guess what came in the mail yesterday? (well, via DHL actually.) my new monitor! ain't it a beaut? i've been looking to replace my CRT monitor for a while now, but it was never something i needed to do.

when i found this deal listed on firingsquad.com, i saw it as my opportunity. dell had the monitor on sale, and the site above gave me a coupon for additional money off. and there was free shipping... it all came together!

i don't know what to do with all my newfound desk space!

(update: the price has dropped again! you should buy one!)

3:12 pm
boredom has set in.
brain is in hibernation mode.
eyes want to shut.
head has become suddenly heavy.
...and it's only tuesday.

today is a slow day at work. no big deal, right? i'm good at making up projects, thinking of things i can do, or otherwise entertaining myself. the problem is that it's 70 degrees outside. i don't like the fact that i can't enjoy the beautiful day even though i'm not really accomplishing anything in the office. well, at least i thought of an errand i could run that got me outside a little bit.

sorry for the whining.

Sorry, but I'm a little slow in getting back to normal after my journey to Argentina. Besides an extended return trip, I had a few late nights at work, a cold, a surge of spring allergies, and an overall desire to be lazy. I've been spending most of my time unpacking and posting pictures from the trip (about halfway done).

Argentina was amazing. It was such a busy trip that I can't seem to summarize it. There's just too many details and stories to tell. Another problem is that I'm the contemplative type; I prefer to mull things over and ponder before coming to any conclusions. This is why I often answer questions with an "I don't know" or "whatever" or the like. or maybe i'm just slow in the head or kinda dim-witted (or lazy). think of me what you like; I can take it. anyway, i'll have to write about argentina later, probably in small chunks over time. but it was a great trip.

I will, however, tell about the trip home. aye! Getting home involved a 3.5 hour bus ride from Rosario to Buenos Aires, and then a direct flight to JFK, about 11 hours overnight. BUT, my bus driver decided to take a different route and even run a personal errand involving a pitstop in an out-of-the-way town with lots of traffic. Add in traffic and road construction and we had a 5.5 hour bus drive. We pulled into the terminal about 7:30 for our 8:20 international flight. so , yeah, we missed that flight. too close. flight is closed.

Lots of waiting, announcements, general confusion, list making, baggage assignments and baggage hauling later, the 30 of us left behind are at the booking counter while our travel coordinator Sarah figures something out for us. We're told something about getting onto a flight leaving soon for Dallas Texas. okay, it's somewhere in the USofA... we'll take it. But I think it ended up being too soon, because that came and went without any movement on our part. The booking counter is right next to the check-in counter, but there seems to be a lack of communication between them. When we finally get tickets handed to us, it's for a flight to Miami leaving soon after. (I noted that this was funny since I had been shuttled there after missing a connection on another missions trip.)

Yeah! we're USA bound. It's all going to work out! We grab all our luggage and carts of multimedia equipment that we have to check with us and head to the adjacent check-in counter. Person #1 is checking in... excellent: I begin check-in... I answer security questions, proceed to the next counter... wait, stop everybody; the flight is closed. It's too late, they say. All the young people working the check-in counter grab their bookbags (sitting ready in a pile) and go home. AHHH! what the heck?

Our travel coordinators collect passports and work for a while with the booking agents while the rest of us chill out and eat various snacks that didn't get consumed during the week. it's a great time, really, considering that we have no idea how or when we are going to get home. Some of the group even shop the airport souvenir shops. When we finally see tickets in the hands of our 'leaders', they don't want to tell us what's going on right away.

That Miami flight was the last flight for the day for our airline (AA). So we load up the luggage again and cross the terminal to a baggage storage room. We separate out stuff we need to last the night and store the rest. After some more confusion and waiting around, we're told that we're hopping into ten taxis that are waiting outside and driving to a hotel 30 miles away where we'll stay the night and have dinner. Whoo-hoo!they could have easily had us stay at the airport all night, like those 7 and 9 hour layovers on the Zambia trip.

