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Parting Words

OK, before I head out, I'll leave everyone with something to think about over the next few weeks. A week after I get back, on the 16th, is my birthday, my first in NY in a long time. I'm planning on organizing something for the weekend after, rather than trying to go out on my actual birthday, so now comes the hard choice of where to go. I'd like something nearish to my neighborhood of the Upper West Side, since I've stood on the corner of 1st Ave. and Delancy a few too many times, waiting forever for a cab. And no place too frat like (which of course rules out the bulk of the bars in my immediate vicinity). Someplace that doesn't have a long line either, because it sucks when people are coming and going.

So over the next two weeks, think about it, and I'll be back before you know it.

 
Vacation Plans

Though I've been talking about my vacation for a while now, I realized I probably never went into any depth as to why I'm actually going to Africa, so here's a bit of a description of what my vacation will be.

One of my best friends (and senior year roommate), S, from college entered the Peace Corps in January 2002, and was sent to Mali. She was in the states around Christmas, but won't be back again till she finishes up next spring, and while she was here, she started convincing L and H, two other senior year roommates of mine, to come visit. L is in vet school so she has the summer off and was already planning on a backpacking trip in Europe, and figured if she was already in Paris, she might as well hop over to Mali (being a former French colony, all the flights are on Air France via Paris). And H works for our alma mater as a computer person, so I guess they didn't have issues with taking all that time off, so she decided to come as well.

I only get two weeks of vacation a year, though, and had already be planning go skiing with my family in March, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to take the time off necessary for the trip. I talked with my boss and he said rather than taking some time off unpaid, I can basically get an advance on my vacation days, so I decided to join my friends. I figured I'd never be able to take a trip like this when S left the Peace Corps, and this way I would be travelling with friends. Unfortunately, we are only going for two weeks, which is good for me because I probably couldn't borrow any extra time off, but still not enough time to really see the country.

Since we only have two weeks (really 12 days since it takes a full day of travel to get from the States to Mali), we won't be seeing too much, and I'm not sure what S has planned for us, but this will be the general itinerary:

6/25 - Fly from Newark to Paris (via Detroit--yes, Detroit, which of course is my punishment for using Hotwire)
6/26 - Arrive in Paris ~11:15, Leave for Mali ~4, Arrive in Bamako, the capital of Mali ~11pm. Pray my luggage gets there as well (Everyone else pray for me too because apparently this happens all the time.
6/27 - Leave Bamako to head for The Dogon, which is the region where S lives. This is the "touristy" region, which kind of resembles the southwest.
6/28-6/30 - Camp out in the Dogon, check out S's village, etc.
7/1 - Return to Bamako
7/2 - Start heading to another region on the other side of the country for a July 4th party - all I (and apparently S as well) know about this is that the region is supposed to be cool and that the party will be huge.
7/5 - Begin our trek back to Bamako for our flight home
7/8 - Fly to Paris
7/9 - Arrive in Paris ~6am, Leave for the States ~10, get back to Newark ~5pm.

We'll see how this relates to my actual travel plans.

What I surmize from this is that I am essentially travelling half way around the world to spend a lot of time on busses and go to a July 4th party. But S will be eternally grateful, and I still can't wait to go.

 
The Countdown

My last day of work before vacation! It's always the most unbearable, because you can actually see the end in sight, but aren't quite there yet. Today is especially horrible because I really don't have very much to do and can't start on anything new. I am supposed to be finishing up a memo that my boss wants me to send out, but he's at a meeting all day, so he can't review the additions I made which is quite frustrating.

