Knocked Out!

I lied, I am going to post now before I forget the topic ...

Ok ... don't deny this happening to you because you know it's happened a few times, well at least once.  So you're in the subway, and you're tired from a long day at work, or just hanging out, or it could even be the morning commute.  You also happen to be one of the lucky ones that get a seat, and you can't just help it but you close your eyes to the music of the train stations going by and the "ding dong" sound of the doors closing. 

You fall into a semi deep sleep, and you start to dream about whatever comes to mind, but it's usually something weird.  Next thing you know you wake up ... you're not sitting straight anymore, but you find yourself at a 45 degree angle almost on top of your neighbor!

Yes this has happened to you before!  Admit it ... please it'll make me feel better!

So today on the train going home, I found my seat and closed my eyes.  I knew I was going to fall asleep, as I do everyday, but I wasn't expecting what was to come.  I woke up about one stop later to a lady trying to sit down, but either I was too far over on her side, or her right butt cheek was too big and fell onto my left leg.  She squeezed in and I went back to sleep, on the right side of me were two high school girls just talking and joking around.  I drifted into dreamland and started to have some really crazy dreams, I think I actually incorporated the things the two high school girls were saying into my dream.  Then I woke up!  I woke up in the 45 degree angle towards the two girls, and to them laughing hysterically at me who was about to fall on the one sitting next to me.  I clearly remember hearing the one standing up saying ... "alright here we go here we go, watch him watch him!" ... then again "he's almost there, awwww" as I woke up. 

To add to the humiliation, I woke up with a cold spot on my chin as the drool came out of my mouth!  So as I apologized to the two girls, I had to take a slurp and quickly wipe my chin.  You'd think I would have learned from that experience ... but no, I was still 4 stops away, that's a good 5-10 minutes left, so I closed my eyes again, but this time making sure the back of my head was against the train.

Well this isn't the first time this has happened.  It seemd that the subway has become my second bedroom.  There was another time where I fell asleep on a crowded train going home, and I woke up to the sound of "if this motherf**ker touches me one more time ..." and again at the famous 45 degree angle.  I look to my left and see two girls staring at me with the most evil of eyes, as I try my best to play it off that I wasn't falling asleep on her, and that I wasn't sleeping at all, but that it was actually the train stopping and going that made my body fall in that direction! 

Ahhh yes, the infamous coverup!  Using the motion of the train to disguise that 45 sleep position ... I've done it many a times.

We can't forget about the sleeping while standing now can we?!  I haven't seen this done as much, but when you're there just standing, either against the door or just holding onto the poles, then you close your eyes for a quick second, next thing you know your knees give out from you falling asleep and you do this little jerking motion as you fall downward and quickly wake back up!  What a wonderful sight that is to see when I do that.  And of course, I try to play it off with the motion of the train, even though we could have been at a stop with the doors open. 

Well those are the quick stories that I had and I'm sure there will be more since it's not 1:30am and I'm going to be sleepy on the train again.  Onto my first bed for a few hours, then I'll be moving onto the second bed on the way to work (actually, that got me remembering that I do have a third bed ... I'll blog about that later, but the third bed is at work!).

Gotta try and stay awake on the train like this guy!

+ mon

The Return of the Red Panther

One of the reasons, well the main reason we went to Delaware this weekend was to pick up my dad's old car.  It's the 91 Camry that has been through a thing or two, at one point it was rockin' a three tone paint job!  Ahhh yes I said THREE.  Sure you've heard of the two tone paint job, but this one was the three tone, pimpin'.  The front drivers side fender was a dark blue, the passenger side door was gray and the rest of the body was maroon.

Now the way it got the multi colors is a whole different entry, but I'll give you a little tid bit.  The front fender, was caused by getting rammed twice by an SUV.  The passenger door was caused by a not so smart man who stepped on the gas when the light turned green, even though there was a car directly in front of him.

I remember when my dad had to get rid of his old car, the white Mitsubishi Galant.  It was the first car that he bought here in the US and he loved that car.  When the non profit org towed it away, he was really sad.  I think the same went when we drove this 91 Camry to Delaware to give it to my sister.

