Ugh...

Scary thought: I got the syllabus for one of my classes that starts next week.

I can't believe the summer is just about over and I have classes again next week.

This one class, Brand and Advertising Management, doesn't seem too bad. No exams, and a couple of papers and a group assignment. Hopefully it will be an interesting class and hopefully I will be able to participate (you know how those professors are about that stuff). Hopefully the Strategic Management class will be ok as well.

I am out of it today. Tired, busy, wanting to go home. Who else feels that way?

The Smell is in Pinstripes?

The Yankees signed Mark Bellhorn. Why?

Here is a guy that the Red Sox released because he was sucking. He barely ever swings the bat, walking and (mostly) striking out. He looks so greasy, and it will be weird to see how he will clean up for the Yanks. At least he won't be starting or anything... he'll just be used as a utility infielder, to give some other guys a rest.

Check out Melissa's take on him: http://subwayromance.blogspot.com/2005/08/respect-bell.html

Black is the new black.

Busy weekend, with some fun thrown in for good measure.

Melissa and I are continuing with our pre-fall activities of working on our house. Rearranging, buying some new stuff, etc. Yesterday I had to paint with the neighbors. It wasn't too horrible... we painted the front and back doors black, and Kristen (motivated neighbor's wife who I see on the bus all the time) painted the screen doors black as well. I'm not sure who's idea it was to paint the screen doors (it wasn't mine) but after it was done, Melissa and I thought, why were they painted? It's all way too black now, and I guess painting a plastic screen door doesn't look right. But nothing we can do about it now... maybe I'll make a comment about that next time I see them.

But we did some other things (Melissa and I)... cleaned up the kitchen, bought a new area rug and rearranged stuff to add some more counter space. We're thinking of finally getting the office back in order, so we'll need to get another CD shelf and bookcase. And Friday we bought some clothes to add to our fall wardrobe.

All of this was tiring... so tiring that we woke up late this morning. Not sure how that happened, but I still managed to make it to work on time.

The fun stuff... we went over to Chiller and Prof. K's (and the cute pets) for a little cookout and hanging out, enjoying the weather. And yesterday we went to dinner with Red at Not Your Average Joe's. Melissa and I were thinking... these are the friends we want to be close with. There's all the weirdos and the stupid friends (I will not name names, but you know who you are), but there's Red, Chillier and Prof. K, and M and M. It's so easy to hang out with them, and there's no issues or anything.

Get well wishes to: Red (parasite) and Chillier (back). I'll make sure Curt Schilling says a little prayer for you both since he has connections.

Goodness.

So Melissa mentioned that she was in this funk, having to do with feeling lazy and wishing that the house was cleaner and all that stuff. We were going to clean some stuff on Wednesday, but she only got through some old clothes to get rid of.

So yesterday, I thought I would be extra nice. I know am always nice, and I always try to do nice things, but I thought maybe a little extra something would be cool. I picked up some cleaning products to clean the bathtub (which looked gross) and I picked up some nice flowers for Melissa. When I got home, Melissa wasn't there yet (she went to the gym) so I started cleaning the tub (and I got through most of it). When she got home, she was pleasantly surprised to see the flowers and what I was doing. I loved her excitement when she saw the flowers (right away she puts them in a vase and takes pictures of them). The rest of the night wasn't any different than any other night (dinner, tv, etc.) but at least this night there was a little surprise that Melissa enjoyed.

Also, last night Curt Schilling started for the first time in awhile (after being the closer) and lost to the worst team in baseball, the KC Royals. I can see his diary entry now:

"Dear Diary, tonight I lost to the Royals. My curveball didn't curve, my fastball didn't move. These Triple A hitters teed off of me like I was a pinata. I was talking to Shonda after the game, in tears, and I told her that it was definitely because I was the closer and the change in mentality changed my gameplan a lot. It had nothing, and I mean NOTHING, to do with how my pitches were. Well, at least I have another six starts to change into a starter again. So if I lose my next start, it'll be the same excuse, um, I mean reason. Maybe I need to start wearing a bigger cross around my neck. I love Jesus so much, he should give me a guiding light! Anyways, I have to go call WEEI now and rant about how big of a liar that Rafael Palmeiro is. I can't believe he lied IN FRONT OF ME!! God will punish him. Love, Curt"

Ugh.

