Driving School's Open!

Sorry for the slacking on the entries but some poop (yes I talked about it again!) hit the fan, splattered everywhere and broke the fan yesterday and is still going on today, so I was stuck in meetings most of the day.  Well ... onward and upward, or was it ... to infinity and beyond!

I've never been to driving school and the way I learned how to drive was with my dad and Tito Ed from Cali.  One of my first experiences in driving was taking the car ... errr the Susuki Sidekick that Kuya Tony from Cali left here for me, and parking it back and forth for alternative side parking regulations.  It was this small little red jeep and it had no gas in it whatsoever!  It was running on fumes and I think it had been running on fumes for the past however many months that I used it as my parellel parking test prep.  There was even a time that we ventured out to Metro Mall with Ody as the driver!  

During the summer months, or when there was no school, I would eagerly take those keys and hop into the jeep.  I remember making excuses for having to go around the block to find parking or making the excuse that it's illegal to just go in reverse when you see a parking spot a few cars back, so I had to obey the law!  Well actually I was breaking it more than I was obeying since I didn't have a license, and I didn't have a permit.  So there I was driving the jeep around the block, sometimes two, and if I was feeling adventurous, three times - those moments when you see the cops (no matter where they are), are moments where you feel like the hair standing on the back of your neck and you have no idea what to do (similar to the stall door opening!).  There would be days ... alright who am I kidding, but this would be everyday and everytime I moved the jeep, no matter what the month was, I would sit in the drivers seat with the window down and engine off, but the radio would be blasting!  There I would be for a few minutes then eventually made my way inside.  Yeah, that's how I do, ya know!?  Pimpin' ain't easy, unless you're me!

So with this driving experience under my belt, my dad would hand over the car to me when we went to Delaware - sometimes against my mom's request.  I was driving down the NJ Turnpike at about 80-90 with no license, no permit and I wasn't on the insurance, dang was I just asking for trouble!  Luckily it never came and I got my driving experience in that way.

Tito Ed taught me some other things and did a refresher course right before I was going to get my license.  

See with me, it took a while for me to learn how to drive, I had to go through stages and different instructors.  But ... the kids now have someone who they can count on!  Someone who will be able to teach you the ins and outs of driving as no one could!  His first customer will tell you how good he is, Dudoy my nephew knows what's up.

My dad is set to open up his own driving school soon, I'm not sure what it's going to be called but I'm thinking it will be called Diego's Defensive Driving, or Double D Driving.  Come to think of it, I was his first customer and now Dudoy is his next one ... and it's better when you bring a friend!  Dudoy brought his friend Emil to the driving school too.  Everyone gets action in the Red Panther that I spoke about in an earlier entry.  There's a list of people who might be signing up too, Arvin might be next on the list so if you're interested, you better sign up fast!  There's going to be a waiting list soon.  

You just need to be able to take constructive criticizm and be able to take screaming and yelling.  Not out of fear but out of anger.  

Another thing you'll need to be able to handle is the fact that half the back windshield if being obstructed.  That's something you can't negotiate and have to really learn how to drive with.  We have all seen the signs on top of driving school cars saying what company they work for and some even have the stickers on the bumpers that say "Student Driver" but that's not the case with the Double D Driving.  Here you get a sign that's protected behind thick heated glass.  Guaranteed not to fade, peal or fall apart as long as you follow the directions.  

See I'm not sure if this is legal or not, but it's a good way to tell everyone to move to another lane and watch out for abrupt turns.  Also for the pedestrians, it's something they can see after they get up off the road and wipe the blood from ther head as the Red Panther continues onward.  

Now everyone in Queens knows that Dudoy is a student who is hard at work in trying to get his goal of getting that license.  

If you can't see it in that picture, this is a picture that I'm sure you'll be able to see clearly.  

 

My dad always finds and does creative things, but I think this one is one of the best things he's done ever!  Wanna sign up, just comment and we can schedule something and work things out, in the meantime, watch out for the "student" driver.

+ mon

Invasion of Privacy

What would you do when you're faced with a situation where you felt helpless, you felt somewhat paralysed and didn't know what to do?  I'm sure some of us have gone through this before and have experienced many situations where these different feelings do and can come up.  

Today I had an experience where I did feel all of those feelings and thensome.  

It started out as a normal day here at work and then I decide to take a short trip to a place that I like to call my "smaller office."  The trip started out as I went to my normal spots, but all of them were occupied by other employees who seemed to be going to their small offices as well.

So what choices do I have, as nature was calling ... actually yelling at me.  I decided to go to one of the higher floors to see if there was anything available and usually they are quieter and you can spend the whole day up there.  I found one where there was one out of two available and made my way into the small office.  

One thing I noticed was that the door swung outward and I looked at the "lock" on the door, it was very shaky and I made a mental note that if there was a sudden impact on the door or someone would try to open it ... that it would simply give way.  My neighbor was very quiet ... and as nature was yelling at me, I was trying to be as quiet as he, but it was to no avail.  Nature yelled, and I yelled back.  That feeling of having a neighbor in these situations who is being quiet makes things uncomfortable, you try to be as silent as possible, but sometimes that's just impossible, then you start to wonder what they are thinking and then you remember what you were thinking when you were in the situation but you were the silent neighbor and how your face cringed with each noise the person next door did.  I waited for him to leave, but it seemed as if he was situated there for a while.  I could hear people coming in the door, then immediately leaving because they saw that both doors were closed and occupied, I guess at that particular time, nature made it's roll call to a lot of us here.  

I won the battle of patience and my neighbor decides to finish up and leave.  As he was leaving, he opened his door and as he did that the worst feeling came over me.  It was a feeling of not knowing what to do next, that reaction of fight or flight came and I had to make a choice as to where I would go next and what I should do.  

What would you do if you saw this scene about 3 feet in front of you, with your pants down around your ankles?

This picture was taken after the fact and when everything was over and done with.  It's a reenactment as I would not have been able to take this while everything was going on.  

So what would do you???  Good thing for me is that I noticed the shaky lock mechanism, if you could even call it a lock.  I would have had better luck putting tape on the door and the frame to keep it closed.  

As the door swung outward ... yes outward, a panic in me started to set in.  It would have been easy if it swung inward, but that wasn't my luck today.  I could see my neighbor through the opening of the door now and I'm sure he could see me looking into the mirror and seeing the door swinging open!  I quickly decide to leap forward to close the door ... but there's no handle on the door, only a small turning metal part that "locks" the door.  I couldn't grab onto that and had to think quickly.  

See it wasn't just a matter of finding a place to hold the door and close it ... but time was also a factor here.  The door was swinging open more and more, the longer I waited the more exposed I would be, and the harder it would be for me to find a way to close it as well!

I ended up grabbing the hook on the top of the door where you use to hang your jacket or coat and slowly pulling the door closed and putting it in the "locked" position again.  

For that brief moment after the sweat drips off your forehead do you find peace.  Then you rush to finish your business because this could be a recurring issue.  

