there's nothing quite like a subway system to get around... unless it's not working. construction isn't so bad since they plan for it and put up signs in advance. and i religiously check their website to see what's not running that weekend.

but it's those unexpected shutdowns that really mess you up. case and point: running to church last night, i was already on the late side, but not really. after a ten minute walk to the subway that i had used that same morning, i found it closed. no reason given, no time frame.... so i had to trek over to the next stop where i could catch another subway. (note: it was 100% humidity and in the upper 80's.) so another ten minutes to get there, and then a long wait for the train. four stops later i saw that my connection wasn't running, which is fine because there was another, but that wasn't working either. luckily there was a thrid train i could take, but it meant that i had to switch again once i got to manhattan.

so, i did manage to make it to church in the nick of time but probably only because i prayed a lot in transit. i got into my robe and on stage before the curtain went up. (a little sweaty.)sometimes i love the subway, but sometimes i'd give anything to drive (and have somewhere to park).

oh, and i went sailing this weekend. we won our first race, messed up the second race, and then i purged my lunch as we were about to start the third race! i felt better and ready to sail again, but we headed in for the day. the moral of the story: don't wolf down a greasy cheeseburger just before you sail, and for goodness sake, don't get onions on it. that's really why we had to come in... that smell! sorry, i guess i should have kept that to myself.

random info: my ups guy just brought in my business cards. yeah.

no beach this past weekend, but i did manage to throw my back out. so i've been trying to stay mostly horizontal. heck, last night i slept most of the night on the floor. if i sit too long, then i can't stand up straight, which means that i have to waddle around. it looks funny, but feels not funny at all. i blame it all on too much slouching at a workstation with poor ergonomics and a bad night on an under-inflated air mattress. actually, a nice day at the beach would be the perfect thing for my back.

In other news, my roommate should be coming home today. He was supposed to be back earlier, but they wouldn't let him back in the country. oops. we need him in america! he pays half my rent!

my car was putt-putting along just swell,
then one fine day in PA it all went to hell.
okay, after a while it wasn't all that bad,
but it got me nervous, and it made me sad.
see, it was running really rough.
was it the spark plugs, a bad tank of gas, or some other stuff?
i didn't know, so i brought it in for a look-see
but when they called me today, they said it was as fine as can be.
what the crack? i thought something was wrong with it?
aww, who cares; i got back my Altim8.
 
by Josh, the unpoet.

Maybe this blog should be called the The Weekend of Homer, since all I do is blab about what I did the past weekend.

so... This past weekend was a road trip, and it began on Thursday - whoo-hoo! I left work about 2:30ish, walked to the only parking spot I could find that morning after 40 minutes of driving around, and left the hood at 2:45. I zipped over the bridge to Manhattan, wound my way through the city to the west side highway and over the George Washington bridge. I was well into new jersey by 3:15. But the roads in jersey were pretty full and eastern Pennsylvania was jammed with road construction. At one point, two lanes of traffic just stopped for about three minutes. It wasn't too fun, but it was better than sitting on my duff at work!

I stayed at my grandpa's house... home to three people and near a dozen cats. I also saw a family of skunks on my drive in as well as a raccoon another night; there was plenty of wildlife. But the farm is beautiful, and it was great to walk around it with mom and dad and plot the future. On Friday, grandpa took me for a walk around the farm. (this means that we took his four wheel drive subaru and drove through the fields and into the woods, just hoping that we didn't hit anything or fall into anything hidden in the tall grass.)

Saturday was great. Well, bad because my car was acting up, but the Amish Byler reunion was fun. I drove up with my mom, and she went in with all the women preparing the food, which left me to head over to the cluster of men outside. I went around using the Amish handshake to say hello to all my uncles, and I met a few cousins and a bunch of second cousins that I swear I never saw before. But who can keep track, really?

so we had a lot of fun. The food was great, and the desserts were amazing, as always. We played a bunch of games of "washers" outside throughout the day, and topped off the afternoon with hand-cranked, homemade ice cream. They were all vanilla this year, but each tasted different. I LOVE the stuff. I don't think this was a full reunion, so there weren't as many people as some other years; maybe 80? I think I heard something like that.

