New York, New York.

Recapping the weekend:

Saturday: Judy, Chris, Melissa and I head out towards NY at 8 AM. We got to my aunt's in Long Island at about noon (we got lucky with traffic). My dad was there, as well as other relatives. My aunt made a big barbecue for us... we all ate way too much. Then we drove to Brooklyn, dropped my dad off, parked the car there, and took the subway to the city. Ahh the subway. The fun of transfering from the D (used to be the B) to the 4 train, just like what I used to do to get to work. We ended up at the Grand Hyatt at around 11ish, and checked into our room.

During the night, I could not sleep... Chris SNORES SO LOUD. He was snoring all night. Melissa put in some ear plugs made from toilet paper, but I tried that and it didn't work for me.

Sunday: Long day. We got up a little early, showered, and then headed out... we took the subway to Chinatown, and Melissa and I got excited to go to those shops around there. We got some cool bowls, mugs, cups that look like the cups you get from the coffee vendors on the street. We walked up Broadway to Times Square. We stopped at BBQs (with lots of memories there), and Chris was taking pictures of everything... street signs, cop cars, and anything that seemed funny. Although what was annoying was that he was bickering at Judy a lot. He got annoyed that this guy they both knew was calling her (even though it was nothing). We finally got back to our hotel to rest up a bit before the Yankees- Red Sox game.

Sunday night: Took the subway to Yankee Stadium. Got there a bit early, so we got to see some batting practice. We couldn't get too close because security blocks sections off unless you have a ticket for that section. But what was weird was that when we made it to our seats in the Tier Reserved (right behind the plate), Chris had a panic attack of being so high up (and the seats kinda steep down). He actually left by himself, and went back to the hotel... a half hour before the game even started!! I know he is afraid of heights, but I don't know why he couldn't have just stayed in his seat. Besides, once the crowd settled in, it didn't even look that bad. I'm glad that Judy decided to stay, because we ended up having a good time, even though the Yanks lost 7-2. And even though we were way high up, they were pretty good seats... no obstructed views, and we got to see the whole field. Then we got back to the hotel and crashed.

During the night again, Chris snored. Loudly. This time I had to blast my iPod to help put me to sleep. But he'd still wake me up a million times.

Monday: Showered early, but Chris was being lazy and was the last one to get ready. We went to breakfast at the Comfort Diner, another one of Melissa and my favorites. It was good, but expensive. I got a chocolate egg cream (and they brought the seltzer bottle to the table), and Melissa got a vanilla shake (and they bring enough for two glasses). Then it was back to the hotel, and then back to Brooklyn to say goodbye to my dad, get some good NY pizza from Pizza Den on 18th Avenue, get the car and head back home. There was traffic on the Belt Pkwy, of course, but it could have been worse, I guess. We stopped somewhere in Connecticut where Chris got some fireworks that he can use on the 4th of July. We finally got home around 6 PM, and we were exhausted. Melissa even went to bed at around 8:30. I stayed up a bit, trying to work on some schoolwork for tomorrow (I have a presentation and a paper due). I'll have to finish up some stuff today at work.

But back to the Chris stuff... I love the kid and all, but he's got some issues. The afraid of heights thing, fine, I understand, although I still think he could have stayed. But the bickering at Judy. And the absolute lack of class... I know it's a part of who he is, and that is fine, but he saw nothing wrong with wearing a t-shirt that said "fuck you you fucking fuck" to the diner, where there would be kids around (we ultimately got him to change it). And what really sucked was the amount of weed he smoked. He would go into the bathroom of the hotel room, turn the steam on, and smoke up there. And he'd worry that the cleaning ladies would smell it. What bugs me is that someone in recovery should not be doing this at all anyway. Ah well. I do hope things work out with him and Judy, but as I told Melissa, he could be a "liability." Meaning, he doesn't make much money, he's got plenty of issues, and I hope he wouldn't get himself in trouble in the future with anything, but nothing is guaranteed. I know he loves Judy a lot, and I hope he realizes that he needs to get his act together, if not for him, then for her. They are a fun couple when everything is going well, and I want it to stay like that.

