This is our country

July 4th. America’s Independence Day. This is a day of hot dogs, baseball, apple pie and fireworks; all pieces of Americana. Little league baseball games, sipping cold lemonade on the front porch as the sun drops below the horizon, county fairs are all pieces of Americana as well. Washington, DC is my favorite piece of Americana.

I’ve been to DC various times for different reasons. The first time was in 8th grade on a class trip. I’ve been there numerous times to visit Brian when he lived there for four years after college. I’ve been there a variety times when I lived in Virginia, although I lived 2 hours away.

I love Washington, DC. I love how it was designed, its rich history, the monuments, the galleries, its tribute to the Americans who built this country and who died for it and most importantly, what it stands for. I love DC at night when the monuments are all lit up. I love how every year, millions of people come to visit DC and stand in awe of all of those things. I stand in awe of all of those things every time I am there, which, unfortunately, has not been in the past two years.

There are two times I visited DC that stand out in my mind in particular.

The first time was probably about 9 years ago, when I went to visit Brian, we were out and about sightseeing at night and taking pictures around the Mall. We wandered around for a while, finally settling on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. We snapped pictures, talked and just sat there, quietly, thinking about that moment in time and other moments in time, in that very place.

On this night, we saw a couple of amazing events take place. First, there was this couple. They were dressed to the nines, he in his tuxedo, replete with top hat and cape and she in her elegant red dress. They sauntered around the Memorial, at the top of the steps, inching closer to the statue of Abraham Lincoln. As they moved around on that level, they began to dance together, gracefully. There was no music playing. Really, there was no sound at all, other than the distant sound of cars speeding by and some chirping of crickets, yet these two people were dancing to the sound of music in their heads. It was beautiful. It was awe-inspiring.

The second event that occurred this night was equally, if not more stirring. We were still sitting on the steps of the Memorial, although I believe we had moved up closer to the top and in the silence of night, we began to hear voices singing. Two young men, I think they were African-American and were probably in their late teens or early twenties were singing, while wandering around near the pillars, just in front of the statue of Lincoln. They were singing the Star Spangled Banner and they were singing it beautifully. In addition to their incredible voices, the sounds and the words of the song were echoing off the marble walls of the Memorial making this experience even more impressive. I can still see that scene and replay the sounds in my head. I will never forget them.

(a picture taken that night)

The other time I vividly remember in DC was the one July 4th we spent there, again, visiting Brian. I believe it was ’97, but I’m not entirely sure. If you’ve never been to DC to be a part of the July 4th spectacular, you are missing an unbelievable experience. We took the train to the Mall and walked past the Smithsonian and the Jefferson Memorial. Flying slightly above the grass were hundreds of thousands of fireflies. It was the first time I’d seen that many in one place and it was as though they were putting on a show before the show. Anyway, we continued to walk to the Mall to try to find a spot to sit down and watch, which is a feat in itself, since there are a few hundred thousand people there. We found the perfect spot, about 200 yards west of the Washington Monument, facing the Lincoln Memorial. We laid down on the grass, looking up into the sky, listening to the people around us and the music off in the distance. When the fireworks started, we didn’t need to sit up, or look in all different directions, we were able to lie there, on the grass, surrounded by thousands of people, taking in the sights and sounds while the fireworks display was going on immediately over our heads. For almost an hour, the blasts rocked the night sky, taking you higher and bringing you back down with expert execution. It was magnificent.

If you haven’t been to Washington, DC, I can’t stress enough how great it is to go there. I couldn’t imagine living there, but visiting has always been a pleasure. I think Americans take for granted this great city, its rich history and all the regalia associated with our nation’s capital because of what goes on there – politics. It puts a sour taste in our mouths to think of the bureaucracy and lies and deceit, while forget the good things that our government does, such as…ok, I can’t think of anything right now, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, on this 4th of July, I just wanted to remind myself of a piece of Americana that I love almost as much as apple pie.

We are the champions

The college I went to for the first three semesters after high school holds a special place in my heart. I met all of my best friends there. All my boys in NYC lived within 75 feet of my dorm room freshman year. However, one of the main reasons I went there was that it is a well known, Division-III hockey school. I felt that I could play at that level and I felt that this school was close enough to home for my parents to come watch, but far enough away for me to be away from my parents!

Long story short, I wound up not playing hockey there. I never even tried out. I did know a bunch of people on the team and I went to many games, enjoying the atmosphere and reveling in the rivalries.

This past weekend, the Oswego State Lakers won their first D-III National Championship and I cannot describe how great it felt to hear about their triumph.

http://www.oswego.edu/athletics/news_story.html?id=2547_0_6_0_C

Goin' to the Chapel and we're gonna get married...

Well, not really, because this was a Jewish wedding, and it wasn’t even at a Synagogue. I wrote about this wedding last week in this post. I wasn’t just in the wedding party, oh no. It was a whole weekend of wedding parties, because these people love to party…and party we did.

Have I mentioned I hate Halloween? Oh yes, I have. Nonetheless, part of this wedding weekend spectacular was the costume party after the rehearsal dinner. I was the hit of the party, which was completely ironic in so many ways: remember, this was a Jewish wedding; how much I hate Halloween; my lack of religion; and the fact that my costume idea was the only thing I could think of for this party. So a convict, Captain Morgan and Jesus walk into a bar… If you don’t understand why this is funny, well, I’m sorry you have to go through life feeling like this (and yes, I am holding 2 bottles of beer in the same hand – it was late, I was drunk, get over it).

Anyway, the wedding weekend was fantastic; fun was had by all, glasses were stomped on, Mazel Tov’s were shouted, everybody held their peace and nobody said, “I don’t”. I would say that’s a successful wedding!

In unrelated news, I finished my paper – for the class I didn’t really understand the material – and received 223/250 points. That’s not bad for about 2000 words of BS! So, I have passed one of my last 2 classes and I just have to finish 4 more Supreme Court briefs to be finished in my other class. Then I go to NYC for Veteran’s Day weekend with the girlfriend to see my friends and I am off from school until January 9, 2007 – that’s almost 2 months of freedom. What will I do with myself? Well, maybe I’ll be able to spend some time keeping this blog updated. Ummm…don’t hold your breath!

