Anatomy Of A Morning

Whenever I have to work early at Tomb, I usually go through the same routine for getting ready. And since I'm not ready to talk about Parte Tres yet, I've decided to just write about what I do in the morning. As an added bonus, I'm writing this entire post on my iPod Touch. Pretty sick.

My internal clock usually gets me up anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 AM. If that is not working, my alarm on my phone will go off 1.5 hours prior to call time. Either way, I will spend five minutes getting myself to ACTUALLY get up. When the battle is over, it'll be time for breakfast. Scrambled eggs, cereal, or a sausage McMuffin with cheese is on the menu. I try to force myself to cook breakfast and stay away from fast food. Anyway, when it is ready, I sit in my room and watch some tv (by the way, "Arthur" is still one of the best shows on the air).

If I didn't do it the night before, I'll take a shower and put on my work clothes. By this point in the morning, it'll be about 1 hour before call. If it is not, I will burn some time by watching an episode of "Password" on the DVR. Learn a few words or something. Check the email, check my clothes, and grab my items (wallet, ipod, phone, and backpack) and it'll be time to go.

I live roughly twenty-five minutes away from work via walking. I'm not a lazy person per se, but if there is a train or bus nearby, I'll hop on it for sure. Part of the problem is that either I'll miss the T or it'll be too packed to get on. Gotta love the reliability of the T. Headphones on the entire journey ensure that I am not bothered by anyone. Plus, I like walking to my own soundtrack.

From the fina T Stop to work is about .7 miles away. I like to jog that entire distance to get a little exercise. And when I do get to work, I can stop and stretch. So far, when I do get to work, nobody is there. So I'll listen to music and just wait. Eventually someone will come and sooner than later, the MOD (Manager On Duty) will come and open the door.

Well, that's mainly how it works. There are a few variables, but none that I'm going to tell you about.

Let's get this morning started... (ugh)

Morning Drab

It's 6:30AM.  I leave for work in less than 2 hours.  I've been doing this every weekday this week.  It's been fine; quite refreshing actually.  We've had school groups every day this week, which is why we are open so early.

TOMB has gone through some changes within the last week.  The biggest change is that we have more open shifts.  While I'm not going to go into all of the details, what I will say is the following: it's important in this day and age to think things through before executing them.  There's been a bit of bad blood recently and it spilled into work, which should never happen.  Long story short, two employees had, for lack of a better word, a vendetta between each other.  Both of them were let go last week for different reasons.  So take note: no matter how long you've work somewhere, you are never above the rules.

It's Thursday, and I've yet to make a Dish of the Week.  I've got till Saturday.

Jon is going to start grad school at UMass soon, and he'll be using that gym.  Which means...  I've got a new gym.  Well, almost.  When he starts at UMass, he'll let me use his current gym membership.  The drawback?  The gym is by his house in Newton, which is a bit of a trek.  But it'll be worth it.

I haven't really talked to anyone this week, since I've been so busy with everything.  The end of the month tends to be the busiest part of the month for me.  I've also needed some "Me Time;" there is a slew of Password Plus and Super Password that I have TiVo-ed that I can't wait to watch (when I get a break).

Oh, and the only reason why I haven't written Part Three of the Denver Saga is because I'm awaiting some pictures so I can post them here.

Congratulations to President Barack Obama.  I'm happy beyond all recognition.

Well, I've got to get ready for work.  Hooray...

A Quick Story For The Ages. Well, Sorta...

Part 3 is on its way, but I'm not ready to write it yet.

Yesterday I went to Lir (which is where I am headed to as soon as I'm done with this post; no surprise there).  The plan was for me to meet up with two cool friends of mine, Stephanie (Sim's girlfriend) and Vicki (Steph's Roommate).  Both of them were babysitting till 11PM, but said they would come afterwards.  Sounds like a plan.

If you didn't know this already, I love Lir.  It's my absolute favorite place to go to get a drink.  I can safely say that I've never had a bad experience there.  I love the atmosphere, the drinks, and especially the people who work there.  Many a story I could tell you about Lir.

Anyway, It was the first time I had been there since I left for Denver (side note: when I told them (them being my bartender friends) that I was leaving for Denver, they thought I was leaving for good; I set the record straight, ha ha).  Greeted with smiling faces, I took a beer, and stood in my usual spot, watching the game and watching the people who were there.

11:45 rolls around, and I realize that neither Steph or Vicki are coming.  Understandable, because you can't control when the parents will come back to their kids.  After giving them a call and rescheduling, I return to my spot a bit depressed.