I think this is actually one of my worst fears coming back to life.  I say "back to life" because this isn't the first time this has happened to me.  The first time was in an airport and the same situation happened when a neighbor slammed the door shut, and mine opened outward, but there was some complications with this as my bags were in the way and I couldn't lean forward enough to grab the door as it swung FULLY open.  The good thing was that it opened towards the urinals and there was no one there.  I leaned as far foward as I could trying to reach the door but with no luck ... what felt like an eternity, but I'm sure was only a few seconds, 30 seconds at most, the door started to swing closed again and I was able to lunge forward to close it.

These things always seem to happen to me!  Becareful out there, and bring some Scotch tape for those doors!

+ mon

Taking Advantage of a Brother

I thought that this deserved it's own entry since this was a classic, very classic moment in my childhood, one that is clear as day and I think there might be a lesson learned in there somewhere.

The summer months and the times off from school would be spent doing whatever we could think of and when there was nothing else to do and it wasn't raining, we would be skating.  The norm was to skate down the hill on "53rd."  John and I were the ones who were "chicken" and who usually played it safe most of the time, this meant that when going down that hill (or skating in the street at all) we would be the ones that stayed as close to the parked cars as possible so we didn't get hit by the cars that were moving in the middle of the road.  The jokes would come from Ody and Michael, well actually in hindsight, they actually weren't jokes and they were more of a warning.  The concern was that we were riding so close to the parked cars trying to be safe that we were going to end up hitting the parked cars or the side mirrors and get hurt that way.  John and I thought that we were the masters of our own domain and there was no way that was going to happen, we were just being safe!

Until one day (you were waiting for that weren't you?) John was going down 53rd and towards the middle of the hill he clipped the side mirror and lost his balance.  He wasn't going that fast if we take a look at it now, but when we're that young, going down 53rd was as if we were going 75 MPH!  So as John was going 75 MPH and him losing control by hitting the side mirror, he fell to the street and rolled and rolled ... and rolled ... and rolled all the way to the bottom of the hill.  He laid there in the street with blood and cuts from falling down not moving.  We quickly came down and saw if he was alright and he said that he couldn't move, not from breaking any bones or anything to do with paralysis ... but from the pain of all the cuts he had from falling and rolling down the street.  We found a way to transport him back up the hill and to the house, I think we put him on his board and rolling him back since he couldn't move.

He stayed in his bed and started to watch Baywatch ... or Knight Rider as we were standing around his bed looking at him moaning in pain.  It was as if we were visiting someone in the hospital as we were there "visiting" John ... his brother was in the proper place by standing right next to his left side.  We talked to him and tried to make him laugh, but there was no laughter since he was in pain and couldn't move much, but we did talk to him and tried to cheer him up.

Michael being the caring brother that he is, asked John how he was doing and John would answer back with a moan and then telling him that he was in pain and couldn't move.  Michael again with this voice of concern asked him if he was alright and asked him if he could move even just a little bit but John said that he couldn't because of all the pain that he was in.  Michael is a very sharing and caring brother, so as what any other brother would do in this situation, he would share something with John, something so close and so intimate.  As John was on the left edge of the bed and Michael by his side, Michael turned around with his back towards John and silently let some of that flatulence (fart) come out right by John's head!  There was an immediate reaction from John as he smelled it right away, but he couldn't move out of the way of the fart that was consuming his entire body!  John struggled and struggled as we stood there laughing at his efforts, but he couldn't get away, the mixture of the pain and the smell was just too much for him, so he just laid there ... trying to blow the air away from his face.  That's all he could do ... as he cursed at Michael for being too sharing that day.  

So is there a lesson to be learned from this?  Don't play it too safe, because if you do, you'll end up hitting the side mirror and roll all the way down the hill where you'll get cuts all over your body and can't move, then your brother will take advantage and fart in your face as all you can do it take it all in.

+ mon

The Muppet Family

In an earlier post, I had said that when we were younger and living on 90th street, it was as if we were the Muppet Babies.  We had no limits to the things we did and we did everything we could possibly do (legally).  While I was with my cousins the other weekend I was reminded of some of those things and I'll share them with you guys ... for some reason I think this entry is going to be like this email forward that was going around a while ago called "Children of the 80's."  Well I do hope you enjoy my memories as much as I did.

This is my Rifle, This is my Gun ...
My cousin Ody was my trainer, or sensai.  He would teach me things that I never knew existed or didn't know about.  I'll never forgot the first firearm that he introduced me to, it was an old school gun but nonetheless it got the job done right.  It was family built and I was amazed at the craftsmanship that went into it.  The design was simple, yet very effective ... the only thing limitation was that it was only produced during the holiday seasons.  I'm not even sure if anyone else knew about it except our family, or it might have been limited to just him and I.  Well this is a good place to give out that family creation where you take the wrapping paper tube that is used to the Christmas presents, make sure that all the wrapping paper is gone, so you're only left with the cardboard tube.  Then you take a rubber band and have it going over one of the openings and stretching it a little tight, then taping it down onto the tube.  Taping it as much as you, duck tape would be ideal.  You take some paper and cut it into a strip of about an inch and a half or two inches at most.  Start rolling it and once it's all rolled, fold it right down the middle, it should look like the letter "V" or ^" depending on how you're holding it.  Secure the tube and using the projectile that you just made put the folder on the rubber band and pull as far back as you can.  Aim it and fire!  

Please be warned that this does cause welts if you hit someone close enough!  Also as a supplemental firearm, you can use the toiletpaper tube for a pistol like feel.  

Taste Test
We were quite adventurous as little ones, even our cousins Michael and John.  If you watch National Geographic or the Discovery Channel you'll see shows where they tell you not to eat certain plants because they are poisonous, well we didn't have those channels back then.

There was a bush growing from the old house on the corner, the house that looked haunted and had all sort of plants and ivy growing around it.  Within that bush there were little flowers, they were similar to lilies but smaller.  My cousins would take this flower and pick them, then pull out the thing in the middle (I can't remember the part of the flower ... stemen???) and lick the juice at the end of it.  Of course they got me to do this, and only me.  My other cousins didn't want any part of this, maybe they had cable TV.  I liked it, it tasted sweet almost like syrup!  We picked that bush clean where there were no flowers left, and this lasted for a while as we waited for the flowers to bloom again ... I'm just glad that this wasn't one of those poison plants.

I'm Going to Tell
This was the biggest threat to a kid growing up.  When you hear those words coming from your friends, your family, you immediately clam up and start to make deals with them.  You start to bargain your way out of the situation as best you can.  A list of toys sometimes comes up in your head that you can use a a bargaining tool to get yourself out of this without it reaching the level that it might.  The events leading up to this could be anything, it could as simple as you trying to save your skateboard and almost getting hit by a car, or accidently saying a curse word.  The events were never what was relevant, the only thing that did matter was you doing everything you could from them telling your parents!

This was used against me a lot ... with one such incident where I was trying to be the next Christian Hosoi and my skateboard went rolling into the street.  Of course, I ran out in traffic to get my board and in the process almost got hit by a car.  Returning to my safe haven of cousins on the other side of the street, instead of receiving comfort, I was bombarded with words of how dumb I was for doing that and how they were going to tell my parents that I almost got hit by a car.  Now I had wished that I had been hit by the car ... if they ever found out it would be the belt ... or the slipper!  My cousins used this against me for the next few months where if they needed something or wanted something, all they had to do was bring up my near death incident and how they were going to spill the beans.  This would end up in me going to the deli and buying them candy, the grenade drinks, or letting them barrow my video games!  

