I don't think a day of work could be any easier. Lets see, I'm only working a half a day, and actually cutting out in about 15 minutes (really just trying to kill time with this post), and the half that I did work? Oh yeah, working from home! That basically means I check my e-mail every so often to see if anything blew up, which is hasn't. So I've spent the rest of the morning just lounging around, listening to music, playing with the dog, basically, nothing important.

I'm heading out the door in a few minutes to head over to Elena's house. Not sure what we're going to do with the day, but I don't care. It feels like forever since I've seen her, although its only been about 2 - 3 weeks or so. I don't know, I lost count. Anyway, hope everyone has a great day, I have so far and know it will continue! Peace!

Current music - Pearl Jam "Jeremy"

And I can't even begin to tell you how psyched I am. Although I know I should probably scale it back a little bit, since I won't be able to see her until tomorrow afternoon. But I can't help it, I'm still excited. According to American Airlines her flight took off at 6:20 local London time and is expected in NY at 8:40 local NY time. I'm not going to the airport to pick her up this time though. Its just too much of a hassle, and I have to work tomorrow and she's going to be jetlagged and exhausted anyway, so no point to it. Plus, the only time she ever picked me up at the airport when I flew to London was the first time I went. Since then, all three other times I've been all by my lonesome at the airport and making my way to her place, so :-)~ Payback's a bitch! But I'm really just kidding, but there still is no point in going with her parents to pick her up.

Instead I'm just taking a half day off from work and I'll head straight to her house when I'm done. I'll be a good boyfriend and pick up some flowers or something as a welcome home present and then its two weeks of bliss while my girl is home on US soil where she belongs. I spoke to her the other day and I could tell she was in some sort of a funk. She hasn't had school in a few days, so she had nothing really to do, the weather was horrible so she was trapped in her apartment and when all that happens, your mind really starts to turn on you. I didn't press her on the cause of her distress, as she wasn't really willing to talk. I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with me, so again, when she's ready I said I'll be there for her to talk to, but I have a feeling what was depressing her.

Her agent showcase has come and gone and from what I got from her and her roommate it really didn't go too well. It sounded like the show the school put together for them wasn't too good, and the school majorly screwed up the scheduling by making one of the performances on a night when most of the major talent agents were in Scotland looking at students from a major school there. So I don't think she's heard from any agents so things aren't happening career wise for her yet, and school is pretty much done. All she has to do is write a huge paper, so I think she may just be depressed about whether or not London was the thing for her of it should continue to be. I don't know any of this for sure, I'm just speculating, but I think I'm hitting the nail pretty close to the head on this one.

This puts me in a delicate position too and as a result I'm conflicted about it too. On one hand I can use this to try to convince her to come home and just try her luck breaking into theatre somewhere in NYC. Having her home would delight me to no end, as I'm sure it would the rest of her friends and family too. I know her parents want her to come home for good once school is done and I would like her to also. But, at the same time, I want for her to succeed in what she does more than anything and I really want to be a supportive boyfriend. I guess I can do both and in the end support whatever she does 100%. I don't know, I just miss her and want her back so that we can move forward in our relationship. The long distance thing is tough and it sucks, but I know that once we get through it, if we get through it, it'll mean that we can handle anything. And it hasn't been easy, thats for sure.

I'm not going to dwell on it anymore because it'll just make me nuts. Babbling helps get it all of my chest and is very cathartic. In the meantime I'll just be waiting to see her and worry about all this crap later.

So I finally got around to watching Ameros Perros tonight. Although I should say try to watch as I got about 6 minutes in and had to shut it off. The opening scene involved two guys in a speeding car trying to get away from some guys in a pickup trying to kill them. In the back seat of their car is a dog bleeding to death. Right there I was highly upset considering everything thats happened with Keyser escaping recently. I was willing to give the movie a chance, but after seeing scenes of dogs fighting that just looked way too real I shut it off, sealed it back up in the Netflix envelope and will send it back to keep my queue moving.

I'm sure its a good movie, its got great reviews and came highly recommended to me, but I just can't get past the disturbing images of dogs bleeding to death and dogs trying to kill each other. Sorry, just not going to happen.

It brings me to an interesting point. I'm a huge Howard Stern fan, I listen every morning on my commute into work and it helps make the ride, traffic and all, more enjoyable. I think what the government and FCC is trying to do to him in the wake of Janet Jackson and her nipple at the Super Bowl is despicable. As a result, I'll be voting for John Kerry come November and praying with all my might that Dubya gets the boot. After all, it is Colin Powell's son at the head of the FCC, and what the hell does he know?

The government, and Republicans and conservatives in particular keep saying that Stern is indecent and obscene and needs to be taken off the air. They say he's offensive and disturbing. But you know what, if you don't enjoy what he does or he doesn't agree with you, just do what I did with the movie, turn it off. Its that simple. I'm not going to complain that the film shouldn't be shown or made because it shows something I don't like. They have the constitutional right to say what they want, just like Stern. I don't understand what is so hard for people to grasp here. If you don't like it, don't listen.

End of rant.

The little bastard got out, again. Nearly gave me a heart attack, again. It was all my parents fault, again. I don't understand how hard it is sometimes to make sure he's not in the room when you open the door to the garage, regardless of whether or not the garage door is open, he shouldn't be going into the garage. You know the old saying, an ounce of prevention... There's too much crap in there for him to get into and hurt himself with. So my mom accidentally let him in the garage, the door was open and he bolted.

Luckily we spotted him on the lawn by a street light, peeing. I then tried to lure him back with some treats and ended up having to chase him to the next door neighbors driveway. Had him in my sights the whole time thankfully. I was just hoping he didn't dart to the end of the cul-de-sac, because on the other side of it is a kind of busy road, and that would cause Keyser road kill, which nobody wants.

So now he's safe and sound, again. Sleeping, more like snoring in my bed. Hopefully my parents have learned not the open the door to the garage while he's around. They better, because they're killing me with all this stress of Keyser getting loose, again.

I'm beginning to doubt my role as lord and master over my cute little pooch lately. I'm starting to think that he really truly has the upper hand, or paw, when it comes to who's in charge of who. Case in point, the following story.

Keyser let me sleep until 6 AM this morning, which was a beautiful thing. He woke up around midnight needing to go to the bathroom, which wasn't a big deal since I didn't really take him outside one last time before going to sleep. He then proceed to wake me up at 4 AM, but I wouldn't budge since I could hear it was raining outside. I refused to get up and he eventually jumped back into bed and went back to sleep.

The problem with that was, in the process of getting comfortable and going back to bed, he stole most of the blanket. My problem was, I so just wanted to let him sleep and didn't want to wake him up in fear that he would never go back to bed that I let him get away with it. I slept the next two hours with my feet cold because I didn't want to wake the dog! How f-ed up is that?

In retrospect, I should have never named him Keyser. Regardless of how its spelled, its still reminds me of a German King, or of course his name sake, Keyser Soze, the devil himself. Although I guess it could've been worse, he could have stayed awake at 4 AM.

And thats what its been, and after the day I had Friday at work, I think I deserve it. Plus, next weekend with Elena being here, I doubt I'll have the chance to be lazy or have a boring weekend. So lets see, what have I been up to this weekend?

For starters, Saturday morning I got my haircut and my car washed, and let me tell you, they both needed it badly. My hair grows way too fast, and I like to keep it short, so after three weeks I find myself needed a haircut. Lately I've been stretching it to four weeks, but thats only because it seems that I need to in order to not need a haircut when I go to visit Elena or when she'll be here. Stupid reason, I know, but I'm a guy, we don't even know how our brains work or what we want. And my car? I'm pretty sure the last time I had it washed was when Saddam was caught. Yes, that long ago. Until then my idea of a car wash was parking my car on the roof of my office building's parking garage when it rained. But now both my hair and my car look good, so I'm happy.

My brother Randy's friend Andrea came by for awhile on Saturday and we went and got some burritos at this really good burrito bar in town for lunch, and some yummy Italian ices for lunch. I know it sounds evil, but I refer to Randy's friend as Grace, because thats what she is, the Grace to Randy's Will. I'm not saying my brother is gay, because he isn't, at least not that I know of. Its just that he has a pattern of finding really cute and nice girls that could be potential girlfriends for him and it always, always ends up on the friends tip. He can never close the deal. So he is the best guy, gay friend to way too many women, or just the one, but sometimes thats one time too many. But she's a really nice girl, her and Randy will probably never be romantic, but thats his loss because he doesn't have the guts to go for it.

