very simple

This sort of crap happens to me all the time, but tonight I actually stood up for myself.  Usually, in an attempt to avoid confrontation, I end up ceding my rightfully hailed taxi to some aggressive asshole and end up standing on a streetcorner for an extra 20 minutes in the middle of the night trying to flag down another one.

Went to the Aimee Mann concert with some folks from work, which was awesome (although my secret wish that she’d start playing stuff from her ’til tuesday days didn’t come to fruition).  On our way out, there was obviously a big crowd.  a few of the guys decided to walk, but my boss and I needed cabs.  So he goes out into the street and hails two – he’s going to grand central and I’m going to the upper west side, and, being on the corner of 10th avenue and 16th street, sharing really isn’t a sensible option.  I’m designated with the first cab, but a crowd of morons decides to run and try to steal the cab from me.  Upon my “excuse me, that’s my cab”, they’re all “oh, we thought you two were together”.  Nope.  nice assumption though, even though the person I’m with very clearly hailed two cabs.  not my problem, right?  So I go to open the cab door, except that one of the morons refuses to get out of the way.  So when I open the cab door it bangs into him.  Again, any sensible person would, you know, see me attempting to get into the cab and move.  He, of course, doesn’t move, and starts yelling at me, at which point even the cab driver is all “just get into the cab so I can get away from this crazy jerk”.  Of course, said moron/asshole proceeds to grab onto the door, after I’m already sitting in the cab, so I can’t close it. Working out with a trainer is very handy when needing to wrest taxi doors from pseudo-hipster assholes who clearly lift nothing more than cigarettes, so I very easily yank the door out of his hand and close it, at which point the cab driver immediately auto-locks the doors, because he’s also worried about this guy.

Who then proceeds to start banging on the car door with his umbrella.  Because damaging the taxi is certainly the appropriate way to teach me whatever lesson about aggressive male posturing that he seemed to think I needed to learn.  Needless to say, the cab driver threatened to run over his foot unless he backed the fuck away from the taxi.  We then proceeded to have a very pleasant conversation while he drove me home.  

Did anyone else read this story when they were a kid? I always loved it, probably in part because it was based on a real lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge.

They’re clearly rebuilding the park up in that neck of the woods, but last night I made it all the way up there, and was surprised at how easy it was to get up close to the lighthouse (and how tiny it was).

Well, it’s the last day of my vacation, and I’m just about ready to get back to work.  Things I did:

Movies: saw Wall-E, Wanted, Hellboy II and The Dark Knight (which was super fantastic awesome go see it now!).

Cycling: took several trips down to battery park, and up to fort washington.  In total, I biked about 70 miles over the past two weeks (usually in 12-14 mile increments every couple of days).  Also, about to sign up for the NYC Century Bike Tour.

Friends:  saw several friends, including one friend who I haven’t seen since college, and another who had a baby three weeks ago.  Also managed to catch a cold from another friend’s 11 month old.

Culture:  not quite as much as last year, but I did go see the Dali exhibit at the MoMA on wednesday.  That was pretty awesome.  Although my dad and I both decided that the films would make much more sense to someone if they were on drugs.

That’s about it.  I also read a few books, took a lot of naps, and generally learned how to not check my blackberry every 5 minutes.  oh, and I got an iphone.

Photos that I took on Tuesday while biking from the upper west side to battery park

[Update 2015] In an effort to reduce the number of holdover pages on the blog, I am slowly (very slowly) integrating these albums into the appropriate historical posts on the blog itself. As such, photos now appear directly below instead of in a separate album.

I promise I’m not going to do this every day. Frankly, no one wants to read repeated blog entries about just how little I can do every day.  But today was exciting – I took my bike out for a “real” ride (i.e., not going in a circle around the park).  The plan was to go down to Madison Square, or Union Square, and maybe get a shake at the shake shack.  Anyway, I got going down the Hudson River Greenway, and before I  even realized it, I was all the way downtown at ground zero.  So I tooled around Battery Park for a little while, took some pictures, drank lots of water (it was really warm out), and then got back on my bike and rode all the way home.  it was a 13-14 mile round trip, and I was gross and sweaty and desperate to get in my shower at the end, but not “tired”.  In fact, my legs didn’t hurt at all. I actually thought at the time that, but for the oppressive heat and humidity, I could have kept going.

This is a really big change from a year ago, when i took my bike to the park and could barely go 3 miles without exhausting myself.  That was the day I decided to join the gym.

Plans for the rest of the week?  More bike rides, although tomorrow is a personal training day, so I probably won’t be biking around the island.  All you can eat sushi tomorrow night with my dad and brother (have I mentioned that it’s kind of weird to have my brother actually living in the city again?  good, but weird.  I was so used to our regularly scheduled Friday afternoon IM sessions with him on the other side of the world).  Tentative dinner plans with a friend from college who I haven’t seen in about 13 years, thanks to Facebook (and yes, I’m totally addicted now).

As far as Friday, I’m currently debating whether to attempt to go get a 3G iphone.  I certainly didn’t plan my vacation around the iphone release, but since I’m definitely planning on getting one, it does seem kind of stupid to NOT get one while I’ve got plenty of time to wait on line.  Although I’m definitely not going to be one of those people who is already waiting on line…

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…

This weekend was one of the most beautiful weekends in recent history. Warm, not humid, and absolutely begging people to be outside. On Saturday, I spent the day with my friends and their 9-month old, and we went wandering around Central Park for a good portion of the afternoon…

And people wonder why I always want to hang out in the city. For all I complain, nothing beats this sort of energy.

Every year, I completely forget that it’s Fleet Week until I see giant roving packs of uniformed servicemen wandering around the neighborhood. And then I wonder why they all look like they’re about 12 years old (Shut up. I’m not the one getting older!). They’re also very polite and rules-oriented. This morning on my way home from the gym, I had to make a giant detour around about 15-20 of them as they all stood patiently at the corner of empty street and empty avenue waiting for the “walk” signal. After I dared to walk through the (still empty!) intersection, I saw one (one!) of them inch his way off the curb.

With the death of congestion pricing here in New York City, Streetsblog takes an in-depth look at our next best alternative – a Paris-type model of street reclamation for public transport and cycling. I would personally love this, as I’ve been trying to figure out how to ride my bike to work for years (only to be hampered by crazy traffic and antiquating building policies that won’t let me bring my bike inside).

In related news, I’m totally in love with the Dahon Glide P8.

Who: Sam Waterston, otherwise known as ADA extraordinaire Jack McCoy on Law and Order.

Where: sitting across the aisle from me on Metro North this morning. Rocking a fedora.

I debated bothering him to find out about when his darn show would start again, but I thought better of it and just read my book instead.