It’s December… Whoa

It’s been a long, interesting year, I gotta say.  When compared to my personal boom year of 2008, this year was just all over the map in every possible way.  Let’s go down memory lane to see what’s transpired this year in my life, in a nutshell, and in no particular order:

• Lost my job in April (still looking for that elusive full-time job)
• Temping at a wide variety of businesses all over DC, the work ranging from front-desk reception to database management (using stuff like Access and mySQL)
• Change-up in housemates in the basement – twice
• Upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 (for my techie side, this was pretty epic)
• Dad went under the knife – twice – but has since recovered
• Mom is officially getting ready to retire
• Gave up my Brooklyn apartment
• Attended the funeral for my best friend’s mother, who was a mother to me as well
• Visited another one of my best friends in Portland, OR, for ten days
• Rode Amtrak cross-country, from DC to Portland, in 3.5 days

Of course, lots of other things have gone down this year, but a lot of what’s directed my actions and goals has been my financial situation, which is tied to the full-time job I presently don’t have.  As you can imagine, I’ve cut back on a lot of events that I would normally attend on a monthly basis, such as Pulsewave in NYC, as well as personal get-togethers every now and then, because of money constraints.  I can definitely say that I’ve never been so in-touch with my money as I am now; every dollar spent is accounted for and most frivolous purchases have been relegated to an ever-growing wishlist of items I want to buy once I do land a new job.  Thanks to my boy Jesse, I’ve been using Mint.com to help manage my finances, looking at the scary numbers (such as the remaining student loan payments I need to kill) alongside the nice numbers (my savings and checking accounts).  It definitely helps to keep my financial situation in perspective.  You know that saying about how people who went through the depression still are thrifty and manage their finances as if an economic depression were around the corner?  Well, I can now honestly say that I know where those mentalities come from and why they persist… I’m almost sure I’m going down that road myself.

I will say, this chapter of my life, working as a temp, will be a great one to tell in the future.  I’ve been to so many businesses and met so many people – and more importantly, I’ve made a lot of strong network connections.  I have a reference sheet that practically goes out the window and into next week (yes, it penetrates space and time it’s that amazing) because I’m just that awesome!  But in all seriousness, it’s because I’m just that hard of a worker and managers and directors have come to see that wherever I’ve gone.  This usually leads to sobering conversations with them: I’ve been told on more than one occasion at a few very desirable companies that if I came to them as a temp two years ago, I would’ve gotten a full-time job almost immediately!  I’ve seen the finances of a few places so I know how tight of a budget they’re operating with, but the conclusion is that unless their budget for employees increased, someone retired, were fired, or quit, the odds of me getting work from the places that really want me is almost zero.

Despite my financial situation, I still managed to organize one trip over the summer to Portland, OR, to hang out with my best friend, Alex.  I’ve been in Portland once before, but this time it was for a full ten days, and since I was looking to do this on the cheap I chose to fulfill one of my lifetime goals: To ride a train coast-to-coast in America.  Booking Amtrak tickets was way cheaper than the airlines and I wanted the adventure, so it worked out in that sense.  I had no idea I’d have as much fun as I did during that 3.5-day train ride.  Over 500 pics were taken during the ride alone (pics here, here, and here), let alone the pics taken while in Portland itself.  The story of the Amtrak ride is a great one, but in extreme summary: I boarded the train in DC by myself, but arrived in Portland with four new friends.  Yup, EXTREME summary!!!

On a totally different subject, my dad went under the knife twice this year, once to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland and again a few months later to zap away colon cancer.  Fortunately, they found the cancer and tumor before they grew to nasty proportions and before the cancer became malignant.  However, the recovery process was still trying, especially since both of these operations occurred this year.  Today, my dad has recovered from the operations and is back to doing his workouts and fixing up the house… though any heavy-lifting’s gonna have to wait a bit longer!  And since we’re talking about family here, my mom is now getting everything ready for her retirement, which is going down in January 2010!  Once that passes, it’ll just be a matter of time before they permanently move to North Carolina for their ultimate retirement getaway.

