also

i am the sudoku master.

i now issue an open challenge: if you can solve a sudoku puzzle faster than me, i will buy you the beer of your choice at the bar of your choice (or a six-pack from the corner deli, of my choice).

that is all.

My First Christmas

the past few days have been great.

on sunday they let my brother out of the hospital. so now he's home, where he'll actually get his medications on time and the doctors and nurses can't get their grubby, incompetent hands on him. he seems to be doing really well, and to not be in too much pain, and he's going back for a check-up with his surgeon next week, where they'll undoubtedly give him two thumbs up.

on monday i flew back to new york, went straight to work, got basically nothing done, and then went home.

on tuesday after work i got on the train to DC and spent wednesday talking about tobacco companies with a bunch of highly intelligent and funny lawyers. they made a bunch of predictions, some of which have already come true. it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.

on thursday i met up with jethro, whom i hadn't seen in something like four years. he graduated from risd in providence in may and moved to nyc in september. like the hipster he is, he's living in williamsburg (bushwich, really) and enjoying life. we had dinner and hot chocolate, played in toys 'r us for an hour or so, and then saw christian's band, hello nurse, play downtown at a venue called fat baby. the opening band, the nsg, was fantastic, but unfortunately for us, they're breaking up, and that was their last show as a band. hello nurse played a great set, and i think i converted jethro into fandom. good times all around.

on friday there was no transit strike, but i decided to take the morning off anyway, and i ended up sleeping until noon and getting to work around 130pm (i managed to be highly productive, though). that night was the osi holiday party. by the way, the chelsea piers lighthouse is a great place to have a party--it was beautiful and the food wasn't bad. the dj was great, reminiscent of my previous three friday nights at pawn shop. someone, i'm still not clear who, had arranged for an after party at a nearby bar/lounge called hiro, on 17th and 9th. unfortunately, some of the older folks had forgotten their ids and couldn't get past the anal bouncers (even though they look older than 21). after gawking at the women swinging from bedsheets on the ceiling and enjoying another good dj, i went to the hotel bar upstairs to hang out with the old folks. all in all it was a successful holiday party, without too much drama, and i had a good time.

saturday started with brunch at french roast. i got most of my christmas shopping done, including an absurd number of cards from the met. the day ended with a party at abhay's house in the east village, where i saw people i hadn't seen in forever, including selom!, who is back in the city at cornell med school. i was so tired, though, and ended up leaving rather early to go home and go to bed.

sunday was spent running errands (uptown, for the first time), wrapping presents, burning cds, watching the jets, and winding down for the week. unfortunately i couldn't sleep at all, and i ended up taking the morning off today again too. i can't really complain about that, though.

so, life has been hectic, but i like it that way. i thought that my 10 days in new york would be a vacation from life in miami--which is way, way busier than life here could ever be; i don't know how they do it--but as it turned out, tonight is the first time i've been able to really chill out and relax. i've spent long stretches of time tonight not talking to anyone else... that felt really strange because it's been so long since that happened last.

i think the quality of my writing goes down with the frequency of my posts. for self-preservation, i should really start posting more. there's no shortage of shit to rant about, either, but i've just felt uninspired of late. maybe that'll start changing.

wednesday night i'm off to sunny (or rainy) florida again until the 3rd day of 2006. i think some neat new years plans are shaping up... in any case, should be a good time. i have a stack of 6 economists that need reading--they're coming with me, as are four new books that i'm going to try to start and finish. it's time to get back on the reading wagon. i think i'm ready now.

put your back into it

yo.

back in new york, fools.

more later.

adios.


ps: happy birthday stoops! happy birthday mary!

hello world.

since i'm terrible at returning phone calls and emails, here's an update for those of you that haven't heard from me in a while.

my brother has cerebral palsy. it's pretty severe and affects his motor functions. an effect of this is that he can't hold up his own body weight. so, as he gets older and grows faster (he'll be 13 in january), it gets harder for him to maintain any semblance of good posture. over the past couple of years, his back has been curving more and more, and he's developed a pretty severe case of scoliosis. to prevent him from curving over too much and crushing his organs, a team of surgeons, in an eight-hour operation, fused his spine with titanium rods and screws on monday, november 28th. he's had some complications during his recovery and is still in intensive care, but he's doing better now, and my best guess is that he'll be in a normal hospital room on wednesday or thursday, and home a week or so after that. i came home for thanksgiving and decided to stay to help out my parents and make sure everything was ok. i'll be here 'til he's out of the ICU, and i'll probably hop on the first plane to nyc the next day.

so, as you can imagine, life here has been pretty hectic. i'm trying to work from home and finish my applications while i'm here, but i've been basically failing at it. at least it's warm and beautiful, and i have some friends here who've been taking great care of me. still, it's hard to sit around doing not much of anything for days on end; i'm starting to miss my new york routine of getup-gotowork-workworkwork-gohome-watchtv-gotobed. but i'll be back soon enough.

ok, back to work.

mara good luck on your papers!