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!