On the subject of family, one of my best friends had a funeral for his mom, pretty much setting the stage for what would be a chaotic year.  It was definitely tough, as one could imagine, especially since I viewed his mom as my mom as well, practically on-par with my real mother, I was so close.  However, a couple of months after that funeral, things have soured drastically between him and me… but that’s something that I won’t be discussing here.  <sigh>

Leaping to a totally unrelated area, Windows 7 came out!!! W00t!!!  FUCK YOU, VISTA.  I managed to legally obtain the full version of Win7 Home Premium for a whooping $37, so there was nothing to stop me from upgrading.  Boy, was the upgrade worth it on so many levels!  Some big pluses: boot-time is significantly faster; many of my games load and operate faster; GTA4 actually works; overall RAM footprint is significantly lower.  I highly recommend Win7 to anyone currently running Vista, and now I can recommend a new Windows-based OS to anyone still running the already-sweet Windows XP.  Now is the time to upgrade!

And last (but certainly not least), the house in DC has gone through two sets of housemates since 2009 began.  The dude that my rent money goes to, George, moved out to move overseas with his wife-to-be, Paola.  Shortly thereafter a new couple moved in: Mitch and Daniella.  Also pretty cool, especially since they cooked like demons almost every day!  And Daniella, your food was awesome, especially the birthday tacos you made for me – those were brilliant!  Unfortunately, Mitch’s long-term stay in DC was cut drastically short because of a job opportunity he received – which would require him to relocate to Texas.  Long story short, the offer was accepted and by the end of September he was out the house!  Now new housemate #2 moved in, Elaine.  I knew that she’d be awesome to live with when on the first day she brought stuff in she was wearing a “Homestar Runner” t-shirt.  HOT.  Things went from awesome to ZOMG WUT when we started to talk up a storm over the following weeks and months.  I’d say more, but then she’d probably have some gov’ment agents black-bag me and throw me into an unmarked van for interrogation.

Lots of other stuff happened in 2009, and there’s still the rest of December before this year is done.  I know I’ve said that 2009 has just been rocky from start to finish, but there have been many moments that were just overwhelmingly positive and great, but unlike 2008, there were a lot of painful and somewhat depressing moments as well.  With a new year fast approaching, I can only strive to make 2010 as great a year as possible.

With that, I take my leave, but I will definitely make the updating of this blog a new year’s resolution that I aim to keep!

Battle of the Buses

The primary way that I’ve gone to and from DC has been by bus, being that I don’t own (or care to own) a car and all.  That said, for several months I’ve been a pretty loyal customer to Eastern Travels, which is one of the bus companies that operates under the more commonly-known Chinabus – you know, the crazy-cheap busline that gets you to various places in the northeast on the cheap?  The past month, however, I have finally gotten around to trying the alternatives to the Chinabus: Bolt Bus and Megabus, the more organized competitors to Chinabus.

So without further ado, here’s my quick, early-morning review of all three buslines!  Personally (and at this particular juncture in my life), pricing takes top importance, followed by comfort and then extra amenities such as sockets and whatnot.

CHINABUS (EASTERN TRAVELS)

Pros: cheap ($21 w/ online fee); fun to be on, especially when you get a crazy driver!

Cons: when you get a crazy driver, you may be delayed thanks to the 5-0; very disorganized and sometimes shady; almost always packed to capacity; delays frequent on Friday’s.

I’ve spent the most time riding the Chinabuses out of the three, so I can definitely give some stories of what I’ve seen over the months, most of which isn’t good for this bus, especially after trying the alternatives.  Pricing aside, you have to be really careful when booking on Friday evenings; every time I did the bus was delayed at least 30 minutes, although one time it was delayed over 2 hours, long enough to say “Fuck it” and jump on Amtrak instead.  You definitely have to have a sense of adventure to ride these buses, since most of the time the drivers are plain psycho.  A common thing you’d see: Eastern Travel buses speeding while in the speed lane of a highway – like easily 75-80mph at times.  There was one time my bus was pulled over for speeding – ended up waiting about 25 minutes before we moved again – but we still got into NYC within 4 hours, which was amazing!  The departure and drop-off locations for Chinabuses are sometimes pretty sketchy, and can change on-the-fly, depending on the city and time of day.  In NYC, for example, they usually take up MTA bus line stops to pick people up.  But more drastically, they usually pick up and drop off in old parking lots between buildings or, in one case in DC, in a wide alleyway normally used for freight traffic.  Friggen awesome!  And Lastly, be ready for some crammed seating – because of the busline popularity, these buses are almost always stuffed to the ceiling w/ passengers!

