One Year Blogiversary

Happy Blogiversary to me. A year ago, I started this blog mainly to relieve my boredom while I was recovering from my broken arm. It sucked. I was sitting at home, gaining weight and in a lot of pain for about a month. Now it's all over. I have a cool scar now, but I miss my weekly gab sessions with my physical therapist.

I've enjoyed writing in my blog. I've written already about the reasons why I've liked blogging, so I won't rehash here. But I'm glad to have this blog. It gives me somewhere to vent on a regular basis. Otherwise, I probably would have become a crazy, bitter old man who talks to himself and has a pet parakeet. My blog has been a great sounding board and even serves as its own sort of therapy for me.

One of the unexpected benefits I've gotten from this blog is that I've become more outgoing, which when you think about it is kind of contradictory since blog writing is a solitary activity. I've made long distance friends, friends here in the city, gotten in touch with people who I haven't heard from since high school. But at least I have taken the next step and actually met some people instead of just keeping cyberspace penpals. This article in the NY Times chastises bloggers, among other people in today's Internet age, for keeping a virtual social network, rather than one based on actual human contact.

In essence, I blog because I think my simple life might be of interest to someone out there. And I like to re-read my old posts. It's nice to have a journal recording things that are important to you and also to hear other people's thoughts about them. I write about most major events in my life, which really aren't all that major in the grand scheme of things. But they come from me. I think that is probably what I am most happy about when I think about my blog. It sounds like me. It has subjects that I find interesting or would like to share, and most importantly it sounds as if you are having a conversation with me. My blog has come to reflect my voice pretty accurately.

I have three favorite blog posts. First is "Beware the Witch Is Here." I wrote that at a time last year, when I felt like I was really coming out of my shell more. I had just switched jobs and was starting to get in touch with old friends. I was rebuilding my life outside of work when before my entire life was work. It felt nice. I also really liked "The 60 Day Rule" because I thought it was a really well-written (if I do say so myself) post on how I was feeling at the time. Finally, my review of Live 8 was a comprehensive and thorough review with bits of my caustic humor added in.

I'm pretty proud of my blog just like every blog author should be proud of his writing. I only wish I had joined the bandwagon 3 years ago. I also enjoy hearing everyone's thoughts about whatever I've written. But sometimes I expect a bit too much. One time last year, I asked a friend if she had a favorite post. She replied, "Yeah, I really liked your one on Free Chapstick." Free Chapstick??? That was like a 2-line post and hardly one that I poured my heart in!

Oh well, as long as my readers are happy. And sometimes the posts with minimal thought but are just your first thoughts coming out of your head are the ones that get the most reaction.

My Secret Habit

Remember that episode of Sex and the City where Charlotte reveals to the rest of the gals that she likes to take a hand mirror and stare at her pores for hours? And Carrie likes to stand in her kitchen, eating carefully stacked saltines with grape jelly while reading fashion magazines. Actually, I might try that. No, not the reading fashion magazine in the kitchen part, but the saltines and grape jelly. Mmmmm....salty with sweet. Then, Miranda liked to put on Vaseline on her hands, put gloves over them and then sit down and watch infomercials. I'm sorry, but that sounds icky to me. I'm sure your hands are amazingly soft afterwards, but I hate the greasy feeling of Vaseline. I can't remember what Samantha's "Secret Single Behavior" ("SSB") was. But I'm sure it was something as equally crazy as the other girls' habits.

Having lived alone for the past 5 years and being single, I probably have a large collection of SSBs. Most of them have never been exposed to an outsider, and if they are, it's usually because I don't give a shit anymore what someone else thinks. I'm not going to reveal all my SSBs here, but I will admit to one that shows what a dork I am. One of the things that I like to do is take my tennis racquet and stare at the strings and study all the little crevices that I've made from whacking at the ball after long hours on the court. I love seeing where my strings are about to break and moving apart the strings to see the actual indentations. It's so soothing.

I'm sure there are probably a million other crazy things that I do that I don't even realize. Who knows what I or someone else will eventually discover.

Music & Emotions

The past few months have been kind of rough on my emotions. I won't go into the details, but I have had some pretty hard weeks over the last few months. At least it's summer now, despite the monsoon season in New York, and I am finally starting to come out of my hibernation. I think I was just really impatient for winter to end, and for summer to begin because I missed all of Summer 2005 due to my broken arm. So I was pretty excited for the dark cloud of winter to lift.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with a slump. Some turn to retail therapy. Others succumb to a pint of Haagen-Daaz or perhaps party away their blues at the hottest new club. Or maybe you'll go outside and go for a run until you stop thinking about your crappy day (or crappy week, crappy year). There are lots of different ways of dealing and another way is with music. I have a certain set of songs in my playlists that I turn to when I just want to wallow in my self-pity. For many people, there's a certain solace to be found in the angst-ridden sounds of "Over My Head" by The Fray or the wistful notes from "By Your Side" by Sade. Throw in "Oooh Child" by Beth Orton and you have a soundtrack for a great pity party.

There’s something to be said for sitting around, throwing in a depressing album and just feeling sorry for yourself. Sitting around with sad music permeating the background serves as sort of a catharsis. And usually I feel a little better because I can wrap my head around the lyrics and tune, and forget about everything else. Sure, I have certain songs that I classify as my "happy" songs: "The Best of What's Around" by Dave Matthews comes to mind. These songs can serve as a pick-me-up. But throwing on some melancholy "Live Again" by Better Than Ezra is the stuff I really need when I'm in a bad mood. Why is my first instinct to remedy my sad mood is to play even sadder music? Why am I letting my iPod have a certain control over the way I feel? It's a bit odd when you think of it. I suppose it's like that saying "Misery loves company" and I just want some sort of validation for my feelings. Some of these songs also happen to be my favorite songs and you'll find them on my Top 25 Most Played ipod playlist. So maybe it's the nice familiarity you hear when you put in your headphones to tune out the rest of the world. It's something to depend on.

Music is really closely connected to our moods. This isn't anything ground-breaking, but sometimes it's nice to think about it. No matter whether you're listening to something really profound or some pop music fluff, one of the main goals of music is to create a sense of unity between the artist and the listener. And the music is giving you a common emotion, ideal or subject matter to latch on to. It inspires thoughts or memories in your head and in some way provide some clarity and that might be the best feeling of all.

So Much For That

My brief foray into html code land was rejected and I have had to retreat back to my original template. After I put the finishing touches on my new template the other night, I went to bed with plans to make the finishing touches the next day. So I thought everything was ok, until the next day when I opened my blog and couldn't read it because it was in a GIGANTIC font, like 1,000,000 point. Whoa, something weird was definitely going on. It turned out that my adjustments to the original template caused havoc to anyone trying to view my blog on Internet Explorer. I'm one of thirteen people who actually use Netscape, and my blog looked fine on my browser at home, but on IE, it was so big that even the elderly would have asked to tone it down.

So I'm back to the original template. And it's fine for a novice blogger. But I think I need some more pizaaz. Sadly, the fact that I can't figure it out makes me want it more. But at least I did get to keep my fancy new features such as my subscription box thingy and my new blog roll.

So far the score is HTML: 1; Terence: 0.

Just Needed A Change

I've decided on a new template. And I also have a fancy new blog roll thingy. Weeee. Most of my changes were fairly simple since the new template I chose was one of the ready-made templates you can just pick on blogger. But you still have to add sections like "What I'm Listening To" or your blog roll on your own into the template. You just insert them in, but it's a tedious task nevertheless. My knowledge of HTML is very limited, but I've learned a little. All I can say is what a huge pain in the ass this is! I'm glad I don't write HTML code for a living.

P.S., Can someone help me extend my left and right margins so my description is aligned with my title and so I don't have that obnoxious line going through my sidebar? And how do I extend the bottom margin of my sidebar and get rid of that extra grey shading that is creeping into my posts?

Subway Adventures

I dropped my chapstick in the subway track this morning. Well, I considered it lost since there was no way I was going to go crawling around the subway tracks to get it. Chapstick isn't that important. But would I go after an umbrella? Hmmm. Apparently, the answer was a clear and resounding yes to this woman who I observed in the subway station one day. She dropped her umbrella down in the track, and I thought, "Oh well, she lost her umbrella. That sucks." But instead of letting it go she turns to this guy and asks "If I go down there, will you help me back up?" Meanwhile, you could actually see the train headlights in the distance coming towards the station. This woman was crazy. The guy says "Uh...I guess...." Then the woman says "Don't worry, I'm a stunt woman." Thank god for that. I'm sure that reassured us all as the train was approaching closer and closer. Then this crazy stunt woman just jumped down there and jumped right back up, not really needing any help from the guy. A few minutes later, the train zooms into our station.

Wow. Somehow, me saying "Don't worry, I'm an IT Professional" doesn't have quite the same effect, at least in this situation.

G.I. Terence

For the completely narcissist individual, you too can have your own action figure. For $425, you can have your own custom made talking action figure based on any photo you send here. Think of the possibilities. You could give one as a gift to your significant other as something for him/her to remember you by. You could act your own scenes with your action figure fighting alongside the Transformers. The possibilities are endless, as long as you're not too weirded out by seeing yourself as a miniature plastic toy.

There Goes The Neighborhood

Rents are getting too high in my neighborhood for businesses to continue operating. Just over the past six months, three take out places have closed including Chicken Fair which had really good rotisserie chicken, Rice Bowl, an Eddie Bauer, a dry cleaner, a Chinese restaurant, an EMS store, a wine store, a horridly ostentatious antique furniture store, a cell phone store, a pizza place and a deli over by the climbing wall at 62nd and Broadway. Longtime residents Lincoln Stationers and the West 63rd Street Steakhouse are also long gone. Iridium, the jazz club closed a couple years ago, and it was supposed to become a branch of P.J. Clarke's, but the sign for P.J.'s has disappeared, so who knows what that space will be.