Happy Halloween!

Oh my starry eyed surprise, sundown to sunrise

Waking up at 10am, I hear Brian tell me, “Oh, I forgot to give you a pillow.” That hardly stirred me as I took the pillow and fell back into a good sleep. When I finally awoke from my alcohol-induced slumber at noon, I got up and tapped on Brian’s door to see if he was up, which he was. We reminisced about the things we could recall, filling each other in on events we had forgotten, even though they had only occurred in the previous 12 hours. Also, at some point in the middle of the night, although I have no idea when, I got up, went to my bag and without throwing everything out of it, pulled my pajamas out and changed into them. My jeans and sneakers were lying on the couch and apparently, I had the presence of mind to not sleep in them the whole night. The things we do when we’re drunk!

We had originally planned to do so many things on Friday. He was going to show me where his office is; ground zero; take the ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty, maybe see Central Park, since it was such a nice day out, 75 degrees the first week of March. However, our late start to the day pretty much cancelled all of that out. Or, was it the fact that we had the hangover blahs? We didn’t have the “sick” type of hangovers, where we’re throwing up all day, with headaches and what not. We just didn’t feel “right”. Eventually, we pulled ourselves together, showered and went for some food at the Neptune Diner.

Once we finished breakfast/lunch around 3 pm, we headed back over to his apartment to drop a couple things off and then head into the city. Our plan now was to go get the key to E’s apartment to grab some blankets for Dave’s arrival later that night. We got a little sidetracked however, when we sat down on the couch and started watching the ACC tournament.

While we watched the games, we had a great conversation about God/religion/atheism/the existence of prophets and many of the things that I’ve been dealing with either here or over here. This is a typical conversation when Brian and I get together, although there is usually more alcohol involved at the time. Needless to say, at 515, we needed to get going!

We walked to the subway and called Dave to tell him to get on his horse and get down here already! We took the train in and walked to meet E at her office building, which is right up the street from Radio City Music Hall. After she met us outside, we took the subway back to her apartment, picked up the blankets, convinced her to meet us for dinner and headed off to get Dave from Grand Central Station.

We arrived minutes before Dave did and were waiting for him when he exited the train. He was a little groggy from working all day and then taking a nap on the ride in, but we knew that would soon change!

We headed back to Brian’s apartment to drop off everything, Dave’s bags and the blankets and headed right back out to meet E and J.K. for dinner.

Dinner was really good, but uneventful, except for when Dave told the waitress that the last slice of Pizza was going to be her tip!

After dinner, E was departing us so that we could have a guys night out. Nap was supposed to meet us at some point, so we were awaiting his call, but in the meantime, we went to 2nd Avenue and walked a ways to find a bar. The first place we went was cool, but emptied out quickly after we arrived. We left there and headed to a bar where we hoped a friend was working, The Joshua Tree.

After carefully navigating the crowd of obnoxiously drunk guys and decent-looking, but drunk girls, we found our buddy and hung out there. Brian and I headed to the bar for beers and attempted the journey back through the crowd without spilling any on either us or someone else. No sooner than 5 steps away from bar did someone bump Brian and he spilled a fair amount down the shoulder and arm of this girl who must have either been really hot (temperature wise) or just so damned drunk that she didn’t notice! I know she had a lot on her because when I tried to slide by, my arm rubbed against where he spilled the beer and she was soaked. She didn’t even flinch and I wasn’t about to say anything, so I kept on walking. We arrived back with Dave, but J.K. had headed home because he had a long ride back and we had early plans for Saturday morning of which he was an integral, sober part (more on that later).

We tried coaxing Dave into talking to some girls, hoping he would at least get a couple numbers, but he wouldn’t. There was this one pretty hot girl in a black dress and I told him I would buy his drinks the rest of the night if he would just go talk to her, but he was having none of it. Eventually, our friend got the cute waitress (a different cute waitress than the previous night) to come over and introduced her to Dave. They didn’t say much, but it was a start at least.

After finishing our beers, we were soaked with sweat and some beer that splashed on us as well, and wanted to head out, so we started heading towards the door, when Dave decides he wants to start talking to the waitress! Brian was already halfway across the bar and I was standing there like an idiot waiting for Dave, so I started heading for the door as well. Brian and I waited for a few minutes and eventually Dave saunters out, sans phone number though.

I had mentioned to Brian earlier in the day that I’d never been to Times Square, so what better time to go there than on a Friday night at 100 am? So we started walking in that direction when Nap finally calls! He had fallen asleep and wasn’t going to come out, since it was so late. We gave him plenty of shit for that, but we were pleased with how the night was headed so far, so there was no need to add mayhem to it. Little did we know…

We arrived at Times Square around 130 am, snapped some pictures (pay no attention to the time on the pics since my camera was still in Central time) and decided we were hungry. Lets find some food! We tried locating a Gray’s Papaya, but we didn’t know where one was close by, so we thought we’d head back towards Brian’s apartment and get something closer to there.

While on the subway, we decided that Dave needed to experience Café Bar, so we exited and walked over there around 215 am. Once we arrived, we decided to call Nap. Remember, he only lives a few blocks away, he needed to get up and come visit because we found our favorite waitress working, or at least our favorite from last night, Tanya. She remembered us and even asked where our friend was. She wanted him, it was obvious. I was able to coax Nap into coming with the fabulous line of, “How often am I in NYC? Get your ass over here!” Or something very close to that. About 10 minutes later, Dave and Brian both got text messages that he was on his way! Dave, Brian and I grabbed the cards and poker chips and proceeded to start playing some Texas Hold ‘Em, albeit not very well! Nap arrived, much to Tanya’s delight and the night has now begun.

We dealt him in, drank some beers, had lively conversation, of course, Nap flirted with Tanya and we actually kept it pretty tame – drink-wise, compared to the night before, although you might not know it by this picture! We all agreed that we really liked this bar and that we were much more comfortable here than at Joshua Tree, plus have I mentioned the great music they play? That is, until Dave requested Enigma – just kidding Dave!

