today is the last day of november, the month that produces the best human specimens. and while some snow flurries did fly on thanksgiving, it's been in the 60s the last three days. i LOVE global warming.

so now i am 2x2x7 and definitely feeling old age creeping in. or maybe it's just that i played football twice over the holiday weekend. i've got bruises, aches, and (even though i really do go the gym all the time) lots of sore muscles. and lots of very muddy clothes. now i have to figure how to get the mud off my shoes. buy new ones? :)

i hope you're not done buying me christmas presents... because i could use extra presents this year. no reason really, but more gifts is better than less gifts, right? that, and the fact that the post office lost/didn't forward/stole two of my birthday presents. those bass dass-turds!

today is tuesday. but because the holiday means a three-day work week, today is hump day. So today is kinda like wednesday. but since tomorrow is the last day of the work week, you could think of today as thursday. so have a good tue/wed/thu today.

Happy Thanksgiving... you. This year be thankful for what you have and for what you don't have. But don't just be thankful come thursday. I don't know about you, but i have sooo much to be thankful for that ONE day of thanks just doesn't cut it. So what do you say we expand the holiday into a week of thanksgiving? Seems more appropriate, right? okay, then, i guess we can't go to work any more this week, because now the entire week is a holiday. Thanks!

...if only life worked this way.

you missed my birthday, punk!
i just wanted to say that. of course i forgive you... because i probably missed yours too. ha, ha! It was a great day of church, brunch in greenwich village/tribeca, shopping with other people's money (thanks Reb +C!), chocolate bar, more church, country style rigatoni by C, some TV and reading in bed. you really wanted the play by play, right?

you really should get a day off work for your birthday. it only seems fair. but thanksgiving is very soon, so that will have to do.

as you can see, i have nothing to write about, but there are some complainers out there who get agitated if you don't have a new post every time they visit. yes, i'm talking about you.

i'm been trying to put together a christmas list so my family has some ideas when they go shopping. i've thought of lots of stuff that i'd like to have, and even a few things people might be able to afford, but then i thought of my own finances. not so hot, i can tell you. so this year i'm thinking that everyone can pick their favorite utility and foot the bill for a month. exciting right? you could give me hot water for my showers! or maybe a month of phone calls! it'll be the bestest christmas ever!

...i'm kidding of course. i don't take showers. i mean, it's not so bad. what do YOU want for christmas?

today was one of those days where all you want to do is crawl back in bed. i don't know if it's plain weariness or just a foreboding that the day is going to suck, but the "call of the bed" is usually right; you would be better off spending the day between the sheets.

for our weather today, hurricane wilma decided to make friends with tropical storm alpha (or something like that). To really have fun they teamed up with some other system from the midwest to create a triple-whammy brouhaha. but, okay, wind and rain aren't so bad.

Today was also one of those "see how many people we can squeeze onto the subway" days. the platform was already packed when i got there, and there was a long wait just for a train to arrive. but of course most of us couldn't squeeze onto that one. No biggie because a slow train usually causes a log-jam, so there's trains right behind it. but, lucky me, not today. so i positioned myself strategically to be near the train doors to get onto the next one. the price to pay to get onto the train was that i had to be smashed up against like five other bodies. it's like getting molested in a socially acceptable way.

but i got to work only ten minutes late. i took off my jacket and saw that i never put on a belt this morning, so now i feel like a moron... a late moron who can't dress himself and got molested on the way to work. unless someone stole my belt as we were pressed up against each other on the subway. this IS new york after all.

on a bright note, i dragged my lazy self to the gym this morning. after my workout i sat in the sauna. the sauna makes everything better!

i'm a junkie looking for a fix.

without really realizing why, i keep opening my desk drawers. once in a while i'll rifle through my bag. there's got to be something around here... a piece of gum or a mint... anything! i'm freaking out. i need candy, or maybe chocolate! can i really make it the rest of the work day without satisfying my craving? it's only another hour or so, but... AHHHHH!

i'm pathetic. but you still love me.

today was a good car day. On my taxi ride from my job site (a fashion trade show) i saw a Lotus Elise. and earlier in the day my taxi was following a Lamborghini Mercielago. sweet like aunt jemima! (thiking about this, i realize it was a Lamborgihini Gallardo. still nice!)