These words ... "I'm going to tell" were so powerful when we were young, I wonder if they have the same effect now?  I'll test this out on someone and we'll see how it works ... or not.

Walking on Water
This usually goes on during the summer or warmer months when we weren't in school anymore.  Behind our apartment building was the garage area where the tenants would park their cars and being it was during the work hours, it was usually empty.  Now when there was some sort of rain the creation of a small little lakelike pond was formed right in the center where the drain was.  This would stay there for a few days and slowly flow into the drain.

During these times we took the opportunity to do the things we normally couldn't do since there wasn't any close sources of water where we could "play."

This little watering hole became our lake where it was the best thing in the world!  We would try to skip stones across, even though it was so short that the stones would skip past the water and end up in the fence, or in the worst case scenario it would hit one of the remaining cars in the lot which would make us all scatter like roaches when you turn on the lights.  

We threw everything at that little pond and never once did it throw it back, it just sank in the two or three inches of water and collected at the bottom.  We were in the zone so much that we used our vehicles and turned them into hovercrafts!  The single bike or two bikes that we had, had to be shared with all of us and we took turns as we rode it across the water in amazement as each one of us would cross.  There would be the occassional mishap where someone didn't make it all the way across and the bike would stop somewhere near the middle, the dreaded deepest part.  Here they would have to tip toe and get their shoes wet as they made their way to the other side.  

There were times when we even road our skateboards through the water!  This was the hard part as you need to push off with the skateboard ... many times we would find ourselves stranded.  Our cousins coming to our rescue by means of a broom or mop stick to help reach us and pull us to safety.  

Once the water subsided, we went back and were in shock and utter amazement to see all the items that had been left in the water which we'd thrown in just a few days before.   

This wasn't the cleanest of water either, it's not the crisp clear water that you see in the movies, but similar to that and worst than the water that we find at Rockaway beach.  Cloudy, murky and full of dirt ... and also full of imagination.

The Original Spiderman
You would find the real spidermen on those apartments on 90th street.  Along the hallways you could see their skills in action if you were lucky enough.

Being that the halls were about the width of the door, not a wide door but a regular door, we were able to take our arms and legs and spread them to push ourselves up the wall and hold ourselves there for whatever reason.  We did this a lot when there was nothing else to do and some of us were even able to make it all the way to the top of the hallway ceiling.

One such time was when I was coming back from "playing" and was going to open my apartment door, but decided to knock on the door so my parents would open it but there was going to be a twist!  I was going to Spiderman up the wall and up to the ceiling and hold myself there so when I knock on the door they wouldn't know where it was coming from.  

The plan was working out perfectly, I knocked and quickly climbed that wall to the ceiling and kept quiet.  At first it was my dad who opened the door and didn't see anyone, quickly closing the door.  I wait a few seconds for him to walk back to the living room then knock again while still on ceiling, just holding myself with one arm and two legs against the wall.  Here he came again and this time I hear him muttering under his breath as he closed the door.  Clinging to the walls and laughing in silence I do it one more time, but I'm going to jump down when they open the door and don't see anyone.  My mother opens the door this time and as she was about to close it I jump and land right in front of her!  I started laughing, she didn't.  She jumped up as she got scared ... reached down and grabbed her slipper.  Pulled me into the house and closed the door behind me and hit me with that slipper until she was satisfied.  I can still remember my dad in the background asking if that was me knocking on the door and my mom explaining that was on the ceiling of the hallway ... then he got upset and went to the room.  Here cam the belt and I ran around the house trying to escape, but there was no Spiderman friendly walls in apartment 2C.  

Just a simple ability of being able to climb walls, turned into a beating that one will never forget.  

So many more stories, but I'll keep it at these for now, hopefully there was a lesson to be learned somewhere ... 

+ mon

Monica Monica, Where Art Thou!?

I haven't heard from here since yesterday ... either she was scared away by my picture as she might have looked at it again, or she was disgusted by me accidently calling that number!  Or maybe I was a little too forward and pushed her away ... did I smother her?  Did I do enough?  Maybe I did too much?  All these questions come up and all the "what if's" are now hitting me as I haven't heard from her in more then 24 hours.

That's the selfish part of me asking those questions, but what about her safety!  Maybe they found her in the church that she was hiding out in that had the computer security of the Pentagon!?  I do hope she's alright and hope she emails me again, until then I sit here at my desk waiting for that "Inbox (1)" to appear.

Have you ever found love so quickly and lost it even faster ... well if you have, then you know how this is for me, to have to lose such a knockout like Monica, damn and the $7.5M too!  I guess I shouldn't continue with these huge purchases I was going to buy huh???

+ mon

Mr. S & Monica are Engaged!

Wow this is great news and I can't believe it happened so fast!  She emailed me back this morning and this is what she said:

Dear beloved Raymond,


How are you today ? I hope you are all right by the special grace of God. Regarding to your question, i will want us to be business association, but if it is the will of God that will marry each other, no problem, I like your picture, you're such a hansom young health man that i will like to be with for rest of life, my hobbies, reading and watching movies.

The most important thing now is to make an effort  to see that this money is successfully transferred to your account so that I can be able to prepare my travelling documents to come and join you in your country and have a new a life with you and continue my education while you go no investing the money  in a good business you know that you can manage until i finish my education

I am worried for  you have not contacted  the bank, please send an inquiry to the bank with that their information i sent to you, tell them that you are foreign guardian and you want them to transfer the money which my late father Mr Johnson sankara deposited in  the bank to your account and you hear from them. As i explain to you about what I’m facing through now which need that you will need to act fast and get me and my inheritance money out of this country before their upcoming presidential election that is fast approaching.



Thanks and God bless you,

Your beloved;

Monica.

Can you imagine that?  How wonderful is this, don't worry all of you guys will be invited, but I might have messed it up, you'll see what I mean by my email response ...

Hello my dearest Monica,

I was doing so well today, but since I received your email, my day has been so much better.  When I saw that new message in my inbox, I had a smile from ear to ear, the nurses aid that I have here in my home even told me that the last time I looked this happy was when the Giants won the Superbowl in 2007!

You want to marry me?  Monica ... is this your way of proposing to me, because if it is, I definitely accept!  I would have thought to think that such a fugly person such as yourself would ever want anything to do with an "old" man like me, moreso to even give me a marriage proposal!

You really don't understand how bright you just made my day ... I'm lying here in bed just thinking about all the wonderful things that we can plan for our wedding and for all my friends and family to meet you!  It would be so great, I just can't wait ... actually do you mind if I have one of my best friends email you just so they get to know you a little more themselves before you come over here to the United States to spend the the rest of your horrid life with me???  

As for the financial part of our relationship, does Mr. Duncan have a professional email account where I can email him?  His name sounds really familiar ... do you know if he has a brother named Tim, I believe he's from San Antonio?  The email addresses you gave me seem to be his personal email addresses from those free email sites like yahoo and ubbi.com.  