BOLT BUS

Pros: very, very comfortable seating; sockets in every seat; all-American bus drivers that have bus licenses!

Cons: most expensive of the three ($25 w/ online fee)

I’ve ridden Bolt Bus twice, and in both cases I was not disappointed at all with my ride.  The buses never ran late, left almost precisely on-time, and seating was brilliant!  Everything about the bus was pretty slick: two sockets per person (very nice for my media player and phone) made the trip really good, and I personally had ample leg room, which is not a common trait in buses in my experience, given my height.  However, the pricetag makes it much less desirable today.  So…

MEGABUS

Pros: cheapest of the three ($19.50 w/ online fee); lots of space to yourself; movies shown that are good; double-decker buses!!!

Cons: sockets – ya either got ‘em or ya don’t; you could end up boarding a Chinabus chartered by Megabus.

The most recent run of buses has been Megabus, which initially blew me away by how cheap it can be, and then floored me when I had a socket to myself in the seat!  The fact that the buses are double-decked makes riding Megabus compulsory at least once, people!  The bottom level actually has tables and everything for groups of people I suppose, while the top houses the bulk of the seats.  Even with this arrangement, the seats are very comfy and despite the lack of overhead compartments, odds are good the seat next to you will be empty so you can utilize that!  However, the second ride did not have electric sockets, nor did the third, which leads me to believe that a small number of their buses actually have sockets, which sucks.  Also, when you go on their website you’ll notice that two types of buses run under the Megabus name: the trademark double-decker buses and then the single-level buses, which can sometimes “become” Chinabuses!  Whoa, dude, what’s up with that?!  I honestly don’t know, but because of this, I’ve always made sure I booked rides that were on the double-deckers so I knew I was going on a Megabus, er, bus.

FINAL CHOICE

~Megabus~

So there you have it, folks!  This will most likely be the bus I’ll be riding to and from DC for a good while.  Oh, never take Greyhound – they just suck 100%. Aight, time for me to pass out before I do just that on my keyboard… <yawn!>

Funny How Life Works

This won’t be a long post, mostly because it is being typed in my hometown, New York City.  But this is definitely something that has to be dumped out of my head before things begin to get fuzzy and ultimately fall into the realm of forgotten memories.

As what some high-ranking officials would say, there have been some organizational changes ’round these parts of Trevor’s life.  For one, I’m presently no longer in DC, as my job had me relocate back to the City after concluding that the office I was in wasn’t profitable to warrant it being in operation (of course it wasn’t profitable, what with it being three months old and all, but what of that?).  That gavel came down a month ago – crazy how time flies – which was proceeded by a few days of “stress relief” in the form of alcohol and girls.  Since then, I’ve been working back in good ol’ Jersey City, where I am with my corporate breatheren once again to ride the economic rollercoaster.

Much to the surprise of many of my friends here in the City and Jersey, I plan on ultimately moving back to DC.  There are a few reasons for this:

1. Despite all that I’ve outlined here in my blog about DC – most of which wasn’t good stuff by any means – I’ve found DC to be a great place to explore, as there is definitely a lot to our capital than meets the eye (including areas like Cap Hiii’ (thanks Andy for that awesome way to pronouce Cap Hill)),
2. When you don’t have to drive, DC is actually a decent place to be,
3. I have no desire to abandon my housemates, who have grown on me.

So with that said, you can probably make some assumptions as to what I am doing to make this goal a reality. Well, one part of this has been fulfilled as of yesterday afternoon: I officially got out of my lease in Brooklyn and am now living with my parents once again – at least temporarily.  Fortunately I had an excellent landlord who gave back my security in full so that money will help in my bills, one of the biggies being what I owe in NYS taxes.  This had to happen because I cannot afford to pay for two apartments on what I’m presently making, so one of them had to go.  And since all of my possessions are in DC… well, the decision was fairly simple, if not slightly painful.  After all, the place I have – had – in Brooklyn was suh-weeeeeeeeet; between it being the top floor apartment overlooking the JMZ line and having rooftop access, which in turn provided an even more amazing view at all times of the day, the place was an excellent first-apartment.  Can’t knock on my neighbors there too, or the neighborhood – both of those factors were very much in the green.  Hopefully I’ll be able to find a similar place in the future when I decide to move back to NYC… perhaps along the L in Williamsburg… nah, too many minivans (heh).