There is definitely sentimental value in it, him and my mom drove in that car a lot.  When we were about to take the car back home today, he was checking it out and opening the door.  I was a little bit aways but I told my sister that he was getting flashbacks, and old memories were coming back.  He then sat in the drivers seat and started the car.  A few minutes went by as he just sat there soaking it all in, it's just like how when we get a new car and we sit there once we had bought it or decided that we're buying it, and take a deep breath to get that "new car smell."  Well he was sitting in there and taking that deep breath to get that old car smell.  My brother in law was telling him to becareful with this and that on the car, and my dad simply replied ... "I know this car."

I told him to go ahead of me since I wasn't sure how fast he'd be driving it, and if it would even make it back to NY!  He went about 20-30 minutes ahead of me ... and I was going to catch up with him.  I was doing about 90-100 on the turnpike, really I was.  Trying to catch up with him as fast as I could just incase there was any problems.  About 45 minutes goes by and nothing!  I thought maybe I had missed him, or he went into the single rest area that I didn't check, I did stop by the other rest area to check if he was there, but to no avail.  I finally caught up to him on exit 8 and pull along side him to let him know that I was there.  He was in the slow lane going about 60-65.  So I pull up in front of him going the same speed, when we reached a rest area.  He followed me in and we parked next to each other, he got out of his car and stood there leaning on the car, sort of posing.  There was a huge smile on his face!  It was a kool-aid smiel for sure!  He didn't say anything and just smiled and I smiled back ... then he said he was hungry and went to get some food. 

My dad is very happy to have his car back, the kids had dubbed it the Red Panther.  So it's returned, and I also have memories with this car, a lot of them.  The youth also have a lot of memories with this car!  This is the car that I hit 117mph with, this is the car where I fit 9 people, this is the car where I got my first speeding ticket after cutting off an undercover cop, this is the car that you had to open the back passenger door just to open the passenger door, this is the car that we took all over the place even though people said it would never make it, this is the car that made my dad smile ear to ear. 

The Red Panther is back. 

+ mon

Ming - Portrait Paper Cutting

So as I was coming home from the city, around 10:30 tonight I ended up in the Union Square stop to catch the L train home.  Walking towards the platform and passing many street performers (a band playing upstairs, one man on the guitar on the L train platform), I noticed a crowd between the stairs heading up to the the uptown and downtown R trains.  I thought it was another performer and wasn't going to stop but then did a double take as I saw it was a man sitting on a chair.

At first I thought he was selling DVDs, but then I saw that he was selling portraits of people.  Not just the typical portraits you see, and not even the characature portraits that you see all over the city (especially Central Park).  This man, Ming ... had a black piece of paper about 4 or 5 inches square, folded it in half, then started to just cut and cut and cut. 

I was intrigued and wanted to see what he was doing, he struck up a conversation with me telling me that he can redo the guy he just did a portrait for just by his memory.  So he had the paper folded up ... and I he told me that it's $10 for the portrait and takes about 5 minutes.  Well sign me up!

He made me stand in front of him while he had that folder black sheet of paper.  He would look up at me, then cut, and the process would repeat for the next 3 or 4 minutes.  A crowd started to form, and I started to get embarassed.  He cut and cut away as we chit chatted, and he told me that he has been doing this for 50 years ... and he was 59 years old.  So you do the math and he's been doing this since he was 9 years old!  He said he learned it from his art teacher, and now he's teaching it too.  During the winter he does this in the subway, and in the spring and summer he does it on Prince + Broadway. 

I couldn't tell how the face was coming along, but then he even gave me a nice tie since I was wearing a tie from work.  We exchanged some more conversation and then he started to work on my hair.  Before you know it, he unfolds it and shows it to me and the rest of the people, there was a round of applause! 

He gave me the portrait and I was a bit surprised as I was expecting a "real life" portrait, but forgot that it was a characature portrait.  So I look fat in the portrait ... but then again, I do need to lose some weight!  He even gave me a double chin!

There was a couple after me, and I ended up staying to watch him work again.  I ended up video taping him and them for you to view below (I didn't finish the video as I ran out of memory).  Also below is a comparison to me and the portrait that he gave me.

I think this man is quite skilled and very good at what he does!  The damage was $20 total as I gave him a $10 tip for his skills.  Definitely an artist and I hope to see him again maybe with some friends and family who would also get their portrait cut out of paper!  Ming ... simply amazing what he can do with a pair of scissors and a piece of paper.  He actually teaches this ...