The latest casualty in the commercial real estate war is my favorite Korean deli. It was at 182 Amsterdam Avenue at the corner of 69th & Amsterdam. Actually, it looks like the tenants on the whole block which included that antique store, and the wine store as well as Mama's Famous diner and a Chinese take out place are going to be gone as of today. Only the Citibank and the Meskerem Ethiopian restaurant are sticking it out. But I'm guessing they'll be gone too because I think the entire block is being redeveloped. Anyhow, the Korean deli was closed for a little bit a couple years ago for renovation where they got rid of that nasty hot/cold food buffet bar. Those things are gross. Store owners leave the lunch food in the hot/cold trays until dinnertime, by which time the whole buffet has become a deadly hot 'n' cold Petri dish of romping pathogens.

For 6 years, I bought milk, those sweet and chewy Korean rice cakes with red bean filling, Vitamin water, the occasional six pack of beer, Haagen-Daaz cartons, and all sorts of assorted produce at this store. I really liked this store because they really had a good selection of produce, including lots of herbs, that was always really fresh, and it was the closest place to me where I could get Kimchi. The store was clean and was practically a full grocery store. I'll be sad to see it go.

Right now, they're having a "Buy One, Get One Free" promotion on every grocery item in the store. So I stocked up on flour, sugar, kosher salt, yummy De Cecco pasta and olive oil. Actually the olive oil I got was some bottles of really nice olive oil including a couple of bottles of Oliviers & Co olive oil. Like most serious cooks, I buy a ton of olive oil. You'd think I bathed in it judging by the amount I buy. But I don't buy really expensive olive a lot of the time. So it's always nice to get a deal for really good oil.

It's really sad that neighborhood businesses have such a tough time surviving in this city. I'm going to miss all the little stores and restaurants in my neighborhood.

Life at Southfork

I really need to upgrade my home television environment. First off, I need to get a better TV. I still have the 19" TV that I bought in my Junior year of college from the Circuit City in Silver Spring, MD when I was spending the second semester of that year in DC, working at the State Department. Secondly, I really need to get Tivo. But I'm too scared that TV would become "work" for me, kind of like how Netflix got to be for me with DVDs just coming and coming in my mail, but I had no time to watch them. I'd probably have so many shows saved that I'd have to block entire weeks just to catch up. I have a lot of peripheral interests and I can usually find something to watch when I've plopped myself on the couch, especially on the National Geographic Channel or The History Channel. So you can bet I'd have a ton of shows saved up. For instance, one night I got really into this show about that oh so glorious presidential memorial at Mount Rushmore and how it was built and how long it took. The show also talked about the enormous memorial to Crazy Horse that's going to take like another 100 years to finish at the pace they're going. The next day I was talking everyone's ear off about everything that I had learned about Mount Rushmore. Everyone was probably sick of me by the end of the day spouting all my new knowledge.

I also need to upgrade my channels. HBO and Showtime are less important to me ever since Sex & The City and Queer as Folk went off the air. But I'd like to have the Digital Cable package. I used to get it, but I got rid of it as an unnecessary expense. I miss it though from time to time. I could get the extra Digital Cable package with channels like Style, the Game Show Network, and the Tennis Channel, and it would give me another outlet to catch up on all my favorite shows because they show syndicated reruns on a lot of them. But for current TV, I am in need of a new show to follow, after the cancellation of Alias. There are a couple of current shows that I like, like One Tree Hill and ER. But neither are the type of show that I would watch religiously every week and feel like I really know the characters. Plus ER has gone through so many changes that I don't know what the heck is going on. Normally, I tend to go for 1-hour dramas. Some of my other favorite tv dramas of years past are Homefront, Felicity, LA Law, Roswell, Party of Five, The Practice, Thirtysomething and The X-Files. As for other current shows, I know I should really like Lost since it is created by Mr. J.J. Abrams. And I've tried. But it's so hard to figure out what's going on unless you watch every single episode at least twice, it seems like. Ok, well I'm exaggerating, but I just need to get myself up to speed on that show and maybe Lost will become my new show for me. By the ways as a total sidebar, I had read a description of Lost in an article about upcoming shows for the next season. For some reason, I came away from that article thinking this was a reality show and there was some monster on the island killing people, sort of like a sadistic Gilligan's Island.

So to catch up on all my shows, like many people, I buy or rent television show DVDs. I like to take them with me when I travel because I never know what's on TV when I'm in another city. The next DVD, I'm thinking about getting is Dallas. I was never into the show when it was still on the air. I got into it when I was spending a summer in Korea in 1995. There was only one English channel-the channel for the US Military-and it had random American shows. Well, Dallas was one of the shows I really got into. I probably have more memories of the characters from Dallas than I do of actual events from that summer in Korea. The back stabbing, the furs in 120 degree weather, the name calling, the dirty dealings and the killer looks at the Ewing dinner table alone was Must-See TV. Dynasty was also on this channel, but I thought that show was just old people slutting around, and utterly boring. And although Dynasty had Joan Colins and Krystle's giant shoulder pads, Blake Carrington was but a pale imitation of the man the world loved to hate, J.R. Ewing (ok, so I watched a little of Dynasty).

I really got into the Dallas story. I've even visited the Southfork Ranch. I was like "Oh my god. Who shot J.R.?" Of course this was 15 years after he got shot and the whole world knew. I hear now they are making a Dallas movie. John Travolta's gonna be J.R., which sounds pretty good. But J. Lo. is going to be Sue Ellen??? Huh? Other rumored cast members are Luke Wilson, Shirley Maclaine and even Jessica Simpson. I hope the cast portrays the aura of rich people being deliciously miserable as well as the original cast.

Hopefully, I'll find my new show and have a home theatre dealy worthy of watching these shows. In the meantime, I feel like I should delete this post rather than show the evidence of my lack of life. I have a life! I'm just also autistic with this type of information.

I'm A Little Bit R&B

I had my iPod on shuffle today and at one point it played "He Wasn't Man Enough" by Toni Braxton. I remember the last time I heard this song, I was sitting in my caseroom back at my old firm. Embarrassingly, I was actually singing OUT LOUD, but I was having some trouble with the lyrics, which my co-worker so helpfully pointed out to me. Then I said, "The words to this song are hard." Then he said, to everyone in the entire room, "Yeah, Terence is at home waving his arm up in the air going 'So who do you think I am?'"

Another time my R&B taste surfaced was when I was at a bar one night for happy hour with some people from my old job. It was a divey bar and there was a jukebox somewhere in the back corner. It was getting late, and we were all getting ready to leave. All of a sudden, "Scandalous" by Mis-teeq fills the room. Like a reflex, I ask everyone "Oh, is that my phone?" My friend turns and says, laughing, "Uh, Terence, is that what you have as your ring tone???" I don't even know why I asked that since my ring tone is just the old version sounding telephone ring, like on a rotary phone.

Well, I like everything from '50s music to hard core rap, from pop to house club music (check out my "What Am I Listening To" panel on the right, for instance). But everyone seems to think I have the musical taste of a 16 year old black woman.

Cheese Store Guy

Everyday on my way to and from work, I pass through Grand Central Market. The food merchants in the Market all cost a fortune, but they have really high-quality stuff. I particularly like Wild Edibles (much better than the other seafood purveyor, Pescatore) and Ceriello because I get pretty picky about seafoods and meat and am willing to spend the money to buy good quality stuff like fresh caught seafood, free range chicken or dry aged beef.

But my latest favorite store is Murray's Cheeses. I've always liked that store, and they've got one of the best selection of cheeses in the city. I'm partial to blue cheeses among which Stilton is my favorite. I love walking by the display case and smelling all the aromas and seeing all the different types of cheeses from all over the world and watching the guys and gals slice the cheese straight from the wheel. I wanna visit the Village location some time though because I heard they have paninis which sounds like a perfect snack because it's not like I go walking down the street and say to myself "I could use a nice slice of Gouda right now." But a panini with special cheese from Murray's sounds delicious.

I say Murray's is my "latest favorite" because there are many gourmet grocery stores like Citarella, Balduccis, Whole Foods or the Vinegar Factory which have excellent cheese departments. Whereas, good meat and seafood can be really hard to find. But Murray's has the best cheese-mongers, which brings me to my second reason why Murray's is my latest favorite member of the Grand Central Terminal Market. I'm swooning over one of the mongers there. The last time I was there to buy some Gorgonzola, he cut me a slice and then pointed to a new cheese made by monks in Quebec for something new to try. He's such a cutie. I *almost* didn't eat the cheese that I bought from him since his hands, albeit gloved hands touched it. But, nah, I couldn't resist.

Sterile Meryl

Last night I saw the trailer for The Devil Wears Prada. I love the supercilious looks that Meryl Streep gives her assistant while she flatly states to her without actually looking at her "Tales of incompetence do not interest me." So funny. Reminds me of my days when I used to supervise lots of staff. Well, the difference is that people liked me, and everyone knew that deep down I did care about them.

World Cup Fever

Everyone seems to have World Cup fever. Bars are showing soccer matches instead of Yankee games; work is at a standstill; dinner discussions revolve around World Cup. I even know one person who put her blog on hiatus while the World Cup was going on because the games were taking over her life.

Is it just me or do more people in the US (or maybe I mean New York) seem to be paying attention to the World Cup than before? I don't know much about the event, but I do know it takes place every four years. And I know that in my past 16 years as a teenager and adult, I have never once paid attention to the World Cup. I vaguely remember when it was in the U.S., but it seemed like you had to practically pay people to go to the games. Now, it seems people are in disbelief when I confess that I know nothing about what is going on with the World Cup and I haven't been to a single bar to watch a game. And these are people who as far as I know have never paid attention to soccer or much less sports in general. I want to ask them, where did this sudden interest in soccer (and sports) come from?

