New York redux

Saturday: we slept til about 1, then watched a movie and went to the Museum of Sex (pictures posted in Flickr). Then we came back to the apartment to rest for a bit and then went back out to dinner at Churrascaria Plataforma, a Brazilian restaurant that is MEAT MEAT MEAT. Meat wrapped in bacon. Yum. Went back and watched "The Squid and the Whale" and "Kinsey" while I uploaded my pictures.

Sunday: slept in again, and then went down to South Seaport and just walked around the shops. We saw the Bodies exhibition, which neither of us wanted to go into because we don't like icky things like that. Ate lunch at Uno's, then went through Battery Park. On the way there, I saw the Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton shrine - she is the saint I was named after! I took some pictures there, and then we headed back, I got my stuff, bid adieu to Chris, took a taxi to the airport.

My flight was over an hour late, but Cristina was there waiting for me. I was so glad to see her. I did have a great time, and yes, it was only two nights and three days, but still - I missed her terribly. It's good to be home.

Thanks for having me, Chris!

Free Netflix Trial

More on New York soon...but in the meantime, I just got an email from Netflix that I can forward to anyone and they will get a month free. So let me know (via comment or email) if you want a free month of Netflix and I'll send it to you.

New York, New York

Well kids...I'm in New York, visiting Chris. I got here on Friday morning and we walked all over downtown and midtown. We went to Washington Square, Union Square, Times Square (lots of Squares!), Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, and Central Park. We ate at Lombardi's, which, he tells me, is the best pizza place in New York because they bake the pizzas in coal ovens.

By the time we finished up and got back to the apartment, my feet were so sore I thought I was going to die. We ordered dinner in from the Amish Market and then headed back out again for Wicked - which was AMAZING. During intermission, the line for the women's restrooms looped about twice around the lobby. I got tired of waiting, so I went in the men's room. Quick and painless!

OK, I'm tired. More when I get back, or something. I've put pictures up on Flickr - check it out.

Cuff Links

I always wanted to wear cuff links. Not just any cuff links - I wanted someone I loved to give me an extra special set of cuff links that I would wear every day to work, like in all of the stories I read. The men were always going off to war, but they had their cuff links. I think I recall some of them being made of hair. I'm not sure I really got the whole hair thing - I guess whole locks of hair are pretty cool, but I never really got into the weaving of hair bracelets and all. Not really down with hair shirts either.

Anyhow. I'm not sure what brought this thought to mind. I haven't really thought about it in years. But maybe it's a function of the fact that I do dress up to go to work now, and since I'm going to keep doing it, I'd like to do it really well. So maybe I'll buy myself some cuff links.

Lord of the Rings Drinking Game

Cristina and I finished watching Return of the King on Thursday. We had the entire second disk to go, but she really wanted to finish it - so we stayed up until 2 AM to do so.

We were discussing and naming the various acting elements relied upon by the characters. I just now realized that there is a great drinking game to be had whilst watching any of the three movies.

CNS = Conflicted Numenorean Stare/Statement (either one will work)
e.g. "The same blood runs in my veins...the same weakness."
or Aragorn's face while staring at the shards of Narsil

EES = Emotive Elf Statement
e.g. "A red sun rises. Blood has been shed this night."

GDH = Gratuitous Dwarf Hilarity
e.g. "We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!"

HHM = Helpful Hobbit Moment (the x-rated version changes this to "Homoerotic Hobbit Moment")
e.g. "I can't carry the ring Mr. Frodo, but I can carry you!"

When you spot one of the above elements, take a drink/shot. Bonus shot if two or more elements occur in a single interaction between characters.

Vindication!

I have had issues with Cingular for about...oh...2 years now. I finally switched over to Verizon last month and ported my number, only to get a Cingular bill that charged me for an entire month during which I had service for all of four days. Naturally, this irritated me.

I called and spoke to two CSRs and a manager and was unable to get anything taken off (save a $36 reconnection fee which I was perfectly willing to pay). Normally, I would have said "well, OK" and paid it. Not this time. I've been dealing with the dropped calls and terrible reception and inability to hear out of my phone for two years, and I wasn't going to give up that easily. I was very nice throughout all of the phone calls, accepted the limitations of the persons with whom I spoke, and asked for a address to which I could send a letter escalating my complaint. I wrote an extremely reasonable (not just my opinion!) three-page letter detailing the issues and asking them to come up with an acceptable solution. I sent it without much more than a seed of hope glimmering afar off in the distance.

You know what? I got a phone call today at work from a number that I didn't recognize, so I didn't pick it up. I checked my voicemail just now, and it was a call from Ashley at Cingular saying that she had taken off all charges save $28.06, which was the prorated time for the days I still officially had service, plus some text messaging overage.

I doubt she will ever read this, but Ashley, if you do - thank you. You made my day and made me feel that standing up for myself could possibly be worthwhile. I'll gladly pay the $28.06 and I will never say bad things about Cingular Customer Service.

How well do you know me?

Take my quiz, if you like. You can probably find many of the answers on this blog, but it would be cool if you didn't cheat. I can't stop you, obviously :)

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

I really need this t-shirt

Greek Goddess

New York, baby!

I'm going to visit Chris in New York, April 21-23. We're going to see Wicked! I can't wait. The only bad thing is that Cristina can't come with me because of work and school. :( That really sucks. But I am not going to dwell on that, and I will take lots of pictures!!

Punk Music = Terror?

It's good to know that it's not just American tax dollars being spent in utter idiocy. Let's see - if I play "Atwa" by System of a Down, "Anarchy in the UK" by the Sex Pistols, "American Idiot" by Green Day, "Imagine" by the Beatles, do you think I'll get arrested too?

Atwa = I've got nothing, to gain, to lose. Speaks to the imbalanced mind.

Anarchy in the UK = um, hello? That's clearly a plot to overthrow the government.

American Idiot = threatening the President, of course. Can't upset a Bliar ally!

Imagine = another song fomenting revolution. Really - "imagine there's no countries" - sounds like a problem to me.

Here's the original article that started this piece. I've reproduced it below in case it gets taken down. Seriously, this is just about the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. Next we'll all be told what to think.


'Playing The Clash made me a terror suspect'
by ANNE CAMPBELL, Metro (Daily Mail, UK)

A mobile phone salesman was hauled off a plane and questioned for three hours as a terror suspect - because he listened to songs by The Clash and Led Zeppelin. Harraj Mann, 24, played the punk anthem London Calling and classic rock track Immigrant Song in a taxi before a flight to London.

The lyrics to both tracks made the driver fear his passenger was a terrorist.

The words of the Clash track begin: "London calling to the faraway towns, now war is declared and battle come down." And Led Zep's Immigrant Song goes: "The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands, to fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!"

Mr Mann, of Hartlepool, Teesside, had boarded the plane at Durham Tees Valley Airport when the flight to Heathrow was stopped and he was arrested by police.

He said he was told he was being questioned under the Terrorism Act and his choice of music had aroused suspicions.

Mr Mann said yesterday: 'The taxi had one of those tape deck things that plugs into your digital music player.

"I played Procol Harum's Whiter Shade Of Pale first, which the taxi man liked. I figured he liked the classics so put on a bit of Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song - which he didn't like. Then, since I was going to London, I played the song by The Clash and finished up with Nowhere Man by The Beatles."

Mr Mann said he was 'frog-marched off the plane in front of everyone, had my bags searched and was asked 'every question you can think of'.

He added: "It turned out the taxi driver alerted someone when I arrived at the airport and had spoken about my music. He didn't like Led Zep or The Clash but there was no need to tell the police."

Durham Police said the action was taken 'as a result of information received' and the flight was stopped before take-off.

ITMFA (or, Dan Savage comes up with another clever acronym)

Be warned: the "MF" in the subject line of this post stands for a bad word. If you don't want to see it, don't read any further and don't follow the links in this post. Also, if you're extremely Republican and supportive of the President, you probably won't want to read any further. In fact, you might want to just skip to my next post (whenever I post one). I'm not telling you what to do or what to read, just a friendly warning.

*A thought I had. The above statements are not intended in any way to imply that people of a more socially/politically conservative viewpoint cannot accept differences of opinion. Simply from experience, I know that people who feel very strongly about politics or religion or whatever (but mostly those two) sometime feel hurt or offended by extremely strong opposing viewpoints, especially when they are couched in a crude or offensive manner. That's all I'm trying to get across. And no, none of this is sarcastic.

However, if you want to find out what it means, go here.

If you want to read Savage Love (Dan Savage's love and sex advice column), go to the Village Voice.

Ecstasy

This is an interesting article...40,000 pills in 9 years. They focus on the mental and physical problems, obviously, which is a completely valid thing to focus on.

I'm curious how much it cost.

Time

On Wednesday (tomorrow), at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

Supposedly, this will not happen for another thousand years.

A good weekend

This weekend was good. I worked at the store on Saturday since Cristina was short one employee, and I didn't mess anything up! I rang up people and sold cakes. The hardest part was remembering what was in each one. I kept having to ask Lynn that. I forgot how much fun selling (anything, really) can be, and there were no nasty customers the whole day. Pretty cool.

Saturday night we went to my friend Jules' housewarming party. He, Rachelle and Greg just moved into a really cool house in Royal Palm Beach. They had a bunch of ribs and chicken and beans. I hadn't seen them in quite a while, so it was great to hang out. They finally met Cristina and everyone got along well. Love that! When we left, Rachelle gave me a nutty bar. We also took a big bag of corn, because they said they had too much.

On to Phil's. We hung out there for a bit - he and Hans were playing tennis on playstation or sega or whatever is the latest game system. I can't keep track, really. Who can? Oh wait - everyone but me. Nevermind :) Cristina started falling asleep on the couch so we left after about an hour and a half. Not before getting a) some good pina coladas and b) the finished dvd of the slam. Got to bed relatively early, in preparation for Sunday and...

...a major birthday party for Cristina's brother and nephew. The bash was circus-themed, so naturally there was cotton candy and popcorn. Naturally, I took advantage of that, therefore winding up with a stomachache that you would traditionally get only after pigging out at a fair. I think I ate four or five hot dogs, countless tiny meatballs, and as previously mentioned, enough cotton candy to keep a 4 year old awake for approximately two years. I didn't write down Sunday in my food journal. There's no need to start a cycle of guilt from which I'd be unable to free myself.

I definitely had fun at the Jiménez family circus.