Five Things About San Francisco: #5 The Weather

Since I come out here so often, it's only fitting that I write some of my perceptions as an outsider looking in. So I am starting my first series in my blog: "Five Things About San Francisco." Now, I probably won't write all five this week during my sojurn here because I haven't even thought of my five yet. But I'll go ahead and start with this post and write the rest whenver I feel like it. Oh and don't try to deduce any sort of order in my "five things." It's just literally my random crusade of the day.

The last time I was here in San Francisco, it was freaking hot here the whole time. It was during the heat wave that swept the country and even foggy San Francisco got hit. But normal San Francisco summer weather is a weather forecaster's nightmare. Or depending on how you look at it, San Francisco could be a forecaster's dream city. At some point in the day and some point in the city your forecast will be correct. Basically if you don't like the weather in San Francisco, just go across the street. I've drawn a handy diagram to show the typical weather at any random street corner here in this city:

You can best describe this weather as "huh?". When you're in the shade or under a cloudy sky, it's really cold. But then in some neighborhoods, there isn't a cloud in the sky. Sun and clouds are vying for supremacy over this city.

Clearly, the only solution is for me to hire a sherpa to follow me around and carry my entire wardrobe so that I can change into appropriate attire as I move through various climate zones by crossing the street.

If you would like to apply to be my sherpa, please send me your resumé and a photo of you climbing a mountain with many bags on your back. I need people with stamina. Goats in the background are optional but recommended.

My New Backpack

I'm off to San Francisco again. Because of some changes at my company, my managers want me to fly out there to meet my new team members on my cases. Even though I just returned from there, I don't mind going back so soon.

Plus, my trip means that I get to use my new laptop backpack to carry around all my crap. My company gave me a new IBM Thinkpad T43p. While I like my new, super fast, mean computing machine, I am just loving my new backpack carrying case. Here it is:

I loooooooove it. Can't get enough ooooooof it. The one main thing about the backpack is that it's the bag that keeps on giving. Everytime I wear it, I'm discovering a new feature and new hidden pockets. Here are some of the features:

• Padded adjustable straps with this very cool quick pick up hand hold. Perfect for when I need to swing it around to club some guy who's mugging me.
• Rear zipper pocket to keep my valuable stash close to me and away from any prying hands.
• A removable accessories pouch for my important accessories like my crocodile leather Tanino Crisci belt and my Bottega Veneta ipod case with the signature Bottega weave.
• A very cute detachable cell phone case so I'll always have my phone within quick & easy reach when I have the urge to show off my super cool SLVR phone.
• A little compartment with a headphone porthole so I can tune out the whole world and make it clear that I don't want anyone to hear anyone from the outside world or pretend that I'm in deep contemplation while I'm checking out some guy on the subway.
• These cool mesh water bottle holders on the side. Well, I think that's what they're for. I'll probably just put everything that I carry around everyday because I hate putting stuff in my pockets. And if I do put stuff in my pockets like my wallet, I always have this big bulge on top of one of my thighs, making me look like a complete tool in super nice clothes with big balloon pants.
• All sorts of capacious pockets in the inside. And in case I'm ever scrounging around in my bag for something buried deep in the bottom, there's a little flashlight to aid me! Wow. Who ever heard of a backpack with a flashlight? Also, writing about this feature was an excuse for me to use the word "capacious" because I like the sound of that word.
• My bag also has these little feet, so it can stand proudly like a storage bag totem looking down upon all the other inferior backpacks out there.
  

So as you can tell, I am absolutely enraptured by my new accessorry. It's so sleek and I wear it proudly even though wearing backpacks at my ripe old age of 29 can look kind of gay. But I am just so proud of it. I give two thumbs up to the maker of this thing. I should be a sales rep for them. Then again, in my high estimation, these babies should sell themselves.

Two Homes

I wish I had two homes. Well, actually, I wish I had even one home so I could stop paying the insane rent that I do here in Manhattan. If I could ever afford a second home, I think I'd probably want it out in Napa Valley or Carmel or Half Moon Bay. It would be so great. I could just sit by the ocean, eat good food, drink great wine. Of course, I'd have to have a private jet to take me out there whenever I wanted to get away.

