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As you can see, time is of the essence. I graduate in 56 days. Over the next couple of months, I will recount some of the more memorable moments of my college career and share with you what’s down with the get down. Some of it will be well written. Some of it will be hastily thrown together. If there’s something you don’t like or don’t care for, then just wait, it won’t be long before there’s another offering.
I’m sorry about not posting for a while. It was a busy semester. Between going to school (3.94)(w00t!), working for the shuttle service, and interning for a Swiss bank in the city, I barely had time to breathe last semester. But it was worth it.
Today is the first day of classes of the spring semester and my iGoogle desktop is telling me the following:
So this is in the beginning of the end?
I’m still working for the shuttle service and will continue interning for the Swiss bank with the same wealth management team (payed this semester!), but I’m only taking four classes. I’m taking Fixed Income Analysis, Real Estate Finance, International Investments and Ethics in Business. I’m planning for another strong one.
I’ve got two great opportunities on my horizon. I have applied for a fellowship to go to Ireland to work in the banking industry or stay in NYC to get my masters in quantitative finance. It will be a while until I hear about either. Keep your fingers crossed and pumping out those prayers! More soon.
We had the cook out/bbq/grilling session (I’m not quite sure what to call it. Toad has to set me right). Regardless of what I had, it was good. There’s few things a man needs in his life. A grill is one of them. I got this beauty from Home Depot for $100 bucks. It’s a pretty good deal.
Above is a portion of my back yard. It’s rather seedy, I know. My landlord doesn’t want to seem to put much money into it (he rents only to college students) and I don’t blame him. Concrete would cost a lot and get too hot in the summer, so the dirt/weed patch does the trick. (I digress). The cookout was good. I had hamburgers, cheese burgers, bocca burgers, and hot dogs. In addition, I made my grandmother’s potato salad, coleslaw and a frozen fruit salad. They all go rave reviews. I am just sad you weren’t there to sample any of it.
BBQ today. Stay tuned. I bought a huge BBQ at Home Depot yesterday and braved Costco (not an easy task) as well to get ready for this thing. Pictures coming soon. (either later tonight, but probably tomorrow, cause c’mon, it’s a BBQ, I’ll be socializing and welcoming friends back well into the evening)
A coworker showed this to me and I couldn’t stop laughing. Enjoy!
Sorry for not posting all week. I find my weekdays have become increasingly packed. I am totally fine with that, but when I want to write about something that happens on Monday, it’s difficult to recall every last, minute detail on Saturday or Sunday (yeah, I have that bad of a memory).
This evening last I went to one of the most quirky events I have ever been too. I wish I had brought my camera to show you visually, but alas, I forgot it up in the Bronx. This event was so rich and rare, that I don’t think many New Yorkers are even aware it exists. I traveled with a friend all the way down to the Bowery (F train to Delancey), a truly quirky, hipster-filled neighborhood that is one of the remaining neighborhoods to be gentrified. It still has it’s "we are who are are, and you can go eff yourself if you don’t like us" attitude. Aesthetically, the Bowery still has the feeling of early 1900s NYC. Many of the old tenements are still in tact, but in rough shape. It feels like you’re in West Side Story or Taxi Driver (you know, the one with De Niro).
I hope I’ve created enough suspense as to what this event is. Some will dig it, other’s will have a "WTF, mate" reaction. What did I go see you ask yourself…
I saw ‘Shakespeare in the Parking Lot.’ Yes, that’s right. I went and saw a performance of Romeo and Juliet performed in a parking lot down in the Bowery. It was a pretty sweet concept. They performed the original play (none of this West Side Story, Jet-Li or Leo DiCaprio BS), but set it in modern day NYC (costuming, scenery, et al). I always have mixed feelings when they do something like that. I saw The Alchemist in London where they did the same thing (kept the original script, but wore modern garb) and I didn’t like it. I thought the director did a decent job adapting this production.
Something that also made this production cool was that since you were in a parking lot, there was no back stage, there was no curtain to go hide behind. Actors would just run off the main acting strip and go chill next to some car for a while until they were suppose to come back on. I saw the Friar chillen on the sidewalk listening to his iPod. Tybalt left several times to go grab something to drink from the bodega. The narrator would stand with the audience and walk around the entire production as the play progressed. I really liked that touch. They were just part of it all, hiding behind nothing, doing their own thing. It was sweet.
On to the casting. The supporting cast was most excellent. Mercutio and Benvolio were awesome. Mercutio actually reminded me of TUBOB and the pictures I have seen of him that have been floating around the internet. I really wish I had brought my camera, if just to snap a picture of Mercutio.
I had issues with the lead Romeo. The dude who was playing Romeo delivered his lines well, but it just wasn’t there. He had no passion. He showed no pain. I saw no spark between him and Juliet. I was disappointed. Also, his costuming was a little off. While everyone else looked like they were from the Lower East Side (disheveled, almost derilict), Romeo looked Hell’s Kitchen (muscle shirt, designer jeans, too cool for school). It was disappointing.
