Euro Trip...

On my way to Europe. I'm very very very excited. If you need me, shoot me an email. Lots of stories to follow. As always, go big or go home.

Observations From 30 Rock...

So I'm sitting here just killing time before I have to go to work and people watching in Rockafeller Center and I realized I haven't just sat and watched people be weird in forever.

1) First of all the iPhone has a "hands free" microphone built into the headphones which is a great idea but unfortunately for me and every other sucker with an iPhone, you have to hold the microphone up to your mouth if you want people to hear you , which kind of negates any benefit it might have had. I've just watched three people walk by holding the mic up to their mouths and say, "can you hear me now?"

2) Asian tourists are every bit as stereotypical as they are made out to be. Roving around in groups larger than a football team, equipped with large fancy cameras and laughing at everything and taking their pictures in front of seemingly ordinary things like a J Crew. Who knows, maybe J Crew is famous in Asia? They're also walking around with headphones on looking around as if they're listening to a guided tour, which I'm sure they are, I just have no idea where they got these things from and what tour of the outdoors they could possibly be on.

3) The old white lady sitting on the bench next to me keeps giving me dirty glances. When it's old white people I always wonder if the look is for me being a wayward youth or because I'm brown or possibly a combination of both. Or maybe she is a republican and can't stand my Obama shirt that I'm baracking right now. Either way she's really good at the evil eye.

4) I don't understand people who don't listen to music when they walk around this city. I can't walk downstairs without a soundtrack and these people are going the whole day just walking around with the sound of their thoughts the only thing they listen to. Does that make me crazy or them? I'm going with them.

Anyways I guess I'm off to work. As always, go big or go home. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

- M, p, z & shredder

Falling Asleep...

In honor of my nightmares, here are some scary *ss bugs.

I don't know about you guys, but I like to watch something before I got to bed. Usually I'll watch a movie, if I can start it so it ends before midnight, but if not I'll watch a couple episodes of something I have on dvd. Lately, I've been watching the X-Files before I go to bed and usually it's nothing scary so it isn't really a big deal, but last night, I watched an episode that was all about these swarms of cockroaches that were killing people. It's funny that I can watch this show and not be scared by murderers or aliens or government conspiracies, but the second you put a bug on the screen, I start freaking out.























I'm not sure what it is exactly that is so scary about bugs. I mean up here in the north part of North America, there aren't even any bugs that can kill you and most of them won't even bite you. We have no killer spiders, no killer bees, no killer anything, but for some reason, to this day, I run from bees and get the willies from cockroaches. The only thing I don't mind are small spiders because I actually think they are pretty cool and might be the only bug that I'll hold. So what is it about bugs that freaks people out? Is it the way they look? Is it the way they are presented in the media? Is it the way they move? Whatever it is, it's ridiculous. Aside from an incident with army ants when I was 7, I have never had any reason to fear bugs. I've never been stung by a bee and aside from a few spider bites, I've never been bitten by anything more than a mosquito.


















Whatever the reason for my fear is, it's probably justified. I mean just look at them. They're f*cking scary. The whole lot of them. There is no close-up picture of a bug that is cute. They're all crazy and maniacal looking. Like they are plotting how best to turn me into a "host body" and take over the world from inside my head.

Perhaps the scariest, most menacing of them all...




















Gross. I'm out. As always, go big or go home.

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - here's a pic to make you laugh:

The Wheel...

Just wanted to share this hilarious vid from the onion. Mostly because if you go to the page and read the reviews, it's amazing how many people don't understand that it's a joke. The amount of people who are perplexed by this and the number of "WTF"s is at an all time high.



In other news, I'm headed to Europe/Africa on Monday and will be out of touch until June 4th. Upon my return I will hopefully have hundreds of stories or at least 3 really good ones. I'm headed to Portugal, Spain and Morocco with a couple of friends and it should be a great time. I have never done the whole backpacking through Europe nor have I ever done a semester abroad and I've always regretted it. I haven't been to Europe in 10 years and that was with my family staying in hotels and being on a tour bus in Italy.

