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Wow, it’s been a while since I last blogged. All in all everything has been going pretty good. We’ve settled into our new place. It’s really nice. It has three bedrooms and two baths. It’s in a brand new apartment complex on the ground floor. Oh at last on the ground floor again. I hate lugging furniture up stairs. We’re just about through unpacking and things are shaping up pretty good.

Work this past week has been really exciting. Well exciting if you’re into geeky tech stuff. You know, I think I’m pretty close to doing the type of electronics work I’ve wanted to do since getting out of tech school. It seems like all that time I spent preparing to be the test engineers right hand man is finally paying off.

The area that we live in is quite picturesque with mountains in the distance, pine trees and smooth river stones. As beautiful as it is, it’s not very ethnically diverse. I look around and find that I’m the only black guy in the area. But that’s ok, I walk around like I don’t see the difference. So there I go around wearing my all black trendy New York garb. You know, the black slim cut Zara jeans, black turtle neck sweater and black Kenneth Cole’s acting like it’s perfectly natural out here in the boon docks. It’s funny sometimes it seems like the difference between fitting in and not is just your attitude. Not that I’ve fit in or anything. I guess I’ve just found a way to feel comfortable while doing it.

Music: Toad the Wet Sprocket, “Windmills”

Do you ever get the feeling that your life is on pause and you’re waiting for someone to press the play button? ‘Cause I’m feeling like that right now. We’ve finally gotten the apartment thing figured out. At least now we know where we’re going to live, but our stuff is still back east. So now I’m just waiting… Waiting to get our stuff to Washington state.. Waiting to start my sweet new job… Waiting to make more friends out here. Well in the friendship department we’ve made some progress. We’ve met a couple really cool families. One family, after we met them for the first time, invited us to join them for lunch at a really neat restaurant downtown. They are a riot. Just Super cool. Another couple, whom we found out also likes to shop at Ikea, has offered to help us unload the moving truck when we get back. I’ve already invited them to dinner as soon as we get our stuff setup in the new apartment.

You know it’s really something special getting to know new people. Each one is almost like a new adventure. There are twists and turns and new discoveries around every corner, some good, some interesting. But then again sometimes it’s what I live for. Because often when you least expect it you find one that turns to gold. I’ve been really fortunate in that respect. Somehow in the muddle that is life I seemed to have amassed the coolest bunch of friends a person could have.

Now the only problem I have is trying to get them all in one place. Earlier today I was talking with “E” and lately he has been reminiscing about all the good times our group enjoyed and how it seems most of us are now on the West Coast. Wouldn’t it be great to have a community filled with all of your best friends and their friends. A place where everybody knows your name… And they’re always glad you came…

Please tell me I didn’t just say that.

I must be getting tired. The brain is starting to slip.

Music: Paul Woolford, “Essential Mix 2005.10.02″

We finally arrived in Washington State after three and a half days of driving. We left on Sunday afternoon after learning there would be heavy snowing in the northeast for the next few days. And its a good thing we left early too because snow it did. We seemed to have missed most of the really bad weather.

While driving through the Midwestern states I was amazed by the landscape. The view of the mountains and hills in the distance, some covered with a sprinkling of snow and dried brush were really awesome. Check it out.

Music: Pendulum, “Through the Loop”

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”