Anyway, back on topic. After the burritos the weather was really nice so we just all sat out on my deck by the closed swimming pool. We took Keyser out with us and since the pool is fenced in and he can't get into too much trouble I just let him run wild. It was cute, the pool cover is a weird loop-loc cover, so it won't come off and it can withhold a lot of weight, so Keyser was getting adventurous and walked out onto the pool cover. The only problem was that as soon as he got a couple steps out the water would all pool around him and he'd get soaked up to his chest and belly. (Hey, he's a dachshund, there isn't much below his chest and belly). I took some cute pics of it, posted one to the moblog so check it out, link in the corner. Cute stuff.

I then spent the rest of the night playing on my brother's PC, since I have no games for my Mac, watching Van Wilder on cable. Stupid movie, but funny. Downloaded some recent episodes of South Park which were hilarious and called it a night.

Keyser was so exhausted from running around the pool all afternoon that he let me sleep until 7 AM, which is unheard of. When I finally got up I called Elena and it was really good to talk to her, since I hadn't since about Wednesday of last week. She said she was just thinking about me when I called, which is always a good thing, and that she missed me and can't wait to see me, which I never get tired of hearing. It should be really good having her home, if only for two weeks. I have to take her to the airport the night she leaves since her parents have to go upstate to her sister's college graduation. I think I'm just not going to take her and just drive off somewhere and run away together. Its a pleasant thought, but it'd never happen.

So that brings us to today. I've spent most of today either vegging out with a movie or playing video games. Very stressful I know. Hey, I work hard, or hardly, all week long, and I deserve a break. I watched The Ice Storm earlier, and I'm in the middle of watching Bound now. Its a really good flick. Its by the Wachowski Brothers, the same guys that did all The Matrix movies. They basically made this movie to prove to the studios that they could make The Matrix, since they already had the idea, and its a damn good film. I can totally see traces of camera moves and music and just general themes and feelings that they used in The Matrix movies as well. Plus the movie has lesbians in it. What's a guy not to love?

So thats about it. My uncle is up visiting from North Carolina for a few days, what fun! I never see the guy and only heard that he was coming up yesterday. Its just weird because I have nothing to talk to the guy about, so its really awkward. Oh well, not my problem.

Well I'm out. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend, or at least trying to. Peace.

Current music - Jeff Buckley "Lover, You Should Have Come Over"

I was typing an entry a little while ago, but then the power went out in our building for about three minutes, so I had to do a mad scramble. This just further solidifies the crazy day that has been today. Of course we were a little short staffed at work today, so of course that means everything has to go wrong just when there aren't enough people around to handle it.

I shouldn't say everything went wrong, just enough to make for a stressful day. Came in this morning and found that the IM service that runs on our mail server wasn't working, along with any e-mail coming from outside the company. So with two things not working on it, I decide to reboot the server. Of course it wouldn't shut down cleanly. I had to tell Windows to reboot about 4 times, and then it just sat at a blank screen with a mouse cursor. It sat that way for about 10 minutes and at this point it was getting close to 9 AM, so people were going to start coming in and eventually want to send and receive e-mails. So I decide to do what you should never do to shut down a computer, especially a server and especially one that holds 75% of the firms e-mail, I just hit the power switch. That seemed to do the trick though. One touch and I saw the Windows is now shutting down banner, so all was good. Server came back up, IM and e-mail worked. One crisis down.

Spent the rest of the morning putting out little fires as the girl that mans the help desk was out at a doctors appointment all morning, and another one of my co-workers, the guy whose job description matches mine the most was out all day. So instead of our usual crew of five, it was just three, and of course it had to be busy, especially for a Friday.

Things seemed to calm down by lunch and I was able to get out and grab a quick bite. Came back and it was calm, and then the power went out. So as an IT guy I had to scramble to check out what was up and running and what wasn't and start shutting things down. Just as I was about to start powering things off, the power came back on. Crisis averted. But it sure was fun.

So now I'm just hoping that the remaining hour and forty five minutes go by peacefully and without incident. Anything else goes wrong and I think I'll just lose it. Its been a long and boring week and this was not how I wanted to end it. Oh well, what can you do? At least tomorrow is Saturday and that means no work. The biggest thing I have to do this weekend is get my haircut. The dog groomers are closed, so Keyser is going for a bath and nail trim next Saturday, so he can be all clean and claw free when Elena and her parents and everyone else come over for dinner. Fun fun fun.

Well, I don't think I have anything else really to do today, but regardless I should get back to it.

Current music - Jimi Hendrix "Hey Joe"

File this one under weird web offerings. I was doing my usual morning web routine and hit Amazon, only to find a letter stating that they're going to go full time with what was a beta version of a jewelry store. What I found the most odd, was that now, if you were so inclined, you could purchase an engagement ring, directly from Amazon.com. Who would do that?

Now don't get me wrong, I've shopped for plenty of jewelry online before. Hell, I bought Elena's Christmas Present from Tiffany & Co. through their website. (Well, sort of, I had bought her something from Tiffany through the web, only to find out she had it already, bigger and in a different metal, so I had to go to an actual Tiffany store and exchange it to get her something else, but at least I saw before I bought). Side note to the side note, they jacked up the price on that thing come Valentine's Day, how messed up is that?

OK, so where was I? Oh yeah, so I saw before I bought, and bought well. Come Christmas morning she loved it, and her sister, a walking Tiffany catalog knew what it was by name, and probably the SKU# too. But that was just a necklace for Christmas, not an engagement ring, probably the single most important piece of jewelry a man can ever give a woman. Who in their right mind would buy it from Amazon? Who would have the guts to admit to their fiance or anyone else that they bought it from Amazon. A book, CD, or movie, yes, I have no problem admitting I got it through the web, but a diamond ring? You've got to be nuts.

Got into work this morning and found a gift basket from my company on my desk because today is Secretary's Day. Now, I'm a Network Admin, I work with the servers and the desktops making sure all the information systems are working so people can do their job. I don't type letters and take dictation or anything like that. I'm not a secretary. Turns out the baskets were for all secretary's and administrative staff, so I guess I fall into the second group considering I'm a network administrator. Wierd stuff. The basket looks like its filled with some nice stuff though. Gourmet iced tea, biscotti, pecans, chocolate covered cashews and honey mustard pretzels, you know, nothing good for you. But hey, I'll take it.

Sat through a boring meeting this morning about some service our marketing department is interesting in for broadcasting presentations over the web. Very boring stuff and hopefully it won't be adopted because it looks like it won't be fun to support it. I wasn't even going to sit in on the meeting, but my boss said he wanted someone from my department to be there and the girl that works the help desk said she was pretty busy, so I stepped up and tried to stay awake. We were also supposed to have a staff meeting today, but one of my co-workers got stuck in one of our smaller satellite offices today, and couldn't make it. Since a lot of the agenda dealt with stuff he was working on, we put it off till tomorrow. Thats a shame because I was looking forward to using the meeting as a way of killing a good chunk of the afternoon away. Plus I haven't been real busy lately, so I was hoping at least a somewhat decent project would float my way and give me something to do. I guess only time will tell.

In other news, thankfully the week is almost over, well, not almost, half, but thats good enough for me. I'm a half full kind of guy anyway. Next Thursday can't get here fast enough, but unfortunately Elena's flight isn't coming in until after 9 pm at night on Thursday, so it doesn't make sense for me to go get her. I'll just take a half day on Friday and cut out of work early to go hang out with her. Plus, next Thursday is payday, and money would be nice. Even though I just got paid two days after I got back from Paris, in typical real world sucks fashion, I now have only $72 in my checking account and, now, after my wonderful $4.62 Chinese food lunch (great stuff to get on a budget, any lunch special is quite filling) I have $5 in my wallet. I have a ton of money saved up in my savings account, but I haven't touched any of it since about October. All deposits, no withdrawals, and I'm trying to keep it that way. I'm saving for something special and I know the second I touch that money once I'm going to want to keep dipping into it until its gone and then I'll be pissed.