And last night, instead of packing up my big pack, I spent it loading up MiniDiscs for my trip, and burning CDs for my friend in the Peace Corps who I'm visiting. When she left, I promised I would keep her up to date with modern music, since all she has is the cds she left with in January 2002, and the BBC World Service. I haven't been the best about that, so I decided I needed to go all out when visiting. I burned a bunch of CDs (Evanescence, Coldplay, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Flaming Lips) that I've been listening to recently, and I figure she can take them if she wants since I have all the music on my computer. Also, I made her a CD of what's popular on the radio these days. This tends to be a problem for me since I generally listen to NPR when I'm driving to work, but last week was fundraiser week, so I listened to the radio and inspected the play lists, and this is what I came up with:

1. The White Stripes - Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
2. Creed - One Last Breath
3. R. Kelly - Ignition (remix version)
4. John Mayer - No Such Thing
5. Coldplay - Clocks
6. Evanescence - Bring Me To Life
7. Kinky - Mas
8. Michelle Branch - All You Wanted
9. Sean Paul - Get Busy
10. Uncle Kracker - Drift Away
11. Queens of the Stone Age - Go With the Flow
12. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop
13. Radiohead - There, There
14. Wayne Wonder - No Letting Go
15. The Ataris - Boys of Summer
16. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
17. Kelly Clarkson - Miss Independent
18. 3 Doors Down - When I'm Gone
19. Foo Fighters - Times Like These

I know the John Mayer song is old, but I don't think I put it on any of my previous mixes so I thought I should add him on since they still play him on the radio. And while the Kinky song isn't exactly burning up the charts, you hear it all over the place on commercials and the like. Same goes the Michelle Branch song (how many movie ads have used it now???) Normally I would break up modern rock and pop/r&b since the styles don't go together all that well, but I didn't really have time to look for more songs, and I think she'll appreciate it, even if it doesn't have the normal mix balance I strive for. The only music I should probably have gotten for her is Justin Timberlake's album, since I know she has a weakness for the boy bands. If I get done packing early, maybe I'll download that too - somehow I have managed to go through Justin's whole run without hearing a single song of his (that I was aware of, at least), so maybe I'll suprise myself and actually like it. That or I'll just remember what a great friend I am.

Any other glaring music omissions on my part?

 
Why My Job Rocks

Today, I was highly amused when I found out I was no. 2 on google's list for the search "What does an Environmental Engineer Do?" Apparently, even
though my job isn't the cat's meow, I must be doing pretty well because today I got a raise! And not a shabby one either! The HR department wanted
to cap the raises at 4%, and since I started at my job in August and reviews were done in April, I would only have gotten 3% raise (proportional to when
I started). However, my bosses went to bat for me (without my knowledge) and got me a whopping 6.25% raise! This isn't only because I'm such a
stellar worker (which I'm obviously not since I spend way too much time blogging) - some people who are at the same level as me started off with
higher salaries based purely on their negotiating skills, so my bosses wanted to fix those disparaties. Regardless, hooray for me! Best part is
that the raise goes into effect in the next pay period, while I'm going to be on vacation.

I'd go out and celebrate hard core if I didn't have so much packing to do in the next 44 hrs. That's right, 44 hrs. until I leave my house for my
African trek!

 
Buddhism, the Tour

Was walking by the Beacon Theatre yesterday and did a double take when I saw this on its marquee

 
Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

So I did it. I took the plunge and got my hair cut. The stylist totally ignored my instructions of keeping it down to my jawline, but I think it looks pretty good and it is so easy to take care of.


Before


After

 
Dont' Drink and Drive

I have a problem most New Yorkers don't come across, and that's the issue of drinking and driving. Since I work outside of the city and drive to work, I usually encounter this dilemma if I go out after work, such as for happy hour on Friday evenings, or after our softball games on Thursday nights. This is not a problem normal people have in the morning! But alas, after last night's happy hour with Gothamist and 601am, I woke up and felt the oh so wonderful combination of still being tipsy and starting to feel hungover. Why is it that when you leave the college world, your tolerance decreases and no matter how little you drink, you still feel it the next day? Which isn't to say I didn't drink much, because that would be a lie, but I wasn't overly excessive either. In the future, though, it might be a good idea to eat more than a few bite of leftover chinese before going out drinking. I'm starting to feel better now, but I can't believe I actually came in to work today! I left early yesterday because I was "sick", so I totally could have stayed home today as well and no one would have been suprised. Damn.

