25.11.05

tofurkey day

Now that I've moved out of my parents' house, I've joined the world of those who travel to visit their families for Thanksgiving. I cut out of work at 5:30 on Wednesday and rushed up to Penn Station, only to wait around for an hour for the train to arrive. Luckily, I had the fabulous company of one VReing for the wait and the ride.

And what a ride it was.

We squirmed our way to the head of the mob to get onto the train (the Penn Station staff really shouldn't complain about people's inability to form a line when they don't encourage one with those seatbelt-y divider things), and found two seats next to each other.

Ah, the Acela. Cleaner and faster than all the other Amtrak trains. What luxury! Altho, apparently, the bathroom was gross. I bet it still was better than the non-Acela bathrooms, and the ones on the bus, but I can't say I minded never having to find out for myself.

Anyhoo, the biggest challenge of the ride was staying awake for the whole thing. Work is hard; even a 3-day workweek wears me out. So I was just about to doze off somewhere between New London and Providence, when the train came to a halt. Once I figured out that we were nowhere near Broadway/Lafayette, I began to wonder what was wrong. But no worry! An announcement came over the PA just then, informing us that they were working on getting power back to the train. Soon, another announcement! (we're so popular, us train passengers) This time: The next power grid is fine, but the current one still has no power, and we'll let you know what we know in 15 minutes. Half an hour later... Guess what! You get two trains for the price of one! They had failed to get the power back to the wires, but another train was on the way (the one that left an hour after we did), and would pick us up.

Soon, sure enough, the next train pulled up next to us, as full as ours (over 75%). It was a harrowing journey, involving a plank and a bridge guard bearing the warning, "Only one person on the plank at a time, please." Luckily, she didn't quiz us on things like our favorite color before we could pass.

As the passengers on the quiet car (oops), we got to get on the new train first! So VReing and I and our new-found across-the-table grad-student friends found a spot with three stools and one leaning spot in the cafe car--four of the best seats left on the new train.

Train v. 2.0 was full of interesting characters, all of whom had come from Train v. 1.0 like we did. It featured:

-Drunk Guy with a Boston Accent (DGBA): double-fisting when we met him, DGBA had been imbibing since 6pm (it was now 10:45) and was slurring the hell out of his speech. Amusing, but easily angered. Finished two beers and two wines during the brief time we were perched/leaning near him.

-Smoking Man (SM): put out the cigarrette after the announcement stating that anyone caught lighting up would be kicked off of the train, causing further delays.

-Adorable Love Connection (ALC): were having the most boring conversation ever (he describing brain function and she detailing her stint of jury duty), and totally loving it. Were smitten with each other. So cute.


At long last, we arrived, in time to go home and basically crash. Everybody's ride home from the station had been waiting around as long as we had, as many had left to pick us up before we stopped in the first place. Ah, the holidays.


In other news, I've been Googled! And MSN'd! 3 Google searches and 4 MSN searches have returned this very blog as a result. Most awesome keywords: foedal and ooh. Yes, I know I misspelled foetal. I was angry about politics or something. Also, the previous links are to Google searches, when those words found my blog through MSN searches. But the former when Googled also returns me. Found by a misspelled Internet search keyword... how embarrassing!

16.11.05

The Onion Almost as Good as Sex, Says Exiting Employee

We had yet another going away party at the office the other day. I mean, only the second since I started... One might think that our office parties would be different from the norm. One would be wrong. Mostly. But, I'll never pass up free cake. It's like that Seinfeld episode, where Elaine eats that thousand-year-old cake. In his farewell speech, the latest deserter alluded to working for the Onion nearly measuring up to some kind of unmentionable situation.

My office also features:

Writers!
Often mistaken for loafing slackers, these people appear to roam the office looking for things to do, while really producing all of that funny stuff you read on the site or in the paper (you should really read it on the site rather than in the paper tho. The site is way cooler. Mostly because that's the part I work with).

Ping-Pong!
Well, a ping-pong table. I hear it is used. Sometimes for actual ping-pong! Sometimes for Beirut. I've seen neither so far.