Somebody brought us various empanadas and water (sin gas and con gas) for dinner at the hotel, and we crashed in our cheesy 50's style hotel rooms. but a two star hotel is so much better than a bench at the airport! We had hot showers, bouncy beds, and a nice continental breakfast in the morning. Taking no risks this time, we were told we would be leaving for the airport at 3 pm, well in advance of our evening flights. And lunch would be provided at the hotel.

So we had the morning to see Buenos Aires. Free hotel, food, and transportation, unlike the rest of the folks who had to pay to see the city (the ones who actually made it on the flight the day before.) I took a taxi with some of the group to see the main government buildings and cathedral downtown. We saw some sights and shopped some shops. My group by chance met up with a few other groups from our crew at an ice cream shop. ha, ha. same thing happened all the time all week in Rosario.

Anyway, lunch was surprisingly very good at the hotel, and we made it to the airport extra early. We had plenty of time to spend all our pesos at the airport shops. All 29 of us got on our flights... four different flights, actually, and 6 or 7 people made it from the standby list.

My crew of 5 was in charge of all the multimedia bags, 21 extra bags/boxes/crates of video equipment. It involved lots of carrying and carting stuff around... overall, a big hassle, but what choice did we have? Well, when we checked in for our flight, we were told that once in Miami, we had to claim our luggage, go through customs, check it all back in again, and go back through the security line... all in a layover of about 75 minutes. :) as you can guess, we missed that next flight too.

At this point, we're all pretty whippy. My crew of 5 has been joined by a group of 3 from an earlier flight. We're overtired and overtravelled and pretty cynical about everything. We have a lot of good laughs about missing our third flight and hauling all this stuff around with us and other jokes that were really funny in the moment. We're just going with it; whatever happens is okay with us. At least we're in America now. We can speak English and use cell phones!

After recovering some bags that were missing for a while (they shut off the carousel before all the bags had come out!) we got tickets onto a later flight into Laguardia airport instead of JFK. Whatever... close enough at this point. All of us make it to New York, and so do all the bags. We hire a helper and a bus back to church. the end. sorry, i'm too pooped to write a conclusion, but i'm sure you've had enough as well. I'm still recovering.

so i'm off to Argentina tonight. all that packing and shopping is finally over and done. maybe now i can get some sleep... hopefully on the plane.

i tend to be an overpacker. my aim is to plan for any plausible situation and to then pack the corresponding clothes, shoes, medicine, snack, gadget, entertainment, toiletry item, etc. that may be required. this leaves me with a big pile of stuff to bring with me. that's why 2 am last night found me going through piles covering my entire bedroom trying to figure ut what i actually needed....

uh oh, gotta go. finish this when i get back?

it's snowing in New York City! well, more sleet than anything. The best part is that it had to warm up in order to snow, so that's a plus.

On my way to work on Tuesday i saw that the farmer's market in Union Square was running, which was weird because it only operates on M/W/F/Sat. Well, whatever. But when i went over at lunch to pick up a snack (i'm addicted to these Amish/Mennonite pretzels), i saw that the market was just a movie set. The security had a heck of a time convincing people that they couldn't go in and shop because the market was full of people buying stuff (movie extras), and it looked like all the usual vendors were there.

It's too bad because i really wanted those pretzels.

c... can't... stay... awak...e....... and i'm only 7 minues into office hours at work. how am i going to last the day out? too much late night autocad. i WILL go to bed early tonight. i keep saying it, but tonight's the night. maybe...

i have momentous news! instead of buying something at the Barney's Warehouse Sale today, i paid off one of my student loans! granted, it was the smallest one, but it's gone forever. i got my federal tax return back yesterday and i saw that i only had about $500 left on the loan, so i thought, why not? thanks mom and dad for your help.

over the weekend, new york city got it's biggest snow storm ever: 27" of snow! did i get out of work? church? did the schools close? NO. everything still happened because the subways never stop. No snow days for the kids here, but i guess they make up for it with all their religious holidays. church on sunday was pretty empty, but a lot of people came despite the fact that the blizzard was still happening until the afternoon. it was kinda funny to see times square in a blizzard and to walk in the street to avoid the snow.

i wish i hadn't missed the strangest part of the storm. My friends at church said that there were thunder and lightning during the blizzard. No one had ever seen that before, including my pastor from canada.

