urbanblitz

I can’t believe it’s been a week since SantaCon. I not sure if I can wait till next year. It was so much fun. My friends in London did not prepare me for this form of debauchery. I thought it would just be a bunch of random strangers dressed in cheap santa suits roaming around the city. But there is really no way to really articulate the whole experience. You just had to be there. Or you can watch all the footage on YouTube. Ho.. ho.. HO.. Santa is coming to town.

I woke up this morning, opened the bedroom door and ran back under my covers. It was freezing. But I had venture back out of my room. When I came back I got an email from my friend MS with the subject line OMG! I thought something was wrong. But it turned out she was not adjusting to the temperature drop. So it was time to bundle up and head out into the real world. For a second, I thought was hallucinating when I saw this Asian gal in a short mini skirt with knee high boots. And get this, no stockings. Is she on crack. She may think it looks cute and all, but is really worth having frostbite on your ass. I think not.

I been in dire need of a little spa thing. I’ve always walked by the spas in K-Town a little bit weary of the low prices. But it’s quite affordable. Normally, I probably go to one of those frilly spas in Chelsea. In the name of economics I thought I give the K-Town spa a try. It was definitely as I expect and much more. It was really no frills. Of course, while I was waiting in the hot tub for my body scrub there were 3 women on tables getting scrubbed down. This mother-daughter were yakking away in Mandarin. And it was quite humorous. At some point I wish they would just shut up. Wonder if her mom knows that the patch on her back is Ortho-Evra. Probably not. But I couldn’t help chuckling.

Since the 3 tables were occupied I lucked out and ended up in a private room. As i was looking up at the fluroscent light and being scrubbed down, I was wondering if this is what it be like when they embalm me. I know that’s a bit morbid. But you start to wonder. It is the same tables in a funeral home except there more padding. Well I guess that’s what you get for no frills.

I’ve been working from home for the past 2 days because of this Transit strike. This is all over a freaking pension for future employees. For god sakes. Has the union management even consider what their members think. And who is paying for this. All the commuters in NYC. Well I’m getting a bit tired of working from home and I can’t wait to get back. I’m about to climb the walls.

I went to my first subway party yesterday. It was in honor of the discontinued 9 train. I was so bummed that I missed the Death of the Q Diamond. There is totally nothing like this. And it was so cool just have fun on the train. I went with some friends and bumped into some old friends. Now I just have a hard time getting onto my usual train for my regular commute hoping that we can have a party on the train again.

Just got back from my little adventure in the LES. My friend convinced me to find a restaurant/bar Freeman’s in Freeman Alley. But where the hell is Freeman Alley. It’s not even on a map. All we know is it’s on Rivington near Bowery. We finally stumbled upon Freeman Alley which is by the way in the middle of Bowery and Chrystie Street. The alley reminded me of some small side streets in London and San Francisco. But we walk down this alley and you see this low light. Kind of like gaslight. And low and behold your at Freeman’s. I felt like I just walked out of a time machine and was transported into another time peroid. This is what people must have felt when they walked into a speakeasy for the first time. It was amazing. What a great little find. And that was not the only thing I found that night. While we were walking down the street I spotted a 20 dollar bill a few feet away. Must be my lucky night.

I always run past the strangest things early in the morning. Today, I was heading over to meet the some people from NY Cares down on St. Marks Street. While walking down the street, I saw this woman sashay past me. At first, I was thinking she was crazy, because it was freezing cold outside and all she was wearing was a long sleeve t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and sneakers. Definitely an obvious hooker. She looked more like a strung out drug addict looking for some smack. Perhaps she was. After she walked past me, she sashayed down the empty street, then tracked back swinging her hips side to side. She had stopped abruptly in front of this car, perched down and knocked on this guy’s car window. And all I did was smirk.