+ mon

INear Earphones

I hadn't tried these but then I got a free pair from the new BBerry that I got from work.  So I started to use them for listening to things throughout the day here at my desk.  At first it was a little uncomfortable, it sounded like I had my hands over my ears and could hear everything but in a muffly bassy type of way. 

I guess the only comparison I have to it is when you're underwater and you can still hear the sounds from what's going on above the water. 

Well these things go INSIDE of your ear for the most part and the little rubber bud part is replacable, they also have different sizes, which I actually switched to a smaller one since it didn't fit well with what was originally on the earphone.

As I was taking out the right earphone I noticed that it felt weird.  The thing is when you take them out of your ear, they make this sort of "popping" sound since it's almost a vacuum seal.  I looked at the earphone and saw that the rubber bud was missing ... but it didn't fall on the floor or anything.  It was still stuck in my ear!

I didn't know how to get it out, I was trying to fish it out with my fingers, but there was nothing I could grab onto where I could get a grip and take it out.  My coworker was just looking at me laughing, and I didn't want to ask him for help because I don't think he's stick his fingers in my ear.  So here I am in somewhat of panic mode, thinking this is going to fall in deeper or I might push it deeper.  I was looking for something that I could use as make shift tweezers, but nothing!  So I did the next logical thing to do ... I shook my head on the right side hoping to lossen it or move it just a little bit. 

That's exactly what happened, there was just enough movement where I was able to pinch my fingers to grab a little piece and pull it out.  For all those who were worried about me while reading this story, I'm alright! 

+ mon

Waiting for Gym Class

This was an entry that I put in my old blog (which no one read lol, and I was going to post this yesterday but it slipped my mind, so here I am posting it today).

Back in high school I remember having gym class at most twice a week. The rest of the time you have the "other" classes that just fill up your schedule, like science, math, english, and all those other classes that are just there to fill your day so you don't have idle thoughts. Having that crumpled program card in my pocket and looking at it each day, even though I knew where I was supposed to be and what class it was, then seeing that day that had gym on it. That feeling was awesome, it was a countdown until you were able to go into that gym class again.

I guess going to gym class was different from going to the park and doing things with your friends like playing basketball or baseball. Being in that gym class gave you the opportunity to show off to your fellow alumni your skills, or lack thereof. All our fellow classmates would see us in is sitting at our desks buried in a book (as we fell asleep), or doing projects with them for whatever filler class we might be attending. There was hardly any time to show those other people in the classroom what kind of athlete you were, or there was never any time to show that you weren't just some nerdy kid.

Being able to gym class and show that you are somewhat coordinated and others very well coordinated was a big thing. The circle of friends expanded just because of your abilities! Even if those new "friends" you met in gym class weren't the ones you hung out with all the time, you would now get the head nod in passing in the hallways, or if you were lucky the pound or the high fives. That was what gym class was about.

But there was only that one day or if you were lucky two days you had gym. Each day would just be another countdown until you got to wear the same clothes as the other guys and match with everyone in the PE uniform.

That's how it feels for me again. I'm back at that spot where I sit here day in and day out just waiting for the next volleyball game so I can do my thang and show my coworkers that I'm more than just a suit and tie. It's fun that way, and I like it more because you have a sense of teamwork and accomplishment, even if your team lost all three games. I would rather do that then going out for "drinks" after work.

Well here I sit, one day a week of volleyball is not enough for me. I'm going to check out a new league tonight, and possible another league. So there's a potential to be in three volleyball leagues, so that means three days of gym class ... wish I had done this when I was younger and maybe I would have been in the Olympics or something. But it's funny how you can do this stuff when you're older since you have the cash and nothing else to do.

So now I look at my program card and wait in anticipation for gym class tonight that is in 2 hours and 30 minutes. Then maybe gym class on Sunday as well ... I'm starting to like this program that I got.

Game on!

+ mon

Breaking Even

I've always considered myself someone who breaks even.  I find it very difficult to save, and the reasons always vary.  Sometimes it's because I went shopping too much, but usually it's because something happens within my life that money needs to be funneled in that direction.

This happens all the time with me, like when I work a lot of overtime and think I'm going to be able to save that money ... I don't.  The reason was because my dog needed an operation and I had to use that cash to pay for it. 