So basically I have to find a way to make $60 (since I can only get 20's out of the ATM's I use and they take $9 a month out as a service fee because I don't maintain a minimum balance of $1000 in there at all times) last until Wednesday night. My direct deposit goes into effect Thursday morning by 6 AM, so I wake up rolling in the dough. Thats not going to be easy as I need a haircut this weekend, so thats $11, plus tip and Keyser needs a bath and a nail trim and theres no way in hell I'm doing that myself. I gave up trying to do that a long time ago when fighting to get him to let someone do it usually resulted in me getting my arm scratched to hell, him getting a nail cut too short and getting blood all over the place. Now I just pay the $30 to get him clean smelling with shorter claws. Plus I get an hour of peace and quiet. Don't get me wrong, I love my dog, although the groomers said he gets better and better about his nails being trimmed every time. Good news.

Speaking of love for my dog, I know Elena doesn't, and I've always had a bit of an issue with that. She was starting to like him when she was home for Christmas. They even took a nap together. They both passed out in my bed while I watched TV and it was cute. He curled up right against her legs, adorable. The like didn't last as Keyser somehow got into my room when the door should've been closed, got into her bookbag and proceeded to eat her tampons. Embarrasing, I know. And all the progress the two of them made was lost. Keyser is approaching 3, so he's definitely mellowed some. Hopefully they can work at their relationship since its important to me that she likes Keyser. She doesn't have to love him like I do, I don't think she ever will, but I want her to enjoy being around him. I know she just dislikes all animals, but her sister has a dog, a little white ratty looking teacup Maltese, and she loves her sisters dog. I think its just because Lily, thats the dogs name, is small and quiet. I sat Keyser down for a father-son talk the other day and told him he needs to be on his best behavior while she's home. Hopefully he got the point, although I doubt it.

Alright, so enough babbling for now, its time to get back to work, or at least try to find something to do.

Good talk, I'll see you out there.

Went to the park near my office today to eat lunch and it was just so damn beautiful and peaceful out. The weather has really been nice the past few days so I feel like I should take advantage of it because I just know that its probably going to start raining for an entire week straight any day now. According to Weatherbug it is currently 68 degrees in my area and thats exactly what it felt like. Warm, but not too warm. The park was quiet and nice, the perfect environment to just sit around and do nothing. Too bad I had to come back to work. Oh well. Have to pay the bills somehow, such is life.

Damn it sucks having to get up and go to work on a Monday, especially when the weather continues to be so nice outside. The only good thing about getting up is that for once in who knows how long my alarm woke me up instead of Keyser. I actually had to wake him up for a change. Why and what happened to cause this, I have no idea. I just hope it continues, for his sake and mine as well.

So its a boring Monday at work and I have a terrible feeling that the next week and a half is going to drag on as I wait for Elena to come home to visit. I spoke to her mom today to find out when her flight gets in. I work about 20 minutes away from either major NYC airport and if her flight arrived in the afternoon I would have no problem with taking a half day and going to pick her up. Sadly, her flight doesn't come in until about 9 PM, so I think I'll just skip out on the airport pickup and take the half day Friday. By the time she clears immigration, customs and gets her bag I won't be home until midnight, plus she'll be exhausted anyway.

On a related note, my mom says to me the other day, "We should have Elena's family over for dinner when she's home." Fine by me I say. My mom is a fantastic cook and I don't think there's anyone on this earth that once they've sampled her cooking would turn down a repeat. What strikes me as odd is that even though Elena and I have been dating for a year now, there has been very little intermingling of the parents. I can count on one hand just how many times they've been around eachother.

1) July 4th, my mom had me invite her parents over for our usual BBQ. Elena's mom had some kind of problem with her tooth and sat it out, instead her Dad came.

2) A few days after July 4th, Elena's parents were having a BBQ at her house and asked me to invite my parents over to return the favor.

3) Pre-Christmas my mom and I organized a holiday get together at my house with my friends and her friends. This was interesting in that the roles were weirdly reversed in my house. I had more people coming to my house than my parents did and we young people outnumbered them. As a result, the youth ate in the dining room and the adults ate at the kitchen table, basically the kids table on any other night. And since I helped organize the whole thing, I took my dad's spot at the head of the dining room table. I think it pissed him and was slightly amusing to him at the same time. To get to the point, Elena's mom was really sick that night, so her dad came. Consequently, Elena got really sick that night too and didn't really fully recover until well after the new year.

So basically my mom and dad and her mom and dad have only really socialized together once. Which just seems so odd to me. But oh well. It should be interesting. I invited Elena's mom today when I spoke to her, and I'll be sure to extend the invitation to Elena's sisters and brother as well, along with Elena's cousin who came during the Holidays as well. Should be a good time. My mom loves to cook and entertain. She's in her glory when she has 20 people to cook dinner for, although she'll bitch about it all day, she really loves it. The more the merrier.

And thats about it. I'm really looking forward to going home. I'm still way too tired and I'm not sure if its nagging jet lag, which is crazy after almost a week of being home, or just plain tiredness. I woke up tired, since I don't usually wake up like that. Work is slow, as it was last week, so I guess thats ok. Busy isn't always good, because that means something isn't working.

I seriously wish that some law would be passed making the work week only 4 days long. Seriously, I have no problem with working 10 hours a day four days a week if it means three day weekends all the time. Hell, I only have a 35 hour work week as it is. The sweet thing is that I get paid OT at time and a half for anything over 35 hours, which really works out to my advantage.

Alright, I'm going to stop babbling now. This has been fun, lets do it again sometime.

So far I've had a movie filled weekend. Saw "The Punisher" yesterday with my older brother and it was OK. It was entertaining, but it was way too long for a comic book movie. I think it came to a little over two hours, which came off as just way too long for me. X-Men and Daredevil were each about 90 minutes, so they could have cut a lot of useless and slow moving stuff out of it and gotten tighter and more entertaining. It definitely dragged in a lot of places, had way too slow of a build up and was extremely anti-climactic at the end. But thats just me.

As for Kill Bill Vol. 2, it was awesome. I saw it last night with Seth and I only had one problem with it. I couldn't stay awake in the theatre. Yes, that's right, me, movie loving film geek, couldn't stay conscious for a two hour movie. The movie ended and I asked Seth, "So was it good?" Needless to say I was pissed at myself, so I went again this morning to the first show and after watching it conscious this time, I don't think I really missed the gist of what happened, just a lot of the details, like say, oh, a lot of dialogue. But it was really good and I don't have any problem giving a movie like that my money twice. If you liked the first one, you'll like Vol. 2 even better. If you never saw the first one, go rent it on DVD. You won't regret it, then go see the second.

So, now that I'm made up for last night's idiocy of falling asleep, I have the whole rest of the day to do with as I please. Not sure what I'm going to do exactly. Its still really nice outside, for a change, and I guess I could take Keyser for a walk. We went on one yesterday and it seemed to do him just fine. Didn't help him sleep past 5:30 in the morning, but thats another story. Once he was walked and fed we went back to bed until well past 9, so I guess I can't complain.

Well, I'm off, to do something. What, I don't know yet.

Current music - Damien Rice "Delicate"

Well, the weekend is only partly underway, but I must say, so far its going quite well. Damien Rice was awesome last night. Very cool and very different concert than what I'm used to seeing, but it was very enjoyable. And on the plus side I managed to stay conscious through the whole thing. I was dozing here and there, but hey, I was still jet lagged. I think I'm finally over it though. When I got back from the city at about 1 AM Keyser was sleeping in his crate in my little brother's room, so I decided to let him stay there. I woke up at about 7 and he was still in there, quiet as a mouse and passed out. I think I've found the new secret to sleeping late, unfortunately it means I no longer would have my little bed warmer, but such is the price you pay for sleep. I'm going to let him sleep in my bed tonight and if he can sleep until a reasonable hour in the morning he can stay. The first 4:30 AM morning we have, its the crate for him.

Its about noon here now and I'm heading out with my older brother soon to go see "The Punisher" which looks pretty cool for what it is, another cartoon violence comic book movie. I'm always up for that. I just finished watching Kill Bill Vol. 1, finally, on DVD. Only took three attempts to get through it without passing out from exhaustion. All set to see Vol. 2 tonight with Seth. We'll probably catch a late show, but thats OK. In between The Punisher and that I'll probably try to catch up on some of my Netflix movies. Although the weather is finally beautiful here after having pouring rain for weeks, so maybe I'll take the pooch for a nice walk or something. We'll see.

