daily (or weekly or monthly or yearly) interactions with yours truly, but this could prove to be therapeutic for me as well.  I'm not really sure what my intent with this thing is, but I'm sure you can look forward to hearing about the ups and downs of the Dodgers, my marathon training with Amanda, my adventures in teaching, my impending graduation from graduate school, all of my hectic and exciting weekends to come over the next few months, my views on politics, and anything else that crosses my mind.

On to the first thought I'd like to share...

Currently, Hillary Clinton just won huge in WV like everyone knew she would.  Her hubby carried the state twice and they love the Clintons there.  I just don't want to wake up tomorrow and read headlines like, "Clinton Wins Big, Slows Obama's Momentum," or "She's Down But She's Not Out."  I'm throwing all of my support, and even some of my precious time, behind Obama.  He's the first politician that has really spoken to me in my young life.  We're nearing the end of this crazy primary season and I'm really looking forward to doing what I can to help Obama make history.  If you haven't seen this video, you should...