But in any event, I and my three weeks worth of clothes are in my old bedroom back with the ‘rents, but it’s ok.  After being greeted by a thick fog upon my departure from my apartment by Myrtle Avenue and Broadway, I almost felt that it was the City’s way of telling me that everything will be alright… and things will work themselves out provided I give certain events beyond my control their time to play out.  You may not be able to see exactly what the next street is down the block, but you know it’s there because of the blobs of red and green that you know are stoplights and walk/don’t walk signs.  It’s time to start fresh.  I can’t turn back now – I must keep moving forward.

Snowing Nostalgia

I was in Midtown Saturday evening when the first snowfall encompassed the City in that sweet white cloak that everyone, both natives and tourists alike, seem to look forward to every year.  At least that was the impression I got while walking around and standing in the snow, watching people pop out of bars, only to have their mouths drop to the floor and say things like “Wow, it’s snowing!” “This is beautiful,” and “Crap, this is gonna affect my commute.”

But I would have to say that one of the major emotional hits came when I left my apartment – I went back to my place in Brooklyn to collect my mail and to check up on the apartment – its cleanliness, the fridge… little things that bug me.  The only problem was that I brought the wrong apartment keys with me.  See, I was planning on making copies of my apartment keys so that I can have my friends show teh apartment for me while I’m in DC – so I can ultimately get someone to sublet the place.  Unfortunately, when I left my place in DC, I grabbed the original duplicates, which had two of the three keys needed for my place – the third key was for a lock that’s since been replaced on my apartment door.  I managed to get into my apartment (with the help of Anthony, the landlord’s assistant who lives across the hall from my place) and check the place out.  If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Anthony cleaned it even more after I left…

In any event, the emotional impact of New York: when I left the apartment, I took my walk from the front door to the Myrtle Avenue stop, as usual.  However, this time around I walked a little slower and started to take in everything that was around me: the grimy sidewalks with 20+ year-old bubble gum flattened into it and old cigarette butts resting in the crevices; the Spanish diner next to the Indian-run 99-cent store, next to a Chinese dry cleaners; the roar (or “howl” as I learned from some older people that lived there for a long time) of the J train as it passes overhead; the 24-hour delis that are on almost every corner; Dimension Foods… All of this started to sink in as I made my way up  the stairs of the train station as I realized that I really, really am gonna miss this aspect of a city like New York: it’s diversity, it’s not wanting to sleep or shut down ever, and how much this city’s been a part of my life.

I’m sure I’ll find plenty of good in DC – I’ve only lived here for a week now – but between the first snowfalls of the City and everything that it encompasses, I will find it hard to find my place here in our nation’s capital.

Last Day in the Jersey Office (with a Side of Music)

Before I start on today (which still isn’t done – I have to disconnect the very computer I’m typing on, pack some clothes for the three days in upstate NY, and head to the parent’s house at a reasonable time before the trains turn to shit), I must mention one more key highlight from yesterday: my last official piano lesson with Jinah, my teacher, at the Montauk Club.  We talked about a variety of things in the piano room for about 15 minutes, slightly rolling into the lesson time (I arrived early, as always), from relationships and the future to music and traveling.  She is definitely going to miss me and I still feel bad that I’ll be sacrificing my weekly lessons as a result of moving to DC.  The lesson that day was an overall review of everything I’ve learned over the last year and five months that I’ve been her student; many of the pieces played I admittedly haven’t reviewed in awhile, not just because of all the time I’ve recently been spending on packing but because I’ve simply focused more time on the newer pieces.  I got chewed out a bit on some of the earlier pieces but being able to continuously improve on the old and make it my own is something I’ve grown to enjoy in the world of piano playing.  As a final encore, she played a number of video game tracks on the piano that she hadn’t played before; the most powerful one she played was the “2300AD Overworld Theme” from Chrono Trigger… wow, just wow.  I seriously was flush listening to it, the tidal waves of nostalgia that rolled over me, bringing back memories of my first ventures into that desolate, destroyed world… and learning what caused it all.  For a moment I was the teacher, as it usually happens when she plays the sheet music I bring in – I describe the feelings associated with the songs and what is happening in the game when the track is played – in this way, she can convey the appropriate shaping and bring out the right notes.  Seriously, when this Chrono Trigger song looped and Jinah brought great emphasis on the first measure… the feeling was indescribable; it is that feeling and wanting to generate it myself – that is one of the major drives for my continuing to play the piano, even while in DC.

