Lifeinthekeyofme

But I have made it to London! Delta Airlines has the worst customer service ever, and still I take them hoping something will eventually change (doubt it). I had the fortunate? luck of sitting next to a Yankees fan wearing his hat, I was wearing my Sox one, there must have been people on that plane who had no idea of the irony. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous so far, sunny skies with the occasional moody cloud passing by. For my first Saturday of my stay in London, I met up with Kasey & Ben (recent transplants) to check out the Chris Ofili exhibit at the Tate. I was familiar with this “dung” work, but had no idea of his fascination with afros and vaginas. I didn’t take photos of those 2 particular subjects of his paintings.

After the Tate, we headed out to a favorite pub of theirs and on our way went by Buckingham Palace and Parliament and took the mandatory “tourist” pose while looking at Big Ben. The night ended up at a local Wandsworth pub, dinner (fish & chips)…2 more people added to my foursquare friends and a good night sleep. Cheers

Moving to a new city has all these addictive “must do’s” that can pretty much bury you. I am not planning on trying out the “hookers”, “crack houses” or visit Harlem at this time. Rather, I am trying to discover the East Village to decide whether I will or will not stay in this area after my sublease ends in 6 weeks or so.

My first order of business was to find the dive bar that I could feel comfortable at and enjoy the patrons as well as staff. (Similar to what Thieves and Monk’s Kettle did for me in San Francisco)

Well happy to say, only been here 4 days and I’ve found my place. It’s called Lilly Coogan’s. And I use the word “dive” loosely, more like a pub that has the foot traffic of a dive bar in the Tenderloin. This is NYC’s version of “Paddy’s“.

Last night was suppose to be a 2 drink and out for me, as I was feeling a little under the weather and then had a shit dinner at Yoshi’s. Somehow 2 drinks ended up being “leave at 2am”. I’ve befriended (or they did to me) the staff (Jackie, Ray and Serina) and we’ve discussed everything that is good about me moving to NYC and everything that is bad.

I heard a guy whisper to someone “I’m the creepy guy” and proceeded to prove it. Same creepy guy requested “Rock with you” a dozen times despite the fact that we played it for him. My iPod took center stage for about 2 hours and we traded off songs as if we were hanging out in the living room.

The beer selections were somewhat similar to what I’d probably store in my fridge (Stella, PBR, Sol). They also have a hot dog machine (condiments included) that were not bad, and microwave popcorn.

Oh and they have a patio!

So future NYC visitors (of mine), we will definitely be coming here at least once

I attended Opening Day at AT&T Park today (Giants won, woot woot). Mother Nature was nice to us, as it rained all morning and up to 29 minutes before the first pitch. That said pitch was thrown by Sully, yes, Sully! So my friend Andrew made an observation about how the recessions wasn’t stopping anyone from consuming $10 beers.

It got me thinking, does drinking $10 beers a by product of us caring about the recession and wanting to “give back” to everyone we can (if we can afford to do so). Now I know what you’re thinking “$10 beers have been here for years”, and yes, I agree. But this recession has only been here since late last year, and now, I feel that rather than curbing the consumption of over priced Budweiser’s, we may actually feel “obligated” to do so. I know, it sounds crazy, but these are the things I think about when I’ve taken 2 Benadryl’s and have gone through my ipod without any luck at finding “meaning”.

I was thinking about putting up an ad on CL for friendship, but someone beat me to it, so I replied.

On a side  note, why do cats sleep so much?

Day 5 of the road trip and I’m having such a good time, amongst a hazy head due to quality beer consumption. Though admittedly I had a Miller Lite last nite as my “nightcap”, so I’m going to blame the headache on that (today).

My jaw hurts, and its because of all the laughter and smiling that’s been going on since we set off south. Makes me wonder why its been so long that I’ve continuously smiled and laughed and just been happy. Internally I’d like  to find someone to blame, so it doesn’t all fall on me. Honesty be present, I only have myself to blame.

But the sun is shining, and so is my outlook on everything that follows. Like Manny Ramirez says “that’s the past”

It goes without saying that nothing could have topped this weekend because of the Wildcats win over Cleveland St, securing their first trip to the Sweet Sixteen since the  “collapse” in Chicago. I think we can give Louisville a game…

Oh, we also had a party

I’m gonna enjoy St.Patty’s Day by going to see Primal Scream in concert tonight @The Fillmore, I also plan to drink some tasty beer.  I still remember buying “Screamadelica” on cassette back in 1991, and I probably just dated myself even more so by saying that.

“I’m movin’ on up now, out of the darkness”

My last contact is torn (WTF?) and now I will be a serious one eye willy watching the biggest game of the year. Of all the times that I could have a torn, non-wearable contact, it had to be this week. I’m one of those statistics guys, the “one in a 400 million possibility” that something might go wrong with your lasik surgery. I had lasik 5 years ago, and within one year, my right eye went from 20/15 (after surgery) to 20/400 (which is legally blind in most states).

So I have to wear a special contact called synergeyes in my right eye, so I can get to about 20/40 (which is fine for mostly everything except commercial/military flying or surgery).

So back to the pity rant, so I had no more contacts left except this one SUPER FRESH OUT OF THE BOX one and I take it out and put it on and it has a tear on it. WTF? I don’t really have nails (yes, I have the King James syndrome), so what else could it have been? No clue, but now I have to be watching the game with one eye open.

Anyone have a patch? GO CARDS!

And it appears so did my Sony camera. We spent Saturday night saying “goodbye” with food to Julia, who is going back home after 2 years in the Bay Area.

I fondly remember the first day I met Julia, as it was also the first time I went out (all night) in San Francisco. In the end it was only Julia, Nichola and myself and really LOUD club music.

I also believe that was the last night we’d ever go to Ruby Skye for clubbing. Nothing like a bunch of 30 year olds trying to fit in with 20 years olds.

Julia’s upcoming leave got me thinking about how saying goodbye now, is just as hard as it was when I was  young. The older I get, the harder it seems to be to pick up a phone, send an email, or keep tabs on those you care about. So many reasons to blame, but mostly it’s “adulthood” that takes things away from us and then forgets to reminds us that we should push back on them.  Julia is the first friend leaving in 2009, I’m sure there will be more.

Note to self: Don’t forget your friends, as hopefully they will not forget you. See you in July (Julia)

Editor’s note: Yip (blonde) would like to make it a point that she’s holding water and not an alcoholic beverage. I guess it’s a January thing.

The BEST thing about not being at work (and still being paid) is that I can do whatever the hell I want no matter how many eye brows it raises. This morning I decided to have tacos at 10am. Yes, for those who don’t have a super steel lined Mexican desecent stomach…it would be murder. But alas, I have one. So I ordered 3 of them and I said, “what the hell” and had a Dos Equis as well.

So get off my back

I’m back in San Francisco, but need to recap my last night in Guayaquil; my hostel bud (Daniel) and I decided to take a crack at the local Mariscos restaurant. While we enjoyed our dinner I took the opportunity to ask him various questions about why take 6 months out of your life to come to South America, so far from home (Melbourne). I remember being 20 and having a hard time leaving my own neighborhood, let alone flying 3,000 miles away. Actually, I think I was 20 the first time I took a plane, and it was only to a destination 90 miles away

So ladies & gents, introducing Mr. Daniel Nicholson