Anyways... so now I'm back at work today, and it sucks. I am tired, I have schoolwork to do, and I don't want to be doing anything right now. I'd love to just head home and sleep some more. But I need to figure out how to stay awake and be productive all day...

The Empire Strikes Back.

Another 4 hours of fun (classes) last night. That investments class is killing me... I am still having trouble trying to follow what is going on... but at least I know I am not the only one. We have a paper due on Tuesday using regression analysis and some stock comparison analysis, and I am going to have to bullshit my whole way through it. The risk management class is still ok... we have another presentation on Tuesday, but it shouldn't be too bad.

And the bottom line: only 7 more nights to go.

I should be meeting up with my old co-worker/boss from NY, Dan, and his roommate for lunch today. He went to see U2 at the TD Banknorth Garden (aka, the FleetCenter, aka the Garden) last night. I haven't seen him in awhile, but it should be fun.

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, and we'll be going to NY: Melissa, Judy, Chris and me. We're heading over to my aunt's in Long Island tomorrow for a barbecue (my dad will be there), and then to Brooklyn. Sunday we'll hang out in the city, and then go to the Yankees-Red Sox game at the Stadium at night. And then leave sometime on Monday. Should be a fun time.

Speaking of the Yankees, they are now only 4 1/2 games behind the Orioles, and are now 1/2 game ahead of the Red Sox (cue the Darth Vader music). After that horrible start, the Yanks are finally on a roll. A-Rod is finally showing his worth... he's got 17 hrs and 49 rbis right now. I guess therapy is working gor him. So it should be a fun series this weekend!

Rain, rain, go away.

Why is it raining so much? And why is it so cold. It's May freakin' 25th, and it's 45 degrees. It's so depressing.

I survived another night of classes last night. I was zoning out towards the end of risk management class, and I was trying my best to look interested in investments class, but it was impossible.

All I know is that there is now 8 more classes to go.

I had a productive day at work today... I finished up an essay I have for tomorrow, and started some other project that is due next week. Nothing better than doing school crap at work.

And things are a bit better on the Chris front.

Now I need to try and finish up some more school stuff...

"For all intents and purposes, Jack Bauer is dead."

What a finale of "24" last night.

Before I get into that, some work comments: worked sucked royally yesterday. ROYALLY. I was there until 6 because of some wacky case where we accidentally paid some outside expert double what he should have gotten. This one consultant here talks too much about stuff... thinking out loud, repeating herself a million times. I tried to escape numerous times, but it wasn't working.

So I finally escaped, and Red picked us up to head to her parents house to watch "24" on their big screen (like a movie screen). Her parents were really nice! I've met her dad before, and her mom was really talkative and friendly.

Now, about "24" (do not read further if you didn't watch it yet)...

What I didn't like about the episode was how easy it was to destroy the missle that was headed towards LA. When they finally located it, a fighter shot it down like it was nothing.

But the rest was awesome. They way they rescued Tony, and he was then reunited with Michelle. Audrey breaking up with Jack. And the Chinese wanting Jack, but thanks to Palmer, Jack was able to get out of it with his life intact. Well, kinda. People in the government wanted Jack to have an "accident" so that the Chinese couldn't get any information out of him, and when Palmer found out, he told Jack, who then was able to effectively fake his own death, with the help of Tony, Michelle and Cloe. So now Jack Bauer is "dead," and has a fake identity and will go into hiding somewhere (maybe Mexico). I wonder how season 5 will start (it begins in January).

And now Melissa and I will get to catch up on seasons 2 and 3. Then we will be "24" pros. :)

Class tonight. Blah. And it's raining... it's supposed to rain all freakin' week. This doesn't feel like the end of May!

Tired.

