I got my new guitar via UPS yesterday and its awesome. Its definitely been used and maybe a little abused as there are some minor cosmetic defects in it, but thats what you get when you buy used, unless whoever had it prior, and there's been at least two prior owners as the guy I bought it from got it from someone else, and he obviously never played it! Some nicks in the finish, the fretboard looks a little dry and worn, and a few paint chips around the neck/headstock area, but its all good. I took the old rusty strings off, gave it as thorough a cleaning as I could and slapped some new strings on it and began tinkering away. I had to raise the bridge a bit to get the string buzzing down and actually get the right tone out of certain strings. Also had to lower the pickups as the one of them was practically touching the strings and the other had just way to much bass in it. I definitely plan on bringing it to my teacher to give it a good setup, which I think it needs because although I may have some clue as to what I'm doing to make it sound better, I don't exactly know how to set it up properly, so thats where a pro comes in. I'm curious what he's going to say about it. I know I'm insane for buying it, but honestly, I'm done buying shit for myself, for a good long while, or say I tell myself.

I'm going to the Ranger game tonight! They're playing the Islanders, so its easy to get to, I just walk across the street. I wanted to go, since Jaromir Jagr is most likely going to break the Rangers single season record for goals and points tonight, but my brother, co-workers and Seth weren't interested. So without even thinking about it, I called Brett last night. Mostly because I hadn't spoken to him in like two months. He said we should get together tonight and I said sure, come out to me, we'll get some food, watch the game on TV. Took me a second to realize he was a hockey fan and we could go together. So thats the plan. Nice, huh? Hopefully they'll beat the crap out of the Islanders and Jagr gets the one goal he needs to break both records. Also, if they start Henrik Lundqvist in goal and he wins, he breaks the record for most wins by a rookie goalie, so thats a bonus!

Also have plans with the new girl this weekend. I'm curious to see how it goes. Its taking me awhile, but I think I like her. I don't mean that as I didn't when we first started talking or when we met, its just taking me a little while this time to get that spark going, so I'm glad I didn't dismiss her outright. Plus she seems to really like me, which is always a good thing! We shall see. We have plans to get dinner by her on Friday and to just hang out and relax at my place, I think, on Saturday. Lets hope it all goes well.

I need to go to my parents for a bit tomorrow to help my brother pick up his TV. He got himself a 46 inch Samsung DLP HDTV. Ever since I got mine and my dad got his, he's been wanting one too. Unoriginal bastard! Just kidding.

Alright, back to work. Can't wait for the game tonight! LETS GO RANGERS!!!

One week and nothing, sorry about that. I could lie and say I was busy, but that would be just that, a lie. In all honesty, not much going on. My toe is healing quite nicely. Its still swollen, but at least the purple and red bruising went away after a few days. I got to be like the mentally challenged guy in the mail room who can't dress himself and wore sneakers 4 out of the 5 days last week. I went back to wearing shoes today, and its kind of tight and painful. Hopefully the swelling will go away for good and I'll be 100% soon.

Lets see, so what went down in my world last week. Quiet week of work, so not much to report there. I went to the Islander game with Seth on Tuesday night. It was $10 ticket night to celebrate a deal to redevelop the old crumbling Coliseum and renovate it and do something cool with all the land around it. The game was fun, even though the Islanders won.

My new guitar shipped last week and it should be delivered to my office tomorrow morning. I can't wait to get it. I plan on bringing some essentials with me tomorrow, like some picks, a tuner, maybe even a new set of strings and whatnot, but thats doubtful. I don't think my boss would appreciate me spending that much time on it during work. I had a really good guitar lesson on Saturday, which is a realyl good thing as they haven't been that enjoyable lately, mostly my fault, not my teachers. Last weekend we worked on the opening to Pearl Jam's "Alive" and I finally nailed it. There was one sticky part that I kept pausing and getting tripped up on, but once I kind of threw caution to the wind with it, I pulled it off just fine. Maybe I need to do that more often, not worry so much about it being perfect and just go with the flow. We also worked on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" which is easy, except for a little solo in the beginning that I need to work on. And, for a good exercise in moving and stretching my fingers on my fretting hand, we have The Police, "Every Breath You Take." I definitely have enough on my plate there to keep me busy, along with the new guitar, so its all good.

