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From the Archives: Thanksgiving 2013 and 2008

Being Thankful on Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow; the wife’s already left to see her family.

Her: What’d you have for dinner?
Me: The usual, chili and rum. Oh, and some pretzels.

One of these days, I’ll write something better for Thanksgiving than what I did in 2008. But I still think it’s one of my best, for whatever that’s worth. I read it myself every so often to remind myself for all there is to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving 2008
The world is ridiculously unfair, but if you can read this post, chances are high it’s ridiculously unfair in your favor.

Back on Monday.

Location: getting dressed for the gym
Mood: tired
Music: I like to reminisce about a time I’ve never had
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A Trip to the New York Historical Society

Paying a Personal Space Fee

Me: Do you want to go to the New York Historical Society today?
Her: Sure.

I’ve lived in my neighborhood for almost two decades and, despite the museum being only a few blocks south of me, never went. Tickets were $18 a person, which for a museum, is a bit much. But there’s a benefit to it.

Me: Man, there’s no one here. It’s like we own the joint.
Her: This is great.

That’s the thing about NYC, no matter what you do or where you go, there’s always someone talking next to you, bumping into you, eating something, something.

I’m always surprised when I hear that the murder rate’s going down and not up.

Said it years ago; personal space in NYC is next to nuthin. But at this museum, there were times we didn’t even see another person.

If anything, the admission price was a personal space fee.

And the elevator was bigger than our kitchen.

As for the exhibits, they had lots of knickknacks from NYC excavations, which were admittedly cool. But, I did expect to see more pictures of old NY.

Her: Look down there.
Me: (looking) Hey, a bottle of rum!

There was an exhibit with a Picasso sculpture, and some works by Matisse and Monet as well. Pretty varied.

Afterward, we did our traditional meal of a slice of pizza and diet coke.

Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

Location: home working on my book
Mood: ambitious
Music: Wouldn’t you love to love her?
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Personal Goals

It gets harder getting things done

Me: Our sense of accomplishment changes as we get older. In fact I hit a personal goal this past weekend.
Him: Oh, what was that?
Me: No one called me. It was great to be left to my own devices.
Him: I know what you mean.

Was out in Staten Island yesterday. Sat in traffic for a good part of it. There, I met up with a fella that I’m mentoring for one of the things I do in life.

We both agreed that it gets harder and harder to fight the inertia as you get older.

David Allen, who wrote Getting Things Done, said that, “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.”

And that’s the problem: I wanna do everything. There are all these projects that I have in my head and I’m loathe to give up any of them.

I’d like to fix up my laughably bad German and my crappy Chinese, write more, wrestle more, fence more, cook more, etc. And yet, I have to constantly pick and choose.

Every day we’re given 24 hours to spend and I always find and I’m a day late and an hour short.

For the most part, I’ve cut out television – which has been huge – except for the news in the morning and the occasional Jeopardy contest with the wife.

For the most part.

Me: Do you think that a larger television would make our lives more fulfilling?
Her: No.
Me: OK, think about it for a bit and get back to me.

Location: my desk, still icing my damn leg
Mood: creative
Music: never one to be late, complain, express ideas in her brain
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A walk with David and Goliath

Reading Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath

Me: I took an online health quiz and it says my real age is 20.
Her: 20? That seems too young.
Me: I work out 1.5 hours a day!
Her: Ok, but were there any questions about how many hot dogs or pieces of fried chicken you eat?

My wife and I went out for a walk this past weekend. Stopped by the local bookstore and picked up Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath.

I’m only about seven chapters in, but like all his other books, the writing is snappy and subject matter is interesting. The basic premise is that the things that we think of as disadvantages may work out to be advantages and vice versa. But only time can show which is which.

This is a recurring theme in this blog as I think it’s all about growing into one’s self.

There’s this place in the Indian Ocean called the Desolation Islands that has an odd feature about the insects there: they don’t have wings and the particular species of insects are supposed to.

What the scientists have figured out is that the winds there are so strong that the ones that had wings were blown off centuries ago, leaving only the ones without wings.

Dunno if Gladwell mentions this in his book but it fits into his basic theme.

In my case, my childhood disadvantages – my astounding nerdy-ness and weight as a child – have helped me greatly as an adult.

With this in mind, I’m sure my constant eating of fried chicken will be an advantage in some capacity someday, if it hasn’t already.

Wrestling buddy: Oooooph, jeez how much do you weigh?!
Me: 170. Mostly as a one inch layer of fat distributed evenly throughout my body.
Him: I can’t breathe.

I’m actually writing another book myself called, A Great First Date that I’m hoping to be done with in a month of so.

I’ll tell you more about it as I wrap it up.

Location: my desk, icing my leg
Mood: injured
Music: The better things I have to say will fall to you
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PieFace and the Philippines

The lazy man’s way to help the Philippines

I was out the other night attending a seminar that my buddy was giving about internet marketing.

Went there mostly to support him but ended up learning a great deal about it. It’s always interesting when you see another side to people that you know.

Afterward, was heading home when I saw the Pieface food chain across the street and picked up some pies. Meat pies are something I would think would be a huge hit here and yet it’s not. They were so @#$@#$@# good.

Now I want another one. Pie. Made of meat. Brilliant.