The Hamptons is nice too. I haven't been in a while, and the couple times I went, I went with really hard-core Hamptonites. We're talking drugs & booze from 7 in the morning to well after midnight. I witnessed all the typical Hampton scenes you hear about--traffic, A-list parties, obnoxious New Yorkers. But, really, when you get away from all that, the Hamptons is really beautiful and anyone can see why it's become the desirable place that it is today. The beaches, the nature, the little towns--it's the countryside, jacked up on gobs of money, gallons of alcohol and sacks of coke.

In any case, today at the gym I overheard a conversation between two guys. The conversation went like this:

Guy A: "So how's your new house?"
Guy B: "Oh it's ok. I'm thinking of going back...."
Guy A: "Oh? Going back where? You mean to Montauk?"
Guy B: "Yeah. I'm just not sure if I like East Hampton. Montauk is much more my scene and it's prettier out there."
Guy A: "Oh, so you're just gonna sell your new house already? You've only been there for six months."
Guy B: "Nah, I'll just live in East Hampton in the winter. Montauk isn't as nice in the winter. But it's good in East Hampton."

Um. Does this guy not realize that Montauk and East Hampton are literally right next to each other? Live in East Hampton in the winter and Montauk in the summer?

Maybe someday I'll have that problem.

Promotion At The Office

Today a company wide e-mail announced that someone got a promotion from "Data Administrator" to "Data Operations Administrator." Huh? What's the difference?

Reminds me of that episode of The Office when Steve Carell calls his assistant into his office to give her a promotion. He's telling her what a great job she's doing, and how she deserves recognition. All proud of himself because he thinks everyone in the office loves him, he announces her reward for all her dedication and service. He tells her, "From now on instead of 'Assistant to the Executive, you will be the 'Executive Assistant.' How's that?"

I suppose change is always good.

Cooking With Who?

Over the past three or four years, the Food Network has gone really downhill. Those "Making Of" and "Food Challenges" specials are a total bore. And they even managed to make a reality show that took itself so seriously, it made you want you want to hurl at the goody two-shoe contestants and the producers "Bob" & "Susie" who seriously do not know what people want to watch on the Food Network.

However, one of the chefs I do like is the Barefoot Contessa. Although, she has so many annoying habits like her constant self-congratulatory rhetorical questions and her weird cackling laughter that makes her seem like she's braying like a horse. So many, that I kind of have a love-hate relationship with her. I do love her house, especially her kitchen. And she does make really good, albeit sometimes kind of plain, food that's accessible to us normal folks without a kitchen the size of a studio apartment and a carefully manicured garden that grows enough veggies and herbs to feed an army with upscale food tastes.

But what I don't love are her annoying little moments of hard-core Hamptons behavior. In each episode of the Barefoot Contessa we have to endure more countless forays to quaint little shops, where Ina lumbers about, air kissing everyone including the hired help, and promising to invite them over. We also get to meet Ina's bizarre universe of friends who seem to fall into two camps: 1) mummified, ungrateful, spoiled adults or 2) flaming, and I mean FLAMING, gay.

The other day I caught an episode called "Cooking with Tess." I had seen bits and pieces of this episode, but I kept missing the intro and thus had no clue who the hell Tess was. As I watched, with great anticipation, I kept wondering who this magical Tess was. I had never heard of any "Tess" in the "foodie" world, and yet Ina couldn't stop talking about Tess's love of baking. I'm thinking she's some Julia Child protege or something. "Tess" even rated a field trip moment to Williams-Sonoma to purchase piping tips. Then, finally, the secret is revealed. Who slunks in but some gawky teenager. WTF? Who the hell is she? She sure didn't come across as any baking wizard. Ina and this supposed big name superstar baker were playing with some piping for a tart they were frosting. Well, Tess showed no skill whatsoever with the piping, or really ANYthing in the kitchen. Then Ina gives Tess the pastry bag and some tips ("the large ones, Tess.") that she bought earlier so Tess can frost her own cakes. I had to laugh. Tess is probably still pissed at that gift and looking for the iPod.

You Call That A Raise?