Weekend in review:

Friday night: got some food, and Melissa and I watched another six episodes of "24 - Season 1." Awesome stuff.

Saturday: Melissa and I went with Chillier and Prof K. to see "Star Wars III." I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot. I don't wanna ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, so I won't comment on what happens.

It was funny to see all of the Star Wars geeks there... led by their ringleader. Although we didn't see anyone dressed up as anything.

Then at night, Melissa and I finally finished off season 1 of "24" and of course it was great. I still can't believe that damn Nina! I did buy seasons 2 and 3, so when "24" ends on Monday, at least we'll have some more to hold us over until season 5 starts in January.

Sunday: Melissa went to her cousin's wedding shower, and I did some reading for school and some research online. But a weird thing was happening all day... Judy called, telling me that Chris did not go to work this morning... his cell phone was off all day, and no one could get ahold of him or heard from him. We were all worried about what could have happened... so when Melissa got home, I told her, and she spoke to Judy, who then came over. She was extremely worried... so we let her spend the night. He did end up turning up (don't know any more of the details right now). I just hope everything is cool with him.

Ah well... what can you do. And it's Monday, which doesn't help. I am so tired right now.

The season finale of "24" is tonight (two hours) and we're going to Red's parents' house to watch it on their big TV. Thanks for the invite!

Sith happens.

So I got tickets for "Star Wars III" for tomorrow at 1:15 PM... me, Melissa, Chillier and Prof. K. I am slightly excited to see it. The cool thing is that I was able to print the tickets here, so we don't even have to wait on line to pick them up.

I love technology (but not as much as you, you see).

I rule.

I got a 93 on my investments midterm!!!

I can't believe it. But I'll take it! No complaints here!

Also, another presentation in risk mgt class went well. Now we only have one more presentation to do in that class, as well as a group paper to end the semester.

9 more classes left this semester.

So it's Friday now, and I survived one of the worst weeks of school. And that is because i am that damn good.

I'm trying to figure out what to do this weekend... even though I do have some work to do, I have nothing due until Thursday. I'm sure Melissa and I will watch some more season 1 episodes of "24" and I need to watch "The Apprentice" finale that I taped last night (I already know that Kendra won... it was obvious anyway). I also would want to go see "Star Wars Episode III" but I know Melissa doesn't want to wait on all the long, crazy lines. Herb saw it already (of course) and said it was awesome.

(Carly, if you read this, I know Melissa emailed you, but ask Kevin if he wants to see it tomorrow, maybe afternoon, if he hasn't seen it already).

Also, I love the new System of a Down album. My friend Berto sent me all the MP3s before it came out (so I didn't have to buy it) and I've been listening to it a lot this past week. Also, the new Weezer album isn't bad (except for that horrible "Beverly Hills" song).

Happy Friday, everyone.

Optimal portfolio analysis calculations = bad for the brain.

Last night was brutal. BRUTAL.

First was Risk Management class. We had a presentation, which I think went pretty well, considering how busy things have been. I closed it out, and answered most of the questions.

But then Investments class... we had that midterm. Five questions that took the whole two hours. There was so many calculations, that both my hand and my brain were hurting when it was done. I think I did ok, but I don't know for sure. All I know is that when it was over, I was in a daze, and I can barely remember the trip home.

10 more classes to go.

Now for tomorrow, I have another presentation to take part in (a harder one than yesterday's). And in Investments, we have to read this case and come up with a bunch of calculations. Blah.

I did get to watch last Thursday's Apprentice... the second to last one. I liked Tana throughout the season, but now I think Kendra has the upper hand. Tana bashed her teammates too much last week, and Kendra's event went much smoother. We'll see what happens.

And 24! Damn that show is awesome. Next week is the two-hour finale... will Tony die? That would suck. But you know the show will still give us a few more heart attacks!

And the Yanks have now won 10 in a row. 2 games over .500! Even Giambi went 3 for 4 with a homer. Keep it up!

Help.