Why Its Good to Live Alone

I was just reading Cati's post which made me laugh out loud, as well as remember a fun little story of my own.

Last year, when I was living in Boston, I lived in "three bedroom" with two other girls. Three was kind of an exaggeration though because it was really a one bedroom duplex, where someone put some walls up in the attic and decided they could call them bedrooms. I, the tallest, got to live in one of the attic rooms (lost the coin toss), while the roommate I was actually friends with got the master bedroom downstairs. One weekend, her ex-boyfriend came to visit and even though he was an ex, he was still sleeping in her room. So naturally, when I woke up around 8 am and noticed the house shaking, I assumed it was because they were having sex downstairs. I roll over and go back to sleep. Eventually, I turn on the TV and find out there had been an earthquake in Boston around 8 am! And no, even though he tried, she did not have sex with him.

 
Blogger Problems....My Benefit

So the hits from Blogger keep pouring in, but something odd must be going on there. Whenever I click over there, it lists the most recently updated blogs as of 4:46 PM. This is odd, since I posted mine last night at 11:14 pm, and have been getting links from Blogger ever since then. Somehow, it must be still showing up for some people, but not for me. Weird.

By the way, can you tell I'm bored at work and the company firewall is being nice to me today? Oh how I abuse thee. My boss is out of the office and I have no idea if he's coming back from his meeting or just going home. And there is work I should be doing, but I need information from these people in another office and they are both out today, so there is literally nothing for me to do. So I think I may go home sick since my stomach is a bit queasy and I want to go to the happy hour tonight.

 
Update

Since one of my new visitors, Imran, asked, I did not get any response to the email I sent E. And granted she is moving this weekend, and she generally does not do anything personal on work time, but I expected something. I know she read it because my work email tracks those things, but I guess I'm not that suprised since she's blown me off for the past 6 months, so why would she start paying attention now, since she obviously doesn't care about the friendship.

And in other unresponded emails, I wrote the mba guy a couple of days ago to let him know I was playing pickup on Tuesday, but once again, no appearance and no response, so at least I gave it a second chance. Did I really want to date an unemployed Christian guy from Nebraska? Not really, though I thought he'd be a fun guy to hang out and play frisbee with.

As for Jewish employed guys from the NY area, I do have a date for brunch on Sunday with the financial guy. We've been trying to get together for about two weeks now but have had completely conflicting schedules and I wanted to get it in before I head out (6 days left!). I have higher hopes for this one as he is employed and making over minimum wage. Of this last four guys I've been on dates with, one graduated from an MBA program and is unemployed, one is going to journalism school in the fall and has been doing part-time tech work (ie pretty much unemployed) until that starts, one worked for Teach for America and one was a musician who worked part time as a teacher's aide.... I have single-handedly felt the impact of the recession!

Plus, I was chatting with another guy who is also employed in the financial industry, though in nj, but i haven't heard from him since I mentioned I would be going to Africa for 2 weeks. Don't know if its just that he's been busy or if he didn't want wait until I got back.....

 
The Cold World of the Ice Cream Business

This morning I received my Daily Candy, discussing the opening of a Cold Stone Creamery right here in good old NYC. Apparently, the rest of the US has been enjoying this for quite a few years now but they are finally ready to tackle the big apple. And what makes them different than the run of the mill ice cream shop? Their mix ins--apparently you pick the flavor ice cream and whatever "toppings" you want and they will mix it all together for you on a board in front of your eyes.

Now, for those of you from Massachusetts, this may seem a bit familiar to you. For anyone that has ever visited Herrell's and experienced their world famous "Smoosh-Ins", this might seem very familiar indeed.
To quote the NYTimes, "The process [Herrell] invented -- mixing the candy, ground up, with a scoop of a customer's favorite flavor of ice cream -- was an immediate success. That was just the beginning."
The New York Times, December 4, 1989

Now, before I call anyone a copycat, I do my research. Cold Stone Creamery was started in 1988. Herrell's, 1980. And before that, Mr. Steve Herrell owned Steve's Ice Cream, though when he sold the name to a national company, it did not fare too well. Now I suppose Cold Stone Creamery can do whatever they want, especially since Herrell's is only found in the Boston and Amherst areas, but us in the know will always judge them against their predecessors.

