Well, my sentence in Delaware has been extended by a few weeks. Oh Joy :o| . I guess it's better than the alternative, flying to Chicago every week to work with "Shrek Shrek Shizzle Dizzle", the senior manager on the project, at an insurance company. I spent lots of time out there last year and I think I'd rather stick around here in Delaware, where I can get home at night if I want to live with a 2.5 hour commute....
Speaking of going home at night, tonight I'm heading back to the city to catch an Oakland A's vs. NY Yankees baseball game at the Bronx Stadium. Though the Yanks are the local favorites and have already smoked the A's the last two games, I'm going to wear the green and gold colors of the A's with pride! Because THESE COLORS DON'T RUN, BABY!!!
Work's slow today, I guess I outta start working on this research paper that I need to have written by the end of next month...
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Weekend with the Folks
Well, my folks have arrived at the airport and are on their way back home already after a quick but fruitful three day trip. They (and, as tour-guide, I) did lots of walking around town the past few days and got a good taste of the city that I call home. Unfortunately, they didn't have quite enough time to get to some can't-miss items like Central Park. I guess we'll have to save that for next time. Just don't blame it on the tour guide.... ;o)
Saturday night we chilled out at an awesome restaurant called Suba, listed as one of TimeOut New York's Top 100 restaurants in the city. And, let me tell you, it didn't disappoint! It served up the best "Nuevo Latino/Spanish" grub that I've had yet. The appetizers were especially rock solid, as I munched on roasted red peppers filled with Tuna, a chopped endive salad, and, the best of all, a shrimp ceviche. Out of this world!
Rent is due in a few days and, for the first time since I've moved to the city, finding the $1300 to pay for the month is going to be tough. I guess I have to dip into my savings...Not sure why I'm coming up short this month, must be the job expenses that my employer makes me pay for out of my own pocket until they get around to reimbursing me. I think I'll spend my next few lunch hours on monster.com rather than paying the minimum $5 required to get me some grub...
This weekend is Spring Cleanup Day! Yea! I'll be spending an afternoon with a few thousand New Yorkers cleaning up parks around the city. I've signed up for a park in Brooklyn, though I forget which one at the moment. Guess I better buy some tax-free gloves this week in Dull-aware so that I don't have to barehand a soiled syringe or....other...soiled...items...(use your imagination)...
Saturday night we chilled out at an awesome restaurant called Suba, listed as one of TimeOut New York's Top 100 restaurants in the city. And, let me tell you, it didn't disappoint! It served up the best "Nuevo Latino/Spanish" grub that I've had yet. The appetizers were especially rock solid, as I munched on roasted red peppers filled with Tuna, a chopped endive salad, and, the best of all, a shrimp ceviche. Out of this world!
Rent is due in a few days and, for the first time since I've moved to the city, finding the $1300 to pay for the month is going to be tough. I guess I have to dip into my savings...Not sure why I'm coming up short this month, must be the job expenses that my employer makes me pay for out of my own pocket until they get around to reimbursing me. I think I'll spend my next few lunch hours on monster.com rather than paying the minimum $5 required to get me some grub...
This weekend is Spring Cleanup Day! Yea! I'll be spending an afternoon with a few thousand New Yorkers cleaning up parks around the city. I've signed up for a park in Brooklyn, though I forget which one at the moment. Guess I better buy some tax-free gloves this week in Dull-aware so that I don't have to barehand a soiled syringe or....other...soiled...items...(use your imagination)...
Thursday, April 22, 2004
It's been a busy couple of weeks since I've last blogged, but I have plenty of stories and thoughts on life. Therefore, I blog.
Where do I start? Before I go into the past, let's look to the future. Tomorrow my parents are coming to visit me in NYC. They haven't traveled extensively in the states (though my mom moved every two years as a child because grandpa was in the Navy), but they've been to Boston / Massachusetts / New England (where my grandmother's side of the family is from). I also wouldn't call them "Urbanites" (if that word exists), because dad is an outdoorsman and mom just hasn't spent a lot of time in the big cities, or at least during my lifetime. But I think that they'll like the city. They better!!
