very simple

I voted. It was really easy. And you should vote too!!!!

OK people.  One day left.

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

I haven’t been posting too much about the election, even though (as with every campaign cycle) I’m completely overinvested and reading about 150 blogs on the topic (thanks google reader!). I have a tendency to get burnt out, and forget just how profound this election is. Which is why, when I found myself sitting in front of my computer on Monday night reading this story, I started crying.  And I don’t just mean that I got choked up.  Full-on, tears rolling down my face, sobbing.

Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country’s first black presidential nominee.

On the same note, meet Charles…

And, of course, Obama himself giving his closing argument speech. I particularly like how he manages to tie in, pretty seamlessly, the theme of his 2004 convention speech about red america and blue america. Talk about running a fabulous campaign that allows you to make a callback like that.

So then, of course, I had to find some stuff to make me laugh, because I’d end up crying the whole week over the stress of this election season…

The first one’s been around for a while, but it makes me crack up every time I see it. As a long-time Les Mis fan (instead of a sweet sixteen, I took my 5 best friends to the city to see the show, and I’m fairly certain I can still sing the entire soundtrack from beginning to end), this is just so spot on…

and finally, from the Obama campaign…all of this excitement is fantastic, but remember to ACTUALLY GO OUT AND VOTE NEXT TUESDAY. Seriously.

Today, I participated in the NYC MS Bike Ride.  Altogether, including cycling from my apartment to the start point (and home at the end of the day), I biked slightly over 70 miles. I’m pretty sure that’s the longest trip I’ve ever taken.  It was really great, even with the rain soaking me through for the first two hours of the morning, and I made it through the first 30 miles (around the entire circumference of manhattan) in 2 hours (plus 30 minutes at the rest stop).  Then we hit palisades state park in New Jersey and it took us another 3 hours to get the next 15 miles. Of course, I’m pretty sure we walked up about 3 miles of hills. whatever.  it’s still exercise.  The idea that, a year ago, I would have been able to walk uphill for 3 miles (forget biking 70), I would have laughed in your face.  So, all in all, a good day.  Other than the rain.  And the nasty spill I took leaving me with two bruised knees.  But…no sunburn, and i hit 35 miles per hour in a screaming ride through the Lincoln Tunnel.  That might have been the most awesome thing I’ve ever done.  Here’s a map…

View Larger Map

Oh yeah, and I raised $600 for MS. That was pretty good too!

[Update 2015] In an effort to reduce the number of holdover pages on the blog, I am slowly (very slowly) integrating albums into the appropriate historical posts on the blog itself. As such, photos can now be found directly below.

it’s that time of year again. the time when I get to annoy everyone at work by taking off two days in the middle of the week leaving everyone else to take care of things.

This Rosh Hashona, instead of sitting in temple all day, I’ll be taking my bicycle in to get fixed.  Because after visiting a friend yesterday afternoon who lives up in Washington Heights, I managed to get a massively flat tire.  And  yes, I know how to fix a flat tire, but it was damn near impossible to separate the tire from the tubing, so it became easier after about 20 minutes of trying just to carry my bike onto the subway.  it wouldn’t be that big a deal if I wasn’t scheduled to do 60+ miles in the MS bike ride this weekend.  Seems kind of important to have my good bike for that sort of thing.

I like to think I’m not an overly sentimental person, but in actuality, I can be a total sap. So it wasn’t entirely surprising that, sitting at home by myself watching Barack Obama accept the nomination for President of the United States as the candidate for the Democratic Party, my eyes welled up a bit with tears. In the day-to-day watching of the campaign, and in the weighty analysis of everything from policy positions to lapel pins, we sometimes forget how momentous this moment, even without regard to the positions either candidate takes, is. On the 45th anniversary of the March on Washington, an African-American has been nominated as the candidate of a major political party.

For everything about this country that could be better, for everything in the last eight years that has caused me profound disappointment at how we, as a country, have squandered global opportunities in favor of narrow-minded, irrational and downright unconstitutional agendas, sometimes…

sometimes we still strive to live up to the dream…

In all of my distraction over my new iphone, I completely neglected to notice that this blog had a birthday on Sunday.  I’ve been keeping this thing going (at varying rates of posting) for five years.  Started on June 12, 2003, so that I could essentially have a place to vent, it’s been through elections, moving, renovations, living in foreign countries, and lot’s and lot’s of customer service issues.  It’s also been reinvented a few times (anyone remember when it was hosted on .mac and was bright orange?).  About a year ago, I finally moved into the blogging equivalent of the 21st century and moved to wordpress, which I have pretty consistently loved since then (I can post from my phone!).  So, here’s to another five years.

