Month: March 2005

The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, is a lot shorter in person than he appears.

Thanks to everyone who saw me or contacted me for my birthday. Getting a call from M-D, Bry, Leia, who were all at the SxSW Break Bread With Brad “event,” was nice — especially how it sounded like the entire crowd was singing Happy Birthday. Thanks, guys!

Once again, I helped put together the annual St. Patrick’s Day event for my company. This year, instead of 200 or 300 people, there were 600 or 700. It was a little bit crazy. The New York City mayor and New York governor stopped by to make appearances. The place was swarming with media.

My main responsibility was dealing with the entertainment. We had several good Irish bands, an Irish tenor, and a high school marching band (it’s good I still have connections in that world).

Unfortunately, when I got back to the hotel, I got my first birthday present: a headache at 2:30 am that still hasn’t gone away. That wasn’t the worst of it; something was definitely going on inside me that didn’t make my stomach so happy. Yes, that’s right, I’m blogging about getting sick. This is not exactly how I planned to begin my thirtieth year on the planet.

Now that I’m in the office, at least I have access to some Advil. Maybe this headache will go away and I’ll be able to drive home.

The good news is it’s snowing lightly and it looks kind of nice. Well it’s as nice as downtown Newark can look, which I suppose isn’t very. It’s all relative.

Birthday Archives: 29 in 2005, 28 in 2004, 27 in 2003, 26 in 2002, 25 in 2001, 24 in 2000. My archives go back farther but apparently my birthdays don’t.

Update: Wow, the Advil certainly worked fast. I’ve had the headache for eight hours, but one half hour after taking two pills, it’s completely gone.

160 (83rd percentile). Not stellar, but nothing at which to shake a stick. One point better than practice. Now what to do… besides beginning to write a business statistics paper that is due at 3:00 am?

Update: It’s 2:15 am and the paper is finished and posted.

Links, updated once in a while until I find another reason to post here:
* UN landmine eradication commercial. CNN refuses to air this commercial for stoplandmines.org, an organization committed to getting the United Nations to eradicate landmines.
* An interview with R. Crumb. My father gave me a calendar with his art when I was in high school. I can’t say I expected it.

I’m not talking about McDonalds. Some chick and I had dinner tonight at the Best. Restaurant. Ever. as I mentioned previously. Yeah, it’s a little pricey compared to the places we usually eat, but I think the expenditure is allowable once every few years. It’s too bad that more people didn’t think so. But I’m not complaining, I’m sated — satisfied to excess, even.

After dinner we drove around a little bit in the town of Red Bank (I). Some of the sights included Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, the Quick Stop, and RST Video.

On the way home, I heard a song on 88.5 XPN‘s Blues Show with Jonny Meister. I don’t know the name of the song or artist, but it gave me an idea for a play or movie script. Nothing will come of that, of course, but it struck me as something that would work.

Back to the restaurant, there were some new choices on the menu. We chose the Mojo (MO-HO) broth for the entree, which I didn’t recognize from the last time I visited. There was also a new chocolate dessert. It is called “Girl Scout Cookie” or something similar, and it contains mint and Oreo^®. It was most excellent.

There’s a show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater called The “Dark Side of the Moon” Show: Buy, Beg, Borrow or Steal. It’s playing Friday nights this month.

A play about the cut-throat world of competitive real estate brokers, synced up perfectly with Pink Floyd’s classic album, “Dark Side of The Moon.” It’s Glengary Glen Ross, meets the Wizard of OZ, meets you, at age 17, getting high in your parents basement.

I don’t know about the whole getting high thing, but I like what goes on at the UCB Theater. (It’s a comedy club focusing on improv, by the way.)

The flight would have been $300 or so and the hotel stay $625. There would also be a large amount of spending while in Texas. Thus, I cancelled my plans and reservations for SxSW. Maybe I’ll manage to get down there next year. If the Austin Hilton was sold out up until now, anyone looking for a room there can now find one.

I do need to get away from here again, and I requested time off for the middle of April. I’m going to be away for the week leading up to Passover, but I should be back in time for the holiday.

I’m looking forward to my birthday this year, only because I’m determined to make it to my favorite restaurant (The Melting Pot) for the first time in many years. They have a location in Red Bank, New Jersey now, too. Sure, it’s more expensive than Fridays (warning: obnoxious music plays automatically without a shut-off option) but it’s worth it, especially if I go only once every few years.

I haven’t had sushi in a while, either.