So, the last time I left you, I was stuck at the airport on the way to Nashville. I eventually made it there and had an excellent weekend. Friday night we checked out the Nashville nightlife, which blew me away because I figured that it would be an Anytown, USA type of city. Instead I found downtown having a plethora of bars, clubs, and restaurants. Being the intelligent guy that I am, I decided to leave my license at the hotel despite the fact that we were going to meet some other people from the wedding at a bar downtown. After making the 20 minute commute, parking, and walking all the way to our meeting spot, I was denied at the door and had to drive back to get my license. Not such a good idea. By the time I got back, everyone was gone and all the restaurants had closed. We did find a little bar with an awesome live student-style band. They were a mix of Dave Matthews and funk and had an ear-splitting good time.
On Saturday, after a lazy morning, we checked out some of the city's sites, including the centennial mall, which celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the state's induction to the union. The big event for the day was Kathy and Ian Barr's wedding that evening, which is why I was in town. There were quite a few present/past co-workers of mine from all over the country who Kathy and I are mutual friends with, so I knew that it would be quite a festive event. She had a short wedding ceremony (about 10 minutes long) and then there was dining and dancing at the reception following. I loved hanging out with my old work buddies again, many of whom I hadn't seen in a while. I also had the pleasure of meeting some of Kathy's non-work friends and family, some of whom were quite intruiging ;o)! We all headed out to a place called the Boundry after the reception (including the sober bride and groom!) for some more celebration. While there, I got to catch up with some of my buddies some more and chat with some of the new people that I met. At the end of the night, I decided that I needed some Jaegermeister to settle my stomach. While settling my stomach, it unsettled Sherry, a coworker who I'd met that night (though I'd heard her stories), because I didn't offer her a shot, although I knew she was the biggest lush of them all! Sorry, Sherry, you weren't in my line of sight at the moment! She made me pay for it by tormenting me for the rest of the night with endless ramble and forcing beverages from her flask down my throat. I won't forget that lesson..... :o)
Julie from Chicago and I had a chance to chat for a few hours at the airport the next day before our flights. Julie and I have been friends after I'd worked in Chicago for a few months, shortly before she quit to go work for another company in the area. We've always gotten along pretty well, she enjoys the stories of me making an absolute fool of myself and needing to insert my foot into my mouth. Not that there's too many of those stories out there ;o)
Last weekend, the weather finally broke in NYC. It was warm enough to wear shorts and short sleaves! Good thing some of us had a soccer game scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Central Park. I sported the Juventus Turin shorty-shorts and Eintracht Frankfurt jersey to become quite possibly the biggest poser in the whole park, where, by the way, about 95% of the city was that day. Sometimes I would just look around and think about the fact that there was so many people in one place at once. It was incredible, but such is the case on days with perfect weather. The weather was nice enough for my parched skin to change from albino-white/pink to some shade of.....something not as albino white/pink (I'll resist the urge to say "tan" because everyone knows I'd be lying).
Saturday night we went to Sushi Samba for one of Paul & Cathy's out-of-town-friend's birthdays. It was quite a feast, and quite an expensive one at that. We also hit up a club called Branch, which had quite a variety of music and has some potential, but we didn't stay long enough as we headed downtown for a dive bar which remains nameless today. The ladies in my entourage insisted on going to some guys' after-party after the bar closed at 4:00am and I didn't get home until 5:30 Sunday morning, late enough to see the sun creeping above the skyline.
Normally I would call a 5:30am return a successful night, but the fact that I had to wake up at 9:00 on Sunday puts a damper on that statement. A few months back I signed up for NY Cares, an organization that is a feeder for many of the volunteer projects going on every week in the city. Sunday was my first event: taking a group of kids from a transitional housing (i.e. between homeless and living in low-income housing) center in Harlem to the Space and Natural History Museum on the Upper West Side. I got paired up with Jeffrey, a half Puerto Rican, half Dominican boy who was about 10 years old. Unlike most of the other kids, he was very calm, obedient, friendly, and well mannered. I enjoyed spending the day with him at the museum, he really enjoyed checking out the dinosaur exhibits and the space movie at the end of the day. The majority of the boys in this group were out of control and they all come from the complete opposite background as me. The look in their eyes when they want to hit one of the other kids just amazed me, they were so angry and dedicated to getting payback. But I know that a lot of them really enjoyed the movie and the exhibits, it was great. I figure if I can become a friend to a few of the kids and see them every month during the events, who knows what can happen. All some of these kids need is someone to give them some attention and set some sort of example and it can mean a big difference. We'll see what happens next month when we go on a tour of Liberty Harbor with them!
