Saturday Night Snack Draft

Last night was the first ever Snack Draft.

When the clock struck 3:00 AM on Sunday morning, July 22, 2007, it began.

Let's rewind for a moment here, and fill in the background.

This weekend, my friend Megan was visiting Boston. Megan and I went to high school together, she goes to Michigan State now, but she's doing an internship in Connecticut until December. She came up for the Red Sox game Friday night, and then hung out Friday & Saturday, and went back to CT just a short while ago.

Megan's internship is with Pepperidge Farm .

She works as a packaging engineer (to quote her, "I design shit that stuff comes in"). In her building is a giant pantry stocked with all Pepperidge Farm products, to which the employees are encouraged to help themselves. Cookies, crackers, pretzels, gold fish, etc. Oh yeah, also, Godiva chocolate.

Megan showed up with five (5) grocery bags full of snacks. Five. One of (almost) every snacking product they make, and even some stuff that hasn't hit the shelves yet. I set all of the snacks on the kitchen table, and took a picture.

Enter: Snack Draft. (Well, we're getting there)

Kyle came down last night from UNH to hang out with Megan and I. When he got here, we were out to dinner. We got back shortly after he arrived to find him in his car, parked on the street, pounding a 24-ounce can of Miller Light and eating a bag of fritos. Meet Kyle.

We parked Kyle's car, came back to my apartment, and exchanged pleasantries over some alcoholic beverages. Delicious.

When I showed Kyle the bevy of snacking consumables on the kitchen table, I realized something: I was going to have to share. Megan brought the snacks for Kyle, too. I think there were enough snacks to share; however, we needed a fair way to distribute the snacks between the two of us. We decided to hold a draft. When we got back from the bar, no matter what state we were in, we were going to flip a coin for first pick, and then draft a Snack Team, one package at a time. We appointed Megan the commissioner of the league (due to her vast knowledge of Pepperidge Farm products), and chose a few snacks that would not be part of the draft (we needed something to eat when we got back). With that behind us, we were free to drink our beers and go to the bar (to drink more beers).

What happened at the bar is a story in and of itself. We went to Daisy Buchanan's, which is pretty crappy, but it didn't matter where we were going because fun was in the cards. I haven't been there since turning 21. It's fairly close, convenient to meet people, and some underage friends were there (they'll let pretty much anyone in). We ran into several friends of mine, had a couple others meet us, and what ensued was a great deal of drunken foolishness and shameless dancing. I got about 3 minutes of dance solo footage on my phone of Matt Meehan - if I knew how to post a video (or could), I would do it. It was downright hilarious, and something that you should hate yourself for missing. There might also be photographs and/or video floating around of Barone and I doing some sort of improvisational choreographed dance that can and will prevent me from ever being elected to public office.

Fast forward to 2:45 AM.

After PUNISHING my bladder on the 20-minute walk home (not sure why I didn't urinate in public... Considering I have no shame), we sat around the kitchen table, scouting the snacks for the draft. When the clock struck 3, Megan flipped the coin, and Kyle won the first pick.

With the first pick of the 2007 NOA (National Obesity Association) Snack Draft, Kyle Bruen selects: Black & White Milano Cookies. A strong pick, all-around great snack, no surprises.

Since Megan spilled the beans about the Blazin' Buffalo gold fish and how good they are, I had to take them with my first pick, because I couldn't risk NOT getting them. I needed those Blazin' Buffalo gold fish on my team. I traded my 2nd and 4th round picks for these amaretto chocolate cookie sandwiches that you can't buy in stores yet, giving Kyle a great amount of depth on his team but landing me with a strong core of cookies and crackers, and a formidable front line.

The draft went over really well. The whole thing took about 9 minutes. Megan was falling asleep at the table, so she went to bed, while Kyle and I finsihed the remaining beers in the fridge and analyzed one another's strengths and weaknesses after the draft. At 4:30 in the morning, the beer was gone, and we went to bed.

Here is my team:

**Blazin' Buffalo Flavor-Blasted Gold Fish
* Original Gold Fish
Pretzel Gold Fish
Pizza Gold Fish
Double-Chocolate Milano Cookies
**Chocolate Amaretto Cookie Sandwiches (they're called Rialtos)
Chocolate Chunk Soft-Baked Cookies
Package of roughly 25-30 assorted fancy cookies
**Cappucino Pirouettes
Diabetes
Obesity
Heart Disease

** All-Star nominees
* Team Captain

Also, Kyle forgot about the Godiva chocolate, so I have 5 or 6 packages of that as well. My team looks very strong, and I'm proud to be the coach and general manager.

Great weekend.

I need to exercise.

If I can ever get the pictures off my phone, or even if I can't, I will post soon about my dinner at Pasta Fair and the destruction of my cell phone that occurred last weekend.