"The City."

Last night, Melissa and I were reminiscing about NYC. We were first talking about how we love to travel, and how I love hanging out in any city where the locals usually hang out. But when it comes to NYC, there are a few spots in the city that I just love walking around. And not Times Square, where all the tourists have a field day. These are some areas that just do it for me (in no specific order):

• St. Mark's Place. This is where I did most of my hanging out, whether it was by myself or with Ralph. The best used CD shops here, and a couple of good little clubs were there (Continental, and the now closed Coney Island High).
• Broadway/Lafayette area towards Alphabet City, along Houston Street. The Angelika movie theater, The Mercury Lounge, and a good deli and falafel place were all along here.
• Bleeker Street, in either direction from Broadway. Towards the east side, you hit CBGB. Towards the west side, you hit the original Kim's Music and Video, some cool little places along Bleeker. And if you go up a bit, you hit Christopher Street, and around there is Disc-O-Rama where you could always get new CDs for $9.99 (or $8.99 with a coupon from the free publications that went around).
• Union Square. Even though this is probably the most crowded area on my list, I still love it. The park, University Place, Fish's Eddy. Melissa was lucky that she got to work around here.

There are some areas that I used to hang out a lot or walked by, like 8th Street (where Ralph and I would check out all the t-shirt stores), 6th Ave. (by default, because we'd end up walking from the Village to midtown), Astor Place (only because the N train was there and it was close to St. Mark's).

Then there is 86th Street in Brooklyn. While some of the crappiest stores were along 86th St., it was featured in the beginning of "Saturday Night Fever."

I guess this is the "New York" that I will always remember. Being a tourist and checking out the "sites" like Times Square and the Statue of Liberty are fine, but it's much different when you live there. Those things don't interest you and you start to gravitate towards other places.

Weekend.

It was definitely an interesting weekend. Mostly fun, though.

The weekend started with the Judy and Chris wedding on Saturday. I won't talk about it much, but there was a weird vibe there for sure.

Then Melissa and I drove to New Hampshire. We checked into our little motel in North Conway, and went out to dinner (every place we passed was crowded, and we had to wait a half hour to sit). After dinner, we decided to go see "The 40-Year Old Virgin" and it was hysterical! Steve Carrell is so funny. The only place this movie was playing at was at some crappy movie theater in the crappiest mall ever. It was a depressing mall with only a couple of crappy stores (JC Penny, Waldenbooks, Fashion Bug) and it seemed all dark inside. The movie theater was weird too, and inside the floor was sticky and dirty and smelled funny. But regardless, we loved the movie.

Yesterday we got up for breakfast, a little outlet shopping, and then home. We watched the series finale of "Six Feet Under" and when it was over, we were speechless. It was amazing and a perfect way for the show to end.

And today when I got to work, I found out that boss woman had her baby a month early, on Saturday. And she named him Chase. Well, I guess her maternity leave has begun, so it will be Amanda-less till the end of the year.

And now I'm home, waiting for Bob's to deliver our new mattress.

Concerts.

Does anyone remember the first concert you went to? I'm sure you do. If it was KISS, or Aerosmith, or New Kids on the Block, you remember. I remember mine.

My first concert was in December 1990. Guns N' Roses at Madison Square Garden. I went with a bunch of my friends from high school. We didn't have tickets or anything, but we went down there looking for scalpers, and we ended up getting a good deal... there was about six of us, and we got tickets for $40 each. But the seats were spread out, and I got the ticket that was by itself, but it was on the floor, so it was worth it.

Soundgarden opened, which I would have thought was cool a few years later, but I didn't know much about them, and I thought they sucked. GNR came out late, of course, but when they got on, it was awesome. The only big crowds I've been in before were at Yankee games, and this was so much cooler.

