The Real World

After the weekend, I now understand how the Real World comes up with enough drama to make a television show.

On Friday I headed up to Vermont with 20 other strangers from Manhattan...

Kmart

There is a 5 minute sitting time limit for all furniture.

My Job

"I have a really weird job." I told this to my roommate yesterday after she observed some of the unusual, yet not so atypical activity surrounding my job.

Shannen nodded in agreement and then replied, "People's lives are your job."

Brenn

"Are you here for the 90s party?" 90s party? Ah, that would explain the background music - Criss Cross will make you - Jump Jump.

"No, we're actually here to see Brenn."

The hostess at Fontanas pointed us in the direction of a door located just beyond the pool table, explaining that we would find Brenn downstairs. So my roommie Shannen and I made our way to the door, and down the stairs to the basement. And as promised, we found Brenn.

I met Brenn two summers ago when I was in Nashville, co-emceeing a wedding with Lauren Greene whom I learned much later on is the Chief religious correspondent for FOX news.

The morning wedding, followed by the reception, was held in downtown Nashville at the Hermitage Hotel. And later that evening, I met up with a friend of mine from Spring Hill Camp(Jesse Worstell) at

That's also where I met my now friend Patrick.

But tonight...

The Script Continues

Sunday afternoon an acquaintance friend of mine invited me to watch The Bears game on a pub called Gael's, located on the upper east side.

The Lower East Side

Doc Holliday's on a Saturday night...


Some nights I stay out later than others... last night would have been one of those nights.

Choose Your Own Adventure

When I was in elementary school there was this book series I loved to read called Choose Your Own Adventure.

Wikipedia explains, (since I'm too lazy to), "Each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions in response to the plot and its outcome."

The book covers exclaim, "You're the Star of The Story!" and that you get to choose from 30 (sometimes more) possible endings.

Several years ago I heard Erwin McManus give the same talk twice - and both times he handed out chess pieces to remind everyone




Every day we are given the opportunity to choose our own adventure. And most days, there is little adventure at all, and for some, months, or even years pass by without some sort of sense of anything... except perhaps boredom, or routine, or

This evening I chatted (on facebook) with an aquaintance who I met on a ski lift last winter while snowboarding in Southern Calfornia. He currently lives in Louisiana and creates special effects for a living. (In a couple of weeks if you watch the movie The Mechanic, you can even see his name appear on the screen when the credits role.)

Today just so happens to be his birthday and he informed me, "I celebrated by jumping in a 40 degree lake with 40 degree air outside right at the minute I was born. It was . . . brisk."

I'm not recommending that you choose to catch pneumonia or hypothermia in your attempts to live an adventuresome life, but I am saying that maybe we need to consider switching things up from time to time - doing something out of our comfort zone, or...

Amsterdam

Don't worry. I didn't eat the brownies.

But I did spend several hours meandering about the city and touring its canals, all the while considering old e-mails from a certain someone who mentioned visiting my relatives in Germany someday.

And so on my layover in Amsterdam, on my way home from visiting relatives in Germany, I considered that he was supposed to be there with me.

But he wasn't.

But I at least I was - because a couple of months prior, I wasn't sure I would be...

3 of Diamonds

Fresh Footprints

In the Snow...

Central Park.

Stuck In An Elevator

Free Palestine

Street parades, street performers, street vendors, homeless men, policemen, good looking men (lots of them), tourists, tourists, and...more tourists - just outside of my apartment building is one of the most active and crowded intersections in the world.

Honestly, I never know what I'll find when I walk outside my apartment building's door.

This afternoon I went out for a jog along the Hudson River and when I returned I was confronted by a group of people chanting. Their cry: Free Palestine. A larger banner explained that a Free Palestine Rally was taking place from 3 to 5.

As I passed by I thought - gosh, I really suck at knowing what's going on in the world. I didn't know that Palestine was taken, but I will say that at least I knew that Palestine was a country, and not the name of a person. ;)

A couple of years ago, I made it my New Year's resolution to stay more on top of what is happening in the world. After all, I reasoned, how can you be a world changer if you don't know what's going on it?

So I started subscribing to this magazine called The Week...

The Cellar

I had back up plans - just in case I needed them.

And as I anticipated, I needed them.

I got stood up tonight.

The plans hadn't been set in stone, but the date (as in the day) had been established - the 8th.