I finally got my raise today. I have been promised this raise since May. However, since that time, my manager kept making excuses and delays to telling me the magic dollar amount. I kind of have a finite period of time that I plan to stay at this job, and so obviously the more time that passed, the more money I was losing. Well, today, I got on the phone with my manager in San Francisco and officially received my raise. He informed me that my salary would increase by......a whopping 3.6%. THAT is what I have been waiting for!?!? That's not a raise. That's a cost of living adjustment. I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. I know some of my counterparts in San Francisco make more than me. Now I know San Francisco is an expensive city, but New York still has a higher cost of living. I'm just so supremely annoyed. I've been working hard, and my manager told me this pay increase was supposed to reward me for merit. And to add injury to insult, this so-called raised isn't even retroactive to my one year anniversary, which occurred in May 2006. I thought a great burden would be lifted off my shoulders after my call with my manager, and the waiting period would be over. But now I have the bigger burden of going back on the job hunt.

I'll probably try to negotiate a bit too at my current job and see what I can get. Wow. My first salary negotiation. Go me. I'm growing up.

Speeding Tickets

Today, I learned that if you're falling asleep at the wheel, you're supposed to take one shoe off and drive barefoot to keep you on your toes. Hmmm. I had never thought of this but it certainly made sense.

The last time I had access to a car regularly was in college. My parents are kind of car crazy and we had five cars, and so they let me have a car starting with the semester that I spent in DC while working at the State Department. My parents live two hours south of DC, and so having a car was much easier for me to make trips home. I kept the car when I started school the following year back in Philadelphia. It was just easier on my parents and they didn't have to keep buying me plane or train tickets back home. One time my parents made me take Greyhound. But after the one and only time I have ever taken Greyhound, I vowed to never take it again. Everyone on the bus was a freak, including the driver. We're talking guys just out of prison, young teenage mothers with screaming kids who are running around the entire bus, hippie folks, old senior, but very vocal, citizens, ghetto gangsta girls....you name it. The most surreal experience is being stuck in a bus with these people for a six-hour bus ride. So that means you hear every conversation on board and pretty soon it becomes almost free will for other people to just interject and provide their colorful commentary on other people. Some people will even take it upon themselves to scream at the entire bus. Can you imagine if I got up in the middle of an airplane cabin and started yelling at everyone? The bus that I was on was packed. Greyhound had oversold and so some people had to sit in the aisles, which last time I checked is a safety violation. And the poor bus driver has to control all of this and keep his eyes on the road. But by nature, bus-goers seem to hate all authority figures and blame the sucky, smelly ride on the driver. In fact, one more crazy person, and we probably would have had a bus mutiny.

So I was pretty happy that my parents let me keep the car for my senior year. Philadelphia is a pretty driveable city and while street parking is a little difficult, Philadelphia is a freaking parking lot compared to New York or San Francisco. And my trips home were a lot easier which was the whole point of my having a car.

You know how some people say speeding tickets come in pairs? Well usually people mean a few days or a week or so in between tickets, and then you won't get another one for months or years. For me, it came within an hour. I was driving home one night. I had already passed DC and was driving down Route 29 on my way to Charlottesville. I had been on the road for four hours and I was getting really sleepy and could feel my eyes getting heavy. I had already tried every trick I could think of--the radio, a cup of coffee, sitting up really straight, but nothing was working. I was soooooo tired. I saw a parking lot for a store on the side of the road and decided to pull over for a quick 20 minute power nap. This was around 11:00PM. An hour and a half later, I woke up with a start. CRAP!!! I slept for more than an hour! I started the car and quickly got back on the road. I really didn't mean to be driving at 1AM in the morning and I just wanted to get home.

The road was empty, and at that time I didn't know that Route 29 has about a gazillion speed traps with another gazillion bored cops who have nothing better to do than give speeding tickets at 1AM. I saw the blue and grey sedan behind me with flashing lights. Fuckety, fuck, fuck. I was just trying to rush home because I didn't want to be on the road that late. I was going about 70 in a 55 mph zone. Come on. 70 is not that fast on an EMPTY road. I didn't bother really arguing it because I just wanted to get home. The officer gave me my ticket and I was on my way.