The wife thought it was a pleasant surprise, which is also good because I tend to bring home things that are usually not so.

Her: If you’re going out, can you pick up paper towels?
Me: Paper towels, got it. (leave, come back)
Her: (looking into bag) So, by paper towels you thought I meant a bag of Doritos and a bag of Cheetos?
Me: Dammit!

On a more serious note, I present another very easy, lazy way to help the world – in this case the Philippines.

I just sent a few bucks to the Philippines Red Cross via PayPal and it took about two minutes here.

$5 would help greatly and is about the cost of a nice cuppa joe. $5 and two minutes a small price to pay to help save the world, I think.

Location: my safe home
Mood: concerned
Music: Crossed the sea to find a brother
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Birthday party at Formerly Crows

And the difference between Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day

It’s Veteran’s Day. Wrote something for Memorial Day a few years back that I think is still apropos.

In case you ever wondered, the difference between the two – Veteran’s and Memorial Day – is that the former is for the ones that made it back home; the latter is for those that didn’t.

Thanks to both groups.

The guy I wrassle with the most turned 40 this past weekend so I went to his birthday party at an old speakeasy called Formerly Crows.

Him: Hey, you came!
Me: Thought I’d come and help raise the average age of the joint.

A number of people from my gym were there and it was interesting to see them in regular clothes, since we usually just see each other in sweats and the like.

Whereas mixed drinks are normally about $11-14 in the city, the place had some reasonably price fare or about $8 or so, although no good rum to speak of, again. The problem with non-aged rum is that it has to be mixed and I just don’t like all that sugar.

So I’ve been drinking more Vodka sodas lately.

Her: (introducing me to someone) This is Logan, he’s hilarious!
Me: Well, now you’ve gone and set the bar too high. Let’s discuss the new healthcare law.

Coincidentally, the bday boy’s brother was an old friend of mine as well and he showed up after a bit, so we caught up.

About five vodka sodas later, decided I’d had my fill and headed for the door.

Walking to the subway, saw a guy pull a fresh pizza pie out of the oven. Figured I need something besides vodka in my belly.

Made it home with a belly fulla vodka, soda, and pizza. Then spent the rest of the night trying to fall asleep.

So that was typical.

Location: my peaceful apartment
Mood: finished
Music: I’m a full grown man And I’m not afraid to
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In a red leather recliner in the UWS

The one where I saw the movie Gravity

I used to live in a two-bedroom, but then this happened:

Me: So the mouse seems to have disappeared.
Her: Ok, well, we’ll have to seal off the back room with concrete block and never go back there again.

After a month of living in a de facto one-bedroom, we caught it so our apartment became a two-bedroom again, which is good because that was around the time that my brother came.

Her: I’m still not going back there.

For the most part, avoid the theaters like the plague because I can’t stand people. But the one in my hood (didn’t realize this until my friend PB told me) has assigned seating and – get this – red leather recliners.

Red. Leather. Recliners.

This also meant plenty of arms rests and leg room. May have to find a reason to see movies every day.

The film itself was pretty astounding. Really good story-telling and amazing use of 3D. It reminded me of watching Forrest Gump where the CGI wasn’t so annoyingly in your face.

Because we didn’t get enough sugar from the gallon-sized drinks there, we strolled to a local candy shop called Sugar and Plumm where we, quite literally, were kids in a candy shop.

And now to go to the gym for the rest of the week. But it was worth it. Totally worth it.

On a different note entirely, got a comment the other day from the gals from the Panasonic party. Honestly have no idea how anyone finds this blog.

In any case, turns out the woman I took a picture with is named Jamie Rae Livingston and she’s a semi-finalist for Maxim’s Hometown Hotties.

I myself was in contention for Hometown Hotties 1978 but lost out on the talent portion. And the looks, poise, height, weight, and math portions. But it was close.

Seems like a nice enough gal so, if you have 10 seconds, you can vote for her here – no registration, just click a button.

Location: getting ready for gym for real
Mood: even more fatty-fat-fat
Music: I know I’m not the only one standing here
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Pizza vs. Chili

Having endless pizza in NYC

Me: Can I ask you a question?
Her: (continuing to stare at computer screen) Sure.
Me: What does the fox say?
Her: (turning to me) Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!

My brother was in town last week and it was a (relatively) light work load so I managed to spend some time with him.

He lives out in LA now so each and every time he comes out here, he has the same thing for almost every meal: Pizza.

Although we did try and balance it out with a salad. But still, it was mostly pizza.

Her: Are you ok?
Me: (coughing) I just had a *huge* piece of anchovy in my salad.

It’s a bit like when I go out there and have chili. We are very different but very alike at the same time. It’s a sibling thing, I suppose.

We did break up the pizza-fest with the occasional – equally nutritionally-bad – fro-yo. This one was from when we visited his friend out in Queens.

Him: (sitting at table) OK, I’m done.
Me: (pointing to his cup on the far right) Are you sure? I still see some space in your cup where you could still put in more stuff.

After he left, tried to eat a little more healthfully. The wife had made some homemade granola – pumpkin for her, regular for me.

Me: Which one’s mine?
Her: (calling out from other room) I wrote it on the label. The one that’s not my name.

Location: waiting for the phone to ring
Mood: fatty-fat-fat
Music: Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!
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