I also tried calling the number that you gave me in the previous email (Tel: +2256041-8195 ) and I'm not sure if I dialed the number incorrectly or if the number you gave me had a mistake in it, but a lady answered the phone by saying "Hello there sexy, what's your name and what's your fantasy?"  I was a bit disturbed by this at first ... but then decided that I would just speak to this lady and before you know it we had about a 2 hour conversation about our deepest intimate fantasies and desires.  

Monica ... I feel really bad, it's as if I cheated on you with that lady on the phone!  Oh my goodness, I feel terrible Monica, really I do.  I'm not sure if I could ever forgive myself and I don't blame you if you can't forgive me either!  But please find it in your heart to give this lonely old man another chance.  I'm not sure what it was, but it was just a lapse in my judgement and also the fact that I've been lonely for a long time, this lady (I don't even know her name!  I feel like such a whore!) just gave me some attention ... I'm so sorry Monica!  Aside from feeling like a huge slut, my phone bill is going to be quite large because I realized after all was said and done, this was an international phone call.

Oh Monica, what would I do without you in my life?  It's only been a few days since I've known you but I feel as if we've known each other all our lives, don't you feel the same way?  Well get back to me as I wait for your email to bring that smile back to my face.

Again I'm sorry for cheating on you and please find it somewhere in that heart to forgive me.  Also, give me the information to contact the bank manager professionally and let me know if it's alright (if you forgive me) to have one of my friends contact you so that they can get to know you a little more before you come here to the US.

My bloody and beating heart lies in the palm of your little itty bitty hand ...

Mr. S.

So that's it for now and hopefully they'll ... I mean she will email me back forgiving and forgetting.  How can I be such a fool ... stupid phone lady.

+ mon

Monica's Email

As Gee had said "Monica's Email" sounds like a show or a sitcom, hence the title of this entry.

My beloved Monica got back to me today and here is what she said:

Dear beloved raymund,


Thank's for your response and your willingness to help an orphan like me.I am 19 years old,i a m not married,i stoped my education at secorndary level as result of my father's death ,i a m not from this country (Ivory Cost), ia m from sierra_leone,i came to this country (Ivory Cost) where my late father made this deposite with the bank,since that time i reside in a church guest house where no one can easly trace me and collect the deposite documents to have this money to enrich them self.

It's because of this money that my late father was killed by his enemies, this money is in a fixed deposit suspense account and can only be transfer abroad by the help of a foriegner whom i have choosen as my guardain,as agreed by my late father and the bank before his sudden death, in this case as I was well made to understand by the bank director the day I went for this money after the death of my father. I can only have assess to the money if it's transfered to my foriegn guardian,that is why I needed a foreign guardian as advise by the bank director.

I have been disturbing the bank director to help me as I know nobody outside African but he told me that is the only way for me to get this money from the bank is an agreement between the bank and my late father now he is dead.

My main problem now is to make an effort to see that the bank will transfer the money to your account so that after the transfer, I will now prepare to come over to your country to be with you and have a new life with you and continue my education , while you will go ahead to invest the money into a good investment you know you can manage very well on my behalf since it is no longer my wish to remain here in Africa.

I have met the bank Manager here and he told me that they will make exellent transfer to us but only if you can follow their instruction.So please sent an enquirey to the bank with this email adress as soon as you have receive this email,

paulduncan_boaci@yahoo.fr,
bankofafrica_remittancedept@ubbi.com,
Tel: +2256041-8195
Fax: 0022522434417
contact person: Dr. Paul Duncan.

Please use any of this e-mail to contact them My late father`s name as
the depositor: Mr Johnson Sankara Amount deposited: $ 7.5 million.
Next of kin: Monica Sankara.

Tell them that your are my foriegn guardian that you want them to tranfer the money which is deposited by my late father,mr johnson sankara to be transfer to your account and know the proccedure of of transfering this money to your account.Please in your next mail don't forget to send me your phone number for easy communication.

I will be waiting to hear from you as soon as you have contacted the bank .Attached is my picture.


Thank's and God bless you,

Your beloved,

She also attached this picture to her email

All I gotta say is ... wow.  Can you believe that this 19 year old girl wants me just for me and nothing else???  Well you better believe it!

This was my response to her last email:

Hey Monica,

Thank you for the 2nd picture of you, again you look absolutely and adorably fugly.

You didn't answer my question from my previous email?

I wanted to know what kind of relation are you looking for with me ... would it be friends, business associates, or are you looking for a more romantic relationship?

What is it that you like to do on your free time, and do you have any hobbies?

And would you be alright if I called you MINE? Did you like the picture I sent you? I hope that you do - let me know when you get a chance.

Hope to hear from you soon and looking forward to your next email, if you have anymore pictures of yourself, please do send them to me ... I really abhor them.

Nothing' but love for ya babe!
Mr. S

I wonder if she knows the words I'm using to describe her in my emails?  Hmmmm I'm guessing she doesn't.  The saga and journey for the millions of dollars continues!

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

I can smell the $7.5 million, it's right there!  Thanks to everyone who was telling me that this was a scam and for the heads up.  I've gotten these emails a few times already and figured they weren't legit, and they just want my info and money.  But I figured that I could see how far they would go to prove to me that they are legit and see how long and drawn out I can keep it going.  Maybe I'm doing something good by keeping their time occupied?  Instead of scamming someone who actually believes in it, they are talking to someone who knows it's fake and who is going to waste their time and in the process entertain you and me!

So here continues the saga of me in search of the $7.5M I've been promised.  She replied to me and this is her response:

Dear beloved,

Thanks for your reply to my email. i am writing you with all my hart for you to have all the hope in this tranfer may be God bring us together to help each other,money is not every thing,but God first.


I contacted you in a way after the transfer i shall come over to your country to be with you and continue my education while yo go on investing on my behalf.I have gone for this money but the bank told me that  the money is fixed deposite suspense account and my late  father left a writing  insructions that the money should be tranfer to a foreigner whom i have choosen to be my foreign guardian. It was because of this money that he was killied by his enenmies.
 
 
As you can see, this fund is very important to me and it is my only hope of survival. I want  to leave this country as soon as this fund gets to your account because my late fathers relatives are ready to see me dead so that all my late father's properties will be for them. They are one of the most wicked human beings that I have ever seen in this world. what is worst than people denying there own blood for the sake of earthly things and non of them cares about me.
 
 
They have tried many times to kill me but God have being on my side. Presentely, i am saying in a church guest house where no one can trace me easily to collect this deposite documents. Please I am begging you in the name of God to see me from the side of a desperate girl trying to secure her properties and a her brighter future. I will be happy if you can come down here to see things yourself.  i want you to send me your photo and your phone number for me to know your willingness to assist me. But before we proceed, I would want you to provide me with your sincere answer to this questions below before I can relaise the Fund Deposite Documents to you:
 
1)After the sucessfull transfer of this fund to your account, what area of business do you suggest that my percentage of this fund will be invested into with your kind assistance.
 
2)Will you be able to to direct me properly in terms of business investment in your country and manage the business for me atleast for two or three years to enable me finish my education and be familier with the environment and the business climate in your country.
 