I think that's enough blogging for now!
Where do I start? Before I go into the past, let's look to the future. Tomorrow my parents are coming to visit me in NYC. They haven't traveled extensively in the states (though my mom moved every two years as a child because grandpa was in the Navy), but they've been to Boston / Massachusetts / New England (where my grandmother's side of the family is from). I also wouldn't call them "Urbanites" (if that word exists), because dad is an outdoorsman and mom just hasn't spent a lot of time in the big cities, or at least during my lifetime. But I think that they'll like the city. They better!!
So, the last time I left you, I was stuck at the airport on the way to Nashville. I eventually made it there and had an excellent weekend. Friday night we checked out the Nashville nightlife, which blew me away because I figured that it would be an Anytown, USA type of city. Instead I found downtown having a plethora of bars, clubs, and restaurants. Being the intelligent guy that I am, I decided to leave my license at the hotel despite the fact that we were going to meet some other people from the wedding at a bar downtown. After making the 20 minute commute, parking, and walking all the way to our meeting spot, I was denied at the door and had to drive back to get my license. Not such a good idea. By the time I got back, everyone was gone and all the restaurants had closed. We did find a little bar with an awesome live student-style band. They were a mix of Dave Matthews and funk and had an ear-splitting good time.
On Saturday, after a lazy morning, we checked out some of the city's sites, including the centennial mall, which celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the state's induction to the union. The big event for the day was Kathy and Ian Barr's wedding that evening, which is why I was in town. There were quite a few present/past co-workers of mine from all over the country who Kathy and I are mutual friends with, so I knew that it would be quite a festive event. She had a short wedding ceremony (about 10 minutes long) and then there was dining and dancing at the reception following. I loved hanging out with my old work buddies again, many of whom I hadn't seen in a while. I also had the pleasure of meeting some of Kathy's non-work friends and family, some of whom were quite intruiging ;o)! We all headed out to a place called the Boundry after the reception (including the sober bride and groom!) for some more celebration. While there, I got to catch up with some of my buddies some more and chat with some of the new people that I met. At the end of the night, I decided that I needed some Jaegermeister to settle my stomach. While settling my stomach, it unsettled Sherry, a coworker who I'd met that night (though I'd heard her stories), because I didn't offer her a shot, although I knew she was the biggest lush of them all! Sorry, Sherry, you weren't in my line of sight at the moment! She made me pay for it by tormenting me for the rest of the night with endless ramble and forcing beverages from her flask down my throat. I won't forget that lesson..... :o)
Julie from Chicago and I had a chance to chat for a few hours at the airport the next day before our flights. Julie and I have been friends after I'd worked in Chicago for a few months, shortly before she quit to go work for another company in the area. We've always gotten along pretty well, she enjoys the stories of me making an absolute fool of myself and needing to insert my foot into my mouth. Not that there's too many of those stories out there ;o)
Last weekend, the weather finally broke in NYC. It was warm enough to wear shorts and short sleaves! Good thing some of us had a soccer game scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Central Park. I sported the Juventus Turin shorty-shorts and Eintracht Frankfurt jersey to become quite possibly the biggest poser in the whole park, where, by the way, about 95% of the city was that day. Sometimes I would just look around and think about the fact that there was so many people in one place at once. It was incredible, but such is the case on days with perfect weather. The weather was nice enough for my parched skin to change from albino-white/pink to some shade of.....something not as albino white/pink (I'll resist the urge to say "tan" because everyone knows I'd be lying).
