my lovely transit strike commute

well, it happened.

we are in day two of the Great Transit Strike Of 2005. there are no buses or subways running in new york right now.

for some reason, i woke up at 3am on tuesday morning at the exact time that the head of the TWU (transport workers union) came on television to announce that the strike was beginning.

i was pretty excited, mostly because i had already decided that if they did strike, i was going to take the day off from work.

so i did.

yesterday was spent hanging out with my friend nancy eating lasagna, baking cookies and watching movies. it was all quite lovely.

afterwards, i came home and watched the news...










for the most part, i understand why the union is striking and i can't really blame them. the MTA (who manages the public transport in nyc and who the union works for) seems to be run by some crazy fools.

as of right now, it looks like the strike might go on for a few more days.

yikes.

this morning, however, i needed to come into the office to wrap things up before i head home to minot tomorrow.

i can't wait to watch how it all unfolds while laying on my parents' warm couch in front of the fireplace while drinking baileys and coffee.

i decided that the best way for me to try and get to Rockefeller Center from greenpoint (in brooklyn) would be to ride my bike.


seeing as how it was 24 degrees outside this morning, i did a pretty fierce job of bundling up (long johns included) before heading outside.

then it was off towards queens and the 59th street bridge...

there were tons of people walking and riding over it as well.

after coming down the bridge and into manhattan, i weaved my way through some pretty bad traffic towards 49th street.


the police had closed fifth avenue entirely. it was fun to ride down the middle of it and not have to worry about cars and buses.

here's a clip of my home stretch (featuring the rockefeller christmas tree):



in all, the total ride took about 30 minutes.

that's pretty much the same amount of time that it normally takes me when riding the subway.


now i just have to figure out how to carry all of my christmas presents home after work...

the number one song of 2005
as you've most likely noticed, this is the time of year when every blog out there feels that it's necessary to list their top 10 (or more) albums of the year.

instead of boring you to tears doing that, i am just simply going to tell you what my favorite song of 2005 was/is.

now, before i let you in on this little secret, you might be wondering to yourself how i decided which song to pick out of the thousands that came out this year.

or maybe you aren't wondering that at all.

either way, i just wanted to make it clear that there was no special formula involved. i just remember listening to this song one day while riding the subway to work and thinking it was just about perfect. plus, it fits in nicely with my overall feelings toward 2005 and the future in general.

ladies and gentlemen, i present to you the King Song of 2005:

"Mushaboom" by the ever-so-lovely Feist.

balmy

well, sadly there is no transit strike. not yet anyways.

Q: how am i coping with having to be at work today?

A: by listening to probably my all-time favorite song
over and over and over again.

plus it's like 50 degrees outside today.

strike! strike! strike!

tomorrow, there might be a city-wide transit strike here.
this means no buses or subways.
this also means that i probably won't be able to make it into work.

i think that i'll be ok with this idea.

hopefully, if they strike, tomorrow will be a fun day much like the blackout was a couple of years ago.

i doubt that they will actually go so far as to strike though.

on second thought, it is the season of miracles, isn't it?

last friday and saturday
(this brief lil' post is brought to you by the the common cold)

last thursday, aaron melander made yet another visit to my fine city.

he surprised vince in the middle of a foosball game. we ended up staying out quite late.

on friday, everyone was tired.

we ended up hanging out in aaron's nice hotel room 30 flights above the world trade center.

we watched lord of the rings on a giant television.

then is was off to a lovely dinner compliments of aaron and his awesome bosses.

afterwards, we met damn crary at a bar. we ended up staying out quite late.

the next morning i woke up sick.

again.

luckily for me, i had some more visitors in town to distract me.

aimee and elliot came up from philadelphia for the day.

it was a treat to see them again. we went to toy stores, nintendo world, more toy stores and then went out for dinner and drinks.

elliot enlightened me with tales of the internet. he also turned me on to the incredibly great, but horribly time wasting stubleupon. oh, and pandora as well.

anyhoo, as we were walking around the east village, we noticed that there were literally hundreds of really, really drunk and belligerent santa clauses running around everywhere.

i finally figured out why: Santacon!

after sending them off in a cab, i went home and went to bed.

i hope to be healthy by the time i leave for home in 8 days!!!!!!

love,
anthony

ps. i am moving.