Improv Comedy!
Weird rehearsals... I'm sure the shows are great, but I don't tend to get out of work in time to see them.

Parties!
Ok, these tend to be at bars. Fun nonetheless, especially when they involve free beer and latkes.

iTunes!
Werd to ethernet music-sharing. The whole staff has pretty awesome selections. Except when iTunes wants passwords for purchased music. Grr.

Dogs!
... maybe. I haven't seen any yet, but if a bring-your-dog-to-work lobby forms, I'll totally join.

Beer!
Again something I haven't actually seen, but there are definitely cans in the fridge, and once I saw an empty Pabst can. Apparently nobody really cracks anything until after 6pm or so. Besides tasty soda from Joe's Cold Beverages of course.

Joe's Cold Beverages!
Cheapest snacks you'll ever find in SoHo. More hot beverages than cold, and such items as candy and chapstick.


All in all, definitely the "non-corporate work environment" advertised in some job postings on their site.

13.11.05

Hey aerob, why haven't you blogged in forever?

New jobs are hard. Like, way hard. Sometimes they don't get easier all that quick. I work really hard. And I work a lot.

And, when I get home, the last thing I want to do is go back onto a computer.

But after a nice long weekend (we, unlike most of the world, got Veteran's Day off... but not Martin Luther King day), I can once again bear to look at my laptop. Good thing, because my desktop is not in the same room as the TV and, therefore, 'Friends' on DVD.

This weekend saw many marvelous adventures! We could have an entire montage scene based on it!

First, on Thursday night, we vegged out in front of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (with Jonny Depp), including the awesome Dance Video in the extras (Didn't that seem rather... choreographed?). Friday saw more vegging. I guess the whole weekend involved much vegging. But, when vegging, there is always much sliding down the hallway in socks also. At least, in the winter, when I wear socks, there is sliding.

Friday night started out as an awesome women and Ben's night out in the Lower East Side (LES). Off we went on a grand trip to the Boar's Head Tavern, sight of many a fun night out previously. We got free shots, all we had to give the bar was our email addresses (hey, what is gmail for, anyway?)! So Bsom and Jhoff wussed out when it was only like 1am (I was thinking there that 1am would sound really late, so the phrase "only like 1am" would be humorous, yet in my head 1am really does sound early). That's when the real fun started.

And by real fun, I mean a dude old enough to be our father (turned out he *has* daughters our age) struck up a conversation with us. So we go into bullshit mode, aiming for interesting conversation and possibly a free drink from Mr. "I got rich off of the Stock Market, lalala." Unfortunately, he was far more interested in getting my attention by putting his hand on my leg, especially while I was talking to some other dude about his fancy cell phone ("And I don't care... if your cell phone... has a qwerty keyboard... But at least you are... not ske-etchy..."). So TMQ and I went to the bathroom. In retrospect, this was a bad idea, because it left KPd alone with Mr. Sketch. I return upon getting an sos text message from KPd, to find super-sketchy-old-dude touching her hair. So I yelled at him, and he left. It was way cool. I mean, guys being sketchy sucks. But this made it cooler to regulate his ass. Dudes need to stop assuming they can do shit like assuming they can touch women they don't even know. Rarr.

Saturday night was much better, and way more dance-tastic. We went to a hipster bar, also in the LES, and danced out pants off. The bouncer was 'hawked, the tunes were kickin', and the crowd was way trendy. And we fit right in! Mostly because we rawk, and are sweet-as dancers. It was a blast and a half. And we left before 3! We could have gone to the Panty Party (apparently a way hip thing to get into), but were exhausted.

Today, we slept in again, as per usual. Then we went to Bay Ridge (home of all the Norwegians!) and checked out the pier. There was fishing, and biking, and skateboarding, and even some scooting! And a great view of both Manhattan and the Verazano Narrows Bridge. Didn't really find any of those Norwegians tho... But we did find an awesome home-style restaurang/ice cream parlor! Like Friendly's, but without the chain-restaurant-ness or the slow service. Only they screwed up my order... whatevs.

Upon arriving home, we watched Shaun of the Dead, which is awesome. Then more 'Friends.' Then I blogged!

Adios, for now.