At 415 am, you’re thinking this night has got to be over right? Not so fast!

Since we were still hungry, we wanted to find an all night diner to get some food. Following Nap’s poor advice, we wandered from street to street looking, but none of the diner’s he was thinking of were still open, so we headed back towards Neptune Diner, for Brian and I, the second time in 15 hours!

During the walk over there, we passed a house that had this on their porch. Who keeps these things on their porch? We had to sneak into the gated area to get that picture, but it was so worth it!

We finally arrived at Neptune Diner and Brian and Nap got the best seats in house as we were right by the door and they got to watch all the cute, drunk, skimpy-dressed girls come in and leave. (E – Brian was only looking for Dave, not for himself, don’t be mad at him! They don’t hold a candle to you anyway ;)) Dave got a good rear-view, but not much else.

We ate heartily, especially for 515 am, except for Nap, since he spent most of the night asleep. We paid up and headed out, with the dawn beginning to break. We arrived back at Brian’s apartment in a few minutes and said our goodbyes to Nap because he wouldn’t be joining us for Day 3’s festivities. Dave wanted to see the roof, so I took him up there and as I reached for my pocket to take a picture, I realized I left my camera in the Diner – OH NO!

Dave and I got the key to the apartment from Brian and raced back over there. They had my camera stored for me. I thanked them and we returned to the apartment building. Upon trying to enter, Dave was having some problems figuring out which key to use. After trying them all and having one almost get stuck on him, I took a turn. After a couple minutes of me toiling with the lock, Dave looked at the door and realized we were at the wrong entrance! We seem to have a lot of that problem, but this time we were pretty sober! After getting inside the first door, I started trying the keys on the inside door and although one of them fit, it wouldn’t turn. After a minute of fooling with it, I remembered that this door wasn’t locked – D’OH!

Dave and I headed back up to the roof to take some pictures, because it was now 545 am and since we were up…

Finally at a few minutes after 6 am, we all settled in for a few hours of sleep to prepare for Day 3.

Day 2 – the fun has just begun!

NYC
Friends

Just a little patience, yeaaaahhhh.

I know everyone is waiting for days 2 & 3 from NYC, because they were good stories, but I was crazy busy at work last week and my rough draft for my paper was due tonight, so the only writing I've been doing is for that. I'm finished now and Monday is a light day at work, so check back Monday afternoon sometime and at the very least, day 2 should be up and ready for your reading discomfort.

I get by with a little help from my friends

Ok, ok. I know I’ve been back for 2 full days, I haven’t posted anything about my trip and you’re all anxiously awaiting the details, right? Well, that’s a silly question really, because I know that you are! I’m going to split these posts up into each day because so much happened I couldn’t write it all at once. So, here is day 1:

After sleeping for about 4 hours Wednesday night, I was dropped off at the airport at 730 am for my 830 flight to Charlotte, NC, where I would catch my connecting flight to Newark. Heaven forbid my flight would actually begin on time though. They overbooked the flight and asked for three volunteers for which they were giving the standard free round trip ticket to anywhere in the lower 48. Amazingly enough, only one person volunteered however. I have been tempted to do this on more than one occasion, but there was no way in hell I was going to do it this time because I needed to get the hell outta Houston ASAP! So after upping the ante and offering a free RT ticket AND a one-way ticket as well, they got their three and we departed 45 minutes behind schedule at 915. Needless to say, at this point, I’m a little worried that I wouldn’t make my connection because it was due to leave at 1240 and now I would be arriving around 1220. In addition, I’ve had a couple of run-ins at the Charlotte airport where I arrived at terminal C on time, but had to run as fast as I could clear across the airport to terminal A to board my connection within minutes of departing. Fortunately, when we arrived at gate C9, I had only 500 feet to walk in 20 minutes to gate C14 – I figured I had enough time to crawl, but I’d look like an idiot, so I didn’t.

My flight from Charlotte to Newark was hands-down, the best flight I’ve ever been on. We were in a 737, the type of plane that has 3 seats on each side of the aisle. I was originally seated in row 24, 3 rows from the back. The flight attendant came to let us know the flight was nowhere near full and we could move up if we’d like. Long story short, I had my own row – all six seats.

I arrived in Newark right on time and when I got through security, Brian was there to greet me which was a serious relief (this comes back to haunt me later on). As we left the gate, we stopped so I could put my fleece on for going outside. While standing there, Brian noted that I had packed light, since I only had my backpack with me. It then struck me that I had to get my bag! Could you imagine leaving the airport without your luggage? We collected my bag and looked for something quick to eat in the airport since I hadn’t eaten but a couple of the bags of airplane peanuts. $2.00 for a cheeseburger at BK later, we left to catch the Airtrain, which would then take us to the train into Penn Station.

Brian and I had a great conversation catching up on things on the train to Penn Station and then we caught the subway back to his apartment. He lives Astoria, Queens, in a great little place, which is relatively new, with a great view off the roof. It is also close to the subway stop, which was great since my bag was getting heavy. We were scheduled to leave a few minutes after arriving at his place because we were having dinner with his girlfriend whom I had yet to meet, but heard great things about. So, we boarded the subway again, minus all the luggage and headed back into Manhattan.

We got to the restaurant and sat down at the bar for a couple of drinks while we awaited the E’s (Brian’s girlfriend) arrival. I was ready for a beer, but Brian had a basketball game later, so he stuck to Coke. E arrived just as we were being called for our table and she is even cuter in person than in the pictures I’ve seen. There is little to tell about dinner, other than we had great drinks, food and conversation. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know E and watching her and Brian interact. I can tell how much they care for one another. She told me the story of how they met, which she tells very well, because Brian’s version was short, to the point and I wanted to know what she thought of him and how this all came to be. I think we all had a great time at dinner and around 815, we parted ways with E for Brian’s game over at Chelsea Piers.

On the team is another friend who we would be spending most of the weekend with as well, J.K. I’m guessing there are only a few people who are interested in the details of the game, so, I’m skipping past it. They lost by 9, I’ll leave it at that.

It’s now about 1015 after the game and you’re reading this thinking, Josh, you’ve had a long day, this is probably where the night ended, right? Not so fast. This is where the night begins!