I also went on a second date with that girl on Friday night and we had a good time, and need to make plans to go out again. She came to my town and we got some Tex-Mex and margaritas. Good time and I could've invited her in after dinner, but I chickened out, and didn't. Instead I watched the end of the Ranger game. Next time. Thats where I suck with women, in making that first move. Once thats done, I'm fine, I just suck at the first one. Unless I'm really drunk.

There's also some stuff brewing on the female front with someone else, but I can't talk about it here. Super super secret.

Anyway, back to work. Enjoy your Monday everyone!

You know you've been waiting for it, so here it is. The official confirmation, my toe, my little pinkie toe, has a fracture. So basically, yes, its broken. I didn't realize how bad it actually looked until yesterday afternoon. I was only looking at it from the top, and it was all swollen and purple and red in places, and on the side a little. I actually lifted my foto up to look at the underside and it looks ever worse. The various shades of purple and other assorted bruised colors are quite interesting. It doesn't really hurt that badly, that was until I jammed it into a dress shoe for work this morning. That hurts. I think I may go with the sneakers tomorrow, even though I'll look ridiculous, its more comfortable. My mom called me with the results of my x-ray earlier this morning and my older brother and I had a bet as to whether or not it was broken or just sprained. I won, of course, a free burrito and Italian ice, which I definitely plan on cashing in on.

I aslo did a very good deed yesterday and donated platelets yesterday. And, my nurse was innappropriately hitting on me. I would've been more flattered if her name wasn't Malikah, or something like that, so you can tell that she's not my type. Although her comments helped the time go by, because damn, one hour and fourty minutes of just sitting there makes the time crawl. Add into it a needle in each arm, so you basically can't move, makes it all the more worse. But it was a good thing, and I donated enough platelets to go to three different people that need them. I felt so good about what I did when it was all over that I made an appointment to do it again in two weeks. Yes, I'm insane. But I look at it like this. I'm not going to volunteer anywhere or donate money to any organization, at least in this way I can help people out, and all it takes it two hours of my time. We'll see how long I keep it up before I have enough needle marks in my arm to make people think I'm a junkie.

So that was my weekend, basically. I went to Guitar Center on Sunday after donating and played my future guitar, although not in the same color and I was impressed. I didn't remember them playing that well. I jacked it into the same amp I have, and I liked it, so I'm even more psyched to be getting it, hopefully very very soon. I'm hoping by the end of the week.

Alright, back to work.

As if me and my guitar weren't having enough problems, with my lack of talent and frustration with my progress, I had to go and stub my pinkie toe on the case yesterday and I'm pretty sure its broken. The pain was unbelievable, and I figured since I was at my parents and in close proximity to doctors and what not. I went to my moms office to get it looked at, my mom's boss suggested I get an X-ray, which I did yesterday afternoon before my guitar lesson. I should get the results on Monday. In the meantime, I kept my sneakers and socks on for most of yesterday and when I finally took them off when I got home last night, it looked swollen as all hell, and had a nice big purple splotch in one spot, and some red in others. Add in the fact that it really hurts to move or touch the toe, and I think its broken. What the hell you do for a broken toe, I have no idea. I think not much, especially on your pinkie toe. You probably just tape the sucker up and limp around for three weeks. What fun!

My date was cancelled on Friday because she wasn't feeling well. We're going to reschedule for sometime during the week, which is cool. Hopefully she won't punk out on my again. Once I can take, twice, no way. But she was pretty convincing saying that she did want to go out again, so thats cool. We shall see.