I've realized that traveling is one of my favorite things to do in the world. I never used to consider myself much of a traveler because I haven't had a chance to get out to the rest of the world very much, but I really feel at peace when I'm on the road or going from one place to another. I don't know how many of you have seen The Motorcycle Diaries but it is one of my favorite movies and it's essentially about how traveling teaches you about the world you live in and what is important to you. Now, I'm not going on this trip to "find myself" but I'm definitely at a point in my life where that is a possibility and hopefully I can learn something about myself that will give me some direction in life. I'm in the middle of one of my annual quarter life crisis phases only this year seems much more important than previous meltdowns.

I was never big on history in high school (I hated it more than anything actually) but now that I'm older I wish I knew more about it. I wish I knew the history behind some of the places I was going and why the cultures are the way they are, but I guess I'll just have to go learn it first hand. I think traveling anywhere, even if it's only an hour away, is good for the mind. I don't think I'm a nomad or a vagabond, but if you look at the number of places I've lived over the last 9 years, you might think so. Anyway, to end my rambling, I'm excited for this trip and the fact that it's happening right now in my life, at a point where I'm not sure what my next step is or what I'm going to be doing afterwards.



I'm out. As always, go big or go home. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

-M, p, z & shredder

Couple Things...

So I'm finally starting to feel better. After my trip to the ER, I guess my virus decided I had had enough and started to withdraw. My fever dropped on Thursday and aside from working on Friday and Saturday, I didn't do much else but rest which probably helped. I woke up today excited at the prospect of getting outside and running for a while since I haven't been able to in a week, but my lungs are still not yet rid of the phlegm that's been keeping me up at night, and I didn't make it very far before I had to stop and have a coughing fit for a while.

I have been trying to get in better shape by running and possibly secretly starting to train for the NYC half marathon. Indians aren't runners, and I say secretly training because if I tell people I am training and then don't do it, I'll feel pretty lame. I haven't decided if I am going to or not yet, but it's only(!?!?) 13 miles and I feel like that is a pretty attainable number by mid August. I've historically been a terrible runner. I am fine at the mile (if you remember me telling you a couple years ago that my best mile time was something like 5:56) but beyond that I start to lose steam.

In recent years my running regiment went something like this: run a mile and a half, jog for a little, sprint for a while, jog for a little then sprint until I couldn't run anymore and usually that would add up to around 3 miles. After recently consulting with a runner on how to get into 'running shape' I cut out the sprinting and all the faster running and now try and run at a constant speed for as long as I can. At first it didn't go so well, but now I am up to 37 minutes of straight running before I need to stop, which isn't a whole lot, but it's a lot for me. I've never been a fan of cross country and have never seen the joy in it, but if I want to burn some fat, sitting around isn't going to cut it anymore. I hate getting older. I find myself missing the days when I could eat 3 bags of chips for lunch with a soda and some cookies, then get Wendys after school and still be hungry for dinner and not gain a pound. Now if I eat a cookie, I'm cursing the stars for putting it square on my stomach and mad at the world for making them so wonderfully delicious. Why do cookies, ice cream and cake all have to be so bad for you?! It's preposterous. Why would someone do that to me?

Whatever, I'm getting old and the only thing to do about it is run, Forrest, run. I'm out. Go big or go home. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

-M, p, z & shredder

Swine Flu Part III...

So I'm using this new blogger feature that allows me to blog from my phone. It's kind of walking the line between status updates and twitter (which I only do occasionally to make fun of it).

Anyways I'm sitting here in the ER because despite all my jokes and cavalier attitude, I think there actually might be a chance I've got that pig virus. It's kind of silly but I never get sick, especially for this long. I'll let you know how it turns out.