But by 8 pm, as I was finishing up a Chinese food dinner with a friend, I still hadn't heard from him. That's when I finally acknowledged what I already knew to be true - he's just not that into me. He wasn't going to call.

But after tonight, I'm thinking should get stood up more often, because I had a really great time this evening.

My friend Melissa and I ventured into Manhattan and made some new friends along the way...

The Real Reason

Book Proposal

So, the reason I haven't been writing here, is because I've been writing elsewhere.

And I attempted a post yesterday, but I thought the content was a bit inappropriate for senior citizens - not that senior citizens read my blog (well, perhaps my mom does from time to time - she and my dad love their discounted coffee from McDonald's),



I'm actually working on my Book Proposal - it's due tomorrow - not to any publisher, but rather to a Professor.

And sadly, I just ran out of Diet Coke.

I think tonight is going to be an all-nighter.



For those that are seeking a fabulous write up on my life in Manhattan, I'll tell you about the smells in Central Park.

In the summer, it smells like horse crap.
In the winter, well at least tonight, it smelled like pot.

And, if you happen to sit down on a bench beside a homeless person in Central Park, well, that a special smell all of its own.

Time for me to run next door to get some Caffeine, which by the way, I learned today ;) that excessive amounts of caffeine can cause insomnia. Huh - imagine that.

And I just drink it to help me stay awake.

My Latest Theory

Confetti

Confession: I use to cut confetti for fun. I blame it on my 4th grade teacher's insistence of the three Rs - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. So, for most of 5th and 6th grade, as I watched television, I would cut up old school worksheets, reusing the paper by creating confetti.

I mention this because the other night I saw an awful lot of confetti at Times Square.

However, I can't say that I saw the ball drop. I know that sounds kind of lame to spend New Year's in New York and not do Times Square, but I didn't feel like dehydrating myself nor did I want to attempt to "hold it" for 12 hours in order to claim a viewing spot and keep it.

However, I did make it back from Brooklyn in time to walk up Broadway and ring in the California New Year in Times Square.

Interestingly enough, January 1, 2011 at 3 am was the most empty I've ever seen Times Square. There was plenty of confetti and trash littering the streets, but there were few people, aside from clean up crews and police, that were out and about by 42nd Street.

Yet I still met someone there - at about 3:03 am...

And he called today...

Blustery

"It's a rather blustery day."

"It's what?" I questioned my friend's word choice because it's not a word that I've ever included in my speech.

"Blustery."

"I don't think I've ever heard that word before."

"Really? Blustery - as in windy or gusty?"

"I mean, it sounds familiar, but I don't think I've ever used it."

Perhaps I was stupid. But that can't be it. I did too well on the GRE to be considered deficient in my definitions.

Or perhaps it was regional word - kind of like ice chest, which until I moved to California, I had always known to only be called a cooler.

So maybe my friend knew the word blustery because she grew up with the blustery Santa Ana winds. Yes, I concluded, that must be it. Because I knew it wasn't that she was an avid reader with an advanced vocabulary.

In fact, she confessed to me that she hardly ever reads books. Her reasoning: "There are other things I'd rather do with my time than to risk reading a book that I may or may not like."

I was saddened by her words because it made me come to terms with the reality that the majority of people I know probably won't read my book - simply because they don't like to read. But hopefully they'll still buy it and at least use it as a decoration for their coffee table and a conversation piece in which they can claim that they know the writer.

But blustery? I still couldn't come to terms with how she knew the word and I didn't. So I decided to do some resarch to see if my regional theory might be true.

I asked some from Texas what comes to mind when they hear the word blustery.

"Oh, Winnie the Pooh!!!" my Texas friend exclaimed.

Now that explains it. Evidently I didn't get enough of Winnie the Pooh growing up. I quickly learned that there's an entire episode and Pooh song based on a blustery day.

I told my nonreading friend that I knew how she knew the word blustery and I didn't.

"How?"

"Winnie the Pooh."

"You're Right!!!"

I bring this up because my boss's boss dropped by my cubicle today and asked me a question and in doing so he used a big word that I didn't know the meaning of - in fact, it was so foreign to my ears that by the end of our conversation I couldn't even remember what it was so that I could look it up.

Funny thing is, I still don't know, and may never know, if I answered his question correctly. I did my best to move away from his question, and simply say something that sounded intelligent. I think it worked. And if not, I might need to start sending my resume elsewhere for a job beyond this year.

The Essence of Home

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