3)Will you be able to assist me in getting his travelling documents to come over to your country after the fund is transfered to your account. What i want you to do is to assist me stand as my guardian and provide an account where this fund will transfered for investment. I have discussed about you with the bank manager, I expalined to him my intension of transfering this fund to your account and he have promised that as soon as you contact the bank, that he will direct you well on how to transfer this money to your account without any dealy.  I will send you the bank manager contact immedaitely if you promise not to betray me when this money gets to your account in your country, and do not forget to keep this beetween me and you untill this money is finaly tranfered to your account.
 
Reply me immediately with your full name and address and telephone number as soon as you read this email.


 yours beloved,
 
Miss Monica Sankara

She also attached her picture!  What a hottie ...

Well how do I say no to that ... and I had to send her back a reply:

Hey Monica,

Good to hear from you and I'm glad you got back to me.  I do hope that everything will be alright, and keep safe in the church that you're hiding in, I can only imagine the craziness that's going on right now especially with those who are trying to end your life.  I am worried about you and hope that no harm comes your way, please do what you can to stay away from those hooligans and mongers.  I will keep you in my thoughts and hope that everything will be alright for you there.

I do look forward  to you coming here and finally meeting in person.  I am curious, when you do move here, what kind of relation are you looking for with me ... would it be friends, business associates, or are you looking for a more romantic relationship?

Tell me a little more about yourself Monica, how old are you?  What is it that you like to do on your free time, and do you have any hobbies?  Were you working prior to your fathers death or were you in school?  Are you married, single, do you have any children?

1 - I would suggest that you invest your portion of the funds into the food industry.  As you know, people will never stop eating and I believe that the money is in the food industry since it will be an ongoing investment.
2 - I will definitely be able to help you with that and will be more than happy to do so.
3 - Yes I will be able to help you with that as well.

As for the information that you are asking from me, I believe that if we are going to have this business relationship, that we first get to know each other and get to know each other intimately.  I will give you the information you asked for, but let's talk a little more and if you have anymore pictures of yourself please do send them.  I look forward to your next email and for your answers to my questions that I asked in the above email.

I have also attached a picture of myself, it's a little blurry and taken last year but that is the best picture I can find of myself.  I hope my age does not turn you off, nor does my receding hairline.  I hope this email finds you safely and you keep safe.  Until our next email, I wait with baited breathe and with bells on.  Thank you for the picture, you are absolutely scrofulous and in slang terms that I have heard the kids use here ... you are absolutely and adorably fugly.

Until then Monica ... MY Monica ... would it be alright if I could call you mine?

Mr. S

And I also attached a picture of myself to wet her appetite, what do you think?

So we wait and see to where this leads and to see what Monika has in mind for Mr. S!  I'll keep this updated as much as I can.  As they say ... you're one step closer to a million dollars!

+ mon

I'm Rich! $7.5M Here I Come

I recently met a friend, Monica, who is asking me to hold money for her ($7,500,000 to be exact!  Yes you read that correctly, I'm going to be loaded), and she will gladly give me some money just for that and helping her out a bit with her investments here!  

Well the details of it are that her father died and his instructions were too ... ok I'll just add her email here:

Dearest One,

My name is Monica Sankara, I am the only daughter  of late Mr Johnson Sankara who was the Director of the Coffee export business in Bouake the northern city of Abidjan the Economic Capital of Ivory Coast.

My  mother died when i was a baby and for this reason, my father took me  so special because i was  motherless. Unfortunately, my  father was poisoned and he died in 2006 in the general hospital here in Abidjan . Before his death he deposit the sum of USD $7,500,000.00 (seven Million  five, hundred thousand dollars). In a bank and he left an instruction that the money is strictly for investments abroad. However, before his death, he explained to me that it was because of this wealth that he was poisoned by his business associate and for this reason, he advised me  that encase of  his death, i should move from Bouake down to Abidjan town with some important documents which he used in depositing the fund with the bank.

He also advice me  to seek for someone from a country of my  choice to be my guardian and help me to safeguard this fund in his/her private account for investments which he/she will manage till i  finish my education. I want you to do me a favour to assist me  to transfer the money to your account in your country as my Investor, who is going to assist me travel to your country and continue my education.  i have plans to do investment in your country, like real estate and industrial production. This is MY reason for writing to you. Please if you are willing to assist me, contact me immediately via email  for more details. i promise to reward you ramsonly with a reasonable percentage for your utmost assistrance and kindness to me.

Finally, note that the confidentiality of this transaction would be highly appreciated, Please reply as soon as possible.

Yours, truly,

Monica.

Can you believe that?!  She's going to ransomly reward me a percentage of that for my assistrance!  This is what dreams are made of ... forget that "all it takes is a dollar and a dream" it's more like "all you need is an email address and some luck!"

I emailed her back and am waiting for her reply, so I can get started on this financial venture into being filthy rich!  My response is below:

Hi Monica

I have read your email and would be interested in helping you. Could you provide me with more details and what you would need from my end?

Could you also include a picture of yourself so I know who it is that I am corresponding with?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Mr. S

I will keep everyone who reads this updated as often as I can - hey if ... WHEN I get that cash, I won't forget you all and will share it with everyone of you!

Tebaya chicken wings + $7.5M ... wow this is turning out to be a great and wonderful day!

+ mon

Fortunate Childhood

In the subway this morning I was thinking about what I could write about and was wondering if anything interesting would happen during that train ride, well nothing except me sleeping happened, but the only thoughts that did come to mind were when I was a kid and the childhood memories from 90th street - and there are a lot of memories!

So it brings me to this entry and looking back at how I grew up.  I didn't get that suburban childhood growing up in a house with trees all around and a culdasack where the kids from the neighborhood would play, even though when I was younger I would see that on TV and think that that's how I wish my neighborhood was.  But seeing it for what it really was now, my childhood was better than that of which I saw on the shows on TV, I grew up in Elmhurst, to be more specific 90th street.

This is the block where dreams happened and where you could do whatever you wanted, there was no limit ... well actually there was a limit, it's called parents.  

We did whatever we wanted, we ran things on 90th street!  Well maybe we didn't actually run things, but you know what I mean, it was our playground and no matter what we did, no matter what injury we had, no matter how in trouble we got, next day was a new day to start over again.

One of the main activities was the baseball games in the driveway to the garage, and if you were good enough to hit one off of the block and across the street, you had to deal with the lady in all black that was dubbed "get outta here" as that was the only thing we ever heard her say.  Those baseball days often ended because a ball would be fouled onto the room of the neighboring building, where we had no access.  But if that foul ball would just go over the 15 foot fence separating the two, we found a way to cilmb that beast of a fence and get our balls back.  One memory that really sticks out for me was when that fence was newly build to keep us out and keep us from climbing to get our foul balls, and it was my "turn" to get the ball ... as I was climbing back to the playing field, I found myself on the very top of that fence.  My apartment was in the back of our building so my parents bedroom window was right there and I heard it opening and my dads voice calling me.  If he had caught me on top of that fence, it would have been over for me!  So I did what any kid my age would do ... jump from that high in a panic!  I landed and stood there as my dad stuck his head out the window asking me a question, I stood there as if I had been standing there for a while and not just have jumped off a fence.  My feet were burning and I had to wait for him to go back in the window for me to take my shoes off and care for my feet.  

