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Today Amanda took us to Philly. Of course, Amanda doesn’t even need an excuse to go to Philly. That’s her town. This was our first time going there for fun. Satonya and I had been a couple times before, but that was mainly to go shopping at the two Philadelphia area Ikea’s. We saw both the ghetto and the posh sides. It’s really a nice city. And even the ghetto isn’t as much of a ghetto compared to New York. Clean streets, awesome murals on some of the buildings, and cool places to eat. We ate at Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que at Penns Landing. It was really good. Even better than Dallas BBQ. Afterward we headed downtown. Like I said Philly is a really nice city. We went to the gourmet type market downtown and the main cruising strip. Cool, trendy little clothing stores, restaurants, bars. That strip was made for walking and oh yes we walked it. I took a few pics, but we were on the go so none of them were as clear as I would have liked them to be.

An interesting conversation took place in the car on our way back home. Though I don’t intend on divulging the contents of the conversation. I have to say that men and women have a markedly different way of communicating. I’m often amazed that we can communicate at all. Or, perhaps we only believe we’re communicating and each has their own, and probably very different, idea of what the conversation was about. Maybe its better that we don’t know the extent of our miscommunication. But somehow we seem to understand enough to get by and find happiness in coexistence. And to that, all I can say is Vive la differance!

Music: Kaskade, “Everything (Kaskade’s Big Room Mix)”

So again, like MoJo-JoJo before me I was again beaten up by the Power-Puff girls. Why do I do it? I guess its because I love hanging out with cool people that are like family.

So, here’s a run down. Arrive on Friday dinner consisted of pitas, cold cuts, strawberries and Strawberry Cheese. How cool is that?

On Saturday I got to have some of my favorite beer Paulaner Hefe Weizen which put me in just the right mood to be covered up in pillows by the Power-Puff girls and treated like a talking couch. Just when I had forgotten what its like to be a five year old’s favorite toy.

On Sunday we went to the meeting and we met up with Eva from my doctors office and I got to give her the good news that I probably won’t be back at the doctors office for another six months. Yippie!! My friends said it was good to see me eating again, and believe me its good to be eating like a normal person again. Now I can do all of that cool stuff again like drinking coffee (budding Starbuck’s fanatic), drinking alcohol (Aspiring Wine connoisseur) and eating cheese. I LOVE CHEESE. After the meeting we enjoyed the company of a couple from Jackson Heights that are now at Patterson. I had only seen them in passing in Queens, but now we got a chance to sit down and talk for a while. For dinner we had pork roast with cranberries and for desert pumpkin cheese cake. Did I mention that I LOVE CHEESE cake.

Monday was great too. We headed out to the Vanderbilt Mansion, took some pictures and drove past the Franklin D. Roosevelt Mansion. We ate at this neat little diner, you know the kind that’s made out of all chrome. The kind that seems to be a staple on the East Coast. The food was really good. There I found the sandwich I had been craving. It was a bacon and blue-cheese cheese burger, except it was served as a club-sandwich and it came with sweet potato fries. That was different, but not in a “That’s odd” way but in a “Hey that’s imaginative” way.

When we got back home, I found the two Python books I ordered at my doorstep. So I’ve got some good reading ahead of me, as I devour yet another programming language.

Today, I got started packing up the apartment. I say “I got started” because Satonya began about a week ago. I know that we have to move, but I’m not completely sure where to yet. So I could be writing you from Bora Bora soon or even New Delhi. But probably no where that exotic. Who knows I might even end up on the West Coast. Of course if i get a job offer from a company in the area I’de be happy to hang around a bit longer. But things seem to be a bit dry in this neck of the woods. So the search continues.

Music: Seal, “Colour (Acoustic)”

So we’re almost finished packing up the apartment getting ready to leave tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to the long drive. It’s funny, I’ve always looked forward, with eager anticipation, to moving to a new area, often with less “emotional detachment difficulties” than the friends and family I left behind. I’ve always had the luxury of being able to look forward to the next big new thing I was moving to, weather it was a new job or new surroundings. I’ve always had the next new thing securely in hand. This time, however, will be the first time I’ll be moving to a cold start, that is without having a job in hand or having secured a place to stay. Both of which I’ll be working vigorously to secure before too long.