However, I will make an attempt to stop by Cold Stone Creamery for the taste test, if for no other reason than the fact that half their profits at the NYC store go to the Make-a-Wish Foundations.

Other great Boston ice cream stores include Emack and Bolio's and Toscanini's. Emack and Bolio's has made the leap to the big apple (and is now the closest ice cream store to my home since the Haagen Dazs in my neighborhood apparently closed, but being in Macy's kind of bother's me.

Herrell's Stories

Back in college, during my junior year and the summer before, one of my best best friends Steve worked at Herrell's. For Steve, this was a dream job (and not just because he had the same name as the founder). The two jobs he had always wanted to do at some point in his life were working at an ice cream store, and working at a flower shop. Why these job, do you say? Because ice cream makes people happy, and so do flowers, and Steve was the type of guy who always wanted people to be happy. Now some of this may have had to do with the hyperness that was a side effect of ADD, but I think a lot of this was just because of his good heart.

My room in my apartment that year faced the street, so Steve had a habit of stopping in if my light was on, which it often was because I was quite the night owl in those days, and Steve was always up late (thanks to the hyperness). So he used to take orders from everyone in my apartment and when he got back from work between 1 and 2 (they stayed open to 12 and he often walked home to burn energy), he'd drop them off if I was awake. The great thing about having a friend in the ice cream biz was that we always had at least 4 quarts of hand packed ice cream in our fridge!

However, the best was if we showed up at the store when his manager wasn't around. One time, on my friend's b-day, we went out to dinner in Cambridge and then marched over to Herrell's to visit Steve. Naturally, we got whatever we wanted to eat, and the b-day girl was allowed to make her own Smoosh-In behind the counter. In addition, we somehow ended up in the basement of the store, which happens to be connected to the basement of the other shops on the block, including a bank a couple of doors down. And yes, you guessed it. A few minutes later, we were roaming around in the staircase of the bank. No one was stupid enough to try and open any of the doors, luckily, though a few people might have tried to get on to the roof. I still can't believe the bank didn't lock the entrance to the stairs though. (BTW, there was some drinking involved at dinner, but not much, and Steve didn't have anything since he didn't partake in any alcohol or drugs).

The one thing we never got around to doing while Steve worked there? Hotboxing the Fish Bowl after closing (for those of you who have never been there, the store in Cambridge is in a former bank and the "Fish Bowl" is an old vault that is painted like its undersea.

 
I Love Blogger

Last night after I posted, I randomly decided to check my Site Counter and noticed an influx of traffic. And based on the references, it was all from Blogger. I clicked over to see what was going on and I was no. 1 on their most recently updated blog list. Half an hour later, they hadn't updated that list and the hits were still coming. And by 9am this morning, I had almost 200 hits, seemingly all from Blogger (guess they don't update that list too often). For me this is huge, as I normally get about 20 hits per day (and I love all you regulars!), but if you newcomers decide to come back, could you sign the guestbook so that I can see where you all are hailing from, that would be great. Now, on to today's regular post....

 
Hair Troubles

I've been thinking of cutting my hair and was hoping to do it before I leave for Africa (7 days!) so that it would be cooler (like its really going to help). I don't want anything super short, like Felicity when she chopped her hair off completely, but I'm thinking Felicity around end of season 3. Does anyone know of photos of a cut like that so I can show the stylist?

Update: And yes, I love Felicity and am seriously contemplating buying the dvd set. In a random fact, the guy who wrote the Felicity theme song, Andrew Jarecki, directed a documentry Capturing the Friedmans that has garnered rave reviews and I hope to see it before I leave on vacation but if I miss it, it's going to get shown on HBO sometime in the next year.

