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

Sunset over NYC from Brooklyn

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

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”

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?

Took the train down to Cinque Terre , which was my first time at any “Riviera“, not counting the one on the Strip. I didn’t mess up the experience by being a tourist and buying keychains, I just saw on some rocks and started at the sea.

I accompanied it with a small soundtrack, as the sounds of the ocean were too cool to ignore for a long period of time:

Kite-U2

Estranged-Guns N Roses

Sometimes-James

Fuera De Mi-La Ley

I’ll let you read into the songs. I thought a lot about how I don’t get out to the ocean much in San Francisco, and that could be attributed to the lack of “life” I had in my work/life balance. Now that I’m unemployed, I will have more time to do so, but I also feel the next job has to have some boundaries (set by myself). Perhaps my biggest regret is that I gave so much to the last job that I never really appreciated the life that it gave me. Yeah, shitty, but at least I got to go to Italy. Thanks eBay

Nothing really funny happened, it was so intense and unreal. Sure, I somewhat watered down the mystique of it all by having a beer outside the front gate and eating overpriced Gelato while checking out all the cute german girls (not sure if they were teens or adults, eek).

But it was pretty damn EPIC, no doubt.While in the Colosseum, I listened to the Verve’s “Love Is Noise” through my headphones while looking out and it was spine chilling, for me at least

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!

I woke up today and saw that it was Wednesday, and immediately thought “@$R#@$#, I need to move my car, I parked it on a street that has cleaning today”. After getting up and moving my car in pajamas, I came back to further realization of things  I must do before I leave. So I’m sitting here, with the backpack empty and surrounded by visual reminders that I am no longer an eBay employee (last pay stub, info on how to file for unemployment, etc).

I am hoping that Italy is theraputic for me, in the way that it was for Diane Lane in “Under The Tuscan Sun”, just kidding…I never would watch that crap The weather isn’t going to be the highlight of the trip, as we arrive to basically San Francisco weather (high 50′s, raining on/off).

Rats, 72 hours to Italy…, my to do list:

• File for unemployment
• deposit last pay check
• decided whether to buy a raincoat or just wing it with what’s in my closet
• buy snacks
• unload the boxes of my eBay crap from the car
• make some KILLER playlists for my ipod
• set Tivo to record the HBO special “You’re welcome America, a final night with George Bush”
• eat some oranges

Yup, that looks doable. Now there are 71 hours left

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)