…With the end of another workday comes my last day (for awhile at least) in the Jersey office.  The Pro: I won’t be working in Dirty Jersey anymore (Papi took some offense to such terminologies associated with Jersey…hahaha, I’ll never take ‘em back!), so now my peoplez in New York can get off my back about that!  The Cons: …there are a couple, but the biggest is that I won’t be working alongside the crew of co-workers that I’ve become good friends with over the past 11 months.  I have grown quite fond of the various characters that have defined my experiences here, both in the office and at the bars after work:

• G-Man and his incredible ability to make me not only laugh (almost on-command, he’s that funny) but put things in perspective;
• Cheffron’s constant borrowing of electronic cables from me, our detailed talks of gaming and our increasingly growing PC-Apple feuds;
• Adrian’s Republican self – oh yes, I offended him a lot, but in recent days I think we may have started to get along;
• Jayna and our LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG walks;
• LaVornga (he seriously looks and sounds like my boy Alex, it’s scary sometimes) and his imposing presence, though he does allow us to keep the humor alive no matter how disruptive it is;
• Amit and his addiction to Black- I mean Crackberries (I blame him and Jayna for getting Cheffron hooked too);
• Berlin and his quiet deamenor… and yet he can shoot the most stolid stares… and when he curses, WHOA man, nobody sees it coming;
• Hodges… well what can I say – he’d get a few paragraphs to himself at this point, we’ve become very good friends and I enjoy spending time with his new family (and his parents – his mom’s awesome);
• Wendy and our great convos over not just video games (which, if it weren’t for work getting in the way, would not end) but of times in and around NY – she also is the only girl in the office to laugh hard the first time I made a cheezburger reference;
• Bayron and his affinity for music (I’ve listened to all the tracks by Telecom, the band he’s in) and the Beatles;
• Cesar and his ridiculous stares he made at me during demos that almost always made me stumble, as well as his knack for knowing exactly what to say;
• Wu and our constant uber-techie discussions (always a treat pre- and post-demo);
• Papi and his endless words of wisdom (many thanks), his Greek hair, and his very ecletic combination of words that, if written down, would not make sense but coming from him verbally seems to solve all the world’s problems…

Ahhhhhhh, very good memories, and all reasons why I’m gonna seriously miss all of them and the many people I know I didn’t list here.  Thanks for the good times everyone – I will definitely be keeping in touch and I look forward to coming back for the holiday party!  Hopefully before then I’ll meet with some of you… let’s make it happen!

I personally would like to continue this, but I unfortunately must break down everything that’s in front of me before it gets too late and I end up getting home around 11pm and get like five hours of sleep… which I guess wouldn’t matter since I’m not the one driving to my uncle’s house… screw it, I’m typing more! MWA-HAHAHAHAHA!

So after surveying what’s left of my apartment, I will have to get at least two more decent boxes to pack up my bathroom stuffs and the remaining loose items that are floating around here… hmmmm, thoughts of cleaning… rising… <looks towards the floor to the left of his Alienware computer> Crap!  OK, I guess I am not going to type anymore.  Time to sweep up the dust and reorganize the already-sealed boxes.

As Jill would say: “Ciao!”

T-4 Days

Well, today definitely stands out from the average Tuesday, which even with the whole relocation process was more eventful than average. Hell, I started typing this up on the Q train at 57th Street, patiently waiting for it to pull out-ahh, there’s the faint gong at 12:10am, followed by the mechanical “Stand clear of the closing doors please.”

A number of things happened today, but let’s start at the end of my day and work backwards, shall we?