 
Bone Tired

Ran the Nike I RunNY race today and did ok. Didn't stay around to see Everclear at the concert afterwards though because by then I was getting cold and didn't have any clothes to put on. So did what every sensible New Yorker would do and went home and ordered Chinese. Am now going to hit the sack so that I can rest up for the Gothamist and 601am Happy Hour. If you're around, come join us!

 
Life w. Brian

I'm a generally unfuckwitted, liberal, disgustingly generous, seizure-inducingly boring spod!
See how compatible you are with me!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Woo hoo! I'm 75% compatible with Brian!

 
Long Lost Friend

A bit of history...

When I was in high school, I had two best friends, and I more or less kept in touch with them through college. However, one of them, A, tended to be flakier and went to school in Philly, whereas the other one, E, went to school in NH, so I saw her a lot more in college and we kept in better touch. Both of them moved back to NYC after college, and A started in med school right away. Therefore, when I would come and visit, I usually saw E more anyway, since she wasn't as busy. And it was one time when I was home visiting that she came out with me and a couple of my college friends who were visiting the city with me, and she ended up meeting a guy and they have been dating ever since. I was incredibly happy for her because her boyfriend was a really great guy and I thought they made a good couple.

And when I decided I wanted to move back to the city, E was very excited for me and claimed she couldn't wait. I thought this would be great because E moved to an apartment 10 blocks away from me, and her boyfriend was in med school (ironically the same school as A, in the same dorm, down the hall!) so it wouldn't be like she was going to spend all her time with him. Since A was in med school, and I only had one friend from college who was living in the city, E knew that she was the one friend I was really depending on when I got back here. However, within a few weeks, it became pretty apparent that I was not going to be spending as much time with her as I expected. And she had tons to friends from college around, so was always busy, and I often felt as if I was just tagging along. Eventually, I got fed up with always being the one to make the effort and make plans, and as a result, I haven't talked to her since January.

About a month ago, I got an email from A, sent to all her friends appologizing for dropping off the face of the earth (haven't spoken with her since February) due to med school, boards, etc. She said that come June, she would have more time since she would be done with the first round of boards and her 2nd year of med school, and this got me thinking about E. I figured that I would probably see her sometime over the summer, since both A's and my birthdays are in July and that I should say something to her before then. However, I have kept putting it off, but last night I got an email from her. Just a short mass email, warning everyone of her change in address, as she would be starting law school in the fall and wanted to move closer to school. So I feel like this was the push I needed to actually get me to write to her, tell her how much she hurt me, and question why she would even bother updating me about her move if she obviously didn't care about keeping me as a friend.

I know this doesn't make the most sense, but I just needed to talk it through a bit, so thanks for listening.

 
Waking Up Is Hard To Do

Last Friday, I rolled over in bed to look at my clock, and was quite suprised to see that it read 6:45. Why this may seem way to early to most of you, you have to understand that I am supposed to leave for work by 7, and that my alarm was supposed to go off at 6:15. I have no recollection of having turned off my alarm, and I definately had not hit the snooze button. In fact, I was quite lucky to have worken up at all.

Fast forward to this morning, where I once again roll over and think to myself, not again! How can I be turning off my alarm in my sleep! And I drag myself out of bed and get into the shower, rushing slightly, but as concerned as I should be about running late (work is slow and my boss gets in after me anyway). It is not until after I get out of the shower and walk into my room that I look at my clock again, and realize it say 6:05. Not 7:05, as I expected, but 6:05! I woke up half an hour before my alarm! And this with having gone to bed after midnight (though I did take a nap yesterday afternoon since I wasn't feeling so hot). No wonder my kitty thought I was a spaz and didn't want to get out of bed.

 
Let's Try This Again

Since another internet window stalled while I was trying to blog, so forgive me if this is a bit brief. So Satruday night was not quite as crazy as I thought it would be. I spent all day Saturday on the boat, enjoying the beautiful weather and getting only a minor sunburn. And luckily the race ended before the downpours began. Managed to get the subway right after it started, but it was over by the time I got off the subway, so I didn't care too much. I only had about an hour between getting home and going to the after race party, so I didn't have any time for a nap. I checked in with my friend who' b-day it was to see what the plan was, but she still didn't know. She was going out to dinner, and that out afterwards, and I was planning on meeting them after dinner, since I was having food at the party, and she was going to call after they were done with dinner.

