So lately we’ve been re-potty training Natasha, by having her go outside in the park a few times a day. The problem is, she gets distracted and forgets that instead of checking random shit out, she needs to just shit so I can go home.
This week is HOT in Los Angeles. I mean, 88 degrees and muggy in the morning hot. This morning was no exception. So here is the picture: I am in my pajamas and flip-flops, with Natasha and a bag of treats, trying to get her to poop. She had already peed.
Then this lady walks up to me. She was maybe 40, hispanic, with a coffee in her hand. She looks at me very earnestly and says:
“Jesus will still love a handicaped child.”
I stare at her.
Did this woman just call my dog handicaped?
Then she says:
“Jesus loves retarded children too. All children with disabilities, and Jesus loves you and dogs take a long time to get potty trained and Jesus loves….”
You get the picture.
Crazy lady lecturing me about something invoolving Jesus, disabled children and potty training, and somewhere in there I think she insulted me and my dog.
We walked away quickly, but that was it for Natasha. After that, a guy shows up with two off leash dogs and our negihbors Cho shows up. Natasha was hot, I was hot and mad and there was no pooping to be had.
We go home, I take a shower and somewhere during that time Natasha decides that NOW she wants to go poop, only I’m not there to take her out, so she goes by the front door.
Fuck.
So to recap: 88 degrees, crazy lady calling Natasha retarded and a dog shitting by the front door.
This morning sucked.
On Sunday, I almost bought a Volkswagen Beetle. I say almost because I walked out of the dealership during the financing process, right before signing the lease paperwork.
To put the situation in perspective, we have two cars: a 2002 Volvo S60 T5 and a 1999 VW Jetta VR6. I bought the Jetta when I was at Freedom, and its now paid off. It however is not doing well, and I don’t trust it (shifty car that it is). Therefor I want to get Amy a nice car to drive that is under warranty. The Jetta is nearing 100,000 miles.
I thought leasing a Bug would be great. Well, it was, until financing, and then the “low” price I negotiated became higher than it would cost for me to finance a car new at the same sticker. Spidey sense was going off and I was thinking, “Hmmm…. this seems kind of lame.” So we told them that we weren’t going to do it, and left. We did not make the sales guy happy.
There is now one more place (I think the list is up to five?) that I can never go back to again.
We have decided now to buy a Prius in five weeks, as at the price point we’re looking for (20-24k), it makes the most sense.
UPDATE: They came down to 300+tax, 1000 drive off. We’re taking it 
There is massive subway construction currently affecting the N, R, W, Q and 6 trains. This pretty much means any train between Times Square and the Upper East Side/ Queens is going to make your ride an adventure. In the wee hours of this morning, after encountering each of the closed platform entrances for the aforementioned train at the 59th St/ Lex Ave Station…. I make it to Queensboro plaza… Where the N train is supposed to be…
Only the N train doesn’t show up for like 30 minutes. When it finally does, the conductor makes an announcement on the notorious crackly intercom saying the train is going to Manhattan.
And then: THE MOB COMMANDS THE N TRAIN TO ASTORIA (Queens). People get out of the train screaming en masse at the conductor. Her name was Lotte (yes, I learned a subway conductors name). We sit a while some cops show up to remove the crazies, Lotte and I bond, and to Queens we go.
The highlight of this change in direction pinacled when Lotte screamed at a man with a voice to raise the devil “To get his MFing foot of the door,” so she could close it.
Lotte is the coolest conductor ever.
Virgin blog writer that I am, I hearby christian my first entry as “blackrimNYC” with this startling account of my morning.
After arising to the aftermath of last nights drunk text messaging (thank you FHM and Stoli for all the free drinks) I stumble into my walk-in closet and what do I spy coming out of a beloved black leather loafer….. A GIANT COCKROACH.
Cockroaches are evil little creatures plaguing NYC and frankly give me the chills everytime I encounter one. When out-of-doors, one can normally just walk around them or giving them the Glance, mutter something about the filth of the neighborhood and go on with your life. When encountering a cockroach in ones dwelling the routine is to mutter about your landlord and arm yourself with a vast array of roach killing products.
Like all good New Yorkers, my apartment is equipped with such sprays, traps, and bleach.
This cockroach however, did not go for the traps, and utilizing some prehistoric living strategies, evaded my pools of insecticide (one can never use too much spray). I stared at this creature and hoped that after a shower it would be dead.
I was wrong. It was STILL alive.
I watched it crawl for several minutes, and then using the closest heavy paper device. . . a postcard that said “Blimey”, I ended that suckers life.
Documentation to follow.
I do hope that all the people I know in London are doing OK. Its terrible that these things happen, and even more terrible is the way that the news is handling it. On CNN this morning some asshole was pontificating on air saying that something like this reminds us that, essentially, all Muslim’s want to get the world to the state that the Taliban had, where “all women where Burkhas.”
No mention of militant muslims, just “muslims.” Islam is a beautiful religion. It is different than most Western religions in that its tied still to the doctrines it founded upon. It hasn’t necessarily modernized, but really, neither has Hassidic Judaism, nor Orthodox Judaism, and to a certain extent, Roman Catholicism. Religion itself is a weird situation, and when its compounded with political doctrine, situations arrise in which fundamentalism precludes rationality. This is not unique to Middle Eastern religions.
Yesterday was very L.A., with a meeting in Los Feliz, then back to Pasadena, then back down to Los Feliz for a concert. It was nice though that the trip to Los Feliz was only 10 minutes vs. consuming the better part of an entire evening. The concert was fun, the meeting productive.
I’m debating whether to try to go to Defcon. We’ll see.
So begins the second week of my job (actually almost ends). I think I am now in a comfortable groove as to balancing the work/life equation. I’ve started going to the gym again, am sleeping better and all in all: happy. It is strange to have such a radical change in life in such a short amount of time. Still more strange to not have Amy here every day to experience it, but we’re managing.
I was out to lunch this week with a vendor of ours who happened to read my other site, on which I was musing about the decision to go back to work. Today I decided to re-read what I had written, and it was rather striking. It seems like reading the writing of another person, someone confused and bitter. Not me. And now, I’m neither, and that is good. Financially stable, physically OK and rather cool if I must say so.
I find it amazing how quickly things change, and how the mind adapts to such change. It wasn’t more than four months ago that I was committed to a career in academia. It was a year ago that I was not doing well mentally. It was nearly a year ago that I got married. And now, June of 2005, I’m in an awesome job, having fun doing it (so far!) and things are OK. See? Things can work out people.
Today at work we had a rap star serenade us. It was actually quite cool. I’m hoping for more alternative type bands to serenade us in the courtyard.
I’m not really into the blogging thing right now, but I shall later.