- M, p, z & shredder

UPDATE: So after a marathon wait at the ER, I was right after all, it's not swine flu - just some bug that showed up about a week ago. Luckily I waited around for 4 hours for them to tell me that. While I was waiting I started wondering why people always spell my name wrong when they are copying it down. Did they not learn to copy properly? It's not like I'm asking them to guess how to spell it out. I know it's long and arduous, but you've got my id in front of you (even though my license has my middle name spelled wrong as well). You're looking at it. Spell it right. Also there was this guy who was crazy and surrounded by a couple of police officers and all he kept saying screaming was, "I take it off! I take it off! NO! No no no no no NO!! I take it off!" And every time I would just start to get back into my book and finally start to drown everythi - "NO!! I TAKE IT OFF!!!! I take it OFF!!!!" Yeah guy, I get it. You take it off. Good one.

96 Years Old?!?

I had my first psychic reading on Friday, and while I don't agree with most of what she said, I am hoping a few of the things are right. Anyway, here's the gist of what she told me (keep in mind I only opted for the single palm reading as opposed to my friend who got the double palm/face reading which was clearly more accurate):

I'm going to live to be 96. I'm very passionate when it comes to love and I'm going to be engaged twice but only married once. The girl I like right now also likes me but it isn't going to work out because the timing isn't right at the moment. I'm going to move to Florida in two years. I'm also going to change my career path to law in the same year. April 2010 is going to be an incredible month for me. October 2009 is going to be very good for my career. I'm going to have someone in my life named Lou or Louis who is important to me but is very jealous of me. My lucky day is Wednesday and apparently something good will happen to me every Wednesday, but I'm not sure how long that will last.

So that's pretty much it. Here are my views on what she told me... 96 years old?! She obviously didn't do a medical history or she would have found rampant heart disease on my dad's side and diabetes on my mom's side. Obviously I'm very passionate about love, look at me, I'm a stud. That sucks about the girl I like - I was hoping for better news. I definitely won't be engaged twice because if the first one falls through, my mom will kill me. I hate Florida and would never want to move there unless Tiger Woods told me he'd be my golfing buddy. I doubt very much that I'll get back into law. My LSAT scores expired and I'm not going through that study regiment again. I can't say much about Lou because I don't know one (yet) and I can't speak about anything else in the future, but I will let you know how Wednesday turns out. Keep your fingers crossed.

I'm out. Go big or go home. Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. Carpe diem. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - our psychic looked exactly like the girl in the picture, only without any of the same clothes and instead of a crystal ball she was holding her baby. Seriously. And instead of beig in a mystic place, we were in the front room of her lower east side apartment. And her daughter was running around in diapers, watching spongebob is the strangest way possible. She would get close and then slowly walk backwards without taking her eyes off that yellow sponge guy until she was a good twenty feet away from the tv. Kids are so unique.

Swine Flu Protection Kit...

I don't know if you guys have seen the ad to the right for a "Swine Flu Protection Kit," but that pretty much proved the point I was making a few blogs ago. It looks like the virus has hit it's carrying capacity in Mexico and is already in decline, but I have to admit, the mass hysteria spooked me for a minute this morning.

I have felt a little cough coming on for a few days now but shrugged it off to the fact that I've been running a ton lately and my lungs are mad at me because of it. I awoke this morning fully congested and coughing up a storm, I felt 'hot', I was groggy and I wasn't hungry. So, just to be safe, I went to the CDC site and checked for symptoms of Swine Flu and of course the major signs were coughing, fever, lethargy and lack of appetite. I panicked for about a minute, worried that I might not get to go on my Euro trip (which I now realize I have not informed you about) and started to freak. Then I realized that those are also the symptoms for a common cold. So I got up, took an Aleve, and drank some water. About an hour later I ate about 6 tacos, felt fine again aside from my cough and realized that the media did their job pretty well.

I guess if people keep getting hit over the head with something, eventually it sinks in. I have been fighting the hysteria with all my might and ended up getting pwned by it. Oh well, at least I didn't have to call in sick to work.

I'm out. Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder