Only You...

I think Smokey the Bear should sue the conductor of the 3 train I was riding today during my morning commute. At 72nd Street she came on over the loudspeaker and said (after several unsuccessful tries at closing the doors), "Only You know if you can't fit on this train. And only YOU know if your clothes are stuck in the door!"

I don't think she was too happy about the situation, but it was kind of funny.


All joking aside, that conductor woman should be careful...otherwise she might summon the wrath of Senator Clinton.

Wait, Wait, Wait

I am a little bit sad because I just learned from a friend's blog that The Format is no more--looks like the band is on a hiatus. You can read about it in the news section of their website or on Spin. Nate and Same are still good buddies...they just want to do their own thing for awhile. It's still a little sad.

If you remember, I blogged about seeing them back in August at Webster Hall. Good music. Good show. Good memories. (Becca, I wish you would have joined me that evening as well.)

I think I'm going to listen to their music for the rest of the day today.

My President's Day

I must say, my President's Day was quite enjoyable. Here's a play-by-play:

8:20 - my laptop starts playing music to cue me into the fact that it's time I start to thinking about waking up.
8:30 - my cellphone chimes in to second the motion.
9:00ish - I get out of bed.
9:00ish to 9:30ish - I shower and get ready and all that jazz.
10:00 - Adrienne sends me a text to call her when I get up.
10:05 - I call Adrienne.
11:00 to 12:00ish - I enjoy the company of Adrienne while we both enjoy yummy brunch at Sarabeth's.
Directly After - I stop at the grocery store to pick up bread and milk stuffs.
12:47 - I call Christy to tell Russ that I'm home. (He accidentally locked himself out of the apartment while I was at brunch and was camping at Jessica and Christy's apt just down the street a couple blocks until I got home.)
1:00 to 4:40 - I do several loads of laundry, wash dishes, vacuum, make lunch, chat, relax, etc.
4:40 to 7:00ish - I travel down to Wall Street and work my way up Broadway and round abouts taking pictures of Starbucks' storefronts and signage for work while the rain and wind comes and goes.
7:00ish to 7:34 - I sit at the Rockefeller Center Starbucks, sip hot chocolate, people watch, text.
7:34 - I get a reply text from my friend Ali and find out she's engaged.
7:34 to 7:40 - I talk to her on the phone.
7:45 to 8:00ish - I wait for a B train at Rockefeller Center
8:00ish - I decide to take a D train to 59th Street and transfer to the 1.
After arriving to 59th Street - I find out the D train I'm on will be running local past 59th. I stay on until 96th street and smile at my good fortune.
8:30 - I arrive perfectly on time to Malecon (98 and Amsterdam) for Becca's birthday dinner.
8:30 to 10:00ish - Eat, Enjoy friends, Enjoy friends, Eat. (If you notice, the center/important part of this chiasmus is "Enjoy friends.")
10:15ish - I arrive home.
10:30ish - I show Ryan my apartment so he can decide whether or not he wants to take my spot in March when I move down the street to the new place.
11:12 - I start writing this post.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable and productive day.
But there was definitely something (someone) missing.

I like...

I like why I haven't had time to post for several weeks.
I also like that it's certainly not due to a lack of good things to post about.
I like that I'm pretty healthy and didn't get anyone sick when I was feeling as horrible as I was 2 weeks ago.
I like that I have a bedroom.
I like that I can actually grow something worthy of shaving.
I like that I have cool socks (and a washer and dryer in my apartment with which to wash them pretty much whenever I need to).
And I like that it snowed today.

I also like...
That I received such a positive informal 6-month review today at work.
That I was able to go grocery shopping in a relatively uncrowded grocery store.
That I had the opportunity to grow closer to a friend via an extremely helpful, insightful, and enjoyable conversation over the phone.
That I was told Happy Anniversary today over gchat.
And that I have someone to celebrate a happy anniversary with.

"Happy One-Month Anniversary Leah!"

I don't like...

I don't like how I haven't posted for several weeks.
I also don't like that my blog sat with such a connotatively negative post as its most recent post for so long.
I don't like that I still have a cough.
I don't like that my bedroom is a complete disaster.
I don't like that I'm out of shaving cream.
I don't like that all of my cool socks are dirty.
And I don't like that it snowed today.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape...or in our case, "True Friends, Gossip, and Text/Instant Messaging."

I'm not quite sure what I want to say here, but I know I want to say something...you see...I learned some interesting things tonight. Perhaps I should start by listing a few of them.

I learned:

• who one of my true friends are
• gossip is lame
• word travels fast in our text/instant message world
  
• there's a lot of room for interpretation (or mis-interpretation) when it comes to communication via text/instant message
• gossip is lame
• apparently not many people know me as well as I thought, otherwise they wouldn't have carried on like they did
  
• 
  oh yeah, did I mention that gossip is lame?

After reading the above, some of you will be wondering, "What the???" But others may have an idea as to what I'm talking about. I hope the majority of my regular readership fall into the first group and are like"WTF?" But I also hope that some of the latter group reads this as well. I think they may find it enlightening.