I'm still psyched to no end that Elena will be home for two weeks in a little under two weeks time. Should be a good time. I'd like her to stay for longer, like say, forever, but I'll take what I can get. Plus it saves me money since I won't have to take time off from work and spend money on a plane ticket to see her until at least the summer or later. We'll see how it all works out. I'm not worried.

Thats about it for now. Hope everyone is having a good weekend, or at least trying to.

Current music - Everclear "You Make Me Feel Like A Whore"

I got a call from Elena's mom this morning on my cell phone at about 6:45 in the morning, while I was getting ready for work. She said she just got off the phone with Elena and that I should give her a call. Turns out, to my surprise, that she's coming home to visit for two weeks! I was shocked and ecstatic. Definitely made my day, you have no idea.

Turns out when she first booked her airfare for London when she moved in August she had a return ticket for the end of April, because that's when she thought school was over. Turns out school doesn't officially end until sometime at the end of August or the beginning of September. She tried to change her reservation or get a refund, but to no avail, so she has to use it. So she'll be coming home on April 29th, a little under two weeks away, and she goes back to London on May 13th, so its exactly two weeks. Hey, I'll take it.

Elena wanted me to see if I could find a cheap flight for her roommate as well, but I had no luck in that department. Its getting closer to summer and booking an international flight with two weeks notice doesn't help in getting a cheap flight. It would've been cool if her roommate could come too, but oh well. What you going to do? I'm still psyched to no end though, and thats all that counts!

I'm still a little jet lagged. I tried to watch Kill Bill Vol. 1 last night, but passed out about 20 minutes in. Tried to watch it again when the dog woke me up at 4:30 in the morning, but I passed out again. Hopefully I'll be able to get through it tomorrow during the day as I have nothing else to do. Concert tonight in NYC and I hope that I can stay awake for it. Its all mellow acoustic guitar stuff, so between that and that jet lag its not very conducive to staying conscious. Oh well. At least its Friday.

I just hope that I'm not so tired that I fall asleep on the train ride out of NYC and miss my stop. That happened to me when I saw Pearl Jam last summer. I woke up just as the train was pulling out of my station. I had to get off at the next stop and take a cab to where my car was parked. How bad is that?

I don't think there is any worse feeling in the world than jet lag. I'm recovering from it, but I'm still feeling some effects. Flying for more than 6 hours and having to deal with a 5 hour time difference in each direction is tough. When you fly to London from NY, its about a 7 hours flight, throw in the time difference and its basically 12 hours from when you leave until when you get there. My flight left at 9 PM and was due to arrive at 9 AM the next morning. As long as you get a little sleep on the plane, you can survive the day, although somewhat tired. Go to bed sometime after 10 PM and wake up in the morning as you normally would and you're good to go. Congratulations, you've just adjusted your body to European time.

Coming back is a different story. The flight is somewhat longer as you're going against the jet stream and although you're making up time with the time zone difference, leave at 4:30 PM from London, land at 7:30 PM in NY, your body actually thinks its closer to past midnight when you land. Add in two hours of going through immigration, customs, baggage claim and getting your car and you're not home until 9 or so, which your body thinks is 2 AM London time. Go to sleep sometime around 11 PM, or 4 AM in London and your body is ready to wake up at 5 AM, or at least mine was. Thats no sleep and as a result you're exhausted the next day. Throw in a full day of work, and you're a walking zombie by noon. I got home a little after 6 and was passed out in bed by 8:30. Seth called me at like 10 to make plans for the weekend and I couldn't tell what was making the noise that woke me up and annoyed me and wouldn't go away. It took my answering machine kicking in for me to realize it was the phone. I don't remember what we even talked about, except that we're going to see Kill Bill Vol. 2 this weekend.

Keyser woke me up around 4:30 this morning, but it didn't matter, I was already up as my internal clock told me it was 9:30, but I got a good 8 hours of sleep in, so I should be OK. I'm feeling better, slowly. After a decent nights sleep tonight I should be good to go for Friday. I better, going to see Damien Rice in NYC tomorrow night and I'm looking forward to it. Don't need to be falling asleep at the venue, his music is mellow enough as it is.

On a side note, I got to witness some interesting behavior this afternoon. After weeks of telling some female co-workers of mine that it was possible to get to the closest mall from the office in about 10 minutes, we actually finally went to the mall for lunch today, only because one of them really needed to shop. Now, I've been shopping with Elena, and I don't enjoy it, because she shops for-friggin-ever, but this we were crunched for time as we still had to eat, so they shopped like guys do, go in, know what you need, get out. What was more interesting was the reasoning behind the shopping. One of them was getting some cologne for a new boyfriend and she was doing it as a subtle way of getting him to get rid of the old cologne he wore that was given to him by an ex-girlfriend.

I just thought that was very weird, but then again, I'm a guy. Elena didn't try to do anything like that when we first dated. I already did a massive purge of everything relating to my ex-girlfriend before I even met Elena. The only thing she had to change about me was my sneakers, because they stank, and I knew this and was hoping she wouldn't notice. When she first got a whiff of them she thought, oh my God, I can't date this guy, he smells. But I don't, it was the shoes. Once she finally realized it was the shoes, she felt better because she could just tell me to get rid of them. I knew they stunk, but they matched so much of my clothes, which was why I wore them. Anyway, after a few weeks of dating she told me to ditch the sneakers, which I gladly did, since I knew they were bad, and now we laugh about it. But that was the only thing about me she tried to change, aside from helping me to lose weight, but I wanted to do that anyway, she just help me find a way to easily do it.

So I'm feeling good, albeit a little tired still. The plan for this evening is go home and watch Kill Bill Vol. 1 on DVD, in preparation for Vol. 2 this weekend, and get a decent nights sleep. TV's all reruns tonight anyway, and I only tune into the last two seconds of American Idol to see who got the boot anyway. I didn't even watch it last night, still need to see how bad everyone was. I still can't believe Elena roped me into that show. I would never watch it if it wasn't for her. The things guys do for women.

Paris was awesome, plain and simple. Elena and I had the best time there and I'm so glad that I decided to go despite the fact that when I booked it I was coming off the bad Valentine's Day trip. But Paris more than made up for it, as it was simply amazing. So much fun, such a beautiful city with way too much to see and do. Pictures from my trip are now up at my .Mac website, so check them out.

And now for all the gory details, broken down in good old day by day mode!

Thursday:
Got out of work at 4 and made it to the parking place at like 4:30. Everything went smooth there, unlike last time where I had to wait a half hour in the cold just to get the shuttle bus to the airport. Made it to the airport and the line was manageable, and unlike last time, didn't have to listen to a group of 50 year old women talk about menopause and hormones. I was able to switch to a bulkhead seat with more legroom and it had a power outlet in the seat next to me which I used to power my iPod for the entire flight. I got to my gate and had way too much time to kill, so I plugged in my laptop and stated to watch "The Matrix." I got through most of it, Neo and Trinity were about to go save Morpheus, when my boss and his family arrived. Since there was a TGI Friday's bar right by the gate, we proceeded to drink. I had three 22 oz beers in about 45 minutes and was pretty buzzed/drunk by the time we got on the plane. I had to go to the bathroom once before boarding and two more times once we were on borad, before the plane even took off. My boss was laughing at me, but hey, I drank a lot of beer. And it paid off as I slept for more than 2/3 of the flight over there. Which then brings us to...

Friday:
The plain landed a little late due to fog in London, so we had to circle a few times before landing a half hour or so late. Once the plane finally landed I grabbed my stuff and booked out of the plane, never catching my boss before I left, oh well. Almost ran through the terminal to immigration, for which there was no line, had to wait for the baggage thing to move before I got my suitcase, ran through customs, which never checks me, and grabbed a payphone to tell Elena I was making my way to the Underground so she'd know when to leave to meet me. Luckily there was a train right there, so I hopped on and let it go. I must say the whole experience this time was so much better than the horrorshow of a travel experience I had the last time, which definitely put me in a better mood and made for a much more enjoyable weekend.

