French Protests

I'm sure by now, most of you have read about the protests in France. If not, the brief synopsis is that unions, inspired by young people, have been protesting a proposed law that would make it easier to fire (and thus from an economic perspective, easier to hire) people under the age of 26. Well, the protests have been going on for at least a week now I think, and have started to turn mildly violent.

So, as I was watching the news this morning, a thought occurred to me. Am I the only one who thinks that if the French worked even 25% as hard as they protest, this whole issue probably would have never came up in the first place?

Vegas Baby!

So I just got back from a 4-day/4-night trip to Vegas. By a full day, this was the longest time I had ever spent in Vegas, and man did I feel the consequences as I was about to take off on the red-eye Sunday night. Enough pain/lack of sleep/alcohol withdrawal that I took Monday off to recover. Unfortunately this didn't quite work as I feel like I have bronchitis right now from all the secondhand smoke (thanks Terence and Gaurav).

The trip was AMAZING. As any guy reading this surely knows, Thursday-Sunday was opening weekend of March Madness. 48 games in 4 days. I probably watched some or all of about 3/4 of the games, missing the remainder only due to the requisite naps. Yes I know what you're saying - who naps in Vegas? Normally I never do, but they become absolutely necessary when you're partying/drinking/gambling until 830am and then heading straight to a Sportsbook on no sleep.

I won't waste people's "valuable" times with all the details, so here are a few highlights. Aashish/Gaurav/Terence, please add comments with anything that I missed - my memory is understandably hazy:

- 2 strippers in a row thinking me and Terence were brothers (we've gotten this plenty of times before, but never by strippers). The best part was one of the strippers not believing me when I said we weren't related and demanding that we do a genealogical study. The second best part was Terence shouting "incest" when one of the strippers gave me a lap dance right after giving him one (emphasis on "after" - not "during" - for any smart-asses out there).

- An asshole USC alum, who had bet against Cal, while we were watching the Cal game asking me "What's your team for college football?". To which I responded, "I went to the same college for both football and basketball." Yup Shashank, these are your classmates.

- Coming straight from the blackjack tables at around 830am, back to the room, to start drinking Grey Goose before heading out to watch basketball. I think I took like 4 showers a day to offset the lack of sleep.

- I must be spoiled by New York steaks. We went to Delmonico's, which is supposedly one of the best steakhouses in Vegas. Comparable prices to some of the best steaks in NY. Quality, in my opinion, did not even come close. I am gonna miss New York. My arteries will not.

- Great ego boost being carded pretty much everywhere I drank/played cards. I understand it's Vegas and they're just being extra careful, but after turning the depressing age of 26, it was still nice. Plus some fat girl that one of my friends (to remain nameless for his sake) was trying to pick up on guessing that I was 22. Good times!

- Went to a great, relatively new club called Tao, in The Venetian. Of course, since we were 4 dudes strolling up to a club with a line that was at least an hour long, we had to pay the bouncer $50 each to get in, but it was well worth it. Great club, definitely recommended to anyone going to Vegas anytime soon. Be careful though - it's a huge club and in my state of non-sobriety I got lost and separated from my friends on more than 1 occasion. Thank God for text messaging.

- Slight tangent from Vegas. But one of my friends I met up with there has a Treo phone. Did you know you can download porn onto those things? Again, good times!

- Terence de-virginizing one of my friends from LA. A guy friend no less. Ok that sounded pretty bad. All I meant was that T generously paid for the guy's first-ever lap dance.

- Gaurav running around the Luxor casino at 10am (after another night of no sleep) going up to any random person he saw - male, female; old, young, it didn't matter - asking to take a picture with them. Gaurav, you have no shame, but I loved it. I haven't laughed that hard in ages. I'm not technologically savvy enough to know how to put pics up on my blog, but check out Terence's as I'm sure he'll have some up soon.

Like I said, those were just some highlights. Outside of that, it was pretty much 96 hours of watching basketball, playing blackjack (broke even, which is a win in my book), partying, getting lap dances, and drinking Grey Goose, Patron, Jager and Miller Lite. Now, back to the NYC for 19 more days of the same before I head out of here.

Good times!

P.S. Check out Gaurav and Terence's blogs (links on the right). G's has got some great stories and I'm sure T's will as well.

Tao:



Grey Goose at 830am:

It's Starting to Sink In

First off, for those of you who I haven't told, I recently made the decision to accept an offer to go work in London for a few months. Basically the same group I am in now, so the work will be similar. My last day of work here in NY is March 31, then a week off to move out of my apartment, then off to London until the end of June. (Sidebar - I have only like 3 friends in London, only 1 of whom is a regular partyer, so if any of you have friends out there that are somewhat tolerant of people like me, please either send me their contact info or send mine to them).

So the countdown is officially on. 26 days until I leave New York, after 4 years and 9 months. Hard to believe I've been here a full year longer than I spent in Berkeley. Time sure does fly when you're an investment banker (for 3 years) and drinking heavily (for 4 years and 9 months). I'm trying to make the most of my final days in this amazing city by going out as much as is humanly possible for a 26-year old with liver problems, which this past weekend meant being either drunk or hungover pretty much every waking hour.

Anyways, back to the inspiration for this posting. Earlier today, I cancelled my gym membership (you have to do it a month in advance). Since I've been too lazy to start packing any of my stuff up yet, this was really the first "Before I leave NY" errand I've done. And man, it really hit home. Fortunately, outside of packing, I don't have too many of those types of errands to run - I can just see myself trying to ship a few boxes back to LA and breaking out into overflowing tears before some deranged USPS worker "goes postal" on me and ends it all before I even leave. Knock on wood.

Here's to making the last 26 days ones to remember.

Once you go Vegan...

OK, not really gonna end that statement the way it normally ends. I still need my steak, chicken, shrimp, salmon, turkey, milk, etc.

But I went to this Vegan restaurant in the West Village called Gobo last night with a few friends (having Jain friends is money when it comes to finding the best veggie food in the city). Both me and Smitty, the only 2 meat-eaters in the group, were very pleasantly surprised. Frankly, I'm still not exactly sure what it is we ate - there was definitely some Tofu as well as some sort of soy thing with a nice, meaty texture.

Anyways, for anyone who lives in the city - veggie or non - I would highly recommend trying Gobo. I definitely learned a lesson in that not ALL of my meals have to involve something that used to breathe.

Of course, we ended the evening smoking hookah and drinking Grey Goose and Jager shots. Had to do something unhealthy to offset the food.