An ode to my dear friend, Joe Katz, who inspired a pie chart

I have a friend named Joe Katz who I adore. He's a truly great guy- always pleasant, always funny, always helpful, and always ready to have fun. Joe Katz is also very fond of get-togethers. He has helped organize many picnics in our lovely and local McCarren Park, movie nights, bingo nights, bar nights, parties, and the ever popular brunch at his place.

Just to give you a small idea of the greatness of Joe Katz and the many social situations he is a part of, take a look at these photos-

Here, Joe Katz himself makes us pancakes at his most recent brunch:



Here, during his Possum Awareneess Party, Joe Katz leads us in a stirring rendition of "The Greatest Love of All", his birthday song of choice:



Here, Joe Katz contemplates his next Connect 4 move during a very heated game (this travel edition accompanies him to all social events, by the way):



Here, Joe Katz and I show off the mini golf ball we used to play a horrendous round of mini golf together:



Here, we see Joe Katz at the bowling alley, being worshiped by two fine ladies:



Here, Joe Katz kicks some Foosball ass:



Here, Joe Katz and I pose for a delightfully dirty looking photo in McCarren Park:



Here, Joe Katz and I realize we are too dead sexy when photographed together:



And one of my personal favorites- Joe Katz, me, and a guy dressed up as the David Cross character on Arrested Development, who is in costume as his Blue Man Group character (not only was this a GREAT costume, but it was especially fantastic since Joe Katz himself has been mistaken for David Cross):



Really, this could go on all day, but I think I have proven my point about Joe Katz. However, if you have not had enough of him yet (and really, how could you ever get enough Joe Katz?), then I highly recommend this fantastic tribute to Joe Katz photo set my friend Michelle put together (with hilarious captions, no less) but to see even MORE Joe Katz, he's all over my flickr too.

Finally, let me get to why we are here...

As you can clearly see, Joe Katz likes to have fun. And I love this about him. However, after having to decline one too many happy hours, sushi nights, bike rides, park adventures, bingo nights, fireworks displays, parties, etc, I knew I had to explain to Joe Katz that while I valued him greatly as a friend, it was nothing personal. I simply did not have enough time left in my day/week/life to attend all of these fine events.

But I knew that explanation on its own would not suffice. I had to do more. I had to prove it!

And what better way to illustrate that point to Joe Katz than with a pie chart?!

So I thought about it... 'How *do* I spend my precious 168 hours a week?' And on an average week, this is precisely how those hours are spent:



*NOTE: the 8 hours I factored in for socializing is of the non-Joe Katz variety. I allotted 4 hours each for Friday and Saturday night, since that is often - though not necessarily always - spent outside of my Joe Katz circle. As I stated, this is an *average* week.

I sent the pie chart to Joe Katz showing him that in the end, I have a mere 11 hours per week of "Free Time" left. That's really not a lot. And to be honest, most of that is spent on the computer - blogging/reading blogs/and doing photo stuff. I let him know that I would give him as much of that time as I could, but had to be selective and could only do it as time and situations permitted.

And I think Joe Katz finally understood:
1) That I value him enough as a friend to let him know I truly did want to hang out with him
2) He should not stop inviting me to things, I just can't always say yes
3) I'm slightly nuttier than even he realized

I love you, Joe Katz! Thanks to you, the world (and Greenpoint) is a better place to live!




**and before any of you ask, Yes, we always refer to him by his first and last name, "Joe Katz". It's not that we have any other friends named Joe, it's just more fun that way.