Had a decent guitar lesson yesterday too. Focused entirely on Pearl Jam. In fact, focused entirely on one song, and only about two bars of it. Tried to get the opening, and recurring riff of "Alive" down pat. You know the one. I can't type it out. I think if I can get that good, it'll go a long way to getting my confidence and drive back. I'm also really looking forward to getting my new axe. I saw that the postal service tried to deliver the money order to the guy, but I guess he wasn't home. Hopefully he'll get it on Monday from the post office and ship out the guitar ASAP. I can't wait!

Alright, I have an appointment to donate platelets later. Its a good deed, that'll probably suck up an hour or two of my Sunday. But I plan to just listen to my iPod while they suck the blood out of me, spin it around to separate out the platelets and put the rest back in. So hopefully it won't be so bad.

Look forward to the next post, which will either be your official "I Broke My Toe" or the official "My Toe Isn't Broken" post. Have a good Sunday everyone! I'll try, despite the limping around.

Big news! Finally! I had a decent date late night. Not going to get too ahead of myself though, as every time I do it ends up blowing up in my face because they either don't like me or they turn out to be absolute psycho's. Just going to play it calm and safe, and take it one date at a time. But the one date went well. We met close to our respective offices for Italian food, which was excellent, complete with a nice bottle of wine and some of the best tiramisu I've ever had. She seemed cool with going out again, so hopefully tomorrow night, despite the fact that its St. Patricks Day and it'll be crazy everywhere. We shall see, but here's to hoping, for a change.

In other news, I bought myself another guitar. I know, I'm nuts. But I had the money saved up, I just got paid, and raises are around the corner, so I figured what the hell, why not. I bought it used off a guy on a message board I belong to. I've played the model and I've liked it, so I know what I'm getting, and the price was too right to pass it up. Plus its in a color that isn't available any more, and Eddie Vedder used that exact model when Pearl Jam toured in 2003. I know, thats a pathetic reason to get something, but I've honestly had my eye out for one for awhile. A Gibson SG Special in Teal Flip/Flop Here is what it looks like:

Pretty cool looking huh? I've wanted something like that for awhile. Double coil, or humbucker pickups will give me a different sound, and the fixed bridge will allow to me try different tunings without too much of a hassle. It'll be a nice contrast to my Fender Stratocaster, pictured here:

All in all, once I get it, I will be a happy man. I sent the guy a money order for it today, hopefully he'll get that by Monday and ship me the guitar. So I should have it by this time next week. Can't wait!

Alright, back to work. Take it easy everyone!

OK, so my love of Pearl Jam here has been well documented in the past (see. Title of blog, see. Graphic with lyrics at top of said blog) so I was quite psyched to see them announce tour dates for their upcoming tour, well, just the first leg, but thats enough. They're playing twice at the Meadowlands in Jersey, which isn't too bad to get to from New York. Its like 15 minutes from the city so thats not so bad. Ticket presale started today at 1 PM for all current Ten Club (the Pearl Jam Fan Club) members. My membership is active, so I was ready to go. I decide to check this morning just to make sure everything was in order, and when I logged into their page they were showing me with an older expired membership, and the wrong member number than I was shown two weeks ago when I renewed, and bought two T-Shirts.

So, naturally I start to freak out. I e-mailed like 3 different addresses they had on their site and called and left a message. As the morning wore on with no word I got worried, and then pissed that I wouldn't be able to get tickets. Why not just renew the old membership you ask? Because you have to have an active membership as of last week to get tickets. Then, at 11:05 AM I get an e-mail sayig that they fixed the error and that I'm good to go. I think I wrote them a love note back! 1 PM rolls around and althrough it took about 1,000 mouse clicks on refresh and approximately 20 minutes. I now have tickets to see them on Thursday June 1, and Saturday June 3 at the Continental Airlines Arena. Seth also scored tickets to the June 3 show, so we'll all be going together. And Shari can rejoice, as she'll finally get to see Pearl Jam, which she's been dying to do for awhile now.