I'm back on the road. And literally 15 minutes later, I saw ANOTHER cop car behind me flashing my lights. Oh shit. I was speeding again. This time I was going about 75 mph. I pulled over and rolled my window down. Before the officer could say anything, I proclaimed "I was not speeding!" Now I said this having not looked at my speedometer. I really didn't realize I was speeding and guess I had a lead foot. Anyway the officer (who was a woman, which made matters worse) retorted "Oh yes you were." Now I know a little bit about speedometers, and I start going off "I think your thing is wrong. Are you sure it's calibrated? Where's your tuning fork???" Obviously the officer was not too please to be arguing with me, although I like to think that I gave her some entertainment on a boring Friday night on the highway. Anyway, she just took my license and registration and went back to her car. That's when I realized that when she radioed my license number in, she'll probably learn about my ticket from 15 minutes ago. Great. That'll sure help my cause.

I could see the officer walking back to my car. I braced myself for some yelling. Maybe I'd even have to *step* outside of the vehicle. Maybe I was going to get searched. Luckily, either she didn't know that I had just gotten a ticket 15 minutes ago or was being nice or was just simply too embarrassed for me. She just gave me my ticket and I was off.

I wasn't having any problems of staying awake now. Next time, I feel sleepy on the road, at least now I know to take one shoe off. That's surely better than getting two tickets in 15 minutes.

Equinox Soho

My beloved wallet-eating gym, Equinox recently opened a new branch in Soho. Looks like Equinox is focusing back on Manhattan after a string of new openings in Chicago, Florida and California. This is the first new Equinox in Manhattan in a while. And actually from the scoop I heard from one of the cycling instructors, there will eventually be another branch in the mid 20s on the West Side, which will be nice.

Even though the Soho branch isn't particularly convenient to where I live or where I work, I decided to check it out last Friday. I really liked it. It's very loft-style in keeping with the Soho architecture, and it's got a nice little mezzainine with free Wifi where you can lounge with a lemonade and yummy sandwich from the 'wichcraft cafe downstairs. The cycling studio is very spacious and the layout of the workout areas is very spacious and sensical. Equinox did a good job with this branch.

Some disgruntled guy on Curbed gave a pretty funny review of the new Equinox, focusing on the lack of personal tvs and soda machines. He also mentioned that there were no attachments for the cable machines, but they must have arrived late or something because they had them when I was there. At any rate, this guy clearly takes his tvs and drink machines seriously. He called these "no-brainer" items that every gym should have. No offense, but shouldn't he have noticed these points when he took a tour of the gym?

One other thing about the new Soho Equinox. Beautiful people everywhere. It was like stepping onto the set of the latest Banana Republic campaign. Soho already was a neighborhood filled with blond giraffes and tanned, buff boys strutting their stuff on the cobblestone catwalks with absents looks of cool. Even the not-so-beautiful people act like they're posing. Equinox fits right in. It's surprising that it took so long for Equinox to open a branch here.

Unimportant Email

For many people, email is one of the most distracting things at the workplace. You could be reading a long and complicated document, and while in deep in thought, a pesky new email notifier will pop up. Sometimes I turn off my monitor so I won't be distracted so much.

At my new job though, I have been getting more emails than ever tagged with a red exclamation point. Folks, an email with a red "!" is NOT going to make me read it faster. If anything, I'll treat it with less importance because it annoys me so much. No matter how important you think your email is, emphasized with the fun, little red exclamation point, trust me, it's not. Let me leave your email unopened while I go deal with a REAL emergency.

There's another button on Outlook for "low priority." That's a downward pointing blue arrow. When was the last time you got an email with the "low priority" blue arrow? I guess low priority for some people equates to "don't read." But I just never see that blue arrow. So if you must add some colored symbol fun to you email, try the blue arrow. Hell, maybe I'll even reply to it.

Coffee Festival Adventures

A couple of weekends ago, a friend and I went to the Everything 4 Coffee & Tea Festival. It was a pretty small conference, but still just the right size to keep us interested. I felt a little bad because we were just there as a result of some free tickets that I got from Citarella. Everyone kept asking us, "So, are you in the industry? Are you a buyer?" And we're like "Um, no. We just like coffee." Plus we wanted the free stuff.