So after the party (which ended pretty early since all the swimmers were wiped out), I went home and ended up taking a little nap, expecting to wake up when my friend called. Imagine how suprised I was that I woke up at midnight (see a trend with my saturday nights?) So I got myself into bed and went to sleep for the rest of the night, kinda pissed off, but then again, having only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before, I wouldn't have been much fun. All in al, I wasn't al that suprised either since every time I make plans with this friend, she ends up flaking for some reason. The next day I got a call from her, though, and it turns out she went out without her phone last night, so she couldn't call anyone since she didn't know anyone's phone number. Plus, it sounds like they ended up going to someone she didn't even know's bridal shower, so it doesn't sound like I missed much.

In other news, last week I went out with a pretty cool guy--just graduated from a joint mba/international relations masters program, so obviously not empty up top. However, seeing as these days aren't the best for finding jobs, especially in that industry, he is unemployed, and paying rent on a one-bedroom sublet in the city. So we went out to dinner and had a very nice time, and I insisted on splitting, since I have a job and he doesn't. We had only emailed before hand, but I called him to tell him I was running late, and even though he would have the message and the number in the phone already, he insisted on entering it in his phone. And, we made plans to hang out and play frisbee over the weekend. I told him that I was playing in a league, so I had a game on Sunday, but that I'd be tossing around before hand, and that there were always people playing on the sidelines, so he should come anyway. But he didn't show up, even though it was his idea, and I haven't heard from him either. I think I might email him, but I don't see why anyone would suggest plans and enter my phone number into their phone when they dind't need too, if they didn't intend on showing!

Edie went through a similar situation a couple weeks ago, but for some reason I thought this would be different.

 
He is a very baaaad man

As I was driving to work this morning, I was listening to NPR as I usually do, when I heard this piece. If you take a listen, the section where they interview an Iraqi about what he thinks of the current mayor of the town in question. His response is almost exactly the same (and in the same tone) as that of Babu when Jerry inadvertantly gets him deported.

 
When Good Bands Go Bad

I was just listening to No Alternative and was once again struck by how different the Goo Goo Dolls song on it (Bitch) is from everything after. It sounds more like a metal band and I sincerely doubt Jonny was fronting on this one. I wonder what they think when they listen to their old stuff though. Do they think their old stuff is crap or do they resent that they've sold out?

On a side note, one of the best concerts I went to was Bush in '96, when No Doubt and Goo Goo Dolls opened for them. Back when they were all fairly new and fresh and distinctive.

 
The Coolest Commerical Ever

I believe I've mentioned this before, but everyone must check this out. I have yet to see it on tv, but this is probably one of the most intelligent commercials I've seen in a long time.

Saturday Dilemmas

I realized this week that I've made up for my lack of social life by getting involved in a few too many other activities. One of those is a masters swim team (team is a bit of an exageration since we only swim once a week) and a couple of people on the team are swimming this weekend in the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim and I volunteered to help out with the race. So I am spending all of Saturday (starting at 5am!) on a boat around Manhattan making sure some crazy who is swimming doesn't drown. The reward for the volunteering (besides the warm fuzzy feeling) is that we get to go to the post race dinner/party at the Boat Basin Cafe. In addition, it a college friend of mine's birthday, and I also had plans to hang out with Edie. Can I fit them all in? And get some sleep in as well? Only time will tell.

 
Another Blogger Meet-up

Gothamist and 601am have taken it upon themselves to host a blogger happy hour next Thursday, so if you're in the NYC area, I'm planning on seeing you there.