I then receive a text from someone who I never thought I'd talk to again.  I won't go into the details, but let's just say that after the last hangout, I was pretty safe to assume that the two of us would no longer speak to each other.  The text states that I was on her mind because she was at Lir earlier that night on a date, pointing out all the people that I knew.  I texted her back telling her that I was still there.  Apparently she looked for me but couldn't find me (which I found funny cause I rarely move from my spot and it's not too hard to pick me out from the crowd).  

The young couple next to me noticed how sad I was (I wish there was a word for being sad, but not "Sad Sad" just "less-than-Sad") and the guy offered to buy me a drink because "You shouldn't drink alone when you are sad."  I suppose he's right, though I've done it before, and if history is any measuring stick, I'm sure to do it again.  The girl he was with was very nice, and we talked about my plans to move to L.A. sometime in the near future.  She was 2 years older than me, and had a pretty good head on her shoulders.

As the night drew closer to the end, the guy (Andre) realized that he lost his phone, so he went to go search for it.  The girl (Katie) said that she doesn't like to see people sad, especially someone as cute as I was (which was nice of her to say, although I didn't totally buy it).  She wanted to exchange numbers and suggested that we have brunch sometime.  I agreed, so we exchanged numbers.  As I left, she pulled me aside and whispered in my ear "Seriously, don't be down.  You are a good person who's very cute.  Things will turn around for you soon.  I know it," accompanied by a sweet kiss on the cheek.

I said goodbye to Kiley, Debbie, and Jade (the bartenders), and walked to the T to go home.  Pondering about the events that just transpired, I couldn't help but smile just a little bit.

And that's one of the reasons why I love Lir so much.  I never know what will happen.

(Then I proceeded to watch Japanese Games Shows on YouTube till I fell asleep)

Peace.

"Feelin' High" (The Denver Trip) Part Three: Everything Else, Part Two

I said at the end of my last post that I would continue talking about the events in Denver.  And I will.

I've always heard of Dave & Busters, but never been, manly because we don't have any here in Boston.  I think the closest one is in RI or CT or something like that.  Well, there happens to be one in Denver.  So we went.  And I'll be honest: it wasn't as glamourous as it seems in those advertisements.  It's like Good Times Emporium in Somerville, but without the gang violence.  I had fun there, and we had amassed a little over 400 tickets.  We ended up not getting anything, though.  All of the cool stuff was at least 1000 tickets.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.

The classic Black and White photo booth is an untapped resource for fun.  The Shortlist contained an entry for taking photos in a photo booth.  I located on on Broadway at a place called Sputnik.  It was like a diner/bar place.  Ariel and I drove there, found the place, and went inside.  The booth was out of order.  Really disappointing.

Naan.  It's such a beautiful food.  And Ariel knew of this great place to get Indian food.  I can safely say that my good experiences at Indian restaurants has remained flawless.  There was this sweet mango drink (the name of which I have forgotten) that she suggested, and it was really good.

That's it for Part 2.  Part Three is coming soon.

"Feelin' High" (The Denver Trip) Part Two: Everything Else, Part One

I’m on the plane, headed back home to Boston after a wonderful vacation in Denver. What a way to start 2009. I had so much fun exploring what The Mile High City had to offer. But more importantly, I so happy that I got to be with Ariel. We had both been looking forward for the day that we would reunite. And even though 5 days seems like a good chunk of time, honestly, the time flew by very quickly. So quickly in fact that we did a lot of great things (which is part of the reason why I didn’t actually write in my blog those days). But now that I’ve got a ton of time till I get home, there’s no excuse why I can elaborate on some of the stuff we did.

Lollicup. Awesome. Nuff Said.

I had a shortlist of things I wanted to do with Ariel while I was with her in Denver. Let me say this right off the bat: I could care less what we did as long as we did it together (I don’t want that statement to come off bitchy; I’m just stating that what was most important to me was spending time together). So we went to the local supermarket, Safeway, and purchased items to make dinner. And apple pie. Both came out delicious.

The night I got in, Ariel and I went to the local bar that she and her friends frequent, Jordan’s (not to be confused with Boston's Jordans, which is a furniture store) which is just down the street from her place. Some of my friends will be happy to know that on Fridays, they have $4 Car Bombs. A popular establishment (or at least what I could gather on that night), I had the pleasure to meet many of Ariel’s friends. One in particular, Hannah, knew my friend Ted (aka Teddy Ruck-Spin) who I went to Newton North with (By The Way: Ted, you STILL owe me that CD). It was great to unwind with in a great atmosphere after a long journey.