Saturday night we went to Sushi Samba for one of Paul & Cathy's out-of-town-friend's birthdays. It was quite a feast, and quite an expensive one at that. We also hit up a club called Branch, which had quite a variety of music and has some potential, but we didn't stay long enough as we headed downtown for a dive bar which remains nameless today. The ladies in my entourage insisted on going to some guys' after-party after the bar closed at 4:00am and I didn't get home until 5:30 Sunday morning, late enough to see the sun creeping above the skyline.
Normally I would call a 5:30am return a successful night, but the fact that I had to wake up at 9:00 on Sunday puts a damper on that statement. A few months back I signed up for NY Cares, an organization that is a feeder for many of the volunteer projects going on every week in the city. Sunday was my first event: taking a group of kids from a transitional housing (i.e. between homeless and living in low-income housing) center in Harlem to the Space and Natural History Museum on the Upper West Side. I got paired up with Jeffrey, a half Puerto Rican, half Dominican boy who was about 10 years old. Unlike most of the other kids, he was very calm, obedient, friendly, and well mannered. I enjoyed spending the day with him at the museum, he really enjoyed checking out the dinosaur exhibits and the space movie at the end of the day. The majority of the boys in this group were out of control and they all come from the complete opposite background as me. The look in their eyes when they want to hit one of the other kids just amazed me, they were so angry and dedicated to getting payback. But I know that a lot of them really enjoyed the movie and the exhibits, it was great. I figure if I can become a friend to a few of the kids and see them every month during the events, who knows what can happen. All some of these kids need is someone to give them some attention and set some sort of example and it can mean a big difference. We'll see what happens next month when we go on a tour of Liberty Harbor with them!
I think that's enough blogging for now!
Friday, April 09, 2004
What is it with my Friday nights lately? Last week I was stuck at work waiting for a deployment to finish and this week I'm stuck at the Philadelphia Airport (a few miles from the Delaware border) waiting for a 7:00 flight. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I booked this flight to Nashville late on Friday evening. The only earlier flight was at 1:45, and I left work at 11:00 so that I could go pick up my newly-tailored suit and head to the airport and fly standby on that flight. Wouldn't you know, the flight was oversold. But there was still one seat left on the plane before it left! Despite the fact that I got there early (and was the first name on the standby list), Mr. James Riley apparently got priority seating before me. Bastard!! I guess that's what I get for flying an airline where I don't have any status. So I have a few hours left to sit here, listen to my latest Roger Sanchez Essential Mix, finish watching "The Three Amigos" (purchased the DVD last weekend), etc.. Therefore, I blog.
This week was decently fun. Tuesday night we went to the equivalent of "Central Perk" -- Zanzibar Blue, across the street from my hotel. They have Salsa Tuesdays with live music and a small dance floor. Not being a big salsa dancer myself, I usually just go to hang out and drink some free margaritas and, on an inspirational night, dance a cha-cha or two. Well, I was inspired on Tuesday by a table-full of University of Delaware co-eds celebrating "girls night out", a rare sight at an establishment like Zanzibar. Suffice it to say that I had a good night that night at Zanzibar and that a few of the girls got complementary dance lessons from myself! The pictures should be online soon....
This weekend I'm off to Nashville for Katherine's wedding. I'll be reunited with most of my good friends from work who I haven't seen lately (mostly because they were smart and all quit and got better jobs). It should be a rockin good time tomorrow night. I'll be sporting a black suit that I purchased last weekend (along with a grey pinstripe) and I'll be sure to take some pictures.
Until next time.....
This week was decently fun. Tuesday night we went to the equivalent of "Central Perk" -- Zanzibar Blue, across the street from my hotel. They have Salsa Tuesdays with live music and a small dance floor. Not being a big salsa dancer myself, I usually just go to hang out and drink some free margaritas and, on an inspirational night, dance a cha-cha or two. Well, I was inspired on Tuesday by a table-full of University of Delaware co-eds celebrating "girls night out", a rare sight at an establishment like Zanzibar. Suffice it to say that I had a good night that night at Zanzibar and that a few of the girls got complementary dance lessons from myself! The pictures should be online soon....