That's just one story from that baseball alley ... another quick one was when we played baseball with a basketball and I was the pitcher.  My cousin Michael swung and hit the basketball right back towards me, I didn't have time to react and it hit me right in my nose where I started crying as he rounded the "bases" with a homerun.

Another daily activity was skateboarding, ahhh yes, we skated way back before it was popular as it is now.  The first trick that I learned was the bunny hop which was simply jumping a little on your board as you hit a small bump from the sidewalk blocks.  Too many memories with this as well, but the one that sticks out and I'm sure we'll all remember had to do with my cousin Jay's board.  He had a free style board, similar to the ones that Rodney Mullen would use.  As we were skating outside, a group of other skaters came by and started talking to us.  They were saying how nice our boards where and we were flattered, but some of us were a bit cautious.  I remember one of them asking to see one of boards, it was the banana shaped yellow board (I can't remember who had that), and they said no.  They asked if they could see someone else's board and they said no.  Then they got to Jay and Jay being the oldest one of us said yes and let them see his board.  All I can remember is one of them saying ... "man nice board" and this was right before they ran to the other block and put Jay's board on top of the hood of a parked car.  There they proceeded to take the wheels off and steal part of his board!  We stood there not knowing what to do since these skaters were older than we were.  Needless to say, Jay was without a board that day and we had learned a valuable lesson in trust, even amongst fellow skaters.  

There are just too many memories to write about, I'll save those for another entry.  But growing up, being surrounded by family all the time was great.  Having cousins there everyday to play with, or just sit in front of the apartment doing nothing with was something that can't be replaced by suburban living.  Sure we didn't live in the best part of town, but we made it that way.  It was our block and we took full advantage of the fact that we were so close, physically and in friendship and family.  

This extended to the adults in our families too, where we had family gatherings together, but they didn't see each other as much as us kids saw each other.  Maybe that's why I didn't do too well in school?  I would rush home, and either finish my homework as fast as possible so I could go out and "play" or I would wait to do my homework later that night so I could get outside and figure out what the cousins would be doing today ... would it be throwing bottle rockets from John's basement, would it be sharing one bike that we would take turns riding around the block, would it be to play on the milk crate with the bottom cut out that Michael had nailed to the telephone pole, would it be to go to someone's house and play with our GI Joes or play bingo (yes bingo!) ... it was endless.  

My childhood is one that I remember and will always remember, even when I drive by the old block, new old memories come back.  It also paved the way to keeping the bond with us cousins tight, we don't do the same things anymore, but when we do get together, we sometimes reminisce and we always new memories.  It's good to be surrounded by family, good to have them around, and I miss those days where we could just be carefree and did whatever we want without having to worry about the consequences until they actually were right in our face.  

I sometimes wonder if everyone has a 90th street growing up?  

+ mon

Free Falling

This has happened to everyone so you can't say that this hasn't happened to you.  It's when you fall asleep and then you suddenly wake up because you have that feeling of falling ... ahhh yes that feeling.

Well it's all good and dandy, and quite normal for us to have that reaction and feeling when we do fall asleep.  But it's not good when you're in public or around people in close quarters!

As usual I fell asleep on the train.  I was sitting in those two seater seats so I could lay my head on the bars without falling on the person next to me.  Had a nice sleep going and all of a sudden I had that falling down feeling, you're probably dying with anticipation as to what I did next huh? 

So sleeping there and as I was waking up from the falling down feeling, I hop in my seat, so I got about 1 or 2 inches of air off of the seat, but that wasn't the "big deal."  The big deal was when I did that, my arms kind of went and did their own thing.  I ended up throwing an elbow into the arm of the person next to me!!!

I'm just glad that it wasn't some thug or someone who was capable of kicking my (_|_).  It was some spanish guy who seemed very quiet and all. 

As I hopped in my seat with my arms going crazy, my eyes opened since I suddenly woke up.  I realized that I just hit the guy next to me so I pretended to go back to sleep!  While my eyes were open for all of two seconds, I did notice that everyone was looking at me and the guy next to me made a grunting noise as I hit him.  While I was fake sleeping I could hear him rubbing his arm on top of his jacket assuming that was where I elbowed him.  I heard people laughing as I faked sleeping again ... only to fall back asleep and almost missing my stop!

Ahhh well just another story to add to my book.  I hope that spanish guy is alright, dang it'll be awkward if I ever see him again.  I'm sure he'll remember that guy who elbowed him for no reason.

+ mon

Best Cousin Ever

I was trying to think about what I should be blogging about and I remembered the other night that I found my Junior HS yearbook, I went through it and it brought memories back ... some good and some not soo good, some funny and some that I'm going to share here!

One of my cousins just moved to NY and was fresh to the US.  I didn't hang out with Ria because she had her own set of friends, if I remember correctly they named their click the Nutty Buddies.  They were a different set of friends that I had and I was the "cool" one, so much has changed!  Even though we were in the same class, we kept our distance.

It was my final year in IS 73 and I think things were going pretty well.  Our homeroom was in the girls gym and we got to play basketball during homeroom and we were also the very few students in school that had a locker that we could keep out stuff in for the whole day.

This day came along where I opened my locker and I found a note fall out.  Not knowing what it was I picked it up with no expectation until I saw it.  My friends were around me when I picked it up and saw what I saw ... it was a white piece of paper with a lot of colors on it.  The colors coming from letters that were cut out of magazines and glued to the paper, yes you're right in picturing it like a ransom note.  That's exactly how it looked and when I first saw it without reading it I got a little scared, all these thoughts ran through my mind for the quick 2 or 3 seconds - did my family get kidnapped, am I going to be kidnapped, etc.  Then I read the letter, I can't remember exactly what it said but it was along the lines of I've been watching for you a while now and I like what I see.  See you soon, xoxo.  

The reaction of my friends were the "ooo's" and "ahhhh's" with some massaging my shoulders in the happiness that was felt amongst the guys that were around me.  

Into my bag the random love note went and we went to our next class.  The conversation for the next few hours was us trying to figure out who this girl was.  We went down the list of girls that it might be and the list of girls that I was hoping for.  

I found myself looking at this note a few times, looking for any clues on who it might be.  But no clues were left, it seemed that it was put together with the precision and the careful hands of an actual kidnapper.  

I even remember some girls who would be looking at me and this would peek my interests and wonder if that was the girl who left it in my locker.  We went through the gammit and tried to figure out who had access to the locker room in the girls gym that early in the morning.  

After all the detective work and all the speculation, the truth came out.  All that excitement, all that anticipation to meet that girl who I was going to fall in love with and live happily ever after came to a crashing hault when I found out that the person who put this all together was none other than my new cousin who had just arrived.  

Don't get it twisted, this isn't a story of cousinly love, but a horrible cruel joke!  Way to make a good first impression on your cousin who you're going to see everyday, geeze.  You don't know how fragile the heart of a 14 year old boy is until it's crushed by a practical joke that echo's through the rest of the class as they laugh when the punchline is you.  Tramatized from this experience?  Definitely!  So if you're out there reading this entry Ria, know that you could possibly be the one who is the cause of me not being married right now!  