So basically a friend of mine (lets call him/her Sam seeing as how that's a somewhat neutral-gender name) approached me tonight with a question. Sam had heard some things that were being passed on via gchat about me and wanted some clarification. These things seemed kind of stupid to Sam so he/she figured he/she would just go to the source. Coincidentally enough, our conversation took place through the very same medium that this gossip was being spread--gchat.

Overall it was nothing serious, just a silly miscommunication and a few things blown out of proportion, but it was highly disconcerting to me and to Sam that people would spread this story that they had heard some three or four people removed.

Being a good friend, Sam didn't mention any names or details about who was talking or what they were concluding about me and my character from this story of half-truths. (I'd rather not know the who/what). But the mere fact that people were talking about me as if they "knew" something firsthand when they clearly didn't, and as if it concerned them when it clearly didn't made me feel sick. I feel like I learned an important lesson regarding gossip tonight.

In conclusion, I would hope that all of us be more like Sam. I would hope that we would choose not to participate in conversation that slanders or assumes certain things about a persons character. I would also hope that when we hear something out of the ordinary said about a friend we would say to ourselves or aloud, "Wait a minute, so-and-so is not like that!" and then go talk to that friend and ask the truth.

Thanks for being a true friend, Sam.

My MLK day

I don't know what other people did on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but I spent it driving in three-day-weekend traffic to Jersey with Marcus, Becca, and Christi in search of road bikes for the girls while singing along with the cassette tapes we found in Tamara's car.

Anyone remember Tiffany?


All and all, it was a good trip...just long, and full of traffic--and consequently the taste of car fumes. Both the girls purchased good bikes that they should be very happy with. Becca bought herself a Specialized and Christi got a Cannondale. Her and I can be twins. :)

Untitled

The longest 13 minutes of my life.
But I'm not complaining.

Falling...

...and I hope I never stop.

As thirty (thousand) dialogs bleed into one...

My original title for this post was used by a friend so rather than copy his title, I decided to compliment it.

He also did a pretty good job of saying some of the things I wanted to in regards to what I did for my New Years Eve. So maybe just read it here.

The summary:
Yes, I went to Times Square.
Yes, it was cold.
Yes, it was awesome.
No, there was no New Years kissing.
Well, not for me anyways. But I can't speak for all members of my party. :D

Old Springs Pike

I find it difficult to think of many things better than an Old Springs Pike show...unless maybe it's an Old Springs Pike show with someone whose company you enjoy.
This is why I count my blessings when I think that I've been able to experience such a thing on two separate occasions.

Christmas vacation is good...

for lots of reasons.

One of which is you actually have time to do things you've been meaning to do for awhile, like play around with the header of your blog. :)

Thank you mooney for the original picture.
Thank you teachinfourth for the inspiration.

Rockin' Bluegrass in The Living Room

So last night a couple friends of mine and I went to see Michael Daves and Chris Thile perform at The Living Room here in NYC.

I'm at a loss for how to describe it. I found out about this show while rockin' out to the amazingness that is Michael Daves and Chris Thile at another show I went to Dec 4th with my friend Rachel (thanks for letting me know about it babe). She sadly couldn't be there last night because she's here supposedly working.

Michael Daves plays at Rockwood Music Hall every Tuesday (well, not this coming Tuesday seeing as how it's Christmas, but whatever) and occasionally he will have a guest artist come play with him. When Rachel told me at like 4 or 5 o'clock the day of the 4th that she just got an email saying that he'd be playing that night with Chris Thile I thought to myself, "There is no way I'm missing this show."

For those of you who don't know, Chris Thile was the mandolin player and lead vocalist for the former Nickel Creek who I was able to see in Salt Lake with my brother when they came through on their final tour back in May. Chris is amazing. Thus the obvious reasoning behind my thinking, "There is no way I'm missing this show." I'm glad I didn't. The place was packed, but how could it not be considering Rockwood is like a 40 ft square room, and there wasn't a cover charge. It was amazing. So intimate. And just plain rocked.

In my mind, last night's show was just a continuation of the awesomeness that was Dec 4th, with only minor differences: This time Michael and Chris had actually practiced a couple songs together before the show, we had to pay a cover, the room was a little bit bigger, and we were all seated.

I apologize that I don't have any video of the show to share with you all. (I must get my own small digital camera soon.) Their set really was amazing. They returned to the stage twice for encores.

If you go to michaeldaves.com/sound, you can hear a live recording of him and Chris from an older show at Rockwood. The song is titled "Loneliness and Desperation." You can also hear an older recording of Michael performing "Rain and Snow." An awesome song. As a request, the two of them performed it last night as the first of three songs they played during the two times they retook the stage for an encore.

Sidenote:
After the show I asked this woman sitting at the table next to us if she wouldn't mind emailing me some of the pictures I noticed her taking during the show. In her own words, she's "no professional photog," but I very much appreciate her willingness to share them with me.

The following pics are thanks to Jen (who I found out is actually playing with Michael Daves next month at Banjo Jim's. :)

Swashbuckling in NYC

I didn't exactly fight any pirates today, but at least I know I'm not a pansy.

i guess it's official

Today I got my New York license in the mail. So I guess I'm now an official New York resident.
I'll tell you one thing, my picture sure looks a lot more like me.