There were some pretty interesting presenters, including Janet from Jalima coffee. My friend and I got to talking to her and she told us her whole story. She was traveling with two friends down in Mexico for a birthday trip and they met some coffee growers. Janet and her friends were all at points in their lives where they were in between careers. While they were down there, they kept having the most perfect cups of coffee in brightly colored ceramic mugs. Soon, they got into partnership with some coffee growers down in Mexico and their very socially responsible business was born out of a combination of all their names: Janet, Libe and Marcella. Their coffee is sold in a bunch of places and they travel down to Mexico all the time to check out their beans.

Wow. I was impressed listening to Janet tell her story. These women get to have their own business and they get to travel to Mexico of all places. Coffee plantations are always in the most exotic and romantic sounding places -- Sumatra, Costa Rica, Kona... And who could forget Meryl Streep on that coffee plantation in Kenya in Out of Africa? Granted, Meryl Streep seemed kind of lonely from what I barely remember about that movie. But I was already picturing myself living the coffee plantation lifestyle. I'm down in Mexico, wearing my hand-knitted brightly patterned poncho, sitting in a gazebo on top of a hill with the Aztec pyramids in the background, and my coffee fields below me with the ocean in the distance. Then I'd pick up my genuine Mexican handmade ceramic mug and sip my piping hot cup of fine Mexican coffee. Of course, I could never drink too much because I'm VERY sensitive to caffeine. One cup will put me over the edge. I seriously get crazy. I remember one time I drank three espressos for some reason and then called a friend and left this crazy voicemail. Later on, my friend played back my message, and I was horrified. I sounded like some strung out E junkie who needed his next fix.

We also met this weird Amish guy who was selling his mint tea from mint grown on his farm. This guy sure was busy back home. He was 28 years old and already had four kids and some grey hair at his temples. He kept us there forever, just talking our ears off. He seemed to be fascinated with meeting actual natives of New York. He literally was like that Amish guy on that TV show that moves into the city and gets corrupted by the bright lights and city life.

This guy just kept talking and talking, and we were trying to walk away. But he had us cornered. He started to ask us where we were from. I said "We're from New York." We talk for a few more minutes, and then this guy goes "Where are you really from?" And we were like, "Oh originally?" My friend said, "Canada", and I said "Virginia." Then he goes, "Well, I mean, you don't look alike. Where are you REALLY from?" My friend and I looked at each other and were like, "Oh geez. What a freak." My friend who's Indian indulged him and said "My parents are from India." And I said, "My parents are from Korea." Luckily, this guy had encountered some folks who weren't really offended and were willing to indulge him. But I hope someone eventually made him learn that you don't really ask those types of questions. Plus I was willing to forgive him since he gave me two boxes of free tea.

I finally left the festival loaded with free coffee and tea and wired for the rest of the day. I got a glimpse of a lifestyle that I might want to adopt and one that I definitely do not.

Beach Jacuzzis

I was in Atlantic City on Saturday. I had never been there before. Actually I've never been inside a casino before either. So unless you're a big gambler, Atlantic City is kind of a disappointment. I suppose those who have been there will know what I mean. Atlantic City is basically a shantytown with a few giant Trump hotels, a real old-fashioned Boardwalk and outlet stores sandwiched in between. It is not the worst place I have ever seen, and it is certainly much closer for Easterners than Vegas, so it is convenient. But if you are going, don't expect to get "out on the town" much. You'll find yourself walking along the boardwalk maybe once, hitting the seashell-ridden, kind of trashy beach and spending the rest of the time inside your hotel/casino, probably.

Anyhow, me and friend were down there to see Margaret Cho, and even though I had already heard about 70% of her jokes that night, it was still a great time and great to hear her biting social and political commentary. Her best point? It was definitely her assertion that our massage-giving cowboy president just wants to create problems where there are none in issues like gay marriage and immigration to hide how he and our gun-shooting VP have really bungled Iraq.