For those that didn’t see me today, I was dressed up more than normal, though my co-workers would say that I always dress up above the average dresscode. I wore a black suit with the jacket (versus my normal dark-blue hoodie that makes me look mad ghetto) with an electric blue button-down shirt and a red tie with orange-yellowish dashes running down it. All of this was for a dinner with Jill, my older sister, at Azaleas, a sweet Italian restaurant and bar in Midtown. It was great seeing her after all these months; needless to say, we talked a LOT, catching up on a ton of stuff, taking pics, and having a real blast! Nico was there of course, providing me details of their new place (one floor up in their building) and also catching up. I could easily make this an entry just on Jill, but then I’d probably get into the realm of TMI and make some people queasy. Hmmm, this IS the Internet, what does that matter right?

That said, I just came. Above ground on the J to Brooklyn that is. (It’s 12:32am.) I really hope DC trains are this efficient after midnight…

The rest of the highlights went down at work, one of which involving two girls in particular, Jayna and Uzma.  Jayna and I went to lunch to round up a long line of discussions that we had over the past few days (“looooooooooong walks,” as she’d call it).  Uzma, by chance, joined us for lunch after we caught her napkin-diving by the condiment stand that was opposite the booth we sat in. I had a great time, especially with the line of conversations we all held, one major theme being how much food we all could put down while staying slim. Go fast metabolisms!

And now I am typing from my computer at home – it is 12:50am.  Damnit, I love the mass transit in this City so fucking much (I’ll even take the bullshit service changes on weekends)!

OK, back on track.  It sucks that this is the kind of thing that happens when I’m about to leave a city for another – for a long period of time.  Hopefully I am keep to my original commitment of hitting up NYC twice a month so I can meet up with them for a movie or two (let’s see just how good you REALLY are at smuggling food into theatres!).

Another highlight from work: I received the laptop that will allow me to get my work done while on the move!  Surprise, surprise: it’s brand-spankin’ new!  And being a Dell Vostro 1510, it apparently cost under 600 bucks.  However, before you knock the fact that it’s a Dell, don’t worry: I’ve been deleted all Dell-related software (cept for the one prog that allows the mousepad to work, of course, but I’m sure that could be replaced too) and all “default” programs that come with new computers today, like Roxio.  Ugh.  I’ve already installed ESET NOD32 (in place of… nothing: it came with no anti-virus software!) and plan on installing Nero for CD and DVD burning.  Here’s a quick rundown of important specs:

• Intel 1.8GHz Dual Core
• 2GB RAM
• 250GB HDD

Eventually it’ll be totally tweaked according to my specifications – it’s just a matter of time, but I give it a month at most.

…ok, I’d type more, but it’s friggen past 1am already.  Translation: I’m gonna be DEAD in the morning.  Simply dead.  And I cannot wait.

Seven Days Left

Hello Everyone!

As my first blog post (and blog) in a long time, I’ve decided to start up a blog that will allow my friends to track my experiences while I live and work in Washington DC.  As much as I’d hate to admit it, I know I’ll have a hard time keeping my communication lines open and active with all of my friends once I make the move.  Hell, it’s usually a challenge every now and again while I lived in New York City!  And now with seven days before I make this significant jump from one city to another I find myself with very little time to spend with all of my friends that I both see often and don’t see much at all…

Hopefully with the implementation of this blog, everyone I know can keep track of my day-to-day activities.  Sure, it won’t be the same as talking to everyone over the phone or meeting up with you guys over a quick dinner at one of the many diners in the City, but it’ll certainly be better than no communications at all!

With all that being laid out in the open, I must get back to packing up my Brooklyn apartment, one box at a time.  Well, except for my bed, which can’t fit in any boxes I have, but that’s being packed up too.  I’m currently waiting on Andy and Eddy to come by and assist in the complete breakdown of my bed – I’ll feel more comfortable with that process with at least one other person to shadow me and assist in moving the larger pieces of the bed around.  I’m definitely gonna need more boxes, as I’m down to one empty box left, which will most likely go towards either my video games or kitchen wares.  All this basically translates to me going box shopping at my job tomorrow; I’ll just bring home as many boxes as I can carry (broken-down, of course), which always makes for a fun commute, what with accidentally smacking someone on the side with them because I didn’t see them, or rushing down or up stairs taking up the width of two people.

OK, time to get back to work!