It's all fun though, and I have to admit, the idea of heading to Germany to see World Cup matches sounds like an awesome trip to me. The main thing that has really bothered me though is the ESPN ad featuring the Ivory Coast with a voice-over by Bono. The story, as told by Bono, is that the country has called a cease-fire to its Civil War while the Cote D'Ivoire makes its way through the World Cup. I'm rooting for them, but it kind of boggles the mind that a sport is powerful enough to stop a civil war. And what about afterwards when the Ivory Coast team will be eliminated? Not to be a downer, but Ivory Coast is no Brazil in the soccer world. Are they just gonna go back to fighting? And how about the players? Talk about pressure. That's kind of a lot pressure to put on these players. They now have peace in their country resting on their shoulders. Are they gonna be shamed when they come back home?

Anyway, I have no idea what's going on in the World Cup now or if it's even over already. It does seem like a good time though. Maybe I'll catch the fever in 2010.

Taking Things Seriously

I saw X Men 3 last weekend. I enjoyed it, but I missed Nightcrawler. He was in X2, but I guess Alan Cumming didn't sign on for the third installment. Actually, I heard he bought his contract out because he just couldn't stand the hours in the makeup chair everyday. Oh come on, Alan. At least you got to wear clothes. Rebecca Romijn had to endure the same type of hours in the make-up chair AND walk around butt-naked with only little pasty things strategically stuck on her body. If Rebecca can do it, you can too.

Anyhoo, when I got to the Loews theater at 34th & 8th, I saw gay guys swarming the place. Hmmmm, I thought. I guess 34th & 8th is kind of close to Chelsea, forgetting that there are at least 2 or 3 movie theaters in Chelsea itself. Soon I saw my friend, C, and when I got closer he said to me "There's a gay festival going on." I just said, "yeah, must be." We bought our tickets for X Men and headed over to the escalator to head up to our theater. But then I saw another friend of mine, N, and I said hi to him. I asked him,

"What movie are you seeing?."

"Oh, I'm here for the gay film fest," he replied.

"Oh yeah? Where have I been? I didn't know there was a gay film festival!"

My friend, C, gave me a weird look and said, "Uh, I just told you that." A light bulb went off in my head. I felt stupid because I thought my friend was just making fun of the crowd. "I thought you were joking," I told him.

This conversation reminded me of this one time back in high school, when I was driving with a friend of mine after school on a Friday. My high school ended early on Fridays. And my friend and I were looking for a place for lunch. I was thinking Bodo's, this really good bagel place in Charlottesville and which has bagels that really are almost as good as H&H here in New York. On the way to Bodo's is a whole strip of little restaurants and fast food places. Before I could suggest Bodo's, we passed by Long John Silver's. My friend suggests "Hey, how about Long John Silver's?" I didn't say anything and just drove right on past it.

Soon I hear "Um, hello? Did you hear me? How about Long John Silver's?" It dawned on me that he was serious when he suggested that. "Oooohhhh," I laughed. "I thought you were kidding" because why on earth would anyone want to go there?

On the other hand, it's amazing some of the crazy stuff that people tell me once in a while that I actually do believe.

Recommended Reading

I heard on the radio today that the price of People magazine is going up by fifty cents. I don’t regularly read People, but I’ll flip through it if I see it at the dentist’s office, and when I do flip, I have to say that I do read 75-80% of it. But I’ve never been inclined to actually buy an issue.

Us Magazine, on the other hand, I’m very embarrassed to admit is great. People has too many human interest stories about septuplets or diet successes that don’t interest me at all. But it’s less embarrassing to say “I read in People…..” vs “Oh I read in Us…..” People is slightly more legitimate news than Us. Nevertheless, I had never read an issue of Us until two or three years ago when someone at work had a copy. I was bored, and so I took it and went back to my office and closed the door. I was ENGROSSED. I came out of my office an hour later, having read the entire issue cover to cover, which in an hour means I read it in-depth since issues of Us aren’t very long. I came out and declared to everyone in the room, “Us is my new favorite book.” For the next month, I was quoting from Us Magazine constantly or saying “I heard in Us….” or “Well, according to Us Magazine….”

At least I never subscribed to Us and it’s still just barbershop/waiting room reading for me. Then one day, someone at work got a job at Star Magazine and some people asked me if I read Star.

I replied, “Oh no. I won’t read that because THAT'S trash.”

My Career Journey

I've been working in the legal area for the past 7 years. My first job out of college was as a Legal Assistant at one of the big corporate white-shoe law firms down on Wall Street. I did it kind of by default because I had done a summer job at another big firm down in DC. The money was nice at both jobs, and there were all sorts of perks which afforded me a kind of "rock-star" life. Well, that's what my friends seemed to think since I was transported everywhere around the city by one of the ubiquitous black Lincoln town cars or traveling to Australia on a $15,000 first-class ticket, or eating at some super-expensive, five star restaurant all on the company's dime. But after 6 years of moving up through the ranks and establishing myself as Senior Case Manager and countless all-nighters, I couldn't deal with the hours anymore.

So I made a switch to a much smaller company based out of San Francisco. My new company is a legal tech company whose clients are mostly law firms and corporate in-house legal departments. It's a start-up and I joined only a few months after they opened their first New York office. At first, I was excited because I thought I'd get a lot of business experience and would get to experience a different non-law firm environment. I also thought I'd get to share in the wealth with a start-up dot com since I knew from first-hand experience how legal technology and online document management are expanding rapidly.

Corporate law firms are funny places. You work on cases involving faceless parties about issues which no ordinary human would ever really care about, and get lost in all the legal mumbo-jumbo back and forth and the archaic procedures and pettiness that rear their ugly heads. At at no other type of business, will you find people doing the most pointless tasks that people do at law firms. And non-lawyer support staffers REALLY have a hard time caring all that much while doing these pointless tasks. Let's face it. Most of them went to college, got a liberal arts degree, and imagined doing a job that made them feel like their expensive college education was worth it. But the worst thing about being a legal assistant is working on a case in which it's really hard to care about the issues and participants because you're defending billion-dollar companies who perhaps have done some not so honorable things. Sure, there are people involved, but it just becomes a sea of names, and pretty soon you go from one case to another, not really knowing what the issues are, dealing with mountains of documents and just doing the work.

Now I could have made more of an effort perhaps to get more involved, and I do get involved, but only enough to help me get my work done faster and more efficiently. In all honesty, I really didn't care because I'm not at all interested in the work that I ending up pigeon-holing myself into. When I left my old firm for my new job, I thought I'd get a different perspective in my field and even branch out into a different role. Well, my job function has changed somewhat, but at its root, I still deal with the same types of issues that infuriated me at my old job, and I realized that I just want out of this field altogether. The worst part is that I have gotten super-busy and have had to work some evenings and weekends. I was supposed to leave that all behind when I left my old firm. Last week was one of my worst ever at my new job, and Friday, with all the monsoons that New York has been having, I was in the crabbiest mood.

What would I like to do? Well, I only realized this a few years ago, but I would like to work in hotels. I'd like to work for the corporate organization of a hotel company like Hyatt or Starwood in the area of branding or brand equity. I like thinking about the different types of guests who stay in hotels including thinking about what I like in a hotel. I like thinking about locations and the overall guest experience in the room, the overall property and other amenities and loyalty programs.

Unfortunately, the only practical way for me to get into this is to go back for business school. But I have a hard time motivating myself to get back into studying for the GMAT and preparing myself to apply. I've made some attempts and even taken the GMAT, but I need to really buckle down and do it.

Then again, the other day, I tried the "Self-Checkout" at Food Emporium. Who knew scanning bar codes could be so much fun?

Nigella Returns

So my favorite TV chef is finally returning to the US television market. Food Network has come to their senses and commissioned Nigella Lawson to create a show based on her best-seller (and my personal favorite Nigella book), Feast. The show will be called Nigella Feasts.

I like to think that my letter to Food Network a couple months ago played a small part in this move.

Memorial Day Weekend Adventures

Had a pretty relaxing weekend. I got up pretty early on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and got to enjoy the nice weather. On Saturday, I got up around 7:30AM, and used some leftover rosemary, dill & parsley to make Baked Eggs. Ever since I learned about Baked Eggs a year ago, when i saw them on a cooking show, I became obsessed with them and looked for them everywhere. For those of you who aren't familiar with this dish, bascially, it's 2-4 eggs broken into a gratin dish with a little bit of butter and heavy cream and then topped with things like herbs, cheese or vegetables or even sauce, and then finally broiled under an oven flame for a few minutes. Now, I've only seen Baked Eggs served at one restaurant at this place, Cafe Ronda. I went there on a brunch date with someone and was very pleasantly surprised to see Baked Eggs on the menu. Wow, I thought to myself. FINALLY, I found a restaurant that served them. I think that was probably the best brunch I've ever had.

After breakfast on Saturday, I went to go play tennis at Riverside Park & 119th street. It was a little annoying because there were still puddles on the courts which didn't dry all that much for the rest of our hour while me and my friend hit. I like the courts up there because they're hard court and there isn't as much hoopla as there is over at Central Park, not to mention the Central Park Tennis Center Nazis who work there and the countless MEAN Senior Citizens who seem to live there.

I came home after tennis and put down my stuff and then went to the gym to do this 15 min stretch class at Equinox Columbus Circle. My flexibility is pathetic. I can barely touch my toes when I stretch my calves, and I'm trying to improve it. I've thought about trying yoga, but like with anything new, I'm a little apprehensive since I don't know what I'm doing. And then also, I think, what do I wear to a yoga class?