While we were waiting for a cab, our other friend, Nap, called. He wants us to meet him back in Astoria at the Café Bar, which is a few blocks from their respective apartments (Nap lives a couple blocks from Brian). We arrived around 1045, headed for the bar and asked what they had on tap. They have no beer on tap, only bottles. Ok, what do you have? The list goes on until we hear the sweet sound of our favorite beer, Duvel. If you don’t know about Duvel, the name means, “The Devil’s Brew”. It is a great Belgian beer and the alcohol content is around 9% (most beers are 4 - 4.5%), so drinking one is like drinking two regular beers (for those of you who couldn’t do the math). Brian and I have a serious history with Duvel, which I guess I’m going to have to explain at a later time. We begin to drink slowly, as is suggested clearly on the bottle, when Nap arrives. We say our hellos and he heads to the bar to order. He comes back over and waits for his drink to arrive. The waitress, who comes into play later, comes over with his bottle of, you guessed it, Duvel, and 3 shots of Tequila. We toast to a fantastic weekend with fantastic friends and do our shots. Stay with me, this is only the beginning.

Ok, so Café Bar is this great little place that played amazing music through a computer jukebox that had a lot of everything you’d want in a cozy little place like this. There are chairs and couches situated around coffee tables, bar tables, booths and stools at the bar as well. They have all sorts of games, checkers, backgammon, cards & poker chips, Boggle, Yahtzee, Monopoly and probably more that we didn’t see. It has minimal lighting and maximum atmosphere. It was the perfect bar to end a long day at with great friends. Oh, and our waitress, Tanya, was cute as a button.

As is expected, Brian, Nap and I had our typical amazing conversations ranging from politics to religion to sports to Naps’ ex-girlfriend, to love, sex and probably more that I cannot remember. I do remember that Nap and I played a game of backgammon and that we were there a long time and drinking a lot. How much is a lot, you ask? Before I answer this, I will let you know that I don’t drink very often, or very much, so for me, this night equals a lot. 4 bottles of Duvel, the aforementioned shot of Tequila and a shot of Jack Daniel’s that we basically finished the night off with around 130 am. Also, around 1230, we called Dave, who was joining us on Friday night, because we figured he needed to know what he was missing out on.

Before leaving, of course we settled up, but I’m not quite sure who paid or how much. However, Tanya slipped Brian her number to give to Nap. Even as drunk as we were, we could tell she was flirting with him most of the night and as I said, she was really cute.

Whew! What a day! Oh wait, it doesn’t end there!

We needed to go over Nap’s apartment to pick up some blankets. On the drunken walk over there, we see a mannequin of some kind lying in the trash and Brian proceeds to kick its head off. We then threw it around like a football for a couple of minutes and then we decided we’re going to try to scare Dave, on Friday night. So we took it with us. We grabbed the blankets, stumbled back to Brian’s.

When we got out of the elevator and stepped into the hallway. It smelled like smoke, which Brian noted and then he tried to unlock the door. After a few seconds of unsuccessfully unlocking it, he looks up and says, “Why are we on the third floor? We’re on the wrong floor!” This is why it smelled like smoke. We get back in the elevator and head up again, this time arriving at and unlocking the correct door.

The last thing I remember this evening, now at 215 am, is Brian blowing up the air mattress, giving me the blankets and me climbing into bed, still in my clothes.

Day 1 – mission accomplished

NYC
Air Travel
Friends
Stupidity

Start spreadin' the news...

“I’m leavin’ on Thurs-day. I’m gonna be a part of it, New York, New York!” That’s right, I am going on a 3.5-day mini vacation to NYC next week for my birthday (Wednesday, in case you’d like to send me a gift, in which case, I prefer cash). I am going to see all of my friends, we are going to have an excellent weekend of drinking, laughing, maybe some gambling in Atlantic City, and I’m sure we’ll have some great conversations as well, which is the norm when we get together. I’ll be sure to try to update over the course of the weekend and post a few pictures as well! I. Am. Excited!

Ok, that’s out of the way, so on to a lighter hearted post.

Why don’t dogs jump out of the window of a moving car? Usually, they can’t get outside fast enough, but get them in the car, open the window and they sit there. I don’t get it.

The law clerk in the office next to me called the Houston Chronicle today to let them know they deleted her favorite word puzzle from the daily paper. Ok, I know many people are into that sort of thing; it helps to stimulate your mind and keeps your mind sharp, but seriously, find a different puzzle to work on and get over it.

When the elevator doors open on the bottom floor, more than likely, people will be exiting, namely, ME. Wait for me to walk out before attempting to get on the elevator. Stand back a few feet to give me room to exit, and then when it looks to be all clear, I assume you’ll know when that occurs, step in. Really, it’s not that hard folks. Also, it seems to me that this is just a common courtesy.

Finally, two weasels are sitting at a bar. One turns to the other and screams, “I slept with your mother!” The bar hushes waiting to hear what is going to happen next. He gets up off his stool and screams again, “Did you hear me? I slept with your mother!” The other weasel calmly turns around to face him and says, “Go home Dad, you’re drunk.”

That’s all I have folks, thank you and good night!

Out & About
Rants
Work

A bottle of white, a bottle of red. Perhaps a bottle of rose instead?

Why is it that when you go out with a large group of people for dinner, someone inevitably says, let’s just take the bill and divide it by X number of people we have? In theory, this is a reasonable idea; however, because I am the person who usually does not drink all the wine, or have the $9 appetizer, I wind up being screwed. It’s even worse when we go out for someone’s birthday because that person doesn’t pay, so there is one less to divide by. Over the weekend, twelve of us went out for a friend’s birthday and our share of the bill turned out to be $50 each. I had a $9.95 burger and $1.95 Dr. Pepper. Even including my share of the birthday boy’s meal and a couple of bucks for the cake we bought, how does that equate to $50? I had none of the seven $18 bottles of wine; I didn’t eat any of the five different $9.95 appetizers that were ordered. I was royally screwed and I didn’t even enjoy it. My burger was undercooked and greasier that it should’ve been. The fries were lukewarm. I don’t plan on going back to that restaurant either, but that’s for another day. One of these days I’m going to bring a notepad and a calculator, see who eats and drinks what and calculate the bill that way. We’ll see how they like it when the person who drank two bottles of wine, had an appetizer, the $17 entrée and the cup of coffee for dessert is stuck with the biggest tab while I wind up paying hardly anything. I don’t disagree with the theory, it’s just not a practical matter when you have people like me in your group and I’m beginning to take offense to having to pay more than my share when I can’t afford it.

