Casebeer Reunion

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PONG AND PART:
Part of the splendor of my job is knowing they'll let me off early before Thanksgiving after a Ping Pong match. Almost daily at 3pm we play the best of three confined ping pong at work for the world tag team champion belts. If one team wins the first two games, a winner-takes-all bonus battle for the “leather belts” occurs. The champion belt is a bootleg wresting belt, whereas the leather belts only exist in the mind’s eye.

My coworker, anshuaron, and I have dominated mostly due to his prowess, but on this pre-Thanksgiving day game we wanted to treat our 'fans' to something special. This led to our demise. The "special" moment was when anshuaron walloped our boss Jim smack in the face to give him a little bit of the reddish Rudolph look for the holidays.

DEATH OF THE AUTOBON:
The drive to the burgh was near record time if you subtract the 40 minutes of bumper-to-bumper inching traffic to escape Port Mitlida. Damn, that was grueling.

Since there was nothing going on at home in north Pittsburgh, I dialed my best friend Case in Shadyside to find a mini reunion at his parent's house. His sister Teresa, her husband Raj, and their kid were coming up for Thanksgiving from Chicago. I haven't seen Case's sister since before she had her first kid and she is expecting a second one.

To get to Case's family home, I had to forgo the fun twists and turns of my usual exit, and instead go cruising at high speeds down the famed McKnight road. Then travesty hit, and it hit hard. They say things change when you grow old. First you forget names, and then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down. This was worse than all that.

The last stretch of McKnight road outward bound from the city is an area we dubbed the autobahn, a pristine a stretch of navigateable road where cops were visible so racing your friend in a multilane road was safer. The MAN destroyed this legacy by adding a new pointless traffic light.

MEETING THE WHITE HALF INDIAN:
Broken hearted from the loss of my autobahn, I met up with Case's family. I finally met his nephew, Adian (not spelt right) and greeted Teresa who is expecting another kid that Case wants to call Kimo, after the Steelers player Kimo von Oelhoffen. I've always wanted to name my kids Violet Case Gupta and Justin Case Gupta, but suggested calling Teresa's kid Mr. Big to continue the Sex in the City theme of naming the first child Adian, which purported is also Indian for fire but my sources say it's Gaelic.

Speaking of Indian, Yes, Case's sister married a 100% Indian named Raj Marvah (no relation to Naveen). Purportedly their love created Adian, pictured above. Is it me or does this boy not look half Indian to you? Still, the kid amused me with his going back to the fridge repeatedly to give everyone pop. What was more peculiar was Teresa said we couldn’t watch Aladdin because it has swords in it. Also, we couldn't say words like "guns" or "sword" because it'd somehow be detrimental to the child's development, crazy huh?

After some delicious ham, shrimp, and pie, Case, his brother who we call Beer and I chewed the fat outside until Beer choose lameness and went home. I did learn Beer has my winter jacket I left last year.

TRADITIONAL THANKSGIVING

Thursday morning sent me to Case's for Thanksgiving first. I just wanted to say hi, but ended up staying for food, delicious, authentic American dinner. It was so damn good, Case's mom is amazing. Before the turkey comatose set in, I bid the Casebeer's adu and hightailed to my rents.

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