After the gym, I went running along the W. Side Highway to go down to the Farmer's Market at Union Square, combining two of my most favorite things to do. I love running on the W. Side Highway next to the water and it's a straight line path which is nice too. But Saturday, the path along the W. Side Highway was crazy busy because of the Memorial Day Crowds. I kept having to detour across the street and fight the crowds, who that day seemed to be a little white-trashy, to get through my run. And I guess all of the Fleet Week boys were actually far away from their ships exploring Manhattan, since I saw like all of two guys that day.

I got down to the Farmer's Market at the end of my two mile run, but the market was kind of a bust. The farmers didn't yet have the really interesting summer veggies yet, and there weren't any of the usual interesting hippie people to observe. It was actually kind of empty. I guess a lot of people were away for the holiday this weekend. I did get some red onions and some potatoes to stock up, and I also bought a bag of my favorite salad green, Mizuna, which is this slightly spicy and crisp green that's popular in Japan. I always get some when I go down to the market.

I did more of the same on Sunday and Monday. But I didn't go out at all any evening this past weekend, despite my intense curiousity about a secret Fleet Week party that I've always wondered about, but apparently I'm not cool enough to know about it. I went to bed pretty early every night and got up fairly early, like around 7:30 or 8AM every day. It was a nice pattern to fall back on over the weekend. And I only wish I could be out of the house by that time on a workday. But I have a bad habit of waking up around 8:30 or 9 on weekdays and then working from home for a couple of hours and then finally rolling into the office around 11. Luckily, my company doesn't really mind that I do this, but it would be nice to get into the office on time. I complained about this to a friend of mine and said, "I seem to have no problem getting up early on weekends, but not on weekdays.

My friend responded, "It's probably because you get so much rest during the week."

Mission Impossible III

WARNING: Below may contain spoilers

I saw Mission Impossible III a couple weekends ago over my birthday weekend. By the way, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. Woo-hoo. I'm 29 now.

Anyway, say what you will about Tom Cruise and how he's gone Michael Jackson crazy these days, he can still make a thoroughly entertaining summer popcorn flick.

I was in the mood for a breathtakingly mindless film, and this definitely delivered. Tom Cruise is still a great leading man, and I'm embarrassed to say, still really hot. Mega-star that he is, he still has the ability to carry a movie without overshadowing the script or the action. And J.J. Abrams used all of his tricks from Alias, Lost and even Felicity to make the movie seem almost like a long episode from one of his shows, particularly and not surprisingly Alias, which is my most favorite TV show ever. J.J. starts the movie with a high-adrenaline, harrowing scene and then immediately cuts back to a couple weeks earlier in a flashback, like the beginning of so many Alias episodes. He even has an appearance by Greg Grunberg at the beginning in a house that looked very similar to Sydney's first house on Alias, where an engagement party was going on. The party was shot in a very Abrams-esque style with the slow motion and the wide smiles and the poppy music ("Best Of My Love" by The Emotions -- one of the greatest songs ever) playing in the background, while everyone was dancing. The rest of the movie uses all sorts of cool gadgets, with a cool Marshall-esque gadget guy, and has all sorts of intricate plot lines like a chase through a German wind farm, and blowing up a a beautiful Lamborghini in the middle of the Vatican after a kidnapping involving latex masks, spilled wine and a pretty convincing voice capture & replication.

Felicity appears in this movie too, and it's nice to see her brandishing some steel as a secret agent. I heard Scarlett Johanssen was originally supposed to play that role, but I'm glad Keri Russell played it instead, and I have to say, she looked great. Secret agent work suits her.

I learned some other things from this movie: 1) Shanghai looks like an awesome city; 2) A softball pitching machine comes in handy when you want to supremely annoy someone; 3) Tom Cruise can still run like the wind. Man, he's fast. 4) Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is my new celebrity crush, replacing Michael Vartan. Match Point started it. This movie cements it.

Probably the best thing about this movie is that it makes it easy to forget that Ethan Hunt in real life is a crazy Scientologist freak who knocked up Joey Potter. But this movie has great suspense, intrigue, thrilling action scenes, extreme stunts and everything else a summer movie should have. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Swimming

I really like to swim, but I suck at it. I wish I was really good at swimming - like Olympic level. I see so many good swimmers at the pool at my gym and they look so effortless. I do a decent freestyle stroke, but butterfly, breast stroke and backstroke are outside of my repertoire. Actually, I never understood the backstroke. I always thought it was kind of pointless. Why would you ever swim backwards? And the backstroke is kind of hard on your shoulder sockets and rotator cuffs.

So I was thoroughly impressed with this 7 year old swimming 1.4 miles from Alcatraz to San Francisco. I don't even remember what I was doing when I was seven except playing with GI Joe and watching Saturday morning cartoons. I didn't get to watch cartoons on weekdays because my parents thought cable TV was the path towards Idiots R Us State University.

I remember the first time I ever swam an Olympic length pool. I was in Hamburg, Germany at the time on vacation. My hotel had a pool, but it was really small, and I wanted to swim in something longer. The concierge directed me to the Alster-Schwimmhalle. When I got there and saw the 50 meter pool, I looked and thought "Oh that looks easy. I can swim that back and forth 10 times. No problem." I jumped in and started swimming. It felt good to be in a real pool. But about half-way across during my first lap, I could feel my upper body sinking a bit. Pretty soon, I was thinking "Hmm, this is actually kind of tough." By about 3/4 of the way across my first lap, I thought I was gonna drown.

That seven year old would have laughed at me.

You're Gonna Break A Toe

Tonight at the gym, some moron was wearing flip-flops.

I wanted to drop a weight on his foot to show him how dangerous that is. He was doing a full lifting work out, not just a stop over at the weights on his way back from yoga or something. I hope someone told him to put on some shoes.

Then again, it's a bit disturbing that instead of kindly educating him on the hazard of wearing flip-flops in the gym, I had a desire to take the barbaric route and show him by example.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to me.

You Look Maaahvelous

I've been really sick. It all started last week when I had an annoying sore throat, but otherwise I felt fine. As the week went on, it got progressively worse, culminating in severe chills, high fever and losing my voice. I'm only starting to feel slightly normal now, more than after a week after this all started.

On Tuesday, this week, I went into the office. But I felt like crap, and decided to pack my bag and head back home. I gathered all my things, and put on my black Jil Sander shirt jacket and my double-face Burberry navy blue trench coat and grabbed my Ghurka bag. I was wearing a charcoal grey Calvin Klein Black Label wool shirt and Giorgio Armani Black Label wool crepe pants, with a Prada black leather belt and A. Testoni black lace-up shoes. As you can probably tell, I was dressed pretty warmly in all that heavy wool, but the weather in New York this week has been cool, and I was sick as a dog, so conserving my body heat really was my primary concern that day, not how I looked.

I left my office building and saw two of my co-workers as I left. Then I visited my doctor, got my prescription and a throat culture taken. Then I headed straight home and changed into sweats and got into bed.

Today, I returned to the office, and everyone was asking me how I was feeling, which thankfully was a little better. Then my two co-workers who saw me leave the other day came over to my office and told me,

"You looked really pale."

"I did?", I replied.

"Yeah, but you looked FABULOUS! All nice in your long dark coat. And your hair was perfect and your nice bag...."

I thought about this. I honestly didn't give that much thought to what I was wearing that day, except for WARMTH. However, I was going to the doctor's office that day, and so I must have subconsiously picked a well put-together outfit, like I usually do, if I do say so myself. And I couldn't just go to the doctor's office looking like a homeless person. Fashion comes first, even when you're sick.

Hands-Free Kit

When I was at my old job, I had to beg and plead to get a telephone headset. For some stupid reason, my old firm only gave them to lawyers and secretaries and not to legal assistants or case managers. Finally, one day I was complaining about not having one to one of the secretaries who I was friends with. Well, actually I use the term "friend" loosely. I was really more friends with the lawyer he worked for, and chatted with his secretary, more out of necessity to stay on his good side (the secretary, not the lawyer). He was nice enough, just kind of a "talker" and could keep you there talking about who knows what. When he heard that I really really wanted a headset though, he said he would hook me up.

The next day, a surprise package arrived in my office. I got my headset. I plugged it in with great excitement. I couldn't wait for my first call. When someone finally called me, it was like the best thing since sliced bread. I felt so free. No more sore arms.

I also now find having a bluetooth headset with my cell phone to be an absolute life necessity, despite my incessant teasing to my friend before because I told him he looked like he was talking to himself. I then got a free Motorola 750, and all my memories of my first headset at the office came flooding back, and I was hooked. The reception was good for the headset that I got, and it fit reasonably well; it only flopped around a little when I wore my glasses. But it had this really annoying blue flashing light whenever you used it, like I was receiving signals from outer space or something to beam me up.

I don't have this headset anymore because the other day, I stupidly broke the thing. I plugged my headset into my charger even though I could see that the prongs on my charger were a little bent. I let it charge and after a few minutes, I tried to pull my headset out. The damn thing wasn't coming out! I struggled to get the charger out of my headset. Finally it did come out along with a big chunk of my headset. Oh great. I just broke it.

So now I need a new headset. Basically I wan't something that will securly stay on my ear while I pace around and yap away in my apartment. Something hefty, but not so big that it will make me look like Janet Jackson from Rhythm Nation. I think I found one to my liking made by Sony Ericsson and have ordered it. The coolest part is that it has a caller ID display in the actual earpiece. Weeee.

My life is so exciting sometimes.