A government for hire

My girlfriend forwarded an email to me, which was sent out by the Democratic Party candidate running against Tom DeLay, Nick Lampson. I think you'll get the idea of what that email said by reading the response I sent her:

“Ok, here's the problem I have with this email - it's all well and good that Tom DeLay is an idiot, but you and I know that already, as do a lot of other voters, especially the Democrats. Tell me what you are going to do! Nowhere in this email does he talk about what he is going to do about any of the problems we face as a region, state and country. I want answers, not blame. I'd rather run the actual donkey from the democrats logo, than someone who doesn't say anything important.

Instead of sending out this email, I would 1000x prefer an email that says something like, ‘While Tom DeLay is busy fighting his legal battles, what is he doing for you in Congress? The only battles I'll be fighting are to help save (blank), grow more jobs in our region and by working hard, I'll do (blank). Improving our education system in this country is my top priority and I'm going to present a plan that does (blank). This education plan is important because with a good education, the future workforce of Texas and America will be able to work the jobs I helped to create, which will keep this region, state and country's economy flowing and growing for years to come.’

Give me something to get excited about, not something to get more pissed off at (Tom DeLay). When are politicians going to get their heads out of their asses?”

Yes, I'm a little feisty today!

We reserve the right to refuse service to you

I really need new lunch partner:

It took P 11 emails back and forth (for a total of 22!) to decide where to go to lunch.

The problem I guess was that I told him it was his choice.

The funny thing is that he likes to go to lunch early and I like to go late, but I conceded this time and said I would go at 12, but he took so long deciding that we’ll now be meeting at 1230, more to my liking!

Leaving on a jet plane

Something about me and airports I guess!

We flew into Jacksonville International Airport today without problems, but when we had come back to pick S’s sister and her boyfriend up, I came upon the issue of the day: airport security.

Normally I wouldn’t worry about something of this nature since I am willing to give up some freedom if it means keeping me safe. However, in this particular instance, I feel we need to rethink things, even though I know it happens everywhere. We parked in front of the terminal to pick the two of them up and we waited for maybe 2 minutes before they arrived. Their luggage had not come out yet, so they brought their carry on bags to the car and went back inside. About 3 minutes later, security came over to tell us to “circle the lot if we weren’t loading anything.” I understand the reasoning for this; they don’t want people loitering around in front of the airport. It’s a reasonable idea – in New York, Washington, D.C., L.A., Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Toronto, you get the idea, the major airports. At Jacksonville International Airport, I can’t imagine too many terrorists hanging out in front of the terminal, waiting to blow it up. I also cannot imagine too many terrorists wanting to hijack a plane from that or any small market airport due to the nature of the size of the planes that fly in and out of them.

Terrorist: We have de plane.

FAA: You’re kidding right?

Terrorist: No. We are going to fly dis tirty-five seat Turboprop into de Des Moines Civic Center.

FAA: Ok buddy, you do that!

I know, I know, that’s mean, but I’m just playing a role here.

Seriously, are we worried about this? Maybe there is another reason I’m not thinking of or that no one has told me, but this is the reason I have been given and (insert hint of sarcasm here) I take the government’s word for everything, like a loyal citizen!

Again, I’m not opposed to giving up some freedom, but making me circle the lot when I know my party is inside waiting on their luggage to be brought out is a bit ridiculous.

Part II of this issue is the fact that I have to continuously circle the lot! With the price of gas these days, a potential energy shortage, the fact that I am driving a rental car and that 30 other cars are doing the same thing as well, causing a possible traffic accident, which then translates to my insurance rates going up; come on, let me stand by the curb for 5 minutes. Hell, you can run my drivers license through a background check if it makes this whole process easier.

The funny thing about this situation is that we were told to move not once, but twice and I thought about lying to get out of it the second time! After we came back around after the first couple laps, S had to use the restroom, so she parked and I was in the passenger seat. When the security officer came to my window and asked what I was doing I explained to him the situation and he asked me to move it…again. I wanted so bad to tell him that I didn’t have a drivers license and that I couldn’t move it, that we’d have to wait for either S, or the one of the others to come to the car, but I also did not want to know what the consequences would be if I said that. So I got out of the passenger seat and adjusted the driver seat and pulled away, made 4 laps, then stopped to finally pick up our party and head to our vacation destination.

A great start to this vacation.

Don't believe the hype

24 hours later and I am at home, moving around my furniture so it is back in place and writing my blog for the day. Hurricane Rita turned out to be a wimpy storm for our area, although not so much for the east Texas/western Louisiana coast. We had a light drizzle of rain this morning and a nice breeze, but it was hardly a hurricane to us.

We left College Station at 10am and took some back roads home, fearing the same traffic jam as when we originally tried to head up there. We moved along quite nicely until some areas that did not have power, therefore having signals which were not operating. This caused intersections to be used as stop signs and instead of a flow of people from each side moving through, 30-40 cars would have to sit and wait their turn, which slowed us all down. Nonetheless, we arrived at the parking garage to pick up the girls' cars and each drove to our respective homes. I had power and water, but no cable. S & A had neither and P had power and cable, but no water. Between our three of homes, we'll survive.

The only damage that I have seen so far is a tree that has fallen into the gate which surrounds my parking lot. The gate is holding the tree from collapsing onto the hoods of two cars, although by the time I took the picture, one of the cars had been moved out of the way Otherwise, there are a lot of small tree branches that can be moved by hand or foot and a lot of leaves lying on the ground. Maybe as we see more pictures, we'll see more damage in and around the Houston area.
That's it for now though!