I wonder if this is how the old pioneers felt when leaving in their wagon trains to settle the untamed west. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not worried, I’m just concerned =) Moving to the west coast has been a goal of mine for the past six or seven years. Ever since the first time I went to California I’ve been in love with the west coast. That love affair was rekindled after my first trip to Seattle and its still simmers in the back of my mind like the long awaited unrealized desires of childhood fantasies. Yet, at the same time I’m starting to suffer from those same “emotional detachment difficulties” that my friends and families have suffered so oft as I satisfied my wanderlust. Could it be that I’m beginning to (ugh!) “settle down” in my old age?

Music: Underworld, “Two Months Off”

So this weekend we’re heading out to Mike and Lisa’s. I just know I’m gonna have a blast. Not that we’re gonna party or anything. But there are just some places that makes you feel like home. Mike and Lisa’s was a mainstay for me during those first few years in NYC. Don’t get me wrong, New York was cool for what it had to offer, the cool spots in the city, the trendy little resturaunts and bars, the Cellar Bar, Cavo’s. Good times all of them. I lolved my friends there, but I hated the city itself. I know I’m probably not making any sence here, eh.. who cares. But when the city was just too much for me, I headded out to Mike and Lisa’s. There is something about being around really cool people and getting beaten up by the “Power Puff Girls” that makes it all worthwile. Somehow I’m looking forward to becomming a toddlers favorite toy again. It’s a really great thing when frieindships become like gold.

Enough for now. Good times here I come.

Music: Pendulum, “Plastic World”

Yesterday was really awesome. We went to family night with Joy and Chuck. It was really fun. It started off with a Broadway type tap-dance number. Out in front was none other than my best friend’s wife Cindy. She was really good. I had no idea she knew how to tap. And I’m not just saying that because she got me in as a guest. There were two original songs, two solos, cultural dances from Hawaii, The Philippines and Mexico, various comedy acts and a Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Like I said it was really awesome.

Afterward we went to Williamsburg to eat. The wait for a table at Sea was ridiculously long. The entrance was totally packed. Fortunately, because Williamsburg is such a cool little area, we walked over to another really cool restaurant, Planet Thailand. Didn’t it used to be Planet Thai once? Any way really cool restaurant, good food. But what’s with the “We only accept cash”? Who pays with cash these days. “Coincidentally” they had an ATM machine in the restaurant right next to the DJ’s station. A two dollar ATM fee. Can you say kickback?

I was my usual reserved self. Then the conversation changed to type casting. Chuck thought I was an INSP or something like that. Wow, that was off. Do I really act that differently from my personality at times? I told him I’m an INFJ, and I think he started realizing it after a while. He said he should have observed me a bit longer. I came pretty close In guessing his type. I was only off by one letter. All in all, I think Chuck is a pretty nice guy. I think he and Joy will be good together. Somewhere in the conversation someone said Joy was an INFJ, but I don’t believe it for one second. Truthfully, I don’t know what Joy is. I think I stopped type casting my friends shortly before I first met her. I mean it’s so much work to correctly type cast someone and these days I prefer to be pleasantly surprised by someone’s personality. I guess I’m becoming more laid back in some areas.

Music: Timo Maas “Caravan (featuring Finlay Quaye)”

Well, they say the first time is always special, so I guess this must be a really special time for me. With my first blog and everything. Wow, I feel like such a man now.

I am so stoked. I feel like I’m on the top of the world. I’ve got great tunes playing in the background, I’ve just switched to Mac from my life of PC enslavement. I’m discovering so many new things I can do easily with my Mac. It’s funny, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with computers, now I feel like I’m falling in love again. You know things are not so bad on the other side.

Music: timo Maas. Feat Brian Molko, “First Day”