catching up

Forgive my blog dereliction; it was a busy week in New York. Right now, I’m waiting for the shuttle to JFK in the empty hotel bar, and for some reason I’m really sleepy. New York City was fun for me. I ended up meeting up with Ben’s brother Dave, end was able to kill time with him these past couple nights.

Tuesday night we crashed a work party atop a skyscraper, with an awesome view of the city on all sides and free cocktails and hors devours; ate some fat, fat steaks in a restaurant which bled “old New York;” and ended the evening at a downtown dive called The Happy Ending for a party called “ShitHamerred.” (I don’t really know if it was one word, but it looks better that way to me). The party was drunkenly good, and I ended up catching a cab back to the hotel for a 4am bedtime. Needless to say the next day on the conference floor started a bit rocky, but I maintained. Wednesday I caught the trains over to Williamsburg and we met up for dinner and a stop at the very cool Barcade. Having someone to hang out with really makes traveling more enjoyable. So, New York was fun – we’ve established that; but I’m glad to be leaving… to be going back home and “rooting” again for a while.

At the airport, I broke down and got something to eat, since I hadn’t had the opportunity earlier in the day. For some reason, the golden arches of McDonald’s were extremely appealing, and I got a Big Mac meal. Now, I probably haven’t been to a McDonalds in nearly a year – in fact the last time I can remember was when I was driving from Houston to Killeen to visit my brother at Fort Hood. But, in high school – I took full advantage of the .99 cent Big Macs. I can remember eating them with Andy, I think. Anyway, the Big Mac was OK, but it’s not he point of my story. I wanted to talk about where I ate the Big Mac.

Being that I’m doing this trip solo, I’ve done quite a bit of “table for one” dining – and my Big Mac meal was no exception. I sat down alone at an area of tables which was somewhat removed from the rest of the food court, and proceeded to fill the non Big Mac containing side of my Big Mac box with ketchup for my fries. Not long after I’d sat down, a few Transportation Security Agency employees converged on the other tables near me. Now, I forget, and I know that’s bad, but I forget if the TSA is a new, post-9/11 thing, or if it was around prior – but I guess that’s immaterial. The whole reason for writing this is to get to the point that, if these are the people who are securing our travel… oh boy. I mean, these were kids, and their conversations cracked me up. “Shit dogg, you was so drunk last night.” “I know homie, when I got home my baby-mama was giving me a bunch of shit and I be all like ‘You da one who birfed all dem damn kids, why you gotta be fuckin’ wit me?’” “Awww hells playa, you done told it straight!” “I’m still fucked up right now I think.” “Hell yeah you be lookin’ all to’ up.”

Great, we’ve got the “interlude players” from Doggystyle protecting our airports.

On the plane again. United’s “preferred service” routes between NY and CA, with AC outlets for every seat. So, I can run my laptop the whole time – listening to music, writing, and so far on this trip: working. Yeah, I decided to do a mass e-mail attack and conquer my travel-bloated inbox. Believe it or not, it’s an extremely rewarding thing to do, I get a great sense of accomplishment from taking it from 300+ mails down to 20-something.

So I’ve already said how much I love this Architecture in Helsinki album, but good lord folks – it’s just not getting old to me. My latest love is this track, which, to me, is impossible not to love. The start-stop composition and catchy tune make it loveable enough, but it’s the rolling-drum-backed power-tool-to-scream crescendo that sealed the deal for me. Six months in and I don’t mind saying that this one is in the lead for the laurels in my mind. I have no idea what it’s about, the lyrics are as cryptic as the title, but it doesn’t matter.

Weekend, I’m out.

Also written on this day...

• RV: the best kind of V - 2011
• t-minus fourteen days - 2010
• the angles are all wrong - 2009
• all ugly bruise-yellow - 2008
• four paragraphs and i've said nothing - 2004