Why I Do Not Heart New Jersey (Reprise)

I previously had taken down this post from last July because I was pursuing a lawsuit last summer about my accident while changing a tire. Well, I apparently don't have much of a case since it's too ambiguous about how much of the accident was caused by my own misuse of the jack. In any event, since a lawsuit and my life as a personal injury millionnaire beneficiary is no longer in the works, I'm reposting my account because so many of my faithful readers didn't get to read my version what happened.

I'll be posting a new post soon. I've been suffering from strep throat for the past 6 days. Ugh.

Why I Do Not Heart New Jersey

So I broke my arm about 5 weeks ago and it sucks. It was a pretty horrible accident. I was driving down to Philadelphia and got a flat tire. It was around 9:00 at night and I was stuck between Exits 13 & 14 on the NJ Turnpike. I got out of the car and could smell the burnt rubber. I immediately called Roadside Assistance and was informed that they would not be able to come to me because the NJ State Police does not allow outside towing or vehicle assistance companies to come on to the turnpike. Since I have changed tires myself before, I decided to do the job myself. I was in a hurry to get to Philly and did not want to be stuck there all night.

So I dug out the jack and spare tire from the trunk and pump myself up for a nice manly hour of me vs. the tire. One of those rare moments when I’m doing something truly masculine. It's like I'm a cowboy coming back from branding cattle. I got the old tire off. I’m doing well, I thought to myself. I’ll be out of here in no time. Then as I was putting the new tire on, the jack buckled bringing the car down on to my arm crushing it between the wheel well and the new tire.

There I am with my arm stuck inside the car, sitting on the ground. Cars are whizzing past me. I can feel the shaking of my car and the vibration in the ground as cars sped past me on the highway. When I realized that no one was going to be able to see me, I started to feel really scared. I thought I was going to be there all night. Finally, I used all my strength to slowly pull my arm out. I was free.

At first, I thought I was fine. Just some bad bruises, my mind told me. I was about to get into the car and drive again. But then I look at my hand and realized it was hanging at an angle at which no hand ever normally hangs. I also realized I couldn’t make a grip to open the car door. Then the pain came, and I knew I had to call for help.

I sat in the car and called 911. The 911 dispatcher sent four cop cars and an ambulance to me. The police arrived first and as soon as they flashed their lights, traffic started to bottleneck. Normally, I would have taken great satisfaction in having an entire highway stop to wait for me, but I was in too much pain. The first officer opened the door and asked me what happened. He then shined his flashlight on my arm. My arm had now developed a huge swelling mass, as if a tennis ball was lodged under my skin. The ambulance couldn’t come soon enough.

While I was waiting for the ambulance, the officers started to ask me for my name, age and other pertinent information. One asked for my ID and I said it was in my wallet in my back pocket. In a very cute way, because he was obviously embarrassed, he reached behind me and pulled my wallet out. If it was any other circumstance, I would have tried to smile at him, but now was not the time.

Nor was it the time for me to act as a salesman for Toyota. I was driving the electric/gas hybrid Toyota Prius car. The car’s pretty unique inside. All sorts of bar graphs and pie charts are flashing on the screen inside and even turning on the car is different from a normal car. Well, the guys from the police were understandably fascinated with my car and I answered all of their questions through clenched teeth. I didn’t mind too much though because it did take my mind off the pain a bit. By that time, the ambulance had arrived and I was helped out of my car and into the ambulance. As the ambulance back doors closed, the last question the police asked me was “Hey, How do you turn this car on?”

I have lots of more stories to tell about my broken arm, and I’m sure they’ll be the subject of more posts later. But the point of this post is to declare “I Do Not Heart NJ”. I’ve always disliked Jersey. Driving through it is a pain because you can’t make a left turn anywhere. You’re like trapped on roads because of the barrier in the middle. Also NJ has the most idiotic, cheap and amateurish politicians ever. I don’t know where they come from. I guess NJ. Now, I’m not going to say any comments about people from NJ because I do have many friends from NJ. But to my NJ friends, I’m sorry, NJ is cursed in my book (or more likely, it just doesn’t like me, which is fine with me).

For more on the suckiness of New Jersey, go here.

Foster City

My friend from college who lives out in Silicon Valley recently moved from San Mateo to Foster City. I really liked his neighborhood in San Mateo. The weather and upscale setting provided a nice quality of life. The town was nice too. There's a main street with a Jamba Juice, good restaurants, and even an Equinox. San Mateo even has it's own "Central Park", which I find a bit dubious. New York has the rights to the name "Central Park" and no other city. My friend lived in a rental apartment right across the street from a very spacious Whole Foods and other retail and dining places. And on that topic I have to say that Whole Foods in California are a lot nicer than ones here in NY, not that the Whole Foods in NY are shitty. No, far from it. But the ones in California are even nicer if that's possible.

Then one day, my friend was told by his building management company that he'd have to move because they were converting all the units into condos. The management company helped my friend find a new apartment in one of the other buildings they managed, and eventually my friend found one. He took over a lease for an apartment in Foster City.

Before my friend moved there, I had never heard of Foster City, but I had some initial impressions of what it would be like. For some reason, whenever I hear a town's name with the word "city", I always think of Detroit because of it's nickname as the "Motor City" and then equate that town with what I imagine Detroit would be like. Then of course, there's Dodge City, Rapid City, etc, and none of those places sound all that appealing either. Now, two things. First, I have never been to Detroit, but everything I've heard about it hasn't been good. All I've heard is poor, ghetto, crime-ridden neighborhoods and a population rife with unemployment since General Motors is a shit-hole company, with Ford and Chrysler only marginally better. Then of course I think about Motown too, but their glory days have long been over ever since Boyz II Men started doing the tours of Indian reservation casinos.

The second thing is I realize that I live in "New York CITY". But no one ever says, "I'm from New York City" unless you're a total douchebag trying to impress someone. And New York is New York. No one would ever confuse Detroit for New York.

So as my friend began to tell me more about his new apartment and his new neighborhood, I wasn't getting a good vibe. He told me that he was moving to "Foster City" (I hear "ghetto city") and instead of Whole Foods, he now lives near an "Asian Market" (I hear "ghetto NY style Korean deli.") Combined with the fact that my friend didn't have much time to find an apartment and move and probably had to find a place at the last minute, I was convinced that he lived in some hell-hole.

You can imagine my surprise when I finally visited his new place to see a nice-looking town that was apparently built as a planned community with lots of parks. When we drove up to his new apartment complex, I was really surprised to see a nice strip mall with a UPS store, the mother of all Chipotle franchises (seriously, this was the most spectacular and biggest Chipotle I have ever seen) and some other retail. And that Asian grocery store? It was actually a Ranch 99 and looked like a totally normal (and big) supermarket. I kind of wish we had a Ranch 99 in NY, so it'd be easier for me to get Korean food ingredients.

Being "City-ist" can be really dangerous.

Yoanna House Is Following Me

I live on the Upper West Side near Lincoln Center. It's a pretty nice neighborhood and has everything I could ever need. I live within walking distance of Central Park, two Equinox branches, four gourmet grocery stores (Balduccis, Citarella, Fairway and Whole Foods), across the street from a Citibank, and access to both the 1/9 & 2/3 subway lines. Most of my friends live downtown and I used to as well in Gramercy. When I moved to the Upper West Side, people thought I lived in outer space because they said it was "soooooo far." But I enjoy living uptown, especially when I was working at my old job down on Wall Street. Coming home to the Upper West Side (even if sometimes it was at 4AM) gave me a nice sense of detachment from the office.

Obviously, I'm in agreement with others about the quality of living here. Apartments are super-expensive here and in high demand. Celebrities like Regis Philbin, Jon Bon Jovi, Rosie O'Donnell, Jerry Seinfeld live in the neighborhood. I see famous people like them every once in a while, but not too often. However, in the past two months, I've seen Yoanna House of America's Top Model fame with the ubiquitous Tyra Banks at least six or seven times. Six out of those seven times were at Equinox in Columbus Circle. She ALWAYS does the ellipitical machine and she smiles a lot. I heard she had a bit of a weight problem before. Well, she certainly doesn't have that now. The last time I saw her was at Fairway. She had some salad, fruit, skim milk and other typical model body detox model food in her shopping cart. But then I saw her grab a dozen eggs. Hmmm...maybe Yoanna's a cook?

Speaking of America's Top Model and Tyra Banks, I think Tyra Banks is incredibly annoying. I think the most annoying thing about her is that she has this strong self-belief that everybody wants to BE her. I remember I was watching Oprah and Tyra Banks was on the show talking about how to make yourself look better. And all sorts of models came out stylized by Tyra. Then Tyra exclaimed, like Moses, "Everybody can have Tyra hair!"

Now having seen Yoanna just walking around the neighborhood like a normal person, she seems fairly approchable to me. If anything, seeing her now is mundane to me, not that it was ever that exciting.

The 60 Day Rule

I usually wake up to z100 in the mornings. I like the chemistry of Elvis Duran, John Bell, Danielle Monero and everyone else from the "Morning Zoo." They all have such distinctive voices and really can offer some insightful observations and comments.

One morning, a few weeks ago, I tuned into a discussion that the Morning Zoo was having about "The 60 Day Rule." That is, sixty days of no contact after a break up. Everyone on the radio was advocating it so that you'll keep your sanity. All the DJs were telling their own stories. For example, Danielle Monero talked about how she would check her cell phone 10 times every minute and take her phone with her to the gym and prop it up on the treadmill. Another girl on the show talked about how she would run home to see if there were any messages on her answering machine from her ex.