Overall, it was a very nice day, despite our rather late arrival due to monster traffic on the Garden State Parkway. A stop at one of the Roy Rogers/Cinnabon rest stop oases on the Parkway halfway through the drive provided a nice little stretch and then we were back on the road. When we finally got to Atlantic City, we parked our car and immediately checked out the Boardwalk and the shore. I hadn't been to a beach in ages, and the sand felt good between my toes. I saw a little girl digging a giant hole in the sand, and her brother, who must have been 6 or 7, came running over and asked "What are you building? A Jacuzzi???" So cute.

Now I can mark Atlantic City on my list places that I've been to. I had a somewhat sheltered and privileged upbringing. So this little trip satisfied my morbid curiousity about a somewhat (ok, really) seedy city.

I Saw An X-Man Today

I usually hate going to the grocery store on Sundays. I can't stand the crowds and mile-long lines. At Whole Foods, you'll see guys with walkie-talkies saying things like "It looks really bad back here" or "The lines are all the way back to the sushi counter. We need to get moving" with impressive military-like effiency. Then of course there's the infamous sign guy holding the "Express Line Ends Here" sign on a big placard, standing miles from the registers, so that you actually can find the end in the throngs of people stocking up for the week as if we were on the brink of nuclear winter.

Well, today I was at Whole Foods Chelsea because I had this craving for mushrooms. So I went in to quickly grab some creminis, white buttons, portobellos and shitakes and then hopefully be out in 10 minutes. While I was scurrying around, since I thought of some other things to get, I bumped into Anna Paquin in front of the prepared sandwiches and salads. I'm a total dork and get star struck at just about anyone remotely famous. So I was like, "Omg, that's Anna Paquin." I even spoke to her because she was kind of in my way, and I had to say "Excuse me." But I really wanted to ask her "Hey, where's Iceman?"

Alas, I just walked around her and went home, mushrooms in hand. Despite it being a Sunday, my trip today to the grocery store was pretty cool in my book.

Wordplay

A few weekends ago, I saw Wordplay. I left the theater itching to get my hands on a copy of the New York Times and a pencil, which isn't something I generally feel. I used to do them in college when I was bored during class. I was always pretty good at them, but the crossword puzzles in my college newspaper are child's play compared to the holy grail of crossword puzzles, The New York Times.

There's a performance of a song in Wordplay about crossword puzzles with the refrain, "If you don't come across, I'm gonna be down." So, yeah, it's that kind of movie, but it was surprisingly entertaining and suspenseful. There are interviews with all sorts of celebrity crossword lovers like Bill Clinton, the Indigo Girls and Jon Stewart who delivers the funniest line of the movie when he says "I'll do USA Today, but I won't feel good about it." When you get to the actual tournament in the second half of the movie, there is a thrill in witnessing the contestants throw hissy fits when they overlook important words or pretend to enjoy each other's company when the cameras are around. There's the super-hyper college kid, Tyler, who really needs to take a chill pill. There's former champion Ellen who's this kind of nerdy girl who twirls a baton, but came up with the best come-back line when she told her condescending boyfriend, "Well, what are you the best in the country at?" My favorite player is Jon, the mellow bespectacled piano player who's won the tournament a record seven times. He never practices for the tournament. He just comes and tries to do the best he can each time. He seemed to be the least off-puttingly cutesy and most importantly least ego-centric of all the contestants, which was like a breath of fresh air after listening to Trip go on and on and on about his obsession with crosswords.

The funniest thing about me and crossword puzzles is that I once banned them at my old job. I had a pretty large staff on my last case at the last job I worked at. And inevitably, there was some downtime. I was kind of a neat freak in the caseroom, because I couldn't stand seeing papers lying all around. I'd proclaim, "If you don't know what it is, just throw it away." Of the many papers I'd throw away were photocopies of the New York Times crossword puzzles. Why the hell are there copies of these everywhere? I even had to declare it as a rule in the caseroom because I was so tired of seeing them everywhere.

Now I feel bad for depriving all the guys on my staff of their fun. I might have stunted the development of a future champion. I feel so guilty.

I'm back!

Wow, I meant to post more than I ended up doing while I was away. But sadly, I didn't get a chance to. Even though I wasn't away for that long, I feel like I missed a lot back in NY and am so out of my routine. I seem to have missed the heat wave back here in New York, which I am very thankful for. And I have to say that San Franciscans are wimps when it comes to heat. It was hot, but not THAT hot out there. The humidity is much less, and I felt fine. At least the people out there aren't as crazy about air conditioners as people in New York are.