However, my friends were idiots. They all wanted to stay together, even though we had seats that were split up. They would stand in the same row with one guy sticking out of the row, so security would come around telling them to move. After three times doing this, two of them got kicked out of the show. What sucked is that we all had to leave (I was probably too young at the time to realize that I could have stayed and gone home myself). We missed "Paradise City."

The next concert I went to was the GNR/Metallica double bill two years later. A great show, but this time I missed "Paradise City" again because Axl walked off because someone threw a bottle at him.

It was only two years after that when I became a concert freak. College years, big into music, and checking out the Village Voice to see who was coming to town. And I used to see anyone I liked who came around. Do you remember these bands (some you'll know for sure, some you've heard of, and some are too obscure):

Dig. Dandelion. Candlebox. Pennywise. Rancid. H2O. Live. Offspring. Bad Religion. Weston. Anthrax. Fight. Rollins Band. Outhouse. Mike Watt. Soundgarden. Foo Fighters. Bush. Weezer. That Dog. Everclear. Hole. The Muffs. Radiohead. The Nixons. For Squirrels. Goldfinger. Gravity Kills. NOFX. Local H. Sponge. Our Lady Peace. The Toadies. Veruca Salt. Porno For Pyros. Prodigy. Marilyn Manson. Nine Inch Nails. Green Day. Guns N' Roses. Metallica. Sleater-Kinney. The Donnas. Guster. Beck. The Ramones. And of course Pearl Jam.

I'll fill in more later when I can remember.

But I remember some good and bad moments:

• At an Offspring show, I was at the front when some crowd surfer landed on me and crushed my ribs into the guard rail.
• Ralph and I hanging out with Dandelion at the CBGB restaurant.
• Figuring out where the bands would enter and exit at the Roseland, and this is how I got to meet Dave Grohl, Thom Yorke, among others.
• Getting my glasses smashed at a Muffs show at CBGB.
• Going to see Bad Religion twice in one week, for $5 each.
• The week the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994: Tuesday night, Rangers won. Wednesday night, Dig concert. Thursday night: Soundgarden concert. Friday day: Rangers parade. Friday night: Metallica concert.

There's more, but there's only so much my old brain can remember right now.

Not-so-bad Thursday.

Well, I didn't see any wax picking guys or girls today, so I guess it's been a good day then.

It has been rather boring, actually... no boss, not a lot of work to do. Even though the day drags on, I still like it.

I spoke to a co-worker of mine, D, who's really cool... she and I were discussing what we think will happen with my boss. She is going to be out all of next week and the week after that. Then she is back for three days, and then she will be on maternity leave until the end of the year. We are thinking that there is a good chance she won't come back, now that she will have two demon children. And if that is true, it should make for an interesting dilemna. There would be no way they could not offer me her job (with a nice bump in pay). If they do offer it, it might be an ok move to take, although I still wouldn't want to be married to that job. Maybe it would be something to hold on to until grad school was over completely, and then I could look at my options at that time. And if for some strange reason they do not offer it to me, I will be out of here faster than you can say suck my balls.

At least I know for sure that things will be nice at work while the boss woman is away.

"Look what I found!"

Ok, I have to talk about the lovely show I got during lunch today. No, it wasn't a concert or anything (although there was this boring guy playing guitar out on the lawn where I eat lunch).

I sat down to eat my lunch like I always do when it's nice outside, downstairs next to the lawn where they have some tables and chairs. This blonde girl sat down at a table which was directly in my view. She seemed annoying, playing with her cell phone, picking it up and putting it down a million times, checking messages or calling whoever. She didn't have any lunch with her... just a big bottle of water.

All of a sudden, she pulls up the antenna of her phone, and not even trying to hide it, she digs it into her ear, digging for wax. And she was really digging for awhile.

Then she pulls it out, looks at the tip of the antenna, and then SMELLS it.

Then she digs some more, for a longer time, pulls it out, looks at it again, and smells it again. Except this time, when she gets it near her ear, she STICKS IT in her nose.

Um...

Then she must have noticed that I was looking at her doing this, but all she did was glance my way, and then glance back at her phone. No reaction, no embarrassment.

