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Wednesday, March 28, 2007 ( 11:46 PM ) teahouse Instant Date One of the things I love about the Boy is that he's a fellow musician. It's nice to have that in common. We often get together with friends to play chamber music. Sometimes we'll play duets, just the two of us. And he likes the opera and classical music. So we go to see recitals and/or concerts at least once a week. It's a great way to take advantage of the fact that we live in New York. But maybe the best thing about being with a fellow musician is this.. He owns a tuxedo. That means he's always ready to escort me to a fancy work event. And surprisingly, this is a fact that has come in remarkably useful in the past few months. A few months ago, my firm had tickets to see Hillary Rodham Clinton speak at a dinner. We were told about 2 hours beforehand. None of my female coworkers could get their boyfriends to come on such short notice. But MY Boy threw on his tuxedo and was there in time for dinner! So I was the only one there who had a date, heehee. Last weekend, I had a fancy dinner with work people. There was a last-minute space available at our table. The Boy had already resigned himself to an evening in his pajamas in front of the tv. But when my boss said the word, I called him from my cell phone, and he was there within the hour! Everyone was really impressed. He looked good, too. When asked how he managed to get dressed so expeditiously, the Boy grinned and joked, "It's actually a tuxedo-shaped one-piece jumper. There's a zipper on the back. And I used a phone booth on the way." # 0 comments Tuesday, March 27, 2007 ( 6:51 AM ) teahouse Uncle Pussy I haven't posted yet this week because, among other reasons, I've been too busy watching The Sopranos on tv. You know, the edited version on the A&E channel. They cut out all of the bad words, and say "freaking" a lot instead of the F-word. But I'm really getting into it. And I can still kind of figure out the plot, even with the bad words cut out. Not like in this version, which always makes me laugh and laugh and laugh: Oooh, I'm so excited because this is the first time I've ever tried to link to a video..and it worked!! # 0 comments Friday, March 23, 2007 ( 7:36 AM ) teahouse Lost in Translation One of my friends has parents who are always trying to set her up with friends' sons. She finds it really annoying. Hearing her talk about it reminded me of a funny story, though. Several years ago, my parents went through this phase where they were convinced that I belonged with the son of their best friends. I think they had a fantasy that we'd end up married. The two sets of parents schemed and did everything possible to throw us into situations together. They talked about him a lot, they left photos of him lying around the house. They even planned a vacation with the two families. I remember my mom one particular morning. She and I were in the kitchen, drinking coffee and reading the paper. She was trying to be casual (but of course being anything but subtle), extolling the virtues of this guy. "He's smart!" she said, in her broken English. "He is doctor! You are lawyer! Perfect together!" I think I grunted and looked up briefly from my paper. She pressed on. "And, guess what! His mom told me, he just got a condom!" Huh? "Mom," I said, looking at her for a few seconds. "I don't think that's what you're trying to say." "Yes, yes!" she persisted. "He just got a CONDOM!" "What? That doesn't make sense? And euwwwww!!!" I exclaimed. "What kind of sick individual talks to his PARENTS about stuff like that????" "Yes, yes! She said he bought a nice condom! Three bedrooms!" "Oh," I said, slapping my head. "You meant he bought a condo." "Yes!" she yelled. "That's what I said! Condom! Condom!!!" Anyway, about a year later that this guy suddenly married another girl in a BIG HURRY. I believe they have a couple of kids now. So yeah.... apparently he really wasn't buying any condoms. # 0 comments Wednesday, March 21, 2007 ( 7:34 AM ) teahouse Working in the Burbs - Part Quatre So a couple of months ago, I got to my car in the parking garage one morning, to find that the battery had been drained of all power. I think I have a weak battery. I should get it replaced since my car is still under warranty. At any rate, I stood there for about 10 minutes asking random people to give me a jump. I had the jumper cables; I just needed the juice from their cars. Nobody would help!! Everyone was leaving and rushing to catch the train. Finally, the manager of the garage came over with one of his assistants, and they helped me. They were really nice. The next day I brought them cookies to thank them for helping. Ever since then, they've always said hi to me when they've seen me. And last week when I called to ask about a weird item I got on my bill, the manager answered the phone and said, "Hey, it's THB! Oh, sorry about that item. That was a mistake; it shouldn't have been on there. Don't worry about it!!" It pays to be nice and bear cookies. And I know they're watching out for my car. Yay. # 0 comments Monday, March 19, 2007 ( 9:43 PM ) teahouse  Every Cloud Has a Silver LiningI was supposed to drive out of town to visit the Sister this weekend. We had it all planned out - we were going to spend the weekend doing sister things - getting massages and facials, having tea, catching up on together-ness. But alas, it was not meant to be. A huge Nor'easter blew in on Friday morning. It brought hail, wind, a foot of snow. Driving on the highway was an exercise in attempted suicide. And the trains were all sold out and running 2 hours behind schedule. So late Friday afternoon, I made the sad decision to stay home instead. Bleh. I spent the weekend cruising the City with the Boy. Going out to eat, going to the opera and Carnegie Hall, sleeping late. Of course, it wasn't as fun as hanging out with my Sis would have been. But charming in its own way. If I had gone out of town, I wouldn't have gotten to see The Pirates of Penzance, seen an old guy in the audience wearing an eyepatch, and wondered, "Does he really have an eye problem or is he just getting really into the opera?" If I had gone out of town, the Boy wouldn't have been at my place yesterday morning when I saw a DEAD MOUSE on the bedroom floor, and screamed and leaped 10 feet into the air. He wouldn't have been there to scoop it up with a paper towel, throw it away and comfort me. It was all little and gray and gnarly looking, and looked like it had died a long and drawn-out death. 0 comments Thursday, March 15, 2007 ( 8:11 AM ) teahouse Bikram Martial Arts Yesterday was unseasonably warm. But my tae kwon do instructor didn't seem to notice. In fact, he still had the heater turned way up during class. Apparently, he's from the mountainous and cold regions of Korea. We were all sweating profusely, and it was really uncomfortable. The good news is, I probably burned more calories. But the bad news is, I came close to passing out after class. Now I've read online that it's supposed to snow this weekend!!??? Yes, apparently they're worried that the snow accumulation will slow down Saturday's St. Patrick's Day Parade. They say the greenhouse effect leads to extremes in temperature - hot and cold. Stupid global warming. # 0 comments Tuesday, March 13, 2007 ( 10:17 PM ) teahouse Alternate Lifestyles Two months ago, my very sweet next door neighbor (a girl in her 20s) moved out. There are new tenants next door now. I live in a condo, and while my unit is owner-occupied (by myself) I happen to know that the unit next door is rented out by its owner. So these new tenants..I'm not so sure about them. First of all, I've never seen them. But I know they're there. They have the radio turned up full blast most of the day and night. I can hear it all the way down the hallway. On top of that, they smoke a lot. To the point where it's seeped through the wall and into my bedroom. As an asthmatic, I consider this to be a LEGAL NUISANCE. I've already called the managing agent on them. And talked to the President of the condo board. My theory is that they're running a brothel next door. Hence the loud music - almost as if it's covering up some unsavory activity (insert mysterious music here). Or maybe it's an illegal casino. Or an opium den. I'm not sure, but I'm getting annoyed. And ready to open up a can of whoop ass. # 0 comments Monday, March 12, 2007 ( 7:38 AM ) teahouse My First Tag Even though I've been blogging for several years now, I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to the online community. It appears I've been "tagged" by Moi at Single's Rant. I guess I'm supposed to share some info with everyone. Specifically, what I've been reading these days. Ok, well, here goes! The books I'm reading now are: Cardozo by Andrew L. Kaufman - An amazing book about the amazingest judge ever. He was my idol when I was in law school. I love him. Strapped: Why America's 20-and-30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead by Tamara Draut - An eye-opening book about how society has changed so that Generations X and Y can no longer afford the middle-class lives that our parents did. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - Someone gave me this book years ago, and I'm finally getting around to reading it. Full of good nuggets and age-old wisdom. Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich - Following up on the success of her earlier expose Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (in which she worked as a minimum wage worker for several months), the author has now gone "undercover" as a white collar worker looking for a job. Another commentary on the disappearing middle class. Fascinating. I've been reading these books during my morning and evening commutes on the train. Wow..looking at this list, I now understand why my bag has been so heavy! # 0 comments Wednesday, March 07, 2007 ( 7:06 AM ) teahouse Working in the Burbs - Part Trois I had another funny story ready to tell you guys, but something happened last night that was so unbelievable, it eclipses all other stories. So last night I was at the train station waiting for my train to take me back to the City. It was freezing cold (under 10 degrees F), so I was really anxious to get on that train. I stood on the platform with the 2 or 3 other souls who were brave enough to stand there instead of hiding in the station. We were all shivering, hands stuffed deep into our pockets, faces completely covered with our scarves, hunched over, jumping up and down to keep warm, not talking to each other, praying for the approaching headlights of the train. Finally, the train came. The doors slid open, and I took a step onto it. Unfortunately, just at that moment, my right shoe caught on the side of the door. As if in slow motion, my shoe flew off my foot and dropped through the gap between the train and the platform, down below onto the track. THUNK. My shoe hit the track and bounced off, hitting the ground below the platform!! I panicked and yelled. Two women heard me and shouted to the conductor, "She dropped her shoe!" I had to make a split-second decision as to whether to go on and leave my shoe behind, or stay and try to get it back. I chose the latter. I stepped back onto the platform, hopping on one foot, and the conductor shrugged at me as the doors closed and the train pulled out of the station. I looked down on the track. There was my poor little shoe, lying on the gravel next to the train track, at least 5 feet below the platform. It was too far to reach. The two women ran to the station to get help. One of them yelled back, "Maybe we can find a broom handle from the janitor in the station, and we can hook the shoe and lift it up." That made sense to me, since the shoe was a black leather Mary Jane with a buckle that could easily be hooked. They had been gone for about 5 minutes when my right foot, protected from the wind by nothing but a thin layer of nylon stocking, started to freeze in the night air. It was amazing how quickly it happened. One minute I thought, "This is fine..I don't need both shoes..I can get back to the City and then take a cab home..." and the next minute, my foot felt frostbitten and started to throb in the cold. I hopped on my one remaining shod foot, trying to keep the blood circulating. Then a man on the platform turned and said to me through layers of scarf, "Hang on a minute. I'm going down for it. According to the schedule, the next train isn't due for four minutes; I'll make it." All I could see were his eyes under the hat pulled down low over his head. I protested, "No way! Don't risk your life for a cheap shoe! I have others! What if the train schedule is wrong, and for the first time in U.S. history, a train arrives before schedule??" But before I could say anything else, he had leaped off the platform and onto the track, and was picking up my shoe off the gravel. Another guy on the platform grabbed his arm to hoist him back up. In a feat reminiscent of a male Olympic gymnast clearing the pommel horse, he vaulted back up the side onto the platform. He handed me my shoe with a flourish. That whole process took exactly one minute. Because three minutes later, the next train pulled into the station with a loud screech of brakes. I was completely dumbfounded. After thanking him profusely (as well as the two women who had come back in the meantime from the station empty-handed and were staring at the whole scene in disbelief), I got on the train. I had to spend the next 20 minutes sitting, gingerly holding and rubbing my frozen foot. I couldn't even feel it at that point. It's the weirdest feeling in the world - putting a shoe on a frozen numb foot. I had to tell you all this because NONE of my friends will believe this story. That a guy jumped off a train platform and risked his life to retrieve my lost shoe. I'm not sure if he was chivalrous or just plain insane. But he disappeared once the train arrived, and I haven't seen him since. # 0 comments Monday, March 05, 2007 ( 7:23 AM ) teahouse Working in the Burbs - Part Deux So here's one of my stories about my morning commute: I have a parking space buddy. Or some would say, a stalker! Every morning when I get off the train and go to my parking spot, there's a guy in a van waiting for my spot. It's always the same guy, and the same van. He's figured out that I do the reverse commute, and since he does the regular commute, he sees that my car is always parked in a good spot near the front. So... he waits for me near my car. Most days, I go to my car and back out, and I see him backing into my spot as I'm leaving the parking garage. The other day I waved hello to him, to let him know I'm onto him. I think I should go up to him next time and say, "Hey, where' s my coffee and bagel?" # 0 comments Thursday, March 01, 2007 ( 10:50 PM ) teahouse Working in the Burbs - Part One Since I live in Manhattan and work in the 'burbs, I have a reverse commute. So I get up every morning and catch a train to a station out to the hinterlands, where my office is. There, I get off the train at my stop, and walk to my car, which is parked in a parking garage. Then I drive my car to the office. Every night, I do the reverse. I drive the car from the office to the train station, park it and catch the train back into the City. The good thing is that I'm always swimming against the stream. When I take the train to work in the morning, it's never full. I always have a seat to myself. The same people show up on the train everyday. We all know each other. Sometimes one of us will remark, "Bob must be out sick today," if we don't see Bob. When I get to my stop to pick up my car, there are always lots of people on the opposite platform, waiting for the train to the City. But not so many on my side, coming out from the City. There are always lots of cars zooming around the parking garage, looking for spots. But not many like me, who are leaving. So there are many funny stories associated with my reverse commuting situation. I'll tell you one in my next post. But for now I just wanted to set up the background. Just so you know. # 0 comments |
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