So I took the tube to the train station where I was meeting Elena and where the train to Paris would depart from. When I got there Elena wasn't there yet, so I quickly searched out a payphone and called my mom to let her know I landed safely. Once I was done with that, Elena was at our meeting spot so we hugged and kissed and it was good. We then set off for the part of the train station devoted to Eurostar, who run the trains between London and Paris. We checked in and waited for the train to board. We both just sat and relaxed and talked, catching each other up on what was going on, since we hadn't talked in awhile.

Finally we were able to board the train which promptly departed and made it way to Paris. Let me tell you, those things are fast. We were riding side by side with what looked to be a major highway and the train was passing everything in sight. I think at its fastest it hits about 180 mph. Very impressive. Before we knew it, and after a short nap we were in Paris. We got off the train and made our way towards the taxi stand where we grabbed a cab and headed for the hotel. It was weird to actually realize we where in a totally different country and city, but cool. We saw the Eiffel Tower as we got closer to the hotel which was cool. (our hotel was only about a mile from it, so we saw a lot of it. It became our Big Ben, because for some reason when we're in London, we always find our way over to it and it seems to be in so many pictures).

Checked into the hotel, which was very beautiful, got a complimentary bottle of champagne which we quickly drank (it was a small bottle) and then we took a nap. The hotel was awesome, the room was really nice and the staff very helpful. My one complaint was that our bed, which was supposed to be a double bed, was actually like two twins pusehd together, so it made sleeping close to each other next to impossible as the beds would move apart and someone would fall to the floor through the gap. Just my one complaint. And the fact that the room always felt cold to Elena and there was no alarm clock. My only complaints.

So after a nap we headed out into the streets around our hotel looking for someplace to eat. After wandering for way too long we settled on your typical French cafe that had a menu in English and actually looked like it had something I would eat on it. Big mistake. The food was nasty, and at that point, we swore off the French restaurants for dinner. The dessert was good and I'm sure breakfast in any on of those places (they're a dime a dozen over there, one on every street corner and almost every couple of feet) would be awesome, but no dinner. We wandered the streets some more before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night.

Saturday:
The word of the day is walk. I don't think I've ever walked so much in my entire life, no joke. If you take a look at the following map, you'll see our path for the day.

Everything in black is what we did before stopping for food at 4 in the afternoon (we were starving), and red is after dinner. You can see we kind of double backed around Notre Dame after dinner, that was because of this awesome ice cream place on the Ile St. Louis that Elena's dad and my Frommer's guide book said was a must hit place in Paris. So basically we hit the Eiffel Tower first, walking up to the first floor, since the lines were shorter than the elevators. Then we crossed the Seine and walked along it to the Place De La Concorde, then crossed into some gardens, don't recall the name on the way to the Louvre.

Inside the Louvre we basically just hit the main attractions, like the Mona Lisa (which is really breathtaking to see it in person after seeing what it looks like your whole life, sadly no pictures of it, as they wouldn't allow it) and the Venus De Milo, along with some huge painting by David, a French painter, like the Coronation of Napolean. Didn't stay long in the museum as it was stuffy and making us feel bad, so we left and got some fresh air and headed towards Notre Dame.

Notre Dame was beautiful, but like most things, we didn't have the patience or the energy to wait on line to go into see it, so we just admired it from the outside. We took a break from walking and sat on a bench outside the entrance and Elena actually took a little power nap while leaning against me. When she woke up we decided to go get some dinner, and thankfully she had a copy of Time Out London's special Paris section that had an ad for a Mexican place not far from Notre Dame, so thats where we ate, which was really good. Then we headed back towards Notre Dame and the famed ice cream place, which had the best chocolate ice cream I've ever had. I've never tasted chocolate ice cream so rich in my life. The place is called Berthillion, I believe and is on Rue Ile St. Louis, on the Ile St. Louis. If you're ever in Paris, go there, you won't regret it.

At this point we were going to hit a museum or two on the way back to the hotel, but they were all closed, so we just walked along the river back to the hotel. Once there we took another nap and when we woke up hit a corner store to get a bottle of wine and stopped by an awesome pastry/food place to get a little sampler box of all their cookies, which were out of this world. We went back to the room, ate and drank and went to bed, exhausted and stuffed.

Sunday:
Had an amazing breakfast at the hotel of croissants and other French breakfast stuff, then headed out to catch the Metropolitain, or Metro, the French subway. Took it to Pere Lachaise cemetary, where a ton of famous people are buried, like Jim Morrison. Walked around the cemetary for awhile, looking for all the famous people we could and just marveling at the beauty of some of the monuments and graves and enjoying the peacfulness of the place.

Then we headed to the Montmartre section, which was described to me by my cousin as the bohemian and artsy section of town. We walked around Montmatre and made our way to the Basilisque De Sacre Couer, which was just beautiful. Packed though. So we walked down all the steps leading up to it and marveled at it from a distance yet again. We then headed for the Moulin Rouge and checked that out, even though it was nothing like the movie (not like I was expecting the movie version). We hopped on the metro again and took it pretty close to our hotel, but checked out the Hotel De Invalides, where Napolean was entombed. That was a site to see. So beautiful you have no idea. So much for such a small little guy. Very breathtaking.

Went back to the hotel again and took another little nap. Woke up and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner (again, went with the safe call, a place we knew we have decent food). We walked around a little more after dinner, then headed back to the hotel, got another bottle of wine, drank some more then went to bed.

Monday:
Had to check out of the hotel, but before we did had a good breakfast at a cafe down the street and enjoyed some authentic French crepes. Took a cab to the train station, hopped on the train and sped back to London. I have to say that the train is the way to travel between those two cities. Its so quick and painless. Sure its only an hour by plane, but checking into the train and boarding was so much easier than a plane would be. And even though the train ride is a little over an hour and a half, it goes by so quickly, just like the landscape as you're speeding past it.

Got back to London and made our way back to Elena's flat. I started to fix her laptop, which was totally messed up. I didn't even look at it, I just went to work getting the replacement I brought with me up and running, which didn't take long. Got her Internet connection up and we then watched some taped episodes of Smallville I sent her for the remainder of the night.

Her roommate got home at about 8 PM, she had spent the weekend with family in Amsterdam and her and Elena proceeded to really bitch about all the things that went bad with their hige showcase. I had asked Elena how it went when I first saw her and she said good, but that she didn't want to talk about it. Now I knew why. Turns out it didn't go so well and it was mostly the schools fault. Basically they put together a bad show for the students and to top it off, scheduled it the same night that a big school in Scotland had their big agent showcase, so all the agents for London were in Scotland, so not too many got a look at them, which really sucks for her. I don't know what they're going to do about it now. Only time will tell.

I was upset that it didn't go too well, but in the back of my mind I was thinking that it could mean she'll be home when school ends instead of trying to find work. Whatever happens is fine with me as I'm going to support her no matter what. When she's ready to come home, I'll be here, I'm not going to pressure her at all.

So that was Monday.

Tuesday:
Packed and headed to the airport. Said the usual goodbyes that I hate to do and got on my plane. Saying goodbye sucks. Had a comfy seat, with a power outlet for my laptop and managed to watch "The Matrix Reloaded", "The Matrix Revolutions" and "Finding Nemo" before the plane landed.

Managed to get through immigration, baggage check and get to my car without incident and drove home in the pouring rain. Didn't get to bed until close to midnight though as I just couldn't sleep, and of course Keyser woke me up early, again.

All in all, it was a fantastic time. I'm so happy with the way it turned out even though I was nervous it wouldn't be a good trip. Now I know I was being a retard. I feel great about our relationship and I'm counting the days until I can see Elena again. When that is, I have no idea, but hopefully not too long. I'm sure the end of May, beginning of June. We'll figure it out. Now that she won't be too busy with school we can talk more often.

So thats it. That was Paris. It was amazing.

Just got back from the airport a little while ago from my NY to London to Paris to London to NY 5 day jaunt, and I'm shot. Exhausted doesn't begin to describe the feeling. My body thinks its currently 3 AM tomorrow morning and its only 10 PM tonight. So I'm heading for bed. In case you were wondering, Paris was awesome, amazing and a whole lot of other positive adjectives that start with the letter 'A', I just can't think of any right now. Details of the whole trip with complete day by day breakdown to come soon, most likely tomorrow while I fight to stay awake at work. So until then, bonne nuit.