I am beyond psyched! A new album on May 2, and then a month later, two shows. There's also rumor of two dates at Madison Square Garden in late July and if thats true, I'll be there as well. No stopping me, I'm a Pearl Jam machine!

In other news, my brother and I went to the Ranger game last night, and they lost in OT. Five losses in a row. It sucked. They were up 2-0 at the end of the second, and bad penalties killed them and allowed Atlanta to tie it up. Another bad penalty in OT cost them the game. We just got up and left, barely made an earlier train home and I made it to my house with about five minutes to spare before the start of the Sopranos. Good stuff by the way!

And, as we were on our way to the Garden, my mom called us to tell us my dad bought the Corvette, in dark, almost maroonish red, with a beige interior. He gets it in 7 weeks. I can't wait to see if I fit behind the wheel of it so I can drive it too!

Alright, thats about all thats new here. Enjoy the rest of your Monday. Mine went from being really bad to really excellent!

My older brother and I are going to an afternoon game today at the Garden, and although they've lost four in a row and can't seem to buy a goal, I'm excited. I've gone to two games this year, and they haven't lost either of them, so hopefully that tradition will continue. Lets hope.

My brother wants to wuss out and not go to the game, even though the tickets were free from his girlfriend. What would he rather do? And this is where the insanity that is my family comes into play. My dad has gotten it into his head that he wants to buy another car. Not a new car, he's going to hold onto his ugly ass Infiniti FX35, you know, the SUV that looks like a martian Flying saucer, thats all tires and rims and hood, and nothing else, he's keeping that. He's getting a second car. A brand new Corvette. One of his partners at work just got one and that set him off, along with the managing partner at his firm telling him they're having a very good year. So he's getting on. Crazy.

My parents are also doing some crazy home improvments. New wood floors upstairs, new staircase, refinishing the wood floors downstairs and adding a wood floor to the dining room. My dad also wants me to price him out a new LCD monitor for his computer thats very widescreen, so he can have two programs open at once. Talk about spending. How about spreading the wealth around? I could use another guitar, and its a lot cheaper than a Corvette or a new staircase? I'm just saying.

Speaking of guitars, I had to affect repairs on mine yesterday. Nerve wracking, I know. I accidentally yanked out the little button that the strap goes on at the base of the guitar. I freaked out of course. I was going to ask my teacher how to fix it, or if he could fix it, but he cancelled my lesson on account of the beautiful weather here yesterday and a girl that wanted to hang out with him. I said I totally understood as I wish I had a girl to hang out with on a beautiful day. So I took it to a local shop, but their repair guy was out until Monday, so I went to Guitar Center, which was my last option. They said to stick the pieces of a toothpick snapped in half a few times in the hole and then screw the thing back in. The toothpicks will hold it. I didn't believe it but the guy said thats what the tech there would do, and charge me $25 for it. So after playing around on my future guitar (I played a little AC/DC "Highway to Hell" on it and after a couple of strums some guy started singing it behind me, I was entertained) I went home and actually did what the guy suggested. So far so good. The thing is in there and holding. So good news, so far. I'm still going to ask my teacher about it and see what he says, if thats a viable long term solution or not. We shall see.

Alright, so Ranger game tonight. The Sopranos are back, finally. I have my DVR set already. Thats about it on the news front. Adios people.

Damn, this week has been dragging on and on and on and on and on. And on. I just want the weekend to get here already, so I don't have much of anything to do. Nothing really new to report by me. I was supposed to have a date tonight, but I cancelled and don't think I'll be rescheduling. I don't know whats wrong with me, if I'm just being too picky or what. But I guess you have to have standards when it comes to this. There can be no settling when it comes to dating someone, otherwise you're just setting yourself up for disappointment. I will admit that there is some other prospect out there, but I don't really want to talk about it on here, so sorry. E-mail me for the story!