This weekend I'm off to Nashville for Katherine's wedding. I'll be reunited with most of my good friends from work who I haven't seen lately (mostly because they were smart and all quit and got better jobs). It should be a rockin good time tomorrow night. I'll be sporting a black suit that I purchased last weekend (along with a grey pinstripe) and I'll be sure to take some pictures.
Until next time.....
Friday, April 02, 2004
Well, this will certainly be a Friday night to forget. While the other twenty coworkers of mine are resting in their homes or visiting friends in their hometowns, I'm spending the evening with a pair of coworkers in lovely, dreary Delaware, waiting for a computer to crank through 1700 user accounts on a server in New York City, which is where I should be. Though this sounds exciting and adventurous to most people, I personally find a software status bar that moves a millimeter every fifteen minutes rather dull. Therefore, I blog.
This week has been amazingly ordinary for me. Last night, after a tough pair of raquetball games with my gargantuan Indian coworker (we tied, one game a piece), I spent the evening at Zanzibar Blue, the local high-class restaurant (not my usual taste, but pickers can't be choosers in Dull-aware) that serves up martinis and live jazz music. Thursday night is "Swing Night", so I thought I would cruise over and tear up the carpet with my moves for a bit. Wouldn't you know it -- while they have swing music, they have no dance floor. Figures. The music was decent, although the lead singer (male) sung pretty much exclusively Frank Sinatra songs (because his voice is exactly the same as "Ol' Blue Eyes") and the other lead singer (female) could have been a "lowlight" (as opposed to a highlight) of the first-round American Idol candidates. Nonetheless, I got to chat with one of the off-duty waitresses who normally provides us with great service (and a nice smile ;o) on Tuesday nights (Salsa Night)....
I have no major plans for this weekend. I'm hoping to go suit shopping, possibly at Jos A. Bank, in preperation for Katherine's wedding and to remain optimistic about the chances of me updating my resume and interview for a new job that doesn't require me to be in Delahell on a Friday night. I may also get my eyes checked out so that I can get a contact lense prescription since my Armani spectacle frames are erroding quickly. Italian quality my arse! Plus, it's always nice to be able to actually SEE things when I wear sunglasses...
I'm selling my car. Please feel free to offer me your life savings for it:
While I have gotten a few nibbles on it, I have not received any offers. The one lead that I had (or should I say the one test-driver) decided to go with the GTI VR6 (he must hate the environment) and thought that my car was overpriced. We all know that that's not true!
The software status bar moved another millimeter. The anticipation for completion builds....
This week has been amazingly ordinary for me. Last night, after a tough pair of raquetball games with my gargantuan Indian coworker (we tied, one game a piece), I spent the evening at Zanzibar Blue, the local high-class restaurant (not my usual taste, but pickers can't be choosers in Dull-aware) that serves up martinis and live jazz music. Thursday night is "Swing Night", so I thought I would cruise over and tear up the carpet with my moves for a bit. Wouldn't you know it -- while they have swing music, they have no dance floor. Figures. The music was decent, although the lead singer (male) sung pretty much exclusively Frank Sinatra songs (because his voice is exactly the same as "Ol' Blue Eyes") and the other lead singer (female) could have been a "lowlight" (as opposed to a highlight) of the first-round American Idol candidates. Nonetheless, I got to chat with one of the off-duty waitresses who normally provides us with great service (and a nice smile ;o) on Tuesday nights (Salsa Night)....
I have no major plans for this weekend. I'm hoping to go suit shopping, possibly at Jos A. Bank, in preperation for Katherine's wedding and to remain optimistic about the chances of me updating my resume and interview for a new job that doesn't require me to be in Delahell on a Friday night. I may also get my eyes checked out so that I can get a contact lense prescription since my Armani spectacle frames are erroding quickly. Italian quality my arse! Plus, it's always nice to be able to actually SEE things when I wear sunglasses...
I'm selling my car. Please feel free to offer me your life savings for it:
While I have gotten a few nibbles on it, I have not received any offers. The one lead that I had (or should I say the one test-driver) decided to go with the GTI VR6 (he must hate the environment) and thought that my car was overpriced. We all know that that's not true!
The software status bar moved another millimeter. The anticipation for completion builds....
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