That ransom love note could have set off a chain of events where I didn't want to talk to any girl because I didn't want to make a fool of myself.  

I joke, it was actually a really good trick that I did not see coming.  I do believe that I tried to get her back but was unsuccessful in trying.  Well I guess that means that I still have to try to get her back mmuuuhAhhaA.  I wish I had kept the random love note ... it would have been a great memory of one of the first few times my cousin tried to communicate with me!

+ mon

Jolli freakin' Bee

One of the things that I gave up for Lent was Jollibee, but I found out last year that Sunday's are not counted during Lent because they are like mini Easters, so I can have Jollibee on Sunday's but it's a good idea not to since you don't want to fall into it and want it even more.

It started out as a stop for some food, and I noticed a Jollibee in the middle of the shopping plaza.  Immediately I made a "bee" line (get it ... bee line hhAHA!) towards the front door.  They were about to close in a few minutes and there was still a good number of people there.

I got in line and noticed that there were some new things on the menu.  The thing that caught my eye was the Orange Mango pie.  Finally got to the register and I was served by Alfredo who thought I was white and tried to talk to me with the best "white" accent he could.  The lady behind me in line even said something about it being time for the English menu.  

Then I started ordering in Tagalog and he was pleasently surprised and I proceeded to order five Orange Mango pies, five Banana Lanka pies and one order of Spaghetti Joy.  I tried to order fried rice, but Alfredo said that since it was so close to closing time that they didn't have any.

I waited for a little while and then got my food.  Before I walked out the front door I took out one of the Orange Mango pies and opened the carton to take a bite.  As I was about to take a bite and I could smell the pie ... my alarm clock goes off and it was all just a dream, dammit.

Lost and Found

What do you normally do when you see money on the street and you didn't see anyone drop it?  Do you keep it, or do you take it and then donate it to some sort of charity?  I know a lot of us would answer that we'd keep it!  I'd do the same.

So the question has a little twist to it now, what would you do if you were to get into a taxi (it's a taxi where the driver owns the car, you can tell because there's no thick plastic divider) and see that right under the center console there's $10 sitting there?  

For me it gets a little complicated because you're not sure if this is a passenger that dropped the money, or if it's the driver who dropped the money.  So you start to wonder, well I started to wonder what to do.  First thought was to pick up the $10 bill discretely and use it to pay for the fair, and give the entire $10 to him.  Then I looked over to the drivers side door and there were all these $20 and $10 bill in the little compartments on the door so I figured that it must be the drivers and he just dropped it.

So the good little boy that I am, I asked him if he dropped any money under the center console.  He said he probably did because he has MS (multiple sclurosis) in his right arm and can't feel it when things are either in his hand or not.  I gave him the $10 and some post it notes that were there too.  

He was really greatful for me giving him the $10 that was on the floor and told me he'd give me a discount on the fare.  Well this opened up the conversation and he started telling me about all the celebrities he's driven around NYC and the list was long with huge names!  He did say that most celebs take the cabs to stay out of the lime light with the limo's and such.  He's also going to be writing a book called The English Speaking Taxi Driver which I think I might be interested in, he's going to include stories that he's picked up from his passengers for the past 32 years he's been driving.

So instead of me taking the free taxi ride with the $10 on the floor, it was good that I gave it to him because I got some good conversation out of it, and I also found out why he would have dropped it on the floor.  That was my good deed for the day, week.  I think I'm going to check that book out once it gets published, and he gave me a good discount on the fare too, I was giving him a tip but he refused and thanked me again for returning the $10 he unknowingly dropped.

+ mon

Running Late

A friend of mine told me this story ... and this story for security reasons will have to remain anonymous.

So the story starts off in the morning as he/she is going to work and ... ok let's give him/her a name.  Hmmm after a few IMs, I have four different names, Pauline, George, Bok and Montgomery.  I guess if you put them all together you get Paugeboky (pronounced Paw-Gee-Bok-Ee).

Alright let's start the story, so my friend Paugeboky was running late to work, really late (over an hour late) and I'll try to leave out unnecessary details to keep this short and to the point.  He gets in and sees a coworker in the elevator and some chit chat goes back and forth.  As he gets out of the elevator on their floor, they make their way past the first security door.  

With the first steps through that door he notices at the end of the hall that his boss is just arriving too.  But instead of turning towards where their offices are, the boss made a quick detour into the bathroom for a morning stop.  

Paugeboky saw this as an opporturnity!  So he left his coworker and ran as fast as he could down the hall ways and past the other offices while taking off his jacket.  Got to his office, threw his coat on the hook and sat in his chair.  Turned on his computer and grabbed his coffee mug.  Then he makes his way back up the way he just came from his coffee mug in hand ... sees his boss coming down the hall and greets them good morning!  

I think this was ingenious how he ran by his boss and picked up that coffee mug as if he'd been sitting there for at least an hour already!  Hopefully his boss didn't notice or hear someone running by the bathroom door.

+ mon

Third Bedroom

I mentioned it in the "Knocked Out" entry about how I have a few bedrooms, one is in my house, the second is the subway, the third is here - at work!

Noo I don't sleep at my desk if that's what you're thinking.  Well actually I've fallen asleep for a couple of minutes here at my desk and ended up knocking things down when I suddenly woke up, but that's not the third bedroom I'm talking about.

It actually started while I was working at another firm and I came in one day dead tired, I can't remember if it was from a lack of sleep, or I was just tired during the day.  So I needed a power nap, the only place to do it was in the men's room, yes you read that right, in the men's room.

I would sit there on the porcelain thrown and either rest my elbow on the toilet paper holder to support my head, while I closed my eyes for a few minutes, or I will put my elbows on my knees (if the toilet paper holder wasn't in the correct position), and I'd have double support for my head.  

There is a maximum time limit here, 15 minutes is borderline so you need to make your exit prior to that.  Anything more than 15 minutes and people will knock on the door asking if you're alright.  There was one time where I didn't wake up for a good 30 minutes and people were looking for me, someone knocked on the door after recognizing my shoes from under the stall walls.  They asked if I was alright and I woke up not knowing where I was and what was going on ... I had to quickly answer and I told them that I had something bad for lunch.  

So many stories of my third bedroom ... there was the time when I started to snore while taking my power nap, luckily no one I knew came in the bathroom, or at least no one knew it was me.  There was another time where there was someone that came into the stall next to me that was quite loud with his ... deposits and air from down there.  It was similar to trying to sleep next to someone who snores loud, and has some stank breath.  

There are times when I'll go to a higher floor because they have cleaner bathrooms, but I'll usually stay here somewhere close to my desk, just incase.  I actually haven't done it in a while but the option is always there!

As you're reading this, I bet you're wondering ... does he sit with his pants up or does he sit as if he's doing the deuce?  Well ... you have to sell it so you gotta go all out with the pants to the floor!

+ mon

Hyatt Discounts

There I was in my room at 1am trying to find a nicer or cheaper hotel for my Holy Week trip in April to Cali.  I was checking around and found the HYatt at Ontario Mills which seemed like a really nice place to stay.  The prices were pretty high at abotu $130 a night, but then I saw this little "guaranteed lowest rate" link on their site saying that hyatt.com will have the lowest rate online, and if it doesn't, then they will match whatever lower rate you did find and discount it another 20%.

