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

Karma is a bitch, so is payback and all that crap. Last week I was mocking my friend Julie for being such a pansy, complaining about being on her death bed due to a kickboxing class. The “hurt” resulted in her not going to work out the whole week and also taking a pain killer to go bed (and function).

Fast forward a week later, today…and Julie invited me to experience it for myself. Now I am absolutely, 100% without a doubt, NOT IN SHAPE. But I’m getting there, this is week #3 of my “back into the groove” and going to the gym. So I gladly accepted her invitation to join the “pain”.

Fast forward an hour after the class, as I’ve just finished my dinner and I can slowly feel the onset of soreness coming. I never realized that ear lobes can hurt. ouch.  help. fml

(will update tomorrow)

Over a year and a half ago, while at eBay, I came up with the concept of a new blog that focused on social good. Though initially I raised a few eyebrows with the concept, it was approved. That site was called What Gives!? and unfortunately it never truly realized it’s full potential.

Though only real one to blame was “time”, it was just not the right time to execute something like that during the time when eBay didn’t know what the hell it wanted to be. (sidenote: they still don’t)

Understanding the potential of the site, my good friends at the Cause Media Group eyed an acquisition of the site (and it’s brand). They recently closed on the sale from eBay and they have soft launched the new site.

This is just a lite version of what the site will be and from what I’ve been told, it will stay true to the original vision I had for it. I feel happy that I created something that was sold to another, doesn’t that make me some type of entrepreneur?  Kidding…

Anyhoot, check out the site and learn what gives…

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

2 years ago I came to San Francisco to start anew. It seemed like a big risk with lots of potential.  I arrived on July 2nd, 2007, which was also the same day I had ever set foot in San Francisco (yeah, I was sheltered). In that short day (I arrived around 6pm), I realized that Ingelside was not really San Francisco, and that Ocean Beach was COLD. In the 24 months since then, I have made incredible friends, had ups & down in life (and work) and now know where I truly want to end up someday.

Yes, someday…I will be back but  TODAY I am leaving SF which the eventual destination of New York City. I’m scared as shit, yes, even at 35. But that’s how I pretty much felt when I moved here, and look how that turned out

Wish me luck

and thank you friends

Roman

I’m fully decompressed from the roadtrip with @sharpie33 and have a few reflections and thoughts:

• It will be a LONG while before my butt sits in my car for more than 40 minutes continuously
• sand is nice
• getting hit by a Frisbee hurts
• Fatburger is quite possibly the best burger joint in the world
• You know who your real friends are after 300 miles
• Ashley Tisdale’s version of “Last Christmas” is the second best version and makes a great road trip song

So now what? I am cleaning out my closet and sending all my eBay swag to @powersellingmom , I know she’d love the items as much as I did when I received them. I’m not throwing anything away, if anything, I’m paying it forward for re-use.

I’m heading to Phoenix in a few weeks to see my friends at Jimmie Johnson Racing, in addition some of my oldest friends and my Grandmother. I feel lucky to have this time off, even though it came due to a layoff. I’m getting to do things that I had no time for while still employed. I am commiting to continuing this even post “new job”, whenever and wherever that maybe.

Its such a beautiful day, sun is shining and it’s about 74 degrees here in Santa Monica. We are planning to go to the beach, happy hour and a Tweetup all in one day. Who wouldn’t want to be us?

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

The good news is that I’m alive and LOVING Venice! The bad news is my internal clock is all messed up. Right now it’s 12:42am in San Francisco, but in Venice it’s about to be 9am. I slept about 7  hours of DEEP sleep, but still feel all groggy.

The flight to JFK was smooth sailing, and the flight to Venice was just as nice. I ended up sitting next to a genuine Italian who didn’t speak any english, but it did not stop her from thoroughly enjoying “The Express” and clapping loudly when Ernie would score a touchdown (as well as being visibly upset when she found out about his death). I was extremely proud of myself, I only went to pee 5 times total, for both legs of the trip, that’s a record for me. I’m also proud to say my streak continues, I have yet to go #2 on any flight! Flying into Venice was gorgeousWe really lucked out with our Hotel, it’s on the water and we actually left on our Gondola ride a few feet away from the front steps of the hotel. This was the view going back:

Though our flights were relatively cheap, and the whole world is going through a recession, this is STILL Europe, so for those of you planning a European vacation, please note that you’ll still have to pay 3 Euros for a Diet Coke

Now the Gelato on the other hand, that’s 1.50 Euros and SO WORTH IT!

We’ll be on our way to Rome shortly, can’t wait to see all the hookers near Vatican City!

Ciao!

My last day at the office was this past Friday.  After nearly 6 year working for eBay, I was laid off  2 weeks ago. I was only 12 days away from my 6 year anniversary. I don’t really have any hard feelings, (well, white lie), but I’m ready to move on.  So what lies ahead? Not really sure, though I am going to be extremely selfish in these next few weeks and months. I’m not going to settle for anything, even in this economy. I want to  do things that I’m passionate about, period.

So to all my past colleagues, I will miss fighting over bagels on Wed, or sharing stories about who “dropped bombs” in the bathroom.

My only regret is that I wasn’t able to say goodbye to everyone, or to go all postal on people

(thanks to Chrissy for the suggested manner)