Saturday, November 24, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm spending my Thanksgiving holiday in North Carolina, at my grandparents' house.  I've been here since Tuesday afternoon.  It's now Saturday morning and I feel like I've been here for the past 3 months.  The past few days have included over-eating, family arguments that stretch on for hours, outlet-mall shopping (right up there with having my liver removed), and sharing an attic "room" with mice at night.  Oh, and the TV has permanent closed-captions for my grandfather who's not actually deaf.  

I've never been more excited to get back to the cramped quarters of NYC.  

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Could it be??

That's right, I'm back. I've now gone more than 7 months without posting to my blog and my, how things have changed. Let's start with work:

1) I'm now, by no fault of my own, a Research Director. I know, sounds important, probably will be at some point.
2) Someone reports to me... I'll let that sink in for a few seconds.....................OK.
3) This one no longer works here and she's sorely missed.
4) We were bought out by this guy and honestly, I don't really care either way (reference point #1 for why I don't care so much).
5) Many others have left, others promoted, some fired. All in all, I'm still in the numbers game.

Now on to my social life.... this one might be short:

1) Since February, I've dated off and on, some situations lasting longer than others.
2) I've gained some new friends through work and outside who've helped sharpen my perspective.
3) I really have nothing else to put here....

My apartment:
1) Still living in Battery Park City with the two roommates. Nothing new there, though I think I'm going to have to sign for another year as rents in this city are insane on 1BR's.
2) Now features occasional "guests".... not my guests, but guests all the same... enough said.
3) Really needs to be cleaned (not my room, the rest of the dump).

New York:

1) Survived a steam pipe situation
2) Remains too expensive and is getting more expensive as I type these very l-e-t-t-e-r-s....
3) Continues to fascinate me (and I'm actually not being sarcastic... just wait, it's coming).
4) Has some of the rudest people living/commuting through it that I've ever seen (Is it really that hard to get the crap out of my way as I get off the subway before you race in for that seat you don't need to sit in anyway as you're only going ONE DAMN STOP further uptown?)

So yes, I'm back, for now. I can't promise this will become a habit again as, well, I'm a director, I'm busy (and I'm not really that big of an a-hole). Check back soon... or in a few months.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Yeah, I'm really into updating this thing

It's been just over a month since I last posted anything on here. You might think my brain has just been switched off for a month which would explain my lack of content. Fear not - I am among the living. (My mother called me today just to, as she put it "Make sure you're alive.... I haven't heard from you since 2006.".... Yeah I suck.)

Anyway, I thought about getting rid of this blog, or at least putting an unofficial cap on it, much like you put a cap on a landfill. Waste management corporations do this all the time and then pretend there isn't a massive pile of trash under the cap and sell the land as if it was real land. Some even build parks. Turning what used to be a house for trash into a park where kids play (and occasionally come down with symptoms consistent with ebola) sounds like a great idea in theory. But if you really think about it, the trash has a way of finding its way to the surface, hence the ebola. I'd hate for someone to develop a life threatening condition because I stopped writing (and continued to think I provided any type of value - so much so that people would want to come back to this thing). So on that note, a list, somewhat of an update of what's going on, at least that I can share via the Internet:

1) New years sucked (I heard everyone had a bad time this year).
2) Work is consistent.... consistently taking up all of my time (which allows me to reflect less on the void that is my social life)
3) Netflix is a habit, much like any other narcotic.
4) I ordered 2GB of RAM for my MacBook (arriving tomorrow)
5) I had dinner last night at Del Frisco's (in the wine cellar)... that actually was a good time, but you guessed it, it was a work event.
6) I continue to live entirely in my head, thus wasting most of my time in places and situations that don't make any sense at all.
7) I'm sick of the cold and can't wait for spring. Winter in the city is not fit for man or beast.


That should hold you over for another month or so. Maybe I'll update more often..... Yeah, right.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Rearrange my brain and reORGANize my organs

This "new" year really isn't doing it for me. So far, I've been working way too much, not hanging out with friends and haven't been around any women that I'd like to be around in about 2 or 3 weeks... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

So starting today, I'm going to enjoy this year more. A friend told me (and should keep telling me until it sinks in) to "be more chill." In an attempt to be more chill, I grew a beard for about 2 and a half weeks. I had fun with facial hair on my face. I felt like I was hiding from the rest of the world. (Admittedly, a girl, a very pretty girl, told me how much she enjoys men with facial hair, so I figured it couldn't hurt to grow a beard. After all, there must be more than one pretty girl in New York who likes facial hair on a guy..... Right?) ..................So I shaved a few days ago and it felt good to be back to "my old self". Exercise in being more chill #1: slight success.

I'm going to hang out with some friends tonight in the East Village tonight to this place for dinner. The last few times I found myself in the East Village were alot of fun and though I'm not surrounding myself with the same company as of late, the neighborhood is still the same, right? (Will I ever make it here.......? Man, that's a downer.)