Tomorrow I have a midterm in Investments class, and a presentation in Risk Mgt. Now while the presentation doesn't seem to be that bad, the midterm is going to be horrible. I am studying covariances, coefficient of correlation, and margin percentages. My brain is going to explode because I am trying to cram too much information into it. Most of my weekend was wasted studying and preparating for the presentation. But Melissa and I did manage to watch SEVEN episodes of "24" from season 1 on Saturday night. What an amazing show. The more I watch that show, the more I think Jack Bauer kicks ass.

So let's backtrack... class this past Thursday - I survived. Nothing special (11 more classes to go).

Friday was softball - I missed the Thursday game we had, because of class (obviously) and we won that one. We also won this game 21-5. I didn't hit that well, for some reason... I went 1 for 4 with a walk and a run scored. Melissa played and went 3 for 4 with 3 runs scored! I did play some good defense at first... I made a great scoop on a ball hit hard to my right, and I made it look easy. Judy and Chris came with us, and we had the worst food at Applebee's after, and then got home to sleep it all off.

Saturday was mostly a study day... my group met up for the presentation, and then I desperately tried taking good notes for Investments (we can bring a few sheets of paper to use for the midterm). And Sunday was a little more of the same, but got to watch "Family Guy" and "American Dad."

Also, the Yankees are back at .500! They've won eight games in a row, and Tino Martinez has hit 8 homers in 8 games. Amazing.

And right now I would rather be anywhere but work (ok, I wouldn't wanna be in class either). Work has been busy this morning, and when I need to try to fit in some schoolwork, it makes it seem busier than it already is. Hopefully when this week is over, I can breath a little more than I can right now.

"24" on tonight. Next week is the 2-hour finale.

Comments.

I get that tingly feeling when I check my own blog and see that someone posted a comment. Makes me feel all nice and special that I have a small audience.

Ok, maybe not "tingly," but you catch my drift.

So, I'll give shout outs to Red and Chillier for their recent comment posts.

Class last night - one word: survival. Things were so busy trying to read and prepare so much stuff, I totally forgot to read these two cases for Risk Mgt class. I didn't even print them out. But no harm done - two groups were presenting them, and we really didn't discuss them that much. In Investments class, I am trying hard to understand the professor, and I'm thinking of intelligent things to say in that class. What bugs me is that the professor has this "secretary" in the class who watches out for when people participate in class, and marks it down. And she sits almost directly in front of me, so it's quite distracting. Maybe I should raise my hand and say something stupid, like "habaraba habaraba rico suave." I don't think this girl marks the quality of what is said, just that something is said at all.

12 more classes to go for the semester.

Jack Bauer is my hero.

Who else loves "24"??????

This show continues to give me multiple heart attacks. Even Melissa is now hooked. Last night's episode did not disappoint - Jack finally got Marwan, but the missle was fired. What will happen next week??

Since I got the "24- Season 1" DVD in the mail on Friday, Melissa and I spent a lot of Saturday watching the first five episodes. It was great - exciting as usual. After we're done watching season 1, I'll look for season 2 on eBay, and then season 3. It'll at least hold us over until the next new season begins.

The rest of the weekend:

Friday night: We lost our first softball game of the season, 11-8. It was a bullshit game - the ump was really weird, and was calling everything a ball, even really good pitches. But when we were batting, the ball would almost touch the plate, but he'd still call it a strike. Must have been senile. We did have one really bad inning where we gave up 7 runs - started because of a couple of gift walks. Ah well. I did have an RBI triple and scored a run. Our next game is Thursday, which I won't be able to play in because of classes. But we also have a game on Friday, and I will be there.

Saturday: Besides "24," I didn't do much except work on school crap: reading, taking notes for my case writeup. And ordered some yummy gnocchi from Red Sauce.

Sunday: Mother's Day. Went to Melissa's parents for a nice turkey dinner. And the new "Family Guy" was great. And somehow I typed up my case writeup pretty quickly.