Then the guys on z100 began to take calls. This one girl, Rebecca, really stood out to me. She had just broken up with her boyfriend and was distraught. She really was a mess, and I really felt for her. She had recently gone through a breakup and she missed her ex terribly. She told the z100 guys that she couldn't stop thinking about him. She would check her phone 100 times day just to see if he sent a text message or called. Her ex would never talk to her anymore except for a "booty" call or to tell her about the other girls he has been meeting. Rebecca kept making excuses to the guys on the radio for her ex and was still hoping he'd come back. You could hear the fear, dread and panic in her voice. The saddest part was that the "60 Day Rule" was a grey area for her. She asked the radio guys, "Well, after the 60 days, then what? Who calls who?" She didn't seem to be getting it. The point of the "60 Day Rule" is to give you the opportunity to take control of a situation that has you reeling out of control.

A couple months ago, I was Rebecca. Now it's kind of complicated, but I wasn't really dating my last guy. Nonetheless, we were pretty close and he ended up breaking my heart. For a while, after the "puppy love" was over, I was the guy who wouldn't go away and he could still push my buttons. Finally, one day I told myself that I was really tired of the way he was treating me. I went through a detox from a guy who was always making me feel bad about myself by not talking to him anymore.

I'm better now and less sad. But I feel more empty. It's still hard for me to not think of him and "romanticize" my ended friendship with him. I haven't seen him in about a couple of months. I can't seem to remember what my guy looked like the last time I saw him. I remember a lot of other details. I remember the dvd I brought to his apartment and the dinner that I had made for him. I remember the guy playing "Imagine" on his guitar at the subway station, while I was waiting for the 7 train to take me to Queens. I remember how relatively warm it was that day. I remember the new dimmer light switch that my guy had just installed in his apartment. I remember trying to find something to reheat the pasta that I had brought for him and ended up using a pie pan to reheat it because he didn't have a microwave yet in his new apartment. I also remember leaving his apartment the next day and trying so hard to be cool and smiling at him when he genuinely smiled at me and said "Have a nice day."

These days, I almost feel as if I am telling myself I *should* feel sad because it's the expected way to feel and because I'm so scared that if I let go of the connection, then he really will be out of my life. I'm still so afraid to say that I've lost him, even though I know I really have. The tears are gone now. But I don't really have any emotion right now. Hopefully, soon I'll accept the situation and really move on.

America Gets It Right

This season on American Idol, America seems to actually be getting it right when voting off contestants. I still remember last season when that red-head Harry Connick Jr/Frank Sinatra wanna-be, John Stevens was on the show FOREVER. No amount of protests could get that guy off the stage.

This week, on "Love Song" week, Kellie Pickler gave the worst performance of the night, and America agreed. The judges called her a "robot" and they were right. That girl cannot crack a smile when she sings. She might as well have had botox injected all over her facial muscles since her face looked paralyzed while she sang "Unchained Melody." And I was getting really tired of her innocent, country-bumpkin act. While I don't doubt that she really is that dumb and naive, I do think she was shamelessly using it to stay on the show, making her not so innocent anymore.

So I was pretty happy she got voted off. None of the performances that night really wowed me. I thought Katherine was better than the judges thought. Chris gave a dependable and pretty good, rockish performance like he always does. Taylor should have sung "Up Where We Belong" because he's been imitating Joe Cocker all this time, and so he might as will sing something that shows his strengths. Paris really needs to pick better songs. She's got a great voice, but only once in a while has she picked a song that shows off her voice and her energy. Elliot, who my friend says looks like he has Down's Syndrome, which I think is hilarious, sang pretty well. But I just have not been that enamored with his voice in any of his performances. I think he sounds weird and almost tone-deaf sometimes. Paula, on the other hand, I swear was high or something. She kept blubbering on and on and gave this "stop the world," mascara-dripping "You move me" speech after Elliot sang. The look that Simon gave Paula after that bawling outburst was priceless.

Sometimes, American Idol can really stress you out.. But I've been pretty happy with this season. I think if Kevin Covais had become America's next idol, I would never speak to America again.

Another Holiday Post

I'm in San Francisco again this week working out of my company's SF office. I thought NY had been cold and rainy. It's like freaking Siberia here. Well, not that cold, but I clearly did not pack warmly enough. It was so cold, even away from the Bay, down in Silicon Valley where I was over the weekend. I was with a friend from college and I wanted to buy a thermal or a fleece or something since I didn't pack anything remotely long sleeve except for my dress shirts for work.

So I was on a mission on Sunday to find a clothing store like J. Crew or American Apparel. My friend and I were also looking for a brunch place. We drove from his apartment to Nini's Coffee Shop in San Mateo, but the place was closed for Easter. Then we went over to Burlingame, and we found a place open for brunch (but only till 4PM) where I had really good pancakes made with "Swedish Oatmeal." Swedish Oatmeal? I had never heard of that, but they made the texture of the pancakes really good, kind of a "rustic" quality.

After brunch, I went searching for my long-sleeve top. My friend and I walked down the main street of Burlingame. Burlingame has a Polo store, but that was closed. J. Crew was also closed. I walked into Banana Republic, but they just had sweaters and button down shirts, and no long-sleeve tshirts or fleeces. The Gap was open too, but I haven't walked into a Gap in over 5 years and I don't have any plans to change that. We also stopped by the Apple store in Burlingame because I wanted to buy an iPod USB cable, and that was closed too! After that, we had pretty much exhausted the open shopping in Burlingame. I was actually hoping to find an American Apparel because I really like their thermals and they're only $20.00 a piece and I buy them even though the CEO of that company is a total perv. My friend and I thought maybe there would be one at Stanford Mall. We drive over to the mall and the entire mall, except for maybe the restaurants, was closed. What is going on here? Things don't close in NY for Easter! If anything, we have sales, which is the most important feature of any holiday.

This is kind of funny to say, but it wasn't until this year that I realized that Easter is a big deal.

My "Career"

My friend in SF who I always visit when I'm out here has an xBox. Being the tennis player that I am, I'm obsessed with Topspin. This is the best tennis video game ever, and I keep telling my friend to get the xBox 360 so he can get Topspin 2.

Anyway, I was playing Topspin earlier today, and my friend was surfing the Net on his laptop. He came across some trivia website and started reading out loud to me the trivia questions. In the meantime, I was focusing on my match at the "American Open" (Topspin's version of the US Open). Topspin allows you to either play a player already created, like Lleyton Hewitt, Martina Hingis or Pete Sampras or create your own player in the "Career" mode. It's pretty sophisticated. You can choose the height, weight, hair style, and even facial features down to the lips and eyebrows. That day, I was playing a player I had made in "Career" mode. And I had gotten to the final of a GRAND SLAM and in a tiebreaker in the third set. This was going to be my breakthrough.

Then in the middle of answering the little quizzes that my friend was looking at on the website, Anna Kournikova (you can play against real players in this game) hit a passing shot by me and that was it. I had lost. 9-7 in a third-set tiebreaker. What a heartbreak. I chastized my friend for going on and on about this website he found. I was TRYING to focus on my career!

Thank You For Smoking

I saw Thank You For Smoking tonight. It was really entertaining. My favorite scenes were the scenes with the "MOD" Squad (Merchants of Death) and the scenes in LA. But the most priceless scene had to have been when Nick Naylor cross-examined on Career Day at his son's school a little girl who says her Mommy says that cigarettes can kill you. "Is your Mommy a doctor?", he asks. "Well that doesn't make your Mommy a very credible expert, does it?"

But I left the movie not really able to decide (and still haven't) whether Nick Naylor was a hero or a villain. On the one hand, he's the master of B.S. and seems amoral while advocating a hated cause. On the other hand, he does have his principles, is a loving father and is very self-aware of a lot of the bullshit that goes on in the world and the bullshit that he spews, particularly our government and is just trying to play the game.

I guess Mr. Naylor is somewhere in between.

Herbal Pressure

When it comes to my taste in food, I can be very ordinary. I mean, I can be a pretty adventurous eater. About the only thing I can think of on my "Foods That I Hate" list is Fennel or anything licorice-flavored. But I'm willing to give anything a try, even my hated Fennel. My favorite foods, though, are strong simple flavors without a lot of embellishment. My favorite meal to have any night of the week is a NY Strip steak with a good Bearnaise sauce on the side, a small green salad, and some slice of whole wheat baguette (I like whole grain breads). I like my steaks very underdone and I like to mix the red juices from the steak with the salad and sauce (I'm sure the vegetarians are turning sick to their stomachs reading this.)

For herbs, I'm actually not a huge fan of herbs. I tend to like the flavor of ground spices instead. If I had to name a favorite herb, I really just like flat leaf Italian parsley in just about any dish, which isn't the most exciting herb around. But some herbs are just essential. For example, basil and tomatoes are an obvious combination.

I'm actually not that big a fan of basil. I think it's a little too strong and I'm not sure I like the flavor all that much. But my main issue with basil, and a lot of other herbs for that matter, is how rapidly the stuff goes bad. I'll buy a huge bunch of Basil and then poof, two days later, it's black and slimy. I've tried everything--wrapping the leaves in wet paper towels and throwing them in the fridge; keeping a bunch in a vase full of water; putting it in airtight containers, etc. No matter what, the leaves go bad and unusable in about a couple of days. Everytime I buy basil, I feel this intense pressure. Am I going to use it in time??? Will it turn black??? How many things can I make with basil??? I know I could always make pesto, but I'm not a huge lover of pesto.

It's too bad I don't have a four season jungle in my backyard like the Barefoot Contessa or Michael Chiarello, or a backyard for that matter. I suppose I could try buying basil at Fairway and sticking it in a pot and growing it in my apartment since they sell it with the roots. But I don't want to stink up my apartment.

Such pressure.

The Biggest Holiday Of The Year

I meant to post this on Friday, but didn't get around to it. I suppose I could just change the date of this entry to be Friday, March 17, but that would be cheating.