So that's the plan, at least for today. Though I have Monday off as it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I'm headed to work to finish up several projects and data requests to prepare for the national sales conference my company is having next week. (I get to stand up and present for a while about online media research.... sweet). As I'm sure next week will be filled with late late nights out networking and early morning breakfast conferences, I probably won't post on this for a while. For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis, you're probably already used to me ignoring this thing for days, weeks on end. But I promise to have some good stories to share at the end of next week. Hang in there, it'll be worth it.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Sowing Season

The title of this post refers to this band and their latest release. I've been a fan for years; still deciding about the new release.

I feel the title is also appropriate as this weekend was rather spring-like (that's when you sow seeds, right?....) in New York. Of course, I wasn't here to enjoy the weekend. I was upstate visiting family I had missed over the holidays. I'm always happy to spend time outside the city, especially when some sort of family is involved. But can't we do these things on cold weekends? The temperature apparently made it up to 72 fantastic degrees on Saturday. Some friends even spoke of friends of theirs heading to the shore for the day. Imagine: heading to the beach in January in New York.

I think all this "false" weather is great, but I have a real distaste for cold. This probably has something to do with going to college in Binghamton, where the temperature rarely rises above freezing during January and February and it snows every night. Some of you are probably wishing it would snow any day now, and hard so that Manhattan grinds to a halt. Snow days are great when you're still getting an education. Snow days are horrendous when you're trying to get to work because you work in private industry and NOTHING ever shuts that industry down (even a transit strike) and you're slipping and sliding through slush (snow doesn't last long in Manhattan; conversion to slush is nearly instantaneous) just to get to the subway which is probably running slow for no reason other than, well, it's snowing. You can see how this all goes downhill quickly. And on top of the snow/slush nightmare, IT'S COLD!

So I say, bring on the unseasonably warm temperatures for as long as possible. Perhaps when this all ends, it will be April, and then we'll just be saying "it's seasonably warm". Works for me.

Monday, January 01, 2007

The New Year

Not to sound overly "emo" or "pessimistic New Yorker", but so far, this is the new year. (Those of you who've read anything from earlier in 2006 know that I blog about Death Cab too much.)

Point being, I really don't feel any different. Let's examine the last 48 hours or so:

1) Spent the day in bed Saturday sick/hungover.......the entire day
2) Woke up too early on Sunday, partly as a product of spending Saturday in and out of consciousness.
3) Breakfast from this place (they deliver; minimum delivery charge = $3.75)
4) Called Trevor to firm up plans to meet at Jules' new place (both good friends from high school; Jules just moved in with his girlfriend on the Upper East Side.)
5) Lugged bottle of wine (it's not really "lugging" as it's just a bottle of wine, but I felt awkward carting it uptown in a Target bag) to Jules' new pad and helped move furniture (thankfully, he was moving exactly one block further downtown).
6) Hung out with Trevor, Jules, Monica (Jules' girlfriend), Alissa (who, though she refuses to admit it, attempted to burn me with a hot glue gun in 8th grade "Technology" class) and some others, notably Frank.
7) Headed to Williamsburg to see Your 33 Black Angels, the band that my friend Tim from high school started a while back. (Tim passed in early 2006... we miss you, man.)
8) Wandered home on the L train around 3 am. Made it to my apartment soaked and sober (rain on New Years Eve?) by 3:30 am.
9) Woke around 10 am today. Ended up going to the office for a few hours as I'd neglected a few projects last week what with all the people being gone and the distractions.
10) Met up with a friend for dinner and some horrendous TV.

I think we all like to believe there will be some earth-shattering change in our lives or that with the new year, somehow, "things" will be different. I've given up on this concept. Time is irrelevant to how "things" go in your life. They either happen, or they don't, and reasons abound for both paths. So, while I welcome a return to a normal work pattern and a more regular gym pattern, I see nor feel no discernible difference in 2007 from 2006. Perhaps it's all just a mental construct in order to get ourselves together, resolved to make changes and do "things" differently.... I'm not buying it anymore.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Happy Holidays.... or Merry Christmas... or just enjoy the day off

So the holidays are here.... Great. Tomorrow, I'm flying here to see my grandparents. I have to say, I'm looking forward to getting out of the city for a while. The last time I left, I went to D.C. for the day and was sick the entire time. I'll be out of town until Wednesday, a significant amount of time away from work and this city. But I have to say, I'm just not in the holiday spirit this year.

It always happens to me every year: Christmas sort of sneaks up on me while I'm not looking and by the time I take notice, it's a new year and new projects at work and the cycle starts all over again. One of my favorite things about Christmas used to be cutting down a REAL Christmas tree every year. Not only would I NEVER allow a fake tree in the house, I also had to make sure we cut it down fresh.

UPDATE: I'm back from the grandparents'. I like how earlier (last week) I commented that I wanted to get out of the city for a while. Put it this way: I should have stayed in the city. Between airport delays, grumpy family members, and the non-stop eating that apparently happens everywhere but New York, I'm not exactly pleased with the trip. Plus you always hear about "Christmas in New York", but who really stays here for the actual holiday? Most people are gone until after New Years; I'm sitting in my mostly empty office this week wondering why I'm not off.