As much as I didn’t like Romeo, I was very happy I went. It was an awesome American interpretation (how much more American can you get than a parking lot?) of a great play. Damn, I wish I had brought the camera!
Great news! I’m leaving my cave. I’ve got my computer back. I’ve got my picture loaded. I’ve been places. I’ve reflected on life. I’m back on track.
This past weekend I went to Philly. I had a good time, though I was torn. I couldn’t decide whether Philly was more English in nature or French. While the layout was very English with row houses built close to the 
street and the avenues were wide with great statues in public places like those found around Buckingham Palace, the culture of the people and the city was all about liberty and freedom for all, much more than in Boston. I feel like in Philly they know what liberty is and were willing to fight for it. You can go two blocks in Philly without seeing some sort of effigy to Ben Franklin.
On Wednesday of last week, I went to the Silver Swan on 20th between Broadway and Park with family friends. Talk about delicious! I had schnitzel and Kolsch beer. It was the best German food I have had since leaving Germany. If you can make it there, I would definitely suggest a visit.
On Monday of last week, I went to Van Cortlandt Park with a friend for the Concert in the Parks series. It was a great time. Hard to believe we were in the Bronx the entire time.
Without even realizing it, Perambulation had it’s first birthday about two weeks ago. Over the past year I have discussed everything from spotted dick to the beautiful Bronx sunset. It’s been a great ride. There was a period where I didn’t post for a month, and there was a period where I posted every day. I have played with many factors of the blog including the logo, layout and google hit results (for a while, if you typed in "candy gram" and "landshark", one of my posts was the fourth hit listed. I have made my blog invisible from google search).
Overall, I think I have now reached a happy medium. I have thought through what I am doing with my blog and the direction I want to take it. I’ve been told I am daring, honest, and a risk taker with what I talk about on my blog and the style in which I discuss particular topics. It was kind of surprising to hear this. I’m just talking about what’s on my mind. Blogging allows me to organize the thoughts and emotions in my head by putting them on paper and making sense of them. I don’t think I could do it any other way, honestly. (Writing in a journal is so pre-1998 and keeping an electronic journal or word document stored on my computer is so pre-2003.) I have a great time opening up, being honest with myself and sharing my ideas with others, regardless of what I might expose myself to. (I’m also forced to chose my words carefully, which, at times, can be tricky.)
I believe the good blogging doesn’t really start until you’ve truly found your ‘blogging’ identity and gone through various cycles to determine what works best for you. I think I have finally reached that stage. All I have to say is stay tuned: I’m gonna give some really good blog in the coming months.
Geez, he takes his blog back and then barely posts anything.
So I guess it’s up to me to let everyone know Bronx Boy is back. Fresh from the plane at SeaTac, he looks mighty good for having just stepped off the plane, thus ending his 24-hour journey back to the States, and the State of Washington.
The travels aren’t over yet. As I write, Bronx Boy, JBelle, and Joe Montana are on a whirlwind shopping extravaganza…Nordstrom’s, you ask? Banana Republic, NikeTown, Saks Fifth Ave., perchance? Why no. Safeway and Costco, of course. I mean, the boy has been eating Macaroni and Cheese out of a can for the last 9 months…honestly, did you think he would want to do anything but shop for food at a mega-store that stocks underwear by the pallet-load? They don’t do that at Tesco, no siree.
So you might think they are doing some shopping before heading back to the ‘Kan, eh? 
No, not even close. After they have gorged themselves of the foot-long hotdogs at Costco, they are heading out to the coast of the Olympic National Park with the Chow Nation and Bob Barker in tow. Literally. They have a trailer full of stuff to take to the beach for the week and a half they will be there. It was what the Bronx Boy wanted to do when he got back. I’ll be driving up for the weekends (both of ‘em), as my Catholic guilt won’t allow me to stay up there and miss an entire week of work when I need to be making calls to solicit business, as I currently don’t have any. Especially since I missed three days for my surgery, I will be missing two more in the following weeks to redeem a gift from the last team I coached (a trip to Mexico!), and I’ll be missing an entire week in July to join the Regional Staff in Moscow, Idaho for ODP Camp. See? I’m trying to do the right thing here.
And for a mini-update on me, I’ve had my stitches removed and have been put into a 
fiberglass cast,
rather
than the big bulky one you saw in pictures in previous posts. In case you were wondering, this is the boy (picture taken right
around the time he maimed me, last summer, and yes I taught him how to do that) who kicked a ball so hard at me (not in mean-spiritedness, but in a competition where I had been kicking his ass up until he rocked this shot at me–but I still won in the end), he broke my wrist. I thought it was a
sprain, but apparently not. He has left his mark on me forever, and when I’m watching him play in the World Cup in 10 years (and he will be), I can hold up my left hand and say "Look what he did to me when he was a teenager!" Believe me, ESPN will be clamoring for that story. (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger)
Okay kids, that wraps things up for me. I may be back to post the occasional time or two, but now that Bronx Boy is back he should be resuming a regular posting schedule.
It’s been real.
-PDX Pup