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Book Clubs are for...

I don't really have a meaning behind the title of this post or an ending in mind for that phrase, although a quick google search will take you to a web bulletin where someone finished the statement thus: "Book clubs are for people who don't really like books."

I thought that was an interesting statement.

Anyways, that statement is not the point of this post. I just through it in there for the heck of it. The point is to say that the book club I've recently joined finished its third book last night. So far we've read the following:

The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho

The Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene

The Love of the Last Tycoon
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I can honestly say that I've enjoyed every book we've read so far. (This statement is not to imply that the purpose of a book club or of reading books in general is to enjoy everything you read. It just so happens that, for me, that's been the case thus far.) In its own way, each book has brought new perspective to my ever changing landscape---the lens(es) by which I view the world.

The following is not meant in any way to act as a comprehensive list or summary of my entire learnings from the books read for book club thus far. I wouldn't even say that it's intended to highlight key learnings. Take what comes next as simply what it is... a small piece neither first nor last in the grand scheme of my experience with the above mentioned works.

"The Alchemist" invited me to look at the world around me and my relationship with God, nature, and myself in a new and insightful way. Greene's "The Power and the Glory" explored the dichotomy between faith and doubt, sin and righteousness, that exists within a single man. "The Love of the Last Tycoon"---which is really not a complete novel, but rather a collection of 17 existing (out of 31 planned) episodes or mini-chapters left unfinished and in rough form due to Fitzgerald's untimely death at age 44---allowed me to see under the normally complete and tightly woven fabrics of a master writer's work to see the intricacies and processes that come together to create the greater whole. I was able to see a snapshot of the process behind creating what would have been and what, despite its incomplete form, many consider to be the best Hollywood novel.

All that said, I'm excited to read our next book:

Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man
by Sam Keen

i hate when i do that

On the subway ride home from work tonight I saw a man with a Liahona bike. For those of you who don't know, Liahona is a brand of bike that (atleast to my knowledge) is based in Utah and is mostly targeted to missionaries. Anyways, I thought that I should go ask the man where he got his bike, thinking that it could possibly lead to a missionary oriented discussion. Perhaps he bought it from a missionary or maybe the missionaries use to teach him and gave it to him to help him get around and take care of his family...I don't know. (I'd like to think that he didn't steal it from some missionary.)

Well, the thought to go up and talk to him wouldn't go away. The words kept repeating in my mind, "Where did you get your bike?" Those seemed like easy enough words to say.

I chickened out and didnt' say anything. And then, we both got off at my stop. I could redeem myself. But I didn't. I walked out the turnstile and up the stairs.

Once above ground, I paused for a moment, kicked myself for being so stupid, turned around and walked down the stairs and back to the platform where I assume this man was waiting to transfer to another train. I arrived only to find a new train sitting at the stop, its doors closing as it prepared to leave. My bicycle man was nowhere in sight. He was likely already on the train.

I don't know why or if I was suppose to talk to him, but I don't think that's what's important.
I hate when I do that.

styled hair and bright eyes

Despite things both within and out of my control today seemingly conspiring to bring my day down.
For example: sleeping in and getting stuck on a very slow subway train this morning, getting an unpleasant mid-day headache, realizing both my tires on my bike are flat only AFTER I've gotten everything else ready for some exercise on my rollers, etc.
Despite these things, it was a good day.
Let me tell you just two of the reasons why:
On my way home from work I stopped in at the Supercuts on University (between 10th and 11th) to pick up some d:fi (It's this "pliable molding cream" for styling your hair. I've used it for several years and haven't found anything I like better). I was almost out, and then I went and left what little I had left in Boston. Anyways, after calling them up to make sure they had some in stock, I decided to alter my normal route home in order to secure said product. To my joy I was able to get the larger container (double the size and normally costing something like $20) for the price of the smaller container because the guy found one in the display unit that had been marked down for a promotion.
And as if that wasn't enough to make my day, I learned a new song on the guitar tonight.

yes, i know

Yes, I know. Much has happened since my last post:
I've been to several concerts where I was privileged to hear great music and spend time with good friends.
My roommates and I hosted an early bird Thanksgiving roughly a week before the official Thanksgiving holiday at our apartment. (All credit to its fabulousness goes to Becca Shim and those who brought food. It was Becca's party, we were just lucky enough to act as hosts.)
Two of my roomates went to Costa Rica for Thanksgiving. My other roommate and I found ourselves surrounded by marvelous people in Boston for the holiday weekend. While there I was able to visit several close friends I haven't seen for a good while.
Oh yes, and then on Sunday I turned 26. Yes, another year older and wiser to (let's hope).

To tell you the truth, each of those things deserves a post in and of themselves, but in case that doesn't happen...well, at least they've found their way into this synopsis post. :)

Hope all is well out there for those who make my blog a regular read.

a little sick

I woke up this morning with a sore throat.
My throat is still a little sore, my nose is runny and tender, and I can feel some sinus pressure.
I've tried to be gentle on myself today.
I'm going to bed.
I hope I'm feeling better tomorrow.
We have a client presentation/worksession in the morning.