This is the first year, that I’ve actually been out around Manhattan during Halloween. And let’s just say it was very interesting. There was definitely a large group of characters out there. The trains were packed. I couldn’t wait to get out of the first car I was in because someone had puked on the floor. In addition there was this guy that just wreaked of alcohol. Aside from the fact, he looked like he was going to topple out of his seat.

The second car, I was in was a bit dull. Until this guy came in dressed as a stove. And sat down on the floor. Immediately, everyone in the car started laughing. Being at the center attention, this guy was determine to entertain us. This of course was followed by the paparazzi and flashing light bulbs. That was the end of my first Halloween in Manhattan.

I know the title is so unoriginal. So bite me! I mean that figuratively. I thought I might point that out before you get any ideas. Well it all started out when my co-worker Scott and I was in dire need of caffeine. And we headed over to Barnes and Noble cafe to get our Frap. Dude! We had to take advantage of that buy one, get one free frap while we can. So we got our frap, and were about to putz out of Barnes and Noble when the lights went out. Then we headed out of the store and realized that all the lights were out on the street. We walked to our building and figure there was no way to get upstairs. So we tried calling our boss to tell him that we were downstairs but of course, our cell phones were dead. But finally, we got upstairs. Turns out the interns thought we were stuck in the elevator. In the end, my boss convinced all to go over to his house to chill for a few hours. I was getting a bit worried about my mom. She’s in her mid 70s. We have a cordless phone at home, but she would have no idea how to put the spare corded phone into the jack. On top of fact, she didn’t know that my radio in my room had a back up battery. My mom was home alone with nothing, and I was getting really worried.

We all got some grub and headed off around 7:30 pm. Diana and I had to leave, because we started experiencing some allergic reactions to the cat. So we set off toward the Manhattan bridge hoping that we would be able catch a bus when we got to Brooklyn. While we were walking down Broadway, we were hoping that we would be able to catch a bus down to the Brooklyn Bridge, but the buses were not stopping. And traffic was just murderous. It was pitch dark in Chinatown, and I actually tripped over something. It was not a pretty sight. There were swarms of people walking over the bridge with only the full moon as their guiding light. Finally when we got over the bridge, we headed over to Fulton Mall to wait for the bus. But again, the buses were still not stopping. Some woman had walked by and said that the buses were stopping around Atlantic Avenue. We headed over to Atlantic, but the buses were still not stopping. Eventually we walked over to my cousin’s apartment hoping that his roommate might be home. Luckily for us his friend Mark was there unplugging all his appliances. During this pit stop, Diana and I got some water drink and she called her parents. Who eventually picked us up from Grand Army Plaza. By now we had already walked 5 1/2 miles.

As I got closer to home, I thought I was in the wrong neighborhood. There way too many trees. Then again, I never tried walking home in the dark without any street lights. When I got home, I was literally feeling my way up to apartment. My building was pitch dark. But I finally made it home by 11:30 pm. I had a sense of relief that my mom was okay.

The next day, I ended up sleeping most of the day. And my shins are killing me. In the morning, I headed outside my house to see what was going on. And I left my clock radio with my mom in the living room. I tuned it to the Chinese radio station, so she would be able to listen to the news. Let’s just say when I got home, the radio was in the kitchen and it didn’t look like she was going to give it back to me anytime soon. Yup! She did it again. About 3 years ago, she came into my room to see if you could borrow my boom box. Let’s just say, she never returned it. Argh!

Eventually , the electricity came back on at around 7 pm. And the first thing I did was turn on my computer. Ha ha.

Ah, can’t believe it’s been a year since September 11th. Last year, all I could do was im all my friends to make sure that they are okay. The mood is a bit somber today. Our office, actually opened at normal business hours. Before, heading to work, I thought I take a walk from Brooklyn Bridge all the way past the Stock Exchange. I was just so strange. There were people in front of Trinity Church remembering the people that were lost last year, yet there were also those tourist just gawking at the gap. So bizarre. I never realize how big the gap was until I walked past it.