Lunch was then over for me...

Gross Monday.

It's so yucky out. It was yucky out yesterday as well. Rainy, gloomy. Fits the mood a little? Perhaps...

• My dad told me today that he has to have surgery for this pinch in his spine, which is causing pain in his shoulder and arm. This surgery will take place in 2-3 weeks, and he'll only be in the hospital overnight.
• Judy and Chris are getting married this Saturday, in a church, no reception (only a lunch with family). I think Melissa and I have decided to go.
• I'm at work. (That is always depressing, isn't it?)

But the good:

• Melissa and I bought a new mattress on Friday, from Bob's Discount Furniture. It was quite an experience!
• We had a good time at the Sox game on Saturday night (even though the Sox won). We had great seats, it poured on us for about 20 minutes (which was great, since it was 94 degrees at the start of the game), and Melissa's sentimental favorite, Doug Mirabelli, caught in this game.
• We went with Mardi and Mark to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (I liked it, and it was a little creepy).

And here's a nice t-shirt that Lauren found on-line... perfect for Bill's future Beirut league.

How old are we? :)

Now it's 4:25 PM, almost time to go home...

Elf Riders.

The weekend on the Cape was amazing. Red and her parents were wonderful hosts, and we had a lot of fun. Her dad took us for a ride on his boat, and we sat by the pool and people-watched the whole time. There was a lot of inside jokes that developed - the weird manager guy at dinner on Friday night, the golden couple by the pool (we named them Kelsey and Trent), and the weird groups of words we made up while playing Quiddler, this fun card game that resembles Scrabble ("I roam the bum," "elf riders," "Quoth the ape - ding!" were just a few). I also had the most delicous waffle cone ever. And we got lucky to miss all of the traffic going there and coming home.

Now it's Tuesday and I'm at work, and I am unmotivated to work as usual. I will need to take a little walk during lunch so I can feel alive again.

I can't believe we're reaching the middle of August. There are only a few more summer weekends left (this Saturday Melissa and I are going to the Red Sox game). And this only means that school is coming up soon. Ugh.

As Jack Bauer would say - "son of a bitch!"

Random thoughts.

I feel the need to update, but I have nothing to say.

Today's been a non-day at work. Boss is out, not a lot of work to do, quiet. I love it, but it makes the day drag way too long. I did get a haircut, and I look AWESOME.

Um, hmm... what to talk about? How about some random thoughts...
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My #1 album for this summer has been Alkaline Trio's "Crimson." I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this album. It's perfect. Every track kicks ass. It's melodic, easy to sing along to, and makes me feel great. Buy it.

I love grilling. Food tastes much better on the grill. Burgers especially. Tonight we'll grill up some chicken. Yum.

Dane Cook is funny.

I can't believe what happened on "Six Feet Under" this past week. I won't give it away if people haven't seen it yet but are going to soon.

I miss "24."

I wish Pearl Jam was touring this summer. Nothing better than singing along with my favorite group on a perfect evening.

I wish I didn't have to go back to school in September. But I really wish I was done with the whole program already. Soon, soon.

I wish my boss was out on maternity leave already. Actually, I wish she would just announce that she wasn't coming back.

I wish the Yankees would stop playing like bitches and start winning more consistently. Stop getting injured, you dumb pitchers!

I still hate Curt Schilling. A lot.

I can't believe it's August already. Can the summer be almost over already?

Have I mentioned that I love Alkaline Trio? New bands I also like are Snow Patrol, Head Automatica, Kaiser Chiefs (all good recommendations from Jack).

I love my iPod.

The next concert I'm going to is U2 at the TD Banknorth Garden in October. How can there be no good summer concerts?
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That's all for now, kids.

Work. Ugh.

Work has been sucking this week.

I know what it is too... it's my boss. Last week she was out on vacation, and it was a breeze... sure, I slacked off, but I got my work done ok. Now she's been back for two days, and she's been bugging me about all sorts of stupid stuff. I can't wait until she is on maternity leave...

Not much else going on. Melissa and I are going to the Cape with Red and her folks this weekend, so that should be fun!