Yes, I actually got up super early this morning, got on line at the apple store in midtown, and got a new iphone.  I’d like to point to the fact that I never bought the first one as some sort of proof that I don’t immediately jump on every apple bandwagon that comes my way, but…who am I kidding.  In any event, there were massive problems at the apple store, which I got to experience firsthand.  In addition to the activation problems there was a big problem with the AT&T servers that allowed us to sign up for accounts, so I probably ended up spending over 2 hours in the store once I had gotten inside (that was after waiting on line for two hours).  It wasn’t unpleasant though.  I basically hung out with the apple nerds (ahem, i mean “geniuses”), who were stuck not being able to do anything because they couldn’t access the iTunes store.  They spent a non-insignificant amount of time trying to get me to go get their manager to let them download movies off of itunes so that we could at least “entertain” all of the people stuck in the store.  I didn’t do it, because I am a pill.  The guy behind me on the activation line though – seriously needed some stress management classes.  Little hint to those people who “need” their phone immediately?  Don’t decide to port your number on the first day of the friggin’ launch.  You’ll be much happier waiting a few days until they work the kinks out.  Anyway, I think the nerds liked me so much because I was extremely calm and patient about the whole thing.  It helped that I had nowhere else to be.

And then…

about 30 seconds after I walked out of the store, I decided to take the iphone out of the box because it was buzzing (most likely with ‘welcome’ texts from AT&T), and the phone slipped out of the box and landed face down on the cobblestone sidewalk of central park south and the screen cracked into about a gazillion pieces.  I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

But I calmly walked back to the store, got the security people to let me cut the line (after showing them the devastation), and the store people were very very very nice and very sorry about what happened, and exchanged the very damaged phone for a new one.  It took a little while, because we had to re-port all of my account information, and they said I was actually pretty lucky that it was launch day, because tomorrow they might not have been allowed to do this, but in the end, I’m home with a shiny, fully functional, non-broken iphone currently syncing with my computer.  And I’m keeping it in the soft-sided pouch that I used for my iPod Touch.

My staycation started today, although since everyone is off today, it’s a bit too “weekend-y” in the city at the moment. When I took my bike to the park this morning (2 laps! 12 miles!), it seemed that every single horse drawn carriage (and the corresponding horsesh*t) was out on the drive. I’m very excited though. Over two whole weeks without having to do anything. Except visit a friend who had a baby the other day. And help my brother move. And clean out my closets. Somehow, as always happens, I’m going to get back to work on the 21st, and discover that I didn’t do half the stuff I originally planned to. At least this year I feel fairly certain that my stepmother’s company isn’t going to completely restructure, eliminating her entire department and cause me to spend at least 2 hours a day at my parents’ apartment teaching them the wonders of Gmail. Because I got to do that last year! At least I no longer have to sit around waiting for the cable guy tomorrow. Looks like it’ll be another good day for a bike ride (maybe this time I’ll remember to bring my camera).

And yes, my day at Bliss has already been scheduled for Monday…

…I dream things that never were and say why not?”

This morning, I listened to the Fresh Air interview with Pete Hamill, who was friends with Robert Kennedy, and was there when he was killed. And I got incredibly sad. 40 years ago, 6 years before I was even born, and I somehow still deeply feel not only the loss of a person but the loss for our country. And not just the loss of a potential president, but the loss of hope that RFK represented. And, while they didn’t play this on the radio at all, my mind immediately went to Teddy Kennedy’s eulogy, of which they usually only play the last minute or so when it’s played at all. The last minute or so are what leave me (even now) sitting in tears, but every once in a while it’s good to listen to the entire thing. Particularly this year, when, 40 years after he delivered this speech, which was delivered after watching the second of his brothers assassinated, and the fourth of his siblings to die tragically, Ted himself is fighting to stay alive.

Video via Shakespeare’s Sister.

(categorized under “good things” for the words in the eulogy.  not for the reason they needed to be spoken)