late in the afternoon I took off with my dad to get back to the farm to pick blueberries. I try to bring a bunch home whenever I get out there. It's worth going just for them. soooooo good.

but now I'm back at work. I stayed late last night to finish something up and get it sent out, but now I ran out of work... hmmm.

what a relief! it's like i got rid of the elephant on my back. see, last week i had to share the devotional at choir practice. i had something like three weeks to worry and stress about it. even though i didn't really dwell on it much until the final week before, it always weighed heavy in the back of my head. and now that it's over, i fell like a new man... guy, whatever. you'd think that being the 'son of a preacher man' would mean i had better oratory skills. thanks for nothing, dad! aww, i'm just joshing you.

i hope to visit the beach this weekend - whoo-hoo! last saturday was a bust. it was kinda cloudy when i left the house in the morning, but down on the south shore it was completely cloudy and foggy and cold. they weren't even charging to get into the state park because no one was there. and it rained on and off all day. so i just drove around all day. a day of driving cannot not be fun, if you know what i mean. well, if you love driving like me but hardly ever get to do it. i visted port jefferson on the north shore and ate my beach lunch in my car overlooking a gigantic harbor filled with boats docked out in the middle. it was sunny by then.

I really put on the miles this weekend. here's the summary, from work friday to sunday evening:

LIC --> LAPRN --> JAM --> LI --> RMSP --> LI --> LAPRN --> NJ -->
TSC, NYC --> LAPRN --> LI --> LAPRN

so i ended up going all over the place. BUT, most of it was driving time, so i loved it.

Friday: i rode my bike home from work in Long Island City (LIC). i packed up some clothes and computer gear and caught the subway out to jamaica, queens (JAM) where i boarded a LIRR train to, where else, Long Island (Ronkonkoma, actually, but i thought you'd have a hard time saying that.) i spent the night trying to recover files from a computer before giving up and watching a movie with my cousin, yuko.

Saturday: i drove 'my precious' (ALTIM8) down to Robert Moses State Park (RMSP) and relaxed a bit. it was so nice on the beach! even though it was only 70-72, the sun was hot and the ocean breeze was perfect. i didn;t even stick my toes in the water because everyone i saw that did came back screeching in pain. the water needs some time to warm up. alas, i had to leave, to shop for me a little, and get a CD-R,R/W for the relatives. with that installed, i realized that i was really, really late. there was no time to take the train home and then a train to my friend's house for dinner. sooo, i drove! even though i stopped by my house to pick up some clothes, i made it over the Verrazano Bridge to my friend's house in New Jersey (NJ) in two hours flat. It was only 84 miles, but when the traffic wasn't moving at 80-85 MPH, it was stop-and-go, bumper-to-bumper type driving. so i had a great dinner, lost miserably at balderdash, and went to bed.

Sunday: after my morning cereal, Dalcy and I drove through the Lincoln Tunnel to Manhattan for church. that's Times Square Church (TSC) in New York City (NYC). great sermon. then i drove around town, making my way to the Williamsburg Bridge so i could stop off at home (without paying another toll). i chatted it up with Christina (C), and then took off again for Long Island (LI). I visited IKEA along the way and had the traditional plate of swedish meatballs, potatoes, and lingonberries. YUMMY. Once out at the relatives house, i redid their computer and hopped on the train back home (LAPRN) all loaded up with cookies and bars!

so did you figure out what LAPRN stands for?

i wonder how much trouble it would be to make monday part of the weekend. here's what i'm thinking, or trying to at least considering my low-energy level: why not start a petition to get mondays to be an official sleep-in day? i don't know about you, but when my weekend is over, i feel that i-need-a-vacation-from-my-vacation feeling; i'm overly tired, sunburned, sore, and without enough clean, unwrinkled clothes to go to work in. so we can't make monday just another saturday--that would be exhausting! but an official (i'm avoiding the word mandatory and its like) sleep-in day would give us a chance to recover from the weekend before going back to work. i mean, really, who can work efficiently and happily after a grueling weekend of fun? not me. my head keeps dipping low, and i forget what i'm trying to accomplish.