Other than that, I've been listening to Pearl Jam non-stop this weekend. I know I'm obsessed, but they're my favorite, and its been essential for one main reason. I need to be reminded why I decided to pick up a guitar and learn to play in the first place. My guitar teacher said I needed to think about what I want to accomplish with playing, as I've been really shiftless about it in recent weeks. He just doesn't want me to lose interest in it, so he told me to think about my goals, and after some serious thought and consideration, here it is. Although I will never, ever be able to play with the skill and talent of Pearl Jam, my hope is to at least try to emulate them as much as possible on the road to developing my own style. At this juncture, I think I just need to be reminded that with enough determination and practice, that I could probably conquer most stuff thats out there. And I think that would be great for my confidence, if I could just tackel some of the stuff that I've wanted to learn since I bought the damn thing 5 years ago. So thats what I'm going to go into my lesson with on Saturday. Teach me how to play the Pearl Jam way!

And thats all.

So despite the fact that I was a lazy bastard and didn't exercise this morning, it has been a great day. Despite a diet yesterday consisting of nothing but hamentaschen, the scale dropped this morning for the first time in awhile that I've stepped on it. How, I don't know, but I'll take it!

Also, the worlds greatest band, you know who I'm talking about, just announced tour dates for the first leg of their US tour, that starts in May. With two dates at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey (not far from NYC, its where the New Jersey Nets and Devils play, and on the same land as Giants Stadium, home of the New York Jets), I shall be trying to go to both shows on June 1 and 3. Nothing stopping me from getting my maximum Pearl Jam fix.

I also have a date on Thursday night. Not sure how I feel about this one, but we'll see how it turns out. Can't hurt to go in with an open mind.

Alright, back to work.

Its been one year since me and that bitch broke up. And honestly, its been the greatest 52 weeks ever!

So I got through the dreaded weekend relatively unscathed. Yeah, whenever I was at my parents I snacked on crap a little too much, but I didn't gorge myself, which is good. I'm still riding the elliptical every morning, and found a new way to punish myself on it, resistance and RPM programs. You know, they gradually increase and then decrease the resistance to simulate going up and down hills and you have to maintain a certain pace throughout. Great workout. Kicked my ass thoroughly yesterday morning, and I was amazed I had the strength to do it again today. But I did, so go me. Right now the only obstacle in my dieting and exercising is the huge batch of hamentaschen I made with my mom yesterday. They're little triangle shaped cookies with jelly in the middle that you make for the Jewish holiday of Purim. And like most things my mom bakes, damn they're good. I'm bringing some into work to share the wealth, and to stop myself from eating them too!

On my other front, I need to seriously think this week about what I want to accomplish with my guitar playing. I'll admit I've been pretty shiftless for the past month when it comes to it and my teacher can tell too. He said to think about what my goals are when it comes to playing, but he thinks if I keep going the way I am that I'll lose interest. Its not that I'm not interested, its just that I'm frustrated. I think I'm trying to take on too much and trying things that are way out of my league. Again, I really need to get back to basics with it and really get down the fundamentals. I think that'll help. I also need to remember why I picked the thing up in the first place, and the answer to that... come on, you know it. Pearl Jam! Thats right. I think this week I shall listen to nothing but as inspiration. Thats the plan at least.

Alright, need to get ready for work. Have a good Monday everyone!

Its snowing here, and that sucks. I have nothing against the stuff, I just hate driving in it, mainly because that means it takes forever to get home. Lets hope it doesn't stick too much to the roads, or they let us out early, or we just don't get that much. Lets hope. Bummer is I did need to call Elena's mom and place an order for Herbalife today, guess that'll have to wait until tomorrow as there is no way in hell I'm going out of my way today to get that stuff. I'm going straight home as fast as I safely can, end of story.

Other than that, I'm still sticking to the program and exercising and am firmly in control. Go me. Almost a week. The real test will be the weekend when I go to my parents house where food actually exists. See, I have no food of my own in my house, except some popcorn, so if I'm hungry, my options are limited. My parents, packed with food, and nothing good for you. So I must resist temptation this weekend. If I can get through that, I think I'll be OK.

Alright, back to work.