 
Weekend of Bore

So Friday night was not as great as I would have hoped. Had a nice dinner with Mr. Adorable, but no sparks. So early night on Friday, and then spent Saturday sitting on my ass in my apartment, taking adavantage of the crappy weather by cleaning up my apartment, especially the pieces of rubble left on my floor. But when Sat. night rolled around, I was totally ready to go out and hang with Cati and company, but after eating dinner, felt incredibly nauseous. I lay down for a nap in the hopes that it would go away and I could go out. When I woke up, I did feel better, but also found that it was midnight and I didn't feel like leaving the house then in the rain and all (sorry Cati!). Sunday I actually left the house, busy with frisbee and swimming (sore arms today!). That and cleaning up the cat puke off my sofa (grrr).

 
Woo-hoo! So I didn't scare off Mr. Adorable. Just got off the phone with him and am meeting him later for dinner. A friend of his is coming in from out of town is coming in later to go out in the city, but he invited me to come along with them. I'll play it by ear....

 
Dating Update

I know there hasn't been much to report recently, but in the past week, a whole bunch of new prospects appeared. Started chatting with a financial guy who seems pretty cool and might see next week. In addition, there are two other prospects that just popped up yesterday and seem like real down to earth guys. One of them wants to get together this weekend for coffee, which is fine by me because the emailing back and forth gets a bit redundant when you're carrying on essentially the same conversation (what's your job, where do you live, where did you go to college, etc.) over and over again. And the other one sent me this really great email about how he thought I was adorable (love that!) and how he was going to grad school in the fall but would have all summer to play. I got this in the morning at work and really was going to write back, but I got so busy that I didn't have time, and at 5 I still hadn't written back, though I had the reply box open all day. So instead of writing the same old stuff, I told myself f*ck it and wrote to him that I've been super busy at work so I've been bad at emailing, and did he want to just get a drink sometime this weekend and skip the intro stuff. Haven't heard from him and in hindsight am thinking maybe that wasn't the smartest thing to do as I may have scared him off. Honestly, though, he just seemed like he'd be a really fun person to hang out with I just wanted to meet him rather than wasting time I didn't really have on relatively pointless emails. Other than that, will hopefully be partying it up with Cati and crew Saturday night, and maybe even enjoying a Sunday without rain....

 
The Sky is Falling

There I was, newly showered after coming home sopping wet from a run (it was supposed to be light rain!), heating up leftovers to eat for dinner, when I hear some trickling in the chimney (which has been stopped up for probaly 40 years minimum). I look and see a couple pieces of brick in the fireplace (located inconveniently behind my desk). But there was a piece of cardboard covering the chimney and I could hear stuff falling on it. And sure enough, a minute later, it all came crashing down. A huge pile of brick pieces and dust that had probably been accumulating above the cardboard for 20 years. I called my parents (also my landlord) to tell them and my dad seemed supprisingly blase. Aparently, when its stormy out, stuff falls down the chimney and the water probably caused stuff to fall. Its all up now, filling up a whole shopping bag with the dirt, but who knows when more stuff will go pouring down into my fireplace. Ah, the troubles of living in an old house, to quote my mother.

Quote of the Day

President Bush told reporters today "I'm the master of low expectations." So true, but quite suprising to hear him admit it himself.

 
Going Head to Head With Mr. Bloomberg

It was 6:45 as I pulled up 82nd St and I see two spots - one in the school zone which would require to actually leave for work on time (by 7am) or at a meter, which isn't free until 7 pm. I opt for the meter spot, knowing my sleeping paterns of late and pull into the spot, quite sure I have a quarter in my wallet. However, when I get out of the car, I see that there are 4 minutes left on the meter and I only have dimes in my coin section. I look left - there is a newstand where I can get change. I look right - there is the bus that will take me to the gym. Do I risk the ten minutes without money in the meter, despite the cops on the rampage. I do, and on the way back from the gym I check my car. Score!! No ticket!! Take that Bloomberg - I just ripped to city off for a quarter!

 
Rain, Rain Go Away

I know I've been kinda bad about posting the past couple of weeks, but its really because my life has reached new levels of boringness. If it didn't keep raining, maybe I would have actually done something over the weekend other than sit on my ass, but no. The highlight of my weekend was instead buying this new computer. Thanks to Gizmodo for the help on choosing it.