Anyhow, I'll be posting soon!

Enjoying California Wines

Sometimes I wish I had gone to Cornell as an undergrad. Then I could have taken the famous wine class. A friend of mine went to Cornell and told me that it's really hard to get into because it's only open to Seniors and depending on how the stars are aligned, you get access to enroll in classes at random times because of some weird thing about their system.

Right now I'm in San Francisco again for work. It's a pretty nice place to get shipped off to for work. And if I ever leave New York, I'd probably come here to San Francisco. If I were here I could make more trips out to Napa Valley. I've done the Napa thing once and it was so much fun, despite the almost silly inherent oeniphile elitist feeling you get when you're out there. Even if you're not Andrea Immer, you'll become your own wine expert after one trip out to Napa and armed with lots of information the next time you're at a fancy restaurant.

Last night, I had dinner at One Market which is across the street from my hotel here in San Francisco. Besides the food, which was really good, the best part about it was the wine. They're running some sort of promotion to promote awareness of California wines. The deal is 50% off of ANY bottle of wine in their list, which is like a novel. My friend and I got a bottle of yummy 2003 Cakebread Cabernet for only $60 as opposed to $120. Usually I hate buying wine in restaurants because of the absurd markups (worse are the stupid corkage fees), but $60 is less than retail for this bottle. Tasting it made me think of the good times I had in Napa.

Another Trip Out West

I'm off to San Francisco again for work. I go there so much I practically live there! I'll be posting while I'm away with more stories from the West Coast.

Happy (hot, humid, muggy, steamy) Sunday everyone.

My Arctic Apartment

I've developed a cold. I actually seem to get all my colds in the summer. Does anyone else have this problem? It's my powerful air conditioner. Mine turns my apartment into a freaking ice box. It's like that in a lot of places in New York, including my office. Indoor New York can be freezing! It's like people here react to steamy temperatures by turning the insides of buildings into habitats fit for polar bears. I have central air in my apartment, but even at the lowest setting, I'm shivering twenty minutes later. But if I turn it off, it gets hot again. So I'm constantly having to turn it on and off while I'm sitting at home. I remember once when a friend asked me what BTU she should get for her A/C. She said the guy at the store told her to get a unit that was like 2,000,000 BTU or something ridiculous like that. Well, I advised her to just get the smaller unit if it's just for her bedroom because my A/C gives me pneumonia.

I know a lot of people don't have air conditioners, and I'm sure in this weekend's heat wave, I will be the object of envy by many. But this summer when I'm at home and work, I'll be pulling out my fleece and drinking my hot cocoa to keep me warm.

Bagels

I've had a busy week this week, and then yesterday, the monsoon season returned and my Internet got knocked out. Can I just say that RCN really needs to hire more Customer Service people? Last night the "estimated wait time" was 56 minutes!

Anyhow, this post is a little late. But I just had to share this. On Sunday, I was walking down Broadway after my run around the Reservoir. I stopped in Zabar's for a few minutes to browse around. Zabar's isn't my favorite gourmet grocery store, but I do think they have one of the top three cheese departments in the city. After smelling the aromas, I left. Two doors down is H&H bagels. I LOVE H&H bagels. They must lace those things with crack or something because they're sooooo good. The crusty exterior with the chewy soft and sweet interior are just bagel heaven. I toast my bagels, which I know is supposed to be a cardinal sin for a true New York bagel. Supposedly the goodness of a New York bagel should shine through without toasting. But I just toast a little bit because I like the crust that forms after toasting. The most fun way to get an H&H bagel is to visit their giant plant on the West Side Highway at two in the morning and get whatever's hot from the oven.

So on Sunday, I left Zabar's and walked down Broadway and figured I'd stop and get a bagel to eat at home since I was in the neighborhood. Right in front of the H&H bagel store, there was a group of five very Long Island jappy girls. The leader of the jap pack declared, "Ok, let's go in and get a bagel and the five of us will split one!"

I'm sorry, but you don't deserve to have an H&H bagel if you're gonna split one amongst five people.

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.