At any rate, I never knew until last year how big of a deal St. Patrick's Day is to some people. I guess I don't really pay attention to too many holidays except for the major ones or the ones where I get a day off. But I remember talking to a coworker last year about how he was liking New York so far for the six or seven months that he had lived here. He told me he loved NYC and was telling me about all the great times he's been having. Then he told me that the best day he has had in New York was St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day? It has never occurred to me to do anything for St. Patrick's Day. I knew people went out to the Irish pubs, and I think there's a parade, but I never thought that much about it. Well, my co-worker, who is Filipino by the way, said he had the best time and was going to have friends from out of town visit him for the next year. Wow, out of town visitors. That never crossed my mind either.

Sure enough, he had a bunch of people visiting from out of town, and invited me along. I declined. I went to the movies instead.

My New Years

I realize this is a little late, but I wanted to tell everyone how I spent New Years.

I was traveling back from San Francisco on New Year's Eve. My flight was supposed to leave at 11AM, but the Bay Area was having a really bad rain storm that was delaying all the flights. I had some tentative New Year's Plans, but nothing I would have been heartbroken over, if I had missed them. I just hate flying back East since you lose so much time and it's so late by the time you get back.

I thought I was never gonna get out of the airport. United kept delaying and delaying my flight. Every hour, it seemed that the gate agent was making another delay announcement. The other issue was that since SFO was in scheduling chaos, many flights, including mine, couldn't be properly staffed because flight attendants were stuck in the air or delayed getting to their next flight. I passed my time listening to my iPod, talking on the phone, and munching on some See's chocolates that I had bought at the airport stand originally as a gift, but I figured my friend wouldn't mind if I had some, or in my case, all of them.

Eventually, at around 4PM, PST, it was time to board. Our scheduled time of arrival in New York was 11:30PM, EST. But I knew there was no way I'd make it to any New Year's Party in time for the new year, unless there was a party at JFK. I could hear this guy who was still holding out hope and telling his friends on the phone that he was going to jump in a cab as soon as he got out of baggage claim and head all the way to Brooklyn from JFK just in time to see the ball drop on TV. I didn't really care though. I've never been a big New Year's person anyway.

The flight was completely full. Every seat on board was occupied since so many people were flying stand-by on my flight. After takeoff, the flight was pretty uneventful. The poor flight attendants were working really hard to keep everyone happy because they were understaffed too. After the meals and drinks were served (or "beverages" which I've always thought as a really gay word), we settled into our seats and watched the movie or slept.

A few hours later, a few minutes before 10PM, EST, one of the flight attendants made an announcement. Because there was very little chance that anybody on the flight would be able to celebrate New Years outside of the airport, the flight crew was going to celebrate with us. Since we were still in the air and wouldn't land till just before midnight, EST, we were going to "celebrate" New Year's in Santiago, Chile, where it was about to turn midnight. The crew started passing out champagne, and then the flight attendant said, "Ok, get ready to count down." We all counted down "10, 9, 8,.....Happy New Year!" and toasted each other.

It was so cute and a surprisingly nice way to spend New Year's Eve.

Today At The Gym

I woke up fairly early today for a Saturday. After puttering around my apartment for a bit, I decided to go to the gym. I belong to Equinox and the closest branches to me are 76th & Amsterdam and Columbus Circle. I prefer Columbus Circle because it's a bit more spacious and sharing the same building as Whole Foods is very convenient.

I decided to do some cardio that day and got on the treadmill. I kind of needed to clear my head and so running was good. I ran four miles and then got off the treadmill to cool down and towel myself down.

As I walked off the treadmills, I tuned into the TVs. Soon I was totally engrossed in The Real World/Road Rules challenge and stood there glued to the TV set even though there was no sound, just subtitles. While I was watching the show, I happened to be standing behind an elliptical machine. A woman soon approached me and asked "Excuse me, are you using this?" I replied "Oh, sorry. No."

So I moved out of the way. As I did so, my eyes were still glued to the TV. But I should have watched where I was going instead of the TV. I tripped over the elliptical machine I was standing behind, and knocked into the woman on the next machine and fell over her pedals. I braced my fall with my arms and ended up banging my right arm into a standing beam with a mirror surrounded by a metal frame that I scraped my elbow on. I also got a nasty bruise on my left quad from falling on the second elliptical machine. And my broken arm is also really sore. Everyone crowded around me and I was so embarrassed. I told everyone sheepishly, "I'm ok. Was just distracted by the tv..."

Real World isn't worth this much pain.

Gay Band-Aids

On Sunday night, I played tennis at the US National Tennis Center. I hadn't played since November and it felt really good to be on the court. I love playing tennis and just banging the ball away. It's one of the rare situations when I can really stop thinking about everything going on in my life and just think about hitting the ball.

Me and my friend were playing pretty hard that day. At first I was having a little trouble seeing the ball under the bright lights in the tennis court bubble. But soon I hit my groove and stopped framing the ball so much. We were having some pretty good rallies and both of us were hitting the ball hard and running each other back and forth. I soon started to get a couple of blisters on my hand. This always happens when I play tennis for the first time after a long break. I get them from the friction between my hand and the grip on my racquet. They always arise in the same place--lower bottom left corner of my palm and on the right side of my thumb.

I kept on playing because the pain wasn't that bad, but soon the blister at the bottom of my hand popped and I needed to find something to cover it up. My friend had a band-aid, but it wasn't really staying on. I decided to go to the front desk to see if they had a bigger Band-Aid. The guy at the front desk opened his first aid kit and started rummaging through there for a big enough bandage. Finally he handed me one. I thanked him and ran back to my court.

I tore off the wrapping. Oh my god. I never knew there was a such thing as a gay band-aid, but this was definitely the gayest band-aid I had ever seen. This wasn't your normal Johnson & Johnson Band-Aid. This was one of those "novelty" clear ones with a drawing on it. The drawing on the band-aid was this buff shirtless guy doing a volleyball spike over the net. My friend and I were laughing and commenting on the guy's physique.

Well, that band-aid didn't work that well either, but it worked well enough. As long as I held my racquet really tightly, my hand wouldn't hurt so much. The next day I bought some normal band-aids. Actually I bought waterproof band-aids, which are so awesome that I can't believe I've never heard of them before. And I was putting a cold pack on my hand the next day because it was still sore from my vise-like grip on my racquet.

Well all my pain and suffering was worth it. I got to play tennis and I got to wear a new gay accessory.

New Music

Like many people, I rarely buy CDs anymore. I get most of my music online. But I will buy the CD if it's by an up and coming new artist. I like to support artists who haven't made it yet and it makes me feel "in the know" since I can say to say all my friends, "Hey, have you heard that song? Oh you haven't? Well, let me tell you all about it!"

Last Thursday, I was having a pretty shitty day. I didn't go into work that day and just worked from home because I wanted to be left alone. I had my high school reunion that night, and contemplated not showing up, but I decided I should get out of the apartment. I didn't want to be a total hermit.

My reunion was at the Yale Club over by Grand Central. So I hopped on the 2/3 down to Times Square to eventually catch the S shuttle over to the East side. I know this trip well since it's the commute I take everyday to work. Since it was rush hour, there were lots of people running around in the stations.

As I was wading through the throngs of people at Times Square, I saw that a crowd had gathered in the big open area on the way to the S shuttle and the N/R/W trains. Oh great. Another musical performer. I really have no patience for crowds. That's the most annoying thing about New York--everything has a crowd or a long-ass line. When I see musical performers in the subway station and space made by the crowd so they can perform, I just walk right on through the space. I'm in a rush, and I have places where I need to be.

However, I always glance over and listen for the few seconds as I walk past the performers. And then usually I'm on my way. Since I was in such a depressed and crappy mood, I didn't expect to really be in the mood for any musical entertainment. This time, though, I stopped and listened for a few minutes and ended up staying for three songs. The girl's name is Susan Cagle. I really enjoyed her music and it definitely lifted my mood. Apparently she has an upcoming CD coming out on the Lefthook label with Sony/Columbia. Well I have now taken it upon myself to be a grassroots Susan Cagle promoter. I highly encourage everyone to check her out.

Seven things....

So I got tagged by Kristy. This is my first meme! Anyway, here we go:

Seven things to do before I die:
1. Go to business school.
2. Buy an apartment.
3. Get my six pack back.
4. Learn to surf and fence.
5. Reconcile with my parents.
6. Find someone to be with.
7. Be happy with my job.

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Be alone forever
2. Pass up the latest designer offering, especially if it’s on sale
3. Small talk
4. Hit on someone
5. Photograph well (i.e., my photogenic qualities)
6. Serve a tennis kick serve
7. Ski a double black run at Snowbird or any big ski resort out West

Seven things that attract me to blogging:
1. I’ve become more observant.
2. I’ve become more outgoing.
3. Feeling of being a “writer/journalist.”
4. Comments (Hint, hint to everyone who reads this blog.)
5. Gives me something to do when I’m bored at work.
6. Outlet to react in a human way to situations I see or am involved in.
7. Lets my friends know that I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth.

Seven things I say most often:
1. like
2. I don’t care
3. I’m tired
4. What’s for dinner?
5. Wow
6. I guess
7. Cool

Seven books that I love:
1. Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo (book & the movie)
2. New York Magazine (I know that’s not a book).
3. How to Eat by Nigella Lawson
4. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
5. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
6. Thirteen Days by Robert Kennedy
7. The Best Little Boy In The World Grows Up by Andrew Tobias

Seven movies that I can watch over and over again:
1. Sabrina (1995)
2. Ordinary People
3. Friends & Alias (Yeah, I know. Neither is a movie.)
4. Notting Hill
5. Quiz Show
6. Lord of the Rings trilogy
7. Indiana Jones trilogy

Happy (Belated) Chinese New Year

On Sunday, I kind of invited myself to dim sum with my friend, Colin. I just had a craving for it ever since I saw Mr. I-think-I'm-so-great Ming Tsai on TV couple weeks ago take a trip to Hong Kong. There, he went to the Floating Restaurant and had an amazing array of different dumplings and other little plates of dim sum. I was drooling at the sight and wanted to go for some as soon as I could.

