Where was your salsa made?

this was my day last wednesday in nyc:

jewish diner for breakfast
subway to lower east side
world trade center
battery park
statue of liberty (looked at, didn't visit actual island)
wall street
new york stock exchange
federal building
times square
john's pizza
rockerfeller center
grand central station
nap/change
6 train to yankee stadium
yogi berra t-shirt
memorial park
batting practice
stadium club for dinner
left field level seats
make fun of manny ramirez
mariano rivera strikes out the side
yankees win 8-3 over the sox
quick bite at a deli
greenwich village
union square
sleep.

i've checked, and it is mathematically impossible for the day to get any better.

other things we did in nyc:
empire state building
times square at night
little italy
ferraro's canolis
central park
mickey mantle's
metropolitan museum of art
death ride 07 (cab ride)

all in all i don't think i've ever been that stoked about a vacation. nyc is an insanely awesome place to visit and i can't wait to go back. there's so much to do there, and the city truly never sleeps. absolutely insane. and the people there were actually pretty nice too, as long as you weren't driving a cab or a delivery truck. everyone we met on the subway was really nice, and even helpful in pointing out things to see or places to go. we kept a pretty frantic pace the whole time because we were only there for a few days. i wasn't feeling too good, but the adrenaline def overcame the tiredness. (although right now i'm sooooo tired i can hardly move). anyways there was so much to see, and so much to write about, i hardly know where to begin. i guess i'll hit the major highlights. on tuesday evening we went to the empire state building which was absolutely surreal. my perspective was completely thrown off and the world seemed out of proportion. it's hard to describe, but if anyone else out there has been, maybe they could chime in on the experience. we also went to little italy for dinner, which was good mostly due to the fact that we were in the middle of mafia waste management territory.
the highlight, and the reason for the trip was the yankee game on weds night. i couldn't have gone to a better game. the red sox were in town, and curt schilling got shelled early and often by the bronx bombers. the yankees turned their bats on and played a pretty solid game. but the best part of the game by far was the atmosphere, we couldn't have paid to sit by better fans. they were loud, obnoxious, and hilarious the whole night, which is exactly why we went to the game. yankee stadium itself is a truly classic stadium. i felt like i was part of a much larger history of baseball there, almost like it was my duty to go there and watch a game. if baseball was a religion, yankee stadium would be mecca, it's a place every baseball fan should go to at least once. and yes, fenway park is up on the list too, but that's another trip.
on thursday we went to central park and then the met, which is by far the greatest museum i've ever been too. i could spend a week there. we saw so many famous painting it's kind of hard to remember, but my favorites were; washington crossing the delaware, death of socrates, the thinker, warhol's mao ze dong, the jackson pollock, and the original picasso drawings.
i guess to sum it all up, i had a great few days. good people, lots of stuff to do, always a place to go, and way too much good food to eat. i guess i'll end with my:
TOP TEN OBSERVATIONS FROM MY NYC TRIP
10. if you speak english, you are not the most inept traveler at the airport
9. everyone walks: supermodels (of which i think i saw a few), businessmen, tourists...
8. you are never more than 100 yards from a place to eat
7. taxis are lame, take the subway
6. there are no taco bells in manhattan (sorry mi hermana, valleygirl)
5. expletives are more prevalent than tall buildings
4. (tie) it is still not cool to be a mets fan/ everywhere you go, you see something from die hard 3
3. posted signs and speed limits to do not apply to cab drivers
2. there are zero gas stations in manhattan
1. nyc has talent

so that's the big highlight of this blog. there's a bunch of other stuff going on besides that, but i had to get the exciting stuff out of the way first. let's see what else is on the plate...

27
another birthday down. yeah. they really don't mean as much as they used to. to be honest, i had kind of forgotten it was my birthday until that night i had to sign and date a hotel bill for springfest. i guess the next big one is 30. word around the apt is that the big 3-0 celebration may involve a boxing match in vegas. we'll see. my pick would be a safari in africa. like i said, we'll see.

season finale
tis the season for the finale, so i guess i'll give my rundown on my favorite shows and the finales.

heroes had the best finale, and i can't wait to see where they go with the show next season. although there wasn't a great fight like i had envisioned, it was cool to see everything come together at the end. and hiro nakamura cemented himself as the coolest character on tv by far with his swordsmanship, and ever pressing desire to do the right thing.

the office came in with a close second. oh man, that show gets funnier every week. the quotes from michael scott get better every week too. and i'm really glad that they didn't go the expected 'jan is pregnant' route that they hinted towards. also, i have to say, i'm more excited about ryan being michael's boss than the whole pam and jim thing.

lost finally picked things up by somewhat answering some questions, but they still pulled their typical i-don't-think-the-writers-know-where-this-is-going ending by bringing up more questions. thumbs up to the show for showing the future in the cutaway segments, thumbs down for bringing back locke from the dead so he can not shoot jack.

house is one of those longshot hits for me. i'm getting tired of the pretty formulaic routine of the show, but house as an irreverent jerk is always intriguing. props to the season finale for letting go of the entire staff.

and lastly, the 24 season finale was lame. way too predictable, and not nearly as tension filled as the rest of the season. seriously, the threat of a nuclear attack in the beginning of the season was way more intriguing than who was going to end up with a computer chip in the second half. and will somebody get jack bauer something to eat?

workout
with being sick the past few days, and my trip to nyc, it's been over a week since i've hit the gym. at this point i'm just trying to regroup and get my body healthy before summer hits, and i've all but abandoned any hope of running an entire 5k, although i still plan on trying. fortunately my schedule for the next few days gives me plenty of opportunity to get back to the gym, which unlike any other time i've tried working out, is actually something i'm looking forward to doing.

fishing
every guy wants to picture themselves as the rugged outdoor type, and to fulfill that need we go fishing. it's not that we actually catch fish, it's that we have a line in the water. i've been fishing twice in the past few weeks, and i have a feeling there will be more soon to come. i don't know why i enjoy fishing, but i do. i guess that should be some sort of man-law: man shall catch fish. and by the way, i have actually caught fish on these ventures, just not a lot, and not very big.

basketball
i just don't care anymore. someone asked me if i watched any of the playoffs the other day, and my friend had the best response i've heard in a while, "they still play basketball?" and to answer the question posed by an analyst on espn the other day, basketball needs to ditch the melodramatic selfishness, and start emphasizing teamwork and respect.

whatchya say
snl is funny again. they have great characters and the digital shorts are genius. be sure to catch the repeats when you can, especially the peyton manning show.

golf balls
i'm going to hit a few before class tonite. later.

one love, one heart.