So today was another reminder of that same principle, that I always break even.  Well it's actually worse than that, it's I always break even or I end up in the red.  Pretty much getting the short end of the stick most of the time when it comes to finances.

With the last check I got, I thought I would be able to save a good amount of money, but that just wasn't the case.  I sponsored some youth for HW and that was fine, I charged most of it on my credit cards that I had previously paid off the week before.  I checked my account today and thought that a check cleared, but apparently it didn't go through yet, and the money that came out was from another charge that I wasn't aware of! 

So the story goes that I lowered my text messages on the phone to 400 a month for $5 instead of the unlimited text messaging for $20 a month because, well I figured that I wasn't that popular and people don't try to text me anymore. 

Damn did I get screwed!  For the month of Jan to Feb, the additional costs for text messages were up to $140!  Now I saw this months extra charges and it's up at $110 just for the text messages. 

That's what happens when I try to save a few bucks here and there, I get pinched someway.  In trying to lower my bill down $15 a month ... I ended up getting jacked for about $125 average monthly (so far)!  Hmmm maybe I should call and have them switch me over to the $20 plan again and see if they can remove some of those charges?

Wow, this is just craziness.  I'm going to call them now and hopefully they can help me with this since this is outrageous!

+ mon

Update on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at 5:17PM by MONStar

I LOVE YOU SARAH & TMOBILE!

I called up and explained the situation regarding the text messaging and going over by more than double.  It turns out the unlimited text plan is only $15 instead of $20 which means I was trying to save $10 and instead paying $140 extra.

Sarah said we'll put me back on the unlimited plan and they will take out the $110 charge that I have going on for this monthly overage charges. She told me that I should have called about last month before the billing cycle was done so they could have removed that $140 charge too ... oh well, lesson learned, right?

Lesson is when trying to save money, make sure you don't go over the lower plans!

So text away people, I have unlimited messages again.

+ mon

WTF to my Ears?!

So I just got back from my morning duece here in the office ... in the stall next to me comes in someone who is doing the same as I.

This isn't a problem and is usually fine, until today.  I'm used to hearing all sorts of "regular" sounds that come along with the call from nature, but today had me in disbelief.

As I concentrate on the task at hand, my neighbor positions himself ... and what do I hear?  A big splash!  At first, I thought I was hearing something and let it go, then again a big splash!  Then another big splash!  It was one right after the other.

It's as if someone was throwing rocks into the toilet from about 20 feet away!  Either that, or this person was standing on the seat and dropping his load from about 6 or 7 feet above the seat.

Seriously, it was that loud!  Splash after splash ...

+ mon

Weather!?

This past "winter" has been a bit of a let down.  There hasn't been much snow, if any at all.  The temperature has been going up and down, and sometimes it feels like spring is already here - that's how it felt at the end of last week.

Until yesterday ... we were blessed with a big amount of snow!  I guess you can tell that I do love the snow.  We've had about only one major snowstorm each year for the past few years, and it's disappointing :( I remember those days when we would have at least two or three snowstorms during the year!

These would be the times when I would be out shoveling and seeing the kids having a snowball fight, and there's just something in me that can't say no to that.  So they'll all of a sudden see a random snowball come from where I was shoveling.

I guess part of it is that it takes me back to the days when I was younger ... oh wow, when you say something like that you know that you're getting old!  But I miss those days when there was a snowday and schools were closed, well sometimes they weren't even closed, but the streets and roads were covered in just enough snow that I was able to convince my parents that it was better that I stay home that day.  During these snowdays, with nothing ever planned it would always come to a point where my cousins and I would all go outside around the same time ... after some shoveling had been done by the neighbors and there were little mountains of snow on random spots.  We would then hide behind these mounds, and the war on 90th street began!

This was never a timed war ... sometimes hours, sometimes a few minutes.  It would depend on if there was an injury on the field of battle.  The quick battles would be the result of someone getting hit in the eye or in the ear with a nicely packed snowball.  That would stop things and depend on if that person was able to recover after using the blowdrying to warm up.

Ahhh those were the days.  The days when the snow was more than a blessing, but a blessing we could play in.  Those were the days when we could play in the snow even though we couldn't feel our fingers anymore.

So with this crazy weather of being in the 50's, then a snowstorm and being in the teens, I can only hope for more snow and maybe have another battle.

+ mon