but you start the petition, okay? i'm too tired.

how is it possible? i've been sitting here at my desk working for something like 10 hours, but i still have 4 hours until quitting time. has time stopped? no one mentioned it to me. oh, yeah, i work all by myself. poor, josh, alone in a time warp. will he make it out? will anyone come looking for him/me? probably not if he keeps doing that annoying third-person thing.

so many less bruises this time! i just have a few, like in the knee and elbow area. and of course i'm sore now that it's over, but it's a lot of work; what did i expect? sailing. i'm talking about the sailing i did with friends over the memorial day weekend. the day was beautiful. there was a steady, strong wind that kept us moving fast. it also made big waves that kept us wet the whole time. i think we finished somewhere mid-pack in a race of 8 boats or so. but we caught and passed the folks nearest us, so that made us feel great. after the race, there was food and drink to enjoy. good times. no pics. and it didn't start raingin until we were docking, so that worked out great. it pays to pray!

It's almost the weekend! Whoo-hoo. but first, let me tell you about last weekend. I went on a choir retreat somewhere in upstate New York. all i know is that it was a two and a half hour bus ride from the city. we took two coach busses from Times Square Church, which of course were late; they had to go through security checks at the holland tunnel. Friday night, all we really did was eat and introduce ourselves to everyone with a game thing. Saturday, we ate, and ate, and ate. in between eating buffet-style meals, we played group games like three-legged race (but with three people--the middle one backwards), basketball, minefield (direct a blindfolded person around obstacles), etc. alas, the gold team didn't win the day. in the free time, i kicked around a soccer ball, shot some hoops, and played like ten games of volleyball. i also took my first spin in a golf cart. saturday night we had a giant bonfire, and small groups sang--like a talent show. During a medley of these cool african songs three girls sang, a bunch of folks danced around the fire. we joked that once the pastors heard about our pagan fire dance, we would never get another retreat again. ha, ha. sunday morning we got up early so we could board the busses at 6 am and scoot back to the city in time for church. it was a great weekend, and now i even know people's names. of course, anyone that didn't make the retreat is still basically a stranger.

so i'm looking forward to another great weekend. even though the weather is kind of cool right now, i think i'll try to get to the beach when i go out to Long Island this weekend. Monday, i'm going sailing!

have a great holiday weekend.

all i'm trying to do is stay awake. i've completely exhausted my candy stash, and it's only 2:30. oh, no.

i visited Holly this weekend to help her look at cars. i also helped her eat lots of food, browse through an outdoor art festival, swim in the pool, and lay in the sun - and i have the crispy-red skin to prove it. but back to the cars for a second. we looked at toyota, mazda, honda, and nissan on saturday. nothing interested us at toyota, but she drove a 6 over at mazda. after taking us to a deserted parking lot in the middle of nowhere, our long-finger nailed salesman gave us an agonizing tour of every minute detail of the car. the engine was great, the hatchback was even better, but the seats sucked big time and mazda's zoom-zoom was too masculine for holly. She did love the small SUV over at honda, the CR-V. and since she'd already seen her friends' accords, we skipped that one. and then the nissan atlima was our final drive of the day. with the weekend over now, i think she has narrowed it down to the accord or the altima. both are very similar, so it will probably all depend on if nissan can get her the configuration she wants at a price at least competitive with the accord.

so i was supposed to come home early last night. when it got toward boarding time, they announced that it would be delayed for over an hour. then they cancelled the flight altogether. the weather was fine in raleigh and in new york, so i guess it was horrible somewhere between the two places. so i had to crawl out of bed at 4 this morning to make my 6:40 flight. i could have made it to work on time, but i didn't have my work keys on me, so i went home first. an hour late to work isn't so bad. i'm pretty bored anyway.

During choir practice last night, my senior pastor breezed in and told us that the choir is going to Zambia in October. I just looked it up at the CIA's web page, of all places; It's a land-locked country in southern Africa. Wow, that should be exciting. I've never been to Africa before.

And my boss is out today; his wife is having their baby today! they were going to do it tonight or tomorrow morning, but i guess they moved it up. I wonder what they are going to name the little guy...