130 reasons to love nicole

ladies and gentlemen,

as i predicted here waaaaay back in august, the winner of cycle 5 of america's next top model is:

nicole!

hailing from grand forks, north dakota no less!

to make things even better, i won the top model pool that my pal jamie in minneapolis put together.

the result?

a very handsome $130!

god bless you nicole. god bless each and every shiny hair on your pretty, pretty head.


love,
anthony

god bless them

i made a total jackass of myself on the subway this morning because i couldn't stop laughing (out loud) at the ricky gervais show podcast.

you can get it by going here. it's also available through itunes.

brilliant.

thanksgiving 2005 - albany, new york

my friends dan and anna invited me (and our friend vince) up to albany to celebrate thanksgiving with them this year.

we left on wednesday afternoon.

usually, i go up to the museum of natural history on central park west to watch them inflate the giant balloons for the Macy's parade. i was going to show vince this spectacle, but sadly, by the time i got off of work we had to head to grand central to catch our train.

next year i'll be back.


grand central was mobbed, but that was to be expected. we made it aboard the train just in time to grab seats. some folks had to stand for the entire hour and a half trip. too bad suckas!


here's vince looking out at the hudson. the ride up to poughkeepsie is really beautiful. the tracks go along the river the entire way.

dan met us at the train station and then we drove to albany. in all, it was about 3 hours of travelling.

after dropping off our bags at dan and anna's place, we headed straight to...

the foosball table at this funny bar called 'cheers'.

we played for a while, ate some fish n' chips (kind of), almost got into a fight with the locals, played some more, and then headed home.

along the way, dan said that anna gave him a list of things that he was supposed to pick up at the grocery for the next day's meal. vince and i tried to talk him out of it since it was so late but, no. he said that if we didn't go to the grocery store, anna would be super mad.

once inside the gigantic supermarket, dan handed each of us a case of beer and grabbed two big bunches of flowers. it became apparent that there was no list and that we had been tricked.


we forgave dan after laughing at him for about 5 minutes while he tried to figure out how to scan the groceries into the register by himself (there were no cashiers on duty).


the next morning was thanksgiving.

when i looked out the window, this is what i saw:

the first snowfall of the year! perfect timing too.


we spent the day rotating between playing xbox, board games, and poker. i have almost no idea how to play poker at all, but it was still tons of fun. vince was the champion.


at one point in the day, anna brought out bowls of the most delicious borscht ever.


here's her spread. it was so, so, so tasty. she even went WAY out of line and made me some fake turkey made out of quorn.

it was one of the tastiest meals ever. thanks again anna!

the rest of the trip was a blur of laziness, drinking, video games, and drinking.

at one point though, we ended up here:

bowling!

for some reason, bowling and thanksgiving go together so perfectly. i don't know why this is, but it's great.

to make things even better, the del lanes was super old school. it hasn't been made over into one of those obnoxious Extreme Bowling-type places.

not yet anyways...




um, ok...so my sweater matched my bowling ball.


after a vicious battle between vince and i during the first game (we scored in the 170's and 180's!), play quickly devolved into seeing who could bowl the best using their left hand.



the next day (i think) we went out in search of a big, giant, delicious breakfast...

we found it at this place called Peaches.

it. was. so. good.

i think that i ate something called the new orleans omelette. it was fantastic.

so that about wraps it up. i'd love to post the hundred pictures of us playing xbox until 4am, but i'll spare you (and me/dan/vince).

thanks again dan and anna (danna?) for a really great, fun-filled weekend. if you ever want to have me visit again, there's a slim chance that you might be able to talk me into it.

"the 4th baddest bitch in america"

boy, last night's Top Model made me happy. they finally got rid of nasty, evil jayla.

that leaves three girls to fight it out for the crown.

i think that we all have to agree that the winner is going to be nik at this point. if her performance last night wasn't enought to convince you, take into consideration that there's been pictures of her with her publicist on different sites for a while now (i'd link to those for you but i am sick today so i can't muster the energy). i can't think of why the runner-up would need a publicist, can you?

that said, i am still rooting for nicole.

bre (who i quoted for the title of this post) actually won me over a bit last night, but seriously, she doesn't hold a candle to the other two.

did anyone catch if they are playing the finale next week? let's pray it's not another recap episode.


in other news, if you like the hall and oates (especially oates), doobie brothers, kenny loggins, journey, toto or michael jackson, do yourself a favor by clicking here. start at episode one and work your way through.

jesus, that is so great.
(via stereogum)

oh, and happy december.