This week and next is restaurant week, and i took advantage of it monday night with some friends. the idea of restaurant week is that you get a chance to try out some of new york's pricey restaurants with a three-course, fixed-price lunch($20) or dinner($35). That's usually much cheaper than you'd normally pay, and you still get to choose among three items for each course. The 10 of us tried out a sushi place in greenwich village (sort of). the food was pretty good, and dinner with friends is always fun, but it wasn't the best meal i've had. it was, however, one of the pricier ones. and i was stuffed.

and that was the last food i ate. now it's thursday, and i'm reaaaaallllllllyyyyy hungry. but the 3-day fast ends tonight after church, so i should make it another 5 hours, right?

i've been reading about the auto show going on in detroit right now, and i wish i could be there to see all the new designs and outrageous concept cars. but just walking the streets of new york you get to see lots of stuff. i always see the newest models, sometimes even before i know they've been released. and with all these wealthy people around i see the high end stuff too: corvettes, big BMWs, Mercedes (SL's, the new curvy CLS, lots of AMG too!), and Audi A8s. Sometimes they're even tricked out. Yesterday i saw a huge Maserati. A while ago i saw a Maybach parked in an outdoor lot, which didn't make sense to me. yesterday i also saw a recent Acura NSX. two weekends ago a yellow Lamborghini Gallardo drove by as i was shopping. It's been a while since i've seen any Ferrari's... maybe when spring comes they'll be out.

obviously i didn't resolve to post more often in the new year. but it's my blog, and i'll blog if i want to. wow, that sounded so... anyway, the site was down for a while. okay, it was only like a day. whatever.

winter finally came to new york city. last week we had temps in the (high) fifties, and then suddenly it was gone. now it's frigid, and everything is snow and ice-covered. it's a good thing i bought a new winter coat! i was getting tired of wearing all black like every other new yorker, so i found a jacket in bright blue. it's really bright. it's a water-proof shell over a zip-in down jacket. you should be jealous. thanks mom and dad and holly and chris for the cash to buy it. yes, it took all that! but it was on sale, so that makes it okay in our family, right?

FYI: i don't know if i'm going to make it through today. i didn't have any chocolate in my lunch today, and now i feel like i'm starting to freak out. i didn't really realize i was such an addict. maybe i can fake an errand and leave the office to pick some up. hmmmmm....

the strike is on. subways and buses are not running starting today, so all 8 million of us are suffering. I rode my bike to work and went half-numb in the process. when i got to the manhattan side of the williamsburg bridge, the Red Cross was there serving hot drinks to all the walkers, cyclists, and rollerblader (i only saw one). one of my room mates planned to walk over the bridge but got picked up on the way, probably because cars can't enter manhattan unless there are at least four people in it. another friend had to get the airport today. she offered the driver a $70 fare, but halfway there said it was going to be $150! what a scam. The best is my coworker who just stayed home. he's the smart one. i'm sooooo jealous.

growing up, my brother often made fun of me because he said i put my feet up in the air while i slept. you know, one knee sticks up, and you cross you other leg. well, it looks funny when you do it under your covers. it's like a big tent.

recently i've been sitting up in bed and falling asleep with my chin dipped down. then i wake up, probably when my neck gets tired, and think, "what the heck?" and then lay back down and go back to sleep. it's really quite obnoxious. i wonder why i do it. am i subconsciously trying to make myself get out of bed?

i entertain myself. for instance, i just tricked myself with email again. you see, i often email internet links or small pics or notes to myself... you know, things that i come across at work that i want to remember or have at home or come back to later. so i send the email, and soon after my computer beeps telling me that i have new mail. but it's like i forget that i had just sent something to myself. instead, i'm always like, "oh, new mail! i wonder what it is?" and then i see that it's from me. doh! i'm an idiot.