Two great things about this weekend: it was really fun, and it was all basically cheap/free, unlike the past week of spending. Thursday night was the last F+F. (F+F = "friends 'n friends" or "friends on friends") But it was all a rush, so we just got pizza.

On friday, i rode my bike from work to meet rebecca for tennis. it was my first time riding over the Queensborough Bridge. well, the first time on the ped/bike path. i rode on the street part last year during the Bike NY Five Boro Bike Tour when they closed it to traffic for us. anyway, i went over the bridge, through central park, over to the upper west side, and up riverside park. that was a workout in itself. i got a court for us at the 119th street hard courts since i had no luck at the clay courts at 96th street. our first round of tennis went pretty well, but i really need to learn how to serve. afterwards, we walked to rebecca's place, since it was nearby, where she made me dinner. and since it got so late, i took my bike home on the subway. i think i had enough exercise for one day.

plus, i had to get up early the next morning. a friend from choir had invited me to go hiking upstate with some of his friends. we met at Grand Central at 8:15 am. sooo tired. it was a beautiful hike. none of the forecasted rain showed up. in fact, it was mostly sunny and cool, just perfect for hiking. i actually got some sunburn across my face and the back of my neck. yes, redneck. anyway, it was nice to meet some new people. Arno and i were friends of dalcy, and then there were dalcy's housemates andy and nathan. nathan brought his friend joanna who brought here friend bill. so how many degrees of separation are there between bill and me? one funny thing, though. through conversation, we discovered that nathan and i worked in the same office last summer on the MTA Second Avenue Subway Project; he as engineer and me as an architect. this is where you start singing "it's a small world after all...." at one spot on the "mountain" you could see the skyscrapers in manhattan. that was simply amazing. i'll try to post a few pics soon on my webpage.

and then yesterday (i know this is really long, but i'm almost done. besides, i'm just plotting out drawings right now, so i have time to blab.) between church services i biked down to prospect park in brooklyn for Christina's birthday picnic. another beautiful day outdoors. we had all kinds of food and snacks, and i got to see some folks that i hadn't for a while.

sounds like a fun weekend, right? what did you do? i told you my story....

I'm back from blogger vacation. i feel refreshed and invigorated, thank you. so let's just jump right back in it.

My bosses broke up. I now work for just one architect, not two, so things are a little strange at work. plus, the boss that stayed will be very distracted when his first child is born some time this or next week. i'm not sure if this will give me more responsibility and opportunity at work, or if i will just be struggling to stay busy.

a bunch of us surprised my friend C for her birthday, albeit one week early. some of her friends came from out of town, and we all went out for a three and a half hour dinner to celebrate. guess what we had... sushi. it was my first time, and so everyone said it was funny that i was having my first taste at such a nice place. it had better be good! it was the most expensive meal i've ever paid for; our party of eleven averaged near 70 per head.

but it didn't seem too expensive. that's probably because i had already spent a fortune that day. i went with my friend rebecca to get a tennis permit. a hundred bucks will let you play on any public court in the five boroughs from april through november. so we just have to play a lot to make it worth our while. Permit in hand, we went out and bought tennis racquets. so i think i may have to eat raman for the next month or two; the money is just flowing out of me.

oh, yeah, i think i'll be spending more moolah this week. the lease is supposed to be drawn up for our new apartment, so that means i'll be losing another chunk. heck, that's more like a load. (note: to see a picture of the outside of the new apt build, see the "lookie" section on my homepage.)

anyway, all this money talk has gotten me depressed. oh, but i have good news too. i'm going to visit holly next weekend to help her look at cars. woo-hoo. it's a lot more fun to help spend someone else's money.

conclusion: i guess maybe this blog is tracy's opposite. should i title it "the journey FROM frugality"?

It had been raining all last week; it was cold and miserable. now, suddenly, it seems to be late summer. My office thermometer says that it is 86.7 degrees in here. other signs that it's summer: i'm riding my bike to work again, LAPRN (my neighborhood) is really noisy, and we hear the mr. softee song all day long, at work and at home.