Looks like we made it

At 1102 am, we arrived in College Station, without a hitch. We drove 75mph the entire way without a slowdown except for exiting! We did see a couple hundred cars ditched on the sides of the road by people who ran out of gas. There was also a considerable amount of trash left by people who were stranded. Fortunately, we did not run out of gas and we just filled back up, at a reasonable price and without a line! Here, the first high clouds are starting to move in, although the sun is still shining though them. Now, there is a distinct line of clouds, so it's sort of cool to see the difference right in front of you. Anyway, there is nothing else new to report for now, so I will try to keep a good track of what is happening and when and report it here as soon as I can.

Running on empty

We received an email from a co-worker that headed to College Station at 5 am and arrived at 630 am which made us decide that it was a good idea to head out…immediately! Our one concern was running out of gas because I was down below half already from sitting yesterday. Nonetheless, I sent this email at 9:02 am to friends and family:

Traffic is clear, we are trying for College Station one more time. I’ll email when we get there. Leaving…now! Bye!

Damn this traffic jam...It hurts my motor to go so slow...Damn this taffic jam!

My next email, around 9 pm:

Hi everyone,

Well, as some of you noted in your emails to me, you hoped that the traffic was not as bad as seen on TV. Actually, it was worse. We went 2 miles in about 1 hour, then got off the freeway because we needed to use the bathroom, called some people who had been watching traffic on TV and they told us it wasn’t moving faster anytime soon. We then decided at that point to come home and try again later tonight after they figured out how to move a million cars off the freeways.

The secondary problem was that we had used a ¼ tank of gas while sitting in traffic because it was 100 degrees today and we needed to run the A/C. Even in the A/C, the cat was panting and we needed to wrap her in a cold towel to cool her down. There have been many, many people who have run out of gas while sitting on the freeways, which isn’t helping the traffic-jams any and we didn’t want to be four of those people (S, her sister & fiancé and me) and 2 animals ( in two separate cars)! Hence, as I said, we have come home and made a number of alternative plans. The one we are going with as of now is to stay with some friends here in Houston who have an older model, sturdy house that has hurricane shutters on the windows. They also have a generator and lots of food and supplies. We dropped off most of our stuff already and are going to stay at my apartment tonight and head over there in the morning around 8 or 9.

Another alternative is to wait a few more hours to see what happens with the traffic and then try again for College Station. I am not thrilled with either of these options, but at this point, I’d rather not be stuck in a car on the freeway…that was hell on a different scale than that of New Orleans. Of course, I will let everyone know something when we make a decision. In any event, it is still very muggy, about 85 degrees, but the stars and moon are out, the clouds will probably roll in overnight and the winds pick up tomorrow afternoon.

The positive news in all of this, well, for us at least, is that the hurricane is tracking more eastward, which means we will get weaker side of the storm, as of now anyway. Well, that’s the only update I can give for now, but I will try to keep everyone informed as best I can. I will tell you that we are trying to be as safe as possible, but again, it isn’t likely we are moving out of the city.

On the road again...

An email I sent to family & friends around 11 am Thursday:

Hi everyone,

In case you haven’t seen the news, Hurricane Rita is bearing down on Houston and we are leaving town in about 1 hour. We are going to College Station, Texas, which is about 90 miles northwest of here and it is also where Texas A&M Univ. is. We have a place to stay with some friends up there. Personally, I don’t think this is far enough away, but I can’t convince anyone to go elsewhere. I filled up with 33$ in gas this morning, we have lots of supplies/water and enough alcohol to stay pretty buzzed for a few days! I think we took a case of rum and hurricane mix off the shelf. Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that we should be fine, the cat is coming with us and hopefully my apartment will stay dry. I will have my laptop with me and assuming we have power and a signal to the internet there, I should be able to check my email regularly. I’ll send an update as soon as I can.

I want to get away! I want to fly away.

At the beginning of August, my girlfriend and I flew to my hometown of Buffalo, NY to attend a family picnic/delayed wedding reception for my sister who had a planned elope wedding in Vegas (everyone knew they were getting married while they were there). Anyway, we had a fairly poor experience flying AirTran on our return to Houston and I wrote a pretty nasty email to them and after starting this blog a few weeks later, some friends told me to add it because while it addresses serious issues, it is also hysterical! Enjoy!

To Whom It May Concern:

On Sunday, August 7, 2005, my girlfriend and I were to take Flight 553, from Buffalo, NY, which was scheduled to leave at 2005 and arrive in Atlanta, GA at 2215. We were then scheduled to connect to Flight 299, scheduled to depart ATL at 2250 and arrive in Houston, TX at 2350 (CDT). Due to weather in Atlanta, our flight from Buffalo was delayed until approximately 1015 (we boarded at 945). While waiting, announcements were made concerning connecting flights at least three different times, each time, updating the connections to the best of their knowledge. The last announcement before we boarded in Buffalo listed our connecting flight time as 1215. We then assumed that should be enough time to change flights.

When we finally arrived in ATL, at 1214 (that is the exact time the CSR told us we arrived at the gate), deplaned, got into the terminal, asked a CSR which gate we were at and proceeded to that gate, our connection had departed. This is now approximately 1222. Assuming all the information that we were given before departing Buffalo was correct, we presumed that our flight was being held to allow us to make our connection. I understand there are schedules to keep, however, if this is the last flight of the evening for this plane and it’s already leaving 1 ½ hours late, what is another 15 minutes? If I were on that plane and they held it for this reason, I would understand and I would hope anyone else would too, knowing they could be in that situation at some time also. However, we were told that the connection information we were given was not correct and our connecting flight to Houston closed at 1145 and if I heard correctly, departed the gate 1206, 8 minutes before we arrived at the gate and 16 minutes before we could’ve made it to that plane. Again, holding planes for passengers that you know are on another flight and will arrive shortly for 15 more minutes, when it is already late for its original takeoff is not an unreasonable request.