That actually wasn't hard to find and found it using expedia.com where it was cheaper.  Called the number to get the low rate guarantee and spoke to Tori.  Gave her the details of my trip and told her where I found the lower price ... she put me on hold.  And there I sat on hold ... for about 15 minutes.  I was here wondering if this was their technique, that when you call you tell them that you found a lower rate and you want them to match it and 20% off, that they will just put you on hold for x number of minutes until you hang up or your battery dies.  Well ... my battery started to die and I had to find my charger to make sure that it didn't.  She finally came back on the line telling me that she was doing paperwork for the discount and I was correct with the 20% ... then she put me back on hold for another 10-15 minutes again!  Here I was twidling my thumbs and just waiting, at this point I thought they were changing their site to get the same price and get out of the ad they put up.  She finally comes back and takes my reservation for about $85 a night (not including taxes and fees), well that was a huge drop from the $130 a night that I originally was quoted at!  

So the lesson for this is ... do some research when booking online at hotels, cars or anything.  You can find coupons, and deals, and you can also find low rate guarantees like this!

I think part of the reason they put these guarantees up is because a lot of people are reluctant to call.  At first I didn't want to call them and ask for the discount because I thought I might be wrong, or that it might label me as a cheapskate.  But really who am I to care what they think?  And it's saving me money!

The hotel looks nice and looking forward to the trip in April.  Good to get a discount on it too ... I might actually call my car rental place to ask for a discount or a deal :)

+ mon

Juicy Stuff!

OoOoooo alright I've been blogging about anything and everything, but have purposely been avoiding a topic on here.  But ... I decided that I'll just post it anyway, it's about the whole "dating" thing especially those "online dating services."

Well this serves as a placeholder for now, I'm going to continue this in a few minutes ... just something to wet the appetites of whomever reads my blog.

+ mon

Update on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 11:47AM by MONStar

Actually ... this was really boring as I was typing it out so I'm going to get rid of this entry.

One of the Worst Feelings

This doesn't happen often but I broke a candle today as I was trying to find something on my cluttered desk.  This is actually the second time this has happened, but this time when the glass broke it went everywhere.  

My sneakers were next to the point of impact and since it's raining today I decided to wear those sneakers into work.  I thought I had cleaned everything up, all the little pieces of glass are hard to see, but then as I was getting ready I stepped on one that ended up on my slipper!  I hate the feeling of having broken glass cut you, and it's one of those pieces that are smaller than a splinter.  I was able to take it out with relative ease, but it was on the bottom of my foot, so now it's the most annoying thing ever!  With every step I take, I can feel the pain, even though on a scale of 1 to 10 it's only a 1, it's that annoying feeling of the pain with every step.  

I thought that was the end of it until I felt something poking my foot while on the subway.  After a few pokes and some pain, I realized that was some more glass that had made it's way into my sneaker which I missed.  I couldn't take off my sneaker and socks on the train so I toughed it out until I got to the office.

When I finally got to take a look, there was actually a lot of those little pieces of glass in my sneaker!  Damn this is hard to clean up, it's like cleaning out sand in your shoes when you go to the beach.  So now I'm here at work with about 3 or 4 cuts from the glass on my right foot ... gotta love it.  

Good way to start the day!

+ mon

Musical Subway Chairs

We've all been through this, or seen this where people fight to get a seat on the subway, well not fight, but sometimes we just walk faster than anyone else.  I don't think there's going to be a point to this topic but again this is just me rambling about my daily experiences.

So here we are, paying our $2.00 to get into the subway, well for that amount of money, I better get a seat!  You know about a hundred other people are thinking the same way, and especially the "older" people.

There have been so many times where I've gotten on the train, and after taking it day in and out, I kind of know where the train doors will stop so I can be the first one in, that an older lady (it's usually a lady) will try to squeeze in right next to me or even in front of me to get in that door first.  It doesn't matter if I've been standing there in the same spot for 10 minutes waiting for the train.  It doesn't even matter if there are people who are trying to get out of the train, they will stand there as if no one else exists and try to get into the train car while people are going in. 

The reason for this ... to get that most desired place on the train, the empty seat.

It's not hard to find these seat scavengers, that's right I call them seat scavengers!  They'll fight their way to the seat no matter what, whatever the cost.  Be it elbowing someone or "accidently" stepping on someone's foot, or just standing 2 inches in front of them as the train doors open.  It's survival of the fittest here.

You may think that this battle ends when you have won the seat and are sitting down, but think again!  The battle rages on even passed that, and it is no longer a physical war, but now it's a mental battle and sometimes emotions come into play as well. 

I have bared witness to many older people (again mostly ladies!) stand directly in front of you after you have been able to get a seat.  They will stand directly in front of you, almost in your lap, sometimes even with a leg in between yours, and wait ... and wait ... and wait until you are weakened by their fragile appearance and want to give your seat up to this elderly person who is swinging back and forth on this pole like a flag.

There have been instances where that person would stand in front of me and start to rub their knees or look like they are in pain, all this to get me to give my seat up.  But only the strong survive, and I have to be strong at these times.  The worst part is when there's a very attractive lady sitting next to you (only for an instant) who seems this, and sees that you're not a gentleman willing to give up their seat, then that lady gives their seat to the elderly person posing as someone in pain!  What can you do in that situation?  You can't necessarily get up and offer your seat to that lady ...

Some people who read this and are not from NYC might think that this is all a bunch of hogwash, that it's as simple as getting an empty seat or standing there, well that my friends is just false!  The battle for a seat in the subway is real and I have been on the frontlines day in and day out.

The enemies vary ... the elderly who cut you off for the seat, the elderly who stay watch as close as posslble to you and entice you with their pain and agony, the ghetto people who spread their legs as far apart as possible (maybe to keep their fat balls from sweating ... sorry that was uncalled for but this topic gets me upset!), the people who fake falling asleep while taking up more than one seat, the ones who set their bags in the seat next to them, the people with strollers who think that just because you have a stroller entitles you to have two seats, the ghetto person counting on their look to scare you away from even attempting to fit into that small space they left you to fit part of your butt. 

All these enemies come in differnt shapes and forms, but those above are the most common of them!  This is a battle that I refuse to give up on ... after all I did pay my $2.00.  If there's a seat, regardless if I'm going to race for it, squeeze into it, or wake someone up to get it, I will do what I have to do.

But the game is over when you are faced with the big boss in this game.  It's a battle that you cannot win, when you are facing the pregnant lady.  There is almost no way around this, especially if you're running after one open seat and that lady incorporates the elderly tactic of pain and close contact, how can you not give up that seat. 

I have the answer because I have done it many times before, and you might think of me as a barbarian for this and for not giving up my seat to a pregnant lady, but the secret is to not make any eye contact.  To look in the total opposte direction of this enemy combatant. 

Or you could just be nice and offer that pregnant lady your seat, and sometimes you'll get lucky and they will tell you that it's alright.  So you've come out of the situation as a gentleman and you get to keep your seat!  But remember this my friends, this does not come often, so when the day comes that this comes to you, remember it and cherish it!

+ mon