Yesterday: Besides working and "24," spent too much time working on this project for Investments class. We have to put together a portfolio with stocks and some bonds, so I had to go on Yahoo! Finance to do some research. Real exciting.

And today... class, and I'll get to buy the new Weezer and Dave Matthews Band CDs. I hope they don't suck.

Friday.

The countdown continues: 2 classes down, 13 to go.

Last night wasn't so horrible, but it was still long, and there's still a lot of work to do.

I'm liking my Risk Mgt class... the professor speaks in an easy to understand tone, and it is interesting. Although I ruined it for BG and SB because I noticed that the professor might be wearing a rug, and now it's hard NOT to look.

I'm still trying to understand what Professor Long Duck Dong is talking about in Investments class. We had an assignment due yesterday, and I got the graph right, but I think I screwed up some of the stuff I wrote about in the paper. Do I care? No. We already have another assignment due on Tuesday... a one page case writeup on Warren Buffett.

Work also sucked so bad yesterday. A screwed me up big time, and she wasn't even at work yesterday. I ran all my reports as I always do at the beginning of the month, and she calls me around 3ish to tell me that she forgot to do something and I would have to re-run them. And these reports usually take about two hours to run. Annoying.

So the weekend is finally here. I have another softball game tonight (6:30 PM), and tomorrow I'll be home most of the day, I'm sure, studying, reading and working on my assignment. Sunday is Mother's Day, so we'll go to Melissa's parents for that.

What I would really love is a 24 hour sleep-a-thon.

Ugh.

Summer 1 Semester started yesterday. And I'm already stressed out from the work we have to do.

First class I had was Risk Management & Insurance. This class doesn't seem too bad... no exams, three presentations and a group paper do do. And it seems like it will be interesting.

Second class was Investment Analysis. Now while the material in the class will help me one day, there is so much work to do. Classes meet twice a week, and I work full time, and there's not enough time to do all the readings, the homeworks, the group project we have to do and whatever case writeups we'll have. We already have some homework for tomorrow which should take "about two hours," as the professor told us. And the professor looks exactly like Long Duck Dong.

Well, the countdown is on. One night down, 14 more to go. The last class is on June 21, and I think we only have the first class that day (the Investments class ends on 6/16). Hopefully the time will fly by quickly.

Green Day.

You know what sucks? Going back to class. Tonight. Especially after I saw the syllabus for one of my classes and it looks like hell. I need help.

So Friday night we went to see Green Day, in New Hampshire (with Melissa and Amy). It was a fun show... there were tons of teenie-boppers there, which was expected. Billie Joe definitely played for this crowd, with tons of "ayy-ohhh" chants. He even started the wave. At the end of one his chant-alongs, he was moaning, with his hands in his pants, pretending to masturbate, and then asking "anyone wanna slap me five?"

They started off playing the first three songs from the new album, "American Idiot," "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Holiday." They played a bunch off of "Dookie," like "Longview," "Basket Case" and "She." They brought up some kids to play the instruments during the end of the Op Ivy cover "Knowledge."

Saturday we woke up around noon time, and did some shopping at the mall. Who knew that JC Penny had some good clothes at good prices?

Sunday was a blah day.

Yesterday after work was our softball game. We won again, 17-8! We're 2-0 for the first time ever. I went 1 for 2 with a single, run score, and a sacrifice, but what sucks is that I actually struck out - I was definitely trying too hard to hit the ball hard. But the second time I came up, I hit the ball so hard, I almost took the head off the girl who was playing second base. I also played first base for most of the game, with pretty good defense again. I also played one inning at third base... didn't embarrass myself there. Our next game is this Friday.

When I got home, I watched "24" (after taping it). WHAT AN AMAZING SHOW. Last night was so intense, especially at the end. I can't wait to get the first season so I can catch up on all the old stuff (I got the DVD on eBay).

Ok, back to work... gotta try to at least get into some sort of school mode. Coffee will be needed.