I picked a bad weekend to go. First of all, I hate Chinatown. I can't stand the crowds, the screwed up streets, 200 year old people who walk way too slow buying who knows what and the cheap business owners there who don't take credit cards. All of this was exacerbated by the throngs of people for the Chinese New Year Parade. I don't know what my friends were thinking because they told me they specifically chose this restaurant because it was away from the parade hoopla. My friends must have been crazy because it was smack dab in the middle of the parade.

Anyway, I finally arrived and had a nice time enjoying the dim sum. Too bad you have to go all the way to Chinatown for it.

Brave New Gym

This month I've been going to the Reebok Sports Club on a free pass that I got in the mail. The Club sent it to me as a friendly "neighborhood" gift since I live 5 blocks away from the Club. My membership at Equinox had expired and so this was a good time for me to try out the ritzy Reebok Sports Club.

This club has everything. Basketball courts? Yep. Indoor Rock Climbing Wall? Got it. Outdoor track? Yep. And of course it has your standard free weights, machines, treadmills, ellipticals, like any other gym. It's really an impressive facility, which is good because you have to pay an arm and a leg to join there. The initiation is $1,200 and then you pay $188/month after that. I could have joined for only $600 initiation. Geez, what a bargain. And I thought Equinox was pricey.

With my free pass to the Reebok Sports Club, I could also visit any Sports Club LA in the city. One night, with my free pass in hand, I visited the Sports Club LA at Rockefeller Center. It's a little difficult to find, but eventually I found it and handed over my pass and went down to the locker room to change. I had brought a green Nike t shirt that day and a pair of navy blue shorts. As soon as I changed and locked my stuff up, I went back upstairs to the exercise area. Upstairs, I encountered a sea of grey t shirts and grey shorts. Oooooook....this is a little weird. Then I realized that everyone was wearing the same thing! Turns out the Sports Club LA (but not Reebok for whatever reason) lends you clothes to wear while you work out.

While I can see the convenience of this, especially going to the gym without lugging a gym bag around, it was really weird. Working out with 100s of people who are all dressed the same, and you're the oddball out because you're not wearing the gym's clothes is a very bizarre experience. I felt like they were all clones and I was going to be kicked out for not conforming.

To top it all off, when I got back to the locker room and passed by the desk where you can borrow clothes, I saw that you could also borrow jockstraps.

Ok, now THAT is going too far.

End of Physical Therapy

My arm is all healed now, and I had a very sad good-bye with my Physical Therapist. We hugged and planned to have dinner sometime. Throughout our months together, we gabbed about everything under the sun. I told her about my soap-opera love life; she bitched to me about her husband (jokingly--they're very happy togther.) I miss my sessions because a lot of my therapy was just a glorified massage on my broken arm, and also they were a nice break from work.

But now I have these metal plates in my broken arm for the rest of my life. On the day of my last appointment, I bought a copy of my Xray. It looks very dramatic. Two huge plates and 12 giant screws are now implanted in my arm. In a couple of years my doctor said I can have them removed. But why would I do that? It's proof of such a cool war story, although I do have my scars to show too. My doctor said that actually most people just have them stay in because removing them would require another surgery. Most people who get them out are people who might have a propensity to get injured again, like a football player, because the plates can really screw things up in the event of a reinjury.

Well, unless I feel any real pain, they're gonna stay in. For a while, leaving the house after my broken arm was like leaving the house with a huge pimple. But now I'm proud of my scars. They make me look tough, which is always nice.

Vanishing in the Colorado Mountains

I was in Aspen last week doing some skiing. I've never been there before. I had always avoided Aspen because of the logistics of getting there. The flights to Aspen are expensive and constantly delayed or cancelled. In fact, a lot of times the 30 minute flight from Denver to Aspen is more expensive than the 3 hour flight from New York to Denver.

Lo and behold my flight to Aspen was cancelled due to bad weather. We let out a collective groan when the pilot made the announcement. We were actually on the plane and in our seats at the time of the announcement. Apparently, visibility was only a quarter of a mile. Disgruntled, we gathered our things and got off the plane and made a mad rush for the Customer Service Counter (aka CSC, which now replaces "deplane" as my new favorite piece of flight lingo.)

When I got to the CSC, I learned that there was about 0.0000001% chance I'd make it to Aspen that day. There was a big snowstorm that was just dumping Aspen. Good for skiing, but not good for my transportation needs. I had to decide whether to find alternate means or just spend the night in Denver. I considered spending the night in Denver. I had never spent any time there before and thought it might be fun. I could experience true Rocky Mountain Hospitality instead of the faux, pretentious scene in Aspen or Vail or Beaver Creek (where I went last year.)

I eventually decided that I wanted to be in Aspen that night. I didn't want to lose the hotel room that I had already paid for that night. So I had to decide whether I was going to rent a car or take a shuttle service. Since driving for 4 1/2-5 hours in a snowstorm did not sound too appealing to me, I investigated the shuttles and joined an impromptu group of passengers and got on a van to Aspen.

Last year when I went to Beaver Creek, that was what I had chosen to do in the first place through Colorado Mountain Express, the main ground transportation service from Denver to all the ski resorts. They do a pretty brisk business and they have drivers running all over, back and forth between Denver and the ski resorts and between the ski resorts too.

Last year, when I was in Beaver Creek, I took the shuttle both ways. On my return trip, I took the last shuttle back to Denver, which was around 6:30PM. The driver picked me up at my hotel and loaded my bags. We picked up a couple more passengers and we were soon on our way. I had a late red-eye flight on sucky JetBlue back to New York that night and so I had plenty of time.

We were about an hour into our drive. So far the drive had been uneventful. I was sitting in the front seat and was pretty comfortable. I had my Bose headphones, my iPod, and a seat to myself. I even had room to recline since there was no one in the seat behind me. I didn't get a chance to strike up any conversations with any of my fellow passengers since I was up in the front myself. But that was ok since none of us were that talkative. No one had broken the ice yet.

So we were driving along I-70, when our driver pulled off the highway without saying a word to anyone on the van.. I kind of raised my eyebrow, but figured our driver needed to take a bathroom break or get gas. Plus since my flight was so late at night, I didn't really care about any delays.

The driver pulled on to an exit and we get off the exit to Bumblefuck, Colorado. Seriously, there was NOTHING around. Just trees and an occasional street lamp. There weren't even any buildings or other cars for that matter. We drove for a few more minutes and I thought maybe our driver had made a mistake and was going to turn around and get back on the highway to find another place. Instead, he turned off the dirt road we were on and pulled into a driveway of what looked like a high school. Ok, I thought to myself, he's gonna make a u-turn in the high school roundabout driveway. Instead he parked in front of the school, and jumped out of the van with parting words of "This will just take a sec", leaving us in the middle of nowhere. He ran behind what looked like a wall and disappeared.

No one really said anything after our driver left. Then a few minutes later, a girl in the back piped up and said "You guys, isn't this a little weird?" And we all said in unison "Uh....yeaaaahhhh." We all started to say "Where the hell are we? And where is our driver???" Then another girl in the back chimed in and said "I think someone should go out there." I turned around from my seat and said "Are you CRAZY? I'm not going out there." Then the girl said, "Yeah, it should be one of the guys who goes out there." Then another guy said in response "Oh come on, it's 2004, girls are every bit as strong as guys." Then we reached a compromise, if anyone was going out there, we were all going out there. Safety in numbers. We decided that if in ten minutes our driver wasn't back, we were gonna out and check on him. In the meantime, we started to wonder what the hell our driver was doing. Someone joked that a hidden camera was in our van to tape our reactions to this. "Yeah, we're being punked," someone said. Then I was like, "No, we're on Boiling Point!"

Just when we couldn't stand it any longer and were about to get out of the van, we see our driver running back to us. He opened the door, got in his seat, turned on the ignition and started driving, not saying a single word to us. We all looked at each other with raised eyebrows. When we were on our way, one of the girls asked "Um....are you ok?" Our driver just replied very matter-of-factly "Yeah, sorry. It was an emergency."

I can only speculate as to what went on. Probably the most reasonable explanation is that he had to do #2 or maybe he was sick and had to vomit. Or maybe he was meeting his "supplier" to transport something to Denver. Who knows. Anyway, I wasn't reported missing or anything and made it safe and sound to Denver International Airport. The world was lucky I made it through.

I Miss Everything...

The transit strike is long over now, but I saw a store the other day that had "Strike Sale" sign. I guess they didn't think it was too late to prey on people's frustration or sympathy. But I felt left out. I completely missed the transit strike in New York since I was in SF for the entire duration. The strike honestly wouldn't have affected me that much. I work from home a lot, and so I would have just stayed home if I had been in New York.

I also missed the blackout in the late Summer of 2003. I was in dumb old Australia. Actually I love Australia and I miss Sydney a lot. But I felt like everyone was having fun over in NY without me. I heard about street parties, celebrities hanging out with normal folk, free food from restaurants. Of course, I'm sure the people trapped in subways and elevators were none too pleased about the blackout especially during our typically scorching summer. But I didn't know any of them.

Taking a Break

I've got some stuff going on and will be taking a break from this blog for a little while. Hope everyone checks back when I start posting again.

Happy New Year.