In any event, we proceeded to the customer service counter, a line that was about 15 people deep when we entered it, to get what we assumed would be a hotel voucher and assistance with booking us on the first flight out in the morning. While standing in line, we called your 800 number, rebooked our flights and continued to stay in line for the hotel voucher. At 0120, just short of an hour of standing in line, we finally made it to the counter, were given our new boarding passes, a vendor voucher for food or whatever and the number to call for a reservation at a hotel at the lowest rate available, not at your expense however, because this was a weather related delay, according to the CSR. Again, had they held the plane, there would not have been any delay and we would not have been put in that situation! Also, they could’ve announced that we were not going to receive a hotel voucher at your expense and the line would’ve moved significantly faster and we would’ve been able to catch the train to the main terminal, because to add insult to injury, the trains don’t run after 0100 (which is not your fault) and we would’ve had to walk to the main terminal, catch the shuttle and get to the hotel, probably not until 0215. Because our new flight (#287) was at 0805 (which was also late, as I will explain below), we would’ve gathered about 4.5 hours of sleep, at our expense!

After realizing that leaving the airport, going to a hotel, that we would be spending less that 20% of a day in, but paying the full price for and wasting a lot of time and energy, it would be worthwhile to find a comfortable bench in the terminal and try to catch some sleep. At approximately 0145, we then proceeded back to your customer service counter and simply asked if we could possibly get a couple of blankets because the terminal was very cold (unfortunately, this was not something we can blame on you!). The lady at this counter was very nice and asked another staff member to check a plane for some blankets and bring them to us. We never saw him again. We pulled a couple of benches together and attempted to sleep, however, between airport announcements, the cleaning crew and people milling around, I managed a meager .5 hour of sleep between 0230 and 0630, while my girlfriend managed a little less than 2 hours of sleep during the same period. We then arose to get ourselves together and head for some breakfast, on you, and go to our gate for our flight home. We managed to eat .5 of our meals, which were below standards for most humans, but since we didn’t have to pay for it, we figured you wouldn’t mind us wasting your money like you’ve wasted our time.

We arrived at our gate at approximately 0715 and waited anxiously to board and go home. At 0745, I wondered aloud why we had yet to board, or even hear an announcement as to why. Within a few minutes, an announcement was made that overnight, the plane had undergone routine maintenance, but had yet to be cleaned and that was the reason for the delay. Had I known this would be an issue, I would’ve offered to clean the plane, for my normal OT wage at my job, since I had nothing better to do all night long! Maybe I could’ve grabbed a blanket to keep myself and my girlfriend warm while I was on there! All the same, we finally boarded at approximately 0815 and departed the gate around 0830. While we boarded and again during mid-flight, we asked one of the flight attendants for a couple of blankets, because we had yet to warm up from our night in the arctic terminal, but received none.

Also, on a side note, on our flights to Buffalo on Friday, August 5, 2005, when the drink cart came around, I was given my soda in a cup and the remainder of the can. However, on both return flights, I received only my cup, which gave me about 2 sips and I was done. I realize I could’ve asked for more, but try to get everyone on the same page; continuity and standardization is what makes fast-food so successful. I can go to McDonald’s in Seattle, WA and Boone, NC and know that my food will be prepared the same in both places. Keep that idea in mind.

Back to my real complaint, due to this outrageous inconvenience, I had to call-off of my hourly-paying job, which will leave me short in my paycheck in a few weeks. Meanwhile, my girlfriend is a very busy attorney, who had to call and reschedule all her morning appointments. I would hope that you’re aware that in her line of work, time is money and you’ve cost her 4-6 hours of billable time because someone didn’t want to hold a plane for 15 minutes.

Does this sound like an enjoyable experience with your airline? After having a very pleasant weekend with my family, some of whom I have not seen in over a year, I had to deal with this situation, which also lead to a very grumpy girlfriend and I had to deal with that as well! Fortunately, I had a lot of time to write an email to you while I was sitting in the terminal waiting for my morning flight! All of these events and thoughts are fresh in my mind and will remain so until a resolution has come about. Yes, that’s right; I want something for all of this trouble. It had better be worth my time and aggravation or I will make sure that anyone I come in contact with does not use your airline in the future, which would be unfortunate because you fly to so many of the cities where I personally would visit and where many of my friends often fly from Houston. I would also visit various websites that rate airlines and post comments that portray your lack of complimentary services in these types of situations and stupidity in flight management very blatantly, as I believe I have in this letter.

I have worked in the customer service industry for 15 years and I would never treat one of my customers as I feel I have been treated by your airline. Customer service is your lifeblood and if you continue with this type, you’ll be bleeding to death. We paid for tickets on a flight that, for us, never occurred and cost myself even more money, by having to miss work. Potentially, this could’ve cost even more money had we gone to the hotel. How do two $350 plane tickets turn into $1000, re-read this email and you’ll understand how.

I’ll be eagerly waiting for your response. I can be reached at this email address, my work email address (insert address here), my home phone (insert # here), my cell phone (insert # here), or my work phone (insert # here) M-F (after Monday, August 08, 2005, since I needed to take the day off!). I fully expect I’ll be hearing from you very shortly.

Sincerely,

Goal10der Conf. #O N
S Conf. #A F

Rock You Like a Hurricane.

This is from an email sent by my girlfriends father to her and her sister, both living here in Houston. Without this email, we would still be following these instructions because I don’t laugh in the face of danger, I get the hell out of its way! We will be leaving on Thursday night after we all get home from work around 8, pack up some clothes, laptops, iPods, food, water and important belongings and then load up the animals. No, we aren’t building an ark, but we are taking 2 dogs and a cat with at least 4, possibly 6-8 people. I’m sure this weekend will be interesting to say the least.

Bad things happen to people who do not take the force of nature seriously (arrogant people), and stupid people. Misfortune rarely has something to do with solely Black or White. With that aside, I as a weather guru extraordinaire would seriously encourage you to do the following:
Add the weather channel website to your list of favorites; so you can monitor this thing from work and home. THE THINGS TO MONITOR ARE:

It's path

It's strength

http://www.weather.com/maps/news/atlstorm18/projectedpath_large.html

Keep in contact with your respective employers, and understand their emergency plans and your responsibilities therein.

Ya'll get together and try to decide if you need to act aggregately or singly.