I ran an errand this morning before work that involved driving into manhattan. as i was waiting to be helped, i looked outside and noticed a NYPD tow truck parking in front of my car. then i realized he wasn't parking... he was looking to tow me! as he was maneuvering into place, i nonchalantly walked over, unlocked the car, and got in as if to drive away. thankfully, the tow truck driver gave up and drove off. whew! God was watching out for me! i even made it to work on time after driving back to Brooklyn.

tomorrow the car goes back to its home on long island. summer is over, and with it the weekend drives to the beach. it's sad, but at least i don't have to deal with moving the car four times a week for street cleaning.

Happy Birthday Holly! . . . . . .

I'm going to be singing on an aircraft carrier on sunday. sound interesting? well, i should clarify: i'm singing with my church choir on board the Intrepid Air, Sea & Space Museum, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, as part of a service to honor the military. they plan to tape the singing & speaking and send out thousands of DVDs to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

first i must get over this cold. today i've moved into phase three, at least by my count. Phase one: sore throat. Phase two: sneezing and oozing. Phase three: coughing. but since i don't know how many phases there are, i'm not sure how well i'm doing. hopefully phase four is back to full health.

I'm going to visit the land of cheese the end of next week. i can't wait to have a bratwurst! hopefully it won't be snowing there yet.

i'm having lunch right now: an entire stick of big red gum. yummmmm. last night for dinner i had mango juice. Before that was a lot of water. i'm 39 hours into a 3-day fast, so i only have... 33 hours to go. whoo-hoo! fasting isn't easy, but i guess that's the point right? I rely and take so much pleasure in food when i should be looking to God to sustain me. i'm getting it.

My church is holding the three day fast and hosting services every night. join us?

I'm going to visit the great land o' cheese this month, probably the weekend of the 24th. (I guess i should ask off of work before i start making plans though.) a little vacation will be nice. And since i'm 'christmasing' in north carolina this year, i'd better visit sheboygan at least once this year. B+T, will you be in town that weekend? will you eat taco pizza with me? New York has more pizza joints than sheboygan has bars and churches but it seems no one offers taco pizza.

okay, i can't take this talk about food.

after many failed attempts at creating a username so i could leave a comment on a blog site, i came up with a new one: SHASTUN, which stands for Someone Has Already Selected This UserName. that's what they kept flashing at me in big red letters, so i thought... okay, works for me! now don't steal this from me... make up your own dorky name.

tuesday, but just like monday...........................................................................................

i'm always a little sad to go back to work after a vacation day. you know how it is, right? i miss all the free time, and i wish i had done more with that free time. I should have gone on a big bike ride on Labor Day, or maybe spent some time in the park... picnic? instead i did some architecture and watched a CSI marathon, and then switched the channel to US open tennis. I did manage to leave the house though. I tried to no avail to make use of the last day of tax free week at Macy's, but my heart just wasn't into shopping. and i'm so broke that i couldn't make myself part with any money. So i went deep into brooklyn for dinner and a movie at a friends house (meaning free). we watched "open water," the movie about a couple who get left out in shark-infested waters while scuba diving. Thankfully i didn't meet any of those sharks while i was at the beach on saturday.

i'm so sad. ............................................................................................................................

i'm going to miss the sixth annual edition of BADCALFF, or Brent and Dales Cheap-Ass Labor day Film Festival. you may dismiss it as too lowbrow for a film festival, but it's a lot of fun. the gist of it is this: after a pot luck barbeque at Dale's house, everyone heads over to the local dollar theater where, other than a scheduled dinner break, you basically watch 5 or 6 movies all in a row, moving from screen to screen. this is easily accomplished because Dale has called the theater weeks in advance, gotten the movie schedule, and planned out the entire day's itinerary. you just buy all the movie tickets when you arrive and you're set for the day. some are the movies you saw earlier in the year but want to see again, some are movies you missed in the first-run theaters, and the rest are the movies you either kinda wanted to see but refused to pay good money for or were too embarressed to admit to wanting to see them.

i've only been able to go to one festival, but it was enough to make me sad that i'm unable to go this year. maybe next year?

it was one of the best beach days this past saturday. hot sun, cool breeze, warm water; what could be better? after i'd had enough, i went cell phone shopping with my cousin "yuko." we checked out the various providers and pondered which cell phones we liked. in case you're curious, we determined the deal at t-mobile was superior to those at cingular or verizon. (i forbid shopping at sprint.) the Motorola V330 we chose takes pictures and video and has blue-tooth capabilities, although none of that really was the draw. It simply wasn't big and ugly like most everything else we saw. i was shocked at the crappy phone selection; i thought technology and design was supposed to get better, not worse. (brent, i saw the phone you got. very nice! not as small as i thought though. it must be all those features.)

yesterday was good church. Our pastor was back from his 5-week vacation. i WANT one of those!