On Friday morning, Ariel had to go to work at her cool new internship (which, now thinking about it, I never got to see…), so I had the honor to have lunch with her roommate, Jessica. A budding psychologist, we went to Cherry Creek Cricket, a burger restaurant that kind of resembled Boston’s Sunset Bar & Grill (sort of). While waiting for a table we played pool, where I would take a 3 ball lead, just to screw it up by scratching on the 8-Ball. The food was good, except for the small, albeit very small, fact that they got my order completely wrong. I ordered a cheeseburger wit American cheese, barbeque sauce, medium well. What I got was a well don’t burger, with no sauce, but with American cheese. I ate it. It was good. For a Mistake Burger.

Did you know that Denver has a basketball team? Did you also know that I love chicken nuggets? Did you know that didn’t see any chicken nuggets being sold at the Denver Nuggets game on Friday? That’s besides the point. Ariel had purchased tickets for us and some of her friends (specifically Jessica, Nathan, Leo, and one other, whose name escapes me at the moment *ugh*). I’ve been a fan of B-Ball, though I don’t follow it religiously. But I knew enough that this game would be intense because they were playing against the Detroit Pistons (who just got Allen Iverson, who used to play for the Nuggets. See, now?). Ok, I knew all of this a good 20 minutes after the game started, but who’s counting. It’s at this game I got a new background for my phone. SO much better than the other one I had.

Oh, and the game? It was a good game, though the boys wanted to leave 4 minutes early to avoid the rush. When we left, Denver was up by 6. When we got home, we found out that Detroit had tied the game, brought the game to OT, where Denver would lose the game. Whoops.

The Light Rail in Denver is very clean, and fairly fast. However, their fare collection system is a bit peculiar. From what I can gather, some security guard comes around and checks that you bought your ticket. The thing is, they are not on every train. The go on some, come off, and then board another one. I’m paraphrasing a huge bit, but it’s odd…

The DU Gym. Where anyone who has the drive to be fit can come it and work out. And when I mean anyone, I mean ANYONE. I mean, they let me in. Ariel is what I would call a running enthusiast. She runs great distances and has even done a few marathons and half-marathons. So on Saturday morning, after a few days of not running because of my arrival, Ariel and I went to the gym to run on treadmills (this activity, oddly enough, was on my shortlist).

Now, I do some running: run to the train before it leaves, run to work before I’m late, run home to catch Password Plus, stuff like that. In all seriousness, I did a little running back in high school, and managed the Cross Country team for 2 years. Ariel has been doing this for years. Needless to say, expectations were not very high.

Long story short, on Saturday I ran for 6 miles, a good 3-4 miles more than expected. And on Sunday, I ran 7.5 miles. Oh, also on Sunday, I had sore legs. But other than that I felt fine. I’m actually going to try to run more often in Boston, though it will be tougher during the cold season.

From a purely game-playing perspective, this vacation sucked. Of all the games we played (Pool, Rummy 500, Blokus, and Skip-Bo), I won 2 separate rounds, but lost all the matches. I attribute this to Ariel having home field advantage. Just wait till she comes to Boston…

There is more that I want to say, but I’m super tired. So I GUARANTEE that I will finish this tomorrow. Or Wednesday. By the end of this week. If I don’t, every lady that I know will get a lap dance.

Guaranteed.

"Feelin' High" (The Denver Trip) Part One: Airborne and AirBored

From now until the 12th, I'll be in beautiful Denver, Colorado.  Why?  I'm visiting one of my closest friends in the world.  There is a whole back story, which I will get into later.  But I'm forcing myself to write in this blog for the duration of the trip and post some picture up here as well.  Most of the pictures I'll be taking will be on my Facebook page.   Let's get started.

So, at 5AM in the morning on January 8th, I'm up and about, getting things packed and checking my list of things I need.  My roommate Sim drives me to the airport, and I check in and all that stuff.  Logan Airport itself is not very exciting, so I took no pictures of that.  And rather tell you about everything that happened between Boston and Denver, I'll just show the few pics I took with my camera phone.

This is me on US Airways at Logan.  It's about 7:15AM.  This is just before takeoff.  The sort of glazed look on my face is due to the fact that I've had no sleep or food.  It's pretty sweet.

Once we did get airborne, looking outside my window, I couldn't help but to take a picture of "Boston: Lightly Frosted"  Just like my donuts.

This is Philly, right before landing.  I have nothing else to say about this.  The airport was just as exciting.

Denver International.  I had to wait two hours for Ariel to come pick me up (because she had class).  So for a good 1.5 hours, I rode the moving sidewalks.  With a good soundtrack, it can be quite fun.  God, I'm so pathetic.

Next Up:  The Reunion...