Assuming the projected path, which you will be constantly monitoring, keeps Houston in its Bull's Eye, or the path is to your south (which is really worse) and assuming it is a Category 2 or greater, make plans to get the hell out of Dodge (or Houston as the case may be) by no later than Thursday night.

It appears that your best path would be to go east. This thing looks like it will go right through Dallas after it makes landfall. The only problem with East is you would have to almost come home to Florida to avoid all the damage from Katrina. Going west will be okay. The West side of a hurricane is the weakest. The N.E. quadrant has the highest winds and storm surge. I know heading east seems to be a dichotomy, but do you know someone with whom you can stay somewhere significantly west of Houston? You probably do, and you would be closer to coming back home sooner. You know you are always welcome at home, but are at least 12 hours away.

"Bottom Dwellers" I would either move the furniture you care about upstairs or elevate it off the floor with blocks or something.

If you are being aggregate refugees (yes refugees exist in America), I would recommend moving residual autos to the 2nd or higher floor of a parking garage. A, remember Allison?

Ladies, please take this seriously if it does become a 3 or 4, if you are stuck there, hurricanes are pretty scary. S and A were just little girls in 1985, when Hurricane Kate came through here. It was only a Category 2, and the town looked like a war zone, and we didn't have power or water for a week. I know Houston's resources are better, but so will be the damage.

Last of all remember. Things are not worth protecting, lives are. Somehow your respective employers businesses will survive without you for a day or two. Keep me informed, and I will reciprocate.

Love,
Dad

Put me in coach, I'm ready to play, today. Look at me, I can be, centerfield.

Going to a baseball game is usually a joyful experience for me, especially at this time of the year and the fact that we are currently leading the Wild Card race makes every game exciting: except today. I don’t know what it was about today’s game, but the atmosphere inside the ballpark was very “dead”. I even made this comment to my friend whom I went with and we both said afterwards that it was a boring game, not because we lost, in fact, we won today, but because there was barely, if any, buzz, aside from a handful of moments. The announced attendance was around 35,000, but it definitely seemed as though there were numerous empty seats to contradict that number. The fans only got loud after we scored or if an important pitch needed to be made, which was pretty rare since our pitcher was really shutting the other team down. Otherwise, there was no buzz in the air, which is something I’ve grown accustomed to and I tend to expect when attending any sports event. The other thing that confuses me is that we had a lot of opportunities for atmosphere to emerge and grow. We left 12 men on base and had the bases loaded twice, I think. That usually gets the crowd into the game and it did for those moments, but soon after the end of our mini-rally, the crowd went back to whatever was holding their attention, which certainly wasn’t the baseball game.

I have only one theory for this rare occasion: Sunday afternoon baseball games are days for families to bring their kids to the ballpark and have a family day. We saw plenty of kids with their parents and many of them were very young, as was the case 2 rows down from us where the one child was around a year to 14 months old and the other child looked less than a month old. Don’tget me wrong, I could care less how people spend their dollars and if they want to bring their kids to the ballpark I think It’s great, but those people aren’t paying attention to the game because their kids are too young to have the attention span to sit for 3 hours and watch a baseball game and the parents, consequently, have to spend the majority of time occupying their kids attention, which then detracts their attention from the game. So, maybe out of the 35K that attended today’s game, let’s say 35% are the parents of or are the kids, which is roughly 12,250 people. Those 12,250 people aren’t taking the necessary interest in the game to help generate excitement and only 22,750 remain to carry the energy. Of those people, I would guess 5-10% will be occupied with watching other people’s kids or making faces at the babies. It has also become apparent to me that when at the ballpark, people cannot stay in their seats for all 9 innings and tend to wander the hallways, whether it be for food, restroom or just to stretch their legs. Let’s assume this is another 2%. Now we are down to a little over 50% of the announced attendance actually in their seats and cheering at the appropriate times.

You’ve probably guessed that I don’t have kids, but I do have a 3 year old nephew and I know his attention span is very short. I spend all of 25 seconds on the phone with him before he gives it back to my sister and says “later!” When I do have kids, I will probably bring them to sporting events while they are still at that uninterested age and all of this will just be me ranting while I’m currently on the other side of the ball. In the meantime, we’re in a playoff race and I’d like to feel like it while I’m enjoying a well-pitched game with my friend. Going to this game was actually a little bit of a downer and we won! I went to a game last month that we lost poorly and there was a lot more excitement than today. It’s just weird, that’s all I’m really saying. I want encourage bringing your kids to the ballpark. In my eyes, any show of support for your local team is a positive and spending time with your family is doubly important and it is really special when you can mix the two together. Just remember to scream a little now and then to let us folks who are paying attention to the game that you’re here and that you’re going to help us scream and shout our team to victory. Go ‘stros!

We've all come to look for America...

All right, to the old lady at the Belgian restaurant tonight who probably didn’t speak any English, at least make some simple observations! You can see us all grabbing our wallets/purses to pay our check, so stop filling our water glasses! You’re wasting water, time and energy.

On the other hand, maybe you couldn’t hear our drunken friend R, screaming the F-word in almost every conversation he involved himself in, so you wanted to get a little closer to us in hopes of learning some real American-English. Nonetheless, I now feel compelled to drink some of the water as to not have it go to waste. Hundreds of thousands of people along the Gulf Coast desperately needed this lady a couple weeks ago to come around and continuously pour water, but here she is wasting it on us. Ok, ok, that was a little harsh, but you know you the thought ran quickly through your mind too!

In case you were wondering, Belgian food is not very different from anywhere else. With 12 of us at dinner, we had an array of different dishes ordered, but I could’ve eaten at most chain restaurants and had the same meals. My filet mignon was cooked accurately to medium, which is a rarity it seems these days, but was ultimately very bland tasting. The mashed potatoes were good, but I could’ve used more of them on my plate. What was that stuff on top of the tomato and lettuce thingy you put on the side of my plate? We saw a couple plates of Chicken Diablo, which looked to be nothing special; Salmon filet, which also looked to be sort of blasé, as in it wasn’t dressed up at all, just a piece of fish on a plate. The mussels in tomato sauce looked interesting, but why does it come with French fries? That seems like an odd combo.