Merry Christmas

All right, it's a day late. I spent Christmas at Amit's (aka Poo) sister's house in New Jersey, playing drinking games, watching Miami beat the Lakers (how 'bout that Shaq interview after the game?) and dealing with Poo bitching about his pink eye or whatever the hell eye affliction it was.

After dinner, we were off to the merry spot of Atlantic City. We survived the torrential rainstorms and Ronak's inability to properly throw the change into the toll collector, and arrived at about 10pm to a surprisingly packed AC. After a couple shots of Jager, we split up - me, Ronak and Poo's sister to blackjack tables, and Poo to a roulette table. After about 5 hours of gambling, we had done pretty well as a group, despite the challenges caused by dealers who didn't realize that 18> 17 and random-ass garden staters following me to the cashier asking me for money to play cards. Most importantly, I was up about $700, which should fund a good chunk of my impending trip to Istanbul. We then headed to the buffet at the Taj (which I am SERIOUSLY regretting right now) and back on our merry way around 4am.

My flight leaves for Istanbul in about 4 hours. Very much looking forward to popping a sleeping pill and passing out for the majority of the 10 hour flight, and waking up to some good hookah and hummus.

I'll try to post from Istanbul where I will hopefully have some remotely interesting stories. Happy New Year.

Labor Unions

By now (assuming most people who are bored to the point of reading my blog have already exhausted cnn.com and other websites first), you have all probably heard about the MTA strike that started at 3AM today here in New York. Basically, all of the public buses and the subway system are completely shut down.

I'm one of the lucky ones - a door-to-door walk to work of about 18 minutes. But I have co-workers who have to walk twice that long. I haven't talked to some other friends, but I'm sure there are many people who are either walking 30+ minutes to work (in wind-chill temperatures in the low-teens) or are spending $15 or $20 each way to take a cab that they don't even get to themselves. Less fortunate people who live in Brooklyn have to walk all the way across the bridge to get to work.

Admittedly, I don't know the whole story behind the strike. Something about pay raises (I believe the union is seeking an 8% annual raise), health benefits (currently, workers pay no premium for basic coverage - $0), disciplinary action and retirement age (currently workers get 50% of their salary as pension starting at age 55...how many of you have parents who are 55+, and how many of them have retired?). It sure seems to me that the union leadership picked a GREAT time to walk off the job. Sure, why not let millions of people walk around in freezing temperatures while we sit on our fat, lazy asses to try to get more money? Tourists having trouble getting around the city? Welcome to New York bitches! God forbid we should have to work past the ripe-old age of 55 or pay 2% of our salary for healthcare.

I f'ing hate unionized labor!

Karma's a Biyatch

For those of you who know me (which I assume is all 3 of my readers), you know that I'm not a very sensitive guy. So, when my friends have lost or broke their cell phones, cameras, iPods, etc., I'm usually the first person pointing and laughing.

So far, I've had pretty good luck with these kinds of things. I think I've lost/broken 2 cell phones in the 7 or 8 years that I've had one, and have never lost my camera (though that probably is a function of the fact that I never use it).

So, today there is a pretty heavy snowstorm here in NY. Normally, I walk the 15 blocks to work, but today I took the subway. I'm sure all of you are trying to guess what happened next - some hobo stole my cell phone or my wallet? Close. As I was getting off the train, my headphones got caught on some dude who wasn't making proper room for working stiffs like me to get off at Grand Central. So my iPod got pulled out of my coat pocket, and gravity did the rest.

The real karma lies in the fact that the iPod decided to fall in the 3 inch crack between the subway and the platform. Bye bye iPod. Some dude suggested I wait for the train to leave and go retrieve it. I don't want to sound pompous, but my iPod isn't worth that much (though, now that I've had some time to digest all this, is my life all that valuable either? oh well, too late now).
I'm dreading going to the gym these next couple of days and having to run without having music to listen to. I suppose I could borrow Smitty's, but I'm really not into all the Bollywood crap that he listens to.

So, if anyone has any suggestions as to which iPod I should get (I'm debating between the Nano and one of the Video ones) and also where given the holiday scramble, please let me know. I promise I won't point and laugh next time you lose your phone/camera/iPod.

This is Painful

There's 1:43 to go in the first half. Seattle 28, Philadelphia 0. 3 interceptions. 2 returned for TDs, the other to the Eagles' 3 yard line. Looks like my Iggles are gonna be the 5th straight Superbowl loser to miss the playoffs. It's been an excruciating 11 months, dating back to the Superbowl loss to the Patriots, to all the TO drama, to Jerome McDougle getting shot in a robbery, to Pinkston and Buckhalter suffering season-ending injuries during the preseason, to more TO drama, to McNabb getting hurt.

While I'll never give up hope that we can go 9-7 (hell, maybe even 10-6 if something miraculous happens in the 2nd half tonight), I'm a realist, and it looks like 2005 is a lost season for my birds. I am fully confident we'll retool in the offseason and get healthy. We'll sure as hell be pissed off about this horrible season, take the last place schedule the NFL will give us, and come back to win the newly-strong NFC East. I'm not sure off the top of my head where next year's Superbowl is, but God knows it's gotta be in a better city than Detroit. I'm gonna book my plane ticket tomorrow.

Good night. Oh, by the way, it's 35-0 Seattle now. I need a drink.