Alright, I'm all set. My suitcase is stuffed to the gills with everything I could possibly fit in it. The only downside to that is that usually I come back with a lot less as I usually drag a ton of stuff over there for Elena. Not this time, so all the stuff is mine. So that leaves like no room to bring back souvenirs. Oh, who am I kidding. I don't buy souvenirs, that leaves no room for the important stuff, the candy. Oh well, don't really need it anyway. Want it? Oh yes, I plan to get a bag of Maltesers the second I can. I'll just have to enjoy while I'm there and skip on bringing it back.

I have everything I need, passport, money, train and plane tickets, hotel reservations and as of about 5 minutes ago thanks to FedEx, three day passes to get into practically every major museum and attraction Paris has to offer without having to wait on a line to buy a ticket. That was almost a fiasco though. I'm real weird sometimes when it comes to planning. My trip has been planned for weeks, got the airline tickets, train tickets and hotel reservations, you know, the essentials.

But when it comes to actually planning what I'm going to do once I get there, I have no plan. So yesterday morning, while somewhat bored and trying to pass the time I look into what it would take to buy tickets in advance to some of the major museums and whatnot. I find this place that sells them, and I'm thinking they're based in Europe. So they have this option to print out vouchers that you can then redeem once in Paris for the actual cards you need to get in. Only problem is, and I only found this out after I bought them, is that the place to pick them up is only open Monday through Friday, until 6:30 PM. No weekends. My train doesn't get in until a little before 5:00 and I have no clue where I'm going, so I'd have to figure out how to pick these things up before going to my hotel.

I take a look at the confirm e-mail they send me and it turns out the company mails these passes out from Massachusetts. So I call them up and ask how I can get the passes any other way, like before I leave. They tell me to cancel my order via e-mail and place a new one and select FedEx next day. Big pain in the ass. Thankfully the envelope came to me at my desk just a few minutes ago, so now, regardless of where I want to go, I don't have to wait on line, because as one woman in my office chimed in with while overhearing me talk about it with someone else, you're in no mood to look at art after having to wait to get in. So now, no lines!

Now I just have to kill the rest of the day away. I'm cutting out of work early, at like 4 and just heading straight to the airport. Good old JFK. Going to try to switch my seat to something with more legroom, and hopefully a power outlet for my iPod mini. I'm real nervous about not having enough of a charge to last the whole flight and the tube (London slang for the Underground, or subway. Subway in England actually refers to an walking path to go under a major road. I was dumb enough to follow the signs for the subway once while looking for a tube station. Stupid me) ride to the train station to meet Elena. A power outlet would solve that problem.

In the meantime all my gear is plugged in and charging. Last time I think I took my cellphone out at the airport to call Elena and tell her I landed and was on my way to my flat. I only used the cellphone to get her number, as of course it doesn't work in the UK, and those numbers are way too long to memorize. I think I left the thing on and by the time I landed in NY the battery was dead. I definitely need to pick up a travel power adapter to charge the phone in Paris, along with my digital camera. It would suck to run out of juice and not be able to take pictures.

I know Elena said she has one that her cousin gave her, but I'm sure everything is hectic with her at the moment with her showcase that she may not remember. I'll try to remind her when I call her after I land. Not the biggest deal, I'll just try to grab one at the airport or train station before I leave. Thankfully Apple makes a World Travel adapter kit, with all the plugs I need that just slide onto the power supplies for my PowerBook and iPod. Gotta love Apple. I know I do.

OK, I'm going to stop babbling now. This will probably be the last post for awhile, unless my hotel room really does have an internet connection. I'm not holding my breath and I don't really care. I have better things to do there than surf the net and check my e-mail. So, see you all when I get back (unless I get really bored later today and post just for the sake of killing time). As they say in France, Au Revoir!!!

Alright, I'm exhausted and I don't know if thats a good or a bad thing. If I can maintain the exhaustion level into Thursday night, I should be able to sleep the flight away (with the help of some herbal sleep and relaxing tablets, and a drink or two courtesy of my boss). The only downside is, when you're tired, things drag on, although I shouldn't jinx myself since the past two days have gone by really nicely.

I'm exhausted because I didn't get to bed until well after midnight last night. I went over the Seth's house for some dessert after their Passover dinner, which I do every year. Didn't get home until like 11:30 and proceeded to watch Scrubs, since I missed most of it getting ready to go out as I was already in my sleepware when he called inviting me over.

That wouldn't have been so bad, the late bedtime, except that Keyser broke all kinds of records this morning by waking up at 3:50 AM and refusing to go back to sleep. So I fed him and let him run loose. He then proceeded to scratch on my mom's bedroom door, not cool while she's trying to sleep, and my dad was already up and getting ready to leave (again, probably the reason the dog was awake). At that point I was ready to kill him. I picked him up and put him in my room, shut the door and told him that if he didn't go back to bed he'd be going in the crate. That did the trick as we then slept until my alarm went off. So that's why I'm so damn tired.

On a side note, been trying something different with my alarm. Usually I just wake up to the beeping of my clock radio. But I noticed my new iPod mini has an alarm feature where you can set it to play a certain playlist at a certain time. So I just threw it in its charging dock, and connected my desk speakers into the dock instead of my laptop and let the music wake me up. Its definitely a jolt to wake up to loud guitars instead of beeping, but I find that even though the music is loud, I like it, and continue to lay in bed listening to it. Waking up to music has never ever worked for me.

So tonight is the last time I'm going home until Tuesday and I hate the last minute worrying that I've forgotten something. And if I have, oh well, the suitcase is stuffed to the gills and there is no way I'm going to fit anything else into it. I just need to pack up my bathroom stuff and throw my tickets and passport and the rest of my cash into my laptop bag, as thats my carry-on. I'm sure I'll check to make sure I have the tickets, cash and passport five thousand times, as I always do. I hate the traveling aspect of it all, but once I get there its worth it.

Now I'm off to try to find something work related to do. Enjoy your day!

I'm a big believer in the theory that its the little things that really count in life and in love. Of course big, grand, sweeping gestures of romance and passion count too, but its the little things that sustain you from day to day, and as such I'm a sucker for them. Be it a greeting card (I love getting cards from Elena, don't ask me why), an e-mail or a phone call to brighten your day, just telling someone you love them and miss them, or, in this instance, have your picture taken holding the guitar of your boyfriend's favorite musician of all time.

A little back story here. Search back through my archives to the March/April 2003 and you'll get the sense that I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan, if you haven't gotten that gist already. I have all their CD's, a ton of their live official bootlegs, two concert DVD's (one done in Madison Square Garden in NYC, the first of two nights they did there, I saw the second night, which was not as good as the first. Seth saw both, the lucky bastard), and I've seen them four times in concert (tied for the most shows I've seen with Dave Matthews Band, soon to be Incubus too after I see them in June), including twice last year.

Their music speaks to me, which if it didn't I don't think I'd be such a huge fan. Hell, I even took the title of this blog from a lyric to my favorite song of all time, "Rearviewmirror" off their second album, Vs. It's a great song and it holds a lot of meaning to me concerning my ex girlfriend. Its all about getting perspective on something really bad thats going on in your life once you finally get away from it. Once you remove yourself from the bad situation, suddenly what was so bad seems miniscule. Hence the lyric, "Saw things so much clearer once you were in my rearviewmirror."

For me, that was getting away from my ex. I was afraid to be alone and single so I let the relationship live way way way way past its expiration date. It finally took her saying that she wanted to leave for me to confront my feelings and see that it was for the best. And once she was gone, I realized just how good it was without her. So I love that song and I love Pearl Jam.

So back to the story. I saw Pearl Jam twice in concert last year. Once at the end of April out on Long Island, right across the street from the building that I work in now ironically enough, and then again in July at MSG, in NYC. I took Elena to see them in April. I asked her to go with me at the end of our first date and she said yes and she really enjoyed the show considering she didn't really know too much of their stuff aside from whats played on the radio. So she knew how huge a fan I was.

Her mom and aunt just visited her in London two weeks ago and they went to the Hard Rock Cafe in London, which incidentally, if I remember correctly was the first Hard Rock Cafe, so as a result they have something called "The Vault" that you can tour. Basically its a memorabilia vault. So they took the tour and Elena saw and held and had her mom take some pictures of one of Eddie Vedder's acousting guitars. Jealousy does not even begin to describe how I feel, considering we went there the first time I visited her in London and knew nothing about the tour.

Elena said there were some lyrics taped to the guitar, written on a napkin if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, her mom's digital camera sucks, so none of the pictures came out great, especially the one of her holding the guitar, which is a shame. I'd post it here, but I don't think she'd appreciate it too much, considering its not the best photo. But she also took some pictures of the lyrics, and although they're a little blurry, I made them out from the bottom right sentence. No, its not "Rearviewmirror," but its probably the second best song off that album, "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town."

So here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Rock on!

So thankfully yesterday went by at a nice pace. I kept busy and aside from reading a little bit in one of my Paris guidebooks didn't really concentrate too much on the fact that I'm going away soon. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to go and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm just trying to focus on other things so the time doesn't drag and to avoid any possible disappointment, which I doubt there will be.

I swung by Elena's house yesterday to pick up the most miniscule things to bring with me. Basically some powder to make tea, and a new electric toothbrush, and thats it. I'm packing light this time and I'm actually already packed. Didn't want to leave it to the last minute as I'm just taking one of those basic, non-descript little black rolling suitcases, the kind that fit in the overhead bin. I'm amazed I fit enough clothes in there for a few days. I packed just the right amount, although I think I'll throw an extra set of the essentials (underwear, socks, undershirts) just in the event of disaster. I only had room for two pairs of jeans, so counting the pair I'll wear over there, that'll have to last me. And anyway, I'm a guy, we re-wear everything until its absolutely essential to wash it (meaning until it gets stained).

I am slightly worried about two things about Paris. One, the language. I took French from 7th grade until my senior year of high school and I don't remember too much. Probably just enough to get by. Thankfully, according to my aunt, most people in Paris speak enough English, and as long as you try to speak French at first, they're not too bad to you. Elena knows no French, so its all on me. Two, the food. I'm the worlds most pickiest eater and I'm scared to have nothing to eat. I guess it means I'm going to have to try something new and considering I probably won't know what I'm ordering off the menu anyway, it won't make a bit of difference. I figure worst case scenario, I could live off of French bread, croissants and desserts for a few days.

So thats about it on the Paris front. I need to run out to Target at lunch time to get some last minute things, mostly bathroom items and whatnot, as those are always the last things to be packed. Thursday night will be here before I know it, and then that long flight to London and that damn ride on the Underground to get to the train station. My iPod's battery better hold out, or I'll be pissed. Hopefully I can get a seat with a power outlet and I can pluf the thing in. Travelling is such a pain, but I know its all worth it!

In Keyser related news, so much for Daylight Savings Time. The bastard was up at 4:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep. So I fed him and passed back out and let my alarm wake me up. I woke up and he was asleep again, and when I got out of the shower he was in my bed, but I didn't see him at first so he kind of scared the crap out me. Pain in the ass dog, but something tells me I'm going to miss him while I'm gone.

Better sense tell me not to do this again, the whole countdown thing that is. I did it the last time I went to see Elena in February, for Valentine's Day weekend, and the results weren't spectacular. I should've known it wasn't going to be the best weekend in the world when just parking my car was a pain in the ass. Then the long line at the airport while I was stuck behind a bunch of 50 year old women talking about menopause and hormones. Then the $270 charge for my overweight suitcase full of stuff I was taking to Elena. And then of course everything else that happened that I won't go into. Lets just say last time I was anxiously looking forward to seeing Elena it wasn't the best all around experience I've ever had. I think the only good part about it was the flight back to NY. I had a comfy seat with a power outlet for my laptop and watched movies the whole way back.

So, against better judgement, here we go. Only a few days until I leave (Thursday night to be exact) and hopefully there will be enough things to keep me busy so I don't go nuts with the waiting and anticipation, especially since I don't want it to blow up in my face again. I need to swing by Elena's house sometime this week, probably tonight, to pick up like one small thing I'm taking with me for her. Her mom was just over there and probably brought her a ton of stuff, so I shouldn't have much. Plus, I'm taking a smaller suitcase so I technically can't bring too much. Also, when I spoke to her mom yesterday, relaying a message for her to call Elena, she said she brought back Maltesers for me, my all time favorite candy from the UK. If you're ever in London, and you're a fan of malted milk balls, like Whoppers, get Maltesers, they kick Whoppers ass.

So thats about it for today, had a good Sunday. I finished my book like I planned, saw "Hellboy" like I planned and my family came over for dinner. The book was good, the movie was good and "The Sopranos" last night was really good, so all in all, I'm satisfied.

On the Keyser front, I'm shocked, but he actually let me sleep until my alarm went off this morning. God bless daylight savings time. He only woke me up once, around 1, having to go to the bathroom, but we went back to sleep and didn't wake up until my alarm went off after 6. Very nice.

Have a good day everyone, adios!

I saw this at Jenn's Blog and thought it was pretty cool so I decided to steal it too. I don't usually do this stuff when people forward them to me in e-mail, but there's a first time for everything.

1) John F. Kennedy was shot? (11/22/1963)
Not even close to being born yet. That would take exactly fifteen years and six days to take place. (11/28/1978)

2) Mt. St. Helen's blew? (5/18/1980)
No idea. I was somewhere though, probably playing or sleeping or being a pain in my parents ass.

3) John Lennon gunned down? (12/08/1980)
Again, no idea, but I was alive. I remember years later watching a Julian Lennon video on VH1 and my mom commenting that someone killed his father. Made me sad.

4) The Challenger exploded? (1/28/1986)
I was in second grade, and the time I think my parents and the school were toying with the idea of me skipping a grade, so I was doing things with the third graders at the time. Not sure if I watched it on TV or not, but I do remember one of the spelling words we had for the week after it happened was tragedy.

5) The 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco? (10/07/1989)
I was in sixth grade, and I was about to watch the World Series, between San Francisco and Oakland, when the quake hit, putting the World Series on a definite hiatus.

6) The Berlin Wall Fell? (11/07/1989)
Again, probably watching it on TV as it happened, don't really remember to clearly though.

7) The Gulf War began? (01/16/1991)
Playing with Lego's in my parents bedroom, watching TV (like always) and being really pissed that whatever I wanted to watch was pre-empted for war stuff, and would be for quite awhile. (Same thing happened last year, the last two seconds, and the most important, of an Angel episode was cut off because of the Iraqi war).

8) OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco? (06/17/1994)
Watching the New York Knicks in a failed attempt to win the NBA championship. It would've been cool if they did win, because the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup that year too, and having two NYC champions in Madison Square Garden would've been cool. Damn these things are always tied to watching TV or sporting events so far?

8a) And when the verdict was read? (10/03/1995)
We had a sub in my last class of the day and we heard that they were going to announce the verdict. After playing with a radio proved futile, we went to the library and with a shit load of other students watched the verdict. I stuck around for awhile afterwards, probably because a really cute girl was also into watching it, and I was into her (I was 17, can you blame me?)

9) The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed? (04/19/1995)
In High School, this one's fuzzy too, but I definitely remember talking about it in Driver's Ed.

10) Princess Di was killed? (08/31/1997)
In my college dorm. All my friends had gone out and I just wasn't in the mood, so I stayed in and watched this all night.

11) Bush was first announced president? (11/07/2000)
Oh, you mean Hail to the Thief? Well, he wasn't announced the victor until like a month later, right? I remember going to sleep election night not knowing who our next president was, and waking up the next morning with that question still unanswered. I just remember my dad became a Fox News junkie for the next month, which was sickening.

12) Terrorists destroyed the WTC? (09/11/2001)
This was like two days after I got my dog, so I was pretty sleep deprived. I just remember my older brother calling me, I was living in New Orleans at the time, and he called telling me a plain hit the twin towers. I didn't believe him and hung up. Then I asked my girlfriend at the time, "What channel is CNN?" Not sure if I remember watching as the second plane hit or not.

13) Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Texas? (02/01/2003)
Just walking in the door from bringing my dog to the vet for a routine checkup. My parents were having some of the house painted at the time and I just watched the news with my brother and the painter for awhile. I'm a big fan of NASA and especially all the Apollo moon landings, so it was really sad to see.

14) The Madrid trains were attacked? (03/11/2004)
Probably at work and read about it during the million and one times I open my web browser during the day. Kind of scared me, and still does, considering I'm riding by rail to Paris in less than a week, but you can't let this stuff stop you from living your life, otherwise they win.

So I only have about 100 pages to go in my book, so I'm hoping I can just tear through that this morning. I'm eager to finish the damn thing already. Not that its a bad book, its quite good, I'm just sick of lugging it around. And its a hard cover, and for some reason, when I read it, this black dust that must be part of the book cover gets all over my fingertips. Its very weird.

Anyway, rest of the day should go something like this. Hopefully going to see "Hellboy" later with my brother and his friend, but I have no clue, thats my brother's deal to figure out. Then my grandma, aunt and uncle and some of my parents friends are coming over for an early holiday dinner, even though Passover technically doesn't start until tomorrow night. What can I say, we're horrible Jews, I admit it, and embrace it.

Other than that, nothing really to report. I spent yesterday reading and working on a replacement laptop for Elena. I gave her an older, crappier laptop I had lying around the house before she left for London in August. I hoped that she'd use it to communicate with me, like IM and e-mail, but she never goes online, never checks her e-mail, so that was a moot point real fast. What she does use it for however, is as her entertainment center. She has no TV in her flat, so she watches DVD's, the TV shows I send her and listens to music on it. Without it she'd probably go nucking futs. I know I would with no source of entertainment. Thats probably why when I was left up to my own devices in her flat bad things happened, but thats another story.

Unfortunately, the laptop has been acting up on her and she knows nothing about computers. Luckily, I have another laptop, same model as hers sitting around the house. I know, I have a lot of laptops, but they're all old and crappy, and technically they're my brothers, since he's the one that stole them all from a client he was at that was going bankrupt or something similar. I think they were another Enron type thing, cooking their books and whatnot. Anyway, so I have the exact same one that I gave her at home. So I threw a fresh copy of Windows XP on it, installed all the apps she probably has, and I'll bring it with me to London/Paris and just transfer all the RAM and data out of her current one to the new one.

That should solve the problem. Windows just sucks like that. It falls apart over time and needs a fresh install every couple of months. Not like the Mac OS, thats because OS X rocks the casbah. I had the previous version on my old iBook for about a year and the thing never degraded in performance one bit. The only reason I eventually wiped it clean was because Apple released a newer version of OS X, and its always good to have a clean install of a new OS on your machine. Upgrades never work out.

So I'm too good, I'm basically giving my girlfriend a brand new entertainment center, again. Maybe I can convince her to use it to e-mail me or chat more often, but I doubt that'll work. Oh well. I just love e-mail. Who doesn't? (Well, except for the spam).

Alright, so I'm off to finish my book, hopefully go see "Hellboy" and have dinner with the family before I head out of the country at the end of the week. Have a good Sunday everyone, and set those clocks forward!

Current music - Pearl Jam "Yellow Ledbetter"

Now that I've finally taken care of every stupid little errand I had to run this morning, its time to relax. The plan for today? Finish The Wolves of the Calla because its been dragging along in my bag for way too long, and being a hardcover thats over 600 pages long, its weighing me down, and I'm trying to travel light, especially next weekend. I figure if I finish the book this weekend, I think I have 300 pages to go, I can throw some dinky softcover 300 page, lightweight novel in my carry on for the plane, train, or return trip to London/Paris. I think I can do it!

I'm also feeling good because I had a good conversation with Elena this morning. Her rehearsals and wearing her out, but she was telling me that she found a Time Out magazine for London in her mom's hotel lobby last week and on the inside, they had a small insert about Paris. So she grabbed it and was going through it this morning pointing out all the things that looked interesting. So it sounded like she was getting excited about going. Finally! She did say that she thinks we're going to have a lot of fun, and I do too. So that brightened my day. I'm a little bummed that according to weather.com its supposed to rain all weekend in London and Paris, and I mean all weekend. Elena said she'd bring an umbrella, so I guess we're just going to try not to let it get us down. We shall see. I'm just excited to be going. Now if it will only get here.

We'll I'm off to plop myself down on a couch with my iPod and my book and tear through it. Have a good Saturday in whatever you do.

Not only is it the title of an amazing Our Lady Peace song, but its also the time that my wonderful dog, Keyser, woke me up this morning, and most mornings this week. I hate to say it, but I'm actually getting used to it, and like all things dog related, once you get into the routine, its hard to break them of the habit.

The routine goes something like this. Around 4 AM the dog wakes up, jumps out of bed, shakes off (making his tags rattle, further rousing me from sleep), goes to the door to my room and proceeds to whine to be let out. My response is this, I procrastinate trying to get him to go back to bed, which is a lost cause. Once the whining and eventual scratching at the door become too much to bear, I wake up and proceed to curse the day I ever bought him.

I then take him outside and walk him. Once he's done his thing, we go back inside, say a sleepy good morning to my dad who is ready to leave the house at this hour. I feed him and then go back up to my room, leave the door open for the dog to come back whenever he pleases, and I pass out and go back to sleep. What is the dog doing for those 2 hours, give or take, that I just let him run around the house? I have no idea and nor do I care. As long as he's not running away again, he can do as he pleases. Most of the time he just eats and comes back to bed for a little while longer anyway. I wake up eventually and get ready for work. When I come back to my room after showering, the dog is usually in my bed, sleeping, or just relaxing. I think he does it just to frustrate me, and it works.

Thankfully this weekend is daylight savings time, so its time to spring ahead. Which means Keyser's internal clock will be off, so thankfully he'll wake up at 5 AM from now on, instead of 4, since he'll think its 4 anyway. Good news for me. He drives me crazy, but I love the little son of a bitch (literally, thats what he is, so I can call him that without it being an insult).

Finally! A decent film to watch. Actually it was pretty good. Since there was nothing else to watch on Wednesday night, as all the usually WB shows I watch were in reruns (yes, I watch Smallville and Angel, religiously) and I only tuned in for the last two seconds of American Idol to see who got kicked off (yes, I watch American Idol too, Elena got me hooked on it at the end of last season (Clay got robbed, but at least he's got the better career now) and now I tape it for her and send it to her so she can watch, since its her favorite show) I watched my newly arrived Netflix movie, Shattered Glass.

It was pretty damn good. Between that, and "Life as a House" I think its safe to say that the kid who plays Anakin Skywalker will definitely have a career after Star Wars is done, and won't always be remembered for just Star Wars, kind of like Mark Hamill is today, as opposed to Harrison Ford. Good movie, it tells the true story of a journalist for the New Republic magazine named Stephen Glass who got disgraced and fired when its discovered that he completely or partially fabricated at least half of the stories he'd written for the magazine.

I guess I can sympathize a little with the guy, at least when it comes to telling lies. Now I've never completely made something up and printed it in a magazine, but everyone lies from time to time, even the little white variety. All of a sudden you get caught in the lie, and you lie some more to try to get your way out of it, but it usually just keeps ballooning and getting worse until you finally have to tell the truth, and of course you realize after the fact, that telling the truth is easier.

I can also understand the pressure the guy was under. I used to work as a journalist, for about six months after I first moved to New Orleans for this little podunk, nothing of a local newspaper for this small town outside of New Orleans. I thought it was odd that people, although not a lot of people, were reading things that I wrote on a daily basis, and I understand the pressure that goes along with that, especially after you're given more responsibility. I wasn't there long before the managing editor offered me the sports editor position. I took it, like a moron, because it was a little more pay a week (I was making nothing anyway) and it offered up good experience to learn the layout software, which was and still is the industry standard.

So I took the job, received none of the promised training on how to do it, and failed miserably. I admit I sucked at it, I hated it, lost sleep over how much I hated it, and then quit, abrubtly with no notice before they could fire me. I suddenly felt better after that. I guess what I'm trying to say is its tough being a journalist, which is why I'd never do it again.

Going to stop babbling now. Go rent the movie, its really entertaining, and short, at about 90 minutes, which I like. Too many movies are way over two hours long, and then I lose interest, unless its the Lord of the Rings.